You wake up and you're the only one alive. What do you do?

[Laggartha]

I've just started watching I Think We're Alone Now and this is the premise. I'm only 8 minutes in and we've just seen how our hero spends his time.

I think it's a fascinating idea so I had to pause it to consider what I would do. What would you do?

@HeronLanyon

Oh for goodness sakes you are right about wind up things - forgot all about (and I have a wind up lantern!). Slightly fearful of steam - memories of Victorian explosions from school lessons. I need skills.

You are probably right about the steam. ALso I just had visions of me spending 3 days constructing an elaborate steam powered construction to wind up my wind up radio instead of... winding it up. You can also get wind up phone/USB charger type things with different ports - with those you can then charge anything with a USB port.

Have skimmed through the thread and not seen if anyone has mentioned reading Earth Abides by George R Stewart. Wonderful post apocalyptic book showing what happens a couple of generations further down the line. It assumes there are other survivors though. Highly recommend it.

@Ahbahbahbah

Depends so much on how everybody else has disappeared.

I mean if they just vanish without explanation you could get on with things. But if the streets are full of corpses you need to get out of town and somewhere remote pretty quickly as the towns will be full of disease and rats.

I read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction. Best plan is generally load up on supplies (tinned food, medicine, bottled water, fuel, batteries, cleaning products, sturdy clothes) and then head somewhere remote for a while, hole up and try to spot other survivors.

Oooh, would you mind suggesting any good post-apocalyptic books please? I've read or started the obvious ones - World War Z, On The Beach, The Road, Day by Day Armageddon but always open to new suggestions.

We are getting there ! I’m slightly upset that our sense of achievement will be private when it’s been a great collective thought process.

It'd be a bit like my zombie apocalypse plan
Camping shops for camping stove and gas, batteries and stuff to pack into a backpack should I need to leg it, maps
Food shops for everything I needed for good few months, then top up as often as I can
Local car dealership and get a decent car
Petrol station to hopefully fuel up
Find a nice place to live which has a secure perimeter and good home security
Take daily trips to different places, shops I could never afford to shop in, museums etc
I might plan on making my way to France via the Chunnel

I might have thought about this a tad too much.

I think about this a LOT. I think being on this island would be inconvenient because of the climate, but I wouldn't have the nerve to get OFF the island and head for a more temperate region of France.

First couple of weeks - explore, assess if I'm really alone, indulge in some frivolity (diamonds, premium wine/food, museums etc.

Gather antibiotics and as big a portable pharmacy as possible. Definitely interested in living a long and healthy life here, so away from cities with vermin etc. and out into the country asap.

Gather substantial number of books, camping equipment, survivalist kit, and load up a van (with as much petrol as possible).

Then find a pretty, period house or small castle in the south of England (i.e. warmer), big enough to be fun, small enough for me to manage alone and not get spooked in (strong "final girl syndrome" fears here) crucially with a pre-existing and well maintained kitchen garden and small farm. Stock with small number of animals and learn about growing my own food!

Would be strongly tempted to find something like this though - www.castleist.com/2-5m-devizes-england-spectacular-grade-i-castle-for-sale - and just pretend that I'm a medieval queen (with convenient access to antibiotics) and roam my estates with my loyal Irish wolfhounds at my heels all day.

I would have a blast and apart from missing my family, I don't think I'd be that lonely to be honest.

This is in the "everbody has mysteriously and unthreateningly vanished" scenario as opposed to the "everybody is lying there dead, including my husband and children" scenario, which is obviously less cheerful.

I think a lot of things need to be borne in mind. No electricity, no radio. Shops empty but the infrastructure falling apart, no heating and lighting. Rats running everywhere feeding off what is left. Stray animals everywhere making a mess and killing each other. No heating. Definitely no petrol because the pumps would not be working.
No running water or flushing toilets because no one is maintaining anything . You would constantly be in fear that there was someone wandering around who might kill you or attack you.
The lack of having another person to talk to would drive you mad.
Food sources would be very limited until you had learned to grow food and butcher animals.
Winters would be awful. No heating or lighting and less food available.
With no petrol you could not get anywhere very far unless you had a horse.
If you broke a bone or or got sick or developed dental problems it would be grim.
Clothes and equipment would wear out.
I also think about this scenario a lot and always have done which is maybe a bit odd.

there are a few houses off grid, that would solve the problem of cold winters as you'd have both heat and lighting

without petrol you wouldn't be able to drive a fossil fuel car - but there are electric cars and if you can find one with a full charge and a house with solar panels then you can charge the car up

or just use a bike or even an electric bike

clothes and equipment will wear out - but shops will be stocked with enough clothes to last you a life time, you'd go and find more when you wanted a change. Infact no laundry if you didn't want to as you could jsyt keep wearing new stuff

So in the course of my research I’ve ascertained:

-internet and electricity grids would stay operational for a very uncertain amount of time: hours, days, weeks or months depending on your location and your luck.

-water would probably operate for weeks

-possibility for some things to fail catastrophically quite quickly.

Long-term, there’s no reason why off-grid sources of electricity like solar and wind wouldn’t be operational. You’d be best off finding somewhere that’s already got all that set up. The problem would be long term maintenance. Though really you could manage pretty well without electricity - it’d be more of a luxury item I think.

Portable solar chargers would be handy and enable you to charge something like an iPad if you want to fill your hours playing candy crush.

I think a water source would be a top priority- I’d want to live somewhere with clean running water from a borehole or spring.

I’ve just thought of something else vital - ability to start a fire! You’d want to get your hands on all the stocks of matches, lighters etc (at least while you hone your ability to light a fire from two sticks or whatever).

This is quite a fascinating subject really.

@PumpkinPieAlibi have you read Day of the Triffid by John Wyndham? He did a few other ones too but that's definitely the best.

I’m another one who wouldn’t last long. Whenever I’ve watched the walking dead I’ve thought how pointless it all was and much more traumatic to be one of the survivors.

A moat - yes. I have friends who have a moat - it’s a bit clogged right now and their fruit and veg area is outside of it so I’d have to relocate those to inside. I’m going to renew my previously innocent suggestions to them of us all having moat clearing parties. No one needs to know I have ulterior motives. They don’t have a drawbridge so I may do some ‘drawbridge design’ googling now in readiness or maybe suggest one to them now.
This has been a game changing idea.

I think I may fair well where I am now.

House is heated by wood burners, which also heats the water so I can have baths. We also have solar panels so that will help.

Running stream nearby for when the water runs out. No one to empty the septic tank though

Plenty of houses in the nearby village have gas tanks as there is no mains gas. So I could go and cook there if I wished.

Not far from Trago Mills that sells everything you need to survive!

New clothes and clean sheets everyday!!

I might stay put too. I have a bore hole so fresh water won't be a problem, wood stoves that heat our water and I can also cook on. I have chickens in the garden but I would want some more as well as a cockrel for breeding. And some sort of protection against foxes who will no doubt do well if they have no hunters around. I might raid the local goat farm so I can have some milk. I don't think I would want a cow, too much work and difficult to feed, but goats eat anything.

We have a lot of windmills around here so I wonder if the electricity might stay up for a while if noone else were using it.

I'm very pleased I've kept all our cds and DVDs as I would hate to have no music.

I wonder how long coffee beans keep?

Go and look for a really nice house to live in. Look around for cats, dogs and any caged animals to take care of them.

"I have a bore hole so fresh water won't be a problem"

I think that is my new all time favourite peak mumsnet comment :)

Would probably find a way to kill myself pretty quickly. I wouldn’t want to live without my family, or deal with the slow descent into feral living as the power failed without people to keep it ticking over.

You should read Station 11 - it’s not exactly the same premise, but similar idea.

I think there would be a problem with foxes and dogs - they would revert to their natural state - wild animals looking for food, cats also

I’m enjoying the inclusion of a moat - even more that someone knows someone with one

Weep? My children and partner would be dead, I can’t imagine doing anything other than laying down next to them and waiting until I do too.

Inspired by this thread, I watched the film. Had such good potential but just a poor plot in the end. They could have done so much more with it.

I dunno I thought it was nicely understated. The two main characters were pretty cool.

’m enjoying the inclusion of a moat - even more that someone knows someone with one

I know someone with a mini haha, but not a moat - though there is a local NT Place with a moat

@ivykaty44

’m enjoying the inclusion of a moat - even more that someone knows someone with one

I know someone with a mini haha, but not a moat - though there is a local NT Place with a moat

Oh good one NT property now high on list

Tg for this thread feeling more sorted