Gareth's POV

The next stop Deanna led us to after each of our interviews was the armory where, much to Sadie's now even more heightened skepticism, they would have us store our guns should we decide to continue staying here.

If I'm being completely honest, I wasn't anymore on board with the idea than she was…..I get it, I'm just not a fan.

That being said, she did eventually come to the conclusion that this place seemed safe enough for us to continue giving this a real shot which, despite the added concerns with having to temporarily turn over our guns, was still enough to not let those concerns stop me from trusting her instincts up to this point

Upon our arrival a woman, who introduced herself as Olivia, wheeled out a cart that looked like it should've been big enough to cart at least most of our guns back to said armory.

As Theresa and I prepared to handover our own, Sadie continued to eye Olivia as she approached closer to us, jerking slightly away from her when she stopped.

"Crossbow stays with me!" She stated sternly at the poor woman, who just put her hands up and stepped back nervously.

"Just the guns, Sadie." Deanna reminded her. "...and even those are still yours, whenever you step outside these walls. We only ask that you store them for safety when you're in here."

Sadie glanced briefly at me, to which I just sort of shrugged as I unloaded my own into the cart. She sighed, finally obliging and taking up whatever space was left on the cart with the guns she'd been carrying.

Olivia eyed her, still fairly nervously, as she set down the last one.

"I'll be right back."

Sadie was clearly taking new amusement from this interaction, snickering under her breath as she watched Olivia scurry back into the armory with the cart.

"I like her." She joked to me.

"Of course you do." I chuckled.

Of course, Sadie's skepticism would inevitably return, once we finished up there and Aaron led us to the two houses that were available to us.

"...yes, both of them." He repeated with a slight chuckle. "...at your disposal. I'd take the one on the left there, if I were you, though. I'm pretty sure that's the one that has the record player I promised Sadie."

Sadie broke her gaze at the aforementioned houses to redirect her focus to him when he said that, raising her eyebrows suspiciously.

"...if not, then it's definitely in the other one." He reaffirmed.

Sadie shook her head as she chuckled. "Alright, well it's your funeral if you're bluffing, you know."

"...that's just a chance I'll have to take then." He chuckled. "...anyway, I know you're still feeling us out….which again, we completely understand, so Deanna's gone ahead and asked everyone to give you your space, so they're not all coming at you at once."

"Appreciate it." I told him, taking Sadie's hand in my own as she appeared to be scanning around the vicinity.

He nodded. "...Well then...take your time, do some exploring. If you need anything, just come find me. Eric and I live right down the street."

"...aaaand, if you need anything from me…." Sadie announced with a smirk as she started to pull me away, urging me to follow her. "...I will be calling your little bluff on that record player."

He put his hands up in front of him, jokingly. "Have at it."

Once we stepped into the first of the two luxurious two story houses, however, it would appear that maybe Aaron really was right about another thing after all.

The living room was at least twice the size….if not more, of the little one that the house we'd been holed up with Theresa in had. The kitchen appeared to be in just as nice of condition, including a decently sized wooden dining table, on top of which were a stack of clean towels and some empty frames that we could decorate the nearly empty walls with.

As I noted Theresa moving on to explore the upstairs, I jumped slightly at the somewhat abrupt sound of water starting to run when Sadie turned the faucet of the nearby sink.

She of course couldn't help but laugh as Alex, too, started giggling hysterically at me from her arms.

Alex, considerably more easily distracted, watched in amazement at the sight of the running water as Sadie turned the faucet gently back til the water was running at a gentler, quieter speed.

"Aww, I'm sorry, Babe." She chuckled. "...is that better?"

I just rolled my eyes as I continued to wander around the living room. "Very funny."

Sadie was still chuckling to herself over the little incident when Theresa was coming back downstairs.

"Alright, what'd I miss?" She finally asked, chuckling herself, as she glanced briefly between me and Sadie.

"Ohh, we just managed to develop a little fear of water in the time it took you to look around up there." Sadie teased, shooting me another smirk.

I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my own chuckle at the insinuation. "...loosely translated, she just caught me off guard when she turned on the faucet over there."

Theresa eyed me somewhat suspiciously at that last part, as I skimmed through some videotapes on a nearby shelf.

"...running water down here too?" She asked, making her way over to the sink.

"Yeah, knock yourself out." I chuckled again as I looked back up to see Sadie eyeing me with a suspicious little smirk on her face. "What's that face for?"

"...So, where else is there running water in here, T?" She asked.

Theresa shrugged, as if she didn't know what Sadie was getting at by this point.

"Few bathrooms….pretty nice shower in the master bed's bath."

"...interesting…" Sadie glanced briefly at me and then back at Theresa. "...T, you wanna watch Alex for a bit? I might, ahh….." She cleared her throat a little more suggestively. "..try that out, if someone else wants to join me…."

"...Hmmm….maybe I will, then…" I teased as she handed Alex over to her.

Sadie snickered at that as she started up the stairs. "...better hurry, then."

"Right behind ya!"

Theresa just shook her head to herself as I followed Sadie up.

"Have fuuuunnn…..not too much fun though, I don't think that door is soundproof!" She laughed at that last bit.

"Hey, how do you think Alex got here?!" Sadie called back down to her.