But as you've said to me about the plot, if that is the ending then the show could easily end within 3 to 5 seasons, not planning on doing 12 seasons like the writers have promised.

Thank you! Someone else seeing it from my perspective of the show, if anything like that was to really happen in real life Government officials, and Military would be some of the people that I'd be most confident was still alive.

Why? There's all of the story they have had involving the characters over the years.

Could end in 3 to 5 seasons if they only include things you are interested in.

What you enjoy and don't enjoy doesn't equate to what is and isn't relevant to the stories they are telling.

And I doubt that will be the "ending" as the show isn't about them. It'll be about whatever ending is in store for the characters we're actually watching on-screen.

What story do you think that they're "telling" though? Alot of the characters are either dead or just hanging on through sheer fan popularity at this point (Daryl and Michonne) the only "story" that seems to be mentioned on here is them moving from point A to B which isn't even really a story in itself if it's basically still just Negan hunts them down from another location with his Biker Gang type mentality, you could basically just keep him and Simon still going for them in Alexandria and it still wouldn't make a difference.

Being fair the current story doesn't exclude the possibility that government officials are still alive as they'd probably be living in a bunker somewhere, or perhaps a very remote base in the middle of a desert or something, for several years after the initial outbreak.

Its more the small groups of soldiers etc. I'm wondering about - we've hardly seen any alive! There was the tank driver from The Governors town I suppose, and Abraham but I'm sure he was an ex-soldier or at least on leave when it all started.

Surely there would be groups of soldiers who were together in barracks when it all started... And you get those military villages where soldiers live with their families etc... Wouldn't communities like that be some of the most likely to survive for a while? Rather than "normal" little settlements like Hilltop or Kingdom. I mean they did explain Alexandria which survived until Rick's arrival on a combination of self sufficiency and isolationism, the strong walls, and some good luck. But not so much the others.

That said, they've still not explained the helicopter that Rick saw overhead in the first half of this season. I don't think it was The Saviours, been no indication that they have one, so maybe there IS a well equipped base around somewhere.

The Show if it's any good at all (which I think that it has the ability to do this) it should answer what happened to the soldiers, because I agree with you that it's weird that after all of these years the group has not once bumped into any Military base that would exist in a scenario like that I feel.