The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: War is never easy
By Liam O'Leary
As dangerous as zombies are, as The Walking Dead has shown, they’re nowhere near as bad as people can be. And fighting them will NOT be easy.
Zombies can be extremely dangerous. One bit of bad luck can get you bitten, and that one bite can kill you. They are not to be taken lightly.
That said, zombies are, usually, slow and, being dead, stupid. They can’t use weapons, they can’t communicate, they can’t coordinate, they can’t plan. People, on the other hand, can do all of these things. A group of a few dozen hostiles can be deadlier than a few hundred zombies, because the people are smart enough to use the zombies as weapons against other people.
Our collective ability to plan, coordinate, all of these things wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that people can also have a natural tendency for violence, cruelty, greed, and lust. When put together, these factors can create hostiles, perhaps even armies of hostiles who may stop at nothing to subjugate or destroy your group. Neither of these are acceptable outcomes.
As such, there will come a time when, upon meeting these groups, that you need to fight them, assuming that’s feasible.
Now, beating a large group of hostiles is not simply of matter of saying: “Oh, well, we’ll fight them.” and having them simply be defeated.
No, going to war with a large group of hostiles will be difficult and brutal. And you need to be ready when war comes to your doorstep.
You need to have a plan. Of course, I imagine people might be thinking of an attack strategy, which is important, but, you also need to ask yourself: What if it doesn’t take them out?
The thing you really need is a backup plan, a plan for what you’ll do in the event your original plan doesn’t defeat your enemy. You need to have a plan in place for if or when your enemy launches a counterattack.
If you go without one, should said counterattack happen, you’ll be left scrambling while the enemy hammers you. That’s precious time you’ll be wasting while your group may be dying or your base gets destroyed.
Speaking of backup plans, if you’re making one for a potential counterattack, you should also make one for a worst-case scenario, i.e. if you’re left the sole survivor of your group.
It’s bleak, but, it’s still a possibility, and, in the face of war, it’s a possibility you do need to be aware of.
You need to think of what you’ll do for food and shelter, how you’ll avoid the hostiles, or even retaliate. Ultimately, your goal is still to survive, and, if you’re prepared to survive alone, anything beyond that will be gravy.
Apart from that dismal possibility, you’ll still need to be ready in the event hostiles come to attack your group.
Easily the best advice I can give might be simple, but, it is extremely important, and that is: Stay calm.
When situations get hectic, panic helps nobody and solves nothing. If the beginning of the outbreak will be any indication, panic will not be your friend. It only serves to cause chaos at a time when chaos is liable to lead to disaster and death.
You need to keep cool and, hopefully, adhere to whatever emergency/backup plan your group set up for such occurrences.
And last, but certainly not least, you need to be prepared do what it takes to defeat the hostiles.
Does this mean become a bloodthirsty savage? No. No, it does not.
However, you can not be afraid to bring the fight to your enemies. If you’re needing to fight them in the first place, they’ve already shown a propensity for cruelty and violence, and you can’t be squeamish in dealing with them.
It is a war, after all.
War is something of a “necessary evil”. Sadly, there will always be people who seek to control or destroy and people who seek to profit from that. It is, therefore, necessary that people who wish to remain alive and free, to fight to ensure those things. That fight will require us to experience horrors we can scarcely imagine. If we don’t, the ambitions of the truly despicable will crush us.
It won’t be easy, but, as I said in the beginning: War is never easy.
This is why you follow…The Rules.
Next: The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Appreciate what you have
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!