One Second After by William Forstchen

One Second After. The story follows 'John' who is a retired Army colonel, turned college professor. He lives in Black Mountain North Carolina when an EMP attack hits the USA (EMP probably from China via using N. Korea/Iran as a front). Wiki basic info here The story does a good job of showing how delicate the system is and how quickly the human herd will be thinned out when the supply chain fails. I was disappointed that the unmanned nuclear power plants weren't addressed, but the rest of it was pretty good .... illness, hunger, elderly care, prioritizing medicine and food, 'bad guys', marshal law, cannibals, .... China takes over the West and Mexico takes over the South West like Texas.

A good read for a rainy afternoon.
Walking Dead fans might like this. It doesn't have zombies but it's apocalyptic survival.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Ive read this book and it is a good read...there were certainly things I hated about it but its tough to find much on the subject of EMPs in a fictional story.

Definitely recommend it for people that enjoy apocalyptic books....although one of my ultimate favorites in terms of end world scenarios is Swan Song!!!

reply to post by FlyersFan


It's was a good read and makes you look at the apocalypse differently than before.
I guess it was more interesting for me because I know the area he writes about so imagery was a little easier.

The author is a military historian who works at Montreat college in Black Mountain so even though it's a fictional account he's writing what he knows.

The only thing that was odd for the story, if you know the area, is that he didn't include the real life grocery store distributing warehouse just right down the road toward Swannanoa on us 70. I guess that would have taken out the element of hunger.

I also recommend it to anyone who likes apocalypse stories.

The one missing element from all these apocalypse stories .. the nuclear power plants.
They'd be unmanned and melting down everywhere. I wish they'd bring those into the story lines ...

reply to post by FlyersFan


I had plans to go to the NC mountains in a SHTF scenario. Then I read that book. Needless to say, the plan changed quickly.
Beach is a much better idea.

One thing I was amazed at was how quickly things got ugly. I know it's a book, but it described how it would happen in graphic detail. And taking human nature into account, probably very accurate.

I wonder what contingency plans exist for Nuclear power plants?

I remember seeing Life after Humans on History channel and they dove into that.

reply to post by network dude


I still think the mountains are better than the beach. Larger populations live near water so I would steer clear of the coast.

Although in the book he used water out of his swimming pool I think he largely misled on how many springs of fresh water are in the mountains. Follow the creeks to there source. Another thing the book overlooked is the reservoir not far away.

It wouldn't be hard to disappear into the mountains and wait for all the others to kill themselves off.

TheLieWeLive
Although in the book he used water out of his swimming pool ...

Described as heavily chlorinated water. Drinking chlorinated pool water would make you really sick.
Washing and flushing would be fine but It's not fit to be drinking water.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Good thing about chlorine is it will gas off so eventually it could be drinkable. If you ever have to super chlorinate something you'll later need to drink then leave it in a opened container in the sun. It will disapate but after too long bacteria will start to grow again.

reply to post by TheLieWeLive


I remember meeting some "country folk" years ago, when I had only been in NC for about 10 years, and after two or three words, they all looked at me and the one with the most teeth said "you ain't from around here are ya boy". I think I fit in better at the coast. In the mountains, if you are an outsider, you stick out like a sore thumb.