History Main / SurvivalistStash

* ''Film/TheDecline'' is about a group of survivalists on a training exercise at a camp in Northern Quebec. Alain, the CrazySurvivalist who owns the place, has stashes of supplies hidden in the surrounding woods as well as at his cabin. When the different groups of survivors start fighting and chasing one another through the woods, they raid the containers for supplies and weapons.

* The subterranean bomb shelter in ''Film/TheRoad'', stocked with food and high-quality booze.

* In [[Creator/NKJemisin N.K. Jemisin's]] ''Literature/TheBrokenEarthTrilogy'' trilogy, every established human community has at least one of these, as part of the RagnarokProofing instructions commanded by quasi-religious stonelore. It is justified due to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Father Earth being angry]] and unpredictably triggering the global catalysms known as Fifth Seasons. During a Season, comms go under martial law to protect their storecaches from one another - and comms sending people on suicide missions to recover supplies from other stashes is an established practice (otherwise, they will resort to cannibalism).

* Robert Wayne Atkins created emergency food supply lasting one year. The author also mentions that it takes a lot of room to store that amount.
* There have been many instances of people surviving disasters by finding and taking other people's survival supplies. In common law systems, this is covered under the "necessity defense" - effectively, you can be excused for stealing something if you needed it to survive an emergency. But the defense does not cover hurting anyone or taking more than you need.

* In [[Creator/NKJemisin N.K. Jemisin's]] ''The Broken Earth'' trilogy, every established human community has at least one of these, as part of the RagnarokProofing instructions commanded by quasi-religious stonelore. It is justified due to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Father Earth being angry]] and unpredictably triggering the global catalysms known as Fifth Seasons. During a Season, comms go under martial law to protect their storecaches from one another - and comms sending people on suicide missions to recover supplies from other stashes is an established practice (otherwise, they will resort to cannibalism).

* ''Film/TheDecline" is about a group of survivalists on a training exercise at a camp in Northern Quebec. Alain, the CrazySurvivalist who owns the place, has stashes of supplies hidden in the surrounding woods as well as at his cabin. When the different groups of survivors start fighting and chasing one another through the woods, they raid the containers for supplies and weapons.

* ''Literature/TheRoad'' by Cormac Mccarthy. The creator of the bunker is dead.

* Similarly, both ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' games, since most levels begin and end in a saferoom stocked with guns, ammunition, and medical supplies. There's also one in The Sacrifice's comic.

* Dale Gribble from ''WesternAnimation/{{King of the Hill}}'' is incredibly paranoid and thus believes many doomsday predictions. During the Y2K episode, it was revealed he was hiding mass amounts of Mountain Dew. [[PlayedForLaughs His pet gerbil floods the basement with the dew and ruins any possible situations from this set up.]] Ends up that the Y2K never happened, so a {{subversion}} of an aborted trope.

It's TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, or at least whatever small part of it the protagonist used to live in, and in the ensuing chaos our worn down, desperate and starving heroes [[HiddenSupplies stumble upon]] a Survivalist's Stash. It seems someone was CrazyPrepared enough to assemble a shelter, bunker, or some other refuge with all the essentials. Food, water, electricity, first aid, and ''good old guns!''

The heroes [[ALightInTheDistance will marvel at their good fortune]], and lament the {{irony}} that the person responsible for this gift died without being able to use it. Or did they?

Much like ''Literature/GoldilocksAndTheThreeBears'', they may be trespassing into a very {{crazy survivalist}}'s home [[ExploringTheEvilLair without realizing it!]] Odds are even that they'll manage to defuse the following armed confrontation, though they may end up being chased out or having to kill the survivalist in self defense.

** The Fuji ship (the 8th Fuji) was a ship-shelter for part of humanity, filled with everything to keep their survival going, but also filled to the brim with lots and lots of guns. It also functions [[spoiler: as a vertical launch for rockets, including a nuclear blaster, to hit all of Japan in case things look completely hopeless without a chance to restore itself over there]], although it luckily has a turn-off switch for this. You can [[GunNut guess]] [[KillEmAll how things]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation ended]] for them.

* ''TabletopGame/TheMorrowProject'' adventure ''Prime Base''. The title installation has everything a Morrow Project team could want, if they can figure out how to make it operational.

* Discussed, invoked and ultimately deconstructed in ''Literature/ThePostman''. The original stashes were things worth searching and killing for. Meaning that all the preppers, with their one-man bunkers and fortified homesteads, were the ''target'' of other groups of survivalists, with the vicious cycle of raids and new owners going for as long as the content of each stash lasted. Whatever supplies that are still around to be found by the time of the story proper is set are really ''well'' hidden (and usually [[WorthlessYellowRocks just useless stuff]], too), or simply suspicious enough to be left behind - at one point Gordon, the main character, leaves behind a perfectly fine jar of preserves, because for whatever reason all the previous scavengers going through that basement over past decade left it and Gordon isn't willing to risk finding out ''why''.

* ''Literature/TheRoad'' by Cormac Mccarthy. The creator of the bunker is dead.

* The heroes in Creator/StephenKing's ZombieApocalypse novel ''Literature/{{Cell}}'' loot the home of the neighborhood gun-enthusiast for weapons and ammunition.
* Prior to the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Waterless Flood]], the God's Gardeners in ''The Year of the Flood'' are encouraged to build and maintain "Ararats", basically food stores meant to enable them to survive the apocalypse. [[spoiler: Given the nature of the [[ThePlague Flood]] when it does come, the Ararats don't do most of the Gardeners much good]].

* in the ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' series, it turns out that Lord Ruler had made a number of these [[spoiler: specifically in case of his defeat]]. They come in real useful when the shit hits the fan in the third book.
* The Stockpiles in ''{{Literature/Deathlands}}'' are the US government's version of these; unfortunately there's [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt no more United States left]]. IntrepidMerchant The Trader has become quite wealthy and powerful in this ScavengerWorld due to his ability to locate these hidden government stashes.
* Naturally ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Survivalist_(novel_series) The Survivalist]]'' (the action-adventure series by Jerry Ahern) had the title character's excessively well-equipped bunker. It does take him some time to reach it though, and a lot more time to find his family and get them there as well.
* In [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/NKJemisin N.K. Jemisin's]] ''The Broken Earth'' trilogy, every established human community has at least one of these, as part of the RagnarokProofing instructions commanded by quasi-religious stonelore. It is justified due to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Father Earth being angry]] and unpredictably triggering the global catalysms known as Fifth Seasons. During a Season, comms go under martial law to protect their storecaches from one another - and comms sending people on suicide missions to recover supplies from other stashes is an established practice (otherwise, they will resort to cannibalism).

* One way the protagonist of ''Literature/IAmLegend'' survives as long as he does is by finding stashes collected by other, failed survivors.

* ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes:'' During the second Universo story arc, the Legion has been outlawed and everyone on Earth turned against them by the mind-controlling villain. All their resources have been stripped away. Good thing they just happen to stumble across one of [[{{Superman}} Lex Luthor's]] old hideaways, still fully stocked and [[RagnarokProofing functional after a thousand years.]]

* Naturally ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Survivalist_(novel_series) The Survivalist]]'' (the action-adventure series by Jerry Ahern) had this trope UpToEleven with the title character's excessively well-equipped bunker. It does take him some time to reach it though, and a lot more time to find his family and get them there as well.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}:'' During the second Universo story arc, the Legion has been outlawed and everyone on Earth turned against them by the mind-controlling villain. All their resources have been stripped away. Good thing they just happen to stumble across one of [[{{Superman}} Lex Luthor's]] old hideaways, still fully stocked and [[RagnarokProofing functional after a thousand years.]]

* Dale Gribble from ''WesternAnimation/{{King of the Hill}}'' is incredibly paranoid and thus believes many doomsday predictions. During the Y2K episode, it was revealed he was hiding mass amounts Mountain Dew. [[PlayedForLaughs His pet gerbil floods the basement with the dew and ruins any possible situations from this set up.]] Ends up that the Y2K never happened, so a {{subversion}} of an aborted trope.

* Done in the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Sky Pirates!'', when the heroes are stuck on an ice planet. Not a survivalists' bunker, though, but a stash left by arctic explorers.

* ''TheMorrowProject'' adventure ''Prime Base''. The title installation has everything a Morrow Project team could want, if they can figure out how to make it operational.
* ''BattleTech'' has Brian Caches, massive, hidden structures (often built into mountains) on numerous planets across the Inner Sphere that were built by the Star League. Three centuries after the Star League collapsed, Brian Caches are still massively valuable treasure troves filled with military equipment that can be powered up and used with minimal effect, making them sought after by pretty much everyone.

* Naturally ''The Survivalist'' (the action-adventures series by Jerry Ahern) had this trope UpToEleven with the title character's excessively well-equipped bunker. It does take him some time to reach it though, and a lot more time to find his family and get them there as well.