The Weight of Deafness In Love and Survival The 100
Chapter 9-Not Dead Yet
"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" Murphy demands after a few minutes of us all following Finn after everyone reunited as Clarke called out for them. "We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker." Bellamy answers earning an "It's called "cutting sign." Fourth-year earth skills. He's good." From Wells. "You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn questions, pausing for a second to glance at them, and takes a few more steps before stopping and reaching out to some leaves. As soon as his fingers touched them the thin branch falls, dangling by a small piece still connected to the rest of the small tree. I watch as he bends down and points to one of the rocks on the ground, showing some droplets of blood on them.
Clarke crouches down beside him, then, to examine the blood and from the corner of my eye I notice Bellamy lean closer to Wells, who was next to me, before he whispers to him "See? You're invisible." I look at them confused, to see that Wells has that look, I know all too well, whenever his chances with Clarke are threatened which causes me to feel bad for him. Before it's always been caused by a guy flirting with Clarke and it being unsuccessful, but with Finn, it seems to be working on her. Wells has loved her for years but she's never felt anything romantic towards him. She's always loved him as a friend or brother, like I have. Though right now she's still angry at him for what happened.
If I was in her shoes I'm sure I would be too. Her father got floated and she'll never see him again. I didn't have anyone to be angry at for killing my parents, my childhood friend, and his parents and taking my hearing. I mean, I could be angry at the Council for refusing to increase the medicine rations but that would be pointless, they didn't make the laws, know if the quarantine would work, or if it had already spread to other parts of the Ark. It wouldn't change the fact that I will never see them again, be able to hear without my processor, or was supposed to be the one to die not Jona. That I had gotten sick before he did but he was gone and I was here, living our dream of walking on Earth. That Jona made me promise that if he died I wouldn't and would still do everything that we planned.
My thoughts were cut off then by just barely hearing a weird moaning sound from off in the distance. "What the hell was that?" Murphy demands causing Clarke to stand up saying "Now would be a good time to take out that gun." Before her and Finn start jogging in the direction it came from, the rest of us close behind them.
The moaning gets louder as we go and stop at the edge of a clearing. I feel my eyes widen as we look at the tree in the middle of it to see a shirtless Jasper bound to it with his hands tied together around the branch above his head, his waist and thighs tied to the trunk behind him, blood and a weird blob on his exposed chest, and his head thrown back in pain as he moaned. He was hurt, but alive.
"Jasper. Oh my God." Clarke says then snapping me out of staring at him as I quickly follow after her as she starts walking towards him, the others on our heels. "Wait. Be careful." Finn says quickly causing Clarke to pause saying "We don't have time to wait." but I disregard him as I go faster. "What the hell is this?" I hear Bellamy ask just behind me before I feel the ground beneath me crumble, causing a shocked, but small, cry to escape from my mouth spotting the sharp spikes ready to skewer me beneath me. A hand grabs my hand before I can fall to my death causing my body to hit the wall of the pit hard before dangling over the large spikes and causing my hand to grab theirs.
Looking up, my eyes meet Bellamy's dark brown ones, which betrayed no emotion, and I believe he's going to drop me, and I'm going to fall to my death, as he glances at my wristband and I feel myself start to slip from his hold. Even though I didn't want to die, I couldn't keep holding him and drag him down with me, I couldn't do that to Octavia after she accepted me. But when I started to let go of his hand it tightened its hold on mine and he grabs my arm with his other hand, his eyes turning wild with many emotions as his jaw clenched, just before Clarke cries out "Cooper! Get her up!" having noticed the situation. He may want my wristband off be he wasn't going to let me fall. Neither were the others as within seconds, they were all calling "Pull her up!" as they all raced over and helped him pull me up and out.
Bellamy and I share a look before he releases my arm and hand and backs away next to a relieved Murphy as Finn, Wells, and Clarke crowd around me, all speaking at the same time, yet luckily asking the same things at the same time so their voices didn't merge into indistinguishable noise: "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did your processor get damaged?" Neither of us were going to share that he was going to drop me and that I would have let him. Because if one told the other would as well and neither of us would want that. I may not know his reasoning, other than not wanting to be labeled a murderer, but mine was since if it was shared then I would be under constant watch. And I've already had my fill of being under constant watch during those first four years after the outbreak with my immune system being shot, having to get healthy enough to survive the surgery to get the cochlear implant, and the three years of rehabilitation. That's not even counting the month or so of it any time after I was physically attacked by the other kids on the Ark, longer if it happened when I was waiting for repairs on my processor.
"I'm fine. It's fine. Right now we have to help Jasper." I sign causing them to back off with Clarke translating "We need to get him down." As she looks up at Jasper. I step back behind Clarke and Wells as Finn offers "I'll climb up there and cut the vines." as he heads towards the tree, walking around the pit causing Wells to go to follow him saying "Yeah, yeah, I'm with you." "No." Finn says immediately looking back at us before adding "Stay with the girls." And his eyes dart to Bellamy as he continues "And watch him." He then looks at Murphy and finishes "You. Let's go." While motioning for him to follow him. Murphy looks towards Bellamy for input, who motions for him to go, as Clarke says "There's a poultice on his wound." Causing my gaze to snap to Jasper to see that, sure enough, that green blob on his chest was some sort of poultice.
"Medicine? Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?" Wells questions causing Bellamy to suggest "Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner to be breathing." "Maybe what they're trying to catch is us." Finn offers then as I realize that it would probably be a good idea for one of us to be on the other side of the tree to watch for danger. I start to raise my hands to question Wells and Clarke on who should go but see that they were focused on watching Finn and Murphy climb the tree so I stop and lower them with a small sigh. I didn't feel comfortable speaking out with either Bellamy or Murphy around. Thus, that wasn't really an option.
"Come on Butterfly." Bellamy's voice suddenly says then causing me to whip my head in his direction confused to find he had started walking towards the other side of the tree, as if he had known what I was trying to say. So I look at the others again before I followed him, careful of where I was stepping as to not fall into a pit again.
Once Bellamy and I were on the other side Finn tells Murphy "Hurry up, Murphy." As they start cutting the vines binding Jasper. "Be careful." Clarke calls out before Murphy asked "What the hell was that?" I freeze, look at the others, and follow their gaze into the trees to try and see where whatever sound they could hear was coming from while Bellamy asks "Grounders?" I hoped that the reason I couldn't hear it was because it was quiet and not that the batteries of my processor were starting to die or it itself was dying. Unfortunately I didn't really have any way to know until I got that beep warning me that I only had thirty minutes left or it just died.
That's when I saw something sleek and black moving in the grass before the large cat burst out of it running straight towards us causing me to stare at it in fear, frozen in place, as Clarke yelled "Bellamy, gun!" I snap out of it and quickly look towards him but see that he somehow no longer had it as the spot he was feeling around at was empty causing my eyes to go wider, if it was even possible. The pit didn't kill me, but this big cat probably would.
Then, a gunshot was heard causing me to glance in that direction to see it was Wells, having probably stolen the gun from Bellamy. I quickly look back at the cat as he shot two more times, with only the last one hitting it causing it to stumble as it cried out in pain and jump back into the taller grass, only injured, now more pissed off, and heading for Bellamy and I. It quickly started running back and forth in front of us causing Bellamy to reach his hand out towards me in a come closer motion. I obey, moving slowly as I backed towards him, watching the bushes and tall grass around us rustle. The sound of the rustling and growling barely registering even though it was right in front of me, probably making it even more terrifying to me.
Just as I got to him the movement and sound stopped causing my breath to hitch waiting for the blow I probably wouldn't hear coming, yet again. That's when the cat roars and jumps straight at us, its sharp claws ready to kill. Suddenly Bellamy wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest, and turning so he would shield me away from the cat's claws as he used his other arm to attempt to defend us from them. I quickly shut my eyes bracing for the attack just as there's another gunshot.
There's a loud thud then causing me to open my eyes to see the cat now on the ground, a few inches away, a bullet wound in its head, and slowly dying as it breathed out one last growl. I release the breath I had been holding then and quickly take another in, panting. I slowly tear my eyes away from the dead cat to look at Wells still pulling the trigger on the gun, with nothing happening, it now empty. The last bullet embedded in the cat's skull. He lets it slip from his hand then and fall to the ground, useless, before Bellamy's says "Now she sees you." His voice really clear and coming from just above me.
I slowly tilt my head up, my eyes locking with Bellamy's as Wells says "I guess I could say the same for you." In a slightly warning tone. That's when I realize his arm was still around my waist and I had involuntarily grabbed it and was still holding it. We both immediately let go and step away while looking away from the other. That was awkward but apparently neither of us realized until it was pointed out to us. Then again we almost just got killed by a big cat so the fact that we were still holding onto each other wasn't our first concern.