Issue 144

Issue 144 is the one-hundred and forty-fourth issue of Image Comics' The Walking Dead and the last part of Volume 24: Life And Death. It was published on July 8th, 2015.

Plot
After showing Rick the massive horde of Roamers, Alpha takes him off the building and takes him back to the Whisperers camp. Rick asks Alpha what she wants from him, she replies he has nothing to offer her. She proceeds to mock Rick's "fake" way of life and say how they are like children playing pretend. "You've built a shrine to a world long dead," Alpha says how her people are the ones who truly live a life of freedom. Rick then questions her about her ideology about the Whisperers being free despite them referring to their leader as "Alpha" and having to sleep in the cold and wear dead human skin. She replies back every pack of animals need an Alpha and a Beta.

Back at the Whisperers camp, Lydia tells Carl that if he sees the opportunity then he should leave. However Carl says he refuses to leave without her. Lydia warns Carl that Alpha hates outsiders and that they are in major trouble when Rick showed up and threatened Alpha. Rick and Alpha show up, Rick tells Carl that they can leave peacefully however Carl refuses to leave Lydia. He tells Rick that the Whisperers rape Lydia and Alpha allows it. When confronted about it, Alpha claims that rape is a power of the natural world and making it excusable. Lydia breaks down telling what has happened to her and Alpha is disgusted by her show of emotion and strikes her in the face calling her weak. She preaches how in order to survive in the new world one needs to be strong and she too breaks down. Rick separates them and Alpha whispers to him that they can provide the safety to Lydia that she could not. She then disowns Lydia and tells her to go with Rick and Carl. Alpha informs Rick that she has marked a border that separates them and the Whisperers, and that they are not to cross that border or her horde will cross into their side. Rick takes Carl and Lydia and they leave.

Rick, Carl and Lydia return to where he left his search group and sees two horses surrounded by dead Whisperers and the group of Michonne, Andrea and Dante missing. They quickly get on their horses and ride off. Carl questions why his father is upset. Rick says he worries about Andrea and the fact that Alpha had blood on her machete. He was also puzzled by this border Alpha mentioned. Rick is interrupted when he sees a long line of reanimated heads impaled on stakes: a border marking Whisperer territory. Rick is in shock when he sees that the heads on the stakes include Olivia, Josh, Carson, Tammy, Luke, Erin, Ken, Amber, Louie, Oscar, Rosita and Ezekiel. At Alexandria, residents remark about the whereabouts of the missing residents of the communities. Devastated by the line of reanimated heads, Rick collapses to the floor when the tearful Andrea, Michonne and Dante appear. Andrea asks what they will do now.

Credits

 * Rick Grimes
 * Carl Grimes
 * Andrea
 * Maggie Greene
 * Michonne
 * Eugene Porter
 * Paul Monroe
 * Harlan Carson
 * Brianna
 * Paula
 * Sherry
 * Mark
 * Magna
 * Yumiko
 * Marco
 * Anna
 * Hershel Greene
 * Dante
 * Larry
 * Alpha
 * Lydia
 * Morton Rose
 * Rosita Espinosa (Zombified)
 * Josh (Zombified)
 * Olivia (Zombified)
 * Carson (Zombified)
 * Amber (Zombified)
 * Erin (Zombified)
 * Ezekiel (Zombified)
 * Oscar (Zombified)
 * Luke (Zombified)
 * Ken (Zombified)
 * Louie (Zombified)
 * Tammy Rose (Zombified)
 * The Whisperers

Deaths

 * Olivia
 * Josh
 * Carson
 * Tammy Rose
 * Luke
 * Erin
 * Ken
 * Amber
 * Louie
 * Oscar
 * Rosita Espinosa
 * Rosita's Unborn Baby
 * Ezekiel

Trivia

 * Last appearance of Rosita Espinosa.
 * Last appearance of Josh.
 * Last appearance of Olivia.
 * Last appearance of Carson.
 * Last appearance of Amber.
 * Last appearance of Erin.
 * Last appearance of Ezekiel.
 * Last appearance of Oscar.
 * Last appearance of Luke.
 * Last appearance of Ken.
 * Last appearance of Louie.
 * Last appearance of Tammy Rose.
 * This issue concludes the third compendium of the series.
 * This issue features the most named deaths out of all issues. This is also the only issue in which all character deaths occurred in the same fashion (decapitated and impaled on pikes), and all caused by the same person (Alpha).
 * This issue also features deaths of characters from all four communities: Alexandria (Rosita, Josh, Olivia, Erin, Luke), Hilltop (Oscar, Carson, Ken, Louie, Tammy), The Kingdom (Ezekiel) and The Sanctuary (Amber).

Goofs/Errors

 * Ken is successfully lured off the fair grounds and decapitated by Alpha, even though he most likely would've recalled her voice from during the hostage exchange between himself, Dante, and Lydia. This was most likely an oversight.