Chapter 30: Caesar Martinez
Martinez knows life shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't just be endless killing and wrecking of corpses, walking on so much blood and guts and gore and shit, but fuck, he's given up on asking himself why and how and meaningless questions like that with no answers.
The universe is a piece of shit and God is clearly done with humans.
That much is obvious.
What else would you call this apocalypse?
The man who Martinez once was died when his wife and children died in front of him, and he had to be the one to kill their reanimated bodies, while begging them to regain their normality.
Be it right or wrong, he will do what the Governor says, because he's right, the world out there is shit.
Do what he wants and you're alive another night.
Do what he doesn't want and you're out there on your own, and that will get you nowhere but dead or undead. H
He believes this until he sees the Governor slaughter all of his own citizens, just because he could. Because he got frustrated.
Martinez freezes, as does Shumpert.
They think time has stopped as they watch the people they fought hard to protect die. They stand still.
Like so many others, they wait for him to kill them. He doesn't-not yet.
But that is when Martinez has had enough. He tells Shumpert that they are leaving and they leave.
Life looks good for the first time in a while. He has new people to look after, new friends. Pete and his brother are…weird. But not in a bad way.
They're normal. No more walker battles. No more walker chain fighting. No more torture scenes.
No more crazy bullshit with that man, because he's dead. Right?
That is, until the day he sees the man again, hiding in some hole, away from some walkers who assumed he was their dinner. The man murdered them to save a young girl.
Well, that would be cute if it wasn't coming from the same man who slaughtered his own citizens, his own people he swore to protect.
He doesn't trust Philip. He doesn't trust his new identity.
Clearly he's lying out his ass. But he gets lax.
He plays golf like the Governor himself used to. Philip watches.
Part of it feels like before.
Maybe that's why he let go.
The Governor strikes him over the head before he understands what happened.
'I knew you'd eventually kill me. You killed everyone who worked for you. Merle. That scientist guy. Everyone.'
"I don't want it! I don't want it!" What the hell is he screaming about, he's the one who did a bad thing. Stop.
He sees the pit of walkers and knows he's being judged for the crime. Goodbye, life.
Martinez goes down screaming.
The Governor watches in triumph. Another setback, dealt with.