In nearly every zombie outbreak scenario, the biggest threat isn’t the zombies, it’s surviving humans. We’ve all seen how it goes: a few people manage to escape the slavering zombie hordes only to be attacked, exploited, and generally menaced by another, more ruthless group of survivors. With this in mind, I propose the following guidelines for behavior in the event of a catastrophic reanimation scenario:
- Maintain a constructive attitude. Yes, corpses are reanimating and everyone is under a lot of pressure, but being a jerk to your uninfected co-survivors isn’t going to help. If you go through life being a colossal jackass, consider giving it a rest until things settle down.
- Cooperate. Intelligence is your main advantage over a zombie horde, so you should cooperate with other survivors in order to maximize this advantage. You have to share supplies, but having other people watching your back and helping you make traps will keep you safer in the long run–it’s been shown that most fortifications experience zombie breaches as a byproduct of survivor infighting.
- Retain what social infrastructure you can. Zombies change a lot of things, but they don’t have to ruin everything. Just because there aren’t cops around doesn’t make it okay to exploit your fellow survivors. Besides, you need all the help you can get.
- Loot responsibly. Yes, the zombie down the street doesn’t need his stuff anymore, but that doesn’t mean you should take everything that isn’t nailed down. Take whatever you need and leave the rest for other survivors. If circumstances permit, leave a message behind for others telling them where they can join you.
- Get to know your fellow survivors. A zombie outbreak is a good opportunity to meet people you might not normally interact with. Learning about each other makes cooperation easier and might bring useful skills to light.
- Practice effective quarantines. While every zombie outbreak is unique, there are best practices you can follow. You might be reluctant to write off a fellow survivor who may have been infected, and that’s fine: just isolate them for 24 hours (or however long it takes for unambiguous zombification to occur). Provide them with sufficient food and water and appoint someone to keep them company (outside the quarantine area, of course). This ensures that no one is abandoned unnecessarily and minimizes the risk to other survivors.
