Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Being ahead of the game

Having a plan for a zombie apocalypse is important, but (And I wish Fear The Walking Dead tackled it more) there are multiple ways to be ahead of the game.

If there’s one thing I wish The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead tackled more, it’d be how possessing certain skills gave people an edge in the zombie apocalypse over some their less knowledgeable counterparts.

We saw it a little with Daniel, whose experience in the El Salvadorean civil war made him skilled in combat, and with Jeremiah, whose survivalist nature made him prepared for the societal collapse the outbreak brought with it, but, other than those examples, I feel the show has been rather thin in that department.

The reason it bothers me is that I’ve realized having certain skills, while not a guarantee of survival, puts you ahead of everyone else out there who doesn’t have those skills.

Let me demonstrate…

Let’s go back and look at Morgan’s mentor, Dr. Eastman. Eastman certainly survived as long as he did after the outbreak because of his knowledge of Aikido. Honestly, I’m not sure he would have survived to return to his cabin without it!

Having learned the martial art saved his life against Crighton Dallas Wilton, and it saved his life again after Wilton’s death. I mean, have we seen any other shrink’s in either show (Outside of Denise, but, she was in Alexandria)? No, and, I’m willing to bet that the fact Eastman knew how to defend himself is a big reason as to why.

You see, learning things like martial arts or other forms of hand-to-hand combat before a zombie apocalypse hits is a crucial advantage to have, if, for no other reason, that you may not have much time (Or an adequate teacher) after the apocalypse hits.

Of course, knowing martial arts may not do you too much good if you’re so out of shape that fighting one zombie leaves you winded. The solution? Get into shape now.

I know it’s not easy, but, trust me, having the physical ability to outpace the dead and run long enough that they lose sight of you, will be worth it. Survival is not for the lazy.

Another useful skill you should get on top of while you got a chance: Learning to use a gun.

Guns are, if nothing else, a useful tool, allowing you attack things from a relatively safe distance; Considering you don’t want to get close to zombies if you can avoid it, being able to attack them from a distance makes them extremely useful in a zombie apocalypse.

Rest assured, when the dead start tearing the world apart as the outbreak begins, the people who have and know how to use guns will likely be the ones who withstand that onslaught.

Additionally, the ability to use a gun will also prove handy when not dealing with zombies. The fact of the matter is you won’t just be able to go down the store and get meat. If you want to get good protein, you’re going to have to do it the old-fashioned way and hunt for it. If you don’t want to try to sneak up on your prey and tackle it, knowing how to shoot will make the chances you actual get a meal much better.

Of course, proper hunting requires more than just killing things; you need to know how to gut, skin, clean, and cut any meat you get. The sooner you learn this before it becomes a necessity, the better off you’ll be.

If you don’t feel like hunting (Which is fine, but, it’d still be a good skill to have), then, your best bet for protein in a zombie apocalypse is fishing.

As John proved in this season of Fear, fishing can provide you with a fairly good supply of food if you happen to have a river, lake or beach nearby.

However, fishing also requires knowing how to cook, clean, gut, and scale the damned things! Trust me, you don’t want to stumble blindly through this by yourself in the zombie apocalypse and make yourself sick! If you know someone who’s a fisherman, it would be a good idea to have them teach you the ins and outs of the whole thing.

Since you’ll have to go out into the wilderness in order to find animals or fish to eat anyways, it wouldn’t hurt to learn everything you can eat that might be available to you while you’re out there. You don’t have to go far right now to find libraries or bookstores with books that can help you identify not only every edible plant and mushroom in a particular area, but also, all the plants, mushrooms, and bugs that are poisonous.

It’d be smart to get such books now while there are still bookstores, and not later, when they’ve been overrun by zombies, or burned in the chaos of the outbreak.

The last skill I can suggest you learn before the zombies arise and make learning much more difficult is learning to grow fruits and vegetables.

While you’ll be able to scavenge food at the beginning of the apocalypse, you won’t be able to do it forever, and, once you can’t, you need to be able to grow your own food.

Since you have the opportunity now, why not learn how? When everyone else is left searching further and further for food scraps, you’ll be able to grow (And hopefully pickle or preserve) your own food.

Having a plan is important in a zombie apocalypse, but, there’s so many more things you can do to prepare yourself; So many skills and so much knowledge that, should you have before the apocalypse hits, will automatically give you a better chance of survival than those who lack those skills and knowledge.

The question is: What’s stopping you from learning?

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!