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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ATHENA DIDN'T KNOW WHAT to expect when she left the farm with Daryl. In all honesty she didn't think they'd find anything at all. After all, between the whole group they hadn't found much to point them in the direction of Sophia. Daryl had found a small cabin that the young girl may have hid in for refuge and much to their luck they had just found her doll. She wanted to have hope, she really did. It would be wrong if she didn't.
But hope for Athena now was hoping that they didn't find a little body stumbling around the woods, looking for the next thing to sink it's teeth in to.
The young woman kept an eye out as they continued to trot along the edge of the cliff side. She tucked her hair behind her ear before opening her mouth. "I can't imagine what Carol is going through. I mean we all care about Sophia, she's apart of our group. But that's her child. I can only imagine what's going through her mind everyday."
Daryl grunted in agreement "Bad enough kids had to grow up in the world we knew before, now they gotta go through this. They're lucky they survived this long."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Back then, kids learnt not to talk to strangers, come back home when your told, talk to a cop or an adult if you're lost." Daryl paused "Now, they can't trust no one. They got more to worry about than being home in time for dinner. Sophia going missing was bad luck, she ain't gonna know how to protect herself."
Athena had never really thought about it that way. Kids nowadays would grow up learning what knife to use to kill a walker instead of their abc's. They'd be taught target training instead of social skills. It really was a harsh new world for the innocent mind of a child.
The woman shrugged "I guess I never thought about it that way..." she trailed off before hesitantly speaking again "Did you ever think about having kids, even before the world ended?"
Daryl scoffed in amusement "Hell nah. Too much work that I don't have time for. Never been more thankful to not have kids than I am now. Especially with Sophia being gone."
Athena took Daryl's words into consideration as she sighed. "Y-Yeah. Me too." What would she be bringing a child into if she decided to go through with the pregnancy? Would it really be the worse thing she could do? It would be a world where she would teach her child to survive. But if this really was the new world now, would she put all of that on hold in fear of dying? Both choices still weren't clear to her, so she quickly snapped out of thought and went to open her mouth again but was cut off by the horse fussing from fear.
The animal hopped off it's front two legs, causing the two to be thrown off the back of the horse down the hill. As the horse sprinted away, Athena couldn't catch her breath as they began to tumble down the long side of the hill. She had no control of her body as it crashed into tress and pieces of wood pierced her skin. Her body bounced off the creek side as she hit the ground harder and harder, she could hear things snapping and breaking and truthfully Athena couldn't tell if it was sticks or her bones. Athena's hair became wrangled with dirt and moss and body became more battered and bruised until she hit the bottom of the creek with a thump.
