Zombie Apocalypse Manners Please

     After watching most of the first episode of the Walking Dead on the first day of class, I decided that watching the episodes made sense, as I would be spending the semester learning all about zombies anyway.  It was time to see what everyone was talking about.  Now I am on season 2 and for the past few episodes I began to think about one, maybe random thing.
     I want to give you a scenario much like the situation that Rick and his wife and child are in in the show (okay, well exactly like the situation they are in).  A zombie apocalypse has happened and you are severely outnumbered by zombies.  Every decision you make must be thoroughly considered because lives are on the line.  Think about if you were to make it to this point.  You are in a stable enough place and you have one or more small children that you are trying to raise.  Obviously raising a child is hard enough to do without trying to do it in the middle of an apocalypse.  But how would you go about this?  Do you raise your child to be a fighter and force them to grow up much faster than they otherwise would have?  Or do you try to hold onto your values and ideals and raise your child in more or less the way you would have if the worst hadn't happened?
     Two scenes in particular stick out to me from The Walking Dead.  The first is when they have found shelter with a doctor in a large, very safe building.  They are splurging on food and wine they haven't had access too.  Carl is a young boy, maybe ten years old.  Rick and Lori, his parents decide it is okay to let me drink wine with them.  I don't remember the lines exactly but at first Lori tries to resist while Rick argues that with the point that those rules don't really apply any more.  Carl doesn't like the wine, but what if he had?  I agree with both sides.  It doesn't seem like the rules should apply anymore, but does that mean abandoning your values?
     The second scene I think of is when Carl decides he want to learn to shoot a gun.  Lori again is hesitant to let me carry around a gun and learn to shoot.  Ultimately, again they let me learn.  I guess this example makes more sense, as it is for his own safety and potentially the safety of others as well.  But is it necessary for him to learn this skill right now?  Apparently his parents think so.
     Bringing it back to the book we just finished, This Is Not A Test, the same questions can be asked I believe.  In this case though, it is teenagers choosing their own fate.  The part that jumps out to me in the book was when we find out that Carry knew someone had to die in order for the rest of them to survive.  This is probably not a decision he would have had to make if they weren't in that situation, but did his character change?  Would he have made it before?  Would you try to make it through a zombie apocalypse and stay true to yourself?  Or would you make decisions like Carry did to try to survive?