The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: A Cold, Cruel World

2) Boots (Preferably rubber-soled)

Now, you might think I’m repeating myself from a couple of weeks ago when I talked about making sure you had shoes to walk around in, but you’d be wrong.

You see, walking around in ordinary shoes or sneakers is perfectly fine the rest of the year, but, in winter, it simply will not do.

I could simply say “snow” again and leave it at that, but there’s more to it than that…

While snow is an issue, and you need hardier footwear to ward off the cold, a boot’s real strength is keeping out moisture.

You see, even in places that don’t have harsh, snowy winters, they often still get the same level of precipitation as the places that do, and this means lots and lots of rain. If you’re walking around in the rain, in puddles, in the swamps rainstorms create, and only wearing regular shoes, they’re going to break down on you sooner rather than later (Especially if you don’t have a car and have to walk everywhere), and then, your feet are going to get soaked.

On a side note: Have you ever heard of “trench foot”? It’s a condition that became rampant during World War I because the soldiers were spending days (Maybe weeks) at a time, just standing around in wet ass mud the whole time. Eventually, the constant exposure to cold and moisture would cause the skin to break down and become infected. In the worst-case scenarios, soldiers needed their feet amputated.

Now, the reason I mention this is because, without sturdy footwear like boots, you legitimately run the risk of contracting trench foot in a zombie apocalypse, as you stomp around in the water, in the rain, in the snow, and having little-to-no means of drying out your feet.

I could go into a diatribe about having footwear the provides traction on snow and ice, but I’d much rather focus on the little caveat I added at the beginning of this entry about rubber soles.

You see, when I was in college, I saw a nifty little phenomenon that happens every so often in winter if the weather fluctuates enough: Thunderflurries.

A thunderflurry is exactly what it sounds like: A snowstorm…with lightning. If you don’t have rubber-soled boots while you’re walking around in such conditions, you won’t be properly grounded, making the potential results of a lightning bolt hitting you (Already very bad) even worse.

So, when preparing for a zombie outbreak, make sure to pack your winter boots…you’re probably gonna need them.