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[TheBronzePickle]

Hide away on an oil well and you'd be pretty damn set, as long as you had the know-how to keep it from falling apart and the supplies to provide food and water.

[SalmonGod]

For a slightly different take on this kind of thing, you can check out the Monster series (Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet). Where all dead rise, but if you can avoid the brain damage from hypoxia during death you rise as an intelligent undead with all your human memories but an insatiable hunger for the flesh and life force of the living.

I also highly recommend these books.  I own the set, and they're one of my favorite works in the entire zombie genre.


As for the power fantasy allegations, I don't think this is necessarily true.  More often, zombie apocalypse is a setting that is very well equipped for social commentary and satire.  Zombies are a very manageable threat.  The whole point is that the survivors screw things up for each other by failing to work out their social dynamics.

Plus, the style of the setting has specific appeal for the modern, developed world.  I went ahead and looked up an old exchange between a co-worker and I on this subject.  He posted this link.

Zombies tap into social issues and cultural consciousness that are mostly aimed at the developed world... not hard to understand. It's nothing to do with being so privileged that we have to make up things to be afraid of.

so you're saying zombies are #1stworldproblems?

In a sense... They play on our subconscious feelings that are directly related to first world problems. Things such as the sense of individuality being drowned out in urban settings where there are too many voices and too much information, and where people are trapped into routines where they struggle to retain an identity (hence being trapped in enclosed spaces with small groups of peers surrounded by former human beings whose identities have been erased). I could go on, but that's just a smidgen of what it's really about that naturally appeals to people living in developed countries, or at least countries whose cultures have had plenty of time to deeply absorb the implications of the information age and overly-structured and controlled modern society.

BTW: Salmongod, have you played Cataclysm? (check the other games forum if you havent)

Also, no I haven't.  I'll check it out later.

[Kadzar]

I'm keeping an eye on this.

[yamgrenade]

In all honesty, I'd probably drive out into North Carolina's more rural regions for a few months and wait for the initial burst to calm down. After that, my group and I would loop back around to Fort Bragg and salvage as much as possible: guns, ammo, artillery, tanks or aircraft if any are left, and enough cargo trucks to carry all of it and more. Then we'd head back to Raleigh and clear out the city block by block, walling off areas when we stopped until the city belongs to us again. Then we'd establish the Free City of Raleigh and I would try to win the first election. That would eventually be expanded to the Republic of Carolina as our manpower and cleared areas expanded, and eventually we might re-establish the United States with any other states that have sprung up in the time it took for the infection to subside. And then, conquer everything that is still infected by destroying the zombies there and annexing it under the authority of the New Union. Of course, that all assumes that the world manages to fully collapse under the zombie menace, which I doubt.

I think that the whole point of the zombie genre is that they're easy to survive against (yet somehow they manage to eat everyone else), thus giving you free rein to do whatever you want in a world filled with humanoids who are acceptable targets for shooting (and also move slowly).

Oh yeah, the zombie genre is a complete power fantasy. You get to spend your whole life shooting zombies and doing whatever you want, dangerous, but certainly not boring.

Pick me up. I live in Watauga county of NC.

[TheBronzePickle]

I'd probably find shelter in one of the local nuclear plants. They have well-equipped paramilitary guards and tank trenches surrounding the premises. Not quite a military base, but would still hold off zombies for a while.

[Telgin]

Magma, of course.  Oh, wait...

The real answer of course depends on a lot of things.  Just like everything else in fantasy, zombies come in 1000 flavors these days.  Realistically though, I can't see the military being completely overwhelmed by any version I've ever seen.  So getting in with them seems the best course of action if possible.

I'd probably be hosed in a real zombie infestation though.  I can't shoot straight for anything, and I'm not in the best of shape.  Out in the boonies where I grew up I'd probably be fine, but in this city I'm not so sure.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'd probably find shelter in one of the local nuclear plants. They have well-equipped paramilitary guards and tank trenches surrounding the premises. Not quite a military base, but would still hold off zombies for a while.

I hope you know how to turn off a nuclear power plant without having it blow up, meltdown, or both.

[Necro910]

I'd probably find shelter in one of the local nuclear plants. They have well-equipped paramilitary guards and tank trenches surrounding the premises. Not quite a military base, but would still hold off zombies for a while.

I hope you know how to turn off a nuclear power plant without having it blow up, meltdown, or both.

...MOAR THERMITE?

[Telgin]

I'd probably find shelter in one of the local nuclear plants. They have well-equipped paramilitary guards and tank trenches surrounding the premises. Not quite a military base, but would still hold off zombies for a while.

I hope you know how to turn off a nuclear power plant without having it blow up, meltdown, or both.

I would expect most modern power plants to do this safely more or less automatically.  Of course, I could be horribly wrong.

That said, a nuclear power plant is probably one of the better places to defend if you could hold up in one.  And you'd have power for extended periods, I'm pretty sure the fuel rods are good for years, maybe decades.  They probably keep them in some sort of rotation though, so no idea how long you could go without refueling.

[Max White]

You know what is the great thing about zombies? At least they let you join their team if yours starts to loose. Very kind of them, not like those annoying alien invasions.

[Levi]

Levi's plan for zombie eradication:

Step 1:  Find two close together buildings near an overpass, hill or other high area. 
Step 2:  Build ramp going from the hill to the top of the first building.
Step 3:  Sit on a lawnchair on the second building playing death metal at full blast.
Step 4:  Rum.

Code: [Select]

                           Ramp/bridge
                                               me and some tunes and some rum.
                                  _____     __@___
                     /----\======|     |   |     |
                    /      |     |     |   |     |
                ___/        \    |     |   |     |
              /              |   |     |   |     |
ZZZ__________/                \__#     #___#     #____________
  ^
  |                                      ^
Zombie Hoard          Hill      Office 1 |  Office 2
                                         |
                                    Zombie drop zone


[TheBronzePickle]

What about the zombies coming up from the bottom of the 2nd building?

[Max White]

Code: [Select]

                           Ramp/bridge
                                               me and some tunes and some rum.
                                  _____     __@___
                     /----\======|     |   |     |
                    /      |     |     |   |     |
                ___/        \    |     |   |     |
              /              |   |     |   |     |
ZZZ__________/                \__#     #___#     #____________ZZZZZZZZZZZZ
  ^                                                                  ^
  |                                      ^                           |
Zombie Hoard          Hill      Office 1 |  Office 2   Oh Noes! Your doomed now!
                                         |
                                    Zombie drop zone


Fix'd that for you.

[Levi]

What about the zombies coming up from the bottom of the 2nd building?

I destroyed the stairs.  Zombies are terrible climbers.     Ideally I would have spent some time luring the zombies around town with my death metal towards the hill first.

[Max White]

Zombies are terrible climbers.

Bold assertions. I assume were basing this off the low metabolism, slow moving zombies then? Because the fast ones can climb like a boss!

Problem is that the slow moving ones can go longer without food, so you could be stuck on that roof for a long, long time. Hope you bought food for a while.