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?

I'd move into one of the big libraries in Edinburgh (where I live). I'm assuming no electricity so will need books to keep me sane. Plus I think i'd feel safer somehow surrounded by books.

I'd plan a nice week doing all my favourite things.

Pilfer supplies from Wholefoods and Harrods food hall.
Find a mansion with a swimming-pool and hang out there for a bit.
Spend a day in Hatchards bookshop reading some really good books.
Get out of the city to the seaside, steal some ice-cream from an ice-cream van and enjoy having the beach all to myself.

When the week was up, I'd end it. Humans aren't meant to exist alone.

@PickAChew lets get our perspectives right - tea first than think about what to do
it reminds me of the old tv series The Survivors (very topical its about a pandemic that start from an accidental contamination in a Chinese lab & than the scientist going on a plane journey &...complete eventually with the group traveling to Southern France)
On the Beach when they go north to find the signal (try the made for tv version 2010 I think on you tube its in short bits but still good) I love the book its so sad (that make sense?)

Z for Zachariah - they did a made for tv version years ago

Medicines go out of date - painkillers and antibiotics would be useless after a couple of years. Petrol would last a year at most, even with additives.
For whoever was adding to their tbr pile, The Hoffman Plague is set in Hastings - massive plague leaves hardly anyone behind. The survivors do the self sufficient thing, and Emerald Virus and Last Tribe are set in the US, same premise. All good if you're into "after the end" stuff. (All recently written, there are loads of older ones too)
Somewhere over on the books we're reading board there's a lovely big thread about dystopian fiction too

People don't realise that bad teeth killed a LOT of people before modern dentistry.
@MrsTerryPratchett - really? How?

I love everyone's ideas on how to live large. I'd just sob for weeks and then try to get every animal I met to be my new best friend.

@Cowbells quote from an academic paper, "When the London (England) Bills of Mortality began listing the causes of death in the early 1600's, "teeth" were continually listed as the fifth or sixth leading cause of death." Infections, abscesses, as well as severe pain which meant eating was impossible. Your heart health is also related to your teeth. Dentistry is 7000 years old!

We don't understand how very simple things are vital. Dentistry, sanitation, infection control. Someone else deals with all this. Lucky us!

All my stresses would be gone and I could finally relax and enjoy life

Petrol would last a year at most, even with additives.

You'd need to seal it up in a load of jerrycans, before the power to the pumps failed anyway.

I think you can run a petrol car on vodka/whiskey. With no one else in the world you could probably last a while driving from booze shop to booze shop!

I enjoyed the film OP

@Cowbells

People don't realise that bad teeth killed a LOT of people before modern dentistry. *@MrsTerryPratchett* - really? How?

I love everyone's ideas on how to live large. I'd just sob for weeks and then try to get every animal I met to be my new best friend.

If you get an infected abscess and you don't treat it with antibiotics it will probably kill you.

I'd probably find out that I was a victim of
a hoax where everybody was still alive but were playing a massive, world-wide game of hide and seek but had decided not to tell me.

Diesel lasts longer than petrol, but not more than about 5 years.

Electricity would be possible with solar or wind.

Firstly I’d be annoyed as it’s taken 15 years to really cultivate the soil in my veggie patch and I’d have to leave as we in the middle of a housing estate and as previously mentioned, dead bodies, disease and rats. So I’d probably take billypup dog out for a long off lead walk, which we can’t usually do as she’s reactive to cyclists and runners while i contemplate my next move. Which probably involves moving somewhere remote and raiding supermarkets and garden centres, although I’d like to find a heritage seed centre as often the seeds produced from cultivated seeds don’t always grow true when you harvest them for the following year.

Disappeared or dead?

If I woke up to my DH and kids dead I'd probably scream and cry and then try to call the police /ambulance and be confused when nobody answered. Then I'd try to call various friends and family and start to panic.

If disappeared I'd probably assume DH had taken the DC out and go back to sleep. Then text him to find out when they'd be back and go on the Internet.

It would probably take me ages to notice people weren't making new posts and he wasn't reading

Then I suppose I'd Google loads of info about how to survive an apocalypse and print it out before the Internet and power shut down. While looking for websites where any survivors were communicating.

I started to think about this then I realised that I'd be concerned about all of the animals of the world. I'd be able to look after my friends horses, dogs, sheep, hens as well as my own but what about everyone else's? What about the cattle that are still inside overwintering and the sheep that are inside for lambing now not to mention all of the pets and zoo animals.

What about animals in vet hospitals needing care or dogs and cats in boarding kennels etc?

I think I'd be better off dead.

Cup of tea first. Once I'd got over the shock I'd ensure a ready supply of tins, water, alcohol, wood and diesel for fuel, first aid, find a comfy bicycle, a motorbike two and a older diesel car- easier to DIY maintain. I think I'd like a dog and some chickens too. And plenty of self sufficiency books.

I'd set up a few base camps with supplies, and travel between them. I think a nomadic lifestyle so you're not tied to any one place would be nice. It would be too cabin fevery to stay in one area alone. But I would definitely stay in the UK - no wolves/bears etc. Besides I get seasick.

It wouldn't take long for animals to get bold, and I love a bit of nature watching. Star gazing would be vastly improved with no light pollution.

Ok, first of all I'd have a coffee. Then break into a supermarket and eat everything.

After that I'd go joyriding over whole of England. Then I'd get bored and lonely and wonder where all the people were, no-one to phone.

yumscrumfatbum I loved that episode! The Twilight Zone... our Black Mirror.

I tried showing my kids and they were just too jaded and cynical to appreciate the integrity of The Twilight Zone.

Get a gun from a police station, drive to my favourite beach, have a long walk on it, watch the sun go down then do the necessary.

Enter loads of raffles, as being the only entrant you would win everything...
Television
Holiday for Two
Spa Break
etc.

Not sure why people think that nuclear plants would go into meltdown! They're designed to shut down automatically after a few days. I don't think I'd find a gun in a local police station in England either, unless I was in London/Manchester. I think heading to a farm would be a better idea because they often have shotguns.
Start sealing up fuel cans while the pumps still worked; my car is a diesel so I'd help myself to a big petrol vehicle too. I think going to where a wind farm is working would be a good idea - they have a lifespan of about 25 years and the UK has by far the most. Hopefully they keep supplying the local grid! Get hold of as many tin openers as I could, because they break over time and I'll be eating a lot of tinned stuff. Stay near a B&Q-type shop or go to where I work as it has back up generators and every tool/hardware you could want. I'd be OK on my own, but I know I wouldn't last 30/40 years because I'd run out of Crohn's meds.

Have changed plans (been thinking hard here). I’m staying right where I am. Central london. Will be amazing empty and able to pop into everywhere ! Also now prioritising weapons and ammunition - fearful of other isolated survivors who also think they are alone. I’d want some kind of proof I was alone (?!) before I’d lose that fear. Also for general wild animal warding off.
I’d scope out the nearest stables/solar/wind equipped property (although rudimentary not electrical run) maybe a water wheel property.
Cant shake the temptation to stock up but if trips to get things are not dangerous (no one else around) then I agree stocks need only be for months not years (in case of injury/illness).
Raiding chemist.
Can imagine after a year or so I too would use weapon for the necessary maybe gazing at at Paul’s from Waterloo bridge.

St. Paul’s not the bakery Paul (although that wouldn’t be bad if somehow they had fresh stocks in).

hmm,

take hammer and break into local locksmiths.
Take course on picking locks!

As all these plans to get things from police stations, etc, aren't going to come to much otherwise.