How It All Goes Down
- Rick manages to gather himself and pedal home. Or what's left of his home. The fire hydrant is lying in the street. Trash cans are tipped over. Everything's destroyed.
- There's a picture on his wall of Rick, his wife, and his son (75) but nobody's home.
- When Rick leaves, someone whacks him on the head with a shovel. "Clangg!" (83).
- His assailant is a young boy, and his dad yells, "Jesus, s***! Son… what did you do?" (85).
- Father and son drag Rick into the house and put him on the couch.
- Rick wakes up just in time for dinner with a side of "Sorry [my son] hit you in the head with a shovel" (89).
- The man fills Rick in: no one knows what caused the outbreak. The media has been shut down. And it seems that only a blow to head (like with a shovel) will stop them. That explains it.
- People were encouraged to head to the big cities for protection, so Rick thinks his family must have gone to Atlanta.
- They go to the police department to get guns and a car.
- Rick finally learns the man's name: Morgan Jones.
- While Morgan stocks up on guns and ammo, Rick puts on his police uniform (because zombies will respect the badge.)
- To thank Morgan, Rick gives him keys to a police car of his very own. "When things get back to normal, you'll have to give it back" (121) Rick says.
- Is it just us, or does that seem overly optimistic?
- As they're about to leave, a zombie starts clawing away at a nearby chain-link fence.
- Rick readies his gun to shoot it, but Morgan tells him to save his bullet. He might need it for later.
- On the way to Atlanta, Rick stops near that helpless corpse with the bicycle. It's still trying to talk. "Gak" (140) it says. Rick shoots it in the head and wipes a tear from his eye.
- Comic book trope: the tough guy with a heart of gold.
- Right over the Georgia border, Rick's car runs out of gas.
- He finds a farmhouse and goes inside looking for gas.
- The only gas in the house comes from the bloated corpses of the family members inside—mother, father, two kids, all dead from an apparent murder/suicide.
- Rick runs out of the house and barfs.