Blood Dosn't Mean Family

Chapter one: Done For

Rick parked the beat up old truck in front of the small pharmacy. He was not alone, in the passenger seat of the truck, was a girl. Her hair was a mess of black curls, her eyes blue and sunken back into her head with exertion. In the back of the truck sat a boy and a man, with dark skin, hair and eyes, a father and son.

"It's empty, we would have better luck looking through houses." The girl muttered, staring blankly out the window at the grey shop front.

"We need to try." Rick said, determination in his voice, but pain in his heart.

"Always the optimist. I'm done for Rick, nothing in there's going to save me." The girl said looking him in the eyes. She held up her arm where a blood-soaked bandage tried to cover a large bite mark in her flesh. She had been attacked by a savage dog four days ago. She could no longer mover her fingers on that arm and her skin was drastically pale from the lack of blood.

"Come on, get out. It won't take long." Rick said, not taking no for an answer. The pair in the back of the truck jumped out to meet Rick by the pharmacy door, already knowing the plan of action. The boy, Duane, would stay outside while his father, Morgan, and Rick cleared inside the building.

"Any trouble, yell out." Morgan told his son.

"I know." Duane said pulling his hand gun from his belt and flicking off the safety. His father nodded in approval before entering the abandoned building after Rick.

The girl, Raven, fell out of the truck, her knees buckling when she hit the ground and it took all the strength she had in her one good arm to pull herself back to her feet.

"You okay?" Duane asked rushing to her aid, wrapping an arm around her to hold her steady.

"God dame amazing." Raven hissed, as Duane helped her sit down on the step of the truck. "We got the attention of the locals by the looks of it." She said, nodding across the road where four of the undead stumbled out of an alley way.

"You got my back?" Duane asked, holding his gun out to her as he pulled a machete from the back of the truck.

"Always." She said, taking the gun in her good hand and aiming it at the head of the closest walker.

"Good." Duane smiled. He walked towards the approaching threat. As soon as the first walker came into reaching distance he swung the machete and brain matter went flying across the foot path as the rotting body fell into the gutter. He swung at the next one and beheaded it.

The first two had been spaced out, making it easy for Duane to peck them off, but the other two were side by side.

"Ray, you ready?" Duane asked, knowing he would not be able to take all two walkers on at once. He got no reply as he slowly stepped back from the approaching walkers, trying to keep a safe distance between him and their snapping jaws. "Ray?" He asked again, still no reply. He looked over his shoulder to see in the short time he had looked away, his friend had passed out and was now out cold on the road. Even worse, there was another group of four walkers coming from the other side of the road.

Duane raced back to his friend's side, rolling her over to see she now had scrap marks along her face, but she looked to be breathing. That's all he needed. He grabbed the gun on the ground that had fallen from Ray's grip.

He fired at the approaching walkers. He wasn't a good shot though and with seven bullets, he only killed three walkers. Lucky the gun had a silencer so he didn't attract more of the undead, but he was still out of bullets and had three more walkers to kill.

"Dad, help!" He was more worried about his friend then his pride and called for his father's help.

"Duane!" Morgan yelled a few moments later as he came barging out of the pharmacy with Rick, hot on his heels. The two older men thought the call of help was because of the surrounding walkers but it wasn't till they got around the other side of the truck, they found Duane next to a passed-out Raven.

Morgan instinctively went to the walkers, stabbing and slicing with his knife till the threat of the undead was gone. While Rick fell to the ground next to Duane, he put his ear down near Ray's mouth and let out a sigh of relief when he heard her breathing.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"I was taking care of some walkers, when I looked back she was like this." Duane said, the boy was holding onto Raven's hand. If Rick looked a little closer, he would have seen tears in the boy's dark eyes. "How can we help her?"

"Blood loss has set in, she's shutting down Rick." Morgan said. "If we had a doctor we could save her, but were not going to find one of them anywhere."

"There has to be some way we can help her." Duane said, sending a pleading glance towards his father.

"Come on Raven, wake up, wake up." Rick pleaded, shaking the girl's shoulders.

"She infected?" All three heads snap in the direction of the male voice. They saw an Asian man in his early twenties and a woman around the same age with short brown hair. Both new comers were holding guns, but don't raise them.

"No, a dog bit her, not a walker. Can you help?" Duane asked.

"My daddy's a vet, he could help her." The woman said. Hope rose in Duane's eyes.

"Our camp isn't too far from here." The Asian man said.

"Rick, this isn't a good idea. We don't know them." Morgan said quietly.

"If it was Duane would you be saying that?" Rick asked and Morgan was silent. "Exactly. Do you have a vehicle? How far is it?" Rick asked, collecting Raven in his arms and standing.

"No, we walked, it's around ten minutes away." The woman replied.

"Rick, take the truck. Me and Duane will stay here." Morgan said, taking a bag of supplies from the back of the truck and tossing it over his shoulder.

"I can drive if you want? Glenn's got to get some things for one of our group, so he can show you guys back to the farm when you're ready." The woman said.

"Thank you." Rick said climbing into the truck, Raven quickly slipping away in his arms. Morgan wasn't sure about these people. Truthfully, neither was Rick, but he had been praying for a miracle and here one was. He had already lost so much in this new world. If he lost Raven, he had no idea how he could keep going.

"My names Maggie by the way." The woman said, as she climbed into the truck and started the engine.

"Rick. This is Raven." he said, looking down at the girl's pale face. Maggie drove fast, quickly through the town, the people left behind them all faded away in the rear view mirror.

AN:

Thoughts?

Please let me know what you though of the fist chapter of this story. I've been working on this idea for a while now so hope you do like it and continue to read. There will be a few flash backs latter on to show more of the back story but for the first few chapters they all take place roughly seven months after Rick woke up in hospital.

Hope you had a good day/ night. Thanks for reading.