I think we're somewhere between stage 1 and stage 2. Stage 1 is, I think, Business as Usual. "This isn't happening. It will all be solved with a nice cup of tea. Blitz spirit. Keep smiling through. They will sort of it." Stage 2 is the "OMG it is happening. What now?" which leads to a mixture of responses. In this case, it's slightly different since everyone involves knows this isn't really the End of the World, and that They will fix it, so we're not seeing the proper application of the Post-Apocalyptic Response Scale.
Stage 2 is, I think, the time that law and order breaks down. Most people hide at home, still clinging to the Stage 1 mentality. Nasty people set up gangs and try to charge tolls and protection fees, and there is lots of looting. Some people set up short-lived communities devoted to old-fashioned values and the casting out of sinners.
I agree with you on stage 3 regarding the hero's retreat from the cities. In stage 4 the baddies rule, but the goodies are slowly setting up small communes in the country. In stage 5, the baddies have all killed each other, and the goodies are able to set up their own new world order from the ashes of the old. Either that, or They have finally got their act together and rebuild the world complete with all the faults of the old one, and it will all happen again.
It depends on the cause of the apocalypse, of course. I'm fond of Plague ones, but don't like to read Nuclear War ones. Plague particularly lends themselves to the "this isn't happening and will all be cured by a nice cup of tea" approach. Nuclear War... well, doesn't. English apocalypses are also much more prone to the "nice cup of tea" approach. American ones tend to launch into stage 2 rather quicker.
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Stage 2 is, I think, the time that law and order breaks down. Most people hide at home, still clinging to the Stage 1 mentality. Nasty people set up gangs and try to charge tolls and protection fees, and there is lots of looting. Some people set up short-lived communities devoted to old-fashioned values and the casting out of sinners.
I agree with you on stage 3 regarding the hero's retreat from the cities. In stage 4 the baddies rule, but the goodies are slowly setting up small communes in the country. In stage 5, the baddies have all killed each other, and the goodies are able to set up their own new world order from the ashes of the old. Either that, or They have finally got their act together and rebuild the world complete with all the faults of the old one, and it will all happen again.
It depends on the cause of the apocalypse, of course. I'm fond of Plague ones, but don't like to read Nuclear War ones. Plague particularly lends themselves to the "this isn't happening and will all be cured by a nice cup of tea" approach. Nuclear War... well, doesn't. English apocalypses are also much more prone to the "nice cup of tea" approach. American ones tend to launch into stage 2 rather quicker.