The Best ‘What Ifs’ Of The Walking Dead, Part Three

What If Rick Woke Up One Day Later?

It’s something so simple, yet, could have possibly changed The Walking Dead as we know it into something entirely different. A simple twenty-four hours difference in Rick waking up could have taken him on a much different and more arduous path.

Imagine for a minute that Rick wakes up from his coma one day later than he actually did. In fact, let’s be generous, and say that everything up his arrival at Atlanta happens the same, just one day later. That means Rick’s departure from the hospital, arriving home, meeting Morgan, getting the guns, finding the horse, all of it happens one day later.

It’s once he arrives in Atlanta, though, that’s when everything changes.

You see, if Rick gets to Atlanta a day later, the helicopter won’t be there for him to see and chase after.

This means there’s a very good chance Rick avoids the herd. Sure, he might still come across it, but, not being preoccupied with chasing a helicopter means he’ll be better prepared to turn back and get out of dodge.

Furthermore, without Rick being more immediate, the herd he would have run into may not even be there, as they may have heard the same helicopter and gone chasing it the day before!

Now, not losing his horse and being forced into the tank by the herd, it’s up in the air where Rick may go searching for Lori and Carl. He could have run into the Vatos, Hell, he may have ended up at Grady Memorial Hospital!

It’s equally difficult to gauge how those encounters would have gone. Guillermo may have been reasonable with Rick, hoping to appeal to his better nature in the hope of getting some of Rick’s arsenal.

A potential visit to Grady…may not have gone so well. Chances are, the lower levels of the hospital would be overrun, Hanson may have already been starting to crack, and Gorman and O’Donnell would still be running amok.

Assuming he was able to avoid the walkers and ensure Hanson he wasn’t dangerous, Rick would find neither Lori nor Carl were there, and be forced to keep searching.

“But, where’s The Group in all of this?”

Well, with the helicopter not being there for Rick to chase, or the walkers to be chased by, chances are, Rick wouldn’t have met Glenn the way he did. In fact, there’s a good chance that, if the herd followed the helicopter, Glenn and company might have just gotten back from their supply run relatively quickly!

If that’s the case, which I’m assuming, none of them are there to meet Rick in Atlanta. Not only that, but, with the herd having followed the helicopter, and Glenn not having stolen the challenger (With its alarm), the herd doesn’t descend on the camp!

If you’re thinking this sounds pretty good, think again. Remember what Merle reminded Daryl of in their brief sojourn in “Home”: That he and Daryl planned to loot the camp that first night Rick was with them.

Without Rick to handcuff Merle, and with no walkers trapping him at the department store, Merle and Daryl are able to execute that plan. What they would have taken we can only guess at, but, I’m inclined to think this would have convinced Shane that The Group was inherently vulnerable and needed to move on to Fort Benning.

Of course, that would have been no cakewalk, either. The Group would have inevitably run into the traffic jam and been bogged down trying to move it. They may have run into the highway walkers, but, with them not going to the CDC, they could have gotten through before they arrived.

Now, assuming they can push through without incident, The Group will end up finding Fort Benning abandoned, if not in outright ruins.

This may push Shane over the edge, as he will be frazzled by discovering that not only is the government not coming to help, but, that his idea for a safe haven is lost.

Expect this to be the point where Shane pummels Ed, who may either get on Shane’s case for his Quixotic quest or even feel bold enough to make a bid for power. If Shane were to have his own “This isn’t a democracy anymore!” moment at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.

What Happens Now?

This is where things start to get blurry. Rick would not give up on finding Lori and Carl, but, unless he happened to stumble on the camp, Morales, or Daryl and Merle, he probably wouldn’t have an idea where to search.

Assuming he did, I don’t think Rick’s journey would be an easy one. He’d likely have to deal with a lot of walkers, and maybe even some of the hostiles The Group actually encountered, perhaps even ones we’ve never seen…

As for The Group, if they were lucky, Shane would either lead them to successfully overtake Fort Benning from the dead, overtake it from hostiles, or make friends with whomever might have been left there and make it their home.

However, even with that, knowing that there was no hope of rescue, that supplies would eventually start dwindling, that hostiles would want to take the fort from The Group, and the inevitable discovery that death, regardless, turns you into a walker, there would be a very good chance that Shane would snap.

While I doubt he’d lash out at Lori or Carl, I would not be surprised at all if Shane would start taking to harshly dealing with anyone who crossed him. I believe that murderous streak we saw in Shane would manifest itself against Ed. I believe Ed would either mouth off to Shane too much or get too rough with Carol and Sophia and find himself “disappearing”.

In this scenario, you could start to see Shane’s world slowly begin to unravel. Sooner or later, Glenn, Andrea, T-Dog, or most likely, Dale would find whatever story Shane gave of Ed’s death suspicious.

While Carol might not have been especially broken up about it, Dale or whoever, would start worrying that Shane was losing his grip.

Somewhere within this extended period, we could see Rick find his way to Fort Benning if either he found some clue, or figured it was the most likely place Shane would take Lori and Carl.

Assuming Rick did, we could expect his and Shane’s collision course to take place as it did in Season Two. Of course, with the bleakness of the situation frazzling Shane even before Rick got there, one might expect the disintegration of their friendship to be accelerated.

Shane would quickly watch The Group, and especially Lori, welcome Rick with open arms, while, at the same time, watching as they grew increasingly more suspicious of him.

Dale would eventually figure out what happened to Ed, and even Carol would start questioning Shane about it.

If Lori became convinced Shane killed Ed, on top of her reaction to learning Shane lied about Rick being dead, things could come to a head quickly. Shane, feeling backed into a corner, could have begun laying out a plan to kill Rick, believing that would solve his problems.

All things being equal, Shane’s plan would like be just as successful in this scenario as it was normally, ending with Rick being forced to kill him.

In the end, if Rick woke up a day later, we could have seen him go through a much more harrowing journey to find Lori and Carl, assuming he ever did. He would likely find nothing at the camp and be forced to have to scramble and search much of Western Georgia in the hopes of finding them. God only knows who or what Rick would encounter along the way…or whether he’d survive.

The Group, meanwhile, would watch Merle and Daryl rob them and disappear. Shane would take them to Fort Benning (And thus, never reach The Farm or The Prison), only to find it not be the sanctuary they hoped. Lastly, with or without Rick, Shane would almost certainly become the same desperate, homicidal maniac he deteriorated into in Season Two, and someone would end up feeling his wrath.

The lives of Rick and The Group would change dramatically, taking them to places and situations we never saw…all because Rick woke up one day later.

Next: A Matter Of Execution