Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter 113.

Open your eyes!

Iris watches Tara as she leads the group, watching her eyes as they go off into another place, Iris turns back looking at Rick and Daryl as they walk closely behind her and Juniper, she quickly and quietly catches up to Tara, "you good?" she whispers, glancing around, "yeah" Tara mumbles, not looking up at the red head, "it'll be okay" Iris says, gently squeezing Taras arm before going back to her spot next to Juniper, and in front of Rick and Daryl.

Iris stands on guard with Juniper, the blonde watches as her sister glances back every now and then, looking at two men as they work with explosives, "you okay?" Juniper asks, her voice just above a whisper. Iris looks at her sister with confusion, "you keep looking over at them, do you think they're gonna blow us up?" Juniper questions, "no" Iris says, looking around again "then what is it?" "nothing" Iris lies.

"I should've tried harder to stop Rosita and Sasha. If they'd have just waited one more day..." Iris hears Jesus admit, "Well, Sasha's a good shot, and Rosita knows how to take care of herself. Probably back at Hilltop right now." Daryl says "Least I hope so. We're gonna need 'em. There's a whole lot of people still gotta die." Daryl adds.

..........

Iris stays hidden, in the trees, keeping her eye on Rick and waiting for his signal, Juniper stays low next to her sister, "cover your ears" Iris whispers to her sister, as Juniper does as she's told the explosions go off around them. Iris stands up, her sister following, as they run with the others. "On the ground now!" Daryl orders, Iris keeps her knife tightly gripped in her hands as they step closer to the two people, "Those hands -- Put them on your head." he orders "please" Jesus says, when the women dont listen.

Juniper stays back as Iris walks forward, she pulls out a zip tie, wrapping it around the woman's wrists before patting her down and taking her gun, Iris puts her knives in her belt and watches Daryl signal the others.

Daryl walks over to Iris, grabbing hold of the woman she had just detained and pulling her to her feet, "come on" Iris says nodding to her sister and following Daryl over to the others, she looks around at all the women and children kneeling on the floor.

"Get down over there. Keep quiet" Daryl orders, pushing the two hostages to the rest of the people, "Now, we made a lot of noise. We want to wrap this up quick so you can send people to redirect anything coming this way. Tara said your forests are relatively clear, so we won't take any chances. No one needs to get hurt. This is just about what you have, what we need." Rick explains, looking down at all the people.

"Nobody's taking anything." a woman says, Iris turns and sees the woman holding Tara, she quickly raises her gun at the womans head, waiting for a sign to shoot. "You need to let everyone go and leave right now. Just walk away or this one dies." the woman says to Rick.

"Yeah, we'll leave you alone. But we're taking your weapons with us. That's not gonna change. It's Natania, right? Put the gun down, and let's talk about what we can change." Rick tries "No. Leave right now." she orders.

"Michonne, don't!" Tara shouts, looking up in the direction Michonne is, "Iris please put it down" she adds, looking at the red head and pleading with her eyes, but Iris doesnt move her gun.

"We just wanna be left alone." Natania says "Yeah, we'll leave you alone. Just let go of her. Now. Or Iris will shoot you. None of us want that." Rick says, "They want us to fight The Saviors." a younger woman says, looking around at her people. "We tried that. We lost. Too much. We're not gonna lose anymore -- not our guns, not our safety, not after everything we've done to get here." Natania explains.

"We're gonna win -- with your guns, with or without your help." Tara says, looking at everyone, "Natania, put the gun down." Rick says "You kill me, and you die. And my people take the guns and nothing changes." Tara warns "Maybe we should try." another woman says.

"It's not over! They've forgotten. You've all forgotten. Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything? We can lose our guns, but us leaving this place to fight? After everything? I have to remind you!" Natania shouts.

"I am gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die. But it's that important. This is your life, all of you. Remember what it looks like. Remember what they did to us! You need to see this. Open your eyes!" "Rick! Walkers!" Michonne yells from the tree.

Natania's granddaughter hits her in the head making her drop to the floor, Iris's eyes catch Enid, frozen with her gun in the air, the red head quickly moves to her lowering the girls gun, "it's okay" she whispers before turning to the walkers.

"Everybody up! Get the children behind us! They're coming." Rick orders, Iris stands between Carl and Gabriel, Juniper stands next to Carl, a gun pointed at the dead, "First shift, join them on the line. Knives out. Dead only. Dead only!" one of the women orders her people.

"Everyone, shots within feet of the line. That's it." Rick says, standing next to Juniper, the group start shooting at the walkers as they stumble closer. Iris ducks behind Gabriel, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a new magazine, clipping it in and standing again, shooting more.

"Are you okay" Iris asks, walking over to Juniper after the last few walkers drop to the floor, "im okay" juniper smiles, Iris turns and walks over to Tara, "you hurt?" she asks looking the woman up and down, "im fine" Tara says, "you sure?" Iris asks "im sure" Tara says. "No. We're not fighting them with you. So take your damn guns and go." Natania says, walking away from everyone.

Iris stands with Daryl as they keep watch of the women, "We're gonna bring them back when it's all over." Tara says, stopping in front of everyone. Iris looks around, she feels bad about taking their weapons but she's going to do anything for her family.

"You're not leaving us any?" a little girl asks Tara as she walks away, "Nope. See ya later, Rachel." Tara says, putting her middle finger up at the girl, Iris smiles before following them back to the cars, Daryl following after her. Iris climbs onto the back of Daryl bike, holding onto him as they drive back to Alexandria.