I'm thinking about the idea of holing up in a church bell-tower. I know of a church near me with a balcony in the sanctuary (auditorium), which has only one entrance, and an attic that can only be accessed from the balcony. In the attic, there's a removeable ladder that is the sole access to the belfry. . .

The belfry gives a view of the main thoroughfare through town, but doesn't show much of the alley behind the building. Still, the bacony could sleep 10 people or so, and the attic is the size of a large living room.

A deer rifle in the bell tower would work well, for fending off zombies, with another fire team in the balcony of the sanctuary; but I'd sure want an escape ladder up on the church roof, in case of fire.

good times.
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That would work asa temp fix, but do you have an escape route? Food? Supplies? These are the questions that need to be answered if anyone will survive Z- Day. The most logical place would be a fallout shelter of some kind, fully stocked with non-perishables.

I've got some generalized survival food/gear, yes. And I'm thinking that for zombies, a couple of ladders on the church roof could be secured by ropes and lowered to allow escape before the church would be surrounded.

My home is not really workable as a base for rebuilding a community, whereas the church could house refugees and still provide shelter for a small number in the balcony. When numbers grew, we'd have to switch to a bigger location.

But I'm thinking a grassy area surrounding a tower is ideal, for controlling lines of sight re incoming waves of zombies.

I'm thinking a multi-storey hotel could work, IF you shut off the elevators and could block the stairways at either end of the floor. A chain link gate, salvaged and secured across a stairwell, would let you shoot through it. Of course when the zombie corpses (the "double dead"?) piled up, you'd have to clear them ( a real biohazard), or abandon that floor/wing.

Maybe a football stadium could also work. Security fencing, and a vacant parking lot could let you control avenues of approach to some extent. But you'd need a lot of material to block multiple entrances, and that might not be feasible.

Another strategic question is how WELL zombies can smell. I'm sure they smell terrible, he he; but I mean, how far away can they detect a live human. We've discussed the fact that they could smell a human in open country for several miles . . .

What about my church? With the doors closed, could they smell the people in the balcony, or just me in the tower? Could they smell a group of people sealed in a bank vault, and if so, could they smell them from outside in the street?

If they are attracted to sound, I wonder about a walkie talkie pair. I have an old set with a red button for sending morse code. If you turned up the sound on the second unit, you could set off a beeping tone a hundred yards away or so; maybe enough to pique a zombie's interest and draw him into your sights. . . .

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Originally posted by dr_strangecraft

I'm thinking about the idea of holing up in a church bell-tower. I know of a church near me with a balcony in the sanctuary (auditorium), which has only one entrance, and an attic that can only be accessed from the balcony. In the attic, there's a removeable ladder that is the sole access to the belfry. . .

Sounds like a really good defensible position against zombies. Two immediate tactical problems you'd have to deal with, however.

Food, Water, and the replentishing of both. Even as just one person, you'd probably not be able to grow enough food on the balcony alone to survive, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't damn sure try to figure out how. Maybe you could use the roof tiles to create little terraces for soil and seed. Of course, you'd have to replentish the soil after just about every rain unless you built it just right.

Escape Route - If you have to bug out, would you have an escape route? Would your escape route still apply if the church were surrounded by hundreds, or even thousands of zombies?

If you have an answer to these two questions, you've got the beginnings of a good holdout spot.

Something else to consider is, with just the right height advantage, you could kill a LOT of zombies without firing a single bullet. This is an old church, right? That means they probably have some cast-iron stuff in there, like big long candlesticks. See where I'm going with this?

Get WELL out of arm's reach, in a position that you can't get thrown off balance, and then whack some zombie-heads with the candlestick base till the base shatters (cast iron is brittle, but it'll still take a while). Then you have, basically, an iron spear. Given a little baiting, and a little practice, you can just jab down, impale a zombie through the top of the skull, pull out, wait for the next one, jab down, impale a zombie skull...wash, rinse, repeat. Just make sure that if they grab the pole it doesn't pull you down with it.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
Another strategic question is how WELL zombies can smell. I'm sure they smell terrible, he he; but I mean, how far away can they detect a live human. We've discussed the fact that they could smell a human in open country for several miles . . .

Presumably zombies would have no superhuman senses, but they don't really need them. Technically, YOU could smell a human in open country for several miles. Especially if your survival depended upon it. But zombies also have whatever other sense haven't been completely damaged beyond use (sight, hearing, etc), so they might not smell you but instead they see a flicker of moment in a window and head that way. Or they hear someone sneeze.

We all face a problem in a zombie outbreak, no one building is truely meant for defence in the long run. Everything anymore is built as a temporary shelter but not long run. Military bases have no real defendable areas either. Unless you had one mighty deep hole and grow lights, you would always have to keep moving. The best bet of anyone is on day one clear the city as fast as possible if you live in one. If you live in a town, get out! The further from known life forms you are, the longer it will take them to reach you. Schools, impossible, a house, impossible, office building, impossible, to high and to much glass to cover. Anything with more than two entrances and exits would be impossible to defend on a small scale. Then again, if you had the people, you have no food. Best thing to do, hijack a semi with a large load and stock it, then drive like a bat out of hell. The trucks roof would offer an area to fire from, it has high horsepower so you can drive over the zombies to a degree, it is high up, so unless they are good at climbing your safe. Also the room and the ability to pull so much weight helps in the long run.
How many of us actually know of a building nearby that will actually last a defence for more than a week? So far all I could do is climb a mesa about 10 miles away, the attached a ladder to the side so people could reach the top. Shear cliffs all around.
As stated before: What would we do if the BIRDS got infected?

On Z-Day it would be pretty beneficial to live in one of those rural farm towns with a population of a few hundred. Plenty of food, not many people, and likely enough ammo to hold out. Plus, put a crap load of bear traps around and those zombies would just be stuck.

I have been pondering the use of sewers as way to move across town. I doubt there would be a significant amount of zombies down there. Mapping out those places and marking the walls could prove useful.

If done carefully, we could get from safe house to safe house without worrying about those pests above ground.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like an innovative idea. But once the zombies start to follow your scent . . . it sounds like a scene from a horror movie: zombies in the sewers.

I wonder about using a bridge as a base; only two access points, and you could flee by a waiting boat if both barricades were overwhelmed.

I've been thinking about how to neutralize zombies at a distance, since they are so superior in hand-to-hand combat. A deer rifle seems like the best tool for delivering a death-blow before they close in. So I'm thinking of places with wide open spaces.

Vacant drive-in (although it sounds like a set for a horror film)

golf course

grain elevator

church steeple when the parking lot is empty.

bridge or overpass/cloverleaf, where escape by car is always available, and there are only limited avenues of access.

The Ferris Wheel at the state fair (sounds like another horror movie)

A coast guard cutter, one with that recoiless turret up front.

Airport runways offer long lines of sight, and big petroleum storage tanks.

A city water tower holds a precious resource, and offers a great sniping venue.

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I would have to say, George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" seems to me like the best scenario. A mall would be perfect as long as you could bring your own weapons. Food to last awhile and a rather large living space. You could shack up there for long enough for the government to fix the problem, and if they don't fix the problem, you'll eventually die where ever you stay anyway.

I just don't know of any malls with a large quanity of beer and cigarrettes. That would be my only problem, haha.

After giving this alot of thought, I've picked out 2 guns that would be helpful in a zombie apocalypse. A .22 bolt action rifle with a scope, and a .410 or 28 guage semi-auto shotgun. The .22 can be valuable since it can be used for sniping dead heads from a distance, and the use of subsonic rounds will make the noise of shooting nearly non-existent. The shotgun is great for close range defense for two reasons. First, a light guage gun is usually lighter than one that shoots heavier loads. For example, a 12 guage needs more material and thus more mass so that it does not break when shot than a .410 would. A couple pounds difference doesn't seem like much until you are walking about for hours. Second, a weaker shotgun will not kick that hard which translates to a faster recovery time between shots.

One thing which hasn't been discussed is the problem of human waste when holed up in your home or church or dorm. Running water will become a thing of the past so you can't use the toilet. Trying to store waste indoors will be smelly and unsanitary. Dumping waste outside will be a red flag to any zombies in the sense of smell perimeter.

Woooo! My first post!

Damn double post! Don't drink and internet...

[edit on 1/3/07 by FsuSteveO]

i read the zombie surivior guide, but WHAT IF the zombies are like the new hollywood zombies, you know, sprinting full speed screaming insanely,ect. Then what would we do,lol.

Shoot faster run faster and do everything faster especially become one faster.

bigger pits accompanied by more napalm!

Do virgin sacrifices appease them?

Sacrifice a virgin? That would only entice them! None the less, deeeeeep pits around your base, or live on a Mesa with sheer cliffs all the way around which is MY best option where I live. Napalm before they reach the pit, but remember they will smell... AND the smoke... AND the wind direction... then how high the corpses get... how deep the pit is... GET ON A BOAT AND FLOAT AROUND THE OCEAN! I would prefer being VERY high up and then taking the fight to THEM. A mesa with a 500ft drop is enough space to pile up bodies if they attack, also the smoke is BELOW you (in my valley it gets swept away) so you will not choke to death.

As improbable as it seems,
perhaps hitch a ride on the next shuttle to the space station.
that is the only guarantee to being zombie free.

Adrift in a boat could be nerve wracking unless it was a huge cruise ship.
You could use the onboard satellite link to communicate with land. Although I suspect pirates would be the next problem.

Originally posted by Vekar
or live on a Mesa with sheer cliffs all the way around which is MY best option where I live.

The Acoma pueblo in Western New Mexico is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the US. Like you say, a mesa with cliffs all the way around.

Maybe the Acoma people lived there after surviving a Native American zombie outbreak in prehistoric times, and retreated to such an inhospitable place to avoid the zombies? Some research may be in order.


Thanks to all for the pointers.