Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Seventy-seven.

Today's the day.

Iris slowly opens her eyes, looking around she realises she fell asleep on the porch last night while keeping watch, she stands up and walks into the house, ignoring the loud music. She grabs a bottle of water, chugging it before throwing the empty bottle away, she walks upstairs to the bathroom and brushes her teeth and finishes getting ready. She goes back downstairs and grabs her backpack and leaves the house again, "hey" Daryl says walking over to her "hi" she greets, looking at the man and giving him a small smile, and they start walking around.

"Hey!" he calls, looking up at Denise, "yes?" she asks, walking over to them, "This thing at the bottom right here. You're talking about the drink, right?" Daryl asks, looking down at the list she had given them, "I am, but..." "It's not medical." Daryl interrupts "No, I drew a line between the important stuff and that. I just figured, if you saw it." she says "All right." "Anything remotely medical is a priority. And food, maybe even food before medicine, and gas or batteries or books for the kids or clothes is just-- if you see it, if it just happens to, you know, be right there." Denise rambles.

"You like it, right?" Daryl asks "No, I don't drink pop." she says "What the hell's pop?" Daryl asks looking at her confused, "Oh, I'm originally from Ohio." "Why'd you want it?" Iris asks "Tara was talking about it in her sleep, I think. Either she likes it or she doesn't, but if she likes it, it'd be a really nice surprise. I'm not good with that kind of stuff, and she and Heath are going on that two-week run. I just thought it'd be a nice going-away present. Just, uh, don't go out of your way. And if it gives you any trouble..." She Rambles again.

"I won't." Daryl says "Okay, good, 'cause it's not important. I should've said so instead of just drawing a line." the blonde continues as Iris and Daryl start to walk away, "Got it!" Daryl calls out to the woman behind them. Iris and Daryl meet Rick at the car, the three of them climbing in, Iris in the back, Rick driving and Daryl in the front passenger seat, Eugene opens the gate and moves to Daryl's open window.

"I mapped out some of the agricultural supply places in the area. Even if they've been cleaned out, my bet is that the sorghum would be untouched. Now, that there is a criminally underrated grain that could change the game with our food situation from scary to hunky-dunky. I'm talking standability, drought tolerance, grain-to-stover ratio that is the envy of all corns. Think about it." Eugene explains, "Thanks." Daryl says, and Rick starts driving away.

"Today's the day." Rick says, driving down the empty dirt road "Uh-huh." Daryl grumbles, Iris looks out the back window, "We're gonna find food, maybe some people. The law of averages has gotta catch up." Rick says "I don't know. We ain't seen nobody for weeks. Maybe we ain't gonna find nobody. Maybe that's a good thing." Daryl says, Iris watches as Rick starts messing with the radio, "Don't. Don't. Please don't." Daryl says.

"Give me the downbeat, maestro." the radio sings, Rick raises his hand and starts snapping his fingers to the beat off the song, Daryl looks at Iris through the rear view mirror, catching her attention, she quietly chuckles at the man's expression, Rick looks through the mirror and watches his closest friend light up slightly.

........

After driving some time Rick stops the car, quickly putting it into reverse and speeding backwards, turning and driving towards a building. Iris pulls out her gun and they all pile out of the car, Iris looks around while Daryl starts searching through his bag, "Hey, hold up. It's best to be safe. You cover it?" Daryl questions the other two, Iris stands behind him, watching their surroundings, Daryl slides open the large garage door and Iris moves in, pointing her gun in the gap next to a large truck.

"Yeah, we're good." Rick says "good" Iris says, moving back to the other two, "One more time?" Rick asks "It ain't locked." Daryl says, Iris holds onto her gun and watches as Daryl undose the latch, the door sliding open, Iris and Rick look around inside and make sure it's all clear. "Well, how about that? The law of averages." Rick says, looking at all the supplies filling the back of the large delivery truck, "Yep." Daryl says,

"Let's get this thing going, grab our gear, come back for the car later. Take another way back. See what we can see." Rick explains, closing the back again, "Think it'll start?" Iris asks, "Yeah, I do." Rick confidently says "Sorghum." he adds smiling. Rick gets into the driver's seat, Iris sitting next to him and Daryl sitting next to her, Rick starts the truck, smiling over at Iris and Daryl before driving away.

They stop the truck at a gas station, all of them climbing out and separating, Iris walks over to the car sitting in front of the building and looks under the hood seeing that there was no fixing it, "Yo, give me a hand with this." Daryl says to the other two, Iris closes the hood of the car and walks over to him with Rick, "Let's flip it over." he adds and the three of them grab onto the vending machine and start trying to lift it, but it's too heavy for them and they drop it back down to the ground.

"I don't think we got it." Rick says "I got an idea." Daryl says walking back over to the truck, he connects the vending machine to the truck using a chain, Rick gets into the driver's seat and starts driving forwards. Iris and Daryl watch as the machine flips over, crashing as it lands, Daryl lets out a whistle and Rick turns off the truck, climbing out and walking over to the other two.

"It's soda and candy. Why the trouble?" Rick asks as they watch Daryl look inside the large metal box, "It wasn't any trouble." Daryl says Rick suddenly falls into the machine, knocking into Iris and accidentally pushing her into the metal box, Daryl quickly pulls out his gun and points it at the stranger that had just caused the accident.

Rick pulls out his gun pointing it at the man as well, both men stand in front of Iris as she stands up straight again and pulls out her gun, standing in between the two men. "Hi" the masked stranger says, holding his hands up in surrender.