Hypothetical Scenario: Zombie attack - Survival!

[Q-Man]

Situation:

Okay, so you're just an average guy/girl who is staying at a hotel. You have basic arms training and you're really not a military expert. As is always the case, something somewhere goes wrong, and suddenly you're surrounded by zombies. And this time it's not Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh. In the hotel you find a radio, which manages to pick up radio transmissions leaving and entering the Pentagon (what luck hey?). It seems the government is up to no good. But what is the cause of all this? You quickly find a map on the nearby wall, and start looking at the situation.

This is the map of the surrounding area.



All survivors are held up in the structure at the top left of the picture. Water will last another month, but food will only last another week. After a discussion, the community decides that their best option is to escape to the marina and take the boats to freedom. Regardless of what you decide, they wont be talked out of it. They are however looking to you for guidance as to the safest way to get there. Your objective is to get as many survivors to the marina as possible.

Survivor breakdown:
150 Survivors.
There are 105 males and 45 females.
In a ration of M:F
42:8 are normal, average people.
34:16 are out of shape/old/crippled.
21:9 have experience firing weapons.
8:12 are children.
There are only 7 people in total who have medical experience.

City Status:
Power is out, highway is packed with (stopped) traffic. Small pockets of human survivors still exist throughout the area (indicated on the main map, in green) these groups number no less than 10 though. Most of the city has an unknown status. Fires have broken out and many structures destroyed.

City Zombie Status:
Always at least 10 thousand zombies wandering the area shown. Loud noises and swift movements attract zombies attention. Radio Intelligence has reported a horde of 1 Million zombies is slowly making its way north along the highway, and will arrive in 4 days. The same intelligence has also indicated that the highway has the most zombie congestion.

This map describes the current status:



Green: Zombie congestion
Red: Impassible obstructions (mostly fires, wreckages and destroyed buildings/bridges)
Yellow: Unknown status
Blue: Clear (safe) areas.

Equipment:
20 rifles. (75 rounds each)
120 hand guns. (30 rounds each)
10 shotguns. (24 rounds each)
5 fully automatic weapons. (500 rounds each)

10 binoculars
20 radios. (8 hours of battery power per radio)
16 signal flares.

Hotel is fully equiped with everything you'd expect in a hotel.
Everyone has belongings of their own of some sort.

You don't have much time, you have to make for the Marina and escape. But what will you do? There are a lot of people with you, they can't all be saved. Or can they? Will you use them to get yourself to safety? Will you try and save them all? What about the temptation of finding out what's going on? The Pentagon is sure to have some answers, and radio reports indicate that that's where this all started, and that everyone inside is dead.

What will YOU do?

-------------------------------

Just a few things to keep in mind:

This is a city, it has things a city has (think about it) so there is a lot more to your disposal than meets the eye.

What may seem to be the 'safest' route, may not be the best route. remember, a lot of the city has unknown events happening. Don't forget, those open areas leave a group of people vulnerable.

No one said you have to be altruistic. If you think you'll fare better alone...well, 150 people is a lot of bait. But also bear in mind you're up against thousands of zombies, and if you get injured, you're going to be on your own.

Use the first map provided to plot your route (if you want to).

[Azimuth]

Cry and eat some ice-cream.

[Q-Man]

Cry and eat some ice-cream.

If they made this into a game, and it played out like that, I'd demand my money back. Unless it was double-fudge ice-cream.

[dislekcia]

Step 1:
Train everyone in zombie killing and survival techniques. We only need 1 day to make it to the coast, that's 3 days for even the slowest to learn a few survival skills. I'd split people into core groups of 5 that would work together no matter what, some will have to carry/protect at least one old/young person, the group's leader is responsible for making sure their group survives. Groups would be assigned duties depending on effectiveness and generally work in teams of 3 groups each supporting each other. The focus would be on bladed and blunt weapons, guns are only a last resort because they'd just call more zombies. You can always find long knives and pretty good bladed weapons around a city, be it a sharpened angle iron or a kitchen knife... There's an initiation into the group system where you have to personally kill a zombie (with group members standing by to help you out if **** goes wrong), this is done to empower everyone and make them less afraid.

The most experienced groups that need the least training would spend two days prior to everyone leaving looking for routes and/or safe places to group up on the way to the marina. The goal would be to find at least 5 reasonably safe routes and prepare as many boats as possible for departure before we go.

3 groups (including mine) would range around looking for more survivors and supplies. (Each group is responsible for carrying their own supplies with them when we go) If we do manage to find out what's going on, cool. Each group would also be tasked with killing as many zombies as they can as long as that wouldn't endanger their members... If we happened to find out what was actually going on, bonus.

Communication between groups would be via coloured strips of material either waved around in line of sight situations or left as markers. Gunfire is an effective emergency summons. Every collection of groups knows the main goal: Get to the marina, stay alive; From there you have a self-organising collective depending on the roles and skills of each group.

When the big day comes, groups will leave in threes at staggered intervals, each following a different route to the marina in rotation. There would be two "payload" groups and a third to run interference, the main idea being to throw off zombies that might follow the exodus and end up trapping isolated groups in the marina. Once 6 groups make it to the arena, their interference runners will band together and make the trip back to the main area. Again, this is to draw following zombies to the main enclave instead of the exposed arena. At the same time, the experienced forager groups would be tasked with setting up zombie lures: Finding an area that would be difficult/damaging for zombies to move through and firing off weapons to lure zombies in and away from the routes to the marina, then getting the hell out of there before they get inundated. Finally, at the end of the day all the "interference" groups would leave the enclave at the same time, each taking a specific route. Once they all reach the marina they'd take ships and join those already cast off and a new age of swashbuckling piracy would begin.

I would be their king.

...

-D

BTW: Our house does actually have a zombie apocalypse survival plan. Just in case.

[Nduimiso]

meet up with frank west at the local mall and hang out in the security room waiting for rescue while frank saves trapped people.

[Nandrew]

tl;dr

I'd beat all of the zombies up, and let the rest of the survivors follow. YEE-AAAH!

Okies, but seriously? If I had the time, I'd totally root for a more in-depth response.

[UntouchableOne]

Call in my good ol' friends Chuck, Steven Segal, and Jean-Claude. If that fails, locate a radio tower and search for a frequency that would harm the zombies. If that fails, find a helicopter. If that fails, go dislekcia's way. If that fails, hide and eat ice-cream. If that fails, don't be stupid, how can eating ice-cream fail :P

[RossI RSA]

Wow this is just so overly geeky.

[Gazza_N]

Wow this is just so overly geeky.

When the zombies invade, the unprepared will be the first to fall. I'll remember to put your name on the memorial plaque. ;)

[Oeaks]

I think it would be easier to find a route through the sewers and use that instead of trying to find a safe way to go on the surface.

[Chibi]

use old people, etc as bait run round with others killing zombies. children become bait when loss all other bait get out alive by sewers to another city or better army area

[.dB]

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

[RossI RSA]

I think it would be easier to find a route through the sewers and use that instead of trying to find a safe way to go on the surface.

So your actually choosing to go through the ****? Well even if the zombies catch you they are not gonna want a bite

[Oeaks]

Exactly! It's all part of a cunning plan that will result in...um...something....

[ironwolf]

Step 1:
Train everyone in zombie killing and survival techniques. We only need 1 day to make it to the coast, that's 3 days for even the slowest to learn a few survival skills. I'd split people into core groups of 5 that would work together no matter what, some will have to carry/protect at least one old/young person, the group's leader is responsible for making sure their group survives. Groups would be assigned duties depending on effectiveness and generally work in teams of 3 groups each supporting each other. The focus would be on bladed and blunt weapons, guns are only a last resort because they'd just call more zombies. You can always find long knives and pretty good bladed weapons around a city, be it a sharpened angle iron or a kitchen knife... There's an initiation into the group system where you have to personally kill a zombie (with group members standing by to help you out if **** goes wrong), this is done to empower everyone and make them less afraid.

The most experienced groups that need the least training would spend two days prior to everyone leaving looking for routes and/or safe places to group up on the way to the marina. The goal would be to find at least 5 reasonably safe routes and prepare as many boats as possible for departure before we go.

3 groups (including mine) would range around looking for more survivors and supplies. (Each group is responsible for carrying their own supplies with them when we go) If we do manage to find out what's going on, cool. Each group would also be tasked with killing as many zombies as they can as long as that wouldn't endanger their members... If we happened to find out what was actually going on, bonus.

Communication between groups would be via coloured strips of material either waved around in line of sight situations or left as markers. Gunfire is an effective emergency summons. Every collection of groups knows the main goal: Get to the marina, stay alive; From there you have a self-organising collective depending on the roles and skills of each group.

When the big day comes, groups will leave in threes at staggered intervals, each following a different route to the marina in rotation. There would be two "payload" groups and a third to run interference, the main idea being to throw off zombies that might follow the exodus and end up trapping isolated groups in the marina. Once 6 groups make it to the arena, their interference runners will band together and make the trip back to the main area. Again, this is to draw following zombies to the main enclave instead of the exposed arena. At the same time, the experienced forager groups would be tasked with setting up zombie lures: Finding an area that would be difficult/damaging for zombies to move through and firing off weapons to lure zombies in and away from the routes to the marina, then getting the hell out of there before they get inundated. Finally, at the end of the day all the "interference" groups would leave the enclave at the same time, each taking a specific route. Once they all reach the marina they'd take ships and join those already cast off and a new age of swashbuckling piracy would begin.

I would be their king.

...

-D

BTW: Our house does actually have a zombie apocalypse survival plan. Just in case.

i think id join him

[dislekcia]

i think id join him

It begins!

-D

[Gazza_N]

I'm Guybru... er... Gazza_Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate. So count me in. Now all we need is a zombie apocalypse... Anybody have any friends in the military? Preferably ones researching biological weapons?

[Squirly]

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

Oh man that reminds of this one story I read where

A shotgun. Just. A shotgun.

[TriggerHappy]

Run like crazy guns blazeing to the boats, always works in games

[Chibi]

I'm Guybru... er... Gazza_Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate. So count me in. Now all we need is a zombie apocalypse... Anybody have any friends in the military? Preferably ones researching biological weapons?

i know a few people who want to join the army and it includes me!

lest all go on a killing zombie frenzy!