10 things that could leave the world post-apocalyptic
Numerous people hear of the desolation and aftermath that a post-apocalyptic situation can bring upon humanity. However, very few people even hear about the many ways that that these post-apocalyptic scenarios can come to be, or the graphic nature of these apocalypses that craft the new world.
Those who choose to read this article should be freed of this dilemma as I portray ten horrifying events that could destructively create a post-apocalyptic world.
10) Alien Invasion
Though several people would prefer to write off the imminent possibility of an alien invasion, our universe is immeasurably vast and supports a high possibility of life beyond our own existence. Our world is rich in minerals and resources, providing ample reasons for an invasion from technologically advanced beings like aliens.
You wake up expecting another dull day on your way to work until the ground begins shaking. You panic, thinking that an earthquake is occurring, but you then you hear it; you cover your ears as though this would somehow muffle the almost deafening sound of wind whipped metal carnage. As the sound settles and the ringing in your ears has come to a calm you hear something less foreign; the sound of hundreds of people screaming torturously.
If beings capable of inner galactic travel decide to attack earth it won’t mean war, it will mean death
Upon looking up to the absurd chaos of people trampling over one another, you find your vision drifting in the direction of what they were running from. As your eyes come to rest on an object only describable as some form of airship, you realize beyond this transport lies beings with an intelligence greater than your own. Having the carnal urge to flee you rush to the nearest vehicle and crawl underneath, using it as means of shelter.
The car works effectively as a means of hiding, but it does not relieve you from hearing the blood curdling screams of the unlucky inhabitants, the undeniable scent of freshly unearthed soil, and some noises that are inexplicably foreign. Thoughts fly through your mind as you try not to conjure up images that meet with the horrid sounds and smells you collect as you dare not look at what truly lies outside of your metal confines. But after what feels like an eternity inside the worlds darkest dreams the noises ceased. The smells remained but the noises all but faded away into the distance.
The humans that survive must scavenge through earth’s remains in search of any viable materials
Finally gathering the mental strength to look out at what remains of the world, pausing only for a moment to imagine what you hope is still left of the world, and then without any more hesitation you open your eyes to a baron, canyon filled world that almost mocks the very existence of what this world used to be. The world had been ransacked as though it was a level of Xcom. However, this situation is nothing like a game. There are no game overs, restarts, or rage quitting over loosing. There is only death and fear of such a fate worse than death.
9) Zombie Outbreak
With the hundreds of viruses that exist in the world and several zombie sightings, it is highly discussed in the zombie community not so much how the zombie outbreak will begin, but when in fact the zombie outbreak will occur. Among these repetitive conversations is all the different ways they will epically survive the devastating outbreak.
Surviving an experience like a zombie outbreak is nothing compared to the traumatic aftermath of it. Surviving in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies is not exciting like Resident Evil, but instead is quite a dark and seemingly hopeless end like Dawn of the Dead.
Believing that you can undoubtedly kill zombies is simple until you have to kill your friends or family
Living in such a world would leave even the strongest minds on the brink of insanity, as the courageous survivors lose timeless amounts of sleep over the things they have done to survive. People having to kill humans and human like creatures, and looting buildings for food, water, and medicine all while never truly feeling safe or alone. Surviving means constantly being aware of the mindless monsters that plague the world and hoping that an encounter with one does not leave you with so much as a scratch as battle damage.
Once the world is overrun by the undead there is no hope for things to ever be the way they were before
Zombies hold a special place in the post-apocalyptic worlds as the earth is left with many living things inhabiting it, and yet it could not be more dead and decrepit. This world leaves you to not only scavenge the supplies that exist but be aware of the undead people who remain there alongside of them.
8) Pandemic
Whether it is biological warfare, a scientific study gone wrong, or a destructive product of nature, a pandemic is a very real possibility. We have adapted to fight strenuous numbers of foreign diseases thanks to the vast and ever continuous work of scientist and medical researchers alike, but even having all the advanced resources that are currently available to humanity there are still new cases of diseases across the world.
Contingencies are put in place to prevent pandemic level diseases from spreading across the world but, both undocumented, and mutated strains of pre-documented diseases have proven to be very resistant to these contingencies and have left humanity rushing to find a way to combat this new microbial foe.
It can be hard to believe that something so insignificant in size could bring humanity to its knees
Pandemics may come in numerous forms, but they always share a single horrifying detail. Pandemics leave masses of tortured corpses in their passing with no sense of remorse for the destruction chaos and sorrow they cause. The diseases that make up pandemics harness no feelings, only an innate need to reproduce and spread from host to host at the greatest rate possible.
The more humanity fights diseases the more we learn about them. Alternatively, the more we fight these deadly diseases the more they seem to mutate and create newer more deadly diseases that we have a much harder time fighting. There may come a time when a single disease could cripple our very understanding of what is necessary to combat a pandemic, leaving us struggling to combat a disease that quickly turns most humanity into a massive crumpled pile of dead.
With the rapid speed of a pandemic disease those who once cared for the infected will soon join them
Those lucky enough to hold some form of immunity must stand upon the downfall of humanity. Hoping that among them is a single being with an intellectual understanding great enough to design some way of rebuilding the world they have now lost. One can only hope if this ever occurs that there are enough survivors to see this become a reality.
7) Asteroid Impact
Asteroids constantly come in contact with earth, but most of them burn up into nothing within the atmosphere causing very few to ever directly contact the earth’s surface. Only a fraction of those asteroids are able to create a noticeable amount of damage and cause any kind of real impact to the earth’s inhabitants. That being said, there have been multiple asteroid collisions in the past that have caused horrific levels of destruction. The most notable of these would be the asteroid that forced the dinosaurs into extinction.
The inability to prevent the impact of an asteroid makes the thought of a colossal asteroid horrifying
An asteroid estimated to be six miles in diameter upon impact, created a massive dust cloud that blocked the sun’s rays from reaching the earth’s surface, causing temperatures to drop to a point that plants and in turn animals began to die. After the dust settled greenhouse gases then caused the temperature to fluctuate and rise to unbearable levels.
The entire event caused the dinosaurs and seventy percent of all other life on earth to die from impact based shock-wave, freezing cold temperatures, starvation, or incredibly high temperatures. No matter what way they happened to die each method poses its own horrific ending in which the world is left in absolute turmoil.
A large enough impact from an asteroid can through the entire earth into an ecological imbalance
The asteroid that killed the dinosaur is one of infinitely numerous individual asteroids that exist in the known universe and though the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit earth sixty-five million years ago; scientist believe that an asteroid very much like the one that ended the dinosaurs may be due to hit earth within humanities lifetime. Let’s just hope we have technology like the ship from asteroids to destroy them with when that time comes.
6) Nuclear War
A very realistic fear that has plagued the darkest depths of mankind since the Cold War is the thought of a nuclear war. As of today, most major powers possess nuclear arms capable of eradicating several thousands of human lives at the press of a button, but doing so would consequentially lead to revenge spun retaliation and the beginning of a nuclear holocaust.
Being able to cover a mushroom cloud with your thumb indicates a safe distance from the impact zone
While the possibility of a nuclear war is very real the aspect of one occurring is slim as there is not a need for such exceedingly powerful weapons is not required in this day and time. This is not to say that something could not occur to set offer a nuclear war as this does seem to grow more and more possible as bonds between nations dwindle and the desire for power among countries grow.
Despite the reasoning for a nation to rely on nuclear warfare as a means of assaulting another nation it would more than likely be met with counter strike that would lead to WWIII and a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland that very few people would be able to survive. Such a premise has been imagined in the Fallout Series, however, I feel as though the sickening reality of a nuclear based apocalypse would be much grimmer then the bottle cap currency style gameplay of fallout.
The radioactive aftermath of a nuclear bomb will leave the entire area incapable of supporting life
Barron nuclear waste lined soil too corroded to ever be used for growing food or living on for generations to come. Black smudged stained shadows left as a reference to what had been standing there sheer moments before the war. Those who managed to survive would be less than human, but not quite animal either. They would just be some form of humanoid beings who managed not to die from the third world war.
5) Cataclysmic Event
With earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and more in its arsenal it goes without saying that cataclysmic events make their way onto this list. Cataclysmic events set to take place millions-billions of years from now are bent on wiping out most if not all life on earth. It isn’t certain whether these events will completely annihilate the human race, but the chances are rather high.
Several weather based catastrophes occurring simultaneously will leave the world in complete disarray
However, those who manage to beat the odds, whether it is due to luck or resilience will be forced to suffer through earth’s most brutal sate of decay and suffering. Those who manage to survive will have to adapt to the changes and chaos that occurs on earth. From the destructive creation of super continents to the solar burned remains of a dehydrated planet, humanity may never know what diversity and lushness once lived on this now post-apocalyptic husk of a planet.
As oceans, rivers, and lakes become nothing more than dust, all things living will begin to die
What is left of mankind must adapt in order to find sources of food and hydration upon newly created ecosystems that fight to redevelop the fragile balance of today’s ecosystems. This goes beyond being a challenge as stability is not yet met and finding a place among the rest of the animals could prove to be either the survival or extinction of mankind among the ever-growing scarceness of nature provided rations.
4) Kaiju
Finding a Kaiju moving into the local area will defiantly cause property values to drop
Fighting against a massive monster bent on destruction while having zero previous encounters and no information on its strength or weaknesses poses an imminent threat to the chances of success in defeating the creature.
But when you know absolutely nothing about a creature such as a kaiju, the only thing you can do in the sense of strategy is to call the military to bring in the big guns. Using military grade weaponry is the best possible chance at keeping a kaiju at bay while scientist attempt to decipher the weaknesses behind this previously undiscovered being.
If I saw that creature from the street I would be signaling for the first taxi to take me away
In a real-life scenario, any kaiju that could survive military assault would leave all hope lost to killing it, with the last possible option being a nuclear strike. But finding a safe enough area, or predicting the kaiju’s direction with enough time to evacuate the target area so that a nuclear strike can occur without mass casualties is very unlikely. This leaves one to consider thousands of casualties through a nuclear strike, or continuing military assault in hopes of finding a weak point. Either one of these options can cause a firm standing government to crumble.
3) Artificial Intelligence
The advancement in technology has driven mankind to attempt to develop artificial intelligence with hopes of pursuing many different achievements like AI based assistance, or work replacement. Some worry that this is an unwise move and that the more intelligence we try to give these artificial beings the bigger gamble we take in creating beings so self-aware that they may one day revolt and take over our world.
In present day we ask AI questions, it is when they begin asking questions that we should be worried
We have yet to create anything close to being hyper-aware of its own existence and for that reason have no reason to believe that the real Terminator will be coming to our homes on a peaceful Sunday afternoon. But the future is constantly showing us that the things we once thought were impossible or simply non-existent were being built in a basement or secret research lab all while discussing the absurd possibility of their existence.
If a human creates the being that exceeds their own intelligence, has the human not exceeded intelligence?
If a day does arise when self- aware AI come to a consensus that humans have had their turn and that it is now time for the roles to change I would truly fear for the post-apocalyptic life that would be sure to occur. The AI would either be successful in taking over and continuing the hunt for humans as we all ran fleetingly in hopes that we may survive this mass human genocide, or humanity would construct some form of massive EMP disabling the AI but counter productively disabling all of the electrical machinery and hardware of the world knocking those who remain into a post-apocalyptic dark age.
2) Vampire Apocalypse
A post-apocalyptic world filled with vampires is a bit like getting the short straw when deciding what post-apocalyptic world you will inhabit. Finding the necessary survival tools and supplies are much harder when you are the survival food of something else. Constantly having the human population dwindle as the blood thirsty threat against humanity constantly grows doesn’t really do much for some one’s morale either.
The teeth on this vampire suggest that there is no intention of spreading vampirism
While there are many different interpretations of vampires and their origins I feel as though a real-world version of these creatures would stem from a viral or disease driven source much like the vampires from Stake Land. These vampires are more savagely driven as opposed to being cool and calculated. This makes these vampires difficult to kill due to their erratic and unpredictable nature.
She looks like she is contemplating who to eat first
Every snap of a brittle twig and rustle of a dried leaf will have any survivor on edge in a vampiric apocalypse as these ever so faint noises could be outliers to the seconds you have before a vampire is upon you. The shear anxiety a single person would feel knowing they are forever being hunted by the beings that threaten humanities very existence would leave only the most hardened psyches capable of taking on such a feat in this post-apocalyptic world.
1) Armageddon
If you could take every post-apocalyptic scenario and roll them up into one chaotic mass of tortured insanity, then you would have the Armageddon. The term usually referencing any apocalyptic end of days, this one is held a bit more to the biblical interpretation.
The four horseman of the apocalypse are a personification of four events that plague humanity
By which it acts as a meeting place where angelic and demonic meet in a single location, known as Armageddon and wage war while the earth is ravaged by pestilence, war, famine, and death. Depending on whether you choose to interpret it as metaphorical, or literal will decide just how much more insanity and chaos is truly apparent.
Hell, has no war like that planned in revelations
The overall scenario, despite choice of interpretation, is absolutely monstrous as a war between the heavenly and demonic deities wage war among one another with armies of angels, demons and those who choose to follow them meet in a chaotic mass battlefield of absolute carnage and sorrow. A post-apocalyptic survival based on a single mass war with an end goal of surviving the creation of a new world as opposed to surviving in a dead one with no chance of ever seeing any form of re-creation.
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