The Weight Of Deafness In Love And Survival

Chapter 16 - Plus Two

The girl quickly spins, ripping her hand away, rearing back, and nearly hits me before pausing, face turning from fear to surprise, when she realizes it was just me, after I'd finally managed to catch up to her and grab her hand. "What are you doing? It's not safe out here for a little girl to be out alone." I quickly sign to her without thinking which only causes her face to turn confused. I open my mouth to actually ask her but quickly shut it again and look down at our feet, anxiety about actually speaking to this girl filling me. I'd managed to talk to Bellamy yesterday and his face didn't turn into that look I'd get but I don't know about this girl. I swallow, my heart pounding in my chest, before I look back up at her, surprisingly finding she's still there just looking at me confused.

Slowly I open my mouth again and hesitantly tell her "W-What are you doing? It's not safe out here for a little girl to be out alone." Her face just turns annoyed as she says "I'm not little. And what about you? It's not safe for someone like you to be out alone." I blink at her in surprise before giving her a 'touché' look and slight nod. Her face relaxes a bit, with a slight smile, so I then ask "Why did you leave camp?" "Well, with that guy who was dying, I just...I couldn't listen anymore. You're lucky you can just turn it off." The girl tells me then causing me to look away from her, my face contorting as my brain sends those sounds from my memories to my ears again.

After a moment her hand waves in front of my face and I turn to look at her catching "-me now?" her face confused again. I blink at her confused, trying to figure out what she could be asking me. Something clicks for her then as she then says "Wait. You don't have that thing on anymore." While gesturing to my head where my processor should be. I motion behind me, back in the direction of camp, telling her "It's back there." and something clicks again for her as she then asks "Can you understand when you're looking at someone when they're speaking?"

I blink at her surprised that she figured that out on her own before nodding. "That's pretty cool." She tells me while grinning slightly. I can just blink at her in surprise. No one has told me that was cool before. Not even Clarke or Wells. It was simply something I had to know to communicate.

The girl seems to understand and her face scrunches as she asks "Has no one ever told you that?" I simply shake my head causing her to tell me "Well they should." I just give her a smile and tell her "It's fine." "Why'd you make that face earlier?" She suddenly asks then causing me to look away from her again. How could I explain it?

She just tugs at my jacket sleeve then so I slowly look back at her. She looks at me a moment before grinning as she tells me "We're not alone now so we don't have to go back right now." I look at her a moment my face scrunching, thinking about that, before it relaxes as I nod and then ask "What's your name?" "Charlotte." She answers still ginning before her hand moves from my jacket to my hand and she starts pulling me with her as she turns and starts walking again.

Though I wouldn't be much of an improvement, it was safer for the girl, Charlotte, to have me out here with her. I also couldn't leave her out here by herself or very well force her back to camp, especially when I couldn't even bring myself to go back up where Jasper was and I couldn't even hear him. That and maybe being away from the camp will help clear my head a bit too.

After walking for a while, just aimlessly wondering the forest, Charlotte leading and me just trailing behind her, she stops, lets go of my hand, and crouches to look at a weird looking mushroom growing out of the base of a tree. Suddenly her head snaps to look at something behind us.

I turn to look and spot it was a small group of Bellamy's followers, Bellamy and Atom included, walking with spears, or in Bellamy's case an axe, in hand. Before I could process anything more I feel a tug on my sleeve again so I look back at Charlotte. "Come on." She tells me before already tugging me with her as she goes to follow after them.

We follow after them at a quick pace for a bit until we were only a few feet away from them and Charlotte slows down, her hand letting go of my sleeve now. We then pause when they do and watch as they slowly dispersed a bit into a half circle, all their eyes on something in the bushes. Charlotte then starts approaching them again, me following her, as Bellamy raises a hand to them, more than likely, shushing them a bit before telling them "She's mine." He then creeps closer to, what I could now see was a boar, raising his axe.

Suddenly Charlotte stops at the same time as Bellamy does. The second he starts to turn around, axe still raised, I grab her arm and pull her down with me as I drop to the ground watching as he fully turns and throws the axe in our direction. My eyes following it as it imbeds into the tree right next to us, at the height of Charlotte's head. My eyes widen realizing how close it had been to killing her. A few inches over and if I hadn't have pulled her down, she'd be dead.

Slowly we stand up, but my eyes are still glued to the axe in the tree. That was way too close. But that's when Bellamy's hand pulls it from the tree and I snap my attention onto him. My eyes narrow as I angrily and quickly sign at him "You almost killed her! Think before you throw next time! You were around friends you know!" even though I knew he wouldn't understand me. It just happened to be Charlotte but it could have easily been one of the people that were out with him.

Bellamy pauses just a moment watching my hands before looking right at Charlotte, the second they stop, telling her "I almost killed you." Before he looks between the two of us asking "Why aren't you two back at camp?" I just look down at Charlotte catching "-guy who was dying, I just couldn't listen anymore. Cooper followed me." I look back up just as Atom starts speaking "There's grounders out here. It's dangerous for a little girl a-" but he suddenly shuts his mouth looking right at Charlotte. I look back down at her and catch "-with Copper." Her face annoyed again. She probably cut him off with 'I'm not little and I'm with Cooper.'

I look back up at the two guys and notice Bellamy is clearly thinking about something, his eyes flicking between the two of us. That's when he sighs, a small smile, not a smirk, coming on his face and it catches me off guard. It was something that hadn't been directed to anyone but Octavia yet here it was directed at Charlotte...and...me. And as soon as that thought crossed my mind I felt faint heat raising to my cheeks which he seemed to notice, as the smile grows just a bit and amusement flickers in his eyes while he tells us "Okay, but you can't hunt without a weapon." Before he pulls a makeshift knife from his pocket and holds it out to us, palm up. I glance back up at him a moment before I look back at it, the heat cooling from my face, then at Charlotte as she does the same so I motion with my head for her to take it. She gives me a small smile before looking back at Bellamy and taking it from him.

But then she suddenly looked to Atom before she holds the first knife out to me with one hand while reaching with her other hand for the other one that Atom had just then held out to her. So, I slowly take it from her but quickly put it in the pocket of my jacket while she looks at the one in her hands with a smile while turning it over in her hands a bit. I didn't necessarily like that I was given a weapon too, as it would just invite trouble, or that we would be staying with them, but it was good that she had something to protect herself with and someone other than me with her.

When I look back up at the two guys then, I notice Bellamy was looking right at me, that small smile still on his face and amusement in his eyes, and the second my eyes are on his face again Bellamy questions "Ever kill something before?" I blink at him in surprise, both at the question and at the fact that he seemed to have figured out what Charlotte did, before shaking my head. He then gives me a 'Who knows' look before he looks at Charlotte telling her "Who knows maybe you're good at it." Guess she shook her head too.

That is when I realize what he said to her and snap sign at him "Don't tell a kid that!" But he seems to understand anyway as he chuckles before motioning with his head for us to follow him, turning, and starting to walk away. Atom does the same thing but doesn't chuckle and clearly has a face that says he doesn't agree. I look at Charlotte, finding her already looking at me with a smile on her face. I return it before I motion with my head for her to go. She grins and quickly follows after the two. I sigh and follow after them. Would I regret not turning around and going back to camp? Probably.