The Walking Dead: Book Six

The Walking Dead: Book Six is the sixth hardcover collection book of The Walking Dead that includes issues 61-72, otherwise Volume 11: Fear the Hunters and Volume 12: Life Among Them.

Volume 11: Fear the Hunters
The story begins with the survivors finding a van with mattresses in the back. The van still works, and Andrea is extremely excited and calls dibs on sleeping in the van that night. While on watch, Rick receives a "call" from his wife, who tells him that they should speak about Carl, but he puts the phone down immediately.

The following morning, the twins are nowhere to be seen. Andrea heads into the forest to find them, and stumbles upon the body of Billy, who has been killed by Ben. However, Ben says they shouldn't worry because he didn't destroy the brain and that Billy will come back. Andrea is completely shocked and doesn't say anything. She embraces Ben after he hugs her. The group attempts to decide what they should do with Ben. Abraham suggests that they need to kill Ben as they can't help him or keep him locked up. Andrea storms off angrily, and Dale says that they should be ashamed of themselves. Rick agrees with Abraham, not seeing another option, but no one is willing to kill him. All of a sudden, a priest, Fr. Gabriel Stokes, approaches the group while they are discussing what to do with Ben. The group immediately believes that Gabriel is working for someone who wants to harm them, but Gabriel continues to say that he has been alone in his church since the beginning of the outbreak. He offers the group temporary sanctuary inside if they can offer him food.

In the night, Carl sneaks out of the tent, opens the van, and fatally shoots Ben. He sneaks back to the tent without anyone noticing, except for Morgan, who keeps it to himself. The group buries Ben and Billy the next morning. The group loads up and departs for Gabriel's church, unaware that there are people watching them from the woods who decide to follow them. Carl gets into trouble after calling Dale a cry baby for mourning them even though they were never really his kids. He runs off before he is suddenly attacked by zombies emerging from the woods. After all the zombies are killed, they hear Dale screaming for help. He tells the group that a zombie only managed to rip his shirt. Carl tells Rick later that Dale is weak and they would be better off without him in the group. When Andrea goes into the woods to pee, she suddenly sees figures watching her and screams for help, though the group dismisses it as an animal. While everyone else is sleeping, Dale wanders off into the woods to die as he was actually bitten, but didn't tell anybody. In the woods, Dale is knocked unconscious by someone and carried away by two men. In the morning, Andrea goes into a panic and the group begins to search the woods. A zombie surprises Abraham but falls to the ground and isn't able to stand up. Eugene notes that the zombie is interesting because of his lack of strength. They decide to spend the night after arriving at Gabriel's church. Andrea goes outside for some air, and once again has a premonition that somebody is watching her. Rick interrogates Gabriel, claiming that his story is completely false. Gabriel confesses how he survived by locking his friends and congregation outside of the church to avoid dying of starvation, and believes that God sent the group to him so that he could be punished. In a neighborhood, Dale wakes up to find his leg being eaten by the group that captured him.

The leader, Chris, explains that they are surviving by killing other survivors and eating them. Dale begins laughing hysterically, and reveals to them that he was bitten. The hunters force themselves to throw up after exclaiming that the meat is tainted. Andrea confesses to Rick how much she regrets not telling Dale how she truly felt about him. The next morning, outside the church, the survivors find Dale, thrown onto the ground, unconscious. They go out to get him, but when going back, Glenn is shot through his leg by a hunter. They manage to get inside and treat Dale and Glenn. When Dale wakes up, he describes where he was held to the group. They later begin searching close residential areas (guided by Gabriel), and eventually stumble upon The Hunters. Originally, only Rick confronts them, unarmed. They begin talking, and one of them begins explaining why they are doing what they're doing. They believe it is the only way they will survive, as they are terrible hunters. They then confess that they also ate the children that were with them. When they decide to kill Rick, Ricks mimics a pistol with his hand, and Andrea shoots from a bush, injuring one of the hunter's ears, and shoots Chris's finger off. They then spend the night killing and torturing the hunters as Gabriel looks on in horror. The survivors return to the church the next morning, feeling extreme remorse for what they did. A dying Dale thanks Rick for keeping the group alive this long, and for giving him the time he had with Andrea and the twins. That night, Dale dies in his sleep and is shot by a remorseful Andrea.

After they burn Dale's body in the church graveyard, Rick begins talking with whom he believes to be Abraham about the horrible things they did. It turns out, however, to be Carl, who then tearfully confesses to shooting Ben.

Volume 12: Life Among Them
Upon searching for food with Carl, Rick discovers a town overrun by zombies and the two are forced to turn around. Carl and Rick have a heart-to-heart talk about why Carl killed Ben and what they both must do to protect each other. Carl says that Ben was his friend but he was a threat to everyone and he pointed out that Rick knew it yet none were going to make the move.

After regrouping with the others, Rick wants to test out the long range walkie talkie, because he is convinced they are very close to Washington DC. Eugene is reluctant to do this, claiming that the radio is "very delicate" and that he does not want to "use up the battery power". After a small fight over the device it is dropped on the ground revealing that there is no battery inside. Eugene admits that there were never any batteries inside. Furious, Abraham attacks Eugene in a rage, screaming about how people have died to bring Eugene to Washington because he thought he was important. Eugene defends himself by admitting that he has no positive qualities besides that he is a good liar and extremely intelligent. He begins to cry and apologizes to the group.

After cooling off, Abraham and Rick talk about what to do now when suddenly another survivor comes to the group. The man is very calm and polite to them both, introducing himself as Aaron and says that he was just listening in on their conversation to see if they were hostile or not before approaching. Rick does not trust the newcomer and knocks him down and ties him up.

Later, when the group has deemed Aaron safe enough and are heading towards his safe haven, they meet Eric. Upon his introduction, the group moves closer towards Alexandria, but find a flare going off in the sky. Abraham, Rick, and Aaron take the van down to help out the supply runners, Heath and Scott.

Scott has broken his leg by jumping building to building, and zombies are slowly swarming the area. As Rick and Aaron help, Heath puts Scott in the van, a party of Alexandrian survivors drive in and shoot most of the surrounding zombies. The group reaches the town of Alexandria and enter the gates. Aaron introduces Rick to Douglas, who interviews him and makes him town constable.

Deaths

 * Dale
 * Ben
 * Billy
 * Chris
 * Theresa
 * Albert
 * David
 * Greg
 * Charlie