As we prepare for the second half of this season of Fear the Walking Dead, I’m not sure I trust Logan, and, in a zombie apocalypse, you must beware of LIARS.
This season of Fear The Walking Dead started with Morgan’s group traveling halfway across Texas, and into a ticking (atomic) time bomb, just to find a man who was, not only not where he said he was, but was, in fact, stealing the group’s home out from under them.
You see, it’s occurred to me that one of the biggest threats you can face in a zombie apocalypse isn’t zombies, or even an army of heavily armed hostiles, just a few, maybe even just one, armed with a well-told lie.
I said a couple of weeks ago that, in a survival situation, people will do anything, including lying to survive, and, if people lied only if they felt it necessary in a survival situation, that wouldn’t, necessarily, be that bad.
Of course…that’s not how people work.
People lie, most often, for selfish reasons, and, in a zombie apocalypse, the most likely selfish reason is to take whatever you have. What that might be depends, but, chances are, if you have something of value, there’s someone in the zombie apocalypse who will lie straight to your face to get it.
How they may present that lie will vary, too, but, one thing I can assure you is that liars try to prey on what they perceive is the weaknesses of others.
This is the reason that, while generosity and altruism are commendable in the apocalypse, they must also be tempered with caution.
If you aren’t careful with the person you extend a hand to, they might stab you in the back with the other one.
And, this leads into one of the more insidious aspects of liars: They can sometimes prove more of a threat than a hostile who expressly tries to use force.
For example: If a group of hostiles equal in size to your group walks up to your gates and demands your supplies or else they’ll attack, from behind your gates, you could simply tell them “No” and that, if they tried, they wouldn’t live to regret it.
On the other hand, if only one member of that group came to your gates and begged you to let them in, you’d be much more likely to let your guard down and invite them in, giving them the opportunity, while your back is turned, to let in the rest of their group, and commit any number of evils upon you.
A liar can be worse still when it isn’t someone from outside trying to get in, but, one that’s already been hiding amongst your group the whole time.
A liar in your midst can prove so much worse because, chances are, they’re someone you know fairly well, and therefore, have even more reason to trust them. Now, these liars may not be especially violent per se (Though, they easily could be, too), but, if, like so many liars, they want something you or another member of your group has, they could easily use your misplaced trust to lead you into a trap, and cleverly explain it away as an “accident”.
And, there is where a liar in your midst can be most insidious: Not in what they do, but, in what they get other people to believe.
I said at the start of this that the biggest threat you might face in a zombie apocalypse is someone with one well-told lie, this is because, if it comes from a person (Or even a group of people) that you or your group trust, it can convince you to do things you might not otherwise do. One good lie might make you or your group do a reckless thing. Another might convince you to do an evil thing.
If you really trust the person/people telling the lie, you might be convinced that people who aren’t a threat to you might not only be a threat, but a seriously hostile one that needs to be destroyed, for lack of a better term, for “the greater good”.
Let’s say you go through with that, only to realize you’ve been misled…what do you do then? When you’ve realized you committed evil because you were being told what you wanted to hear, or, because you liked the messenger, how do you live with that? Can you?
…I don’t know. But, what I do know is that you need to be very careful who you put your faith in. If someone in your group is telling you things that don’t add up, don’t ignore it. If everything they’re telling you is what you want to hear, or how you want to hear it, isn’t that starting to sound eerily close to “too good to be true”? Once you hit that moment, it’s time you took a hard look at who’ve been listening to.
This isn’t to tell you what you want to hear…but what you need to hear. That’s 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!