r/postapocalyptic

If all the sick people in the world suddenly turned into zombies, which is about 1% of the world's human population, according to Google and AI sources, how would the world change realistically in your location and in your opinion and imagination.

Let’s assume the "zombies" are the slow, shambling, Romero-style infected (only a headshot kills them). They are attracted to sound and light, but they do not magically know where you are. They are purely driven by instinct.

The Scenario: Globally, ~80 million people instantly turn. These aren't random people; they are the currently sick. This means hospitals, nursing homes, and urgent care centers are ground zero. The remaining 99% (roughly 7.9 billion of us) are now survivors, but we are completely caught off guard.

I want a realistic, grounded take on this apocalypse, not a Hollywood movie. Please answer any or all of the following Topics based on your specific country, age group, and environment (Urban, Suburban, Rural).

Topic 1: The Immediate "Cascade Failure" (Hours 1–24)

· Infrastructure: How long does the power grid actually stay on if the sick engineers and plant operators turn? Does the internet die immediately, or does it take a few days for the DNS servers to fail?

· The "Hospitals are Hell" Effect: With every ICU and waiting room turning into a zombie pit, how do first responders (cops, EMTs, firefighters) react? Do they even stand a chance, or are they wiped out in the first wave, leaving us with no emergency services?

· Traffic and Escape: In your city, how quickly do highways become parking lots? Do people abandon their cars and go on foot, or do they stay trapped in their vehicles?

Topic 2: The "Blue Zone" vs. "Red Zone" Geography

· Global Safe Havens: Realistically, where would the major survivor bases form? (e.g., The Australian Outback, the Siberian taiga, the American Great Plains, or isolated island nations like New Zealand?). Which countries have the geography to actually survive, and which are doomed (e.g., densely packed places like Singapore or the Netherlands)?

· The Urban Death Trap: For those living in megacities (NYC, Tokyo, Mumbai), is survival even possible, or is the sheer density of zombies and lack of farmland a guaranteed death sentence within a week?

Topic 3: Demographics and Survival (Who makes it?)

· The Elderly and the Very Young: Since the sick turned, survivors are generally the healthy. But how do we handle the elderly who survived (because they weren't sick) but need daily medication? Do we just run out of insulin and blood pressure meds immediately, leading to a "second wave" of natural deaths?

· Children: If a 10-year-old survives, are they an asset (small, quiet, can scavenge) or a massive liability (noisy, needs calories, emotional weight)? How do parents realistically make decisions about movement with kids?

Topic 4: Food, Water, and the "Silent Killer"

· Supermarket Syndrome: The supermarkets will be looted in hours. But after the fresh food rots in 3 days, what do we eat? Does humanity revert to hunting and foraging, or do we desperately try to save the grain silos and livestock?

· Water: If the water treatment plants shut down (due to lack of staff), how long before tap water is undrinkable? Do we see mass deaths from cholera/dysentery before the zombies even get us?

Topic 5: Governance and Human Nature

· The Remaining Governments: Which national governments would actually survive? The US has NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain, but can they feed the population? Or do we see the collapse of the nation-state, replaced by "Warlord Zones" controlled by whoever has the most ammunition and fuel?

· The Most Violent Zones: Where would the most dangerous human-on-human violence occur? Would it be in the suburbs (neighbors fighting for supplies), or in the cities (gangs consolidating power)? Would we see a "Purge" mentality, where people kill simply because there are no laws, or would collective survival override that?

· The "Essential" Jobs: Who are the most valuable people now? It’s not the soldiers; it's the farmers, the mechanics, the chemists who know how to make antibiotics, and the ham radio operators.

Topic 6: The Long Haul (1 Year+)

· Winter: For those in the Northern Hemisphere (if this happens in July or January), winter is the true apocalypse. Do the zombies freeze solid (making them harmless) or does the cold just make survival for humans impossible due to lack of heating fuel?

· Reconstruction: Does humanity try to rebuild cities, or do we permanently become a nomadic, tribal species? Do we try to save the internet as a "library of knowledge," or is paper books the only technology left?

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My specific question to you: Based on your location, your profession, and your personal skills—are you dead in the first week, or are you a Warlord in Year 2?

TL;DR: 1% of the world turns into zombies. Give me a realistic, gritty breakdown of how your specific area, the global politics, and the day-to-day survival would actually play out.

Would the wealthy try to horde all the food in vaults?

Hi everyone,

I’m an indie author currently working on a post-apocalyptic novel called “Life of Ashes.”

I wanted to share the core idea and ask for honest opinions from readers who enjoy the genre.

The story is based on a Yellowstone supervolcano eruption, but I tried to avoid the usual clichés (no zombies, no virus, no “elite military saves the world”).

Instead, I focused on something slower and, in my opinion, more unsettling: a realistic global collapse unfolding over days and weeks.

• ash blocking the sky

• cities slowly becoming unlivable

• communication and infrastructure breaking down step by step

• and ordinary people forced into impossible choices

The story follows different groups of survivors:

• one in Seattle as the chaos unfolds,

• another far away in France trying to protect his family while everything collapses globally.

I’m curious about something as a reader.

=> Would a “slow, realistic collapse” apocalypse interest you? 🤔

=> Or do you prefer more extreme, fast-paced scenarios (zombies, pandemics, etc.)? 🫠

I’m genuinely interested in feedback, not promotion. I’m still shaping the book and trying to understand what resonates with readers of the genre.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts 🙏

Looking for some realistic post apocalyptic audio book recommendations, really looking for something written by someone who is competent and in the know about firearms. Also looking for something thats detailed. The closest thing I can think of that would explain what im looking for is if jack carr wrote a zombie apocalypse book.

~1890 years since the Great Burning.

Philactron-13

No one truly knows why the planet that endured so much was named exactly this way. The first humans — the "Great Ones" or "Ancients" — called it Philactron, which roughly translates as "Bulwark" or "Stronghold". The meaning of "13" has been lost to time, and unless you’re a historian or a bastard-archaeologist, there’s little point dwelling on it.

Today, Philactron is a vast scorched wasteland pierced by colossal structures of unknown purpose. Monstrous beasts roam among forests of rusting metal and the new, fire-born flora. The planetary sun reliably illuminates only the southern regions. The north and central parts are almost constantly covered by unnatural clouds. In the far north there are seasons of acid rains and portal storms. The central archipelago, known as the Scorched Cradle — once the heart of the Ancient world — is now completely uninhabitable. The seas are home to creatures that have yet to be fully documented.

In these conditions, on the ruins of a civilization many times greater than their own, the survivors of the Burning and those who endured the Long Darkness now stand on the threshold of the end of relatively peaceful centuries.

Throughout their long journey they have been guided by the Order of the Holy Core — one of the few direct descendants of the Ancients who survived the Burning on artificial island-platforms. These floating monuments to the lost mastery of the old world preserved key knowledge. Guided by the Great Plan, the Order leads humanity toward a bright future, so that one day they may be ready for reunion with the Ancients.

The mass enlightenment of techno-barbarians, the taming of steam and electricity, humanity’s return to the skies, and the discovery of the secrets of dark oil have caused a dramatic technological leap in recent decades. While factory smokestacks rise above growing cities and airships cut through the clouds, in other places ancient dogmas, century-old prejudices, and archaic institutions try to suppress rising dissent. They act out of reverent fear of the unknown consequences of tampering with the ruins of the Great Ones.

Because sometimes, in the depths, there dwells something that should never have been awakened…

About this setting

This is a volatile, deliberate fusion of many different genres and universes that have been stewing in my head for a long time and have finally coalesced into something coherent. I run a tabletop RPG in this world, but the original question in the title made me want to develop it into something bigger.

I’d love to hear your questions and thoughts.

English is not my native language (im Russian) — apologies for any awkwardness.

I just finished Robert McCammon's Swan Song. Before that, it was Dog Stars by Peter Heller. How do you follow up two solid bangers like that???

Hi there! I was curious about how you judged post-apocalyptic video games. What makes them outstanding for you, and which games have hit that mark?

I think atmosphere is super-important, and also characters. That's what I see in games like the Metro series, for example.

Would love to get your thoughts! Thanks a lot.

Edit: It would be great if you could give examples, thanks!