It’s in the North. Unless you’re from the North, then it’s in the East. Well if, like me, you’re in the Northeast, it’s in Canada or out West. Maybe down south in Florida.
Wherever it may be, it’s a vague and general direction far from where you currently are. There’s someone in your party who wants desperately to go there. It’s the brand new Promised Land where fast food and hot showers still exist, who wouldn’t want to go there? A Smarty Pants is who.
Just like weight loss pills that not only work but also won’t eventually blow your heart up or destroy your metabolism, it doesn’t exist. Never wholly at least.
There might be a camp that’s secure and they have food and running water, but they also rape for fun and use children as slave labor. Alternatively, they have democratic form of government that includes capital punishment. For everything.
Really, you’re probably better off going back to MegaCorp and toiling away at your cubical and hoping they don’t need a new test subject for the vaccine they’re totally sure might work this time if they could just figure out the dosage.
New societies born out of fear and lack of authority are intrinsically and fatally flawed. The fact that people would stay because they’re scared or desperate is reason number one for people to not stay. They’re taking their security out of their own hands and putting it not into the hands of a qualified and just authority, but simply someone bigger, stronger, and better resourced.
What are they getting in return for keeping you safe and warm and well fed? Unfortunately, they’ve already taken care of all those needs for themselves so you’ll need to think outside the box in your trade.
When you and your band of misfits arrives at the door to Camp Hope or just some place made safe by others, what are you going to offer them to persuade them to let you in? What would you want in exchange for making your safe space a little more vulnerable, your food supplies a bit more sparse and that spacious comfort a little more crowded and smelly?
However, this isn’t about you. You can’t take care of yourself without help. This is about the band of convicts who escaped from Statesville Penitentiary with weapons. They made a stop at that military base you saw ransacked and took all the MRE’s. Oh, that blood bath at the local Wal-Mart, that was them too.
Nevertheless, they definitely have beds and showers Bobby assures you as he licks his lips, baring grime-encrusted teeth.
Maybe, Camp Hope isn’t exactly what the legends made it out to be. Maybe it was that burning elementary school you passed on the way and this is just some other place.
The fine folks at MegaCorp just wants to keep you comfortable until they need another subject to infect set of hands to help on this project.
My suggestion? Go towards real resources and well thought out plans with the expectation of never meeting up with any new people. Once the mail situation and the roads go to shit, so does the concept of “My House” and “The Capital”. We have what’s left over, which is Here and There. Here we know. Everything between Here and There could be anything.
Tips:
1. Carry your own weapon. Otherwise, you’re pretty much just a hostage and no one’s around to pay any ransom.
2. Don’t walk all the way from New York to California because someone said there might be something there. Unless you just really need something to do…
3. Don’t confuse the illusion of safety with actual safety.
Reference:
If I’ve learned anything from computer games, it’s that any civilisations you hear of that isn’t the one you are in, isn’t very likely to be as good as it sounds.