I think I liked you better when you didn't have a knife in your hand, Peaches

Brakes

"Alright, I've got one," said Blake, who was sat up against the side window of the truck, gazing over at Negan in the driving seat with a smile. "If you could've gone anywhere on a dream vacation, where would you have gone?"

The pair had been asking each other questions about the old world for the past half hour as they drove, the sun ahead of them slowly dipping below the horizon now.

The roads they had chosen had been terrible ones, leading them to nowhere and nothing, with barely even a lone farm building along the way.

So far, Blake had mused aloud, their road trip had been a forgettable one, but perhaps a forgettable trip out could only be blessing in this awful world.

And so the pair had finally decided to turn around and head home, both a little disappointed with the gas they had wasted but neither quite willing to admit that to the other.

But what had they been expecting?

To stumble across another community? An un-looted store? A goddamn rescue from this godforsaken existence?

Blake knew that going back was the best thing now.

It was dangerous to be about on the road after dark, even for the big bad king of the Saviours.

But the blonde had to admit that being out here felt freeing. It felt good. And although she was happier at the Sanctuary, far more than she had been in a long time, it still felt good to breathe sometimes. To get out of the confines of the world as it was.

Negan smirked, his hand easily sliding down the steering wheel as he swung the truck around a left turn.

"A dream vacation, huh?" he mused out in a low growl. "Does checkin' into some random motel for the night to get lucky, count as a vacation?"

Blake rolled her eyes at him.

"Definitely not," she tutted. "I meant like a vacation vacation. Somewhere you've always wanted to go."

Negan smirked, lifting his chin.

"Alright, how about you go first. Where was your dream vacation location, Peaches? Where'd you wanna be whisked away to?"

"Hmmm..." Blake glanced out of the window dead ahead of her thinking for a moment before she answered. "Guess I always wanted to go to Paris. It always seemed so romantic in the movies and stuff, y'know..."

She laughed, turning back to look at Negan.

"Or is that too cliche?" she shrugged. "I don't know. I always just wanted to go somewhere nice, but David never wanted to go on vacation with me, more interested in trips with his buddies."

She sighed.

Despite having very little money coming in, Blake's ex-fiance always found the time and cash for a vacation. But rather than take a romantic couple's vacation with her. His idea of a fun time was usually Vegas, or Mexico City with his friends, leaving Blake at home alone.

At the time she had sworn she hadn't really minded, but looking back now, the blonde could have laughed at how truly pathetic her life was with David.

Negan chanced a glance her way as the truck sped down the dirt road, the sun getting ever dimmer in the sky, casting a dark shadow across the track ahead of them.

"Sorry, Doll-face," he sighed. "Don' look like you're gonna get much luckier with me in this shit-heap of a world."

But Blake smiled, blinking heavily back at him.

She knew for a fact that, dream vacation or not, there was in fact nowhere in the world Blake would have rather have been, than right here with Negan. And that was the truth.

The blonde woman was silent for a moment before she stared out at the road again.

"Oh I don't know," she sighed again dreamily.. "Maybe one day things will change again."

But both she and Negan knew that this was not really likely. Everything was just different now. There were no airplanes, barely any vehicles on the road, and life was far more precious now than it ever had been.

She knew it was likely that the pair of them would probably be at the Sanctuary until they were both old and grey, with no real advancements in their lives, or at least she hoped anyway.

All she wanted these days for them all to be safe. To be happy.

She smiled, perhaps a little sadly now, as she stared out of the window to her right.

But Blake barely had a second to blink, as a sudden movement in the trees to the side of the road caught her eye.

Wait...

Had that been one of the dead?

She blinked once more, peering around quickly, and shifting in her seat, as the truck sped past the spot.

But as she craned her neck to look, there was the movement again, Blake just catching a sudden glimpse of someone darting back into the shadows of the tree-line.

"Negan-" she just about managed to breathe out, when suddenly she was flung forwards by the impact of the truck suddenly coming to a screeching halt and Negan swearing loudly.

"SON OF A BITCH!" yelled the dark-haired man at her side, as Blake's left arm collided with the truck's faux wooden dash.

She winced, frowning and pulled herself back onto her seat properly, rubbing at her arm, looking around to see what it was that had caused Negan to brake so suddenly...

...only to be met with the sight of a man, with slicked-back brown hair, standing in the middle of the road looking wild eyed....

...holding a large machine gun, which was now pointed at the both of them.