In one of the great episodes of any show, survivalist Bill emerges from his house to find his town deserted, and everyone gone because of the zombie fungus outbreak. He couldn’t hide the surprise, nor elation on his face, as he had been preparing for this for a long while.
In order to prepare like Bill, you will need:
A large house
The house used in the Last of Us was fictional and built on a set. It’s supposed to be a stately home somewhere in Lincoln, MA and looks to have at least five bedrooms. In reality, a mini mansion with a sliver of land in that town will cost around $2 million.
For that amount, you can purchase acres more land replete with a home on it, as broken down in my ideal places to purchase land for a homestead.
Basement saferoom
Bill’s safe room is located in his basement, featuring a concealed entrance disguised like a wooden chest. Inside, he’s got his surveillance monitors, desktop computer, workshop, and his armory.
Armory
Bill’s got a whole suite of weapons and ammo in his basement safe room. We see him carrying a shotgun, possibly a Remington 870, when emerging from his house.
Electrified fence
Bill’s original fence was sturdy enough to keep out the occasional stray infected, but after the raiders tried to infiltrate his compound, Bill and Frank fortified it with old cars.
Booby traps
Bill had fixed trip-wires attached to shotguns and flamethrowers to retard potential invaders and the infected.
Surveillance / CCTVs
In the real world, in addition to surveillance cameras, doorbell cameras like Ring work quite well as a first line of alert.
Survival vehicle
Bill owns a handy Chevrolet S10, a compact pick-up truck produced in the 1980s until the mid-2000s, that he uses to haul fuel and supplies to his compound. You can purchase an S10 to be your survival truck for less than $10k.
Diesel standby generator
This looks like a diesel-powered 10,000+ KW generator.
There are plenty of standby generators available for the home that run on propane or natural gas. But getting a generator that runs on diesel, while more expensive initially, is better for a number of critical reasons.
• Cost. Propane costs roughly 80% more than diesel
• Efficiency. This is also a cost. Diesel provides 50% more energy per unit
• Storage cost. A large propane tank will cost 50% or more than a similarly sized diesel tank as it is stored under pressure
• Accessibility. Propane needs to be delivered by the propane gas company – inconvenient at best or impossible at worst in a SHTF situation. Diesel can be filled up at the gas station
• Durability. Diesel generators and engines tend to be longer lasting and more reliable than other types of engines
In addition to a backup diesel generator, in a SHTF situation where you’d like to keep a low profile, a properly outfitted solar generator can produce as much energy and operates silently.
Vegetable plot and greenhouse
Bill’s got a vegetable plot, berry patch and a greenhouse on his property. The nutrients from home grown produce are essential to stay healthy and satisfied.
Chicken coop
Chickens are incredible for regularly providing eggs. Most hens lay an egg a day and will do so for six or seven years. And they’ll eat pests from your veggie and fruit plots – natural insecticide. You can have a three egg omelette every day with three chickens.
Meat locker
In this scene, we see Bill processing and butchering a kill that looks to be deer, probably from around his homestead. As this is Bill we’re talking about, I would expect the room to be properly chilled.
Wine cellar
Bill shatters the stereotype of survivalists preferring only ice-cold pints of Sam Adams and shots of Jack by showcasing a sophisticated palate during his first dinner with Frank, where he opens a bottle of Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages to pair with sauteed rabbit.
That vintage of Beaujolais is purportedly a hard-to-locate 2002, but that particular producer’s current vintages of Beaujolais Villages are very affordable at $13 or so, which makes for a daily drinker.
Louis Jadot also produces high-quality 1er Cru and Grand Cru bourgognes which sell for much higher prices. Since it was Bill’s first dinner with Frank, I’m sure he thought it was premature to open one of those.
While enjoying what looks to be a sauteed medallion of venison early in the episode, Frank pairs that with a Caymus Vineyards cabernet sauvignon. We saw him raid the wine store for those bottles. A current vintage of 2021 goes for about $75. The reserve Caymus wines are much more exclusive and expensive.
Bill seemed to have plenty of wine, as three years later he’s still opening decent bottles. In his and Frank’s final dinner together, they open a bottle of Col D’Orcia Brunello di Motalcino, perhaps a 2018 or 2019 vintage judging by the label ($35). If he didn’t drink his entire stash, he could use the rest of the booze for barter.