Once we’ve entered the pre-apocalyptic, well-stocked vacation homes are especially at risk. By definition they’re vacant most of the time, and, as Fred points out, far from the city’s dense policing. There are also a lot of them. The George W. Bush Administration’s “Ownership Society” failed, and now homeownership rates are back where they were in the mid-’90s. But as wealth has further concentrated, the market for vacation homes has stayed strong. According to the National Association of Realtors, over 1 million vacation homes were sold in 2014. That’s 21 percent of total home sales, the highest share ever recorded. “Affluent households have greatly benefited from strong growth in the stock market in recent years,” the Association’s chief economist Lawrence Yun said, “and the steady rise in home prices has likely given them reassurance that real estate remains an attractive long-term investment.”

But how attractive is the long-term? Forty percent of 2014 vacation home purchases were in beach areas; investors may not be thinking that long-term, or at least they haven’t consulted the latest coastal sea-rise models. But for now, the greatest threat to that investment might very well be social rather than ecological. Not the rising sea itself, but people looking at those models and deciding they no longer give a fuck; the Internet’s “lol nothing matters” turned into IRL practice. It’s what would happen if people actually accepted what they know. Who would begrudge themselves a party at a beach house before they’re all swallowed into the ocean, especially if no one is using it anyway?

Like art theft, borrowing vacation homes isn’t the kind of crime that traditionally inspires a ton of sympathy for its victims. For homeowners (especially billionaires) it may be disconcerting, but people lend out their extra houses to friends all the time. It’s a temporary theft of class position, and that inspires more people than it frightens. Take the case of Colton Harris-Moore. The teenaged “Barefoot Bandit” lived for years by breaking into vacation homes in the Pacific Northwest before being caught in the Bahamas, where he had flown a stolen Cessna. Not yet 25, Harris-Moore became a folk hero. He gained renown for stealing as little as a meal or as much a car, boat, or plane, depending on what he needed at the time. Casing vacation homes was part of his profile as a smart, resourceful young man who sought to minimize the harm he did to others while on a truly astounding crime spree. In the end, he is serving concurrent 6 ½- and 7-year terms for his state and federal convictions. Not bad, all things considered.

Cop-killers Christopher Dorner and Eric Frein aren’t quite as popular as the Barefoot Bandit, but they both seem to have made use of vacation homes to evade the authorities. After declaring war on the LAPD on February 7, 2013, the former officer and soldier Dorner fled to the woods of Big Bear Lake, California—a vacation destination with twice as many housing units as year-round residents. After days of intense manhunt, he was finally caught when two owners found Dorner hiding out in their empty cabin. The fugitive tied them up but left them unharmed as he went looking for refuge. Dorner died in another unrented cabin when authorities surrounded him and burned the unit to the ground. Unfortunate timing produced one of the most disturbing and in my mind iconic images of the young century: The State of the Union split-screen with a burning vacation cabin.

In September of 2014, Frein fled to the Pike County, Pennsylvania woods after assassinating a state police officer. It took authorities a month and a half to capture the survivalist and World War II reenactor. Police hypothesized that Frein was using vacation homes for shelter and resources, though he was later found to have a hideout in an abandoned airplane hangar. Still, Frein monitored the police search via pilfered WiFi, and he had to charge his laptop somewhere. Even the hardest core survivalists aren’t above using the full terrain, which includes unlocked wireless networks. Vacation homes and their well-stocked pantries are a resource just waiting for our social mores to fray. As soon as people stop following the rules and anarchy descends on America, vacation houses will be a natural place to go if you’re not interested in dying immediately.