How Long Would You Last in an Apocalypse? (w/quiz)

I've got a year to find love and happiness after TSHTF.

What was the right answer to the moss question?
I have spent plenty of time in the woods looking at trees to know that moss grows wherever it can, and that this rule is next to useless.

The survey needs to take into account the type of situation and scope, as the best place to be, best stuff to have, will vary.

Here are the categories I can think of that create similar situations.

1. Nuclear War
2. Natural Disaster - Comet/Asteroid strike, Mega-Tsunami, Supervolcanic eruptions, pole shift, etc.
3. Pandemic of biblical proportions
4. Economic Collapse
5. Social Order Collapse

So depending on the scope and type of apocalypse, being on active duty in the marines might be a great thing, like for natural disaster, or could be bad, like in a nuclear war. Being in a small rural town might be fine for economic collapse, but might be bad in some Pandemic scenarios. The scope of the disaster changes things too.

M

reply to post by nenothtu


Nenothtu,

Great points about saying small and quiet.
In the end, it's not where you are, or what you have, or even to some extent what you can do.
It would be more about what are you willing to, what line would you not cross.
Personally, I have too many lines to even last a year should it really happen, so I don't see the point of stockpiling much.

The people who will survive will be the ones who can hide in the sewers under the Costco distribution center for a couple of years until the rest of the heros and zeros battle it out to the death.

M

reply to post by ChuckNasty


I year, not bad.

10 years for me...

reply to post by ChuckNasty


I scored 10yrs. That would make me 73 by then.

morefiber
reply to post by nenothtu

 

Nenothtu,

Great points about saying small and quiet.
In the end, it's not where you are, or what you have, or even to some extent what you can do.
It would be more about what are you willing to, what line would you not cross.
Personally, I have too many lines to even last a year should it really happen, so I don't see the point of stockpiling much.

The people who will survive will be the ones who can hide in the sewers under the Costco distribution center for a couple of years until the rest of the heros and zeros battle it out to the death.

M

Survival is almost entirely a matter of attitude and determination. You'd be amazed to find out what you can do that you never knew you could until you had to. It's the determination to do something, even if it's the wrong something, that gets you there. Do something, because to DO, one has to SURVIVE. Determination to do is the fruit that grows from the will to survive.

My strategy is to hide out and lay low, and as you say let the rest of the heroes kill each other off over scraps until it's safe to come back out. In order to do that best, there are a few considerations. You have to be where not many other people WANT to be. Less likelihood of someone accidentally tripping over you then. Between that place and the zombie hordes boiling out of the cities in search of food an other people's stuff, you need to make sure there are enough "other people" for them to raid, keeping them busy and away from you own precious self. Basically, predators go where there are things to predate upon - don't make a target of yourself, and be away from the ones who DO. Be far enough out that no one wants to walk there to see what there is, and make it appear that there's nothing there to make the trip worthwhile to begin with. That's why "communities", "farms", etc are a bad idea. they draw predators, even unwilling predators. There will be time for settling in and farming later, after the packs have thinned each other out and freed up some resources.

Predators, along with just about everyone else, follow "natural lines of drift" - roads. larger rivers. "Game trails". Make your stand away from them.

I dunno about the sewers under Costco, but there ARE rats in sewers, so you wouldn't go entirely hungry. I'm thinking a bit farther out, though. Rabbit to bear sized meals.

I do not want to survive the Apocalypse, I've been through enough in my relatively short life. Mark me down for 0...

reply to post by leolady


congratulations you get to suffer for five years!

reply to post by nenothtu

don't remember where I read it but in crisis situations crowds tend to not travel farther than two miles from main roads

Chrisfishenstein

FlyersFan
The dirty little secret that survivalists don't talk about ... no one will survive an all out apocalypse.
Nuclear power plants around the world will melt down. The entire planet will be Fukashima.

We plan ahead for a semi-break down of society.
But as far as an all out apocalypse goes ... there will be no survivors.

Even if you could survive, who would want to? If you couldn't even go to the surface or find clean water....Who in their right mind would plot out a survival plan to stay alive?

Wow, some people just love the idea of living in absolute poverty alone....Just as long as you live, right??

+1 Chris. Just what I had in mind. Survive an apocalypse ? Russian nuke, nuke melt down, asteroid ? Don't want to be around for that one. Survive to do what ? Yes, the power plants will shut down. But the fuel needs to be kept cool with water. When the water is gone, it's game over.

My quiz result: 50 years

I think it just takes common sense and some know-how. You will definitely have to know how to live off the land. You will have to know some medical techniques. -It's many things together that will better your chances, and me being raised how I was, have a lot of that in me. I teach my kids the same things and other things that I have learned along the way.

i got 3 months lol. but they didnt have any questions like:

do you have access to a supercharged V8 muscle car?

do you have a sawed off shotgun?

do you have a pet dog named dog?

reply to post by nenothtu


Nenothtu,

How about this for an idea - Bear Farming.
Or better yet, bear ranching. They eat up the looters, then you eat them!

Seriously, I agree your better off in general farther out, but every place will have its hiding spots.
It amazes me how many people on the prepper shows think they can pack up fast and make it 100 miles or more on highways with all their stuff.

M

Indigent
50 years, im the dog in independence day...

edit on 23-1-2014 by Indigent because: (no reason given)

I'm just glad to know my type 1 diabetes wont kill me for 50 more years weeeee

edit on 23-1-2014 by Indigent because: (no reason given)

me too, I guess it was the girl scouts?? lol

My advice, strength in numbers, 200 or more people would be sufficient. An organized community, where everyone is doing their part to keep the group functioning as a whole. Hunters, warriors, gatherers, nurturers and specialists (medical specialists). Have a leadership structure, and make damn clear (those in power) will be hung by their nuts if they try to make some idiotic laws that will only benefit themselves! Keep low for the first few months until the majority has died off due to starvation and mass murder.

First definition of apocalypse: The complete final destruction of the world

So as for how long I would last...Im guessing, 0.84 seconds.

Wonderful - got 20 years.

However, I am at the age that I only have about 20 years anyway, so lets say I really have just enough time to make sure my kids understand the concepts I believe in and learn the same skills I have. Then I can go out in a bang due to an exploding vein because of a wrongly sneezed sneeze or something!

bottleslingguy
reply to post by nenothtu

 

don't remember where I read it but in crisis situations crowds tend to not travel farther than two miles from main roads

That's correct. It's what makes roads such lucrative game trails for the predators, and especially highways. Crowds tend not to get any farther off the highway than they have to to get gas or food, which incidentally would likely be in short supply at those locations, running out pretty early on.

Even people on foot - which will also happen fairly early on, as cars run out of gas and break down and whatnot with no way to clear them off the roads, clogging the roads up - will seldom walk more than three days, and tend to stay on or near roads ("natural lines of drift") to keep themselves oriented.

The tendency is to form groups and clusters, since humans are generally gregarious creatures, for comfort. In times of crisis the unfamiliar takes on a whole new dimension of scary in the average mind, so they tend to hang with familiar faces and familiar places.

Choke points on roads, like bridges and exits, become danger zones, as those are the most likely places to set ambushes. A highway clogged with cars has beaucoup choke points.

I'm staying away from roads, moving cross-country to avoid them if I gotta move, and laying up in the weeds at overwatches for a while to suss things out whenever I have to cross one, before I get to it.. Watch a while, check for movement, creep up on the road, dart across, then lay up in the weeds on the other side for a bit to check for commotion... then move on.

reply to post by argentus

I chose the "run away" option for that question. Now, I wonder, if I take it again and choose "fight" if I can be the "Rambo" of survival quizzes, instead of the Waterworld Kevin Costner.

Go for broke dude, be one with the little Rambo inside you and all of us. Besides his grave is likely to be more pronounced, elaborate and shiny, and much less watery then that waterworld guy, whatever his name was. Oh ya did that charter even have a name? So mysterious.

Fylgje
My quiz result: 50 years

I think it just takes common sense and some know-how. You will definitely have to know how to live off the land. You will have to know some medical techniques. -It's many things together that will better your chances, and me being raised how I was, have a lot of that in me. I teach my kids the same things and other things that I have learned along the way.

I noticed you're in West Virginia. That's where my dad was raised, and a lot of family still lives there. He grew up during the Depression, which made it even rougher for him. He insisted I learn things that I didn't think necessary... but the Old Man insisted, and when he insisted, there wasn't any arguing the fine point - if you intended to stay upright.

He moved us all to the mountains in Southwestern Virginia for my "schooling".

He made me learn how to raise a garden using horses to plow and cultivate. He made me learn how to move a hayshock with a horse and a rope. He made me learn how to blacksmith, and in the process we made our own plows and whatnot, shod our own horses, etc. Taught me how to make a half sole sled (horse drawn, of course), and how to change the runner soles when they wore out. Taught me how to track, how to move without leaving a trail or making too much noise, how to see without being seen (those came in handy later in life already). Taught me to find food in the woods when there ain't no food to be found. Taught me how to trap when you've nothing but a knife to trap with - or even just a sharp piece of glass. Taught me how to keep myself warm on a cold night with just a pile of leaves. Taught me how to make a deer call ( he called it a "blate") out of a chunk of wood and a soda can, and how to put it to use. All that and more, a thousand little odds and ends that people never even think about any more. The Depression taught him that there may come times, unexpectedly, when a guy has to know these things. He used to count my shells before I went out hunting, and when I came back, there had better be a piece of game for every missing shell.

Like you, I passed all that and whatever else I picked up along the way to my own kids, now grown and making their way along in the world on their own. I think they'll make it, too.