The Post-Collapse Realities of Your Survival LocationI wanted to put a few thoughts out there about the realities of your survival location. To read what is out there in terms of opinion and advice, it appears that to survive any coming apocalypse you need to be in a fortified self-sustaining retreat somewhere out in the boonies, with three years of food in the basement and the ability to grow food plus animals. Everything depends on the situation and the threat that emerges, including your own personal and family situation and preparations. One key thing is not to make assumptions now, but to remain flexible. My advice is not to head for the hills by reflex, because unless you have somewhere to go you will be out there with the rest of the refugees in the chaos. If you even have a minimal amount of preparations at home you should shelter in place and make do the best you can. This should be a low-profile shelter in a place where you set yourself up to draw minimum attention to yourself as the waves of chaos pass. You may be sheltering in a basement with your family, for example. I think that there are two main things that you have to achieve, phases if you like, in order to survive in the long term: 1) Have enough stores, firearms, tactical ability and numbers if possible, as well as a covert location in order to survive the event and the initial chaos and disorder. This is a short- to medium-term goal. 2) Long term, you will need to be able to live in a protected sustainable community. All prepper stores will run out in the end, and the only solution to survive and thrive is to be able to produce food and protect your people and your resources. So, unless you started in a sustainable protected retreat, you will have to survive where you are until such time arrives when you can safely get to one. Remember that in a full TEOTWAWKI scenario there will be mass panic and chaos as people try to find food and survive. There will be a huge population die-off, and there will likely be a delay of a year or two before food can be produced. So, if you survived the event and were not already in that ideal retreat, you then have to move. Did you hide and protect your bug out vehicle with a supply of stored gas? Are you going to have to walk, or use other modes of transport? The key thing is that your group will have to make it to somewhere where they can be accepted by a current sustainable community, or move onto land where they can create one. This will involve travel of some sort and also the ability to defend yourselves while moving from point A to B. If it is true TEOTWAWKI, then it could go on for years and you may have to travel to establish a farm somewhere. If you are going to be taken in by a community or small town that is sustaining itself, then you have to show your worth in some way. So, regardless of your level of preparation, it is never too late to learn the skills necessary for a post-collapse world. Max Velocity is an author, trainer, and operator of the website Max Velocity Tactical, providing tactical training and consultancy services for those preparing for disaster survival and high threat, protection and combat operations. His book Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survivalcovers the subject matter in the article above, which Max derived from years of experience gained from service with special operations forces. For those who are fully squared away on the prepping side, his book: Rapid Fire! Tactics for High Threat, Protection and Combat Operationsomits mention of prepping, and expands on tactics. 