Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Sixty-eight.

Just in case.

Iris stands up and wipes her tears, wincing when she touches her bruised face, she walks back to the house and finds some of the group talking, "Where'd you get the gun?" Michonne asks, "You took it, right? From the armoury?" Carol asks "That was stupid. Why did you do it?" she adds "Just in case." Rick says "Deanna's planning to have a meeting tonight. For anyone who wants to." Glenn announces "To kick Rick out?" Abraham asks, "To try." Carol says, "We don't know that. Maggie's with Deanna right now. She's gonna find out what it is." Glenn says.

"At the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it. You say you took a gun just to be sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you'll do whatever you want them to. Just tell them a story that they want to hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here." Carol explains, "Why?" Michonne asks "Because these people are children and children like stories." Carol says.

"What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" Abraham asks from next to Iris, the woman keeps her eyes to the floor as she listens to the conversation, "They're guarding the armoury now." Glenn says "We still have knives. That's all we'll need against them." Carol says "Well, tonight at the meeting, if it looks like it's going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer, you grab Reg, Glenn, Iris and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd." Rick explains.

"We can talk to them." Michonne argues "Yeah, we will. If we can't get through, we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats." Rick adds "Like at Terminus?" Glenn asks "No, we just tell 'em. They give us the armoury and it's over." Rick explains, "Did you want this?" Glenn asks "No. I hit my limit. I-- I screwed up. And here we are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna sleep some more." Rick says, laying back down and everyone leaves him there.

"Can I talk to you?" Iris asks Abraham, "sure little red" he says and they walk away from the others, "i just want to say thank you for what you did for me... carrying Bear for me... helping me bury him... it really means a lot" Iris says, "it's no problem. We're family" the man says and they both stand in silence "how's your face?" the man asks "It's fine... nothing i haven't dealt with before" she says.

.......

After a few hours Iris walks back to check on Rick, "hey" the man says, watching the woman walking into the room and sitting on the chair by the bed, "hi" she says "did you get checked?" Rick asks, looking at the woman's black eye, "I'm fine" she mumbles, "I'm so sorry I didn't stop him from hitting you" Rick says, "it's fine" Iris says, looking down at the floor, Rick watches her as they sit in silence "that's how my dad used to hit me... that's how the governor did it too" Iris whispers just loud enough for Rick to hear.

"Iris I'm really sorry" Rick says "it's not your fault" Iris says standing up from the chair, "I'll see you in a bit" Iris says leaving the man, when she gets out of the house she quickly walks to Deanna's house. She lifts her hand and starts knocking on the door loudly until her husband opens it, "I need to speak to Deanna" Iris says to the man, not in the mood for normalities.

"She's not speaking to anyone right now" the man says, "i don't care i need to speak to her" she demands, the commotion makes Deanna walk up to the front door "not now Iris" she says, "i need to speak to you" Iris says, Deanna lets out a frustrated sigh before letting the woman in and taking her into her kitchen.

"What can I do for you Miss Wolf?" Deanna asks, "you can't kick him out" Iris says and Deanna goes to speak but Iris cuts her off "don't talk. Rick needed to do that. Pete was hitting his wife!" Iris says growing more annoyed "he needed to be stopped before he kills her" Iris adds "you don't know that was going to happen" Deanna says "yes i do! I know that he would've killed her! Cause that's what happened to my mother! My daddy would hit her! He would hit me! But she stayed for years! Until one day she tried leaving and she died, taking my little sister with her!" Iris shouts.

Too stuck in her spiral she doesn't notice that Deanna's husband had walked into the room to make sure Iris wasn't going to hurt his wife, Deanna just stares at Iris in shock, unsure of what to say "do you know what? Kick him out. Kick us all out. It's you that will die" Iris says, storming out of the house, slamming the door shut behind her.

She starts walking through the streets, pulling out a cigarette and her lighter, lifting her shaking hands to her lips and smoking the stick, she hears nothing but her boots hitting the floor. She keeps walking, going around in a circle getting deeper and deeper in her spiral.

You're getting weak. You should have left them at the prison. You're failing. Your replying not surviving. You're going to get them all killed. Daryl's probably dead. Bear is dead. You're killin them all. You're a failure. You let a man beat you again. You let your guard down.

"Little red!" Abraham calls, chasing after the woman, she stops and turns to him "i've been calling your name for like twenty minutes" the man says, finally catching up to Iris, "the meeting is about to start" he says, Iris looks at him confused before she realises the sun had set and the stars had covered the sky, she looks back at the man and starts walking with him to the meeting.