If I can automatically secure the location, then I pick the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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Immediate suicide for me, I'm afraid.
Assuming zombies are incapable of any higher reasoning, somewhere only accessible by climbing up a ladder or rope.
It works in PZ, it might work IRL.
"Secure" as in "fortify it against zombies and potentially other threats"
Or as in "I can get to it and lay some sort of claim to it"
Because if it's the former, we probably need to put some restrictions on the scenario. That's really the hard part of this and we're just assuming we can do it, and your best bet is probably to secure as big of an area as possible. A city, a country, a whole hemisphere, or hell, the entire world or the solar system if we're being really silly.
If we're going with the latter, where we find a building or property of some kind and call "dibs" and the rest of it is up to us
I think a tech school is a pretty good bet, at least thinking of my local tech schools.
They have some fully stocked workshops with pretty much any tools and materials you could need- carpentry, plumbing, automotive, electrical, etc.
Maybe some kind of medical program, so probably a decent amount of meds and first aid equipment, in addition to whatever is in the nurse's office.
A culinary program, so you have a well equipped kitchen and probably a decent amount of food on-hand.
Maybe it even has some sort of agricultural program with some farming equipment, maybe even some ready-to-go planted crops and possibly livestock.
Most schools are fairly secure with limited entrances and locking doors often they have backup generators and maybe even solar these days (odds are any school with a decent electrical program at least has a few solar panels kicking around somewhere) and you have the tools and maybe the materials there to further fortify it as needed.
And it probably has some pretty beefy fire suppression systems since you have teenagers playing with welders and industrial stoves/ovens.
Some college campuses might be as good or better for the same reasons, with the added benefits of there probably being some purpose-made living quarters, but they're usually less compact, which has its plusses and minuses, more land to grow crops and such but harder to secure.
And if the apocalypse hits while school is in session, you have a bunch of young, hopefully reasonably-healthy people already on-hand to do some of the hard work if like me you're not quite as spry as you used to be.
I live next to the regional hospital, I'll probably be one of the first to turn into a zombie.
I speculate that in a real world zombie apocalypse scenario the zombies will probably be just one war crime out of many, Half Life 2 style, so it must be assumed that if you manage to fortify a location against zombies, that fortification is probably getting noticed by a drone and bombed or similar after not too long. Therefore instead of holing up, it would be a better strategy to focus on offense instead of defense in some way.
a bunker, completely underground and zombies cant get to you like in resident evil.
Just any yard with a distinct lack of my milkshakes really.
An island in the Stockholm archipellago.
Since we assume that you can secure any location picked, any location would be safe, you just need ground to grow crops and freshwater to drink.
From a security standpoint, if we're just talking zombies and assuming that the zombies can't climb, maybe a pre-cannon-era castle or similar fortification. I think that most of the things that obsoleted historic fortifications wouldn't really apply to zombies.
I don't mean one of the castle-themed buildings, like a folly. But something where you don't have any ground-level windows aside from slits, and probably has walls around it.
You may have defense-in-depth (multiple layers of walls or building structure, with the building and walls designed to permit a retreat to an inner area if an outer area is compromised).
Cisterns for freshwater storage are likely already present (though I've no idea what condition they might be in) so you don't need to get ahold of more storage.
Ample room for storage.
I guess the major issue might be the degree to which any fortifications might have been converted for public-access use. I don't know how many gates and porticullises might have been removed or disabled over the years because they aren't really necessary if the fortification is essentially a museum.
A yacht. It's got solar power, water desalination, can get to uninhabited islands
Maybe if it has sails. Otherwise you’re exposed each time you need to refuel at a port. But ferrying about between uninhabited islands for resources and sleeping on the boat sounds like a decent plan.
Well… If I knew how to sail, that is. Or tie proper knots.
It’s also assuming that the zombies can’t swim or walk on the seabed, which they usually can’t
I don't know where the best options are for sure, but one perk of a (sail) yacht is that, unless port facilities are specifically a problem, even if some place other than a yacht is the best place to be, the yacht is probably one of the better places to get at least near the place in question.
One downside: I don't know how much maintenance a sail yacht requires. Like, I don't know long long one could last without access to spare parts. The ocean puts physical stress on boats, and saltwater is corrosive. Boats aren't usually designed for long-term operations away from land.
Another perk is that if the fuel production and distribution system breaks down, if what you have is a sail yacht, you probably have one of the present-day sailing vessels available, and I'd imagine that some level of sail-based trade could show up again; it was historically an important way to move goods around. You're probably comparatively-well suited to an "apocalypse economy" where transportation and distribution is degraded.
probably a farm with solar power
Solarpunk!
Costco.
Small number of secure entrances. A lifetime supply of batteries and solar kits. Tons of shelf stable food and drink. Clothing. Tacky home decor to make the apocalypse feel more homey.
It would be great.
It would be great if there wasn't thousands of other people in your city who had the exact same idea.
The Principality of Sealand.
Nice try.
~Never gonna eat my brains you sneaky zombie~
Billionaire’s bunker island. Be the security guy with a gun that realizes that money doesn’t matter when civilization falls.
You know what's cool about bunkers? They have fresh air intakes.
You know what's cool about me? I know how to use expanding foam insulation.
Where's safe? Where's familiar? Where can I smoke?
The Winchester!
It's "hole up," by the way.
Maybe they're asking where you want to commit armed robbery first?
I'll buy that.
...
Just kidding, fork it over.
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It entirely depends on what kind of zombies.
As long as they aren't evil magic zombies, I think the zombie threat is overrated.
As magic keeps those muscles moving, dehydration, infections, rigor mortis, and decaying flesh don't really matter. After all, the whole point of magic is to violate the laws of physics and chemistry. With the other types though, decaying flesh does matter, which means that the problem will solve itself within a few days. Just keep the doors locked and windows closed in the meanwhile.
If you happen to be outdoors camping when the outbreak occurs, you don't really have any doors and windows to keep you protected. If you have enough food to keep on camping for a few more days, you might be fine. After all, zombies are in the city, where there are lots of people. You're out in the woods, so you might miss the whole zombie apocalypse when you come back home a week later.
if the zombies are raised by a necromancers, we will have more problems. if its just the run of the mill pandemic virus.
If you're facing a necromancer, you bring a party of clerics and paladins to deal with the problem.
On a tropical island somewhere. It might take a while to clear the whole island, but after that, it's a pretty good way to ride out the apocalypse...
I get the concept, but:
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Will you have the security benefits that I think are being assumed? If your threat is human, then, yeah, being on an island is a big deal. But...if zombies don't need to breathe, can they just walk under the sea to an island?
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Setting aside the direct issue of, say, being chomped by a zombie, one of the larger, immediate problems you face in a situation where you have infrastructure break down
which I imagine a zombie apocalypse might cause
is loss of potable water. Islands may not be the best place to go to get fresh water (though you could get salt water, and I imagine that one could use, oh, solar stills or whatever to desalinate).
There was a point in time where US military war planners did up a zombie apocalypse plan
to have a fun theme, but the problems that a zombie apocalypse would pose aren't terribly far off the same kind of problems that you have to solve when doing war planning. Drinking water access played a prominent role.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONOP_8888
>CONPLAN 8888, also known as Counter-Zombie Dominance, is a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Strategic Command CONOP document that describes a plan for the United States and its military to defend against zombies in a fictional military training scenario.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
https://www.stratcom.mil/Portals/8/Documents/FOIA/CONPLAN_8888-11.pdf
> ii . (U) The following environmental factors apply to humans in this plan:
>
>I. (U) Rain will be vitally important to human survival. If civil water supplies are cut off, humans will have to rely on other means to obtain water. Ground water from streams and rivers will be unreliable since it will be difficult to determine if ground water is a vector for zombie infection.
>b. (U) Operational COG #2: Potable water sources (PWS)
>
>i. (U) Zombies do not drink water, but humans do. Humans typically cannot survive longer than 10 days without fresh water. Zombies will likely be drawn to potable water sources by the presence of human food sources that zombies prey on . Zombies can be expected to contaminate potable water sources with various contaminants during these attacks further limiting the supply of available potable water for humans.
>iv. (U) CR #4-Safe food, water, and fuel distribution network: Ultimately, healthy human populations and the forces protecting them will require the means to acquire, purify, and distribute foodstuffs , water and fuels for heat and machine operations. Failure to maintain security supporting the distribution networks and nodes for food, water and fuel will compromise the longevity of healthy humans; decrease the amount of time that humans can remain sheltered in place or barricaded from zombie threats and could cause competition for resources that will
undermine law and order. If compromised, the capabilities in this CR could undermine all the CCs in this plan.
But…if zombies don’t need to breathe, can they just walk under the sea to an island?
Sure. Some will absolutely end up there, but it would be far less than on the mainland.
one of the larger, immediate problems you face in a situation where you have infrastructure break down
I was thinking of the islands off of the coast where I live. Most of which are large enough to have small fresh water streams.
if zombies don't need to breathe, can they just walk under the sea to an island?
I wonder what happens if a shark takes a bite out of a zombie? Does the shark become a zombie? Or does the zombie become a shark?
I was just thinking given the choice I'd kick Zuck out of his apocalypse shelter on Maui. It's gotta have everything you'd need and Maui's pretty sparsely populated so there shouldn't be too many zombies to start with.
In any country with hot wet air. All insects would do a party in any Zombi near there.
Either that or someplace with boats, wolves or any other fauna that could "clean the place".
Flies and other insects would eat the flesh pretty quickly. No muscles, no movement, right? I think the zombies would stop walking within two days.
If they're evil magic zombies, you would still have a walking skeleton problem though. I suggest you bring a cleric with spells that inflict radiant damage. Bludgeoning damage (maces, hammers etc.) work pretty well too. Paladins and clerics and also use the turn undead ability, which will come in handy.
The local library Archives.
!zombiesurvival@sopuli.xyz
At my home. It's where all my supplies are. I have just enough that I can just sit out the first few weeks of absolute chaos and then I'll see where I go from there. I'd probably try and find a remote summer cabin somewhere by a lake which hopefully has solar power already installed but if not, I'll figure it out. Main thing that it's remote and has a wood stove and access to food and water. Hopefully in two floors as well so that I can collapse the stairs and sleep safely upstairs.
My house is pretty good for a zombie apocalypse, i'll probably just hang out here.
The public library.
Zombies are too braindead to be interested in books, they will never feel any need to come check one if there are people hiding. Plus, I would have enough books to read while I watch them mindlessly walk around on the streets, interested in nothing. A bit like our modern days zombies: smartphone users ;)
I live in Jackson Hole. According to The Last of Us, this is the place to be.
My current location in rural Tasmania has some advantages. There would likely be a delay in the zombies getting here, so that gives us prep time. Low population density means fewer zombies to deal with when they do. Plenty of natural resources, food, and water.
My main issue is a lack of defensible buildings, but there are lots of wood mills so maybe something could be constructed.
The wildcard is Tassie devils, being a powerful scavenger species. Would they go for the walking corpses? If so, would they end up turning themselves, because I don't fancy dealing with zombie nocturnal marsupials with a bite that crushes bone.
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With my family.
Some island in the pacific
Oops, sorry, you got Japan - Tokyo specifically. Best of luck.
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