I just saw a post on Reddit that asked what would you do if you woke up and 99.9% of the human population was gone.
Are there many stories like that here I've read a couple and was wondering if there were more
I just saw a post on Reddit that asked what would you do if you woke up and 99.9% of the human population was gone.
Are there many stories like that here I've read a couple and was wondering if there were more
There are a LOT out there! Some great, some good, some meh lol. Hope this helps. Enjoy!
There's 314 when searching by tag "post-apocalypse"
https://storiesonline.net/stories/bytag/post-apocalypse
and 407 when doing a category search using "Post Apocalypse"
https://storiesonline.net/library/categ.php?key%5B%5D=PostApoc&storyType=&contRate%5B%5D=0&lib=&rf=&ff=&vf=&ex=&author=&fa=&score=&minSize=&maxSize=&p=&sf=story_name&so=asc&lc=AND&cmd=Search
I just saw a post on Reddit that asked what would you do if you woke up and 99.9% of the human population was gone.
This would leave still eight million humans here alive.
what I would do heavily depends on the circumstances.
• 'gone' how?
Died over night? Eight billion carcasses left to rot?
Or just disappeared without anyone of the remaining knowing what happened?
• How are those remaining eight millions distributed? Evenly according to the density of the original population?
Or clustered in some areas?
• age and gender distribution? Same as original or heavily changed (e.g. all men in prime age – 25 to 55 – gone)?
• How about animals? Similar affected? Domesticated animals getting feral or dying from lack of TLC?
This is a wide range of post-apocalyptic scenarios, which do you prefer?
Then there are those scenarios (pandemic or nuclear decimation of the population over days or weeks) which will only fit the clause "if you woke up" when you wake-up from a longer coma.
HM.
The Reddit post was they were just gone no bodies left behind
I believe they said they were as evenly distributed as the population ie big cities had more survors and it was 0.1% of all ages
Animals were unaffected
The Ark — a series by REP
https://storiesonline.net/series/1542/the-ark
https://storiesonline.net/a/REP
Echoes in Time — a series by Sea-Life
https://storiesonline.net/series/639/echoes-in-time
https://storiesonline.net/a/SeaLife
Initium Novum by Guillermo42
https://storiesonline.net/s/67714/initium-novum
https://storiesonline.net/a/Guillermo42
1 of the first stories I read on SOL - Al Steiners'" Aftermath". It was concluded just before I started working overseas...
https://storiesonline.net/s/34601/aftermath
One of the best on the site.
Very well written and plotted. In my opinion it cried out for a sequel or additional stories as part of a universe.
The only nit I had with it due to nerdy adhd is the comet needed a second name according to protocol, the original observer and the second confirming sighting... lol I need a life :)
A couple more for ya. Getting By and Getting Ahead in the Phoenicia Universe by Shakes Peer2B
https://storiesonline.net/universe/354/phoenicia
The Rescued by Itemreader
https://storiesonline.net/s/51220/the-rescued
An alien space craft accidentally crashes into the Earth at FTL speeds, killing almost everyone.
The aliens use detailed brain scans and cloning to "resurrect" a limited number of people in a facility the aliens build on Mars. Later they find actual survivors (submarine crews).
No problem. Some stories just aren't for everyone. You didn't put any restrictions in the OP so I put that in the list anyway.
I'm not the OP. I posted suggestions for the OP marwood2013
All good and FINALLY Messi won a World Cup! Congrats to Messi and Argentina!
Whenever I imagine this scenerio, I always think about what most stories in this theme forget. With that high a number suddenly, missing, what about all the critical items left unattended. The nuclear power plants, chemical processes, steel mills, inflight aircraft, ships and vehicles. The pipelines, utilities and medical centers. There would be fires, toxic spills, radiation, no utilities would work for long, even water and sewer (forced pumped mains) communication would break down. You name it. Most fiction around this premise is too neat and tidy. People living in their lonely towns, working lights and now spreading fires. Too neat.
In the "Survivor" British TV series there was time to shut down power plants and such, the problem was that after 4,999 of each 5000 people died there was nobody with the knowledge to restart them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series)
there was nobody with the knowledge to restart them.
Really?
Perhaps my perspective is different, because I grew up in the Pacific Northwest; as well as knowledge about Western Canada, and Alaska.
Hydroelectric power generation, in particular for small communities and even individual farms or homes are a thing. In recent decades, wind power or solar energy for off grid families and small communities are practical.
Even in larger facilities there are manuals (key info printed on the equipment). Warships and commercial ships are similar. I have done some stuff to restore power after an incident, and I am basically a Grunt.
Standard operating, starting up, and shutting down, even basic maintenance are doable by a person with an 8th grade reading level and some common sense. Of course, mistakes could occur.
Crisis, or the need to eventually replace key components would likely be problematic.
It is quite possible to create a small electrical generator using hand tools and raw materials. Repurpousing a vehicle alternator, using hydro, wind, or steam, for power, and smaller power lines for distribution.
Using LED bulbs you reduce power requirements and they last a decade or more.
Maintenance of a technology level = 1860 to 1900 should be possible. While maintaining writing and pictures of higher levels of technology, thus facilitating eventually rebuilding. Similar to how monasteries preserved knowledge through the Dark Ages.
Using LED bulbs you reduce power requirements and they last a decade or more.
The LED lightbulb in my bathroom claimed a life expectancy of 10 years at a usage greater than mine. It lasted just over two years.
Always take predictions by electrical manufacturers with a bushel of salt :-(
AJ
The LED lightbulb in my bathroom claimed a life expectancy of 10 years at a usage greater than mine. It lasted just over two years.
Always take predictions by electrical manufacturers with a bushel of salt :-(
True, on the other hand, I have one of the early led bulbs that must be running for over 9 years now. The thing is, it's always on. I think it's been off/on 4 times in all those years. I'm not sure if it goes for the LED lights too but I once read that it's not the burning hours but the number of times on/off that degrade light bulbs.
I'm not sure if it goes for the LED lights too but I once read that it's not the burning hours but the number of times on/off that degrade light bulbs.
I don't know about the latest and greatest modern LEDs, but that's been true for fluorescents for years. You turn them on and leave them on. At the old house, I used to get about five years out of the 8' bulbs in the garage. We had a couple of those stupid curly bulbs in lights that we turned on and other than when the power totally failed, never turned off. They lasted for almost a decade.
Plus, it's not like there's not going to be a crap load of them on store shelves or simply IN lighting fixtures, anyway. It's called salvage at that point.
the number of times on/off that degrade light bulbs
I switched the light on/off significantly fewer times per day than they stated :-(
AJ
In the "Survivor" British TV series there was time to shut down power plants and such, the problem was that after 4,999 of each 5000 people died there was nobody with the knowledge to restart them
Back then (1975) the controlling systems were crude and required permanent human control and intervention. Minicomputers capable of Real-Time reaction to sensor data were extremely expensive. PLCs were back then a new technology, the first PLC, the Modicon 084, was invented for General Motors in 1968.
Nowadays you could probably run those systems without qualified humans present for weeks or months as long as there is electricity for the computers and motors and nothing breaks down. There might be limitations on how long these systems can run unattended, imposed by dead-man-switches and similar software fail-safes (e.g. operator logon time-limit of 12 hours).
On the other hand low utilization may stretch the availability of some services like water and natural gas, while electric power generation by steam-driven turbines and large generators might need more consumption to run properly than the few survivors can provide. Depending on their cycle nuclear power plants may last longer than systems burning coal, oil or gas. In all cases the few survivors may be unable to provide the necessary maintenance (oiling, greasing, replacing worn parts,...) reducing the lifetime of the systems.
Another problem are the (unaffected) animals. While cats gone feral are no big problem for the survivors, feral dogs can become a serious problem. Large predators kept in zoos etc. should not be released. How to cope with farm animals? Release them? Yes if it's a moderate number, but 10,000 hens or some thousand turkeys, some thousand pigs, hundreds of cows or thousands of sheep? Burden the few humans with tending them? How many of the survivors know how to butcher?(that can be learned by trial and error and there are enough to try on).
Just a word about deep frozen foods: the "Best Before" dates are calculated for storage at -18°C while the producers does the deep-freezing and the storage afterwards below -40°C. Those really deep temperatures increase shelf life tremendously. The machinery of these warehouses probably fails earlier than the proper stored food becomes inedible.
HM.
Another problem are the (unaffected) animals. While cats gone feral are no big problem for the survivors, feral dogs can become a serious problem. Large predators kept in zoos etc. should not be released.
I'll play!
One person left out of every 5,000 leaves 240 here in the OKC metro. Since we're not talking actual zombie apocalypse where the survivors are having to fight over a million undead, then it's not much of a problem.
Feral cats and dog packs? There are more than enough sporting goods stores, pawn shops, and military surplus stores - not to mention one really big military base - to supply all the ammo you're going to need. This is already Oklahoma, so it's not like everyone here doesn't already own a gun or two (dozen).
Then you've got the Costco and Sam's Club stores, so you'll have generators available, plenty of below ground gasoline tanks, and maybe a couple of complete above ground distribution centers where they fill tankers.
Throw in the Harbor Freight stores for all the solar power generator equipment they always have in stock, and it doesn't matter a whole lot if the two main power plants on either side of the county stay in operation. Plus, there are still more damned wind turbines all over the state. One fails, who cares?
Carl, you are dead right for your area of the world.
but even in the USA there are metro areas where it's not so simple. I think of New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Here in Western Europe it's even harder.
Then I bet some of the survivors will be highly educated well meaning people who believe to release those poor animals in zoos is right and will try to do exactly that.
HM.
I think of New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Those of us in the rest of the United States try not to think about those pestilence pits and plagues upon civilization. Los Angeles would quickly revert to the desert it was in the first place. New York and San Francisco would pretty much burn to the ground due to out of control fires from restaurants - or for that matter, regular fires that suddenly have no one to fight them. The buildings are too close together, with no natural firebreaks (and I'm talking about each of the New York boroughs as separate entities here, because obviously Manhattan is an island).
In Western Europe, you've got plenty of military bases and police stations, you just don't have the basic armed citizenry already. And you're right - there would certainly be someone well meaning who worked at a zoo that would let the animals go. Thing is - this isn't their natural habitat, so how would polar bears handle Berlin weather, or lions enjoy England?
That show was out nearly fifty years ago. From a humanity perspective, we're not a lot better than we were then. And we've had a lot of regression in a lot of ways. From an equipment perspective? SO much better now than then. Just make sure the eco-freaks that DO survive don't for very long. I like the Key & Peele alien invasion take on things, myself. :)
And you're right - there would certainly be someone well meaning who worked at a zoo that would let the animals go.
I would have thought the opposite. People who raid laboratories to release animals used for drug testing tend to be social science students. People who have actually worked at a zoo would know better.
AJ
ts. People who have actually worked at a zoo would know better.
An apocalypse where there won't be enough people to care for them is a different situation.
The survival odds/life expectancy of released zoo animals might not be that great, but it's better than it would be for them left in their enclosures with no one to feed them.
I was sitting with my brother and his wife discussing this topic, I maintain that i would die. I have no survival skills, I'm over 60.
Frank's Post-Apoc World — A Universe from the Mind of Frank Speaks
Dead Tree Publishing:
Emergence by David R. Palmer (1984)
Plot: Candidia Maria Smith-Foster, an 11yo girl, is unaware that she is a Homo post hominem, mankind's next evolutionary step. Hominems have higher IQs, they're stronger, faster, more resistant to illness and trauma, and have quicker reflexes. Their eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell are superior as well.
By the time the narrative opens, Candy has acquired a high school education, some college, and learned karate, having achieved her Fifth Degree Black Belt from her neighbor, 73-year-old Soo Kim McDivott, who she is led to believe is merely a retired schoolteacher. McDivott, whom she calls "Teacher", is actually the discoverer of the H. post hominem species, and has identified and continues to mentor and lead a group of them, the AAs. As part of her karate training, she has learned to release her hysterical strength, which permits brief bursts of nearly superhuman activity.
With international relations rapidly deteriorating, Candy's father, publicly a small-town pathologist but secretly a government bio-warfare expert, is called to Washington. Candy remains at home.
The following day a worldwide attack, featuring a bio-nuclear plague, wipes out virtually all of humanity (i.e., Homo sapiens). With pet bird Terry, a Hyacinthine macaw, her "lifelong retarded, adopted twin brother," who tends to "parrot" Candy's words even before she speaks, she survives the attack in the shelter beneath their house. Emerging three months later, she learns of her genetic heritage and sets off to search for others of her kind.
Written in a telegraphic style (written for speed, missing unnecessary words like pronouns, etc), as the MC's journal, it takes a few minutes to get used to, but the story is very well done in my opinion. There was a 2nd book written about 25 years later but not nearly as good as the 1st IMO.
the story is very well done in my opinion.
Mine as well.
Yeah, I still have my copy around here somewhere.
Yeah, I still have my copy around here somewhere.
Lucky you. Been trying to find another copy since my old one fell apart. I used to have a digital copy as well but suffered a computer crash that wiped it without a backup. Would vastly prefer a physical copy to another digital one, but it is very hard to locate one without ordering one online which I don't want to do since package delivery to my residence is spotty at best.
There's a dead tree book called The World Without Us (2007) by Alan Weisman that you'd probably enjoy. Honestly, I'd pretty much consider it required reading for anyone planning to write post-apoc fiction. People just don't realize how fast certain things break down.
For example, there are water pumps in the New York City underground system that keep leakage under control. It would only take about 36 hours without power for the Hudson River to break through and flood the entire subway system and everything connected to it. After that the timeline is less predictable, but all that water would destabilize building foundations which would lead to more damage, and it would snowball.
The book is non-fiction, but it's a pretty easy read.
Large urban centers would be almost entirely doomed. Many are located where nature will soon destroy them without massive human intervention. Flooding cities such as NYC, Amsterdam, London, New Orleans, etc. Miami, Tampa, Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Cairo, are vulnerable to weather events.
More importantly there are so many systems that must maintain them and on too vast a scale to be maintained without a massive work force, at least some of whom need specific knowledge.
Smaller, mostly rural communities are easier to sustain. Most often people settled where Flooding and other disasters were less common. (Unless there was a significant reason. Such as New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, being on the trade route of the Mississippi River.) The French Quarter of New Orleans is above flood level.
Because of scale, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to provide electric power to a community of 300 in the ruins of Los Angeles, California. Much more practical for Tonasket, Washington.