Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus star in “The Walking Dead”

It's been six long months since we were last in Georgia, and after a gut-wrenching, action-packed end to the fourth season, the wait for walkers is finally over.

Now is the time to polish off your crossbow, straighten your sheriff's hat and hunker down for "The Walking Dead" as it trudges back onto small screens across the country. The highly anticipated season 5 premiere of the hit zombie thriller airs Sunday, Oct. 12, on AMC.

Fans of the show are no doubt itching for the new season to get underway, especially since it has been teased for the past few months and the fate of the group is up in the air. The end of season 4 saw Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln, "Love Actually," 2003), Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus, "The Boondock Saints," 1999) and a good chunk of the group of survivors herded into a train car at Terminus, and Carol (Melissa McBride, "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys," 2002), Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman, "The Wire") and baby Judith were on their way to rendezvous at the supposed safe haven.

From what we know so far, the group does escape from the train car -- perhaps with the help of Carol and Tyreese -- but, of course, when you have heavily armed captors and reanimated dead people to contend with, it's going to be tricky.

"We know how brutal and extraordinarily tough this group [is]," Lincoln said in a promo video released on AMC's YouTube account. "It's going to be messy, it's going to be brutal. It's going to be thrilling [to see] how these guys get out of this scrape."

The official season 5 trailer, which was released last month, poses a lot of questions and some shocking revelations. How do they escape the train car? What triggered the massive, flaming explosion? Why is Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green, "The Good Wife") telling Abraham (Michael Cudlitz, "Southland") and Rosita (Christian Serratos, "Twilight," 2008) that "three of us are gone?" Has Rick finally ditched the mellow, leader-by-committee tactics that clearly didn't work out so well?

In conjunction with all of the other bits of information that have been released, it's a lot to digest. Some answers to these questions can be inferred, but some are explained outright -- though very vaguely -- by the cast and crew. Executive producer and key special effects makeup artist Greg Nicotero opened up in the AMC YouTube promo about Rick's transformation from season 4 to season 5.

"I would pretty much guarantee that we're going to see a completely different Rick Grimes in season 5," he said. "One who just is willing to do anything and would never question any motive or any decision. He just goes into it head first."

Lincoln also shared his thoughts on Rick's evolution when he sat down for an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" radio. "You find Rick in an incredibly dangerous and powerful place this season," he said. "He's not in any doubt about his brutality as well as his humanity, and I think he's made peace with that. But that does not negate him being a great father. I think that everything is about the children and his family."

Michael Cudlitz in a scene from “The Walking Dead”

What's equally scary about this upcoming season -- other than the undead roaming about -- is that Sasha's making comments about how "three of us are gone." The logical conclusion in this matter is that some major characters are biting the bullet this season. It's not a stretch for the show to kill off fan favorites -- rest in pieces, Herschel (Scott Wilson, "Monster," 2003) -- and Lincoln added fuel to the fire.

"It is an inevitable part of this show," he said in the "Entertainment Weekly" radio interview. "It's one of the great things, I think, that you have real jeopardy for favorite characters. It won't be without its share of death this season."

You can speculate about when, how and why favorites are axed, but it boils down to one important question: who? If you're a fan of "The Walking Dead" comic books, on which the show is based, you could probably make an educated guess. That doesn't mean, though, that it'll necessarily come true. In the comics, baby Judith was killed during The Governor's strike, Carol was offed instead of Sophia, and Dale and Andrea actually survived much longer than they did on TV, fighting against The Governor at the prison.

There's a lot to mull over ahead of "The Walking Dead's" season 5 premiere. After six long months away from Georgia and the zombie apocalypse, it's time to finally hunker down and prepare for an undead onslaught. Executive producer David Alpert said in AMC's YouTube promo that the group will need to rebuild going forward, but that it'll make for thrilling television.

"What the dynamic is and what's going to happen between these characters is really anyone's guess," he said. "But I can tell you, though, that they are battle-hardened, they are ready for anything and season 5 is going to be even better than season 4."

Season 5 of "The Walking Dead" premieres Sunday, Oct. 12, on AMC.