The Walking Dead: Volume 2: Miles Behind Us

The second chapter of the Walking Dead series picks up shortly after the violent conclusion of the first volume, and despite their rather bleak circumstances, I’d say things are looking up for the survivors.. sort of.

[SURVIVOR PSYCHOLOGY]

Now, as Shane’s breakdown illustrated, these people are just barely clinging to their sanity. There should be no surprise at any of them mentally shutting down, or erupting into homicidal rage. I believe this volatility is probably our greatest danger in an apocalyptic event. If a zombie outbreak should occur, I believe that the undead threat could be largely marginalized by keeping a level head and careful planning. However, the human element is far less predictable, and can hardly be managed by simple list of guidelines.

On the upside, the group is now on the move. They are now making a proactive effort to better their situation, and hopefully increase their level of safety. It is a calculated risk, as they do not know who or what they will encounter while traveling. It is still possible that, if they stayed by the city, they may have been picked up by a government rescue team. However, the process of actually doing something, besides sitting around waiting to be saved, gives people purpose, hope, and a greater will to live. Aside from this much needed psychological boost, I also believe that, in general, people should always put as much distance as possible between themselves and zombie infested metropolitan areas.

*Warning* Spoilers

[SURVIVOR FIRST CONTACT]

This brings me to an interesting topic that Miles Behind Us begins to address, that being, how to respond to encounters with other survivors. I imagine that some sort of first-contact / rules-of-engagement protocols could be drafted, and would certainly be of value. However, I think that value would be limited, and would be a far less certain measure of protection than, say, knowing how to protect oneself from the undead.

The problem is that there isn’t any concrete way of knowing who you can trust, who will make a contribution, and who will maintain a sound state of mind. Now, I do firmly believe in the value of belonging to a group. With coordinated efforts and collective knowledge, you can accomplish much more, and through helping each other, have a greater chance of survival. In fairness, you do have to acknowledge that there are advantages to going at it alone (lower profile, no one else to worry about, require fewer resources), but I think the benefits of a group or community have greater long term value.

Now, having cast my vote for community, I honestly don’t know of any particularly low-risk methods for forming and governing this group of people. You’ll have your first impression gut feelings as a gauge for evaluating other survivors you encounter, but that is hardly a fool proof means of measurement. Not to mention that there is no way of knowing how people will change over the course of time. Once you have established a group of folks you trust, you’ll have collective opinions to help guide decisions, but in the beginning you’ll have nothing more than caution, instincts, and a watchful eye to rely on.

[ZOMBIE PHYSIOLOGY]

On another topic, a detail regarding zombie physiology caught my attention. In the story, the group comes across a motionless zombie in the snow. They initially assume it is dead (well, not walking dead at least), but then discover that it is simply unable to move its body. The theory ventured is that the lack of warm blood pumping through its veins has caused it to freeze solid in the winter weather. I’ve seen this theory broached before in Gareth Wood’s Rise and Age of the Dead online novels(*CORRECTION* In Rise, scientists discover that, regardless of weather conditions, zombie body temperature will get down close to freezing, but seems to always stay above that threshold for some unknown reason.), and, I think I recall, also in Max Brooks’s World War Z. Now I don’t think this would hold true if the zombie hordes were infected, but still living, people, like those in 28 Days Later. However, if we are truly dealing with reanimated corpses, there is a good possibility of this theory holding true.

This would be a valuable piece of information to verify when trying to determine where to establish a permanent residence. Human beings are certainly capable of making homes and surviving in some of the world’s most inhospitable regions. If these parts of the world are safe from the undead menace, it might be worth while to study arctic survival.

[THE CURE]

The last item I want to comment on is the farmer and his attempt to round-up, and protect, those that had been turned into zombies. Now, I firmly believe that, in the zombie scenarios most commonly presented, killing every last zombie you can is the correct course of action. However, one should consider the possibility that a plague may emerge that drives victims to uncontrollable homicidal action, but is a condition that can be reversed and cured. I do not know how likely this is, or how one would even go about determining if this was applicable to the current zombie infestation, but it is worth some reflection. That said, I fully stand by the “if someone is trying to kill you, you try and kill them right back” philosophy. So don’t sit down and start singing Kumbaya when the undead are smashing through your kitchen window.

Well, I never manage to discuss all of the topics of interest before realizing I’ve hit my word limit. I’ll leave you with saying that this second installment of The Walking Dead was just as engaging as the first, and I recommend checking it out.

Read other “The Walking Dead” posts:

• Life After the Undead Apocalypse
  The Walking Dead: Volume 1: Days Gone Bye
• 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
• Post-apocalyptic entertainment idea #67: Fish tanks full of zombie heads!
  The Walking Dead: Volume 5: The Best Defence