The World is Dead. Now what?

I just finished reading Steven King's novel "The Stand." This book is about the end of the civilized world, the entire population is wiped out because of plague. After reading this I kept finding myself daydreaming about what I would do in this situation?

I kept coming back to the same thing. Find me a good women (yeah that's right) maybe even a couple Polygamist's?) anyway find a girl, a good dog jump into a 1970 454 Chevelle LS6 and move to a beach somewhere and start a nice quiet life somewhere.

I'm very social so I immediately saw the flaw in my plan, who am I going to drink all this free booze with and take all these free Percocets with? So my daydream shifted to find twenty or so people with my same idea and start a community down the beach. I really think I would love it, not having to work just survive.

FOCUS: what would you do if the population was wiped out and you survived? Would you dedicate yourself to help re-building the country? Or as Ballsac probably thought at least try real hard to re-populate it? Would you try and do good or tote an M-4 around and shoot at anyone who looked at you crooked?

Alt-Focus what would you miss the most? (In Kings book they eventually got power back on, so you got watch DVD's but their would be no television networks left) What would you be happy to see become extinct?

 

Focus: That beach idea sounds pretty good. I imagine, if the majority of the population perished, it would be a lot easier for me to get a teaching job. I'm sure I would have to wait a couple years for all the re-population babies to come of age.

Alt-FocusIf the world ended, I would be really happy to see reality TV die out.

 

Fuck... give me some advance warning so I can start swimming.

Focus: I figure that if anything that disastrous happens, there must be a damn good reason for it. So, I'd just sit back, enjoy the time I had left and wait. This, of course, may involve indiscriminately blowing the heads off the mutants/infected/zombies in the locality.

 

Assuming such devices have been invented at that point, and I can find them.

 

I'll be the first to admit that I am too spoiled by the fancy trappings of modern life to even think that I could be a survivor. I cant hunt, I can't skin an animal, hell, I don't even like to eat chicken on the bone (opt for boneless, skinless chicken breasts), I am a goner. Despite being pretty independent in my current life, I think I would have to be playing the helpless maiden and looking for a big strong guy to take care of me. Without that, if we are going "The Road" scenario, it would be pretty safe to say that I would just be lunch.

Alt focus - I think I would miss music the most.

 

I would go to where I'm going today anyway: my (family's) cabin. About 7 hours North of Vancouver just outside a town of less than 1,000. The lake it's on is 100% pollution free, so drinking water would never be a problem, and you can't see the house/cabin from the road or from any neighbour's place. I daresay even toytoy would like it.

Yep, I would settle in there with a big ol' bag of weed, my 12 gauge, and whole shit load of books. Man... as for the alt focus, I don't know, I'm kind of a hermit anyway, so this is sounding good as hell.

(You guys can come hang out if you need a place to take refuge. There are no rules at Joe's place! Except no diving off the side of the dock, it's too shallow.)

 

Pack up my guns (and probably pick up a few more on the way) and flyrods and head to the mountains, pillaging some libraries along the way. Find some palatial retreat on a lake some rich guy built, and settle in there. My biggest concern would be my lack of knowledge in fixing things mechanical, like when the engine on the truck craps out, but I suppose I'd have all the time in the world to learn (hence, hitting the libraries).

Or, just walk around with a sign that on the back reads, "The end is nigh!" and "Told ya so!" on the front.

 

I love thinking about situations like this, with a slightly different tinge. I imagine how difficult it would be to recreate society's technology.

Say the world ends. All you have is your knowledge and the earth. Knowing how a ICE engine works could you make one from absolute scratch? You gotta mine the metal, refine it, create tooling...

If I don't force myself to do something else like read a book, I can stay up for hours thinking about it.


Though for recreation as I'm trying to reinvent industry, all my windsurfing boards and sails will be with me at some form of body of water with good wind.

 

My home is my castle. I LOVE this place and planning on retiring/dying/living the rest of my life right here, so I'll be keeping my guns handy and the windows boarded up. If I don't know you I will shoot you. Hopefully by then I will have some sort of solar generator cooking to have some limited power.

Alt focus: The thing I will miss most? Access to professional medical care. What happens if you survive all the other shit that happens and then get acute appendicitis, or a gall bladder attack, or a mutant infection, or wind up with a compound fracture. It's amazing how fragile we really are.

 

I would spooge on as many famous landmarks as possible.

 

Not to play devils advocate there but even if you did survive you'd probably only have 7-10 days left to live until a terrible shitty death.

When everyone dies off at once, who is going to keep all the nuclear reactors running? More importantly keep the cooling pools the uranium rods sit in full. Eventually the heat from the rods will cause the water to evaporate causing a nuclear meltdown. Picture Chernobyl but with every reactor in the world.

Pretend that the reactors wont blow up, and you make up north, chances are you're going to die a shitty death in the wintertime. Sure you could kill and eat a moose everyday but without proper Vitamin C you get from eating vegetables and fruit you will get scurvy.

 

Thanks Buzz Killington. Y'know you can get vitamin c from making a tea from pine needles, right?

Honestly, I'm split on this happening. I'm a huge zombie movie fan, so I've given it some thought, and it depends on where I get caught at when it happens. If I'm stuck in DC? I'm screwed. I live in the District. My gun is back home in NC. I have a knife, but I don't really have any food stockpiled in the pantry either. The snowpocalypse was horrendous. I was stuck in the crowds trying to buy food at the last minute.

If it happens while I'm at home in NC? I'm alright. Granted, I live in Charlotte, we have more then enough supplies on hand to make it to family in the Appalachian Mountains, and we know how to get there using the back roads. My family used to travel that way before I-77 was connected to I-40, when I was a child. My father is a hard man. I doubt anything less then a nasty bite from a zombie would put the man down. He's been shot, stabbed, tortured, and left for dead before, having him around would definitely be a boost for my own confidence.

I'd look forward to separating the wheat from the chaff, and letting a lot of the extraneous bullshit of every day life simply disappear, though the downside is it would be replaced with the very harsh reality that life is hard, and surviving is hard. Procuring water, food, and a safe place to sleep at night is one of the purposes of civilized society, the other, of course, is the pursuit of booty.

Survival is simple...it's just not easy. It's a very hard life that not many of us are cut out for. I'd be willing to try my hand at it, though.

EDIT: I would try and build a small community once I got somewhere relatively safe with a stable food and water supply, and just enjoy the serenity of it all...and put a bullet in anyone who disturbed my peace.

 

For starters, you wouldn't have to wait in line for the rides at Cedar Point anymore, which would rock the shit.

I would get a beat-up looking dog with one eye and walk the country in a full-length duster and goggles while brandishing a large crossbow, just looking for zany adventures to get into.

 

This is dumb. I would probably go to any of the millions of pharmacy's that were vacant and after I got my percocets I would get some vitamin C pills, not that I would be at all afraid of scurvy. I also would be sure to leave area's close to nuclear reactors. I would vote however to kill you, if you were in my party because of negative stupid idea's.

There was a character in the book that died of a burst appendix, I would be sure to find a doctor for my little crew. I imagine you may also be able to find a couple of survivors that know how to operate the power and nuclear stations. Remember 1% of the population is alive, they can't all be bankers. It shows just how powerful knowledge in, a doctor, electrician, even a mechanic would be a hell of allot more valuable than any stock broker, CEO or financial director.

Would you still remain monogamist? Isn't it still important to keep the population going, and you don't want kids sleeping with their cousins.

 

Fixed that.

The very first thing I would do is acquire a few weapons of some kind. Preferably automatic, but I'll take what I can get initially. I can raid Wal-Mart's hunting section if need be for a few hunting rifles and knives, with as much ammo as I can stock in the back of whatever Chevy Silverado I steal off a local dealership's lot. I'll be sure to grab plenty of red meat, matches, and perhaps a blanket before heading out the door and shooting up that "alarm" when it goes off. I live near a massive Marine Corps base, so I'd break into one of the armories, steal an M-1 Abrams and all sorts of weaponry, and head for the coast. Since I'm already here, that takes care of that problem. Although I'd probably head a bit north for a more stable climate, like the Chesapeake/D.C. area.

Once I'd arrive, I'd go to the White House and take refuge in the bomb shelter that exists under there. A few trips to Cosco or whatever to stockpile on food, and I'd be set in the short-term on essentials. At that point, I'd just live out Fallout 3, going on adventures with my German Shepherd and acquiring female companions with my boyish charm (or my M-16, should the situation call for it). Seeing as how money has been rendered worthless with lack of people to pay with it, I'd provide for my new harem by hunting at the local zoo, or fishing off the coast in my new (free) boat. Did I mention women like men who like boats? I don't know dick about fishing (or driving large tanks for that matter), but luckily I have the Library of Congress at my disposal to learn such things, now that the Internet no longer exists, presumably.

Lots and lots and lots of spraypaint later, everything inside of the Beltway would be renamed after me. In my spare time, I'd go to the top of the Robington Monument and pick off pigeons with a sniper rifle. Those were in vogue in the area a few years ago, so I'd imagine it'd be easy to find one. Oh, and peeing. As long as I'm on a monument that tall, I might as well pee off the motherfucker to assert myself as dominant male of the pridelands.

Since Mister Population fucking Zero had to spoil the fun here, let's explore that road. Suppose I'm in my D.C. orgy haven, surrounded by an endless supply of free beer and miniguns, when nuclear shit begins to pollute the earth. At that point, it's just a waiting game because - wait for it - I'll be entering a ZOMBIE FUCKING APOCALYPSE! What you call severe misfortune, I call a mega fuck-ton of awesome. My girls and I will set up a strict point system for zombie killing. I'm thinking 5 points per kill, 10 points per headshot, and 20 points for double headshots. Killstreaks could potentially open up amazing rewards such as Predator Missiles and Pave Low helicopters, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. We'll keep a leaderboard posted in the Oval Office, and the person with the most points and the end of each month gets to take an Apache helicopter out and bomb the shit out of any hordes of undead wandering about. On Sundays, we'd sit on Lincoln's lap and toss Molotov cocktails at groups of them to fill the entertainment void left by NFL football. With this sudden surplus of nuclear waste, we'd be in ample supply of fuel for our homemade bombs. I'd reference the Anarchist's Cookbook for good substitutes for gasoline. No doubt the Library of Rob's Congress will carry it, or at least it WILL, once I became Grand Supreme Orgasm Mayor of Justice Fuck.

Did I mention clothing will be optional?

 

Why does everyone keep bringing up zombies?

Also most of you would not be joining my beach excursion just because of the firepower you get day one!

Rob4broncos, the population is already dead it sounds like you want to kill what's left. (That is of course if they manage to survive the post apocalyptic scurvy outbreak.)

 

Also, everyone there has a head-start. There is no civilization in the middle of Canada.

 

I'm seriously disappointed there's no zombies involved with this scenario. Everyone keeps bringing it up cause the end of mankind is just not the same without us reducing ourselves to the point of eating each other.

If I woke up and everyone's gone, I become a farmer. I'll raise live stock and 'make jokes' about fucking sheep till I find a woman. I'd get animals I don't really have to do shit to take care of, cows and such. Stock up on shells, build me a still, raise some dope and clean out some record stores. Get one of those crank phonographs and enjoy watching the crops grow listening to some vinyl. Since there's not people around to fuck things up I'd have lots of stuff to kill and eat. Get a weight set and some pornographic magazines to take care of my physical needs. I'd make sure I'm down by the beach and I'm one happy camper. Fuck, I kinda wish this would happen tomorrow. I'd also create an idiot board on cardboard boxes, writing with bits of charcoal. I'd be an admin.

RANT: Cow I slaughtered last week spoiled.
RAVE: Managed to still make enough jerky to last me a couple months out of it.
RAVE: Caught a fish, I'm eating good tonight.
RANT: Thought I saw a woman. Turned out to be a chimp that escaped the zoo with mange.

And dance on bill collectors graves.