“Oh yeah that. I’m doing much better this morning.” She shot Jaxton a sideways glance. His eyes were cast down still messing with his knives, but a wide smile spread across his face.
“That’s good because I think we should head out today. The storm has passed and staying in one place for too long, especially such an obvious landmark like this is dangerous.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” she said reaching for the pot to pour another cup of coffee. It would have to hold her off for a while; they may not even have any at the base.
“Glad we are in agreement. Well I am going to take advantage of the hot running water. We should head out in a couple hours it will give us a good chunk of the day to travel.”
After the doctor was out of earshot Jaxton looked up at her, “I had quiet the appetite this morning as well.”
Gemi’s mouth dropped open as a salacious grin spread across his face.
***
A few hours later they were all clean and packed, a second wind finding everyone after a stress free restful night.
They set out down the dirt road that ran from the house’s driveway. The road was thickly lined on both sides with various crops that were binging to show signs of neglect. The air was brisk making Gemi thankful that the woman had a winter coat in her closet. The doctor had taken advantage of clean clothes as well, trading in his army uniform for jeans and a T-shirt he must have found in the man’s closet.
No one spoke as they walked, all of their minds lost in their own thoughts. Doctor Askel walked ahead swaying his body to the tune he was whistling, his face cast up towards the now clear sky.
Gemi looked towards Jaxton. He was an arm’s length away matching her pace, his eyes sweeping from side to side as he surveyed the road in front of them. He had kept his army uniform despite the fact that it was marred by their journey. Blood stains streaked the side of his jacket and pants. Gemi closed her eyes trying to force the image of him hanging from the seat of the van from her head.
When she looked back over at him he was staring back at her, his eyes trying to read the pain in her face.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.
She shook her head.
Jaxton narrowed his eyes at her, but let it drop turning his attention back to the road in front of them.
Being back out in the open was already making her uneasy. They had faced so much and barely made it out when their numbers were larger. A couple days journey the doctor had said making it seem like some adventure and not the fight for their life that it actually was.
Gemi closed her eyes again, dreaming of being back safe in the house. Running water and coffee had made it easy to forget the world outside, letting her regain some of the person she has once been.
Opening her eyes again she could see the doctor fiddling with the long-range communication device that had gone dead long before the shit had really hit the fan for them. No one wanted to talk about it, the fact that they could be walking to their certain death. Who knew if the base was even standing any more. If it were, and everyone there was untouched by the craziness it would be a pretty big dick move to ignore their calls.
A crow screeching at them as they passed made Gemi nearly jump out of her skin.
“Stupid bird!” she yelled as she tossed a rock from the road at it. It squawked back at her before taking flight and disappearing into the distance.
“Easy there killer.” Jaxton wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him.
“That’s not funny.” Gemi drew back away from him. “I don’t like being out in the open like this.”
“Hey.” He reached over and grabbed her hand. “ I didn’t mean it like that. Seriously it just came out. Will you look at me?”
Gemi peaked up at him not yet wanting to let go of her hurt feelings.
“We’re going to be fine. We made it this far.”
“Some of us have.”
“True. But despite that, we can’t give up. We will beat this you’ll see.”
“I never said I was rolling over and giving up, but flinching every time there is a noise isn’t my idea of a picnic.”
Jaxton stopped walking jerking her to a stop in the process. “Why are you wanting to fight with me all of a sudden?”
“I’m not.” Gemi glanced over towards the doctor, the distance growing between them making her chew on her lower lip in unease.
“Sure seems like it,” Jaxton continued. “I thought we had a deal here, no more putting walls up between us.”
Gemi let out a long breath of air. He was right and she knew it, but she was having a hard time pushing away the stubbornness that had overtaken her. Gemi starred down the road, the doctor was now an uncomfortable distance away.
“Your right, I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“There is nothing to be sorry for.” His other hand reached up and cupped the side of her face.
Gemi finally looked back towards him, his eyes gazed down at her softly, the look in his eyes taking her by surprise. She was still getting used to seeing this side of him.
“Let’s catch up to Doc, I don’t think separating is a good idea.”
As if the universe heard her, the doctor let out a holler, waving his hands in the air. “Hey!”
Jaxton and Gemi took off in a sprint towards him her heart pounding in her throat. As they got closer she began surveying the road, right, left, past the doctor, and for good measure she threw her head over her shoulder to check behind them. Nothing.
“What’s wrong?” Jaxton called as they came to a stop in front of the doctor who was now sitting on the ground with the device between his legs.
“Shhh!” he waved his hand at them. “Listen.”
Gemi strained her ears. There was a soft breeze that knocked the trees together, somewhere in the distance birds squawked at something. Nothing else caught her as urgent or unusual. She glanced up at Jaxton about to voice her question of the doctor’s sanity when there it was. The device in the doctor’s lap came to life, cracking and hissing before an unknown voice echoed out through the speakers.
“Base 2B down. I repeat… base 2… down… All available staff have been moved to… once again all staff…to…” the speakers filled with a hissing noise once again.
“That’s it?” Gemi asked.
“Yeah, it just repeats.”
“I didn’t hear what other base they directed us to. How many others are there besides 2B?”
“A lot,” Jaxton interjected, “how do we know this isn’t prerecorded, that after 2B fell the rest didn’t?”
“We don’t,” the doctor said.
All three fell silent. Gemi could feel their journey crumbling out from underneath them. The strangling feeling that everything they had done and everyone they had lost had been for nothing. The looks on the other’s faces said they were feeling the same thing.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
Doctor Askel shrugged and shook his head. The message had utterly defeated him.
“We continue on,” Jaxton said. “If anything else had fallen after 2B I’m sure they would have had time to put out another message. There are plenty of places to take refuge.” Even he seemed as if he didn’t believe what he was saying.
“How do you know that there was a longer message that just got cut off?” Gemi asked.
The wrinkle that appeared between Jaxton’s eyes answered her question.
“We don’t even know which base to head to, or if there is even a safe way through now,” the doctor said looking up from the hissing device in his lap.
“I’m not giving up,” Jaxton shouted making Gemi jump.
“No one is asking you to, but we can’t just walk to our death.”
“Maybe we should just –” the look Jaxton shot her made Gemi stop short.
“I know a way in, a safe way. Once in we can decide whatever base we want.”
“How?” the doctor asked.
“When you first brought me to base I hat
ed it, I would wander around trying to find any way out that I could take and be unnoticed. I stumbled upon it by total accident. There is an underground system built in, completely abandoned, but it will do its job.”
“How do we know it won’t be overrun?”
“As far as I can tell the only ones who know about it are the ones that built it, anyone with blueprints, who would already be on the inside, and me.”
“How would we get into it?” Gemi asked.
“Do you still have that map doc?”
Doctor Askel slid out of his bag and pulled it to the front of him. After a few seconds of riffling around he emerged with the crumpled map. Jaxton took it from him and fell to his knees in the road.
“Here,” he pointed. “There is a small old town, one of the tunnels spits you out right under an apartment building.”
“You mean an apartment building that is possibly over run by people that have lost their minds?” Gemi asked.
“It’s possible yes, but any other way is going to be that much more dangerous, especially if we don’t know what base we are going to.”
“How far away is it?”
“Fifteen miles.”
“I don’t see any other choice,” the doctor said, looking at Gemi expectantly.
“Well, I guess we have a location, but what’s our plan?” she said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gemi lay stretched out on the sleeping bag. The warmth from the fire was now just touching her feet. Although they had deemed it safe to camp and light the fire, she had yet to convince her brain to shut off long enough to drift off.
The doctor not having the same problem lay snoring softly beside her. Each noisy breath he let out brought her anxiety level higher until she couldn’t take it anymore. Gemi sat up with a sigh knowing she was going to feel the lack of sleep tomorrow.
Through the dimming fire she could see Jaxton siting with his back propped against a tree staring off into the distance. He had volunteered to take the first watch, and since she wasn’t getting sleep she figured she might as well go relieve him.
Her movement drew his gaze from whatever was fascinating him off in the distance.
“Hey,” she whispered.
“What are you doing up?”
“Couldn’t sleep. Figured I would relieve you early.”
Gemi sat down next to him sliding in close as a shiver rocked her body.
“Aren’t you cold?” she asked.
“Not really. You should sleep.”
“I don’t see that happening. You go ahead, I can keep lookout.”
Jaxton wrapped his arm around her as another shiver rolled through her. He leaned his head on hers and ran a hand lazily up and down her arm. They sat quiet for some time, him staring off into the distance as she stared into the dying fire.
***
Gemi didn’t remember closing her eyes, couldn’t recall the exact moment when sleep overtook her. When her eyes flashed back open, she sat with her back cradled against the tree, the side of her face pressed against the rough surface of the tree bark.
The camp was dead quiet, the fire burnt out for some time. Gemi reached out besides her expecting to find Jaxton. When they came up empty she bolted upright, fear ripping through her causing her heart to race, the noise filling her ears.
“Jaxton?” she whispered.
Nothing.
She pushed up off the ground peaking around the other side of the tree before stumbling down the slight hill and towards the smoke filled camp. She found the doctor’s sleeping bag with him still sound asleep, his head poking out into the night air.
Her sleeping bag wasn’t far; her hands found a large mound stuffed inside. Jaxton must have taken her up on the offer of sleep. He was going to be pretty pissed when he discovers she fell asleep on post. That is if she even told him.
“Hey sleepy head,” she whispered near his ear, giving his body a soft shake. “Wake up you.” She continued when there was no response. “Make room I’m freezing out here.”
He didn’t rouse. Gemi reached over and pulled him onto his back before reaching up and sliding the sleeping bag down off his face.
A scream ripped through the night air strangled and heavy. Gemi clapped her hand over her mouth once she realized it had been coming from her. She blinked hard willing the image in front of her to go away. Jaxton’s dead eyes started back up at her, the once brilliant color now clouded over.
Trembling hands reached for the sleeping bag, slowly she pulled it down feeling her breath catch in her throat when the large gash covering most of his neck came into view. Blood had pooled around the side of him causing the sleeping bag to stick to his frame.
“Oh my God,” she let out as hot tears streamed down her face. She stumbled backwards falling into the doctors slumbering body.
“Doc, Doc please wake up.”
Silence greeted her pleas. She didn’t need to look; she already knew he was dead as well.
Gemi fell to the ground, curling up in a tight ball on her side letting her tears come, hard sobs wracking her body. She was alone.
Hands where on her, shaking her entire body. A voice shouted in the distance, it was so familiar but she couldn’t make out the words. She wanted to open her eyes, to search for the face that matched the voice, but her eyes were too heavy. Too heavy from tears, fright, newfound anger and everything else they had been through so she closed them tighter.
The stranger’s hands gripped harder now, the shaking becoming more violent, the voice louder and closer to her face.
“Wake up!” it shouted.
***
Gemi’s eyes snapped open. She found herself in the same campground, but instead of near the smoldered fire she was still by the tree she had fall asleep near. Glancing around, she saw that the doctor was awake, and alive standing a few feet from her. But something about his face sent shivers up her spine. He was on edge staring at her as if she was a wild beast who had escaped from captivity. He had his gun at his side, finger hovering by the trigger.
Gemi closed her eyes tight trying to blink away the remnants of her slumber. When she looked down, she saw that Jaxton was underneath her and he was eyeing her with a wary look. That’s when she saw that her hands still rested upon his neck. Red marks already appearing where her nails had dug in.
At once she rolled off of him, backing up a few paces. “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” he said pushing up from the ground.
“I don’t know.”
“Well all I know is that I dozed off for a second and woke with your hands around my throat sobbing and babbling like a crazy person,” he snapped.
Apparently he wasn’t in favor of being awakened by the threat of death.
“I’m sorry. I though the dreams had gone away. I… I never lashed out during them before, god that I know of.”
“Dreams? What dreams?” the doctor asked finally finding his voice.
“I don’t know, bad ones.”
“Explain,” Jaxton said more a demand than a question.
“When I go to sleep I dream that people around me are hurt, that’s it.”
“How long has this been going on?” the doctor probed.
Gemi looked down at the dirt. Her foot dug into the ground, knocking a rock loose from the soil and watched it roll down the hill.
“Right after everything went to hell I, I don’t know. Does this even matter?”
“So this has happened more than that one time?” Jaxton’s asked.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now.” Gemi said meaning to turn and retreat into the trees, but a hand reached out and grabbed her roughly, pulling her back towards the center of their camp.
Jaxton pushed her down onto the sleeping bag and stood looming over her his body tense waiting for her to try to escape again. Gemi glanced up meeting his gaze and was immediately sorry that she had. His expression was pulled tight, dancing between anger and some other emotion she couldn’
t quite put her finger on. His eyes burned bright and every trace of the lighthearted man she had spent the good part of the day with was gone.
“I’m not proud of it ok,” she said.
“Of what?” Jaxton barked
“I’ve been having dreams, bad ones where people usually end up dead. You knew about the one I had the night before you sent Kai away. This is the first time I have actually woken up and seemed to act it out though.”
“Acting it out?” Doctor Askel was now standing on the other side of her.
“Fuck. I have dreams where I murder people ok? You specifically.” She thrust a finger in Jaxton’s direction.
The camp went silent. Gemi didn’t need to look up to see how they felt. Cocking her head to one side she began tracing the stitching on her sleeping bag with one finger.
In the distance an owl hooted. The wind blew stronger now rusting the trees and moving the abandoned leaves across the ground. Gemi hugged her arms around herself trying to block out the shivers it caused.
Finally the doctor cleared his throat breaking the silence.
“Well then, we know and now we can take precautions.”
“Precautions?” Gemi asked.
“Well yes. I think now along with the night guards the person will have to watch over you, make sure you do nothing while in your nightmare state. It will be best if we bound you too, I think I have some loose rope in one of my bags.”
“Are you insane? You’re not tying me up.”
“Well what do you suggest then? We can’t just leave you free to roam, it’s too dangerous.”
Gemi gaped at the doctor. He couldn’t be serious. There was no way she was going to let them tie her up.
Jaxton’s hands balled into fists, the muscles in his neck straining. He was visibly having some kind of internal struggle. Without another word her turned and disappeared into the trees and darkness.
The doctor snorted under his breath and returned to his sleeping bag, sliding inside he turned his back to face Gemi.
The world went quiet again; all but the wind and the occasional rustle of a nocturnal animal.
Paroxysm Effect Page 15
