The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: What you need from yourself

5) Ingenuity And Observation

Eugene has always been one of my favorite characters in The Walking Dead because, even when he lacked the physical attributes of some of the other people in Rick’s group, he always had the brains. He always found a way to keep himself, and the people with him, alive.

I think back to episodes like season five’s “Self Help,” where Eugene, while not necessarily capable at the time of fighting walkers (Never mind a large gang of them), still managed to do just that by using what was available to him. At the same time, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Rosita, and Tara were outnumbered, employing a fire truck’s high-pressure water cannon (Pictured above) to obliterate the walkers and save his friends.

To survive in a zombie apocalypse, however far along in it you may be, you need to have a sharp mind.

Whether it’s to figure out places to go for supplies that other people may not have thought of, or means of diverting zombies that might be blocking your way, or means of fighting said zombies if conventional means aren’t enough, or means of keeping you and your group-housed, warm, and fed as the apocalypse wears on, it takes a sharp mind and a keen eye to think about things and see things that will keep you from joining the dead.

How? Explore your area. Go to stores you might not normally go to and see what’s there; maybe you’ll find useful stuff you wouldn’t think was there. Read books on deductive reasoning and crime scene investigation to learn how to read details from your environment. Learn how to create makeshift tools from ordinary items. Read books on practical chemistry, physics, and engineering, so you have an idea of how to get or make things you’ll need from items that you can likely find.

There’s many ways you can improve your thinking that I don’t have the time or space to list, but these are a good place to start.