Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: You are what you eat
By Liam O'Leary
There are plenty of ways you can die in a zombie apocalypse, but, the most insidious is the contamination of the very things you need to survive.
If you saw the first half of the Fear The Walking Dead midseason finale, then, you saw something especially nasty. As they waited for the Black Hat Reservation’s warriors to attack, many of Broke Jaw Ranch’s militia became sick, with several eventually turning.
How did this happen? Well, it turns out, after being “dumped” at Broke Jaw by a Black Hat courier, Ofelia spiked the militia’s coffee…with anthrax.
As members of Broke Jaw began dying agonizing deaths, then turning, then attacking others, it reminded me of just how much of a threat something like that could pose.
You see, in a zombie apocalypse, we’re always concerned about being attacked by zombies or hostiles. Rarely do we ever think about all of the smaller, more insidious threats we have to watch out for.
As evidenced in Fear, all it takes is one bad meal (Or, in this case, one bad drink) to doom countless people.
Things are bad enough normally with diseases like mad cow or dysentery capable of contaminating our food or water. It becomes far worse in a zombie apocalypse, however, where having fewer medical professionals and supplies can make such diseases even worse.
If you’re in a Walking Dead-style zombie apocalypse, these diseases could easily go from an inconvenience to turning you into a zombie!
Of course, ordinary diseases aren’t the only things you need to worry about!
Think about this: What if a zombie were to find its way into your water supply?
In such a scenario, even if death didn’t turn you, it wouldn’t matter, because drinking your water still would!
Many people don’t realize it could be frighteningly easy for a zombie to stagger its way into wherever you get your water from. All it would take is one zombie, with all of its gross wounds and rotting flesh, to get into your water and, potentially, anyone drinking it could end up turning.
Worse still, if an enemy figures this out, they may try to ensure that that very thing happens. The last thing you need is to get ready to fight hostiles, only to have your own people turning because your enemies chucked a zombie into your reservoir!
So, the question becomes: How do you protect yourself from that sort of attack?
First things first, you need to make sure that no outsiders are allowed anywhere near your food or water. This includes newcomers, this includes former members of your group who are now associated with (Relative) hostiles. If there’s even the slightest chance their loyalties may lie with others, you can’t trust them near your food or water.
Next, protect your water supply from the undead. This means making sure there’s no zombies in your water and there’s no chance they can get in your water. Whether that requires fences, walls or something else, do it. We’re screwed without water, but, we’re equally as screwed if our water has zombies swimming in it.
Lastly, you need to make the effort to (If necessary) follow your water back to its source and make sure it isn’t a swimming pool for the undead.
If you’re getting your water from a local source (Which protecting may be impractical), you would be smart to check it. All it takes is one zombie bleeding into the river or stream your water comes from to slowly turn your entire group!
It won’t be an easy thing to do, but if you can gain peace of mind, it will be a worthwhile thing to do.
With so many larger threats in a zombie apocalypse — people, zombies, the elements — we overlook the more dangerous ones: The ones we can’t see.
They are dangerous because all it takes something small to possibly destroy your group. A bit of powder, a microbe, an open wound, if anyone of these get into what we consume, it can doom us.
To combat this, you need to be smart, you need to be observant, and you need to be vigilant. If you’re all of these things, you have a much better chance of noticing these threats before they become problems and stopping them.
This is why you follow…The Rules.
Next: Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: DON'T give up
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!