This was a hectic week in the ZSC Command Center, with a good number of our commanders off in Sacramento, CA for Wizard World Comic Con. Perhaps it was the insanity of our week transferring, but somehow this week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” felt just as discombobulated. Disconnected. Schizophrenic. The scenes jumped around a lot. Possibly to force the show’s pace to pick up again after last week’s slow-down to focus on Daryl and Beth? Whatever the reason, the latest episode fell somewhat flat. The energy was forced, when in reality not much actually happened to progress the plot until the end of the hour. With that in mind, let’s see what some of the characters were up to this week.
You know the drill. There’s spoilers below this text. Read ahead at your own risk.
The episode kicked off with an unexpected flashback showing Bob’s life in the week or so before Glenn and Daryl found him and brought him to the prison. He’d been completely alone, drinking cough syrup because there’s no liquor stores when wandering in the wilderness, and hardly doing anything that’d be considered truly living. There hasn’t been a flashback on the show—a true flashback, unlike Michonne’s weird dreams and hallucinations—in quite some time. Some viewers may have been confused, wondering where Sasha and Maggie were if Bob was alone and looking like he hadn’t shaved or seen bath water in over a month. While the flashback drove home the suck-fest that is surviving alone in the zombie apocalypse, it wasn’t necessary. Bob’s argument with Sasha later, the ragged emotion in his voice when he tells her about how awful the isolation was as he wandered aimlessly without anyone to watch his back so he could get even a couple hours of sleep, told the truth of the loneliness far better than a confusing flashback. Which only added to the disjointed feeling of the episode.
Strangely, instead of touching base with the show’s lead character, Rick, we caught up with Beth and Daryl again. Who we saw for an hour last week. Show runners are really driving that pair home in the minds of fans. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. We get it. There’s something brewing between these two. Short of renting an airplane and writing it in the sky, there’s not much more the writers can do to inform us this unspoken something between Daryl and Beth will be romantic. Though honestly it wasn’t until Daryl, the man who had been a nomad long before stumbling across his first walker, suggested settling down that the idea of a relationship between the two fully clicked. This is an instance where subtly was thrown out the window… which isn’t fair to fans. Watching something brew between two characters organically, like what happened with Glenn and Maggie, is part of the thrill. Daryl and Beth feels like fan service. Would it happen eventually without them forcing it? Probably.
As far as the characters know, they’re the only survivors from the prison. Everyone they knew is gone and for the most part, whenever they encounter new survivors, the newbies try to kill them. Take Beth’s random abduction, for example. Who has gas left over a year into the apocalypse? Even the group at the prison had to start rationing gas. Michonne took to riding a horse or walking on her numerous trips out to track the governor.
But they’ve introduced yet another group of survivors, led by a guy named Joe.
Right off the bat, it’s obvious they won’t take any guff from Daryl. But are they friend or foe? So far, they’ve only threatened violence if Daryl does something rash and stupid. Will they help him find Beth? Who knows? Joe and gang weren’t on screen long enough to do more than tease their existence.
When will we catch up with the other survivors? What do you think is happening with Glenn, Rick, Michonne, Carol, and the others? Let us know in the comments below.
The second half of Walking Dead’s forth season should, by all rights, be slow-paced. Right? There’s no way with the huge cast cut down to manageable chunks to manage huge, tension-filled scenes chalk full of blood, guts, and grief.
Wrong.
So far the second half of the season moves smoothly, with a few hiccups mostly to cut out unneeded moments best covered in dialog later. This episode focused on the new folks—Sgt. Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa, and Eugene Porter—along with Tara and Glenn, and Rick, Carl, and Michonne’s plan to get their bearings before moving on from their little slice of normality.
Last week, we were introduced to Sgt. Abraham Ford and his companions, but didn’t get much further than, “Hey, who the heck are these people?” In episode 411, there’s a lot more time spent with Ford, in particular. Right out of the gate, it’s disturbing how much he enjoys a fight. Tara called him on it when she noticed his smile during a walker (biter) attack. Ford is a formidable fighter—mean and silent until he’s sure he’s got the upper hand. He wastes little energy on showmanship. And boy does he enjoy T.C.o.B. – Taking Care of Business when it comes to the walkers. What drives him? A personal vendetta against the undead? Or is he more like Lizzie, someone who kills because they enjoy it? Unlike the show’s pint-sized sociopath, Ford at least appears to care what happens to the people he’s taken under his wing. Not to mention, being totally gung-ho to deliver Eugene to whatever semblance of government survived this far past the original walker swarm. Yet Ford somehow fails to acknowledge Rosita’s emotional attachment. He’s isolated himself, drew everything in until he’s a laser, focused on the mission at hand.
For his part, Eugene doesn’t seem as concerned with reaching Washington as Ford. He’s smart. Smart enough to know they can’t travel alone and hope to survive. Does he really have the answers Rick and his crew struggled to find back in season one when their last-ditch effort landed them at the doors of the CDC? This far in, there’s no way to know what’s going on in Eugene’s head. Or on his head. What is up with the mullet? It makes me not want to trust this guy at all.
Glenn doesn’t seem to trust them, either. He’s still weak from the flu, liable to pass out again at any moment. But when it comes to finding Maggie, he’ll walk straight into Mordor and knock on Sauron’s front door. Which he very well could be doing. There are no guarantees he’ll find his wife again. The hope instilled in Glenn from his time with Hershel shines through like the sun through storm clouds. How far can he walk fueled by hope alone? Three hours by truck is a far way to backtrack on foot. By then, Maggie could be anywhere. She’s not going to sit idle, hoping he’ll come across the bus. Glenn is ruled by his emotions, blindly walking toward whatever future rises over the horizon. The only way they’re going to have hope of finding each other is if one stops and makes a plan. Obviously, Glenn isn’t the one thinking about tomorrow. Only today.
Better to live in the moment instead of haunted by the past. Michonne’s existence since the day she was introduced on the show has been dogged by what happened to her at the onset of the undead outbreak. Never once has she opened up about how she became the hardened fighter she is now. Not even to Andrea, with whom she spent months traveling and killing to survive. “I’m done taking breaks,” she told Rick. Michonne is finally ready to stop running from her past and embrace the future. A future she sees alongside Carl and Rick, apparently. For the first time ever, she reached out to someone else and vocalized her internal pain. Carl, for all his bravado, is actually a good shoulder to lean on. He’s eager to learn anything about his friend, to the point of badgering her. But he also knows she needs to do this. She needs to touch someone on an emotional level in order to ground herself against the tidal waves of pain the past sends her way. While in the process of bleeding the rot from her soul, Michonne doesn’t forget who she’s dealing with. She turns her soul cleansing into a game for Carl. In return for her mental growth, he learned how to better forage for essential supplies. Seems like a fair deal.
Unfortunately Rick doesn’t get a chance to witness the bonding between Michonne and Carl. He’s supposed to rest and heal after his beating from the Governor. Instead, he’s forced into flight-or-fight mode by a group of piggish intruders. These guys are bad news and we never really see them. The camera work during the moments when Rick dodges from room to room trying to avoid detection is well done, but slightly disorienting which detracts from the tension. Still, a very well done moment. It proved Rick isn’t ready to be put down like an old dog. He’s still in the fight, limping but committed to making it to tomorrow.
Several of the smaller survivor groups are headed in the same direction now. Dare we hope the crew will be whole once again? True fans of the show know better. Hope was decapitated long ago.
Why do you think Michonne lied to Carl about what she found in the pink room? Let us know in the comments below.
These Walking Dead mid-season breaks seem to take longer and longer to pass. But here we are, back in the saddle . . . or rather, clinging to the couch cushions alongside 15.8 million viewers and partaking in the intimate, tense mid-season premiere.
Spoiler Warning! There, you’ve been warned. Proceed at your own risk.
Like the first half of season four, the second half is taking a step back from the grand full-cast episodes to focus on a handful of characters, delve deeper into what keeps them moving despite the fact that they’re at rock bottom. Starting from scratch after the prison battle won’t be easy, especially for those who relied on the council and Rick to keep them safe. This episode focused on Rick, Carl, and Michonne.
For the first time since her introduction at the end of season two, Michonne gets a little depth of soul. We’ve seen glimpses, primarily with Andrea and again after her friend’s death when Michonne reluctantly held baby Judith. Her dream/nightmare said more in three minutes about the south’s deadliest woman with a sword than a season and a half, filled primarily with her seemingly mindless zombie slaughter. It wasn’t until now that we know for sure she had a child, a lover, a friend she felt comfortable and joked around with. Most importantly, Michonne knew how to smile. How to love. A facet of the woman we’ve yet to see clearly. Even when she came around with gifts for Carl, they were found on hunts for the Governor. When she stayed with Andrea to keep the seriously ill woman safe before they went to Woodbury the first time, it was part kindness, part selfishness—she didn’t want to be alone any more.
Michonne came close to losing herself. And why not? She’d watched the people she came to trust and care for under attack from artillery and walkers. Some of those people died. Some survived. But she has no way to know who walked away from the mass grave that was once their home. Andrea left her. Michonne put a sword through Hershel’s decapitated head. Every single person she opened up to deserted her. Even though they didn’t do it by choice, after so much loss a person begins to wonder if there is something inherently wrong with them, they’re the catalyst to their own pain. Somehow pushing their loved ones away to deaden themselves to the horrors around them. Michonne is a pro at this. Until now. She fell into her old routine. Made a new pair of walker friends to lead her safely through a herd of undead. All it took was a glimmer of hope, a muddy boot print, to shake her mind loose of the numb blanket she’d wrapped it in after saying her final goodbye to Hershel. Her moment of clarity didn’t come with a light bulb. It came in a blood bath where she slaughtered twenty-three walkers to keep herself from physically joining them. She’d already joined them mentally.
On the flip side, Carl left the prison slaughter ready to live, to kill anything and everyone posing a threat to him. And his father. Not that he’d admit it. Carl’s sullen teenager act hit a high during the episode. He had good reason—his father’s near-death at the hands of the Governor, friends scattered to the winds, Judith most likely a walker hors d’œuvre, and the loss of the only home he’d known since the day Shane and Lori dragged him out of his childhood home in King County, Georgia. Necessity put Carl in the role of protector, provider. Using the skills he gleaned from Shane and Daryl, he embraced the sociopathy his idols exhibited to secure not only a house, but an entire neighborhood. Throwing it in his father’s face, using Shane to yet again grind in the salt Rick’s deceased best friend poured in his emotional wounds, wasn’t exactly Carl’s shining moment. Everyone has a breaking point. Michonne’s came when she saw herself as a walker. Carl’s came when he thought he’d be forced to live alone. Watching Chandler grow into the large shoes Carl will wear on the show often leaves fans stunned. He digs into a pit of emotion most kids his age can’t access and leaves it all there for us on the screen. Major kudos to Chandler on his work in this episode. It is above and beyond his best, with better things to come, for sure.
We didn’t see much from Rick in the episode. His injuries were too bad. He needed time to recover and fell into something mirroring the coma he’d been in when the series began. Which is fine. Rick has been the show’s punching bag from the get-go. He physically could not be the top dog this time around. Couldn’t even bring down a walker when armed with an ax. Falling short in sight of his impressionable and rebellious son ate at Rick. What could he do? Nothing. For once, the right thing for Rick involved a couch and an extremely long nap. Arguing with Carl would’ve been a waste of words. The kid was in his own zone—a stubborn refusal to listen he ironically inherited from his father.
Next week, it looks like we’ll catch up with Beth, Daryl, Glenn, and Maggie. Get used to the small cast episodes. Robert Kirkman has said they’re playing with the show’s format, keeping the focus on a few characters at a time so fans aren’t cheated out of what makes them tick.
Who else do you think survived the prison attack that we haven’t seen yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Wow, three years down the road and we’re still continuously surprised by the amount of love and support we receive from you, loyal brigadiers. As thanks, we’re taking a cue from the way hobbits handle their birthdays—giving their party guests presents—with a giveaway and a contest. What are the prizes? Oh, just a couple things we’ve had tucked away in our prize closet. The prize closet we forgot about until it came time to inventory our supplies for winter. Whoops? Time flies when we’re training future survivors.
The Giveaway:
To make this part nice and easy for everyone, we’re giving you guys ten days to enter using the form below. Just follow the directions. The prize? An autographed photo from one of your ZSC commanders—Addy Miller, Vincent M. Ward, Lew Temple, or Michael Rooker.
The Contest:
It’s no secret, your ZSC commanders like sweets. Namely, birthday cake. Grab your frosting bags, folks. We’re looking for the most creative ZSC birthday cake (or cupcake). Snap a picture of your sweet creations and email them to command (at) zombiesurvivalcrew (dot) com by 11:59 PM PST on December 29th 2013. Please use the subject line.
ZSC Birthday Cake for your entries.
The most creative cake entry will win a ZSC t-shirt signed by ten cast members from “The Walking Dead,” including: Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Addy Miller, Anthony Guajardo, Jon Bernthal, and more!
The giveaway and contest are open internationally. Please, no pictures of profanity or nudity included with the Birthday Cake entries. By submitting your picture into the Birthday Cake giveaway, you give the ZSC permission to use the image, with your name attached, on our website for purposes of announcing the prize winner. Winners will be notified via email.
Goodness, the mid-season finale for “The Walking Dead” proved to be a difficult episode to watch. No surprise in the nail-biting, worrying, and yelling at the TV—TWD always provides plenty of that for its finales. The surprises came in the bloodshed witnessed by 12.1 million viewers Sunday night. Some of it may have been expected, the writers are known for dropping clues throughout the season before a major event. The rest left fans wailing and venting their frustrations on Twitter and Facebook. We can totally see the fan angst delighting the show’s writers and producers. After all, they live to make viewers suffer—as Robert Kirkman disclosed on “Talking Dead” after the mid-season finale—by making each major loss on the show unbelievably graphic, fitting the amount of violence to a character’s importance in the show. Talk about a harsh way to show you love someone.
Warning: There’s spoilers a plenty below. Do not venture further until you’ve watched the mid-season finale.
It is no secret that Phillip—a.k.a. The Governor, a.k.a. Brian—is a master manipulator. In the scene before the main credits, he manages to simultaneously scare the pee out of the people in his new camp and turn them into a ragtag militia team willing to do whatever necessary in order to take over the prison. When he arrived, when the camp was still working under Martinez, the group were timid, barely keeping one step ahead of the walkers. It took Phillip no time at all to corrupt them. He knew exactly what to say, what buttons to push and lies to feed them. Well, the lies weren’t so much lies as exaggerations of the truth. Yes, Rick’s people murder and steal, but only when backed into a corner and forced to. Yes, Michonne mutilated Phillip and killed Penny, his daughter . . . in self-defense. He uses the truth to frighten his new army. Only Lilly sees through the manipulation. She calls Phillip out, asking if he’s one of the bad people he’s rallying the others to kill. Unfortunately, Lilly doesn’t have the backbone to stop him, to stop any of them before they charge into the prison with Hershel and Michonne as prisoners. If she did, the episode would’ve had a much kinder ending.
Hershel always finds a way to make peace. It’s the way he’s lived since day one on the show, back when he couldn’t bring himself to kill the walkers because he saw them as sick humans who just need to stick it out until someone finds a miracle cure. Hershel’s faith taught him to find the kinder, gentler path. He’s no push-over, stand up for what he thinks is right no matter what. But Hershel is a man of words, not action. He tries so hard to talk sense into Rick throughout his time with the group, and uses the same tactics with Phillip when taken prisoner.
“You say you want to take this prison as peacefully as possible, that means you’d be willing to hurt people to get it. My daughters would be there. That’s who you’d be hurtin’. If you understand what it’s like to have a daughter, then how can you threaten to kill someone else’s?”
“Because they aren’t mine.”
Phillip makes it clear that Hershel’s attempt to find the humanity buried deep in his mind won’t work. He killed that portion of himself and buried it alongside Penny after the Woodbury attack. It gives Hershel nothing to work with. He’s left to rely on the good he’s found in Rick since the first prison attack to safe his bacon. It doesn’t work.
The prison attack echoes the first attempt made by the Governor to capture the coveted safe haven, with one large exception: this time Phillip rolls in with a tank. He also has a serious advantage in the number of soldiers at his disposal. After the walker attack inside cellblock D and the flu which wiped out a good number of the prison population, there’s a handful of people able to fire a gun without falling over from the recoil. Glenn and Sasha are barely mobile, therefore virtually useless in a fight. It came down to the council, plus a couple spare people, in order to hold the line against a tank and well-armed, motivated insurgents. The prison group was doomed from the start. And further doomed by the emotional blow dealt by Phillip moments before he called on his army to charge the fences.
Hershel’s death is a brilliant tactic for Phillip’s campaign. He knew Hershel was the steel rod holding the prison group upright. All it took was one conversation with the man to figure it out. Rick’s eagerness to agree with Hershel during the ultimately ill-fated parlay before the shooting begins sealed the deal. Take out the peacemaker and the morale of the group falls to ruin. Phillip makes no effort to hide his true self in that moment. He has no more time for games to manipulate his people into action. The price of his ego is the death of a beloved character. We’ll truly miss Scott Wilson’s portrayal of Hershel Greene. He went out in style, with a smile on his face.
Too bad for Phillip, Hershel’s death didn’t automatically translate to Phillip’s victory.
The Governor’s demise was written perfectly. He didn’t go down easily. It took three people, three of the people hurt the most by his actions throughout his time on the show, to bring about his final death. Rick laid into him in the fist fight fans have been waiting for since the original prison attack against the Woodbury militia. There was ample amounts of cheering in the ZSC command center when the first punches were thrown. Rick nearly didn’t survive the encounter. In the end, Michonne dealt the blow to seal Phillip’s fate. Her sword—the same sword used to decapitate Hershel—cut through Phillip’s chest like butter and saves Rick’s bacon. But Lilly is the one to make sure Phillip didn’t come back as a walker to further destroy lives. As is fitting since his behavior cost her the focus she needed to keep her daughter, Meghan, alive. Phillip was never going to die at the hands of just one person. The horrors he wrought on the prison population needed to be avenged somehow. An eye for an eye, so to speak. As much as we loathed Phillip as a character, we’ll miss the brilliance of David Morrissey’s performance. He brought a depth to the character few actors could’ve achieved. There’s a fine line to walk with a character as reprehensible as The Governor. It’s far too easy to make him a mustache-twirling bad guy. Morrissey didn’t. He made Phillip into a character with so many layers, sometimes it was hard to hate the guy. It takes talent to make fans feel sympathy for the villain.
We lost two main characters in the season four mid-season finale, with the fates of many others hanging in the balance. The prison population is scattered to the winds, with little to no supplies, without shelter. They’ve lost their home, their loved ones, and the support of the community they’d built inside the prison. How long can any of them hope to survive? We’ll find out on Sunday, February 9th, 2014 at 9:00 PM.
Have some theories about what lies ahead for the survivors of the prison attack? Let us hear them in the comments below.
In our new ongoing assignment, the Orange Brigade took on the job of scouting possible food sources during the zombiepocalypse within each of the zones laid out for our Tasty Survival series. One thing we’re all guilty of is not looking in our own backyards for ways to survive. Check for local farms you can hit on your escape routes to add to the canned/dried goods that should already be in your go bags. Grab fresh produce while you can. It will not last long once there is no one to tend to the crops. Kill only what livestock you need to feed your party. Don’t waste food others could use.
This is what we discovered for the Purple zone in western United States.
Alaska: A scant 1% of Alaska is used for farming.
Just over half of farms in the state, 54%, house livestock. The main focus is on processing dairy products, followed by cattle and hogs.
The remaining 46% of farms in Alaska grow hay, potatoes, barley, and oats.
The harsh climate makes surviving in Alaska a crapshoot to begin with.
After looking at these numbers, we advise brigadiers to stock up well on canned/dried goods before planning their escape routes.
California: Though top-ranking in crop production, only 27% of California is dedicated to farming.
27% of state farms house livestock. The primary focus is on dairy products, then cattle and eggs.
The majority of farms in California produce a wide range of crops—grapes, almonds, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes…the list goes on and on.
California ranks #1 in production within the United States for the following products: Almonds, avocados, broccoli, celery, dairy products, grapes, greenhouse plants, hay, lemons, lettuce, onions, peaches, pistachio nuts, plums, strawberries, tomatoes, and walnuts.
If you’re in California, stay there. Set your sights on Central California, where the majority of produce and cattle farms, and chicken farms are located. There’s more than enough variety in food to keep survivors healthy for a long time.
Oregon: Approximately 28% of Oregon is dedicated to farmland.
28% of farms in the state produce livestock—cattle, dairy products, chicken eggs, and chicken.
The remaining 72% primarily grow greenhouse plants, hay, ryegrass, and wheat. However if you know where to look, you may also find onions, potatoes, pears, cherries, blackberries, and grapes.
Oregon ranks #1 in production within the United States for the following: hazelnuts, ryegrass, blackberries, and fescue.
This is another well-rounded state as far as variety of products goes. Plot your escape routes to hit as many farms as possible to stock up.
Washington: 36% of Washington is utilized for farming.
Only 30% of farms in the state house livestock, focusing on processing dairy products, followed by cattle, and aquaculture.
70% of Washington farms produce crops like apples, wheat, potatoes, hay, cherries, and grapes. Washington ranks #1 in production within the United States for the following: apples, asparagus, cherries, hops, Kentucky bluegrass, mint, and pears.
There is plenty of variety in products available in Washington, which is a good thing. Folks from nearby states may need to find their way to Washington in order to find enough food to get by.
Idaho: Only 22% of land in Idaho is used as farmland.
58% of farms in the state house livestock, focusing on processing dairy products, cattle, aquaculture, and sheep.
The remaining farms, 42%, grow crops such as potatoes, wheat, hay, sugar beets, and barley. You can also find onions, dry beans, apples, and sweet corn grown in the state.
Idaho ranks #1 in potato production. They also are the largest producer of rainbow trout—grab your fishing poles, guys.
Montana: Over half of the state, 65%, is dedicated to farming.
57% of farms in the state house livestock, with the vast majority focusing on cattle, followed by dairy products, hogs, and sheep.
43% of Montana farms produce crops like wheat, barley, hay, and sugar beets. If you know where to look, you may also find potatoes, cherries, dried beans, and oats at farms throughout the state.
North Dakota: The majority of North Dakota, approximately 89%, is used for farming.
Only 23% of farms in the state house livestock—primarily cattle, dairy products, and hogs.
77% of North Dakota farms are dedicated to growing crops like wheat, soybeans, grain corn, sugar beets, barley. With some searching you can also find farms growing potatoes. North Dakota ranks #1 in production within the United States for the following: flax seed, canola, dried peas, barley, dried beans, lentils, and oats.
Though boasting a vast amount of farmland, most of the products available in North Dakota require extra processing to be edible, which won’t help any of us on the run. Grab what you can, but plan to escape to a resource-rich state.
There you have it, the products available from the Purple Zone. The West Coast is full-to-bursting with produce. California alone could feed the entire Zombie Survival Crew for quite some time. Keep these states in mind when plotting your escape routes.
In our new ongoing assignment, the Orange Brigade took on the job of scouting possible food sources during the zombiepocalypse within each of the zones laid out for our Tasty Survival series. One thing we’re all guilty of is not looking in our own backyards for ways to survive. Check for local farms you can hit on your escape routes to add to the canned/dried goods that should already be in your go bags. Grab fresh produce while you can. It will not last long once there is no one to tend to the crops. Kill only what livestock you need to feed your party. Don’t waste food others could use.
This is what we discovered for the Green zone in the south-eastern United States.
Kentucky:
Just over half of the land in the state, 54%, is dedicated to farming.
66% of farms in Kentucky are used for livestock. Unfortunately, the majority of them raise horses and mules. The second largest product is chicken, followed by cattle.
The remaining 34% of farms in the state grow crops. Again, the top producer, tobacco, doesn’t do us much good. Instead look for the few farms growing apples, peaches, and mushrooms.
Kentucky ranks #1 in horse and mule production. While good for transporting things, they don’t make good eats.
Tennessee:
Approximately 44% of land in Tennessee is utilized for farming.
51% of farms in the state raise livestock—primarily cattle, chicken, and hogs. There is also a decent amount of dairy products processed in the state.
49% of Tennessee farms grow crops ranging from soybeans and cotton to tomatoes, apples, snap beans, and squash.
Mississippi:
Only 37% of land in Mississippi is dedicated to farmland.
Approximately 66% of the farms in the state house livestock, with a huge focus on chicken. They also produce catfish, bass, and cattle.
The remaining 34% of farms grow crops, with a focus on cotton, soybeans, and grain corn. However, if you look for it, you can find rice, sweet potatoes, and watermelon.
Mississippi ranks #1 in aquaculture production—mostly in farm-raised catfish and hybrid breeds of striped bass. Fish are great for survival and very forgiving of cooking over open flame with the right techniques.
Alabama:
Just over a quarter of the state, 27%, is utilized as farmland.
A whopping 82% of farms in Alabama raise livestock, with the majority product being chicken, followed by cattle and chicken eggs.
Only 18% of farms grow crops—primarily cotton, peanuts, grain corn, and soybeans. Some farms can be found growing tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, and cucumbers.
Despite the majority product in the state being chicken, there is enough variety in produce to sustain survivors for quite some time. If you’re in the area, put Alabama in your sights on your escape routes.
Georgia:
Approximately 29% of Georgia is used as farmland.
67% of the farms in the state are dedicated to raising livestock, focusing on chicken, cattle, and chicken eggs.
The remaining 33% of farms in Georgia produce crops ranging from cotton and tobacco to peanuts, onions, sweet corn, and tomatoes.
Georgia is a well-rounded produce state, growing enough to satisfy the demands of a larger number of survivors if they stick to farmland. Do not get stuck in large cities.
Florida:
30% of the land in Florida is utilized as farmland.
Only 22% of farms in the state produce livestock, with the top products being cattle, dairy products, and chicken.
The majority of farms, 78%, grow crops—with oranges and sugarcane topping the list for edible produce. You can also find tomatoes, grapefruit, strawberries, and sweet corn grown in the state. Florida ranks #1 in the United States producing the following: Sugarcane, grapefruit, oranges, squash, tangerines, and watermelon.
It is a good thing Florida is so resource-rich and diversified. Hanging out as it does at the butt-end of the U.S., travel out of state will bottleneck. Hang tight, find a few farms to gather supplies from, and everything should be okay.
There you have it, the resources available thanks to farmers within the Green Zone in the south-eastern United States. There’s plenty to choose from, if you know where to look. Start plotting your escape routes now.
Successful novelist and mom by day; bada** zombie-killing machine by night—when it comes to the Infected, Serena Rouge knows what it takes to make the killing blow. When the FBI forces her into a Special Ops, Serena’s all well and fine with the mission . . . until her targets kidnap her children. Then, all bets are off and she’s looking to kill.
“I’ve trained for years to learn how to take down the zombies–and avoid them the rest of the time. Now the FBI wants a writer to go undercover and get information? My gut says something isn’t right, and the rest of me will pay for not listening to that instinct.”
—Serena Rouge
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Getting kidnapped by the FBI is pretty low on my list of things I want to do. It’s right up there with meeting terrorist groups and writing their side of the story. Why a successful novelist like me? Turns out I’m a scapegoat for someone with some serious health issues—they’ve contracted the zombie virus.
I’m a zombie killer, killing them as quickly as I can. But I’m only one woman. You’d think being an Immune was great, but no. Ever since the government purposely tried to infect me with the zombie virus, they watch me closely to see if I turn. Not happening.
The FBI wants me to accomplish something big two thousand miles from home. When I arrive in El Paso, Texas after my strenuous drive from Washington, my contact agent, Joseph Connelly, isn’t available. Being tortured by a zombie for two days is an excuse I can accept after saving his ass. These aren’t your Hollywood zombies; not right away. They never get sick, their IQ triples, and their sex appeal? Off the charts. Until they die and resurrect as true horror flick zombies, with brains. Trouble is, some of them have developed a taste for meat—human meat—before they die.
Problem with governments screwing around with our DNA is things never go as planned. When terrorists kidnap my kids, all bets are off, and Agent Connelly agrees. If we don’t save my kids and steal the antivirus without getting killed, the whole world is going to have a really bad day.
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Mayhem in Mexico will be available on Amazon, All Romance eBooks, iBookstore, and Nook on Halloween for $4.99. Click HERE for more details.
*Warning: strong language and graphic violence
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Leona Bushman goes by many names, but the most common one is Superhero. She earned this name from saving a kangaroo from a tree—and yes, that is as hard as it sounds. The dragons taught their queen how to write, and Queen Leona hasn’t looked back. Even when her muse tries to muck things up.
She can be found goofing off and loving dragons and other creatures of the supernatural at the following sites:
Being alone is rarely a pleasant thing. Humans crave contact with others, need the interaction to keep themselves happy and mentally healthy. Finding companionship in the zombie apocalypse is next to impossible. From what we’ve learned on the show since day one, human nature demands that most folks take care of numero uno first, then their family. If you’re a stranger, kindness has to be earned. Even after making that vital, living connection, there are moments when a person may find themselves surrounded by others, yet utterly isolated by circumstances no one else can understand. This week on “The Walking Dead” we saw a lot of people suffering on their own, forced to make terrifying personal sacrifices in order to keep one step ahead of not only the walkers, but also the illness plaguing the prison population.
Spoiler Warning: This review contains potential spoilers. If you aren’t caught up with the show, what are you waiting for?
The graveyard in the prison yard is larger than the garden. That alone speaks volumes about the harshness of life for the characters on the show. By the time this illness plays out, many others will join the dead already in the ground. At some point, they’ve stopped creating new life and instead focus on tending to those who’ve passed. Rick tried to convey the importance of focusing on the living to Tyrese, explaining how his time was better spent securing their future food sources than looking into the past and crippling himself with their losses—a rare moment for Rick considering how far afield his mind wandered last season after losing his wife, Lori. Is justice something that even factors into their world? How far can it go toward righting wrongs in a lawless world full on unnecessary death? Tyrese is uneasy killing walkers, even those who are an immediate threat to his survival, yet he demands the head of whoever killed two of their own. We’re seeing a turning point in his life. He’s consumed by rage, becoming a different man. Rick is still on that road and no longer recognizes himself, especially after his fight with Tyrese. What will Tyrese do when he learns the truth? Venturing too far down that road leads to trouble.
Glenn wishes he could move on into the future. He’s never been one to linger in the past, with the exception of Maggie’s abuse at the hands of the Governor. The couple have been the poster children for a promising future since they finally got over that awkward relationship stage in season two. Despite all odds, they found love. They’re planning to marry. At some point, Maggie wants to start a family—when Glenn feels it is safe enough to birth and raise children. Everything they do is focused on tomorrow, what it could bring in the way of happiness and an end to their troubled times. The two of them aren’t stupid. Nothing is going to be fixed overnight. And now, the bright lives ahead of them are in trouble. Glenn is sick and without him to keep her grounded, Maggie turns to her family. Only they’ve been separated from her because of the illness.
The Greene family firmly believe in duty above all. If there is any way they can be of help to their fellow survivors, they do it. Maggie remains on duty as a council member and one of the guards while everyone she cares for is taken away from her. Beth has grown in leaps and bounds emotionally since leaving the farm and accepting the reality of their world. She doesn’t behave like a teenager, takes responsibilities no one should ever ask from someone her age. Would anyone so young willingly be locked away from her loved ones to care for a child who isn’t part of her blood family? Not only that, Beth has learned to accept her father’s calm demeanor. She’s become the voice of reason for the family, allowing Maggie and Hershel to act in instinct—something their positions on the council require. There’s not a lot of time to think when one threat to their survival will eat them alive, and the other takes no prisoners and cannot be stopped in a world where modern healthcare is as rare as a unicorn. Hershel sets the bar for honor and sacrifice for his girls when he willingly walks into the quarantined section of the prison to care for the sick, knowing full well the medicine they need may come in a day, or a week—there are no guarantees in their world.
“We don’t know if we get a tomorrow.” Unlike Glenn and Maggie, Carol is not as convinced they can make everything work in their favor. She’s stood by, quietly caring for everyone under their roof as she’s always done. But there came a point when she knew it wasn’t enough. Being the quiet, motherly figure wouldn’t keep the children from getting sick. Wouldn’t provide the water they need to keep going on into a future she can’t even fathom at this point. Her hand aren’t tied by the position she’s in with the council. At one point or another, they’ve all done horrific things to protect the group. In this episode, we saw just how far Carol would go. Her transformation throughout the series is astounding. We met Carol when she was broken, powerless in the face of her husband’s abuse. After she lost her daughter, her only living relation, she adopted the group as her new family. Some of the impotent rage she suffered then, simmering over the weeks spent searching for Sophia, blew up this week. She went to the dark place and gathered that rage close in order to do what she thought necessary to protect everyone. Only time will tell if it changed her like Rick’s kills changed him, and Tyrese’s rage is beginning to morph him into a colder man.
Too many lives hang in the balance. It is impossible to figure out what will happen next on this show. Daryl, Michonne, Tyrese, and Bob are on foot, surrounded by thousands of walkers. We have no clue how many folks in the prison are sick, or will be sick and waiting for medicine that may never arrive. How long can the remaining council keep them safe and healthy with two of their best fighters in the field?
Did Carol go too far in this week’s episode? Could you have done what she did? If not, what would you have done differently to stay one step ahead of the illness in the prison?
In our new ongoing assignment, the Orange Brigade took on the job of scouting possible food sources during the zombiepocalypse within each of the zones laid out for our Tasty Survival series. One thing we’re all guilty of is not looking in our own backyards for ways to survive. Check for local farms you can hit on your escape routes to add to the canned/dried goods that should already be in your go bags. Grab fresh produce while you can. It will not last long once there is no one to tend to the crops. Kill only what livestock you need to feed your party. Don’t waste food others could use.
This is what we discovered for the Light Blue Brigade’s zone in the central United States.
Iowa:
Nearly the entire state is utilized as farmland, totaling approximately 89%.
Half of the farms in Iowa raise livestock, with a focus on hogs, cattle, dairy products, and eggs. The other half of farms in the state produce grain corn, soybeans, hay and greenhouse plants. Now very good for gathering supplies on the run.
Iowa ranks #3 in the country for total agricultural production, though most produce is grown to feed livestock. The state ranks #1 in grain corn and hog production. We suggest grabbing what meat you can safely store and moving on to a state with more variety in produce.
Kansas:
A total of 90% of Kansas is dedicated to farmland.
Approximately 68% of farms in the state house livestock—primarily cattle, hogs, and the production of dairy products.
The remaining 32% of Kansas farms grow crops ranging from wheat, grain corn, and hay, to soybeans, sorghum grain, and cotton. Kansas ranks #1 in sorghum and hay production.
This is another state with crop production focusing mainly on maintaining their livestock. Gather what you can and move on quickly to another state.
Missouri:
68% of the land in Missouri is set aside as farmland.
About 53% of farms in the state raise livestock, housing mainly cattle and hogs, as well as facilities to manufacture dairy products.
The remaining 47% of Missouri farms focus on growing soybeans, grain corn, cotton, wheat, and hay.
In the right season, you may be able to find potatoes, apples, and watermelons. Don’t bank on it, though.
Oklahoma:
Over 77% of Oklahoma is utilized as farmland.
The vast majority of farms in the state, 79%, raise livestock, focusing on cattle, hogs, and chicken.
Only 23% of Oklahoma farms grow crops, mostly wheat, greenhouse plants, cotton and soybeans.
You may be able to find peanuts, watermelon, and peaches—try to plot your escape routes to pass through these farms.
Arkansas:
Less than half of Arkansas is dedicated to farmland, approximately 43%.
63% of the farms in the state raise livestock, with a focus on chicken, cattle, and chicken eggs.
The remaining 37% of Arkansas farms grow mostly rice, soybeans, cotton, grain corn, and wheat. In smaller quantities they grow tomatoes, peaches, and blueberries.
Arkansas ranks #1 in the United States for rice production, and #2 for production of channel catfish and bait fish.
Texas:
Approximately 68% of land in Texas is dedicated to farming.
67% of state farms house livestock, with an obvious focus on cattle. They also produce chicken, eggs, and dairy products.
37% of Texas farms grow crops such as cotton, greenhouse plants, grain corn, hay, and wheat. If lucky, you can find a farm growing onions, potatoes, and cabbage to go with your beef on your quest to survive.
Texas ranks #1 in total livestock production, and #1 in total cattle production in the United States. The state also ranks #1 in cotton and cabbage production.
Louisiana:
Only 28% of the state is used as farmland.
39% of state farms house livestock, including cattle and aquaculture (fish, shellfish, etc.). Some of these farms likewise process dairy products.
61% of Louisiana farms produce crops ranging from Sugar cane, to rice, soybeans, cotton, and grain corn. You may also find sweet potatoes, peaches, and watermelon grown in the state.
There it is, folks. These are the resources available in the Light Blue Zone. A lot of the focus in the area is on livestock. We suggest grabbing what foods you can and make your way south to the more resource-rich states.
The episode kicked off with an unexpected flashback showing Bob’s life in the week or so before Glenn and Daryl found him and brought him to the prison. He’d been completely alone, drinking cough syrup because there’s no liquor stores when wandering in the wilderness, and hardly doing anything that’d be considered truly living. There hasn’t been a flashback on the show—a true flashback, unlike Michonne’s weird dreams and hallucinations—in quite some time. Some viewers may have been confused, wondering where Sasha and Maggie were if Bob was alone and looking like he hadn’t shaved or seen bath water in over a month. While the flashback drove home the suck-fest that is surviving alone in the zombie apocalypse, it wasn’t necessary. Bob’s argument with Sasha later, the ragged emotion in his voice when he tells her about how awful the isolation was as he wandered aimlessly without anyone to watch his back so he could get even a couple hours of sleep, told the truth of the loneliness far better than a confusing flashback. Which only added to the disjointed feeling of the episode.
Strangely, instead of touching base with the show’s lead character, Rick, we caught up with Beth and Daryl again. Who we saw for an hour last week. Show runners are really driving that pair home in the minds of fans. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. We get it. There’s something brewing between these two. Short of renting an airplane and writing it in the sky, there’s not much more the writers can do to inform us this unspoken something between Daryl and Beth will be romantic. Though honestly it wasn’t until Daryl, the man who had been a nomad long before stumbling across his first walker, suggested settling down that the idea of a relationship between the two fully clicked. This is an instance where subtly was thrown out the window… which isn’t fair to fans. Watching something brew between two characters organically, like what happened with Glenn and Maggie, is part of the thrill. Daryl and Beth feels like fan service. Would it happen eventually without them forcing it? Probably.
Wow, three years down the road and we’re still continuously surprised by the amount of love and support we receive from you, loyal brigadiers. As thanks, we’re taking a cue from the way hobbits handle their birthdays—giving their party guests presents—with a giveaway and a contest. What are the prizes? Oh, just a couple things we’ve had tucked away in our prize closet. The prize closet we forgot about until it came time to inventory our supplies for winter. Whoops? Time flies when we’re training future survivors.
Goodness, the mid-season finale for “The Walking Dead” proved to be a difficult episode to watch. No surprise in the nail-biting, worrying, and yelling at the TV—TWD always provides plenty of that for its finales. The surprises came in the bloodshed witnessed by 
Leona Bushman goes by many names, but the most common one is Superhero. She earned this name from saving a kangaroo from a tree—and yes, that is as hard as it sounds. The dragons taught their queen how to write, and Queen Leona hasn’t looked back. Even when her muse tries to muck things up.
Being alone is rarely a pleasant thing. Humans crave contact with others, need the interaction to keep themselves happy and mentally healthy. Finding companionship in the zombie apocalypse is next to impossible. From what we’ve learned on the show since day one, human nature demands that most folks take care of numero uno first, then their family. If you’re a stranger, kindness has to be earned. Even after making that vital, living connection, there are moments when a person may find themselves surrounded by others, yet utterly isolated by circumstances no one else can understand. This week on “The Walking Dead” we saw a lot of people suffering on their own, forced to make terrifying personal sacrifices in order to keep one step ahead of not only the walkers, but also the illness plaguing the prison population.
“We don’t know if we get a tomorrow.” Unlike Glenn and Maggie, Carol is not as convinced they can make everything work in their favor. She’s stood by, quietly caring for everyone under their roof as she’s always done. But there came a point when she knew it wasn’t enough. Being the quiet, motherly figure wouldn’t keep the children from getting sick. Wouldn’t provide the water they need to keep going on into a future she can’t even fathom at this point. Her hand aren’t tied by the position she’s in with the council. At one point or another, they’ve all done horrific things to protect the group. In this episode, we saw just how far Carol would go. Her transformation throughout the series is astounding. We met Carol when she was broken, powerless in the face of her husband’s abuse. After she lost her daughter, her only living relation, she adopted the group as her new family. Some of the impotent rage she suffered then, simmering over the weeks spent searching for Sophia, blew up this week. She went to the dark place and gathered that rage close in order to do what she thought necessary to protect everyone. Only time will tell if it changed her like Rick’s kills changed him, and Tyrese’s rage is beginning to morph him into a colder man.
