You're the last human on Earth. Now what?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Inspired by the one-off/miniseries Life After People and Clarke’s Childhood’s End. One day you wake up, alone. If you have an SO or kids, their absence is the first thing that will tip you off that something is wrong. Turning on the TV or radio results in static or pre-recorded messages. The internet, where you aren’t getting 404’d, hasn’t been updated since a few hours after slipped in to a deep sleep.

You try every number you know, they all ring out. Looking outside you see deserted streets, cars left on the road where their human owners have disappeared. Your shouts meet with echoes.

You are the last human on the planet. How everyone vanished, or why you were left, is unknown - you were asleep and there’s nobody left to ask. Perhaps the Rapture happened. Perhaps a scientific experiment went horribly wrong. Perhaps aliens abducted the population. You’ll never know. There are no bodies, no zombies or monsters, humanity has simply disappeared overnight (including the astronauts).

So, what’s next for you? The internet is doomed; if you’re lucky you’ll get a day or two of electricity left. If you’re really lucky and live near a hydroelectric plant you might have months, but the servers around the world are shutting down. Within a few years, with no humans around for maintenance, the world begins to crumble, rust and become overgrown.

If you’re a female and hope that your womb will be humanity’s second chance - appreciate the sentiment, but all viable genetic material for the process has also vanished. Like it or not, humanity will die with you.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Free of all commitments, responsibilities and obligations, you experience total liberty for the first time. You can do whatever you want. But what is it you do?

Whip up some explosives and go nuts? Travel to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to set up your new home? Try and save the millions of abandoned domestic animals? Sequester yourself in deserted laboratories and try and uncover the secrets of AI, to pass along the legacy of humankind? Take a trip to the nearest gun shop and give yourself a buckshot mouthwash? Go back to the wild and live as our ancestors did?

2

I’d drive cars really, really fast all the time and go off-roading.

3

I’d start with the library, and find books on home health care. Read up on first aid. Get some pharmaceutical manuals, raid the pharmacies for antibiotics, vitamins, and such. Then I’d try to find a place to live near water, and raid the garden stores for seeds. The grocery stores would, hopefully, yield canned goods that would keep me until I could feed myself. I’d get clothes from stores, not from homes, because I couldn’t bear to think of all the pets that were trapped. I couldn’t save them all, just my own.

Why try to keep on living? Because the process that left me alone might reverse itself, or the friendly aliens would arrive, or something like that.

4

I would kill myself in a day or two, if something else doesn’t get me first.

5

Whatever the hell I want…well not true. There’d be no electricity after the hydroelectric plants shutdown for lack of maintenance…so I wouldn’t be able to play any video games.

I’d have to come up with some new things to want to do.

Probably what **Baker **said.

6

I’d find the fastest internet connection available, and start torrenting every ebook, comic, and movie I can find so that I’ll have plenty of entertainment for years to come. While all of that is downloading, I’d find a nice warehouse in as safe an area (no floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc) and fill it with non-perishable foods, clothes, tools, extra computer parts, etc.

Once that is taken care of, I’ll set up in a certain house that would be perfect. It’s near a decent sized river, so that’ll take care of my water needs. It’s also on a fairly tall hill, so floods wouldn’t be an issue. I also know enough about plumbing and electrical work that I’ll still have running water and electricity. (Solar panels, and a wind turbine would provide enough electricity.)

I’d then start farming, to ensure fresh veggies and fruits. After I’m settled in I’d get caught up on all my reading.

I’ve put some thought into this.

7

Getting hold of a petrol or diesel driven generator for personal use in your chosen abode wouldn’t be too difficult. Home solar panels and wind turbines are also becoming more common if gasoline is too tricky to get hold of. The world would be plunged into darkness, but there’s no reason you couldn’t generate yourself a bit of power for your gizmos.

8

I think I’d last about six weeks before going stark raving mad. Seriously. That sounds like a perfect vision of hell to me.

In the meantime, I’m heading to the grocery store to eat myself silly. I have no desire to prolong my life if I’m alone; might as well die with Ho-Hos on my breath.

9

What next?!

Really, I’d be the fucken happiest bastard in the world, no annoying gits to contend with, no numbnuts to pay out, no dingii feeding me bullshit, no moaning wenches to play mind games with…

and the list goes on…

I would live up to the fact that I’d be the only obnoxious selfish cunt that ever lived …let the goodtimes roll !

I’d be one HAPPY MOTHERFUCKER!!! Whoooo Hooooo!!!

10

Yes, I would be anxious, anxious for my survival. If others could go away, something could happen to me as well. With such a seemingly wide spread situation, securing traditional weapons would be useless. But first off, I can’t know that I’m the only one left. I’ll try to check that as best I can. Love to see one other person to compare notes. Was he or she as much of a sinner as I must be? After we get past that, I hope it is a good looking woman I find so we can hook up and regenerate the planet. But eventually I resign myself to self survival. Climate could be important here. Secure the best vehicle and as much fuel as possible. A large van or truck would be ideal. I could live in there for shelter on the road south if it comes to that. I’d restock on fuel along the way. First I need a mechanical pump to get fuel from the tanks. Electric pumps would work too if I could use DC or had a generator. I think I’d stay put and perfect my skills before heading out. How about food? First store up available stock that will keep-dry stuff and canned goods. Are animals still present? Good. I need guns, amo, knives, nets, salt and traps. That reminds me, I better break into the pharmacy and stock up on possible meds like pain killers and antibiotics. The van/truck is secondary. My immediate residence will be a block building I can store things, make things, and defend against intruders of the vulnerable sort.

I concentrate on getting buy for the short term. Nothing shows up on the radio. May as well leave that off now. Get past winter if this scenario is present season. When spring comes, perhaps the trip south will be in order. I’ll have better plans by then and be well along in survival mode. There won’t be any coming back. This will be a one way trip. Cabin fever will have set in big time. Perhaps I will rethink the plan and decide to remain at my home base with all the supplies and equipment. No people have showed up. Why go south if surviving the weather is possible long term here? I can cruise the area in a 50 mile zone in search of people. Nobody shows up so the trip is off for now. I lost lots of sleep waiting for the sky to fall, but it has not so now I’m good with this loner thing. Always have been anyway. You come in alone and you go out alone.

Summer has come and I need to see if I can grow something. I can till the land by had if needed or find a rototiller in some garage. The gas is going to go stale one day so I will plow up some extra that can be maintained manually later. I know of a garage where an old plow exists with a crank starter. For seeds I look at all available garden areas and the local fruit market for seed material. Bound to be squash around with seeds. If I can’t generate power I need to cut some ice from the pond and store it in a wood shed with insulation so I can preserve things.

I know I can survive. With all this free stuff around and my abundant energy, I can do pretty well. Anxiety won’t be a problem. Loss of consortium is a negative for sure.

Bottom line: This is a tremendous opportunity. I’ll be ready to start in the morning.

11

I wouldn’t want ho breath even if I was the last person on earth.

12

You’ve given me hope! I can continue my anti-social activities even when there’s no social to be anti-ing. :slight_smile:

13

We already know how that one ends. You sit down with a pile of books going “I have all the time in the world!”, then your glasses fall off and break.

14

First thing I’d do is free all the animals I could now trapped due to humanity’s disappearance. It’s not that I’m huge into animal welfare, but I just hate the idea of them all starving to death and heck it’s something interesting to do. Also, having a pack of dogs around me would take away a little of the sting of being lonely. I might regret it later but it would be kind of cool watching all the non-native species in the zoo populate North America. Who knows, maybe the chimps or gorillas I free will dominate the earth a la Planet of the Apes millions of years in the future.

Then I get in a really fast car and see that all that North and South America have to offer (no way I’m getting in a boat or plane to go see the other continents). Ultimately I’ll probably end up at some beach house on the west coast (no hurricanes) that’s close enough to what’s left of civilization to scavenge supplies and entertainment. I’ll always keep some cyanide handy just in case I get in a situation I can’t escape from.

15

Why would I only have a day or two of electricity left? It’ll be easy enough to find some portable generators and there’ll be lots of gasoline around.

16

I’d make for Scotland. Whisky galore and no one around to tell you you can’t fuck the sheep.

17

Electricity infrastructure, rather.

18

Okay, but the important thing is my dvd player and my microwave still work.

19

Better be satisfied with just North America then. There isn’t a road connection between North and South America. Google “Darien Gap.”

20

I’d imagine I’d go through some long-term, modified version of the five stages of grief:

First, possibly the longest, would be the denial. I’d try as best I could to find someone else…since I can’t fly a plane or sail a boat, I’m restricted to North America, but If I could, I’d spend months (years?) trying to find someone else…assuming I don’t die from starvation in the process. I’d try to go coast to coast, after first going south so I wouldn’t have to contend with winter.

Anger would go along with that, I’d imagine. Bargaining…eh, no one to bargain with, so skip that one.

Ahh, depression…once I’d resigned myself that, for all intents and purposes, I’m alone…I’d wallow in pity for a while then probably kill myself…honestly, I’d never make it out of this one. Might take a while to get to that point (or maybe not…maybe I’ll surprise myself and decide to end it after a week,) but I couldn’t go one without anyone else…and a few dogs would only do so much, as much as I love dogs.