Chapter 9

Making Choices

The group quickly started discussing the good and bad points about each idea. I was really pushing hard for the island scenario. I truly believe with the sheer amount of breakdown in societal order we had already seen that this would be the safest and best option for us as a group. It was the best of all worlds. Once we establish ourselves on an island we can set up an agriculture and trading society and still raid for supplies that we needed. After a lot of discussion the group came around to my way of thinking.

“I want everyone to understand this is still going to take a lot of effort on the part of everybody. Nothing is 100% safe, but I think this is the best option in front of us. Now I think we need to divide up the labor if at all possible to help us move forward. I think we need to set up divisions of expertise. This does not mean that you only do your job, it just means that you are primarily in that group and help out when needed in other groups.”

“I don’t understand Mark. Can you give me an example?”

“Sure, I think personally we should have six groups. Domestics, Agriculture, Power, Transportation, Supplies, and Safety. My best example is this, Granny Kate and Granny Allie should be in charge of Domestics. Domestics would include taking care of the underage members of the group and organizing the living spaces and food distribution. This means that they are in charge, not that they have to do everything. So if you wanted to work or be part of domestics you would report to them.”

“Alright that makes sense. Who do you think should be in charge of the other divisions?”

“Well right now I think we have Benji and my daughter Brittany head up the power division. They have been working engineers out at the Nuclear site. Olivia is a trained nurse and should be part of the safety group. I don’t think we really have an agriculture person yet. Roberto and I can temporarily head up supplies and transportation.”

“Why do you mean temporarily?”

“I expect us to find and recruit more and better knowledgeable people as we make our way to the island. Our group is not large enough to adequately defend an entire island or handle all the necessary jobs. Several of us can work in a variety of areas and will temporarily help out wherever needed but we are not specialists. For example, Tracy is a welder. She will be useful and necessary in a variety of areas and can help everyone out, but she is not necessarily an expert at any of them.”

“That is true. I can help out with setting up houses, power, and fixing things, but I really can’t say I would be good at being the one in charge.”

“My point exactly. All of us have had some experience with gardens, but no one here can actually say they know how to set up a larger farm or use some of the specialized equipment right?”

Everyone nodded. I think they were understanding my point.

“Here is what I propose. We take the next week here and build up our supplies and get ready to convoy to the island. During this week we will try to contact and recruit as many people as we can that we feel are competent and trustworthy. So today is list day. I want everyone to come up with lists of people they personally know that would work well in each of the divisions I said. Give me at least three in each division. They need to live within a two hour drive of here or live between here and Savannah so we can pick them up on the way. I need at least three names from everyone, because in reality the chances of us finding everyone and they themselves being immune or willing to come is low. The more people I have to contact the better this will work.”

Everyone agreed and started working on the list while I went out to take a turn on watch. I had been thinking about these kind of situations for a while and I needed to get my thoughts in order. None of my previous thought up plans were going to work perfectly in this situation, but I was confident I could adapt several and come up with one that would work well. The first thing I needed to do was think on transportation and the route we would take.

We had two major routes we could take. The first was overland and was obvious. We would run into more problems with people that way, but it should be the fastest route. The next and least obvious would be the savannah river itself. In theory it should be possible to navigate down the savannah river from Augusta, Georgia all the way to the coast. While it would take longer, it would definitely be safer in terms of survivors and zombies. The problem with taking the river would be finding enough boats and people to run them to hold everybody and our supplies. Realistically the best option was to convoy.

The highway between Aiken SC and Savannah GA was rather deserted and a not well travelled area. There are only two towns between them to worry about for larger groups of zombies. Even then they are small towns of hundreds to a couple of thousand people only. Savannah was my ultimate goal for us to find the water transportation that we needed. It was the largest small town seaport that I knew of. Charleston was the same distance, but it had a much greater population and would have a greater risk associated with it. Come to think about it we could try Hilton Head for some private yachts and work our way down the coast and upgrade as we go. That might actually be a safer option. Hilton Head has a population of 35-45,000 people where Savannah has almost 150,000. That means if we can find what we need in Hilton head it should theoretically be safer due to the smaller population. Come to think of it, Hilton Head is more retirement and rich people which will probably translate into less chance of gangs forming in the short term.

Alright I talked myself into it. Our goal will be a convoy to Hilton Head to check for water transport. If we find what we need, we will go down the coast in boats. If we don’t locate what we need then we will drive to Savannah. Since I have decided on the route, now I need to think about supplies, vehicles, and recruitment. I think that I will take Olivia, and Roberto with me as my scavenging and people recruitment team. That would leave Benji, Brittany and Alex for the second group. I want Tracy to stay here and work on some projects modifying the vehicles before we go.

Thinking of vehicles I want to take I better get a count real quick of people. Granny Kate, Granny Allie, Stephanie and her three kids, Jillian and Roberto with five kids, Benji, my daughter Kylie, Alex, Tracy, and Olivia and myself. Wow that is nineteen people already and we will be getting more. We need a large transport for people like a bus, but I am not sure anyone is qualified to drive one. I am sure we could figure it out, but is now really the time? I know, we can get a couple of those minibuses they use for transport around the city or for small education or sports groups. I used to drive one when I worked at a summer camp. They drove just like a large van so regular driver training should suffice. They usually hold 15 comfortably, so two of them would hold all our extra non driver people and some supplies.

So two short buses driven by Jillian and Olivia, a truck for myself, a truck for Roberto, and SUV’s with a trailer for Benji and Brittany, and Alex and Tracy. The trailer pullers need the partner in case of trouble. Roberto and I can be roaming front and back guards in the pickups. The minibuses will hold clothes and camping equipment. One trailer will be farming equipment, seeds, and everything for agriculture. The second will be generators, fuel, and tools needed. Weapons, food and water will be split between the two trucks. We should only need supplies for two weeks. If we cannot find new supplies within two week’s I don’t think our survival chances will be high. Once we get to our final destination we will start to stock up. We can add more vehicles if and when we add more people. One full tank of gas should get us to both the first and back up destination. We can scavenge gas along the way if necessary also.

What should our final destination be? I am leaning toward either Dominica or Andros Island in the Bahamas. There are other closer islands but these are the largest islands with good fresh water sources and low population. I am trying to remember my research that I have done on this. Let’s see if I remember right Dominica is small than Andros island and has around 75,000 people. Andros island is quite big and near several other islands and only has less than 10,000 people on it. If I remember right it also has a small military base, and several farms and other necessary areas already developed. We would just have to take over.

Andros island in the Bahamas it is. With a military base there will be dockage for larger ships. It has fresh water and farms. Best yet with less than 10,000 people the number of zombies we will need to clear will actually be feasible. I mean I am sure we could gather more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition in just Aiken. That means we could clear the island and have enough supplies to protect ourselves without having to scavenge extra. So anything we found on the island already would be bonus. I am sure there will be several survivors on the island also. If we show them we want to work with them and that we are good people we should be able to up our numbers significantly.

I think that our island should never get more than 200 to 300 people on it. Any more than that without technology would be too hard to govern and watch. So if we gather more people as we scavenge we can spread to the other surrounding islands with fresh water. I know there are several in the Bahamas. The Bahamas are also close enough that we can easily make it back to the coast of the United States for raiding trips in a single day, not to mention the other islands. If we manage to succeed in establishing ourselves we can also try unifying the surrounding areas. I personally think that Andros Island will be large enough for at least five to ten years.

After that time frame as the zombies start dying off I think we will find more survivors during our scavenging trips and we could invite them into our growing community or ally with them. We should run into more survivors as time goes on because all the easy scavenge places would have been emptied already. Thus forcing those that are left to compete for smaller and smaller batches of resources left over from before this all started. So to avoid some of this we should plan well for long term development and scavenge accordingly.

Idiots will go for things like money and jewelry at the beginning. That is stupid. You can’t eat either one. Priorities should be long term food until our crops become reliable. After that will be fuel and oil to last at least three to five years. Next would be batteries and battery operated machines, tools, and alternative ways to charge them. Your fancy car won’t help you if there is no gas available. However, if we can scavenge a bunch of solar, wind, and water sources for energy than we can recharge batteries for years after we run out of fuel for cars and other things. Next would be animals and boating hulls and sails. We will need animals for protein and sources of labor. Boat hulls are important because it will be a long time before anyone starts making anything other than makeshift rafts and small canoes. So if we stock pile several boats above what we need then we can replace the ones that wear out over time. Enough thinking, it is time to organize our first scavenge and search for survivors.