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First, I just want to say finding any ‘apocalypse survival’ pictures is a pain if you’re avoiding zombie stuff. At this point, I think we’re so prepared for zombies that their attack be over in minutes. Not with them winning, but humans would simply pulverize the first zombie and then several innocent people who simply woke up groggy that morning. What was this post about?
Oh yeah! Crossing Bedlam is almost here, so we’re sticking with the post-apocalyptic/disaster topic. It takes a lot to survive the Shattered States, so let’s toss a trio of questions to see what you’d do. Maybe you’ll even end up in Nebraska . . . To find out if that’s a good or bad thing, you’ll have to read the book when it comes out. 😉
- Where in the country would you try to survive or would you wander?
- What would you do for supplies? (Work, rob, scavenge, etc.)
- What thought would keep you going through the hardest times?
Legends of Windemere 
but humans would simply pulverize the first zombie and then several innocent people who simply woke up groggy that morning < haha.
1. anywhere away from hordes of people seems logical
2. surival – I'd do anything for food/water, but I'd try to be ethical
3. without internet, I guess books and good companions
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Oops. Forgot to schedule this for 10 AM.
1. That’s always the tough call. If you stay away from people then you avoid riots. Yet if you go alone, you’re doomed if you get sick or injured. There’s also that question of how can humanity rebuild if everyone is avoiding each other.
2. Does bring up the question of if someone who is highly ethical can survive in such a place.
3. Love how you mention the Internet. People would be going nuts if that went down.
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Hint: Former US Ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns used to say, “in the event of an Apocalypse, just head over to Greece. Everything happens 20 years later over there.”
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Good to know. Though how would I get there if the apocalypse took out air travel and probably sea travel? 🙂
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Ooh, good point. I’m already here, of course, so I’ll be thinking fondly of you :b
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Well if it’s anything like in my book then the rest of the world will be fine. Unless it’s really aliens.
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Alien zombies, perhaps?
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With cybernetics. 🙂
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Oh, yeah. That goes without saying.
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Firing killer tomatoes while sneaking body snatching pods under our beds with the help of DNA-spliced monsters from the future.
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Now you’re being silly. Everyone know it’s killer potatoes. Of course, you say tomatoes, I say potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes (breaks into spontaneous song)
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And that’s how the world really ends. *hides under bed*
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Ah, you, too, have been having the dreams, haven’t you?
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Not with potatoes. Jack O’Lanterns come to life.
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For me it’s the earthquakes. And the nuclear explosions. Very 80s.
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Seriously, I never have a post-apocalyptic dream. I figure it would end up being a combination of many things like war, environmental upheaval, and human stupidity.
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I’m a great believer in the power of that last one.
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I suppose I’d stay out west somewhere. I’m familiar with the back country. Scavenging would be great at first. Even canned goods don’t last forever. I’m a decent forager, so I could supplement my canned goods. Eventually, rustling would move up on the list, followed by fishing, hunting, and trapping. Survival takes a lot of effort, and my thoughts would probably be directed toward my next meal.
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Food, water, and shelter would definitely be the top, if not only, priorities. Guessing those who survive are the ones that put those above the more materialistic stuff. Not sure how most city dwellers would survive.
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1) I’d probably just end up wandering around.
2) Scavenging. To rob someone, I’d need either a weapon or to be able to take someone in a fight, and I just know I’d somehow screw up.
3) “Welp. At least this isn’t specifically my fault!”
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1. Roam wherever the nuclear winds will take you. 😉
2. I wonder how many people would die early on screwing up the thief or gun-toting maniac thing. Fiction always makes it look so easy, so you’re bound to thin the gene pool with this.
3. Love how you say specifically here.
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1. Where in the country would you try to survive or would you wander?
Ostensibly a warm place—like out West—would seem the best place. After all, a colder climate is brutal if the electricity fails. And I would assume it would fail in an apocalypse. I would hope to be near some friends out West who are survivalists. They totally know what to do!
2. What would you do for supplies? (Work, rob, scavenge, etc.)
I would scavenge and work if I could. Looting would be a last resort and only in life-threatening situations. For example, if zombies were roaming about, I might have to break into an Ace Hardware, a Target, or a hospital for some equipment or medicine. But I wouldn’t want to harm someone to do so.
3. What thought would keep you going through the hardest times?
If I survived the cataclysmic event that led to the apocalypse, I can survive this.
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1. If you have the contacts then go for it. Not sure about the electricity failing and it getting cold. Wonder if there are ways around that.
2. It’s amazing how many people have said they wouldn’t loot or hurt others. Maybe fiction has it wrong with humans turning on each other so easily.
3. Good one.
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Well, disasters tend to bring out the best and the worst in people. But when my parents’ area lost power for over a week thanks to a hurricane, the neighbors banded together and helped each other.
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I think that would happen in a lot of places. Yet I do wonder how it would go down with something that you realize is irreversible. What I mean is what would humans do if the power went out forever or things simply changed and could never be fixed? That has to bring in a new mentality.
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I think small rural towns would fare better, farming communities like in the old days. I wouldn’t want to be in a city There would probably be a clash between city folk and country folk. (More than there is now.) They’d be fighting for survival. Everybody would be suspicious of everybody else. I would like to be back in GA as it’s equally brief four seasons favor survival, even without modern technology. I’ think I would use a combination of scavenging, making my own from what I had scavenged, selling or bartering for whatever else I needed.What’s always kept me going is knowing that I am a survivor.
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This reminds me about a TV show from long ago called ‘Jericho’. It started with the USA getting attacked, so the government was undone. The focus was a small town called Jericho in Kansas where they were just finding was to survive.
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Where in the country would you try to survive or would you wander? Sorry, I can’t give away my secret bug out location.
What would you do for supplies? (Work, rob, scavenge, etc.) I would scavenge as possible, but I know myself well enough that I probably would rob in a post-apocalyptic world if that’s what it took to keep my family alive.
What thought would keep you going through the hardest times? Are my kids okay? Because if not, I honestly, I don’t know that I’d want to.
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1. Bookstore. Got it. 😀
2. I have to admit that I’d be the same. Scavenging can work for only so long before you have to start stealing the stuff you can’t make.
3. Kids are a tough one in such a situation. Especially little ones that don’t understand what’s going on.
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Oh no! You found out my secret!!! Time to move my supplies!
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I’m thinking of that old Twilight Zone episode where the guy is the only survivor of the apocalypse. So he finally has time to read without being disturbed, but his glasses break when he gets into the bookstore.
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That’s tragic! I missed a Twilight Zone episode.
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Don’t think I haven’t thought about it! We’d go to our lake house, bringing all the food and supplies from our home here in CH, plus our guns. Got fish in the lake, deer in the surrounding country, and tons of acorns to use for flour! The hardest times would be survived by sharing our lives with our neighbors and family. Have you ever tasted acorn flour?
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Never had acorn flour. Would you be able to cook and do stuff without electricity?
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Where in the country would you try to survive or would you wander? I woud hunker down on the this island. I would have to organize a protection system?
What would you do for supplies?I’m assuming the financial markets are no longer viable, so I woud set up a scrounge system based on barter.
What thought would keep you going through the hardest time? That I no longer had to worry about selling my books. I could just write them
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1. Good idea with an island.
2. Maybe you can turn the island into a bartering port.
3. True. Add them into the trades. 🙂
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LOL
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Honestly, I would stay right where I am- I grow food and I know where everything is. I definitely wouldn’t loot any place (right away, at least). If I absolutely had to, I wouldn’t be trying to get the same things as everyone else anyway- I think it would be more important to get citric acid, water, and seeds more than anything.
I would definitely be reading books to get me through the hardest times- that, and growing and mixing my own tea so that I could still drink tea.
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Those who live on a farm or in the country would definitely have an advantage over city and suburbia folk. For example, I’m not sure what citric acid would be used for. Though I’m now wondering how many people would loot electronic stores.
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I would use citric acid to preserve the food I grew in the warmer months to sustain me through the winter.
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Got it. Thanks.
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Best of luck on book sales before the apocalypse hits. I keep telling myself that if there’s an apocalypse, book sales will be the least of my worries. For some strange reason, I continue to write and hope that my books won’t be used as firewood when most of the world is toast. 🙂
Here is my disaster plan:
Where in the country would you try to survive or would you wander? I live in Florida, where I won’t have to burn my books to keep warm. . I’m not going anywhere .
What would you do for supplies? (Work, rob, scavenge, etc.) I’d find a huge clearance on gefilte fish. It has lots of protein and most of the survivors won’t want to steal it.
What thought would keep you going through the hardest times? Here are a few thoughts that would keep me going: Where the hell did I put the manual typewriter? Did I hide all the typing paper? What’s the best way to cook rat?
This probably won’t help you with your disaster plans, but you should be laughing about now. Laughter helps everything. 🙂
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That thought has crossed my mind too. Especially since I work mostly with eBooks. I’d probably be a fool and find a way to print them all out, so I have physical copies. Not to carry around, but to store somewhere or just put in the trunk of the car.
Florida definitely has the advantage of being warm. Hope everybody doesn’t flock there and the wildlife behaves itself. That and Disney doesn’t take advantage of the situation and envelope the entire state. 😉
Can’t argue with the gefilte fish. I can’t stand the smell and taste of it, which doesn’t sit well with the rest of the family.
Rat is a tough one. I’d go the Demolition Man route and make rat burgers. Should be able to find a meat grinder in an abandoned fast food place or something.
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With enough steak sauce, rat might be palatable. 🙂
Gefilte fish can also be used as a deterrent. Open the lid and take advantage of the surprise.
Lots of native Floridians (like me) despise Disney. Orlando used to be much smaller, with miles of space between Orlando and Kissimmee. Now, the sign says Kissimmee on one side and Orlando on the other.
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At least for me, it couldn’t be much worse than alligator. Tried that once and it didn’t sit well. Still think the person who talked me into it was pulling a prank.
I lived in Florida for 4.5 years, but it was the mid-2000’s. Disney had already taken over the area. Not sure when it got so big.
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okay so I would wander, survive by scaveging for supplies to begin with, probably have to give up being a vegetarian, and the thought that would keep me going. Humanity adapts, life will find a way. Yep great quote the life will find a way, from Jurassic park.
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Good quote. I always wondered how people with dietary restrictions would do in this setting. Vegetarian seems easier to maintain compared to strict vegan. At least to me.
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