The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: There WILL be monsters

A zombie apocalypse will, obviously, contain a lot of zombies, but, as we’ve seen in The Walking Dead, but, it will also have REAL monsters: The people.

A couple of weeks ago, while I was talking about preparing for war, I touched a little bit on the reason you’ll need to prepare for war: People.

I’ve been doing some thinking, and I realize I don’t feel like I did an adequate job of expressing just how dangerous other people can be in a zombie apocalypse. Please, allow me to rectify that oversight.

Let me begin by saying that, honestly, a zombie apocalypse would be a hell of a lot easier to deal with if other people or other groups weren’t hostile. In such a world, everyone would focus on getting rid of the zombies and, given enough time, that task would get accomplished.

However…that’s not how the world works, and, more importantly, that’s not how people work. If you think it is, you’re fooling yourself with a dangerous delusion. People are naturally competitive. You may not see it right now, but, put people in a life-or-death situation, where they may not know where their next meal might come from or when the next threat may arrive, and you’ll see just how right I am. They will fight to stay alive; Any of us would.

Let’s back up, though. You won’t need to wait until everyone is fighting over the limited supplies left to see how far people will go once there’s zombies, just look at how everything will start.

When the world first learns that the dead are walking around eating people, their response (Which won’t help the governments any) will be to panic. In that panic, people, especially in large, crowded cities, will be trampled, maybe hundreds, maybe even thousands. I can’t blame them for panicking, necessarily, but, chances are that the tramplers won’t even stop to help the tramplees. See what I’m getting at? It won’t take much for people to stop caring about one another or what they do to one another once things start to unravel.

Then comes the looters. It’s like clockwork: Whenever there’s any kind of disaster, there’s almost always looters. I’m not talking about the people who take things they’ll need to ride out the disaster, but, the people who take things like electronics, booze, cash, jewelry, etc. It will be kind of disgusting to watch; While people are being trampled or mauled by zombies, there’ll be others more concerned with satisfying their own greed.

Of course, if you’ve been around long enough, and seen even hurricanes, never mind anything else, you know that looters are, sadly, part of the package when it comes to disasters; Sadder still are the other things.

Often (Or, at least, often enough to notice), when there is some kind situation that causes even a modicum of chaos (Like a blackout, for example), not only do the looters come out, but so do people far worse than that. Under the cover of darkness, rapists, arsonists, and murderers all come out of the woodwork, taking advantage of the situation. Now think for a second: If this ilk do this when they know the chaos is temporary, what do think they’ll be like when they know the chaos is permanent?

Which brings me to another point, one I touched upon a couple weeks ago: Once people realize that there won’t be any government anymore, some of them will show their true colors, and, it won’t be pretty.

You might just watch as that crazy neighbor who dumps their trash in your yard decides the best way to get you out of the neighborhood is by force. Who’s gonna stop them?

The person who rants crazy ass nonsense online? They may decide the zombie apocalypse is a perfect time to silence the people they don’t agree with.

That one friend you have who’s always jealous? Maybe they’re more envious than you realize, and figure the best way to fix the situation…is to just take what you have.

Once there’s no law and order, no consequences for your actions beyond what someone else is willing to impose, the sky is the limit: Anyone who has a dark side has free reign to let it out if they’re so inclined.

It only gets worse as time progresses, too. People who might have seemed otherwise normal may reveal that, when push comes to shove, they can be crueler or more violent than any criminal you might have met when the outbreak first began.

Sooner or later, you’re liable to meet a person or a group of people who are megalomaniacs — Obsessed with power and control — who will go to extremes to ensure that everyone around them is subject to their will, and go to further extremes to deal with those who refuse to be.

On the other end of the spectrum will be people whose behavior will look a hell of a lot more like barbarism than imperialism. They will be brutal and merciless: They will slaughter anyone they get their hands on, regardless of age or condition and do so through methods like decapitation.

Why would people do this? To intimidate any other groups in the area, maybe, or to maintain control of their own group through fear, or, perhaps, because the people in this group are simply that cruel. Whatever the case may be, there will almost certainly be at least one group of hostiles in the zombie apocalypse that behave like this, maybe even worse. Even if you never encounter such people, you need to prepare for them as if you knew they were out there, because, quite frankly, for all you know…they are.

A zombie apocalypse will be horrific: Millions of rotting corpses will we wandering around, eating anyone they can. That said, after a while, those rotting corpses will become more like a force of nature, an omnipresent problem you’ll just have to deal with, but, they won’t, necessarily, be the monsters that keep you up at night. The real monsters will be the people you meet who seek to bring you harm. They will come in myriad shapes and pose myriad threats, but, they will be the things you need to be afraid of and the things you need to watch out for.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

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!