‘The Walking Dead’ Season 4: New “Infected” Sneak Peek, and Details on the New Threat!

Amid all the 'Walking Dead' excitement of the past few days in the announcements from the New York Comic-Con panel, season 4 premiere "30 Days Without An Accident," and the mammoth 16.1 million viewers that caught it, we have yet another cause for anticipation. AMC has released another sneak peek of next week's "Infected," while the producers offer new insight into the new threat facing Rick and the prison!

Following the first sneak peek of next week's episode, the latest look from "Talking Dead" picks up yet another threat to the survivors beyond the mysterious disease that claimed young Patrick's life in a matter of hours, as an unseen figure visits the walkers along the fence at night, and riles them up by feeding them rats! Squeamish visuals inside, what possible purpose would someone have to gather all the walkers to a single spot on the fence? We'll find out!

As for that mysterious disease, showrunner Scott Gimple confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the illness indeed correlates to a walker Rick glimpsed outside the fence to be bleeding from its eyes, as well as the dead pig "Violet," all of whom most likely died of the same affliction. The illness will also complicate the ability to fight off walkers, as blood and fluids spraying everywhere might well further spread the infection.

Don't expect any crash courses in virology or mutation of the undead infection, however, as series creator Robert Kirkman specified to Vulture that the virus has simpler classifications than we might have ascribed to it:

Pulling in a new threat in your fourth season, I think, is a good thing. Also, it’s important to know that this is really just some form of the Spanish Flu. It’s something that exists in our everyday world now; it’s a time where there is no modern medicine. Scott Gimple, the new showrunner, really wanted to explore that new possibility of the simple things, the really little things, coming to devastate these people. That’s what we’re going to explore.

You can check out an early sneak peek of 'The Walking Dead season 4's latest episode "Infected" above, and give us your predictions in the comments! Who do you think will fall to either walkers or the sniffles this week?