Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Thirty-two.

We can all live together.

"Rick, come down here!" The governor yells from on top of the tank "and bring the red head! We need to talk!" he shouts, everyone stays silent unsure of what to do. "That isn't up to me! There's a council now. They run this place!" Rick says "is Hershel on the council?!" the governor asks, everyone watches as one of his soldiers walks to a car and brings out Hershel.

"What about Michonne?" the governor asks, and again one of his people brings the woman out of a car kneeling her down next to Hershel. "She on the council too?", "I don't make decisions anymore!" "You're making the decisions today Rick! Come down here. Let's have that talk!" Iris looks over at Rick, he walks over to Carl saying goodbye before opening the gate, as he does that she looks back at the young boy giving him a nod before following Rick down to the fence.

"Let 'em go right now... I'll stay down here. Talk as long as you want. But you let 'em go." Rick says Iris looks over to Hershel and Michonne making sure they aren't injured before looking back at the governor and she doesn't take her eyes off him.

"You got a tank. You don't need hostages." Rick adds "I do. This is just to show you I'm serious. Not to blast a hole in our new home" the governor says with that same dirty smirk as he had from before. "You and your people, you have till sundown to get out of here or they die." "doesn't have to go down this way." "I got more people, more firepower. We need this prison". Deep down iris wants to shoot the governor and end this right now, her mind and her heart fight on what to do.

So she looks to the one thing she knows will help her, Hershel, and he looks back at her. Without any spoken words she understands that she needs to let Rick deal with this. When she looks back to the governor she tunes back into the conversation going on around her, "I have a tank. And I'm letting you walk away from here. What else is there to talk about?" the governor asks.

"I could shoot you all. You'd all shoot back. I know that. But we'll win and you'll be dead. All of you. Doesnt have to be like that. Like I said, it's your choice." The governor says, everyone's attention moves to a walker as it makes its way towards them, but Iris keeps watching the governor, he raises his gun and shoots the walker before turning back to Rick and Iris.

"Noise will only draw more of 'em over" he says putting his gun back, "You got maybe about an hour of sunlight left. I suggest you start packing. The longer you wait, the harder it's gonna be for you to get out of here." We can all-- we can all live together. There's enough room for all of us." "More than enough. But I don't think my family would sleep well knowing that you were under the same roof." "We'd live in different cell blocks. We'd never have to see each other till we're all ready. It could work." Rick tries "You know it could." Hershel speaks up.

"It could've. But it can't. Not after Woodbury. Not after Andrea." "Look, I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. Fact is, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder than standing here shooting at each other. But I don't think we have a choice." "We don't. You do" " We're not leaving. You try and force us, we'll fight back. Like you said, the gunshots will just bring more of them out. They'll take down the fences. Without the fences, this place is worthless. Now, we can all live in the prison or none of us can." Rick says.

The governor jumps down from the tank grabbing Michonne's sword and walking over to Hershel, holding the sword to his neck. "You. you in the ponytails'' Rick says pointing to a girl that looked scared, "is this what you want? Is this what any of you want?" he asks "What we want is what you got. Period. Time for you to leave, asshole." one of the men says.

"Look, I fought him before. And after, we took in his old friends. They've become leaders in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons, walk through those gates... you're one of us... We let go of all of it, and nobody dies. Everyone who's alive right now. Everyone who's made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive. But we can still come back. We're not too far gone. We get to come back. I know... we all can change." Rick explains.

Iris looks down at Hershel, tears threatening to build in her eyes, as she watches the man that had helped her so much stares back at her. The governor moves the sword away from Hershel's neck, and Iris notices the small smile on the older man's face, proud of how far Rick had come. Suddenly everything around Iris slows down as she watches the governor swing the sword back before bringing it back to Hershel's neck.

"No!" Iris screams, her heart shattering into pieces, she reaches for her gun and as she does she notices how time feels as though she was moving through jelly. All the sound from around her is muffled and all she can hear is her heart beating in her ears. She lifts her gun and starts shooting at people. Suddenly time catches up and everything starts to speed past the woman.

Shooting at the people she starts running over to the bus and ducking behind it, she grabs onto Rick and helps him move out of the way of the cross fire, looking down at the gunshot wound on his leg. Once they are clear she starts shooting again. The governors group start driving into the prison and Iris grabs Rick hiding out of the way with him as they make their way past the duo.

Suddenly Rick tackles the governor, the two start the fist fight and Iris reaches for her knife in her belt, but before she could do anything someone grabs her from behind. She quickly turns and cuts the man with her knife, he doubles over grabbing onto his stomach that she had just cut, she grabs onto his shoulder and drives her knife into the bottom of his stomach dragging it up and letting his body hit the ground before stabbing him in the head and moving on.

She turns to see the governor on top of Rick strangling him, before Iris can do anything Michonne drives her sword through the governor's back, she looks over at Iris nodding at her. Iris turns and starts running towards the prison, she runs past the bodies, stabbing walkers as they try and get her, she runs up to her cell but Bear isn't there.

"Bear!" she yells running out of the cell and looking over the banister, but there's no sign of her dog, she runs back into her room grabbing her backpack and filling it with her stuff. She looks around one last time and her eyes stop when they see Bears toy, she quickly shoves it into her bag before running back out of the prison. By the time she steps back out the only thing she finds is the dead walking, and her mind shuts down as she makes her way out of the prison and into the woods.

A/N:

I cried writing this chapter. It was honestly so hard, so I hope you enjoy it.