Gareth's POV

A couple days had passed since that last radio call with Sadie, and yet I still was finding it hard to keep my mind off it for very long.

It already wasn't like her not to take the chance to come on a run like this, get away from things with the others, even if there was stuff to be taken care of back at home, and then the way she sounded on the radio it was like…...like something was off.

Maybe she was feeling a bit off and just didn't wanna worry me, maybe just the stress of things going on back there was just getting to her that day, maybe just something that she didn't wanna say over the radio, who knows. All I know is that I got off that call with a weird feeling…..and it didn't look like I was going to shake it off anytime soon.

"...Maybe I'm just overthinking it." I muttered to myself.

"You say something?" Aaron asked, breaking my train of thought, as we approached this abandoned pharmacy we had found.

"Huh? Ohh…" I chuckled nervously. "..Not really, just talkin to myself."

"Yeah, you seemed a little distracted." He chuckled. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I think so."

He nodded. "You wanna talk about it?"

We entered the pharmacy cautiously, as always, looking around the general area with our weapons ready, as we walked

"Well, there's not really all that much to say…" I sighed. "Just still thinking about that call with Sadie. I'm sure it's nothing, and I'm just overthinking things but she just seemed- "

"..a little off?" He finished for me.

"You got that too? So, it's not just me then."

"Something like that." He chuckled, peering around the corner down the first aisle we came across. "Eric just mentioned her talking about possibly coming down with something. Guess there's some bug going around."

I was looking over the list Sadie had given me, when he said it, and looked right up from it as soon as he did. "Something serious?"

"I don't think so." He assured me. "...he didn't sound too worried about it."

"Well, that'd do it then." I chuckled, genuinely, at the thought. "...as unlike her as it is for her to willingly stay back, she'd more than willingly put a bullet in her head and mine before coming along with me, if that is the case, and chance me worrying about her."

"Yeah, that sounds like her." He laughed. "You two are somewhat of a package deal, otherwise."

"Only somewhat?" I chuckled.

"Okay, totally a package deal. Better?"

"Well, accurate, at least." I chuckled, shuffling another list out of my pocket. "Here. Sadie wrote up doubles. Wanna take this one and meet back up at the front?"

"Sure." He chuckled, taking the second piece of paper. "You know, if you wanna get rid of me, all you have to do is say so."

"Why?" I glanced around. "There's no one here, it's like Sadie said, I could get rid of you. Anytime I wanted." I said it with a smirk.

"Touché." He laughed, with a casualness that Sadie would've gotten the biggest kick out of if she were here, even if he did finally have reason enough to trust us both by now. "Alright, I'll see you up front."


I scoped out each of the aisles I went down, at least a couple of times each, looking with pretty little luck for the various food and meds we'd come in here to look for.

Sadie and I had already poked our heads in this place, on the way back from that big Museum run about a month or so ago, to check and see if it looked worth it enough to bother coming back to and, from the looks of it, it had been considerably more picked over since then.

That, topped with the small backpack I'd found in one of the aisles, indicated that someone was either currently taking shelter here, or had just vacated here….and in a hurry, from the looks of the amount of supplies left inside the backpack.

I decided to leave it, on the off chance that someone might come back for it, though not without taking a small handful of its contents that could be of use and likely wouldn't be missed too much.

"Any luck over there?!" Aaron called out, on his way toward our meeting spot near the front, as I was coming back out of the last aisle.

"Well, better than nothing, at least." I called back with a shrug.

"You too, huh?"

I chuckled as I walked over toward him. "Didn't do too much better, I take it?"

He pulled a half empty whiskey bottle out of his own bag, with a chuckle. "Just this bottle of Jack someone left in one of the aisles. Figured Sadie might want it."

I took it from him as he handed it to me. "Well, you figured correctly." I glanced over, just before stashing it in my own bag. "I always like to bring home something a little extra for her."

He smiled at that, though it faded not long after, as he looked just past me and his eyes began to widen.

"Behind you!"

With barely another thought, I grabbed the knife off my belt as I whipped around to face the dead one that had somehow snuck up behind me, and drove it into its skull.

I then yanked the knife right back out of its skull, dropping it to the floor beneath us.

I nodded when I turned back to face him again. "Thanks."

He nodded back, with a chuckle. "Make sure you come back in one piece, remember?"

"Yes, I do." I chuckled, recalling the particular amusement in Sadie's tone when she had said it, as I returned the knife back to its sheath.

I took another glance around the area, making sure there weren't any others that had followed it, and glanced over my copy of the list again. "I'm gonna swing back around to the back, and do a double check before we head back out. I'd like to get as much as we can out of this place, before we make a little extra stop on our way to the next place."

"Good call." He nodded with a little smile. "..and might this little extra stop be that little record place you pointed out when we first got here?"

I smiled back at him. "You know how serious Sadie is about her music."

"Yes, I do." He chuckled, as I turned to head over. "Alright, I'll be here, then."