Firecracker

Rick, Raine, Shane, and Carl walked silently through the woods, looking for any signs of Sophia. So far there was nothing, not a single footprint, nothing and Raine was growing more frustrated by the minute. As they rounded a bend, they heard a small noise and Raine instantly reached for her gun, but was stopped when she saw a large buck in the middle of the path. Shane raised his shotgun, thinking of shooting it but Rick stopped him when he noticed Carl walking towards the animal. Raine smiled wider with each step that her nephew took, the deer looked at him but didn't move a muscle. It wasn't afraid of Carl, it was truly a beautiful moment.

Just as the little boy was about to touch the deer, a shot rang through the air and suddenly, Carl and the deer went down to the ground. Raine kicked right into action, her legs carrying her over to Carl.

"No! Carl! Fuck! Rick, what do I do?!" She panicked, looking up at her brother with pleading eyes. Rick had no idea what to say, he was too shocked to really think of something. Raine looked around frantically, searching for the person that shot her nephew.

"Shane, there!" She exclaimed, pointing in the direction where she saw a figure. Shane ran into the trees and returned a few moments later, he was dragging a large man in overalls. Raine couldn't explain the anger that was rising through her, she was seeing red and not just from Carl's blood on her hands. The man looked down with wide eyes and a pale face, it was clear that he didn't know what to do either.

"C-come on, this way. We'll get him help." He stuttered. Raine moved out of the way so that Rick could pick up his son and then they were off. She was ahead of everyone else, her feet carrying her quickly and quietly through the woods. Her legs started to burn and her chest hurt so bad, but she didn't stop. Carl's life was on the line and Rick was relying on her to scout the way ahead. If there were walkers, she needed to take them out so that they could get through.

Finally, they reached a wide open field and she saw a house out in the distance. Somehow, she mustered up the energy to run faster. When she reached the gate, she would have jumped over it if she hadn't slowed down long enough to open it. She looked back and saw Rick still behind her, so she kept going. By the time she reached the house, her legs were jelly and she collapsed onto the ground, spraying up dirt.

"Dad!" A woman yelled out and Raine snapped her head up to see who it was. There was a woman on the porch, she had short brown hair and she was rather tall, about the same height as Raine. An older man came out a few moments later and looked down at Raine with furrowed eyebrows. Silently, she pointed behind her and right at that moment, Rick ran up with Carl.

"Are you Hershel?" Rick demanded, struggling to keep from dropping his son.

"Was he bit?" Hershel asked, walking off the porch.

"Shot, by your man." Rick explained. Immediately, they all rushed into the house to tend to the little boy. Not Raine though, she stayed there in the dirt trying to catch her breath. After a few minutes, the girl from the porch came back outside and right up to Raine, extending her hand. Raine excepted the help and stood up slowly.

"Oh, your nose is bleedin'."

Raine reached up and wiped at her nose, looking down at her hand to see how bad it was bleeding. She took her bag off her shoulders and dug through it until she found a rag, instantly pressing it to her poor nose.

"I'm Maggie." The short haired brunette said with a small smile.

"Raine."

"Come on, let's go get you cleaned up." Maggie said softly, helping guide Raine into the house. Instead of going into the bathroom that Maggie pointed out, she went into the bedroom where Rick and Carl were. She felt tears surfacing as she reached over and grabbed Carl's hand, rubbing circles on it with her thumb. As she sat on the side of the bed, she noticed Shane coming up with the man that caused this mess. Raine knew that she needed to stay away from him, otherwise she wouldn't be able to control her temper. She wiped away the tears and laid herself down beside Carl. As she ran her fingers through his dark hair, it dawned on her that Lori had no idea what was going on.

She hoped that they would be able to tell her soon, they couldn't keep her in the dark like this. It wasn't fair.



Raine sat on the front porch, a cigarette resting between her fingers and her leg bouncing up and down. She had never been a patient person, especially not now. Maggie had taken a horse to go and get Lori and they just found out that Carl would need surgery to remove the bullet fragments. Raine had all the faith in the world that Carl would pull through, but she couldn't help but feel a little scared. As she puffed on her cigarette, her mind wandered to Daryl and the rest of the group. He was going to flip shit when he finds out what happened. He was probably already going out of his mind, wondering what was going on.

Raine felt guilty for leaving things the way they were, she never liked fighting with him, but it was kind of their thing. As she flicked the cigarette butt out into the yard, she heard the sound of thundering hooves and she looked up to see Maggie coming up with Lori behind her. Raine jumped out of her seat and off the porch, twisting her ankle slightly in the process.

Lori jumped off the horse and looked between Raine and Rick, desperate for this situation to not be happening. Raine nodded her head and Lori threw her arms around her sister-in-law. Rick stumbled over and wrapped his arms around the two most important women in his life. After a moment, Raine moved out of the way and let the couple go inside.

"Raine?" Shane spoke as he walked off the porch. Raine turned around and looked up at the police officer.

"Hey, how's he doing?"

"It ain't lookin' too good right now. I'm makin' a run with Otis here, we're going to get everything Hershel needs for this surgery." Shane explained and Raine looked up at the sky, noticing how quickly the sun was setting behind the trees.

"Okay, uh, do you want me to go with you?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest. Shane vigorously shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.

"No, you need to stay here with them...for Carl's sake. We'll be fine."

"Thank you."

Shane nodded his head before he and Otis made their way to the blue truck that was parked right in front of the house. Everyone came out to wish them luck and then they were off. Raine let out a shaky breath and chewed nervously on her bottom lip. She didn't know how to handle this and she could feel her mind unraveling at the seams. There was only one person that could help her, but he wasn't around. He was back at the highway and he wouldn't be getting to the farm until the morning. Raine sighed and fumbled through her back pocket for her smokes, quickly taking one out and lighting it. They were the only thing keeping her calm at this point.