In The Walking Deadcomic book series, The Alexandria Safe-Zone, or just Alexandria, is a few blocks of cleared streets in Alexandria, Virginia, about six miles from Washington, D.C. When Rick Grimes' survivor group arrived, Douglas Monroe stated that the community had existed for less than a year. To date, this is the longest lasting location the survivors have lived in, with a lifespan of almost three years. In the war against Negan, Alexandria suffered considerable damage and was overrun and temporarily abandoned. After the war's end, the survivors came back to Alexandria and started to rebuild it. Two years after the war, Alexandria was completely rebuilt and has been vastly improved, with the addition of new houses, crops and orchards.
In The Walking Dead television series, The Alexandria Safe-Zone appears in the fifth season and is led by Deanna Monroe. The Safe-Zone was created after refugees were directed there during the initial outbreak. Rick Grimes and his group find this safe haven after they encounter Aaron, whose job is to recruit new residents in order to make Alexandria stronger. At first, Rick's group is apprehensive upon arrival due to the many horrific things they have witnessed during their long sojourn outside The Safe-Zone's walls. After some time, however, the group appears to sink in and feel more comfortable in this new environment, with the exception of Daryl Dixon and Sasha, who are struggling after the recent losses of Beth Greene, Tyreese, and Bob. Rick and his group think that settling into this place will make them weak, and that the Alexandrians are already weak and do not know what they are doing. Rick plans to change this. He says, "If they can't make it, then we'll just take this place". Rick, Daryl, and Carol devise a plan to get weapons from the armory and slip out with the others, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, who are feeling comfortable in Alexandria. The three take advantage of the naivete of Alexandria's people to the extent of the dangers surrounding them, and use this to sneak out their weapons. After finalizing a plan, the three behave as normal residents. Eventually, Rick gets into a fight with an abusive surgeon named Pete Anderson after finding out he has abused his wife, Jessie, and ends up pointing a.38 Colt Detective Special revolver at some of the Alexandrians. Rick is thrown in jail, for a "cooling-off" period, and Pete is forced to live separately from his family. The people of Alexandria hold a forum to decide what to do with Rick, with Deanna leaning toward banishment, but after Pete shows up and murders Deanna's husband, during Pete's attempt to assassinate Rick, Deanna orders Rick to execute Pete and decides Rick should stay. Rick's group ends up staying and more closely integrating with Alexandria and its residents. In the sixth season, Rick is now the co-leader of Alexandria alongside Deanna and starts to take precautions to keep the community safe. Alexandria is soon attacked by "The Wolves", leaving many of its residents dead or emotionally harmed, but makes some of its residents stronger, learning that "If you don't fight, you die." This is closely followed by a herd that is led to the walls of Alexandria on a mission to get the herd away that had gone wrong. Inside, the residents are panicked, but Rick assures them that the walls will stay up. However, after a while, the church tower falls down due to damage inflicted on it during the Wolves' attack and crashes through the wall, letting walkers swarm in. Rick and the group along with Deanna, Jessie, and her family seek refuge in the houses, but are forced to leave after they too are overrun. Deanna was bit when the walkers came through, and stays behind. Rather than committing suicide, she opts to use her remaining bullets to take out several walkers, giving the others a better chance at escaping. They attempt to leave Alexandria through camouflaging themselves in walker guts but their plan comes unstuck when Sam panics and, by drawing attention to the group, is consumed alongside his mother. The last of the Anderson children aims his gun at Rick but is killed by Michonne before he fires, but as he dies accidentally shoots Carl in his right eye, wounding him terribly. Rick, Carl and Michonne make it to the surgery where Carl is given emergency treatment. Consumed by rage Rick exits the surgery and begins slaughtering walkers and is joined by most of the rest of the town.
In a review of the fifth-season episode "Remember", in which Alexandria first appeared on the TV series, Tim Surette of TV.com noted that "Alexandria is no Woodbury, and that's a good thing, because we certainly don't need a repeat of that storyline. Not only Andrea is no longer around to screw things up with her love for bad boys, but overall, Alexandria appears to have its shit together much more than Woodbury ever did. That difference is important, because 'Remember' approached the idea of joining a new civilization in a much better way, by focusing on the survivors' psyches after a hot shower rather than just presenting them with the mere prospect of safety." Surette concluded that "A return to normalcy is Alexandria's biggest selling point, and it's hard for Deanna to imagine anyone turning that down". Rebecca Hawkes of The Daily Telegraph described Alexandria as "brilliantly realised, with houses that would have been luxurious by any standards, let alone post-apocalyptic ones, and a veneer of all-American suburban 'normality' that rendered the entire place somewhat surreal." In a review of the next episode "Forget", Sean McKenna for TV Fanatic felt that Sasha's outburst at the complacent townspeople shows that "Alexandria really seems like a surreal fantasy." McKenna added that "the sort-of dreamlike atmosphere that surrounds the walled-in town and the survivors figuring out how to live there has been intriguing." In reviewing the fifth season finale "Conquer", Jason Hughes of TheWrap commented that before the attack by the Wolves, "Alexandria has been an oasis of innocence isolated from this dark and twisted world, but it’s an innocence that has not yet been tested." Erik Kain for Forbes commented that after the attack by the Wolves, "we're left with an Alexandria Safe Zone that doesn't feel that safe, with its numbers much diminished, but at least maybe now the inhabitants are awake to the real threat---and to the value of Rick and his crew." In reviewing the season six mid-season finale "Start to Finish", Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club comments that as the walls fell and a horde of walkers pours in, "Alexandria is most likely dead. Which should be a shame, because this is a town that offered the promise of a fresh start, a hope for the future, but then, that’s kind of what this show is all about, really."
