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The Walking Dead (Volume 7) The Calm Before by Robert Kirkman.

 

"Appropriately titled, the group enjoys "The calm before the storm" as life goes on and their worries of the people from Woodbury lessen. Though nothing good can ever last."

3 Stars. 

Pros:  Alice, the would be doctor that escaped from Woodbury with Rick et al, is proving herself quite handy as she helps deliver Lori's baby/Though things are tough, Dale losing a foot etc, the group very much enjoys this "calm before the storm" as the volume is appropriately titled. It's a little bit of normalcy amidst all the insanity. 

Cons: Carol is just hard to understand as a character and her death is just...strange/I understand Michonne is mysterious and troubled but her lack of emotion makes her hard to like at times. 

Full Review: 

A team from the group raid the National Guard station that the Governor had mentioned and find a good cache of supplies. They return to the prison just in time for Lori to give birth to a baby girl, that they name Judith. The same night, while trying to keep the generator running while Lori gives birth, Billy (Hershel's son) and Dale are out in the parking lot siphoning gas from the parked cars. Dale is bitten in the leg and Billy runs off, just as the group that went to the guard station returns. Dale has managed to drag himself to them and they get him to the infirmary. 

Andrea demands that they cut his leg off, the same as Allen and though they don't know if he'll survive it, Rick does the job. And surprisingly enough, Dale pulls through. He's disillusioned and upset at all that's happened, feeling that Andrea is young and wasting her time with him. He tells her that if he she wants to sleep with Tyreese, she can, but Andrea calls him a silly old man and says that she loves him. 

Meanwhile, Carol, who admits to Lori that she's just never been good at being alone, decides that the one person she can talk to in the prison is the zombie they currently have tied up outback. Alice, the young doctor to be that they rescued from Woodbury, asked them to capture the zombie so they could study it. And of course, Carol gets too close, the zombie grabs her and bites her. She dies and Andrea puts a bullet in her head soon after she turns. 

Everyone deals with Carol's death in different ways. Michonne and Tyreese seem to have shacked up, though Michonne is loathe to open up and talk about her feelings. No one can understand why Carol did what she did. And Sophia, her young daughter, is in complete shock. But they're all doing their best to take care of her and each other. 

All seems to be going well. It's been two months since Rick, Glen and Michonne escaped from Woodbury and there's been no sign of the Governor or any of his men. But of course, that all changes, as the last page of the volume is the Governor, completed with tanks and a whole army of men behind him, barreling down on the prison and screaming, "Kill them all!" 

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