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Mall Survival

I (Drewblet) got sick of writing my Guerrilla Combat page, so here’s something else which could be useful.

Intro:

You’ve seen the movies, like Dawn of the Dead, where they hole up inside of a mall. If you’ve read the Zombie Survival Guide, you probably think that it’s impossible, now don’t you? Well, under normal circumstances, it is, but if some prerequisites are met, you act quickly, and you're lucky, it can be possible, and thoroughly advantageous. Think about it, in a mall you have several grocery stores, all sorts of entertainment, instructive books, plenty of flat roof space for planting, department stores, possibly weapon stores, a veritable cornucopia of makeshift weapons, and maybe even a . . . WAL-MART!!!1!!1!!11!one!1LOLERMANDER! Egad, you says, that convinced me, says you! And yes, it is spelled cornucopia.

I’m-a-gonna list some ways to keep alive in a mall. I thought I should tell you, seeing as I didn’t make that clear in the title. That was a joke. Ha. Ha. LAUGH, YOU MORON! Anyhoo, I’ll try to be as concise, lucid, realistic, and logical about it as I can. Remember, though, that living in a mall shouldn't be your only plan.

Section I -- Prerequisites:

In this section, I’ll list some things that need to be true in order to make living in a mall logical. I'll list one here, though: Your group has to outnumber the amount of people who are trying to get in. Preferably there should be no people, or very few, but there almost certainly will be some people. DO NOT base your whole survival plan on living in a mall. Too much can go wrong. This might be plan A, but remember to have a plan B, C, D, and E.

Section I – I – Time

I’ll list some time-related necessities in here.

a. The mall CAN NOT be opened when the outbreak occurs. Think about it, there will probably be hundreds of people in the mall at the time, and most of the doors will be unlocked. This will mean a zombie-magnet, whatever kind of zombie it is.

b. You need to get there while the outbreak is still level one, or maybe level two, in you area. I mean, there can’t be too many zombies around, and there should still be law-enforcement, to keep too many people from doing too many stupid things. As long at there aren’t people going on killing sprees, or too many zombies in your way, you should be able to get to the mall.

c. The outbreak has to have reached your area. That way, people will be occupied as you build up your fortress, and there won’t be as much resistance from people trying to get into the mall. If, however, the zombies are two cities away, and the public knows you have a fortress in the mall . . . you don’t want that.

d. You need to act quickly once you reach the mall. Check out the So, What Now? section.

e. You need to gather a fair amount of trustworthy people, quite quickly. I recommend 10-30, depending on the size and shape of the mall. Check out the Jobs Page, here.

f. You need to find a way to get all of the people in your party to the mall, without attracting too much attention. Elsewise, half the city might follow you. No so good for joo.

g. You need to get weapons for as many members of your party as you can, as soon as you can. This includes edged and bludgeon weapons, too. Look for dead law-enforcement or soldiers, and zombie law-enforcement or soldiers. Weapons are your priority, but once you have 10-15 weapons, you should head for the mall. If, however, most of your group has weapons, jolly good for you!

Section I – II – The Mall:

I’ll list some necessities related to the location you choose.

a. The mall you choose needs to have at least two stories. Imagine if the floor level was compromised, and it was the only floor. There’s a mall near where I used to live that is four stories, and you can see the bottomfloor from each story. This setup, boys and girls, is one of the best. The stairs that lead up to the second story also have to be rigged to collapse, at a moment’s notice. They still have to be useable, even while they’re rigged

b. The mall you choose should have easily closed off roof parking. That is, if it even has roof parking. Hopefully, each level should have a gate, or at least the lowest level should. The same goes for basement parking, except it’s highest level, rather than lowest.

c. The mall you choose shouldn’t have too many low-level windows, especially on the first floor. Thankfully, this is a rare thing.

d. The mall you choose should have a fairly regular shape, on the outside, at least. You need to be able to post as few roof-based watchmen as you can, and to do this, you need to be able to see as much of the perimeter as you can, from certain select positions. The building should have as few crevasses as possible, so you can see the whole wall. Near a past residence of mine, there is a mall that's shaped like 4 of the letter Z, stuck together at random points, facing random directions. There also was an S in there somewhere. Needless to say, this is a bad thing for our purposes.

e. The mall you choose shouldn’t have too many “front doors”. You know what I mean, right? The large doors, leading in from the outside? The reasons for this are obvious.

f. The mall you choose should have as many useful stores as possible, such as supermarkets, bookstores, and hardware stores.

g. Try to opt for a mall that has gates (metal shutters, metal bars or otherwise). If, however, your mall doesn't, don't fret, you can still manage quite well, without them.

That’s it on this list, for now.

I can’t think of any more prerequisite lists, so I’ll move on, for now.

Entering the Mall:

Guess what this is about!

You can use grappling hooks, lock picks, helicopters, crowbars, bats, shotguns, pistols, and a whole buttload of other tools to enter the mall. Basically, what you need to remember is to avoid causing irreparable damage, and get the door closed behind you, as quickly as possible.

It’s advantageous to know what store or office you’re entering, so you can know what’s nearby, and can barricade your point of entry as soon as is possible. I recommend the crowbar, lock pick, or shotgun for entry. Notice that I didn’t mention the obvious rout of explosives. This is because they can so easily cause so much damage. Unless you’re a demo expert, or you have one with you, don’t use uhsplosives. Same goes with thermite, magnesium, and welding torches. Unless you or someone else knows what they’re doing, avoid these things.

Section II -- So, Now What?:

Ah, you made it into the mall. So, now what? That’s what this section covers.

Section II – I – To Start Off With:

This section is a rough sketch of what you should do as soon as you arrive, up to 12 hours through.

This will use 00:00 as your time of arrival, and move on up to 12:00 from there.

=[Moved from thread]=
Posted by srmcguirk- I used to work in a mall and gave this a lot of thought. Most mall stores, at least here, have gates, not doors. The location for a base camp/ sleeping area would be in a small store with no windows and a non-motorized gate. The gates are nearly impregnable, since most of them roll into the ceiling. This would be idea for an extra security measure afterthe main entrances are secure. Also, most stores have back doors for deliveries if an emergency escape be necessary. This is good, folks, pay attention to this guy!


00:00 – 00:10
If you entered into a store, move into an office. If you entered a big store, like a Dept. store, or Wal-Mart, check for weapons, and then move quickly into an office. Offices all have very few windows, most have none, and they usually have maps in them. Check the map, if there is one, for a guns store, or a place with good makeshift weapons, like a hardware or gardening store. Give your men some time to recuperate, and then start making as much noise as you can without firing any shots.

00:10 – 00:20
Have your men continue making noise, and keep building up your movement plan. PRIORITIZE CHECKING AND LOCKING MAIN DOORS, and follow up with side doors. Look for stores likely to have good weapons, stores with particularly bulky items, hardware stores, and any sort of store that would have good barricading materials. Inside of the office, look around for keys. If there are none, try to locate a security station or the like, and plan for trying to get there soon. At 00:20, move out.

00:20 – 01:20
Due to the noise, nearby survivors will be alerted, and might come to you, unfortunately, so would any nearby zacks. Keep your team together until they’re all armed, and then send out as many teams as seems logical, but keep a larger team together when you go into a new area of the mall. Tell your men to meet you at 01:20, whatever time that may be in your circumstances. AGAIN, PRIORITIZE CHECKING AND LOCKING MAIN DOORS, and follow up with side doors. Continue to look for good barricading material, and figure out a way to communicate. Electronics stores should have good walkie-talkies (two-way radios), and you can just choose an obsolete little channel to set communications to, like 6.38, or sommit. Anyhoo, look around for useful things (like radios and barricading material), lock the doors, search for survivors, search for zacks, and explore the mall.

01:20 – 04:00
Barricade.

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Posted by LegendRn- The first thing you should do to the mall doors is to get a shovel or something, and smash the sensor for the automated door. Thanks for that, LegendRn. I can't believe it, but I actually didn't think of doing that. I'm so pathetic. Again, thanks

Keep the same teams set up, but have everyone barricade. If there are two-layer entrances, barricade both layers. Do it quickly, and do it well. Go out with a team to explore the other stories (you, being the leader, need to know the layout more than most others), but have the others keep on barricading. 01:20 – 4:00 is just a basic time outline, so yeah. There are a couple of pages here on barricading, so I won’t go into it. I will, though, recommend as a long-term solution, placing cement or cinderblock walls against your old barricades. If your mall has a hardware store, something like Home Depot, this shouldn’t be too much trouble.

04:00 – 09:00
Keep on barricading. Conduct a final sweep of the mall, and start gathering up useful supplies, such as food, door keys, ammunition, medicine, IED ingredients, edged weapons, bludgeoning weapons, guns, scissors, chairs, tires (I’ll explain later) heck, anything that might come in handy. Only take logical things, though. Leave the TV Guide, or the Jim Carry Scrapbook on its shelf, but take the bookshelf’s worth of cookbooks or camping guides. Heck, take the shelves, for barricading. You can come back for Jim Carry later. (Start to) Move all these supplies up to the second floor. It’ll take quite a bit of time to barricade, so keep it up. It’ll also take quite a bit of time to move the supplies, so don’t worry about it. If you’re worried about zombies getting through, and this is where Herr Brooks is wrong, consider this: The glass for the doors (and windows) is ALWAYS safety glass, and usually bulletproofed. 2-3 inches of bulletproof glass would take more than a dozen zombies to break through, and then there’s the two-layer entrances. Once your barricades are up, and especially if the zombies have short attention spans, you’ve got it made. During level one, most of the zombies would be busy, and it would take up to 20 zacks days, if not weeks, to get through 2 inch thick bulletproof glass. Your scouting parties would be able to detect zacks attempting to break in. This wiki’s getting to me, you say? GNEEHAHAHAHA, what ever gave you that idea, Schultz? C’mon, calm down and keep reading.

09:00 – 12:00
Please take note that the comment in the previous paragraph was not directed toward the member of this wiki, named Sgt. Shultz. Anyhoo, your barricading processes should be less pivotal by now, so you should be able to pull out some more men for moving supplies. It’s a great morale boost to have a whole mall at your disposal, so you don’t really have to worry about your men hating you, just yet. By 24 hours after your entry, all the barricades ought to be up, and you should be well on your way with gathering and appropriately placing supplies.

That, boys and girls, is the basic idea of what your first 12 hours in the mall should look like. Now, onto the first month!

Section II – II – Further on:

This section is a basic outline of your first month in the mall. The 1st is the day you arrive, and I’ll move up to the 31st, that being the end of the month. Onward! Oh, and at some point you should do something with the perishable food, such as plants and meat.

1st
I just covered half of that in the previous section. The rest of the day should just be becoming more familiar with the mall, scanning around for some more zombies, and continuing to move supplies.

2nd
You should do more work with supplies, and then go up on the roof with a small team, while the others take a break. Stay low, and try to stay out of sight, while you assess the situation in your town or city. If there’s a million and one zacks around you, then start building up the cement or cinderblock barricades before anything else. If there’s a fire, take precautions. If there’s nothing significant, do nothing. Take a few hours’ break, and then get back to work on the supplies, if there’s nothing better to do. You might want to start sorting the supplies, or handing out fun things. Fun things could be stuff like books, board games, decks of cards, iPods (good if the power’s still on), GameBoys, CD players, and laptops with computer games. You can figure some more things out.

3rd – 14th
By the 14th, you should have moved most or all of the necessary supplies upstairs. Now I’ll explain the tires. You should build pillboxes (defense turrets) at key points on the roof, using the tires. When I say “key points”, I mean the points on the roof which allow for the most comprehensive surveillance, which allow you to see the most of the perimeter as you can. If you’re gonna be a leader, you should know what I’m talking about. You’d be surprised what tires can do for you. Once you have the supplies upstairs, destroy all but one staircase. Leave the maintenance stairs intact, though, just destroy the public stairs and escalators. Wire the remaining set of stairs with explosives, and do the same with the maintenance stairs. Only destroy the stairs that lead up to the second floor, and wire up to the third floor (if your mall’s that big. If not, then wire up to the roof) and again, same goes for the maintenance. It’s fairly simple to create a master detonator switch or plunger, if you have someone who knows what they’re doing. A plunger’s easier to detonate, and to wire. I won’t tell you how to set it all up, but you should know what to do, and making a plunger is a very simple process. Once you’ve destroyed the stairs, you can go get that Jim Carry Scrapbook, or that Encyclopaedia de Britanica set that you’ve been eying since you got there. Haven’t you?

7th – 15th
Start up on your permanent barricades. The cement and/or cinderblock ones. You should be able to find a book on the subject of building walls, that is if you don't, or none of your men do, know how to do so, and do it precisely. You might have everything set up by the 15th (unlikely), but it’ll take a fair bit longer to set and dry.

15th – 20th
If all your walls are set up, and all your stairs are destroyed and wired, take a few days’ break. Great morale booster. You should take this time to assign your men individual tasks, such as farmer, watchman, inventory taker guy, or logistician. Check out the Jobs page. This is also good for morale, giving everyone a reason to get up in the morning. Let people take what they want from the stores, and let them just wander around (armed). Again, good for morale. If the power is still on and your mall has a theater, do some showings. If the power is still on, set up several entertainment systems, and let people watch what they want. If the internet is still working, set up a buttload of wireless networks, and let another buttload of laptops and PDAs be available. If your mall has a pet store, give people pets. I wouldn’t recommend sniping zacks from the roof, because you might need the ammo for a better use later. Same goes for Molotovs and bombs. Oh, and something you need to do: backup the ZSDW on an external hard drive, and hookup the hard drive to several computers. The previous were original (off the top of my head), but the following are building on the Morale page. I don’t like orgies, but do what you want. I’m meh about teh pr0n5, but I like the idea of arts and crafts workshops. Winners (survivors) don’t do drugs, but I do recommend alcohol at this point, but only in restricted amounts, as you don’t want drunken stupidity and hangovers.

21st – 31st
Start building up your economy (farming, water, electricity), and make more IEDs. I’ll explain electricity, but in a later section. Reinforce your barricades further, and build up you defenses (roof, windows). Perfect the explosives on your stairs. Keep up-to-date with the situation in your area (radio, TV, checking from the roof), and try to make a plan for looking around in your area. So, basically, just build stuff up, and figure stuff out.

Your Mall Economy:

The name says it all. To me, this means food, water, and electricity. Unfortunately, each of these subjects is too broad for me to cover in this page, and I’ll eventually write a page on each of them, unless someone beats me to it. Why, yes, you’re correct, I have no life. Sorry, but I won’t write any of this economic stuff here. Sorry. The nice thing is that, with some modification, I can turn these sorts of things into school projects. Same with my Guerrilla Combat page. Thank god for excuses to write papers. This page, however, is useless out of the zombie context. Creative writing, perhaps.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE SUGGESTIONS THREAD, AS OF THURSDAY THE 23 OF OCTOBER. Please, update this as it becomes necessary.

POSTED BY tacticalplanner
Yellow, quick thing to mention. AVOID USING THE TOILETS!!! If the pumps fail, the place is going to smell real bad.

	POSTED BY byates
	"Yellow, quick thing to mention. AVOID USING THE TOILETS!!! If the pumps fail, the place is going to smell real bad." Do you have any suggestion on where to go? I have some, but they have already been posted elsewhere.
	POSTED BY tacticalplanner
	unfortunatly, no. But i came up with something else: If you lose acess to water, you're screwed. But what if you have a large tank thing in the mall, fill it with water (unless that's the source of the outbreak). If so, take some tarps up to the roof and rig them up to collect water. Move the water that collects during a rainstorm into the tanks. I'm not sure, but i think this is how the Japanesse put more troops on Iwo Jima than the U.S. expected.
	POSTED BY AgEnT_GrEEn
	"Yellow, quick thing to mention. AVOID USING THE TOILETS!!! If the pumps fail, the place is going to smell real bad." Maybe if you picked up generators and rigged them in a safer location inside the building then the water pumps would work along with the electrical...You'd obviosly need more than one and the means to fuel them, otherwise fall back to a different plan for waste elimination... Drewblet: That was an excellent read with a lot of good ideas and the like in it.
	POSTED BY tacticalplanner generators fail eventually. POSTED BY AgEnT_GrEEn "generators fail eventually." Ahh, good point...They'd be useful in their lifespans though, and they'd last longer if power was kept to a minimum but they do die eventually regardless of babying... It seems that you'd eventually have to leave the Mall and go somewhere else due to the lack of waste managment capability and eventual need for re-supply.

POSTED BY srmcguirk
****I used to work in a mall and gave this a lot of thought. Most mall stores, at least here, have gates, not doors. The location for a base camp/ sleeping area would be in a small store with no windows and a non-motorized gate. The gates are nearly impregnable, since most of them roll into the ceiling. This would be idea for an extra security measure afterthe main entrances are secure. Also, most stores have back doors for deliveries if an emergency escape be necessary.****

END OF THREAD.

Schßie! Boys and girls, I am laboring under the abysmal affliction of a complete and total lack of ideas regarding this undertaking. Besides that, I’ve recently come into several pressing responsibilities. Don't worry, I'll add more later. Rest assured.

I’ll add more to the page as ideas present themselves, and as suggestions are posted. I started a Suggestions thread, so post your opinions, problems with this page, ideas, and suggestions in this thread. You’ll get partial credit if you posted a good idea that I decide to use.

Oh, and if you have any questions regarding IEDs, message me. I won't write a guide to the subject (for obvious reasons), but I will answer questions. I know way too much about IEDs. . . AH, CRAP, A FED JUST KICKED MY DOOR DOWN! Where's my detonator switch?!!? J/K.

Your friend and mine, Drewblet.