When we were kids, my sister and I loved the book "Baby Island". A recent read-through made me realize how silly and poorly written it is (along the lines of a "2012"), but we were taken with the idea of two young sisters, shipwrecked and caring for a passel of infants and toddlers on a tropical island. With armfuls of dolls, we would pick a corner of the house and pretend we were responsible for all those little lives.
I suppose that was the beginning of my love of the last-people-on-Earth genre. And I will, to this day, and most likely forever, read or see anything involving said circumstances. Maybe it's the "we're all in this together"ness. Or the onus of having to sustain civilization; making the choices about what will be important.
What I think I love most, though, is that the characters are compelled to say exactly what they mean (The world could end at any moment!) and not take each other for granted (You could be gone without notice!). Obviously, it's just not practical to live one's life as if each day is your last. If that were the case, I wouldn't be worrying about my credit card debt. But I can certainly try my best to let my loved ones know they are just that and be kind to anyone else who might cross my path. I really don't want the guilt weighing on my conscious when the earth splits in two under my feet and I'm sucked into the molten core in the middle of my supermarket.
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