cpmarzo: Thanks for the feedback. This chapter is Sandor's second appearance in terms of appearances in chapters in this story, and it's nowhere near his last.

NOTE: This chapter is shorter because, like I said, this was originally going to be a larger chapter but was split into two. I will also try and keep a more disciplined schedule with this story, so I am going to try and get out two a month until it's done (give or take a few days; the next chapter will be kind of long). It should also be noted that my notes for this story, aside from the ones in my mind, run out with this chapter. Therefore, I am headed into partially uncharted territory in the coming chapters.

Chapter Eleven:

Hostage (2016)

Arya had never been on a motorcycle before, but she currently found herself sitting behind Sandor Clegane on his motorcycle. It was dusk at that point and, a short while earlier, Arya had asked him why he wanted to take her with him. His response was curt and to-the-point.

"Ransom," he explained. "You know about the Brotherhood Without Banners?"

"Yes," Arya answered, still feeling a painful stinging ache where her left eye once was. She had a concern of it being untreated firing through her mind for a moment, but that train of thought was cut off when Sandor answered her.

"I'm running low on supplies, and I know they have a lot of it," he explained. "If I threaten your life in front of them, they'll be willing to give things away."
Arya's eye narrowed. "How do you know that's true?"

"It's worked before," Sandor answered as he neared a small building just outside of Harroway. "I just need to find the lot of them first." He pulled his motorcycle over and killed the engine soon after. Sandor dismounted and grabbed Arya, pulling her off of it. Arya, understanding what was going on, jumped off the motorcycle and followed him inside.

Inside the building, there was a lantern which Sandor had lit in the middle of the room. Sandor pulled several pieces of large furniture in front of the front door to blockade it from whatever dangers could have been lurking outside. Looking around in the dimply-lit room, Arya noticed that several of the windows were boarded over. Is he a vagabond? Arya theorized. Then again, Gendry and Hot Pie and me and the others were all vagabonds… She felt sad again when she thought of her friends.

Arya noticed a large metal beam coming from the floor and going into the ceiling. She sat down in front of it. Sitting up against the support beam, Arya looked around the room, pausing to contemplate both her situation and the fact she was now blind in one eye. In a situation like the living dead, raiders, and murderers running around a post-apocalyptic land, Arya figured being blind in one eye was likely a death sentence.

Maybe not, Arya thought. Lommy's been doing okay with one leg–

Arya's train of thought was cut off when she realized that Sandor was missing. Not a second later, Arya felt someone powerfully grab her from behind and begin to tie her hands and arms behind the support beam. Thrashing, Arya became alarmed and started shouting.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU–"

"QUIET!" Sandor shouted as he continued tying her to the support beam. "I'll let you go in the morning. For now, this is a precaution to prevent you from escaping."

When he was finished tying her to the support beam, he appeared from behind her and walked over to the lantern, still talking to her as he moved. "And if you try to escape, I'll cut out your other eye and pop it into your mouth."

Arya stayed quiet the whole time, and she happened to fixate on his burns as he moved around the room and spoke to her. She seemed oddly drawn to the sight of them.

"You want to look at my burns?" Sandor growled. "Fine, then, take a good, long stare. I know many would like to–"

"Where did they come from?" Arya asked.

For a moment, Sandor frowned and paused, as if Arya had made him dig up a painful memory. Finally, he spoke. "My brother."

Now Arya's curiosity was piqued. "Who's your brother? What did he do?"

Sandor's eyes narrowed hatefully. "You really want to know?"

"Yes."

Sandor looked at her like he wanted to rip something off of her. He paused for a moment, then finally spoke with a growl. "When I was about six, maybe seven, he pushed my face into a fire. Gregor, he was twelve, and it took three grown men to pull him off of me."

"Was he arrested?"

"No," Sandor spat. "Our father covered for him. He said my bed caught fire in the middle of the night."

Arya frowned. She couldn't imagine her own father doing that if say Robb hurt her badly for whatever reason. She replied to Sandor. "That's… terrible."

Sandor didn't say anything for a moment. "And?"

"I couldn't imagine my family doing anything like that to me."

"Are they still alive?"

"My mother and father aren't, and neither is my oldest brother. I don't know about the rest… Jon, Rickon, Bran, and Sansa could be out there somewhere."

"Sansa?"

"Yes?"

"As in Sansa Stark?"

Arya's eyebrows raised. She began to feel hopeful. "Yes, that's my older sister, do you know where she is?"

"Near the beginning, we were both in King's Landing." Arya recognized the name of the city. Sandor continued. "I saved her life. There was a riot going on, and the dead began to swarm us. I had to carve through a crowd of them with a chainsaw to get her out of there."

"What happened after?"

"We got separated. Sansa wound up running off with some fool named Hollard to get away from the city, and I wound up with the Brotherhood in the Riverlands."

That ended the conversation there. Nothing more needed to be said. Arya hoped that maybe Sansa was still out there somewhere, and it would make her happy to see her again, despite their sibling rivalry they had before the apocalypse started. The Stark siblings fought, they shared things with each other, they played together, and they ate together. And it took Arya losing all of them to realize how much she loved them. She wanted to tell Sandor that she hoped that they were still alive somewhere, but she knew that he would tell her to not count on it.

Slowly but surely, Arya fell asleep.

When she woke up, Sandor was untying her, and her destroyed left eye still hurt badly. The bleeding had stopped, though it still felt horrible. Arya figured it would begin to fester if nobody gave it treatment. She decided to put this thought aside as she mounted the back of Sandor's motorcycle and began to head to Crossroads with him, though she knew that it would still remain in the back of her mind. Sandor pulled into the small hamlet a short while later, stopped the motorcycle, drew his pistol, and handed Arya a knife. He also grabbed a large ax and put it in a sheath on his back.

"Hold onto this," Sandor instructed as he handed Arya the knife. "If we run into any of the dead, you'll need to protect yourself. I can't ransom a dead girl to the Brotherhood."

Dead girl.

Arya figured that in more ways than one, she had almost actually become a dead girl. She'd nearly been bitten, torn limb from limb, stabbed to death, drowned, and other things as well. Now there was a chance that Sandor would slit her throat if she stepped out of line, but his statement of not being able to ransom a dead girl made her realize that he would keep her alive.

They stopped inside of a small corner store that Arya had gone through with Willow and Lommy when they first started to live with the Heddles. A number of wights had come in while they were there, so they did not search everywhere and instead ran back to the house with what little they had gathered. They never went back, and it showed: Sandor and Arya found a number of food items back there as well as ammo to use for Sandor's pistol. Figuring that their search was successful, Sandor left the store, and Arya followed him out. A few wights were shambling around Sandor's motorcycle, and they were quickly put down by Sandor and Arya.

Getting back on the motorcycle, Sandor drove it down a road through the woods. As he spoke, Arya realized where they were heading. "We're going to look through some of the houses out here," he said. "The people who lived out here likely had enough supplies to last a long while."

The motorcycle continued down the winding road through the woods, and Arya' suspicions about where they were became confirmed as Sandor drove over some broken parts of crates, beyond two dead bodies, through a fenced gate, and into the large front yard of the property. When he shut the motorcycle off, Arya immediately jumped off and looked towards the nearest front window after running over to see them. Like when she'd left, it was shattered after Iggo had shot at Jeyne's head and missed.

They were at the house.

Pyg and Iggo's bodies were still in the yard, and there was a massive crater in the ground where La Diabla had gone off to kill the both of them. Ignoring Sandor, Arya hurried into the house and stumbled over the remains of the front door in the process, remembering Weasel in the basement. She hurried into the hallway, then the living room, then paused to get a look at the basement door, not stopping to pause to see if Willow was still on the floor in the front hallway.

It looked that the basement door had been smashed open. Beginning to panic, Arya nearly ran at full speed down the stairs, almost slipping and falling a few times, but she made it downstairs and turned the light on. Lommy's workshop had been damaged a little (likely in a scuffle of some sort), but there was no sign of Weasel anywhere.

"WEASEL?!" Arya screamed.

No answer.

She screamed again, louder this time. "WEASEL?!"

No answer. Her heart lurching into her throat, Arya hurried around to the back of the basement, and she saw a dried, large bloodstain on the ground with some droplets leading over to the underside of the stairs, where another bloodstain was present. There had been a fight, but Arya hoped that Weasel had gotten away and that the blood wasn't hers.

She stabbed someone, Arya thought, trying to calm down. She stabbed someone–whoever came down here–and ran away. She's… she's ali– WHERE IS EVERYONE ELSE–

"What are you doing?!" Sandor demanded as he arrived in the basement, interrupting her train of thought. "Don't run off from me!"

Arya took a deep, shuddering breath before she explained. "The people I was with… we lived here. Someone I care deeply about was told by me to hide down here when the Brave Companions attacked us… and…"

"Brave Companions? Those men the Brotherhood are at war with?"

"Yes! That's exactly it!" Arya replied. "We killed a few of them, but I was thrown into the river by a man named Rorge."

"Figures," Sandor growled. "I found Alyn and Watty dead in the yard. Their heads were caved in, and those two other men, Iggo and Pyg, are rotting near that massive hole in the yard."

"You can thank my friend's bomb for that," Arya replied, still reeling from her discovery in the basement and trying to keep it together in front of Sandor.
Sandor looked unamused. "How many of you were there?"

"Including my dog, seven," Arya answered. She followed up with, "Did… did you find bodies?"

"No, though this house is a sturdy one, and we haven't looked through all of it yet. We'll stay here for the night and leave to keep searching for the Brotherhood in the morning."

This made Arya feel a little better. She now theorized that everyone who was missing were taking to staying with the Brotherhood Without Banners until all of the Brave Companions business was dealt with. She hoped that this was the truth, but for the time being, Arya figured she should look through the house and see if anyone–corpses or living–was still there.

She left the basement and walked back upstairs. Deciding to see if Willow were dead in the hallway, she went over there. She saw the shattered window which Rorge had thrown her out of, but Willow was not there. Arya was relieved at first, but she didn't know if this meant that Willow was alive or dead and had been moved, perhaps dumped into the river. She hoped it was the first of the three options.

With Willow and Weasel out of the way, Arya hurried upstairs as Sandor looked through the kitchen. She recalled seeing Hot Pie and Jeyne approach the staircase after Rorge and Biter came in after the former broke the door down, and she figured that if any of her dead friends were still in the house, they would be up there. Slowly, she hurried up the stairs, but her heart was still pounding as if she were running. Reaching the top, she saw that the door had been forced open and, bracing herself, she went inside. No one was in there, but she saw that furniture was overturned, and blood had been spattered across the walls and part of the floor. There was a larger stain of blood on the floor, but Arya didn't know if it came from Biter or someone else.

Going back downstairs to find Sandor, Arya's curiosity had gone from "Is everyone still alive" to "Where is everyone?". She still supported her theory about them grouping up with the Brotherhood Without Banners, but she still had other hypothetical possibilities go through her mind. Did they all just give her up for dead and move on to somewhere else? Did they deem the area too dangerous and leave? Did Rorge leave, get more people, come back, and kidnap everyone to take them back to Saltpans? Though the last one was a possibility, Arya decided to deem it not a likely option because it was also likely that her companions would have fought back, and there would have been more destruction there than what she and Sandor had found.

Downstairs, she located Sandor searching through the kitchen. She spoke to him, saying, "Nobody upstairs. Therefore, the only bodies are in the yard."

"But there are still dead about Crossroads," Sandor replied, "and those Brave Companions might come back, I know they likely would."

"How would you know?" Arya didn't doubt him, but she wanted to be sure.

Sandor scowled. "I used to be one of the Brotherhood."

Arya's eye widened, and her eyebrows raised. "When?" As she asked this, she felt a sudden urge to scratch her left eye.

"After I left King's Landing. For a few years, we stayed in the Riverlands trying to stop men like those who are part of the Brave Companions or Harrenhal."

Now Arya was more curious than before. She remembered Jeyne mentioning Harrenhal when they first met. However, Arya hadn't picked her mind about it and now found an opportunity to do so with Sandor.

"What's Harrenhal?" she asked.

"A settlement south of here," Sandor answered. "It's a colony of sorts, made up of men that are from Casterly Rock and King's Landing."

Arya had heard of both of these cities, but Arya didn't know anything about the people there. Therefore, she decided to ask.

"Have you ever been there?"

"No, and I never will be," Sandor growled. "My brother's in charge there, and all of his pet rats, too."

Arya didn't know what Sandor meant by "pet rats", but she didn't want to press the issue further. Instead, she walked away from Sandor and went outside to inspect both the crater and the remains of Iggo and Pyg. Going outside, Arya took a few steps closer to their bodies. Iggo and Pyg were now rotting (Pyg moreso because he was in several pieces), and after Arya got an eyeful of those rotting heaps of flesh, she took a look at the crater which La Diabla had created when it went off. The hole was a lot more large than what Arya had expected, and she couldn't help but feel proud of Lommy upon seeing it.

Arya continued to observe the hole for a minute until she felt a presence behind her. Immediately knowing who it was, she turned and looked up at Sandor.
"What are you doing out here?"

"I was admiring the hole and looking at the corpses."

"You don't need to look at the corpses! The corpses are only food for the dead and the crows now! They have nothing for you!"

"I don't care!"

"Get back inside! You're a hostage, and I've been too lenient with you!"

He grabbed her arm, and Arya twisted to try and break free.

Sandor tightened his grip. "And if you try anything, I'm going to break both of your arms."

Wow, Arya thought as Sandor shoved her back into the house after dragging her over to where the front door used to be, I'm a prisoner in my own home.

That night, Arya slept in her and Weasel's bedroom while Sandor slept on the couch in the living room. Not seeing Weasel there made her feel bad; she wanted her to be there, but she wasn't, and neither was Hot Pie nor Lommy nor Jeyne nor Willow nor Nymeria. Arya, feeling like she wound find her companions soon, hoped that she and Sandor would find them and the Brotherhood Without Banners soon.

The next day, Arya found a broken rearview mirror in the streets of Crossroads which had fallen off of an old, burned-out car. She noticed a yellowish-green splotch beginning to form near her left eye on the bottom from beneath her eyepatch. Rather, it started beneath the eyepatch and was now spreading out. Her suspicions had been confirmed: her left eye was getting infected.

Realizing that she was likely now on borrowed time if this condition advanced, Arya felt that her only hope was her and Sandor finding the Brotherhood Without Banners. Thoros was their healer, and if her theory about her companions was correct, Jeyne, another healer, would be with them as well.

Sandor had dismounted from the motorcycle to observe rising smoke in the distance with a pair of binoculars. "Yeah," he said after a moment, nodding his head. "That's them, they always have those fires."

Arya and Sandor were located near the exit of Crossroads. They had found a dirt road leading into the woods, and Sandor had figured that he and Arya would find the Brotherhood Without Banners there. Arya believed that this would be the case, and she hoped her theory was correct.

Sandor got back on the motorcycle and started it back up. When they started off towards the smoke, Arya felt an intense urge to scratch her infected eye, but she held back, trying to not lose her balance on the motorcycle. Still, the urge was strong, but she held back. She regretted not scratching when Sandor was using the binoculars a few moments earlier. Still, she thought she didn't want to scratch it in the end–pus and blood would likely get everywhere, and her eye would get worse. If Thoros and or Jeyne couldn't help her, then she thought she would die.

As they neared the smoke, Arya peered around Sandor as he slowed the motorcycle down and then stopped it. She saw the bright light of a fire, and she also saw some people moving around. She realized they were members of the Brotherhood Without Banners as he got off the motorcycle, grabbed her by the left forearm, and yanked her off of the back of the motorcycle.

"Now you follow my lead," he ordered. "I'm going to ransom you to them, so I need to threaten you."

Arya stepped out in front of Sandor he pulled out his pistol, fired a warning shot into the air to get their attention, then grabbed his ax and put it out in front of Arya as he put her in a headlock with his other arm after he put his gun away. "HEY! ALL OF YOU THERE!"

Two Brotherhood Without Banners members, who Arya recognized as Anguy and Luke, ran over. Some others drawn by the noise began to watch. Anguy, who was wielding a bow, immediately began to aim an arrow at Sandor. He was the first to speak. "Clegane! You let her go! Whatever you want, we can talk about this!"

Considering the type of people the Brotherhood Without Banners were and also the tone in Anguy's voice, Arya knew that nobody in the Brotherhood would want to give away any supplies, though she remembered what Sandor had said about hostages before and how using one had worked in his behavior. It was likely that the Brotherhood–or at least Anguy–was going to catch Sandor off guard somehow and then fire the arrow. Based on what Arya had heard from the Heddle sisters, Anguy was a phenomenal shot with a bow. Since Sandor used to run with them, Arya figured that what she knew, Sandor knew as well. Therefore, aside from essentially being used as bait, Arya had no idea what Sandor's plan was.

"YOU GIVE ME WHAT I WANT, OR I KILL HER!" Sandor shouted.

Arya decided to struggle to make it look real. She started to thrash around in Sandor's tight grip. Even if she was faking it, she knew it would be impossible to get away; Sandor was immensely powerful, and it made her think of his brother, Gregor. If Sandor was this powerful while not even trying, she didn't want anything to do with Gregor at all. It reminded her of Rorge and his own strength.

Due to the commotion, more people were starting to crowd around Anguy and Luke. Arya saw them and recognized their faces: Harwin, Jack, Notch, Tom, and even Thoros were there. Some seemed to recognize her, evident by the looks on their faces. Arya had figured that the eyepatch would throw them off a little when it came to recognizing her, but it didn't.

"What do you want, Sandor?" Thoros asked.

"I'm in need of supplies, and I will cleave this girl's head off if you don't hand them over!"

Arya had no idea where this was going. She knew that Sandor wouldn't really kill her because he needed her for the ransom. Therefore, she figured that he would threaten her until he got what he wanted from the Brotherhood Without Banners like what was planned. But what is he going to do? Anguy still kept his bow trained on Sandor, and Arya knew he wasn't messing around–if he wanted to, he would really shoot to kill. And then a familiar face broke through the crowd.

"Arya!"

Arya's eye widened as she saw a dirty and unkempt Hot Pie emerge from the group and waddle forward.

"Hot Pie!"

Sandor stopped and looked down at Arya. "You know him?"

"Yes!" she answered, now happy to see that her theory was correct. "He was one of the ones at the house with me!"

Sandor didn't let her go despite this new revelation. Finally, Beric stepped out of the crowd and aimed his rifle at Sandor. "CLEGANE!" he shouted in a loud voice Arya was sure that the wights would hear. "DROP HER! WE'LL TALK!"

Sandor growled, then released his grip on Arya. It was apparent to her that Beric and Sandor seemed to have history. Arya broke out into a full run. Hot Pie, grinning and chortling, hurried over. They reached one another and briefly hugged before letting each other go. Arya was thankful that the hug was short; she didn't want to be pressing up against Hot Pie's fat form for long.

"Come on," Hot Pie said, grabbing her by the right wrist to lead her along. "I need to take you to the others."

While Beric and other members of the Brotherhood Without Banners went to speak with Sandor, Hot Pie let go of Arya as he led her towards the back of the group, where she found Lommy, Jeyne, and Willow waiting for her. Arya began to feel dread when she did not see Weasel there among them, and Nymeria was nowhere in sight. Lommy, Jeyne, and Willow all approached, seemingly pleased to see her again.

Lommy was there first, and he clapped her on the back with one of his gloved hands. Jeyne gave her a brief hug, and when they moved away from her, Arya looked for the one other person whom she hadn't spoken to yet.

Willow approached and spoke with an authoritative tone. "Arya."

Arya turned to see Willow standing there before her. She noticed scarring around her forehead, and she understood that this came from when Rorge smashed her face into the wall. Regardless, Arya was pleased to see that she was well.

"Yes, Willow?"

"I took charge of the group when you were gone. Rorge and the remaining Brave Companions who came to the house, they ran out and drove away in their car. We tried looking for Nymeria, but we couldn't find her. We think she ran off into the woods somewhere. Tom and Jack came to the house when Watty and Alyn didn't come back. We didn't have time to bury them. We had to leave because we thought Rorge and his people would return. We're now planning an attack on Saltpans, and with you back, this will help us with an additional able-bodied person."

"What about Weasel?" Arya asked, now feeling concerned about her. "Is she alive? Is she here right now?"

Arya's heart sunk when Willow spoke again.

"They found her in the basement," Willow explained. "They took Weasel with them back to Saltpans."