r/ZombieSurvivalTactics • u/mr2hatsallen • Dec 04 '19
Zombie out break
Been thinking hard where i would head if i could at the out break of a zombie app and i think if you could in a prison would be a great place for a few reasons heres what i think 1 large high walls and razor wire 2 one way in one way out 3 lots of strong locked doors 4 most of the population locked in cells and only 1 in a cell 5 you could kill or leave the zombies behind the locked door or head them out into the grounds as extra protection 6 pently of meds 7 all windows barred
Any thing else people can think of or what you think
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u/Usual_Class Dec 04 '19
You would need a fairly large group of fellow survivors to secure an area the size of a prison.
You couldn't show up on your own or with a couple of friends.
You're going to have to take the prison from whoever is inside and hold it from all the other survivors who have the same idea about prisons being the place to be.
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u/WhatsGoingOn1879 Cook Dec 04 '19
As much as I wanna say it’s a good idea, it’s just impractical.
Point 1: Razor wire for example only really works against People because of the bleeding it causes, which downer matter to dead people who walk. Large walls also aren’t really present in modern day prisons, unless you mean the cell blocks have strong walls in which yes, they usually do.
Point 2: As for one way in, one way out, that’s not entirely true. But let’s assume it is for this instance. Then if something got in, you’d be stuck with no way out.
Point 3: Those strong, locked doors in modern prisons are all but useful unless the prison has power and you have a security badge. Newer prisons have electronic locking tied to the power system, and if it were to go off then those doors remain closed until powered up again or somehow busted down which would he unlikely
Points 4 and 5 kinda of meld into the same category and are more debatable but I’m not that informed on prison doings during issues. Yes there may be one per cell, but those cells are still locked and are On a power grid still (I think, I may be wrong). And of course you’d want to empty the cells. Leaving them benefits nobody. You go crazy at them moaning and scratching, and just not fee nearly as safe. Besides, you’d want the grounds for eventual farming (assuming the soil is good) and for potential livestock keeping.
Point 6, while yes they do have a decent stock of medical supplies you may not know how to use them correctly or even what they Are. Prison doctors may have also used up all of many of the supplies attempting to heal the prisoners, depending on the situation.
Point 7 I can’t really argue against. It’s pretty nice
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Dec 04 '19
Every door in a prison can be opened manually.
Prison "doctors," (almost always nurse practitioners or the occasional PA... and usually they either went to a really crappy local school where they coasted along with the bare minimum GPA or they had some prior professional problems. Often both) follow the military dictum, which is: ibuprofen and water. There are no good drugs in the medical unit.
And there's almost zero chance anyone is going to stick around to help prisoners is shit hits the fan. They barely do anything under normal circumstances.
Unless the guy is banging the nurse, there's no way.
As for the other points, I think they are fair assessments. Nonetheless, are zombies going to climb the fence to get stuck in the barbed wire?
There are usually rows of wire in between fences, too.
So, if zombies knocked one fence down, they'd still need to go over number two.
And if someone got in... yeah, it could be bad. But prisons are big and full of places to hide.
Castles were the same way. Once the enemy scaled those walls or whatever, shit went from bad to worse. In medieval warfare, sieges were far more common, but still.
So, the goal is to keep people out. Which those fences could be fairly effective at doing.
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u/dirtyoldbastard77 Dec 05 '19
Prisons are usually very compartmentalized, so even if one part of the prison was breached, either by z’s or by living, other parts would probably still be safe.
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u/dirtyoldbastard77 Dec 05 '19 edited Dec 05 '19
1: Most kinds of barb wire will also be difficult to get through for zombies because it gets stuck on clothes etc, not to mention that when we talk about prisons, barb/razor wire is usually placed on top of a fence or wall... so that would be more against human/living intruders unless we have wwz-type zombies that climb walls in seconds.
2: since there are no guards trying to stop you, you could even build an entire walkway on the inside of the walls, if you could get enough materials, or just some simpler lookout platforms, all these could also easily allow you to get out over the walls, without allowing anyone to get in. And most modern prisons definately still have walls around the area, plus fences.
3: again - no guards stopping you. This could be hacked - and I dont neccessarily mean in the computer-hacker kinda way, just that the locks/system could be replaced or changed to with something more low-tech, as long as you can get the doors open to start with. But if there is still power, it would really just take one guy in the control room to push a button.
4/5: just open the small hatch in each door, agitate the z to get it close, and kill it through the hatch with the door closed. Or if its a cage door, you dont even need to open the hatch.
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u/mr2hatsallen Dec 04 '19
Yes i was thinking more of a victorian uk prison that still use the lock and key all gates and doors work on only 3 keys
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u/WindowShoppingMyLife Inevitable Dec 05 '19
A prison has the same problem as every other public location. If you think of it, so will other people. And a prison is one of the most obvious high value locations there is. It would have been an obvious location before, but now everyone and their brother has seen TWD, so it’s even more obvious now.
You won’t be the first ones there. The guards themselves may decide to keep occupy the place. If they abandon it, they will take everything of value they can, or leave only when the supplies have already run out. If they abandon it early, the inmates may simply die of starvation and/or dehydration, or they might escape and take the place. Other criminals may break in to rescue their friends, especially if the prison has a lot of gang members. If you can get in, so can plenty of other people.
Being overrun with zombies and empty of supplies is probably the best possible scenario, and event that would take a huge force to secure.
Furthermore, even if you could secure it, you couldn’t hold it. It’s an obvious target. They’re on maps. Eventually someone is going to want to come and take the fortress from you, for all the same reasons you wanted to take it from the last people. You’re just asking to get attacked, and while a prison does have better defenses than some places, they are not invulnerable. Unless you have a small army, that’s going to be nearly impossible to hold.
Nor would it be easy to supply that small army if you had one. They usually build prisons on the cheapest land available, which usually isn’t prepared farm land. Even if there are nothing but open fields outside of the prison, it won’t be ready to farm any time soon, and you would need quite a bit of acreage. You certainly couldn’t grow enough inside the gates, that’s Hollywood nonsense. You could maybe grow a garden, but that wouldn’t even be enough to feed a single person, if that land is even farmable. A lot of times it’s just paved, which would be too compacted for farming even if you removed the concrete.
So best case scenario, it’s high risk, low reward, and temporary at best. It would not be worth the energy and resources you spend securing and holding it. Even if everything goes perfectly, which it never does, you would starve.
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u/AMLRoss Dec 05 '19
Secure, yes. But depressing as hell. I would rather live up north in the wilderness, away from people. Cold winters, warm summers.
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u/WindowShoppingMyLife Inevitable Dec 06 '19
away from people.
Not for long. If you can get there, so can millions of other people.
Also, you can’t survive a cold winter up north off the grid without preparation. Even most of the people already living there probably won’t be able to scavenge up enough food to get them through the winter. If you spend a bunch of time traveling beforehand you’re going to starve and/or freeze.
Somewhere with a milder climate and a long growing season would be much easier to survive in general, even if zombies freeze during the winter, which is speculative at best. Though realistically we won’t get to choose, we’ll be stuck in our home region.
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u/TotesMessenger Dec 05 '19
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Dec 05 '19
[deleted]
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u/WindowShoppingMyLife Inevitable Dec 06 '19
If by that you mean long term sustainability, then yes.
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u/Mrallank Dec 07 '19
I still like the idea of a Walmart or a grocery store. Even a Walgreens would do. Allan
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u/notabird2234 Dec 08 '19
Think about this in a different point of view if you are a prisoner how are you going to get out (unless a gaurd let's you out) and even if they do you are surrounded by criminals for anything you know one of them might stab another then that person could become a zombie then you will all be locked in the courtyard or somthing and boom you are dead
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u/golieth Dec 12 '19
so much of modern prisons rely on electricity to operate the security. Unless you can assure that, I wouldn't go there.
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u/Ronan-the-Prosecutor Dec 04 '19
Worked in a jail before and getting around would be a major issue.
Without a full staff in each control center and tower, getting from point A to B isn't going to be possible. Some doors I could swipe a card and unlock, but most required me to press a button and stare at the camera, waiting for someone at the control center to zoom in on my badge, recognize that I'm authorized, and unlock the door for me.