My Top Ten Places To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse

I mentioned there was gonna be a mystery element on the blog this weekend. Normally on Sunday I'd be doing another segment of engine cooking but that can wait. Instead we are going to have a little fun here with zombies! That's right, the undead, walkers, brain eaters.. whatever you wanna call 'em. I'm writing this as here in the US the mid season finale of "The Walking Dead" is set to air tonight. It's one of my several favorite shows currently running. It comes at just the right time as zombies seem to be the big thing in the last few years. I suspect zombie craze is partially driven by these 2012 doomsday predictions and the survivalist movement. People seem to be learning to become self sustaining and reliant again to cope with mounting economic collapse and hardships around the world. A small band of survivors attempting to evade and survive hordes of zombies makes a good fictional story that people can relate to as there seems to be some similarities and parallels not too different from some things happening today. I suppose one could compare the zombies to the multitude of hardships folks currently face, that's my analogy. Zombies are the ultimate fantasy characters who've come to symbolize civilization on the brink of chaos; A mirrored image of mankind and "civililized society" at it's roughest.

Here's a little fun project piece I've been wanting to do for a blog. My top ten places to hunker down and ride out the zombie apocalypse. The ultimate ten crash pads where the undead are not invited, or if they come these places should be much harder for them to over run. In a full out zombie apocalypse scenario these places would likely be abandoned and fair game as your average zombie infestation has probably killed off over 90% of humans, when all this has gone down I doubt the previous owners of these locations would object to you and your team crashing in these places, unless of course they are already there.. perhaps as zombies!



10. Skyscraper/Tall Building Rooftop

This one may not be much to write home about (Assuming you can write home if your local postal carrier is not yet a zombie.. already happened here in the US, too late) This one has it obvious drawbacks. It would be sort of like climbing a telephone pole with a pack of rabid feral hounds chasing you. There's one way up and one way down. This would not be bad however if you sealed off floor by floor all of the entrances. The nice thing about holding out in tall buildings is you can set a "barricade zone" and a "living zone" - The first 40 floors could be nothing but insane to navigate through obstacles and barricades littered with lots of zombie traps. A few bear traps here and there, maybe some false doors that drop them out the building side resulting in a 1000+ foot zombie free fall. If your tower is tall enough you could even break out windows on several stories creating a wind tunnel the walkers must pass through, subjecting them to the elements and high wind pressure/velocity resulting in their getting blown out into the atmosphere by your vacuum zone. To live however, you and your group must find a building preferably with roof top gardens and swimming pools. You could grow food and catch rain water to irrigate and drink. While your that high up, you might as well be bird hunting for protein needs. If you have a sniper rifle, the zombie plinking from above could be maximized in this holdout. The biggest drawback to this place would be most of these tall buildings are located in heavily populated areas adding to the number of zombies but for big city dwellers.. you might want to consider these place for your zombie bug out locales. Another big problem is if the zombies get past all the barricades and clear all the floors, there's one way up and down. Your group would be trapped, my recommendation is find a helicopter pilot to add to your survivor group. Keep a helicopter atop your building. If zombies over run the joint, evacuate in the chopper. As you pull off the deck and ascend to safe altitude, you blow the demolition charges and watch the whole shebang come tumbling down on the zombies.

Tall building with roof top pool, makes a great zombie survival pad.

9. Treasury, Mints & Bank Building Vaults

This one is one is also a good place for it's availability as there are many vaults out there almost anywhere there's civilization. Your local bank may prove a safe haven for just a night or two of living dead fun. I would not recommend staying in these for too long. I'm no expert but I'm not so sure the vault rooms have much ventilation, it's sort of like a Kansas tornado safe room. Locked up tight but only a hold out once the zombies break into the bank building itself. Now how about a mint building? Those would be the places, in the United States there's one in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. These places were built like fortresses to protect the legal tender they were pressing. The mint building in Denver has an intimidating guard booth that one must pass, it's equipped with machine gun ports. A horde of zombies would need to pass through large heavy duty doors, down the hallway with the machine gun nest, which would become a zombie kill box. If the zombies even made it that far, they'd have to navigate large machinery and more locked down corridors. For those of you who live in Kentucky I recommend Fort Knox, the United States gold vault, it is a fortress complete with numerous fences, motion sensor devices and all kinds of other security measures. In a zombie apocalypse, it could be a high value piece of real estate for survivors. Then I suppose if you want to go all out I'd recommend the "Doomsday Vault" or Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, a facility that acts like a modern day Noah's Ark of seeds and plant species (food for survivors) in vault made to survive a nuclear war.

Fort Knox gold bullion depositry in Kentucky. Once used as gold vaults prior to Zombieland days, could have ample defence potential to ride out the zombie apocalypse times.

8. Oil Rigs & Sea Vessels

This option offers much more freedom than the previous listed places. If your claustrophobic or have cabin fever but not afraid to swim or get your feet wet then I recommend taking to the high seas like pirates at the first outbreak of the zombie virus. As far as it's known, zombies can't swim. This option calls for living life on empty cruise ships, ocean liners, air craft carriers, submarines, barges and oil rigs. Most of these are still stationary unless you have enough people who know how to operate one, providing you have enough fuel to sail one. Otherwise they may just be tied to docks but removing the gang planks still leaves a suitable barrier between you and the walkers. The alternative here is finding smaller wind propelled sailing vessels (being the fuel likely is scarce) or a boat with a gas motor and sails, you can use fuel when you find it and the sails when you conserve fuel. You could plant gardens on abandoned oil rigs (if you bring potting soil) sail from rig to rig fishing to stay fed. It could be a fun way to live out the zombie apocalypse while wearing eye patches and sporting parrots on shoulders like their going out style.

Ocean based oil rig. Just sail your pirate boat up, and make this your home away from shore.

7. Prison

This one is an alternative to sea sickness. It's obviously the Georgia state penal institution redoubt they utilize as a zombie survival fortress in the Walking Dead. The idea is brilliant and it's largely inspired much of this list to get me to thinking about what other places could be ideal to survive. There's prisons dotted all across the map. If your in Texas, take note. These prisons ideal for keeping people locked in during the pre-zombie days are good for post zombie apocalypse days to keep the dead men walking out. A sanctuary surrounded by razor wire, ample guard towers. The joint speaks for itself. In the western United States one has their option between modern day massive super max prisons or old 19th Century territorial prisons (some still standing in the west) made to hold outlaws and frontier ruffians. The downside to prisons speaks for itself in the Walking Dead. It's also a favorite place for zombie convicts. As if they were not criminally insane enough in life, their even more bat shit crazy dangerous in death as a bunch of zombies. Zombies give a whole new meaning to death row and dead men walking.

Pentonville Prison, London. Circa 1800's. Built to keep 'em in, should also keep 'em out.

6. Military Base

This one is an ultimate for the inner red neck in all of us. What's better in a zombie apocalypse than stumbling across a place that may have abandoned military hardware? Blasting thousands of walkers into an oblivion from an M1A1 Abrams tank of course! Raid the armory and your whole zombie survival team can rock 'n roll like Rambo. In theory if you could find enough fuel and had people with the know how and skill, you could make the helicopters, planes, heavy armor, and artillery operational. From this you could lead your own small scale war against the undead masses. It's an excellent place to stay if your the sort that believes the best defence is a good offense. You could take the fight to the zombies. The biggest downside to this is with many military bases there's lots of land surrounded by lots of fence work, this would be a herculean task to manage all of this with a small team of survivors. It may be too much fence to watch for a small group but it could be worth at least visiting for ammo and machine guns alone in the zombie apocalypse. So before you start lobbing napalm at the undead and calling in air strikes you must ask yourself- "Is my zombie survival team skilled enough use these weapons and ready to take on playing with the big guns?"



Honestly, in a zombie apocalypse, who doesn't want one of these rides? Astounding for a daily commuter vehicle to and from zombie infested zones.

5. Fortress Mansion

All across the country, tucked away in privy corners of the maps on countryside acres and nestled inside cities in amongst buildings are impressive mansions. These once homes to the wealthy may make excellent last stands against zombies. Not so much your modern gated community but rather old Victorian houses from the 1800's, or colonial estates from the 1700's. Places that have stood the test of time such as these are often built with lots of quality materials, many skirted by brick archways and wrought iron fences. These old houses always tend to make the perfect archetypal haunted houses, many with Gothic appeal. Why not make it a hold up for zombies? The White House in Washington DC is one of the most famous fortress mansions. In the event of a zombie apocalypse notable places would be The Biltmore Estate in Ashville North Carolina with it's plethora of rooms and the Winchester House in California with it's winding maze of confusing passage ways/trap doors. These are only a couple of the better known places, there are many old houses and plantations across the United States that have defensible potential for a smaller group of survivors.

Biltmore Estate in Ashville North Carolina. If look hard enough into your local historical places, chances are you'll probably find at least one creepy old mansion. Perfect for a zombie apocalypse fixer upper project.

4. Mountain Peak Chateau

This idea comes from old James Bond movies. Who does not want to spend the zombie apocalypse in a place where you could ski when your not fighting zombies? The mountain top hideout is an eagle's nest style villa. Your survivor team can stay high and dry nestled in a remote mountain range away from population centers and much out of the reach of zombies. Better yet, a mountain top with a mine shaft leading down to a series of mine tunnels for escape purposes would be awesome. From the the mountain top you have an excellent view for miles in which you can use telescopes and high power optics to keep watch and spot walkers well before they reach your mountain. If they do reach your mountain, they will need to make it past trees, rocks, snow, ice, and climb rugged alpine karst. Even if zombies make it to the mountain peak, your team could escape on cable cars and ski lifts.. or just ski out and shootout 007 style. Although the biggest downside to this place is lack of suitable growing conditions for crops, your main food source would be hunting meat.

Mountain top retreat featured in James Bond "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969). The evil Bond villian, Blofeld's last strong hold in the series. In zombie apocalypse times, you can be chillin' like a wicked super villian at this mountain peak pad.

3. Castle

Who does not want a castle? I mean really this would be the ultimate bad ass place to chill when the undead hordes flock to the streets. The castle idea sort of runs hand in hand with fortress mansions as some eccentric barons who build elaborate mansions did build some based on old world castles, those are about as close as one will come to castles in the United States. The real castles are in Europe, for all you guys (& gals) in Europe out there, here's your zombie bug out place. The towering stone walls make a castle impregnable to the walkers. Better yet when it's surrounded by a moat. Unless the zombies can swim and climb then odds are the survivors will never need to fight them from the inside of castle walls. Inside a castle, if it's got a big enough courtyard or open grounds the survivors could establish a garden with space to roam and draw water from the moat. One could remain totally safe and isolated from the whole zombie outbreak.

Leeds Castle, England. As an American, I don't see many real castles. I guess I better rent a backhoe and start digging a moat if I want one here. If I  ever get the privilige to go vacationing in Europe and zombies attack, I know where I'm going.

2. Missile Base/Silo

This one is truly one of my personal favorites as I've spent a little time in these places under ground. Many missile silos dot the Great Plains of the United States as haunting reminders of Cold War era brinkmanship, some are still very active. Amongst the decommissioned silos there's a number of up kept silos in private ownership and some abandoned silos that are unkept but still very earth hardened. From these, survivors have their pick of Minutemen, Peacekeeper (modified Minuteman silo), Atlas, and Titan missile silos. Each type of these silos has a different layout. Some vary within missile types, and different missile generations. All of this is important info when choosing silo real estate in a zombie world. Many missile silos are "cancer farms" due to toxic chemicals and asbestos. If you can find one that's already cleaned out or can clean one out, you could make inhabitable. The most challenging part of silo living in a zombie apocalypse would be keeping the silo lit as they are 99% dark with almost no light able to creep in anywhere, torches would not work very well underground with limited silo ventilation, and firewood is scarce on the plains. The solution would be to install a network of solar panels on the surface running wires to under ground lights. Survivors could draw water from the actual silos themselves which fill up with ground water when left unpumped while they live in the launch control capsule and other underground rooms. Usually missile silos have fences surrounding them on the surface. The surface prairie soil is plenty fertile for crop production within the safety of the fence. The crops could be irrigated by water drawn from the silos. I can tell you that once your approximately seven stories down below the surface, it's cold and silent- totally cut off from the surface world. Since the zombies seem to follow movement, smell and sounds, being below ground effectively hides all of those. Shut off in a missile silo puts survivors outta sight and outta mind (mind: something the zombies crave but don't have), in the middle of the plains it would be the least conspicuous place, virtually invisible to walkers. They'd never look there. Even if they found it, they'd have to get past a fence down a tightly locked hatch or doors and once in the tunnels they have to get past massive blast doors, a tough feat for zombies. Let 'em try to get in. If it was made to survive atomic Armageddon it can survive a zombie apocalypse easy. It's a bit of work to fix up, but once it is, it's a sure place. The biggest drawback is that it's one of the more depressing places, underground in the middle of a boring prairie. My recommendation is plant some trees on the surface, decorate the subterranean tunnels and make sure you have a good interior designer in your zombie survival team who can jazz up your missile base.

First generation Titan missile base. These are far more than just silos. Several squadrons of these bohemeths were constructed across the western United States in the 1950's. Because the missiles were new at that time and not as a technologically packed and advanced as they are now, each missile required lots of on site support from a labyrinth of subterrainian buildings supported by thousands of feet of tunnels. Each Titan base could hold 150 people and is the ultimate missile silo dwelling, for every base there are three missile silos. There's plenty of room to live in one in a zombie infested world. Who knows, you may just find a live missile you can launch (if you had enough electricity, guidance and authorization codes) and play "Nuke A Zombie"

1. Island Fortresses & Tropical Islands

Need I say anything, this is perfect. Island fortresses like Alcatraz in California or Fort Sumter in South Carolina come to mind. Alcatraz (which could be in the earlier mentioned prison category) and Sumter are very small and close to mainland, more preferable would be sailing your survivor group out to a tropical island paradise somewhere in the Bahamas, Florida Keys, Caribbean, or if you wanted to avoid hurricane season, consider the Canary Islands, or some Polynesian islands. Better yet, if zombies are everywhere then clear out Hawaii and turn the place into a giant zombie apocalypse survivor paradise. The climate is favorable year around, tropical fruit and plentiful fish. Time can be spent hanging out on the beach or hiking volcanoes. Martinis and great music makes it number one in the zombie apocalypse. There's not many logistical difficulties with a place such as this, as long as there was enough food on the island to support the survivors and they could find fresh water springs. If the island was clear of zombies, there's virtually no need for major defense as the nearest zombies could be thousands of miles away over ocean waters. The only real threats to an island is if other survivors who are hostile, find the island or if some freak incident happens like a ship full of people who were infected and turned into zombies just happens to aimlessly drift ashore on your island. For this weapons are needed for defense of the survivors but the beauty of a tropical island during a zombie apocalypse is that no major barricades, fences, watchtowers, tunnels, mazes, barbed wire or elaborate defenses are required. Those living on a tropical island during a zombie apocalypse can soak up the sun and enjoy paradise care free without a thought of zombies for days, weeks, months, or even years. "It would be as if a mass zombie out break never happened." ~Exclaimed the jovial survivors of the zombie apocaylpse, grinning as they relax with their feet in the sand, sipping on margaritas while listening to the music of Jimmy Buffet as waves collide with the shore in the background.





Palm tree in an island paradise. This would be the place to be. Sitting on a beach carefree of the hordes of zombies ravaging the mainland continents. If you can manage to make it to one of these places in the zombie apocalypse, then your home free.

These are my top ten picks of places to be during a zombie apocalypse.



Disclaimer: Images used in this post were obtained from Wikipedia, BBC & US government sources for educational and public discussion purposes. I don't claim ownership of the images.