Safe Haven

[Zer0 Kay]

How do you imagine your safe haven or how have you set it up?

[Zer0 Kay]

i was thinking a fortress made of huge shipping containers on a river.the only way in or out of compound would be a big crane or boat.

maybe put the containers around a highrise building to maximize living area(hospital,or a stock trading firm).

it would have a heliport.

all sewer covers would be welded shut.

water supply comes from the local river.

they could farm where the parking lot would be smashed up.

it would have a radio tower,solar panels,wind turbines,and a water wheel for power.

inside would have hospital,armory,jail,gym,theater,jogging track.

off site would be a motor pool with other vehicles in a bunker type fortress.

Wouldn't a, or a few tanks be able to move a wall of empty shipping containers? Maybe get the containers filled with cement or heavy non-essential materials?

[Zer0 Kay]

OK so I was thinking of using a train. They're mobile and should even be able to plow through a tank if need be. Have it armored up and modified with weapons. I was thinking more of a passenger train with a couple observer cars. After the first two engines have a maintenance crane, just in case they have to pull trains that derailed during the wave. Hmm maybe have fortress safe havens that it services.

But I was thinking of it as a mobile safe haven.

[asajosh]

Im a big fan of the train idea.
there is another thread here (stationary or mobile) in which the idea of a train came up.
the only major prob with a train is fuel (diesle turbines power electric generators) and what if some one or ones decide to tear up part of the track (for a number of reasons)?
if the track holds out and you have access to fuel, a comandeered train could be a heckofa fortress

[azazel1024]

In the game or ideal?

Mobile my ideal, supposing I have sufficient people to operate it, would be sailing ship. Probably modeled mildly on the clipper ships of the early 1900s, but modernized. They'd be big enough (we are talking 2-3,000 tons displacement) to carry quite a few supplies. Some solar panels and a few wind generators and you'd have plenty of power, so long as you weren't big on tons of hot water or wasteful with the power. They are also big enough that you can have wet well for a couple of DUKWs or something similar for amphibious operations to land so that you can operate in from the coast pretty far for scavaging. Oh and plenty of fuel storage on board for the DUKWs and emergency generators. Never anchor close to land and with sufficient supplies and a good machine ship the ship wouldn't ever want for much. With some well trained divers you'd probably never need a dry dock (never is such a strong word, but decades at least with the right hull).

Fixed, it would probably either be in the mountains or an island with naturally raised cliffs to protect it, limiting the amount of artifical walls you'd need to construct. Enough area so that at least limited farming could be conducted as well as some live stock kept that can be taken out to pastures nearby (assuming mountain fortress, island just some limited livestock feeding off what you grow/can graze on). However, either would need to be close enough to some large/small towns or a city or three to raid for supplies occasionally for the hard to replace stuff like medicines, canned goods, ammo, weapons, building supplies, etc.
-Matt

[Zer0 Kay]

Im a big fan of the train idea.
there is another thread here (stationary or mobile) in which the idea of a train came up.
the only major prob with a train is fuel (diesle turbines power electric generators) and what if some one or ones decide to tear up part of the track (for a number of reasons)?
if the track holds out and you have access to fuel, a comandeered train could be a heckofa fortress

The answer for the torn tracks... A fast "agile" road vehicle with an outrigger system so It can ride the tracks ahead of the train. Can stop faster too since it's tires are also touching the rails.

A diesle is easier to find than a steam though and has more power. I wonder how many alternate energy sources would be required to power the engines... Hmm. The other thing I would want to do is figure out some way of getting the remote switching for the rails onto the train.

[azazel1024]

Depending on the resources at hand it would still be child's play for a group to disable the train. Bandits, retros, etc could just place a couple of small black powder or other charges under the rails. Blast one in front and one behind the train. It probably wouldn't take more than 20-30lbs of black powder to harm the tracks beyond the ability of the train to traverse them.

Doesn't mean they couldn't be repaired, but you couldn't just reroute around the damage, and would probably take at least a few hours to repair the damage.
-Matt

[Zer0 Kay]

Depending on the resources at hand it would still be child's play for a group to disable the train. Bandits, retros, etc could just place a couple of small black powder or other charges under the rails. Blast one in front and one behind the train. It probably wouldn't take more than 20-30lbs of black powder to harm the tracks beyond the ability of the train to traverse them.

Doesn't mean they couldn't be repaired, but you couldn't just reroute around the damage, and would probably take at least a few hours to repair the damage.
-Matt

Keep some extra lengths of rail on the cars, along with some Rail Spikes. Find a nice quit place for practice replacing track when you can, that way everyone knows how to do it.

And have a maintenance car that has a crane on it to make things easier.

[azazel1024]

Depending on the resources at hand it would still be child's play for a group to disable the train. Bandits, retros, etc could just place a couple of small black powder or other charges under the rails. Blast one in front and one behind the train. It probably wouldn't take more than 20-30lbs of black powder to harm the tracks beyond the ability of the train to traverse them.

Doesn't mean they couldn't be repaired, but you couldn't just reroute around the damage, and would probably take at least a few hours to repair the damage.
-Matt

Keep some extra lengths of rail on the cars, along with some Rail Spikes. Find a nice quit place for practice replacing track when you can, that way everyone knows how to do it.

The issue is that if you use a man packable amount of explosive, you are still in a situation where you are going to have to replace all of the excavated dirt from the crater it is going to cause. I don't have any direct experience, but seeing some trials/tests of stuff, I'd say 50lbs of black powder, not even talking more powerful stuff, would likely excavate a good sized whole in a rail way embankment that you'd need to fill in and compact. Not something you could do in a few minutes time, even with power equipment like a backhoe.

You could still repair the damage, but if it is a prelude to an attack on the train, or of unleashing a zombie swarm, it is more than you could probably handle. Even with spare track, spikes and some power equipment to repair the rail embankment damage (even just enough for temporary expedient service) you'd probably need to hold everything off for at least an hour or two, and a big explosion (from several hundred pounds or more) might take the better part of a day to repair or even longer (with power equipment).
-Matt

[azazel1024]

Only if you are on a navy ship with a nuclear power supply. Even then, once you do exhaust the fuel pellets, you are going to be SOL. Its a lot harder to find properly refined uranium fuel pellets that would work in a naval reactor than it is diesel. Heck you can make diesel with some limited technology.

Naval ships that are non-nuclear go through a lot of fuel. Unless you plan on hitting up port after port to keep re-supplied you'd run out fast. At cruising speed most naval ships might have 4-10 days of fuel on board. Unless you want to anchor the ship and just run the APUs, you'd be out of fuel in a few weeks max at slow speeds.

Sail boats are much better idea, and a large one is just as hard to board (hell, a 25' sail boat is hard as hell to board unless there is a ladder or rope dangling down).
-Matt

[azazel1024]

The longest service life is on Aircraft carriers which is about 25 years between refueling and overhaul.

Nuclear submarines are typically refueled and overhauled much more frequently, about 5-20 years between each.

So really it just depends on how far in to operation the ship is since the last refueling and overhaul. You could have anywhere from months to over 2 decades of use before you used up your fuel (the less manuevering, power, etc used the longer you'd have). Though there comes a point, even at minimum generation levels that parts are going to start fatiguing, wearing out, etc on the nuclear plant and other machinary on the ship.
-Matt

[G]

What I hear is people describing is water world with Zombies.

I vote for large sailing ships based around islands (somewhere without winter would be an ideal vacation spot, with an offshore oil platform if I have a wishlist). I'm thinking sailing ships would be easier to maintain as they are low tech. The islands would provide enough fruit to prevent scurvy and drop off survivors...which would allow you to build a small empire & fight off pirates.

...Crack out your crossbow and cutlass me hearties!

[Beatmeclever]

Some of this might be useful in that scenario. Just replace creepy with zed, make a few other minor changes, and you have your DR Waterworld.

[RoadWarriorFWaNK]

the cellar is the safest place.

[MaxxSterling]

When I run this game I try to use real-life stuff and keep the game uber-realistic. So, I cut out like most of the character classes and zombie types, becuase they are stupid, like really stupid. Anyhow. We used a shopping center on top of a hill near where we live. One road up the hill, completely alone on about a 300 ft. hill. There is a large open parking lot, a target, a sam's club, a sportsmans warehouse and some other little shops that are not helpful. Not far away, about 1/2 mile and within site, is a Giant Eagle Grocery store and gas station. Basically, spent the time to barricade and set up perimeter fence and kill all the zombies on the hill, and then for the next 60-70 years, play king of the hill. Resources available are space for farming, ammo reloading supplies, and everything else could be made sustainable, just not meat is the only issue, but vegans walk amongst us just fine so...

[sHaka]

My players are lucky that our home town, where we set our games, has three castles within a ten mile radius. Rather handy.

[MaxxSterling]

Screw you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-I'm so jealous!

[Silveressa]

Some the the islands up around Maine would make for good defense areas. Some of them have huge wind turbines making electricity a non issue.One could raid the coastline during summer months to stockpile supplies for the winter and in the event of a community developing, fishing would be a natural mainstay.

Failing that a town along the coast of Alaska would work well too. (Given how flexible a frozen leg of deer is I doubt a zombie could move around much in the winter months.)

The ranger/game warden fire watch outposts in the middle of the forests would work amazingly well too for a fortress. Most of them are highly elevated well above the tree line, in a naturally remote area, and easily upgraded with a few solar panels to provide the needed power. (assuming they don't have them already in place) As an added bonus you'd have some excellent radio equipment and an antenna already in place letting you keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Depending on ones needs a jail could also function well, as it's already naturally reinforced and complete with guard towers, vehicle depot, an armory, radio room, infirmary, kitchen, housing for hundreds to thousands, and possibly even a garden area and generator.

Really though, assuming that all the maggots/worms infesting zombies are actually consuming their flesh, along with the slowed but still present state of constant decay; there'd be very few zombies left inside of 5-10 years at most. So really one only needs a safe hidey hole long enough for the zombies to mostly rot out and then find a more sustainable location.

[azazel1024]

Some the the islands up around Maine would make for good defense areas. Some of them have huge wind turbines making electricity a non issue.One could raid the coastline during summer months to stockpile supplies for the winter and in the event of a community developing, fishing would be a natural mainstay.

Failing that a town along the coast of Alaska would work well too. (Given how flexible a frozen leg of deer is I doubt a zombie could move around much in the winter months.)

The ranger/game warden fire watch outposts in the middle of the forests would work amazingly well too for a fortress. Most of them are highly elevated well above the tree line, in a naturally remote area, and easily upgraded with a few solar panels to provide the needed power. (assuming they don't have them already in place) As an added bonus you'd have some excellent radio equipment and an antenna already in place letting you keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Depending on ones needs a jail could also function well, as it's already naturally reinforced and complete with guard towers, vehicle depot, an armory, radio room, infirmary, kitchen, housing for hundreds to thousands, and possibly even a garden area and generator.

Really though, assuming that all the maggots/worms infesting zombies are actually consuming their flesh, along with the slowed but still present state of constant decay; there'd be very few zombies left inside of 5-10 years at most. So really one only needs a safe hidey hole long enough for the zombies to mostly rot out and then find a more sustainable location.

At least per game cannon, not assuming any other humans or animals get consumed by zombies, active zombies will decay in to nothingness I think in something like 20 years in temperate climates, around 100 with dormant ones. I'd have to relook at the book. A 'life force'/PPE infusion will bring them back to tip top shape though. I'd assume most zombies in a non-city setting will at least periodically by able to sink their teeth in to some kind of animal, in a city setting that would probably be rare. So the big cities are probably going to be mostly zombie free in anything from a couple to several decades. Not a lot of people left in the world to turn in to zombies and/or feed on for PPE, so this would keep the zombie population from being able to regenerate much.
-Matt

[Juce734]

How about a cruise ship that is anchored by land? The only way to get up into it would be by rope. Nothing could climb it. They are too big to knock over and are pretty solid. They have tons and tons of food, drinks, and other things.

http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx18 ... 006131.jpg

Looks safe to me.

[asajosh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man's_Land_Fort

Basically a man made island with sheer steel walls, a mile or so south of the mainland. Has its own water, power generating systems. Partially converted into a hotel. Ride out the end of the world in style... if you can get there

[Shawn Merrow]

If you can catch it on the History Channel there is a recent episode of Modern Marvels called "Secret Underground" that may be useful. One of the sites stores large amounts of MRE for the government.

[azazel1024]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man's_Land_Fort

Basically a man made island with sheer steel walls, a mile or so south of the mainland. Has its own water, power generating systems. Partially converted into a hotel. Ride out the end of the world in style... if you can get there

Bless you! I had seen something on one of them on History channel or another show. Those are exactly what I had been trying to think of for the perfect safe haven. At least for a small group. Perfectly defensible against zeds and human alike. Big enough for a lot of supplies and scavenged stuff. You could fit a few people in comfort (or a couple of hundred cramped, figuring supplies for them crammed in as well). Also big enough that you use the roof/court yards for a combo of solar power, wind power and growing things if you hauled some dirt to the place.

160-240ft in diameter is plenty of growing room for a few people for food gardens. That is .5-1 acre in area. It won't let a big group be self supporting, but it will produce a lot. If you are planting the right mix, and can provide appropriate fertilizer, no blight, etc, etc you could probably raise enough crops to support a couple of people. You can produce around 2,500lbs of soybeans on an acre of land and about 670 calories per pound. That works out to about 4600 calories per day or about enough for 2 people for year round consumption.

Of course you'd need to mix up what you planted for a good diet, and some plants are lower calories density than others.

That is a lot of streaching supplies though with that space. Throw in some fishing either by boat or off the walls and maybe a few chickens for a little protien variety and cooking (IE eggs mostly and a few birds every season, chickens use up a lot more calories then you get out of eating one, so you'd want to keep your numbers low, maybe just a couple of roosters in case one dies and half a dozen hens for eggs with limited breeding) and you could probably support 4-6 people with some dilligence without ever having to go to land for food.
-Matt

[King Newt]

In our campaign we took over a small airport. With three pilots (two helicopter and one plane) we have secured the air. (like it was being contested) We made a temp wall with semi trailers and are building a wall behind them. So far so good. We have saved over 100 survivors. Our wall of trailers is 1/4 done and the concrete wall is just starting. The wall of semi trailers is just a stop gap. Though reinforced slightly they won't stop thrm for long.

[Tearstone]

the cellar is the safest place.

Uh yeah, sure. We'll go with that. They have life sense that will still pick you up in the cellar. What are you going to do when crawlers are coming through the windows, and a couple dozen slouchers come tromping down the stairs?

You've got nowhere to go, you're trapped in a corner. You are about to be eaten.

[Neo]

Three Words : Cape Breton Island

It's a reasonably large island north of Nova Scotia Canada. The population has been in decline for sometime so even the larger urban centers are less crowded than usual. The winters are cold but not too cold around -15C (5F), and the biggest problem I could see is the lack of infrastructure for the region. So driving from A to B could take some time in the summer and would be near impossible in the winter. Travel along the coast in watercraft would be the best bet. After you were able to hunker down though, a highly defensible community could be set up.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Breton_Island.png

[azazel1024]

Shelter, fire starting, clothing and medical supplies are necessary as well.

You don't need permanant shelter, but without at least a tent, you are going to be in a world of hurt in just a few days and/or suck up enormous time and energy creating one every single day if on the move.

You need fire, unless of course you have electricity. That one is required.

Clothing, obvious, but maybe not. You need proper protection from the environment...so either a great shelter (IE heated house and never need to go outside in bad weather) and go in the buff, or appropriate clothing.

Medical supplies. You are going to get injured or sick at some point. You'll need at least the basics eventually unless you don't mind dying from an infection, a fever, a disease or bleeding to death, not being able to mend a broken bone, etc.

Food and water with a very close second being shelter/clothing are necessities (or could be more important, depending on the weather). Fire starting and medical supplies also are, but maybe slightly longer term. Water you can survive for maybe 3 days without. Food for a few weeks.

Poor shelter or poor clothing in bad weather, could be a few hours.
-Matt

[kogwar]

How do you imagine your safe haven or how have you set it up?

Fire tower deep in the washington woods with a small fence aroudn the base with steep stairs a generator preferably solar powered and a garden with an old abandoned logging town near by close enough to spot from the tower but not close enough for someone ot find me or for me to be seen from the town.

[paulvdaley]

Has anyone read the 'As The World Dies' books by Rhiannon Frater? I'm partway through the first book and she has a pretty good idea. The idea is that a diverse group of survivors fortify an area of a small town that had been undergoing a sort of urban renewal project. So, there were trucks, construction equipment and -most important- construction workers to sort of create an Alamo kind of safe haven. I like that idea.

My father was a maintenance director for the Union Pacific railroad and from the stories he would bring home, maintaining a modern locomotive is immensely complicated. These are not just big cars. According to him, 1 or 2 of every 10 brand freakin' new locomotives would start its service life in the shop for some reason. I'm saying that some come from the manufacturer already broken. I wouldn't want to pin the survival of my little group on something so unreliable. The steam engine idea is interesting, but I'd worry about how extensive the railway system these museum pieces might be found running on could be -and- how complicated it would be to get that engine somewhere useful. But I'm just a worrier like that.

[azazel1024]

You could do a truck with a rail conversion package. That plus a nice sized trailer, also with a rail conversion package would give you flexibility. You still couldn't drive it over really rough terrain without ditching the trailer, but rails would give you nice smooth, easy to navigate "roads" and if the line were damage or you needed a detour, just hop off the rail.
-Matt

[batlchip]

Oil Rig,container ship or a oil tanker.They should be a little easier to snagg then a navy ship and you don't need a large bunch of people to crew them either.

[Silveressa]

Arguably the best safe heaven I've found yet:

http://io9.com/#!5750716/the-tiny-islan ... or-science

[azazel1024]

A lot of modern prisons rely on power though. No electrical power and a lot of the doors are locked and cannot be unlocked.

So once the grid goes down and once the juice for any facility generators goes down, a lot of the facility is going to be inaccessible unless you don't mind a cutting torch to open doors.

You are going to need a lot more than a couple of solar panels to keep the security system operating also. Even leaving as much off to just operate the security system I'd imagine it probably pulls at least a few kilowatts, and that many solar cells and batteries are not going to be easy to find post apocalypse.

Just a thought.
-Matt

[azazel1024]

My big question would be what is the idle fuel consumption of the generators and rated output at idle.

You can certainly whip up some biodiesel, though frankly I'd just run it on veggie oil which isn't going to be that hard to find either.

If those diesels are anything like most 200+kw diesel generators I've seen idle fuel consumption is going to be at least 2-3g/hr and around 15-30kw for a 200kw generator on very light load. Might be enough power for the most basics if most things in the facility are off, but you are still going to be gulping down fuel.

Fast food place is maybe going to have about 200-400 gallons of oil in storage tanks, so hitting one up would at most get you 3-8 days worth of fuel...that you are also going to have to try to transport back (200 gallons is a pretty big volume, you are probably going to need a fuel or tank truck for this, or at least find a landscaping buisness with a pickup that has a big water tank in the bed).

If those are bigger generators, like 600kw deals or even 1mw suckers the idle consumption is going to be a lot higher than 2-3g/hr, probably more like 5-10g/hr.

Honestly your best bet would probably be to acquire one or more small diesel generators from a home improvement store or elsewhere. Something rated in the 5-20kw range and hook them in to the current electrical grid of the prison, or even just the local panel that you need to run. They are going to have much better light load performance than a big generator. They might not be enough to power everything (or even that much), but if it is just the security system and a handful of lights, with no HVAC or other big wasters running it might be enough so that you can keep a pair of 10kw diesels in the 60-90% load range. Get 3 of them hooked up and you can leave one off line for bigger loads or maintenance of the other two.

If I was going to custom tailor one, I'd say a decomissioned ICBM silo with a geothermal power plant. You are going to be too deep for the zombies to sense you. You are going to be perfectly protected against retros and not-nice survivors (unless they have a few hundred pounds of explosives and/or a lot of shaped charges and/or a baby nuke. You can fit disgusting amounts of supplies inside for a few people (yourself and a hareem). And frankly it would just be cool.

[dargo83]

oh snap! he told you didnt he

[azazel1024]

Actually lots of decomissioned ICBM silos have been sold to private buyers. So if you happened to be one, you are set.

That and maybe it was a decomissioned silo, that hadn't been sold (yet) that wasn't locked up tight. It could happen.

Not saying it was THE plan, just that if you could do it, you'd be pretty set.

Back to the prison, you are obviously in a much better position than I am to know all of this...since I've never been in one even except for a couple of tours (and I don't mean tours of duty ).

One thing to consider, at least in the context of DR, the outbreak is pretty sudden. The book describes it as happening in a matter of just a couple of days. Lock down might have happened, but what about all the prisoners who were deathly ill still? I really don't know the setup, but wouldn't a lot of them be in the infirmary (or whatever it is that the particular prison has, I assume it can be locked...but a ton of now zombie prisoners and maybe whatever guards responded not knowing what was going on was a zombie out break are overwhelmed) when it went down? Or what about guards that showed up at the start of their shift with just a touch of a fever that they thought they could work through, and by shift's end they are zombies?

Just some thoughts.

[azazel1024]

Hey, not saying my ideas are better. Just some thoughts I had been having on it.

It certainly sounds like you've thought it out pretty well (and role played it pretty well also).

unless things have changed, there would be no real estate agent involved in the sale of a decomissioned ICBM silo. It would be GSA. They would probably lock it up pretty tight until the auction, but I also know that GSA handles a couple of thousand un-used buildings for the feds, and they don't always do a great job of maintaining them or making sure they are secure.

For that matter, someone with a lot of time on their hands and tools might be able to get in to an old ICBM silo even if everything was locked up tight. They have to have ventilation (they are not on a 100% close system, just an NBC over pressure system AFAIK, which means air intakes somewhere). The ventilation intakes might be too small to fit a person through one, but they might also be big enough. Probably going to be hard to get in through any kind of cover/grating on it, and probably hard to find with lots of twists and turns in the duct work, but I'd bet with an oxyacetaline torch and a few hours (or a few days) of time you could probably cut and worm your way inside.

Certainly no zed getting in though, probably not even a thinker. Probably no retros getting in as they despise any kind of technology. Bandits, etc would probably need to be darned resourceful to manage it. At any rate, after the fact you could probably secure the ventilation access better (assuming it is even possible with tools to gain access through it). ICBM silos were meant a lot more for taking a near blast from a nuke, not from actually 100% keeping people out who are completely determined to get in, have unrestricted external access and a few days of time to attempt entry.

Not what I would be wasting my time on unless I had already bought one or one of my good friends had. I'd just find a nice wilderness rock out cropping with very difficult access without at least minor climbing and call it a safe heaven and no closer than 15 miles from the nearest population center of ANY size, but no more than 60 miles from one.

[Gamer]

It's not that hard to find decommissioned silos, I have a map listing all of them.
There are many decommissioned silos in private hands heck there is one that got turned into a high school and one in Texas is used to teach diving.
There are also several decommissioned communication bunkers to go for.
You won't find any habitable Minuteman silos because they get destroyed when decommissioned per treaty obligations.
These people not only own a decommissioned ICBM silo they sell refurbish and sell them.
20th Century Castles, LLC
But many of these places wouldn't be my choice either because unless it's already been cleaned you'll have to be the one cleaning it and getting it habitable again.

If I really had to do some rpg safe haven scenario I'd be going the oil rig route.
I know were to go and I've helped refurbish a few in my healthier days plus I know how to keep it habitable.
Don't have to worry about food, water or power -most gulf rigs have solar power charging systems for the large batteries.
Don't have to worry about people because it would be people I already know who would be the ones onboard and if they were already zombies it wouldn't be that many or that hard to deal with.

A prison as a haven to me would be dependant on the prison.
The state prison my Little brother was SRT at here in Montana isn't secure enough for me.
I like full outer perimeter security and chain link fencing with razor wire isn't secure enough aginst zombies to me and I'm sure some of you would agree with that.
The old prison turned museum is a virtual fortress but isn't set up to be habitable anymore unfortunately

[Gamer]

I'd just find a nice wilderness rock out cropping with very difficult access without at least minor climbing and call it a safe heaven and no closer than 15 miles from the nearest population center of ANY size, but no more than 60 miles from one.

Wouldn't that depend on the Metropolitan area really?
I mean take the Washington D.C. area you can go 60 miles north, south or west from there and you'd still be neck deep in the walking dead.

[Gamer]

Now an Oil rig is a really cool idea, I like it, will have to do some more research into it.

Look into the repair companies as well like Gulf Copper -company I used to work with- in Texas, there will be any number of mobile rigs in dock or nearby awaiting work at any given time.

[azazel1024]

State prison near State College Pennsylvania (I forget the name of the prison) would be ideal. The prison has agricultural work release and litterally is surrounded by hundreds of acres of farm and orchard land for the prisoners to work on. It is medium security I believe, but it deffinitely has all the bells and whistles of watch towers, two perimiters of chainlink and concertina wire, etc.

Also no major urban populations nearby, but you have plenty of resources from the nearby town(s) and university. Just hope that the zed rising happened during semester break, otherwise there are going to be an extra 50,000 zombies about 10-15 miles from you (normal SC, PA population is around 30,000...but about 50,000 students attend PSU main campus in town and maybe another 20,000 people in the rest of the county).

[azazel1024]

Just had a brain-storm or a stroke. What about a cave?

That is exactly what I would be looking for...with the caveat that I'd want to find one up a cliff or hill. Anything that would make normal access difficult and something that would be easy to camouflage the entrance of.
-Matt

[azazel1024]

Pretty much exactly that. Though I'd want to try to find something with two entrances and exits. Preferably where both can be blocked/unblocked easily, but only from the location of the safe haven (such as a ladder, doorway up carved steps, something like that).

[azazel1024]

If it is up a cliff, have a hang glider handy

I'd really want to try to find something with steep steps up that I could fashion a door to block it off. It would make both getting in to easier and carrying back bulky supples and similar. Though I guess you could fashion up a crane system to hoist up large items.

[azazel1024]

Don't know if I would want to employ an escape plan that relied on the weather conditons so heavily. I mean, if the snot were to hit the fan during a thunderstorm you may find yourself up the creek, with no paddle in site!

Hope your food, ammo and water lasted long enough I guess.

I agree, but you can only have so many exits if they are all blocked, it is all about the hail Mary exit plan.