Without A Voice

Chapter 3: Family

~word count: 1241~

Rick pulled the van up to what seemed to be a small camp. Tents littered the area along with a couple of cars. How have they survived this long with so many people? Jane had never seen anything like it. The group all quickly climbed out and rushed into camp to greet their friends and family, leaving Jane and Rick sitting in the car.

"Hey, guys! Come say hello." Morales shouted from outside.

They both hopped out of the van. Jane stopped to help grab the last of the supplies that were in the back.

She heard Rick gasp, "Oh my god."

Concerned, she shut the back of the van and walked over to see why Rick gasped, a boy and a woman were in tears. He gripped them tight. In a world like this she never thought she would see something that would make her happy ever again. The boy calling out to his dad made her smile. It was beautiful.

"Jane!" A woman caught her attention.

She was frozen. Staring in shock at a face she was sure she would never see again. The woman ran to her, followed by a little girl. Carol and Sophia. Her Aunt and her cousin. They held on to her so tight she could hardly breathe. But she didn't care. She wanted to hold them forever.

"Jane I missed you!", Sophia's hands wrapped tightly around her waist.

Tears fell from her eyes as she bent down, "I missed you too", she signed with her shaking hands.

Standing up she wiped the tears from her cheeks, "I am so happy you're alive you have no idea." Carol stated with a glossy eyed smile.

Jane glanced around at the rest of the camp, realising that everyone else was standing around and watching her little family reunion, smiles and tears of happiness on everyone's faces.

"Wait you know her?" Glenn walked over to Carol with a look of shock.

Carol looked at Jane with pure happiness before glancing over to Glenn, who had caught the attention of the others Jane had met on the way over, "She's my niece."

"Let's introduce you to the others." She told her with a smile.

Jane was quickly introduced to everyone. There was one face she wasn't expecting to see. Ed. She knew about the things he did to Carol and Sophia. It made her blood boil. But she knew she couldn't interfere. It would just make things worse for them.

Only one person at the camp other than her family knew how to sign. His name was Dale. It did disappoint her a little that others wouldn't be able to understand her but Sophia had given her a small notepad and pen so she could write out what she needed to say incase there was nobody there to translate.

Later that night everyone was gathered around the fire. Glenn was talking but Jane wasn't listening. She could only focus on the fact that she had someone now. To be by her side. She was used to being alone. Sleeping up in a tree or in a dumpster praying that she was quiet enough to keep herself safe. She wasn't used to being around so many people. An anxious feeling crept up on her.

"Disoriented." Rick said capturing her attention. She looked at the group, realising that they were asking Rick about what happened.

"I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion, all those things. But, disoriented comes closest."

Jane felt happy for him. He woke up from a coma. Alone. She could only imagine what he was feeling. Finding your wife, child, and best-friend by sheer luck. Take the happiness she felt seeing Carol and Sophia and triple it by a million. That's what she was sure he was feeling.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick stated but Jane was lost. She hadn't been paying attention to the conversation. Just sitting there soaking it all in.

Jane was good at reading people's body language. It was one of the few perks of being deaf.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind.' Dale spoke up causing Jane to quickly snap around towards him.

In all the chaos of finding her family she had completely forgotten about Merle. It made her feel guilty to forget. They shouldn't have left him. It was wrong.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key, it's on me." T-Dog responded, but Rick shook his head.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine."

"Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merles." Andrea responded looking over at Lori.

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word of the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." Dale stated.

It made you worry. The way they talked about Daryl made him seem like an angry and explosive person.

T-Dog admitted, "Well, I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that. Not that chain. Not that padlock. My point, Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."

That made Jane feel a little better. He was still there. They could go back for him. He would surely be pissed but it was better than being torn apart.
Carol let Jane put her tent next to theirs. It made her feel better to be near Carol or Sophia.

The next morning Jane woke up to Carl yelling. It scared her. She shot up and ran over to the commotion only to see Lori comforting him. She let out a sigh of relief and looked over at Dale.

"What happened?" She signed.

"Carl saw a walker. It's okay now." He signed back slowly as if trying to recall the motions.

Jane nodded and headed back to her tent. When she was finally alone she let out a sigh, rubbing her face with her hands. The screams made her heart jump out of her chest. She looked over, noticing her clothes from yesterday were missing. Climbing out of her tent and back out into the Georgia heat she looked over to Carol. She and the other women were hanging up clothes on a makeshift clothes line.

"Oh, hey. I washed your clothes. Hope you don't mind." Carol explained as she put the last peg on the line.

"You could have just woken me up I'd be happy to help" Jane signed.

Her Aunt smiled softly, "Absolutely not! You deserved to sleep after the day you had."

"Well thank you." She rolled her eyes playfully.

Thats when Carol noticed she was only wearing one hearing aid, "What happened to the other one." She pointed to her ear.

Jane caressed where it used to sit, "Broken".

Before they could continue their conversation a deep southern voice shouted from the edge of the forest.

"Merle!" Daryl Dixon shouted from somewhere in camp. "Merle, get your ugly ass out here. I got us some squirrel. Let's stew 'em up!"