SAFE HOUSE

Your ‘safe house’ or ‘sanctuary’ or ‘sanctum sanatorium’ (if you’re feeling particularly pretentious) can be just about anywhere as long as it is secure from the amassing hordes outside. But like most aspects of the housing market, there are certain attributes that make some buildings more attractive to potential survivors than others and therefore a better choice to build your base of operations. Here are some of the things to keep an eye out for when on the hunt for that perfect locale:

Altitude

You are always going to be safer from zombies if you are higher up due to the fact that zombies can’t jump (this applies to all creeds of zombies and not just the white male ones). Neither can they negotiate ladders very successfully, concoct a scheme to raise themselves to your height, or fly.

Of course, when we refer to altitude we are not talking about a shed on a hill. More suitable would be any room, apartment or office above ground floor – the higher the better, in fact.eing up high also limits the points of entry for the undead as they can no longer gain access through windows. That leaves only the doors, and if you block off the stairways that lead to the floor you live on it will create more barriers for them to breach before finally reaching you.

Points of entry/escape

You require a safe house with as few points of entry as possible. If there are ten doors leading into the building then that is ten doors you have to barricade and guard. It is also preferable to have ‘bottleneck’ entry points: small or normal-sized doors that are situated at the end of a corridor. This will mean that should that point of entry be breached, only a few zombies at a time can get through – and should you kill them, in time their bodies will essentially block up the door so other zombies can’t get through.

As well as the regular points of entry into the building, you should also have an irregular planned escape route that doesn’t involve doors and windows. This can be an attic to rooftop escape; cellar to sewers or through air vents to a different part of the building. This alternative escape route is essential because although the undead are mindless creatures, as we discussed beforehand, they are ‘aware’ of their surroundings. They will know that doors and windows are the best point of entry to a building and will be amassing outside of them trying to get in.

Once the dead have discovered you are inside a building, it is pointless trying to escape through the normal routes.

Windows

The fewer windows the better. In fact, no windows would be a bonus. If the dead can’t see you, then it will be less likely that they will discover you. If your safe house does have windows then you can always consider covering them up, but if you have chosen to set up shop in a ground-floor building then a few sheets of newspaper stuck to the glass will do nothing to stop the undead smashing their way in should you make too much noise and alert them to your whereabouts. Your best bet, if on the ground floor, is to brick the windows up or barricade them as effectively as you barricade your doors.

Furniture

You are not going to survive if your safe house does not have a reasonable amount of items with which to barricade doors and windows. Choosing an unfurnished building as a sanctuary will mean that you will have to locate and bring items to it in order to barricade the doors.

Rooms

It is a common misconception that an open-plan safe house is more effective than one with many different rooms. You need as many accessible rooms as possible to give yourself a better chance of survival. The reasoning behind this is twofold.

Firstly, if the main door to your abode is breached by the undead you can simply set up a barricade at the next doorway. If you were in an open plan room you would have nowhere to run (apart from your irregular escape route – but here is the second part of my reasoning).

Secondly, if a zombie sees you head into an air vent or through a hole in the floor it will follow you – thus making your irregular escape route pointless. In an open-plan room a zombie is liable to spot you making good your escape, whereas in a multi-room safe house you can have your escape route set up in another room and thus make your escape without being spotted.

Location

Although in cities and towns you are more likely to amass better supplies, it is preferable to have your safe house in an area that has a lower population. Small towns or villages are ideal, or even business parks that have been built on the outskirts of a town. Lower population means fewer zombies – and also less chance of you getting nuked (see Nuked).