Imagine this, you come home from a long days work and you hear from your television that people are starting to change, they decide that no child would go to school, and no adult would go to work. You decide that you are going to play this little game, obviously to get out of going to work tomorrow. This is what I think would happen if everyone were to do this:
Day 1:
All things that are created and or supervised by humans would stop working, such as power plants, cell phone towers and the transporters of food. So people would have to live on what they had, everything that had to be refrigerated would be eaten first. Based on the qualities of all humans most would not think about the future, and thus not save much food for the following day. In smaller societies in where people store a lot of food in their immediate houses, they would live on that for the first day. In the larger societies of our country such as Manhattan, where people usually only eat what they need for that day from restaurants, some might be able to manage living off of what they have stored in their houses, for half a day. Once they had eaten all of this, they would begin to go out of their houses in search for food.
Breaking into locked restaurants if they haven’t already been broken into, and taking any food they can find. Fighting would break out over conflict from food. Once night dawned in the larger societies people would sneak out of their houses and find the remainder of the food, for the next day.
Day 2:
By today no cars would work, all of them would run out of gas. In the smaller societies people would develop hierarchy, and would start putting the food under lock and key. But would not have people working because their was already food able to be taken. They would develop some sort of system where people would come and take a limited amount of food for a day. I would certainly be guarded by men with guns. People would have to use the clothes they already have and wash them by hand.
In larger societies there would be no controlling it, people would be dying every minute from either water shortage, starvation, heat, beatings or sickness. Everyone in the hospitals would be dead by now, their would be no way of supporting them without electricity. The population would decrease at a rate of around 25 people every hour. If someone would try to put the food under lock and key they would be killed. Gangs would be the only people who controlled it. People with guns would control the flow of food.
Day 3:
In large societies more people would die from dehydration then ever before, beating related deaths would go up because of the desperation of food. People would be willing to put there life on the line for all food and water. Even today people will still go to Church and pray that this will all change. In hope that there are other societies that are not in so much chaos and desperation, people will start abandoning their houses and moving to the suburbs, to smaller communities, where they would most likely be accepted. Each community would establish it’s own rules and it’s own way of distributing food.
The people in power would begin to become more and more greedy as less and less food was brought to them. So far people are still relying on the food that is still stored in restaurants and super markets. This is a time when people would begin to create clans, especially in the places when food is scarce, and fight to the death for their share of the food.
Day 4:
By now the people who have not joined some sort of group or community that finds and distributes food, is dead. All of the markets have been swept clean, and stored somewhere else by clans. The rule, “Take what you need not what you want” is absolutely impossible to enforce at this stage. There is no currency, money is completely useless, the only essentials are: Food, Water, Guns, and your live. That’s all that people want. The struggle for power in the large deserted cities is at an all time high, as the food starts to disappear. Theft is also found everywhere, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a man, child or woman, the penalty is death.
The water supply is also dropping, finally people are starting to think of getting their essential from the direct source and not the provider, because obviously the provider has stopped providing. Nearby clans are starting to merge, to help their economy, such as thought which is the only main job that people can do, think about what to do, and how to benefit themselves. The “big shots” in the deserted cities have died out, mostly from violence. So the only thing to do is find a clan and stick to it.
Day 5:
Clans and communities of all sizes are looking for and finding places where recourses are plentiful, the populations of the world is around 4 billion, mostly because people depend so much on things like electricity to do their work for them. Around half a billion have died from diseases or from dependency on life supports. The other 9/10th of a billion have died from starvation or dehydration. The last 100,000 people have died from murder.
All of this of course is within the past 5 days.
Mostly clans have not found a place to settle down, and if they have they think that there is always better places to be found. They mostly live on the food that they have taken from the stores, and the food they find. A more hunter gather live style. The obese have obviously died of, and only the fit and smart are left. Clans are also created based on activity level capability, for instance if one person could walk five miles a day they are not going to be in the same clans as someone who can walk 1 mile a day.
Day 6:
Clans have moved far off from their homes and are now finding places to settle. Where many of their basic recourses can be found. A freshwater lake, some place with shade, trees with berries or fruit. And possibly wild animals that are edible. Fights over land have risen causing many clans to make a choice: Fight for your land, or join your enemy. Deaths have risen, mostly caused by fights. The few surviving clans are starting to merge, usually from similarity, or survival. Rivalry is starting to take it’s toll, based on believes or fights.
The population is around 3,500,000 people. Many species have gone extinct, usually due to dependency on humans or slaughter by humans that come across their path. However greenhouse gas emissions are the lowest they have been since the early days of human life. Many animals that were near extinction are incredibly recovering.
End of Week 1:
Many nearby clans have joined to make large clans of 100,000 or more. Sharing recourses is often seen, however none between clans. Around half of the clans have settled mostly the larger ones, once the have found a place to stay.
Week 2:
The clans have been forced to merge in order to sustain a successful agricultural based community, only a few clans in each continent remain, each having great rivalry with the other. Great wars happen once a week, to fight off the other clan and take their resources, but all end up in a steal-mate.
Population: 3 Billion
Number of Clans: 22
Average population of each clan: 250,000,000
Week 3:
More clans have merged mostly relations between rivalry. Populations has decreased from wars.
Population: 2,500,000,000
Number of Clans: 17
Average population of each clan: 250,000,000
The Final Week:
The population is now 2 billion, wars have brought it down along with starvation and lack of recourses.
It will take a long time for the world be one, and recover from this horrible tragedy.