Despite my doubts in the beginning of this arc, Robert Kirkman and crew make them all up ten-fold in the latest issue of The Walking Dead.

Picking up after the hunters’ attack on our gang, Eugene patches up Glenn’s gunshot wound in his leg with some seemingly-obscure household products. This leads me to wonder whether Eugene has experienced more bloodshed than initially imagined prior to meeting with Rick and crew.

With Dale back at camp, Andrea finally gets to let her heart speak openly to him, as she thought she never would have the chance to say these things in last month’s issue. The couple heartbreakingly realize the very gruesome truth they’ll soon face in due time. The fact that Dale has already faced this experience once before doesn’t seem to make it any easier.

After some investigative work and typical back-and-forth with Abraham, Rick decides the fate of their

attackers

hunters. The tables turn for the hunted. (Spoilers after the jump)

It comes as no surprise that Rick would choose to fight back, considering he’s dealt with worse (let’s have a moment here for one of the best villains of all time—The Governor) and managed to make it through—handless, yes, but alive nonetheless. While the issue leaves on a triumphant note, we do have one last issue left in the arc, leaving open a number of possibilities (will they really eat them? is there a chance of accepting them into the group? can we have another torture scene?) that will, I’m sure, keep us reading the issue every month.

As the theme of cannibalism has been noted as nothing new to the zombie genre (which Kirkman admits himself in the issue’s Letter Hacks), the idea that a group of people would choose to become their enemy in order to survive is horrific in itself. This leads me to wonder how the morally-gray Rick will come to his verdict—will he stoop as low as them? A more itching question is whether or not we fans will disagree with him if he does—he’s our protagonist, after all.

This issue is one to definitely be read, if only for the top panel of page 18, where the hunters’ leader admits to eating innocents. An avid fan of horror films myself, I’m more disturbed by these comic books of which the most abominable events are those left to the reader’s imagination, merely painting the image of their expressions.

Catch The Walking Dead #66 when it hits shelves October 14.