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[ season three, episode five ]
Theo's brain was in shambles. The Governor was hosting a party ─ a bundle of festivities to celebrate Woodbury's success at survival. There were cold drinks, colourful banners, soft music, and food. A golden Labrador was chasing a young girl around the small patches of grass in front of the houses that were pressed together on the front street. She was giggling excitedly, and the pink ribbon strapped around her ponytail fluttered delicately in the wind. Her mother was watching contentedly from the sidewalk, almost as if nothing else mattered in the world. As if the dead weren't lumbering around behind the walls; as if they didn't even exist.
It felt wrong. Wrong and plain stupid. The Governor was indulging everyone ─ his own people ─ with his idyllic, unrealistic perception of the world, a place where you didn't have to worry about where your next meal would come from, or whether you'd make it throughout the week without being ripped to pieces.
No, these people were worried about different things. About the party games, about the temperature of their chilled Kool Aid, about the hyperactive children scraping their knees on the sidewalk if they ran too fast. About everything other than what lay beyond the curtain of metal shielding Woodbury.
It was stupid. It was naive hope. It was not real.
It was the old world, brought to simmer beneath the spotlight again.
Theo wanted nothing more than to bury himself beneath the ground. He found himself alone amidst the chaos. Andrea had wandered off somewhere with the Governor, and an MIA Michonne was probably snooping around in places that she shouldn't be. Not that it mattered ─ they were only staying in Woodbury for another day or two, abiding by Andrea's wishes. Andrea said she wanted to scope it out first, see what all the fuss was about. She liked the civilisation, the diversity, the safety. Theo was sure she also liked the Governor, and his flirtatious attitude was bound to have had something to do with the woman's unprecedented determination to stay just a little while longer.
Gross.
A temporary setback.
Andrea was blinded by his charm. The Governor was nothing but a liar. And he was definitely hiding something. Those bullet holes spoke the truth ─ the side of the National Guard tank had become a target for bullets at some point, and there was no other viable explanation for it other than an attack. Last time Theo checked, walkers were incapable of wielding guns. They were incapable of killing in malice, only in necessity to keep themselves alive. Surely, a squadron of military personnel could take down a small herd with the weapons and the vehicles they supposedly possessed at the time of their untimely deaths. The Governor even brought concrete evidence to the gates. Said they died heroically. Said they were ambushed by the biters. But what if the National Guard were taken by surprise, betrayed by something else. . .
