The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Dangerous by default
By Liam O'Leary
3) Lying about being bitten puts everyone at risk.
We’ve seen it several times in The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead: People who’ve been bitten by walkers who fail to mention it to the rest of their group…at least for a little while, anyway.
Now, in The Walking Dead universe, it’s pretty universal that people learn quickly that those who are bitten turn, in fact, it was one of the first things Rick learns from Morgan in the very first episode. Of course, in an actual zombie apocalypse, even if people assume that bites turn them into zombies, you will get at least a few people who will think (Or hope) that, because it’s in TV shows or movies, that that won’t carry over into the real world, and just, kind…forget to tell other people.
The reason why they won’t tell other people, the real reason? Fear.
“Fear of what” you might ask? Oh, all sorts of things: Fear of their own mortality, fear of turning, but, most importantly, fear of how other people will react.
It makes sense, no one is going to want to hang around with a person who might turn into a zombie at any moment, will they? What they’d probably do is put down the person, rather than risk them turning at an inopportune moment, the less they knew them, the more likely this would be, and…people know this.
The fact that the people they’re with are likely to put them down the moment it’s discovered they’re bitten is, at least for a little while, going to stop them from doing what they should, and facing the music. This might be fine for the person who’s bitten, but, that lie by omission can quickly turn into a disaster for anyone that person travels with, as they’ll be completely caught off-guard when their companion inevitably turns. It might be one thing in the middle of the day when no zombies are around, and people can react quickly, but…what if everyone’s asleep?
Once the apocalypse begins, if you’re with a group, you should all agree to establish pretty quick to check everyone after any zombie encounters, so that if someone’s bitten, everyone else knows, and can be ready when they turn. The last thing you need is to wake up to find a member of your group has turned, and is eating you, or, maybe…not waking up at all.