Sadie's POV

I sat alone in the master bathroom, alone, staring at a little God forsaken test stick, waiting…..waiting for what result? Jesus, I don't even fucking know. If there was a plus sign, did I want there to be? If not, was that what I was subconsciously hoping for? Who could say?

I KNOW if it's the latter, it's for the best...given the state of the world right now. Sure, I do. But if it were the former…..could we make that work?

Gareth's voice, from just down the hall, shattered my train of thought and brought me back to reality

"Sadie?!" He called.

I flushed the toilet and shoved the little stick down the back of my pants before I answered.

"Still in here, didn't fall in!" I chuckled.

His footsteps grew closer until he reached the door, cracking the bedroom door open just as I was coming out of the bathroom.

"The bathroom does have a door, you know." I teased. "You don't have to sneak in, all ninja like you can't just look."

"I know that." He snickered, kissing me on the cheek. "Maybe I just wanted to surprise you."

"Gar, I don't even think you believe that." I laughed.

"...Anyway…" He continued, very smoothly changing the subject. "Phones are still down, I can't get a hold of anyone."

I shrugged. "I'm sorry, baby, I don't wanna say I told you so, buut…"

"I know…" He sighed. "I know….it's only been a week though, I was sure that someone's phone must still be up."

I took his hands into mine. "I'm sure, somewhere out there, somebody's is."

"Sade, I don't even think you believe that." He teased, mocking my earlier remark.

I shook my head. "Very funny, Gar."

"Hey, it was worth a shot. Right?"

"Of course it was." I smirked, kissing him. I looked back toward the bathroom, as if just realizing something. "Shit, I left something in the bathroom….I'll meet you back downstairs?"

He gestured, sarcastically toward the bathroom. "Iiiit's about two feet away, have at it."

I smacked him playfully as he left, waiting another minute after he shut the door behind him to shuffle the pregnancy test stick out of my pocket.

I sat down on the bed, as my eyes fell back down to the little stick and processed the result.

A negative. Thank God….I think.

I shook the thought from my head. Of course it's good….I have to stop letting my senseless last little shred of faith blind me from fucking reality.

I dumped the stick in the trash, gathered enough supplies to justify the amount of time I'd spent in here, and headed out to meet back up with Gareth down the stairs.

Gareth slung his backpack over his shoulder as I made my way back down the stairs.

"Anything good?" He asked.

I nodded. "First aid kit under the sink, additional meds in the cabinet, couple books, aaand…" I pulled out a couple of Playboy magazines I'd found out of my messenger bag with a wink. "These bad boys under the bed."

"Very funny."

"Who said these were for you?" I smirked, tucking them back away in a zipper compartment. "Like to look too, you know."

He shook his head. "You say that like there's more than one of us in this equation who…" He added air quotes. "...likes to look."

I shot a suggestive stare at him. "Aren't there."

"One time…" He whined. "One time when I was a kid."

"Oh, quit your whining, you know I'm just screwing with you." I snickered.

"Yeah, yeah.." He muttered under his breath, trying not to smile. "Anyway, ready to go?"

"Yeah, just let me-" I started to say as I was cut off by a familiar tone coming from my bag.

Gareth and I just stared at each other in shock for a solid minute, trying to figure out how to respond.

"You hear that too, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I think it's coming from your bag."

I nodded, tossing my bag to the floor and rummaging through it to find the source of the sound.

"...It's my phone.." I realized out loud. "You said all the phones were down.."

"They are, or most of them! Why do you-"

"SHH!" I interrupted, practically slapping the phone to my ear. "Hello?" It was far from the best reception, but it would do, for however long it lasted.

"Sadie?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Depends who wants to know."

"Sadie, it's me…" She was hard to make out, but it sounded like she'd said Teresa, an old friend of mine I hadn't heard from in a while.

"T?"

"Yeah, listen.." The rest of the call was pretty choppy, but what I got from it was there was this place, a camp or something, with food and supplies, that was safe from the dead ones. If we could meet up with her, we could see for ourselves. I tried to ask if she was still at the same address, but the call disconnected.

"...Why do you still have a phone if…" Gareth tried to finish his earlier question.

"Not important!" I interrupted. "Look, don't ask me how, but that was...well, you remember my friend Teresa?"

"...Vaaaguely."

I nodded. "Well that was her, she's presumably still living in Georgia and can take us to this camp or whatever she heard about. Supposedly it's safe and has supplies and shit."

"Can we go back to the how part of this phone call?"

"No." I sighed. "Look, I don't know how true this is, but we have to at least say we tried, I mean..she has no one else."

"...And I'm all for that, but Sade, we don't even have a car anymore. How are we supposed to get there?

"Even if we walk, it'll only take us a week, give or take some days factoring in rest stops to eat, drink and sleep."

"Shooould I be concerned with how readily you just had that information available?" He chuckled.

"Well, you remember what my dad used to do to me."

He just nodded quietly.

"Well, back in high school I mapped out exactly how I could get there and how long it would take to get there so I could stay with her when I was thinking I was gonna run away and never look back."

"What changed your mind?" I asked.

I let a smile creep across my face. "I got hungry...and I needed a bottle opener.

You could tell from his face that he was connecting the dots already.

"...Aaand I just thought this really cute boy might have what I needed, so I broke into his house first…..decided maybe there was something worth staying for.

Gareth grinned at that. :Well, I'm glad you did." He sighed "Well, I suppose in that case we'd better head out. "It's gonna be dark soon."

"Right behind ya." I agreed, closing up my bag again before we took off.