Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: How to respond
By Liam O'Leary
As we’ve seen in Fear The Walking Dead, things can go sideways on you, quick. When they do, there’s good and bad ways to respond. Know the difference.
If you saw the mid-season finale of Fear The Walking Dead, then, you saw things go extremely bad for Madison and her group. Sadly, this goes to show you that, even if you got a really good setup, some jerk can come along with a couple thousand zombies in tow and completely trash it.
Does this mean you shouldn’t bother making plans for a zombie apocalypse? …No. What, are you nuts? That’s a terrible idea. No, you need to make plans, but, you also need to realize they are not foolproof, and you have to be ready in case things go completely haywire on you.
The first thing you need to do is plan for things as if they will go wrong, eventually, because, chances are…they will.
You need to be ready, mentally, for things to go to shit on you.
Am I advocating defeatism? Absolutely not, but, you need to know there is always the chance things will go wrong, that way, should that happen, you avoid the mental shock that otherwise comes with such circumstances, and can be ready to react.
That reaction, as it turns out, is extremely important to properly dealing with a bad turn of events in a zombie apocalypse.
Do you recall what happened when Ennis sicced an army of flaming walkers on The Diamond? If not, let me give you a refresher: Outside of Madison, Nick, Alicia, Luciana, and Strand, everyone else, fearing the walls wouldn’t hold, panicked, tried to drive through the horde…and died.
You can NOT panic. Panic does not, will not, and can not help you. It will only make things worse. You need to keep a clear head to both figure out how you’ll deal with whatever disaster has struck, and how you’ll execute whatever response you come up with.
Which brings me to my next point, and this is especially crucial: No matter how good your zombie apocalypse plan is, you NEED a backup plan!
The simple fact that any number of things can make your original plan worthless means that not having a backup plan, is almost as bad as not having any plan at all! To truly be ready for things to go wrong, you absolutely need to have contingency plans ready, just in case they do.
Now, something you can do to prep for a potential disaster, while not necessarily something you could do before the zombie apocalypse, might prove useful once you get a base setup in one, is preparing caches.
What do I mean? Well, you recall what Rick did just before he, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl entered Terminus? He took a supply of extra weapons they had, stuffed them in a duffel bag, and buried them outside Terminus’s perimeter.
Why do this? Well, if your base goes down, it will likely take many of your supplies with it. By setting up caches (So long as you remember where they are), you can ensure that you’re not left completely empty-handed should disaster strike.
Going hand-in-hand with this idea is another important thing about preparing yourself should your zombie apocalypse plans go awry: Knowing your environment.
Whether it’s the beginning or the middle of a zombie outbreak, it is crucial that you know your environment.
Why? Well, you may only have a short time to react if things go sideways on you, and every second you spend out in the open exposes you to greater danger. If you know potential safe places you can stay in your area (And, just as importantly, how to get there), you can minimize that threat as much as possible.
Speaking of safe places, and how you get to them, something that you absolutely need to know in a zombie apocalypse is either A) Escape routes for any potential safe zone you’re in or B) Alternate routes to take to get to any potential safe zones you might go to.
The reason is simple: With the manner of how things can go sideways on you up in the air, you need to know every possible escape route/alternate route available to you, so that, in the event one of them is cut off, you still have the option of any of the other remaining ones.
If you don’t make a point of learning these routes, you leave yourself vulnerable to being trapped because the dead have flooded the only way you know to get in or out of a place.
Now, before I finish, if you recall, last week, I asked you what would you do if the apocalypse hit while you weren’t at home. If you’re on vacation, or travel for business, this could be a very real possibility.
The best answer I have? Think of all the places you would be likely to go to, then, create plans for and learn the layouts of these places as best as possible. I’ll admit, this won’t provide you with supplies, but, if nothing else, it will give you an idea of what to do and where to go should the undead try to catch you by surprise.
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A zombie apocalypse will not be easy. Even with a solid plan, there’s always the chance that things will hit you by surprise, and render it all worthless. However, you are not simply a plaything of fate: You can prepare for these possibilities by having backup plans, knowing your environment inside and out, and how to get around it in as many ways as possible. Accept that these disasters can strike, keep a clear head, and always have a backup plan.
This is why you follow…The Rules.
And that’s our survival rule of the week!! Hopefully, it’ll help you 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!