Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Eighty-eight.

Twice As Far.

Iris opens her eyes, looking out the window and seeing its still dark, she looks back to the man holding onto her as he sleeps, "i'm leaving" she whispers, he loosens his grip and opens his eyes, "we're leaving earlier so we can go out further" Iris explains, standing up and putting on her gear and cap, "be safe" he grumbles watching as she pulls on her boots and grabs her backpack, "i will be" she says leaving the room.

She opens Carl's door quietly, "Carl. Get ready" she whispers, leaving when she knows he's awake, she walks downstairs and waits outside on the porch smoking her cigarette. Carl makes it outside by the time she's finished, "go and get Aaron and i'll get the car. Meet at the gate" Iris says. She climbs into one of the cars and starts driving to the gate, when she pulls up Carl and Aaron are standing waiting for her, they climb in and the guard opens the gate.

Iris slows the car and pulls off the road into the woods, they all climb out and Iris starts covering the tire tracks, "this way" she says leading them into the woods "Aaron, why don't you take lead?" Iris asks, "you sure?" he asks, "yeah" she says stepping back and letting the man lead the way, she watches him walk with his eyes glued to the ground, he stops and takes a closer look, "there, is that a deer?" he asks, Iris looks at what he's pointing to and smiles "yeah. Now find it" she says.

They follow the tracks, staying quiet and slow, finally they come across the deer, Iris pulls her handgun from her thigh "now you gotta kill it" Iris whispers Aaron raises his gun and aims at the animal "go for the head" she whispers, Aaron pulls the trigger and the deer drops to the floor. The walk over to the deer, Iris grabs onto the animals front legs and Aaron grabs the back legs and the three of them make their way back to the car as the sun slowly starts to rise.

Iris speeds down the road back to Alexandria, when they park the car up they pull the deer out of the boot of the car and take it to the front garden of the house. Iris teaches them how to skin the deer so it comes off in one, she then shows them how to dry it out and the best way to cut it to get as much meat as possible.

.........

"After I got out of DC, I just drove. I remember seeing it right when I realised I had no idea where I was going. Edison's Apothecary and Boutique. It's just this little gift shop in a strip mall, but if it's really an apothecary, they had drugs." Denise explains, Iris looks down at the map in Daryl's hand, looking at the markings she made for them, "How do you know they still got 'em?" Daryl asks "It isn't that far. I just wanna check. And you, Iris and Rosita aren't out scavenging or pulling shifts." Denise says.

"We'll go." Daryl says "I wanted to check. I just wanted to help." Denise says "How much time you spend out there?" Iris asks "None." "Forget it." Darly says "I can ID the meds. I know how to use a machete now. I've seen roamers up close. I'm ready." she explains, "You good with this?" Daryl asks Rosita "No." "I'll go alone, if I have to." "You'll die alone." "I'm asking you to make sure I don't." Denise says Daryl looks at Iris to see what she thinks "you good with this?" he asks her, Iris looks at him and then back at Denise "yeah" Iris says.

Daryl climbs into the driver's seat of the truck, Denise in the middle and Rosita next to her, Iris climbs into the bed of the truck, sitting down and pulling out a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it, she cringes everytime Daryl grinds the truck gears, she stands up and holds onto the hood of the truck as it slows down, she looks ahead of the road and sees a tree fallen in the way.

When the truck stops Iris jumps out of the back stopping and waiting for Daryl to get out of the truck, they walk over to the broken tree, Rosita following behind them, Iris looks around, "I got it" Rosita says and starts clearing the branches so she can kill the walker, "This happened fast." Rosita says "Tree rotted out. It wasn't people." Iris says, looking around more.

Iris and Daryl walk back to the truck, reaching into the back bed, Iris pulls out her backpack and puts it on, "you ready?" Daryl asks, grabbing his own bag, "yeah, you?" Iris asks looking at him "yeah" he says and they make their way to the other two, "That truck ain't gonna make it past this tree. Come on, let's walk." Daryl says walking towards the tree, Iris following him close behind.

"Hold up. Looks like a straight shot if we follow the tracks." Denise says, "No. No tracks. We'll take the road." Daryl says going to walk off again "That's twice as far." Rosita says "Go whichever way you like. I ain't taking no tracks." Daryl says making his way past the tree, Iris following him. They walk in a comfortable silence, Denise trying to keep up with them.

"About time." Rosita says as they walk towards her, Iris and Daryl keep walking as Rosita and Denise stop behind them, they make it onto town and come up to the store, Daryl knocks on the door while Iris holds onto her gun looking up and down the street "All right, we are gonna do this. You're gonna stay back, got it?" Daryl asks and Iris turns and gets ready to move into the building, she puts her gun back into her holster and pulls out her knives.

Daryl pulls a crowbar out of his backpack and pries open the doors, slowly they make their way inside looking around, Iris keeps her knives high, "We gonna find out what you had for breakfast?" Daryl questions Denise as she gags, "Oatmeal. Just so you know." she says, Iris climbs over the counter and starts looking at all the things, she takes her bag off and opens it up, she shoves in a couple of the lighters and the last packs of cigarettes, "Hey." Rosita calls, Iris jumps back over the counter and walks over to Rosita and Daryl "You want me to hold your bags, or...?" Denise asks, Daryl starts prying the pharmacy shutter open with his crowbar.

Finally the man manages to pull it open, Daryl climbs through first, Rosita and Iris following after him, "If you set 'em on the counter, I can tell you which." Denise says "No, we're gonna take it all." Daryl says "Are you sure? Because–" "No, it's fine." Rosita says, Iris starts clearing the bottles off the shelves, shoving them all into her backpack.

She stops when a thumping starts coming from another room "It's just one." Rosita says "It sounds like it's stuck." Daryl adds, and the three of them continue grabbing the medicine, Suddenly glass starts breaking, Iris runs to the pharmacy opening and sees Denise had walked into a shelf "What the hell are you doing?" Rosita asks "Nothing." Denise says walking out of the building.

After finishing up in the store the three of them start heading out of the building, Iris looks down at Denise sat against the wall looking away from them, "Hey. You did good finding this place." Daryl says, Iris watches as she stands up "Tried to tell you you weren't ready. We all did" Rosita says "I know." Denise says and they start walking back to the truck.