One of the things I've been dissatisfied with the Post-Apocalyptic stories is that I don't feel that they'd play out as they should, but some of them hint at the ability to play out as they should: The lights stay on. It's one of the common complaints I see a lot: "How are there still running lights this long in the future after nuclear war/zombie apocalypse/pandemic?" The answer is simple enough: The nuclear reactors are still running. They won't run for that long without operators, either. That means the operators are still alive. Which means they have power. Literally and figuratively. My notion for a story is this: In the near future, between 2020 and 2050, there is a technological apocalypse. Someone creates [Something, Research needed], and the result is a massive destruction of most/all things electronic, or something created widespread that some anarchist hacker manages to disrupt, causing a shutdown of all things connected to the internet? (Problem with this is that it doesn't shut down the government/military). All in all, I'm looking for a non-typical form of apocalypse. I'd like to steer clear of zombies. If I were to write zombies, I'd do it wrong, because I'd make them pseudo-realistic, and pseudo-realistic zombies would be too easy to beat. As a result, likely following riots and chemical attacks by anti-government groups (I'm hesitant to use Antifa, buuuuut...) worldwide, many countries break down entirely. Many people blame government and technology for the fall of mankind, trying too hard, too fast, with needless technology. They believe "we have the power to change the world in 20XX, but greedy governments just want to exploit the poor and keep them in the dark while bettering themselves, but we could have all been happy." Enter the Main Character/Side Characters, nuclear operators at a fictional nuclear power plant (a new construction one, like the AP1000s that are being built right now, or perhaps small modular reactors). Apocalypse starts (riots break out and chemical bombs start going off), and they prudently do exactly what I would do. Pack up supplies, weapons, and family, and head for the local nuclear power plant. As it is, many towns are built up as a result of a nuclear power plant's existence, so as it turns out a fair bit of the town is either literally made up of the families, or are good friends and follow along, so they become rather self-sufficient because they have something no one else has: Power. They literally and figuratively have power. Nuclear power plant security is nothing to scoff at: Without a government (much of the military dissolved to go home to protect their families - which still leaves pockets of military power near major military bases - hence why I need there to also be chemical attacks, I need to get rid of the military, as it would rapidly reunite America, if by a Martial Law (but still benign)) there isn't much that can break into a nuclear power plant. At least an American one. You'd need a small army, likely with a tank or two. (Late plot element?) Early groups trying to seize control would find it hard to make it to the fence, let alone get inside. They manage to weather the chemical attacks easily in the plant and come out for the better. Realizing their situation, they start agriculture around the plant's cooling channels and raising fish in them, et cetera. They can last for decades - if they only help themselves. Many of them could live to a ripe old age. But nuclear reactors aren't eternal. They need fuel. Running at full capacity, they can last for only a few months. Running at fractional capacity, a very, very, very long time. The major plot decision: To restart humanity? They can sell/trade electricity for supplies with other survivors. Literally gaining power through power. They'd become a regional player. For those people that survived and weren't Anti-Technology, all they want is to live. A nuclear power plant's electricity can bring back a semblance of the life they once led. But, if the plant starts selling electricity, they burn out their fuel faster, compromising if not their own lives, the lives of their children. It's also a power struggle - over power (I like the parallel there.) If they sell as much as possible now, they gain a lot of power - now. If they spread it out, they gain steady support but are susceptible to attack by other groups that gain power. Or they can just lay low and live out long lives in relative peace. They're plagued constantly by Anti-Tech groups, who outnumber them, but don't have good tactics, and base a lot of their attacks around assumptions (going to be a larger plot point than this one sentence makes it seem, as it's meant to be symbolic of the Anti-Science movements of today; i.e. anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, et cetera) Ultimately the group decides to become a seat of power, and when realizing that by doing so they need to secure their futures, they send out missions to find more fuel from other new construction power plants - and find other nuclear power plants surviving as well. One might think this would create tension or war, but there is one key real-world fact that unites them: A crapton of civilian nuclear reactor operators are ex-Navy, and the Navy Nuke World is a small one. The civilian field is littered with them. They manage to convince each other to join forces and start creating a localized government, and with the help of other power plants they either start up or find with survivors, begin restarting society. Climax would end with them being overwhelmed by a force of the anti-government/anti-science groups who see them as trying to restart everything they fought against, only to be saved by a former-military group vaguely mentioned as being isolationist through the story and being another other "safe-haven" (Probably near Norfolk, Virginia, due to its high concentration of military bases, maybe Cheyenne, Colorado, for its iconic safety). Happy yet open ending implying that they restart society together.
What I thought of while reading this- a multi attack. We have become reliant on using 'space' for so much of our communications. A coordinated attack on the (few) pillars that hold the internet up, along with some kind of attack that spreads particles (maybe a particular type) between sats in space and the earth. The military could end up isolated in pockets which could then be eliminated. I would also explore older tech patents and have my future 'rebels' utilize them; for instance, the 'cell' or 'mobile' phone was patented (a few different ones) and used prior to the landline. I would also probably tap into oxidaization is electricity. There are many cases of people that 'mysteriously' powered their homes by driving rebar into the ground all over their property and wiring it all together.
I thought about how to write it. Two men wear beards in winter time. The good and righteous men stand guard at the windows of a log cabin. Snow drifts past the panes. The outpost is far from civilisation. They are surrounded outside by the undesirable sub-creatures clad in slogan-type t-shirts and blue jeans, their clothing entirely unsuitable for this mountain warfare. The crowd hollers, they scream in hunger and rage, their fists drag through the powder. They are the children of the rainbow, an advance party, possibly - enemies of law & order, and feral, and second generational off-spring of notorious millennial milk-stock. Children hurl their useless primitive i-phone bombs at the cabin. The barrage clatters against the windows. Then our men arise from under bearskins. Mountain folk return a deadly fire with the napalm crossbows. 'Good shooting, Rusty,' says Avon, leader of the free world. And he collects the most beautiful carcasses. That night they roast the young women over a camp fire, and they stride toward home. 'We have meat,' they say 'for the settlers of our power station,' oy oy oy. ... Begin small, and mushroom away. Your imagination is great to see, but you must begin somewhere, on the first page, with a couple of characters, and build-build.
