[Poll] Could you survive in the wilderness?

This is a quick snap poll because I saw @Renaxan write this in @Moonpearl's (Scenario Thread) Which country would you marry into?:

This isn't the first time I've seen someone express confidence in their ability to survive in the wilderness, but I've always wondered if people (and authors/writers) over-romanticize this.

I personally think solo wilderness survival (long-term for years) in total isolation is extremely challenging, if not close to impossible, unless you're (A) very well-prepared, (B) known the terrain/environment/setting, and (C) are extremely lucky.

But I was curious what other people think.

Here's a scenario:

You've transmigrated to an Earth-like isekai setting, but the government of the continent you ended up in is horrible and evil. Apparently they are Satanic cultists, and they are able to gain incredible magic powers by doing cruel things to random innocent civilians.

Consequently, whenever you walk on the streets, you can always see something horrific happening.

Incidentally, you don't have any right to join the cult because you don't have any of their special "bloodline" in your veins. Consequently, your only option is to be a victim if you are unlucky enough to catch the attention of a cultist.

Since the cult fully controls the government, sooner or later you will probably get unlucky. It's not possible to hide forever because you need to pay taxes, have a bank account, rent an apartment, do groceries, etc, etc.

One option is to flee into the wilderness.

This isekai universe has smartphones and the equivalent of Google.

As long as you find a way to charge your smartphone and stay within cellular reception, you will be able to access Google.

However, if you flee into the wilderness as a fugitive, you must be careful to cover your tracks and leave a minimalistic foot print, especially if you remain close to civilization. This universe has satellite tracking/imaging, GPS, helicopters/planes, as well as cameras monitoring every single street.

As soon as you stop paying your taxes, you will get flagged as a criminal, and the police will be sent after you if you show up on a single security camera or leave any other trace around civilization.

Going deeper into the wilderness might be safer, but there probably won't be cellphone reception if you wander that far. Regardless of where you go, you should probably avoid (A) making a large house/farm that could be visible from satellite imagery, (B) recklessly start fires, or (C) get into the bad habit of using electricity at night.
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1. Would you choose to flee into the wilderness?

2. If so, how long could you survive?

3. What would your survival strategy be?

4. Is there anything that you would bring with you?

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I mean the difficulty of surviving would largely depend on the terrain etc., but honestly it seems to be fairly easy to gather food so long as you're not vegetarian or vegan, cause apparently trapping is easy as hell.


The real problem would come when there's some kind of bad weather or you get sick and there's nobody around to help you. There's no safety net to fall back on if things go south.


Of course, this is assuming that there's not some kind of fantasy setting with monsters and shit, cause then you're probably gonna get fucked. Afaik animals will stay away from humans so long as you don't leave food around near camp.


Natives on Greenland survive by only subsisting on seal and fish (which is of course completely raw...), and that's some harsh terrain and weather conditions to live in to say the least...

 

1. yes
2. depend witch wilderness you are talking about...if like the amazon forest, safari or deserts where there are poisonus insect, snakes or fast predators then i will not survive long without weapons...
3. trowing away the smartphone, if my purpose is to survive in the wild it's best to not be dipendent of modern tecnology...
4. knife, rope, drinking bottle, backpack, lenses and flint for fire.....most of my equip depend wich wilderness i will go.

 

Depends on the area and the threat matrix. You got 2 problems that are hitting you from both ends.
1- If the area is too safe, the humans will get you.
2- If the area is too dangerous, it might keep you safe from the humans but the environment will get you instead.
The ability to find the "sweet spot" is critical and rather difficult to balance.

I do have to ask though, why "Satanic" cults? The other world probably knows of Satan as much as they know of Yahweh.

BTW, most Army Ranger courses are about 2 months long and by then most of the participants would have lost about 1/4 of their body weight. And this is people supplied with basic food.

In some areas, it's not as easy to survive as people think if you don't know the lay of the land, and that knowledge is often bought at the cost of many lives. ("Woo!! Look!! Floating logs!!" *crocodile chomps on clueless prey*). Not to mention active predators seeking you.

You might actually be safer in the city.

 

1. Would you choose to flee into the wilderness?
Don't know
2. If so, how long could you survive?
Also don't know
3. What would your survival strategy be?
Like in GTA I guess, GTA strategy never failed me in the game so maybe it will be effective in such a horrible and evil place
4. Is there anything that you would bring with you?
Guns, lots of guns, try playing GTA without guns, you won't live for long

 

First of all why haven't the cultists made the whole planet a sacrificial alter in a sense. And refer to the Rule of 3s to survive the Wilderness. Also, why don't you start fucking wiping out this cult member by member? Sure they control the government but destroying the cult's network would hamper their abilities and cause more workload.

Spoiler: Rule of 3s

1. Would you choose to flee into the wilderness?
I would choose to flee into the wilderness as a tactical retreat but only so on if I need to lay low or to trap the ones chasing me so I can kill them.

2. If so, how long could you survive?
I could survive how long as I need to. As well as coming prepared to kill the cultists and survive their onslaught. I'm sure I would be able to survive long enough to cause a Rebel front and other Organizations to form to deal with them. Here's the deal, if you antagonize the populace eventually you will meet resistance and when that forms, you are one step closer to falling.

3. What would your survival strategy be?
Whatever strategy is needed to survive, as well as Rule of 3s to survive the Wilderness.

4. Is there anything that you would bring with you?
I would bring some electronics and well survival gear and a few weapons. Even if I'm on an island they will come to find me, problem is do they want to come find me in the middle of nowhere with a long distance time of getting to and from there.

 

I don't mean to brag, but I'm confident enough to survive just enough to get food poisoning from eating a fruit/plant/mushroom that I think looks edible but is poison, then be devoured by wolves. So I say about a day?

I'll be honest, makeshift knowledge can be more dangerous than no knowledge at all, the more a world is "earth like", the more likely we would let our guard down assuming something works the same way it does on earth.

Having access to something like google might help maybe? But not long enough to be off the radar. Actually, I'm surprised we have a cellphone and they can't use it to track us. Or do we have to get rid of it once we go rogue?

I mean if we have time on our hands, I could probably do "camping trips" to the wilderness and learn one step at a time. But if you threw me in there as-is, I'd be dead probably within a few days.

 

If your a filipino, the chances of survival to the wilderness is high than living in a city. Don't get me wrong but we lived in a harsh enviroment where we would even do drastic things just to survive. Some of our people don't even know how adaptive we are to any enviroment given we are like roaches.

Despite how harsh my life is, its not exactly comparable to how my countrymen live. Heck, mine is on hard mode while the rest having insane difficulty.

 

I kind of forgot about this when I made the thread.

My advice to the fugitive would be to buy in cash a disposable phone and a pre-paid phone card...

 

first i'd need to know how to dress a kill. then i'd need to know what plants were edible and how long they could last with proper storage.lot of work to prep an off-grid home to be able to last yrs. digging the pit for the freezer would be a pain.grab yourselves old BOYSCOUT field manuals. they may say your life someday.

 

You know, I hear that real life Satanists these days are atheists who believe in science and promote learning. I remember reading a few articles about it a few years ago.

As for your question... I don’t think I could do it.

 

The rule of 3 isn't exactly valid in the wilderness. What it does is tell you of your time limits, not how to overcome them, not to mention the conditions they presume are technical extreme limits, not practical ones, like for example, air. Where can you find areas in the wild that does not have oxygen in the sense of wilderness survival? And I have been in areas where you definitely can survive for more than 3 days without shelter.

More practical examples would be
1- If you are alone, make something. Anything. A block of wood, some face drawn on a rock, anything. And talk to it. One of the side effects of long term wilderness survival is the loss of speach facilities. Anyone living in the wilderness tend to stop talking after a period of time and the effects of this can be lifelong.

2- Don't guzzle water. If water is short, drink it by continually wetting your lips and keeping the mouthful of water in your mouth for as long as possible. It lasts longer and kills the thirst reflex.

3- Reserve 1/3 of your supplies all the time. Even if it is a single slice of bread, reserve 1/3 of it for later. It stretches your supplies to as long as possible.

4- If you are in an area of plentitude, the best way to store items is in your stomach. If food/water is not an issue in a specific area, eat/drink EVERYTHING.

5- learn how to do poison testing and watch what the animals eat.

These are the basics off the top of my head.

 

Please don't run into the wilderness. Already been done in history, failed terribly.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/hist...uman-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/
It's easy enough to build shelters, but your immediate biggest problems will be a stable source of food. Then comes disease. At the very least, try and survive while still in contact with civilization (fringe forests, etc).

 

Not exactly flee into the wilderness, but find asylum from some country who is in disagreement with the home country and is strong enough to resist........ which why I would have to make a hell of preparation just to flee and cross the border.....

 

1) No.
2) Three days?
3) Use the entirety of any diabetic medication supplies I could access at the earliest opportunity, or failing that find some very high to fall off.
4) Insulin by preference.

 

it's a trait of all humans......their adaptibility is their strongest ability.....

 

*flips table*
This alone makes it impossible. I give up now.

1. No

As soon as you stop paying your taxes, they know you're missing. Facial recognition technology plus all those cameras means they know the point where you left from civilization. Humans can only walk so far in a certain amount of time. Since you can't venture too far from civilization, that narrows the search area even further. With a group that is hanging horrible stuff over their citizen's heads all the time, discouraging escape would be something on their priority list (since they don't want to run out of sacrifices).
Once they catch you, they'll do the worst imaginable of the horrible stuff they have in store, to make an example of you.
Freedom would be brief and shitty (camping without proper supplies or an ability to light a fire).

 

As an Australian, I'd last in the wilderness up until any animal chooses to kill me.

 

Which, knowing Australia, can be anything from 3 seconds to 3 years lol. Got to watch out for those Drop Bears, they're deadly!