Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Failure is always an option

The fifth season of Fear the Walking Dead showed us just how bad a zombie apocalypse can get. In the real world, you need to know failure is ALWAYS an option.

Man…the end of Season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead was a downer, wasn’t it? Morgan’s plan fell through, Dwight nearly got killed, the group had to surrender to Virginia and got separated, and Morgan was left to die, bleeding profusely and at the mercy of a gang of walkers. Like I said: A downer.

But, we live in the real world and, sadly, things could be that bad for us in a zombie apocalypse. This week, I’m going to explore how things can go bad for us, and, how we can respond if (Or when) they do.

Let’s start with what is the most obvious lesson to be learned, but also, the most important: You need to come into a zombie apocalypse knowing that things can always go wrong.

Yeah, “obvious statement is obvious”, I know, but, I honestly think people often ignore this fact. Maybe they don’t want to dwell on the negative, which I both understand, and, to some degree, recommend, but, there’s a difference between not dwelling on the negative and putting your head in the sand.

If you sit there ignoring the fact things can go wrong for you, you may start tricking yourself into thinking that things can never go wrong for you, and, that’s setting yourself up for disaster.

But, if things do go wrong, don’t panic. Actually, that’s probably the best bit of advice I can give you in the event things go sideways on you: DON’T panic. While having things get screwed up is bad, panicking can make them downright terrible.

If you’re in a bad situation, where things are going sideways on you, you need to keep a clear head so you can make rational decisions to prevent the situation from turning into a disaster, and panicking is the exact opposite of that. You can’t think clearly or make rational decisions when you panic, so, let me say one last time: Do not panic.

Part of accepting that things can go wrong in a zombie apocalypse is accepting that, sometimes, even our smartest plans can fall apart. You know the saying “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”? Basically…that.

No matter how good our plans might be, there can always be something we didn’t account for that smashes that plan a wrecking ball. It might be zombies in the area that you didn’t know were there, hostiles you didn’t know about, or things not going the way you’d hope that causes things to unravel. With so many things going on around us in the apocalypse that we may not see or even know are there, it’s easy for plans to melt down.

With there being so many things that can screw up your plans, this is why I always insist on having backup plans for everything you do. Plan on getting a herd of zombies away from your base? Have a backup plan. Plan on fighting with hostiles? Have a backup plan. Going on a supply run? Have a backup plan. Maybe, have several backup plans just on the off-chance that one of your original backup plans gets screwed up, too.

The worst time for things to go sideways on you in a zombie apocalypse is when you’re forced to fight, of course, sometimes, the very existence of the fight itself means things have gone sideways for you, because the odds are so stacked against you that fighting would be suicide.

Sometimes, it happens. Sometimes, you find yourself going up against an enemy that outnumbers you or outguns you, and going toe-to-toe with them is…impossible.

Am I suggesting just giving up? Absolutely not. If you’re faced with an enemy who seeks to wipe you out, giving up only ensures that they succeed in doing so, unscathed.

No, what I am saying is: If “fighting”, in the conventional sense, would be suicide, that doesn’t mean you give up the fight, just, that you have to find a different way of waging it. You can do things like set booby-traps for whatever hostiles you’re facing, or, if you’re captured, you can attempt to undermine said hostiles.

Being unable to “Fight” doesn’t mean you just give up.

We live in the real world, and, in the real world…things don’t always go the way we’d want. Things can happen that we aren’t prepared for, plans can go south, and we can be put up against insurmountable odds.

Whether we survive or not depends a lot on how we react when and how well we’re prepared for things going awry. We can’t panic. We need backup plans. And, most importantly, we can’t give up. Just because failure is something we need to accept, accepting that fact doesn’t mean we stop trying to live.

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!