Plague of the Living Dead is a 6 part comic book mini-series published by Avatar Press. It was written by John Russo, with Jacen Burrows providing the artwork, which ran from February of 2007, till November of that year. Despite the 6 issues, the series begins with the special, which actually kicks off this gorefest.
Synopsis[]
Set 3 years following the fateful night the dead began walking the Earth, three soldiers have escaped their captors with knowledge of the US government using zombies in secret experiments during their tour in Vietnam. They head home in hopes to find their loved ones and friends, only to find the entire town has become warzone, with the dead still roaming about.
Special[]
The special begins in early August of 1971, on a quiet night in Stone Mountain, where Robbie and his girlfriend Kate Smith are hanging out discussing their future. Robbie is worried about being drafted and sent to Vietnam, due to his failing grades in college and worries about losing his girl in the process. Kate assures him that she only has eyes for him and offers him sex to calm him. She kisses him initially, but goes down and begins performing oral sex on him, only to be interrupted by a fellow student named Greg, who jokingly states he's gonna reveal this to others, much to the displeasure of Kate and Robbie. He does make them aware that Kate's sister is at a peace protest at the Price's before taking off. It's then Robbie and Kate continue their plans for intercourse and plan on obtaining condoms from her father's store, but don't want to get caught in the process. At the end of the scene, a zombie can be seen walking about the streets.
The comic continues at the Price residence, where Kate's sister and her friends continue working for their peace protest when Greg arrives. They plan on the protest the next morning because many of the protesters are either widows are going-to-be, so they hope the protests will help bring those surviving home to their families. Jessie Price's father comes down and even though he was a Korean War veteran, he was proud of his daughter for not being afraid to speak her mind. At the same time, the threat of the undead coming back is all over the papers, as the group worry about their friends in the service.
As their friends continue prepping, Terry Ellis, Todd Clark and Steve Green are all within a US Army psych unit with Maj. Carl F. Henry, who believe they were hallucinating brought on by battle fatigue. This sparks protest from Terry, only to be ordered to stand down by Henry. It turns out that they were apart of a spec ops mission a month before, where they were 10 miles south of Tram Khe, just over the border between north and south Vietnam. They had discovered a group of Vietnamese Army Regulars brutally killed, wondering if the rangers were responsible, perhaps via mortar. The strangest thing was that they had no bullet wounds and one was moving, but as they got closer, they found that the one moving was feasting on the flesh of the dead, causing them to open fire on it and torch the remains.
Sometime later, they discovered the rangers they were seeking and they were attacking a small settlement. the rangers were infected and had continued ripping through several people and even getting shot at multiple times without any desire to stop. This resulted in Terry leaping into action, caring less what side they were on and began torching the zombies, realizing they were all dead and those attacked were going to turn into zombies as well. They were able to escape thanks to a Huey nearby, but according to the army records, no choppers were in the vicinity of the incident. Before being dispensed with by the major, Clark spoke up, telling him to go fuck himself.
Back in Stone Mountain, Kate and Robbie raid her father's store for condoms, only to find Mr. Smith still there and he explained he was picking things up for his brother. This however became moot as Mr. Smith turned and revealed himself to be a zombie and tore into Robbie, feasting on his flesh, leaving Kate to enter the store, asking him to stop. Unfortunately for the young lady, the zombified remains of her father were not the only ones in the store, as the others tore her shirt off and began feasting upon her milky white flesh.
Back at the Price residence, Greg asks where Kelly went, as he wished to ask her something and he ventures upstairs to find her. Greg finds her in the bathroom, where they two began having sex, however Greg's girlfriend Sandy catches them in the act and ran out into the darkness, removing her ring and tossing it. The ring hit a nearby tree, which caught the attention of nearby undead. Sandy and Greg came down and went out in pursuit of Sandy, only to find she had been attacked and infected, however they were quickly surrounded by a horde of zombies, resulting in one grabbing Greg, busting through his chest and Sandy, now a zombie, decking Kelly. Lawrence gets wind of what is transpiring outside and the others begin cleaning up, however a knock comes at the door and Lawrence goes to answer it. He opens it, finding a zombie standing their and it begins attempting to enter, only for Lawrence to close the door on it, with it's fingers caught and cut off in the process. Lawrence then explains to the others what he saw and after, the zombies outside smash a window and the one that attempted to enter through the door before breaks through a nearby window, attempting to grab Lawrence. Mr. Price then orders Larry to get a knife and begin defending the house.
As this is transpiring in Stone Mountain, Clark, Green and Ellis are all under psychiatric observation and are restrained at Fort Stone, just 5 miles of where their hometown is located.
Issue 1[]
Kicking off where the special left off, the Prices are held up in their house, surrounded by the undead and try to formulate a plan. Their first move is to call the police, which Larry attempts only to find it's busy. At the same time, Jessie witnesses Kelly outside on the ground dead, with zombies nearby, feasting on her flesh. This shocks Jessie, but within a few moments, zombies begin entering the house via the window initially and then the door. A zombified Greg enters and Mr. Price is attacked by the horde, but before he dies, he orders the remaining survivors to go to the basement. Larry protects the other 2 while they go into the basement, but he refuses to go down there, despite the fact that Mr. Price's guns are down there. Jessie and Darlene are then forced to shut and lock the door behind Larry with little choice. 5 miles from Stone Mountain however, Green, Ellis and Clark and being placed on a truck, where they hear the sounds of gunfire in the distance. Though they call the others on it, they say it's merely target practice, however the trio know full well no target practice occurs of that time of night. As the truck leaves with them aboard, Maj. Henry orders lethal force should the trio escape custody.
Back in the Price home, Darlene and Jessie remain within the basement, where Darlene offers Jessie a shovel as a weapon. They also hope Larry was able to escape the horde and worry about dying before their sweethearts come home from war. Darlene notices a locked cabinet and attempts to open it, only the keys are likely on Mr. Price, who begins knocking on the basement door, leading Jessie to open it, revealing her father now zombified.
Issue 2[]
On the way to Fort Sill for detainment, Ellis, Green and Clark meet up with another comrade of theirs named Jerome and catching up on old times, as well as what happened in Vietnam. The MP guarding the detainees ordered the driver to stop for them to take a piss and orders the prisoners out to accompany them. As this is going on, the zombified Mr. Price attempts to grab his daughter and Darlene, but not before the latter embeds an axe in his head, killing him. Mr. Price's body then falls down the stairs and tears Darlene's shirt, however Jessie runs out and sees more zombies, resulting in Darlene ordering her downstairs once again. They go back into the basement and shut the door, then Darlene smacks Jessie to snap her out of her shocked state. They then get it together and Jessie takes the keys that Darlene finds on Mr. Price's body, while Darlene protects her.
Back at the truck, the MP named Brown who ordered the vehicle to stop releases the 4 men, as he believes their story about zombies. He confirms that the gunfire from earlier was not target practice at all, but a horde of zombies had begun ravaging through the town and half of Fort Stone was there attempting to contain the outbreak. The MP orders the men to go in, get their ladies and get out of dodge before it's too late, but not before making it look like they escaped the guard by clocking him in the jaw. He reunites with his comrade MP Kaff and both allow them to escape into Stone Mountain, as the place is overrun anyway.
Issue 3[]
Following their liberation, Ellis, Green and Clark make their way towards Stone Mountain. Ellis fantasizes about him and his wife having sex, only for it to be interrupted by his comrades. They then use a drainage tunnel, but find themselves cornered by several undead. At the Price house however, Jessie and Darlene are in the middle of fighting off zombies, but the gun cabinet in the basement isn't opened due to the key breaking off in the lock. They attempt to use the storm door to vacate the basement, but as they do, Jessie finds somebody else is on the other side, attempting to get the door opened. In the drainage tunnel, Ellis, Green and Clark find themselves taking on several zombies with their bare hands before escaping. The truck which carried the three soldiers however, had the guards looking for them and found them sometime away from their location.
Issue 4[]
As Darlene and Jessie get swarmed by zombies, Jessie opens the storm doors to the basement and to their surprise, Larry is standing there waiting for them and aiding in their escape. Once out of the basement, Larry orders the girls to run while he distracts the incoming horde and head for town. Without missing a beat, the girls run for town, but Jessie wonders if the town is worse off than where they were, to which Darlene replied that she was such a downer. Meanwhile, Ellis, Green and Clark make their way to Stone Mountain, only to be fired upon by the MPs now still hunting them. This resulted in the trio using the woods for cover till they got into town. The MPs go back into the truck and continue on their way, however one of them goes to call in the escape to Maj. Henry, however another MP stops him, however the truck ends up striking a burning car in the middle of the road and falls on it's side with zombies incoming nearby. As the zombies make their way towards the opening at the back of the truck, the remaining living MPs take up arms and begin unloading on the incoming flesh eaters. One of them ends up attacked and bitten by an undead MP who died during the accident, resulting in one of his comrades shooting him in the head before continuing on to fight off the remaining incoming dead and making their way towards Stone Mountain. At the same time, Ellis, Green and Clark have made it to their destination, finding their hometown in ruins due to the nearby horde of zombies.
Issue 5[]
As the three soldiers witness their home in shambles, they make their way through what's left without any of the undead noticing them. As they make their way, a zombified Dave breaks through the window of a nearby shop, swinging a meat cleaver at the trio. As an incoming horde comes towards them, the zombified Dave goes to swing at one of them, only to accidentally slice the top of a fellow zombie's head clean off and one of the soldiers knocking him back into the window frame, with chunks of glass in it still. The three are then able to get a hold of a couple of M-16 rifles and a singular pistol from fallen comrades, who then attempt to rise and feast on the trio, only for Ellis to fire several rounds into the creature before nearly getting into a fight with Green. Luckily, Clark stops them and they continue on their way. They find themselves at a nearby warehouse, where they notice a woman banging on the door to get in and she is able to, resulting in the trio attempting their luck in doing the same. Green chucks a grenade at a nearby car to easily distract the zombies nearby and it detonates, allowing them to move towards the door and attempt to enter. The ones on the inside then begin demanding to know if they were infected, but the trio demand entrance. They then proceed to engage nearby incoming targets, resulting in a fight inside between 2 men, but it was thanks to one of them that they allowed the soldiers entrance before they became zombie chow.
Ellis, Green and Clark then met up with Larry, who had survived the incident at the house. Because he, Jessica and Darlene got separated, they could only hope they were alright. Ellis also gets bad news from Larry, telling him his wife didn't make it, but somehow he knew this. One of the men inside begin demanding that the trio should be protecting them, however the woman who was outside told him that regardless of how many guns there were amongst them, it wouldn't be enough.
Issue 6[]
Once inside the warehouse, the trio of soldiers begin formulating a plan to get out, however the warehouse is swarming outside with undead. It's then that the door begins get hit by incoming zombies, only for the soldiers to begin opening fire through the door and the man who demanded they protect the warehouse holds Clark at gunpoint while John takes the gun from him. Clark then plans to go out and find Jessica and Darlene, but begin a fight with his comrades, however they all agree to go. The trio open the door and begin opening fire on incoming zombies, but once they get out, the zombies begin swarming the ones in the warehouse and begin eating them. During the fighting, Todd got winged by one of the MPs still hunting them and Jerome decides to end him with a bullet in the head, aiding his friends once again. They are able to find Jessie and Darlene, but their reunion is short as the zombified Dave from before kills Darlene with his cleaver from behind.
Green witnesses his wife's demise and decides to stay behind, pulling the pin out of a grenade he has and let the zombies feast on him while it detonates. The remaining survivors are able to flee the blast and Fort Stone nearby is successfully evacuated. Maj. Henry is still determined however, to recapture the escaped soldiers as well.