The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Accept your circumstances

As we get closer to the return of Fear The Walking Dead, I think back to beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and how vital it is to accept being in one.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been tackling being afraid in a zombie apocalypse, and how important it is not to panic when the outbreak begins. Well, thinking about these things together got me onto another idea that is vital to surviving a zombie apocalypse: Accepting it.

Think about it: Why are people so afraid when a zombie outbreak occurs? Well, aside from the obvious, it’s the fact that most people will be in shock by seeing something that shouldn’t be happening. When you see something that you know shouldn’t be happening, it throws you out of whack; It leaves you confused, disoriented, and it puts you on the backfoot, leaving you perpetually playing catch-up, which you can’t afford.

Your only solution is, once you realize what you’re seeing is not a figment of your imagination, you must accept it. You must accept that what your seeing is real and is happening, and that pretending it isn’t is not going to help you.

Let’s look at Nick from Fear The Walking Dead as an example. If you recall the first episode of the show, what was Nick going through?

He was terrified that he was losing his mind. Granted, part of that was because of his history with heroin abuse, but, regardless, Nick was almost losing his mind fearing he was losing his mind.

Nick spent a whole day wandering around Los Angeles trying to get in touch with his friend, Cal, hoping to hear that his supply of heroin had been laced with hallucinogens, to explain seeing a zombified Gloria. The attempt to get Cal to tell him that nearly got him killed. Why? Because Cal thought Nick was going crazy, and, to be honest, so did he.

To be fair, the nature of the infection helped lend itself to making Nick think he was crazy. He told Travis and Madison about Gloria and the others at the church, only to have them arrive and see no one there. This is something you will have to deal with, that, because someone’s infected, no matter how dead they look, they will eventually get back up and wander around. If you try to warn people you saw someone eat someone at this place, they’ll get there, see nothing, and think you’re losing it.

However, the alternatives are worse. If you don’t accept that you’re in a zombie outbreak you’ll either attempt to rationalize it or ignore it.

If you’re rationalizing the outbreak, you will attempt write off the behavior of the infected as they’re simply crazed, sick, or high.

This is a very dangerous line of thought to take. If you go around simply thinking that the infected are crazy or something, you run the risk of thinking their behavior will just…go away. You will convince yourself that the infected are either one-offs, or that they’ll go back to normal, eventually.

Do this long enough, and you’ll end up getting yourself bitten, because you’ll believe that they should be normal by now, only to discover too late that they’ll never be normal.

On the other hand, if you simple ignore the problem, you might just treat all of the zombies as one-offs; That each attack you might hear about are the actions of crazed individuals, no big deal.

If you even acknowledge that the inevitable chaos is something out of the ordinary, you will likely assume that the authorities will deal with the situation and things will soon revert to how they were.

This would, then, be quite shocking to you when the government’s attempts to put down the undead fail, however long that might take.

By ignoring the zombie outbreak up to this point, you’ve left yourself quite vulnerable to trauma as your new reality comes crashing down on you. You’ll be struggling, trying to accept these “people” are, in fact, dead. Like Travis, you’ll find yourself in quite the moral and ethical predicament as you are forced to “kill” something that, up to this point, you’ve seen as a living person, instead of a reanimated corpse.

So…what do you do?

Now, obviously, assuming that anything out of the ordinary is a zombie would be a stupid idea — That’s not what I’m suggesting.

However, I do think you should consider the possibility and be observant of the world around you.

Firstly, if someone you know tells you they saw someone eating someone else, that should set off alarm bells. No matter what, blatant cannibalism is not something you see or hear about everyday, so, if you do hear about it, it should give you pause.

Secondly, even if you can’t wrap your head around the idea of a zombie, and only think the person crazed, sick, or high, you should still be quite concerned.

Think of it like this: If someone were sick or on drugs, would you want any potential disease they might have? Obviously not. Or, if they were any of the three, do you think they’d stop at one bite? Probably not. If someone was going to legitimately take one bite out of you, they’re probably willing to take more.

With these in mind, you should take extra precautions to avoid these crazy/sick/high people. Even if you can’t accept them as zombies quite yet, avoiding them couldn’t hurt.

As for being observant, this is actually quite simple. In today’s world, where nearly everyone has a smartphone with a camera, should a zombie be roaming around, it shouldn’t take long for footage of it to hit the internet.

Even if it’s grainy, if you see footage of a person eating another person like an animal, you should be concerned. If you see footage of the cannibal (Or anybody) stabbed or shot and withstanding not even acknowledging it, you should be extremely concerned.

If see either of these, that would be a good time to start gathering supplies and getting away from your nearest metropolitan area. As I covered last week, if the masses are already freaking out, it’s too late.

I believe the key to weathering the zombie outbreak, mentally, is to accept it. Even if accepting zombies is too much for you, assume the following: They may have a contagious disease, and are so out of control that they will eat you alive. Neither of those are things you want anywhere near you, at any time.

Do not ignore it if you hear about someone engaging in zombie-like behavior, do not ignore it if you see someone engaging in zombie-like behavior, and do not assume that they will get better/normal any time soon. If you hear about one, that’s your cue to get supplies; If you see one, that is your cue to leave.

Once you see a zombie (Unless, of course, you have a legitimate reason to think you’re hallucinating), do not waste time telling yourself it isn’t happening. Even if zombies are impossible to you, a person doing what you’ve just seen is not something you should either ignore or stick around for. The sooner you accept that you’re in an extraordinary circumstance that requires your full attention, the better off you’ll be. And remember, do not panic.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

Next: The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Do NOT Panic

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!