Scientific Method - Survival - The Metagame

[Bells]

well, you'll all need some forms of "fun" to keep the mind health. Coming up with a funny name for a survival team is nice, and im sure as hell SOMEBODY is going to bring a lan party to the Oilrig

[Nique]

Ah ah ah. The ORAL rig.

Also, can Zombies even survive the winter?

[Bells]

Depends of just how cold it really gets. A minority would just "shut down", but most would just slow down or stop untill the heat comes back up,and then, resume "Zombieng" at normal.

You can take it that in any parts of the US where it gets really cold and really snowy the "Zombie mob" will have a permanent decrease of 5~7% and a Temporary decrease of 40~50% During the high point of winter.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yeah, once on the rig I would practically have access to every country within range, from Ireland to Norway and right down as far as the Netherlands. With a fast enough boat they're only a few days travel and I could set down anywhere along the coasts to raid the mainlands for fuel, supplies and entertainment. And seeing as how much shipping passes through here there's probably tons of cargo ships I could raid.

I could also search for survivors to help build up a community. A couple of engineers to fix things when they break, some farmer types for crop production and we'd be all set.

Hell we wouldn't even need to grow the crops on the rig,we could make a dash to the mainland, plant them there and then return to harvest them at the end of the season, so long as we find a nice deserted area to plant them.

The only real problem would be the weather, but even that's not so bad, at least we don't get hurricanes up here. And it's not like people don't live at sea like all the time anyway. In fact I wonder if I could even procure Sealand as a secondary outpost, or possibly an ally.

[guyy]

Originally Posted by Bellsouth Minion

I was going to pitch this as a forum game... but it didnt "feel" like a game.
[elaborate description]

You could have simplified that a lot by just saying "What's your Zombie Plan?", but I guess that's not very specific.

I'm just going the throw in that one of the first things you'd want to do is find a good amount of some strong acid (hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, etc.) for zombie-defense purposes. Beating them up with a crowbar might theoretically be awesome, but it's likely to get you infected. Spash some acid in a zombie's face, though, and it's going to have a hard time doing much to you.

If you're at college, like me, it'd be pretty easy to find some; just run to the nearest chemistry lab before someone else gets the same idea. Might not be so easy otherwise, but more householdy things like vinegar would work pretty well, too.

[Sir Pinkleton]

Well, I guess I'd procure myself one of the family cars and make my way West, avoiding mobs, or at least moving very slowly through them (something I didn't consider before, but would probably work). It's the same after that though; I don't have a gun or medication, so I might grab that before leaving, but still: go to coast, ready for boat trip, get on boat, go... somewhere.
I'm all about killing the Zombies, but I really don't think my stamina would stay up for it all. I'm near the pacific ocean, so I couldn't really get to the O.R.A.L., but I'd probably move up to Alska or Canada. I really don't know what I'd do after that though, other than find people, hunt/fish for meat, eat vegetables/fruit as it's found/grown, and probably die sooner than I'd like.

[Khael!]

If you're going to aim for Canada, go for the Great Lakes area. We could easily establish a network of tethered boats there too, the only threat I can think of there would be a lightning strike. And Toronto being on lake Ontario's shore.

I would get there myself, but with the very small lake by my house, I may just weather the winter here first, until mobility is improved come spring.

The snow, if it's even half of what it was last year, will keep me from making any real attempts to head east to the closest coast. A car simply cannot go through that as the snow will get shoved into the front, melt, and likely stall the vehicle. Unless I were to try and head there before winter hits, in which case I will have to go through very populated areas of zombies, and very quickly. It's really one hazard or the other, but at least I'm more familiar with being cold. Issue for me is that I don't drive yet.

The bonus of meeting up with me somewhere along the way is that I'll be accompanied by my family - and my dad is very good at doing repairs on things like cars and wiring in electrical devices. Or really anything he can grab a manual for. The rest of my family are all generally competent and would be good hands to have getting things accomplished.

A good move would be to grab any vehicle, medical or other manuals you can, in case we need reference material and internet is unavailable. If someone brought a repair kit and a blowtorch, just one, we'd be way further ahead if we have to make things ourselves. Copies of varying encyclopedias might not be bad in case we do experience a total loss of civilization. If things get as far as a second generation, those kids will need to have stuff they can learn from. This would be assuming a scenario like in I Am Legend.

[Pip Boy]

ORAL sounds like a great idea, and I'd be all for it if not for the fact that to do that we'd need a helicopter and enough fuel to manually transport every person to the oil rig. Or, more realistically, a large boat that we could use to move large numbers of people, perhaps using a grappling hook to get up to the rig itself depending on how far over the water it went. One person could go up and lower a ladder for the people on the boat waiting below.

What can you tell us about the zombies? Only monkeys and humans are infected and the zombies mostly die during the winter, but what else?

Are they the slow, shambling zombies such as those in the zombie survival guide, or are they like the steroid enhanced supersoldiers shown on some zombie horror movies?

EDIT: I guess I failed to actually post a plan in my original post, so I'll do that now.

Food: I have a very well put together emergency rations kit that was even double checked and updated because of the recent hurricanes.

Transportation: A car is a terrible idea. Anywhere where a lot of people are trying to go somewhere all at once there will be bad traffic jams. Whats worse, if the traffic bads get too bad and people panic, they may leave their cars on the road and go on foot, making travel along any major road virtually impossible. The only way to go will be to go off road or to be smaller. I personally think that a bicycle is best. It doesn't protect you from the zombies, but it makes outrunning them easy, it can go almost anywhere, and it will never run out of gas. The bad news is that it gives less storage space. So, if the roads aren't bad I'll take the Suburban and try going off road, but I'll keep a bike in the back in case it gets stuck, runs out of gas, or I encounter other problems.

Destination: The first thing I'll do is hole up in the local school. The thing is almost like Juvi. Concrete and brick walls, large metal doors between all the halls and corridors. The segmentation of the school makes it so that any zombie that gets in can be quarantined into that area by locking a door behind you as you run from it.

The Plan: Hole up in the base, bringing with me the Suburban, an emergency supplies kit, and a bike. From here, I'll see if I can steal a school-bus. The bus barn is very close to the school itself, meaning that if I can somehow get the keys to one of the buses (I believe they're either in the possession of the bus drivers or kept in the office of said bus barn, so it shouldn't be hard to break in and grab the keys). I stay in the school until its own supplies run out. I will eat out of the cafeteria's supply, NOT my rations. I will use the schools computer to stay on the internet and find what information is available about where people are hiding. If I find that any of my friends or fellow NPFers have found a great hideout or a place of refuge, I'll get back on the move. I'll take whatever transportation is availible (the bus if I can get it, the suburban if I cant get a bus, and the bike if the suburban runs out of gas or gets stuck). One I get moving, I'll start using my emergency rations and stop wherever there may be food to add to my stash. From here I'll simply make my way to wherever it is I find out I should go.

Arms: I'll bring my 22 semi-auto rifle with me, but its probably actually more for humans than zombies. I can only use it if I have time to get it, point and aim, and thats only effective if a zombie is far away. In fact, if they ARE that far away, Im more likely to run away on the bike than waste bullets. However, in any kind of disaster many people fall apart and resort to killing and stealing to get what they need. While the gun won't be good for killing zombies, it does mean my chances of being attacked are reduced, and I am more likely to be seen as an asset if any large group passes by looking for survivors.

[Bells]

so let me just pitch this simple problem for you guys...

What creates the zombies are bacterias. These zombies can walk underwater and even "die" down there.

Are you sure you're going to drink that water? Take a bath in it?

[Azisien]

Well the odds of the bacteria surviving/propagating all the way out to the oil rig are near zero, but since it's ocean water we're probably desalinating/sterilizing it anyway!