Paroxysm (Book 2): Paroxysm Aftermath

by Ashleigh Reynolds

  “If that’s what you want, I’m with you.”

  “Then let’s get through tomorrow so we can start our lives.”

  Jaxton relaxed back into the seat, trailing kisses across the top of her head to her temple. It didn’t matter that their future wasn’t set or even a promise. He had her by his side and the potential of something better. It was all he needed to hear.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The four of them stood in front of the entrance, staring at the metal plate that covered the wooden door and kept the crazy ones on the other side. There was no way to tell if the signal was powerful enough to penetrate the metal or if there was anyone even waiting around after a week without opening it. Not without allowing themselves to be vulnerable.

  “You and Gemi are the best shots out of the group,” Jaxton said, meeting Sann’s gaze. “Jefferies needs to wield the device, so that leaves me to open the door. That also means I’m the first person to get taken out if anything goes wrong. So let’s keep our focus and our cool, okay?”

  Jaxton paced to the wall on the left side of the door. His hand hovered over the button as the rest of the group prepared themselves. Once he got a nod from each of them, he breathed deep. “One. Two. Three!” His hand slammed down on the button and the plate slid to the side.

  All was quiet.

  Jaxton moved closer to the wooden door and noticed the way it bent inward and the large chunks of it that were splintered and missing. They must have been pissed when they couldn’t get inside. He peeked through one of the holes and saw nothing but a dark, empty landing.

  “You think they gave up?” Gemi asked.

  “I guess that makes sense if they’ve really become unhinged.” Jaxton peered through the hole once more before turning away from the door. “We’ll have to test it on the road.”

  Sann shoved his gun in the holster. “And if we don’t find anyone? I’m all for taking risks, but not with this.”

  “The device will work fine,” Dr. Jefferies interjected.

  “With all due respect, you said that once before. My bruised brain disagrees with you.”

  “We’re not arguing about this right now.” Gemi elbowed Sann and got an eye roll in return. “They could still be outside. If not, it shouldn’t be hard to find some roamers before we get back to base.”

  Sann threw his hands up in the air and nodded.

  A thundering crack filled in the room, instantly drowning out their conversation. Chunks of splintered wood surrounded Jaxton right before he slammed into the ground. His first instinct was to flip over, but his body remained pinned under a substantial weight.

  He caught a flash of Sann’s startled face. Feet. Grimy fingers clawing at the floor on each side of his head. Then the room was too chaotic to see clearly.

  A gun blasted from somewhere.

  “Get them off the doctor!”

  Pain lanced through his legs as something heavy landed on it.

  “Doc!”

  Two more gun blasts.

  Something—fingers if he had to guess—ripped at his hair and shoved his face into the ground.

  “Damn it!”

  A bloodcurdling scream.

  Another explosion and the grip on him loosened and the pressure on his body shifted.

  “Now!”

  One more shot rang out, and the room fell silent.

  Jaxton pushed himself up onto his elbows and shook the fragments of wood out of his hair. Sann and Gemi stood on opposite sides of the room with their guns raised and blood splattered across the front of them.

  Five bodies lay in crumpled piles on the floor. Gemi lowered her gun fractionally and stepped toward him.

  “What…what’s going on?” a feeble voice broke the silence from somewhere behind him. “Where are we?”

  Jaxton twisted his upper body and pushed a large piece of wood off his legs. Once he had his footing, he took in the terrified faces of the two men still standing. They resembled the affected roaming the streets—horrified, gaunt figures masked by a layer of blood and grime. Except now there was a spark of recognition in their eyes.

  “You’re okay now,” Dr. Jefferies said as he took a step toward them.

  Both men retreated toward the stairs.

  “Do you remember anything?” he asked.

  “Stay away from us!” the shorter of the men shouted as they backed out of the doorway and dashed down the stairs.

  “You’re welcome!” Sann called after them.

  Gemi crossed the room and pulled Jaxton into an embrace. “Are you okay?”

  His body was fine. His ego on the other hand was quite bruised. He had been so wrapped up in their conversation that he hadn’t heard them in the stairwell.

  “I’m fine.” He kissed the top of her head and scanned the others. “Everyone else okay?”

  Both men nodded their heads.

  “Well, I guess it works,” Sann laughed.

  “Is it strange to wake up in the future with zero buildup?” Gemi walked next to Dr. Jefferies, using the spare time they had to pick his brain. “I mean, you never got to see anything advance to this point.”

  “You were born into this world, right? I just think of this as my second birth.”

  “But you seem so confident and capable on things like our medicine. It’s not like you had books or practice.”

  “Well, the doctor that woke me up was kind enough to show me the basics. And you forget that I am a rather smart man.” He chuckled and gave her a playful nudge with his shoulder. “I can’t perform intricate surgery or heal a fatal wound, but I get by.”

  Jaxton let their exchange fall to the background as he scanned their surroundings once more. Sann was ahead of them watching their front and making sure that they would have enough time to react if they ran into trouble. Gemi had offered, wanting him to take it easy, but Sann was having none of it. Said she was far more important to the mission than a guy with a gun and muscles. Only Sann could slip something about his muscles into regular conversation.

  They had been walking for hours and had yet to run into any trouble. Seven men at the facility were all that had stood in their path to freedom. The whole situation was leaving Jaxton uneasy. They had essentially walked out of the building with little more than a press of a button.

  Jaxton chalked it up to Dagmar knowing nothing about them being alive, let alone their disabling device, but the hollowness in the pit of his stomach had refused to let up.

  “I’m starving!” Sann shouted over his shoulder as he slowed to a stop.

  Gemi and Dr. Jefferies followed suit, as if instinctual, but didn’t take the time to look up or cease their conversation.

  “We can walk and eat,” Jaxton called.

  “But my feet.” Sann stuck out his lower lip as he lifted the strap of the bag over his head and flung it at the base a tree stump before slumping next to it.

  “So we’re just going to eat in the open, then?”

  “It’s been hours. Several uneventful hours. I think a short break is due.”

  “I agree,” added Dr. Jefferies, breaking from his discussion and joining Sann on a log beside him.

  Gemi met Jaxton’s gaze and shrugged her shoulders. Apparently everyone was at ease but him.

  “Ten minutes. I mean it.”

  Sann grinned and pulled out some snack bars. It was like encouraging a willful child every time somebody gave in.

  They ate in silence, and Jaxton had to admit, it was nice. It allowed him the opportunity to hear all the little details in their surroundings. If they weren’t marching to their probable death, it might have been relaxing.

  Crickets chirped nearby, a low hum that spread and rolled as it meshed with the hoot of an owl hiding in the branches. In the distance came the familiar rush of water. He wondered if they were close to the spot that still struck a chord of fear in him. He had truly believed he lost her for good that day. Jaxton peered into the darkness, but found that he couldn’t see past the first line of trees.


  “What are your plans when this is all over?” Sann asked between mouthfuls. “I mean, everyone is going to know you’re alive.”

  “I guess I hadn’t quite thought of it.”

  “We’re going to need your help to right everything with the chips. After this second wave, I’m not so sure the people will be pro-chip.” Gemi said.

  “Well, it’s not like they were the first go-around either. When they were announced the population went ape shit. It required a heavy military presence to get things going. Even then, people slipped through the cracks.”

  “Was the world this bad in order to need them in the first place?” Jaxton asked.

  “Like this? No. Well, things were definitely bad, but it wasn’t the whole damn population acting out.”

  The breeze picked up, rustling trees behind them and making everyone tense up and the conversation to drop off.

  “We should get going.” Jaxton held out his hand to help the doctor up. He accepted it with a smile and a nod of gratitude.

  “You know, I think that if there were more people like you three when this all started, we might have ended up in a very different place.”

  “If there were more people like us, you would have needed the chip sooner.” Sann gave the doctor a wink and continued to the front.

  “You don’t give yourselves enough credit. Look at everything you’ve done. The choices you made. There could have been a hell of a lot more bloodshed on your part, but you pull back from it. You have a good heart whether you want to admit it or not.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far, Doc, but we aren’t the most terrible people in the world.” Sann turned his back to the group and his attention to the walk ahead.

  The notion that Sann didn’t think he was a good person came as a shock to Jaxton. Out of all of them he was by far the purest. When the level tampering was discovered, it was them who had dragged him into it. They hadn’t needed his help, but it had always been the three of them and he never said no. It was their fault he had gotten involved and screwed with.

  Hopefully one day he would remember that.

  Jaxton stared into the forest beside him. He wished nothing more than for his friends to remember the people that they were. But knowing was only half the battle. They had been through so many things that changed their trajectory. It had broken little pieces of them away leaving a spirit that was Frankensteined together. He wasn’t sure if he would ever get them fully back. Not as they once had been.

  “Jaxton?”

  Dr. Jeffries walked next to his left shoulder, scrutinizing him and waiting for a reply to a question he hadn’t heard. Jaxton shook his head and moved his gaze to the path ahead of them. He wasn’t being a very good lookout.

  “I’m sorry, I missed the question.”

  “I spent most of my life missing the question,” he laughed and turned his face up toward the sky. “My teachers told me I wouldn’t amount to anything if I didn’t get my head out of the clouds. I suppose I proved them wrong for a short while.”

  “Sometimes that’s the best place to be. There was hardly a moment I wasn’t daydreaming while growing up. Though none of those dreams ever amounted to being where I am now. Hell, even where I was a year ago.”

  “That’s understandable considering you came from an anti-chip family.”

  Jaxton swung his gaze to the doctor and was met with stifled laughter.

  “Gemi let it slip. It’s funny, I thought that they might have been the troubled ones. People who wanted so badly to keep on their path of destruction that they resisted the one thing that would eliminate that desire. Seems to me that you proved that theory wrong.”

  Jaxton spied Gemi a few paces behind Sann and an image of his father sprang to mind. “They all aren’t as good as you think.”

  “I’m learning that statement is true about a lot of things. Including my prize accomplishment.”

  “It had the right intention in mind. Unfortunately, some of the truest intents can go south when left in the hands of someone with darkness in their heart.”

  “Spoken like a wise man. Perhaps if I had someone with your sensibilities around when I was younger to balance me out, I might have turned out a lot better off.”

  “The things you realize in hindsight.”

  Jaxton was fixated on the doctor, completely absorbed in their exchange. Chalk it up to the fact that they hadn’t seen another person since they set out or the device the doctor had tucked in his side pouch, but he let his guard down and his duties slip.

  He didn’t see the group of bodies barreling toward them until it was too late. He hardly got half a warning out before something solid and rough collided with his face. He lurched back, slamming into Dr. Jefferies and sending the poor man flailing to the dusty trail. The doctor’s head connected with the ground, bouncing once, before he went limp.

  Jaxton whirled around, his forearm catching the second blow from what he now could see was a decent-sized stick wrapped in a soiled rag. It was heavy enough to make his teeth clench as pain shot up his arm, but the padding lessened some of the force and saved him from a broken bone.

  The man leaped out of reach and into the tree line as Jaxton lunged at him. It gave him just enough time to notice the nine other people. All of whom carried the same weapon.

  Gemi got in a kick to her attacker’s gut, sending the woman scuttling back, buying her time to draw her gun and place a well-aimed shot into the back of the man perched on Sann’s chest. He fell motionless on top of Sann, leaving him wrestling to roll the body off.

  The atmosphere shifted as the nine remaining attackers retreated to the tree line on either side of them. They weren’t the same savage beasts he was used to dealing with. Even though their demeanor gave them away as being unhinged. There was something more, something conscious in their actions.

  In a synchronized movement they set their weapons ablaze and hurled them into the trees. The flames swallowed up the dried-out moss and parched wood, a starving entity eager for sustenance. It didn’t take long before they were surrounded by a blaze tall enough to lick at the pre-dawn sky.

  The smoke was blinding, stinging his eyes until they blurred with tears. He could hear coughing close to him, but couldn’t see far enough to know who it was coming from.

  Jaxton turned in the direction he last saw the doctor. The heat from the flames was suffocating, growing in power with every minute that ticked by. He forced his feet to move, lifting his arm to his face he buried his mouth and nose into the crook of his elbow. It did little to lessen the sting of his eyes, but the gagging sensation gradually decreased.

  “Jaxton!” the voice echoed all around him, but he couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

  His mind was scattered. He couldn’t seem to determine which way he should be moving.

  “Where are you?”

  “Over he—” His throat constricted on him, sending him into a coughing fit that left him doubled over and gasping for what little air there was.

  He fell to the ground, wheezing into the dirt, his body burning from lack of oxygen and the unrelenting heat of the flames.

  Of all the things that could have gone wrong, dying of smoke inhalation hadn’t made the list. Neither had an organized attack.

  Jaxton clawed at the desiccated dirt and hauled himself forward. The world around him danced and whirled as the fire picked up even more momentum. Gusts of wind, devoid of the oxygen his body so desperately craved, licked at his skin, doing nothing to cool the temperature as the fire took on a being of its own. He was lying dead center in its world. One that roared like a freight train hell-bent on destroying everything in its wake.

  There was no up or down. Left or right. Jaxton didn’t even notice the hands on him until his feet planted beneath him. He tried to walk at the urging of the person next to him, but his legs wobbled then buckled. Humiliation flared inside him, as he tried once more to find footing. But his muscles had all but given up on him.

  Hands tugged a
t him followed by a flurry of words that absorb into the noise around them before they had a chance to form a coherent sentence. His weight shifted and he was dragged forward, relying heavily on the person tucked under his armpit.

  Little by little the smoke thinned, allowing him to see in front of his face and eventually the trail took form. Trees once again lined the path, their uncharred branches reaching out in all their evergreen glory.

  Sann let him drop to the dirt-covered trail next to Gemi, and a shaken, but otherwise okay-looking Dr. Jefferies. If he had the energy, he would have sat up, but the twisting inside his body left him sprawled out on his back.

  Sann pulled off the rag he had fastened over the lower half of his face and collapsed next to Jaxton. He used the rag to wipe at Jaxton’s face, focusing on the areas around his nose and mouth. Then, without further warning, he poured water onto him. He choked against the stream before it was moved down to his neck and onto each of his arms. The cooling sensation was bliss.

  After giving him a once-over, Sann flopped back into the mud next to him and let out a heavy breath. “Never do that again, man.”

  Jaxton tried to laugh, but all that came out was a hacking cough. It rumbled through his body making his insides twist even more. He rolled onto his side as the bile bubbled out of his throat into his mouth. Before he could stop it, he was gagging and vomiting in the dirt.

  A hand slapped his back. “Get it out.”

  More water cascaded over his head, followed by a damp cloth draped across the back of his neck. Wind swirled around them causing his skin to break out in goose bumps and the distinct smell of smoke to waft in their direction.

  “We should go,” he rasped as the retching finally ceased.

  “We’ll be okay for a little while longer. The fire seems to be spreading out and back. And those fuckers ran off after starting it.” Sann pulled him to a seated position by the collar of his shirt. “Here, drink this.” A water bottle was shoved into his hand before he could object.

  “I guess our element of surprise is gone.” Jaxton took a swig from the bottle and fought the urge to cough it out.