I’m doing this on Tuesday this time because I couldn’t think
of another post for Tuesday. So here it is.
It’s a plague! That somehow kills everyone and doesn’t
respond to any modern medicine. Hey, at least no one’s turning into zombies
this time.
So I’ve scoured everything I could find that has world
destroying plagues (sans zombification…wow, that’s a real word, who knew?) and
while there’s a pretty good chunk of literature (THE STAND and THE ANDROMEDA
STRAIN are probably the most well-known) and movies where the world is wiped out by some illness.
Survival Tips: Plague Addition
1. Don’t assume you’re immune. Even if you’ve been having
vivid dream-messages from God. In fact, that might be a symptom.
2. If you hear word of a plague, stay away from all strange
animals. I have seen entirely too many pandemic movies that have started with
someone deciding, “Ooh! A monkey! There can’t be anything dangerous about
touching a wild animal with a medical tag on its leg!”
3. Remember to always wash your hands. But don’t use
antibacterial soap. All that stuff that promises to kill 99.9% of germs just
means that the remaining 0.1% has evolved to kill you better. Seriously,
antibacterial soap probably caused the pandemic in the first place.
4. Make sure you’re not with anyone who will kill you the
second you come down with a case of the sniffles. Which pretty much means make
sure you’re not with anyone.
5. Depending on the severity of the plague (i.e. if it infects
all the animals, too…which is impossible, but if we’re imagining a plague we
might as well go all in), you might not be able to eat any meat, even if you
hunt for it yourself. Stick to dried goods and vegetables.
6. One of my general apocalypse survival tips is to find a
doctor and stick with her/him. This goes double for plague-pocalypses.
7. Remember: everyone is a potential carrier, so it’s
probably not a good idea to invite the neighbors over for tea in the middle of
an outbreak.
8. Good news! Unless all the movies have lied to me (why
would they do that?) there’s probably a research facility somewhere that will
keep searching for a cure until the bitter end! Bad news! They probably aren’t accepting
lodgers. But you should try to stay alive as long as possible so you can get
said cure (if they find it).
