"But are the employees going to give a damn about protecting the store, or are they gonna hightail it home to their family and more comfortable surroundings?"

Depends on how infested the area is. Say the zombies start getting into the area at 11pm. That's the night shift hemmed in. And with minimal access to news, etc they might not realise what's going on until it's too late. So they aren't protecting the store because of loyalty to the bosses. They are holding onto their impromptu fortress and supplies. And undoubtedly someone would try, like in the movies, to run home. And get eaten. But that would be the cue to try and get inside.

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yes, i have speant nearly 20 years working out my routes, saw dawn of the dead in the late 80's, early 90's. used to go to fort worth a few times, didnt see much in the way of safe zones. but didnt see much there.. its got to be a habit now, where can i run, what can be defended.

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"What do you mean by class 2 and 3:"

Well this is quoted from "The Zombie Survival Guide" and translated because I'm not good at explaining it:

Class 1: Its about maybe 10-30 zombies. A low level outbreak that can be taken care of easily if handled right. Law enforcement is still at ready with minimal chaos ensued.
Class 2: Usually in urban environments that zombie's can range from 30-100 and up to a 1000. Military may be called in and some cities evacuated if it gets out of hand and the media doesn't get a hold on this.
Class 3: A full scale-zombie outbreak with thousands of zombie's spanned over miles and miles. Military and cities can be in chaos and some places may be cut off or "quarantined. The outbreak could last months.

So a theatre may stand up to a class 2 if the people there are on there toes but if its a class 3 then it should be a temporary outpost for zombie defense since there's so many.

Oh yeah and a class 4 is just a world-wide outbreak threatening to annihilate man-kind.

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actually they rebuilt the whole canton high school and now most of it is glass making entry relatively easy. personally, i would not hold up in the state of Massachusetts at all simply because its a major state in the US and its on of the first places that the government will want to "contain" meaning your stuck there until its all over . also, i live in israel now...and, defense is just what we do

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the P-CEP campus is large, already has basic school grounds fences, and consists of 4 (3 high schools and 1 gym building) easy to defend buildings.
the place is stocked well enough to feed 2000 teenagers each for a week, there is a small but old forest near plymouth full of large and long trees which can be used for building purposes, and has two floors on each building but the gym.

Plymouth is hard to get around in if you can't read, and is well segmented with thick metal fire doors that can be locked in place. it's only weakness is the glass to the stairs that are at the ends of the 3 large halls, but the doors to them are strong and there are internal ways to get to the second floor. all other glass doors are made to take bullet shots and shatter proof. and there are lots of tables and desks and chairs to made barricades with. it also has a backup generator made to keep power on for 24 hours, and is rechargeable using solar panels on the roof.

Canton is somewhat old, but it has minimal window area reachable from the ground, and it has a metal shop designed to repair cars. the kids with that class often learn by fixing their own car. it has a feeding cap just as high as Plymouth, but this building is gas powered instead of an electrical based kitchen.

Salem has no windows on the on the bottom floor anywhere but the cafeteria, and is extremly confusing if you don't know your way around, meaning that zombies if they break in will likely walk around in circles thinking they are getting somewhere. same food supplies as the other two.

the gym has showers and other PE related things. nuff said.

but the real seller on this place is that fact that there are old, unused sewer tunnels that are big enough to but a golf cart in that travel to each of the school's basements. and are not connected with the main sewer system of the city grid. they were, but they got scraped. but they were left there.

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