I’m in a fairly defensible building, with a couple of well-stocked kitchens and vending machines. I think we’d be okay, assuming we get a bit of warning. We’ve also got a gym, with weights- so we’d have a few makeshift weapons, and whatever we can scavenge from our furniture.
Our biggest strength, though, is that I’d be very surprised if there’s a single person here, out of our 160 employees, who hasn’t read World War Z and The Zombie Survival Handbook. A huge number of us also play a hell of a lot of Left 4 Dead.
We’ve even got our own generator, and a courtyard which could be easily barricaded with vehicles.
Hmm. I teach second grade. I’d put my chances at pretty damn low. Nonetheless, here’s what I’d do:
-Herd my class to the auditorium, calling other teachers to join us there.
-Send a contingent to the cafeteria to collect as much food (and knives) as possible.
-Send a contingent to raid the janitor’s closet. Hopefully between the knives and the stuff in the janitor’s closet, we can get a few weapons together.
-Depending on how near it is, possibly send a contingent to the grocery store that’s a 30-second drive from school, with instructions to load up on knives and on high-calorie foods.
-Get everyone to empty out book tubs and fill them with water.
When the zombies get close, we barricade the auditorium, fashion weapons, and get religion.
I usually work from home. My apartment floor is set four feet below groundand there are windows at around ground level. Barricading them shouldn’t be too difficult, I have bookshelves that can be used for that purpose. I only have one entrance/exit, with two locked doors (one exterior with storm door, then a short entryway, then the other locked door, so it’s pretty secure…however it’s also going to be tough to get out of there to get supplies or flee to a safe place. I have some unsharpened swords and a battle axe (all decorative) and a compound bow (with only three arrows) as major weapons. I suppose the swords or axe could be used to chop off zombie heads, but I’d need to sharpen them first somehow, and I don’t actually own a knife sharpener…hmmm…need a knife sharpener in case of zombie attack…
I work from home as well at the moment. Many people in my neighborhood are handy, and I know where I can find auto equipment, welding stuff, and supplies all within a safe distance. I’ll assume for ease of argument that Nashiitashii has the day off. I will send her round with one of the dogs to the neighbor’s house that has that big RV parked out front. We gather up the neighbors who have useful tools and trade skills for a ride. Those that are not at home get screwed. Those that fail to comply will be shot. The RV gets a cow catcher welded up toot sweet and bolted to the front and welded to the frame of the rv. Windows are covered from the inside with 1" ply. leaving slots for weaponry. Wheel wells get curtained off with steel sheet. Ladders are removed and placed on top. Assuming time permits (our area is fairly rural, I don’t expect hordes for a few days) the interior will be gutted, and platforms built from ply. If not, supplies and survivors will be loaded up and we move out, taking the back roads to the gulf coast. There we hijack a boat and head for a barrier island to set up shop on.
I work in a co-op deli, so the front of the building might be a problem. It’s highly accessible to the public. Our storage space in the back is used for all of the properties the co-op owns, however, and so it is, essentially, a warehouse. The doors automatically lock unless you have a key and there’s plenty in the way of food and supplies.
The first thing I’d do is lock myself back there with all the keys, barricade the doors with freezers and such, and hide until I decided what to do next, which would largely depend on what happened to be in storage at the time.
A couple of guns and several hundred rounds of ammo in the car. The building would be pretty secure against zombies, above the second floor anyway. We have three refrigerators on the 3rd and 4th floors so after I kill my coworkers I’ll have several days worth of leftovers to eat. And all the candy hidden in desk drawers might get me through a couple more days (and there’s plenty of water). But not much longer than that. We do have a stove & oven on 4, so I could cook up my recently deceased coworkers if they didn’t zombify.
If the Zombie Apocalypse goes down within the next two weeks that I’m still in MS, me and my friends have already decided we’re going to pack up and head to Nick and Julia’s house. They live in a huge old home in the woods, with their own garden, green house, chickens, dogs, and beer-making capibilities (very important!). I’m not sure any of us have guns, but considering this is MS, spiritual home of all rednecks, we should be able to secure weapons and extra ammo fairly easily. I am confident we will be able to hold out at Nick and Julia’s indefinitely.
If the zombies come some time next year, while I’m back in Americorps, um, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I suppose I’ll hide with Agent Foxtrot and his crazy Darkon friends if possible.
Where I work would actually be a pretty decent place during the zombie apocolypse, we have supplies, weapons, and it’s in a fairly defensible area. In fact I’d probably be better off here than at home.
A friend of a cow-orker works for a soft drink distribution company, and every time they get a new brand of whatever, he gets a free sample. One day, he brought in a large can of energy drink with the word “CRUNK” splashed across it in large, friendly letters. It sits next to our white board, where somebody wrote the phrase “In case of Emergency” with an arrow pointing to it.
This morning, I erased the word “Emergency” and wrote “Zombie Apocalypse” in its place.
In reply to my own OP, I know of all the spots within running distance where I could make a temporary stand (multiple escape vectors required; NEVER get cornered where there’s no way out). Little in the way of weaponry, but I can make an effective barracade of inches thick wooden bumpers found on the walls of the valet garage; the bolt-heads are the same size as lugnuts, so I only need to open the trunk to get to the tire iron.
I know the “secret entrances” employees use to unobtrusively move between departments.
BTW, now that temps are dropping below freezing day after day, will that kill zombie brains? I assume zombies have no body heat, nor freeze-proof blood.
