Sadie's POV

When I got to The Hilltop, as I'd been doing since the beginning of this whole mess with Negan and his so-called Saviors, I made my way over to the graves, hoping to find Maggie still there and check in on her.

When I did reach it, only to find that either I was early or that I had just missed her, I decided to set my stuff down to sit and wait to see if she'd show up.

I'd Just started debating with myself over whether to give her another few minutes or so, or to give up and just start looking elsewhere when a familiar yet suspicious voice startled me from behind.

"Sadie." The woman's voice stated.

I jumped slightly, though more at the realization of whose voice it was than the suddenness of it, as I turned to find Sasha standing before me.

"...I thought I might find you here."

I stood to my feet, folding my arms across my chest as I nodded.

"...And so you have….what is it you want?" I replied. "...besides my head on a platter."

Her eyes began to squint at me, likely at the admittedly ill timed little cannibal pun, before she corrected me. "I need you for something….after all, you owe me."

It took me not more than another second to connect the obvious dots.

"You wanna kill him."

"Need to." She corrected again. "...and I can't just keep waiting around to do it.

I need you because you've been there, you'd know the ins and outs better than any of us."

"I do." I confirmed. "...So, I'll do it, but what about- "

"Maggie doesn't know….and you're not gonna tell her." She stated, as if it were set in stone.

"Or what?" I shot her a little smirk. "...you'll kill me? Cause let me tell you, it's either that or you're buying me dinner, if you're gonna be bossing me around like that."

"Are you in or not?"

"Oh, I've been in." I reminded her. "You think I need anyone's word, much less yours, to put him in the ground?"

"Good."

"...what I won't do is lie to Maggie." I insisted. "I've seen what she can do, she can handle herself."

"Sadie, if you really cared about her, like you say you do, you'd agree with me."

"Well, then, you just don't know shit about me." I argued. "...but fine….I still won't lie to her, but I suppose I just won't volunteer it."

"Sadie- "

"You want my help, that's the deal…...take it or leave it."

She shot me another glare. "...Fine."

"Good." I took a cigarette out of my pocket, lighting it as I started to walk off. "...Don't keep me waiting too long, now."

I wandered along, smoking my cigarette, while Sasha took to gathering whatever she needed, still on my little now side quest to find Maggie.

I continued my stroll until I reached Jesus's trailer and heard, what sounded like, his and Maggie's voices coming from the other side of it.

I smiled a little to myself, taking a last drag of my cigarette before I put it out and made my way around to meet up with them.

"...for the first time I feel like I belong." I heard him telling her. "Trying to make sure you and Sasha became a part of this made me a part of this….When I first got here, I uhh...was never here. I, uh...always found it hard to get close to anyone….neighbors, friends…..boyfriends."

"You should try it sometime." She replied. "...even if it doesn't last."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little as she turned to look, just as I was turning the corner, and wrinkled her nose a little.

"Sorry, I know I must reek of cigarettes. I just put my last one out when I heard you."

"It's okay." She chuckled back, glancing briefly to Jesus who just sot of smiled back at me. "Sadie, you remember Jesus."

I gave a little smirk as I nodded. "With a name like that, how could I forget?"

Jesus just laughed at the comment. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise." I chuckled.

Maggie smiled back at me again. "I didn't know you were comin by."

"Well, you know…" I shrugged. "...I was near the area, just thought I'd stop in. I went to look for by the uhh...by the graves, but you weren't there."

"Must've just missed me then."

I nodded. "...guess I did."

She started to stand up from where she was sitting. "Well, I hate to rush off, but I've gotta talk to our blacksmith about making more spears. I'm thinking we can trade them to The Kingdom for some more body armor…...see, what we really need is riot gear."

I nodded. "I see."

"You can come with me though, if you'd like."

Yeeeeahh, Sasha's gonna kill me, for what I'm about to tell her, if I take her up on the invitation. I just shrugged, smirking to myself at the thought.

"Happy to." I told her, as I began to follow along.

Our walk was cut short, however, when the loud clanging of bells began to ring all throughout the place as some people who were apparently on lookout were shouting that The Saviors were coming.

The girl I'd met once, maybe twice before…..Enid, I think her name was, along with Daryl, were quick to meet up with us as we started running to get him and Maggie hidden.

"We'll never make it in time!" Maggie called out.

Enid just rushed ahead of all three of us, as she led us over to a large pair of doors which appeared to lead to a dark cellar.

"Just come on!"

"Now, just stay down there, I'll keep them away!" She explained. "They're not the same ones that came to Alexandria!"

"We'll keep them away!" I corrected as Maggie looked quickly back at me. "...I don't do tight spaces."

She nodded, accepting the excuse, as Daryl followed in just behind her.

Once I felt assured that Maggie'd be safe down there, I rushed off in my own direction til I met back up with Sasha who was just coming back out of Jesus's trailer.

"We're not hiding!" She declared, before I could say anything.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" I assured her. "...So, where are we going?"

She pointed me toward what was apparently another doorway, which we were quickly approaching. "Down there! It goes to the other side!"

"Great…" I muttered, just barely audibly….apparently to her disdain.

"What?!"

"I told you, I don't do well in tight spaces!" I scoffed. "...Whatever, you first."

She just seemed to shrug it off in her hurry as she climbed down ahead of me.

"My obvious anxieties aside, that tunnel thing was a smart idea." I admitted, once we were out. "...you dig that, yourself?"

"Maggie thought we needed a quick way out, so I made it." She confirmed.

I nodded. "Well, we're out now. So, now what?"

"You know."

I just shrugged as we continued on our way.

"So, what is it?" Sasha finally asked when we'd reached a car that I was going to attempt to hotwire.

"...what is what?" I barely looked up from what I was doing to ask it.

"Your thing with tight spaces." She elaborated. "..you've mentioned it a few dif- "

"Yeah, I think they called it claustrophobia, once upon a time." I sort of scoffed. "...look, I already agreed to help you. You don't have to act like you give a shit about my shit-luck life history, just do us both a favor and stick to the plan."

"Okay.." She scoffed, making her way back around to my side of the car.

"Jesus said there's some buildings, two, three, four stories, just outside the sanctuary to the east of it. Sound familiar?"

I nodded as she relayed the rest of what she knew to me.

"Well, at least one of them should have a line of sight to the rear courtyard, past the fence with the walkers on it. We hole up, we wait, we take a shot from there. If we have to get closer, there's some weak spots in the perimeter we might still be able to take advantage of, but if we can, I say we stay outside, do it clean. Maybe make it out of there alive."

I scoffed, shaking my head as we moved on from the car.

"You see a problem with that?" She asked naively.

"You wanna make sure we get him, so do I…" I explained. "..that means we go in. If we shoot from a distance, we could miss and we won't get another chance."

"I won't miss." She argued. "If we go in and get caught- "

"I won't get caught." I corrected her. "I made it back out before, didn't I?"

"Well, you got lucky." She claimed. "We can't risk that this time. If they decide to take us, we won't get another try….because they'll kill us. If we're out here, we're alive, we'll get another go.

"I wasn't lucky last time." I corrected her….again. "...so, I'm gonna need you to quit insulting my abilities if you want me to go through with this little mission of yours. I am more than capable of pulling off this thing myself."

She didn't say anything, just scoffed.

"Somethin to say to that?" I scoffed back.

"Guess not."

I nodded. "...Smart girl."

Once we'd finally reached Negan's so-called Sanctuary, I led Sasha up to just a ways down from where I'd managed to break in before and took our chances climbing the fence after lighting up a distraction to throw in for a good bunch of the dead ones.

Not much farther from there, we were able to find the building in which we would hole up in until Negan returned for us to take our shot.

Sasha immediately took look out up at the nearby window while I sat down to knot up a rope I'd managed to find a little earlier.

"Anything?" I finally asked her.

"Negan still hasn't come out." She sighed, turning again to look back out the window. "But…."

I looked up briefly from the knots I'd been tying when she paused.

"But...what?"

"...This guy out there...looks vaguely familiar….I think he was one of your guys."

I scoffed at the thought of it as I went back to my work.

"My guys are dead because of your guys….and anyway, that was like two years ago, how would you even remember what he looked like?"

"...ohh, I remember." Her voice turned considerably cold as the temporarily set aside rage at what we'd done was fighting to resurface.

I looked back up at her, then back down at the rope, and sighed.

"Here, trade me then. You can take over the knots for a minute while I see for myself."

"I'll stay." She insisted. "..I'm not good with those kind of knots anyway…..a lot of others, but not those."

"I'll show you then." I sort of scoffed as I took a pair of binoculars out of my pack and met her over by the window. "..Here, scoot."

She shot me somewhat of a dirty look as I sort of shoved in next to her to get a good view of where she'd been looking toward.

"Show me- " I started to ask, cutting myself off as I adjusted the focus to spot more closely who it was. "That son of a bitch!"

"What?"

I scoffed as I took another look, as if I needed to confirm, before I held the binoculars back down. "Well, I guess we know now why nobody stopped us."

"What are you-

"His name is Albert." I sighed, shaking my head as I turned to return to my spot on the floor. "...he was one of our guys who took shifts watching the perimeter of Terminus….NOT well, mind you." I scoffed at the recollection. "...he's the reason your guys were able to catch us off guard, as much as they did." I scoffed again. "...I'm sure that you also remember he bailed that night at the church, almost immediately after shit went down."

"I do." She replied, not taking her own eyes away from her continued search for Negan. "...I made it a point to remember, just in case I needed to- " She glanced back to me as she stopped herself.

"In case you needed to hunt him down." I finished for her. "It's fine, it's not like he hasn't earned it." I shook my head as I finished off my current knot. "You know, Gareth and I had been saving his ass since the start, and this is how he'd repay us."

"Does he even know you're still alive?"

"Does it matter?" I scoffed. "...well, if he doesn't, he'd better be hoping to God I'm not."

"I know the feeling."

I nodded, looking back at my rope then glancing back up at her.

"You wanna learn how to tie these or not?" I finally asked, snickering a bit at my realization. "..no pun intended."

She half smiled, almost genuinely, at that as she came over to sit in front of me.

"Yeah."

I held the rope up, just a little more, so that she could see what I was doing easily enough. "All right, here's the first one. Cross it over your hand like that." I proceeded to tie the knot as I explained. "..then you take the top loop, bring it down, up, and back through there... Got it?"

She reached her hand out for the rope. "Let me try."

I handed it to her and sat back, watching her tie her own knot in it, before I finallly spoke.

"...Back at Terminus…." I paused, partly to collect myself and piece together what I was about to say, and partly expecting one of her death glares at the mention of the name.

She just looked up, staring nonetheless, but only slightly suspiciously.

"...before your guys ever got there, before we…" I chuckled softly, somewhat humorlessly. "...it was a good place….we helped people, a lot of people….and sure, some of them were asssholes, but they were basically good, we…..were good…" I scoffed a little at the thought. "...maybe that was our mistake…..because, maybe they wouldn't have gotten in…"

"They?"

I nodded. "...the ones who tried to take it all- did….take it all…...took us all…...yeah, they- they got a bunch of us, locked us away in those train cars before we ever thought about touching them…" I half smiled, more humorlessly.

"...sometimes my mind likes to go back there, to what they- what they did to us when they came to rip us back out…...what they did to me…that's my thing with tight spaces…..sometimes latches, or…...or big doors that clang shut."

"...I'm sorry."

"You don't have to say that." I scoffed, standing back up to look out the window again.

"I mean it….regardless of however I feel about you, no one- "

"Goddamnit!" I blurted out, cutting her off mid sentence as the trucks pulled up outside.

"Sadie-"

I grabbed her arm, practically yanking her over next to me.

She looked back at me, considerably confused, til she looked out the window for herself and spotted what I was looking at.

"Oh, shit." She realized out loud. "...that's Dr. Carson, Maggie's doctor….they brought him here?"

"..and which part of that surprises you?" I scoffed, looking around the area again for myself, til I saw Negan finally come out to where they were. Strutting around, oh so proudly, as he liked to, clearly at the sight of what his precious little goons had brought home for him.

"...like a goddamned child on Christmas." I muttered out loud.

"What?!"

"Nothing." I scoffed. "...not important, just take your shot."

She just shrugged and resumed her position.

"...Agh, he's too close! I can't get a clean shot." She sighed.

"If it's Albert who's in the way, go nuts."I snickered. "...I think we've already both established he's earned it."

"It's not him." She sighed, looking back out the window as he apparently walked away. "Alright, new plan."

I chuckled a little at the thought as I grabbed up my stuff to follow her.

"Yeah, for you maybe. You know what my intentions always were."

"Very well." She chuckled, half genuinely, herself.

We waited til it was dark to make our way back down to one of the gates that led deeper into the sanctuary.

I scoffed as I noticed Albert walking alongside some other asshole, toward where we stood, in the near distance.

They were just barely close enough that I could make out something about safety precautions and this asshole being a new guard.

Yeah, I suppose the bastard gets some points for being smart enough not to trust Albert with that job…...alone, anyway.

When I decided they were close enough, and that I'd have a clear enough shot, I took my crossbow and shot one of my arrows clean through that asshole's head….killing him almost instantly.

Albert, obviously startled, screamed as he jumped back, placing his hands over his head as he ducked down.

"Off your ass!" I ordered, shaking the fence after I'd slung the crossbow back over my shoulder. "You're getting out of this shithole!"

"Sadie?!" He finally recognized, glancing back at the other guy. "You could've shot me!"

"And I can't believe I didn't." I practically spat back. "Now get up, I'm breaking you out! …..NOW!"

He just sat there, looking back at me all pathetic-like.

"Albert!" I shook the fence up some more. "Let's go, don't make me tell you twice!"

"...No."

"No?!" Sasha had to hold me back from not breaking through the damn thing at him just yet.

"No." He repeated. "Now, get out of here before someone sees you-"

"Or what?! You'll get in trouble?! What's the matter, Negan doesn't like his little lapdogs sleeping on their duties?!"

"You should go." He reiterated, turning to go back inside.

"ALBERT!" I was slamming my fist against the gate now, trying to get his attention back, but he was already gone.

"That goddamned, piece of shit little pussy!" I muttered, getting to work on prying open the gate. "This is it! I'm going in!"

"SADIE!" She tried to grab me back, but I quickly fought away from her grip as I leapt inside and started to wire the gate shut again behind me.

"Go! Get out of here…...play out your little safe route, just like you wanted to…...maybe you'll even make it out of this alive."

As I picked my shit back up and ran ahead inside, the last thing I heard was her desperately shouting out my name to try and get me to come back.

"SADIE!"

….But there was no turning back now.