A society trying to rebuild in a post apocalyptic setting.

I'm with you on the pigs, chickens and goats. Also, I believe that...geese? Ducks? work even better than chickens.

I had a notion that cows were inherently inefficient even when raised on pasture, but since I can't back up my notion or even work out where it came from, I have no idea whether I'm right or wrong. Maybe it was the winter thing? Does the production of hay require land that could have been used for agriculture? Do other meat animals need less handholding when it comes to winter food? (I vaguely remember that pigs can eat acorns, but presumably one autumn fall of acorns isn't going to keep the pigs alive all winter.) I don't know any of these things.

Edited to add: BTW, I haven't mentioned fish, or have I? A nuclear winter would probably reduce fish populations just like it would reduce everything else, but if the disaster is something else, fish is a food supply that mostly doesn't have to be actively farmed. I could see a scenario where most of the surviving communities are centered around major fishing ports.

 

How much input they need depends a lot on climate. In northern AZ there is a lot of free-range cattle ranching and they just leave their animals out on the range all winter. It gets cold, but not sub-zero, and the snow never piles up too deep, so they can manage OK through the winter on their own. I don't know how much supplemental feed the ranchers leave out for them; I imagine it depends on conditions. But in the right areas it can definitely be done pretty minimalistically.

EDIT: and yeah, people would definitely congregate around rivers and seaports just like they've always done--they'd mostly live where the big cities are; those cities are big because they were hospitable places for people to live when they were settled.

 

No, I don't really intend for the people to think that way about the God-part in all of this. They are still mainly focused on surviving (getting food, medicine, etc.), but there are divisions among the people about their own interpretations about it. Some believe this to be hell already, some people believe that God will "come back", some people don't care and just focus on surviving, some turn anti-Christ, and all sorts of opinions and beliefs, even cults are formed. In fact, very few people will more focus on religious/moralistic concepts more than practical things that need dire attention.

I'm most probably scrapping the supermarket part. I'm thinking of a different setting now.

I honestly don't want to go with that whole "bunker" thing, but yes you are right. If I'd want to push through with this, then this might very well be my only option. Good thing I came up with something quite different.


Thanks for all the replies once again! I read every single one and each helped me in fleshing this whole thing out. Actually, all of them pushed me to make a somewhat different setting. The issues with food and sanitation and all that proved too much. I don't want my readers to be asking a lot of questions about the community's survival and not focus on the actual story, which I repeat, actually does not have much to do with the "survival" aspect of all of it.

For now, I'm thinking of lessening the overall damage of the war. This means there's no "nuclear bomb that pretty much decimates 97% of the planet", which is what I originally planned. I plan to make some countries get totally annihilated, while a few nations are definitely heavily damaged up to the point of a good amount of infrastructure being left in ruins and stacks of debris, but not exactly completely destroyed. That means that there's still barely enough left (food, fields to farm, leftover medicine and supplies, some places still have electricity and all those) in those countries for a community/society to survive. The story will be set in one of those countries. Population? Not sure. Definitely not in the millions. Maybe a million or two, at the very, very, very most. Maybe even less than around 300 thousand. Maybe even less. I'm not good with manipulating numbers in these kinds of things. The story IS set a few years after the war, so doesn't that mean that the country has had some time to recover a bit? The original government is still the one leading, but due to the war, their overall force, strength and impact on the people has dwindled very significantly. The season is set in winter (as much as possible, I want it to be in winter. It's a personal bias ) but it's not caused by a nuclear bombing or anything like that. It's just regular winter. Or maybe a season that feels rather bleak and not really upbeat. I don't know... Fall? (I actually live in a country that doesn't experience the four seasons, so forgive my lack of knowledge) So, in a way, it's not really an apocalypse (maybe a bit), but more of a modern Dark Ages or the dawn of a new era. What do you guys think? Would this permit the "surviving, but not really thriving post-apocalyptic/world war society" setting that I want? The story I have in mind does somewhat require an already established community.

More questions/suggestions are more than welcome!

 

I think at least 99% of the world population would die off within a few weeks or maybe months. People in the cities will flee to the countryside where they will be shot while stealing until the bullets run out, not too long for that either. Total anarchy happens unless there is some sort of government plan already in place for disaster survival that involves a well disciplined and trained militia; and their end game is personal survival, no real concern for the general population. If such places exist they might be located next to hydroelectric plants.

Farming would become the lifestyle for 95% of the population and a bit more than eight hours a day
Use of human waste would rapidly spread infectious disease so those that did that would die off quickly, a Darwin Award scenario. Without powered vehicles farming would be done with horses for power and the plots would be small. Hunting with bow and arrow, maybe the only thing Hunger Games got right, would become the norm and wild game, pets included, would be a food of choice with a vastly reduced population to feed. The skills to properly kill, butcher and handle game, fish included, would have to be learned fast. Personally I think I would move in with a friendly Navajo Indian tribe.

BTW, fusion, H-bombs, don't necessarily create nuclear fallout so they might be the war disaster you are looking for. Not sure but they might use a small fission bomb to trigger a fusion bomb so some radioactive fallout does happen in that case.

 

Water is going to be the biggest issue. If the water has become contaminated then people could survive for a short time on any bottled water still left in stores. Food is a secondary issue. Like the water people will opt for the easy option and use up what is in stores first. A few will have the foresight to start growing crops but once the stores are picked clean the farms will get raided.

People will eventually revert back to a hunter gatherer existence until enough people die to allow those that are left to produce enough food for themselves.

 

I would read The Road by Cormack McCarthy, that has some decimated world. It can definitely help give you a sense of an ended worlds tone if it is so bleak as abandoned by your world's God.

 

I do not know if I am too late on this thread but:

I would personally look to pre-history and early history with how settlements were created and how they lived. Obviously we have much more knowledge now (communitively (is that a word, I am meaning "We have more knowledge together in a way that if you break us apart we will have a lot less, Like I dont know how to fix a PC but know how to write and play sports and basic other stuff")) but the idea would be the same. As well as adding your own twists and such. I personally believe people would focus on rebuilding the better looking houses/structures and that there would be a lot of different factions as people tend to stick with people like them, whether that be racial (as in my state a lot of the more asian and mexican people tend to stay together, at least more than they talk to others) or high school clique like (Goths, Jocks, Nerds, etc.)