[brudgers]

Typically the embedded story (at least in the stories I'm familiar with)

Maybe read the three classics dystopian sci-fi:

  The Earth Abides
  Day of the Triffids
  On the Beach

Or just classic scifi:

  Anything by Phillip K. Dick
  Most things by Robert Heinlein

Or authors of “modern” classics:

  William Gibson
  John Scalzi

Even Dune is a pretty grim future for all the non-player characters. Never mind Margret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, McCarthy’s The Road, and Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz.