...
The sky gradually began to lighten.
A scream, a mix of panic and horror, suddenly rang out!
People started to emerge from the Community residential buildings in twos and threes.
They gathered in front of the willow tree, but couldn't help but retreat, with a few lingering 'Oh my god's' occasionally heard from the crowd.
Outside the crowd.
The Governor, who had just arrived from outside, was still saying something to Martinez.
"They can come once, but I don't want to see them get in a second time."
"Within a week, I want you to prepare the army and the strongest firepower we can muster. They..."
Before the Governor could finish, he inadvertently caught sight of the crowd gathered in front of his building.
"What are they doing?"
The Governor frowned, his steps quickening involuntarily.
He pushed through the crowd, and looking at their expressions, the Governor felt an inexplicable irritation in his heart, his actions becoming rougher without conscious thought.
What on earth happened?
The more this happened, the more the Governor wanted to know what had occurred.
Until he pushed aside the last person obstructing his view, the scene that met his eyes caused the Governor's pupils to contract, and his mind went blank for half a moment.
He saw that from every branch of the sturdy willow tree, a round object was suspended.
They all had their eyes tightly closed, as if peacefully asleep.
Just seeing this sight, an unprecedented sense of horror and a creeping scalp sensation uncontrollably swept over everyone present.
Martinez caught up from behind, his gaze sweeping over each familiar face, and he too involuntarily took a few steps back, breathing heavily and unable to speak.
When the Governor arrived, all eyes converged on him.
But his gaze merely passed over the nine objects hanging above, then gradually moved downwards.
On the ground beneath the willow tree, there was a Stone Hammer, its head touching the ground, its handle standing straight upwards.
And at the end of the hammer handle, a black cloth bag was inverted.
The instant he saw this black cloth bag, the uncontrolled associations produced in his mind soaked the Governor's entire back with sweat.
He walked forward, each step seeming heavy.
With each step he took, the surrounding atmosphere grew even more solemn.
On his fourth step, his legs even gave out, and he fell directly to the ground.
But even so, no one around him stepped forward to help him up.
The Governor half-knelt, half-crawled to the Stone Hammer.
Ignoring the shocked gazes of the Community residents, he trembled as he gently traced the outline of the black cloth bag.
"No, nonono--"
Just by looking at the outline created by the black cloth bag, the Governor couldn't help but rest his forehead against it, through the cloth.
The veins on his forehead bulged, his face flushed, and the sudden, overwhelming blow made him not even dare to lift the bag.
Yet, despite this, he knew it was his daughter, the daughter who had long been infected and turned into a Walker.
The daughter he had kept hidden in a secret room, feeding her with living human flesh.
After crying for a long time, the nearly delirious Governor suddenly ripped off the black cloth hood.
A Walker's head, embedded in the end of the hammer handle, came into view.
It also had its eyes tightly closed, as if asleep.
In its last moments before falling, it seemed to have had the blood wiped from its face.
Aside from a deep hole in the back of its head that went straight to the brain, it didn't look particularly gruesome.
When the black cloth bag was uncovered, a piece of paper held in its mouth suddenly dropped down, clear for everyone to see.
It was words written in the Walker's dark blood, and from a distance, it looked as if they had been carved in, stroke by stroke.
"An... an eye for an eye?!"
A gasp from a Community resident came from the crowd.
They first looked at the note, then at the Governor, their expressions of doubt and uncertainty hard to hide.
Why an eye for an eye?
Had the Governor done something in the past that they didn't know about?
The Community residents looked at each other, and mutual astonishment and surprise could be seen on their faces.
It seemed... the Governor wasn't as benevolent as they had imagined.
Beneath his seemingly civilized exterior, perhaps lay a body and soul more filthy and rotten than a Walker's.
Panic and suspicion began to spread throughout Woodbury.
...
At the same time.
A figure, slightly panting, stopped in the small town.
Shawn rested for a moment where he was, waiting for his heartbeat to calm before continuing forward.
"After adding more Agility sequences, my mobility has indeed improved a lot."
This time, Shawn felt as if he had rediscovered his own body.
If it were the old Shawn, he would never have been able to do those things silently, much less arrive at the town by daybreak.
"But if I calculate the time, that 'Governor' should have already discovered the gift I left, right?"
Shawn didn't smile, his pupils just flickered.
Killing wasn't new to him, but arranging body parts like this was a first.
Even now, Shawn could vaguely recall the eyes of the militiaman he had killed last night, his mouth covered.
It was precisely because of this that Shawn had gently closed their eyes.
Shawn shook his head, comforting himself softly.
"This isn't a battlefield; there are no humanitarian agreements."
"When they were privately plundering resources, these people contributed a lot. Killing them is clearing mines for my future self."
"Conversely, not killing them is burying mines for myself."
"Now the Governor knows about the Prison's existence, and with his character and mindset, there's no reason he'd let the Prison go."
"Damn it, I should have at least brought Shane along this trip. I shouldn't have to suffer alone."
Shawn suddenly missed Shane.
He missed his stance of walking with his hands on his hips, and his short temper that made him pull out a gun and act at the slightest disagreement.
But then again.
Shawn imagined what the Governor would look like when he saw the 'display of heads'.
"If he only saw the first nine, he might not have an emotional reaction."
"But that last one will surely break his heart, perhaps even make him lose his will to fight for a short time."
"I didn't even give the Governor the chance to personally deal with his Walker daughter. I absolutely cannot let him spontaneously break free from his psychological shackles."
"To attack a person is to attack their mind. This scene will surely become an unresolved knot in his heart."
Shawn analyzed carefully.
After all, the Governor was a very interesting person.
If he had to find someone to compare him to, Shane might be a relatively fitting choice.
However, compared to the Governor, Shane was fundamentally different.
Simply put, both were very suited to the apocalypse, and even the initial Shane had shown signs of 'violent rule' in his specific actions.
It was precisely because of this that Shawn had confronted Shane multiple times, suppressing him in the early days.
But Shane could change, because he wasn't inherently bad.
The Governor, however, was simply a pure evil seed, an evil seed reborn in the apocalypse.
As long as the apocalypse continued, he would still have vitality.
Even in the original plot, when the Governor was given a chance to reform, he still chose to return to his original life path.
It wasn't until the very last moment that the Governor chose to tear off his mask of benevolence.
Aside from his Walker daughter, he probably never cared about anyone else.
Violence and power were merely 'trauma compensation' for losing his wife and daughter, a temporary choice to fill the void, and also an increasingly twisted and perverse desire for control.
When Shawn eliminated the Walker that the Governor cared about most, one day in the future, the Governor's retaliation would surely come.
The Governor was a venomous snake, twistedly peering at every place his gaze reached.
However, Shawn had decided to do this, never hoping to solve the Governor's problem once and for all.
Shawn merely wanted to weaken Woodbury while delaying the Governor for a period of time.
Although the Prison couldn't compare in numbers, the actual combat power it could exert might not be much worse.
Especially with Shawn's appearance, Rick no longer focused solely on his idealized moral standards.
If Shawn led externally, and Rick internally.
With two such leaders, the people of the Prison could not be weak.
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