Dystopia Land discussion
General and Chat
>
What is your worst-case apocalyptic scenario?
date
newest »
newest »
Great question! Give me a minute...
I would have to say a "snow-pocalypse". I have cold-induced uticaria so I get very itchy (like hives) when my skin gets too cold. I could also go into shock from prolonged exposure. I have had back surgery so I couldn't dig myself out of heavy snow. My balance is off a bit, making it extra easy for me to slip and fall. And I hate wearing wet clothes :P
Interesting topic. I remember I had a nightmare a couple of weeks ago. I am not a mother yet, but in my dream I had a boy (Daniel). We were a group of survivors trying to escape from the last zombie invasion. In my dream all children were being put on a train that was supposed to take them somewhere safe, but I couldn't find my son on time and the train left without him. So I fell on my knees in the middle of the road, with my son in my arms thinking i couldn't save him. I guess this would be a pretty accurate description of the worst-case apocalyptic scenario for me.
Bio/chemical/nuke war and its aftermath. Wouldn't want to be alive after that sort of crap. Dark Apocalypse by CJ Anderson has a good crack at the idea.
Anne (sweetie) wrote: "I would have to say a "snow-pocalypse". I have cold-induced uticaria so I get very itchy (like hives) when my skin gets too cold. I could also go into shock from prolonged exposure. I have had back..."OMG you have the built in worse case scenario! I hope you live somewhere with mild winters. ;-)
Kandice wrote: "Anne (sweetie) wrote: "I would have to say a "snow-pocalypse". I have cold-induced uticaria so I get very itchy (like hives) when my skin gets too cold. I could also go into shock from prolonged ex..."Actually Kandice, I live in New England (RI). I have learned to wear layers when I go out in the winter ;D
Great question. I guess the most horrifying apocalyptic senario has got to be if zombies rampaged. I mean, surely that is THE most terrifying situation, right? At least that is always how I have liked my apocalyptic stories to run, until I started to read the "Once Bitten, Twice Die" series by Antony J. Stanton. Zombies are indeed present, creating all manner of troubles. But add to that an ancient vampire clan that now emerges from the shadows and wants retribution. I mean, as if zombies by themselves weren't enough....! So for me, zombies AND vampires... That is the ultimate.
If there ever was a zombie apocalypse here, I would run immediately to the synagogue where I work. It's fenced and well hidden, has walk in fridges and huge freezers of food and almost everything you could need to wait it out for a while. Not to mention a LOT of bottled water. ;)
Fast and furious like nuclear war / asteroid or slow and painful like global warming or a virus (I tried that scenario myself)Not a huge fan of zombies or the alien invasion things. Each to his/her own style but I think the slow decline allows gradual tension whereas the fast and furious allows lots of thrills.
A slow, whimpering, measly death for humanity is probably my worst-case. Something that doesn't allow me as a person or humankind as a whole to die with dignity or glory. Hopelessness like that, especially if knowing how awesome the world used to be. Humans don't like taking steps back, not on any scale. Most whine about the good old days or instead work to bring them back in some perverted version that only exists in their nostalgia-warped mind.
Or maybe, since it seems most likely these days, the worst-case is a world driven by postmodernist theories. Where feelings=facts. Ugh...
The most unnerving, for me, is undoubtedly a global EMP attack, which is basically a variant of a nuclear attack that fries almost all of the electronic components within a very large radius of the explosion, that typically takes place in the upper atmosphere (iirc).On the surface, so to speak, everything's the same : no explosions, no huge clusters of deaths, no visible ennemy to fight with or shy away from, ...
Except when people would casually try to make a phone call, start their car, turn on the TV, turn on the lights, use the microwave or the computer, il wouldn't work ; and it would be the same for their nieghbours (if at home) or their colleagues (if at work) when they reach out to them.
Imagining people slowly realising they've got a one way ticket to the Middle Ages, without the practical knowledge, culture and backward technology to survive in numbers, without means of even knowing what's going on around them, with small areas becoming big continents, that gives me the creeps.
Here's an "emp" shelf I found. Among the books listed, I read One Second After, and though I could digress a lot about the story, the storytelling and the storyteller, the depiction of the immediate implications of EMP strikes is really realistic and chilling.
And by the way, hi everybody, I'm new here and on top of EMPs I'm also afraid of formal introductions, so please forgive me for smuggling it in here :)
Mine is anything to do with radiation because in most other apocalyptic situations people can try to survive, but not if it has to do with radiation, it will impact everyone and for some death will be agonizing. imagine all the mutations in children and cancers. Its just really terrifying to think about.
I think what we are going through now is pretty bad. How much worse could it get and how bad would that be?
Papaphilly wrote: "I think what we are going through now is pretty bad. How much worse could it get and how bad would that be?"Do you REALLY want to know the answer to that question, Pappy? What's happening right now is enough.
Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "I think what we are going through now is pretty bad. How much worse could it get and how bad would that be?"Do you REALLY want to know the answer to that question, Pappy? I can..."
If you remember on other threads we have shared, I have always said it was going to be a plague of some sort. As bad as this is, it has not stopped the world. How much worse would it have to get to do so? For those of you that do not know, I am a first responder living in the NYC area, the actual epicenter of the Pandemic. For us, the world has slowed, but not stopped. I am tired, but it still drips on and the work continues. Yet we function and did not have riots over food or medicine. There were shortages, but we persevered.
I am not so sure we can conceive of how bad it can get. We have had three major Pandemics in history, The Spanish Flu, The Black Death and The Plague of Justinian. The first one listed was 3% of the population killed, the second had 50% killed and the third somewhere around 10% population killed. We are somewhere around 1.4% right now.
I cannot fathom losing half of everyone or even one in ten and I live in the epicenter. The Soviet Union lost 15% of its population to WWII. About 66% of the European Jewish population was lost in the Holocaust. We know the numbers, yet can we really fathom them? Using the loss of the Jewish population, that is like losing the entire State of Maryland. Using the Soviet Union losses, that is like losing the entire state of Florida or New York.
Personally, I would rather deal with zombies than this ever again.
Papaphilly wrote: "Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "I think what we are going through now is pretty bad. How much worse could it get and how bad would that be?"Do you REALLY want to know the answer to that..."
Are you ready for the second wave? At least we know what to expect, for the most part. [Thanks for all that you are doing, Pappy! :o) ]
Some astronomer spots a meteor storm heading our way made of meteorites the size of continents. Not even Bruce Willis is going to stop something like that. The absolute certainty that all life will cease to exist on a calculated date at a calculated time. Knowing every second that ticks by is one less second you have to live. One less second your friends and family have to live. Knowing there's absolutely nothing you can do about the cataclysm headed your way. Staring up a the sky in those last minutes of life holding the hands of your loved ones. The scariest apocalypse is one where there's absolutely no hope.I'll take Zombies or werewolves any day. How about a lingering plague that you have at least a small chance of being immune to. EMP blasts, climate change, giant flesh eating turtles, bring it on! Massive chunks of rock flying through space that I can't do anything about. Not so much.
Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "I think what we are going through now is pretty bad. How much worse could it get and how bad would that be?"Do you REALLY want to know..."
Oddly, I do not expect the second wave to be nearly as bad. The high death rate is the virus picking off the low hanging fruit. The second wave will not have as many potential victims due to probable immunity.
Of course, knowing my luck, the vaccine we keep hearing about will not work as planned and will create zombies.....8^)
Papaphilly wrote: "Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Anne (w/ an E) wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "I think what we are going through now is pretty bad. How much worse could it get and how bad would that be?"Do ..."
Just hope you become a zombie, too, so you don't get eaten.....;oP
I have written about a devastating virus. Much, much worse than current experience -Still go for nuclear war with long term radiation as a horror - Watch Chernobyl for the effects.
The world descending into animalistic anarchy or having to serve as a slave. I could deal with natural disasters (earthquakes, plague, new life forms). I couldn't deal with manmade disasters or a life dedicated to another human's stupidity.
A religious apocalypse. It doesn’t matter which religion, I’d be one of the burning heathens.
Tony wrote: "A religious apocalypse. It doesn’t matter which religion, I’d be one of the burning heathens."Or one of the Heathen burning the religious....
But that is not how life is. If the unthinkable happened and there was nothing we could do, that would be our worst night-mare. What is your personal worst-case scenario for an apocalypses. Is it zombies, is it the lack of food. Is it environmental?
Such a cheerful topic! I know.