Gareth's POV
The room remained generally quiet enough to ask this Dwight guy what was very clearly on everyone else's mind as well.
"Why do you wanna help?"
"Because I want it stopped." He answered. "...I want him dead."
"...Alright." I nodded. "Why not just kill him yourself then?"
"Because it can't just be me….they are all Negan."
Yeah, that checks out.
"He could just be here to see if Daryl was here." Tara suggested. "We can't trust him."
"He owned me…..but not anymore. What I did, I was doing it for someone else. She just got away, so now I'm here." He claimed.
"If they have Sadie, like Sasha suggested, he could be our only chance at getting her back." Jesus pointed out.
"Negan's coming soon. Tomorrow." Dwight continued. Three trucks probably.
20 Saviors and him. I can slow them down, bring some trees down in the road, buy a little time for you guys to get ready. If you can take them out, that's where we start.
You kill them, I'll radio back to the Sanctuary."
"The Sanctuary?" I questioned.
He nodded. "Where Negan lives. You drive the trucks back, and I can lead
you right inside, and, with the right plan, we can wipe out the rest. Check to see if your wife's still alive. Then, we get the workers on our side, build our numbers up, and go from outpost to outpost and end this."
I took a look around the room at the others as we all started to exchange looks with one another.
I turned my focus back to Dwight and nodded at him.
"Keep talking."
Daryl stood beside me as myself and some of the others watched the front gate, from a good distance, as Dwight left.
If he's lyin', I'm gonna kill him real slow." Daryl finally said. "When this is done, I don't give a damn if he's sorry. I will kill that son of a bitch."
"If he's lying, this is already over." I sighed.
Daryl scoffed. "Yeah, you would know, wouldn't you?"
The next morning, just as planned, Jadis and her people started showing up by the truckloads while the rest of us continued to prepare for The Saviors' arrival.
Not too much later, when they finally did start to pull up to the front gate, I watched curiously as one of his men stepped out of a truck before Negan himself did.
A man, who looked vaguely familiar. No…...it couldn't be him.
When he began speaking over a megaphone, however, it didn't take me much longer to figure out that it was Albert.
He locked eyes with me almost as soon as my look had turned to a glare at him.
"It doesn't have to be this way! ….if you all just comply, like I- "
"Where's Negan?!" I shouted back at him before he could finish. "What has he done with Sadie?!"
His cowardly eyes just held their focus on me. "I-I'm Negan."
Son of a bitch.
I sighed, glaring back at him as I moved my hand to set off the button that would trigger the explosives we had prepared….to no avail.
It was then that Jadis stepped closer behind me with a gun at the back of my head while the rest of her people began to turn on the others…..right as Negan had finally decided to show himself.
A couple more of her people who were below my current post, on the ground, moved to pull the gate open as Negan stepped forward from his crowd.
That smug and overly confident grin of his spread across his face.
"You ever hear the one about the crazy little lady named Sadie who thought she was such hot shit but didn't know shit, and got everyone that she gave a shit about killed?" He pointed a finger up toward me. "It's about your lady!" He chuckled at that.
"You're all gonna wanna put your guns down now!"
"No one drops anything!" I looked back to Jadis.
She smirked at me. "Tamiel came for the boat things, followed the ones who took, made a better deal."
"She pushed me, aaand she pushed me…" Negan interjected. "...And now...you're pushing me, Gareth! You just tried to blow us up, right? I mean, I get me, my people, but Albert? He tells me he used to be one of yours. You people… are animals.
Universe gives you a sign, and you just shove your finger right up its ass!"
He laughed as he called for Dwight and another one of his guys.
"Dwight, Simon, chop-chop!" He sighed, turning his focus back up to me, as they proceeded to go and retrieve what appeared to be a large coffin and wheel it out for all of us to see.
"So, you don't like Albert anymore. I know you still like Sadie! I do, too.
Got her right here packaged for your convenience, alive and well….."
Right…...the "well" part of that is up for debate, if he's really been keeping her in that thing this whole time.
"...Now, I brought her so I wouldn't have to kill all of you, and not killing all of you could get complicated." He continued. "See, I know there's a lot of firepower left in
there, Gareth, so I'm gonna make this simple. I want all your guns now, including the ones you've managed to scrape , I know about those, too. I want every last grain of your lemonade. I want Lucille back, and I want a person of your own choosing for Lucille! And Daryl...Oohh, I gotta get me my Daryl back!" He pointed out to him. "I see you." He turned his attention back to me. "..And the pool table and all the pool cues and chalk. And I want it now or Sadie dies, and then all
of you….probably…..oh c'mon, Gareth! Just because I brought her in a casket
doesn't mean she has to leave in it." He sighed, then chuckled as he shook his head.
You know what? You suck ass, Gareth! You really do. I don't want to have to kill her, but that's exactly what you're gonna make me do!"
"Show her to me!" I ordered. "Let me see her first!"
He chuckled again at that. "...All right. Just give me a second. I might have to get her up to speed. You can't hear shit inside this thing!"
He then turned around to give a good hard couple of knocks to the front of the coffin.
"Sadie! You're not gonna believe this crap!"
I aimed my gun just right, just as he'd turned around, likely unseen. Good.
If anything had happened to her, anything at all, between wherever he'd been keeping her back at The sanctuary up until now I was gonna kill him myself.
I'd shoot him just enough to bring him down so I could have at him with my bare hands.
As soon as he opened that casket though, the door of it sprang the rest of the way open as Sadie leapt out of it and smashed what appeared to be a large whiskey bottle against his crotch. It shattered immediately on impact, bringing him to his knees as he cried out in agony. "FUUUCCKK!"
"Cheap fuckin bottle!" I heard Sadie scoff as she quickly made her way over to Albert, who…..for whatever reason, had apparently thought it a good idea to sling Sadie's crossbow over his own shoulder during the previous exchange with Negan.
Even amongst all the commotion of everyone else having started shooting back and forth at each other, around us, I couldn't help but take pure joy in watching her grab said crossbow off of him and start beating him within an inch of his life.
When I finally did turn back around, Jadis was still standing there, aiming her gun at my face.
"No….down, now."
I tried to grab at her but she shot me in the side, bringing me to my knees til I inevitably fell flat and she could kick me off of the post and onto the ground.
"I said down."
As soon as I could get back up, I started limping til Sadie finally stood up from what she was doing and put two and two together. Shouting for me, as she ran towards me.
"Gareth!'
By the time she reached me, Jadis had already caught up with us and tried to give out more orders.
Sadie wouldn't let her get much farther than that, however, as she promptly fired two shots at Jadis's legs, bringing her down to her knees.
"You even think of laying another hand on him, the next one goes in your skull!" She growled, moving to carefully grab me up so that I could hold onto her for support as we both took off running.
"I gotchu." She reassured.
We kept running, throughout all the gunfire that surrounded us, until Sadie stopped almost dead in her tracks as we both saw that Negan not only had somehow reacquired his precious bat in all the commotion, but that he also had the kid down on his knees in front of him.
"Son of a bitch." Sadie muttered as we both opted to get close enough to see what was going on.
"Get down, stay behind me." Sadie insisted, stepping forward as she took her crossbow and proceeded to aim it at Negan as we approached, before I could protest much.
"Sadie- "
"I got this, just follow my lead."
I sighed, getting down on my knees just behind her once we were close enough.
Negan turned around, grinning just as smugly as ever when he noticed us and chuckling even more as he held his bat so proudly over his shoulder…..likely with the intent of rubbing it in Sadie's face. "Hello again."
Sadie just glared back at him, inching closer with her crossbow still aimed.
"Welll….shit, Sadie." He sighed, as if he were genuinely disappointed in the obvious turn of events. "...I am very disappointed in you, I thought we had a deal!"
"We did." Sadie recalled. "One has to die."
He just chuckled even more heartily at that. "Fair play….that is fair play, I guess that one is on me!"
Sadie lowered her crossbow, but only slightly, as she still held her glare on him.
"...New deal then." He continued, glancing down at me then over at the kid, before looking back up at Sadie and holding up two fingers. "...Two have to die, but I will try to make it quick, do it in one swing each because I still like you Sadie and I don't wanna have to break you anymore than I gotta because it will...break you." He chuckled again. "You're gonna wish you were dead, Sadie...even more so than you did back in that little room, because maybe then you will realize that this isn't just some put on, that I'm not just the guy that brings you booze and kills rapists for you….." He looked down at me again as he chuckled. "I'm gonna kill Gareth now…..then the kid, and like I said, I will try to do it in one, because I like him too!" He was nodding back toward the kid now. "...in fact, if I had a kid, I'd want 'em to be just like him!"
The seething rage that was more clear than ever now never left her, even as she lowered her crossbow more and stepped to the side a little.
"...Fucking do it then….." She smirked, reaching for the machete she'd also apparently taken back in her earlier altercation with Albert, after readjusting the crossbow over her shoulder.
She raised it just enough that he could see the top end of it which was still stained from Rick's dried blood from that night at the church.
"...I don't mind getting a little more blood shed on this baby, just as long as you tell the last man who tried to fuck with my husband I said hi."
Negan seemed just a little more taken back now, but still chuckled at the thought of it as he stepped closer to me. "...Whatever you say, Sadie."
He raised that bat of his backward, ready to swing at me, but was immediately interrupted by the sudden entrance of…...a tiger? Did I really just see that.
As Negan took off screaming, the tiger in question was tearing away at the face of some Savior it had tackled and my brain processed that it was not just a goddamned tiger, but the one belonging to that so-called king that Sadie liked to poke fun at.
I leapt up, practically throwing myself back at Sadie at the realization.
"Such a baby!" She laughed, shielding me still as she started shooting at the rest of the Saviors in the area.
Shortly after all that, King Ezekiel himself leapt onto the scene, leading a group of his own people as he joined in the shooting.
"END THESE SAVIORS AND THEIR ACCOMPLICES!" He shouted, still shooting as he went. "ALEXANDRIA WILL NOT FALL! NOT ON THIS DAY!"
I continued to follow Sadie's lead as we both took off running through all the gunfire, firing back as we went.
We would also be joined by Maggie, who ran in leading a group of her people as they entered the scene.
"Fan out, third group now!" She ordered them….much to Negan's apparent shock and considerable terror, as he and another Savior were running for cover.
"That widow is alive, guns a-blazin!" He shouted. "You taste that, Simon? That is the taste of shit!"
Almost as quickly as they'd taken off running again, Sadie began shooting her crossbow at them, as she took us off in that direction.
"Ohh, you shits have seen nothing yet!" She shouted out at them.
Her sights still set on Negan, Sadie continued to run just ahead of me and began firing even more shots back as she made use of a gun she'd taken off of a Savior she'd shot down with one of her arrows.
To her clear dismay, however, we quickly lost sight of him as an array of smoke bombs followed shortly after someone else's signal from a smoke gun.
"Goddamnit!" She shouted.
As she finally gave up, we ran to take temporary cover behind an RV where we were soon met up with Maggie's group again.
"They're falling back!" I called out to them while Sadie continued to look around the immediate vicinity, scoping it for any sign of Negan.
Maggie nodded before continuing to give out orders to the rest of her group.
"Eduardo, Bertie, between the houses! Cover the gates!" She instructed, leading them back off. "Let's go!"
As we took off in the other direction, Ezekiel ran by with another group of his people.
"NOW, WE FINISH THIS!"
Sadie eventually did catch sight of Negan again…..though, not until after he'd already made it to one of his trucks with another Savior with whom he was making a getaway.
I followed as Sadie chased after them, firing shot after shot at the truck as Negan thought it wise to hold a middle finger out the window til they were both out of sight again.
"Goddamned coward!" She shouted after them, firing one last shot.
Eventually, much of the smoke had cleared and it appeared that the Saviors had all been either shot down or made their getaway with Negan by now.
Still, Sadie and I continued to make rounds around the place….along with much of the others, just to make sure.
"I think we got them all." I finally said.
Sadie, still angry but also somewhat lost in thought over something in the near distance, shook her head.
"No…" She replied. "...not all of them." She took off, walking quickly away towards the direction she'd been staring in.
Puzzled, I glanced around as I watched her go, following behind again once I realized what…...or rather who she was referring to.
Sure enough, there Albert laid. Barely still alive after Sadie's beating, he appeared to be just now coming to.
Sadie, still glaring down at him, reached for her knife.
She gripped it in her hand, ready to strike him, til grabbed her hand and held her back from doing so.
"Don't…." I told her. "...not yet…...we'll take him to the infirmary first, let him get patched up. I just wanna talk to him."
She glared back down at him, but nodded as she resheathed her knife.
While we waited back at the infirmary for him to be good, Theresa had taken upon herself to tend to my wound.
Meanwhile, she didn't seem to be in much better shape, herself.
Her nose, presumably broken from an altercation she had had, was bandaged and she had a pretty nasty looking black eye.
"Jesus, Sadie really must've done a number on him." She chuckled, referring to Albert.
Sadie, her hand still in mine, immediately changed her expression to one of disdain at the mention.
"Yeah, well from the looks of it, you're one to talk." I teased, trying to lighten the mood a little.
Sadie ignored the remark while Theresa just laughed at it.
"Trust me, it looks a lot worse than it is." She snickered a little at Sadie as she finished up and started to put her kit of supplies away.
"There." She chuckled again as she started to stand back up. "You can put your shirt back on now."
"...beg to differ." Sadie snickered, briefly lighting up at the thought.
I smacked it playfully in her direction before putting it back on.
"Very funny."
Her smirk grew even more at that. "I thought it was."
"You're terrible, both of you." Theresa laughed, shaking her head. "...anyway, he'll be in the next room when Denise is done with him. She'll come out, herself, and- "
"No." Sadie interrupted. "...let him stew with it here for a while. Put him in one of the cells, whenever he's stable enough. Gareth can talk to him there."
I like the sound of that. I grinned a little, myself, and nodded towards Sadie.
"What she said."
Theresa smirked a little, herself, glancing back toward the room she'd indicated before turning back to us. "You got it."