{"id":3301,"date":"2017-07-28T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T04:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3301"},"modified":"2017-07-27T19:01:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T23:01:36","slug":"eighteen-03-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3301","title":{"rendered":"Eighteen – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Pain screamed through his limbs, nearly enough to take his breath away. Chills wracked him as Thom grit his teeth, watching as Paul turned away, grateful there had been no hesitation in following orders. Breath burned in his lungs as he got one leg beneath him, one arm helping push himself upright. The other arm was useless; his shoulder dislocated or worse.<\/p>\n

Not good.<\/em><\/p>\n

He took a step and nearly went down again, his left knee refusing to support his weight. Really not good.<\/em><\/p>\n

Below, he could see Rory burning the body of the camazotzi<\/em> that had nearly killed him, then watched his friend turn to face another swooping from overhead, trying to catch Rory off-guard as its fellow had caught Thom. Rory threw up a hand alight with barely dampened flame and thrust it toward the creature\u2019s chest. Thom winced at the camazotzi\u2019s<\/em> shriek and the smell of charred flesh.<\/p>\n

Effective, though. Damned effective.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThom!\u201d<\/p>\n

He flinched at the sound of J.T.\u2019s voice, at the urgency interlaced with worry that he heard in it. \u201cUp here,\u201d he called, still on one knee, not quite daring to try standing again as waves of pain and hot and cold crashed through him. \u201cIn the tower.\u201d<\/p>\n

J.T. dropped from the wall with a far greater nimble grace than one would expect from a man of his size and build. He dashed across the gap between the wall and the watchtower, dodging one of the last camazotzi<\/em> on the ground and leaving it to Rory to dispatch. Thom couldn\u2019t suppress the curse that dropped from his lips. \u201cFuck-all, Jay, I\u2019m fine. They need you on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re fine on the wall,\u201d J.T. snapped, scrambling up the ladder, his words punctuated by Seamus\u2019s order to the arches to loose another volley. \u201cWhat the hell was that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got sloppy,\u201d Thom said as J.T. reached his side. \u201cThing shouldn\u2019t have gotten claws on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re bleeding,\u201d J.T. said, his tone grim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat explains the dizziness.\u201d Darkness was nibbling at the edges of his vision and he was hot despite the cold rain.<\/p>\n

Going into shock, maybe?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDammit, Thom.\u201d<\/p>\n

It had gotten so cold<\/em>. Thom\u2019s eyes slid shut. He could feel the wounds now, in his shoulders, burning. \u201cGet back to the wall,\u201d he mumbled. \u201cTake care of Marin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom didn\u2019t hear whatever denial J.T. mustered. He slumped bonelessly into his friend\u2019s waiting arms with his wife\u2019s name still on his lips, unconscious before another word was spoken.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] Pain screamed through his limbs, nearly enough to take his breath away. Chills wracked him as Thom grit his teeth, watching as Paul turned away, grateful there had been no hesitation in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,264,14],"tags":[150,171,170,160,149,223,148,218,159,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-3301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-18-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-original-fiction","tag-paul-van-rijn","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-rory-ohara","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Rf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3302,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions\/3302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}