Fortified Holds

Fortified Holds
It is recognized that outposts cannot protect the entire population of a district. In order to supplement this niche, fortified holds are constructed in their thousands. Fortified holds are instances of heavily-fortified areas that can house and actively protect up to 50 inhabitants and provide food for until a week. Fortified holds are differentiated from shelters in that the inside population is actively fighting any attackers that come within range, and they are also set apart from outposts in terms of scale, relative to the outpost of the hold's district. It is noted that some fortified holds are larger than some outposts.

Engineering and design principles
Fortified holds are built like mini-fortresses. It often requires a substantial amount of force to successfully compromise a fortified hold. Some holds are separated into sections, allowing the locking down of compromised sections, much like how many ships' hulls are compartmentalized in order to prevent water from further pouring in. Other holds are as simple as a fortified convenience store.

Holds normally have fire ports that allow its occupants to shoot at incoming attackers. However, fire ports at street level are proven to be quite useless after a while due to the simple fact that the bodies start to pile up very fast. In light of this, street-level fire ports are often co-utilised with melee weaponry, most notably spears (many guardsmen regard chainsaws as pretty useless). Sometimes, a small hole is bored near the top of the wall, large enough for a grenade (or other explosive) to fit through. Many defenders utilise these holes by attaching a grenade to the end of a wooden pole. After pulling the pin and releasing the spoon, the pole is quickly poked into the hole, with the grenade stuck on its end. With almost the whole length of the pole through the hole, the grenade would explode in mid-air, essentially improvising an airburst explosive and maximizing its effectiveness. Other times, however, an improvised flamethrower is used through this hole. These are only some of the creative defensive techniques improvised by guardsmen and hunters over the years, but majority of the holds still utilise a most basic feature: sniper nests. Ironically, the "snipers" that man these positions normally perform fully-automatic fire, as the density of the horde is often justifiable enough for the use of what was once considered a very potent ammunition-wasting mode.

Famous fortified holds
One of the most famous fortified holds is Director-6's home. Although he claims that it's just his house, many regard it as an impermeable membrane in District 3. Despite having only one defending occupant, the structure still manages to repel any sort of attack, even without its defending occupant. It has survived multiple sustained Shadow attacks, and has suffered numerous bullet holes to its facade (this, by far, is the most extensive damage done to structure, post-outbreak).

Outpost 1 was regarded by some as a fortified hold, up until the point that Director-1 fortified and extended it so much that it became a monument to the pinnacle of post-outbreak construction and engineering. During the outbreak, it was only slightly modified, with 1" marine plywood used to line the perimeter to prevent some of the more advanced forms from climbing it, effectively making Outpost 1 only a "fortified hold" because of its limited capacity and defense capability. Only 2 years after the outbreak, remote-controlled sentry emplacements line the perimeter of a wall built around the outpost, effectively extending the reaches of the outpost. Add to that the numerous guardsmen that patrol the area of influence of the outpost, as well as the incendiary weapons located on Outpost 1's roof.

There is also the 7/11 store located near the fringes of Outpost 6. As it is widely known, the most dangerous and diverse strains of the outbreak can be found right near the fringes of Outpost 6. The 7/11 store sells and barters food, ammunition, weapons, armor, tools, maps and other general merchandise to any passers-by that happens upon it. It is serviced by its original 6 employees (including 2 janitors), now 6 members of Badass Consolidated. A complex early-warning system prompts these badasses to temporarily close the store. Closing the store involves turning off all lights, locking all doors, and securing these doors with heavy-duty, 3-inch thick steel doors (it is not necessary to secure the windows, as these already have 4-inch "plates" bolted onto them already). The final step to closing down is to switch the electronic message board from "open" to "closed: horde incoming". Four employees man the various defensive emplacements in the store, while two others (the janitors) keep on the lookout for Shadows and darkangels, as well as other unknown strains. The 7/11 store is known to have an approximate kill record of 102,000+ infected since its operation. Director-6 is also known to visit this store while on administrative vacation.