FearTWD, Survival Rule Of The Week: Things You DON’T Need

3) Loose-fitting Clothes

Okay, this one is kind of a misnomer, but if I wrote in things exactly, the title of this entry would be, like, five lines long. This is just easier.

Let me clarify: Not all loose-fitting clothing is bad, and not everything that hangs off one’s clothes, like hoods or handkerchiefs, is bad. But, if there’s something that doesn’t serve a function and makes it too easy for a zombie to grab you, it’s got to go, regardless of how much you may like it, regardless of how comfortable it may make you feel.

Things like scarves (Particularly ones that aren’t meant for winter), large earrings, those weird hoops you see on some pairs of dungarees, untied shoelaces, and saggy pants are all open invitations for zombies to reach out and grab you.

Imagine for a minute that you’re wearing saggy pants, walking down the street, and you start seeing a bunch of zombies marching down the street toward you. Next, you start running, but you can’t move that fast because of how your pants are. There are hundreds of people around you, all trying to run away. You trip. You get back up and keep moving, but, the zombies are gaining. Then, as you try to get to safety, you trip again. You look back, thinking your pants have just tripped you up again, but no: A zombie has lunged for you; It missed grabbing you by the shoulder, but it caught your pants. You try to get away, but it’s too late: It’s already biting your leg.

That is the sort of scenario you risk having by wearing unnecessarily loose clothing. You give the dead an extra shot at grabbing you. Anything that shortens the distance between you and the outstretched hand of a zombie is a liability.

The same thing applies to your shoelaces. Imagine you walk around with your laces untied, and you find yourself in the same scenario as the saggy pants guy: Zombies are coming your way. You start running, but trip: You stepped on your own shoelaces. Imagine how stupid you would feel if the thing that caused you to get eaten by a zombie was not tying your damned shoelaces. That’s just adding insult to injury.

I know having extra tight clothing in a zombie outbreak is not a good idea — It’s constricting, it’s hot, it’s sweaty, it’s bad — but, when you have clothing that is excessively loose or has things that hang off and make it easy for zombies to grab you, that is even worse. Fatally worse.