Chapter 2

When I woke up the next morning I was met with darkness. I could hear shuffling around the room and knew that Alex was rushing to pack the last-minute stuff. I sat up and clicked my tongue to let him know that I was awake, so as not to scare him.

"Hey! Your up! Dad wants to get an early start so that way we can get to the dam by dark so that way we know where we are," Alex says. I click my tongue in response, not deeming sign language as a necessity at the moment.

I stand and drag my feet, so I don't trip and reach for the familiar feel of my dresser draw, I slide it open and feel for a thick sweater, I can already feel the cold seeping into my pajamas. I grab one and a pair of what I assume must be worn looking jeans. I can't ever tell what color anything is, and Alex usually tells me after I put the clothes on.

I hear the door shut and know that he left to give me some privacy, I hurriedly slip the clothes on and put my socks and shoes on before I shuffle to the door and step out. I can hear Malcolm and Ellie talking together downstairs as they loud things that will be needed. Stomps are heard from my left and I know that somebody is running up the stairs towards me. I hope that it's Alex.

"Come on Talia! We have to get going or else we'll get left behind. Here let me put the bag I packed for you on your back. I put all your thicker clothes inside and that dried fruit we managed to find, also a whistle, for you know, just in case," he jumbles out.

I smile and nod my head in understanding and follow behind Alex, who had grabbed my hand and gently lead me down the stairs. When we reached the bottom step and the front door Malcolm ushered us out and to the jeep that would take us across the bridge.

Alex had told me last night that Carver, Kemp, and Foster would be joining us on the ride and I was already dreading it. Knowing the fact that Carver would rather leave me to die just because I couldn't see or talk. It isn't my fault and he doesn't even know the whole story, or any of it really. It also isn't like I do nothing, I try to help out the community we have going, I'm not letting myself be babied just because of my disability.

I do a lot of baby sitting for the younger kids and I help with gardening, more so planting than tending, and I help cook mass meals when we hit a break through. So, I'm not completely useless, I just don't guard the town or go on search parties like most everybody else does.

Alex helps me get into the jeep and I can already feel the glare from Carver, he's just always scared to say something to Malcolm and afraid to say something in front of Alex. Everybody views Alex as a quiet and introverted teenager, but he isn't, at least not around me. He also gets really outspoken when people say rude things to me or behind my back.

I would describe it as a tame lion until its pride is thrown into the mix, because he seems to think it's okay for people to say things about him but not us. Not the people who seem to actually care for him in the last few years. I also know that he loves to draw, comics is what he calls them, usually when he finishes a seen I will ask him if I could feel it. At first, he was afraid I would judge them, but I wanted to feel the art, and from what I can feel, it's usually sad and depressing, Sometimes angry. I hate that I can't see it for myself.

Malcolm and Ellie get done loading the jeep up and we start off down the road. Nobody knows what our mission is or even that we are going outside the community. I guess it's a good thing, if something goes wrong then it won't be their hopes that get crushed again. The years have been hard on humanity and its trust in other things, but I guess that's okay for now. We can pray and actually carry out the task that can make us for the better.

I feel and hear the engine of the jeep start up and I tense, not ready for the adventure that I was unwillingly brought on but wanted the best for Alex. He deserves to get out of the city and live for the moments that we are allowed out.

I don't know how long we drove or sat in the silence. I don't know what the outside looks like and I couldn't tell you if we crossed the bride yet or if we are in the forest.

What I can tell you though is that I'm cold even though I have a thick sweater and even with me pressed against Alex to steal his body heat I am still cold.

Want to know why?

Because the bastard named Carver has the window down and the harshly cold wind is coming inside the vehicle.

I start to feel my teeth chatter and I think Alex has finally caught on, God love the boy when he gets a girl so that way he isn't completely clueless. "Hey, will you roll up the window, its freezing Carver?" Alex asks.

I hear a scoff, "I want the window down and besides it isn't all that cold."

I roll my eyes and sign to Alex, "Just physically reach over him and roll the window up."

"What the fuck did she say?" Carver growls, assuming it was something bad.

"Language!" I hear Ellie say.

Alex huffed, "She just asked to roll the window up."

I guess that's what I said, maybe not those words exactly but whatever.

"No," Carver says.

Before the conversation turned into an argument Malcolm stopped the jeep and yelled, "We're here! Everybody out and grab your things. We have to hike from here."

Alex opens the door and pulls me out behind him. We get our back packs on and we head for the trail, not wanting to get caught back with the older adults and have to make conversation. I feel Alex turn his head, "Carver is a little ways behind us and then its Malcolm, Ellie, Kemp, and Foster." I nod and he continues to lead me down the trail, telling me where roots are and when to step to the side for rocks and what not.

What time is it? I sign.

"Around noon or so, I think we are ahead of everyone by quite a bit-," his voice gets cut off and he lets go of my hand, my way of being guided. I make a strangled noise as I trip and fall down a short slope.

After what feels like forever I hear a gun shot and foliage shaking as if something was running through it. There was a short silence and I hear Malcolm's voice but not his words.

I try to get up but realize that I am stuck and then even if I could get up I don't know how to reach my family. Suddenly everything is silence and then I hear one clear word.

"Go!" This voice I didn't recognize but I knew what it meant, your trespassing and are not welcome at this property.

I yank at what was holding me down and click my tongue in annoyance when it doesn't come loose, what is holding me? I start to panic as I realize my one fear of coming on this journey was coming true, I'm lost and am getting left behind. With no eye sight and no voice to call for help.

I sigh at my situation and slowly calm myself down, I can't panic, not now in this situation. I've been by myself before and I can do it again, even for a little while.

I feel around at what I was stuck on and grab, what I hope is just a tree root, and lift it as best I could and slide my leg out from under it. I stand and start a plan in my head, I can probably find my way back if I back track the way I came. I turn and feel at the slow and make my way to the top of it.

I click my tongue in aggravation as I realize I don't know all the twists and turns to get back to the bridge.

I freeze as I hear a growl and silently scream as a rough hand grabs my arm, "Go means GO!" and am shoved onto the ground. I try to feel vibrations in the ground for any sign that the person has moved but come unsuccessful.

I frantically move my fingers, I am sorry, I am lost. I fell as Alex got startled.

I can feel the surprise that comes off of the person, "You sign?"

I don't have a voice and I can't see, I explain.

The hand grabs me again and drags me I stumble to my feet and trip over whatever was blocking my path, I hit the ground once again and sigh, I can already tell what kind of experience this will be.

As I am grabbed once again, I can the person is being gentler with they way he leads me down the path. It takes awhile before we pause in our walking, "Stay."

Where the fuck am I going to go? I think.

I shiver as the wind blows harder than it was before. I can feel that my jeans are wet and that my sweater is ruined by the way I can pull things out of it and how it clings to my skin. My teeth chatter as I wait, and I nervously tap my fingers against my stomach as my unseeing eyes look around.

I hear leaves crunching as something walks towards me. As it gets closer I hear a lot more steps than is possible for one person. I stay still as the sounds stop and heavy breathing is heard, I can't tell if they are communicating or just observing, but it's making me uncomfortable.

Hello? I sign unsurely, not really knowing what to do or say to make the awkward stop.

"Hello," it's the voice that shouted earlier at my family. I blink and unconsciously curl in on myself, to seem smaller than what I am., "Why are you still here? I told you humans to go."

I-I got lost and separated from my family when, well I don't know when, but I just want to go home. I can't see, and I can't talk, and-and I don't know how to get back or even where I am, I sign fast, maybe too fast for them to understand and I hope they can understand. I don't even know the people that I am talking to. I don't know how they understand me and my signing, but I'm thanking whatever god doesn't hate me that they at least know sign.

I also notice the fact that he says humans and not you people.

I shiver again as the wind picks up, I can feel the heated discussion that is going on around me and I hope they make a decision soon.

"I vote we kill her," it's the voice that had found me. I frown, I've come too far in life to be killed because my family and I were to blind to see the consequences.

I vote we don't, I sign bitterly. I hear a scoffing breathless laugh and I don't know what to make of it. I soon hear another pair of foot steps and sigh as more people join us.

For me it's silent for a few minutes but I can assume that a conversation is going on without my knowing, which is fine, but I would appreciate to know what's going to happened to me.

I wouldn't prefer it, but you are really this undecided about it you can face me in the direction of my home and I'll figure out how to walk that way, I wouldn't like it but if it's my only way of surviving then I'd do it.

It's the first voice again, "Is that what you think of us? That we'd leave you to die? Just because we look like animals or pets to you doesn't mean we are uncivilized."

I shrug, To be fair, I can't see you and I can't talk to you and I don't know you. Life is cruel, and I know that all too well, but I have made it this far and I can make it a bit further and get myself home if I have too.

There is silence for a moment and then a gentle, softer hand grabs me and begins to pull me forward, "Lets get you warmed up dear." It's a quieter voice, different from the others, and if I took a gander, female.

I drag my feet forward and carefully walk behind her, I feel the others following, not going against her words.

Go girl power!

Soon we reach wherever she was taking me and says, "Step up onto the rock." I do as she says and climb up and immediately feel the heat of the fire, I skootch forward until I know that I am dangerously close to the fire, but at the moment I don't care. I was warm, and I could feel a smile on my face as the heat dethawed me.

Behind and around me I feel others gathering and sitting and some hoots. I feel a body press onto one side of me and another body onto the other side of me. The body heat radiating off made me even warmer and I sigh in content.

A hand grabs my hand and puts something that feels like a ball into my hands, "Fruit." I feel it and unseeingly look at it before I hold it out again, I didn't feel right taking somebody else's food. If they have real fruit and not canned, then they had to work hard to where they had gotten in life and I didn't want to intrude.

I hear a growl, "What not good enough to eat our food now human."

I shake my head and sign, You worked hard to get your food, and it is unfair that I eat it and I didn't work for it.

I can feel the surprise from the circle, a new voice quieter, "Is that how the human colony is? They make the handicapped work even though it's hard for them?"

I know the voice didn't mean anything by it, but I hate being called handicap, because I'm not, I don't allow myself to be, I'm not handicapped, and the work is only hard if I don't learn how to do it. The task might take me longer, but I am just as capable as a seeing person.

I hear the scoffing breathless laughs again.

"My name is Maurice and I am sorry, didn't mean anything by the question," Maurice says. Finally, I can put a name to a voice.

I wave at Maurice and sign back, Already forgiven. I just wasn't always blind and nonverbal, but I have had to get used to it. My name is Talia.

"Beautiful name Talia, I am Cornelia, if don't mind me asking, how did become blind?"

I rapidly shake my head no as the years I spent with Him start flashing through my brain, I hated reliving it and dragging the past forward, Too many bad memories of a bad person.

I shrink in on myself as the memories come anyways and I start to silently shake. I hear a few faint hoots and then sense a new body behind me. I hear welcoming hoots and concerned hoots. The person squeezes in next to me and the person on my right. The new person grabs my hand and rapidly shakes it in greeting.

After they let go I can feel rapid hand movements. "Ash, she can sign but you have to talk for her to hear your response," a new female says.

"Yes mom. Hi I'm Ash. Why did that guy shoot me? Where did you humans come from? I've never seen a human before, why are you so much smaller than me? What did you come for? Where they your family? If so why did they-," this Ash person is way too energetic for apparently just getting shot.

"Ash, slow down, you are overwhelming her," his, what I think anyways, mom's voice.

One of them shot you? Can you describe for me? I came from the city over the bridge and why do you guys keep saying human, aren't you human too? They were my family, well some of them were but not all of them, I sign.

For a long moment there was a long pause and I can feel suspense in the air, I could probably cut through it with a knife.

It's the first voice again, "You don't know? We are apes and after the man made Simian Flu our genetics were modified."