The Pledge of Allegiance

Sarah

She was the first to wake up the next morning. The sun was just coming up so she knew it was early. Sarah had never been someone to sleep past eight, even on the weekends. It was a bit ironic, as her most recent research dealt with sleep deprivation and she was usually deprived of it. But it was just her personality to use every possible hour of the day; otherwise, she felt as though she was wasting it.

Daryl was still asleep next to her on the queen sized bed. He was propped up a bit against the headboard and slept on top of the blankets with his arms folded across his bare chest. She took a moment to admire his lean, strong physique. He was rugged and strong in a way that couldn't be earned at a city gym. Sarah imagined him before the infection, running around in the forest of his hometown and bringing home game for his family. She wondered if he was married or had children, and what his parents were like.

It was the first time she spent the night in the bed of a man she barely knew, but she was relieved to find that he didn't try anything. Sarah washed her face in the bathroom sink and then peered out the front window of the room. There were no walkers in sight, so she thought it was best to leave before Marco found out she left Rosalyn's room. She looked back at Daryl, wondering if she should wake him. 'Better not…' she thought. 'These people need as much rest as they can get'.

Quietly, she knocked on the door to the room she was supposed to be sharing with Rosalyn.

"What the hell happened last night," Rosalyn questioned accusingly as soon as she opened the door. "You look dreadfully tired. Oh God, I know that look, you slept with him didn't you? Marco won't be happy…"

"I just had a hard time sleeping. We slept in the same bed, but I didn't have sex with him, Rose. Sorry I didn't come back last night; it just got dark before I even realized it." Sarah was annoyed that yet again someone brought up Marco. Why didn't anyone seem to understand that he was her ex-boyfriend and absolutely nothing more? Even if she had slept with Daryl, what could Marco possibly have to say about it?

Rose gave her a suspicious look again. "Well I saw you eyeing him up yesterday, before you even went to the pharmacy. It's the motorcycle, isn't it?"

Sarah always had a weakness for attractive men on motorcycles. She bit her lip and smiled. "You have to admit he's hot when he's riding that bike." Sarah thought he was just as hot off of it too, but thought it was probably not the best time to share that information with Rosalyn.

"He's not even your type, don't you dare think about sleeping with him," she said. "So he rides a motorcycle. You're all of a sudden spending the night in his room? Sarah open your eyes, this guy has white trash written all over him. Where he's from, they probably don't even recycle," she lowered her voice to a disgusted tone on the last sentence.

"I didn't have sex with him! He saved my life Rose; you don't have to be such a bitch about it. He seems like a really nice guy…genuine. We don't know a lot of those, do we Rose? I'm not trying to date him; I just said that he was hot on his motorcycle! So I don't know what your deal is, but just stop. He saved my life and regardless, he deserves the same respect as everyone else."

"I hate it when you get in your damn preachy moods," Rose said. "Whatever, I'm sure Marco will be so glad to hear that you slept in Daryl's room. Good luck explaining that one to him."

"I don't owe Marco any explanation."

"Well, I doubt he feels the same way about that." Rose took out a pack of cigarettes. "I'm going to go smoke. When I'm back, we'll go meet up with Scott and Marco."

Sarah nodded, too out of it to even argue about Marco or the previous night any longer.

Though the zombie apocalypse had taken place, Sarah hadn't gone more than one day without showering. Her germophobic tendencies came as a side-effect after her medical career began. She stepped in the shower's cool stream of water. Shivering, she thought of the night before again, when she heard Daryl get up and turn the faucet on a few seconds later. Sarah remembered the feel of his arrow's wound and how he had shied away when she touched it, but told the story with a hint of glory. She wished her hands weren't so cold and that she could have just kept touching his nicely shaped abdomen. His confident air and rugged exterior made her wish he had tried something after he crawled into bed with her, though she dismissed the thought as inappropriate the moment it crossed her mind.

Somehow the same thought and idea kept coming back. She dressed, trying to remember the face of the last man who saw her naked. His name was Tom, and they dated for about two months. She didn't care for him much; she had still been in love with Marco. It wasn't a huge surprise that she could barely remember what he looked like. However, being "in love" with Marco seemed an overstatement. It was more of the idea of Marco; he had always been her badass Italian mafia boy that would protect her and make undercover dealings. He was her Romeo, whom she was forbidden to see by her overprotective (and snooty) father. Everything about him seemed exciting, especially in Sarah's teenage years.

But since she didn't even know if her father was alive, the thrill seemed to be gone. Marco didn't have his gang anymore, and he lacked the streets he used to own. The confident air that had once been a drug in her youth and twenties had faded into a sullen and suffocating air. She was getting to the point where she could hardly stand being around him. The overprotectiveness emphasized that feeling even more.

Rose reentered a few moments later, and they went out to catch up with Scott, who was busy talking to Rick again outside. The other group's leader turned to Sarah and said, "So, you really think you've got a shot at this cure?"

She chose her words carefully again. In her medical education, they would call this liability protection. Although the people couldn't exactly sue her as a doctor now, she wasn't really in the business of crushing their hopes either. "I can't make any promises. I mean I have a few theories that I've written down, that's all. I haven't even had the chance to test any."

"Rick says that he's going to talk to his group about coming with us," Scott told her, while Rick nodded.

"Well we could really use all the help we could get," she said to Rick. "We've been fortunate so far, just to find this town and a few other deserted ones on the way from the plane crash. We've barely hit any walkers. But I was talking to Daryl a bit last night, and it sounds like what your people have seen is a hell of a lot worse and the direction you came from happens to be the way we're headed. We have no idea what we're up against. But if you do decide to come with, I just need you and everyone else to understand that my research isn't a guarantee. We would really appreciate any help though."

Rick was quiet for a few seconds; she could tell he was thinking. Finally, he said "We weren't really sure where we were headed next anyways…Coming with you could give us a goal and I believe that we need that. The other goals that we've had lately didn't work out so well. It would be nice to give everyone something to strive toward. Maybe it would do something to make us stronger. I'll talk to my wife and the others today and we'll let you all know later."

Sarah nodded and smiled, happy that he would at least consider it. After he walked away, she said to Scott, "I really do hope it works out this time."

"I have a good feeling about these people," he said. "They're a bit crestfallen, a bit more than you and me, but they haven't completely given up hope either. You can see it in their eyes."

Scott left change clothes, passing by Daryl who had just come out of his room. The southern man walked straight toward Sarah, looking determined in a way. "Good morning," she called, leaning back against the dark blue Honda Civic, basically in an attempt to look cool.

"Morning. Look, I was thinking about what you said last night. About that cure. I'm sure you know by now that Rick makes all the calls around here; they aren't always the right ones. Our group's broken. I told you last night about the power struggle we've dealt with. If we went with you, he'd have to give up his role to Scott; I'm not sure he's ready to take that risk." He ran a hand through his hair and continued in his sweet southern drawl, an accent that Sarah hadn't particularly liked until that point. "What I'm trying to say is, even if the whole group ain't going with you, I am."

Sarah was taken aback at first, surprised by his seemingly hasty decision making. She thought about it for a few minutes, inexplicably happy because of what he told her. It made her think that even if the rest of Daryl's group decided against coming with them, she would still be satisfied. After all, they said Daryl was the best shot and hunter in the group. She assumed that he would have all the knowledge—if not more—of what to expect when they started their journey. She was cautious, however, to keep her hopes from jumping too high. "Are you sure about this? I mean you took less than twenty four hours to decide."

"What's wrong, don't want me coming with now?" he asked accusingly.

"No, no! Nothing like that. I just don't want you to think that you made a mistake on leaving your group later," she said quickly, not wanting him to think the wrong thing. "Rick is talking to the rest of you soon though, so who knows? Maybe they will all come with." She paused, then added "I'm happy that you've decided to come with us. Thank you so much, you have no idea what it means to me."

He looked at her silently and she couldn't really read the look he was giving her. So instead of waiting for a response, she reached her petite arms up around his neck and hugged him, feeling his arm twist around her waist.

"Don't have to thank me…" he said in her ear before both dropped their arms.

Then Sarah heard an all-too-familiar voice coming from behind her. "I was looking for you all morning. Busy making friends?" Marco stood beside her. "Cute." Before she had a chance to deliver her witty comeback, he had grabbed her arm and was pulling her to the other side of the motel's parking lot.

"What the hell was that," she asked, yanking her arm free from his grip.

"I don't like you hanging around that Daryl guy; seems like kind of a creep to me."

"You don't like me hanging around any guy, Marco. And that creep happened to save my life yesterday."

"So you slept with him to repay him? Whatever, but just be done with it. There's no use leading him on. We all know you're too much of a city girl to last with a redneck like that."

Sarah sighed, figuring that Rosalyn had filled him in on where she was last night. "Where I'm at is none of your business. You know I'm not a whore, but if you want to think that, fine. I don't even care anymore We're just friends now Marco…you made that perfectly clear before so I'm not sure why you're blurring the lines again now." She turned on her heel and walked away before he had a chance to respond. All she wanted was for him to think about it and let her statements put him in his rightful place-the backburner of her mind.