The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Toughness

In a zombie apocalypse, the name of the game is survival. Survival requires mental toughness, but, on this week’s Walking Dead, Eugene showed it to us.

On this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, we saw what Eugene’s life has become as a captive of The Saviors.

Admittedly, it isn’t nearly the Hell it was for Daryl. Rather than be tortured, Eugene was offered all the amenities The Saviors have at their disposal. Of course, Eugene is not Daryl.

Eugene is, quite frankly, a normal person (Albeit an abnormally smart one). He’s not super badass like Daryl, he’s not a master hunter or tracker, he’s just a smart guy. That’s it.

Being in the presence of an army of bona fide killers like The Saviors can put the scare into many a person. If you’re suddenly faced with the possibility of being tortured or killed at a moment’s notice, being scared wouldn’t be unusual.

And, let’s be honest with ourselves: Eugene spent a good deal of time this week being quite scared in The Saviors’ presence.

However, that wasn’t all that we saw from Eugene. We saw Eugene lie his way into getting Negan to believe him worth keeping alive.

Now, one could argue that this is simply a matter of Eugene being a good liar, but I see this as something different.

What I see in Eugene actions is mental toughness. You see, Eugene could have simply let his fear get the better of him. He could have tried to rat out Daryl, but he didn’t. He could have blurted out The Groups’ relationship with The Hilltop…but he didn’t.

Instead, Eugene made a ballsy move: He went back to claiming he worked for the Human Genome Project. If found out, Eugene risks having his brains scrambled, like Abraham had; But, rather than let that fear cripple him, Eugene turned around and used it make Negan believe him. To make Negan believe him and, as a result, keep him alive.

And, that’s the point: In a zombie apocalypse, you can’t let yourself live in fear, or be broken by the death you will see around you.

What you have to do is push forward. You have to use the skills you have and the skills you learn to keep yourself alive.

When we saw Eugene at the beginning of the apocalypse, he could barely keep himself ahead of two slow walkers. Now? Eugene is straight-up lying to, arguably, the most dangerous man he’s ever seen. Hell, the cowardice Eugene has been showing to The Saviors might all be a lie, too: A cover to make his larger lie more convincing.

This is Eugene, flying in the face of his fear, being resourceful, and using what he has to keep himself alive.

In the end, what will keep us alive in a zombie apocalypse is our toughness: Our ability to withstand what’s thrown at us and keep going.

For some of us, it will be our ability to physically withstand the onslaught. It’s especially crucial to have a body that can take the beating the apocalypse will inflict and fight back.

But, for others, it will be our mental toughness that makes the difference. If we can beat back our fears, overcome the loss and the horrors we’ll see, and keep fighting, then we’ll have achieved something.

The name of the game is survival, and you need to be able to do it both inside and out.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

Next: The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Sacrifice

And that’s our survival rule of the week!! Hopefully, it will help you should you ever need it and give you that mental edge that will prove so crucial once the dead start eating everyone.

If you like this and want to find out more rules to survive the 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!