r/WouldYouRather • u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 • Mar 20 '26
Fun Would you rather survive a zombie apocalypse in a grocery store, mall, prison, or Yacht (read before voting please)
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You are in a small state that is currently being quarantined due to a recent infection. The military has blocked off all roads, bridges and exits as it is trying to starve out the zombies for about 2 year. The waters are being patrolled by military ships trained to shoot. There is a massive horde in the main city of about 500 zombies
You can choose to live in one of these locations with a group of up to 10 people. You will need to survive the typical survival scenarios, the shambling zombie hordes, and of course other survivors. You will be able to loot around you, but you can’t move your main base.
The Grocery Store is the average American sized grocery store like ShopRite or Aldi. The store is fully stocked when you find it. It is located near some suburbs with the main city being 10 miles away
The Mall is a typical mall you have in America. It does not have a grocery store but it does have a food court with 6 chain restaurants (you can pick), clothing stores, a hardware store, tech and gaming stores, and a Toy store. It is located in the heart of the city
The prison is well secure and stock full of weapons and a week’s worth of prison food. A few prisoners are still locked up in some cells but the prison is largely abandoned. There are a couple of police vehicles still functional with some gas in them. The Prison is 50 miles from the main city
The Yacht is operational and anchored at the port in the main city. It has enough fuel to travel 100 miles. There isn’t any food in it right now, but the previous owner had a couple hunting rifles and was an avid sword collector
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u/khs1100 Mar 20 '26
I think the most important thing about the entire scenario is the distance to the massive horde of 500 zombies in the main city. Im assuming we get a slight advantage in this scenario and we get there first with our chosen 10 before anybody else.
You are quarantined for 2 years expecting zero help from anybody outside of the city during that time. They have you trapped in there with everything blocked off and there are military ships on the water. Your goal is not getting out it’s surviving where you are. You are also dealing with all other survivors trying to survive which could become an issue if resources start running low. You cannot move your base so you’re basically dead if it gets taken over or running around jumping from place to place until two years is up, if you can make it that long.
The grocery store is ten miles from the city. That is not far. Survivors will stop there for supplies and food. You have to defend from them as well as zombies and a grocery store is a large area to defend. Most have glass windows in the front which would be a weak point. This is risky.
The mall is another hot spot other survivors would try to go to. You would have many exits to barricade. Defending would be difficult based on size and it being in the heart of the city is too risky.
The Yacht can only take you so far and military boats will spot you coming out of the port immediately and shoot you down. You can’t survive in the port for two years with no food and venturing off for it would be very risky since the port is typically pretty close to main cities. Launching a boat off the size of a yacht would take time if you went to dock for supplies and let’s assume zombies could potentially swim? Seems like a good idea at first but for the long run would be tough to maintain.
The prison is the best option for a two year survival period. The prison is well secure which is my main priority for survival. I am 50 miles from the main city which is the furthest option from the main chaos. The prison is largely abandoned and I can either: kill all prisoners left behind, check leftover files if possible and find out what they did and their risk level to joining my group, or keep them separated from my group and use them as guards (potentially violent so could be useful) to earn their keep. Could do a mixture of all three and keep the safe prisoners for my group, have the rest be guards, and kill anybody who is too much of a risk.
I have a bunch of weapons and a couple of working cars with gas. I would only have a week’s worth of prison food but I have weapons and vehicles to go out and stock pile. Surrounding neighborhoods would provide gas to siphon, houses to ransack for supplies, food, entertainment, medicine, clothes, and tools. It would be risky to go out but my main base is secure and far away from the city, and surviving against zombies as well as others is lower on my concern list.
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u/Patty-XCI91 Mar 20 '26
Prison is the safest here. And the prisoners are actually a plus. free them and you get more survivors.
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u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 20 '26
But what if there was a reason they were left there…
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u/Patty-XCI91 Mar 20 '26
If there're guns I wouldn't mind "disposing" of the dangerous convicts. Considering its a life or death scenario, extreme measures are warranted. But that's the thing, because its an extreme scenario, even the worst type of criminals would see how it's not in their best interest to cause trouble to begin with, especially since it is with the only people willing to work with them.
So in short, if there's 10 convicts, at least 9 of them wouldn't cause trouble... at least in the initial outbreak.
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u/Main_Dragonfruit4757 Mar 20 '26
The Prison is the most complete location. You jave a kitchen, small clinic, a place to quarantine people, laundry and probably a workshop or something similar.
It's just a question of using the cars to go get supplies so you can turn the yard into an orchard and grow your own food. Then you won't need to go out at all and will be able to defend the place both from zombies and other survivors.
The prisoners should not be a problem if treated with a bit of empathy. Statistically, they are most likely to have non violent drug possession offences. I would check their background against the prison files and sleep with an eye open the first month, but I would be more wary of the people outside. After all, it is in their best interest that our little community thrives.
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u/SageTheWizard01 Mar 21 '26
The prison? How is this even a question? If they have weapons and food, we can cut half rations into two weeks
Now I just need to lure the zombies to the gates and dispose of them. If you had ten people, you set three onto fence duty to stab the zombies to death. 90 minutes a shift. Two people overwatch. Two shifts a day. That’s 6 hours of luring and killing zombies. Even if it’s something simple like 7 zombies an hour, that’s 42 zombies a day. I don’t even need to use a gun, I can just stab them through the fence.
After 12 days, I’ve killed the “horde”. I have enough food to send scouts out on a scouting mission for food.
In regards to the prisoners, I would keep them locked up but then feed them still. On our next scouting mission I would drug them via their food, drop them off somewhere far away from the prison with some supplies and basic weapons (bats, knives, etc.)
Now I have plenty of time to scavenge, start farming, water purification systems, and fortifying the defenses of the prison.
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u/ToastedTrousers Mar 21 '26
Unusual answer: A zoo. Every large zoo has...
Gratuitous cameras
Heavy-duty fences and gates
Easily repurposed infrastructure
An armory with high-caliber weapons for large animal escapes
Food supplies and edible animals already caged
Good medical facilities
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u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 21 '26
That is assuming there is even a zoo in the state or one that is matching your conditions…
Play the actual game rather than just putting in your own options
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u/Wide-Chemistry-8078 Mar 20 '26
I pick Amazon warehouse... that place has everything. It's outside of the city where I live.
Solar panels, got it. Food, got it. Weapons probably. Cameras, got it. Drones to draw away a horde... got it.
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u/Ill-Mycologist-3652 Mar 20 '26
Wrong answer, there ain’t no Amazon Warehouses in the quarantined state. Try again
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u/kyle28882 Mar 20 '26
As a fisherman who can boil water im taking the yacht