fandomhigh | Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Thursday, Per 3

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survive the zombie apocalypse

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Thursday, Per 3

Class met at the Danger Shop, but rather than the standard classroom sim, they were standing on Loon Drive, right outside of the school walls, next to the junkyard. Waiting patiently were several rickshaws, bicycles, and other non-vehicular means of conveyance. Look, Liliana didn't want to walk around the island, she wouldn't blame her students for not wanting to, either.

"Congratulations, class," she said. "Most of you survived last week's onslaught, and several of you came up with creative means to do so, or used skills you were not used to. Today's assignment is a bit different. It's time for you to find a place to hole up. In most circumstances, you would be limited to whichever building you were either in or could get to when the zombies began attacking. Perhaps, by being very quiet or clever or lucky, you would be able to sneak somewhere else and better fortified. Today, however, you will have the chance to explore the entire island uninterrupted by zombies. Your task, then, is to find the best place to build a base in, the worst place to build a camp in, why you have decided on both of those options, and at least two safety concerns your potential base comes with and how you plan to mitigate them. You are free to explore on your own, or buddy up. There are, however, some caveats."

None of you had thought it was going to be that easy, right?

"There are a few changes to the usual places on the island. There are no sanctuary spells anywhere. Neither the dorms nor Caritas are magically protected, and neither is anywhere else, which includes the school, the school library, and the boarding house." Also anywhere else that there had been magic that she hadn't known about, because when she'd been putting things into the sim, she hadn't included magic for any of it. "Furthermore, special technologies have been disabled. Luke's no longer has a freezer large enough to require a tram service. The junkyard no longer has spaceships. The Danger Shop in the school, the Holoscene, and any other similar rooms no longer work. And, of course, neither my home or my shop exist on this version of the island. 'Go to the necromancer's house' is an excellent idea, assuming that said necromancer is not behind the invasion in the first place, but I am not in the mood for guests."

The Causeway was also disabled, but Liliana didn't mention that.

"Several important notes. The first is that there are zombies in the preserve and on the school grounds, so simply shutting the school gates and waiting for them to go away will not work. You're still welcome to potentially set up camp in any of the school locations, I just wanted to be clear that it wouldn't be so simple as that. Second is to pay attention to numbers. Some of you may find places suitable for just one person to hide. Some of you may want to take over the largest area you can find. Both extremes carry their own benefits and dangers, including the possibility that you might end up gaining or losing people, and that could seriously affect the safety and integrity of your chosen spots. Keep flexibility in mind, as well as your own basic needs, and, of course, safety from a threat that does not tire or give up."

She pointed to the park, where there was already a charming little picnic set up. "You all have forty-five minutes to explore. Please return to the park when you're ready to discuss what you've found."

And with that, she was heading towards the picnic to settle down and see what her class discovered.

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Outdoors!

Jonathan Sims

Erasmus Boone

Quinn Maybrook

Illyana Rasputin

Stark

Beckett Mariner

Not much of a lecture.

But if you had questions, now was an excellent time to ask.

Find a friend or head off on your own to explore various parts of the island and figure out where you would want to make your hideout. And where you specifically wouldn't want to make it.

Again, none of the places you'll find have magical defenses, special sci-fi tech (sorry anybody hoping to gain the use of Tony's tower defenses), or anything special like that. Everything is pretty mundane - that is, mundane for an island where there was school that was also a castle.

Jon had had his original idea of the MHA basement, but the more he thought about it, the more he had a few problems with it, so he was exploring around a bit more.

Did Erasmus check out the church first, for its proximity to the graveyard more than for its qualities as a house of worship? Maybe.

Illyana wasn't really a 'walk around' type of girl, for, well, obvious reasons. Why walk when you could teleport?

But the problem with an interactive sim is that it was really hard to teleport within it to a particular location that was not in immediate eyesight, because it wasn't real. Sure, Illyana could take herself out of the sim and blip around the island to her heart's content to check things out, but she had been subjected to Bats' pleading to please try to engage with her classes.

What she could do is use a portal to reach back into her room at Midnight, and pull her old derby skates out of the corner of her closet from where they had been collecting dust lately. Nothing against what Mistress Vess was providing... but Illyana did not know how to ride a bicycle, and a rickshaw implied needing to deal with other people. It would limit her to areas with a firmer surface, but that was fine. Yana wasn't planning to hole-up in the woods.

It would only take her a moment to lace-up and shove her shoes into her backpack, and then Illyana would be off.

At some point, Illyana rolled by and Liliana could only blink. Wheels on shoes? What would this plane think of next?

Either way, she offered Illyana a nod of approval. A seemingly excellent way to get around.

Return and share your discoveries!

What do you think is the best place to turn into a safehouse? Why?
What do you think is the worst place to turn into a safehouse? Why?
Name at least two safety issues your potential safehouse has and how they can be mitigated.

Jon came and sat down after he'd explored.

"I think the best place to hole up would be the lighthouse. There's still only one entrance to secure, unless the zombies can fly or climb really well - in which case there are ~~presumably~~ shutters, but there's a better line of sight to see them coming than in a basement. And, um. Fewer spiders. It's got running water and electricity for as long as those last. And there's a method to get someone's attention if you want to try." He shrugged. "As for downsides, there's still only one exit, unless you can fly or climb, and it's a very visible landmark. So, the same things that make it good could also be detrimental.

"As for the worst place, the Preserve. For one thing, you've already said there are zombies there. Also, they could be coming from any direction and you wouldn't see them until they were close, so it would be difficult to defend. And there aren't any amenities."

"What's your plan if the lighthouse ends up surrounded by zombies?" Liliana asked, though her smile suggested she thought Jon's answers were solid. "Or when water and electricity do go out?"

"If the electricity goes out, I'll probably get cold and have to do less at night," Jon said. "Lack of water is harder, although if there aren't zombies surrounding me, I can hurry down to get water from the sea and distill it.

"If there are zombies surrounding me, I suppose I'll keep checking the entrance and windows stay secure and hope they go away eventually." He wasn't sure what other options there were.

But knowing Liliana probably wanted more, he frowned and thought. "I can watch them and see if I can figure out where they're coming from or if there's any kind of pattern to their movements to give me an idea how to stop them. Anything else I do would depend on that."

"What's your water distillation plan, darling?" Liliana asked, obviously settling in for a longer conversation. It wasn't that she disapproved of any of his answers, but she wanted to see how far he could go with them, at what points his suggestions broke down.

Because then, later, he already would be aware of friction points.

"If I lose water and not electricity, heat the water on the stove. If you put the lid upside down and a cup under the midpoint, when the water boils, it will condense and drip into the cup," Jon explained. "If I've lost electricity as well, I can do the same thing, but I'd have to build a fire...probably still on the stove, since it's heatproof...with wood if I can get it, or furniture if I have to. If there isn't any, but I have plastic wrap, I can do it with the sun, but that's a lot slower."

He huffed in laughter. "If I have to use it to bathe in, it'll be a while."

Liliana laughed at that. "That would be a long process," she agreed. "How would you prepare for that eventuality, knowing it was coming?"

"If I had the time and knew I'd be in for a siege...Well, I'd lay in wood, for one. It wouldn't be a bad idea for a few reasons - stack it against the walls as extra defense and insulation, burn it for this or for heat. Use it to make a ladder in a pinch, I suppose.

"If I had enough time, I'd also lay in candles, cookware, plastic wrap, water, clothing for all seasons, nonperishable food, and an awful lot of books." He shrugged. "Though realistically, if I had that sort of time, I would probably use it to just go somewhere else, if I could."

"Oh yes," Liliana said. "Assume you have a week in the lighthouse with those amentities, not that you have a week of roaming free to browse the island."

"Right." Jon nodded. "Then I'd start with the sun method, since it's time intensive but uses fewer resources. I'd lay in as much water as I could, and I'd take stock of everything else I have. If it's coming up on winter, I'd start insulating as much as possible."

He hummed in thought. "Lighthouses often have separate generators to keep the light going if they lose power. I'd check for that and see if there's a way to secure it."

"The school is the highest point on the island," Erasmus said, "plus it's a castle, which is usually designed to be defensible. But it's too big for one person to defend alone, and it's been modified to be used as a school. It has multiple entrances and exits, stuff like that. So it wouldn't be a great safehouse for one person, but if I was with a group it might be a good choice."

"How big a group?" Liliana asked, interested in hearing what Erasmus could do now that he was able to concentrate. "And how do you intend to keep the multiple points of ingress and egress safe?"

"You'd want to block most of them off," Erasmus said. "Maybe with the bookcases from the library. Actually, if there's a ladder that can reach the second floor windows in the janitor's closet or something, I'd block off all of the doors and windows on the first floor, and plan to go out from the second floor if necessary. If not, I'd leave one window on each side of the building easier to unbarricade than the others.

"You'd need at least three or four people to keep watch shifts. If you're alone you can't be constantly checking out all the windows of the higher floors to see if there's a bunch of zombies coming your way. The lighthouse is probably better if you're alone, but if there's a bunch of people trying to get to the lighthouse it's going to exceed capacity fast. The school has the food in the cafeteria kitchen, too." ~~Guess who looked at the map and learned anew that we have a cafeteria?~~

~~Guess who learned today we have a map!~~

"The availability of food is important," Liliana agreed. "And only gets moreso the more people you have and the longer you survive. So..." she pulled up a rough schematic of the school, because obviously she had that to reference. "Show me your plan. How would you organize a camp if you were in charge?

"I'd mostly stay on the second floor," Erasmus said as he studied the floorplan. "There's probably something like couches or something in the teacher's lounge, and maybe the TA lounge, so I would try to move those upstairs for sleeping. Assuming the Home Ec room has refrigeration and we still have power, I would move everything from the kitchen up there. If we have a way to get out through the second floor I would barricade off the staircases. And I'm not sure why the fourth floor is inaccessible, but ideally we could gain access to it. The higher up you can get, the better you can see what's happening on the rest of the island."

Liliana nodded, those were good thoughts. "And if you knew that you'd lose electricity and water in a week, what would you do to prepare that for that?"

"Start saving water in anything you could, first off," Erasmus said. "Second...I don't know. If the stoves are gas, I know you can still light them with a match if you don't have electricity, but then maybe you lose gas. Or maybe I don't have matches." It wasn't like they were among the plethora of small items he usually had in his pockets, at any rate. "Definitely you'd have to prioritize eating the perishable food first. Like after a hurricane." Gulf Coast boy.

Maybe he should add them! Never knew when there might be a zombie apocalypse!

Unfortunately, Liliana also didn't know how gas stoves interfaced with electricity (though she was making a mental note to ask Ignis later). "Anything else you would prioritize in the little time before you fully retreated to the above floors?"

"Books," Erasmus said. "And weapons, if there are any to be found. There's bound to be useful information in some of the books, like how we can make weapons out of the stuff in the chemistry lab. Or how to collect rainwater, if it comes to that. I don't know that it should come to that. This is a small island. Unless we're importing zombies from somewhere there are..." Hang on, he was doing addition in his head. "[Precise, handwavey number] of bodies currently on the island." After a moment's thought he added, "And that might include some cremains, I don't know. Even if you add most of the population to that, it's not an endless horde. Hopefully it can be cut down before things get really dire."

(Hey, guess who just discovered she never posted this comment?)

"Hear me out for both best and worst," Illyana said, brushing some sand from her skates from where she'd gone down on the boardwalk. "Ingvar."

"Is it a weird haunted little creature-island? Supposedly, yeah, but it looks like there's some sort of house-structure there, and there's the squid in the way to eat any zombies that try to walk along the bottom of the ocean."

"The problem lies in getting there. If you can get to the docks, you can probably grab a rowboat or canoe or something, but you have to get all the way through town first. I have no idea what it has for resources, but it can't be worse than trying to wait out a zombie horde in the dorms."

"If that's out of the picture, then I think Sims is right about the lighthouse, for the same reasons," she continued, nodding towards Jon, "-- but the worst is probably the onsen. You might die relaxed, but it's in the woods, hard to defend, and not really anything you need there other than hot water."

Liliana looked thoughtfully over to the islet and nodded. "I hadn't considered Ingvar," she admitted, "but you are making an excellent point. The best place to be is away and Ingvar would count. Bonus points for creativity, Illyana."

"The lighthouse is particularly useful for you, since you won't be limited by the single door," she said, "but I'll ask anyway. What happens when the electricity and water go out? And what would you design as a way to make sure your fellow survivors who can't teleport are able to leave, if the base of the lighthouse is swarmed by zombies? Or would they just be stuck?"

"The key thing the lighthouse gives me -- or Summer -- is line of sight," Illyana pointed out. "If we can see where the zombies are, that gives both us of points where we can be safely."

"Electric goes out? We go raid the buildings that we've been able to ascertain have solar panels, because we have probably seen the light glinting off the rooftops. Water's harder, that one I'm not sure beyond 'use a portal to raid Fantasy Costco,'" she admitted.

"To get people out... I'd think the lighthouse would have one of those emergency ladders that roll down? Or rope? Rig up a fireman's pole? On the plus side, lighthouses often have one narrow way up. Easy choke-point to defend while others leave."

Stark had gone on a little wander around, considering options, but mostly thinking.

"I'm not sure there's one best place. The clinic has medical supplies, and some food," Stark said. "And things that could be weapons. But not enough food, other supplies would still be necessary. And the front door would be easy to breach, I think. But it could work. We'd run out of room, eventually."

Unless Clinardis rules still applied in which case there could be enough exam rooms for everyone...

The did not. Just a normal clinic. No crab even!

"There may not be an objective best place, but each person should choose what they think is best," Liliana said. "Do you think the Clinic is the best place? Or are you just making a pitch for it?"

Three weeks without a long lecture? Sounds fake.

After class, Jon approached Liliana with a box. "I've brought a bribe. They guarantee frozen delivery, so hopefully this is acceptable." Inside were two pints of ice cream (look, he was guessing on flavours). Miso Butterscotch Brownie and Darkest Chocolate.

"Ooooh," Liliana said, eagerly, reaching out. "And I am very amenable. That interested in the story, darling?"

Jon handed it over. "Yes, please. So long as it's nothing you'd have a nightmare over." For reasons.

Liliana laughed. "Oh, no, darling, hardly that. What do you know about my little demon problem?"

Jon gestured at her. "It has something to do with the writing on you. And..." He frowned. "I think you've been trying to solve it. Successfully."

"I sold my soul to four demons in exchange for regaining my eternal youth, my immortality, and some fraction of my old powers back," Liliana answered, which was always the best way to start a story that she had declared was barely interesting. "But yes, I'm attempting to get free myself from their hold. I've killed two of my demons already." Her hand fell idly to her side, where the Chain Veil rested before she opened up one of her ice creams. "But one of my first attempts to get myself free wasn't murder, it was to have the 'walker who brokered my deals help me break them. In order to buy his assistance, I promised to deliver something: the entirety of the Infinite Consortium that he had founded and an underling had stolen from him. It was a very convoluted scheme, and it involved getting close to a certain member of the Consortium. I'm sure you can guess who."

Jon winced at the "sold my soul" part, but didn't comment, just listened to the rest.

"The idiot in blue," he guessed at the end. He frowned. "I'm guessing you don't mean the shop here, so I suppose I'd like to know what the actual Infinite Consortium is."

I will be out and about today as well (larp this weekend + guest = frazzled) so pings will be slow but will come!

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Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Thursday, Per 3

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Listen to the...Instructions, Really

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