Lilly Caul (Comic Series)

"Right now the safe zone is small, I'll grant you that. But we're planning to expand that wall over there to another block to the north, and this one over here, maybe another two of three blocks to the south, so what we're eventually going to end up with is a town within a town, a safe place for kids, which will, one day, if all goes well, be totally self-contained and totally self-sustainable."

- Lilly introducing Woodbury to the Duprees.

Lilly Caul is a character first encountered in Issue 43 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead and the protagonist in the Novel Series. She is a female resident who took refuge in Woodbury. She, along with her fellow townspeople, rallied against Rick's group and aided The Governor in his assault on the prison.

Marietta, Georgia
Back when Lilly was a child, Lilly enjoyed many of her fathers' spook stories that he would tell her on the porch at their home. She also adored the shudders she would get when reading the twist ending of a Shirley Jackson novel, or watching the denouement of ans X-Files show, or devouring books from the school library such as Strange but True Tales of the Supernatural.

Before the outbreak, Lilly worked for the U.S. Air Force at the Dobbins Air Base in Georgia. Lilly went to high school, with Megan Lafferty, where she wanted to find a career in fashion. She and Megan shared nearly everything. Megan and Lilly would get high in the bathroom, and go to the roof of the school. From there, the two would throw rocks at the jocks running drills behind the basketball court.

At the age of 19, at Georgia Tech university, Lilly once wrote a paper for Psych 203 called "The Mother of Invention," which was a scholarly study of how the snap judgments of people in stressful situations, cops, soldiers, paramedics often led to ingenious solutions, which occasionally become standard operating procedure places, writing "that all great inventions of the human imagination are totally pumped up and enhanced by life-and-death situations."

Georgia Field Camp
Lilly and Megan decided to stick together. After a while they met up with three families, one of them being Chad Bingham's. As time went by they got more and more people to join the group, until there was nearly one hundred survivors, including Joshua Lee Hamilton and Scott Moon. Lilly and Joshua had a relationship. As the Georgia Field Camp was attacked by zombies, Lilly escaped, leaving Joshua to die. Some of the survivors managed to save Joshua, seconds before being devoured. Lilly felt ashamed for leaving Joshua, even though he tried to forgive her. Later on she was given the job of watching Chad Bingham's daughters during a zombie attack on the camp, during the attack she managed to save all, but, one child who fell behind, another event she could barely live with.

After the second main zombie attack, Chad Bingham confronted Lilly in the woods leading to her suffering a brutal beating for the death of Bingham's daughter. Joshua Lee Hamilton however stepped in, and in a blind rage threw Bingham against a tree, instantly killing him.

After this a horribly beaten Lilly, Joshua, Megan Lafferty and her current boyfriend Scott Moon, and a truck driver/former army medic by the name of Bob Stookey had to leave the camp.

On The Road
While on the road they made a few stops while trying to avoid walkers and possible hostile strangers. During this time Lilly and Joshua grew closer, as Megan and Scott had sex and smoked weed, while Bob was persistently drunk.

While searching for supplies in a run down department store, Caesar Martinez and his team from Woodbury confront them. During the hostility, Lilly stuck behind Joshua, while Martinez and Joshua talked peace. By the end, the two teams agreed to go back to Martinez's new growing town: Woodbury.

Woodbury, Georgia
Lilly's group met directly with Brian Blake to talk about joining the town. During this talk, Scott Moon suggested he was like the President, to which Brian Blake suggests at most he'd be Governor, starting his nickname.

During this time, Lilly became increasingly aware of the skirmish a few weeks before her arrival, and increasingly worried about the town's hostile attitude, and bartering system which was leading the members of her group into danger. Eventually, Joshua is killed in a fight over the bartering system, and at first Lilly is lost without him. Meanwhile, Megan Lafferty began bartering sex for drugs and Bob Stookey made friends with The Governor. Eventually after Megan's suicide because of the life she was living, and the fighting arena being set up, Lilly decided to make a coup d'état on the Governor's rule with the aid of Martinez (who became increasingly aware of the type of man Brian was), Stevens, Alice, and a few of Martinez's men.

The plot involved a kidnapping during the arena fights, where the Governor would be loaded into a truck and brought out into the woods where they could execute him. However the Governor catches on at the last second, causing a loud noise and two of the Governor's close men to follow. The Governor's men were also captured, and escaped their bonds in the middle of the drive into the woods. Eventually both groups have a stand-off in the back of the van, only broken by a hoard of zombies attacking their vans. Both groups decide they need to work together and need the Governor alive, much to Lilly's anger.

In the end, the Governor makes a compromise to end the bartering system, much to applause by the Woodbury citizens. After the announcement, the Governor makes Lilly and all of her surviving insurrectionists chop up dead bodies (probably as zombie food/bait) as punishment and an act of fair dominance and by reminding them he could have killed them easily. The Governor even accepted Martinez back into his inner circle, while under her breath Lilly cursed the Governor.

The Prison Assault
Lilly takes over the leadership when The Governor is in coma, the stress makes her miscarry, and she blames Rick's "intrusion" for losing her baby. Burning with rage, she vows revenge against Rick and his group, and this is the motive behind her decision to participate the prison assault. Lilly is seen first in Issue 46 in a Woodbury crowd, having a surprised reaction, either at seeing Michonne coming up behind The Governor, or because of the Governor's story that Rick's group killed Tyreese.

It was Lilly who shot and killed Lori who fell on Judith Grimes. She then blamed the Governor for Judith's death and became extremely distraught. As a result she killed The Governor and kicked him toward a wall of zombies. The prison then became overrun with zombies, causing the Woodbury survivors to run inside for safety.

Escaping The Prison and Aftermath
In the aftermath of the assault, Lilly and the Woodbury people who managed to escape into the prison were trapped. Lilly rallied these survivors and promised to them that she would lead them to safety. Eventually Austin sacrifices himself to lure the mass of roamers away from the door, thus giving Lilly and other Woodbury surivivors a chance to escape. Lilly manages to destroy the herd of roamers and lead the survivors back to Woodbury. Out of the two dozen Woodbury citizens who participated in the prison assault, only six survived.

Overall the number of residents in Woodbury stand twenty nine: nine women, fourteen men and six children under the age of twelve. The novel ends with Lilly, now the new leader of Woodbury, welcoming the new refugees that arrive at the town.

Lilly will reappear in a fourth novel of new set of four novel series, which will follow Lilly's life as the leader of the new Woodbury, and how she manages to lead, secure, and reinforce Woodbury without The Governor.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Lilly has killed:
 * Andrew (Zombified)
 * Stevens (Zombified)
 * Lori Grimes
 * Judith Grimes (Caused)
 * Brian Blake
 * Scott Moon (Zombified)
 * Mike (Zombified)
 * Christina Meredith Haben (Zombified)
 * Penny Blake (Zombified)
 * Matthew Hennessey (Out of Mercy)
 * Wilkins (Out of Mercy)
 * Numerous counts of zombies.

Relationships
{{Scroll-1|

Joshua Lee Hamilton
He is Lilly's romantic interest. They meet in a camp of survivors and Joshua takes care of her. After he gets kicked out, Lilly along with some other people, go with him. They arrive together in Woodbury, Joshua and Lilly become very close, even saying that she loved him, but was scared because she didn't want him to think she is using him. After his death, she becomes very depressed and mourns him greatly. But she says he taught her one thing before he died, and that was to never be afraid.

Megan Lafferty
She went to school with Lilly and they were best friends. After high school they drifted apart, but they were reunited and stayed together. While in Woodbury, Lilly gets tired of seeing her friend exchange sex for food, and breaks up the relationship. Despite this, Lilly was deeply saddened by Megan's death.

Bob Stookey
Lilly is shown to care for Bob. Bob saved her life when she was badly beaten by Chad by patching her up. She on many occasions has tucked Bob in from nights of heavy drinking, she always looks after him. She also helped him as he recovered from Megan's death.

Caesar Martinez
Martinez helps Lilly in their plan to kidnap and kill The Governor, along with his men, Bruce and Gabe. However, their plan goes awry when a zombie horde finds them.

Brian Blake
"I said you were a fucking MONSTER. Look at what you made me do! JUST FUCKING LOOK!"

- Lilly to Brian after she killed Lori and Judith.

After Joshua Lee Hamilton 's and Megan's deaths, Lilly joins forces with Martinez in an attempt to take down The Governor and his reign of terror. However, their efforts backfire and she ends up doing dirty work for the town as punishment. Further down the line, she fight alongside her leader against Rick's group and is responsible for the death of Lori and Judith Grimes. Once she realizes her actions caused the death of a baby, she turns on Brian and shoots him dead, later using his body for protection against zombies.

Judith Grimes
"You made me kill a fucking baby!"

- Lilly to Brian.

Though she never knew Judith, she did feel remorse out of causing her death and even cried. She then killed The Governor because of it, blaming it on him.

Austin Ballard
"You're not going to lose me. You're my man. Do you understand? It's you and me, end of story. You understand?."

- Lilly to Austin.

Austin is seen constantly trying to flirt with Lilly. Lilly enjoys his company at times but doesn't want a relationship with him even though she did say he is "easy on the eyes". She soon starts to fall for him, opening herself up to him as they become close. One night after they were talking about memories and their dreams, they began drinking. Lilly already knew she wanted to kiss him but something was holding her back. After Austin made a joke about "not having any condoms" they started laughing, and then they kissed. She soon ends up pregnant with Austin as the father.

Austin eventually sacrifices his own life so that Lilly could live, the morning before he died, Lilly told him she will always love him.

Calvin Dupree
To Be Added

Wilkins
"Go easy, Speed... rest in peace."

- Lilly before shooting Speed.

Although not seen interacting much, Lilly trusts Speed and the two have a stable relationship. As Woodbury gets overrun, and Speed gets devoured, Lilly is shown to care and gives him mercy, shooting him in the head from the distance.

Matthew Hennessey
"Ssshhhh, close your eyes, Matthew. Just close your eyes and go to sleep."

- Lilly before shooting Matthew.

Although not seen interacting much, Lilly cares deeply for Matthew. As Woodbury gets overrun, and Matthew is shot, Lilly is shown to be shock as Matthew apologises to her. Lilly cares for him as he is dying, and comforts him as she shoots him in the head out of mercy.

Tommy Dupree
Lilly welcomed Tommy and his family to Woodbury. Tommy kills his own father to protect Lilly after Calvin tries to kill her.}}

Appearances
{{Scroll
 * content=

Novel Series

 * "The Road to Woodbury"
 * "The Fall of the Governor"
 * "Descent"

Volume 8: Made To Suffer
}}
 * Issue 43 (Flashback, No Lines)
 * Issue 46 (No Lines)
 * Issue 48

Trivia

 * Lilly has a tattoo of a Chinese character on her lower back.
 * Lilly suffers from a severe case of claustrophobia.
 * The novels reveal that she has a lot of tics, which appear when she is nervous or afraid.
 * Robert Kirkman confirmed in a Letter Hacks, that this Lilly is separate from the Lilly in the Video Game.
 * Lilly and April Chalmers were amalgamated in the TV Series in the form of Lilly Chambler.