The Covenant

Athena

Day Three

A gentle, golden heat on my face pulled me from the void. I stirred, blinking slowly, vision hazy and blurred with pain. For a few seconds, I couldn't make sense of anything - the light, the quiet, the stillness pressing in around me like I'd been wrapped in cotton.

Then the scent hit me: beeswax candles, something herbal, and beneath it all... incense. Faint, almost sweet. Not rot. Not blood. Not the stench of the dead.

I turned my head with a groan, my neck stiff, the rest of me barely registering yet. I was in a small room. Sunlight spilled through a stained-glass window, scattering color across the sheets and the stone floor like a kaleidoscope. It was beautiful. Peaceful. The bed beneath me was narrow but clean. There was a cross on the far wall. A real one, carved wood. The walls were stone, solid, old. And the silence - real silence - made my ears ring.

I sat up too quickly and hissed, clutching my thigh as agony flared. My leg was wrapped in tight bandages. Someone had cleaned the blood away.

For a moment, I just stared at it, breathing hard, heart thudding like a drumbeat in my ears.

Where was I?

How did I get here?

The last thing I remembered was the cabin. Daryl. My fingers tightening in his shirt, my voice shaking as I lied to his face - told him Alpha was heading for the kids, for our kids. He had to go. I made him believe it. He'd never have left otherwise.

And then... the herd.

I'd stayed behind.

Now - I was here?

Panic suddenly gripped my chest so hard it hurt. Daryl would've gone back to that cabin. Found me gone. Fuck, he'd think I was dead. The kids - they'd think I was dead, too. I had to get back. I had to move.

I heard soft footsteps approaching beyond the door and froze, fingers still clutched over leg.

It creaked open, and a woman stepped in slowly, hands folded in front of her. She wore soft linen robes, cream-colored, her head covered in a loose scarf. Her face was lined with age but not unkindness. She looked... serene. Almost like someone out of a storybook.

"You're awake," she smiled, her voice gentle, like she was speaking to someone fragile.

I tensed, trying to force my leg to move.

"Easy," She continued. "You've been out for a while. Don't try to move too fast. You've had a rough time."

My panic eased just a fraction at the tone in her voice - calm, kind. Like a nurse. Or a nun.

I tried to focus on her. "Where...?" My throat was dry, cracked. cleared it. "Where am I?"

"You're with the Covenant of Saint Mina." She informed me, then crossed to my side and checked the bandage on my leg with practiced care. "You were found in the woodlands. You lost a lot of blood. We weren't sure you'd make it through the night..."

My head spun. I stared at her, lips parted, mind still racing.

Covenant of Saint Mina?

I'd never heard of it. But the way she said it - like it was a safe place, like it meant something - gave me pause.

Still... something in me stayed braced.

"I need to leave," I said, voice tight. "I need to get back to my family. My husband... He'll be looking for me. He'll think I'm dead."

She laid a gentle hand over mine.

"We understand," she said softly. "but you need to rest first. You've been through a lot. You can't go anywhere on that leg."

"Please," I whisper, my voice breaking, but I can't help it. "I need to get back to them."

The woman's smile doesn't falter. "You're safe here. Once you're healed, we'll help you reunite with your family."

I wanted to argue, to demand that I be allowed to leave immediately, but she was right about my leg. There was no way it could bear weight.

The woman's voice broke through my thoughts. "I'm Sister May... and your name?"

"Athena."

"Get some more rest, Athena. Give your body a chance to heal."

I didn't respond. I didn't know what else to say. I wanted to believe her, but the ache in my heart wouldn't go away.

~

Day Four

I couldn't sleep.

Even after the woman - Sister May - brought me warm broth and promised I'd be properly introduced to the rest of the Covenant soon. Even after she dimmed the lights and told me again that I was safe, that I needed to rest.

My body was screaming for it. Exhausted. But my mind was louder.

I pictured my husband tearing through the woods, screaming my name until his voice went hoarse. I pictured Briar clinging to his hand, asking over and over if I was coming home. And Sawyer - he'd probably be too little to understand, but he'd feel it.

Then, another horrific thought - I'd told Daryl Alpha was going after our kids. I said it so he'd leave, so he'd survive. But what if - what if she really had gone after them? What if I didn't just lie? What if I predicted it?

My stomach twisted painfully, and I closed my eyes, but that only made it worse.

~

Day Five

What happened at the barn kept ripping through my head like a storm - the ropes, the smirks of the Whisperers, the gurgled screams.

Henry.

I couldn't stop imagining Carol falling to her knees when she found out. She survived losing Sophia, but could she make it through the brutal death of another child?

I forced my injured leg over the edge of the bed, gritting my teeth against the pain, but I didn't care. I needed to move. I needed to do something. I couldn't sit here in this sun-washed tomb of a room any longer while the people I loved were out there fighting to survive.

While my family didn't even know that I had.

But, before I could attempt to put weight on my leg, the door opened quietly, and a different woman stepped in. Taller than Sister May. Younger. Maybe my age. Her robes were a deeper color, plum rather than cream, and her hair was tied back in a long braid. "You shouldn't be standing," she said, eyes scanning me quickly. Assessing.

"I shouldn't be here," I snapped, sharper than I meant to.

She didn't flinch.

"I'm Sister Ruth. You'll find we're not your enemies, Athena."

"Sorry," I mumbled, "Being trapped in a bed by my busted leg is making my antsy. I just want to get back to my family."

She smiled, polite but thin, them pulled a chair closer and sat, folding her hands over one knee.

"The outside world is full of pain," she said. "Loss. Chaos. But Saint Mina protects this place. She guides the worthy to us. You're not the first to arrive half-dead and desperate."

I stared at her. "I appreciate what you've done for me, but I'm not staying."

"You will. For now." She smiled again. "Saint Mina brought you here for a reason. She sees value in the broken."

Something about the way she said that made my skin prickle. "The reason is that your people found me and brought me here."

Sister Ruth gave me a condescending nod.

It made my gut swirl.

~

Day 6

I barely slept.

When I did, it wasn't the kind that brought rest. It was the kind that dropped me into dark, aching places and left me gasping when I opened my eyes to this pale, sterile room again. My throat was dry, my skin too hot under the scratchy blanket, and my thoughts felt like knives to my chest.

Daryl. Briar. Sawyer

I couldn't stop picturing Daryl returning to that cabin and finding me gone. Maybe he cried until his tears ran out, calling my name until his voice failed. Maybe he'd be holding our kids right now, telling them I died so he could live. Maybe he knows I lied to him as my last act - told him Alpha was after them when she wasn't, just to get him to leave me behind.

Because I did.

I did lie. And I'd do it again if it meant getting him away from that herd... but that didn't make me feel any less guilty.

My broken femur was agony. I could feel every twitch of the muscle, every shift of the splint. Pain bloomed up my leg like fire every time I moved, and I could barely even sit up without help. I was useless. Vulnerable.

And that scared the hell out of me.

This morning, Sister Ruth had brought a bowl of broth and said a strange prayer that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Something about blood and absolution and being chosen. She'd smiled like it was all perfectly normal. Like she didn't notice the way my hands curled into fists under the blanket.

I'd wanted to believe I'd just gotten lucky at first - that this strange group had found me in the cabin, bleeding out, and decided to help. Maybe they were just... odd. Isolated too long. Deeply religious.

But now, something about Sister Ruth's gaze made my skin itch.

My leg made everything worse. I'd barely managed to push myself upright before the pain forced me back again. They only helped me out of bed when I asked for the damn bedpan - which was humiliating, but at least it got me vertical.

A different woman, probably not much more than a teenager - Sister Agatha - had come instead of Ruth or May this afternoon, which I was grateful for. She was gentler, quieter, definitely less creepy. She helped me stand and shuffle the few paces to relieve myself, not saying a word about the sweat on my brow or the way I gritted my teeth.

"You're healing," she'd said softly as she helped me settle again. "Give it time."

But time wasn't on my side. Not when my family thought I was gone.

I desperately wanted to ask more:

How they'd found me?

Who carried me?

Where, exactly, we were?

What this place really was?

But I bit down on every question, swallowing them like stones, because if they weren't what they seemed - if this really wasn't just a strange little religious community tucked away in the woods - then I couldn't afford to tip my hand.

Not yet. Not until I could walk - escape.

So instead, I decided to nod, smile, thank them for the soup. I kept my eyes on the windows, the pattern of their visits and the way they always left me just enough medicine to dull the pain - but not enough to forget.

And inside, I waited.

Because as soon as my leg was healed enough to bear weight...

I was going home.

A/N: I'd love to know your thoughts. A lot of you seemed to enjoy the storyline with the Buried way back when, so I thought I'd create another community to change things up a little.

I'm feeling strangely anxious about the reaction to this chapter... 😬🤦‍♀️🤣