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CHAPTER FOUR
A LITTLE TIME later that day, after Athena had finally calmed herself down, the young woman stood under a tree with a cigarette hanging from her mouth. It was a nasty habit that she had gotten into as a teenager, it helped to calm her down whenever she felt stressed or scared — and right now she was beyond stressed.
Only merely a few a minutes ago, another voice had come through the radio, it was the group they had sent into the city. The rest of them had learned that the group were trapped in a department store after being overrun by walkers and that was enough to send everyone back at camp into a spiral — especially Amy. Andrea was one of the people to leave and after a heated discussion with Shane about how no one was going to leave, she was understandably upset. Athena was starting to grow tired of his orders, all she wanted to do was help the people she had grown close to and not being able to do that made her feel helpless.
The brunette took a deep inhale of the cigarette before blowing out the smoke, watching as it disappeared into the atmosphere. As the smoke cleared, Athena saw Shane walking in her direction, immediately she rolled her eyes and continued to take another puff. "You still pissed at me?" He questioned.
Athena scoffed, folding her arms over her chest. "Is it that obvious?" She asked sarcastically.
Shane sighed, running a hand through his hair as he began to shift his weight. "Look I'm sorry, the way I spoke to you wasn't right, I get it. But you know for a fact that we can't let people come and go as they please. If we send out more people and they run into trouble, there's a huge chance that they won't come. I can't risk losing the people we already have."
Athena glanced to the ground in thought, thinking over his words as she put out the cigarette and threw it away. Everything he was saying made sense, they had spoke about it many times before, but it still didn't make it right in her eyes. "I know it may seem like it at times but I'm not a total bitch, okay? I get what you're saying, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try to help them. If it were Lori or-or Carl out there you'd be the first to one leave. It can't just be when it suits you. The first thing you should know about me Shane is that I hate being controlled, so when your tell me I can't do something I'm gonna want to do it even more."
"I know." Shane chuckled as he recalled back to the night they met. "You're still that same girl on the highway who was full of fire and ready to take on anyone or anything. I mean, man, sometimes it drives me crazy but most of the time it's what keeps me level headed. You tell it how it is and I respect that."
Athena couldn't lie, she felt relieved that Shane appreciated her outspokenness. It was the main thing about the woman that deterred most people away from her, her honest opinions often drove everyone insane but she couldn't control herself. "Well I'm glad you think so cause you're probably not going to hear the end of it as long as I'm around."
