Paroxysm Effect

by Reynolds, Ashleigh

  Determination growing in her, Gemi pushed up off the ground and climbed farther into the trees, she would need them for cover if she was to sneak out of the camp. She ducked low, trying her best to stay in the shadows.

  The ground was slick, covered in wet leaves, each step threatening to send her rolling down the hill. She hugged herself closer to the trees, letting each one support her weight and help keep balance.

  A few minutes later Gemi had reached the end of her camp. She could see the rest of the group loading equipment into the vehicles a short distance away. The vehicles were now parked in a flat, wide-open space with no trees for cover; somehow she would need to sneak past everyone unnoticed.

  Gemi ducked low, waiting until the perfect moment to make her break. When the instant came when everyone had either headed back towards camp or had their backs turned, she made her move, running towards the closest van. She ducked behind it, sliding her feet to hide behind one of the tires. There was no commotion reacting to her movement no one had seen her yet.

  She crept to the next tire headed towards the front of the van. Once in place Gemi slid up, peering through the side window. No one was there. She breathed a sigh of relief. If she ran she could make it to the other side and into the cover of trees before anyone returned.

  After one deep breath Gemi pushed off the side of the van and into a full sprint. Her heart raced as the distance between her and the edge of the clearing closed. She was just about to leave behind the cover of the last van when she crashed into something that sent her reeling backwards. Before her body hit the ground a hand reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. In one swift motion she was pulled back upright and then flung over the shoulder of her obstacle. She realized then it was Jaxton.

  “Not going to happen,” he said as he stocked back towards camp with her resting like a limp noodle on his shoulder.

  “Put… me… down,” she managed to get out despite the heavy bouncing that each step brought.

  “Why? So you can run off into imminent danger again. I know you were headed after Kai, I’m not stupid.”

  “So you followed me?”

  “I did what I had to in order to keep you safe.”

  They had stopped moving, from what she could see they were not yet back at camp. Jaxton let go of her legs with one hand and reached. And then Gemi was being hoisted off and set down on something hard. She realized quickly that she was sitting in the cargo area of the van.

  “What exactly are you doing?” she asked.

  “Keeping you safe.”

  Before she had a second to reply Jaxton had shut the door on her, the distinct clicking sound letting her know that he had locked her in.

  Gemi sat unmoving for a few minutes trying to wrap her head around the fact that she was now a prisoner.

  The air felt colder, the walls smaller, the interior drearier than they once had. They pushed down on her making it hard to breathe.

  Resigning herself to her fate, she crawled over to one of the seats and climbed onto it, pulling her lags up close to her chest. The hours ticked on as the bustling outside dwindled until it finally fell silent.

  It was too quiet.

  Gemi sat up desperately wishing there was a window. She pressed her ear against the wall and strained to hear anything of the outside world. Vivid images ran through her head, horrible scenarios where her group got attacked and killed and she was found and taken last, or worst yet that no one knew she was there and left to rot locked in the metal tomb.

  She leaned her head against the wall and let her back slide down in helping guide her to a seated position as the hyperventilation set in. The room spun and swirled around her as she fought to calm herself. In four, out four she told herself as she forced her body to regulate the air entering her lungs.

  She had been pissed, there was no doubt about that, but in that moment it faded away and forced into the back of her mind. She wouldn’t have been in this situation if she weren’t stupid enough to try to catch up to someone who quite literally would have gutted her like a fish. She always acted without thinking about her actions until it was almost too late. Jaxton seemed to be the opposite, always thinking, always in control. He reeled her in when she was too stupid to realize what she was doing. He kept her safe as promised.

  Bright light flooded the cabin as the doors were pulled open. Gemi glanced up trying to focus her eyes on the person standing on the other side. She had been so overwhelmed that she hadn’t heard anyone approach.

  “Thank god!” she squealed as she scrambled towards him, flinging her arms around him.

  He stiffened. “Well that’s a different reaction than I expected. I thought you would try to claw my eyes out right about now.”

  Jaxton reached up and pulled her arms from around him and gently pushed her away holding her at an arm’s length. “Are you ready to go?”

  Gemi nodded her head trying to compose herself, but failing miserably judging from the look on his face before he turned from her and walked away.

  Shaky legs slid out from underneath her and out of the van. She had to steady herself against the door for a few beats as her heart rate and breathing settled. As the rising sun warmed her skin, relief spread through her. She was safe, everyone was safe and they would be finishing the last leg of their journey.

  The van’s engine roared to life making her jump.

  “Are you alive back there?” Jaxton called over the rumbling.

  “Yeah… yes,” she called back.

  Gemi quickly shut and secured the back doors before jogging to the front of the van where the passenger door was already propped open for her. As she climbed inside, she noted that Jaxton was staring at her with skepticism. She smiled at him as she secured her seatbelt. His eyes narrowing at her before turning them back to the road, but he said nothing.

  The van lurched forward before merging fluidly with the other vans already in motion. Gemi couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she was feeling a lightness that she hadn’t felt since before the chaos. As awful as it seemed, she was beginning to feel relieved that Kai was gone and that they were leaving all the bad vibes that went along with her behind.

  Gemi reached over and rolled down the window letting the wind rush around her, sending her hair spiraling around her face not even minding the bitter edge the air had. Perhaps she was losing it, but at that moment she didn’t care. They were headed to a safe zone and thus far everyone she had grown to care for was safe.

  Trees flew by in a blur as the van raced down the small dirt road. Slowly they became farther and few in-between until it was nothing but the dirt road and flat land spreading out in all directions. They must have traveled to the farming district, a place she had never once been to. It was nothing compared to the sprawling mountains and flame red fall trees, but it held its own beauty with wheat and corn stalks reaching out towards the sky above.

  “What’s your deal?” Jaxton asked, breaking the silence.

  “I’m sorry?” Gemi said turning to face him. He was staring at her, his telltale crease between his eyebrows.

  “The fact that you aren’t even mentioning me locking you in the back of a van is more than a little unnerving.”

  “Would you rather I be upset and argue about it?” Gemi asked, rolling the window back up to hear him better.

  “No, but there is a middle ground between arguing and gleeful.”

  “I would hardly say I’m gleeful.”

  Jaxton opened his mouth to retort, but closed it and turned back to the road.

  “I just don’t get you,” he muttered.

  A loud bang interrupted the conversation. The van in front of them swerved off the road and into a weeping willow just in time for Gemi to see the van in the front veer sideways and tumbled down the road, shedding pieces of its self as it went.

  “Shit,” Jaxton said as they barreled towards the wreckage in front of them. A piece of bumper flew at the windshield and crashed into it filling the cabin with a sound like
thunder. “Hold on, the brakes aren’t working.”

  Gemi’s face went white. The road was narrow with barely enough width for the vans to drive down; there was no way he could maneuver around.

  “Brace yourself,” he said when they were feet away from crashing into the other van.

  Jaxton grabbed the emergency brake and pulled hard. The van veered to the left and then everything went slow motion. Gemi’s body was being thrown sideways, her head smashed into the passenger window as the van tumbled over, rolling twice before slamming to a stop upside down.

  Gemi’s ears rang; the world seemed to still spin around her even though she knew they were motionless. Through the shattered windshield she could see smoke billowing out from the hood. She turned to the left, ignoring the protest her neck made. Jaxton was limp in his seat, blood dripping down off his forehead, held in place by his seatbelt. She reached up for the buckle of her own seatbelt, pulling hard to release herself. She fell with a hard thud to the roof below. Gemi propped herself up on her hands and knees, wincing as the broken glass that now littered the cabin cut into her skin. As she slid closer, the source of Jaxton’s bleeding became apparent. He had a large gash above his left eye that was producing a large amount of blood. Gemi reached up to his waist where he hung from the belt intending to release him as she had done. She snatched her hand back after it met with metal instead of his skin. Her hand was slick and drenched in red.

  Gemi peered around him; a piece of shrapnel was lodged in his side just above his hip. She knew the necessity to get him down and slow the bleeding, but any kind of movement could injure him further.

  “Jaxton!” a voice called from outside.

  “Here… we’re in here!” Gemi called back.

  Sann’s face appeared on the other side of the now shattered passenger window. It was smudged with dirt and blood, the tension in his face showing he was also harboring an injury.

  “He’s unconscious,” Gemi said. “I don’t know how to get him down, something is imbedded in his side, I think it’s part of the van.”

  “Move out of the way,” Sann said as he slid in through the busted window.

  He moved through the small space with some effort to pass her and get to Jaxton’s side.

  “Shit, this is bad,” he said.

  Jaxton let out a soft moan, his eyes remaining closed.

  “He’s losing a lot of blood. I am going to need your help getting him down. I can’t tell if the metal has hit any organs if he falls on it, it could kill him.”

  “What… what can I do?” Gemi asked, her voice breaking despite her attempts to stay calm.

  “I need you to get on the other side of him, steady the site of injury. I’m going to get under him and try to brace his body with mine then we can let him down slow.”

  Gemi crawled back across the floor, sliding under Jaxton to the driver’s side. The door was pinned against the other van leaving little room for her to position herself. Sann followed behind her, squatting under Jaxton before pushing his own back up against his chest. He grabbed Jaxton’s dangling arms and wrapped them around to the front of him, holding them in place with one of his hands.

  “Ok, let his belt loose, but do it slow. His arm is going to be stuck in it on the left here. Make sure not to jostle that fragment.”

  Gemi reached up and grasped the belt buckle with shaking hands. Her fingers found the release button and she pushed down. Nothing happened.

  “I think it’s stuck,” she said, still trying to shake the buckle loose.

  “Damn it. Grab the knife at my waist cut him loose.”

  She ducked her head under Jaxton and search half blind for the blade clipped to Sann’s waist. After a minute of struggle she was able to find the snap and pull it free. The moment the metal was released from its sheath and caught her eye, fear washed over her. Once again violent images overloaded her head, all of them ending with a slaughtered San and Jaxton by her hand.

  The knife fell to the ground with a clatter as she closed her hands into tight fists. She tried to back away but not making it very far as she still stuck in the small space between Jaxton and the pinned door. She fixated on his wound unable to stop thinking about jamming the shrapnel into his side, watching it disappear into his flesh and watching his life drain away as the hot slick blood poured from the wound.

  “Gemi!” Sann called, breaking her trance and drawing her eyes to his. “What are you doing? We need to get him out of here now.”

  “I can’t.”

  “I swear on everything, if you don’t cut him loose now I will make you wish it was you hanging here half dead.”

  She swallowed hard, it was the first time she had ever seen Sann so angry.

  “I’m going to hurt him,” she whispered.

  “He’s already hurt if you haven’t noticed. Cut him the fuck down, now.”

  With one deep breath Gemi bent down and grabbed the knife. Fighting the temptation of her own hands, she brought the blade to where the fabric met the buckle and cut clean through it. Jaxton’s weight fell full force down on Sann.

  “Good,” he said through gritted teeth. “Now reach over and cut his arm loose.”

  Gemi complied, completely freeing him from the restraints.

  “Ok, grab his legs and help me roll him off. We aren’t going to fit out this way.”

  Sann dropped as low as he could, trying to make the distance between Jaxton and the ground as small as possible.

  Using the seats and Gemi as leverage, he hoisted Jaxton up and slid him down onto his uninjured side.

  “Alight,” he said through heavy breaths. “We are going to need to drag him out. Watch his side.”

  Sann ducked out the window and then reached back in and grabbed Jaxtons arms and pulled him through with Gemi guiding him.

  Once outside Sann rolled Jaxton onto his back and used the knife he found on Jaxton’s side to cut his shirt loose.

  “Doc!” he called, “We need you over here!”

  The doctor limped into view from the rear side of the van. He was covered in blood making his shirt cling to his frame. Whether it was his own blood or someone else Gemi couldn’t tell.

  Gemi fell to the ground at Jaxton’s feet and watched the Doctor work. He went right to the puncture wound, rubbing on various medicines all while muttering to himself in the usual fashion.

  “How was he?” Sann asked the Doctor.

  Doctor Askel just shook his head and continued to work.

  Sadness gripped Gemi’s chest. She knew they were talking about Allon not making it. He must have been in the first van, taking the most brutal of the crashes. Their numbers were dwindling. If Jaxton didn’t make it… she quickly pushed the thought from her head. He was too stubborn to die.

  It seemed like hours that the doctor was working on Jaxton, finally able to remove the shard, muttering to himself that there was minimal deep tissue damage. He stitched up the wound sealing off the blood flow before smearing it with some kind of white substance she had never seen before. He finished by patching up his forehead with something that looked like household superglue.

  “We need to move him off the road,” the doctor said as he packed up his medical kit.

  “We can put him in the back of our van. I seem to be the only one capable of sticking the landing without the dramatics of rolling vehicles.” Although he chuckled to himself the laughter hadn’t quite reached his eyes where they seemed to glint with the remnants of tears.

  Sann stooped down and wedged his hands underneath Jaxton, doing his best not to jostle him as he stood back up. Gemi stood as well and made a movement to follow before being abruptly stopped by the doctor.

  “Where do you think you are going?” he asked.

  “I’m going to make sure they are ok.”

  “Not without me looking you over. Though your confidence in my medical skills is overwhelming.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way –”

  The doctor held up a hand, cutting her off.
“We have all had a bad day. Make an old man feel better and let me give you a once over.”

  Gemi complied, trying her best to hide her irritation. Despite a few bumps and bruises she felt fine.

  “You seemed to have fared the best out of all of us,” the doctor said as he finished up her exam. “I would say it is a miracle from above, or Jaxton planned it that way. I am guessing it’s the latter.”

  Her heart sank. This wouldn’t be the first time Jaxton had put himself in harm’s way to protect her. His single-minded insistence on keeping her safe would get him killed.

  “Go,” the doctor said, pulling her back out of her head. “I’m going to help Sann put Allon to rest and then we can figure out the root cause of all of this.” He motioned to the wreckage before limping away.

  Gemi found Jaxton in the cargo area of the one van that managed to not get too damaged. Sann had laid him on the floor and wrapped him loosely in a blanket. She sat down next to him and ran her hand across his clammy forehead and through his now messy, blood caked hair. In the time she had known him he had never looked so helpless.

  Overwhelming guilt consumed her. If they had not stopped to get her no one would be in this mess. She pushed off the ground and paced the room. It accomplished nothing, but was a great outlet for her nervous energy.

  If she hadn’t been there to run off the night the affected attacked then no one would be looking for her and Sann and the doctor wouldn’t have been attacked. They wouldn’t have needed to stop or to exile Kai. They probably would have already been back at base safe and sound. She had brought nothing but bad luck to them since she was picked up.

  Metal scraped outside pulled her out of her head and to the open doors. Sann and the doctor must be trying to figure out what went wrong in the crash. It still stuck her as odd that all three of their vans crashed at one time.

  Gemi stopped pacing. A knot in her stomach grew to where she felt as if she might vomit. The vans were tampered with that was the only way to explain it. Gemi jumped out of the back of the van and jogged over to where Sann was standing examining the tires of the first van.