What would you do if you were one of the last people on Earth?

If something left you in a world without people, maybe there are a few people, other lone survivors, where are you? What would you do?

Inspired by the hit TV show The Last Man On Earth


I'm in London, IDK, I'd drive around this island UK before feeling brave enough to leave this island.
Then I'd play it safe, and work out how to drive through the Channel Tunnel, under the English Channel, and then drive around looking for people on the continent.
I'd probably take a look at Gibraltar and see how I could reach Africa.
Probably find a boat, and self teach myself how to use it. Even if the water's not far, I'd still consider using a boat to cross water, and open up my search from Europe to Africa, or see how driving Asia could be.

I'd probably, having seen this TV show, steal the idea of writing on signs directing people to where there's life.

I'd probably start small, as I'm looking for life in the UK, I'd tell everyone to go to Croydon or Mayfair or Buckingham Palace or something.

 

Well...

Create genetic abonimations (I have ALL the dogs)

Paint the pyramids crimson... (Water helicopter drops paint) maybe put some eyes onem...

Animal fighting! Nile croc vs. Zambesi shark. Boa vs python. Anaconda vs elephant (elephant wins).
Army ants vs aardvarks.

Dress up public statues. Frilly shirts panda slippers clown noses rubber animal masks.

Commandeer a sailing vessel and man it with a trained chimpanzee tribe.
Give other chimps other ships/yachts... chimpanzee pirate war!

Carve the letters "Urth" so they can be seen from space

Learn Klingon

Crash trains filled with dynamite and stuffed toys

Leave a comprehensive monument that tells the full tale of menschdom and this planet.

Farm. One tractor and the right implements can feed a man for life.

Stargaze. Cloudgaze.

Die.

 

I'm writing a book about it.

 

Hunt down the remaining people and make sure to finish off humanity. Then just wait to die.

 

I'd probably find a woman in Europe somewhere who didn't speak English.
Once I was brave enough to leave the UK and figured out there was no one else in the UK but me.

 

Build graves for all those dead (as many as possible), travel and read books until death claims me. Naturally, eating and other things like that would also be done. How? Dunno, I can cook, but without food sources around, I'd most likely die within a year or two. Depends on how many canned goods I can find. In NYC, that'd be a lot, I think.

But yeah, live the simple life until its over.

 

I would start worrying about becoming prey for packs of dogs and wolves, pumas. Someone near game reserves in Africa would have bigger worries. Also the possibility of solitary or small bands of predatory humans. Try to make sure that I am not vulnerable. Probbly would go to a gun shop and load up on amo and firearms. Find a dog as a companion, two would be better-more protection. Attempt to communicate via cellphone with any survivor who has one. Stock up on medication, such as pravastatin, which I am presently on. Go to a bike shop and get a bike. Stock up on food. Set up an electrical fence powered by a generator. Stock up on fuel for it. Get a car an fuel for it. Pray and hope to be heard and helped.

Recommended film
The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston

 

I would try to find a radio so I could contact the remaining people. Then we would coordinate and get together as quickly as possible to find a huge underground shelter where we could survive for some hundreds of years while all the nuclear reactors and other dangerous tech/chemicals and nasty stuff goes haywire topside. The survival and repopulation of the species would be goal one.

Or I would just hit up the closest mansion, dress in a red morning robe with extravagant embroidery, find a good antique chair, sit back outside on the terrace, and listen to the silence.

 

That is a very terrifying scenario. Imagine the profound silence! Birdsongs, buffalo brays, dog barks, lion roars, sounds of flowing water, pattering rain, the wind, none of these will compensate for the comfortng sound of another human vioce. A certain degree of compensatory insanity characterised by visual and auidtory and even tactile hallucinations would inevitably creep in.

 

One might start a religion, find acolytes and make oneself an in-the-flesh manifestation of a deity.

One might clone oneself so as to not be alone.

 

I would celebrate. Think of all the great wines around. Food in cans would of course get tedious but one must eat if one must drink. Then raid the chemists for painkillers because of toothaches or whatever. Take all the drugs forbidden as well - do a decadent Rimbeau poet at the edge of the sane - then do nootropics and make sure I am in-sane---watch the flying stars with batwings hover above- talk to the aliens head2head---take some tranquilizers---sleep in luxury hotels---that is just day one!

 

Nice to be optimistic! Wish I could be the same under such challenging circumstances. Me? I would worry a lot about some dental complications demanding immediate tooth extraction. I would find it hard to inject myself with Novocain and pull my own tooth. What if I crack it and need surgery to get the root out?

I would also worry about the roving packs of domestic dogs gone wild who will see me as an easy meal. Being high would dull my pains but could very well make it very easy for them to get me. I would also be concerned about suddenly finding myself in darkness when the electricity conks out and having to rely on smelly kerosene lamps and smokey candles which will worsen my asthma. Would be seriously concerned about staying warm in the approaching bitter cold of winter. Getting transportation to move south would be one of my goals.

 

So if it's just an "everyone is gone, no zombies-n-shit" scenario, then I would farm.

I live out in the country in Puerto Rico and I already own a goodly sized piece of land where I engage in casual horticulture. Farming here would not include any grains - too labor intensive to process - but would instead be about fruiting trees, legumes (think peas and beans), root vegetables (we have a wide assortment) and different varieties of banana and plantain.

I would find the closest Office Depot or Best Buy and grab every single Kindle in stock. My hope there is that I can leave them untouched and cycle through them as their batteries start to fail. I have a jenny and solar panels already, so I have electricity even if there is no grid whatsoever, so reading would become (remain?) my go-to entertainment.

 

I suppose I'd masturbate. A lot.

 

So, not much of a lifestyle change?

 

How will you deal with predatory animals such as packs of dogs and wolves, coyotes, and maybe mountain lions that will be drawn to the depopulated areas? How does burrying as many dead bodies as possible increase your survival chances? Is it an effort to reduce attracting animals towards your hiding place? Or is it related to respect for the dead?

 

We are the only prey that can turn our weakness to advantage. The appearance of weakness only implies weakness. If there are predators, there is prey. If the prey goes, eat the predators. That which eats must drink, thus the path to water is made. Worry first about what you are going to do than about what might happen. Don't keep anything more than you can run with. Have a nice day!

 

Regret not learning how to fly an aeroplane in the time of people.
...

Feel brave enough to drive down a Channel Tunnel.
...

 

I will try to find the others that are alive, but before that, I will prepare myself for the journey. And with those who I could find, constructing a place where the survivors could get together and start a new life.

 

Yes, probably find the survivors. But I really need to do some stuff first.
Okay, I probably start off with an apartment in my local town. I will drive to it with the nicest car I can find in the neighborhood.
Then I start to wander around the city with my notebook and sleep in, in a park.
I will visit the library's and old buildings I always wanted to visit.
I am most definitely going to go to my tech market and 'test' out all the cool stuff.
I drive home with all the cool stuff. I drink coffee and look at my cool stuff.

Maybe overthink life a bit more and then explore the rest of the world.
Maybe just stay in the apartment and live there while doing all kinds of research.
I like to know everything about electronics and stuff.
Maybe do some Mathematics cause wth?

Ye, it's gonna be great.

Then after one year I am gonna drive around and search for people. Maybe make a trip to some European country.

And if I don't find people I will probably suicide after five years cause I can't handle the loneliness anymore.
Yup, that's about it.

 

If there were no people left, I would find me a dog, because it's man's best friend.
Next, I would travel a lot and enjoy nature.
Finally, I would steal the rocket from SpaceX and make the last trip to the mysterious space

 

Declare a new nation "Mishland" with a complex set of laws, dress up mannequins in police uniform to enforce them. Create a new map with well defined borders of Mishland, dress up mannequins in border patrol uniforms and leave them in random locations around the border. Declare a national emergency in Mishland! Sack all supermarkets and hoard all food sorted by use by date in one well protected, high security superstore. Establish some sort of farming project while living on Tuna cans and other long shelf life pillaged items. Broadcast a signal welcoming refugees into the new nation.

 

Try to find other survivors. Carefully, because many of them will be desperate enough to try to kill you for your possessions and food. Thry to form a band of survivors for mutual defense and to make a viable community with enough cumulative skills to improve the odds of survival.

If it isn't obvious, try to find the cause of the disaster. Align your new society to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Survive, then thrive.


You might want to read up on other pieces of writing about apocalyptic events. There was a version of The Birds that pre-dated Hitchcock's movie, set in the British Isles. Larry Niven's Lucifer's Hammer is another excellent story of this type. Also, Day of the Triffids.