Here are four simple but sincere tips The Walking Dead has brought about more than once on the series. They should give you food for thought but, even if they do not, you can’t say they are not spot-on!
A Secure Location Is Great But Never Perfect:
This is best shown with the example of the jail in seasons 3 and 4, but can be applied to just about any refuge taken in the show. It doesn’t matter how secure you think your location is, something can always happen to make you have to bug out.
Keep your eyes open and no matter how safe you feel, always have a plan to get out quickly and to meet up after you bug out. As we saw in season 4 when the survivors were pushed from the prison, not having a plan to meet up after an emergency can leave your fellow survivors scattered to the wind and in constant danger.
Learn Weapons Other Than Guns:
Guns are pretty useful tools. While you’d rather not think about having to use one against another person, especially when a major disaster may have wiped many people out already, sometimes it’s a necessary evil. If things have gotten so bad that there isn’t any real law enforcement, your gun might be the only thing standing between survival and death.
This doesn’t mean it will be useful forever. Ammo manufacturers are not likely to be pumping out rounds to buy at your local gun shop in a major survival situation, and finding a gunsmith to fix a majorly broken firearm will be nearly impossible.
Learn how to use and fight with weapons that aren’t guns. This includes knives, bows, and heck, even a samurai sword if that’s your thing. Don’t just carry these, learn how to use them and use them well. You’ll be glad you did when things go bad.
Basic Survival Skills Will Save Your Life:
When it’s all said and done, at the end of the day it’s basic survival skills that will keep you alive. All the guns and gadgets in the world won’t replace the basic skills like building a fire, tracking prey, and building snares. At the core of most episodes is the innate skills of the survivors.
Finding water, catching dinner, and setting up a safe camp are all core necessities to keep the survivors in the Walking Dead alive. Without these, they’d be zombie bait pretty quickly.
Always Have Your Bug-Out Bag Ready:
The basic idea here is that you never know when things will go bad. It doesn’t matter if you’re behind walls of wire and cement, it doesn’t matter if you have a cache of rifles and handguns, and it doesn’t matter if you have the best-trained group out there. Things can go bad quickly and easily get away from you.
Always keep your bug out bag handy with all the supplies you need to get out of dodge quickly. Whether it’s a tank rolling over the fences surrounding your compound, or some “zombies” overtaking your camp, being able to pick up and run at a moment’s notice is vital to your survival. Keep this in mind and you’ll be far more likely to escape the hordes and make it to another season.
The final tip on this list is something that fans of The Walking Dead might not have ever thought about. But Rick and his gang are always ready to bug-out. Even at the prison, they were thinking about escape transportation, even had a bus ready for the children (as badly as that turned out), when the Governor caused a SHTF situation.
There are more things to consider and you can read up on them over on Survival Based. But the basic point we are making here is while The Walking Dead may seem a bit destructive and uncaring, it does show us how men and women coming together, honing their survival skill, can make their lives a bit easier and keep them from going crazy in a mad world.
These people are surviving. The mistakes they’ve made they have learned from and our hope is one day they will not have to face the horrors of the zombies or those who will take advantage of them – simply because they know how to prepare and live to see another day!