Athena took a breath, running her hand through her hair before walking toward the church steps. But, before the woman could turn the corner, she hears Shane and Lori talking. More importantly the mention of her name.
"It don't matter, as long as I said it." Shane said.
"You're just going to disappear?" Lori snapped with a questionable tone "You're not going to tell Rick? You're not going to tell Athena?"
"They'd only try and stop me. That's on you. You tell Rick what you want or tell him nothing at all. Athena...well, I'll tell her when the time is right. There's nothing left for me in this group anymore, might as well start a fresh somewhere new."
"You're leaving?" Athena questioned in disbelief, stepping out from beside the church.
A look of shock spread onto Shane's face, completely unaware that Athena was listening the whole time. This was the last thing he wanted to happen, leaving him speechless as he conjured up the right words to say.
"I'll leave you two to talk." Lori uttered lowly, sending Athena a glance before she walked away.
"I didn't want you to find out like this."
Athena scoffed "So when was I going to find out? Was it meant to be before or after you're long gone."
"Before, obviously. Just hear me out, please." Athena said nothing, crossing her arms and nodding for him to proceed. "I was going to tell you, I really was. But seeing you so hurt after the CDC, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I figured I'd wait it out, then Sophia went missing and its just made it harder to slip away. Truth is, Athena, there's nothing left for me here. After everything that happened with Lori when we thought Rick was dead, it's just made it messier than it ever needed to be."
"No I get it, that must've been hard for you. But that can't be the only reason you're leaving."
"It was hard at first, but once I got my head right and started to see things clearly, that's when I started to see you. It made me realise that what I had with Lori, was just a spur of the moment and I wanted something more. Something like you. I dont know whats gonna happen and you're still not sure about us, but might as well save you the trouble and just leave."
Athena shook her head and scoffed once more, glancing into the distance before back at him. "I can't believe you. You're leaving because you can't bare having to wait around." Athena didn't know what to say, her built up anger getting the best of her. She was in pure shock to say the least, she didn't understand why Shane felt the need to leave everything behind. They needed people now more than ever, but Athena couldn't argue about it much longer without losing her temper altogether and that wouldn't help at all. "You know what Shane, do what you want."
"Athena come on." Shane yelled after the heated woman who was now storming off in the other direction to where the rest of the group was now gathered. She needed time to think things over and cool off before she even said another word.
"Everything okay?" Lori asked placing a hand on Athena.
"Never better."
Shane followed shortly behind, also joining the group and heading straight for Rick to conjure up a new plan. They debated back and fourth, allowing Athena to sit in the shade and take a break, she needed to get her head right before they set back out into the woods. If something was on her mind, distracting her from the dangers that could harm her, it could throw her off completely and things would get ugly pretty quickly. The woman snapped out of her thoughts once the two men came back over with instructions about their next move.
"You all got to follow the creek bed back, ok? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just going to hang back. Search this area another hour or so—just to be thorough."
"Splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl raised a brow.
"Yeah, we'll catch up you."
"I wanna stay, too." Carol chimed in, turning to his mother. "I'm her friend."
Lori and Rick briefly looked at one another before Lori agreed to let Carl tag along with his father. "Just be careful, ok?"
"I will."
As the group prepared to go on their expedition, Athena took a sip of her water before rising to her feet. Her eyes caught a glimpse of Rick and Lori embracing each other goodbye before she noticed Shane looking her way. Athena did nothing, she didn't even acknowledge his stare, she simply pulled her backpack over her shoulders and trudged her way to the woods. Leaving Shane to regret his decision completely.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
Athena and the others, minus Shane, Rick and Carl, were trudging through the woods silently, the atmosphere thick with tension. Athena was an observant person, after all that's what she spent her first few weeks doing when she found herself with the group, simply observing their behaviour. It was a skill she acquired whilst abusing drink and drugs, mixing with the wrong crowds and dangerous people, she had no choice but to analyse their behaviour for own safety. So that's what she did most of the time at the beginning, watching and understanding the dynamics of the group and characteristics of each person.
The one thing that Athena did notice, was the slumped walks of defeat, knowing there was no chance of finding Sophia today. She was a just child, which is why they felt it more.
"So this is it—its the whole plan?" Carol suspected, taking a seat on a log and causing the whole group to stop. Athena couldn't imagine the hurt she was feeling right now. If it was her own child out there, Athena wouldn't stop looking no matter what, even if it meant she died trying.
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups."
Athena paused and leaned against a tree, catching her breath. "Rick knows what he's doing, we just need to do as he says."
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea sarcastically said with a bitter tone before looking go Lori. "I see you have a gun."
"Why, you want it? Here." Lori held the gun out for Andrea to take with a stern tone. "Take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Andrea looked at Lori in disbelief before taking it willingly. "All of you. Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through and I would do anything to stop it. But you have to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. And when Sophia ran, he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any one of us would have gone after her the way he did, or made the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently."
Lori had a point, there was no doubt in Athena's mind about that. Each person in the group was dealing with Sophia going missing in a different way, but the one thing that everybody did have in common, was an opinion about what Rick could have done differently. Despite what else Athena thought, she believed Rick did everything he could.
"Anybody?" The people were silent, allowing Lori's words to sink in and reflecting on their behaviour. "You all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you."
Lori took a deep breath, taking a sip of water before she was presented with the gun by Andrea. "We should keep moving."
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