Sadie's POV

As soon as I started to really catch up with this asshole, I noticed that my earlier observation was correct. I wouldn't be alone in this pursuit.

Just a head of me some feet, the arch- err, Daryl, was close to tailgating this fuck on his own bike.

Gunshots started firing back at him, revealing that the asshole in the truck wasn't alone either.

Some other asshole was positioned on the bed of the truck, guarding the rest of the machine guns as he fired the aforementioned shots from his tripod….sending Daryl swerving off the road behind them.

I took a hand off my own bike to reach for my gun and began firing shots right back at him til I eventually shot him down, allowing Daryl the time to get back on his own bike and back after him while I sped ahead til I was right up alongside the last asshole remaining in the truck.

He glared right back at me and tried to speed up but I took the moment to hop off my bike and onto his truck, into the passenger seat, where I reached over and began stabbing him til I eventually ran us back off the road.

As I crawled through the grass, struggling to pull myself back up onto my own feet, I could hear the sound of footsteps, racing toward my direction but stopping once they'd reached the beginning of the grass.

I reached for my knife to hold it in front of me in defense til I looked up the hill and saw only Daryl looking back down at me.

I chuckled a little to myself as I resheathed my knife and watched him advance closer to me, offering his hand out to help me back up…...likely begrudgingly.

I decided to take it, as I continued to catch my breath and proceeded to brush myself off. "Thanks."

"Mmhmm." He just sort of grunted with a nod. "...You look like shit."

"Yeah? Well, you don't look so hot yourself, dick." I scoffed, leaning back over to grab my crossbow which, surprisingly, appeared to have taken only minimal damage in the fall. "Well, we got the guns. That's what counts. Now, let's go see if this asshole's alive still."

Upon approaching this asshole, it was obvious that he was considerably more beaten up than Daryl and myself combined, as he struggled to turn and face us.

"Your people back at the chemical plant, did you win?" I asked him, once we were close enough. I held my gun just above his head as I awaited his response.

"No one did." He finally managed.

This angered Daryl, almost more than myself, as he took his own gun and held it even closer to the asshole's head.

"The hell's that supposed to mean…..THE HELL'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" He shouted when the asshole's silence forced him to repeat it.

"E-everyone's dead." He finally answered meekly.

"Bullshit." Daryl scoffed.

"There's no one else, you're really the only one?" I asked, in about as much disbelief, if not more.

"...The King…" He groaned. "...the axe man...and a short haired psycho lady."

The look on Daryl's face when he referred to the woman was what almost instantly made it click in my own mind who this fuck was referring to.

"Yeah, that checks out." I scoffed to myself.

Daryl then shot a look right back at me, like he would've mauled me right there on the spot, had we not had slightly more urgent matters in front of us.

"You did this…" The asshole continued to gasp. "...my people….your people...they're all gone...damn. And now….me too."

I took my knife back out and rammed it right through his skull before I got back up to follow Daryl, who had apparently already taken off in the other direction.

I followed him down to that asshole's overturned truck to find him reaching for, and then struggling to pull down a box from it til he looked over and saw that it was me standing there.

"Hey! Gimme a hand with this, would ya?" He asked.

I shrugged and went over to grab ahold of the other end of it to help him pull it down.

Once it was down on the ground, I lifted the lid off it, looking back up to him for an explanation when I saw that it contained explosives.

"We can use these now." He explained.

"What?" I asked, sort of scoffing.

"Well think about it…" He continued, as if the idea should've been obvious.

"...There ain't no Kingdom no more. We blow open the sanctuary, let the walkers flood in, they'll surrender. It'll be done. Hell, we could end this by sundown."

"What? Like your little girlfriend pulled back at Terminus? Is that just your guys' answer to everything?!"

That look of sheer resentment toward me returned to his face, full force, and how I was talking about that bitch, though he allowed me to continue.

"...There are workers there, in case you've forgotten." I reminded him. "Families. Now you can kill me where I stand, on the spot, for saying so and leave my boy without a mother, along with however many other families you're intending on screwing over with this shit, but Tara even said it herself!" I practically spat it, angering him further, although choosing not to, if only because doing so wouldn't do him much good in the way of not humoring any of the shit I was reminding him of.

"Yeah. Like Terminus!" He scoffed more coldly. "...but we'll hit the south side of the main building. The workers live on the north side, they'll be up the stairs before the walkers even get in."

"...and if they don't?!" I demanded. "...even if you can't be bothered to give half of a shit about anything I've pointed out, you can add to that that not all of them are fighters. Doing this could change that! Make them pick up guns and stand by those self righteous Saviors, and if those assholes don't surrender, maybe everyone fights us! Screws us all over…..and you're right, we don't have The Kingdom anymore….I'm not letting you do this."

"...No." He finally said. "I'm not letting you do this."

I moved forward and yanked his arm back to stop him, to which he just roughly threw me back off.

"There is a plan, and whether you like it or not, we're all sticking to it!"

"Not everyone!" He practically spat back. "...there's a lot of our people who are dead, Sadie! Things change. Negan and that other group, this is on them. If more people die, this is their fault. Not ours."

"Oh, now you don't wanna blame me for people dying." I scoffed back. "We can't do this, Daryl. I won't!"

"..and we got our own people to look after, so do you!"

"DARYL!" I shouted out after him as he started to storm off. "I told you, I'm not letting you do this!"

I tried to pull him back again, but he spun around and knocked me to the ground as he attempted to storm back off again.

"This ain't your choice!"

I sprang back up, leaping as I caught him off guard and tackled him.

That infuriated him even more as he grabbed me back up in a chokehold and began swinging at me.

I reached back up and started yanking at his hair til I pulled us both back down to the ground.

He grabbed back and continued to try and choke me out again til he looked up and saw the truck getting ready to blow up in flames behind us.

"GET UP!" He shouted, yanking me back up to my feet as we both started sprinting for the opposite direction and the flames continued to blow up behind us.

I'd fallen back down onto my side and quickly began trying to pull myself up as he sat back up and we watched the explosion from afar.

My bike took a few extra minutes to start back up again, once I returned to it and Daryl collected his own, but seemed to be in good enough shape still. Thank fuck.

I breathed a sigh of relief to myself as I looked back up at him.

"Like I said…" I near growled. "...we're sticking to the plan."

He glared back at me then looked back off into the distance.

"We gotta win."

"Nooo shit, Captain obvious." I scoffed, taking out a cigarette to light up.

God knows I could use it now, after that shit

"...and we will."

He nodded, not looking away. "Mmmhmm."

"...chokehold's illegal, asshole." I scoffed. "...thought your little cop buddy would've told you that."

He glared at me for the reference, but decided against whatever he must've wanted to do to me for it after the look I shot back at him.

"I'm taking off after this smoke…" I added. "...gotta check in on Gareth, then I'll meet back up with you after the last play."

"You sure about doing it?" He asked.

I nodded, taking another drag. "Yeeep….one of the few things I am sure about, these days"

"Right…"

I leaned back up against my own bike as I watched him get back on his and speed off.