When reviewing the previous week’s zombie apocalypse survival guide, I realize I left off a very important thing that will affect much of my discussion; objectives.
Objectives are important; in my opinion surviving a zombie apocalypse is great, but if all of humanity’s progress is lost, then the next generations (assuming that you were not the lone survivor in a given area) would have to rebuild from scratch and would likely die out. Therefore, my objectives will not be only survival; although that is the main objective, there are multiple other objectives regarding the preservation of humanity’s knowledge and works. Below are the objectives as I perceive them at the moment.
1. Survive- Survival is important; if you don’t survive, you cannot complete any of the other objectives. Therefore, survival is the prime objective.
2. Preserve knowledge- It’s important that the skills and knowledge of the past be preserved in order to create a functioning society.
3. Create a functioning society- as mentioned in the previous part of Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, it is important to travel with a group. A group can function as a small society on its own, and it is important that society continues after the zombie apocalypse.
These objectives are the paramount objectives, most other objectives can be derived from these (objective 2 can be derived from 3, but it’s important to explicitly state it, as not everyone would draw that conclusion). If objectives are added in the future, I’ll add them as subsections of the paramount objectives.
So, the first major thing in this post that I wish to address is that I’m going to contradict my first post; moving out to rural areas is not the best idea in regards to the 2nd and 3rd objectives. In terms of survival only, rural areas are fantastic. For preserving the knowledge of mankind, cities are the best choice, as they have the most information, museums, and historical documents. However, cities are also full to the brim of potential zombies. A functioning society can be made in many environments, so it will have a minimal factor in the decision on location.
Ultimately, I’ve come to the conclusion that a suburban area would be the best location, preferably a college town or a suburb with a college in it. Such examples are; Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Bloomington, Indiana or Illinois, River Forest, Illinois, and others. Each town/city has a university in it (University of Illinois, Indiana University, and Dominican University and Concordia University).
You may ask, why a university? The answer is as follows; universities are places where the knowledge of mankind is not only stored, but it is taught as well. Universities would have functioning cooking facilities, housing, and a variety of instillations for the management of the university itself (backup generators, water treatment, etc.) that would allow for some modicum of civilization without the need to run massive power plants. The layout of universities and the buildings would be conducive to building a functioning society. In addition, many of the university students would be sent home during the zombie apocalypse or would chose to go home, making the campuses largely vacant and reducing the number of potential zombies.
The four universities mentioned above each have their advantages and disadvantages. Concordia University and Dominican University would be defendable; they are small enough that small walls of cars and other objects could feasibly be created and are small enough that zombies inside could be easily eradicated. However, both of them are surrounded almost completely by suburbs, making farmland scarce which would cause the later generations significant problems. Indiana University, Illinois State University, and the University of Illinois have plenty of available farmland nearby, and have large areas such as quads where food could be grown. However, the size of these universities would be difficult to manage, as there are multiple buildings that would have to be cleared of zombies, and creating a wall to keep out zombies would be difficult, if not impossible. It would be possible, and advisable if one was to use a large university as their zombie survival outpost/colony to first start at the central area of the university, the University of Illinois Quad for example and create a wall around that area first, slowly moving to the other areas and moving the walls as necessary. Due to the necessity of farmland, and the problems of large numbers of zombies in suburbs, of the four universities, the University of Illinois and Indiana University are the best choices.
Once walls are completed and the zombies in the area have been rooted out, then it will be possible to create a functioning society, survive, and preserve the knowledge of mankind. While food collection and food production is paramount at first, once the production and collection have been managed and are sufficient, other items, like books, valuables, and technology should be scavenged from areas and stored. These items will preserve the knowledge of mankind and can be valuable items to trade with other potential colonies after the initial deluge of zombies.
That’s all for this week, stay tuned for next week’s zombie apocalypse survival information.
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