History Main / DisasterScavengers

* Evi and Clorian, the main characters from ''AMomentOfPeace'', are unusually peaceful disaster scavengers.

* The eponymous ''[[TheZombieHunters ZombieHunters]]''. In a twist, these are not simple looters but paramilitary groups who work for an island enclave of humanity, salvaging goods from abandoned settlements.

* [[{{Kirby}} Sword and Blade]], after resorting to stealing to survive in their war-torn home, try to rob Metaknight while the latter is running from a demon beast. He then saves them from it and they become his [[{{SideKick}} loyal sidekicks]].

!!Examples :

* More than a few places in ''{{Exalted}}'', perhaps most notably the city of Chiaruscuro (a ruined First Age coastal metropolis composed of skyscrapers of magically durable glass). Even though it is an inhabited and functional hub city, many people still travel into the ruins in search of valuable First Age goods (or even just usable shards of the glass), even though this sometimes necessitates crossing into the shadowlands.
* Many people in Warhammer40K fall into this, mostly through raiding Space Hulks (waking up the genestealers they tend to contain) or exploring tomb worlds (waking up the Necrons they contain).

* The Exiles from ''{{Homestuck}}''.

* In ''Film/LandOfTheDead'' survivors of the ZombieApocalypse from the ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead'' series have inhabited a city, cleared out the zombies, and attempt to keep themselves supplied through this method.

* The Roamers in ''[[TheCityofEmber The People of Sparks]]''.

* Rampant in the ''MadMax'' movies. Complete with scavenger sidekicks.

* Subverted in Literature/TheAdversaryCycle by F. Paul Wilson. In ''Nightworld'' Hank Thompson finally gets his LaserGuidedKarma when he falls for SchmuckBait set up by members of the Kicker cult he founded. A service station [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer guarded by a policeman]] is selling fuel for high prices. Thompson has plenty of supplies in his van so he thinks he'll trade. Instead he's shot, robbed of everything he has and abandoned for the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that come out at night.

* Subverted in Literature/TheAdversaryCycle by F. Paul Wilson. In ''Nightworld'' Hank Thompson finally gets his LaserGuidedKarma when he falls for SchmuckBait set up by members of the Kicker cult he founded. A service station [[ImpersonatingAPoliceOfficer guarded by a policeman]] is selling fuel for high prices. Thompson has plenty of supplies in his van so he thinks he'll trade. Instead he's shot, robbed of everything he has and abandoned for the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that come out at night.

* In ''LandOfTheDead'' survivors of the ZombieApocalypse from the ''NightOfTheLivingDead'' series have inhabited a city, cleared out the zombies, and attempt to keep themselves supplied through this method.
* To a degree this applies to Noland (Laurence Fishburne's character) in ''{{Predators}}''. Like the others, Noland was dumped on a different planet by the Predators because he was considered worth hunting. Unlike the others, who just arrived on the scene, Noland has spent at least 7 hunting seasons surviving on that planet through a combination of keeping a low profile and scavenging whatever technology, weapons, and food he could.

* The Wormhandlers of NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind.

* Many people left behind in the ravaged Gotham City in the ''Comicbook/BatmanNoMansLand'' storyline. In a twist, many scavenged for 'useless' stuff like jewels and cash and gold, because the Penguin had a line on food to the outside and knew Gotham would come back sooner or later. But most just looked for food. A can of unspoiled peaches was worth far more then a gold bar.

"Scavenging" tends to include stealing as well, and Disaster Scavengers are capable and willing to steal anything that isn't nailed down or on fire, even if it's vital to beating the BigBad or [[CosmicKeystone restoring the world]]. The result is that they end up making things worse by creating mistrust and animosity, hampering any efforts to rebuild their community and set the world right, dooming themselves and others to DyingLikeAnimals.

* Mostly everyone in ''Series/{{Jericho}}''.

* The ''Literature/BonesOfFaerie]]'' series takes place in a world that has been devastated by magic because of a war between the faerie and humans. The surviving humans must battle against hostile plants that attack them in order to harvest food and many of their supplies come from before the war.

* ''{{Neverwhere}}'': To some extent, a lot of the characters living in London Underground are Disaster Scavengers, only the disaster is more of a lifestyle. When Richard first meets the Ratspeakers, for instance, they take his stuff and almost kill him. Then a grimy teenage girl befriends him after eating his banana. She would have become a MoralityPet but [[spoiler:dies not long after]].

* The zombie apocalypse genre game ''TheLastOfUs'' feature a few large group of these as major antagonists, one particular group even ''[[ImAHumanitarian killing civilians or tourists not part of their group to shore up diminishing food supplies.]]''

* In Cormac [=McCarthy's=] ''TheRoad'', the few survivors of an unnamed disaster have to resort to this to survive, including the protagonist.