Would Lancaster Castle Actually Survive a Zombie Apocalypse?

Short answer: I think so.

When I decided to send the survivors in What Falls to Us to Lancaster Castle, I had to start thinking about something I had never previously given much consideration to: how good are zombies at conducting a siege?

As it turns out, probably not very good.

There is a reason castles were difficult to attack. High walls, limited entrances and very solid doors are all quite useful when the thing trying to kill you isn't particularly bright.

Your average zombie isn't going to coordinate with the others to ram a gate. They're not going to build siege engines or think to bring ladders. They're certainly not going to sit down and work out the best way to cut off your supply lines.

They also don't have a supply chain of their own.

Historically, besieging a castle wasn't simply a matter of surrounding it and waiting. The attacking force needed food, water and supplies too. An army could potentially starve out the people inside, but it had to sustain itself long enough to do it.

Zombies don't have quite the same logistical problems, but they're also not capable of planning a months-long siege.

All of which created a slight problem for me.

I'd put my characters somewhere designed specifically to keep large numbers of hostile people out, and then I needed to make an attack on it genuinely threatening.

The main advantage the Driven have in What Falls to Us is numbers. There are just so many of them.

One or two at the bottom of a castle wall aren't much of a problem. Hundreds are more concerning. Once you have enough bodies pressing towards the same place, the question becomes less about whether any individual Driven is clever enough to get inside and more about whether the people defending the castle can possibly keep all of them out.

So I did quite a bit of research into castle sieges while writing those sections of the book. Is everything that happens completely historically and structurally accurate? No.

But I did try to make the situation plausible within the rules of the world.

And, ultimately, I think Lancaster Castle would be a pretty good place to be during a zombie apocalypse.

Assuming you could get inside.

Assuming you had enough food.

Assuming everyone inside made sensible decisions.

Unfortunately, anyone who has read What Falls to Us will know that last one might be the biggest problem.

Because for all the effort I put into working out how the Driven could threaten a castle, human error was always the much bigger threat.