Fear the Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Take care of yourself

In this week’s Fear the Walking Dead, we learned that while it’s important to think about your group in a zombie apocalypse, you also must take care of you.

Over these last couple of weeks, I’ve realized, there has been a larger thread that has held together my Survival Rule(s) Of The Week: Taking care of yourself.

I’ve mentioned both how you should always be responsible for your own survival and how you should always be prepared in the event you have to try to make a go of surviving the apocalypse own your own, so, this week, I’m combining those two ideas into this one overarching concept.

Now, let’s get this out of the way first: No, “taking care of yourself” does not mean you should become a “That Guy”.

What’s a “That Guy”?

Well, for those of you who are unaware, a “That Guy” is a person who is completely and utterly selfish, to a fault.

For example, a “That Guy” would, in a bleak (But winnable) situation, abandon a teammate to die just to save themselves for a few measly moments more, even if doing so ultimately dooms them. That is what a “That Guy” would do.

So, for the record: “Taking care of yourself” is not a call to become a “That Guy” and become an utterly self-serving cockroach.

What do I mean, then? Well, let’s look at what I was saying a couple of weeks ago, namely, that you need to be ready to survive on your own, if you had to.

How would you go about doing that? A good place to start would be by getting into the best shape you possibly can, because, if you were alone, you wouldn’t have people to help you distract or fight off a herd of zombies, you’d have to ditch them yourself, and that may require running away from them for a long time, and being fast enough to actually lose them.

Another good idea? Make sure you know how to defend yourself. If you’re by yourself, as I said last week, it is up to you to ensure your survival. You can’t just rely on someone else to do it for you, because, if you do, when the day comes that person isn’t there to do it, you won’t know what to do.

So, learn how to fight, learn to deal with zombies, and learn how to use whatever you can get your hands on to fight whatever tries to attack you.

There are few better examples of “taking care of yourself” than being able to defend yourself.

…That said, being able to take care of yourself, mentally, is one of those better examples.

Few things can derail your survival in a zombie apocalypse faster than having a mental breakdown. If you panic, if you freak out, if you go catatonic (All things that could happen if you watch someone you care about get eaten alive by a zombie), you probably won’t be much good at fighting the dead, and, most likely, become the next person who gets eaten.

You need to try to prepare yourself, mentally, for the waking nightmare the apocalypse will be. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but, it’s something you have to try to do. If you can’t handle the things you’ll see, and the losses you’ll suffer, you won’t last very long.

And, lastly, don’t forget that the point survival is to live. By that, I mean, if you spend every waking hour of every day in the zombie apocalypse just working and worrying about the next disaster that’ll come your way, sooner or later…it’ll crush you.

There’s no way a human being can go through their entire existence with toil and fear being the only things they do; It would drive them insane.

Am I suggesting you go about being lazy and ignorant? No. What I am saying is that, whether it’s hanging out with your teammates, solving puzzles, reading books, playing games, or doing something creative, just give yourself some time to focus on something other than the horrors you’re facing, or the work you have to put in to keep them at bay. When you forget to live, that’s when you start to die.

It’s important in a zombie apocalypse to look out for the people in your group. If you and your teammates aren’t doing that, you’re not that good of a group. But, don’t become so focused on them that you start treating yourself as expendable. No one can go through life long being “expendable”. You need to take care of yourself just as much as anyone else, if you plan to survive.

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!