The Survivors Thread
Posts: 5711
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 3:00am
There aren't a lot of Zombie scenarios where the 'condition' is communicable beyond our own species. If that's the case and it's applicable to all living organisms then I don't think it's pretty much a moot point. But again, I'm not really aiming to discuss the plague of the undead again...

... in the other scenario, where in most of humanity has been wiped out over a short period of time, the motivation for collecting a comprehensive survival kit is not so that one can just up and head for the hills, ahem, but rather so that one can be prepared for whatever follows and is not inspired by any teet that I am aware of.

There are other reasons to vacate. One; health. Regardless of the cause, if humanity were to suffer a sudden and vast loss of life there are very real concerns to deal with and those concerns are, simply put, very closely tied to having hundreds of thousands of corpses laying about. Unless those corpses are properly dealt with (see; buried or burnt) you can expect a host of associated dangers. Aside from the immediate dangers such as contamination and predation I personally think it would be just plain unpleasant to continue hang around with a bunch of dead people. If you want to go poking around in peoples houses and such, that's fine for you but I'd just as soon avoid being constantly reminded of the fact that everyone I knew is dead and gone... dealing with isolation is hard enough, no need to compound that with visual and olfactory reminders of that on a daily basis.

Relocation and reestablishment would still be primary goals for me and the foundation of that ambition would, I believe, be better assisted having the necessary supplies readily available without immediately bogging myself down.

I do not believe that a sudden desire to be one with nature and live off a river's bounty is going to move humanity into starting a new, "green" civilization. I also do not think that making a political statement in turning my back on the leavings of our current civilization whilst carrying stuff sold at Sears on my back would make any impact on people


In my case I wouldn't be worried about starting a new civilization of any stripe or making impacting political statements. Nor would my personal exodus be based on any 'desire to be one with nature' but the imperative understanding that I would stand a better chance in vacating the city rather then hanging around inside of it. Note; I live in a dense urban center and enjoy doing so and as it stands have no desire to go off and be a hermit as it is, however, with a 99% loss of life I believe my chances would be better outside of the city rather then lurking around inside of it.

However, if a significant enough number of people were to survive the event that, in the long run, humanity might be saved and eventually repopulate the Earth then I think, personally, those survivors would be doing themselves and any future generations a great disservice by failing to learn from the event and resisting a paradigm shift.

The fact of the matter is that it takes a lot of people to sustain the lifestyle we, in North America, have become accustomed to. Without that vast number of people doing their daily jobs the cities of human kind will quickly become dangerously inhospitable places to be. Fighting to preserve whatever you can is fine as long as one does not compromise their own survival doing so.

I do think that, assuming 60 million people are still alive across the globe, that whatever remains of society is going to be based on the old feudal system. Who knows, maybe such an event would serve to bring the survivors closer together? Maybe we'd all end up seeing the light and singing kumbaya by firelight after the days hunt...

... or what I think is more likely is that those who remain would end up fighting tooth and nail for survival which, to me, is another good reason not to become too reliant on those survivors for your own survival.

"The Postman" might have been a pretty crappy movie, but it raises a valuable point. And I personally don't think I'd want to spend my time being hunted by Will Patton and his band of not-so-merry-men.

Ultimately I think that the diversity of replies to the concept of a dystopian cataclysm just goes to show that if even a small number of people survived the variation in their responses to such an event further enhance humanities chances of survival.
Posts: 2915
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 6:15am
Excerpt from World War Z:

Did ferals, feral people that is, know how to use firearms?
They didn't know how to do anything human, that's why they were ferals. No, the body armor was for protection against some of the regular people we found. I'm not talking organized rebels, just the odd LaMOE, Last Man on Earth. There was always one or two in every town, some dude, or chick, who managed to survive. I read somewhere that the United States had the highest number of them in the world, something about our individualistic nature or something. They hadn't seen real people in so long, a lot of the initial shooting was just accidental or reflex. Most of the time we managed to talk them down. Those we actually called RCs, Robinson Crusoes- that was the polite term for the ones who were cool.

The ones we called LaMOEs, those were the ones who were a little too used to being king. King of what, I don't know, Gs and quislings and crazy F'Critters, but I guess in their mind they were living the good life, and here we were to take it all away. That's how I got nailed.

We were closing on the Sears Tower in Chicago. Chicago, that was enough nightmares for three lifetimes. It was the middle of winter, wind whipping off the lake so hard you could barely stand, and suddenly I felt Thor's hammer smash me in the head. Slug from a high-powered hunting rifle. I never complained about our hard covers anymore after that. The gang in the tower, they had their little kingdom, and they weren't giving it up for anyone. That was one of the few times we went full convent; SAWs, nades, that's when the Bradleys started making a comeback.

After Chicago, the brass knew we were now in a full, multithreat envi-ronment. It was back to hard covers and body armor, even in summer. Thanks, Windy City. Each squad was issued pamphlets with the "Threat Pyramid," It was ranked according to probability, not lethality. Zack at the bottom, then F'Crttters, ferals, quislings, and finally LaMOEs. I know a lot of guys from AG South like to bitch about how they always had it tougher on their end, 'cause, for us, winter took care of Zack's whole threat level. Yeah, sure, and replaced it with another one: winter!

What do they say die average temperature's dropped, ten degrees, fifteen in some areas? Yeah, we had it real easy, up to our ass in gray snow, knowing that for every five Zacksicles you cracked there'd be at least as many up and at 'em at first thaw. At least the guys down south knew that once they swept an area, it stayed swept. They didn't have to worry about rear area attacks like us. We swept every area at least three times. We used everything from ramrods and sniffer Ks to high-tech ground radar. Over and over again, and all of this in the dead of winter. We lost more guys to frostbite than to anything else. And still, every spring, you knew, you just knew . . . it'd be like, "oh shit, here we go again." I mean, even today, with all the sweeps and civilian volunteer groups, spring's like winter used to be,
nature leering us know the good life's over for now.


In all seriousness, end of the world situation, I'm in it for myself. Not the species, loved ones or anything... I'm going to survive or die trying. Drifters will be picked off at a safe distance away from my main camp as to not be easily found. Their supplies will be my supplies and if food is as bad a situation as it likely will be in the end of the world, well... meat is meat. Yall can start up your sealed societies and try to save mankind, I'm alright with the human race ending with me.

Zombies, intelligent machines from a comet passing over head, crazies, rage virus, superflu, alien invasion, atmosphere removal, asteroid impact, nuclear winter.... whatever killed the rest of you sorry sons of bitches and didn't kill me will only make the rest of the survivors sorry I didn't die.
Posts: 5711
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 7:31am
100% agree.
Posts: 5387
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 10:02am
Omnae
@ Ahnk - Handcuffs?

Sure.

Handcuffs have lots of uses, most notably to detain a person for questioning. If someone is being unruly and getting in my face with their knife, I can rifle butt them and then try and settle them down, or I can just put them down right then and there. I'm an ask questions shoot later kind of guy, ultimately.

One thing about the end of the world; panic inducing. I'd rather not kill someone just because they're scared.
Posts: 1584
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 10:22am
Ahnk Rashanagok
Handcuffs have lots of uses, most notably to detain a person for questioning.

That's not what you said last night...
Posts: 5387
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 10:52am
"Who is your daddy" is a valid question.
Posts: 4195
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 7:54pm
Maybe we'd all end up seeing the light and singing kumbaya by firelight after the days hunt...



At least until Gue shoots us at long range for singing off-key.
Posts: 2915
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 7:59pm
or being on my land... which is all of it.
Posts: 4195
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 8:18pm
End of the World = Dawn of the Squatters
Posts: 4025
  • Posted On: Feb 16 2010 11:02pm
I'd be tempted to start off the rise of the machines, paving the way for them to absorb or exterminate the zombies and survivors in the rise of a high tech galactic empire.

So be wary if you hear something that sounds like AT-STs or AT-ATs clomping around from the direction of Florida.