The Weight Of Deafness In Love And Survival

Chapter 5-The Kidnap Of Goggles

In the morning we searched for a way to cross the river without being eaten by the creature in it. Since none of us really wanted to go through yesterday's events again. As we were looking Octavia suddenly questions "I've been meaning to ask. What is that?" "Don't you know?" The Asian, or Monty as he introduced last night, asks as I turn to look at her, noticing she was pointing a finger at my processor just like I thought, while Goggles, or Jasper as he introduced last night too, says a "Don't ask that." "It's just a question and why would I know if I asked?!" Octavia snaps angrily at them so I quickly raise my hands and shake my head trying to convey to them that it was fine. Since if she spent her life in hiding then in prison she probably didn't know about me.

"Cooper is deaf. That..." Clarke stars to explain then gesturing to the processor before continuing "Is a sound processor that connects to an internal implant that makes her able to hear." "Oh..." Octavia says slowly looks back at me before getting an apologetic look as she adds "I'm sorry for asking. I didn't know that you were the...uh...deaf girl my mom had talked about. I know what it's like to be called out for something that's out of your control." "It's fine. Really." I sign quickly before remembering that only Clarke and Wells knew sign and repeating the head shake with hands raised. She gives me a warm smile then so I give her a small one back before Finn announces "Now that that's taken care of, I want to be the first to go."

Looking at him then and see that he has a long vine in his hand while standing at the top of some large rocks. "That'll work." Jasper says going up to join him as he tugs on the vine a few times. This causes Clarke to tell him "You wanted to go first. Now quit stalling. Mount Weather awaits." Jasper then whispers to him "Just hang on till the apogee and you'll be fine." Probably so the others couldn't hear but I could read lips so I still could tell. Which for me was probably a good thing as my processor probably only had enough power for today and maybe tomorrow. Though I wasn't too sure at how long the battery for my processor will last in this new environment, as three days was normally the time it lasted on the Ark. I didn't even know if there were any replacement batteries or a charger on the dropship so at any time I could be thrown back into permanent silence. That's not even counting on the fact that my processor could get broken on accident or on purpose, it wouldn't be the first time after all. Then it would be only silence for me as I'm sure there wasn't going to be a replacement processor on the dropship or just replacement parts.

"The apogee like the Indians, right?" Finn asks sarcastically then dragging me out of my thoughts and causing Jasper to say "Apogee, not Apache." "He knows. Today, Finn." Clarke says then so Finn salutes her with two fingers saying "Aye, Aye, captain. See you on the other side." And takes a step back only for Jasper to hold up a hand and say "Wait." "What?" Finn asks so Jasper looks down at Octavia and quickly back at Finn saying "Let me. I can do it." Finn hands him the vine saying "Knew there was a badass in there somewhere." Jasper hesitates so Finn pats him on the arm and says "Hey, it's okay to be afraid, Jasper. The trick is not fighting it." With that Jasper looks down at us and says "See you on the other side." And goes, cheering as he does. He lets go of the vine a little too soon and falls face first on the ground causing as all to run to the edge looking at him in concern.

Finn grabs the vine as it swings back while Jasper slowly gets up and throws his arms up, shouting "We are apogee!" And I couldn't stop myself from throwing my arms up and yelling "Yeah!" with everyone else. "You did it, Jasper!" Clarke shouts at him then causing him to dance around. "Let's go, Princess. You're up." Finn says then giving the vine to Clarke so Jasper calls "Come on, Clarke! You got this! Whoo! Apogee!" I shake my head as Clarke gives Finn a most definite "I like you" look and turn my attention back to Jasper who was walking over to something. He then brushes it off before picking it up, calling "We did it!", before raising the pretty much destroyed sign in the air, and shouting "Mount Weather! Whoo!" I breathe a sigh of relief knowing we were going where we needed to be as Finn calls "Yeah, Jasper!" But the joy and relief was short as a spear then flies across the river and straight into Jasper's chest, throwing him backwards into a tree. "Jasper!" we all scream before Finn yells "Come on. Get down." I'm unable to move, staring at Jasper and the spear in his chest, but I'm instantly grabbed and pulled down behind some rocks with everyone else by Octavia. I'm shaking as I'm unable to hear anything but the others, my own breathing, and the water behind us while we all look around for the source of the spear. I feel a hand grab mine tightly and glance up at the source, Octavia, as Clarke announces "We're not alone."

"We need to go." Finn says then motioning for everyone to run. Octavia quickly pulls me with her as we all run into the forest. We run until Monty trips over a root in the ground, landing face first. Octavia lets go of me and we help him up with Finn saying "Monty, get up!" It was then that we noticed what he landed in front of, a pile of bones, causing Finn to question "Who are they?" This causes Clarke to bend down, pick up an oddly shaped skull, and ask "What are they?" "We are so screwed." Octavia states before Jaspers loud scream echoes throughout the trees. Whipping our heads around in the direction we just came from Clarke says "Jasper. He's alive." Before taking off in that direction. "Clarke, wait. Wait!" Finn shouts after her as we all chase her. He grabs her and pulls her into a crouch saying "Stay out of the trees."

Looking down at the spot Jasper was hit we realized it's now empty. "He was right there. No. Where is he?" Monty whispers and I couldn't stop myself from breathing out the realization: "They took him."