Survival Guide

Building Emergency Guide

Remain indoors. Lock all doors and windows. Avoid contact with anyone behaving violently. Do not travel. Further instructions will follow.

1. Store water before the taps stop. Empty containers are useful supplies. Fill every bucket and bottle while the water still runs.
2. Count tomorrow's food before eating extra today. Smaller portions have lasting stamina costs.
3. Listen before opening a door. Check the peephole, then keep a retreat path.
4. Noise travels. Running, falls, dropped metal, dragging furniture and radios can bring attention.
5. A radio heard through headphones is safer than a loud speaker. Turn equipment off when finished.
6. Treat collected water. Clear-looking water is not automatically clean.
7. Repair defences before sleeping. A lock alone will not hold a crowd.
8. Do not carry more than you can escape with. Put heavy containers down before climbing.
9. Keep flame away from fabric. Use the marked ventilated cooking station.
10. Mark routes and keep an alternative way home.
11. Check who is asking for help. Look for evidence and choose how much risk to take.
12. Return before exhaustion turns a manageable encounter into a disaster.

Written in later

• Pigeons avoid a disturbed roof. Noise and bright light scare them away for a while.
• A roof tank is a finite reserve. Once the riser is open, the taps run slowly until it is empty - fill every container while it lasts.
• A safe room still needs secured access. Every door and vent into it counts.
• A closed fire door reduces sound and movement.
• A running generator attracts attention.
• The building's water and power are gone for good. Only stored, collected or traded water remains.
• The bathroom vent is a second way out. Crouch to move. Buckets, boards and furniture will not fit.
• Open containers on the balcony collect rain. Rainwater is untreated: use tablets or boil it before drinking.
• Listen low, listen at 19:00. North Relay broadcasts every evening. A loud radio is heard through the whole flat and the corridor; a radio can also be left on as a lure.
• Furniture braced against a closed door holds far better. A chair can jam the handle; the couch can be pushed to the marked spot.
• Roof barrels catch far more rain than a balcony bucket. Only on the marked open points; barrel water is untreated.
• Seedlings need about a litre of water every two days. Fast greens are ready in about six days; dry soil stops them growing.
• Raw meat must be cooked before eating. Cook only at the marked open-air station on the roof; cooked food keeps three days.
• A storm tips over anything loose on the roof. Brace barrels with a board or bring them in. Thunder covers noise.
• Repair the door the way Arthur showed you. Board across the frame, screwed into the studs: +45 instead of +30.
• Keep opened food sealed and off the floor. Clean water only for wounds; change a dressing every two days.
• A secured route still costs time. Nora's way between Floor 10 and the ground floor takes about 40 minutes each way. Hunger and thirst keep counting, and it can't be taken with something chasing you.
• The basement cistern is the last big reserve. It never refills. Its water is untreated - boil or treat it.
• A generator charges batteries - and calls them. Every run burns fuel that won't come back, and the noise carries through the garage.
• The handcart hauls for you. Whatever stands on the cart pad at one end of Nora's route arrives at the other with you.
• A latched fire door keeps smoke out as well as the infected. Repaired doors pay off twice.
• One paper doesn't make the whole story. Logs, work orders and what survivors saw - put them together before you judge someone.