With the zombie sub genre capturing our imaginations for many years, it is hard to keep up with all the lore when it comes to the undead flesh eaters.

From books to movies, video games to television shows, humans are fascinated by zombies and the start of that interest began with The Walking Dead for a lot of people.

First airing back in 2010 and running for 11 seasons until its finale on 20 November, 2022, The Walking Dead was a post-apocalyptic horror drama series based on the comic book series with the same name.

Featuring a large ensemble cast, we follow them as they learn how to survive in a post-apocalyptic America where the undead provide an ever-present threat.

With multiple spin-offs following since the main show ended, it seems as though viewers still can’t get enough, especially when they still have quite a few questions left unanswered.

One of which is what happened to the zombies after the epilogue of The Walking Dead.

The question was asked over on r/AskScienceFiction last year with the original poster writing the following:

“Why are there still zombies after so much time?

After X time has passed (Weeks? Months? Years?) why have not all the zombies simply rotted away or eventually been defeated? This show and its spinoffs have had like eleven or more seasons now.”

Luckily, one comic book fan had the answers.

“Eventually, in the comics, they do eventually get to the point where zombies start running low,” they explained.

The poster goes on to explain that the characters eventually thin out the hordes by luring the walkers to the sea before slowly cleaning out territories so that it is eventually safe enough to travel to different settlements without risk of attack.

“Then, by the epilogue, they’ve reclaimed a good chunk of the East Coast, and so long as you don’t go out to the “frontier”, it’s incredibly rare to see a zombie,” they continued.

“Rare enough that some people make a small fortune off driving around a paddy wagon full of them as a sideshow attraction, and that some people are worried their kids won’t understand how dangerous a zombie is because they’ve never seen one.”

Add the fact that the majority of people have their brain destroyed after death and it is safe to say that the walkers gladly “die” out, even if it takes quite a while to do so.