The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Always Be Prepared

The Walking Dead

Learn to be the master of your environment.

Between this week’s episode and last week’s episode, it became evident that the Commonwealth military, even under effective leadership, could be defeated by an inferior force. Despite not being nearly as well-armed or as well-trained as the Commonwealth soldiers, Maggie, Aaron, Lydia, Father Gabriel, and Elijah were able to dispatch them effectively because Annie and Negan knew the Riverbend apartment complex infinitely more than their enemies did.

Since it’s almost inevitable that you will have a conflict with hostiles at some point in the zombie apocalypse, I think this idea of mastering your environment is one worth exploring.

We’ve seen it used a couple of times in The Walking Dead. The first was in season three, when Rick’s group lured the Woodbury army into the dark confines of the prison to have to fight off walkers, while Glenn and Maggie ambushed them with automatic rifles.

The one big takeaway from both incidents is that you had a numerically and technologically inferior force driving away a larger and better-equipped one. They knew all the ins and outs of the battlefield, whereas their opponents did not.

Mastery of one’s environment doesn’t need to be strictly limited to your group’s home. If you had the time and means to do it, you could learn the entirety of the region you and your group live in. This way, if you’re attacked anywhere within that range, you know exactly what you can utilize to your advantage.

Always make an effort to master your environment in a zombie apocalypse because you never know when you will need it.