Barely Surviving // TWD // Daryl Dixon #Wattys2016

Chapter XIX -- Woodbury

"Emotions can certainly be misleading: they can fool you into believing stuff that is definitely, demonstrably untrue."

– Francis Spufford

The next day a lady went to our room and knocked. She said she was going to give us a tour of the town, I was still in bed when she came. I grunted when Andrea shook me and made me get up even when I begged for 'five more minutes', which I didn't get.

"I'm up!" I muttered. I didn't change the shirt but I put some jeans on.

Before walking out I grabbed a banana, I was very hungry. Since this kind of apocalypses started I had learnt to eat very, very slowly, tasting every bite.

Andrea walked next to the woman while Michonne and I walked behind them, she chuckled when I finally caught up with them.

"What? I asked.

She said nothing, she just ran her hands through my light golden blonde hair. My hair normally was barely wavy, it wasn't straight either, though. But since I slept with my hair wet the night before my hair had gotten really, really curly and it was all over the place.

It had been months since I had cared about the way I looked. Sometimes I go days without showering, or brushing my teeth, or applying deodorant. All those things are history. I'm lucky if I get to change my clothes every day now, and speaking of them, I've found almost all my clothes in houses, only some of them are from stores, and I really don't have time to choose and try them on, we just grab the first thing we see. I have even worn men clothes, especially during winter. The fashion is also history now.

Michonne kept trying to tame my curls as we got into the main street, which was full of people. Wait... what? So there are actually people here. It was so bizarre, though. It seemed like if they came out of nowhere, last night everything was so quiet.

"You three were out there for a long time," she told us. "While you were, the Governor was doing this."

"How many people do you have here?" Andrea asked as a pregnant blonde woman passed by and waved like if life kept being like it was before, I just stared at her in disbelief, everyone here looked so... cheerful.

"Eileen's about to pop, so her kid will make it seventy-four," the black-haired woman told us. "It's still a work in progress, but Rome wasn't built in a day."

"That's a bold comparison," I muttered.

"I think we've earned it. Walls haven't been breached in well over a month. We haven't suffered a casualty on the inside since early winter."

"How's that possible?" Andrea asked.

"Our Governor set a strict curfew. Nobody out after dark. Noise and light are kept to the bare minimum and armed guards on the fence and patrolling the perimeter to keep the biters away."

"I saw what your patrols do on the way in last night," Andrea commented. "They had a dead one strung up like an ornament." Hmm, I didn't see that.

"I won't make excuses, those men put their lives at risk every day to protect this town. They've lost more than a few friends out there. Everybody copes in their own way," she said as her tone got serious. "But I'll raise it with the Governor," she said before walking away.

We were walking around the town that even had dogs and a pregnant woman when Merle caught up with us and told us we were cordially invited to have breakfast with the Governor. I said nothing, I just followed Merle and as we were on our way, I turned to look at Michonne and she didn't look happy either. She met my eyes and silently we agreed this was too good to be true, we needed to leave.