I watched The Omega Man the other night and as always when watching films with this theme, began to imagine how great it would be to find yourself in the same situation, at least great for a while. I then start to analyse the reality of being the last person on earth, and how important maintaining your own health would be. Imagine the panic if you developed an illness for which you knew needed professional medical treatment? Or if you broke a limb? I think we can all imagine how exciting this scenario would be initially, and probably all have our own ideas of how we would spend those first few months. So let's here them.
I suppose a lot of it depends on the conditions of non-me human extinction. I'm going to assume that being the last person alive doesn't mean that there are a whole bunch of ETs wandering around, but how high of a degree of confidence do I have that I'm the last one? I'd hate to be rollerblading through the Mall of the Americas wearing nothing but facepaint and kneepads and come across a band of fellow survivors. Let's assume I can somehow be sure I'm the only one. Second problem is how humanity went out. Are they just all gone gone, or am I living amongst the rotting corpses of seven billion of my former fellow idiots who are serving as food for rats, roaches, dogs, and plague? It's less plausible, but let's say the world isn't a horrible reeking corpse pit and I can wander about with nothing to fear but the occasional pack of feral dogs, zoo-escaped lions, and my own stupidity and carelessness. It's the third one that bothers me. I don't think I'd want to go anywhere without multiple means of committing rapid suicide. Stuff like hand grenades and a couple of large-caliber pistols that can be reached easily with either hand. In case the other one is trapped and the Pomeranians are closing in... But all that aside, I think I'd be pretty typical, robbing jewelry stores, relieving myself in the pots at every Starbucks I can find, jumping in and out of a lake that thought it was a gin and tonic, that sort of thing. I've always wanted to draw pictures on a building with lots of reflecting windows, using a rifle to black out pixels. Desecrate holy places. Yeah, that'll do for now. Oh, yeah, all the jewelry goes in a pile so that I can pretend I'm Smaug.
@Iain Aschendale - yes, the 'emergency suicide on standby' would be a priority for me too, but not so easy to get one's hands on guns and grenades in this country. As for the situation itself I'm talking hypothetically - in other words the rest of the population disappears without a trace. I've never quite understood the escaped zoo animals thing. The ones in private collections with perhaps less stringent security, yes, but the ones in zoos? Why do people imagine all those cages and other means of confinement will suddenly stop doing their job just because the human population has gone? A locked cage is a locked cage, zookeeper or not, and most zoo animals will simply die of starvation. Me, I would pick the biggest, finest mansion I could find and stock it full of non-perishable foods and other supplies. After that, I would go all GTA and drive around, hopping from car to car, as each better one took my fancy. I would walk through the expensive clothes shops, casually trying on the gear. I would gorge on foods from Fortum & Mason... ... not forgetting to have a major panic attack and break-down in between all this, each time the reality and futility of my existence hits me.
Speaking of zoos. I was walking through one last week and I thought to myself, "what if all of us (humans) were to be locked in here and they (beasts) free to roam out there?" I would naturally be free as well, since I came up with it. I think I'd get along well with the orangutans. We'd visit the "conservation center" on Sundays and feed everyone lots of peanuts, excepting the republicans, who would surely refuse such welfare.
Army base ... easy That said i suspect the average person would go nuts from loneliness in fairly short order.... man is a social animal and the appeal of playing with all the cool toys would wear off pretty quick with no one to share it with.
If I was the last person on earth I'd off myself within a week. Though that'd make a boring story so - um... action and stuff! Totally. And setting up camp at IKEA, because that'd be cool.
I'd be that guy from that one Twilight Zone episode, who finally had time to read all the books he wanted but then breaks his glasses.
they'll be in the ignition if people died/were abducted by aliens .... otherwise get the car from a dealer and the keys will be in the key safe - most of them open with a screwdriver
Well one would assume books would still exist, and all the stuff you need to survive (at least for a while or the rest of your natural life hopefully) just laying about. So odds are you would be incredibly lonely, but not without the means to try and keep yourself going (though insane will probably be one of them).
I would first take a piss and a shit on each and every web server hosting Facebook and Twitter (and all those other sites that have made people into zombies) Then, I'd start living.
I would just write to please myself and not worry about SPAG errors or chasing an agent or promoting my work.
I'm not to the point where I chase agents or promote, but I think SPAG would always get me. A thousand years future, the aliens land and find the last recorded written statement and never learn that there was a missing "in" and that you shouldn't use "and" three times in one sentence. <Iain's ghost howls from the pit>
A former colleague of mine moved to apartheid-era South Africa because he fancied a house with swimming pool (he didn't have one in the UK, and neither did any of his friends, so he'd be one-up on them!) and all the trimmings. He moved back when he realised that all his new friends in SA also had a pool in the garden - and it was bigger than his. So, nobody he could beat in the game of one-upmanship.
...and nobody's going to care if my character is a Mary Sue. You know, I'm beginning to enjoy this idea. No phone calls, no knocks at the door, no demands for bill payments, no Donald Trump or Brexit. Everybody buggered off. I'm happy....now where did I put the can opener? And the generator?
First, I'd go cross country to every fancy dress store and collect a truck full of formal dresses (prom, homecoming, wedding, any other dress I like). After that I'll go settle into a skyscraper somewhere (perhaps one overlooking the ocean). Then I'd go collect a bunch of other clothes and video games and whatever else I want more locally. I could then play video games, paint, draw, and write books for no one but myself as I watch the sun set over the ocean in my skyscraper while wearing a fancy dress.
