New The Walking Dead clip, pics set up midseason face off with The Whisperers

As The Walking Dead moves on from Rick, the flagship AMC zombie show heads towards a new and horrific threat: the Whisperers. Led by Alpha, the mysterious group of survivors clad in walker leather. Yes, they wear zombie skin over their faces. Yikes. Now, as the show gears up for its midseason return, fans can see that the conflict between these secret-keeping weirdos and the more relatable non-Hannibal humans is about to reach a head.

In a new clip and some new images, The Walking Dead teases what goes down to make the confrontation happen — as if running into some folks wearing decomposing human skin wouldn’t be enough. The pics don't seem to reveal much, though there is one shot of Negan on the loose and carrying a shovel. That, umm, can't be good, right?

Check it out:

“Your people crossed into our land. Your people killed our people. There will be conflict,” Alpha says. It seems a small misunderstanding (and a lot of blood) may be pushing the story along for the second half of Season 9. Though, once fans see how they put on their disguises, any threat of siding with the Whisperers just goes right out the window.

AMC also released some new images from the back half of the season, which you can see below:

The Walking Dead returns on Feb. 10.