Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Eighty-five.

Let's talk.

"All of you, lower your weapons right now." the woman says through the talkie, Rick picks up the walkie talkie and lifts it to his mouth "Come on out. Let's talk." he says, "We're not coming out, but we will talk. We've got a Carol and a Maggie. I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about."

Iris looks to Rick before looking out at the tree line, "Now, we're gonna work this out right now, and it's going to go our way." The woman says, "pick him up" Rick says, Daryl and Glen pick the man up, Iris steps back and keeps her gun pointed at the man, "You can see we have one of yours. We'll trade." Rick says into the walkie, "I'm listening." "First I want to talk to Maggie and Carol, make sure they're all right." Rick says to the stranger.

"Rick, It's Carol. I'm-- I'm fine, but–" Carols voice is cut off before she can finish talking "Rick, it's Maggie. We're both okay. We'll figure thi–" Maggie is then also cut off, "You have your proof. Let's talk." the woman says, "This is the deal right here. Let 'em go, you can have your guy back and live." "Two for one, that's not much of a trade." "You don't have another choice or you would've done something about it already." "Look, I know you're talking it over. It's a fair trade. Just come out, we do this, we all walk away." Rick says, "Do we have a deal?" Rick asks, "I'll get back to you." the woman says.

Iris is quick to start moving away from the compound, after looking for a while she finds some tracks, she lets out a loud whistle and the others make their way over to her, "you got it?" Rick questions "yeah" she says, she starts to follow the tracks, making sure she doesn't ruin them, the others staying a few feet behind her, Daryl watches her closely while he keeps the hostage close to him.

She stops and looks down at blood in the leaves, she whistles and Rick makes his way over to her, Glenn following close behind him, "what is it?" Rick asks, "there's blood here. With the way the leaves are, looks like someone got shot" she says, pointing at the scene, "was it maggie?" Glenn asks concerned, "nah. This was a man. Probably one of the saviours" she says before walking off again and following the tracks.

Iris stops and looks down at the footprints, "this is where they were" she calls out to the other behind her, "how'd you know?" Aaron asks "the prints are deeper. Means they were standing here longer... and it's got a perfect view of where we were" Iris says "i'd say we got four of 'em." she says "It's three women and a man." she adds "his footprints are larger than the others, and there's blood on the floor around the prints" she says to Aaron, then she continues to follow the prints.

"Aaron. Come here" she says, "You've gotta be careful not to mess the tracks up. We're lucky here cause they were messy. You see these ones?" she asks the man, stopping and pointing at the tracks, he looks down at them for a minute "is it a walker?" he asks, "nah. It's Carol and Maggie. They've got blindfolds on... see how the prints are dragged. They can't see so they're trying to see with their feet by dragging them along the floor" Iris explains before moving off with the man again.

"How do you know this stuff?" he asks, "my dad took me out hunting. He taught me the difference between human and animal. If they were injured or scared. I taught myself some of it as well. I used it to find my way home when he would leave me in the woods" She admits, ignoring the man's pitiful look, "sorry... i shouldn't have asked" he says "don't be sorry" she says, looking at him and forcing a small smile before going back to tracking.

Iris steps out of the woods and onto the road, "what now?" Glenn asks, stressing about his wife, "I can still track them. You guys go back and get the vehicles, I'll start tracking them" Iris says, "are you sure?" Rick asks her, "I've got Aaron to help me" she says walking away as the others go back to the cars. "How are they gonna know which way we went?" Aaron asks.

Iris reaches into her back pocket and pulls out the thing she grabbed before leaving, "i took this before we left Alexandria" she says holding up a piece of chalk, "so how do you track on a road?" he asks, "they got into a car here" she says looking down at the fresh tire marks, "this time of year you got leaves on the floor. When the car drives past them it moves them, so you look at how they are laying and thats how you find out" she says.

"They went that way" Iris says, bending down she draws a small spot on the floor and walks down the road with Aaron, "I thought i was good at finding people but seeing you work puts my work to shame" Aaron says, letting out a light laugh, "i'm not that good. I've missed things before" Iris says, "your still better than me" he says "you found us" Iris says.

After walking further down the road Iris hears cars driving done the road towards them, she grabs onto Aarons arm and pulls him into the trees, he hides behind a tree, holding onto his gun tightly, Iris lays on her stomach on the floor propping her rifle on the floor and waiting for the cars the get closer. From her angle she cant see the top of the road as the cars stop in front of them, a door opens and Iris holds her breath listening out for the signal.

A whistle sounds out and Iris stands up, she sees Rick stood in the middle of the road, the others sat in the cars behind him, Rick turns and looks at the woman as she emerges from the tree, Aaron following closely behind her, "you okay?" Rick asks the two, "we're good" Aaron says, "what have you got?" Rick asks, "theres a building up ahead with cars parked out front" Iris says, "think it's them?" Rick asks, "yeah." Iris says, the three of them get back into the cars, Iris sits in the bed of the truck again and they start making their way to the building.

When they pull up Iris jumps out of the truck and they all split up, Iris holds up her rifle to the door as Glenn slide it open, Iris lowers her gun when she see Carol and Maggie on the other side of the door, she makes her way to Carol hugging her tightly, pulling away and letting Daryl hug her.

"Your friends are dead. No one's coming for ya. So you might as well talk." Rick says to the last saviour, "Let him burn." Daryl says, "I'm gonna ask you one last time... how'd you get the bike?" Rick asks "We found it." "Like hell you did." Daryl snaps back "We found it." the man repeats "Was Negan in that building last night or was he here?" Iris questions "Both... I'm Negan, shithead. There's a whole world of fun that we can talk about, so let's have a chat." the man says, "I'm sorry it had to come to this." Rick says, raising his gun and shooting the man in the head.