The Walking Dead: Volume 5: The Best Defence

Well, it has been a while since I last posted on The Walking Dead, but it doesn’t mean my opinion has changed. Volume 5, The Best Defense, is yet another rockin’ chapter of the story. Let me begin.

*Warning* Spoilers

[ZOMBE SURVIVAL TIPS]

Before getting into the real highlights of this chapter, I’d like to briefly mention some good basic zombie survival tips that came up in the story. For one, you should always check, double check, and even triple check new areas that you are moving into. While a cursory glance may be all thats needed to identify immediate threats, zombies, and particularly immobile zombies, may be lurking where you least expect them. In the case of this story’s characters, they were clearing large, poorly lit, prison cell blocks. You can probably declare a single well lit room clear of threats quickly and confidently, but if you are dealing with a large, dark, and unfamiliar building complex, you better do nothing short of a triple check.

[BODY ARMOR]

Another point of interest was the characters’ discovery of riot gear in the prison armory. They, as most probably would, regarded this a great find, and quickly found it to be highly effective protection against the undead. I would have to include myself amongst those that would appreciate this find, but there are some drawbacks that one should be aware of. For one, body armor offers the undead much more to grab hold of. Between the helmet, pads, straps, and everything else that comprises the armor, there is simply much more bulk that can be snagged by a zombie within reach. Second, the additional weight and heat you have to endure will slow you down and wear you out much more quickly. Without extensive training, it is unlikely that the average citizen would have the endurance to battle for long in full body armor. Lastly, as Mr. Brooks discusses in the Zombie Survival Guide, body armor may lead to over confidence, and encourage survivors to take risks that they wouldn’t have otherwise. So while I wouldn’t toss riot gear into the fire pit, I doubt that many would argue with the statement “nothing gets a person moving faster than the real fear of impeding death.”

[TRAVEL] [TERRAIN]

There were also some interesting comments made with regards to visibility when traveling through forest terrain. Towards the beginning of this chapter, Michonne, Rick, and Glenn are forced to abandon their vehicle and walk on foot through some woods as they search for a helicopter they saw flying and crashing not far from the prison. As is understandable, Glenn and Rick are more than a little concerned about not being able to see very far as they walk through the trees. However, Michonne, who survived for a great time traveling alone, points out to them that they should be able to smell the undead if they are nearby. This is another theory that will require us waiting until an actual undead outbreak is upon us to prove one way or another, but I think that it is a likely possibility.

In addition to smell, when vision is limited, our hearing will have to pick up some of the slack. As they travel through the woods, Glenn comments that they haven’t been seeing any undead, so there must not be many around. Michonne quickly corrects him by informing Rick and Glenn, that there are at least a dozen or so zombies following behind them, and more joining every minute. The group is not noticing the zombies they pass in the trees, but the zombies are certainly noticing them. Because we will not always be able to see the undead, the living will have to learn to use their other senses for information. In this instance, Michonne is paying attention to the telltale sounds around them that she knows neither she, Rick, nor Glenn is making. Fortunately the zombies in this scenario are of the slow shambling variety, and the survivors need simply walk at a faster pace than the undead.

[SURVIVOR FIRST CONTACT][SURVIVOR PSYCHOLOGY]

Now, with those few survival tidbits out of the way, I’d like to get into the real meat of this chapter, the discovery of another camp of survivors. This topic is of particular interest for many reasons: the potential for shedding light on new methods of survival, other survivors’ experiences, perhaps new insight into the mystery of the zombie plague, and more. However, in this particular case, it is the method by which this camp of survivors is governed that is of interest.

When Michonne, Rick, and Glenn first reach Woodbury, the town that these other survivors are inhabiting, they don’t see anything except that it is oddly devoid of zombies. However, the inhabitants quickly spot and intercept the new arrivals. They are also quickly stripped of their weapons, because, as the Woodbury inhabitants inform them, they get a lot of “crazies”, and they are introduced to the “Governor”, the leader of this community of survivors.

The Governor starts things off friendly enough, telling them about the community and asking about where they are from. Michonne, with perhaps intuitive suspicions, tells the Governor that they are simply travelers passing through, but the Governor doesn’t buy the story, and the true nature of his character quickly emerges.

First he shows them how he keeps his community entertained, with fights between armed men surrounded by a ring of chained up undead. He tells Rick and his companions that this is necessary because “people get restless without entertainment.” To illustrate his point he tells the group what he learned from the survivors of the helicopter crash, that they had been part of a group of people holed up in a news station, but they had turned on each other and become violent. The Governor saw this as evidence that his strategy of protecting, feeding, and entertaining his community was worth the price. Part of the price being that anyone who was not of use to the Governor was fed to the zombies. A direct parallel can be seen between this and the methods of the Kaufman character in Land of the Dead.

After thoroughly confirming Michonne’s suspicions about himself, the Governor quickly gets to the point of telling them that he knows their story about just being travelers is bullshit. He knows that they have come from somewhere nearby, and the fact that Rick and Glen are decked out in fancy body armor tells the Governor that they have resources he could exploit. Obviously the group isn’t too keen on giving up the location of the prison, so the Governor decides to emphasize the seriousness of his questions by hacking off one of Rick’s hands.

The Governor did have a doctor on hand to tend to Rick’s wound, and keep him alive for further questioning, but it did drive the point home. Well, it helped him identify Glenn as the most likely to break and give up information, as Michonne’s reaction to the dismemberment was to attack the Governor and rip off one of his ears with her teeth. He survived of course, and having seen the strength of Michonne’s will, decided she probably wasn’t worth trying to question, but would simply be fun to rape her until she found a way to kill herself.

The reasoning for mentioning all of these gory details is that I find it to be a very believable scenario. In the event that a zombie apocalypse has broken down all civilized order, strong ruthless people are going to be among those that manage to survive. People are also going to find themselves in the position to rewrite the rules of society as they see fit, and we will see people adopting ruthless, but effective, methods of ensuring their own survival. The Governor seemed to know that he would not be able to torture reliable information out of Rick and Michonne, but he knew that if he forced Glenn to witness this horror, then set him free, Glenn would likely go running home without realizing that he was leading the Governor right back to the very thing that Rick and Michonne were sacrificing themselves to hide.

Another interesting bit of insight into this situation is told through Rick’s conversations with the doctor that nurses him back to health. Speaking about the Governor, the doctor says that he started out good, he was tough, but he got the job done. However, at some point along the line, it became apparent that the Governor wasn’t merely acting out of survival interests, but was actually starting to enjoy his actions.

Rick asks how they could allow this to go on, the fights and feeding the zombies. The doctor replies by asking Rick what he thinks the Governor does to anyone who opposes him, and says that regardless of whatever the Governor does, he keeps people safe, and that’s enough for most people.

The comments of this character resonate strongly. If people living in the comforts of our rich society are ignoring atrocities that happen to others today, I think it is safe to say that it won’t be any different in a land of the dead.

Well, there were a few other points I wanted to mention (like keeping your undead kid chained to a living room wall, or say having a collection of still animated zombie heads), but some of my posts are starting to get a little long, and I think I’ve covered enough for this chapter of The Walking Dead. As always, this series is really well made. If you haven’t already, check it out.

Read other “The Walking Dead” posts:

• Life After the Undead Apocalypse
  The Walking Dead: Volume 1: Days Gone Bye
• Yeah, I’ve got a barn full of zombies. What of it?
  The Walking Dead: Volume 2: Miles Behind Us
• A day in prison is like a day on the farm.
  The Walking Dead: Volume 3: Safety Behind Bars
• Nurse, scalpel please. But Doctor, all we have is this hatchet. OK, that’ll work.
  The Walking Dead: Volume 4: The Heart’s Desire