Sadie's POV

As I trudged my way through the small group of dead ones, ones which seemed to be purposely placed leading up to the fence as some sort of security, the next question I would ask myself regarding whatever Negan's little thought process was in this decision was quickly answered by the sound of gunshots rapidly firing in the near distance.

Negan, of course, would be hearing about how too damn easy this made things for me.

Hand on my knife, I snickered to myself at the thought of it as I made my way towards the commotion.

I stopped dead in my tracks, watching in pure amusement, as the kid from before stood at the back of one of the bastard's trucks with a gun.

Jesus, this kid has some balls.

"...I only want Negan!" He shouted at the small crowd, who were also watching in shock. "..He killed my friends! No one else needs to die."

I kept my distance, still close enough to the fence that I seemed to be out of everyone's sight…...especially with the added commotion of a kid wielding a damn machine gun.

Perfect.

"Damn…" Negan appeared to marvel as he finally appeared on the scene.

"You….are adorable! Did you pick that gun cause it looks cool? You totally did, right?"

I could've sworn the kid was gonna blow my temporary cover when he seemed to catch sight of me, but he just went back to glaring at Negan.

"Kid….I'm not gonna lie, you scare the shit outta me!" He chuckled. "...almost as much as your friend, Sadie."

"Guess I'll just have to step up my game then!" I interjected, smirking as he jumped a good foot in the air at the startle. "Hoo-oly shiiit!"

"Dreadful etiquette, I apologize." I smirked again, gesturing towards his little fence with my knife. "...might wanna think about upping your little security system."

I patted his shoulder condescendingly as I made my way over to where the kid was getting down from the truck, gun still on him, ready to shoot.

"I will make a note of it." Negan chuckled, humoring my own entrance.

Amidst our little interaction, the kid decided to take it upon himself to gun down a couple more of Negan's men, triggering some blonde guy I vaguely recognized from the day before to knock him down to the ground, like some kind of attack dog.

"Dwight! Back off!" Negan ordered, walking over to offer a hand to the kid. "...is that anyway to treat our new guest?"

"Yeah, Dwight." I mocked. "...is it?"

He looked as if he wanted to have at me next, had Negan not been standing there to potentially intervene.

"Come on, Kid…." He continued, urging the kid to stand up and take his hand. "...I'll show you around." He turned briefly to shoot me a smirk. "...both of you."

"Oohh. Be still, my beating heart." I remarked, keeping somewhat of an eye on the kid still. "...and they say chivalry is dead."

"You really are somethin!" He chuckled.

"Indeed." I stated. "...and what exactly that somethin is…...is entirely up to you.

I folded my arms across my chest, smirking as he returned his attention back down mto the kid.

"Well, kid…." He urged again. "..what do you say?"

The kid, remaining completely unamused, just continued to glare up at him as he refused his offer.

"Kiiiid…." Negan sighed. "...you're really not gonna take my hand?"

I scoffed, considerably proudly, at the kid's insistence as I stepped in front of Negan and offered my own hand. "Mad respect, Kid. I wouldn't take his hand either."

The kid looked at me, more curiously than he had Negan, as the wheels in his head seemed to be turning over what game I could possibly be playing.

He acted almost as reluctantly, still, but eventually took my hand anyway.

"Well, well, weelll…" I boasted. "...Looks like it's Sadie: two, Negan: zero." I smirked, holding my fingers together in a zero in front of his face.

I smirked, moving my hand down to fold my arms again as I awaited his next snarky response.

He just chuckled, still trying to keep the facade that he still had the upper hand.

"Well….." I finally suggested, nodding behind me toward where I presumed he planned to show us around. "...shall we, then?"

"Yes, we shall." He chuckled, even more heartily as he turned to give orders to the little crowd that had been watching. "Dwighty-boy! Why don't you take Daryl, here, to the kitchen to do some grub prep?"

The same blonde guy from before made his way over to where Daryl was apparently standing over by the fence as Negan gave out the rest of his orders.

"New plan, boys! Let's burn the dead and unload the trucks later…..Damn, I am not gonna have any time to screw any of my wives today…" He chuckled as he seemed to reconsider that. "...well, maybe one."

"Awww…..you poor, poor thing." I mocked, snickering as I followed him anyway.

"What are you gonna do to us?" The kid asked, hanging back….much to Negan's disappointment.

He sighed, turning back around to face him. "Number one: Do not shatter my image of you, you're a badass. You're not scared of shit, don't be scared of me. It's a disappointment."

"...not to mention, pathetic." I scoffed under my breath.

Negan turned briefly to me, as if he were gonna acknowledge the remark, but just turned back to the kid.

"...and Number two…." He continued. "...you really want me to spoil the surprise?"

"...which brings us up to my personal favorite, Number three.." I added with a smirk, watching Negan turning back around to humor me.

"..do not let whatever cute little idea you may have of some kind of home field advantage distract you from who scares you the most here."

He just chuckled, somewhat less confidently, as he tried not to make it obvious.

This brought even more curiosity to the kid's face as we both followed Negan into his alleged little Sanctuary.

He made a point of bringing us up to this big balcony area inside the place, one which overlooked an entire bottom floor of workers, as our first stop.

"Watch this.." He boasted, chuckling heartily as he led us up to the front of it.

I scoffed, watching as each and every worker that could be seen began to kneel….just at the mere sight of the bastard.

"The Saviors have gone out into the world, fought the dead, and come back with some really good stuff." He continued to boast. "Some of that stuff can be yours….if you work hard, and play by the rules! Today, everybody gets fresh vegetables with dinner, no points needed!"

I scoffed even more audibly as the crowd went nuts over him for that, as if the bastard had just declared that he were about to walk on water.

"You see that? Respect. Cool, huh?"

"Very cool, Mr. Jones!" I remarked, condescendingly. "When do we get to drink the Kool-aid?"

"Still not impressed?"

"Remarkably disappointed." I replied, matter of factly.

"Fair enough…" He admitted, seemingly even more proud about what he was about to say. "...that's not even the best part."

"Enlighten us, then." I challenged.

He nodded. "Right this way!"

The next room he brought us to, which he was clearly exceptionally proud of, appeared to be a decently sized living room type area.

One in which a group of women, who I presumed to be the ones the bastard had referred to earlier as his wives, all sat around doing their own thing.

"Ladies…" He announced, with such pride. "...don't mind them."

They all looked up, glancing briefly at us and then back to him, as he leaned over to the kid.

"I know...every woman where you're from dresses like they do the books at an auto shop….you're gonna wanna look at their titties. It's cool. I don't mind, they won't mind, knock yourself out." He turned back around to look at me. "...and I mean that for both of you." He leaned in closer to me. "..I saw the way you were lookin at Arat the other day."

"What can I say, I do have eyes." I smirked. "...I can only help myself so much."

"I hear that." He chuckled a little too proudly.

I nodded. "...yet somehow, I can still help myself enough that it's more than you can help yourself from offering up your so-called wives...or so I presume, you certainly don't talk about them as if they are, like they're merely slabs of meat you'd have one of your precious little minions offer up on the dinner table with those oh so fresh veggies of yours."

I barely even acknowledged the stunned look that made itself painfully clear on his face as I glanced down to the floor then back up to him as I patted his shoulder. "..you wanna pick your jaw up off the floor, or should I?"

He just ignored my last remark as he turned his attention to one of them, who'd previously appeared to be whispering to a younger blonde woman next to her.

"Can I talk to you for a moment, dear wife?" He declared, turning briefly back to us as he made his way to the corner that he would take her aside to. "...make yourselves comfortable."

I continued to watch as the woman followed him to said corner, hoping I'd be able to make out at least a portion of what they were saying.

"...I thought you just said you weren't gonna look- " The kid started to interject.

"Shh!" I moved my hand, to wave him off as I lowered my voice to a whisper. "...I'm trying to hear!"

"What is it to you anyway? What are you even do- "

I gestured my hand more aggressively to cut him off again.

"Do you want your friend out of here or not?!" I whispered back urgently, shooting him a glare when he looked as if he might start again.

He just sighed and put his hands up, briefly, as if in surrender.

Luckily, even with the kid's insistent curiosity, I managed to get just enough out of the conversation to make out what I was looking for.

Something about Amber, who I guesstimated to be the blonde girl she'd been talking to prior to Negan's entrance, and some guy named Mark.

Whatever happened between them was part of what I couldn't make out, but the bottom line was that this so-called wife of his knew shit…..and didn't put up with shit from what else I caught from her end of the conversation.

What brief satisfaction I got from her end of the conversation, however, was short lived as he made his way over to where me and the kid stood…...beer in hand, which he apparently intended to hand to the kid like he was his damn prodigy or something.

I shot him a smirk as I snatched the bottle from his hands, popping it open for myself, before he could.

"Oohh, don't miiind if I do." I held my stare at him as I took a swig of it. "Ahhh…...looks like you do know how to treat a lady on occasion." I patted him on the shoulder as I mocked his earlier boast. "Respect."

He just humored me with a brief chuckle as he made his way over to sit in front of, presumably, Amber

This time, as they sat considerably closer to us than he had been with the other girl, I was able to make out considerably more from this conversation.

Apparently this Mark guy was her….boyfriend? Husband? If it came up which it was, it wasn't clear.

Something about how she was free to go back to him…...or his fucked up definition of free because somehow even if she did that, she'd still be tied to him enough to cheat on him? I shook my head.

Whatever the fucked up circumstances are here, he will be hearing a thing or two about it.

Not to mention, whatever this fucked up circumstance was, it was making this poor girl increasingly upset and uncomfortable the more he rambled on.

I scoffed even more audibly when the next interaction, albeit brief, with the other so-called wife he'd been talking to before Amber, ended with the two of them making out.

"Oh great, I was hoping for a reason to vomit today." I remarked, loud enough to get his attention, as another girl chuckled at it.

It took me another moment, as I took another swig from my beer, to note that she seemed to be staring behind us.

It took me even less time to note the way that Dwight, who was now standing near the doorway next to Daryl, had been looking at the two…..and connect the dots.

Negan, however, just took pure joy out of the interaction and proceeded to snatch a piece of food from the tray that Daryl had apparently been holding.

"Carl, why don't you take this tray for me?"

"Cause he's not your fucking servant." Interjected, placing my hand in front of Carl to stop him before he could reach it.

I folded my arms as I shot Negan another glare.

"You're a big boy, aren't ya?" I took the last swig from my beer and practically shoved it at him. "Take your own damn tray, and take this with you while you're at it." I shot him a smirk as my tone became more condescending. "Kay?"

Carl just stared in silence back at me, looking back to Negan and then again to me, as Negan reluctantly kept the bottle as he made his way to grab the tray…..also equally as reluctantly.

"Atta boy!" I declared with a similar smirk. "See? You're learning."

He just scoffed, attempting to change the subject.

"Dwighty-boy!" He declared. "Take Daryl, here. Go get him a mop, and fire up that furnace. I'll be down in a few, time for a little Deja Vu!"

I decided to hang back, see what I could get out of the so-called wife about where he's been keeping Daryl.

Convince her to be my woman on the inside, if you will.

"You comin, Saaadie?" He seemed to think he was making a point about drawing out my name like that.

"Oh, you'd like that. Wouldn't you?"

"Immensely." He chuckled.

"...Which is almost as much as I'd like to hang back, help myself to a little booze from your wall there." I gotta little more up in his face. "That is...if you don't mind."

He took a step back, clearly intimidated by the way I'd caught him off guard."

"...knock yourself out."

"Ohh….I plan to." I sneered, finally taking my own step back as I watched him lead Carl in the opposite direction from where Dwighty-boy was dragging Daryl off to.

"I'll get you a glass." One of the other women offered once they were out of sight.

I smiled sympathetically back at her as I waved her off.

"You don't need to bother, I don't mind helping myself." I explained, making my way over to the aforementioned shelf and taking a bottle of scotch from it.

"Besides, this is only half of the reason I'm here." I took a swig straight from said bottle. "Oooh, that's good shit."

"So….why are you here, then?" Amber, this time, asked, briefly taking my attention away from the woman he'd been talking to before…...who now seemed to be staring towards the direction Dwight had left in.

"What'd he say her name was?" I asked.

Amber looked across the room then back at me.

"He didn't….." Her voice significantly quieter now. "...it's Sherry."

I nodded as I called out across the room to her. "Sherry!"

She turned, somewhat abruptly, away from the doorway at her name.

She hesitated at first, but eventually walked over to me as I waved for her to do so.

I glanced toward the doorway then back at her as I nodded towards it.

"...I need to know what it is you know about Daryl."

Dwight too, for that matter, if she feels so inclined to. Though, I won't pry anymore than I already have to.

"He your boyfriend, or something?" She asked, somewhat concerned.

"Or somethin." I chuckled, taking another swig from my bottle. "...shit, he wishes though."

She chuckled briefly at the remark.

"Yeah, it's a long story."

She nodded, but didn't say anymore.

"Look….I ain't no snitch, alright?" I promised. "...whatever you tell me about what you know stays strictly between us, woman to woman."

She sighed, looking toward the door before walking away briefly to scribble something down on a small piece of paper and bringing it back over to me.

"Dwight's downstairs with him right now, probably be a while before Negan has him...put him back." She explained as she handed me the note, which was folded up now.

"...when he does, follow those directions."

"Appreciate it." I replied, tucking it safely into a front pocket. "...I can use the extra time anyway, got another thing or two to take care of first.

She nodded as I headed toward the door. "Good Luck."