The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Keep Your Wits About You
By Liam O'Leary
Tales of the Walking Dead – Davon
Be mindful of your surroundings. If you’re not careful, you will stumble right into The Walking Dead.
This week’s episode of Tales of The Walking Dead began with Davon waking up from passing out due to his injury, only to narrowly avoid being bitten by a walker. As we would later see from Davon’s flashbacks, that walker was once Amanda, the leader of an Acadian community in rural Maine, who died in a struggle with Davon inside of her garage, wherein she fell face-first into a vat of acid left lying on the floor.
Do you know what those two things had in common? They both involved people not being aware of, or not paying attention to, what was around them. Davon got lucky. Amanda’s melted face inhibited her attempts to bite him as he regained his bearings. Amanda, as evidenced by the fact she had a half-melted face, was not so lucky.
When you go anywhere (Or, frankly, whenever you have the opportunity to) in a zombie apocalypse, you should take a second to stop, look around, listen, and take a whiff of the air around you, so you can get some idea of the lay of the land. What do you see? What can you hear? Is it eerily silent? Are animals going crazy, making calls you never heard before? What does it smell like? Do you smell something unusual? Can you feel the ground reverberating?
Obviously, these are all observations you make with your senses, but the idea of taking stock of them is what’s important. A smart survivor will always take a beat to do this, as these simple observations can clue you into dangers around you that a more careless person might not take the time to notice. For example, during the coronavirus pandemic, while watching TV, I noticed the birds on my street making panicked calls that I’d never heard them making before. When I opened my front door, I was surprised to discover the source of their unease: A cottonmouth. Had I not noticed how strange the birds’ calls were, I might have opened my garage door and unwittingly let a deadly viper into my house. When I say that taking the time to pay attention to these things can save your life, I’m not kidding.