In a post-apocalyptic future would you rather...

[noblegiraffe]

struggle for survival on the harsh and bleak surface with other survivors

or

live in a nice comfy large bunker with a few thousand people and all the mod cons except you can't go outside, or communicate with anyone outside?

See, I assumed everyone would choose the bunker but some friends said they'd rather chance death on the outside than live in a bunker, even if it was huge.

Polling wouldn't let me put only two options so you can also choose to die in the apocalypse and opt out of either scenario.

Definitely prefer to die. I’ll be running into the mushroom cloud. I have no skills for the post apocalyptic world! No one will care about my amazing excel abilities while we’re trying to scrabble together a basic civilisation.

Bleak survival on the outside sounds like the least worst option although in reality I probably wouldn’t survive very long.

What about nuclear fallout, though?

I don’t like either of the options but have health issues so wouldn’t survive 5 minutes without “mod cons” so would have to go with bunker but would hate it.

But the question was what would you choose post-apocalypse.
The disaster has happened and now we are just surviving.

The bunker would be riddled with selfish, needy, controlling characters.
I'd definitely take my chances in order to keep my independence and not be forced to live under someone else's rules.

I'd find a boat and anchor myself off shore somewhere, maybe sail around till I find a safe, secluded place. Possibly befriend some animals (foxes?) to take with me and train them to go and find me food.

Depending on the type of apocalypse it was, you might not really have to worry too much about food. They ultraprocessed food and tinned stuff in the supermarkets would last a long time if there weren't too many survivors scavenging.
The main thing you would need would be a good generator and someone who knows how to get the diesel and petrol out of the tanks under petrol stations when the electricity is off.

No woman would be safe outside the bunker. You’d be mad to think you wouldn’t regularly be raped etc

I'd rather be dead frankly.
How long can one live in a bunker for? And what value is life without fresh air, freedom, nice things to look at and buy and eat?
It would be worse than being in prison forever for a crime you didn't commit.

I would willingly take death over a few thousand people.
But I have kids.

This. Would try to find a remote, tiny island for me and mine.

But how do the bunker people, like experts in (say) fixing pumps and actuators in water hydraulic systems, get to fix the world outside?

Will I have a team of apprentices eagerly learning all my accumulated wisdom for One Day In The Future?

Ok I have just read this on your recommendation. Jeez that was a riot, particularly the first chapter of the actual apocalypse.

The 'after' is very reminiscent of John Wyndham's The Chrysalids (which is one of my favourite books), although that one is focused on a society that guards heavily against mutations.

I think, given the book, I would still prefer to be in the bunker rather than experience the apocalypse up close. Future generations on the other hand....hmmm.

@noblegiraffe glad you "enjoyed" the book 😂
Another favourite teen book (actually a trilogy) is by Jean Ure. It's about a plague rather than nuclear war.
Book 1 is Plague (originally published as Plague 99)
Book 2 is After the plague (originally published as Come Lucky April)
Book 3 is Watchers at the Shrine.
Very interesting to decide which society that evolved after the plague happened that I'd prefer to live in.
(again I don't want to plot spoil....)

Being imprisoned in a bunker with no way out wouldn't be that great for anybody, either. Any 9-10 year old daughter will come in handy for the leaders once the 22-34 year olds had aged out/died in childbirth to keep them going until the 4 year olds and newborns reach fertility, especially if there's no way of going outside the shelter to acquire some more through abduction squads.

It wouldn't be like Hazel-Rah inviting the female bunnies at the farm to come and join the warren.

Hazel needed more females though because they neglected to bring any does with them when they escaped the original warren. (Which is fair enough, it was a mad dash of whoever they could persuade to leave).

If the leaders of the bunker make sure that there's an even spread of sex and age in the population then they're not going to need children to reproduce. In fact they might need to restrict procreation in order to conserve supplies.

@noblegiraffe @NeverDropYourMooncup
"You stoooooopid bunnieeeeees....you got no does...you got no chicks"
My favourite Watership Down line 😂

I wouldn't be able to stand being cooped up in a bunker ad infinitum, I can barely cope with going round IKEA for a couple of hours on a busy day.

That gets 'humanity' to Comfort Women/Slavery and eugenics, though. Much like how Woundwort treated Hyzenthlay and the other does in Efrafa.

Think Watership Down is probably my favourite post apocalyptic odyssey tail tale.

(ETA: Very appropriate typo there...)

A bunker with thousends of people? I'll take my chances outside, thank you.

I wasn't expecting Watership Down to come into this but I'm not sorry it has.

I think a lot of people must have just voted & not posted. To me the replies & the vote don't match up!

(I was a die please!)