Issue 48

Issue 48 is part 6 of Volume 8: Made To Suffer.

Plot Synopsis
Rick has found Alice pointing a gun at Lori and Judith. Rick is shocked and confused until Lori explains that it was just a ruse to protect herself and Judith in case the Woodbury soldiers made it into the prison. Alice would pretend to help the Woodbury soldiers by taking Lori hostage. Carl crawls from his hiding spot under the bed and the Grimes family embrace. Alice reminds everyone that they should leave the prison. Lori is concerned about the lack of a plan but Rick calms and reassures her that they will be fine as long as they move quickly and stick together.

The Governor is outside with a large number of Woodbury soldiers and orders them to shoot at Hershel, Billy and Patricia who are taking cover behind a corner of the building. Patricia believes that they will die if they just stay where they are, so she begins running away. Billy attempts to stop her, however, she gets shot. Billy is paralysed by Patricia's death and cannot move so Hershel grabs his arm saying that there is no time to be shocked. They begin to run towards the truck, firing at the Woodbury soldiers, however, Billy is shot in the head. Hershel turns and notices that he is no longer holding Billy's arm but is dragging his limp body and looks in disbelief at his son.

The Grimes family and Alice arrive outside and see Hershel kneeling over his dead son. Rick calls to Hershel notifying the Governor of their position. Hershel refuses to join them and with tears in his eyes replies, "Just leave me." Alice stands in the doorway and fires upon the Woodbury soldiers to cover the Grimes family as they start running. She is shot in the knee and falls, killing one more soldier before the Governor kicks her gun out of her hand and shoots her at point blank range.

Carl, Rick and Lori continue to run when Lilly, one of the Woodbury soldiers is commanded by The Governor to shoot at them. She hits Lori in the lower back with a scatter gun, and the bullet travels through her stomach, killing Judith as well. She falls and Rick stops for a moment and watches with tears in his eyes as his wife and daughter die then turns and yells at Carl to not look back and keep running. Rick stops Carl from running to the truck and they instead force their way through the zombies in the opening in the fence. The Governor lets them go as he thinks they don't stand a chance out in the open. He then turns his attention to Hershel who is still crouched over Billy's dead body. He looks up at the Governor and says; "Dear God... Please. Just kill me." The Governor obliges him and shoots him in the head.

Lilly then realizes that she has killed a baby and turns on the Governor calling him a monster. She hits him with her rifle and puts the barrel in his mouth as the other Woodbury soldiers yell for her to stop, when zombies overrun the group. The Governor pulls the rifle out of his mouth, and tries to calm the group and get them to stick together but Lilly shoots him in the head and kicks his body intto the oncoming zombies. The remaining Woodbury soldiers then retreat to the building, firing as they go. They run out of ammo right as they reach the doors and get inside.

After escaping the Prison, Carl asks where his mother and Judith are. Rick starts to cry and tries to explain but he is overcome with grief. The Issue ends with the fence down and zombies roaming within its perimiter as Rick and Carl hold each other a distance away from the prison.

Credits

 * Rick Grimes
 * Lori Grimes
 * Carl Grimes
 * Judith Grimes
 * Brian Blake
 * Hershel Greene
 * Billy Greene
 * Patricia
 * Alice
 * Lilly
 * A lot of Woodbury soldiers

Deaths

 * Lori Grimes
 * Judith Grimes
 * Brian Blake
 * Alice
 * Hershel Greene
 * Billy Greene
 * Patricia
 * A lot of Woodbury soldiers

Trivia

 * Last Appearance of Lilly.
 * Creator Robert Kirkman wrote: "Things did change a bit in (the prison siege) arc while I was writing it--originally, Lori and Judy were going to die in 47, but then I moved things around and it got shoved into Issue 48. Which on one hand, made that cool twist with Alice possible, which resulted in the death being more of a surprise. But at the same time, it made it to where most of the deaths in this arc took place in one issue—which wasn't originally the plan."


 * Kirkman also wrote: "I'm not going to say (the Woodbury survivors) were all killed (when their bullets ran out), but it's very unlikely that we'll ever see them again. The prison is dead to me. I've moved on and so have the characters."