I hope the Walking Dead series is nearing its conclusion. I hope this because I’m getting a little bit tired of trying to figure out who is who, as the characters get more haggard and similar and there’s no color palette to tell them apart with. I hope this because, as of Fear the Hunters, the majority of characters have finally made it into survival mode, and I no longer have that much concern about whether or not they’ll be okay, but only about in what manner they will succeed. Most of all, I hope it because I fear that Kirkman is running out of new stories to tell. The push-and-pull between survival at any cost and the dignity of retaining human goodness? Rick’s[1] band of traveling survivors versus unseen and unknown human horrors to match and surpass anything that zombies could possibly dish out? I have, as they say, both been there and done that. And the thing I really hope is that I don’t get to a point where the stories bore me. It hasn’t happened yet, but without some kind of fundamental shift (or else that conclusion), I can smell it on the wind.

[1] Although, here’s a twist. I don’t think the book addresses last names anymore, and I know I don’t recall the main character’s. Between the lines and in the silences, it is nice to know that the story still has progression, even if it’s starting to feel played out on the surface.