Gareth's POV

I looked to Sadie, who was keeping a sharp eye on each of the King's people as we passed them by while he led us throughout the rest of The Kingdom.

It was becoming increasingly clear that the more she did, the more disgusted she was becoming with this so-called King's decision.

"This is life here." He announced as he brought the group to a stop. "Everyday. But it came at a cost. And I wanted more of this, I wanted to expand, to create more places like this." He looked off toward some people in the near distance, most of whom were shooting their arrows at big, bright, red targets. "Men and women lost their limbs. Children lost their parents because I sent them into battle against the wasted when I did not need to."

"Well, this is different." Sadie insisted firmly.

"It isn't." He tried to argue.

"It is.

I caught her glare at him after that and placed a hand to her shoulder, from just behind her, to urge her to take a step back.

She just gently brushed it off and stood even closer up in his face.

"You call yourself a fucking king." She practically spat. "And you actually think this how a King acts? Because, from where I stand, you sure as hell don't act like any king I've ever heard of!"

Ezekiel tilted his head slightly as he stared back at her.

"Our peace with The Saviors is uneasy, but it is peace."

"Tell your people about it then." She argued. "If this really is peace, if this really is the right thing for your people, then man the fuck up and tell them about it!" She glared back at him some more. "...or you look me in the eye right now and you tell me why you won't."

"I've made my decision." He finally replied, considerably coldly, before turning to address the rest of the group.

Although the Kingdom cannot grant you the aid you desire- "

"Won't grant us." Sadie corrected.

He stared only briefly back at her before continuing. "...As I was saying, The King is sympathetic to your plight."

Sadie scoffed audibly to that, which he just ignored this time.

"..I offer our friend Daryl asylum for as long as he requires it. He will be safe here.

The Saviors do not set foot inside our walls."

"And just how long do you think that's gonna last?" Daryl, this time, scoffed before storming off.

The rest of the group followed shortly after.

"I'll break him." Sadie swore as we followed closely behind the others. "...Sooner or later."

"Maybe." Richard, who was now following alongside us, interjected.

"Well, you don't know Sadie then." I reminded him

Sadie shot me a little smirk as I put my arm around her.

Richard nodded. "So let's change that then. How many people do we have to fight?"

"We don't even have enough to take on one outpost face to face yet." Sadie scoffed.

"So, The Kingdom has to get involved or else The Saviors will always be in charge." Richard replied. "It isn't about soldiers. We're making them stronger. The more food we give them, the more arms, the more everything, every day any of us gives them something, they become harder and harder to beat."

"But not impossible." Sadie added.

Richard nodded back. "No, not impossible."

"Alright, open it up! We're gone!" Daryl abruptly announced once we approached the gates.

As the others made their way through the now open gate, Sadie broke away from me to stop Daryl before he could follow.

Yeah, this is gonna go over well.

I followed closely behind her, in case she tried to start something else.

"Not you." She ordered. "...not if you don't want that little favor I did for you to be for nothing."

"Well, I ain't stayin here." He argued.

"You have to." She insisted. "Even if we set aside that you owe it to me, you and I both know it's our smartest play."

He scoffed as he glared back at her.

You could tell he didn't like it, that much was obvious…..but it was also obvious that he knew she was right.

"...Try to talk to Ezekiel….or stare him into submission, whatever it takes." She snickered to herself. "Honestly, I envy you, that I don't get to do it myself."

"Yeah, you would."

She just shot him a smirk at that and patted his shoulder.

"We'll be back soon."

She then took me by the hand as we continued to walk off through the gates, smirking still as she was clearly rubbing it in his face as we left.

"You're terrible, you know." I teased.

"...and you love it."

"Who's arguing that?" I snickered back as I stole a kiss along her neck.

On the way back, I couldn't help but chuckle a little, myself, as Sadie kept snickering at what we could hear Negan going on about from the long distance radio we'd been listening in on them with.

"...Fat Joey was not the most badass son of a bitch, but he was loyal. He had a great sense of humor, In fact, we were just joking about oral sex with Lucille the other day…."

"This is even better than a goddamn radio station!" She laughed, earning a number of unamused looks from the others in the car.

"...Things will not be the same now that he's dead." The bastard's voice continued.

"Without Fat Joey, Skinny Joey is just...Joey. So it's a goddamn tragedy…..

So, let's have a moment of silence."

"Someone's trying to block the way, must be The Saviors." Jesus interrupted, quickly turning everyone's focus from Sadie's amusement to a line of cars that were blocking the road ahead of us.

"Look!" The kid, now, pointed out the window. "I think that's the base over there."

Sadie crawled over from her spot next to the radio to confirm if I was.

"Yeah, that's it." She agreed. "Must be tryin to make it hard to get to em." She scoffed at the idea. "...bunch of pussies."

"Let's just move 'em and then move 'em back." I suggested. "They don't need to know we were here."

The others seemed to agree with that as they all hopped out of the car with us once it was shut off.

Sadie made her way back around to my side, the radio, still in her hand.

"Sadie!" Michonne, who was eyeing something through a pair of binoculars, called out to her. "Come take a look at this."

I followed along behind as she made her way over to take the binoculars from her to see for herself.

Upon an even closer look at it, we found it to be a long, steel cable with explosives hung all along it.

"What's all this for?" Michonne asked.

"Wait!" The kid interjected. "When I was hiding in the back of the truck, I heard a couple of them talking about this. This is for a herd."

"That's why it's a steel cable." Sadie added. "It's not just for one dead one, It's for a lot." She took another onceover along the cable. "We need these explosives."

"We'll need to figure out how to disarm it first though." Michonne pointed out.

Sadie, of course, was way ahead of her, already on her hands and knees, getting to work on it.

Tara, I think her name was, became increasingly nervous at the sight of it as she started to back away from her.

"...Uhh….okay."

"What's the matter, you never went through a JD phase as a kid?" Sadie snickered at the reaction.

"No." Tara scoffed back, still considerably nervously, as she continued to back away from it.

Before I, or anyone else, could make a comment to that, Negan's voice was suddenly playing back from the radio again

"We got ourselves a red situation!" He announced. "I need a search party. See if Daryl ran back home like the dumb animal that he is."

"On it." Another man's voice answered. "Be there in time for lunch."

"Turn that sleepy little burg upside down."

"We gotta go." Michonne urged. "We gotta get there before them, but we need these. We need to clear a path anyway."

"Yeah." Sadie agreed. "...anyway, first part's done. Now we gotta unwrap

the secondary explosives, the dynamite, the RPGs. Make sure these casings are not screwed up, and do not screw them up, either. This thing could still blow."

"You all heard her." I addressed the rest of the group. "Let's go."

Everyone all spread out at that, taking our positions as we got to work cutting the rest of them down from the cable.

"You can load these explosives into the trunk, as long as they're in good shape." Sadie finally announced. "...No dents, no tears. They're not live, they still need to be triggered to be set off."

She then raced back over to where Tara was to take one from her.

"Not that one." She explained. "I don't like the way it looks!"

"Okay."

"Sadie!" The kid called out, pointing out to the herd in the distance. "Look!"

"There they are." She agreed at a quick glance. "...but they're far, we still have time."

"You sure?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes at the underestimation, just barely taking them away from what she was doing. "We need these! …...And we need to get the cars back in front of the onramp."

"They'll know we took their explosives, so does it matter?" Jesus pointed out.

"We want that herd to stay on the highway, we may need it." She explained.

"Okay! Tara, Carl, come on!" Michonne called.

"Sasha, Jesus!" Sadie called out. "Can you make it back to The Hilltop on foot?"

"Yeah." They both agreed.

She nodded, not looking up. "Tell Maggie we're not giving up. Go!"

Sasha set one of the explosives down on the ground in front of her before taking off.

"Here!"

"We need every stick!" Sadie continued. "Every RPG."

"Sadie, they're gonna cut them off. Can't we just split up?" I suggested.

"Hell no! If these cars run, I'll bring my arm down, and we go! We're gonna Ghost Ship these bitches."

I chuckled a little at the reference as I followed her judgment at her orders and headed for the car in the opposite direction to get to work on it as she did with the other one.

Once I was finished on my end, I looked out and nodded to her as she gave the signal and we took off driving through the enormous herd.

After we'd mowed down enough of them, we both got out and started fighting our way through the rest of them to meet back up and pile into the van that the others had pulled up in and drove off, watching the eventual explosion from the distance.