The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: People suck

7) People are evil.

On some level, all of the negative traits I’ve described up to this point could, possibly, either be mitigated by some factor (Like some trauma experienced during the apocalypse), or, don’t make a person necessarily bad. However, the fact remains that some people, well…just are.

There are people out there who, regardless of who they are, where they are, what place they hold in society, etc. will say and do awful things to people for no better reason than the fact they have the ability to do so. People like this do not care about anything or anyone, and will simply see the zombie outbreak (And subsequent apocalypse) as an opportunity, a chance to do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want.

For example: Once the outbreak begins, and order begins to break down, you’ll see people use it as an excuse to hurt or even kill people who’ve never done anything to them, be it directly or indirectly. Oh, they may try to say it’s justified, but, in reality, that’s little more than an excuse: They just want to hurt people.

Similarly, you’ll also find people who use the power vacuum the apocalypse creates to live out all their Machiavellian fantasies. If you see mini cults or dictatorships pop up, where someone has placed themselves at the head of it, and uses their power and influence to lord over their followers, or wield those followers against other people, then it’s a safe bet this person is a terrible excuse for a human being.

If you want an example from The Walking Dead, look no further than Simon, who seemed to look for excuses to kill people, if and whenever possible, leading to the destruction of at least two whole groups that we know of (The Library Group, and the Scavengers), and the murder of half of another (Oceanside). On top of that, after he deemed Negan not brutal enough, he decided to try to usurp Negan (After he colluded with Negan to usurp the previous leader of the Saviors), so that he could lead the Saviors in a full-scale assault of Hilltop, with the intent of destroying the community’s entire population.

But wait! There’s more! To complete the trifecta, after assuming control of the Saviors in Negan’s absence, the excuse Simon was using for attacking Hilltop was the fact that they had captured “his guys” (I.e. the Saviors manning the satellite outpost). This is fine and all, until you remember that the moment he arrived at Hilltop to stage his attack, Maggie used the threat of violence against his captured troops to try to get him to stand down, and Simon decided to attack anyway, meaning that the whole time he was griping about “his guys”, it was just another excuse to try to kill people, and a manipulation of the rest of the Saviors to get them to go along with it.

You might think: “Well, Simon was just a TV character!” And while, yes, that’s true, the fact remains, people have used similar tactics just in the last century (Never mind earlier) to excuse the wholesale slaughter of millions of people! If people can do that once, they can do it again, and I can guarantee that, somewhere, there’s people itching to right now, all they need is an opportunity, something a zombie apocalypse would handily provide.

I can’t give any specific instructions about dealing with such people, because, well, these are going to be the hostiles you encounter in the apocalypse, and, how you’ll deal with them will depend on your circumstances, but, rest assured, you are going to have to deal with them eventually, and, you need to be prepared for when that day inevitably comes.

Never underestimate the human capacity for evil. It is limitless.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

And that’s your Survival Rule Of The Week! Hopefully, you’ve learned that people can be as much a curse in a zombie apocalypse as a blessing, learned what kind of people to be wary of of, and why. If you like this and want to find out more tips 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!