Zombie survival threads are common enough on this forum, and it would seem like every Escapist user has at least one concrete plan that will save his life in case an extremely specific type of an extremely unlikley apocalyptic scenario suddenly happned.
It's good, but it's not excellent! If you are going to get crazy prepared for one kind of (most likley) realistically impossible doomsday scenario, what excuse do you have not to get ready for any other? There is an infinite amount of imaginary doomsday scenarios that could happen in any minuet, what are the odds that the one you prepared for will be the one you'll encounter?
Survival of a doomsday scenario is all about preparation, so to help you prepare yourself for the worst, here is a list of a eight terrible scenarios for you to consider when you build your bunker and design your bug-out bag: they are unrealistic, they are cinematic, they are utterly ridiculous, but let's face it: so is a zombie apocalypse, and that never stopped anyone from wasting valuable hours of their life making escape plans.
The rules are the same as for the classical thread: just tell us what you'll do and how you will survive each of the scenarios. You don't have to give an answer for all of them, of course (although that would be the best way to get ready, and you can never be too ready!), just choose the ones you like the best and talk about them. In all situations, note that accurate information about the "enemy" is extremely scarce! You'll have to work with what I give you. You may think that you have some former knowledge about the subject, but take into account that your knowledge may or may not be true!
So, with that in mind, can you survive...
1. An attack by dragons?!
2. A grey goo situation?!
3. An alien invasion?!
4. Being hunted down by a powerful conspiracy?!
5. Being hunted down by a psychic conspiracy?!
6. A plague of blindness?!
7. A ridiculously extreme climate change?!
8. A nuclear war?!
..........................
Good luck, survivor. You'll definitely need it!
It's good, but it's not excellent! If you are going to get crazy prepared for one kind of (most likley) realistically impossible doomsday scenario, what excuse do you have not to get ready for any other? There is an infinite amount of imaginary doomsday scenarios that could happen in any minuet, what are the odds that the one you prepared for will be the one you'll encounter?
Survival of a doomsday scenario is all about preparation, so to help you prepare yourself for the worst, here is a list of a eight terrible scenarios for you to consider when you build your bunker and design your bug-out bag: they are unrealistic, they are cinematic, they are utterly ridiculous, but let's face it: so is a zombie apocalypse, and that never stopped anyone from wasting valuable hours of their life making escape plans.
The rules are the same as for the classical thread: just tell us what you'll do and how you will survive each of the scenarios. You don't have to give an answer for all of them, of course (although that would be the best way to get ready, and you can never be too ready!), just choose the ones you like the best and talk about them. In all situations, note that accurate information about the "enemy" is extremely scarce! You'll have to work with what I give you. You may think that you have some former knowledge about the subject, but take into account that your knowledge may or may not be true!
So, with that in mind, can you survive...
1. An attack by dragons?!
In exactly one hour, a motherf---ing dragon right out of the myths is going to attack your home/town/city! The dragon is extremely dangerous and will likely cause a great deal of destruction before being brought down... will you be one of the few left standing?!
Here's what you know about the dragon: It's a reptile about the size of an elephant, with a long tail and a long neck, and four limbs (including wings!). It's scales appear to be as tough as the armor of a tank, and it's fangs and claws are terribly sharp. Openly defying the laws of physics as we know them, despite it's great weight and weird shape, the dragon can use it's wings to fly as swiftly and gracefully as any bird. It is unintelligent, incapable of human speech, and for some reason it's very angry. It wants to kill and eat humans (and their cows, and their cats...), and is very violent. An unknown mechanism allows it to breath searing hot fire seemingly at will.
If you live in a big city with hundreds of thousands of citizens, assume (for the sake of keeping the challenge interesting) that instead of a single dragon, your city has to deal with an entire flight of them!
Here's what you know about the dragon: It's a reptile about the size of an elephant, with a long tail and a long neck, and four limbs (including wings!). It's scales appear to be as tough as the armor of a tank, and it's fangs and claws are terribly sharp. Openly defying the laws of physics as we know them, despite it's great weight and weird shape, the dragon can use it's wings to fly as swiftly and gracefully as any bird. It is unintelligent, incapable of human speech, and for some reason it's very angry. It wants to kill and eat humans (and their cows, and their cats...), and is very violent. An unknown mechanism allows it to breath searing hot fire seemingly at will.
If you live in a big city with hundreds of thousands of citizens, assume (for the sake of keeping the challenge interesting) that instead of a single dragon, your city has to deal with an entire flight of them!
In exactly one hour, your town is about to be exposed to a terrible threat: disassembler nanomachines on a rampage! Designed in secret by the government to take care of pollution or something, this swarm contains billions of microscopic robots that are capable of breaking down almost every material on the molecular level and using the elements in order to construct more of themselves, reproducing infinitely. They were supposed to be regulated by multiple physical and electronic safety measures- limited to operating within a specific area and only disassembling certain types of matter, but something horrible has happened and they are now out of control: they will eat everything, and they won't stop. An individual nanite is completely harmless, and indeed, almost completely undetectable, but even a single one will eventually transform matter in it's vicinity into a swarm. Here's what you know: the swarm is a dark, clearly noticeable cloud that looks a bit like fog. It hovers a few centimeters above the ground, and beneath it, all is turned into a layer of thick, gray goo (thus the name). Everything that comes into contact with the cloud or the goo will be devoured in less than a minuet, it's molecules used to enlarge and empower the swarm. It is completely mindless, more like a natural disaster than a true monster, but it's dangerous nonetheless. It is virtually unstoppable, and it's coming closer. You also have a time limit: according to radio broadcasts, exactly three hours after the event (that is, four hours from now) the government will nuke your town in order to contain the threat (the electromagnetic pulse from the nuke will disable all of the nanites simultaneously, preventing them from rebuilding)
Straight out of War of The World, except this time, it's worse: the tripods are all completely robotic! The aliens themselves are hiding in a spaceship in high earth orbit, protected from all sorts of germs, and they will make sure that the planet is completely sterilized before they land. Attacking the ship seems impossible: it is protected by a powerful force field that seems virtually immune to all human weapons.
You don't need to worry about the ship, though: you need to worry about the tripods. Many hundreds of them have appeared all over the world overnight, perhaps dropped from the mothership, and one is right next to your town! The tripods are building sized walking war machines that move on three long, graceful tentacle-like legs and can cross virtually any sort of terrain, and their coming is heralded by an ominous, deep wail which they sometimes produce for unknown reasons (psychological warfare?). They are protected by a force field that is invulnerable to all conventional weapons (though possibly not to nukes or other weapons of similar power), and are armed with some sort of particle beam weapon that vaporizes buildings, humans and vehicles instantly. It is rumored that sometimes they deploy a chemical weapon, a cloud of black, opaque gas that kills humans within seconds after being inhaled. Their motives are inscrutable: what do they want from us? What do they hope to achieve? As far as you know, they just want to destroy.
You don't need to worry about the ship, though: you need to worry about the tripods. Many hundreds of them have appeared all over the world overnight, perhaps dropped from the mothership, and one is right next to your town! The tripods are building sized walking war machines that move on three long, graceful tentacle-like legs and can cross virtually any sort of terrain, and their coming is heralded by an ominous, deep wail which they sometimes produce for unknown reasons (psychological warfare?). They are protected by a force field that is invulnerable to all conventional weapons (though possibly not to nukes or other weapons of similar power), and are armed with some sort of particle beam weapon that vaporizes buildings, humans and vehicles instantly. It is rumored that sometimes they deploy a chemical weapon, a cloud of black, opaque gas that kills humans within seconds after being inhaled. Their motives are inscrutable: what do they want from us? What do they hope to achieve? As far as you know, they just want to destroy.
A mysterious phone call from a person who refers to himself simply as "a friend" informs you that they are after you. Who are "they"? He doesn't give you much information. He calls them "The Order", and he claims that they are a secret organization that has been manipulating the world's governments and churches for many years behind the stages. They are the Powers That Be, they are Those Who Pull The Strings, rich, influential, and completely faceless.
And they want you dead. Why? Your "friend" won't tell you. Maybe you discovered something you shouldn't have. Maybe your grandma is a terrorist. Maybe you are a actually a super agent who was sent on a mission to take them down only to have your own memory of the incident erased.
The Order doesn't know that you know about them or their plan to kill you, and it won't act immediately, but it will act soon enough. Anybody could be working for The Order. Even your best friend. Even members of your family. The cops are working for them, and maybe the salesperson at the shop down the street. They have cameras everywhere and they control all the satellites, and they may or may not have implanted a chip in the back of your neck on the day you were born. Their resources are virtually limitless, their killers are highly trained and extremely well equipped. They know where you live and how you look, and they can get into your computer, and if you use your cellphone or credit card you will be immediately detected.
You have a headstart, make good use of it.
And they want you dead. Why? Your "friend" won't tell you. Maybe you discovered something you shouldn't have. Maybe your grandma is a terrorist. Maybe you are a actually a super agent who was sent on a mission to take them down only to have your own memory of the incident erased.
The Order doesn't know that you know about them or their plan to kill you, and it won't act immediately, but it will act soon enough. Anybody could be working for The Order. Even your best friend. Even members of your family. The cops are working for them, and maybe the salesperson at the shop down the street. They have cameras everywhere and they control all the satellites, and they may or may not have implanted a chip in the back of your neck on the day you were born. Their resources are virtually limitless, their killers are highly trained and extremely well equipped. They know where you live and how you look, and they can get into your computer, and if you use your cellphone or credit card you will be immediately detected.
You have a headstart, make good use of it.
Let's take that last one to another ridiculous extreme. The Order are still trying to kill you, but this time, they are not an international all powerful secret organization: they are a small but (fairly) powerful group of renegade psychics (!) who rebelled against the government after the cold war. Once again, you are going to get a phone call from your "friend", but this time, he will inform you that you are dealing with a group that, though far smaller and less influential, is far more powerful in subtle ways. The Order manufactures and uses a special drug (codenamed: SUGAR) that gives people psychic powers as long as they take it regularly, and you are possessed of a relatively rare genetic mutation that makes your brain very valuable for the production of the drug. Unfortunately, the brain harvesting process is 100% fatal and incredibly painful, so you don't want to be caught. Your friend informs you of the following: The Order has about 5-10 agents in your area who are trying to get you. They have access to some regular "police" level equipment like some pistols and secret mics, but they don't have black helicopters. However, each of the Order agents is currently on a SUGAR rush, and can read minds, control the minds of the less willful, turn itself psychically "invisible" and even manifest limited telekinesis. Other abilities may be possible, but your friend won't tell you about them. Using psychic abilities tires the agents, but they are healthy and well trained. The abilities have a range of about ten meters, and are more powerful the closer the agent is to the target. Certain rather common substances can block or interfere with psychic abilities, but your friend won't tell you which (the bastard). Oh, and if plan on getting your hands on some and using SUGAR yourself, do take notice that first time use side effects include nausea, headaches, cold sweat, shakes, and difficulty focusing due to psychic "white noise" from the general population. It's not fun.
Better get your tin foil hat.
Better get your tin foil hat.
A rather uncommonly referred to scenario, though by no means unknown to the world of literature or cinema. In exactly 24 hours, a horrible plague is going to strike virtually all of humanity: it's main symptom is blindness. Vision starts to blur within seconds, and in just a few hours it's completely gone. You are blind. Everybody else is blind. Maybe forever. Chaos, riots, civil war, hunger, cannibals, the destruction of all technological and social infrastructure.
You'll have to survive through all of that, completely blind.
You'll have to survive through all of that, completely blind.
In exactly one week from now, all global temperatures will drop by about ten degrees Celsius. I don't think I even need to explain the extent of the catastrophical consequences. have fun wading through the snow looking for cans of preserved food after you are done running away from that gang of murderous pillagers.
Perhaps the archtypical "doomsday scenario": an apocalyptic world war three that will end human civilization as we know it in a half an hour blaze of nuclear fire. You have survived the initial destruction, miraculously enough (though the same may not necessarily be true for your house or your family or the city you live in), and now you have to deal with life in the ensuing wasteland. There's radiation everywhere, all unshielded electronic devices have been fried, the vast majority of humans outside of bunkers have been vaporized along with their pitiful cities, people are desperate and violent, all the stores have been broken into and pillaged hours ago (it seems like such a long time...), and very soon the earth will go dark and cold as massive dust clouds from the blasts will cover it from the sun.
Life can be so cruel.
Life can be so cruel.
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Good luck, survivor. You'll definitely need it!
