Ok, sorry in advance that it's kind of a short chapter.
They followed Liz through the forest, tracking her by the floating branch she was brandishing. In hindsight, they really should have brought the pen and paper with them. Without that, they were forced to rely on the inefficient and mostly ineffective method of charades. Liz would try and convey what she was saying through emphatic jabs and motions with the stick.
Once, when they came close to a passing Edison Group patrol, they were almost discovered. Liz had scouted ahead and seen the guys dressed in camouflage, but had no clear way of telling them to be quiet. She had tried to press the stick against Simon's lips, as if it were a shushing finger, but that only made him sputter and gasp with confusion, spitting out flecks of dirt and bark.
Only Tori was really able to grasp branch-speak. "Shut the hell up," she snapped as Simon, who blinked at her.
"Why?"
"Can't you tell that's what she's trying to tell us?" she rolled her eyes. "You guys are so thick sometimes."
"How did you-" Simon started but Derek clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Ssh!"
A few minutes later Liz bobbed the stick up and down in midair. "Does this mean we can talk again?" Simon turned to Tori for interpretation.
"We shouldn't be talking period, but theoretically yeah."
They moved on, gliding through the too silent forest. Though they had Liz's branch to follow, Derek still swiveled his head back and forth as if trying to track Chloe himself.
Eventually they were getting close, Chloe's glow was almost blinding to Liz, who had gone ahead to scout, but before she could return to the others and motion that they had found her, she heard the voices.
"…yes, we still have the girl in our sights." a pause and the barely discernable crackle of a radio. "Yes. So you are saying we can't shoot her?" Liz felt sickened with disgust at the obvious disappointment in the voice. "Right…We understand…Uh-huh…but when the boy does show?" Liz crept forward until she was standing directly next to the unfamiliar Edison Group member.
She was able to hear what the person on the other end of the radio said next. "Shoot her."
Liz felt like crying, though she couldn't decide if that was because of relief or terror. On the one hand, it sounded like Chloe was being kept alive as bait, so she was more or less safe for now. On the other, as soon as they caught sight of "the boy" (it wasn't hard to guess who that was referring to), they would kill her.
She could feel Chloe only yards away, the murderers sticking within eyeshot of her. If only Chloe knew they were there…
It crossed her mind that she could just go up and tell Chloe of the danger she was in. But, the more she thought about it, the riskier it seemed. If Chloe showed any reaction to her presence, as she surely would, the Edison Group members would see and be able to guess what was going on. There was no telling what they would do if they knew Chloe knew she was being followed.
Then she realized an even bigger problem: the other three were still heading this way looking for Chloe. She scurried back to them, needing to understand that by approaching Chloe, they were signing her death warrant.
"No! Don't come any closer!" she yelled, knowing they couldn't hear her. Desperately she waved the stick in their faces, attempting to block their path.
"Liz?" Simon's whisper was far too loud as he gave Liz a vaguely puzzled look. "What's wrong?"
She started thrusting the branch at them and then jabbing it furiously at the ground in an attempt at saying "stay here!" It only drew blank looks from all three of them, but at least they had stopped walking.
"Liz, even I don't understand this time." Tori put her hands on her hips and cocked her head thoughtfully.
Liz groaned with frustration. How to communicate with them? What she needed was a necromancer. After thinking about it for a minute, she decided she'd have to resort to a slow and crude method of communication. She knelt down on the hard packed dirt and began sweeping the leaves out of the way. When she had cleared a space of about a square foot, she held her branch like a pencil and started to write.
She had to retrace her letters several times for the message to be clear, but eventually it was legible. Chloe is close, it read, but you can't follow her. The EG has guys watching her, waiting for Derek to show up so they can kill her. She's bait!
Liz watched their puzzled faces bloom with realization then darken with fury. Despite her warning, Derek resumed stalking towards Chloe.
"What are you doing, you idiot!" she scolded, wishing he could hear her. She tapped him on the shoulder with the branch, then when that didn't work- rapped him sharply on top of the head. He didn't even turn around.
"No!" Simon lunged forward and grabbed his arm. "Derek, you can't."
"There are guys with guns watching her. We have to do something-" Derek whirled to glower at him.
"No," he repeated with absolute conviction. "If she's bait, they aren't going to hurt her. Not yet, at least."
"She's not bait-"
"Your brother has a point. I say we leave her alone for now. If they're trying to reel in a werewolf, they aren't going to do anything with her until they do. She's fine as long as you don't go looking for her."
"I can't just sit around and wait for them to kill her!" Liz repeated the shushing motions from before, their voices were growing louder in the heat of conflict.
"You don't have to. We'll get a little closer so you can use your bionic senses to hear and/or see them. That way if Chloe is put in danger, you'll know and be close enough to act on it." Simon proposed. "That gonna work ok for you?"
After a moment's hesitation Derek gave a curt nod. "But if she's at risk, I'm going to go after her." his finalized tone clearly said the matter wasn't open to debate.
"Fine." the other two agreed. Liz was just relieved they wouldn't openly confront the EG guard members. Not yet, at least.
Ok, who bets Derek will actually be able to stay close to Chloe but not really help her while she's in danger? Will his logical side or protective side win out? I'd like to hear your guesses!
On another note, I'd like to thank the 2 people who took my poll! You guys rock! Everyone else, please, please, please take my poll on my profile page. If you won't do it for me- do it for Simon!