Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: What do you expect?

It seems like everyone had their expectations dashed in Sunday’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead. Maybe, in a zombie apocalypse, you shouldn’t have any.

As I watched the latest episode of Fear The Walking Dead, and I watched Charlie see her hopes that Rabbi Kessner’s synagogue could become the convoy’s new home dashed, and then seeing all the effort Sarah, Dwight, John, and June put in to defend the tanker, thinking that was Logan’s target, when it was only a distraction, made me realize something: In a zombie apocalypse, having expectations…is kind of a bad thing.

You end up setting yourself up for disappointment most of the time, and so, with that in mind, this week, I’m going to explain how to deal with your expectations in the zombie apocalypse and why you should deal with them in that way.

First thing’s first: Lower your expectations. I can not stress this enough.

For example: If you find an empty place while searching the open world, do not convince yourself that it’s going to become your impregnable fortress or your new, comfy, cozy home. It’s not.

Every place you’ll find in a zombie apocalypse will have flaws, and some places worse than others. You need to come into a zombie apocalypse knowing this.

And, to further illustrate my point, let’s imagine for a second what might happen if you don’t lower your expectations, shall we?

Let’s imagine you find some building…a high school, let’s say.

You look at it: It looks great! It’s big, made of brick or cinder block, it’s got plenty of room, you can see hostiles or zombies coming from miles away. This is everything you ever wanted, and you move your group in right away.

But, because you were so convinced that the school was perfect, you failed to ask why nobody else had claimed it first, until you go into the basement and discover it’s loaded with zombies! Suddenly, you and your group have to abandon half of your supplies and run for your lives from  dozens of zombies, all because you weren’t being realistic, and thought the place was perfect.

Get the idea?

In fact, while we’re here, let’s address a specific expectation you should throw out the window: Safety.

Now, don’t get me wrong, having walls or a perimeter between you and the dead will make you safer, but…”safety”? No.

“Safety” implies that threats won’t be able to get to you, which is just naive. You obviously can’t exist constantly thinking you’re an inch away from death, but, assuming that zombies or hostiles won’t find a way to get at you is simply unrealistic.

The best thing you can do is constantly make sure your defenses are as sturdy and reliable as you can make them. Do patrols around your perimeter, look for weaknesses in your defense, especially after bad weather (Which can expose or create them), try to ensure that there isn’t anything essential kept outside of your perimeter, the retrieval of which could expose you to attack, things like that. The only way to achieve anything remotely close to safety in a zombie apocalypse, is through vigilance.

Here’s a good one: Don’t expect your life in a zombie apocalypse is going to be like a TV show.

What do I mean? Well, basically…don’t expect that you’re just going to become Rick or Daryl in the apocalypse.

Sure, if you last long enough, you’re going to probably become a pretty good survivor, but, if you’re expectation is that you’re just going to go into the outbreak as some super badass who’s going to kill a million zombies? You need slow your roll. Big time.

Why? Well, kind of like the person who goes around doing fancy moves because they think they’re a ninja, thinking you’re going to be super badass right out the gate suggests that you have this expectation that you’ll just “handle” the apocalypse, when in reality you’re truly underestimating just how dangerous it will be.

Now, even if you’re being smart, your expectations can get the better of you. In fact, the smarter you’re being, the more some bad expectations can creep up on you.

What do I mean? Well, if you got a good plan for dealing with hostiles or zombies or other threats, chances are, you’ll keep doing it. Do it long enough, you may start thinking it’s foolproof, and, there is where problems can arise.

No matter how good a plan is, you can’t expect it to work out every time. Things will happen that you don’t expect: A noise will attract more zombie than you knew were there, something you thought would hold will break, a weapon will fail, hostiles will show up, etc. Basically, there can always be variables, and should one arrive, it may throw a monkey wrench into even a plan you’ve carried out perfectly a hundred times before.

And, one of the biggest of those variables is the behavior of hostiles. If you’ve been dealing with different groups of hostiles (Or, perhaps, the same group of hostiles) who you’ve been able to outsmart…don’t expect that to last forever.

People can be really clever at times, and, give hostiles enough time, they’ll come up with means of attacking you you never even thought off. It’s for this reason that expecting your enemies to remain stupid or incompetent is a great way to be stupid and incompetent, and ultimately, get yourself killed.

It’s difficult to avoid having expectations about things, it’s just human nature. However, if you assume those expectations to perfectly match reality, you’ll wind up more disappointed than not; Of course, in a zombie apocalypse, that can often lead to deadly consequences.

The best thing you can do is temper your expectations. Never let them get so high that they carry you away. Stay grounded in the reality you find yourself in. Until you can get that reality to be the best conditions you can get, don’t expect it to be better than it is.

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!