The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: What comes after

Okay, you’ve accepted that you’re dealing with zombies, but what do you do now? People’s reactions to this are crucial, as shown in Fear The Walking Dead.

With Fear The Walking Dead coming back this Sunday, I’ve obviously been gearing up for it, talking about a lot of beginning of the apocalypse stuff. I’ve covered holding yourself together, why you shouldn’t panic, and accepting that you’re in a zombie apocalypse. Okay, cool, but, once you’ve gotten that point…then what?

Once you have arrived at the realization that you are, in fact, in the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse, what do you do? That is what I’m going to tackle this week: What to expect and how to respond.

I suppose the best way to start is with what you should (Generally) expect to happen as the world comes face-to-face with the undead menace.

The first thing you need to realize is, when things start going south, our technology will like be the first casualty.

People will attempt to call loved ones or 911 and, because everyone else will also by trying it, they’ll push phone services to capacity.

On top of this all you need is a few drivers turn while behind the wheel and hit telephone poles to potentially knock out power. With so many power grids dependent on one another, if a blackout occurs in one place, it may cause a cascading effect, plunging large areas into total darkness.

That being the case, before the panic sets in, use your technology as best you can: Call friends and family and either warn them to get out, or arrange with them a place to meet. The quicker you do this, the better.

The next problem you’ll face will be the government’s response. With the government almost certainly not believing they’re in a zombie outbreak, their response may not be that good.

To be fair, you can’t really expect any governments to automatically conclude that the rash of biting incidents is zombies; It’s too fanciful a notion for them to consider and, honestly, you kind of want that in a government, to a certain degree.

Of course, the government not believing in zombies has its own problems. Firstly, it means their response will be very slow. They probably won’t respond to the problem until enough zombies have arrived to cause a panic. This will already leave them playing catch-up.

Secondly, their response might end up being too lenient. In this scenario, they’ll provide medical treatment to people that anyone who knows there’s zombies will realize are going to turn. They’re failure to grasp what they’re dealing with will mean many a good person will get mauled when it could have been avoided.

If you recall the carnage Rick saw after leaving the hospital in “Days Gone Bye”,  that was likely caused by people being let into the safe zone (Or dying in it) before the government realized what the situation was.

Thirdly, if they’re not too lenient, then, they’ll be too harsh. Basically, the whole second half of the first season of Fear The Walking Dead was about the government’s heavy-handedness.

We watch as the military takes Patrick Tran away, despite not being bitten, they take Griselda away for a broken leg (Couldn’t they have treated that in the week and a half before that?), take Doug Thompson away for…being sad, Hell, the only person taken away that really makes sense is Nick, because he was stealing drugs.

There’s a very good chance that, if the government is treating the outbreak with the seriousness it deserves, it will be in a manner that might be so harsh, that it fosters resentment, distrust, and get good people killed by either putting them down or leaving them outside safe zones, out of fear they might be infected, despite there not being a real reason to think so.

However, the worst scenario would be if the government decided that trying to hold its major cities is untenable and chose to flatten them to try stemming the tide of undead.

This means they’ll, at best, use firebombs, and at worst, use nukes, to achieve this. You don’t want to stick around for either of these developments.

So…what do you do?

If you’re lucky enough to have been placed in a safe zone with people you know and trust, and the military hasn’t chosen to bomb your city, you might be able to make a go of surviving there.

You’ll have reliable people to help, and depending on the scenario, trained soldiers to help defend the safe zone and teach you how to as well!

This, of course, is an ideal scenario. There’s no guarantee you’ll have such a thing. Having only strangers to rely on, or no military protection is far from ideal.

In this scenario, your best bet will probably be to flee the area before things go from bad to worse. This goes double for any bombing scenario, too.

However, this will be easier said than done.

The most important thing to remember is to avoid populated areas whilst escaping. This means avoiding cities, large shopping centers, and major highways (Along with bridges and tunnels).

With so many people in or using these places, this means the number of zombies will be huge, and far too many to handle. Take back roads, and search the places you least expect large crowds to gather for supplies. Small town convenience stores or gas stations may have supplies that people overlook.

If you’re in a place like New York City, with so many islands, try to get your hands on a boat. I can’t imagine that being any worse than zombies trapping you on/in a bridge or tunnel.

I could say more, but, then, I’d be writing another book.

Hopefully, I’ve given you some helpful tips on what to expect in a zombie apocalypse and how to deal with those things as they come.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

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

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!