At this moment, Rick is in a coma. It took about 2 years to evolve to where he was at end of Season 6.
Season 5.
True, which means they will be ready for him when he gets there.
An interesting article, I'll try to find it, speculates that the Zombie Apocalypse started in the fall of 2012. The author makes this point by looking at the older iPhone 4's that some of the people in FTWD are using.