Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Twenty-three.

It will be over when I kill him.

"Iris... can we talk" Rick asks from behind the woman, watching her retract her knife from the head of a walker, letting it drop to the floor on top of the other walkers she had killed. The woman lowers her knife to her side, sweat and blood covering her face, after a minute of silence the woman turns around and looks at the man.

"Come with me" he says walking away and leading Iris up to the top of the watch tower, "how are you doing?" he asks looking out into the woodlands down bellow, "i'm fine" she says "im sorry about what i did back there... i shouldnt have done that" she adds "dont apologies... what... what did he do to you?" Rick asks.

"They tied me up... he put his knife to me and ripped my top off, before he...." Iris says looking down at her feet "when he got bored he started hitting me... until he knocked me out..." she continues.

"Did he..." Rick starts talking but cant finish his sentence, but Iris knew what he was thinking, "no, he didnt" she answers. "Iris i'm really sorry" Rick says turning to his friend "it's not your fault, i chose to go... it'll  be over when i kill him" Iris says looking over at Rick.

While the rest of the group helps Andrea leave, Iris stays in the back, looking down at her feet.

........

The sun had gone down and the group had gathered around in the prison, Daryl stood next to Hershel and Iris while the older man is checking on her stitches making sure it wasn't infected or if it had opened up from the constant movement, while he moves to check on her black eye Beth starts to sing for the group.

Rick walks over to the trio with Judith in his arms, the women looks at the baby sleeping peacefully in her fathers arms, "some reunion, huh?" Daryl says "shes in a jam" Rick says "we all are." Herschel says.

"Andreas persuasive. This fella's armed to the teeth. Bent on destruction." he adds "so what do you want to do?" Daryl asks "we match it. Im going on a run. I'll head out tomorrow." Rick explains, "i'll go with you" Iris says.

"No, you stay here." rick says "rick please" she pleads, the man looks down at the woman for a minute "fine but only if Hershel says you can" he says looking over to Hershel, who nods yes.

"Keep an eye on your brother" Rick says to Daryl , "im glad youre back, really, but if he causes a problem, it's on you." Rick adds "i got him" Daryl says.

"We'll take michonne" Rick says "you sure thats a good idea?" Daryl asks looking back at the woman "we'll find out" Iris says, "and Carl. he's ready. You hold it down here" Rick says to the two men. "You go it" Daryl says and the four of them go back to listening to Beth sing.

......

Iris opens her eyes, quietly trying to catch her breath after her nightmare, so she doesn't wake up the boy that is still refusing to leave her alone.

She sits up on the bed and slips on her shoes before rubbing her hands up and down her face trying to wake herself up, bear stands up from the doorway and walks over to his owner, sitting down with his head laying on her legs.

Iris strokes the dogs head, she leans down and kisses the top of his head before standing up off the bed, the girl carefully puts her coat on, and then grabs her backpack. The woman takes out all the things she doesnt need for the day and lays it all out on the bed, before putting it on her back.

"Carl. its time to get ready" Iris says gently, the boy opens his eyes and sits up, rubbing his eye and getting out of bed. Iris leaves him to get ready as she takes Bear outside to run for a minute and do his business, once bear was done they made their way back inside, to see Rick, Carl and Michonne getting their stuff.

......

Michonne drove the car through the empty roads, Rick to her right, Carl and Iris sat in the back staring out the window.

Iris turns her attention to the front when she hears yelling, a man with only a backpack waving them down and trying to chase them as Michonne drives past him.

Carl whips his head around to look at the man when Iris reaches over and grabs it gently, turning it to look ahead.

The group come across a car wreck, the car moves over to the grass to try and get past but then suddenly the tires get stuck in the mud, and walkers start banging on the windows.

"Cover your ears" Rick says, everyone listens, holding their hands over their ears. Rick opens his window slightly, putting his gun through the gap and shooting the walkers.

Once all the walkers have been killed, the group climb out of the car, Iris starts looking for things to take back with them while Rick and Michonne work on getting the car free.

Iris looks through a suitcase she had found in one of the cars, she pulls out a T-shirt and shoves it into her backpack before turning her attention back to the other three.

Up the road where they had just come from, Iris see's the man running towards them screaming and begging for them to help. Michonne starts the car and manages to get it free.

When they all sit in the car, Iris looks over to the young boy, the slight look of guilt washes over his features as they drive away from the man again, she reaches down and holds onto the boys hand squeezing it gently.

......

The group pull up to an empty town, the very town she had once lived in, Iris pulls out her knife from her belt and get out of the car, pulling on her backpack and looking around and walking over to Carl keeping him close.

The group walked into the police station and go straight to the armoury, Rick sighs looking at the empty room, "shit" Iris mumbles out. "You got any other police stations in town?" Michonne asks, "I was the police here. Along with Iris and a few other guys" Rick explains.

Iris looks down at her feet at the mention of their old life, "ain't a big town" Iris says, "there's other places to check. May not have as many guns as were in here, but..." Rick says, "we need as many guns as were in here. Ammo too" Michonne says.

"Yeah we do. But right now, I only got a line on a couple" Rick explains "I know somewhere we can get some" Iris says walking out of the station.

The group walk past an opening in a wall and stop, looking at a pile of burnt bodies, Rick turns back to look at Iris but sees the woman also doesn't know who did that.

Carefully they make their way further into town, the group round a corner and find the road full of traps, Iris pulls out her gun and everyone raises their weapons and move closer.

"What is it?" Michonne asks "I don't know" Rick replies, "they're traps" Iris says closely inspecting them "watch your steps, they could have a tripwire" she adds.

"It looks like someone's already made this theirs." Michonne says "doesn't mean they found what we're looking for." Rick says as they duck under a rope, "couple of the places are just up ahead. Let's get it, and get the hell out of here" Rick says.