Here’s the approximate set up from Dawn of the Dead.
Year is 1978.
Three weeks after the zombie apocalypse has begun. Society is crumbling and fallen in some places. Some people are trying to keep society together, others have died or have fled from society to try and find their own way. Your group has decided to strike out on their own, taking what they need to do so, whether it be legal or not.
Zombies are slow and their bite will infect & kill anyone within two to four days by infection, antibiotics help counter the effects for while. After death, the victim will then become a zombie with some memories of their past life, still with the goal of eating humans, even friends.
Your team consists of two SWAT members, Roger and Peter & a News station producer and Air Traffic Reporter, Fran & Stephen respectively. All are physically fit and have no severe qualms about killing undead.
Roger & Peter both have SWAT training and are good at it. Roger can hot-wire vehicles & Peter
knows how to cook. Peter & Roger are both level headed and excellent shots, though Roger can go berserk in certain situations.
Fran knows little that is relevant to survival and is one to three months pregnant.
Fran is level headed yet inexperienced with zombies and with fighting.
Stephen knows how to fly and maintain a helicopter, might also know the most basic workings of firearms, but currently is a lousy shot. Stephen is arrogant, and can be greedy with outsiders.
Equipment consists of two hunting rifles, two pistols and two M16s, some ammunition,
helicopter, fuel, cigarettes.
Mall consists of an average mall with hunting/gun store, hardware store, and unfinished executive offices with boxes of emergency food & flares & access to the roof, there are
showroom cars with fuel on the ground floor of the mall, & the building still has power. There is also a construction yard within about ten to twenty minutes driving distance of the mall.
The zombies are spread out about the mall, but are not currently in the unfinished executive office part of the building.
How do you proceed?
Here’s my plan of action:
I would follow the basic plan of the movie, but I would reinforce the fake wall with concrete. For the securing of the mall, I would have all members have radios. I would also park the trucks out at the outskirts of the parking lot and try to get the zombies attention. This would make the zombies less concentrated around the mall and make it easier & safer to do the barricading there. If any of the members got too excited, I would give them time to cool off before proceeding.
I would also move as much of the malls contents out of the main mall area and move them to a more secure area. This would also have the effect of making any snooping individuals think the place had already been ransacked. The office space would have sufficient supplies to live on if the main mall was overrun. I would also try to have a large getaway vehicle near the mall for if the helicopter was disabled.
I would also take sufficient supplies to set up a second base about two to three blocks from the mall. The base would look like any of the buildings around it. It would have to be two stories tall, made of brick or similar material, have a garage and hopefully a basement. The second base would look no different from other buildings and would have no corpses or other signs of battle near it to make it look even less conspicuous.
For recruiting more members, I would have one or two of my team go and join up with one of
the hunting parties and look for like-minded individuals there. If any were found, I would
then offer them a position on the team. Making sure that they were a good match would be a
must.