Drew Miller, a retired Air Force colonel who oversees a growing network of survival ranches, was a bit ahead of events when he decided this month to game out the 2024 election year on his new Collapse Survivor app used to test reactions to possible disasters.

Not too far into Miller’s 110 “exercise messages,” the National Guard is called out to handle political violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, just like some election veterans, including James Carville, have predicted. “It is not ‘zombie apocalypse’ nonsense. It is very plausible, realistic,” Miller said.