Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Forty-one.

To the survivors.

Iris steps away from the bus, wiping the dirt on her hands onto her trousers, she whistles for Bear to follow and together they make their way inside the church with Abraham. Iris sits down next to Carl and takes her hat off and places it on the floor next to her, "here" Rick says holding a plate of food out in front of the woman, "thanks" she says taking the plate and eating the food, within seconds her plate is empty.

Chatter and laughter fills the church, Iris looks down at her hands picking at the skin around her nails, "I'd like to propose a toast." Abraham announces, raising his drink into the air, and everyone goes quiet moving their attention onto the man, "I look around this room... and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title. To the survivors." he says, as everyone cheers Iris stands up, putting her empty plate down, she picks up her hat placing it on her head as she walks out of the church.

Iris patrols around the church, scanning the tree's "Iris" the woman looks around for the person calling for her but she can't see anyone, "Iris!" they call out louder this time, the woman looks into the tree line to see the outline of a person. Iris slowly walks towards them, lifting her gun from her holster, the figure walks further into the woods and Iris follows.

"Who are you?" she asks, following them deeper into the trees, the figure stops a few feet in front of Iris. "Who are you?" She questions again, slowly the figure turns to look at her, but before she can see who it is she see's a car speed down the road, Iris looks around and notices how far she had walked, and that the figure is no longer near her.

"What's going on?" Iris asks running over to Carol and Daryl when she notices them by a car, "those people have beth" Daryl says smashing out the cars lights, she jumps into the backseat and Daryl drives in the direction of the car, staying back to make sure they are unnoticed. Iris leans her head against the window, keeping quiet and staying vigilant.

"So it was just you and Beth after?" Carol asks from the front seat, "Yeah." Daryl says "You save her?" Carol asks "She's tough. She saved herself. We were out there for a while. We got cornered, she got out in front of me and... I don't know, she was gone. I came out and a car's pulling out with a white cross on the window." Daryl explains "Just like that one?" Iris asks, looking at the car in front of them, "Yep."

"Rick's gonna wonder where we went. tank's runnin' low." Daryl says "We can end this quick. Just run him off the road." Carol suggests "Nah, we're good for a bit." Daryl says "If they're holding her somewhere, we can get it out of the driver." "Yeah, but if he don't talk, we're back to square one. Right now we got the advantage. We'll see who they are. If they're a group, see what they can do." Daryl says. "And then we'll do what we gotta do to get her back" Iris says, "they're heading north I-85".

.......

They follow the car into the city until it comes to a stop, "what the hell's he waiting for?" Daryl says watching the car, "there's two of 'em" he says, watching as they get out of the car "is that a cop?" Daryl asks, Iris looks at the two people and notices their uniforms, "they might've seen us" carol says, Iris pulls out her gun, checking it is loaded and taking it off of safety.

The cops walk off to where they can't be seen, suddenly the silence is broken when a walker throws itself at Carol's window, Iris watches the cops drag things to the side of the road, one of the cops stops and stares at our car. Iris tightens her grip on her gun, her heart rate picking up, after a couple of minutes the man gets back into his car and starts driving away again.

Daryl turns the key in the ignition but the car doesn't start "ugh, shit, tanks tapped" "They'd have taken the bypass and they didn't. They must be holed up in the city somewhere." Iris explains "we gotta move, find someplace to hold up till sunlight." Daryl says "I know a place, just a couple of blocks from here. We can make it" Carol says, Iris pulls out one of her knives keeping them high as they make their way through the city.

After fighting off some walkers they stand at the door to a building, waiting while Daryl works on the lock, "two more" Carol warns "almost got it" Daryl says, "come on" he says opening the door, Iris moves in with her knife and gun raised, she creeps down the corridors clearing each room and checking around each corner.

Daryl reaches down and takes a set of keys from a body on the ground, Carol opens a door and together they walk in, "you used to work here or something?" Daryl asks Carol, "something" the woman replies, Iris looks around the room as the other two push a desk against a door, as she looks around the room they had made their way into, finally Iris realises what this place is. She had many calls to places like this when she was a cop, held many hands, and comforted many women and children.

"What is this place?" Daryl asks, "It's temporary housing." Carol says "you came here?" he asks, shining his light on a book 'Treating survivors of childhood abuse', "we didn't stay" she answers, Iris's heart tugs slightly learning what the woman had gone through. "I'm gonna patrol. You guys sleep" Iris says walking out of the room and down the hallway, she steps into one of the other rooms and looks around, she looks down at the dresser and finds another one of those books, Iris reaches down and starts reading through the pages.

"Hey what're you doin?" Daryl says from the doorway, Iris jumps slightly, quickly shutting the book and turning to look at the man, "i was just looking around... seeing if there's anything we could need" Iris says, Daryl nods, looking down at the floor, "also tryna see if they have any cigarettes cause i left mine in my coat back at the church" the woman admits opening the draws and looking through them, "how're you doing?" Daryl's gruff voice asks "I'm fine" "what were you doing in the woods tonight?" he asks "i was patrolling... and i thought i saw something" she admits "but... i think it was just in my head" she adds.

She looks up at the man hoping he doesn't think she's a crazy person, "you need sleep" he says "your stressed and tired... you're putting too much on your shoulders... let me take some of it" he says, for the first time since the prison, Iris felt like things might get better, Daryl slowly walks over to the woman and wraps his arms around her, Iris lets out a long breath she hadn't known she was holding and hugs the man back.

"I've got watch. You should get some sleep" he says, pulling away from the hug, the man never really liked physical touch but ever since he found his brother and she held him, he hadnt minded it much. Iris walks back to the room where Carol lays, she places her weapons on the dresser "hey" Carol mumbles "hey" Iris replies laying down on the bed next to Carol before drifting off to sleep.