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Calculating Plan
This plan is meant for you to use wherever you live, I will try to involve as many scenarios as I can. I will use some formulas to help you decide what decisions to make, you will basically calculate your decisions.
Part 1: Bugging In
[This is the section where you detail how you will fortify and defend your current home, and prepare your Bug Out Bag]
This first step is the most vital step of this survival plan. This plan requires you to take action as fast as you realize/suspect that a zombie outbreak has occurred, so follow the news and look for signs of a zombie outbreak (unexplained riots, people acting crazy, you know the signs) and that you have prepared a good location to head to beforehand. You have to have chosen a location outside of the city, preferably an open field or such. You have to be able to dig in that location (there cant be a lot of asphalt, like on a big parking lot). If you live in the middle of a city you might have to travel far to get there. Also make sure that you have a map over that area. The absolute best thing would be if you know the person living in the house of the location that you have choose, but this is not necessary since you will probably be able to persuade the people living there that it's in their best interest to have you there, setting up a barricade around the house, protecting them and all of that. If you can, do some research on the people living there so that you know what kind of people they are. If they seam hostile you should probably try to choose another location. Everything that will make it easier to survive in the location is a big plus, for e.g. near by fresh water or just water at all, wildlife etc. Ideally this location should be more than two days of travelling by foot from any large city.
Now, the day that you hear of the outbreak, the first thing you should do (assuming that there aren't zombies running around outside of your house just yet) is call your friends and loved ones. Establish a group, which is essential for this plan. Call neighbours, anyone who is near you. Ask them to come meet up at your house. If you have friends/family who live far away, tell them where you are heading, the location you have selected beforehand. Tell everyone to bring the following things:
1 As much water as you can carry with you without it being impractical.
2 Food.
3 Weapons and/or ammunition, any type, preferably silent ones like a crossbow.
4 A knife/ multi tool.
5 First aid kits.
6 Flash light, preferably big ones + lots of batteries.
7 Shovels, one per person.
8 Matches or another tool used to start a fire.
9 Gasoline, if they have any.
10 Metal pipes or anything pointy and long.
11 String, as much as possible.
12 A way to communicate with the outside world or find out what's happening, e.g. a computer, phone etc.
13 A flare gun if anyone has one.
14 Some spare cloths.
15 A calculator.
16 Pen and paper.
When everyone has gathered you need to go right away, but first you need to make sure that no one has gotten bit. You could also decide to meet up directly at the location that you have planned beforehand, but that requires that the other people knows how to get there. Plan your path there, this you should have done beforehand too. Take small roads with as little traffic as possible. If you live outside of the city and is not in any risk of getting stuck where you are then you should leave the house so that you will arrive at the location by morning since this will give you the maximum amount of time to set up a shelter.
On the way to the location you brief everyone on what is happening and what you will be doing. You explain to them that when you get to your selected location you will need to start digging the trench around the house you have selected as a base house, and if you do not know the people living in the house you will first of all need to talk to them. If you can, stop by a gas station and get as much gas as you can.
When you arrive at the location, make sure not to be threat full to the people living in the house. Knock on the door and if they don't answer ask them if you could talk to them, tell them that you understand that they are frightened (if they are) and that you mean them no harm. Explain to them why you are there (because it is chaos in the city, don't tell them that you have planned this) and tell them that you have water and food that you will share. If they for some reason is still not letting you in, don't use force to get in, simply start digging the trench, even if it is in the middle of the night. Have two groups (which you should have created on the way there) one group that will be digging the trench and one group that will look out for zombies and other dangers (such as the people living there running out with a shotgun trying to shoot you). When you dig the trench, make sure not to destroy anything that the people in the house might like or is important (such as a garden, flowers, trees, water pipes etc.).
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THE TRENCH, INSTRUCTIONS
The maximum number of zombies that can fit in your trench:
Average volume of a human = 0.07 m^3 Since they will not be packed that tightly we increase that to 0.15m^3
Volume of your trench = 2pi*radius*width*depth
Number of Zombies that fits in trench = (2pi*radius*width*depth)/0.15
Now use this formula to decide the size of your trench. I recommend you do not dig deeper than 2.5 meters since it will be easier to make the hole wider instead of deeper (since the dirt will be tighter packed the further down you get. 2 meters is a good depth, if you also add a 2 meter wall on the "inside" of the trench you will end up with a 4 meter high wall. Now the radius decides the size of your base. I recommend you start with a small base since you don't have much time to build this first trench. I recommend a radius of 25 meters to start with. Now the width of the hole, this you decide by estimating the number of people living in nearby cities. Then you can calculate the width using the formula above, if you break out the width and you will get:
width=(Number of Zombies that fits in trench*0.15)/(2pi*radius*depth)
Now since time is short we will not be able to dig a trench capable of handling all the zombies from the near by cities, so lets start by putting that number to 3000. Now lets see what the width should be.
width=(3000*0.15)/(2pi*25*2) = 1.43239449m
Now we need to estimate the time it will take to build this thing. The volume of our trench is now:
volume= 2pi*radius*width*depth = 2pi*25*1.43239449*2 = 450m^3
DIRT MOVING
18-21 scoops/min. 5-7 kg/scoop
6 kg /1922.2156 kg/m^3 = 0.00312139804 m^3
0.00312139804 m^3 *20 times *60 seconds = 3.74567765 m^3/ hour/person
Time = Volume/(3.74567765*number of people digging)
Now lets say we have 5 people digging the trench described above, then it will take:
Time = 450 / (3.74567765*5) = 24.027695 hours
So one day if you stay up the whole night digging, which might be something you want to.
So now we got a trench, capable of storing 3000 zombies. That's pretty good for one or two days work, but if the zombies are alive in the trench it is only a matter of time before they climb up on each other and get over the trench, we need something in the trench to kill them, the spikes.
Average human head diameter = 17,8 cm. Use that as the minimum distance between spikes, since it is far apart enough not to stop the body and close enough to each other so that there is a very high chance of getting the head pierced. Here it is unnecessary to count your spikes and calculate exactly how far apart from each other you should have them to get them evenly spread, since it does not matter that much, just make sure there are enough spikes to hit at least some part of the body so that the zombie will get stuck (and bleed to death, if it's not immortal, which I find so unlikely that I don't plan for it). The spikes should preferably be made from metal, because then you can light the zombies in the trench on fire to "clean" the trench, but you can only use what you have.
Now remember that the 3000 zombies is the maximum number of zombies that will fit in your trench if they all stack up in the trench, though this is not what they will be doing in reality, since they will probably come in hordes, from one general direction, so if you know in what direction they will most likely be coming from dig the trench wider on that side.
Now (second or third day) you need to build that wall. You might need to go near the city to get materials to your wall. I recommend, if you can, that you get to a construction sight and take the fences from there and load them onto your vehicle. These will withstand quite a lot if they are dug into the ground so that they can't be tipped over. Then I recommend you to reinforce the fences with whatever you can find. Cement or other construction materials is very good to use.
When you have build the wall (or preferable at the same time as you are building the wall, directly after you have finished the spiked trench) you need the have a system for cleaning the trench. If your trench can be set on fire that is pretty much fixed, but if it cant (if you for e.g. have wooden spikes, wooden walls or whatever that will catch fire) you will need a way to remove the dead zombies from the trench. Preferably without touching the zombies. This we can fix with nets or ropes. If you lay out nets/ropes stretching from the outer edge of your trench, down to the bottom of it and up in the other side to the wall you can then grab both sides of the net and pull (preferably with a vehicle) all the dead zombies will be caught in the net and pulled up, like a big sack. Remember to secure the net/ropes in the edges so that it doesn't get pulled down into the trench by a zombie pulling in it. Now when you lay down the nets/ropes you need to make sure that they overlap each other quite a bit so that if some zombies fall off the first net you drag up the second one will get that zombie. You also need to mark which nets to pull up first so that you don't start pulling in a net that is under two other nets. Now emptying the trench is not something that you can wait with until the trench is full since the net will be too heavy to pull up if the trench is full.
While building the wall you will also need a gate of some sort, to let you get over the trench. I recommend a bridge that you can lower into place, like in a medieval fortress. Make sure that this bridge is strong enough to drive across if you plan on doing that before you actually try it. Just put a lot of weights on it (like dirt) until it weighs as much as the vehicle you intend to cross the bridge with. You will need some way to measure the weight of the dirt, so if you can find a scale, otherwise you will simply have to guess. And remember, rather safe than sorry.
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Now the next day when you have finished or at least come a long way with the trench the people in the house would probably be very curious and confused about what you are doing. They will most likely ask you what you are doing, and then you simply tell them that you are building a trench to keep out zombies (though you might not want to use that word unless since it will make you sound crazy if they haven't seen any zombies). Make sure they understand that there are zombies and that this trench will protect them from the zombies. If they refuse to believe that there are zombies you will simply have to wait until one shows up and show it to them.
If they absolutely does not let you into the house and there are no houses near which you can go to you will have to use force to get in, but remember that you can sleep in your cars, as long as the trench is there it will protect you and if you sleep in the car you can always drive out of there of the place gets overrun. Only break into the house by force as a last resort, if there is ABSOLUTELY nothing else to do. If they have a TV in the house they will eventually understand that you are telling the truth.
Now these next days you will spend expanding the perimeter/ trench no matter if you sleep in the car or the house. You should have food and water to last at least a couple of days before you need to start thinking about getting more. You could set up a warning system using the string that you hopefully have with you. A good idea is to make some sort of outpost where you can see if someone is coming from a distance. If you are in the woods this can be hard because of the trees and making warning systems using the string is probably a better idea.
Eventually you will need to get food and water, no matter how you turn it. Hopefully by this time you have been let into the house, but if you have not you might want to start thinking about breaking into the house. If you are still outside of the house you could try to negotiate your way in with food, because if you are running low on food they might be too. They might also have a big stash of food and have running tap water, in which case you really need to get in there. If the people in the house haven't let you in by now I personally would think that you might have to kill them, since if they are that egoistic they will not care about you at all if they let you in and might even try to kill you. If you for some reason decide to kill them, make it look like you did not intend to kill them, make it look like it was self defence, so that people in your group does not see you as a monster.
But getting into the house to get food and water is also just a short term solution. What you need is a reliable way of getting food and water. Scavenging is reliable enough for now, since you could do it for a long time and hopefully during that time the government or someone has set up a safe zone where you could go, but don't be too eager to get to a safe zone, you don't know if it really is a safe zone or if it is a trap. Try to survive as long as possible on your own. If you go into the city / near cities to scavenge a good idea is to look for other survivors as well. Even though another survivor means another mouth to feed I recommend you pick up survivors if you find any because in most cases they will give more than they cost.
So by now you will be spending your days cleaning out the trenches, looking out for zombie hordes, going into the city to scavenge and just trying to pass time. Looking out for zombie hordes is a very important part of your everyday life since it is the biggest threat to you. Even if you have built a huge trench there could be an even bigger horde out there heading your way. If you manage to spot the horde in time you might be able to lead it away from your base. Building some sort of tower could be good for this. But building the tower where your base is might not be the best idea since the tower itself could attract zombies if they are smart enough (or dangerous survivors). I recommend that you have projects to pass your time, like building the tower, setting up traps, learning how to make fire with sticks, digging a well etc. Anything really because if you always do something you will not get bored and it will keep your mind of the fact that the world is probably ending. Growing crops is a very good idea, but hard to do if you don't know how and it takes a lot of time. Hunting is also something that you can do if you live near wildlife.
You will basically be living like this for the rest of your life if nothing changes. Your base will expand a little day by day, as well as your population if you find survivors. If nothing changes for a long time you might even get some children, raising them in this new world.
Sources for the speed of which humans dig and the density of dirt:
1- http://books.google.se/books?id=nDhpLa1rl44C&pg=PT198&lpg=PT198&dq=kilogram+dirt+per+hour+shovel&source=bl&ots=zLRkUXEyqT&sig=PIt7Y4wp5urz7a0pa5aqK1hcecw&hl=sv&ei=6dC0TZqtKMfWsgb4-rH5Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAQ#v=snippet&q=5%20to%207%20kg&f=false
2- http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_density_of_dirt
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, Apr 25 2011, 1:40 AM EDT
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