The Weight Of Deafness In Love And Survival

Chapter 8-Plus One

Unable to keep up with the pace of Clarke and Wells, even without the added weight of carrying any type of bag, I ended up in the space between them and Bellamy and Murphy. Because of this and the silence that had been over our sad little rescue squad, since we left the relative safety of the dropship, I debated about turning off my processor to try and save some battery. But we were out in the open and Grounders may not be the only thing out here trying to kill us. I for one did not want a two faced lion or something to sneak up on us. Radiation had probably mutated things to be bigger, meaner, and deadlier after all.

"Hey, hold up." Bellamy calls then, breaking the silence, but only causes Clarke and Wells to slow down, but not stop. This does allow me to catch up to them as Bellamy continues "What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart." Causing Wells to look at him and tell him "Put the gun away, Bellamy." Of course this causes Murphy to rush forward and push Wells way with the palm of his hand on his shoulder saying "Well, why don't you do something about it, huh?" which causes the rest of us to stop. I don't think as I place a hand on both of their chests and gently push them away from each other, trying to avoid another fight between them, while Clarke explains "Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste."

Both boys look down at me with a shocked look before our attention is directed to Bellamy and Clarke as he grabs her wrist saying "As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go." He then looks at me adding "You too Butterfly." So I did the only thing I knew he would understand, flipping him off, as Clarke pulls her wrist away telling him "The only way the ark is gonna think I'm dead, is if I'm dead. Got it?" He smirks at me before turning it towards Clarke saying "Brave Princess."

"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Finn's voice says then causing us all to look at him as he makes his way towards us adding "Call this a rescue party? You got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, Cooper, come with me." And just continues walking causing Clarke to send one more annoyed look at Bellamy and motion for me to come before she follows him. I look at Wells who just gives me a small nod and motions for me to go. I glance at Murphy and Bellamy only for Murphy to avoid my gaze, as if the tree near us was the most interesting thing in the world, and Bellamy to smirk saying "Go on Butterfly. We won't kill him." Before holding a hand out towards me and continuing "Or did you want to go with me? Just got to take that wristband off and I'll do anything you want." Annoyed by him and the apparent new nickname, I flip him off again, turn, and jog to catch up to Clarke and Finn, ignoring his amused chuckle.

"See you're taking a page out of my book now, Cooper." Finn says, looking back at me with a wink, as I fall into step with Clarke so I just roll my eyes at him, releasing a deep sigh, disappointed in myself that I let Bellamy get to me. Clarke looks at me then and questions "Everything alright?" "I think so. Bellamy just got to me is all." I sign, giving her a small smile, which in turn causes her to tell me "Ignore him." So I give her an 'I know.' Look causing her to smile and looks forwards again.

Bellamy was a bully and really wasn't someone I should let get to me. Clarke didn't. Though he did seem to know what I was asking, or maybe not with his second comment. But then there's Murphy. His behavior towards me is strange: grabbing my arm gently as if I would break, giving me that indescribable look, looking shocked when I pulled away from him, looked at him, or pushed him away from Wells, letting me push him away from Wells, avoiding looking at me, and never once looking at me in anger or contempt like he does Wells or Clarke. It makes me feel bad that I can't remember him now, since he probably wasn't someone I had just known in passing. I'd ask Clarke or Wells what they thought but I'm pretty sure they'd just tell me to stay away from him. Finn probably would too. Maybe I'd ask Monty or Octavia when we get back, hopefully with a still alive Jasper. If so, maybe I'd ask him to help get his mind off getting impaled by a spear. I mean, it seems as if Finn, Monty, Jasper, and Octavia have accepted me and I think I could actually talk to them so that's not really the problem.

It's just, I might be reading into this as more than it is and he, well, may just like me, even though I wasn't beautiful like Clarke or Octavia. I was only fairly average or just slightly pretty with my light brown hair, which was always in a half-curled state that didn't know if it wanted to be straight or curly, my birth mark of a splash of slightly darker skin across the back of my neck almost as if the skin was always dirty, my slightly shorter than average height, my average looking face, my pale skin, and my unusual eyes, which were an indescribable mixture of different shades of brown, grey, blue, green, and even yellow that were actually identical to my late mother's.

"I've been thinking about Mount Weather. How come they didn't attack until Jasper crossed the river? It's not like we were being quiet and they didn't know we were there." Finn says then, dragging me out of my thoughts as I look at him in question, wondering the same. "They waited for us to cross. The river's a boundary." Clarke says after a moment causing us all to stop while Finn shares "Which means Mount Weather is off limits." This causes Clarke to scoff and question "How are we gonna get those supplies? What are we gonna do for food?"

However, Finn doesn't respond as his face fills with confusion as he turns his head to the side, as if he was listening carefully to something. I look at Clarke who's equally confused, meaning she couldn't hear whatever it was either. That's when he suddenly jogs away causing Clarke to turn her confusion to me. I give her a 'are you serious?' look since if she couldn't hear it, I couldn't, to which she gives me a quick 'right. Sorry.' Look before motioning for me to follow her. With that we go after him, which wasn't that far as we find him leaning up against a tree, staring off in the distance.

As we come up next to him we see what he was staring at: a waterfall. It wasn't big, like the ones from the story books, but it was still beautiful and led into a river. "Wow." Clarke says, smiling as she turns to us, adding "Well, at least we don't have to worry about water." Which caused Finn to grin and start to walk towards it. Clarke and I follow him, with her reaching for her makeshift water canister.

He goes right in and stops when it reaches his thighs and starts splashing water on his face while Clarke and I pause at the edge, with her handing me her bag and me unable to go into the water due to my processor, as it couldn't be submerged in water. I watch from the edge, the water barely covering my boots, as Clarke walks in a little and crouches down to fill up the canister. Finn then turns back around, notices Clarke, and promptly splashes water at her.

"Come on, Finn. We don't have time for this." She tells him, annoyed, earning a "Clarke, we've been hiking for hours. We need a break." From him. "I'll take a break when we find Jasper. Come on." She tells him only for him to splash her again and grab her arms with a smile. She immediately starts telling him "No, No! Finn! Don't!" but he still pulls her into the water anyway to which she splashes him exclaiming "Damn it Finn!" He just laughs as Clarke relaxes into the water with an "Oh, wow. Okay. Maybe just a minute." "Yeah?" he questions with a smile as he looks at me and then questions "Cooper?" So I give him a small smile as I shake my head and tap my processor. "Right, sorry." He says his smile faltering so I quickly shake my head and raise my hands to convey it was fine.

He smiles and looks to Clarke then saying "You know, I think I know why you're so hell-bent on finding Jasper, why you're always taking care of everybody else. Why you're so protective of Cooper." This of course causes her to scoff and say "Now you sound like my mother. No. Go on. This should be good. The delinquent psychiatrist." After a scoff and a minute of him contemplating it he answered "You couldn't save your father." Instantly the amused look on her face disappears as she looks down.

I stay quiet as I look to the side, choosing not to mention that she was protective of me years before her father died. But what I find are rocks covered in blood causing me to gasp, point, and breathe out an "Uh, guys." I set the bag down on a dry rock before cautiously making my way towards the rocks as they make their way out of the water. I had to be careful not to slip and accidentally fall into the water, since even though I probably wouldn't drown, even with me being two inches shorter than Clarke, my processor would.

As we look around for any sign of Jasper, Clarke bends down and picks up something saying "Jasper. He was here. We should get the others." Revealing that what was in her hands was Jaspers goggles. It was then that Finn knelt, touched the blood, and looked at his hand, two fingers wet with blood, and announced "We're close."