The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Saving people

Being around other people is a vital part of surviving a zombie apocalypse. As shown in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, you can’t save everyone, but, you can’t stop trying.

I’ve said before (And will say again) that while it’s important to know how to survive alone, it’s always better to be part of a group. I don’t think I really need to explain why, but, just in case, the simplest reason is that it helps to have someone watching your back when the dead outnumber us (Which will be always).

Of course, in order to have people in your group, chances are, at some point, you’re going to need to save people.

How? Well, let’s talk about that, shall we?

The first, and most obvious way, of saving people in a zombie apocalypse is by saving them from the dead. If you see someone you can reasonably discern (Or straight-up know) is a good person, it’s a smart idea to stop them from being bitten, if you can.

I’m sure there are some ultra selfish people who may wonder why they should risk their neck for someone else, so for those people out there, let me try this argument: If you save a good person, that’s one more person who could help you later, and, more importantly, one less zombie trying to eat you. It just makes good sense.

Of course, “saving people” has more than one meaning. Just as it can mean pulling someone out of a dangerous situation, it can also mean pulling someone from the edge on insanity.

If you have a friend or family member who are starting to lose their grip on stability, it is imperative that you try to help them. If this person means anything to you, you can’t just sit idly by as the horror and despair slowly suck them into the abyss of madness. You need to reach out to them, talk to them, let them know that you can help them carry the load.

I don’t think I need to get into the moral reasons of why you at least need to try to help these people, do I?

No? Good.

I’d much rather save my effort to explain the practical reason: Because if your friend/loved one goes off the deep end, you’ve just lost one friend and perhaps gained one very dangerous threat. You simply can’t afford to let your friends or loved ones go crazy.

Of course, I’d be lying if I told you that saving people would be easy. It won’t.

If a person needs saving from zombies (or hostiles), it’s obviously a dangerous situation. Sometimes, you just…can’t. Sometimes, no matter what, we just can’t save people, that’s just the way it is; we just have to be able to tell when we can, and when we can’t.

This goes for saving people from Crazytown, too. Sometimes, the horror of what they’ve seen, or what they’ve done, or what they’ve lost is just too much for them to overcome. It’s sad, but, it’s also true. We just have to hope we caught them before they went over the proverbial cliff.

But, simply because the act of saving people is tough, that doesn’t mean we just stop trying.

If we give up on trying to save people in a zombie apocalypse because it’s difficult, we’re going to run out of people, quick, because we’ll have let all the good ones die or go to Crazytown long ago.

We have to take the risk, because the reward of having a stronger group is so vital. Conversely, solitude, while hypothetically possible, is so much more dangerous of a proposition than being in a group is, that, choosing not to act, is tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot.

It will be a risk, but, in making your group and its members stronger, it will be worth it.

Being part of a group is the best survival strategy we have in a zombie apocalypse, but, it can’t happen if we don’t try to save people. We have to be willing to take the risk to save others, whether it be from danger or derangement. I won’t lie: We can’t save everyone, but, we also can’t stop trying.

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.

Next: The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: There's always a cost

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!