Tactical Tuesday: Home Fortress

Its TACTICAL TUESDAY!! (I like to pretend I'm Oprah when I say that)

Today's topic is....house styles!

Okay so here's the deal. As I was stumbling down the stairs this morning in my pre-cup of tea stupor it came to me: is a second floor a detriment or an asset in the advent of a zombie apocalypse?

My arguments are below.

Single Story:

The one problem with creating a fortress is that there is a fine line between haven and tomb. What could in theory protect you from an onslaught of ghouls could the very next day ensnare you when you must escape. Stairs add to this problem. Say that you've got a two story home and you've destroyed the stairs behind you in order to escape half-decayed fingers grappling for your flesh. Well now what? All the windows are at least 15-20 feet off the ground. Not even Jet-Li could jump that far down without hurting himself--and what's to say that in the seconds it takes for you to recover from your fall that those same grappling fingers you escaped from in the first place aren't there waiting for you? This problem is solved by a single-story home. While you lose some of the benefit of being high off the ground (zombies are notoriously bad jumpers) you don't have to be worried by being trapped like rats on a sinking ship. Your escape route is easily outside the nearest door, window or evil wall (depending on what type of home/building your shelter is in). Also lets say the owner of a two-story home doesn't destroy the stairs behind him when he takes refuge on the second floor of his house. Ghouls can't really climb stairs really well--but they can flop up them. Eventually they will reach the top. Furthermore, zombies aren't the only threat in a post-apocalyptic setting: living monsters who are quite human--and thus quite capable of climbing stairs or finding a way onto the second floor--pose just as much of a threat. While a single story home may do little to prevent this, it means that running is your preferred option (probably the best option in any situation really) instead of a "siege" which is most often disastrous for the person under siege--meaning YOU.  However, the single story home has a few faults. If a zombie or living assailant breaks into your home at some point you must either dispatch them or abandon your haven. And like any fortress you plan on constructing, the single story home will require a good deal of reinforcements and barricades (similar to hurricane reinforcements). These will be especially important because a single story home will put you on the same ground from which the living dead are rising. Chose carefully.

Two or More Stories:

Whether they are spiral, straight or a graceful curve upward, stairs enable us to reach the top floor of our homes (duh). They also create something our shrinking world needs more than anything else: space. Stairs create a second floor where the home can be stretched out vertically, therefore enabling storage and escape from the ground floor. This is one benefit of the two story home. If there is a perimeter breech on the first floor, one can climb up to the second floor and preferably hide or remove the threat from a safe distance. The second floor also enables more space with which to store supplies and materials. It makes makeshift plumbing easier, since all water (among other more gross liquids) flows down hill. You could in theory build a latrine that floods out of the house using gravity. Another benefit is that because the home is often as tall if not taller than the surrounding trees it allows you to climb to roof to signal for help, create rain catchers or install solar power devices. That the building is higher also creates a broader field of vision where you can see large groups of people or ghouls coming before they get close enough to surprise you. I personally enjoyed playing the sniper in Resident Evil 5, hiding up in some nicely secluded post high up in a tree or something picking off zombies left and right. There are a few faults with this design as well. A two story home where the stairs have been destroyed and a group of human survivors are hiding upstairs means one thing: zombies as downstairs neighbors. Not only would that smell lovely but it's like living with a ticking time bomb.  Zombies are not very forgiving and accidents happen. All it would really take would be a clumsy person falling below to the waiting undead and BAM. Or should I say: BRAINS!

In the end the selection really is determined by each individual survivor or survivors. each home will be different and it will thus be up to you to judge the faults and assets in the design of the home you want to use as a fortress against the undead.

Happy Surviving!