7 things I want to see from Tales Of The Walking Dead

7) “The Beginning Of The End”

I have in the past and will continue to lament the poor pacing of the first season of Fear The Walking Dead, in fact, of my many grievances with the show, that might be the one that irritates me the most, because it deprived us a real glimpse into the true horror of the zombie apocalypse.

For example: We skipped over nine days of the outbreak. NINE. Within that time, the situation in Los Angeles became so untenable that the government decided the best course of action was to try to incinerate the city. Somehow, that was, apparently, not important enough for us to see…if only you could see my face as I type this. Just thinking about it leaves me dumbfounded and angry.

Anyway, maybe more so than any other story I’ve pitched yet, I sincerely hope that Tales Of The Walking Dead tackle this one.

What story am I talking about, specifically? Well, in the penultimate episode of the first season of Fear, “Cobalt”, Daniel Salazar (Through the use of torture) gets one of the National Guardsmen assigned to watch over Madison’s neighborhood, Andrew Adams, to reveal what the titular “Cobalt” is: The planned firebombing of the city. But, more importantly, Adams revealed why the military decided such extreme measures were necessary. He reveals to Daniel that some time earlier, the National Guard had collected some two thousand refugees from the city and placed them all inside an arena a short distance from Madison’s neighborhood.

According to Adams, things, eventually, began to fall apart. While he didn’t elaborate on just how it began, he explained that someone inside the arena turned, and quickly, panic ensued. The refugees began trampling each other to escape the infected (Which, unbeknownst to them, was creating more infected), and, all Hell broke loose. He ended his harrowing tale by telling Daniel that, to stop them from getting out into the city, he had to lock the living refugees inside with the infected…and listen to them scream for help he simply could not give.

This is what I want Tales to show.

For the longest time, I have wanted Walking Dead to give us some really great zombie horror. We’ve had snippets of it here and there across the two shows, we’ve seen the aftermath of it time and again, but, outside of maybe the downfall of Broke Jaw Ranch, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a classic mass zombie horror scene like this, but, this story would give us one.

Basically, whether it be an episode or several episodes, “The Beginning Of The End” would follow Adams as his unit as they oversaw all the refugees inside the arena. We’d see the chaos unfold from his perspective, and get a window into just how harrowing being a soldier in a major city, in a situation they were never trained for, would be on Adams and his brothers-in-arms.

And, the cherry on top? The last scene of the episode(s) would be Adams just barely having enough time to lock the arena doors behind him, as a persons hand attempts to squeeze through the door to grab for him, just like they walkers inside the hospital cafeteria did way back in the very first episode of The Walking Dead; A nice visual clue that this is the beginning of the end of the world Rick knew when he went into a coma and start of the world Rick woke up to.

I think it would be glorious. It would be a perfect way to kick off Tales Of The Walking Dead, showing us a story we only ever heard, never saw, one with some genuine zombie horror, and one that would get the series started with a bang.

But, what do you want to see from Tales Of The Walking Dead? More of Michonne? Merle? The Governor? A whole new character? One we only saw once? More of the beginning of the apocalypse? The apocalypse in a completely different place? Let me know in the comments! The possibilities are endless! And, if you enjoyed this and want to read more from me, like my tips on surviving a zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it at Amazon here, and on iTunes here!