The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Crossing Lines

What Separates You From The Bad Guys In A World Of The Walking Dead?

The answer is Your choices.

Of course, if you act like Aaron did in this week’s Walking Dead, then…how are you any different?

What Aaron did was not simply threaten to sic a walker on someone, but actually do it. This is the sort of behavior we expect from hostiles. Ever since Merle (At The Governor’s behest) unleashed a walker against Glenn as a means of interrogating him when the latter was held captive in Woodbury. But, not from Rick’s group, and especially not from Aaron. Of all the people in the group, Aaron is the last person you’d think would legit sic a walker on someone. It’s a very cruel and callous thing to do, to wield a walker as a weapon against someone else, especially when that person is bound and unable to defend themselves.

All of this brings me to why I made this my theme this week: Seeing Aaron stoop to this was very jarring. Yes, the group dumped walkers at the Sanctuary, but the point was simply to wall them inside their base so they could take out the Saviors’ outposts. Up to this point, the use of walkers as a weapon against other people was limited to strictly some of the worst of The Walking Dead’s villains, like The Governor, Alpha, or Beta. Not doing that was what helped separate Rick and everyone who was part of his group (And then, by extension, the communities) from the characters and groups who were evil. Aaron doing it makes him a little better than them.

Now, let’s apply this to an actual zombie apocalypse.

If you saw someone use zombies against people as a weapon — Not to scare them, not as a defensive perimeter, not as a deterrent, not as another threat they have to deal with while fighting you, but as an offensive weapon — what would you think of them? Would you consider them a good person after that? Would you consider anyone who knew they were doing it and allowed it a good person? Would you trust such a person? If the answer is “No”, ask yourself this: Would you use a zombie against someone? Would you have a zombie bite someone? And, if you did…would you be able to live with yourself afterward?

If the answer to that last one is also “No”, then, you understand that that is a line that you really shouldn’t cross. It’s right up there with torturing someone. If you decide to use zombies as weapons, it’s no different than feeding people to zombies. It’s evil, and it will take you a lot of time and work to come back from that, if you even can. If there is one line you should never cross in a zombie apocalypse…it’s this one.

And that’s our Walking Dead Survival Rule Of The Week! Give people enough time in a zombie apocalypse, and they’ll come together. Give them more time, and they (Or simply you as an individual) will set down some rules. These will likely be rules for how people should behave, treat each other, and their group as a whole. If you decide to break these rules, chances are you’ve done something wicked bad, and you may discover that, once you cross those lines…you can’t go back. If you want some more information about lines you shouldn’t cross, 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!