"Hey, you move, shithead. Come on, get, I said."

"How far? How far?"

"Another half a mile. Hershel. Talk to Hershel, he'll help your boy!"

Victoria wished Rick godspeed as he ran through the field while clutching his dying son.

"Get up." She snarled at the hunter, Otis, she recalled him spluttering. "Get up or so help me."

Shane grabbed Otis by the arm and heaved him up. "Come on!"

The hunter spluttered, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

It grated on Victoria. She let herself imagine turning on Otis and shooting him before returning back to reality.

Everything happened so fast, it was hard to remember what happened first - it might've been Rick screaming, Otis appearing from the lush forest, or Shane shouting orders that no one heard. But what Victoria remembered was seeing the blood gush between her fingers as she held the little boy's chest wound.

The farmhouse came into view like a beautiful mirage - quiet, thriving and untouched by the tainted world.

Rick stumbled from the house to greet them. He was in a complete daze, blinking owlishly as he stared at them. He wiped the sweat from his brow, smearing crimson across his face.

Victoria had to look away as Shane wiped Rick's face with a rag.

"Where is he?" Shane asked softly. "Where is here? Is he okay?"

Victoria climbed the stairs and stepped into the house behind the men. She examined the living room with keen eyes - it was homely, too country for her taste but obviously lived in.

Did these farmers know what was happening in their backyard?

By the time Rick gathered enough strength to show them where the boy was, Carl was still unconscious. He was lying on the bed with his shirt lifted while an older gentleman, who Victoria assumed was the aforementioned Hershel, covered the wound with a blood soaked towel.

There was a group of other people gathered in the spacious room, either rushing around with supplies or watching the new survivors with caution.

Victoria stepped closer to the bed. There was no blood under Carl, which meant there was no exit wound. The bullet was still lodged in his chest, which was both a blessing and a curse.

"You know his blood type?" Hershel questioned Rick, entirely too calm for a man with his hands covered in blood.

"A positive, same as mine."

Hershel nodded. "That fortunate. Don't wander far, I'm gonna need 'ya." He glanced over his shoulder to Otis. "What happened?"

"I was... I was tracking a buck..."

His spluttering enraged Victoria further. "He shot the deer were were standing in front of." She shot a glare at Otis, who shrunk back. "It went through the deer and into Carl."

Hershel lifted the towel, appraising the wound. "The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life but it did no go through clean. It broke into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out, I'm counting six."

Victoria's eyes turned up to the ceiling, how much harder could things get for the survivors?

Rick swayed next to her. She grabbed his arm steadying him as he murmured, "Lori doesn't know." He told them, his voice breaking with the realisation. "No. No, my wife doesn't know. My wife doesn't know."

As Shane pulled Rick into a hug, Victoria felt her knees weaken under her - oh god, how was she going to explain this to Lori?

Hershel suggested they leave not long after. Beth, the young blonde who introduced herself as Hershel's youngest daughter, showed them to the living room before disappearing.

The rest of the farmers made themselves scarce too as the survivors settled in the living room. Rick and Shane sat on the love-seat while Victoria situated herself by the large window overlooking the fields.

It was quiet. That never meant anything good.

"Why'd I let him come with us? I should have sent him with Lori."

"Don't do that." Victoria warned Rick. "Don't play the blame game, there's no point."

"She's right, man."

Rick shook his head. "A little girl goes missing, you look for her - simple." He muttered, his lip quivering as he whined. "You said call it, head back-"

"Doesn't matter what I said."

"Carl got shot 'cause I wouldn't cut bait. It should be me in there."

Shane rubbed his eyes with clenched fists. With a chuckle, he said, "You've been there, partner, right? And you pulled through, so will he."

"Is that why I got out of that hospital?" Rick cried, raising his voice. "Found my family for it to end here like this? This some kind of sick joke?"

"You stop it. Just stop."

"A little girl goes missing." He repeated, the tears falling from his red-rimmed eyes. "You look for her. It's plain and simple."

Except it wasn't plain and simple, nothing was anymore. Before Victoria could voice herself, the door opened to Carl's makeshift operating room. Maggie, who Beth introduced as the eldest sister, poked her head out of the room.

"Rick."

As Rick and Shane hurried into the room, Victoria remained by the window.

"Dad! Dad! Dad!"

Victoria closed her eyes, drowning out Carl's screams of anguish.

She couldn't go back to Lori after promising to protect her boys. She had to leave. She could by gone before anyone realized it. Would Shane notice? Rick? Maybe Andrea or Dale? No. There was already too much going on. No one would notice her slip away.

She could grab the car Shane was fixing earlier and drive to Los the Government was still holding up back home, maybe some of her friends from the police force were still alive. Christ. maybe her parents had left the fiery hell that was once the City of Angels.

She should go look for them.

Victoria inwardly groaned - no, she wouldn't leave the safety of other people. She was a coward.

"He's out of danger for the moment."

Victoria opened her eyes, surprised to see the how dark it was getting.

"But I need to remove those remaining fragment."

She shifted around. Otis and Maggie were sitting on the couch while Rick and Shane hovered by the door with Hershel.

The older gentleman didn't look optimistic as wiped his hands on a blood soaked towel.

"How?" Rick croaked. "You saw how he was."

"I know. And that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others."

As the Sheriff leaned against the wall for support, Shane swiped a hand down his face. "Oh, man."

"There's more."

Rick nodded. "Tell me."

"His belly's distended, his pressure is dropping, which means there's internal bleeding. A fragment must have nicked one of the blood vessels. I have to open him up, find the bleeder and stitch it. And he can't move while I'm in there, I mean at all. If he reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and he'll be dead in minutes."

Victoria winced, that was a big surgery for a ten year old.

"To even try this, I have to put him under. But if I do, he won't be able to breathe on his own. Same bad results."

"What'll it take?" Rick demanded.

Otis stood from the couch, approaching with the men without hesitation. "You need a respirator. What else?"

"The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures."

The Sheriff nodded, his teary eyes shifting from Shane to Hershel. "If you had all that you could save him?"

"If I had all that, I could try."

Victoria scoffed, they were asking for a miracle. "Dude, where the hell are we supposed to find all that?"

"The nearest hospital?" Shane offered.

"Went up in flames a month ago." Otis paused, his eyes widening as he breathed. "The High School."

"That's what I was thinking." Hershel agreed. "They would have everything we need."

"Place was overrun the last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it." Otis glanced between the disgruntled survivors and the near-hysteric father before adding, "Maybe it's better now."

Shane sighed, a wry grin lifting on his lips. "I said leave the rest to me. Is it too late to take that back?"

Despite the teasing, Rick's frown only deepened. "I hate you going alone."

It was now or never, Victoria decided. She could either leave the boy to his fate and slip away or stop cowering and make a goddamn difference.

"I'm going with you."

Shame immediately shook his head. "Victoria-"

"It's not up for debate." She interrupted, the steel in her voice leaving no room for argument. "You need another set of eyes and ears. I'm going with you."

"Are you sure?"

Victoria joined them by the door. "Very."

Shane relented with an unhappy nod.

"I'll take you there." Otis decided. "Ain't but five miles."

A woman suddenly emerged from the makeshift operating room to glare at the hunter. "Otis, no."

"Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible." He argued with a firm head shake. "I ain't gonna sit here while these people take this on. I'll be alright."

Shane studied the man. "Are you sure about this?"

"You even know what any of the stuff he's talking about looks like?"

"Come to think - no." Shane admitted.

Otis looked at Victoria but she was already shaking her head. He scoffed, "I've been a volunteer EMT. I do. Now we can talk about this till next Sunday or we could just go do it real quick."

Without looking at him, Rick muttered, "I should thank you."

"Wait 'til that boy of yours is up and around then we'll talk."

While Rick and Shane were distracted by Maggie, who wanted to bring Lori to the farmhouse, Victoria took the opportunity to step outside.

She softly closed the door behind her and took a deep breath of fresh air before sitting on the porch steps.

Christ, bad luck followed the survivors like flies to shit.

Victoria sighed as the door opened behind her. "Don't tell me I can't come with you."

"I'm thinking about it." Shane admitted as he sat next to her. "You sure you wanna do this? It ain't gonna be one walker in Dale's RV."

Victoria wanted to laugh at him. Despite what the survivors thought, fighting the infected wasn't anything new to her. Victoria would bet she had killed as many as they had, maybe even more in the early days on the virus.

But that wasn't the point.

"Do you know what I told Lori before we left?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "I said I'd take care of her boys."

"This ain't anyone's fault."

"It was Otis's fault!" She hissed, clamping down on her tongue before the farmers heard her. "It was such a stupid thing to promise. I know better then that. But I promised her, and the kid was fucking shot."She laughed, high and shill. "We're being hounded by flesh hungry monsters and the kid was shot, man. How the hell do I explain that to his mother?"

"Victoria, it was a freak accident-"

"You don't." Victoria cut him off. "You don't. And until we have everything that boy needs to survive, I won't come back to explain anything to her."

Shane scrubbed at his eyes with his palms. "I'm sorry I put this on you. I just... wanted to talk to you about what you heard before it got too out of hand."

Oh, right, that. Victoria had completely forgotten why she was so mad at him in the first place.

"I was never leaving without you. I told Lori that. I told Andrea that. I wanted to tell you but it never seemed like the right time."

It wasn't reassuring. The heavy weight on her chest still felt a lot like betrayal - Christ, when had she become such a co-dependent bitch?

"Me and you - that was the deal, you still have my word."

"You should've just told me." Victoria fired back. "You should've just - just-" She fumbled as she waved her hands, stomach turning at the sight of them covered in the Carl's blood. "Whatever, man, it doesn't matter. But when we come back we gotta like, sit down and talk about what the fuck you're doing, dude. You can't leave me in the dark anymore."

"When we come back." Shane promised. He sighed, rubbing a hand over his head before muttering, "Look, this whole thing ain't sittin' with me right. Whatever happens tonight, we're doing it for that boy."

"We're gonna save him."