Aftermath of Superflu
Has anyone ever watched a series called "Life After People"? It's a very interesting show. Basically it outlines what would happen to the world we would leave behind if every human simply vanished. In a way, The Stand, and the aftermath of the super flu pandemic are not unlike that scenario, although maybe 0.5% of humanity is still left. Some of my thoughts on what would happen after the outbreak of Captain Trips.
About 1/2 of those who survived would be dead in less than a year. The first three months would be the worst. This is when power systems would fail, infrastructure would collapse, and the survivors would be faced with the loss of everyone around them. Nuclear power plants and petrochemical infrastructure would be particularly dangerous in that, with nobody to monitor the core temp in a nuke plant, or the pressure in oil refineries, you would have meltdowns across the world. That alone would leave parts of the country uninhabitable.
Next would be the loss of food and medical supplies. Canned goods would last for a while, but who knows what would be left in the grocery stores? Your best bet would be to start growing your own food. Chances are, stores would have been looted during the super flu pandemic. Same goes for drug stores. Anyone who relies on prescription medications to live would be in trouble once it ran out. Even a minor injury, such as a broken bone, could be deadly with no doctors or nurses to provide medical treatment (which was outlined in the novel)
Also, does anyone else think that a lot of the survivors would end up committing suicide? Think about it for a moment. Imagine losing your parents, your friends, your relatives, and, if you have them, your spouse and children -all within the space of two months. And in the backdrop of all this, you witness the collapse of society. A lot of people wouldn't be able to handle something like that. The grief and emotional shock would be too overwhelming.
It would probably be closer to six months before you would see anything resembling communities being rebuilt. While I don't believe the survivors would have the technological know-how to operate a nuclear weapon, warship, or jet fighter; I wouldn't find it far fetched to think they would launch raids on one another. This was a constant risk to cities in the middle ages. Especially if ones community is rich in resources and knowledge. Knowledge by the way, would replace gold as the most valuable commodity. Who can get the power back on? Who can get safe drinking water flowing again? Who can figure out how to manufacture medicine? In a post-superflu world, communities would likely wage war over surviving teachers, scientists, engineers, architects, doctors and nurses in the same way nations fight over oil and water today.
Speaking of teachers, here's another scary thought. If the education system isn't rebuilt within say, seven years tops, you can kiss any hope of rebuilding a modern society good bye. With no schools in place and no teachers to educate the next generation, the clock is ticking on the surviving children as to whether or not they will be able to learn even basic reading and writing skills, much less learn math and science. There was a British film called "Threads" which was about nuclear war. Very graphic, and much more terrifying than "The Day After." In less than five years after a nuclear war, the vast majority of children were illiterate because the school system simply stopped functioning and wasn't rebuilt.
Just some of my thoughts.