Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Ninety-four.

So… Back to it.

“Eenie... meenie... miney... mo... catch... a tiger... by... his toe. If... he hollers... let him go.” Negan says standing in front of Iris and pointing the bat in her face watching as she doesn't flinch “My mother... told me... to pick the very best one... and you... are…” Negan stops the riddle and continues pointing his bat at everyone, he stops in front of Iris, watching her for a minute, she keeps her eyes on him happy to take the hit for her family, Daryl watches her as she sits in front of Negan, he looks at her eyes and sees that she isn't scared, she seems almost at peace, but the Negan walks away from her.

“It…” Iris feels bile sitting in her throat when he stops, her breathing stops as if she had been hit in the stomach, "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that.” Negan says, lifting his bat in the air before swinging it down, hitting it against Abrahams head.

He falls forward onto the floor, but gets back up, blood dripping from his head, tears fall down Iris’s face as her lip shakes, “Look at that. Taking it like a champ!” Negan says, “Suck. My. Nuts” Abraham says as best he can, Negan hits him with the bat again and continues to smack his bat against Abrahams head.

The sound of the bat mixing with blood and flesh sounds through Iris’s ears, as she stares at the blood covered floor, “Oh, my goodness! Look at this! You guys, look at my dirty girl! Sweetheart… Lay your eyes on this.” Negan says, holding the blood covered bat in front of Rosita’s face “Oh, damn. Were you – Were you together? That sucks. But if you were, you should know there was a reason for all this. Red -- and hell, he was, is, and will ever be red. He just took one or six or seven for the team! So take...a damn look.” Negan orders, “Take a damn look!” he shouts, Daryl stands up and punches
Negan in the face “no!” Iris screams as the saviours grab Daryl.

“Daryl!” Rick shouts “No! Oh, no.” Neagan says, Iris looks at Daryl and speaks up “wait!” she says, Negan looks at her, the group watching her wondering what she was doing, Negan slowly walks over to her “kill me” she says looking up at him, “just kill me and let them go… please” she begs, “and why would i do that?” Negan asks “because I was the one that said we should kill your men. It was me. Not Rick.” Iris explains “and if you kill me it will hurt them all… I’m like a sister to Rick… Carl’s known me his whole life and helped raise him… and the others. We’re family” Iris explains, hot tears running down her face.

“So if you really want to hurt them… kill me and make them live with the image of you doing it for the rest of their lives” she adds, Negan leans down and gets into her face “no!” Rick shouts, “do it” Iris says, Daryl breaks as he watches her give herself up for them, she looks over at him, giving him a small smile, “please” she begs looking back at Negan, “do what you want with me… just promise me you wont hurt them” she cries out, negan lifts his hand and wipes the tears from her cheek, “i cant kill you yet” he says standing again and walking away from her and back to Daryl. 

“That... is a no-no. The whole thing -- not one bit of that shit flies here.” Negan says “Do you want me to do it? Right here.” Dwight asks, pointing Daryl's crossbow at him, “No. No, you don't kill them... not until you try a little.” Negan says, Dwight and another man drag Daryl back to his spot in the line “And anyway... that's not how it works. Now, I already told you people -- first one's free, then -- what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions. Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with... but I'm a man of my word. First impressions are important. I need you to know me. So... back to it.” Negan says, raising his bat again, hitting Glenn.

“No!” Maggie screams, Iris watches Glenn sit back up “Buddy, you still there?” Negan asks as Glenn tries to speak “I just don't know. It seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit. I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit!” Negan laughs “Maggie. I'll. Find. You.” Glenn manages to say “Oh. Oh, hell. I can see this is hard on you guys. I am sorry. I truly am. But I did say it. No exceptions!” Negan says before hitting Glen again and again and again.

“You bunch of pussies. I'm just getting started.” Negan says, Iris watches Glenns blood flying around them, “Lucille is thirsty. She is a vampire bat.” he jokes walking away from Glenn’s twitching body, “What? Was the joke that bad?” he asks, looking down at Rick. “I'm gonna kill you.” Rick threatens, glaring up at Negan “What? I didn't quite catch that. You're gonna have to speak up.” Negan says crouching down to Rick's level “Not today... not tomorrow... but I'm gonna kill you.” Rick says.

“Jesus. Simon... What did he have, a knife?” Negan asks “Uh, he had a hatchet.” “A hatchet?” “He had an axe.” Simon says “Simon's my right-hand man. Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without them? A whole lot of work. Do you have one? Maybe one of these fine people still breathing? Oh. Or did I…” Negan says, clicking his tongue and recreating his movements with his bat.

“Sure. Yeah. Give me his axe.” he says, and Simon does that, Negan stands up and slides Rick’s axe in his belt “I'll be right back. Maybe Rick will be with me. And if not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, won't we? I mean... the ones that are left.” Negan says dragging Rick to the RV with him. Iris keeps her eyes on the floor in front of her, she listens as the RV drives off, thinking if that was the last time she’s going to see Rick or if it's the last time he sees her and the others. In the corner of her eye she sees Carl kneeling next to her, she listens to the cries from the people around her, thoughts swimming around her mind.

Why couldn't it have been her? She was ready to die. Why didn't he kill her? Why did he say he couldn't kill her yet? How could she let Abraham get killed? He’s helped her so much and she didn't help him. How could she let Glenn get killed? She was ready to die, she had made her peace with it.

As Iris gets lost in her thoughts the sun rises, Carl glances over to her, noticing that even though she’s sat there she’s far away. Iris looks up to the sound of the RV, she looks over when she notices Carl looking at her, and they both look back at the RV and wait for Rick to emerge from the vehicle, wondering if he actually will.