The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: It could always be worse

If you think things are bad, look at some of the circumstances in The Walking Dead lately and realize this: It could always be worse.

I was racking my brain the other day, trying to think of this week’s Survival Rule Of The Week, when, suddenly, an image from the season 9 finale of The Walking Dead popped into my head: Survivors trudging through a damned snowstorm.

With that image, came a phrase: “It could always be worse.”

You might think a zombie apocalypse is the worst thing you could face, and, honestly, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that, however, as you’ll see, there are a great many ways that a zombie apocalypse can get even worse.

“How” you might ask? Well, let’s start with an easy one: By having someone in your group turn on you!

Yes, while we are social animals, and are usually part of a group, that doesn’t always mean that everyone in said group are going to get along perfectly. Under stressful situations, tensions rise, nerves fray, and this can lead to disagreements, and, since there are few more stressful situations than a zombie apocalypse, you can expect this to happen fairly quickly! Of course, since civilization will crumble (Don’t worry, I’ll get to that…), there’s nothing stopping the disagreements you have in the apocalypse to boil over into violence! One minute, you might be arguing about which way to go, and the next, you may be embroiled in a full-blown fight!

Sadly, this isn’t the only reason people in a group may turn on each other. Remember that whole “civilization crumbling” thing? Yeah…well, when that happens and law goes out the window, it can bring out the worst elements in people. Some, may just become crazed as they watch thing unravel, others, however, may have always had a bad streak in them, just waiting for an opportunity to come out.

Always be wary of those in your group, not necessarily to “watch” them, but, just to be on the lookout for signs that they may not be able to handle the situation. Maybe, just talking to them before things really go south, in a less stressful situation, can help them work through things before they get out of hand!

Your friends may not be the only things that spiral out–no, in fact, they won’t be the only things that spiral out of control when civilization crumbles.

You see, most of us live in a world where food, while it costs money to get, you can still easily find the food at any store or vending machine. Well…what happens when there’s no one filling the stores and vending machines? It means that, sooner or later, the food that is in those stores and vending machines will run out. Once it does, if you haven’t already by that point, expect to start running into hostiles, looking to take whatever you might have if it means they stave off starvation.

Another thing people overlook when thinking about a zombie apocalypse is…the zombie virus won’t be the only disease floating around. Going back to the whole “civilization crumbling” thing, water and sewer systems won’t have anyone manning them once the apocalypse really takes hold, meaning you’ll eventually have less ability to keep yourself clean, making things that much easier for diseases and germs to spring up!

It would pay to find ways of keeping you, your group, your clothes, etc. relatively clean, unless you want some disease other than the zombie virus taking you down…

Now, onto the thing which inspired this in the first place: Snow.

Have you ever been in a blizzard? I have. For most of my life, I reveled in wandering around in the snow in my neighborhood during blizzards, pretending I was an Arctic explorer in a vast, empty, snow-covered tundra. Of course, that was in a place that went absolutely insane whenever it snowed, plowing, salting, and sanding the roads every hour at least.

What happens when there’s no longer anyone to do all of that? In fact, what happens when there’s no longer any means of getting fuel for the centralized heating in your house?

To tell you the truth…it’s kind of scary. Those playful romps through the snow I used to have would become a lot more dangerous when the roads are never plowed, when there really may be no one around, and, if I fell into a snowdrift, I could easily die out there of hypothermia.

When everything is thrown into chaos, Winter suddenly becomes a much more frightening prospect than it was before the apocalypse hits.

If you live in a place that gets brutal winters, you’d best stock up on heavy clothes, blankets, extra stores of food, shovels, and firewood in preparation for it; Even if you don’t get brutal winters, if you get even a bit of snow, you’d best be prepared in case a blizzard blindsides you.

The world can be pretty bleak at times, especially in a zombie apocalypse, for a whole list of reasons, but, if you find yourself in one, and want to cheer yourself up, just imagine all the myriad ways things could be even worse, and thank God none of them are happening to you at that moment. As bad as things can be…they could always be worse.

And that’s our Survival Rule Of The Week! Hopefully, you’ve gained a little insight into all the various things you’ll need to look out for and do. 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 also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!