Solitary {2} : The Walking Dead

Chapter Sixty-one.

Ashamed.

Iris follows behind Pope as they walk towards the gates, "We did three different sweeps. No signs or tracks anywhere, sir." one of the scouts explains, "You try the buildings out by the lake?" Pope asks, "Yes, sir." "Along the train tracks?" Pope asks, "Yes, sir." "Freeway underpasses?" "Yes, sir."

"Oh, come on! There are dozens of these assholes out there!" Pope shouts "Pope." "No! Your brothers are dead! Are you not ashamed?! Or do you think this is acceptable?!" Pope yells, "They were following my recommendations." Leah says, stepping in front of Pope, "I told them where the last teams went. I told them where to go next. You want to scream at somebody, scream at me." she continues.

"You trying to be noble? Is that it, Shaw? You trying to get them to like you? Try keeping them alive." Pope snaps, "And yelling at them is gonna do that?" she questions, the man steps forward, getting into Leah's face.

"Go be useful. Take your boy over there and go and find my goddamn enemies!" Pope shouts, walking away, Iris follows behind the man, she eyes the knife tucked into one of the scouts belts, holding back from grabbing it.

..........

"You know, I feel for you in all of this. You might think that's bullshit, but it's true." Negan says, looking at Maggie sitting across from him, "How's that?" Maggie questions, "I'm not a robot, Rhee. It sucks to see your friends as walkers. And that would be enough. But you are about to do some crazy shit and break into a community that you built and lost. I get it." Negan explains.

"Your community and mine were lost in very different ways." Maggie says, "You think I don't understand the losing side of a massacre?" Negan asks, "There were no children at the satellite station. No families." Maggie says.

"Then where'd Aaron get Gracie? You think I don't know about that?" Negan asks, "You can't debate battle plans with me. Levels of cruelty." Maggie says "Look, all I'm saying is that I remember when my home was invaded and my people were killed. Those men... they had friends. They had girlfriends. People that felt a loss that I couldn't heal. And I had to explain to them why... Why their leader failed to protect them." Negan explains.

"You killed people who had families. And you did it in front of their families." Maggie says, "Yeah. I did. But the world is different now, Maggie. Fewer people to fight for, fight with. Hell, there's fewer things to fight over." "Are you saying you'd do things differently?" Maggie asks.

Negan thinks for a second "Yeah. Yeah, if I could do it all over again... I'd have killed every single one of you." Negan answers, "Why would you say that?" Maggie asks, "It's the truth. We got to do whatever we can to protect our people, right? I mean, that's why we're here. That's why we're doing this." Negan says.

"Why would you say that to me?" Maggie asks "We had a good day, you and I. And the only way this works, Maggie, is... Is if we're honest." Negan answers, Maggie stares at the man, unsure on what to say.

.........

Iris wanders around the compound, she pulls her rings from her pocket, fiddling with it, "you married?" Carver questions, Iris stops walking and looks up at the man leaning against the wall, "i was" she mumbles.

The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lighter and cigarettes, "you smoke?" he asks, holding one of the sticks out to Iris, "yeah, thanks" she says, walking over to him and taking the stick, she leans back against the wall and Carver holds his lighter to the end of her cigarette.

She pulls it out of her mouth and watches as the smoke escapes her lungs, "how long have you known Daryl?" Carver asks, "not long" Iris says, "Leah knew him. They were together a while back... she still loves him" the man says.

Iris keeps her gaze on the clouds in the sky as she smokes the cigarette, "thanks for the smoke" Iris mumbles, nodding to him before walking away. When the woman is away from any prying eyes she sits down on the floor, resting her arms on her knees and staring at the cigarette.

She can't wait to get out of this place, she thinks to herself, she looks at the ring she's holding out in front of her, she just wants to be back at Alexandria, watching the kids play, wrapped in Daryl's arms. A hot salty tear slips down her cheek as she thinks about her husband, she wipes it away when she hears footsteps approaching her.

She looks up and watches Leah and Daryl walk past her, the man looks down at her with pain in his eyes as he forces himself to walk past her, Iris closes her eyes, laying her head back against the wall.

........

Iris stands next to Pope on the wall ledge, she watches the walkers as walk in a circle, "Spotted them about an hour ago." Carver says as Daryl and Leah join them, "Why are they moving like that?" Leah asks, looking through the binoculars.

"No reason." Carver says, "Wrong. There's a reason for everything. What about you, Dixon? You ever seen rotters move like that?" Pope asks, "Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that before. South of here. Don't know why it happens. They just gather up a whole bunch of them and move on." Daryl explains.

"Could take them down, like we did at that hospital in Rockville. Easy." Carver volunteers, "Till you almost bought it and I had to save your ass." Leah says, "That was just when things were getting fun."

"I can lead them out about two miles and just double back. Less work, less risk." Daryl suggests "Yeah, less balls." Carver jokes, Iris waits for what Pope has to say, "We'll try it Dixon's way." the man says, "Alright." Daryl says, "Wells. You think you could move those rotters?" Pope asks.

"Yes, sir." "I can do it. I've done it before." Daryl tries, "Wells can handle it." Pope says, Iris and the others watch as Wells starts leading the walkers away, "Hey, Pied Piper. How's the pipin'?" Leah asks into her walkie, "You kiddin'? I'm the belle of the ball out here. They love me." Wells jokes.

"Alright, Belle." Leah says, everything is quiet for a minute until Wells' voice sounds from Popes walkie next to Iris, "Sir, we have a situation here." "What kind of situation?" Pope asks, holding his walkie up to his mouth, they get no reply from the man.

"Wells, do you copy?" Leah asks, but still no answer, Iris knows what happened, she knows who did it, and she knows what's gonna happen next.