Blood Dosn't Mean Family

Chapter Five: Lost

"I can't find him anywhere Shane," Lori cried.

"He couldn't have gone far, he's probably just playing with Sophia," Shane said trying to calm Lori down.

"He's not, Sophia's in the RV, she says she hasn't seen him all day. I asked everyone. No ones seen him!" It was mid morning. Carl wasn't in his bed when Lori had waken up and he had failed to show up for breakfast. This was not normal behaviour.

"He couldn't have gone to far," Shane said holding his hands up in a calming motion. Lori was furious and slapped Shane across the face before she left the house.

"The boy's missing?" Morgan asked from the hallway doorway.

"He'll show up," Shane growled.

"I'll get Rick, we'll help you guys look for him," Morgan offered.

"I think you two have helped enough," Shane said marching after Lori.

Morgan went back to the room Hershel was letting them stay in. Duane was still asleep on the floor curled up amongst some blankets. Rick had fallen asleep on the chair next to Raven's bed. Raven was fast asleep, Hershel had checked on her early this morning and said she would probably sleep most of the day from the pain medication he gave her yesterday. Morgan snuck past his son and shook Rick's shoulder.

"Morgan? What's wrong?" Rick asked as his eyes flow open.

"It seems Carl is MIA," Morgan whispered. Rick looked at Raven for a moment before shaking his head.

"I'm going to be here when she wakes up. He's probably just hiding somewhere, trying to proses everything," Rick justified. "I'm sure he'll show up sooner or later."

...

"Has she shown any signs of waking up?" Hershel asked entering the downstairs bedroom of his home. Morgan and Duane were out of the room getting lunch.

"No," Rick said, concerned.

"That's normal, she's gone through a lot, her body is progressing all the trauma," Hershel said, lifting Raven's bandaged arm up to inspect the bandage closer.

"How long until you think she will be fit to travel?" Rick asked.

"At least a week, preferably two," Hershel said checking Ravens pulse.

"Okay, thank you for your hospitality. I appreciate all you've done for us," Rick said sincerely.

"Can I ask you something Rick," Hershel said stepping back from the bed.

"Of course."

"How bad is it out there?" The old man asked. Rick was quite for a few minutes thinking over is answer.

"Just be grateful for what you have here. Out there it's a blood bath, you definitely don't want your family out there."

"But your willing to take this girl back out there into that?"

"She can handle it."

"She's a child."

"There are no children left in this world, not out there. It's eat, or be eaten."

...

Rick stayed in his chair all day not wanting to miss the moment Raven opened her eyes. It was late afternoon when he saw her start moving. Her eyes opened one by one and rolled around in their sockets for a few minutes before they locked on Rick.

"How long was I asleep?" Raven asked in a horse voice.

"Almost a day. The pain relief medication your on made your body rest," Rick explained.

"It didn't get rid of the pain," Raven grumbled sitting up in bed. "I need water."

"I'll be right back," Rick said before leaving the room. He though the house was empty, it was quite and he heard a few people had left to look for Carl after lunch. Even Morgan had volunteered to help look, dragging Duane along with him to help. Rick was wrong tho. He found Lori with her head down on the dinning room table.

"They haven't found him yet?" Rick asked as he went to the sink to fill a glass.

"Don't act like you care," Lori said lifting her head to glare at Rick, her eyes were red and watery. "You're the reason he's missing."

"How?" Rick asked confused.

"You acted like he meant nothing to you, Rick he's still your son."

"I thought it would be easier if I didn't get to involved. We're not staying. If..."

"If what? If you told him you loved him, if you said you missed him and you acted like you were happy to see him that would change your plans?"

"I know it would. I didn't ask for this Lori. I thought you were dead, I moved on, so did you. Don't make me the bad guy in this." Rick held the glass of water so tightly his hand was shaking.

"Rick..." Lori signed, she opens her mouth to say more but a gunshot cut her off. The glass fell from Ricks hand as he ran out of the room.

"Stay there!" He yelled at Lori on his way out of the room. The shot had come from inside the house. He ran into the spare room where Raven had been to find Raven with a gun in her hand aimed at Carl who stood three steps away from her. He was wide eyed and shaking. The window behind him had a broken penal from where the bullet went through it.

"It's not what it looks like," Raven said, her eyes pleading with Rick. Movement outside caught Rick's attention tho. There was a dead body on the front lawn, a walker with a bullet whole through it's brain. It hadn't been alone, there were more walkers slowly stumbling around the house.

"We got to go. Now!" Rick said. "Carl go to your mother in the kitchen. Raven check no one is upstairs." Rick was out of the room before either kid could move. He ran for the front door pulling it open to see what they were up against. There was only a dozen or so walkers within shooting distance but Rick could see more coming from the surrounding trees, to many. It was a horde. Rick could hear yelling and looked to the barn to see someone in the barn. Rick pulled out his knife and marched to the closest walker stabbing it through the eye. He did the same for the next two as well moving his way to the RV and small group of tents fifty feet from the house. A few of the walkers followed him leaving the house alone for now.

"Start the RV, get to the others in the barn!" He yelled to the people hiding in the RV. He could see them peeking through the windows at him and the walkers. He hoped they could hear him and would listen. He took out another two walkers before reaching the RV. He tried opening the door but it was locked. "You need to move! There's more coming, they'll rip this place apart. Get to the barn, get those people and get out of here. Go to the highway."

He could hear someone moving around in the RV as his attention was dragged back to the farm house. Morgan was standing in the door frame trying to catch his breath as he waved to Rick.

"We got to go now. This ones huge, they're everywhere in the woods!" Morgan said as Rick jogged back to the house. The RV roared to life as Rick reached the house, he saw a grey haired women driving it in the direction of the barn.

"We'll have to go out the back," Rick said pushing Morgan into the house and shutting the door behind them. More walkers were staring to reach the house, to many to fight. Rick went straight to the kitchen with Morgan less then a step behind him. There were several people in the kitchen now, Duane, Maggie and Glenn had been out in the woods with Morgan helping look for Carl. Now they were getting the cars ready and killing the few walkers who made it around the back of the house. Raven, Carl, Lori, and Beth were still in the kitchen grabbing anything they could and putting it into a few bags.

"That's enough let's go," Rick said grabbing the bag Raven had been filling and pushed her towards the back door.

"Do you know where my dad is?" Beth asked. Raven had found her upstairs in her bedroom.

"He's at the barn," Rick said thinking of the person her had seen a few minutes ago he released it was Hershel.

"We have to get him," Beth said.

"We will just get in the car," Raven said grabbing Beth with her remaining hand and pulling the blonde girl out of the house.

"Shane's still out there," Lori said as she left the house carrying a bag and holding onto Carl's hand.

"He went west with a few others they should be out of the hoards way," Morgan said leaving the house last. There were two cars waiting for them. One Glenn and Maggie were already in with the engine running, Lori and Carl both climbed into the back seats. Raven pushed Beth into the car with her older sister and shut the door behind her. Raven tapped the side of the car twice and it took off. Duane had been holding back the walkers who had been slowly coming around the corner.

Raven yelled out to him to hurry up as she climbed into their truck finding it a bit difficult with only one arm but she managed. Morgan throw a bag of supplies into the back of the truck before jumping in himself as his son got into the cab of the truck. Rick jumped behind the wheel and started the truck. When he pulled out from behind the house he saw the front lawn was now covered in walkers. They looked like they moved slowly when alone but in such a big group they seemed to move faster.

The RV was now driving quickly up the driveway towards the highway. There was no one standing by the barn anymore and a few horses were now running free so Rick assumed the RV had picked the people up on their way past. He looked back in the mirror as the followed the other car and RV up the driveway. Walkers were still spilling from the forest, some were banging on the front of the house, a group was going in the direction of the horses, and others were following after them.

He didn't know what was going to happen next but he know no one was returning to that farm again. It was lost.

AN:

Thank you for reading and reviewing. Sorry it took so long to update inspiration hit me today and I wrote 90% of that today. I wasn't sure how I wanted to get them off the farm. First I thought about Rick, Morgan, Duane and Raven all leaving in the dead of night but then I didn't like the idea of running away from a place that didn't seem bad. But I chose to go this way to hopefully have a bit more of a story line then only four people to work with now I had a whole group.

Just responding to a review question "why is Rick so cold to his family?" I hope what he said this chapter helped a bit, he just didn't want to get to attached to them as he was playing to leave and knew if he got to attached he would have to stay, also a lot of shock. And "did The Dixon's rob the camp?" Yes they did and there will surly be more on that latter I love Merle and Daryl and they will be showing up latter in the book no idea when.

Also just touching on what happened between Raven and Carl while Rick was talking to Lori. It will be shown in a flashback latter on so don't worry it won't go untold I just didn't think it fitted into this chapter well.

Please review and follow to help me get inspired and post sooner, thanks for reading.