For EAS series withe their own pages see:
- Sirens used in certain scenarios will often ignite a sense of dread, knowing that the situation or danger presented is either very dangerous, or at its most lethal.
- The second the sentences "We interrupt our program. This is a national emergency." are spoken in any scenario, it means whatever the situation is, it's gotten serious enough to threaten the entire country of the USA.
- A worse sentence to hear is "This is a global emergency." in a scenario. This is typically used for events that can and usually will cause the end of the world.
- Nuclear attack scenarios, due to how destructive and deadly nuclear weapons are, are presented as no less frightening as they would be in reality. In some scenarios, the President gives a sad speech that expresses their desperate attempts to cling to any sense of hope that the American citizens will survive.
- Lost In Silence scenarios will never reveal the main threat until the very end, where it may already be too late, thanks to a glitch in the system preventing information from going through. The lack of sound is haunting, as there’s no way to know what will happen.
- Crossing over with Tear Jerker territory, black hole scenarios often invoke feelings of hopelessness, as the situation is unavoidable and all everyone can do is to just wait out the end. Often the instructions involve spending your last moments with those you love, doing your favorite activity, and even being told to kill yourself. Though considering what a black hole can do, this often may be needed, to spare many from a horrible demise.
- Weather related scenarios are often presented in a hypothetical setting, often taken to the extreme, with the problem often getting worse due to the impact of the severe weather.
- Some scenarios using certain concepts are done so accurately, it may feel as if the topic is happening, may happen, or will happen.
- Even some scenarios use topics that are likely to happen, though this depends on the topic.
- ElectricFanatic
and Harvester’s The Awakening describes the spread of an Ebola-like zombie infection, the plaxiavirus, in an alternate 2017. The virus begins in Seattle after Thanksgiving from an unnamed Patient Zero and is initially contained to the West Coast of the United States, but manages to spread worldwide through Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Australia, and Brazil. In the latter three countries, their respective alerts gradually decrease in quality until the Brazilian broadcast outright announces that its government had collapsed. Back in the US, the situation has similarly deteriorated as the virus breaks containment and becomes airborne, reducing the 300 million population to just 27 millions of people, with the rest either dead, infected or left to their own devices, and the situation eventually escalates to the point where the President is implied to have shot himself. One last alert is sent out to the United States declaring its own collapse, complete with an eerie vector of Lady Liberty, as well as the text containing the statement "YOUR DEATH IS INEVITABLE.". An epilogue states that society worldwide collapsed by February 2018, and that all attempts to build society failed, leaving mankind’s ultimate fate unknown.POTUS: America… or for that matter, anyone who's left in the world. You know, I can't help but feel responsible for unleashing this beast into humanity, and, well...our inevitable extinction. I've been in this bunker, hell, I don't even know where it is, since we cut off the western states, so a while… but not really. I mean, deep down, I knew America was screwed from the beginning, but I had hopes that the rest of the world could go on. Clearly, I was wrong. I just looked at a projection based off of current data. It estimates that at this rate, one in three people across the world will get the virus and die, at least. And, you know, we could have stopped it earlier, but now it's too late. And, well, again… I blame myself. Perhaps this was the awakening that we needed, that we as humans weren't invincible, and that our arrogance convinced us otherwise. So, this will be my final message as president of the United States, or just my final message ever. Hopefully one day, society will be rebuilt. Thank you, and goodbye. *The sound of a gun being loaded is heard, followed by loud static*- Even the start of the pandemic has several suspicious moments like the opening news broadcast being cut off mid-sentence. After the illness shows up and the "missing persons" incident skyrockets to 3000 victims in only a single day, something more chilling happens afterwards. The 911 operator receives a call from a panicking person who reports his roommate having strange symptoms, and well... it's not hard to guess what follows at the other end of the line.
Operator: 911, what is your emergency?Caller: (panting) I..I need help- My roommate is sick, and he-.. he just started attacking me out of nowhere, and-Operator: Calm down, sir. Please give me your address..so I can dispatch police units.Caller: 714 Scranton Street, unit 2.Operator: And you said your roommate was sick? Was he sick with the new illness?Caller: Yeah...I think so. I've locked myself in the bathroom, but, I think he knows I'm here- [abrupt silence]Operator: Sir? Sir, are you there?Caller: *sounds of a zombie trying to break into the room while roaring* (panicked) Help, he's trying to break the door!Operator: Just stay on the line with me!Caller: (Sound of glass breaking and growling mixed together) PLEASE SEND HELP! *gets cut off with a groan, complete with "disconnected" beep*- After someone proposes rioting against the unjust lockdown measures, the police forces try to quell a gathering of rioters, only to be forced to use firearms when the "protesters" start rushing them, ignoring any fired shots. The nearest squad gets overwhelmed and being cut off. The following TV announcement cuts off as quickly as it appears, but upon pausing you can read what has been written on the second page.
A Civil Danger Warning: King County Military blockade breached by rioters. Mob may be armed and infectious. Please take caution, especially if you reside near King County. Do not attempt to interact with the rioters or join them. You will face prosecution if you riot.- The worst of all is that the "rioters" may very well be zombies, why else would they No-Sell being fired upon with automatic weapons?
- Another scenario made by Harvester called Nuclear Armageddon describes a nuclear war which breaks out between the United States, China, and North Korea in May 2021. The scenario ends with a similarly eerie alert announcing the collapse of the United States, but has a somewhat lighter epilogue stating that the world recovered from nuclear winter by 2039, despite the human population being leveled to half a billion.
- Liminality was an EAS/Analog Horror-hybrid scenario created by ElectricFanatic. Liminality essentially takes the concept of Liminal Spacesnote and turns it into The Virus, which kicks in when people are asleep and slowly implodes the mind - reducing anyone affected into a raving Omnicidal Maniac that wants to murder everyone else so they can be alone forever. The scenario invokes a general feeling of hopelessness as the Disaster Dominoes begin to fall, using various voice-acted segments to demonstrate this insanity in real-time. The phenomenon's origins are left out (though the opening scene implies an experiment Gone Horribly Wrong), resulting in an Invincible Villain that cannot be analyzed, stopped, defeated or truly cured - the world has to slowly watch itself fall apart with the only other option being to not sleep at all, which has its own set of problems. The scenario ends bleakly, though not in the usual world-ending way: The government manages to synthesize a formula that reduces the body's need to sleep, but this only staves off the Liminality phenomenon instead of doing something about it. A Class 1 ultimately occurs as society devolves into a global wasteland Liminality continues to prod at, leaving survivors to seek out a "desolate, empty" existence in a world that's almost completely Driven to Madness.
- While the tones on their own are already unnerving, it’s when the tones get slowed down, which means that humanity is done for. Surprisingly Truth in Television, because at some points in time, the alert tones were slowed down, usually for tornado alerts. That being said, this footage's creep factor is substantially reduced when the message begins being read... and it's been pitched down to a comical degree!
- In "No Way Out", the moon stops rotating and starts moving closer to Earth, causing dramatic tidal shifts. Then the sun disappears, and people who go outside have their skin melt, start screaming in pain, and become mindlessly aggressive with Super-Strength. The Nassau County police department urges people not to go outside under any circumstances, which is followed by a broadcast from the government claiming they were impersonated and it is strongly recommended to go outside. An organization called Veritas broadcasts an emergency transmission explaining that there is an Eldritch Abomination on the moon and they're going to try to nuke it...followed by a glitch-filled broadcast that begins with "Warning: Veritas Has Fallen." The nukes fail to stop or even slow down the monster, cultists are handing out pictures of it, and all Veritas can do is advise people to stay off the Internet and destroy any televisions to avoid seeing the monster, hide in their houses and wait for the end.There is no way out of this. All you can do is hide and pray the monsters don't find you. May God forgive us for our failure.
- BBC EAS Scenario - The Sun Vanished (2002). No jumpscares, scary images, or Eldritch Abominations, just the BBC announcing that the sun is drifting away from Earth and all life on the planet will freeze to death within a month. For their final broadcast, they play the national anthem of Britain, "God Save The Queen," before the screen cuts to black and two words appear on the screen: "NO SIGNAL."
