The Vegetarian/Bohemian/Environmentalist

Sarah

Marco jogged toward her as Daryl walked her back to the ring of cars. His hand dropped from her shoulder as Marco pulled her to his chest. "I worried for ya," he said, eyeing Daryl. "You seem all jumpy, did something happen back there?"

"Just a walker, wasn't even a close call," Daryl said to him with an air of confidence.

Marco seemed to ignore him and say, "Next time, you're coming with me. No more splitting up."

Sarah shrugged, still too shaken to argue. Though Daryl said it hadn't been a close call, it was the closest she had ever gotten to one of those hideous creatures. At any rate, she thought it odd that Marco had been so protective over her since they met up with the new group.

"Got you that Snickers like you asked." The little boy, Carl, handed her the chocolate goodness.

She smiled as her breath began to slow to the normal rate. "Thank you Carl! You picked yourself out something too, right? Growing boys need their candy." She poked his stomach.

He smiled and nodded, holding up a KitKat bar.

The rest of the group shortly returned and the sun began to dip toward the horizon. "We should probably get set up in the hotel soon," Scott said. "It's safe as long as we keep the lights off and doors locked when the sun goes down. There aren't too many walkers around here, but let's not take any chances."

Rick nodded. "I agree with that."

They drove the cars next to the motel. Scott walked up to Rosalyn, Sarah, and Marco and told them that he would be talking to Rick for a while and to go get settled into their rooms. Rosalyn and Sarah decided to share one like before. They brought a few rations inside: a light dinner of canned pears. And the Snickers bar of course. Sarah changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top for bed.

"So what happened at the store? You seemed pretty freaked when you got back," said Rosalyn. "Marco was flipping his shit, like that's anything new."

"A walker attacked me and Daryl saved me with that bow thing. He's a good shot."

"Think he learned how to do that by slaughtering poor little bunnies and deer?" She shuddered.

Sarah rolled her eyes at her vegetarian/bohemian/environmentalist friend. They had gone to the same private school together since kindergarten and kept in contact through all of college, along with Marco of course. "It's kind of becoming necessary to hunt and kill to eat," she said to Rosalyn, who was in the middle of cutting her short brown hair into an even shorter pixie cut.

"How can you say that when we have so many canned provisions?" she sighed, apparently giving up on convincing Sarah to join the vegetarian movement. "Anyways, I'm glad that he saved you."

"Me too," she said. "Oh my god! I completely forgot to thank him…I'll go right now!"

"Why don't you just wait until the morning? It's going to be dark soon."

"I'll be back in a little bit, don't worry about it," Sarah said, grabbing a zip-up hoodie on her way out. "I don't want him to think I forgot."

Everyone else seemed to be in their rooms already. The setting sun painted the sky a brilliant blood-red and orange. Sarah racked her brain, trying to remember the room Daryl had gone into. She followed her gut and softly knocked on the door of room number 506.

She knocked again after hearing no reply. After a third time, the door opened. "Need somethin'?"

"Hi, um, may I come in?"

"If it suits ya," he said, stepping aside so she could enter. She saw his arrows sitting out on a towel.

"Did you just clean them?"

"Yeah. Get pretty grimy after a while."

Sarah thought again about how the arrow had gone straight through the walker's eye. He gestured to the bed for her to take a seat, and slumped down in an armchair in the corner.

"I wanted to say thank you for today…I didn't get the chance to earlier. And sorry about Marco, he's just a little overprotective at times."

"Don't need to thank me…and I don't pay no mind to what your boyfriend has to say either."

"Oh, he's not my boyfriend! Well not anymore. It's a long story I guess," she said.

He changed the subject. "Some doctor you are, proddin' that kid to get chocolate."

She laughed, "Well my line of work has nothing to do with dentistry! I believe a little chocolate here and there is good for the body anyways."

"What is your line of work?" he asked.

"Neurology. I had just submitted my research on sleep deprivation to a scientific publisher when everything went down. That's why my friends were taking me to Florida, to celebrate." She felt empty knowing that all the work she put into that fifty page report was lost forever.

"Neurologist- brain science?"

"That's right."

Daryl was quiet for a few moments. "We were at the CDC a while ago. This crazy son of a bitch scientist told us all about the infection. Rick just told us yesterday that we all have it…must be activated by death somehow. But when we were at the lab, the doctor showed us how the brain turned back on in certain places."

She nodded and spoke quickly, excited to tell someone about her potential breakthrough. "That's exactly right. I have some ideas as to what it is and maybe even how to fix it. Unfortunately, I don't have the lab equipment or anything here to get much done. That's why the four of us are headed to Savannah. Scott has a boat nearby the city at his summer house and he said he's a decent sailor. I need him to bring me back up to Cambridge so I can get back to work. I think the ocean route is the safest way to do that."

Daryl got up from the chair and kneeled in front of her. She was so short sitting that their eyes were nearly parallel. In them, she saw the same look of disbelief that everyone else gave her. "You're telling me you have the cure?"

"Just ideas. Like I said, I haven't had the chance to do testing…I'm sure that's what Scott is bringing up tonight too, probably seeing if your group will join ours. I can't imagine having much luck, no one has hope anymore it seems, not that I can blame them." Sarah happened to look outside, and the sun was completely beneath the horizon. "Shit…Rosalyn is probably freaking out. Cut the lights."

Daryl did and Sarah peered through the peephole on the door. There were already three walkers pacing around, groaning miserably. "I don't know what to do," she said, mostly to herself.

"Sleep here, I'll take the floor," Daryl said. "You can't go back out there now. Not with your survival skills at least."

She gave him a dirty look, even though he couldn't see her through the thick darkness. They lowered their voices to a whisper. "Did you lock the door?" she asked.

"Good call." He stumbled to the doorway and clicked the lock right before they heard a walker pound against it. Sarah gasped in surprise and in an instant Daryl was by the bed with a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. "They can't get in," he whispered an inch away from her ear. She could smell the dried blood on his hand, left over from cleaning the arrows. She began to shake because she was so nervous, and he put his other hand on her shoulder to steady her. For the first time in a while, she started to feel safe.

Hope the length is a bit more appeasing this time. Also, there are links on my profile page for all the OC characters if you want to see how what they look like to me! If you have your own description in your head then you don't have to change it, but they're there as an option haha. Thanks again for reading, please review!