Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Sixty-five.

They're weak.

Iris leaves Rick to do his rounds, she takes her gun back and heads to Deanna's house. Walking up the steps she knocks on the door, Maggie opens the door, smiling when she sees her friend "hey Iris" she greets, "hey. Is Deanna here?" Iris asks "yeah she's just in her office" Maggie says, stepping to the side and leading her friend to the office.

Maggie gently knocks on the door opening it when she hears a faint 'come in', "Iris is here to speak to you" Maggie says, "Miss Wolf, what a lovely surprise. Come in have a seat" Deanna says gesturing to the seat in front of her desk, Iris takes a seat and Maggie leaves them to speak. "What can I do for you?" "I was thinking about your offer" Iris says, "you were? Have you got an answer?" Deanna asks.

"I will do it" Iris says "that's wonderful thank you. I'll get your uniform ready for you, and you can start tomorrow" Deanna says, "have you got any idea of things you want to happen?" she asks, "your people need training. They're weak. You will get attacked. No matter how high your walls are, someone will attack. And when they do, your people need to be able to fight" Iris explains, "so you want to train them?" "everyone. The old and the young. These kids need to be able to fight" Iris says.

"Okay, I'll get Maggie to spread the word... is there anything else?" Deanna asks, "nah" Iris says, "well if you come up with anything come and talk to me" Deanna says. Iris leaves the house and decides to walk around for a bit, looking at every little detail. "Hey" Daryl says walking up to Iris, "hi" she says "'m headdin out with Aaron. Wanted to tell you and say goodbye" Daryl says, "be safe" she says, reaching out and pulling him into a hug, Daryl hugs her back, closing his eyes and taking it in. "Bye" she says, pulling away from the hug, she watches as he walks away, back to his bike sat at the gate, anxiety grows in her as she watches the gate close behind them.

Iris takes off her backpack, opening it up and pulling out her cap, she sits it on her head and walks back to Olivia's house "hey what do you need?" she asks, "I wanna see all the weapons you got" Iris says, "what for?" Olicia asks, "I need to know what we're working with... what we have and what we need," Iris explains.

"Okay" Olivia says, leading the woman to the room with the weapons and leaving her to do her thing, Iris looks at all the guns on the wall, then she looks at all the handguns and then she starts looking at the ammo. When she's done she heads back to the house and starts coming up with a plan.

......

Iris stands on the porch smoking a cigarette, looking out at the neighbourhood, "hey Iris! Come with me!" Rick says from over the road, Iris finishes her cigarette and walks down to the man "Deanna told me you took the job" the man says as they start walking together, "yeah... you've got a job. Daryl's got a job. I thought I should probably accept the offer" Iris explains.

After walking a little further they stop outside one of the houses, "hey" Rick says to the blonde woman "hey" "this is Iris. Iris this is Jessie" Rick says, "nice to meet you" Iris says "you too" the blonde replies. "What happened?" Rick asks, talking about the metal laying on the floor, "I don't know. Maybe somebody doesn't like owls." Jessie says, "Someone came in here and did this?" Rick asks, walking closer, Iris stays by the entrance looking around.

"Yeah. Stuff like this never happens here." Jessie says, watching Rick crouch down and help clean up, "Well, you got any enemies? You know anybody who hates owls?" Rick asks, making the blonde woman laugh, "too bad there isn't somebody who could look into this kind of thing. I'll ask around." Rick says, "No, you don't have to." "Yeah, I know." "Okay, so you find the person who did this and then what?" Jessie asks.

"Some kind of consequences. You ever heard about the broken window theory? Boils down to this-- you keep the windows intact, you keep society intact." Rick explains "This was an owl, Rick." "Yeah. Yeah. I got to do something today." the man says turning around and walking away with Iris. when they get a little further away Iris speaks up, "you like her" she says bluntly, Rick looks at her for a minute, shocked at her words, "it's not bad... you deserve to find someone... Lori did" Iris says, looking down at her hands as she says the last part.

Rick hums and nods in agreement as they carry on walking without speaking, they make it back to the house and sit down, "you and Daryl" Rick says, looking at his friend, "what about us?" Iris asks, "you two seem close" he says, Iris doesn't say anything she just looks down at her hands, picking at the skin around her nails nervously.

"He kept me safe... when I found him after the prison. He kept me safe, he would stay up every night and make sure none of those guys touched me... he makes me feel safe" she explains, Rick smiles slightly, happy that his friend has found Daryl. "I'm really happy for you Iris" Rick says, "you're my sister and I want nothing but the best for you. You deserve happiness" the man says, they both stare at each other for a moment when a knock sounds from the front door.

Iris stands and watches as Rick moves to the door, opening it to find Jessie's husband, drunk, "Hey, Rick, just having a beer. Thought I'd bring you one for helping my wife today." the man says, walking into the house, "Um, I'm good, but thanks." Rick says

Iris eyes the drunk man, moving her coat to the side and resting her hand on the handle of her knife sitting on her belt, "Come on, don't tell me you're still on duty." "Kind of always am, you know?" "Not at Deanna's party. I saw you. You had some, right?" "You know, I wish I could have helped out more today. I asked around, but nobody saw or heard anything." Rick says.

"Well, it was just an owl. Grand scheme of things, I think we'll live." "Yeah." "I'm sorry. Heard you lost your wife." the man says, Rick looks at the man and then to Iris, noticing the woman ready to fight if needed "You know... I'm sure it looks like we haven't lost much, but we have. We've lost things. Other things we're just fighting like hell to hold on to. Everything you people have been through, I don't know if you see that." "We do." Rick says, Pete smiles slightly and brings his bear up to his lips.

"Bring your kids in for a checkup. I know I offered you one, but they really should come in. They were out there a while, right?" he asks, "Yeah. Thanks, Pete." Rick says, trying to stay polite, "Let's be friends, man. We kind of have to be, right?" Pete asks, stepping up to Rick, Iris tenses slightly, gripping her sheathed knife. "Yeah, we do." "So we will. I'll see you, Rick." Pete says, shaking Rick's hand and walking out of the house. Rick closes the door behind the drunk man and looks back at Iris "what a dick" she says, dropping her hand from her weapons.