In the event of a zombie apocalypse, violence becomes a warranted course of action. You’re in a situation where everyone is trying to kill you: the infected, your neighbors, and even the military. But you don’t like violence; you think to yourself, what would differentiate me from all the monsters out there? What kind of society works when the only option forward is to shoot at things until they die?

As the world plunges into chaos, you are deprived of access to even the most basic necessities to live; there is no public utility, no food security, no 8List. So before any such case, 8List has prepared a list of survival tips for the eventual empath in this pacifist guide to the zombie apocalypse.

1. Stand by your pacifist creed.

It has become a common assumption in zombie media that the first to die will be those pure of heart. While it’s true that violence is not for the good-hearted, it isn’t something the sane person enjoys either. Humanity is built on hope and empathy. We go into this apocalypse hoping to survive long enough to see a cure and everything to turn out okay in the end. This world has seen enough violence as is; if anything, everyone should be helping each other if humanity is to thrive!

Here’s how to survive the zombie apocalypse peacefully for the pure of heart (with as little violence as possible).

2. Familiarize yourself with the people you’re stuck with.

In the zombie apocalypse, you don’t get to choose who you’re with when it happens. It happens suddenly, taking the world by storm. For the time being, you’re possibly stuck with groups of people you’ve never met. The best course of action in this case is to get to know them, build their trust, and work together to build a community with them, with the collective goal of living through the apocalypse.

3. Organize. Rebuild.

It doesn’t have to be pure anarchy out there; for your group to thrive as a community, there has to be a leader. List some rules, set food rations, cultivate when ready, and be prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of everyone’s well-being.

4. Map everything. Quietly.

Chart the local vicinity. You want to cut any further losses, so gather your bearings. You return to the community, warning your fellow survivalists of areas with high zombie presence. Furthermore, you tell them where there are more survival essentials, and you may need extra volunteers to join you in your next supply run.

5. Pack non-lethal self-defense tools.

A mysterious guy walks into your safe space, demanding supplies. Being the diplomat that you are, you try to convince him to join your community, promoting peace and cooperation in these dire times. Alas, this person has been overrun by the paranoia—he pulls out a gun on you, so you immediately tase his ass.

As a pacifist, you look into the bigger picture of the whole apocalypse thing and decide that you want to minimize as many human deaths as possible. Hence, you encourage your peers to arm themselves with only non-lethal armaments such as tasers, rubber bullets, blunt melee weaponry like bats, anything just about enough to knock someone out without having to take another life!

6. Set infection and medical protocols.

Introducing: The Infected Humanity Preservation Advocacy. By this point in time, you probably have obtained all the safety equipment you need to avoid infection: agile gear, armors that protect you from bites at the most vulnerable spots, a sufficient amount of essentials to keep you on the go, and perhaps even a vaccine?

You hear a rumor that scientists are working on a cure to bring the infected back to normal. From then on, you have reinvented your morals and made the decision to NOT kill the zombies, in hopes that help, too, will come for them one day.

Through divine providence, or simply by pure charisma, you somehow convince your peers to adopt these morals. They have now also decided that they won’t be killing the zombies.

Trap them in nets, tie them up, pull their teeth out, put them in cages, and only disable them when you have to. This way, the worst thing they’ll have to deal with if/when they get cured is having to craft themselves a new set of dentures. You know what they say: “The only good zombie is an alive zombie with hopes of a second chance in life,” as you tell your community and applaud yourself (you made it up).

7. Humanize the infected.

In addition to your efforts to humanize the infected, you have encouraged your peers to be more sensitive when it comes to zombie matters; firstly, by not referring to them as zombies. You and your friends strictly start using terms like “infected”, “sick”, or “mortally-challenged”. You even start giving them actual names, and occasionally talk to them in hopes of reminding them of their humanity.

8. Don’t listen to the unbelievers.

Your community starts to worry that their leader may have gone insane. But it doesn’t matter, because you’ve decided long ago that that’s a sacrifice you’re willing to take to secure the empathic revolution. And if anyone ever tries to stop you or get between you and your pacifist values, immediately neutralize them, for any threat to your ways is a threat to peace.

What kind of path would you take in the zombie apocalypse? Let us know your strategies in the comments below!