Sadie's POV

As I lit my cigarette, just beside the little campfire I'd started right outside the van we'd been riding around in on our search for the guns and supplies, I caught sight of Gareth starting to stir out of the corner of my eye just behind me.

I chuckled softly to myself as he gradually started to sit up and rub the sleep from his eyes.

I couldn't help but grin a little at the sight of it. "Morning, Sleepyhead. Sleep well, I take it?"

"Little more so than usual, anyway." He yawned. "Mmmm….anyway, thanks for taking watch last night."

"Happy to." I replied, taking another drag from my cigarette. "I got to enjoy some me time and you got some much needed sleep."

"Mmmm, win/win then." I guess.

I nodded. "Win/win."

"Mmmm…...is that my jacket, by the way?" He observed with a chuckle.

"Maybe…." I snickered, setting my cigarette down on my little makeshift ashtray. "It's cozy."

"Oh is it? I hadn't noticed." He teased. "...so, is that what you were trying to ask me about while I was half asleep last night?"

"Right, when's the last time I asked before I stole something of yours?"

"Touché." He chuckled. "So, what was it then?"

"So, you do remember that then?" I snickered, taking my last drag before putting thee cigarette out. "...I was trying to make out what you were saying, you were talking in your sleep again."

"Damnit." He muttered, trying to hide his snicker. "...well, did you ever make out what I was saying?"

"Sorry to say I didn't." I chuckled. "...not more than some mumbling and some almost coherent mutters. Anyway, it was still cute, nonetheless."

"Glad to be of service then." He chuckled back, reaching for the supply bag we'd packed for the trip. "Anything good in here?"

I nodded. "Some cans of soup, couple sandwiches aaand I believe a half a bag of chips. Knock yourself out."

"I just might." He browsed over its contents for himself before settling on one of the sandwiches as I reached for one of the water bottles.

"Bit of iced coffee too, if you want some."

"What's a bit of iced coffee?" He laughed, taking the offered bottle from me.

"Whatever's left after I finished with it." I snickered. "Did you really expect anything else from me?"

"Certainly not." He teased, taking a swig from it. "...that's why I asked."

"Smart boy." I teased back, reaching for the same bag. "Anyways we should probably get going again soon, just gonna grab myself another can before we do."

"You're the boss." He chuckled. "You want me to take over the driving, since you took watch?"

"Hmm, yeah, might be a good idea." I admitted with a smirk. "The shots in my coffee weren't exactly espresso."

"I see, and you didn't think to mention this before I drank from the same bottle?"

I reached back and took the water bottle I'd poured my own portions into earlier and playfully threw it at him. "Smart ass. You'd know if it was mine you were sipping from!"

"Ow! fair enough." He admitted, crawling his way to the driver's seat. "Hop in then."

The next few hours were spent driving and scavenging some more, to very little avail, til we came across an old high school that looked somewhat hopeful…..or so we thought.

Granted, it did have a little more to offer than where we'd previously been trying.

Gareth came up with some more cans of food, and I managed to scavenge some knives, a couple guns, and a handful of cassette tapes from some of the mostly ransacked lockers.

"What's that smile?" Gareth chuckled when we eventually started making our way to the van. "...Already a couple of days out, and all we've got to show are some knives,

two guns, some dented cans of beans, and some football jerseys. Pretty much, anyway."

"And the cassette tapes." I reminded him, holding them up briefly as I looked more closely at them.

"...and the cassette tapes." He echoed with a chuckle.

I chuckled back as I shoved at him teasingly. "Real talk now, when's the last time you and I had this kind of alone time together?"

"Hmmm….How old is Alex again?" He teased

I snickered as I playfully shoved him back again. "My point exactly though."

"Yeah, you're not wrong. I have considered this aspect of it." He chuckled.

I gasped dramatically at the comment, putting a hand to my chest as we came to a brief stop. "Oh, be still, my beating heart."

"Very funny." He smirked. "I think you knew what I meant."

Before I could make another remark to that, I was interrupted by the sounds of brush rustling and some conversation in the near distance.

I immediately put my arm out in front of Gareth, to stop him, as I also hushed him so I could hear.

"Alright, geez. I'm sorry." He teased. "You know I'll make it up to y- "

"SHH!" I interrupted, more urgently as I gestured to the clearing just in front of us.

"Sorry." He whispered as I led him closer to it, just enough so that we could see and hear well enough while still remaining hidden.

As it turned out, from what I got of the conversation, it was a few more of Negan's pricks, apparently letting off some steam as they swung at some golf balls.

"...And if I hear one more goddamn word about Fat Joey, I'm gonna smash somebody's teeth in." One of them ranted

"Good riddance to dead weight." Another one added. "No more mascot crap."

I couldn't help but snicker in amusement at the entertainment of it, brief as it was, before Gareth and I carefully picked our moment to run for the back of their pick up truck and take off with whatever we could.

Among the small haul were some food…..mostly for snacking, another gun, and some water bottles.

'You know, I do have to say…" I admitted, reaching my hand into the bag of pretzels we'd snagged. "...those little minions of his may be dumb as shit, but they do have great taste in pretzels…..nice and salty, kinda like me at your little comment earlier."

"Very funny." He chuckled, looking over the rest of the stuff. "...good taste in batteries too, these'll be good for the walkie."

"Good news all around then, for once."

"That's what it looks like." He agreed, sneaking his hand over and across my leg as I drove, with a devious little smirk. "...among other reasons…"

I shook my head, trying to hide my own little smirk, as I met his hand with my own. "Alright, fine." I laughed. "..fine, Gar. You're forgiven. Now quit it, before I run us off the damn road."

"Fair enough." He snickered. "...crashing isn't exactly what I wanted to do by the side of the road either."

I humored him by looking back over at him, to find that that devious little smirk of his had returned.

I sighed as I shook my had, as if this was in some sort of defeat on my end.

"Alright, fine. You wore me down." I laughed, returning the smirk. "...next stop then, if you can behave yourself til then."

"Mmmm, Define behave…" He snickered, just as deviously.

"Terrible." I laughed. "...Absolutely terrible."

"You looove it." He defended.

"...and that's exactly why you're terrible." I teased.

We ended up driving for another couple hours, til we stumbled upon another abandoned school near one of our stops.

Upon closer look, we could see that the ground just beyond the fence was littered with shell casings…..good ones, too.

"Something serious happened here…...a long time ago." Gareth observed

"These are serious rounds…." I pointed out. "...Might be serious guns here, too.

I motioned for him to follow me, as I took us over to a nearby school bus from which we could climb up on the roof, get a better look around the place "Let's get a better look."

The top of the roof was nearly flooded and clearly not very sturdy beneath our feet, once we had reached it.

"Watch your step." I warned, leading him over to the opposite side from where we came up on.

He nodded, looking down as he tested the ground beneath his feet for himself to confirm. "Probably shouldn't be up here too long."

"Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled about it either." I agreed. "Let's just take a quick look, see what we're gonna see."

"You're the boss." He teased.

I smacked at his shoulder playfully for that as I moved forward to take a better look at what was in front of us. "Shut up."

He just snickered at that as he followed my lead.

What was in front of us was what looked to be an old carnival….crowded with dead ones, most of which were still wearing guns from before they turned.

"Soldiers, civilians, all those rounds…..There was a fight." I observed. "Maybe it was the dead ones."

"Maybe just other people." Gareth suggested. "...They're still wearing their guns.'

I nodded, smiling back at him. "I think this is it."

"I think it is, too." He agreed. "Think we can?"

I scoffed, jokingly, at him. "You think you can stop underestimating me?"

"Hey, I said we." He laughed. "I'm underestimating myself here."

I shook my head. "Excuses, excuses."

As we took another good look around, almost as if on some sort of damn cue, the floor beneath us started cracking and crumbling til it finally gave in, dropping us down with it.

As we plummeted to the ground inside, we couldn't help but break into hysterics, even as my damned crossbow slammed against my back upon impact.

"Ow!" I laughed, almost harder. "Jesus, fuck! Remind me never to fall with that thing again!"

"My apologies, I didn't realize this was a planned landing." Gareth laughed. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fucking great." I laughed again, sliding the crossbow off my back to set it down. "You?"

"I'll survive." He chuckled.

I chuckled, myself, as I watched him stumble back onto his feet.

"I swear, if this isn't a sign, nothing can ever be."

"When you're right, you're right." He agreed, pointing right in front of us to what looked to be boxes stacked upon boxes of food. "Look."

"Shit…...this really is it." I confirmed, smiling back at him. "So, we gonna eat then or what?"

We brightened up the already darkened room, decently enough at least, with some candles we'd found and set up one of the boxes as somewhat of a makeshift table on which to dig into our findings.

"Mmmm...so, how is it?" I asked, taking a bite of my own.

"It's good." He answered through his own mouthful.

"It is good, isn't it?" I chuckled, taking another spoonful before reaching over into my bag. "...and I maaay just have one more trick up my sleeve to make this even better."

"Oh God.." He chuckled. "What did you do?"

"You'll see…." I promised, reaching around in said bag til I grabbed the half drank bottle of whiskey I'd stolen from Negan, back at his compound.

"Knock yourself out." I boasted as I revealed it and took the first swig. "You know I'm going to."

"Suppose I could do with a few drinks." He admitted, picking up the bottle. "How'd you score this?"

"Swiped it from Negan." I boasted even more proudly as I took another swig, after he'd set it back down. "...back at his so-called little sanctuary, while he was busy going off on that asshole's kid about something."

"You stole it from Negan?" He laughed, seemingly in simultaneous amusement and disbelief.

I chuckled as I dug into another can of food. "Would you really expect any less from me?"

"Course not." He chuckled back. "...just impressed, as always."

"Maybe you should set your standards a little higher then." I teased. "..sky's the limit."

"...if one exists." He somewhat agreed, taking another sip.

I chuckled softly back at that, glancing around the room again and smiling more when I looked back at him.

"...We don't have to go back right away, you know." I finally said, changing the subject.

"What's that, now?" He chuckled, somewhat confused.

"...back to that bitch, Jadis." I elaborated. "...with the guns and all, you know? We could hang out here another couple days. It's clear enough to."

"Suppose we could…" He admitted, half smiling as he seemed to pick up on what I was getting at. "...we probably should get back though. Wasn't that part of the deal?"

"It is…." I admitted, smirking slightly as I held up my hand that was still wrapped up. "...however, I also have a couple of grievances with her." I chuckled. "...that bitch can stand to wait another couple of days…..hell, a few days, even…..besides, this is nice, you know?"

"Can't argue with that…" He agreed. "...I don't think we've had a candlelight dinner like this since that old boarded up Jungle Video store, back in the beginning."

"My God….the video store." I chuckled in disbelief. "...that feels like a hundred years ago, how do you even remember stuff like that?"

"Well, to be fair, I do remember that….back section a little better.

"...That would be hard to forget." I chuckled as I recalled it. "...that section became the very adult section, that night."

"I remember my brother, Alex, had a fit over your remark that children didn't belong in that section, when he wandered in looking for the bathroom."

"Always a damn child." I snickered. "...and thank God you made that distinction, by the way. I might've thought you were referring to our son who wasn't even conceived at the time."

"Very funny." He chuckled, taking his last sip from the bottle. "...force of habit nowadays, I guess…..rest of that's all yours, by the way."

"Mmmm…" I took another swig from it, myself. "...sure you don't want anymore?'

"Knock yourself out." He chuckled. "You know me."

"...and for that, I'm beyond grateful." I smirked, taking yet another swig from it. "...that, and two more days."

He smiled back at me at the thought. "Two more days."

When we finally did re-emerge out into the open, we did our best to stay hidden while we took a quick onceover to reassess the situation.

"The dead ones in the field, they're not closed in." Gareth observed.

I glanced back toward where he was referring. "Yeah….. We got to take care of the ones out here and block that gap, too, so we can take the rest slow." I walked just a little further ahead of him as I counted the ones that were in our immediate vicinity. "...Seven, eight... nine... That car….I can block it up. I can take out that one on the way. You draw the rest."

"You're leaving me eight?" He questioned.

"Well, we could shoot them, but that would call the rest from the field." I pointed out with a scoff as I lowered my crossbow off my shoulder to hand to him. "You can handle eight, just take this with you."

He took it off my hands, slightly puzzled as he adjusted it over his own shoulder…...though, clearly with more intent of taking it off my hands for a while than intent to actually use it. "What's this for?"

"For shooting, last time I checked." I teased. "I did have reason for showing you how to use it, you know." I chuckled. "...besides, you were the one who was sooo sure I should take it easy after I fell on it the other day, you should be more careful about what you wish for."

"Duly noted!" He chuckled as I made my run for the car.

After I'd cleared a couple more dead ones in my path, I got to work trying to pull another dead one out from the cracked windshield, pulling it apart piece by piece as I did so

When I'd finally finished off the rest of him and started pushing the damn car from the front, I glanced back to see that Gareth had caught up with me and started pushing it from the back.

I shook my head to myself as I chuckled.

"I let you have those eight dead ones." I reminded him. "...I can push this."

"So can I." He insisted. "You just worry about steering us into that gap."

I shook my head to myself again, laughing as I jumped into the car to do just that.

"Shit…" I sighed to myself, turning briefly to call my realization out to Gareth.

"The brakes don't work!"

Before he could say anything though, gunshots could be heard as they fired off toward us from the near distance, forcing Gareth to take shelter in the trunk as I continued to steer it til it came to a stop.

I leaned my head down against the seat so I could check in on him.

"Gar! You good in there?"

"Yeah…" He sort of chuckled. "...little cramped in here with your crossbow, but I think I'll live."

"Give you something to think about, next time you get the bright idea for me to take a load off." I teased.

"When you're right, you're right." He teased back. "...so, does this mean I should also ignore your little note the other day to not let you fall on your back with it again?"

"Asshole!" I chuckled, looking back up and out the windows to see all the dead ones that had taken to surrounding the car in the meantime. "...You know, I think we may have overshot it…."

Another muffled laugh came from his side. "Ohh, you think?"

I rolled my eyes, as if he'd be able to see it. "Fine...I know we did." I chuckled a little more than what I'd hoped he'd heard at that. "...it was a good plan though."

"It was a great plan." He admitted.

Eventually, we managed to get him out of the trunk and climb up on top of the car through the sun roof together so that we could leap to the other side of the nearby fence and start fighting off the horde of dead ones as they came at it.

"Shit!" He called out. "...it's not gonna hold!"

I looked around til another bunch of them managed to finally take down another part of the fence. "..yeah, no shit!" I sort of scoffed, taking off running in the opposite direction with him.

"We'll split them off into smaller groups!" I decided, once we'd finally come to a stop. "...The barriers might hold. I'll take the slide, you take the Ferris wheel?"

He nodded, handing me the crossbow back "..Or we could just go."

I gladly took it back from him and quickly slung it back over my shoulder.

"You want to go?"

"Nah. We can do this." He answered.

"Yeah, I know we can!"

We each took off in our decided directions.

"How're you doin?!" He called out as he fought some more off over in his area

I smirked as I shot at a few more of them. "Eight more! You?!"

He paused briefly as he counted them off. "...Ten!"

As I turned back round from finishing off my own horde, my stomach turned as I noticed that Gareth had fallen from the Ferris wheel, where he'd been shooting down at them, and landed in front of an even bigger horde that was coming right for him as he tried desperately to shoot down the rest of them.

"Gareth!"

I continued calling his name out, as if it would do any good, as I sprinted desperately in his direction, panicking as it only got harder to see him past all of them.

"GARETH!" I shrieked, even more desperately as I finally got close enough to see what was happening.

I stopped dead in my tracks, feeling my heart sink as the sounds of flesh being torn and what sounded like the bastards feasting on something…...or someone

Tears streamed down my face as I watched in horror, what I could see, and eventually fell down to my knees as I fought back the urge to start sobbing right then and there.

"No….." I managed to choke out to myself.

I finally struggled back up onto my feet, bringing my hand to my face to continue to keep myself from sobbing as I struggled to process how to move next as they turned around to start toward my direction.

My trance, and the millions of thoughts and fears that appeared to be coming to life right in front of me weren't broken until Gareth's voice finally broke through it as he started calling my name.

"Sadie!"

I turned to look, taking another moment to process that he was now holding my crossbow again, which I'd apparently dropped in my panic.

I wiped my face as I signaled for him to toss it back toward me.

I opted to just sling it over my shoulder, once I'd caught it, and started using my knife on the remaining dead ones til I had a clear path to run towards Gareth and practically throw myself in his arms.

I clung onto him tightly for another moment before I finally broke away and slapped at the front of him.

"Don't you EVER scare me like that again!" I shouted, folding my arms across my chest as I sniffled some more and allowed him to hold me again.

"...I'll kill you, myself." I managed to choke out.

"As you should." He chuckled softly, kissing my forehead as he continued his attempts to comfort me. "...I'm sorry, okay? ….I'm sorry."

"You should be." I sniffled, practically burying my face into his shoulder.