The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Our own worst enemies

All sorts of things can cause us problems in a zombie apocalypse. But, if The Walking Dead is anything to go by, one of the worst…may be OURSELVES.

I’d searched for a theme this week for some time, and then I suddenly remembered Enid accidentally killing Natania. At that moment, this idea struck me: Sometimes, we can be our own worst enemies.

Now, I don’t mean that “we” as a species can be our own worst enemies, as I think I did a pretty good job of covering that these last two weeks. No, what I mean is that we, ourselves, can be our own worst enemies in a zombie apocalypse.

Let’s take a look at Enid’s mishap in The Walking Dead’s midseason finale. She and Aaron were on an ambassadorial mission to plea for Oceanside to take up arms against The Saviors with them.

However, a bit of jumpiness on Enid’s part resulted in AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER when she mistook Natania for a hostile and shot her dead trying to protect Aaron. Somehow, I doubt this will encourage Oceanside to help Alexandria fight The Saviors, but…maybe that’s just me.

I find myself wondering why Enid just blasted Natania. It could easily be a desire to not hesitate when her friend was potentially being attacked, which is understandable, but…why didn’t she just say something? Did she not hear Natania? Did she think she was a Savior? That seems unlikely, as Aaron probably would have told her that they’d killed all their scouts, so…maybe she thought she was a walker?

And, that seems like a good place to start this week. It might seem odd to say, but, it is extremely important that you be able to recognize the difference between the living and the dead. Things like how they move, whether they talk, whether they react, things like this. If you don’t, well…you end up doing like Enid and potentially killing some poor innocent person.

Of course, I’m of the mind that Aaron and Enid, knowing how seriously Oceanside guard their home against outsiders, shouldn’t have been anywhere near there at night. Maybe they should have just stayed at the distillery until morning?

Either way, by sitting there with a large box truck, even at night, they kind of stuck out like sore thumbs. This is a huge mistake. Whether you’re trying to avoid living people or dead ones, you need to stay out of sight whenever possible. Any time you’re not trying to stay out of sight in a potentially dangerous area is a time you’re letting threats see you.

You know what? Same goes for sound, too. If you aren’t reasonably sure it’s safe, be quiet. In the largely silent world of a zombie apocalypse, our ears (Even if we’re dead) will hear long before our eyes will see.

On the other side of that coin, if you’re going somewhere where, at the very least, you don’t know what kind of reception you’ll get, you must be extremely careful.

You need to keep your eyes open for any threats so they don’t get the drop on you and should you run into trouble, you can’t just go in guns blazing. Carelessness like this does you no favors, as it can often cause more disasters than it averts.

People have a great capacity to adapt and survive, our continued existence is a testament to that. That said, we also have a great capacity to be screw-ups and get in our own way. We can be careless and hasty, unobservant and conspicuous, all of which can cause us unnecessary headaches. To survive, you have to be cautious and measured and think carefully about what you are doing and what you will do. Just taking a moment to think can separate us from catastrophe.

We have enough problems to deal with in a zombie apocalypse, the last enemy we should be having to worry about is ourselves.

Next: The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: War at your door

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!