Paroxysm Effect

by Reynolds, Ashleigh

  “Do you want to explain to me what’s going on?” he said.

  “I think you’re the one who needs to explain.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he muttered.

  “Don’t know what I’m talking about… How about we start with what the hell you were doing in there, and end with this right now.” She was waving her arms in the air by the end of the rant trying her best to ignore the pain it sent through her.

  They both sat there silently staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity, neither one of them wanting to give in. Finally he took a deep breath.

  “That was a mistake and I am sorry that it occurred. I promise I won’t let it happen again.”

  Gemi felt like he punched her in the stomach. The whispered words of the doctor flooded back into her head. He thought of her as a mistake, a mistake he had saved twice and then had almost kissed.

  “Mistake,” she repeated out loud, “good to know.”

  She was suddenly exhausted thankful that the van was close enough to lean against. The last few days, her injuries, and his revelation taking a toll on her, she leaned her head against the side of the van feeling like the world was trying to crush her.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  She wanted to run to escape from this conversation, but she knew her

  legs wouldn’t carry her very far so she settled for going back to hiding out inside the van. She pushed off of the wall, turning to leave but moved too fast, a searing pain ripped through her side making her gasp for air and stumble to her knees.

  Jaxton ran to her pulling her up into his arms. “That is why I told you to rest you’re not fully healed yet.” Gemi was mystified that he could be concerned and scold her at the same time.

  Using him as support she pushed to her feet and walked back towards the van. Neither one said a word to the other until they had reached the entrance.

  “Here let me help you,” he said not waiting for her reply before scoping her up in his arms and stepping up inside.

  “On the seat please,” she said.

  He let out a sigh obviously disagreeing wither her, but did as she asked anyways.

  “Let me take a look,” he said as he reached for her shirt. Gently he lifted the hem up and over her head. Gemi was stunned when she glanced down and saw that her bandages were now colored in red.

  “I think you popped a suture. The healing creams can only do so much in wounds this deep, especially with amateurs at the helm.” He leaned forward and undid the bandage slowly unraveling it from her body.

  Suddenly she felt embarrassed for her actions. It was obvious he cared about her on some level.

  “You definitely popped a few stitches,” he said. “I will have to close it, we should have numbing solution so it shouldn’t cause too much discomfort.”

  He stood and walked to the gear bags without looking up at her. Her face flushed red. In an effort to upset him she had injured herself. Her plan had worked, just not the way she had pictured it.

  “How did you learn how to do this?” she asked.

  “I learned from my father.”

  “Was he a doctor?”

  “No.” he said and she knew that conversation was over.

  His hands on her were distracting as they glided across her skin. Her body grew hot, she wanted nothing more than to reach out and slide her hands through his unkempt hair, but she fought the urge instead gripping the edge of the seat causing her knuckles to go white. Jaxton noticed taking it as a sign that he had caused some sort of pain.

  “I’m sorry, the numbing solution should be taking effect.”

  He worked on stitching her back up and cleaning the now dried blood in a matter of minutes. She felt none of it, partially due to the numbing cream, but also because all she could focus on was where his hands touched. When he had finished re-dressing her wound her reached over and grabbed her shirt. He stretched his arm out to her, shirt in hand.

  “Here,” he said looking up at her his gray eyes filled with some emotion she couldn’t put her finger on.

  “Thank you.” She slipped the shirt back on and leaned back in the chair. “I’m ok now. Don’t worry, go set up the camp.”

  “I’ll come get you when everything is together.”

  “Sounds good.”

  He was up and out of the van, the doors banging closed before she had time to let the full extent of her embarrassment sink in.

  “Don’t worry, I’m fine,” the doctor croaked from the other corner.

  Gemi jumped up and crossed falling down next to him.

  “You’re alive,” she cried throwing her arms around him. “I was so worried.”

  “Seems like it,” he said.

  She smiled down at him tears burning at the brim of her eyes. “Let me go get someone.”

  When Gemi exited the van for the second time she took a second to assess her surroundings. They were definitely not in the mountains any more. The vans were parked in the overhang of heavy trees coverage, but not the pines she had seen sprawling at their last camp. These looked to be some kind of fruit tree and they stretched for miles in the direction that the vans were parked. To her right, she could see a dirt road not far off, no doubt the road they had been driving on.

  The trees seemed to break in the distance to her left, but not a single member of her group was anywhere to be found. Walking to wherever they were was not an option, nor would she like to hear what Jaxton would have to say about that if she did. So instead she cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered.

  “Hello! Hey is someone here?”

  She waited. Nothing.

  “Hello!” she yelled.

  Finally in the distance she saw someone running full speed towards her. They must have thought she was injured.

  “I’m ok don’t worry!” she yelled trying to reassure whoever it was.

  When the person was closer she saw that it was Sann, he looked mad.

  “Are you trying to alert everyone to our whereabouts?” he snapped.

  “No… I’m sorry… it’s just the doctor he’s awake and I couldn’t go walking around –”

  “He’s awake?” He asked cutting her off.

  “Yes just now.”

  Sann strode past her and climbed up into the van. Gemi followed a lot slower still weighed down by her injuries. She sat on the edge of the van, half wanting to give them privacy, but also half knowing she would never make it in without assistance.

  She took a deep breath. They had to be getting close to base. A two-day drive on back roads would take them almost to the state boarder. It made sense, none of the military bases were allowed in city limits. How they had made it all the way to town at the very moment the chips started malfunctioning was beyond her. It made her think that someone had to know more than they were letting on. Someone had to have known something was wrong before the entire population began collapsing.

  CHAPTER SIX

  That night everyone gathered around the fire eating and talking amongst themselves, everyone except Gemi and the doctor who were confined to the medical tent. The camp had been set up in a tighter configuration so their laughter although hushed floated into the tent making Gemi more than a little envious.

  The doctor was recovering fast now that he had woken up. He was so full of energy you would think that he had never been through the horrific ordeal. The only tell was the fact that his injuries had limited his mobility quite a bit.

  Gemi sat in a chair next to his bed sharing dinner with him and listening to stories of when he worked in the military hospital. It was a whole world she did not know had existed until recently.

  “How did you come to leave the hospital and join the exploring groups?” she asked.

  “Let’s just say I disagreed with some of their practices.”

  “So you decided to leave then?”

  “Not exactly,” he said as he speared around the applesauce on his plate.

  “Well, if everyone
is chipped at birth, how does one even become part of the military?” Her curiosity had taken over full force and besides Sann he was the only one willing to tell her the truth.

  “There are two ways. Everyone is given a series of tests on their tenth birthday, do you remember that?”

  “I think so yes. They are used to measure you physical and mental ability.”

  “Ah so you are told,” he said. “They are actually used to measure the different abilities you would need to be part of the military staff. If they rate you as ready they will take you to a facility and gradually turn off the chip letting you adapt to the new emotions. Then once they feel you are ready they will remove it entirely.”

  “Do you have a choice in joining?” she asked.

  “Not if you score high enough. And once your chip is removed there’s really no going back.”

  “How do they know that you won’t react like everyone is now?” she asked.

  “I never said it went without incident.”

  “Oh.”

  They were silent for a while, finishing off their dinner while she tried to digest more than her meal.

  Being ripped away from family so young. It was heart wrenching. No wonder it wasn’t something that the military openly advertised. Hey we’re just going to take your child now. Don’t worry you can make more. How had families gone along with it for so long and not have it be a known topic?

  As awful as it was she could understand why they did it so young. At ten you hadn’t hit puberty yet. They would have a better chance at learning to control their emotions. Something most of the adults were evidently having issues with.

  “What is the other way?” she asked breaking the silence.

  “Hmm? Well I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but what the hell. This is very hush hush you know. There are groups of people who like to live off the grid. They don’t chip their children or if they do will have them removed in secret. Those are the ones who usually seek us out.”

  “My uncle wasn’t chipped,” she blurted out understanding why she was telling him. It just fell out of her mouth before she could stop it.

  “It’s more common than most civilians think.”

  Gemi was relieved to find no judgment in his words.

  “Jaxton was one of those you know.”

  “What?” Gemi said lowering her voice to a whisper.

  “Oh yes. He grew up in the outskirts of town. His father was a huge believer in the anti-chip ideology.”

  “How did he end up here then?”

  “Ah that is a long story. Best saved for another time.”

  “Another time?” she asked. “It’s not like we are brimming with things to do all cooped up like this.”

  The doctor rubbed his now scruffy chin in contemplation. “This doesn’t leave this tent,” he finally said. “There are few whom he trusts enough to tell about his past, and seeing how he has taken a liking to you perhaps it is best that you do know. As I said before, he grew up on the outskirts of town. His family was extremely against chipping. His mother had all of his brothers and sisters at home, never once bringing them into town or to any local facilities. It’s lucky that there is a following that includes doctors such as myself or I’m sure there would be a higher number of deaths from birth and sickness. That leads me to answer your question as to why I was removed from the hospital and exiled out here.”

  “Not you too. But why?” she asked.

  “I have seen both sides. Spent enough time around those who are in charge to know the things they would have you believe are not always what is best for you, but what is best for them.” Doctor Askel spoke his eyes reflecting some painful memory. “Anyways, back to the story at hand. You see, Jaxton was a very curious child, ornery at best. He would sneak away from their home and into the city. On one such trip when he was sixteen he met a young lady. They fell in love; he told her everything about how he was raised and where they lived, all about the philosophies of the anti-chippers. He proposed to her on the night he turned eighteen and they planned to run away with together. He was crazy in love with her you see and willing to do anything, even get chipped so that he could live a normal life with her.”

  Doctor Askel paused for a moment staring off into the distance.

  “It was the night they were to run away, she went to meet him in the woods by his house, but instead of Jaxton it was his father. He had become suspicious of the times that his son had disappeared in the night and began following him. He caught him leaving that night and beat him to within an inch of his life; he was barely able to walk when I arrived. He forced the girl back to their house and gave a proposition, either he removed the chip or he was going to kill her then and there, right in front of Jaxton. Jaxton agreed to let his father take it out. She begged him not too, but at that point there wasn’t much of an option. He really thought that she would survive, give them a chance to live out the rest of their lives together.”

  “That’s awful,” Gemi whispered.

  “If only that was the end of the story,” he said lowering his eyes from hers. “You see there is a reason that they lower the strength of the chip before removing it from people. If you haven’t noticed people kind of going crazy around here. You can imagine what could happen to an eighteen year old girl who had it forcefully removed and secluded from her family. She started to slip into a deep depression, one that even I could not help her out of. Jaxton found her. She hung herself from the rafters of their room. He called me, hoping there would be some way to save her, but there was nothing that I could do. I took him with me that night and brought him to the military compound. I told them that I found him on the streets confused and un-chipped. They hardly believed me. I was demoted and forced to work as the training doctor. When Jaxton was released on duty I requested to go with him, vowing to always take care of him.”

  Gemi sat silent trying to process all this new information. It explained a lot about Jaxon.

  “Do you hate me now?” He whispered.

  “I don’t!” she exclaimed, crawling onto his cot and wrapped her arms around him. “In all my years knowing about anti-chipping, I guess I never fully grasped what was going on out there or just didn’t want to. It sounds to me that you were just trying to help both parties. It’s illegal yes, but who’s to say what I would have done in your position.”

  “Oh my dear, I think that if you were able to feel the full range of emotion right now, the only thing you would be feeling is disgust towards me and the things I have done.”

  He gave her a kiss on the top of the head, wrapping his arms around her to pull her into a hug. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t grateful for that right now,” he murmured.

  They fell asleep like that, as Gemi pondered on his revelations wondering if it were true, would she really feel different about him, about all of them if she did not have a chip dictating her feelings.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “What’s all this now?”

  Jaxton’s voice pulled her out of her slumber. He was standing next to the cot arms folded staring at them questioningly. Gemi rubbed the sleep from her eyes at a loss for words. She wasn’t going to just up and tell him the conversation they had. By sheer luck, the doctor stepped in before she had to speak.

  “Don’t be jealous now Jaxton. If you didn’t force her into this little corner of our world, this could be you. She is a marvelous snuggler in case you were wondering.”

  Gemi’s face went bright red, she felt like disappearing. She rubbed her hands over her face again trying her best to look every way but at him.

  “That’s why I am here actually,” Jaxton said still staring at her. “We are running low on supplies, there is a stream not far from camp where we could load up on water and possibly fish. I was wondering if in your professional opinion Gemi would be cleared to go on a little adventure with me.”

  Gemi bolted upright her eyes alight with excitement. The thought of going anywhere else besides this tent had her on pins and
needles.

  “Well…” the doctor pondered.

  “Please!” she begged.

  “Well, I don’t think that it would hurt anything, her wounds should be healed pass the point of re-injury now. Good job on those sutures by the way.”

  “Thank you!” Gemi jumped out of bed, ignoring the head rush it caused.

  Jaxton smiled at her, a real genuine smile that showed he was more than excited to be getting away from the camp as well.

  “I’ll meet you right outside. You should have a change of clothes in a bag under your bed,” he said before turning to leave.

  Gemi scrambled about. As she pulled the clothes on she realized she now matched the same dreary uniform they all wore. You wouldn’t be able to tell her apart in a lineup.

  “A word of warning,” Doctor Askel called from his bed.

  Gemi stopped what she was doing, feeling the excitement fade she turned back to him.

  “I will tell you the same thing I told him, don’t get attached. If you think that for one second you are going to be let go once we get to base you are sorely mistaken. If you take anything away from my story last night it is this, whatever you think of Jaxton’s dad and the other anti-chippers, the people who run this world are much, much worse.”

  Gemi exited the tent with a cloud now hovering over her head. She now understood Jaxton’s reservations and the reason he kept her at an arm’s length. The doctor was right, there were only two ways that this whole thing could play out. Either she went crazy and was killed or she lived and was forever experimented on. Neither one ended well for her.

  The sun shown bright down on her, the rays warming her skin despite the nip in the air. It did nothing for her downed spirit.

  Jaxton was leaning against a nearby tree staring out into the distance. He was once again his perfectly presentable self, not a hair out of place. He stood upright when he saw her, a little smile playing at the corner of his mouth.