Apocalypse: What would you do

[Susan]

I love apocalyptic movies, and sometimes they get me thinking of logical things. Like in "The Stand", they just hop on motercycles and go cross country. But, if a car hasn't been started in a certain amount of time, doesn't the battery die? I would probably prefer to use the same vehicle, but then comes the question of gas. I'd have to figure out how to syphon it from other cars. Not only that but if you were going on a cross country trip you would have to plan accordingly for breakdowns in the middle of nowhere. I watched "I am legend" again last nite and there were some things that just didn't make sense to me on the second viewing. Is it safe 5 years later to eat spam? I'd be afraid of botulism, canned food does have a shelf life. So i thought it might be fun to have you list YOUR end of the world survival skills.

It's 1 year after what appears to be, the entire population of the world is killed off by virus or aliens (lol):

1. Would you go to look for survivors, if so, where? This is a good psychological question because you aren't questioning where others would go, but where others would think everyone might go. It could be a risky plan. You would also have to plan accordingly with the season, nobody wants to go to colorado in the winter.

2. If you chose to stay put and possibly go on living life alone, what type of life would you establish for yourself? What would be the home or place that you would live, or woud you simply move from home to home around the city? If you would rather live in a dwelling more in the country - specify

3. What would be the necessary supplies, including for back-up plans? What would be some unusual supplies or things you might gather or build?

4. Mode of travel? How would you overcome obsticals such as breakdowns or running out of gas, risking possibly dying in the middle of nowhere? Would you take chances on a motorcycle that could unexpectedly crash and have you with major injuries?

5. Where would you take refuge if on the road?

6. A city is big, woud you attempt to open communication to let others know of your presence, if so, how?

7. Food. Woud you rely on the canned supplies of what may be left. Also consider if you are travelling on a motercycle you would not have room to store such food so you'd have to work on an assumption that you could readily find thi food. Or would you hunt? Hunting isn't easy, nor is learning how to properly handle the meat.

8.  Would you spend any time at the library gathering books, if so what type of books would you be collecting?

9. Would you seek out a pet? Knowing that if humans died, their pets probably starved in shelters and in homes or tied up in backyards? The only remaining might be hard to find or aggressive.

10. Would the rules/laws still apply, or would you become a bad guy?

And finally, what woudl be your one guity pleasure knowing you had the entire city to yourself? drive around the baddest cars, go to the mall, what?

[Jack]

I'd find a nice place out in the country, well off the beaten path, with good fields of fire in every direction so nobody could sneak up on me.  First thing to get would be a generator, I'm sure there'd be a good selection in the deserted hardware stores.  Then a vehicle, I'd go with a nice 4 wheel drive pickup or SUV.  Heck, might as well get a luxury SUV.  And I'd get a brand new Mustang.  For food, I'd have a small dairy farm, butcher a cow every once in a while for meat.  I'd have to go to the library and get a book on butchering.  Guess it wouldn't matter too much, it's not like I'd be worrying about fully utilizing the animals or anything.  For gas I'd use my big pickup to get a large above ground tank, probably several of them, and I'd need a pump to suck the gas up from the underground tanks at the gas stations.  I'd install a good alarm system in the house, and try to rig up some sort of trip wires around the property.  And I'd have a nice selection of firearms and gigantic supplies of ammo. 

For entertainment, well, all CDs and DVDs are free now.  Maybe I'd install that top-of-the-line home entertainment system I've always wanted.  I'd have my cat to keep me company of course.  Too bad about the wife and kids, Que sera sera as they say.  After a while I imagine I'd get bored.  Maybe I'd start exploring around the local area in my pickup. 

As far as good guy or bad guy, hey, I'd try to be nice.  But if I ran into a few nasty people, well, I'm heavily armed and have very little conscience. 

Hmmm...yup, that about covers it. 

[CheezeFlixz]

First off, even gas has a shelf life and begins to break down and looses octane. So before all the gas goes bad I'd collect everything I needed to survive long term. So while a generator, motorcycle, truck will work for a while it's not a long term solution. Having grown up on a farm and having a farm now I'm not to worried about how to survive. Most of the stuff like butchering, bleeding, smoking, curing etc I already know. However Propane and Natural Gas do not go bad very first and likely will still be good in industrial storage, you can fill portable tanks and use it for stoves, heat or propane powered generators. I'd still set up for water powered, wind powered and solar powered energy supplies. Gathering these supplies might take some doing as I'm guessing UPS will not be running.

So I'd find a place with a year round running stream and collect the equipment needed to build a water power generator. I'd also make sure I was near a source of fish and game. Even canned foods begin to go bad in a couple or so years.
I also find a place you could have a good garden and and sunlight and install solar panels too. I'd have some horses to pull plows, wagons and ride. Fence it off and raise meat too, chickens, hogs, cattle, sheep etc. I'd build a green house they'd be plenty of free glass to have year round fresh veggies.

I'd be well armed, for hunting and protection. As far as books go, most of the books I currently own would be fine. Foxfire series, building, chemistry etc. I'd raid a hospital for medical supplies and the like.

I don't know if I'd look for others or not, the planet is a big place and the likelihood of finding a hand full of survivors would be slim. Perhaps with the electrical power I clime a radio tower and place some colored flashing lights the people could see at night if anyone was out there, without city lights it'd be easy to see for many, many miles around.

Overall I wouldn't to to worried, I feel fairly secure in my skills. I would have a few dogs, likely Rottweilers as I've always had those and they are very alert. They're good for killing zombies.

As far as law goes ... to quote Judge Dredd "I am da law!"

The main thing is fresh water, steady food supply and shelter, the rest is bonus.

[Jack]

Come to think of it, in post-apocalyptic times, you could probably just get a semi truck full of gas or propane.  As far as octane, I suppose you could get some aviation fuel from an airport or something.

[CheezeFlixz]

Come to think of it, in post-apocalyptic times, you could probably just get a semi truck full of gas or propane.  As far as octane, I suppose you could get some aviation fuel from an airport or something.

Gas will last a while, a few years at most it get weaker with every passing year. True the higher octane jet fuel will last a little longer, but another thing you need to think about is moisture. This will build up in setting tanks. Another option is building your own still and make ethanol and moonshine.

Micro Hydro power is the way to go, I think as it's 24, 7, 365 power ... provided the water source is reliable.

Here are some basics ..
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_hydro.html

The upside to the events Susan proposed is that it's a event that would take place over time and not instantly and you would have a little time to track down the supplies you'd need while things little the internet still work. And during the anarchy and panic you could get a head start.

I live near the New Madrid fault line and while it is unlikely it will give and cause widespread destruction anytime soon, I'm so far out in the booners we'd be the last to be restored services, we're setup to off the grid for a while if needed. Even ice storms will kills our power for several days. The ice storm we had a few year ago our power was off over a month, but a built in propane generator kept things going.  So as the boy scouts say "Always be prepared."   

But to save time with all that you could just find this place and go there ...
Ready made ..
http://survivalproperty.com/secure_home_amenities.htm

[Patient7]

I would pick my self up the pimpest car I could find, fill it with gas and twinkies (they never spoil) drive up to Chicago, figure out how to broadcast over the radio from the library, send as many distress signals as possible.  Grab as many guns as I can, move into a penthouse apartment and do whatever I feel like doing until people come in.  I'd probably become lonley after a while, but I'll live out my days having as much fun as possible.

[Newt]

The area I am in has a lot of greenhouse operations - small and large.  There are plenty of dairy farms as well; most of which have backup generators in place.  Orchards and vineyards abound.  The soil is also ideal for market gardening and field crops such as corn.  And it is common to have your own gas well for heating etc.  Water wells are less common - but there are some (we  have one).  We are near enough to major bodies of water and there are lots of streams and bush so fishing is do-able and the deer, turkey, duck and rabbit are plentiful.

I can garden and preserve vegetables and fruit.  I have dogs and horses.  Several farms around here have horse-drawn equipment for field work and trucks with propane tanks.  Assuming the area is not wiped out in whatever apocalypse it happened to be (we are quite near some major population centres): it might just come down to choosing the most suitable setup available and moving in, scavenging the rest of what I need.

[odinn7]

Ever see Road Warrior?

Yeah...that'd be me....

[Scott]

This has been one of my favorite subjects over the years as I have been a fringe survivalist for a long time.

There is so much to consider when talking about an Apocalypse. You will have over 6 Million people trying to do the same thing if any of them survived. You won't be able to use the roads because they will be full of others trying to get away.

People are weak. We are accustom to eyeglasses, medication for the common cold, regular meals (fast food at that), a place to sleep, clean water, and even entertainment. Forget about it. Most are now enslaved to this beast we call civilization.

You would need protection. You wouldn't be able to be a sole survivalist (especially with a family) in an Apocalyptic world. You would eventually have to become part of a much larger group (tribe) for protection and basic needs.

You wouldn't be able to have little farms for yourself as tribes would find them and ravage them. You would have to join them, pay tribute to them if growing food in the Apocalypse enable one to do so. Your other options would be to die at the hands of those you take your food and supplies.

If you have a family and are a responsible person you would have to find a group eventually and endure what ever horrors await.

It would be best to become a religious and prepare for death. A martyrs death. This is my final conclusion after a couple decades of thinking on the subject.

We're just strangers and pilgrims on this planet awaiting the Glory of God.

There are different scenarios depending on the extremes of the Apocalypse.
 

[Susan]

Wow, really good answers here with different reactions.

Jack - Tempting to watch movies for the rest of my life..lol Literaly i'd get bored of not having anyone to share my opinions with tho. You've butchered a cow? That would scare me because I saw a guy butcher a deer once and said it's not easy because you have to know the internal organs as if you don't properly remove them you can contaminate the meat with just one drop of urine.

Cheeze - just be sure you keep those tanks far away from your farm..lol Solar panels are a great idea, i'm not handy so i wouldn't even know the first thing to do in getting that set up or even where to get them. Yeah, my scenario does take place over time because that is a more likely scenario. This also means that because of the "panic", lots of necessities have already been bought up or stored because of fear of leaving the house or town or how long the situation could go on. This presents a challenge when particularly finding needed supplies including food.

Patient7- LOL! I have to admit i'm going to have to at least enjoy myself for a week with a trip to the mall and trying out different cars.

Conan - you are right. While we think we have survival skills we really don't. We've become a culture that has become spoiled and half of us don't even know how to grow food, only where to buy it. It's not as easy as just plunking something into the ground.  Remind me not to hang out in your camp tho, the people who become fanatically religious in the movies always wind up killing everyone else as a sacrifice? ;-)

I've always thought the first thing I would do with signs of a crisis is stock up on all the vegetable seeds I could from the nursery. After that stock up on stuff that has a long shelf life - popcorn can go for a couple of years, rice is good. But you've got to start off right away learning how to grow your own food because i would eventually grow scared of eating any canned goods i might find, those likely to have more protein source. I live in texas, and i've heard peanuts grow here although they are a pain to harvest. I have NO idea how you begin peanut planting, if it's just as easy as putting peanuts into the ground, i doubt it. You'd also have to learn how to save seeds from the things you do grow, so certain books on gardening at the library would just become a must.

The thing is, i wouldn't start all this on a serious level right away. I would store stuff and prepare but my first instinct would be to find others. This actually poses a greater danger for a woman in such conditions, however I ultimately believe that we are a very social species and suffer without the needed protection and companionship of others. Not to mention trying to find enough people where you might have those with different skills and knowledge that would be of benefit in thi situation - particularly a doctor or nurse. i don't think i could just live alone forever, knowing that we should try to survive as a species, I also wouldn't want to die alone.

So, that means going out and finding people. That also means arming myself and probably shaving my head..lol  Where would people go to find other people? I Would imagine places like new york are out, too far of a drive, and i bet would be congested with traffic or road blocks. that leaves other big landmark places - washington, perhaps the CDC but who thinks of that. It might depend on the situation or last blips heard on the tv about camps and such. It's too bad we don't have a nationa plan in place that goes something like "Hey, if the world ever ends and you need to find other survivors, everybody meet up in topeka kansas at the truck stop cafe" lol I would leave signs on major highways spraypaintd large, maybe on overpasses stating my journey or destination. Or maybe if i stay close to home indicating that every month on the 1st i will be at "such and such" location. I might leave obvious signs to draw their attention like huge american flags you see at the car dealerships along the higway overpass so they wouldn't pass it up thinking it was graffiti

We would need medicines, unfortunately what little there may be left and the shelf life going. This means you'd have to locate books on natural medicinal care - because we don't know how to grow antibiotics. I wonder if you could preserve them in cold temperatures longer. This means being extremely careful in EVERYTHING you do. There are no more tetanus shots, infections could spread and go into your blood and kill you. this is why people died young back in those early days, because life was hard. You got up before the sunrose and after the sun went down you stopped working because farming and doing all the things entailed in keeping yourself alive is hard work. I would hopefuly try and locate chickens, the problem being that post-apocalypse you can bet the ones in the mass chicken farms are dead so the only way to find any might be going out to the country and hoping to catch some wild ones - that would be a stab in the dark. But chickens produce a lot of eggs, this is great protein.

I guess to say it's not like the movies. You can only relay on what civilization leaves behind for so long before you have to take survival into your own hands by learning about cultivation and hunting and to be honest i think that you just need other people to make it easier and make it work. I don't wanna be walking in the woods and slip into a hole and can't get out an dnobody knows where i am and i die in that hole.

[Scott]

Remind me not to hang out in your camp tho, the people who become fanatically religious in the movies always wind up killing everyone else as a sacrifice? ;-)

You don't have to be a fanatic or belong to a group to die a martyrs death. To be a martyr is simply to die for your chosen faith. Everyone has their own belief system whether they decide to die for God or not. Everything is religion. You are living and dying by your religion right now. Everyone is indeed a type of martyr. Whatever you are living for then you are also dying for it. 

Nice post by the way. Now for the bore worms ! ! !    

[Killer Bees]

This is a great topic!  My son and I are avid fans of apocalyptic movies and we often discuss a contingency plan should anything happen.  I'll try and answer the questions in order.

1.  I'm assuming that my son and I survived together.  I wouldn't necessarily look for survivors beyond my own family.  My sister and her fiance live about 20 mins walk away from me, so I'd head over there when it was safe to do so.  This is depending on what kind of disaster befell the earth and what kind of creatures were left standing (I Am Legend, Day of the Dead, 28 Days Later or just something like the Black Plague with a 90% mortality rate etc). 

2.  I would stay where I am, I think, although I would move to higher ground.  I'm on top of a hill right now, so I would probably take over an apartment on the top floor of the building so I could have a wider view of the world.  However, across the valley from me on the opposite hillside is a huge old timber home, what they call "Queenslanders" in this part of the world.  And it has a verandah around the whole house.  So I might move there instead.

3.  I'd scavenge for a generator to at least supply power.  We have a temperate climate, so I don't have to worry about snowy winters or anything like that.  But I do enjoy the comforts of a refrigerator and microwave for cooking food.  It would be safer than having to light fires all the time and attract attention.

I'd definitely be raiding KMart and the like for veggie seeds to start a garden.  You can only eat canned food for so long and it does go bad.  I'd probably find a 4WD or truck of some kind and fortify it in case I need to venture out in the world.  A motorbike or moped are good for quick trips.  I'd also figure out where I need to go on a regular basis (eg shopping malls, etc) and make up safe houses with supplies in each in case I get stranded by killer zombies and have to hide away for a few days.  Weapons - guns, knives, bows and arrows, traps, walkie talkies, etc would also have to be collected.  Although in our non-gun culture, I'd have the devil of a time actually trying to find a gun store.

4.  Mode of travel.  Kit out a few different types of vehicles with food supplies, first aid kits, emergency repair kits etc, depending on where I need to go.  Dressing up in safety gear, crash helmets, knee and elbow pads, biker boots, thick motorcyle jackets etc would be standard clothing any time I ventured out.  And a fully prepared backpack with weapons.  Of course, it's not possible to prepare for every emergency, but you can try.

5.  Taking refuge on the road wouldn't be an issue if I decided to stay in town.  I wouldn't need to move from my city because there's enough supplies to last me for the rest of my life.

6.  In my city, I would put huge hand painted signs in various places giving them the address of where I am.  Anyone who is mentally and physically in tact would be able to find their way to me.  Also, the constant radio broadcast like on 28 Days Later and I Am Legend is a good idea.

7.  Food.  Canned, of course.  Endless bottles of water for drinking and cooking, plus some kind of water filtration system for bathing.    But supplies like baby wipes, etc would do for basic personal hygiene for a while.  We don't get heaps of rain, like Seattle or London do, so in the middle of summer it might be a problem.  But nearly every house here has a water tank because of the drought we had in the last few years.  So that would work for watering a garden.  Plus with no more pollution, I think the world would revert to regular downpours pretty quickly, say, within a year.  I'd start a garden for food and we'd have to become vegetarians, which wouldn't bother me, but my son would be unhappy  *lol*  Imagine, no more KFC!

I wouldn't hunt.  There's nothing around here anyway and I don't like the thought of having to kill a live animal and then skin it with all that blood.  It's easier to be a vego.

8.  I would raid all the bookstores I could find, especially the Borders in the city.  I'd be especially interested in natural gardening books, permaculture and companion planting, etc.  Also books on how to build survival shelters, rig up generators, food canning, etc.  I'd be a little upset that I wouldn't be able to get all the books I want, once the internet and postal service become obsolete.  But I think with the stores and the public library, I'd have heaps to read.  I'd also raid the craft stores to buy more fabric for making clothes and knitting for making extra afghans and sweaters etc.  This would come in handy if any other survivors came around and had nothing.  Then there's a walkman with batteries for CDs.  So Tori Amos's legacy wouldn't disappear completely off the face of the earth.

9.  I wouldn't seek out a pet.  They are just a drain on resources and you can't control them.  I wouldn't want my dog to inadvertenly lead any of the undead back to my place.  Also, I'm assuming that no disaster is 100% fatal, so I wouldn't be the only one alive.  There is always someone else out there, even if it's not family.

10.  I would have no trouble enforcing my own brand of law:  things like maiming, killing, raping, torture etc is not acceptable.  I'd have no trouble shooting dead any bastard that tried to do that to me.  Also, anyone who gets infected gets a bullet to the brain straight away.  Good manners and civility must continue if more than 2 people are to live together in harmony.  A strict set of rules to be agreed upon with multiple people as well:  no stupid risks taken.  All safety and security rules to be followed at all times.  Nobody goes anywhere alone - ever.  Loaded weapons and survival kits to be on your person at all times.  And it would have to be survival of the fittest:  anyone really old and slow or infirm, physically disabled people, the very young who don't understand what "be quiet!" means would have to be abandoned.  It's a harsh law, but one that needs to be followed for everyone to survive.  You can't run from a zombie if you're blind or a paraplegic.

[indianasmith]

Can I assume that Anne Hathaway might also survive said apocalypse, and need a protector?

[CheezeFlixz]

Can I assume that Anne Hathaway might also survive said apocalypse, and need a protector?

You may assume that and you may also assume she'll be at Camp Cheezeflixz post-apocalyptic Compound for Unemployed Starlets and Nudist Colony.

[akiratubo]

I'm going to be realistic.  There is no chance for my survival past a week, if even that.

I would be dead within 3-7 days of dehydration or starvation.