Gareth's POV

With Sadie taking, what would likely be, another day or so for whatever business it was she had up at The Hilltop, I decided to make the call to lead nearly everyone else out on this mission that Tara had us out on without her.

As much as she would've wanted to be a part of this, as with everything else, I know she would've insisted on putting me in charge of this operation while she took care of her thing….even if for no other reason than to keep my mind off of worrying about her on whatever little side quest she and Maggie must've gone on.

Gotta love that about her.

I couldn't worry too much though. She does know how to handle herself out there, probably better than any of us, and Jessie would be back at Alexandria with a handful of the others to fill her in on where we'd be and how to find us if she got back first.

One good thing that would come out of all this, as much as I wanted her here too, was that she wasn't here to make a bigger thing about Tara keeping this Oceanse community and their supposed armory a secret for so long than it needed to be

The poor girl already felt bad enough about the whole thing, as it was.

"You're sure Sadie's gonna know how to find us when she gets back?" Tara worried aloud, as we drew closer to this Oceanside community in question.

"Well, if she doesn't, it'd be a first." I sort of chuckled. "..besides, I asked Jessie to be one to stay back to watch Alex and filled her in on things. If Sadie gets back before we do, she can fill her in and from there, Sadie's got her own radio that she can use to reach us when she gets close enough."

"Okay." She said, clearly trying to convince herself still.

When we finally did reach it, Tara went ahead in by herself, while the rest of us took our own positions just outside the place.

As one of our best shots, Theresa would be taking her position in one of the trees to give her just the right angle, should things start to go south.

"Once you're up, watch for the signal." I reminded her, as she started her climb.

She nodded. "When does the clock start?"

"As soon as she's in." I answered. "...Hey...you good?"

She just shrugged. "Good enough."

At Tara's eventual signal, we all started firing our shots. Bombs were set off nearby, as others gathered the scrambling Oceanside residents into one area to relay Taras offer to them and how everything was gonna go down from there.

"...Now, since we made a lot of noise…" I began to explain, as I entered the scene.

"...we want to wrap this up quick so you can send people to redirect anything coming this way. Tara said your forests are relatively clear, so we won't take any chances.

No one needs to get hurt...this is just about what you have, what we need."

"Nobody's taking anything!" An older woman, who I presumed to be the one in charge from what Tara told us, suddenly declared. Her gun was held up against Tara as she was making her walk just ahead of her and the other young girl who was with them. "You need to let everyone go and leave right now! Just walk away or this one dies!"

Oohhh boy, would Sadie have fun with this one.

"Yeah, we'll leave you alone…" I told her, trying not to chuckle too obviously a my previous thought. "...but we're taking your weapons with us, that's not gonna change.

It's Natania, right?"

She held her glare, not answering.

"...put the gun down, and let's talk about what we can change."

"No. Leave right now." She insisted.

"Theresa, don't!" Tara shouted, looking up toward where Theresa was positioned.

Would that have been so terrible though, for Theresa to go ahead and shoot this bitch? I thought to myself, listening to her go on.

"...We just wanna be left alone!"

"Yeah, we'll leave you alone." I reminded her. "...Just let go of her now or we'll kill you. None of us want that."

"They want us to fight The Saviors." The younger woman finally chimed in.

"We tried that, we lost too much." Natania….again insisted.

"We're not gonna lose anymore. Not our guns, not our safety, not after everything

we've done to get here."

"We're gonna win, with your guns, with or without your help." Tara added. "Natania,

put the gun down. You kill me, and you die, and my people take the guns and nothing changes."

"Maybe we should try." Another woman, this time from the crowd, suggested.

"Grandma, stop." The younger woman tried to reason with Natania. "It's over. Just talk to them, okay?"

"It's not over!" Natania practically spat back. They've forgotten. You've all forgotten.

Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything? We can lose our guns,

but us leaving this place to fight? After everything? I have to remind you! Yes.

I am gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die. But it's that important. This is your life,

all of you. Remember what it looks like. Remember what they did to us! You need to see this. Open your eyes!"

"Gareth! Dead ones!" Theresa shouted out before anyone could say anything else.

Everyone turned to see the massive horde that was coming right for all of us.

"Everybody up!" I ordered. Get the children behind us! They're coming! First shift,

join them on the line."

"Knives out. Dead only. Dead only!" Someone else from our group added.

"Don't go anywhere." I continued. "Everyone, shots within 10 feet of the line. That's it! NOW!"

Everyone, amongst our group and the Oceanside community alike, started firing their guns at the majority of them and stabbing through the skulls of others til we got through the last of them…...at which point Natania still had something to say about everything. Figures.

"No. We're not fighting them with you. So take your damn guns and go." She announced as she walked off.

When we finally got back to Alexandria, later that night, we arrived to find Sasha standing alone near the front gate.

The girl, who I believe Sadie had referred to before as Enid, ran ahead of us toward her. "Hey, are you okay? Where's Sadie?"

I looked at her, somewhat confused as I tried to piece together what she mean...how Sasha would know, then looked back to Sasha.

"...Yeah, where is she?" I asked.

"Somebody's here." She stated.

"Where is she?" I repeated, stepping forward.

She sighed.

Along the way to show us what she had meant before, she also explained how Sadie's little Hilltop mission had turned into her and Sasha taking off on their own back up to Negan's so-called Sanctuary in an attempt to take him out themselves.

"So, you just left her there?" I asked.

"She gave me no choice, Gareth. I tried to stop her, but she was already through one of the gates and ran in before I had the chance."

I sighed. "Yeah, that sounds like her."

We continued to follow her til she led us into where they had some jail-like cells, only one of which actually contained someone behind its bars.

We looked at it curiously til the man who was in it, a blonde man whose hair fell down just above his shoulders and who wore a vest over his shirt.

If I was remembering correctly, Sadie had mentioned him a time or two before, referring to him as Negan's little lap dog.

From said recollection, I had assumed him to be nothing more than that, but Daryl…...Daryl, on the other hand clearly had some beef with this guy as he lunged at the man, clearly ready to rip this guy's head off til some others grabbed a hold of him to hold him back.

"He says he wants to help." Sasha explained.

"That's right." He confirmed.

I stepped forward from the others, looking back at him as I began to consider his offer.

"...Okay." I finally agreed. "...prove it then."