The Hunters' Base[1] was first seen in Issue 64 of The Walking Dead and is an estate, which included large homes. Their base was not explored, as the only panels of the base showed the members in the backyard of a suburban home. It is also where The Hunters were massacred.
Pre-Apocalypse
Rural Virginia
Nothing is known about The Hunters' Base before or as the outbreak began.
Post-Apocalypse
Battle With The Survivors
In Issue 64, Dale revealed to the Hunters that he had been bitten. He scared the members of the Hunters who had eaten his leg and enraged Chris enough to violently kick him, until he became unconscious. Albert considered cutting out his own tongue to prevent infection, but Chris argued that it was useless to do so. David theorized that the meat was not dangerous since it came from a yet non-reanimated person and had been thoroughly cooked. However, the theory never came to be seen as right or wrong.
The Hunters eventually decided to leave the wounded Dale in front of Gabriel Stokes' church as bait for the other survivors to come out into the open. Their plan worked, and Glenn was shot in the leg by Albert, though the shot went clean through, missing vital organs. The attack and Dale's mutilation visibly infuriated Rick Grimes, Abraham Ford, and Michonne and spurned them into violent retaliation.
The Hunters left the Church to report to Chris, but did not know that Rick, Abraham, Michonne, and Andrea were searching the surrounding communities, led by Gabriel, who was the only one familiar with the area. The Hunters were consequently taken by surprise a few hours later when Rick's group ambushed them at their own camp in Issue 65.
Negotiations were attempted by Rick in order to get the Hunters to stop targeting their group, but Chris did not entertain the option, believing that he and his group could handle Rick, who appeared to be alone. Chris told Rick their reasons for hunting other living humans, and revealed they had eaten their own children. This was the only time Chris showed remorse, hinting that it was his own children they ate, but justified it by saying it was to survive, as animals in the wild (bears in this instance) would eat their own young if they would otherwise starve to death. After crossing that line, it was a short step for them to become man-hunters and continue to engage in cannibalism.
Before Chris could subdue or attack Rick, Rick revealed he was not alone. Still defiant, Rick showed he was in control when he signaled for Andrea to shoot the ear off of Greg, the Hunters' most physically threatening member. When Chris still believed it was only the two of them, Abraham, and Michonne came out of hiding, and Andrea mangled Chris' finger with another shot. The Hunters then submitted, and Chris fell to his knees and begged for their lives.
Rick proceeded to taunt Chris and his Hunters with the possibility of cannibalizing them in retaliation for their mutilation of Dale and attack on Glenn. Rick and the group instead proceeded to kill all of the Hunters with their bladed weapons. The bodies were shown to be burned afterwards as Michonne and Abraham threw the corpses into a make-shift fire.
It was not explicitly shown how each member of the Hunters had died, or who of Rick's group had killed them, but it was implied each of the four, minus Gabriel, had participated in the bloody executions.
The massacre of the Hunters was one of the most violent actions of the Rick's group up until that point, and brought considerable unease and internal conflict among them in Issue 66. It effectively became a turning point for the survivors in the way they communicated and handled other survivor groups, as they had become hardened from their prior bloody experiences with the Governor and the Woodbury army.
Inhabitants
Survivors
- Chris - Leader of the Hunters
- Theresa - Member of the Hunters
- Albert - Member of the Hunters
- David - Member of the Hunters
- Greg - Member of the Hunters
- Charlie - Member of the Hunters
Deaths
- Chris
- Theresa
- Albert
- David
- Greg
- Charlie
- Numerous counts of unseen people
Trivia
- The Hunters' Base is a buyable property in The Walking Dead Monopoly.
References
- ↑ The Walking Dead Monopoly