The Walking Dead: The Walking Dilemma

You have to fight both the living and the dead to survive a zombie apocalypse, but what happens when all the fighting becomes too much?

Last week, I discussed how we can tell if someone has become “too far gone” in a zombie apocalypse. While writing that article, it got me thinking about this: With all the fighting (And, let’s be honest, killing) you have to do to survive a zombie apocalypse, what happens when doing so much of that, for so long, becomes too much for you?

This is the dilemma: You have to kill zombies (And on sad occasion, people) in order to stay alive in a zombie apocalypse, but, doing so will almost inevitably have effects on us.

How long can we keep it up before the grim reality of what we’re doing catches up to us?

And, if it doesn’t, how long before we start to look like denizens of Crazytown?

Between both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead, we’ve seen characters, despite understanding the necessity of their situations, struggle (And, when we last left both shows, continue to struggle) with this problem, most notably: Carol, dealing with killing people in The Walking Dead, and Nick, dealing with killing the infected in Fear The Walking Dead.

In Nick’s case, it seems that, despite being the first member of The Group to recognize the fact that the infected were, in fact, dead, the more time he spends walking around amongst them, the less sure he seems to be of this fact.

This doubt, in turn, has led him to start questioning his discovery entirely, wondering if the infected are, in some way, still alive, and, in the process, making him more susceptible to Celia’s influence, and her strange belief that the infected are simply “changed”.

While it seems that a lot of his doubt has sprung from his time camouflaging himself with infected blood, and seeing how they behave when they can’t detect he’s alive, a lot of it also seems to stem from the sympathy he has for the infected.

Nick seems to hold on pretty tightly to this recognition of the infecteds’ basic humanity (Or at least, the humanity the had when they were alive) and seems to feel a great deal of pity for them.

This makes me start to question things, honestly. Specifically, this: How long can we (Can anyone, frankly) go around killing things that, while they may not look normal are, ostensibly, human?

“Well, they’re dead, duh.” You might reply. To which, I would ask: “In the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, how can you be so sure?”

Let’s think about: At this point in Fear The Walking Dead, The Group is (According to my calculations), approximately three weeks into the zombie apocalypse.

Within that time, they have yet to encounter the sort of visually obvious undead Rick and company started seeing in seasons two and three of The Walking Dead (Which took place at least a few months after everything started), with their deathly gray skin, and wounds so grievous that no living person could walk around with them.

This means that the obvious fact of the infected being dead is…not quite so obvious.

If we can’t be sure that what we’re dealing with is already dead, can we really begrudge people for having problems killing what they could rather reasonably assume…are people?

And what about the rest of us?

If one member of your group (Particularly early on) starts raising the question as to whether or not what you’re fighting is human or not, how long before that doubt starts to creep into the minds of the rest of you?

And, if you start having those doubts…what, exactly, do you do about them?

That’s a tough question to answer. The best thing I can come up with is learn to recognize the living and be able to distinguish them from the dead. The sooner you can be sure of who’s alive and who isn’t, the easier it will become to deal with them.

Speaking of the living, we haven’t addressed the other half of this dilemma, which is: How are you supposed to deal with killing people in a zombie apocalypse?

How many is too many?

And, if you don’t think there is such a thing as “too many”, how long do you think it will be before that starts to wear on you, even change you?

While Nick’s problems with killing infected is occurring at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, Carol is well past that point.

Walkers, especially now, are often disgusting, decaying, shambling shells of humans, even if The Group didn’t already know that all who die turn, this late in the game, it’d be hard to assume they were anything but long dead.

Conversely, while Nick’s problem stems from him not really being sure whether the people he’s killing are alive or dead, Carol has no such ambiguity: She knows the people she’s killing are alive, and she’s having an increasing problem with A) doing so and B) the ease with which she’s done it up to the present.

Sadly, Carol’s problem may be something of an inevitable one: We already know how people can be right now, with the struggle for resources the zombie apocalypse is certain to bring, the kinds of people who are already prone to violent, destructive, or predatory behavior will only get worse, and otherwise decent people will be forced to defend themselves against such characters, lest they become prey for them.

With that necessity for defense against such hostiles, it means there is a very good chance that capable survivors may end up racking a frightening body count, depending on how many hostiles insist upon being so to them and how many can be reasoned with or frightened away.

And, with that relatively high body count, one would assume that, sooner or later, a decent person, even if they’re trying to defend themselves or others, will start to feel guilt about how many lives they’ve extinguished.

How many people do you think you could kill before you started to worry that it was becoming too easy for you?
Or that you killed someone who might not really have deserved it?
Or someone you could have reasoned with?
How many before you start to wonder if you are becoming, not someone killing to defend themselves, but just…a killer?

There is, of course, another side to this coin: What if you don’t feel guilt about killing people? What does that say about you?

I covered this a good deal last week, but, I feel it necessary to reiterate that, if you start just shrugging off every time to kill another survivor in the zombie apocalypse, especially if they pose no legitimate threat to you, it may not be long before you become no different from the violent, destructive, and predatory people I mentioned earlier.

And, sooner or later, if you’ve been killing excessively, unless you’re brain dead, you yourself are going to realize just how many bodies you’ve left in your wake.

If you reach that point and still don’t have pause the next time you kill, will you realize after that you have a problem?

Or will you simply shrug it off and justify it to yourself with some excuse?

And, if you do, what would make you any different from the hostiles that threaten you? Would there even be a difference?

Carol’s dilemma is a much more difficult one to tackle, as I mentioned both here and last week, that it’s naive to assume that you won’t encounter people who won’t attempt to kill either to take what you need to survive or just because, and in a lawless world like a zombie apocalypse, the only way to ensure that you’re not terrorized by such hostiles forever…is to deal with them.

To be honest, I don’t think surviving run-ins with hostiles in a zombie apocalypse would be possible without the willingness to kill them if they left you with no other option, and that, I think, is the only way of even attempting to deal with Carol’s problem: Present hostiles with options.

If you offer them some sort of peaceful coexistence (Surrender, by the way, is not peaceful coexistence) and they still choose to attack, then, your course is clear: They don’t want peace, they want violence and destruction, and the only way to prevent it is by defeating them, once and for all.

Is it a perfect solution? No. But a zombie apocalypse would be far from a perfect situation, now wouldn’t it?

And, if you at least tried to meet people halfway, and they still took it upon themselves to be violent, at least you would know that you did the best you could, and that you weren’t killing people just for the sake of it.

Next: The Walking Dead: How Far Gone Is 'Too Far Gone'?

But, that’s just my thoughts on the matter, do you agree? Do you think I’m full of crap? Let me know in the comments! And, if you like this and want to read more of my writings, specifically about how to survive a zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can get it on Kindle here and on iTunes here!