The sun was as unforgiving as it could have been that day. Cicadas buzzed in the seemingly endless forest speaking to how hot it was. Rayne longed to brush the sweat from her brow, but she wouldn't dare the movement spooking the doe in front of her. She had been following it for what seemed like hours now and needed to get back, Layla was hungry. Her bright eyes stayed on the graceful creature's movements and she gripped her pistol a little tighter. Rayne had originally been hunting squirrels, rabbits, small things like that and never needed to use a bullet, but when the doe trotted in front of her, it was just too good to pass up.
Though she wasn't certain how she was going to carry it back, if she could get a good amount of meat off it before the undead caught the bloody scent, she could feed herself and her god-daughter for quite a while. Her stomach began to growl as if agreeing with her thought and she held her breath when the doe raised her head to stare in Rayne's direction.
Rayne froze and stared back into its eyes, seeing herself in the black, glassy abyss of the doe's stare. They stayed locked in each others eyes before the frightened creature rose its tail and sprinted off deeper into the forest. Rayne growled under her breath and rose to chase after it until a crunching caught her attention.
Turning slowly, she realized that it wasn't her presence that spooked the deer, but the undead man stumbling towards her. Rayne bit back a yelp and made ready to fight, knife in hand. She hadn't taken on many diseased by herself and preferred to let her traps take care of the dirty work, but she would be damned if she let this monster keep her from returning to Layla.
The decaying man who stood about a foot taller than her snarled and came towards her, the patch of torn skin on his shoulder displaying where he had been bit. Rayne stepped to the side and went to grab his arm in order to use his own weight to drive her knife in deeper. When that arm tore away from the socket, Rayne gasped and fell backwards at the force of its release.
The soft forest ground seemed to slide out beneath her weight and completely gave out when the man fell on top of her. Then she was rolling, rolling down the steep incline full of sticks that stabbed her, rocks that slammed her limbs and the occasional root to smash her against as gravity continued its unforgiving pace.
When she reached the bottom of the ravine, Rayne tried to inhale only to realize that no air was coming. Her chest shuttered as she tried desperately to regain the breath that had been knocked from her. When she heard the undead creature crawling towards her, using his one arm to pull himself closer, she started to back up though it sent waves of liquid fire through her with each movement.
Rayne searched for her knife, pistol, anything to defend herself and found that almost everything had come loose with her plummet down the steep hill. Her gaze rested on a rock that almost looked like an arrow head and she desperately clawed for it, hearing the monster getting closer and closer. When her fingers finally wrapped around the pointed rock, she twisted to strike only to see that the monster had managed to grab onto her shoe and was getting ready to chomp into her.
"I got it!" A voice called out and the snap of an arrow leaving its bolt whipped out as it fired into the head of the zombie. Unfortunately, this meant that it went through his head and into Rayne's thigh. The white hot pain shot through her like someone had lit up a fire poker and placed it on her leg.
"Holy shit!" The voice said he came closer, "Dude you shot her!" Rayne grabbed her leg and squirmed from the pain. Her eyes turned up to the two men running towards her, one Asian, the other in cut off plaid. The Asian sat down beside her, "Hey, your going to be all right." He placed his hands on either side of her leg while the one in plaid grabbed the arrow and pulled it out quickly.
Rayne let out a scream from the pain while the Asian kid exclaimed, "Daryl! Couldn't you have been a little more gentle?" The one she assumed was Daryl looked to him, "I had to get it out before the walker's blood mixed with hers. What did you want me to do?" Rayne started shaking uncontrollably, her limbs numbing as the world around her spun. Daryl looked down at her, "She's going into shock, man. Let's get her back to the doc."
The Asian kid looked at him, "We're taking her with us? You sure Hershal will look at her when we are short on medical supplies?" Daryl slung his crossbow over his shoulder and bent down to scoop her up, "I shot her didn't I? We owe it to her to fix her up." When he started to move, Rayne grasped his shirt, "L...L..."
He looked down at her and spoke softly, "Don't talk, okay?"
She cleared her throat and forced herself to speak through the pain, "Layla, my kid...tent..." The Asian boy looked from her to Daryl, "I think she has a kid somewhere. What do we do?" Daryl looked up the ravine's hill and then back at her, "We'll take care of it...I promise." Rayne's blue eyes connected with his before the abyss of darkness overtook her.
"Rayne...Rayne? Wake up silly, you've been sleeping for hours." Rayne looked to the side to see the gentle brown eyes of her best friend, "Bre?" She smiled sweetly, "Who did you think it was? The boogy-man?" Rayne smiled, "Maybe." Bre's delicate hand reached to brush back a strand of Rayne's hair before she said, "You can't stay here for too long, Layla needs you."
"I can't find my way back." Rayne said trying to remember where she was in the first place. Bre laughed and shook her blonde curls that so resembled Layla's, "All you have to do is open your eyes." She focused on Bre's chocolate eyes as she winked and kissed her forehead, "Take care of my daughter, Rayne. Wake up."
"When will she be up, doc?" The voice she recognized asked and a much older man responded, "Depends on her. I cleaned up the wound, it isn't infected but she does have a fever. I suspect this is from malnutrition more than your arrow though it certainly didn't do her any good." There was a clipping noise like the sound of a bag closing and the first voice said, "It wasn't like I meant to shoot her, I was trying to save her!"
"Shh! She needs to rest." The doctor scolded. Another voice that was also familiar spoke, "She kept talking about a kid. Maybe Rick will let us go look?"
"Nah, she is probably just delusional. Let's just let her sleep for a while and ask when she wakes up."
Rayne cleared her throat which felt like it was sandpaper drenched in lemon juice, "Layla is my god-daughter." All three men jumped at her intrusion and looked to her. An older man with an uncommonly kind face smiled, "Ah so the patient lives. Hello there. I am Hershel, what's your name?"
The injured woman spoke again, "I need to find Layla." She started to get up only to have the room spin around her. Gentle hands forced her back down, "Sorry, but you aren't going anywhere for a few days. You wouldn't make it across the room, let alone through the forest. Now, do you have someone you are looking for?"
Rayne eased back down a bit, "My god-daughter, Layla, she is in a tent about a half mile from where I fell. She's probably scared that I'm not back and she's hungry. She needs me."
Hershel looked to the man in plaid, "Daryl, why don't you tell Rick and arrange a search party to..." Daryl shook his head, "I'm done searching for people. I wouldn't find her anyway." With that he turned and walked out the door. Hershel sighed and looked to the Asian boy, "Glen, would you take care of it?"
He nodded, "Sure." He got up to leave, "Don't worry, we'll find her." Everything in Rayne screamed to follow him, keep Layla safe, but her body was weaker than her spirit and she was forced to rely on the kindness of strangers. When Glen left out the door, Hershel looked to her, "Ok, you rest up and I'll get my daughters to make you something to eat. You are battling a nasty fever and the sooner you are better, the sooner you can be on your way."
Rayne watched him start to turn away when she whispered, "Thank you."
The doctor smiled at her and left out the door. Rayne closed her eyes and prayed they would find Layla, that she would be safe and go with them even though she taught her not to talk to strangers. In her fevered state it was difficult to stay focused on her train of thought and her mind jumped from subject to subject without control. She tired to focus on her next move, how they would get food, who these people were, how long she could stay, but everything was blurring together.
When she heard footsteps, it took everything she had not to jump. She instead cracked one eye open just enough to get a visual of the intruder and saw that it was the man who had shot her. He seemed hesitant to enter, but came in once he thought she was sleeping. He sat in the chair beside her and sighed before reaching into his vest and pulling out something that smelled sweet.
"Don't know how much good these things do, but maybe it will work better the second time? When I'm not involved..." He said aloud, but Rayne wasn't sure if it were to her or himself so she didn't answer. He placed whatever it was on the nightstand beside her before taking one last look and whispering, "I'm sorry." Before he left out the door.
Once she was certain he was gone, Rayne opened her eyes and turned her head to look at the white flower resting quietly beside her. She blinked a few time before sleep begged to take her once again.