The Weight Of Deafness In Love And Survival

Chapter 4-River Monster

"Hey, you know what I'd like to know? Why send us down today after 97 years? What changed?" Finn asks suddenly, breaking the minutes of silence that had become familiar to me. "Who cares? I'm just glad they did. I woke up rotting in a cell and, now, I'm spinning in a forest." Octavia answers grabbing onto a tree and spinning herself around as Finn passes by. He ignores her causing her to look defeated so I silently sigh. I didn't understand why she was so interested in him since he obviously hasn't shown any interest in her. But at the same time if I sighed loudly she'd probably get angry.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite, you know, like an old weather satellite." Googles suggest causing Clarke to casually say "It wasn't a satellite. The ark is dying." They all stop and look at her in shock but I just continue to walk next to her through them as she then continues dropping the "bomb" on them "At the current population level, there's roughly three months left of life support, maybe four now that we're gone."

"So that was the secret they locked you two up to keep, why they kept you two in solitary, and floated Clarke's old man?" Finn asks stepping into pace beside Clarke causing her to swallow hard before answering "My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know. The Council disagreed. My mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic. We were gonna go public, anyway, when Wells..." "What? Turned in your dad?" Finn questions when she trails off so I nod while Clarke explains "Anyway, the guard showed up before we could. That's why today. That's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all die, at least, they bought themselves more time."

"They're gonna kill more people aren't they?" the Asian questions immediately so I nod as Clarke stays silent. This in turn causes Octavia to say "Good." Which causes us all to stop and look at her as she continues walking adding "After what they did to me, I say, float them all." "You don't mean that." Googles calls chasing after her as Finn looks at Clarke saying "We have to warn them." This causes her to stare into his eyes in wonder as she says "That's what my father said." I raise an eyebrow at her then so she gives me a quick eye roll as she turns to keep walking only to bump into Goggles who had stopped and was busy staring at something. We follow his gaze to Octavia pulling down her pants as he tells us "Oh, damn, I love Earth." I blink in surprise as Goggles keeps laughing in joy while Octavia slowly steps over some rocks. "Octavia, what the hell are you doing?!" Clarke finally shouts snapping out of her surprise only for Octavia to look at us, smirk, before turning and jumping off what must be a cliff.

Water splashes and we all rush over to find out what she just jumped in. We all stop seeing the body of water with just Octavia's eye showing above the water. And this time it was the Asian who called "Octavia...we can't swim." This causes Octavia to stand, reveal that the water was to her rib cage, and giggle out "No, but we can stand." "Wait, there's not supposed to be a river here." Clarke says causing Finn to say "Well, there is. So take off your damn clothes." The Asian and Goggles begin to follow his orders until I spot something else in the water a little bit away and point to it. Surprisingly it's Goggles who notices, looks to where I'm pointing, and immediately warns "Octavia, get out of the water." She turns around as whatever it is swims faster towards her causing Goggles to shout "Get out of the water now!" But whatever it was got to her and pulled her under as she let out a scream causing Goggles to scream "Octavia!"

It's eerily calm until she jumps out of the water a little bit away screaming. "What the hell is that?" The Asian asks so Finn says "We have to help her." Throwing his jacket on the rocks. "What are you going to do?" Goggles asks him causing him to say "Try not to get eaten." Clark stops Finn by holding out her arm and saying "No, wait. If we distract it, it might let her go. Help me." As she then bends down to a large rock. We all quickly go and help her push it into the water which made a big splash and caused the thing to let go of Octavia and swim over to us. "It worked. It let her go." The Asian says as Goggles calls "Can you get to the shore now?" but she's still thrashing causing him to jump into the water, grab her with an "I got you", and start coming back to shore. But this causes the creature to turn around and head back towards them. "It's coming back! It's headed right for you, guys!" Finn calls out as we rush over to them.

Luckily, they made it up onto the rocks before the thing could grab either one. Getting closer I noticed the four large gashes in Octavia's leg from the creature and join Clarke to help tend to it. I put some pressure on them as Clarke reaches over and tears a piece off of Goggles shirt before using it as a tourniquet. Octavia starts thanking Goggles multiple times then as she hugs him so Clarke tells her "You're going to be okay." That's when the Asian pats Goggles on the shoulder saying "Note to self, next time, save the girl." causing us all to laugh.