If you’re lucky enough to have survived the initial Outbreak, gotten out of the population centers, and found (or started) a group of your own, eventually, you are going to run across other groups of survivors during your wanderings in search of a safe haven to set up a permanent (or semi-permanent) base of operations. These groups will have their own social and leadership structures and you will need to be prepared to deal with them and to size them up quickly so as to not find yourself and your own group at a complete disadvantage. Some groups will consist of good people and you may want to combine forces or form an alliance or pact with them even if you don’t merge your groups together (which can carry its own problems since merging command structures can be very problematic even in a non-high-stress environment). Others will be harmless either because they lack the ability (due to lack of access to weaponry or numbers) to harm you or they lack the will to do so. The last group, the largest group, is the Asshole Category and they have various degrees of “avoid,” “destroy,” “kill on sight,” or “nuke from orbit.”

Small, Friendly Groups

The fact of the matter is the most common group you’ll run across will be the small, friendly group. Now, they will be wary if they’ve survived very long but so long as everyone is careful, it’s clear that everyone is free to go at any point, and no attempts are made to take anything from anyone, communicating with them and establishing relations with them should be easy and straightforward. Most of these groups will be family groups or friends who are living a nomadic lifestyle as they search for a safe place to hunker down. The smallest groups may be willing to integrate themselves into a larger overgroup. They may also be open to forming a loose confederation in exchange for a mutual defense agreement, trade, and access to food, water, and medical supplies. You will want to exercise caution and discretion before taking them in, though.

Large, Friendly Groups

If you have established your own base of operations and are scouting or if you and your group are wandering in search of a place to secure and settle down, you may run across a much larger group. This group may have its own scouting parties out who are either tasked with actively recruiting members (in which case you may be asked to consider joining if you meet their requirements and needs), with merely keeping an eye on people passing through their territory, or with keeping trespassers out. If you are approached by a scout who announces himself and provides tangible evidence of the existence of a larger group and the guidelines for joining, consider hearing him out. Make certain that the outlines for any trial period are clear and include the right to exit the community with the provisions and gear you brought in to it (or an equivalent amount), that there is either a set date for the trial period to end or a set event to conclude it after which your group would be considered full and equal members with the same rights as everyone else, and that all members of your group will be granted a single orientation meeting where all of the rules, laws, mores, and enforceable customs of the community will be outlined along with their punishments. A reasonable question-and-answer session should follow that session to make certain everyone understands what they’re getting into. If you decide not to join with this larger group, request a meeting with a trade delegation at an external location to discuss opening trade with them. Keep in mind that trade can include news as well as goods and services.

If the group does not have those things prepared, then they really aren’t prepared to absorb outsiders. You should point that out to them and suggest that they reconsider their recruitment drive until they’ve organized their immigration policy better. You might still consider going with them but you will want to negotiate to keep as much independence as you can and insist that they retain their own. Co-existence and cooperation should be the goal while you work out your relationships.

Friendly Itinerant Groups

No matter how far along you are during the Zombie Apocalypse, you’re going to come across wandering groups. These groups will differ in that they have given up finding any place to permanently settle down and are content to keep moving. For some of them, safety may be in staying mobile. Others may have mastered the art of trading and become peddlers. A rare few may have even formed mobile societies or tribes much like the Tuatha’an from The Wheel of Time. Your first contact with these groups should be cautious until you know their ways. Once that’s established — they’ll have developed ways of detecting and dealing with others — you can open relations with them. However, they will probably not join your group or form any kind of lasting alliance beyond non-exclusive trade. Still, it is wise to give them some supplies, any news or warnings you can provide, and then let them go on their way. If this is their first time through your established territory, just let them know who you are and where your base is (or where your outpost is if you don’t want your permanent base to be a known location for outsiders), what territory you claim and who your neighbors are and your relations with them, and then try to establish a good rapport with them. It’s always better to have friends, after all!

Lone Wolves

From time to time, you’ll run across an individual or a very couple who, for whatever reason, have struck out on their own. They might be nomads just passing through or they may have established a small base camp. However, no matter how friendly you are to them or how welcoming you seem, they may reject any offer to join your group. At best, they’ll just be skittish and wary. At worst, they’ll be unfriendly. Your best strategy here is to move along. If they happen to set up in your territory (without them knowing it) and are not causing you any problem, leave them be. Simply let them know that they are in your territory and that you just want to know who they are and why they wish to be left alone. Their reasons could range from a simple disdain for other people or an inability to deal with social conventions well (like yours truly here) to having suffered some very bad experiences in other groups and taking a rational “wait and see” approach before deciding to put themselves at your mercy. So long as you have adequate guards, lone wolves are not a threat.

Nutty Normals

In the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse, you’re going to find people who are out to prove that “de Nile, she ain’t jes’ a river in Egypt.” At best, they’re harmless farmers who think that the undead are just sick and that a cure is coming Real Soon Now and so they’ve kept the zombies locked up securely in their barn. So long as no Drama Queens break the lock and chain, everyone’s fine. At worst, they’re psychos who are trying to build a little slice of Pleasantville where everyone can have barbeques and cookouts and parties and cotillions without having to deal with the fact that the undead are trying to eat them just outside of whatever flimsy barricade they’ve built up. If you come across a community where you’re asked to surrender your weapons before entering, you may have stumbled on a den of nutcases led by someone in denial (at best) or a man who’s building a harem and your women are fair game (at worst). This is why establishing the rules for trial membership is so crucial — if you are ever asked to disarm yourself, you need to be very wary. There needs to be a damned good reason for it and that reason needs to be explained to you before you surrender your weapon.

Warlords

Strongmen who can gather other strongmen and toughs to their cause will win out early on. They’ll establish tribal structures and set themselves up as warlords. They will also kidnap women whose sole purpose will be to take care of the “needs” of the warriors. Any time a warlord’s army conquers new territory, the men will be executed and the women will be held captive. These are some of the worst kinds to deal with because the only way to handle them is either to kill them or to be so much stronger than them they won’t take you on. In the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse, you are not going to have the resources in manpower to imprison or rehabilitate them so, really, crippling them or executing them is about the only way to defeat them. Also, depending on how long the women have been held, some of them may have succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome and you may simply have to kill them as well.

That said, if you can outgun them and you can make it clear that they live only by your sufferance and that their leader keeps his place only so long as he doesn’t piss you off (and you will have to get in his face and make it that clear), then you can keep them on a leash somewhat. However, it is a bit like keeping a rabid dog on a leash so caveat emptor, dude.

Restorers

You’ll run into these types often enough — send them away or along and do not get involved. They’re a special case of denialist who believe that they and their group are on a mission to restore the world (or the United States) and that anyone who opposes them must be destroyed. Make it clear that you are simply trying to survive and that you wish them all the best but that you have your family to look out for. You do not want to get dragged into a fight for territory or resources unless you absolutely have to.

Scumbags

Your group will eventually encounter scumbags. They might be individuals who were kicked out of another group or they might just be drifters who have made a living of preying on innocent survivors. Regardless, the only thing you can do for them is send them on to the next life. Hold them only long enough to find out if they really are part of a larger group (scumbags will occasionally form warlord bands) that poses a threat to your group and then get rid of them. Permanently.

So, with all that said — where’s the best place for you to set up a base of operations? Well, we’ll talk about that next time!

— G.K.