I’m watching BBC’s Survivors on Netflix mostly because I’m tired of zombies. I read The Stand way back when I was 12, and I’ve long wondered what it would be like to live through an event that took the human population from over 7 billion to 250 million or less. No supernatural stuff or sci-fi that links it all together – just a random plague. That’s still a huge amount of people, but spread over the globe, running into other survivors would be pretty rare even if you were actively seeking them out. Or would it? If 95% of Chicagoans died that would still leave nearly 3000 people. So, after you bury your loved ones and nearly drink yourself to death out of grief and survivor’s guilt, what would you do? Where would you go?
I’d be tempted to keep my head down for a year. I’d try to be stealthy and low profile and just take care of myself. Let all the other survivors panic and tear into each other, then hopefully that period would pass and I could find some decent people (though decent people seem less likely to survive). I’d probably make my way south in order to escape a harsh winter, but at the same time, I could easily find a northernly farmhouse with a wood burning stove. And canned food would still be good for a few years worth of winters. Honestly, I would be really indecisive for a long time.
My math on Chicago was way off. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s closer to 150k survivors at 95%. At a survival rate of a tenth of a percent it’s under 3k.
I live in rural Maine, in a pretty sparsely populated area. This is not the place to be alone in winter, although there would be plenty of already chopped firewood available for a couple of years. None the less, first thing I’m doing is heading south. I really don’t know exactly what I’d do, other than try to get away from all the rotting corpses and find someplace warm to set up a farm. My main concern is going to be fuel, which will eventually turn bad. I guess I’d need to find some guns to defend myself, but I would be looking for friends right away–most things are easier with an extra set of hands.
If 1 person in 20 has survived, I’ve surely got some friends and relatives left. I think I’d try to find them first off. That might be harder than I think, though, depending on how much infrastucture is still functional, which would likely depend on how quickly the 95% died off and what society did to prepare for the aftermath. Assuming a mass e-mail saying “Is anybody out there?” was not an option, I’d likely spend my days traveling to friends and family’s homes in search of surviving loved ones. Even if I never found any, at the very least it would give me some sense of purpose.
I’m 50, morbidly obese, and have a few minor health problems that leave me weak & uncomfortable most of the time. I also have no survivor skills of any kind. I might be able to scavenge food & other supplies from near by liquor stores, but that won’t last long as I expect the city to go up in flames pretty quickly, if not from the panic/rioting as people die, then due to the lack of people (firefighters).
Of course I don’t much care about living now, how much less so if I don’t have kitten videos & Minecraft to distract me.
Of course the anxiety of such a situation would reign for years. There will be looters and plunderers for sure so self protection and alliances would be helpful. But think of all the "stuff"sitting around that the dead can’t use. How will it be apportioned? Will it all be stolen by those with capability? Will little armies of raging folks roam the landscape?
I think of it as a tremendous opportunity to secure the present and move forward. Oh, yes, I would like to get as much information about what caused this pandemic and how to not be part of it. Because if it’s still in process, I would opt for more of a lone survival where people won’t be able to infect me if that’s possible.
I say meet a situation straight on and look for a path.
My whole life, I have wished for this sort of an event.
I always said that if I had the button that would break the vial, or whatever, I would like to think I would do it, even with no guarantees that I would be a survivor. Not to blow up the planet, or kill the biosphere, etc- just to reduce the human population by a huge margin- at least 90%, but more preferably 95%- or even 98-99% still leaves 700,000 people, and seven hundred thousand people isn’t a tiny number, although it is small for the planet.
Of course, after I became a father, any pretentions that I might risk the kiddos, or even myself as a guardian of those kiddos- became a stupid thing I said as a young adult, immature and stupid.
Much as I love Canada, I have no interest in trying to re-create how my ancestors lived here without a gas-powered furnace. My first move is heading south, too - all of us northern Dopers should designate a meet-up place.
Nice username/post combo.
One per cent of 7 billion is 70 million - that seems like a nice number for survival of the human race on Planet Earth.
I live within walking distance of multiple salmon streams, and as much as the weather sucks, I think I would want to stay within walking distance of salmon streams. You can collect 80% of your entire yearly food supply in less than a month.
This is what I would have said before I got pregnant. Now, I’d try to survive to the point that I could give the kid to someone who does have actual survival skills. I don’t think my chances of making it that long are very good, and I think I would wish I was dead almost every waking minute of every day, but I’d try.
I don’t think well on my feet, though. I couldn’t even figure out what to do when the problem was “the rice cooker says the rice is finished cooking, but it’s nowhere near soft”. Fortunately, Mr. Neville was there to tell me that I could put more water in and start the rice cooker again (I had no idea you could do that, it had simply never occurred to me). So I don’t see this going at all well for me.
Probably get away from the cities, first thing. I’d have to give some thought to where to live. There are a lot of nuclear plants, chemical plants, fuel storage sites and such out there that require tender, loving maintenance from human beings. I don’t want to be near one when it fails and dumps its nastiness into the local environment. I guess, generally speaking, that I’ll be another one heading for where the winters aren’t quite so brutal.
With 5% of the population still around, people should begin forming up into groups fairly quickly. It will be a time when strongmen will want to start bossing others. I do not see myself as a strongman, nor one of his thugs, nor one of his “subjects.” I may elect to live a life of solitude.
Depends on how the depopulation was distributed. Any plague is going to wipe out some areas completely and leave others untouched. If I survive, it is likely that my wife will make it too. At that point we band together with the other survivors in our area and start saving what we can of civilization.
Bear in mind that, generally, if you are somewhere that the winters are not brutal you have normally exchanged it for someplace that the spring and summer are. Either somewhere with nasty storms or oppressive heat. Best to make plans to stay mobile.
First thing I’m doing is driving over to my brother’s place (well, driving a bit, hit a traffic jam, find lead car, remove corpse, continue driving, repeat as necessary).
I rag on him for being an overly-paranoid “the gummint is gonna take our guns!” survivalist-type, but in this situation, I want to be on his land. Hopefully he’s another one of the lucky ones, but if not, he has an arsenal for me to practice with.
I came in here to say that. Haven’t read the book, but the movie paints a compelling picture of a father trying to assure his son’s survival in the face of the near-extinction of humanity, and their struggle between being absolutely selfish (to the point of incivility toward all others) in pursuing that goal and doing small things to nurture a sense of civilization.
A lot of people would very likely be crazy, due to the isolation and losing all their friends and family. There would also probably be a non-zero number of sociopaths and criminals out for blood. It’d be a dangerous world.
I distinctly remember in Asimov’s Nightfall the description of a 10 year old who cheerily skipped up, humming, to a guy and his traveling companion. She stabbed one of them to death, then continued skipping and humming on her way. In the face of this kind of mental instability in the surviving population, it’s either join up with a large, regulated, militant group or die (you don’t think they’re going to leave you alone if you try to go the lone wolf route, do you?). You NEED their protection, or your supplies are going to get raided and you’re going to be murdered.
I wouldn’t expect myself to survive a pandemic as such, but *if *I did, I’d try to show the newly-formed local militia that I’d be an asset because of my intellect.