Houseboats and Airships: my impractical(?) solution to the zombie apocalypse

Discussion in 'Make It So' started by Jean, Mar 24, 2019.

  1. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    SO I am writing a zombie apocalypse novel that i have been kicking around in my head for... Ten years? Maybe more? I just have always wanted to write a zombie apocalypse book about people retreating to the air and water.

    Also, since some of the people I've been talking about this with on discord are also here: yes, I'm Deshah on discord; no theft has happened in any direction
     
    • Winner x 5
  2. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    So, the zombie outbreak is cause by a bioweapon! Wielded by whom, you ask? Dont know yet.

    Zombies can be:
    • Humans
    • Some animals which can get diseases from humans
    HOWEVER: more animals can carry it than are affected by it
    • Opossums are immune and cant carry it
      • Domesticated opossums
        • This isn't a plot point I just think it's neat
    Will make posts about how people in different environments respond when I have more time.
     
    • Winner x 4
  3. vuatson

    vuatson [delurks]

    hello yes this interests me very much - my dream zombpocalypse scenario has always been a cruise ship colony!

    *camps in thread*
     
    • Like x 2
  4. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    Trying, probably failing, to sound like a newscaster.

    Reena thought it was a joke at first. To be fair, she found out scrolling through tumblr on her phone. She laughed a bit, got to the end of her dash, and switched to the radio while she plated her eggs.


    “What was thought to be an isolated incident this morning is turning into an epidemic. Seemingly random people on the street have been suddenly turning on passersby and attacking them mercilessly.


    “The assaulted individuals then turn around and join them in attacking others, resulting in vicious mobs roaming the streets.


    “For those of you just tuning in, [somethingsomething] mobs appearing in cities and towns worldwide.


    “Police attempts to contain the situation have failed, as they are attacked just as viciously. Officers who managed to get away report that their coworkers responded to being attacked by joining the mob, forcing the rest to retreat.


    “One detective, who wishes to remain anonymous, gave the following quote:


    “It’s like they’re hyped up on meth, but contagious. You get them down, you get them handcuffed, they go after you with their teeth. They didn’t stop for bullets, either; just kept coming, snarling like animals.”


    “Joining me now is Dr Fred Rambert, a psychologist and professor at the University of Buffalo. Dr Rambert, this outbreak must be caused by something. Can you shed some light on that?”


    “Well Clarissa,
     
  5. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    Rural communities in america (largely inspired by that one tumblr post):
    • big farming equipment
    • connexes, provided they're near a shipping location
      • need a forklift to move
      • sink one halfway into the ground, stack and secure, get: living space, walls
      • only the metal ones: learned the hard way
      • get hot in summer, cold in winter; insulation salvaged from various places
    • 18 wheelers for moving people
    • guns & hunting knowledge
    • farming knowledge
    • farm animals
    • someone tries to use their combine and zombie bits clog it up
    • reliant on diesel for the first bit; some communities will have gotten things set up enough by the time they run out, but not all
    • ammonium nitrate fertilizer for bombs
    • saltpeter from manure or pee+wood ashes
      • + charcoal and sulfur in correct proportions = black powder
    • generators
    • some people have solar power
    • some people have wind power
      • resented windmills highjacked to provide electricity
    • some people have geothermal power
    • all terrain bicycles to get supplies and messages from place to place
    Amish people:
    • laugh at all these people freaking out about gas; you know what's faster than a zombie? a horse
    • lots of stuff i need to research
     
    • Winner x 3
  6. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    Since this is set in the 20teens, I am debating with myself over a dance troop: athletic! flexible! strong! already function well as a team and rely on each other! At least one instance of "SHIELD!" and at some point there's a bunch of low tech farm equipment and one girl is like "no trust me I've read a lot of homestuck fanfiction" and improvises karkat's fighting style from cultstuck.
     
    • Winner x 3
  7. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    Side note: everyone should read the fic Staying Alive by nirejseki, even if you're not in the flash fandom. There is at least one city that uses those tactics, probably because someone read that very fanfic. Or maybe nirejseki lives there, I don't know. They'll probably only be discussed by characters is passing but they're there all the same. Concept borrowed with permission. I'll talk more about it when I have a proper keyboard.
     
  8. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    Central City's strategy in Staying Alive:
    • our main character (mc) goes to the university because of quote "its greatest asset: an intercom system, and lots and lots of mostly able-bodied young adults between eighteen and twenty six who are conditioned by over twelve years of school to listen to anything that comes out of that intercom.”
    • mc organizes the students and faculty:
      • form committees to brainstorm problems and solutions, such as potential cholera outbreak and securing the reservoir
      • set up barricades out of cars turned on their sides and quick acting cement, manufactured in the chemistry department
      • zombies were lured to the barricades and then taken out by bombs, burning oil, pits with spikes... siege warfare tactics, basically
      • "Three teams would be sent out on any given ‘building’ expedition: the ‘scouts’, the ‘builders’, and the ‘reserves’. The scouts – a position reserved for individuals of bravery and recognized talents in armed combat[...] student army, many of which were obliged to pick up firearms instruction as part of the ‘Crisis Curriculum’[...]– would be posted at the furthest extent from the epicenter (originally: Central City University) in order to spot any approaching zombie. While the scouts maintained the perimeter, the ‘builders’ would overturn local cars onto their sides and position them in a semi-circular fashion between the buildings on each side of the street. Quick-acting cement, formed in large quantities in the labs of Central City University [...], would then be poured into the gaps between the cars, creating an immediate ‘wall’ that would serve as a barrier between the oncoming zombies and the defending individuals. The ‘reserves’ were there to supplement the ‘scouts’, should any roving bands of zombies take notice. A certain number of ‘gates’ were introduced in each barricade wall, initially made of doorframes stolen from nearby buildings and later reinforced with additional layers of concrete and steel once the local automobile factories had been reclaimed and their manufacturing capabilities turned to support the barricades."
      • broadcast a radio program instructing the city's citizens to stay put and wait for rescue and to communicate zombie fighting methods and other useful info, such as how to keep your crops safe
    • as they move out from the epicenter they rescue people and hustle them to quarantine, which are individual plexiglas boxes where they're kept for 32 hours and provided with food according to their dietary requirements
    • they put the grid back up after it's knocked down
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2019
    • Winner x 2
  9. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    a fighting strategy: bottleneck somehow - top of the stairs, for example - and use a long spear with a broad head or even jut a long sturdy stick to knock them back with or without their heads.
     
  10. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    global warming is in fact still a problem.
     
  11. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    A character:

    This Dude who lives in a city and, rather than flee like many others, goes 'eh, i have as much of a chance here as anywhere else' and hunker down in his apartment building, expanding his resource searching from his neighbors' abandoned apartments to the city proper by way of attaching baskets to the front and back of his bike (as well as carrying a backpack), and filling the front basket with molotov cocktails which he lights and chucks at any zombie hordes he comes across. Eventually he starts growing food in one of the apartments with nice big windows and on the roof.

    He knows that this whole thing is a temporary solution, but by this point the ham radio people have started broadcasting, and in among the religious types and the survivalist bunker types are some people talking on their progress making an airship. Several airships. They're talking about signs to leave at the highest nearby point so that the airships, once built, can get stranded folk to bigger settlements. They're talking about setting up a postal and transportation service. There's starting to be coordination between disparate survivors.

    The Dude starts finding people eventually, mostly because other people had similar thoughts to him but weren't as reckless and noticed him. One group of friends do parkour together, and they start talking to a construction worker and an engineer ("I'm a mechanical engineer not a structural engineer! I can't do this!" "But you can learn, can't you?") about building bridges between buildings. Different skillsets come together - Reena has a lot of books about things like canning, and once she's calmed down some she's an excellent organizer and distributor of resources.
     
    • Winner x 2
  12. vuatson

    vuatson [delurks]

    rigged-together bridges between buildings is the best aesthetic
     
    • Agree x 1
  13. Jean

    Jean Let’s stop procrastinating -- tomorrow!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    • Winner x 1
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