The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: The many faces of evil

6) Pretending to need help.

Just as people will pretend to offer help to trap unwary survivors, hostiles will do a similar thing, but, from the other end: Pretend to need help from a group, only to exploit them or even initiate a hostile takeover.

If you remember, think back to what we learned of the downfall of Terminus in Season Five of The Walking Dead: While the community was legitimately taking in refugees, one group (Which I still believe was Randall’s) found Terminus’s invitations, entered the community the same as so many others, then, once they were there, took the place by force, stole all their food, and raped all the women.

Of course, if they came there showing clear hostile intent, they might not have succeeded. I’m assuming, then, that when they arrived at Terminus, they acted as if they were simply weary survivors who needed to get off the road and rest, waited for Gareth and company to lower their guard (Assuming they considered this a possibility at all), and then took over.

If you have a group in the zombie apocalypse, and take strangers in, here’s a few pointers:

1) Do not let any newcomers see the entirety of your base, in fact, you should let them see as little of it as possible until you feel you can trust them.

2) Do not let any groups of people (Or groups of groups of people) enter your base if their combined numbers can rival that of your group.

3) If, for any reason, you just don’t trust them, do not let them into your base.

4) Just as when entering an unfamiliar group’s base, if the story they tell doesn’t fit the person telling it (People who seem perfectly capable of surviving telling you they don’t know how, for example), or sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Send them packing.

Sometimes, the strongest fortresses and hardiest survivors can be taken down…by good liars.