Chapter Twenty-Four

Ascendancy

It was in the moment when Abraham entered Woodbury that he knew he had walked into a trap. All it took was a gut feeling, and the hairs on the back of his neck to rise to know when to not trust something. He trusted his gut feeling, he had to. It had proved him right more times than he could physically count and he trusted it to no end. There had been so many times in the past when he had dodged a dangerous situation by the a fingertip and it had been his gut feeling warning him. As he glanced around at Woodbury, the place that promised salvation and hope, he knew that his gut feeling in that moment was right. He couldn't trust the place or anyone in it. He moved his attention towards Rosita who was looking around at the old buildings with a smile on her face. It had been the first time in a long time that they had seen a town that was thriving with people and stories but for Abraham, he knew that it was giving the impression of being an ideal place to live when in fact it was a façade. He wondered what went on behind doors.

A tall man about the same height as Abraham stepped forward, and stopped in front of the new arrivals. Abraham gave him a once over, his eyes scanning across every little detail that Abraham could see. He had an eye patch covering his right eye, his fists were tightly clenched together to the point his knuckles were turning white, and his gaze in his remaining eye focussed on Merle who was stood to the left of Abraham. Milton stepped forward, whispering something to the man to which the man nodded.

"Come with me," Milton said. "Let's get your wife to the nurse."

Morgan, Jenny and Duane all made to follow behind Milton. The man who had walked up to them made a sound that stopped them.

"The boy stays with us," he said.

Abraham furrowed his brow but remained silent. He watched as Jenny gave Duane a weak kiss upon the forehead and glanced over at him.

"We'll look after him," Abraham said. Morgan gave him an appreciative nod of the head, before they followed Milton towards the nurse. Rosita stepped forward and rested an arm over Duane's shoulders.

"The name is The Governor," he said. "I know you've met Merle, Martinez and Milton here."

"I'm Rosita," Rosita replied. "This is Duane, and Abraham."

"Before you fully enter Woodbury, your weapons will be taken from you," The Governor said.

Before he or Rosita could protest, The Governor raised a hand up to prevent them from talking. He continued. "It's a safety precaution that everyone has to abide by. We, as Woodbury, prefer a no weapon rule. The guards as you see around us are the only ones who have weapons, and if I'm being totally honest, I trust them with my life. Once the introductory process is over, you may request for your weapons to be returned to you which will be taken to a board of people and left for them to decide."

"Are you on that board?" Abraham spoke up.

"I am, yes," he said.

Abraham smirked and nodded. "Thought so."

"You may want to act reasonably and treat me with some respect, because if you didn't know already, I'm the leader of this place," he said. "Martinez will show you to the rooms where you can get cleaned up. We don't want you to scare the children here. They're scared enough with what's going on over the fence."

"Thank you," Rosita said, following Martinez. Morgan kept close to Rosita as they made their way to the check in rooms.

Abraham, however, remained where was. He was unsure about the guy, and his gut feeling was unavoidable. It was like a warning signal. The man standing before him watched him cautiously, noticing the way the red head looked at him. He was making a mental note of every little detail of him, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He'd seen it before, a few days ago. It angered him to know that there were people in this world who would raise an eyebrow at him and Woodbury, whereas other people, like Rosita, would fall for the façade that Woodbury gave hook, line and sinker. It amused him knowing the fact that people were so desperation for salvation, for a place to feel safe, that they would welcome any given place in the hope that it would give them everything they wanted.

"Another thing," The Governor said. Rosita and Duane came to a halt, and turned to The Governor. Her eyes flicked towards Abraham, and saw the stern look etched across his face. "Welcome to Woodbury."

The Governor walked away from the small group at that moment, and Abraham watched him leave. He turned towards Rosita who explored his face for any emotion. He shook his head gently, and Rosita nodded. Martinez began walking in the direction of the admission building and the trio followed after him. Once Martinez had left and had left the three of them to settle in as much as they could, Abraham turned to Rosita.

"This place..." he began. "I don't trust it."

"What's not to trust?" Rosita countered.

"Let's see," Abraham began. "The leader of this place calls himself 'The Governor'. He has a real name, and he chooses to call himself that. And everything, I don't know what it is, but it doesn't feel right. We need to leave."

"Okay..." Rosita said. "Let's just see how the next few days go. Morgan and Jenny need us. Duane needs us. If we just up and leave, where will that leave us? On the road with nothing. We've been doing that for so long now, Abraham. We've been trying to find a place like this for months now, and we haven't found it. Until now. We need Jenny to get better, and until then, we can't leave here."

"As soon as she's better, we leave," Abraham ordered. "I'm gonna go for a walk. See what goes on around here."

Abraham found himself walking around Woodbury with narrowed eyes and questions entering his mind. He was on edge as he walked by various people deep in conversation. He captured snippets of their conversations and found that they weren't too important to take a mental note of. Woodbury was a quaint town which would've thrived before the outbreak.

He wanted to trust this place. He didn't just have to think about himself, he had other people who needed him to make good decisions that would benefit them and keep them safe. They had made a mistake, and Jenny was hurt. He knew he should've listened to Rosita when she had told him to go the other way, but he was sure it was that way. He had been wrong, and Jenny paid the price. Over the past few weeks when he had stumbled across Morgan, Jenny and Duane, they had quickly become friends. He didn't trust a lot of people, but they were good people and just wanted the best for their son: a roof over his head. He wanted to help them as much as possible.

"You shouldn't be out here."

A voice behind him caught his attention and his footing came to a halt. He turned slightly, and observed the person who had interrupted his walk. A woman with long dreadlocks stood there, her eyes boring into him. He closed his eyes for a moment, cursing himself for thinking that he was able to get so far into Woodbury without catching the attention of one of the guards on duty.

"Are you going to tell him?" Abraham asked, to which the woman shook her head.

"Why would I tell him?" she asked. "The least he knows, the better."

"You a guard?"

"Nope," she said, stepping closer to him. "I'm Michonne."

"Abraham," he replied.

"You don't trust this place, do you?" Michonne asked. "I saw you when you entered. There was a girl who had the same look on her face. Army girl."

"Oh yeah?" Abraham asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yeah," Michonne replied. She motioned towards his attire. "You're in the army, right?"

"Yes ma'am," Abraham said. "What's her name?"

"Anna," Michonne replied, confusion etched across her face as she watched Abraham's eyes grow wide. He took a deep breath. "You know her or something?"

"She was a colleague of mine," Abraham replied. "Is she still here? What happened to her?

Michonne shook her head. "I think they killed her."