Apr 16, 2025
Oh hey, I saw your promo on Discord and decided to check your story out 
Really like the premise. Post-apocalyptic stories just vibe with me. I was writing a few at some point but I put them on hold
How many years have passed since the first billion people perished in 2046? "Ages" have apparently passed since stoplights stopped working. It's just pertinent to know the years since some things might not quite make sense if several years or more have passed
1. Gasoline becomes gunky and basically unusable after about one year due to oxidation, without proper storage. If there's only 100,000 people left on Earth, I assume more than a year has passed since 2046. Siphoning random cars Gabe might find shouldn't be an option anymore
2. If more than a decade has passed since 2046, solar panels might not be viable either. They start slowly degrading after about a decade or so. And if not the solar panels, the battery they're attached to definitely will be degraded.
Also, unless Gabe's house was some sort of custom-built home or he lived somewhere more rural, the solar panels will most likely have been attached to the power grid prior to society's collapse. Being attached to the local power grid means the solar panels have zero capability of storing energy for your personal usage since the panels aren't connected to any at-home battery. Energy the panels produced would always be sent to the power grid, and you'd get a discount on electricity in exchange.
Maybe Gabe's house had solar panels that weren't attached to the grid, but this is very unlikely in urban environments it seems Gabe has been living in. And depending on how many years have passed (from the installation of the battery, not society's collapse), the battery may be degraded anyway
3. I just personally find it a little hard to believe there's still any stores with anything in them. They should be long looted, assuming at least a few years have passed since 2046. And even if they still had food, it should be long expired unless it's all Seraphin food I guess.
Also, there's apparently only 100,000 people left alive in the whole world, but Gabe happens to run into one of them. Seems a bit unlikely lol
4. How does Gabe's phone still have service? And is the company behind the AI still functioning? It just feels unlikely the phone would still have service when there's only 100,00 people left alive, while also still having the function of running some company's AI. It'd be a bit more believable if the cell phone service also provided the AI directly.
5. Gabe mentions killing for food too. Does he live somewhere really rural for this? Or has nature just reclaimed the city? Depending on the region, not every city will just conveniently have deer roaming around. And I doubt he'd want to waste gas driving to places with more wildlife either. The logistics just aren't quite lining up.
Sorry, I'm just a bit nitpicky for post-apocalypse stories since I did extensive research when I was writing my own. So much of what you see on TV or movies just get the facts wrong. I wouldn't try to emulate all the tropes they try without doing some extra research first.
Anyways, still a solid first chapter though. I'll check out the rest if I have time. Good luck in your future endeavors
