*warning: there's some sexual content in this chapter, hence the 'M' rating on this series. So if that sort of thing offends you just beware!

The Switch

Sarah

The blonde's legs still felt wobbly from the motorcycle as she laid out her sleeping bag in the tent Marco set up for her. It was kind of nice- since there had been so few in her group to begin with and they came across so many supplies, each of them got their own tent.

The entire motorcycle experience felt surreal. It was terrifying to be so vulnerable, but exhilarating at the same time.

"How was it?" Marco asked her as he crawled into her tent and sat down beside her.

She knew he wanted her to lie, to tell him that she hated it and would never get on another motorcycle (especially not with Daryl). But she was so excited; she couldn't stop gushing about it. "It was amazing, Marco. The wind, the rumble of the engine, the speed. Everything comes at you so much faster."

"That's a good thing?" he asked and shook his head. "Whatever, just be safe." He rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment before exiting her tent. She was thankful that he hadn't argued with her for once.

Sarah wandered out and went into the blue house to see what everyone was up to. Carol and one of her cousins, introduced as May, were busy making a rabbit stew. She offered to help and they gave her the job of chopping vegetables. It wasn't until she was fearlessly chopping away at the carrots and celery that she realized how much she missed cooking. Her parents had hired a chef to come and teach her the art once a week when she was a teenager. Fifteen years later, her knife cuts were still as precise.

"Impressive, Sarah," Carol said, raising an eyebrow. "You like to cook?"

"I love it," she said.

The stew took a while to cook. While they were inside, the women chatted and were soon joined by Lori, Maggie, and Beth. Sarah knew better than to think Rosalyn would come to the house. Rose would stay away from any traditional woman's duty. To add to the growing list of ideologies that Rose represented, she had adopted feminism around age twelve.

They helped clean and whatnot, but mostly chatted. The ordinariness of what they were doing overwhelmed her. Sarah forgot how nice it was just to sit around and talk to people. She had always been outgoing, and loved to hear people's stories. Maggie told them all updates about her relationship with Glenn and Lori shared the progress of her pregnancy.

Then the subject was placed on Sarah, something she wasn't always comfortable with. "So we all want to know," Lori said, "what's going on with you and Daryl? You've been spending quite a bit of time together…and he seemed hell-bent on coming with you even if we didn't."

Sarah shrugged rather nervously, not wanting to give anyone the wrong ideas, like she had apparently given Rose and Marco. "Nothing's happened, I mean we've just talked and he took me on his motorcycle. That's all…"

"Well is Marco single?" Beth asked, her eyes wide.

"He's definitely single," Sarah said, laughing. "All yours."

"Beth! He's way too old for you!" Maggie said with a disgusted look on her face.

The stew was finished and group of women rationed it into red disposable plastic bowls. Sarah made sure to grab a glass one from the kitchen for Rose's salad so that she wouldn't begin a lecture on the fact that disposable plastic items take way too long to decompose.

They sat around the fire outside and ate together. Sarah was sitting across the fire from Daryl and they kept catching each other's eyes, smiling occasionally. It made her feel like she was back in high school again with the butterflies and lying to everyone else about liking the person.

She was spacing out a bit too much to listen to the majority of the conversations. It was a habit she had always failed to break; her mind wandered much too often. Her attention was caught again when Daryl mentioned something about going on a hunt later that night. Then she started letting her mind wander again, thinking about Daryl and his manly crossbow.

'You're acting ridiculous, get a grip…' she told herself.

It was a while before the flames died down and some people decided to get some sleep. She left when about half the group remained around the fire; she would have stayed longer but was tired from staying up so long the night before.

Sarah crawled under the sleeping bag's covers, still feeling fortunate that the plane went down in a place that was so warm and comfortable to her. Everyone kept complaining about how muggy it was all the time. But the humidity didn't bother her- anything was better than the cold to the north.

She fell asleep almost right away, but woke up again when the zipper to her tent started moving. Sarah was about to scream for help, worried that it was a walker, when she heard a familiar voice.

"You awake?"

It was Daryl. She quickly went to the door of the tent and unzipped it. "Hey," she said, rubbing her eyes. The giddy feeling in her stomach began once more.

"Sorry I woke ya. I thought you'd be up still. I'm headed out to the forest to do a little hunting. The moon's full so there it's perfect conditions. Judging from the way you threw that pill bottle as your only defense at the pharmacy, I figured a little hunt would do you some good. Ya'll need to learn a few survival skills."

"You're never going to let me live that one down," she whispered, raising a corner of her mouth into a half-smile. "But yes, I'll come with. Should I bring anything?"

"From what I've heard…and seen…ya don't know how to shoot, so no. I've got it covered."

She stepped out of the tent and into the night air. "Then, I guess I'm ready!"

They walked past the deadened fire and through the clearing that led to the forest. "If we're gonna get anything on this hunt, ya'll are gonna have to keep quiet. No talking. And try to watch your step. Tripping over shit gives us away to the walkers as much as it does to the animals."

"Got it," she whispered, kind of worried about the conditions he had put forth. She was terrible at being quiet in nerve-racking situations; they usually just made her talk more. Not to mention the fact that she was perpetually clumsy and would undoubtedly make some sort of noise. But she told herself that she would really make an effort not to do these things. After all, she didn't want Daryl to regret taking her on the hunt.

He loaded an arrow into his crossbow. "Here we go."

They stepped into the forest on a soft padding of pine needles. It cushioned their steps so that their movements were barely audible. Sarah watched in awe as Daryl began tracking his way to the forest. The full moon shone brightly; her eyes adjusted quickly and she could see pretty much everything that was going on.

An owl hooted in a tree. They stepped around ferns and other plants. She watched Daryl carefully and took his exact steps, figuring that he probably knew which plants were poisonous. His knowledge was inexplicably sexy to her, unlike anything she'd ever seen before.

They walked and walked. He would change direction, in a seemingly random way to Sarah. She didn't pick up on the cues the forest had left him, leading him to his prey. The tree cover above them became thicker the further they ventured, so some of the moonlight was blocked out.

Suddenly, they heard a branch break somewhere to the northwest of where they stood. She jumped and he grabbed her arm; a reminder to keep quiet. He pulled her behind a tree and whispered "Just stay here, I'll take care of it."

Sarah really wanted to say: "Please don't leave me here by myself," but she knew it wasn't her place to argue. He definitely knew more in terms of what he was doing in this situation than she did.

She waited and listened as carefully as she could, but heard nothing. Her heart raced violently in her chest, pounding so loudly she thought it might give her away to whatever had made the branch-breaking noise. It had been a couple minutes since Daryl had left her there, though the minutes felt like hours because of her anxiety.

Sarah decided she should lean around the tree and check to see what was going on. She did, and could see nothing through the thick darkness created by the overlapping treetops. Sarah felt the overwhelming need to know if Daryl was okay. She stepped away from the tree and couldn't even take one full step in the direction he went before someone (or something), pushed her back against the tree.

She gasped; her immediate reaction was that it was a walker. Sarah wanted to scream in surprise and fear, but they had covered her mouth with a hand. She tried to struggle and hit them repeatedly, throwing in a kick here and there. Their body stayed pressed against hers, pushing her into the tree she had just tried to step away from.

"I thought I told you to wait by the tree," was what she finally heard less than an inch from her ear. She dropped her arms immediately, recognizing the voice.

He didn't back away after she stopped struggling. Only his hand moved and a split second later, she felt his lips on hers. She was taken aback at first, but it definitely didn't take her long to start kissing him back.

Sarah felt his hands graze her arms and then tangle themselves in her hair. She liked the way his stubble tickled her face, and then her neck when he bent down even further to kiss her there.

"You scared the shit out of me," she said.

"To teach ya'll a damn lesson. Well, that's at least one reason," Daryl said. She could hear his smirk in his voice.

He picked her up so they were at the same height level and she wrapped her legs around his waist, still pressed up against the tree. They kissed again, and this time she snuck her tongue into his mouth, exploring.

Something was bothering her again, and she broke the kiss. "You got whatever made that sound, right?"

"Just a fox. I'll grab the arrow later."

She could tell that he didn't want to keep talking by both his shortened responses and the hardening bulge in his pants. For the third time he kissed her, this time pressing her against the tree with his body even harder than before. The fact that he was a little rough turned her on. Usually the men she was with were overly careful, treating her like a glass figurine. Daryl definitely didn't have that annoying tendency.

His hands slipped under her shirt to fondle her breasts, pointy from the chilly midnight air. She let out a little moan, which seemed to fuel him even more. He pressed his hips against hers, and she could feel how hard he was through his jeans. Daryl's breathing quickened and, still holding her, turned away from the tree and bent down, carefully placing her on a bed of pine needles.

Sarah found herself thinking about the fact that she always wanted to have sex outdoors, but never had the chance before. And boy, did she want it now, especially after his impressive show of his tracking ability. She sat up long enough to unbutton his shirt and pull it off him, and he followed suit by pulling her shirt and bra off too. He pushed her back down into the pine needles and played with each nipple using his tongue. Meanwhile, his hand had unzipped her jeans and was busy rubbing her clit. She moaned again, this time louder than before.

He whispered in her ear "Ya gotta try to keep the enthusiasm down a bit. Don't want the walkers coming after us."

"Sorry, I can barely control it. I thought guys liked that," she said, smiling in the dark. It had been a long time since she had been this turned on. In fact, she didn't know if she had ever been more turned on in her life.

"Oh, they do." He kissed her softly this time and stopped playing with her body for a couple of moments. Then she saw him give her an actual smile for the first time, staring into her eyes. She read the look of sexual hunger as most prominent amongst a mix of emotions.

Suddenly, though, a spark of new emotion took over in those eyes. Sarah was extremely confused, because it resembled anger. Daryl threw himself off her and put on his shirt, not bothering to rebutton it. He punched the tree, hard. "God fucking dammit." His knuckles emerged from the bark sporting a good amount of blood. He walked away for a bit and came back with his bloody arrow from the fox.

The whole time, Sarah laid there, stunned. What went wrong? What did she say or do that was wrong? She stood up and put on her bra and shirt after zipping up her pants. "Daryl…What the hell? Are you okay?" She placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him toward her.

"Don't," he said, pulling his shoulder away from her grip. He began walking in the direction of where they were camped.

She followed him, watching his hand bleed. "What's wrong? Did I say something?"

He completely ignored her, walking at a quicker pace. With her short legs, she nearly had to jog to keep up with him.

They walked in silence for what seemed like hours. His coldness was torturing her. After they finally got to the clearing near the campsite, Sarah tried one more time. "I'm sorry for whatever I did. Just tell me what it is so I don't do it again." She took his hand. "You need to let me bandage this up for you too. "

Daryl pulled away once more without even responding. He looked into her eyes, and she saw that his were still filled with that angry look. But at what?

"Leave me the hell alone." He turned and walked away. She stood there and watched until he climbed into his tent. Then she crossed the clearing and went into her own tent. After crawling into her sleeping bag, Sarah stared up at the ceiling. She was just so confused because of how well things were going…Was it some kind of game to him? She hated when she couldn't figure people out…especially because she was really starting to like Daryl. She did everything she could think of to keep herself from crying in frustration, but the tears came in an unmerciful way. For Sarah, it was bound to be another long night of endless dwelling.

Oh snap! A twist! Stay tuned….and please review ;)