The Safest Places To Live During an Alien Invasion | Unveiled

The Safest Places to Live During an Alien Invasion

Hollywood movies tell us time and again that humanity can defeat aliens in an invasion scenario. No matter the odds, we so often seem to come out on top. But how realistic is that? If an extraterrestrial species with advanced technology really were to try to take our planet, the chances of winning in a straight-up fight seem slim in real life. If all else fails, then, where on Earth could you run and hide?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re taking a closer look at some of the safest places to live during an alien invasion.

So much of today’s topic depends on the capabilities of the aliens that are hypothetically invading us, and the strategies they use. In general, though, since they’d have arrived here from some far-off world, we can reasonably guess that they’d have far greater technology than we do. It’s not hard to imagine, either, that they might attack Earth from space, seeing as they’d be so much more comfortable up there than we would be. It isn’t even yet 100 years since humanity first went to space, so we’d be seriously behind any hypothetical overlord that arrived from the stars. That said, at the beginning of the invasion perhaps it would still be best to avoid getting caught close to regions and facilities known to be significant in our early space travel efforts - parts of the US, Russia, or China, for example - as these could be early targets for aggressive ETs.

But what happens when that first wave is over? What to do next? So many apocalypse stories involve survivors heading underground… and with good reason. Heading even to just the basement (rather than the first floor) of your (or another’s) home would offer better protection against potential explosions… against anything that’s potentially falling from the sky… and against getting caught atop a building that quickly collapses. You should also have a better chance of avoiding potential radiation spread by alien weapons, too. Initially, at least.

Perhaps staying in your own home wouldn’t be the best idea, though, as it would cut you off from the rest of your community… who’d also be fleeing in terror, yes, but could provide strength in numbers. Heading for an underground structure, then, like a subway station might be a better option. Although, really, sheltering in anything that’s manmade would never be suitable for the long term, assuming that an invading force would target these places first of all, sure as they would be that humans would congregate there.

No, when it comes to underground boltholes, the best places would be somewhere that humans don’t often use, and somewhere that’s far away from obviously populated regions. Caves are the simplest answer, being isolated and therefore more likely protected from the first attacks on cities. And there’s plenty of precedent already set in the real world, too… with show caves in Missouri, for example, once designated as official fallout shelters by the U.S. government, during the Cold War. Many of Earth’s cave systems also aren’t fully mapped and cataloged, meaning that any alien force with access to our information wouldn’t have so great an advantage. There’s still thermal imaging to think about, and any other advanced tech that an alien might have… but, still. Other cave locales of note include the spectacular Son Doong Cave in Vietnam, which is massive and has plenty of plants growing inside of it for food. Or Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, US, which still isn’t fully explored, even by us.

Having access to food and water would, of course, be vital to surviving an alien event… and therefore forests are another potential hiding place. Quite apart from the food they naturally provide, dense enough forests and woodlands can also protect from overhead surveillance. It’s perhaps little wonder, then, that “hide in the woods” was the highest scoring option other than “keep moving” during a 2020 poll conducted by geeknative.com, which asked participants “where would you go to survive an alien invasion?”. It just makes a lot of sense.

The ideal forest would be one with a river running through it, and plenty of wildlife for food. If you happened to find a forest with a cave, as well, to sleep in… even better! In general, living or hiding somewhere where you can “live off the land” would likely be a better strategy than relying on abandoned grocery stores to restock supplies. Forget the movies, because these will quickly run out, and could more easily be monitored. Beneath a canopy of trees, however, you’re much freer to roam. Forests, like cave systems, are more likely to force an invading alien group to explore (and hunt) on foot, too, which is another reason why it could make sense to run for the trees. There aren’t any security cameras there, so they couldn’t be hacked to track you, either. As long as you ditch your phone and smartwatch, you should be much more difficult to trace. Prime safe spots would now include, then, the Amazon Rainforest, of course… or the East Australian Temperate Forests, if you find yourself on the other side of our post-apocalypse world.

Maybe surviving in the wilderness full stop isn’t your strong suit, however. Still, all’s not lost if you head to the general countryside, instead. Again, you’d be far from densely populated areas, and hopefully you’d also be a distance from important, space-related locations… and from famous landmarks. While the world’s most recognised cities would likely fall first, in a bid by alien attackers to rob humanity of hope, most predictions of an ET apocalypse feature thriving rural communities. Dedicated and determined villages, and plucky rural towns. Bands of survivors converting old barns, churches, village halls and schools into crucial bases to hide people, but also to try to build some means of counterattack from.

The best countryside locations would also be the most isolated ones, far away from most of the rest of the population. In some ways, there is a similar mode of thinking when governments plot where to build military or top-secret bases in the real world. They want them as far from prying eyes as possible, which is why they so often turn up right next to tiny or even abandoned towns. In America, then, you’d want to live (or head to) the least populated and the least densely populated states, with many of the central states nearing the top of that list. Elsewhere, anywhere that for whatever reason was uninhabited before the alien invasion might be worth considering. Our planet’s abandoned sites have almost always been left to decay for a reason… but they’d arguably be the last places that a malevolent alien would think to look. Although finding food and water sources in such places could be difficult!

But finally, and thinking much more theoretically, where would really be the ideal place to live on Earth, if aliens ever were to come calling? How about the bottom of the ocean in a submarine or underwater city? It might sound far-fetched, but there are theories that some of the world’s militaries already have secret bases underwater. And that there are plans in the future to expand to underwater cities. We certainly know of some early examples, including established underwater hotels offering rooms submerged by the sea… but, also, we have a growing history of underwater habitats specifically built for scientific study. Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelfs One, Two and Three were arguably the most famous, built in the 1960s… but we’ve also seen SEALAB One, Two and Three… and operating today there’s the Aquarius Reef Base frequently used by NASA.

Humans have famously explored very little of our own oceans, so perhaps here would be the best place to rush to… to try and wait out an alien occupation. Again, there’d be no cameras or tracking tech for our invaders to hack into, we’d have plentiful food from the ocean itself, and we’d have protection from most weapons that could be launched toward us from the sky. Indeed, the oceans, from an invading alien’s point-of-view, could well represent quite a mystery… so perhaps we’d be best to just wrap ourselves up in them! If our ocean tech were sufficiently advanced, it might even be possible to monitor the invasion of our planet, without actually being spotted ourselves.

Alas, underwater bunkers aren’t exactly freely available to us at the moment. But, until such time as they are, there are still some places that are better than others, when it comes to trying to outrun ETs. And, if you were building a house with alien evasion specifically in mind, then best head to the countryside, find yourself a forest, locate a cave within that forest, and start planning the ultimate safe spot. If you could draw up plans for a personal submarine in the meantime, then you’d really be one step ahead. because those are the safest places to live during an alien invasion.