He finds a farmhouse nearby where the owners of the house are found to be dead, he takes their horse and continues the rest of the way on horseback. Later, he is forced to abandon his car when he runs out of gas. He apologizes for what had happened to her and he shoots her. On his way out of town, Rick stops by the legless zombie. When she arrives, drawn to the noise of gunfire, Morgan gets her head in sight, but he is unable to shoot her. While Duane sits nervously downstairs – unsure why Morgan is shooting out the window, it becomes clear that Morgan is trying to attract his wife – now a zombie. Morgan and Duane return to their home, and Morgan, armed with a sniper rifle from the Sheriff's Headquarters and perched in a second story window, fires at the zombies wandering in the street in front of their home.
Rick splits the stash of weapons and supplies from the police station with Morgan and promises to stay in touch with a walkie-talkie. While there Rick encounters a zombified former colleague, whom he shoots in the head. Rick, Morgan, and Duane go to the Sheriff Department Headquarters where Rick was assigned and take weapons, radios, ammunition and a patrol car. Rick decides to head to Atlanta where a refugee camp is rumored to exist, though Morgan would rather stay behind. Morgan warns that the only way to stop the zombies is to destroy the brain, and cautions that the zombies are attracted to noise. Rick encounters Morgan Jones ( Lennie James) and his son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner), and they explain the zombie apocalypse that occurred while Rick was in a coma. He ignores her and returns home, finding his family has long-since fled.
As he makes his way home, he sees a zombified woman dragging her legless body towards him. Outside, he finds scores of dead bodies – some covered in makeshift body bags, others strewn about randomly. From the far side of the secured doors Rick hears growling while an unknown menace pushes against the locked doors. He walks past a set of double doors secured with heavy chains and spray-painted with the ominous warning "Don't Open Dead Inside". When he regains consciousness he finds the hospital abandoned and horrifically ransacked the walls sprayed with blood, destroyed equipment everywhere, and dead bodies littering the hallway.
Hospitalized as a result of the injury, Rick experiences a series of dreamlike encounters with friends and family as he languishes in a coma. Returning to several weeks prior, Rick is seriously injured while chasing down criminals alongside his partner and childhood friend Shane Walsh ( Jon Bernthal) as he is shot in his shoulder causing him to go into a coma. When she charges towards him, Rick shoots her in the head. He spots a little girl (Addy Miller), but she turns out to be a zombie. The episode opens in medias res as former Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes ( Andrew Lincoln) scavenges for gas and supplies at an abandoned convenience store in rural Georgia on a deserted highway.
The episode garnered a Nielsen rating of 2.7 in the 18–49 demographic, translating to 3.6 million viewers. In the United States, the series premiere achieved a viewership of 5.35 million, making it the most-watched series premiere in its network's history. "Days Gone Bye" was critically well received, praising Andrew Lincoln's performance and Darabont's direction. The episode premiered in 120 countries worldwide. "Days Gone Bye" was heavily promoted in the months preceding its release as part of an expansive advertising campaign, zombie invasion events were coordinated in selected locations including New York City, Washington, D.C., London, and Madrid. It was wholly shot on 16 mm film, and was edited using computer-generated imagery. Principal photography for the pilot commenced in May 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. In the announcement, the executives stated that Darabont would serve as writer, director, and an executive producer alongside Gale Anne Hurd. In January 2010, AMC formally announced that it had ordered a pilot for a possible series adapted from The Walking Dead comic book. Frank Darabont expressed interest in developing the series for television.
Robert Kirkman, the creator of the eponymous series of comic books, considered the idea of creating a television show based on the comic series, but did not move forward. The episode was written and directed by Frank Darabont, the series creator. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on October 31, 2010. " Days Gone Bye" is the pilot episode of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead. Rick Grimes arrives in Atlanta, Georgia, searching for his wife and son.