Into The World of "The Walking Dead" Part 1

lets TRY not think about who the actors are, who wrote the episode, what network it is on. Lets just pretend for a moment that the Zombie Apocalypse is very real and out there is a group of people lead by Rick Grimes. I will refer to episode names and insert a few Youtube Videos here and there, but for the most part I want to keep this as real as possible. There will be a lot that is not explained, but as I was watching the series I just took a bunch of notes and now I am trying to put them in order for this Blog Series, however I will skip back and forth in the time line of the TV series

PART I

At the start of the series we find in the episode "Days Gone By" that Rick has problems with his marriage to Lori. Shane Walsh is Ricks best friend and they are both officers for the sheriff. Shane is very interested in how the marriage is holding together. Why is that? Is he truly worried about his best friends marriage? Is he waiting in the wings if things fall apart? He seemed very concerned about his friend Rick that was laying in the hospital from a gun shot wound he got from a stand off gone wrong when Rick and other officers stopped a group of outlaws at a road block .

Shane went to Rick's bed side several times before the start of the Zombie Apocalypse, when it appeared that he could do no more he blocked the door from walkers and soldiers getting into Ricks room and then told Lori and Rick's son Carl that Rick was dead. Could have Shane done more? How much time had passed since the last time Shane was at the hospital and when Rick was reunited with Lori and Carl.

Rick wakes up in a different world. He wakes up thinking no time has passed since Shane's last visit because at the moment he woke up, he made fun of the vase that Shane brought him with flowers from the Sheriffs office staff

Rick wakes up, stumbles through the blood cover hospital halls, Bodies laying everywhere. He comes to the Cafeteria that warns not to open there is dead inside

He keeps walking on, bodies of the dead are everywhere. As I am watching this I am thinking what would I do if this was me? What would be going through my mind. Rick goes home and hits himself and tells himself this is a dream , but he does not wake up, He tries several times to wake himself up, trying to convince himself that the Zombie Apocalypse is a nightmare gone wrong, but he does not wake up and must face the reality of the new world that now surrounds him. After getting cleaned up and dressed, he starts the journey into hell and there is no return trip back to the world he once knew. It starts when he  sees a little girl. He is looking at her feet from underneath a car and notices she bends down to pick up a teddy bear. So this girl must be ok. He then approaches her and speaks to her and she turns around and she is a walker. What kind of horror is going through anyone's mind when you would see a child holding a teddy bear that has become a monster.

 Rick keeps walking, and later finds a crawler with only the upper torso and uses it arms to crawl on the ground like a insect. This walker has a back story before Rick ends its un-dead life it never asked for. This is what she use to be. You can Find other parts of the story on Youtube or the AMC Web site

Before Rick kills the crawler in the park and starts his horse ride to Atlanta, he meets Morgan Jones after getting his head bashed in by Duane Jones who is Morgan's son. Rick wakes up recovering from the blow to the head. He is tied to the bed just to be safe because Morgan does not know who Rick is. Morgan pretty much gives Rick a crash course on how to handle a walker. But Morgan has a debate of the heart that comes up so many times in the story. There is a walker that use to be his wife and mother to his child. He knows what these walkers are but when he gets her in his sites from the upstairs window in his house he can not shoot her.

This is what amazes me with the whole Zombie Apocalypse experience. It is like when we see a loved one in the hospital on deaths door step. Very sick and we want the suffering to end, but when the loved one does die, the overwhelming grief hits us. I think that is the feeling the writers try to explain with Zombie stories. They are sick and not themselves but we still love them. The people around are yelling you need to shoot them in the head, but that person still sees something that that crudely intimates life. Much like the love a mother has for a child or the spouse that loves a abusive mate that suffers from alcoholism. You can't see the monster for love you have for the human it use to be.

Rick leaves behind his hometown on horse back for Atlanta, he is overwhelmed by a massive heard of walkers when he gets there, he escapes to a tank. At that moment he gives up and loses all hope and ask Lori and Carl to forgive him in a prayer and Puts the gun to his head and just as he is ready to pull the trigger, he hears a voice on the radio. He has got a new dose of hope and pulls the gun away from his head.

I can not in my wildest dreams imagine what it would take that would make me want to commit suicide, But it happens over and over again in Zombie stories. it is as if the ZA is the final push over the edge that will make people give up on life. The shock of waking up to a new world is a punch to the gut and your soul. What we have today we may not have it tomorrow, How would we deal with losing our cell phones, internet and TV. No more doughnut shops to go to meet our friends. The game of the week is finding food. The banks are gone, hospitals are closed and our doctors could be dead. Maybe you don't have a gun but the police are gone, your house is on fire but 911 is not working. How can it get any worse? You are about to find out.

TO BE CONTINUED