The Darkness After... The End

I'll admit, I'm not the most reliable author when it comes to reviewing books. My emotions get in the way most of the time and my overall opinion can become quite biased. Since this is my last post discussing The Darkness After, I decided that I will try and remain as positive as possible. So in this final blog post I will discuss what I think I would do in the situation of a post-apocalyptic world, specifically one affected by solar flares like in The Darkness After. Now, just to put myself in the shoes of the characters I will be unable to use electricity, cars made after 1980, and any form of communication. 

And so it begins...

If the solar flare occurred at school:

The solar flare hit the world of The Darkness After in the middle of the weekday so I would most likely be at school when this occurred. At first, everything would be just fine, no internet = no online homework, no printers = no paper homework... so I would have no homework. It would be a lovely change! Now not all of the changes would be lovely in a school setting, take for instance the fact that there would be no heating, no cooling, and definitely no light going throughout the entire school. If you thought school was a dungeon before the solar flare your definition of horrible would change drastically. Many high schoolers who could drive legally wouldn't be able to due to the fact that most have cars built prior to 1990 and wouldn't be able to function. Yay for human power! Since there would be no bus systems, walking, biking, and other alternative forms of transportation would see a rise. 

What would Grace do?

Funny you asked! In this circumstance I think I would actually end up eating my entire lunch rather than the one or two bites I usually get in. Why is this weird you may ask? Well, if I have to buy enough food to last until the world recovered I would need to walk at least a mile in order to get to the nearest grocery store. 

That's right people, I'm actually getting cardio!
It may have taken an apocalypse but hey I'm getting in shape!

After I had entered said grocery store, I would buy as many unperishable items my poor high school student budget could afford. I would then store these in my bag as well as pepper spray, a hunting knife, and a roll of duct tape. I mean, c'mon you never know when you'll need duct tape. It can be used for all sorts of things, including shoes if you dare to wear them. It would be impervious to pack or purchase rope, matches, lighters, blankets, and a change of clothing/shoes in case of an emergency. Yes, blankets can be used in an emergency not just for bed time.

Now, if you expect me to attempt this journey alone, you are quite mistaken. I would grab my closest friends (names to remain disclosed) and head towards our houses. The issue here would be whether or not to live in the homes until we ran out of food. Another decision to be made is whether to break up and go alone. This is when a young and emotional Grace would ask herself, "Do I value my friendships enough to save them as well as me?" And as every horror movie ever has taught me, I would make the good decision (hopefully) and choose to stick with a small group of friends. But I mean, the chances of me making a well thought out decision in this circumstance is quite unlikely.

I'm assuming on behalf of the group that we would stay in the house with the most food and transition with or without families to other houses until all food resources were empty. From this point we would need to break out our imperishable items we bought at the beginning and go on a small post-apocalyptic camping trip!

Even the thought of camping is exciting!

Considering that I live in a highly recreational area, nearly everyone I know would have camping materials. We would need to stock up on gallons of water, whatever food we had, resources to built and keep us safe, and backpack up to the top of the mountains. Animals tend to live towards the lower areas of the forest (minus say birds and squirrels) as there are more resources by water which tends to flow in valleys. The animals we would need to watch out for would be mountain lions and bobcats, in which case the hunting abilities of my friends would come into play. I mean, I'd help of course but they can handle the beast whilst I paint my nails in serenity.

Now that I think about it, the possibilities of me surviving without electricity are much higher than I would have suspected. Even as I sit underneath lights, next to my phone, typing on my laptop, my faith in myself has increased a lot. Actually, in retrospect that was one of my goals to find out more about survival and conquering the world. I guess you could say The Darkness After has proved me wrong about my own abilities! Ha ha! So I did learn something from this experience! 

It's been a rad time, even though I was mainly complaining and moaning about the book most of the time. I'll see you when I see you, or I'll see the page views when you read my blog... nope that doesn't have the same ring to it. Well, whenever we meet again, get ready for another round of awesome blog posts!