Paroxysm (Book 2): Paroxysm Aftermath

by Ashleigh Reynolds

  She found Jaxton and Sann waiting for her in silence and on either side of the room. There was no emanating sense of anger, but sometimes she found it hard to tell just what they were thinking.

  The doctor was nowhere to be seen. Which made worry bubble up all over again. He had seemed off for a while. Her shoulders had harbored the weight of loss since taking over. But there was no way she would be able to cope with the loss of a man who had been a surrogate father to her if she just stood by and watched his downfall.

  Or if anything happened to her husband. She smiled as the word echoed in her head.

  Jaxton looked up at the sound of the door closing behind her and grinned, matching the stupid and far too giddy expressions she wore. Sann glanced up long enough to catch their silent exchange before going back to the book he was reading.

  She could never tell what was going on in that man’s head.

  “Are we ready to go?” she asked.

  “Ready is a very subjective word,” Sann said with his eyes still downcast.

  “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” Jaxton answered for him, rising and dragging his backpack up with him.

  He leaned in, giving her a kiss on the top of her head, letting his arm snake around her waist and pulling her into him.

  She would have enjoyed the show of affection had Sann not shot them an odd look. For the first time it caused a pang of empathy for him. For whatever reason, he thought they had once been an item and now she was there rubbing another man, albeit the man she loved and her husband, in his face.

  Gemi wiggled out of his grasp and pulled at the straps of her backpack as if they had come loose. She didn’t want to be the cause of hurt for two people when the day had just begun.

  “So we might as well get this over with, yeah?” Sann said, dropping his book into his bag as he stood up. “We only have a short period before the others wake up. I still don’t think they’re going to buy whatever lie you concocted. But I guess that’s neither here nor there.”

  “They can’t know there’s a way out. You know they would be gone in a second.” Gemi said.

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  Gemi didn’t answer him. Partially because she agreed with him. They might be better off on their own, not sitting around waiting for the next attack. But they needed whatever numbers they could get. Four against an army would be a slaughter. At least with the others they would have a fighting chance.

  When she didn’t answer him, Sann rolled his eyes and pushed past her toward the door, grabbing a lantern on the way. “Let’s go.”

  “How did you even remember this exit was here?” she asked Jaxton as they walked down the hallway toward the collapsed tunnels.

  “I have no clue,” he answered, “I just kept having this memory of it. I seem to have a clearer image of my life during the first few months I was here. It’s still patchy, but nothing compared to the rest of my life.”

  “I don’t know why you care so much.” Sann called over his shoulder. He had moved to walk a few paces in front of them despite the fact that only Jaxton knew where they were going. “I look at it as a fresh start. The past is in the past for a reason, right?”

  “He’s been weird all morning,” Jaxton whispered and intertwined his fingers with hers.

  “Maybe he should stay behind? We don’t have time for a liability.”

  “We’re going to need all the assistance we can get out there.”

  Gemi nodded her head, but couldn’t help thinking that they might run into the problem of having to protect themselves from him on top of everything else.

  “It’s right past the tunnel entrance,” Jaxton called to Sann.

  Sann slowed his pace, stopping to lean against the wall when he passed the rubble that used to be the tunnel system. He glanced their way, his gaze falling to their linked fingers and then turned to face the crumbled wall in front of him.

  Guilt resonated through her for the second time that morning. She slipped her hand free and turned to face Jaxton who came to rest next to Sann.

  “So where’s this magical door? I don’t have to say a spell or something to open it right?”

  “No,” he laughed, “but I do have to warn you, it’s not going to be as easy as just walking out.”

  Sann leaned forward off the wall and stared at him with his mouth hanging open. “Why are we just hearing about this now?”

  “Would it really have mattered? You know as well as I do, there was no saying no once Gemi found out.”

  “Yeah, well, you could have kept it to yourself. Save us the trouble,” he mumbled.

  “So, what do you mean it’s not going to be easy?” Gemi asked, trying to change the subject to the problem at hand and not let a whole new can of worms open.

  “It looks as if they were going to extend the building before they moved on. I don’t know. Maybe things expanded so quickly that they just gave up on this sector. I walked the length of it when I went to make sure it was still accessible. It caved in in some areas, but definitely manageable.”

  “Is it safe?” Sann asked.

  Jaxton shrugged his shoulders and moved to the far wall to a place where Gemi assumed was a dead end. His fingers slid along the wall until she saw them dip and disappear in the stone. He grunted and pulled and, with a sickening sound of rock scraping metal, a hidden door opened revealing nothing but inky blackness behind it.

  “We’re going in there?” Sann leaned forward and peered into the darkness.

  “If we’re going to get out, yes.”

  “How do we close it behind us so none of the others find it?” Gemi asked as she poked her head into the darkness and breathed in the sour air.

  “There’s a lever attached to the inside to pull it closed.” Jaxton pointed, drawing their eyes to the sickle-shaped metal protrusion. “And before you ask, yes we can get back in even if it’s closed.”

  Gemi squinted once more into the dark then turned to face her companions. Both of them radiated tension, standing straight with their arms crossed tightly over their chests and somber expressions painted on their faces. She was starting to get the distinct impression they were stalling or at least hoping that she’d changed her mind. She hadn’t.

  “Well, let’s go. We’re burning daylight.” She flipped on the flashlight and shone it into the tunnel.

  She hadn’t anticipated a cave walk when Jaxton told her there was a way out of the building. She grabbed only a half-dead flashlight, not wanting to take supplies from the others. Now that she was face-to-face with jagged rock and tight quarters, she wished she had grabbed something that didn’t have the strong possibility of dying on her.

  With one last deep breath she took a tentative step inside. The ground was littered with stone debris and gravel, leaving her foot slipping as she tried to find traction. The air was damp and stagnant, hanging heavy as if it was physically pressing down on her until it became hard to get a full breath in her lungs.

  For some reason she couldn’t shake the sensation that death felt strikingly similar. It became a familiar notion that had been haunting her since she first woke up from a nightmare. Death had been stalking them in the shadows for months. A game of chicken that one by one they were losing. But now, shrouded in darkness, it was as if they were running headlong toward it.

  With one hand on the wall, Gemi forced her feet forward. The light barely illuminated a few feet in front of her face, allowing her to see very few of the jagged rocks that lined the path. If she wasn’t mistaken, the light had already dimmed since she turned it on.

  The sound of footfalls behind her drove her forward. She couldn’t risk looking weak, even though in the moment a large part of her wanted to run. Darkness always had a way of forcing deep-seated fears to the surface.

  “It thins out pretty quick,” Jaxton called from close behind her.

  The very thought of the space closing in had her chest tightening in response. She let her fingertips graze across the cold stone. The temperat
ure created a conflicting sensation with the muggy air, helping to focus her thoughts on something other than the darkness.

  “Oh shit!”

  Gemi turned around in time to see the lantern bobble in the air then fall to the ground at Sann’s feet. It exploded in a bright flash and then died leaving the area behind her bathed in blackness once more.

  “What happened?” Jaxton called.

  “I tripped over something and dropped the damned thing. That’s great. Just great.”

  “Well, I thought it went without saying, but be careful.”

  “Oh thanks. Yeah, that helps a lot now.”

  Gemi shoved her tongue into her cheek and tried to take a steadying breath. The trek out was going to be that much more fun.

  True to his word, the tunnel went from wide enough to walk normally to being required to turn sideways just to fit. Her bag scraped and caught on the rocks as she tried to move, forcing her to slide it off her shoulder and grasp it in one hand, using the other to guide her. With no extra hand, the light had to be switched off and tossed in her bag for a later time. With its waning power, it wasn’t as if it had been much use anyways.

  Gemi pressed her back against the sharp rocks, their edges digging into the bony protrusions of her spine. It was a tight squeeze. She had no idea how the men were going to fit. She squinted into the darkness behind her hoping to see a hint of them following her.

  Nothing.

  Her heart rate spiked, making her hands clammy as hundreds of thoughts about getting stuck and starving to death ran through her head. She hated confined spaces. They always seemed to have a life of their own. And never in a good-natured way. The dark, damp space felt as if it was closing in on her by the second. Pressing the air out of her lungs as she tried to force her legs to move. Move to bring her to the outside world. Hopefully.

  A rock bounced over her shoe as something touched her wrist. Gemi jumped. Her head smacked on the low-hanging roof sending a piercing pain through to her eye as bright spots danced in her vision.

  “God.” She made a move to rub the sore spot, but got caught midway.

  “Hey, you okay?” Jaxton whispered.

  “Yeah, just a little stuck,” she lied.

  “Might be easier to crawl. It gets pretty tight before it widens out.”

  “Are you two even going to fit?” She tried to hide the fear in her voice, but failed miserably.

  Some leader she was.

  “Hey.” He found her hand in the dark, letting his fingers interlace with hers. “I'm right here. I’ve already walked this, remember?”

  Inhale. Exhale. She told herself before her mind wandered to her sweaty palms and hoped that he didn't notice. It would give away just how scared she was.

  “Are we just going to stand around now?” Sann whined from close behind them. “I feel like a tube of toothpaste that's about to burst in here.”

  “We just got a little stuck,” Jaxton whispered back to him. “I'm right here. Go ahead,” he said close to her ear to shield Sann from overhearing and gave her hand a quick squeeze.

  He had noticed.

  Gemi let out a puff of air and began sliding her way farther down the tunnel never once letting go of his hand even when it became more of a hindrance than a help. He didn't complain, and he made no move to extract it.

  After what seemed like hours, the tunnel finally widened. Not a lot, but enough to where she could walk in a straight line instead of sidestepping. Reluctantly she dropped his hand so that he could fall in line behind her.

  “Shouldn't be much farther,” he said.

  “What if they are all out there?” she asked.

  “Then we hightail it back in here. They can't all fit in at once. Most likely kill each other trying,” Sann called form the back.

  “This tunnel exits right into the forests. They won’t have any idea that it exists and no real reason to be out there.”

  “You're assuming that they’re sane enough to be thinking that,” she said as she sidestepped a boulder in their path.

  “True. But our last surveillance showed that they mostly gathered by the last known entrance. The one that got destroyed in the explosion.”

  “Besides, there was way fewer of them over the last few days,” Sann added.

  “What?” Gemi stopped midstride, forcing Jaxton to run into her back.

  “Whoa, what's wrong?” he asked, his hands sliding up to her shoulders.

  “Why didn't anyone tell me that?” she said turning to face him and forcing his hands to fall off of her. “We could have waited them out a little longer and took a bigger group.”

  “Because fewer of them doesn't mean safety. They might be breaking off to surround the place. They could have found this entrance.”

  Gemi nodded her head in agreement even though he couldn't see her.

  “Can we please go? I've felt a million spiders crawl across me. Who knows if they’ve laid eggs in my ears already,” Sann called to them.

  Gemi laughed as she turned her attention back to the path in front of them. If they made it back, she prayed there would be no need to head back into the base this way. Once was enough.

  In the distance Gemi began to make out the distinct glimmer of sunlight. Her heart sped up with excitement as she practically ran to the end of the tunnel. To her dismay the light did not get bigger the closer she got. It remained a minuscule slice in the rock, taunting her as the light leaked in.

  Gemi pressed her hands on the cold surface. It seemed stuck in its place. Jaxton said he had trekked through, but it left her wondering if he tried to open it when he came down. There was a very real possibility that it was no longer an exit. If that was the case, it would leave them stranded inside to await their inevitable demise.

  “Now for the tricky part,” Jaxton said as he slid past her. “At least I had the forethought to bring a crowbar. I wasn't that smart as a kid.”

  Metal scraped on stone as the light was momentarily blocked. With a grunt and grinding of rock on rock the tunnel filled with sunlight. Gemi shielded her eyes and squinted into the distance. Just past a short field stretched a vast forest.

  Her heart thundered in her chest as excitement overtook her. She was staring at their freedom and the pieces of her plan were falling into place. There was a very real possibility that everything could work out.

  They could win.

  As she stared at the outside world it erupted in a blinding flash of light. She reached out for the wall as her head began to swim. Before the light had time to die down her vision blurred and the world dropped out from under her.

  “You can't run from me!” Gemi screamed. “I'll get you one way or another!” She clutched a bloody knife in her trembling hand and stalked off farther into the trees.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Is she okay?”

  “I don't know. Gemi? Can you hear me?”

  A warm hand skimmed across her cheek helping to pull her back around. Gemi's eyes fluttered open and once again she blinked against the assaulting light.

  Both men were bent over her as she lay flat on her back on the hard stone ground, anxious expressions on their faces.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Jaxton asked.

  “Yeah...just got a little dizzy.”

  “A little dizzy,” Sann repeated. “You blacked out and dropped like a sack of potatoes. Luckily for you, I was close enough to catch you before you smashed your pretty face on the ground.”

  “Thanks,” Gemi said reaching for Jaxton's outstretched hand and letting him help her to her feet. Once upright she swayed again. His strong hands dropped to her low back and helped steady her.

  “I think we need to take a minute,” Jaxton suggested.

  “No. I'm good now.” Gemi shook out of his embrace and stood on her own. Her head was rapidly clearing and within a matter of minutes she was back to normal.

  As normal as she could be.

  She saw a vision. And not something from one of the tests. None of her memorie
s from then ever involved the base or the forest she was sure she had just laid eyes on for the first time. A knot formed in her stomach at the realization that she could have possibly done some very bad things in the gaps of time she was still missing.

  There had to be a reason that two people from her group wanted to kill her once the memories came back. Perhaps Dagmar wasn't as bad as she thought. Maybe she was the bad one.

  “Hey,” Jaxton's voice snapped her out of her head once again.

  She forced a smiled and threw her shoulders back. “Well, what are we waiting for? The big bad world awaits us.”

  Both men glanced at each other and then at her, neither one of them moving. Gemi rolled her eyes and turned her back on them. They were already worried enough about the mission there was no way she wanted to worry them more with the thought of her cracking.

  She tramped down the slight decline to the edge of the forest and waited in the shadows as the two men moved the boulder back in place and stashed the crowbar in a nearby bush. A smart move considering the last exploration group came back with none of their equipment. And that was when they still could use the main exit. At least they would be able to get back inside.

  If they made it back.

  Sann strode past her, leaning in so that Jaxton couldn't overhear him, "I knew memories of us would sweep you off your feet."

  “I will kill you,” she hissed back.

  “Oh, you already did,” he said spinning around to face her and cup his hands over his heart as if he was in pain before winking and turning his back to her.

  Jaxton gave her a curious look as he fell in line at her side, but didn't press her for answers. He swung his rifle off his shoulder and held it at a more accessible angle. His stance coupled with his fatigues were so reminiscent of how they met in the city that for a split second panic rose in her as memories fought their way to the surface. She hastily shoved them back down where they belonged. That's not who she was anymore.

  Her expression must have said everything she was thinking because when she turned Jaxton stared at her as if he had a million questions tumbling around in his head. He looked to the path ahead of them without voicing any of them. Gemi breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way she wanted to get into it out in the open. They were vulnerable enough already.