San Luis Obispo Apocalypse Survival Guide

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A PRODUCT OF THE SAN LUIS OBISPO APOCALYPSE SURVIVAL SHOP

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PREPARING YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY FOR TOTAL ANNIHILATION

SAN LUIS OBISPO APOCALYPSE SURVIVAL GUIDE

Composed, designed, and bound by Daniel Kammerer.

Discussed and Reviewed by: Ubi Kim, Nick Pittman, Callum McKee Thanks to Max Brooks.

This book will teach you how to be ready should a national or worldwide disaster turn our balmy San Luis Obispo into an all-out apocalyptic wasteland.

We have no shortage of sources of imminent doom; terrorist threats, economy-related civil unrest, radical climate change, perhaps even nuclear warfare. The knowledge you’ll be armed with will not only be an advantage against the less-than-savory individuals you’ll encounter in this harsh world, but prepare you for long term success in the apocalypse.

CONTENTS

DEFENSE dwelling fortification

ON THE MOVE

ON THE MOVE where to scavenge, where to avoid

OFFENSE

OFFENSE preparing for the worst

DEFENSE

PREPARATION readying yourself and your home

PREPARATION

CONTENTS

PREPARATION READYING YOURSELF AND YOUR HOME

THIS TEXT ASSUMES THAT YOU ARE ALREADY EQUIPPED WITH A STANDARD SET OF DISASTER SURVIVAL GEAR.

Kits and heavy duty bags with most of the necessary equipment can be purchased in stores or online for anywhere between one hundred and thousands of dollars. This is before factoring extra rations, which will cost as much as you’re willing to buy.

A solid supply of basic agricultural materials and tools would also be prudent. This may sound like a

steep investment, but cash in a defunct bank during the apocalypse won’t feed your family. Consider a life without the complex series of modern conveniences everyone is afforded that can only possibly operate through an interconnected series of trade routes, manufacturing lines, and cheap labor. In a widespread national disaster, all of these conveniences disappear. Consider this, and spend as much as you can budget.

PREPARATION

FIRST AID

DEFENSE HOME FORTIFICATION MEASURES MOST SAN LUIS OBISPO HOMES IN GOOD REPAIR HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PROVIDE PLENTY OF DEFENSIVE CAPABILITY WITH A FEW BASIC MODIFICATIONS.

When you are first aware of a probable catastrophe breaking out in or near town, immediately contact loved ones or allies you’ve already chosen in the event of widespread disaster.

Gather everyone in your home with the following materials already procured and prepared: •

oaken planks x20-100 (depending on domicile size)

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bricks and mortar

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shovels, pickaxes, sledgehammer, extensive non-electric toolset

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10ft. steel/aluminum ladder (if two story home)

If you anticipate a long-term conflict with little hope of modern infrastructure returning, the following resources would be necessary in addition to normal household items (clothes, toiletries, etc.).

3qt. water per day (cooking and washing)

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hand operated water filter (with replacement filters)

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cistern for rainwater collection

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purification tablets

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canned food, 3x/day (includes some water)

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portable electric stove

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high-end medical kit (including field surgery gear and antibiotics)

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high-powered telescope (80x–100x)

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manual (bicycle-powered) generator

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rechargeable battery powered short-wave radio

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rechargeable battery powered lamps

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bleaching powder or lime (for latrine pit)

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50 chemical light sticks

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2–5 fire extinguishers

There are already extensive resources on disaster-time home survival, this text assumes that you own such a manual. In an apocalypse, however, it is imperative to destroy the staircase in any two story homes, and use a steel or aluminum ladder instead.

During sleeping hours, you’ll be able to hoist the ladder back up to the second floor, leaving yourself less open to ambushes from the ground floor.

DEFENSE

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TASK LIST FOR THE APOCALYPSE 1. Lock all doors and windows if they haven’t yet been fortified.

2. Turn on all bathtubs and sinks with the drains plugged. The more additional water you can stockpile, the better.

3. Destroy the stairs! (your friend Mr. Sledgehammer would love to help with this.) If you don’t have a second floor or attic, fortify your windows.

4. Create a latrine and garden if you have a back yard.

5. Use the bicycle to power your lamps and radio and to stay fit.

6. Stay vigilant, stay quiet. Watch your surroundings and monitor the radio when you can (With headphones, of course).

7. Try to start waking in the middle of your sleeps for a quick patrol. This will keep you sleeping lighter and quicker to respond to a potential threat.

8. Keep an escape route planned and a survival bag packed. If you’re ever raided in earnest, a swift retreat is preferable to dying defending your home.

OFFENSE PREPARING FOR THE WORST

PREPARING YOURSELF AND YOUR GROUP FOR A CONFLICT IS ACTUALLY FAR SIMPLER THAN PREPARING FOR LONG-TERM SURVIVAL.

Physical strength and endurance from training can help with running and fighting for long periods of time if necessary, but most fighting will be happening with firearms.

OFFENSE

A strict fitness regimen using your bicycle generator and body-weight exercises including squats, pushups and pull-ups is ideal to maintain lean physical strength. It will be nearly impossible in an apocalyptic scenario to maintain a ‘bulky’ build without ostensibly wasting food.

A basic apocalypse home armory should include: long-ranged • semi-automatic rifle, 500 rounds, telescopic sight, night scope intruder defense • shotgun, 12-gauge, 250 shells mid-range • pistol, .45 caliber, 250 rounds, laser sight, suppressor mid-range, quiet • heavy hunting crossbow, 150 bolts melee, long • longsword or katana, oil, leather, whetstone melee, short • two knives, trench spike design melee, utility • hand hatchet

Train with the firearms at a local range until you are proficient with them. You won’t have ammunition to waste when disaster falls, not to mention the noise doing so would cause.

ON THE MOVE WHERE TO SCAVENGE, WHAT TO AVOID

THOUGH YOUR HOME SHOULD BE MORE THAN READY TO DEFEND AGAINST INTRUDERS AND SET YOU UP FOR FUTURE SURVIVAL, YOU MUST PREPARE FOR VENTURES INTO TOWN.

Luckily, San Luis Obispo is not a nightmarish urban center where anarchy will be unleashed. The availability of agricultural resources and nearby water should be enough to ensure most well-prepared survivors’ safe conduct with one another for a time.

ON THE MOVE

When these resources dwindle, you must be prepared to find them wherever you can and deal with those looking in the same places.

PLANNING AND EXECUTING AN EXCURSION 1. No Distractions Stick to your predetermined goal. Don’t take side trips. Less time spent outside of your encampment is less risk of conflict.

2. Plan the Journey Use what you know about the area to plan your route. WIll there be hostile fortified locations on the way? Areas with radioactivity?

Compromise between the safest and quickest routes.

3. Small Well-Trained Groups Only take between two and four survivors on an excursion, all of which should be well versed in your group’s hand signals and trained for combat. A situation where more people are required for a conflict is best avoided entirely.

4. Stay Hidden, Stick to Cover Keep to side and small streets when you can. Dawn hours are optimal for for safe scavenging, with a good mixture of light to see your way and shadows to use to your advantage. Make sure that cover is available as often as possible; stay near barriers, pillars, parked cars.

5. Constant Vigilance Stay quiet, listen, and look. The sooner you’re aware of a threat the more time you have to respond whether alone or in a group.

WHEN YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST, YOU HAVE A FEW OPTIONS TO ENGAGE OTHERS.

If you chance to spot other survivors before they are aware of you, the safest option is not to approach and wait until they’ve left the area. If you’re in need of more hands at your settlement, you may risk calling out to them, but never do so without weapons ready. San Luis Obispo is known for its ‘happy’ populace, but in an apocalyptic scenario survivors are going to be jumpy and quick to draw.

Keep cover nearby. If they see you with your weapon already trained on them, they should surrender long enough for you to initiate a dialogue with them.

Combat and avoiding combat is dictated by minimizing risk to yourself and your settlement. Take no unnecessary risks, and never stop being vigilant.

If you don’t like how a person or group looks, if something about them unsettles you, leave them be and move in a different direction. Millions of years of evolution have instilled us with more of these primitive survival instincts than could ever be taught in a book. Use your head, but listen to your gut.

LOCAL MAP

INCLUDED HERE IS A MAP OF SAN LUIS OBISPO AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. VARIOUS POINTS OF INTEREST ARE MARKED AND BRIEFLY DESCRIBED.

The supermarkets, classrooms, and apartment structures you frequent will become contested points of interest after society’s collapse. This section includes descriptions of what resources may be found in these places as well as the dispositions of those you may find there. Scavenging locations less frequented will be mostly towards the outskirts of town, with downtown and Cal Poly projected to be the two main hubs best avoided.

Grand Avenue Most roads don’t bear any particular mention, but Grand Avenue’s length and placement makes it notable. Should any large scale assaults occur between Polys and Downtown, Grand is the widest and most direct path to march. Significant advantage is conferred to Cal Poly in a defense situation, however. The Performing Arts Center, redbrick and tower dormitories are formidable defensive structures that should deter any raiding group.

Downtown It would be difficult and inaccurate to characterize downtown with a single disposition, but more likely than not most shops will be abandoned and homes will be boarded up and quiet. Apartment buildings may band together, possibly becoming new axes of power in the area that may organize smaller households. Avoid the central areas such as Chorro, Higuera, Osos and Morro unless some specialty shop may have a particular item your group needs.

Laguna Lake Area The proximity of Food4Less and Costco make this area prime for early scavenging, but even more importantly, the Laguna area contains the only large fresh water source for many miles. Approach with extreme caution. The houses nearby should be well fortified, and it will take a well coordinated group to obtain water if the Laguna Lakers become stingy with this resource. Take care to cross Madonna Road unseen, it will most likely be patrolled heavily.

SLO County Regional Airport The local airport will be chaotic for the first few days after order breaks down. If you would seek to fortify and defend it, you must keep a watchful eye monitoring the area that can tell the rest of your group when it stands least defended. Many aspects of the airport make it an attractive defensible position, including its already standing fences, numerous sources of cover and proximity to farmable land (The vineyard to the east). Whoever controls this prize will have a large degree of influence throughout the area.

California Polytechnic State University The agriculture fields and supplies as well as its advantageous position make Cal Poly an attractive potential fortress. However, if the apocalypse occurs during any season but summer, the school will be controlled by student coalitions of those living in dormitories and on-campus apartments. Faculty and upperclassmen are advised to stay well clear.

The bonds formed between peers in their first year at university are strong, and after extended separation they may grow suspicious of outsiders. Worst case scenario would be the school’s state of society reverting to a barbaric tribal system where the ‘swole’ rule over the ‘skinnyfat’. In this situation, Poly Canyon VIllage with its wider age and knowledge range as well as strategic placement, may find itself in a position to gain absolute control over the university. Apartment complexes outside the university, such as Mustang Village, Foothill Gardens, and San Luis Village are best avoided, as they most likely will become allies or subjects of the ‘Polys’.