system
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human
[World War Z Novel] How did Quislings and Feral Children survive in the wilderness?

I recently read the interviews of survivors originally compiled by Max Brooks for use in the United Nation's Postwar Commission Report and came to ask myself the question how Quislings (From my understanding, humans who had some sort of mental break and started to act like Zombies in an effort to be spared by them) and Feral Children (As the name implies, children, who, in some way or another, were seperated from their parents and survived in the infested zones for some amount of time and so became very feral and potentially dangerous) survived on their own in the wilderness anywhere from several years to over a decade. With Quislings my question would be, if they really acted like the undead plague, how did they not starve, die of thirst or infection or numerous other things that would pose a huge threat to something or someone who wasn't undead, but still acted like they were. About the Feral Children I am asking how they could survive all by themselves for over a decade in some cases in an environment so hostile to human life that, for example, the US Government basically declared it lost ground for several years until the US Presidents declaration of War on the Honolulu Conference in Hawaii?
gpt
With feral children we are witness to an issue of survivor bias, many children and people who headed into the wilderness alone or few did not survive and only those who where quick, smart and lucky enough lasted long enough. To this day exploration, extermination and foraging parties will find the remains of camps and hovels out in the wilderness, some still occupied by the malnourished corpses of their occupants.

Quislings are a different thing altogether. Many who did suffer under this delusion did not survive for long, and recent cases are generally just that, recent. That said, delusions are not always a permanent state, nor are they always fully ingrained. There is a chance that the mind can work itself out of the delusion or will adapt to keep the person operational, if they survive long enough. In addition the nature of many of the Zs is to consume, and for many quisilings it is the same, but unlike proper Zs, quisilings can derive nutrition from what they consume, possibly lengthening their life.

Finally, the wilderness in many parts of the world is still a sustainable place to live in small numbers, especially if the temperature is not too fierce in winter or summer. It's by no means safe but with the right knowledge and a bit of luck, people can survive for a long period.