Paroxysm Effect

by Reynolds, Ashleigh

  Gemi laid back on the sleeping bag throwing her arm over her eyes. Her body shook, but this time having nothing to do with the cold. What if she had hurt him? It was one thing to have nightmares, but to act them out? It terrified her to her core. At this rate it was only a matter of time before she snapped like the rest of them, for all she knew this is how it started for everyone.

  Feet crunching on brittle leaves alerted her that Jaxton had returned. Slowly she slid her arm off of her eyes and watched him as he stooped down and added wood to the dying fire. She watched the muscles of his back flex with each movement, his jaw clenching and releasing as he arranged the wood and set it ablaze. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch him, slide her hand under his shirt to feel his warm skin against hers. But in this state it wasn’t the best idea.

  Gray eyes met hers, and although his face still seemed tensed, it had softened. He moved to the edge of the sleeping bag and sat with his back to the fire just out of arms reach. He said nothing just stared as if he was trying to penetrate her soul.

  “I’m sorry,” she blurted out, mostly not wanting the endless silence to continue. “So sorry, I can’t begin to describe how sorry I am. I know that won’t make up for it and I can’t promise it won’t happen again, but I would never want to hurt you, ever. I…”

  She stopped short, biting her tongue before the word could fall out, before she made things worse. It sounded so dumb now as it bounced around her head, love, how could she love him after such a short time.

  Jaxton cocked his head to one side internally debating something. When he spoke his words were slow, calm and carefully selected.

  “I want you to listen so please don’t speak.” He looked at her and raised an eyebrow waiting for her confirmation. She nodded her head vigorously biting down on her lips. “Whatever is going on I can’t imagine how scary it must be. I am here to help you through it during the day, but if you’re going to flip switches at night we will to need a way to make sure that no one gets hurt. Doc has a valid point no matter how uncivilized it may be.”

  Gemi opened her mouth to protest, but promptly shut it when she saw the warning look Jaxton gave her.

  “We are almost to base. It would be at most twice and there will always be a guard to make sure you are as safe as the rest of us, but obviously we can’t allow you to keep watch now in case you doze off. Do you agree to this?”

  She nodded reluctantly.

  “Good. Now it’s my turn to apologize. I shouldn’t have lost my temper with you like that. I was so angry with myself for falling asleep and putting you in any kind of danger. Had I been awake like I should have I would have been able to wake you.”

  “What happened was not your fault,” she reached out to grab his hand, but he pulled away. He saw the hurt register on her face and let out a puff of air. “You promised.” she said.

  “I know.”

  “Then why?”

  “Because it’s not safe.”

  “You mean I’m not safe.”

  “Because I let my guard down and bad things happen. I need to protect you, protect Doc. Once we get back to base they will fix you.”

  “Fix me? I’m not a car that needs an oil change.”

  He let out another long exhale. “I’m not good at this kind of stuff, can you just throw me a bone here?”

  Without a word she pushed to her feet, she had heard enough. She raced towards the woods. He called after her but when she glanced over her shoulder his eyes were closed face distorted in pain. He didn’t go after her.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Light broke through the branches of the trees, illuminating the world around her and helping to push the night’s events to the back of her head.

  She hadn’t made it very far. Collapsing into a heap of self-pity a few hundred feet from the camp and there she lay for the remainder of the night.

  Her body ached. Dirt and twigs matted in her hair from where it rested on the damp ground. So much for her shower and the glorious lavender shampoo. Uncurling from the ball she lay in, she was able to take better stock of the ridged way her arms moved. They were bruised and scraped and covered in mud. If she had a mirror she was sure she wouldn’t recognize herself.

  Jaxton never came for her. She couldn’t blame him. She had been foolish running into the unknown wilderness, putting herself willingly into danger, but was too stubborn to come back.

  There was no choice now. They had to head out if they were going to make it to the town by dark. And darkness and the affected did not seem like the best of combinations.

  With one deep steadying breath and a few finger brushes to her hair she crept out into the opening. Doctor Askel hovered above the fire preparing breakfast. He eyed her as she approached before going back to his work. Jaxton was nowhere to be found.

  Gemi busied herself with cleaning up the camp, rolling up the sleeping bags and packing back up all the bags, whatever kept her from having to see the disappointed look in the doctor’s eyes. Tiredness weighed heavy on her making her eyes burn around the rims. It was going to be a long day, not that she suspected there would be any sleep tonight either, not with being tied up like a hostage. Unless of course they made it to base, then there would just be a lot of poking and prodding and tests to make sure she wasn’t insane. That is if she wasn’t affected and immediately put down and as each day passed she seemed to believe she was more and more.

  Another storm had begun to roll in. The clouds moving in on them, their black colors promising a heavy downpour.

  Great.

  Jaxton emerged back into the small campgrounds coming from the area she had spent the night. He moved with purpose and intensity, but she could see the fatigue wearing on his shoulders with the way they hunched forward. He walked past her glancing in her direction before looking away.

  Gemi refused breakfast even after Jaxton had given her his telltale dirty look, instead letting the doctor and Jaxton devour her share as well. Her head was hurting from stress, from lack of sleep, from injuries and the constant emotional onslaught. It was stupid. They were in the middle of the downfall of the human race and there she was fretting and feeling sorry for herself. Even she was disgusted by it. They were right to want to secure her at night. She could seriously harm one of them, getting herself killed in the process, but she had gone too far now to take it back.

  Once they had finished eating they were on the road again. Not an hour into the journey it had begun to pour, a heavy, freezing rain soaking through her clothes and into her bones. Gemi wrapped her arms around herself trying to hug in what body heat she had left.

  Doctor Askel and Jaxton walked a few paces ahead of her, the long dirt road stretching out endlessly before them. The large raindrops had made sizeable pools in the road and loosened the soil to where their feet suctioned with every step. Gemi’s legs burned, her body was giving up on her and each step felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, taking all of her will to pick up and set down again.

  She could see that Jaxton and the doctor were submerged into a deep conversation, but the sound of the rain falling and the wind howling around them drown out any of their words. She sank down into the mud letting the pressing exhausting finally take her over, no longer caring to move.

  Gemi watched the trees sway in the wind the branches twisted and moved as bursts of leaves blew off in different directions and floated in the air. She wished she could be one of those leaves being carried away to some place, any place but here.

  They had abandoned her. Small specs in the road ahead now, the wind and raining too loud to alert them she no longer trailed behind, that she had given up.

  She flopped back into the mud, ice-cold rain pounding down on her face. Had this been a few weeks earlier she would be concerned that someone would make her road kill, but now the streets were deserted. Anyone who ran her over would have been aiming for her anyways. It would be fate or destiny or whatever you wanted to call it.

  Jaxton’s face appeared abov
e her. He wasn’t happy.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  “Resting.”

  He rolled his eyes and scooped her up into his arms. Before she knew what had happened she was flung belly side down across his shoulder. “So you’d rather be dead weight then huh?”

  “I’ve been that for weeks. Just leave me here.”

  “Stop being mellow dramatic. We are almost to the town which means we are almost to base. And you could make this a lot quicker if you would just walk yourself.”

  “Is she ok?” the doctor asked.

  “Oh fine, just throwing a pity party.” Jaxton responded.

  “Fantastic.”

  “You can put me down now,” Gemi shouted over her shoulder.

  Jaxton bent forward and set her on her feet.

  “You can’t give up now when we are almost there.”

  “Where is there? You don’t even know if it’s standing.”

  “Yeah well, I’ve come too far and lost too many to just lay down in the road when we are so close. Suck it up.” Jaxton turned on a heel and trotted to where the doctor stood waiting. Gemi followed reluctantly.

  They walked like that until the sun had set. The rain tapered off, leaving them with a freezing wind that chilled to the bone. She felt as if she would need to be lit on fire in order to ever be warm again. An unpleasant image of her skin bathed in flames, boiling and melting away popped into her head, but she forced it down. Shoving it into a newly created corner of her brain where she was filing things she wanted to forget about the journey.

  A shadow emerged on the horizon. Gemi jogged to where Doctor Askel and Jaxton were. As they got closer the shadows spread out and formed into buildings of various sizes.

  “Is this it?” she asked Jaxton, an unexpected excitement welling up inside her.

  “Yeah it should be. Let’s stick to the tree line from here on out. It’s been abandoned for a few years, but that doesn’t mean that some of the affected aren’t held up here.”

  “Don’t you think that they would have just up and offed each other by now?”

  “I’m not sure. There were a few groups back in your town that seemed to be banned together. Who knows what’s going on in their minds.”

  The group hugged to the trees as instructed as they approached the town. The buildings were dark and motionless. A few seemed to be crumbling at their foundation.

  “Stay here.” Jaxton moved out of the tree coverage and back into the road.

  He approached the town cautiously his gun drawn and held at his side, finger on the trigger. Nothing seemed to stir in the town. Gemi watched him as he disappeared behind the gate and one of the buildings. Seconds stretched into ages, Gemi’s heart pounding into her throat. She leaned forward, scanning the entrance for any movement, her ears searching for any sounds. Finally Jaxton came back around the corner, jogging to where they stood hidden and relief washed over her.

  “Everything is quiet. I ran screaming down one of the streets. If there was anything they would have come out.”

  Gemi and the doctor trailed behind him as he led the way into the town and towards the underground entryway to the base. The town was old, very old. Several decades passed what most considered retro. Some of the buildings even had archaic dishes for television on their roofs, back when the populations needed hundreds of channels of rubbish to melt their brains.

  They turned a corner into the center of town. Something rocketed past her face and ricocheted off of a nearby broken down car.

  Everyone stopped. Lying at her feet was a bright green arrow. A second later and more flew through the air and at them.

  “Run!” Jaxton yelled.

  Without hesitation Gemi broke out into a sprint turning left at the first set of buildings. She ran down an alley that separated two ten story structures. Even with her eyes adjusted to the night she was still having a difficult time seeing.

  Gemi slowed her pace to a jog, straining her ears to listen for any sign of danger. That’s when she noticed that neither Jaxton nor the doctor were with her.

  “Shit!” she hissed under her breath.

  She stopped where she was to assess her surroundings. Dirt covered the cement almost as if the town had been hit by a giant dust storm. All the windows on the buildings had been boarded up as well as the doors so there would be no way to enter them. The walls were lined with dumpsters that still overflowed with garbage. It smelled awful. Whoever abandoned this placed must have left in a hurry.

  Gemi found herself with two options. Either she went back the way she came and hoped that whoever was attacking them had run off in a different direction or continue into the dark unknown. She walked towards the street stretching her neck to see if she could see the road at all. A loud bang erupted from that direction. After her heart dropped back from her throat, she baked down deeper into the alley keeping her eyes alert for any movement.

  A glint of something at the entrance caught her eye. Gemi dropped low, pausing for a heartbeat before inching her way between a set of trashcans. She sat motionless one hand over her mouth to stifle her ragged breathing.

  The sound of footsteps rang off the walls as they crunched on the dirt making their way to where she hid. Gemi closed her eyes trying her best to slow her breathing. She heard the footsteps pass her by and pause. Seconds ticked by like hours.

  A loud bang next to her made Gemi jump back further into the wall, her hands barely able to muffle the screech that erupted from her mouth. Her pursuer rummaged through the garbage, throwing things and knocking over the other trashcans.

  Gemi reached for her side bag in an effort to find her gun and cursed at herself for not keeping it in her waistband. It would be loud, but it would also let Jaxton know where she was. She slid the zipper up as the person got closer and closer to where she hid.

  A pair of black boots came into her peripheral and Gemi froze. Two more feet and whoever that was, was about to find her. Gemi heard the sound of gunfire come from somewhere in the middle of town. The boots turned towards the direction, dropping the bag of garbage in their hand to the ground. Mercifully the boots and the person in them moved towards the sound and back out of the alley. Gemi made an internal prayer that it wasn’t the doctor or Jaxton making all that noise.

  After a few breaths Gemi peaked her head around the corner to see the shadow exiting the alley and disappearing around the building. Gemi pushed up from her hiding spot, throwing her side bag back on, she made her way deeper down the alley.

  A few feet down a large chain-link fence separated her from the rest of the town. A sizeable hole was ripped at the base big enough for her to fit through but would mean she had to belly crawl under it. Gemi looked around for other options, but the barbed wire at the top left her with no other choice.

  Gemi dropped to the ground. She slid off her side bag and pushed it through the opening. Using her elbows, she pulled herself into the hole, pushing with the balls of her feet as she went. It was a tight squeeze forcing her to lie flat on her stomach and continue to pull herself with just her arms. She bit her lip and tried to ignore the pain radiating from her already damaged skin. Halfway through she was halted; something had caught on one of the rough edges of wire. She pulled harder her skin scratching on the rough ground.

  “Shit, fuck, damn It,” she cursed to herself.

  Her bag had gotten tangled up on the netting, the wires of the fence twisting around it. Gemi pushed back, scooting in towards the alley to give her arms slack in the straps. With some careful shimmying she was able to free her left arm and twisted to release her right.

  A door next to her flew open with a bang. She hadn’t even noticed that it wasn’t boarded like the rest. A figure emerged and bee lined right for her, running at full speed.

  She moved faster, forcing her arm out of the one strap. Once free, she dug her hands into the ground and began frantically trying to squeeze through the rest of the way.

  A big hand griped her leg; diggi
ng into her flesh with jagged sharp nails and pulled her back through the opening. Gemi reached out and grasped the side of the fence unsung it for leverage as she blindly kicked at her assailant. A few missed attempts, and she was already more than halfway back into the alley, her fingers burning as they began to lose their grip. Gemi risked a glance back. With the person in sight she took aim and landed a kick square in the face followed by two more. The person let go and stumbled back with their hands to their face. She took the opportunity and crawled her way through all the way.

  Gemi snatched her shoulder bag and stood just as the person launched at her. The face slammed into the fence and she stumbled back. In the dim moonlight she could see blood smeared all over the man’s nose and lips. Large chunks of his skin were missing already partially healed and from the looks of it festering. He wildly slammed his hands and head into the barrier murmuring something under his breath. Gemi didn’t stick around to hear what it was.

  She padded through the streets trying her best to stick to the shadows as she kept an eye out for any signs of the others. She had no idea where this underground entrance was if she didn’t at least find Jaxton she would be stranded with a bunch of affected running around.

  Whooping sounds echoed off somewhere to her right. Gemi took a sharp left ducking behind what looked to be an old dilapidated church with the cross hanging on the roof. She leaned back against the wall and with breath held peaked out around the corner to see a group of people running her direction. She could see a factory looking building just across the way with the doors propped open. If she made a mad dash she would more than likely have time to make it before the group saw or caught up to her.

  Gemi readied herself. She pulled the shoulder bag across her chest to make sure it wouldn’t slip off and planted her feet against the wall to use as leverage. Three deep breathes, and she was ready to go, forcing her body off the wall and towards the road. Mid stride something wrapped around her stomach and yanked her back into the shadows. Her back slammed into someone just as a hand clamped over her mouth dampening her scream.