Volume 25: No Turning Back

Volume 25 is the twenty-fifth volume of Image Comics' The Walking Dead that includes issues 145-150.

Plot
The group is in shock. Michonne is distraught as she threw away her chance with Ezekiel and now he's gone forever. She pulls out a knife to put down Ezekiel's severed head but Rick stops her and offers to do it instead, Michonne angrily refuses and pushes Rick before turning back around in tears and hugging Rick tight while apologizing. Andrea takes Michonne's knife and puts Ezekiel down while asking the others to help her get the rest of the reanimated heads. Michonne tells Rick she threw it all away and there's something wrong with her, to which Rick replies "There's something wrong with all of us."

The group, except for Michonne and Rick start putting down the reanimated heads. Suddenly, Michonne tackles Lydia to the ground and demands to know if she knew Alpha would do this, and whether the Whisperers have done this before. Carl pulls his gun and Dante tells Michonne not to do this.

Lydia calming has a knife to Michonne's throat as Michonne presses down her. Lydia tells Michonne that she knew nothing about it, and her old group have never met survivors that outnumbered them like this. She tells Michonne if she doesn't get off her, she will have the knife halfway through her neck before she can do anything about it.

Michonne realizes she is being unreasonable and gets off, helping Lydia up. Lydia tells the group she thinks Alpha is scared of them. Michonne tells Carl to holster his gun and he does.

Carl asks what happened to their bodies and Lydia tells them they were probably skinned. Rick asks if they should take the heads back with them to bury, and Michonne says that they will bury them here.

Rick tells Michonne that's fine, but they leave the poles exactly where they are as that's the territories boundary. Michonne is not happy that Rick seems to not want to cross the line and kill these people for murdering their friends, and says it would be a different story if it had been Carl or Andrea. Rick agrees with her.

Michonne storms off to the woods to think. Rick asks Andrea what they should do. She tells him that if it was unto her, they would ride back and kill them all. Rick confides in her that that may not be possible, but it's understandable that their people will want revenge for these murders. Rick tells her that The Whisperers could ruin everything.

Andrea huggs Rick and tells him she won't let that happen and Rick tells her they will get through this. Down the line, Lydia sees Carl crying as he has found Josh's head. He explains that he was a good friend and it's been a while since he lost one of those. Lydia hugs him and apologises. Dante walks over to check on Michonne and she reacts angrily, then tells him to come help her dig graves.

Back at Alexandria, Eugene is fixing the radio excitedly. Maggie and Jesus knock the door and explain they thought he was missing too. When he tells them Rosita isn't with him, he rushes outside quick calling her name. Jesus comforts Harlan and tells him they will find his brother.

At the fair, Rick and Andrea address the crowd that has gathered, and tells them that he has terrible news.

After Rick reveals the horrible losses, the people of all the communities go into shock and depression over the deaths. After a funeral service is held for all those who were lost, the close friends and family of the deceased go to Rick and begin to yell at him, demanding war and retaliation. Some are even willing to go after the Whisperers themselves, including Josh's father and Magna. However, Rick argues that they shouldn't rush into anything and should think things through before rushing into battle and putting everything they've built into risk. A distraught Marco yells at Rick, claiming that he is a coward and that Maggie should be in charge of all the communities. He states that she knows how to take care of a problem.

Rick then questions Maggie about what Marco had said, and she reveals to Rick that she had Gregory executed. Rick becomes enraged with Maggie, saying that she ignored everything he's said and that they shouldn't go back to the way things were before. Paul attempts to calm Rick down, but he claims that Maggie is ruining everything he's built and that she is putting everyone in danger. Dante steps in to stop Rick but is pushed aside. Jesus tries to hold Rick as Maggie claims that he's snapped, and she questions whether she has to follow him; causing Rick to punch Maggie across the face. Maggie then retaliates and beats Rick to the ground while explaining her actions of killing Gregory.

Jesus pulls her back and she snaps out of her anger, seeing what she has done. They then apologize to each other, hug, and everything calms down. Jesus tells everyone to go home and they all do so.

On his way home, Rick is scorned by the people of the communities. When he arrives at his house, he sees Andrea with Eugene, who is devastated by Rosita's death. He reveals to them that even though Rosita was pregnant with another man's baby, he would still have raised the child as his own so that he could try to make their lives simpler. He tells himself this but reveals that, in reality, it was actually so he wouldn't feel embarrassed. He reveals his anger at her for cheating on him but also says how much he loved her, how much he cared for her and how much he needed her.

Eugene states that he knows the people are screaming for war and that they will get themselves killed because they aren't smart. He says that he is intelligent, and understands that this will take time and planning; but he says that in the end he wants the Whisperers all dead. Both Andrea and Rick reveal that they feel the same way and that they need to plan out what happens next.

Eugene reveals that he understands the fact that the Whisperers have a massive advantage over them. as they do have an entire herd under their control. But Eugene points out that they, too, have an even bigger advantage over Alpha: they have her daughter.

Eugene pitches Rick the idea of using Lydia against Alpha as a form of payback for the recent massacre of the colony members. He argues that Lydia has killed people as well and has lost her innocence, even going so far as to say they would kill Lydia if the Whisperers call their bluff. Rick dismisses the idea several times saying that the girl is still a child, and she will not be put in any more danger. Andrea asks Eugene to leave, and he storms out of the house.

After Eugene's departure, Rick and Andrea speak about how Lydia will not be safe as long as Eugene and the other survivors have the same idea in their heads. Andrea agrees to escort Carl and Lydia to the Hilltop until the hostility blows over and they can form a more concrete plan.

Sometime in the night, Andrea wakes Carl and has him get prepared for the trip to the Hilltop, explaining the situation and that Lydia is downstairs and ready. Carl asks his father if they'll be safe at the Hilltop seeing as Alpha killed some of their residents, but Rick assures him that he will have a word with Maggie about the matter. Andrea, Carl and Lydia begin their trek in the night.

After their leave, Michonne is shown stealthily sneaking into the Grimes house, katana drawn, and sneaking up the stairs. When Rick pulls a gun to the back of her head, she explains that she was only trying to find Lydia and get her to safety. She fills Rick in with how Eugene's words are getting around town, and that tomorrow will be a very rough day for Rick. They go to the kitchen and talk over drinks.

Rick breaks the ice and asks Michonne how she has been holding up since Ezekiel was killed. She begins to cry a bit, explaining that she is upset and angry, then tries to dismiss it and leave, but Rick tells her to wait. He explains that she needs to stop pushing people away.

Rick begins to open up to Michonne, telling her about how he had started to grow distant towards Lori when he was still a police officer. His work brought to him experiences that Lori would have a hard time sharing even if he wanted to, making his emotional reactions increasingly inescrutable to Lori. When he found out about her and Shane, he did not really blame either of them, but he was still hurt. By contrast, Andrea and Rick have lived through a lot of significant experiences together. They understand each other and have no secrets from each other. They have bonded and grow together to an extent that he did not even think possible before. Rick feels closer to Andrea than he ever was to Lori.

Rick goes on to speculate that perhaps Michonne has a bad habit of feelling undeserving of happiness. Rick feels that Michonne let her ex-husband have the custody of her two daughters and pushed Ezekiel away from her life because at some level she wants to punish herself for no good reason.

He goes on to offer that Michonne is likely to move on and learn to live and be happy despite her losses and guilts, yet deep down she will hate herself for that. Rick himself feels that he would not manage to be quite as happy as he is now had Lori and their daughter Judith not died. He would still bring them back if he had any means to, but the fact of the matter is that there is nothing he can do to advance such a goal, so he has to accept reality for what it is and go on despite all the conflicting feelings. As has Michonne.

Michonne asks him if the pain will never go away, and he answers point-blank that no, it will not, prompting a rare emotional outburst from Michonne. She begins to cry openly and admits that she never stopped missing Ezekiel, but at the same time felt that she was punishing herself properly for having failed her daughters. But now she sees that this is just a sick, pointless game of imposing needless guilts on herself for no good reason.

Rick encourages her to perceive the current situation as "being even": she lost Ezekiel, so she can allow herself to let go of the guilt over her daughters as well. Now she better let go of all dark feelings and pursue happiness as opposed to punishment. In a nice moment, Michonne cries a bit more, wipes her tears and smiles at Rick, telling him that he is messes up yet she loves him.

Well on their way to the Hilltop, Andrea, Carl and Lydia meet Gus, a patrolman. He asks if things are alright, and Andrea pleasantly asks him to not let anyone know that he'd seen her. He obliges. Lydia start questioning Andrea for asking Gus to lie for her. Out of her growing suspicion, she starts asking why anyone wants to hurt her. Andrea and Carl try to get her to realize that people will want to blow off steam in any way that they can without thinking clearly. Lydia, still refusing to believe this starts become irritable, explaining that her mother doesn't care about her, and the plans Eugene's made wouldn't work. Andrea tries to deny this and respond that her mother does care about her, and Carl even tell her that Andrea can be trusted. Lydia finally speaks her mind, asking if they had Gus lie because she was being taken back to her mother. Pulling a gun on Andrea, she demands that they tell her the truth.

Credits

 * Rick Grimes
 * Carl Grimes
 * Andrea
 * Maggie Greene
 * Michonne
 * Eugene Porter
 * Gabriel Stokes
 * Heath
 * Paul Monroe
 * Harlan Carson
 * Brianna
 * Mark
 * Magna
 * Yumiko
 * Kelly
 * Connie
 * Annie
 * Marco
 * Hershel Greene
 * Dante
 * Louie
 * Lydia
 * Morton Rose
 * Benjamin (Mentioned)
 * Alpha
 * Pete
 * Gus
 * Rosita Espinosa (Zombified)
 * Josh (Zombified)
 * Olivia (Zombified)
 * Carson (Zombified)
 * Amber (Zombified)
 * Erin (Zombified)
 * Ezekiel (Zombified)
 * Oscar (Zombified)
 * Luke (Zombified)
 * Ken (Zombified)
 * Larry (Zombified)
 * Tammy Rose (Zombified)
 * Alexandria Safe-Zone residents
 * Hilltop Colony survivors
 * The Kingdom residents
 * Oceanside survivors
 * The Saviors

Deaths

 * Ezekiel (Zombified)
 * Rosita Espinosa (Zombified)
 * Josh (Zombified)
 * Olivia (Zombified)
 * Carson (Zombified)
 * Amber (Zombified)
 * Erin (Zombified)
 * Oscar (Zombified)
 * Luke (Zombified)
 * Ken (Zombified)
 * Larry (Zombified)
 * Tammy Rose (Zombified)

Trivia

 * This volume marks the beginning of Compendium 4.