The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Zombies

Zombie survival guides are a blood-stained dime a dozen, but won’t somebody please think of the zombies?  It’s a hard “life,” full of unending hunger, long monotonous stretches of boredom, a homogenous diet, and unceasing drool.  Plus, you never get to change into a clean pair of underwear, and that’s just bad luck.

Well, I’m somebody—a yummy body to the zombies—and I’m happy to oblige.  It seems fitting that I, man of alterity and otherness, would be considerate of the needs of zombies.  You don’t get much more otherwise than they.  So without further moaning, zombie-walk ado, I present seven habits of highly effective zombies.

1. Get Involved in a Community – The lone wolf or isolated zombie is easily seen, easily avoided, and easily whacked.  Join a mass of your fellow flesh-eaters and stay hidden.  It offers you safety, strength in numbers, and a better chance of surrounding and getting your mouth on some of that living meat you so excitedly crave.

2. Be Patient – Aristotle taught that virtue is a mean between excess and defect.  When you’re in a group advancing on your prey, don’t rush to the front where you’ll be the first to fall, and don’t meander at the very back where you’ll never get your hands on even a multiply-stomped-on strip of intestine.  You want to be close to the front, but biding your time.  Wait for the frontline zombies to wear down the food.  When it’s your turn to strike, your meal will be exhausted, out of bullets, and primed for you, the walking abattoir.

3. Have Foresight – This habit is also important before you become a zombie.  If you know you’re doomed to be dinner and maybe to life as a zombie, try to get bitten on a part of your body that won’t slow you down or handicap you later.  Avoid bites on the leg.  You’ll want mobility.  The face is fine, but make sure you still have a working jaw.  You can get by without an arm, but you’ll be a much more effective killer with all your appendages intact.  I recommend guiding the gnawing jaw of a zombie to your chest or back.

4. Keep Your Moaning to a Minimum – No sense in announcing your presence.  If your voice box alerts your prey, rip it out.   You’re a zombie; you can take the biblical injunction literally.

5. Eat on the Run – Some zombies like to sit or crouch down to relax and enjoy their food.  This is usually unwise.  The living may be lurking, looking for distracted zombies to bash in the head.  If you must sit, have your back against a wall, and eat with your head up and your eyes peeled.  By the way, peeled eye is quite succulent if you can get your hands on some.

6. Attack the Unarmed – This may seem a no brainer, but that’s part of your problem, isn’t it?  Stay away from humans with guns, blades, bats, and other weapons.  You may want to focus on anyone unarmed who could conceivably obtain a weapon and appears to have the knowhow to use it, but this approach obviously has its risks.

7. Stalk Close Friends and Family – No one wants to shoot a spouse, parent, child, or good friend in the head.  Take advantage of this momentary hesitation to go in for the kill.  Beloved celebrities like Justin Bieber or Katy Perry should stalk their once adoring now delicious fans.  On the flip side, avoid your enemies, and, if you were a horrible boss, your former employees.  People lose their moral compass during a zombie apocalypse and won’t hesitate the blow the brains out of people they really hated if presented with the mere possibility that they’ve become zombies.  In The Simpsons, Zombie Flanders learned this the hard way when approaching his neighbor Homer, who, after shooting his undead foe, remarked, “He was a zombie?”

So there you have it.  Happy effective hunting!

(Cross-posted at Journeys in Alterity)