CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NOTHING WAS LEFT FOR the ever decreasing group. They had no place to go, no place to lay their head at night and no safe haven to protect them from the danger on the outside. The group were still recovering from the trauma they had encountered merely a day ago, and for some it left a very heavy weight on their shoulders.
Athena was sat in the back of the RV, secluded from the others in the vehicle with her thumb nail wedged between her teeth as she gazed out the window in thought. A little while back they had to ditch most of their vehicles and squeeze in as much as they could due to the lack of fuel, leaving them with even less than they had before. Hence why Athena was now in Dale's RV and not in Shane's jeep. After what had happened at the CDC, Athena wasn't really in the mood to socialise — instead she preferred to sit alone.
They had been driving for hours, continuously searching for something that would be worth their while, but nothing came to their avail. The CDC was a sham and Fort Benning was a pipe dream based on their current situation. They were well and truly a lost cause. Athena found herself re-living what happened at the CDC over and over again, it was nothing like she'd seen before and Athena had seen many dark things in her life — especially in her drink and drug days.
Seeing so much pain in one room really stuck with the brunette, watching as everyone's lives flashed before their eyes, preparing themselves for inescapable death. It was engrained in her brain like a bad memory. But that's all it was now, a memory. Athena had to keep reminding herself it was in the past and the most thing she had to focus on now, was the future. But between Shane, the wellbeing of her group, the loss and the unknown future, her mind was a bundle of chaos.
With her head rested against the window, Athena begins to notice the RV slowing down and glances further out the window to further investigate. Her green eyes narrowed as she inspected the on-coming traffic build up, abandoned cars filling up the highway. And their only way through.
Athena could hear commotion from the front of the RV, so with much reluctancy the brunette made her way to the front to see what was going on.
"Uh, maybe we should just go back." She heard Glenn suggest as she neared the front seats "There's an interstate bypass—"
"We can't spare the fuel."
"What's going on?" Athena asked, causing everyone to turn and look at the woman they hadn't seen in hours. She looked exhausted, almost like she was decaying from the inside out. But Athena didn't seem to notice the stares and worried looks as she gazed at the road ahead, seeing many more cars and vans. She had worse things on her mind.
"Roads blocked. Daryl's trying to find a way through but I—"
Just before Dale could finish his sentence, a large puff of white smoke followed by a popping sound appeared from the bonnet, causing Athena to jump at the suddenness. As Dale pulled the vehicle to a stop, Athena sighed and shook her head. They were stuck.
The group began to flood out of the RV and met up with the others as they all came to inspect the damage. "I said it. A thousand times — dead in the water."
"Problem, Dale?"
"Oh, just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope." As Dale looked away from the hood of the van he looked to Daryl who was already rummaging through the heaps of abandoned items in the trunk of one of the cars. "Ok. That was dumb."
"Can't find a radiator hose here?" Shane asked, pointing out the fact they were surrounded by thousands of car parts.
Athena leaned back against the side of RV, minding her own business as she listened to them talk back and fourth about the possibilities of what they could scavenge. The young woman definitely didn't feel like taking lead and inputting her opinion like she usually did, something inside her feeling off, almost like a loose screw that was responsible for holding her together. What had happened at the CDC had really affected Athena mentally, putting everything into perspective.
"This is a graveyard." Lori spoke up, earning Athena's attention finally as well as the others. The longer the words sunk in, the more Athena realised that Lori had a point. Everywhere she looked there was a dead person in every other car and belongings of people that were no longer there practically screamed death. It really was chilling the more she thought about it. "I don't know how I feel about this."
"Come on, ya'll. Just look around. Gather what you can.
Athena watched as Andrea returned to the RV before pushing herself off of the vehicle and slowly making her way into the heaving mess of cars. The group were now scattered, each looking for anything that would be worth their while. They were low on supplies, extremely low to be exact; medical supplies, water, food. The main things they needed to survive was practically absent.
With crossed arms, Athena meandered past each car, glancing into the windows briefly incase anything was immediately visible to the eye. As she passed another car and looked in, something much worse caught her eye — a walker. Athena had been getting good at killing walkers, sure she wasn't a pro and was still learning to shoot accurately, but she knew how to protect herself when it came down to it. After all, she had been doing it her whole life, except now it was a matter of life or death.
The walker was surrounded by flies, the little creatures eating away at the decayed carcass in the drivers seat as Athena attempted to look around it. Her eyes scanned the seats until she spotted a little bottle of antibiotics in the passenger seat, the amount that was inside would be something she would soon find out. The brunette went to reach forward for the antibiotics but pulled back immediately when the walker began to stir, its growls now eminent as its jaws started to snap. Athena stood back as its arms outstretched towards her, hungry for her flesh before she reached into her pocket and pulled out her knife, piercing it into its skull.
As she pulled it back out, the body fell limp out of the vehicle and onto the ground, leaving a space for Athena to grab the antibiotics.
"What'd you find?" A voice asked.
Athena turned her head to see Shane walking her way. "Just some antibiotics." She popped the lid to inspect inside, only to find three small pills. She sighed "It's not much, but its something."
"Sure is." Shane nodded as she shifted his weight back and fourth. Athena could tell he was wanting to ask her something but she didn't feel up to be questioned today, especially about what happened between them at the CDC. "I just wanted to check on you. You haven't said a word since we left the CDC."
Athena tucked the pills in her pocket and started to walk back towards the rest of the group. "I'm fine."
"You're not fine Athena." Shane stated, speed walking ahead of her to stop her in her tracks. Athena paused abruptly and looked anywhere but him. "We never even talked about what happened back there."
"There's nothing to talk about, okay? What happened at the CDC, with Jenner locking us in that room, I thought we were going to die. I thought you were going to die." Athena felt a small lump in her throat as she spoke, not realising how much of a toll the experience had taken on her. "I can't lose anyone else, Shane. Especially you."
"So what about us?"
"What about it?"
"You keep telling me you care about me and you don't want to lose me but you're not willing to give it a chance. You said you needed time and I've given you that, more than enough of it. What else do you want?"
Athena glanced to her feet with uncertainty written all over her face. "I don't know. What we have between us, Shane, I've never had that before. It might not seem like it, but since that night its all I've thought about. I try to ignore it but I can't. I just dont know what I want yet."
Before Shane could respond, his eyes focused on the distance behind Athena. With a frown she turned her head to see a herd of walkers heading towards them. She had never seen so many before. Her eyes grew as her heart stopped for less then a millisecond before Shane was grabbing her by the arm and pulling her down. "Get under the car and stay there. Im getting Glenn."
Athena followed his order and remained completely still under the car, covering her mouth to avoid any sound escaping from her mouth. All she could do was hope the others were safe. Fortunately Shane returned quickly, this time with Glenn at his side and they both tucked themselves under the car opposite. He nodded to Athena to certify that they would be okay.
The brunette gripped her knife so hard that she could feel her fingertips turning white, her heart beating so loudly she could hear it as decayed legs and feet shuffled past her. She stayed still for what felt like a lifetime, holding her breath before she could no longer see any more dead people. The woman could hear the growls, the morbid noises sending chills down her spine. She couldn't bare the thought of what the others were going through, not knowing if they were safe or not. Once the coast was clear, Athena slowly moved out from under the car and cautiously scanned the area to make sure there were no more potential threats.
"You guys okay?" Athena asked placing a hand briefly on both of their shoulders.
"Yeah. Where they did they all come from?" Glenn asked glancing between them.
"I dont know. But lets get back before anything else happens. See if everyone is okay." Shane said.
Just as they were about head back to the RV, a loud scream was heard coming from the base. They instantly began to run through the heaving cars until they finally reached where the screams were coming from. Everyone was gathered at the side of the road overlooking the edge of the woods as Carol's cries filled the area.
"What's going on?" Athena questioned with a worrisome expression, dreading what the next words would be.
"Sophia's gone."