Summary:
After a long night of driving, Rick arrives in Georgia. He finds a gas station and is not happy that it’s out of gas, just like the rest of the gas stations he’s checked. He keeps driving until he runs out of gas. He continues his journey on foot. He spots a farm nearby and goes to take a closer look. After knocking and getting no response, he enters the house. To his horror, he discovers the entire family dead, having committed suicide. After running out of the house to vomit he spots a barn. There he finds a horse and a hatchet inside and continues traveling to Atlanta on horseback. On the way to Atlanta, he starts rambling to the horse about when Carl was born to make him feel better, but it doesn’t.
Rick finally makes it to Atlanta and finds it’s abandoned. A few zombies spot him and start to follow him, with their numbers growing slowly but surely. As he rides further into Atlanta Rick runs into a street full of zombies. He tries to turn around, but the way he came is blocked by zombies as well. He gets thrown from his horse and most of the zombies attack and devour the horse. But other zombies turn their attention to Rick. He uses the hatchet he found at the barn to protect himself, but is soon surrounded and begins to use his gun. He runs into an alley when suddenly, a young man named Glenn grabs Rick and tells him to follow him and to stop shooting. Glenn grabs the ladder to the fire escape and tells Rick to hurry up and follow him. Rick says he’s never seen so many zombies, but Glenn tells him that’s nothing and if he’d gone even 50 feet more into the city, he wouldn’t have survived. They climb to a rooftop and Glenn proceeds to jump to the roof of the other building. Rick hesitates, but jumps when he realizes he has no choice. From that point they make it down the building and make a run for the woods that are about a block away. Glenn says that the zombies are slow and that it is relatively easy to get around them. He also warns Rick that if you get bit by a walker it will kill you.
The two finally make it to the edge of town near a wooded area. Glenn is surprised Rick is so inexperienced, but Rick tells him that he was in a coma. Rick asks Glenn what happened to the people in Atlanta, and Glenn informs him the zombies were those people. Glenn tells him that the government tried to herd everyone into the cities, but people started dying and turning into walkers. In the space of a week everyone in Atlanta had died. Rick falls to the ground as he fears that his wife and son are now dead. Glenn consoles Rick and tells him that he is with a small camp of people and brings him along. Glenn tells him the camp is mostly made up of latecomers who tried to get into Atlanta, but couldn’t, so they set up camp in the woods. Rick asks if that’s safe, but Glenn assures him they have cars for shelter and take turns keeping watch. He adds that they’re camping close to the city as they figured it’d be easier for the government to find them when they stopped the outbreak.
Just as Rick gets to the camp, he sees his wife, Lori, and his son, Carl. All three embrace, happily reunited.
Discussion / Thoughts:
It is comforting to know that in The Walking Dead they have as many problems with gasoline as we do. The horse in the barn as transportation is a nice scene setter for what is to come. Because it appears a lot of modern conveniences no longer exist in this world that is now taken over by zombies. The horse was the main form of transportation before cars were invented around 100 years ago. At least it’s just one century’s worth of technology that seems to be lost.
Rick’s arrival at Atlanta. That is shocking. It’s abandoned. Devoid of human life but not zombie life. It’s a mass of zombies and not a safe place for humans. The fact that Glenn said it only took one week for everyone in Atlanta to become a zombie. That’s extremely fast. From all that Glenn tells Rick, he was in a coma for about a month. A month was all it took for the world to be mostly wiped out. Honestly, that speed is scary. Glenn fills him in on more about the zombie takeover. Getting bitten by a zombie will kill you and turn you into a zombie. At least Glenn has said they are slow. So if there aren’t that many you can get away.
The camp in the wooded area of town. I am guessing the woods provide a bit of safety as the walkers probably don’t navigate well. If they walk into something they may not have the ability to turn or go around. Also, shuffling walkers make more noise and the sound would be an early warning sign. A primitive security system. The surprise at the end was a big pick me up and the first real positive thing to happen: Rick’s wife Lori and son Carl are at the camp. There is a reunion.
Categories: Podcasts, Wonder Woman Comic Book Podcast