by Jack Porter
“Nope,” I said quietly, answering her question. “That’s one hundred percent all natural Adam, just as the universe intended.”
It seemed she was about to respond, perhaps to make some clever comment. But I plunged myself into her depths once again, flicking my tongue against her most sensitive spot, and she seemed to forget what she was going to say.
Instead, she let out a gasp and pressed herself more firmly against me. At the same time, she returned the favor, first using her tongue along the length of my shaft before grabbing hold of me and going the full lollipop, taking me into her mouth as much as she could.
It was then that I learned Deeve had a talented tongue. She could have tied a knot in a string, if she so desired. I found all conscious thoughts going on hold as the athletic woman sucked and circled the tip of my dick at the same time.
For long moments, I lay back and enjoyed it. Then Deeve wiggled her ass in my face, reminding me of her existence, and I added a finger into the mix, exploring her depths at the same time as I licked and kissed, teasing her lips with my own.
It wasn’t long before Deeve began to writhe against me, eons of instinctive responses coming to the fore. She clenched her thighs against the sides of my head but I didn’t let up. For a moment or two, Deeve seemed to get distracted from what she was doing, but she was determined to give as good as she got, and never paused for too long.
Yet her quest for silence with the others so close wasn’t entirely successful. Deeve was good at stifling her reflexive grunts and moans, but her breathing had become deeper, with only the ongoing wind of the sandstorm covering it up.
I felt myself starting to strain, responding to her efforts, and knew that if she continued what she was doing, I wasn’t going to last much longer. As for Deeve herself, the way she was moving against me suggested that my efforts were bearing fruit. She was very wet. I could feel the tension in her thighs, and the way she clamped down against me suggested she was close.
But instead of continuing, of reaching for her own climax, she all of a sudden disengaged, spinning around to face me.
She gave me a grin as she reached down to line me up with her entrance.
“I think that’s more than enough foreplay,” she said, her voice sounding husky. “Don’t you?”
I found myself grinning. “Whatever you say,” I said as the athletic woman closed her eyes at the feel of the tip of me entering her pussy.
It seemed that she wanted to take it slowly, but the work she and I had both done had taken that option away. I grabbed her hips with both hands and buried myself in her as deep as I could, reveling in her easy wetness, marveling that she could take my full length.
Deeve made a noise of surprise mixed with pleasure. She swallowed once, then began grinding against me, still keeping herself low, effectively hiding behind the stack of supplies.
It would have been nice if she’d sat upright and removed her shirt as well, allowing me to feast my eyes on the perfection beneath. But with so many potential eyes around us, it seemed that that was a step too far. Instead, she clung to me tightly, burying her face in my shoulder as we matched rhythms to each other, my hands kneading the flesh of her butt as I buried myself deep within her again and again.
We quickly built to a crescendo, with Deeve deliberately muffling her cries in my shirt even as she shuddered against me.
Her climax, when it came, was a rollercoaster, a drawn-out combination of shuddering thighs and jerky movements, of her holding her breath and biting my shoulder even as she held onto me with everything she had.
When I thought it was over and done, she ramped up to a new level, grinding herself against me, her most intimate muscles clenching and unclenching in a rhythm that almost put me over the edge.
When she finally calmed down, her pussy even wetter than it had been before, she paused for a moment before pushing herself up enough to look into my eyes.
She made a noise that was almost a purr of approval. I started to move against her again, but she shook her head.
“Not this way,” she said, and all at once, she disengaged, leaving me decidedly unfulfilled.
But she wasn’t done. She shuffled herself down, wrapped both hands around the base of my shaft and got to work with her mouth once again.
Her intention was clear, and her efforts were on point. I lay back, closed my eyes, and locked my fingers behind my own head, content to let her do what she did best.
In just a few minutes, she brought me close to the edge, my dick straining, my hips moving of their own volition. Still she continued, using that marvelous tongue, using her hands to add to her efforts, bringing me all the way home.
All at once, I gritted my teeth as I bucked and shuddered beneath her, Deeve keeping her lips locked around my shaft as I gave her my all.
Even then, she continued to suck, drawing out all that I had, not breaking away for even a moment.
Finally, the rollercoaster came to an end. Deeve stayed as she was for a little while longer, just making sure. Then she kissed me once more before moving away. She looked at me with an expression of self-satisfaction and gave me a nod.
Job done.
It was all I could do to do up my pants as Deeve climbed back into hers. Almost as soon as we were both decent once more, I found myself drifting off.
The last thing I did before sleep claimed me completely was listen. But if our mutual efforts had woken any of the others, I couldn’t tell.
I drifted to sleep to the tune of the sandstorm still raging, and the gentle snores of the women who had survived the crash with me.
Chapter 15
“Adam! Help!”
Someone was screaming. Others called out in confusion and panic. But it was Uma calling my name that pulled me from my dreams as surely as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over my face.
I was sitting up, grateful that I’d remembered to do up my pants, and blinking in the sudden light. I reached for my makeshift club before I fully understood what was going on.
The analytical part of my mind noted the brightness and I knew that the sandstorm was over. But that was inconsequential just at that moment.
Of far greater importance—and urgency—was that for the second time, we were under attack.
It was Sydney who was screaming, and she hadn’t paused for a moment. There was a writhing, armored thing that seemed to have come up from beneath the ground, and it had wrapped its coiled length around one of the environmentalist’s legs, even as a second coiling length was questing toward her.
Jayloo was doing her best to pull Sydney out of the snakelike thing’s grip, but it wouldn’t let go.
“What the fuck?” I said to nobody in particular.
Nor was this pair of questing monsters alone. Other burrowing black nightmares had emerged around different parts of the canvas floor, and Uma, Deeve, and Kia were all doing their best to stay out of its grip.
Of them all, only Deeve had any weapons in her hands, and she was doing her best to hack at the dark, sinuous shapes, with little apparent success.
I didn’t know what these things were. Whether they were a larger example of that trapdoor creature, if it was a colony of this planet’s version of snakes, or what. Not that it mattered. All that mattered was that Sydney and the others were in danger.
Without a second thought, I hurled myself into the fray, swinging my club at the sinuous beasts for all I was worth.
Perhaps Deeve lacked the strength to pierce the foul creature’s armor with her knives, but I had no such limitation. My first swing brought the spike of my club down hard, through the creature’s armor as if it didn’t exist. Black ichor sprayed from the wound, and from somewhere beneath the canvas, the monster let out its equivalent of a scream.
At that moment, I understood that we were fighting not a colony of creatures, but a singular entity, a hydra thing of some kind.
As fast as thought, it withdrew the tentacle I’d wounded, and that was good enough.
I aimed my club at the writhing thing that held Sydney’s ankle and did my damnedest to crush it into mush.
Again and again, I raised my club, bringing it down with all of my strength, doing what I could to convince the foul creature to that we were too much trouble to bother with.
And within just a couple of minutes, it seemed to get the message. Still crying out in alien pain, it withdrew all of its tentacles at once.
All of a sudden, Uma, Deeve, and the others all seemed to pause, to look around as if seeking something more to fight. But there was nothing.
I felt my heart pounding away in my chest, and was starting to think that fighting monsters was an invigorating way to begin the day. I looked over to Sydney and Jayloo.
“Are you two okay?” I asked.
But before either of them could give an answer, Kia spoke up.
“It isn’t over,” the psychic woman said.
Instantly, I was back on alert. But I could see nothing, could hear nothing. The noises the creature had made in response to its pain were gone.
For long seconds, all of us waited, wondering what was to come next.
“Could you be mistaken?” Sydney asked, her voice hesitant, and then all hell broke loose.
The canvas beneath my feet fell away, dropping me into a depression almost as deep as I was tall. At the same time, dozens of those writhing appendages appeared all around me, each of them questing for an arm, leg, whatever it could reach.
I figured out two things very quickly. The first was that this creature’s attack was deliberate. That it had come after me because I was its most dangerous adversary.
The second was that if it tangled me up, then there would be little the girls could do to save me.
Therefore, I had to act, and I had to act fast.
I let out a guttural roar and went on the attack, swinging my club about me as if my life depended on it. Because it probably did. At first, my efforts were enough to keep the armored tentacles back, but my defense wasn’t perfect. One of its tentacles latched onto my leg in the same way it had done with Sydney just a few moments before.
In growing rage, I brought my club down, cutting right through the sinuous flesh, once again eliciting a cry from the monster. It came from right behind me.
Even though most of the tentacles were coming at me head on, I whirled about and found myself looking at the face of a nightmare.
It was as if an octopus had been painted black, given half a dozen eyes and an open maw with dripping, ichorous fangs.
Without hesitation, that globular body became my main target. I let out a stream of curses as I hacked at it with everything I had, virtually ignoring the tentacles that still quested toward me, using the spiky end of my club to good effect.
A creature with writhing tentacles that seemed to be able to grow and shrink as the monster could do shouldn’t have been so heavily armored. Nevertheless, I kept at it, changing my swing whenever I felt something reaching too close, and hammering away at the creature’s body when I could.
And, just like the first time, after only a couple of minutes, the monster seemed to get the message.
It shrank into the sand as if it was liquid rather than solid.
This time, I didn’t relax for a second. I called out to Kia. “Is it gone?” I asked.
“I think so. For the moment, at least.”
“Well, unless someone has a better suggestion, I would say this is a good time to break camp and get out of here.”
Nobody dissented, and we moved as quickly as we could to gather up the various canvases, poles, and cords, and pack everything back away on the sled.
Within a surprisingly short time, we were ready to climb back into our harnesses.
The day was clear and bright, with not a gust of wind. I consulted my internal compass, measured our shadows as they reached out before us once more, and, working together with the girls, pulled the sled along behind us.
Chapter 16
The going wasn’t as easy as it had been the day before. Sydney’s left ankle had borne the brunt of the hydra monster’s attention, and while she could walk on it, she couldn’t place as much pressure on it as usual, and also couldn’t pull as much weight as she could before.
In addition, both Jayloo and Uma had developed blisters on their feet. Jayloo and Sydney hobbled along as best as they could, but it was Uma whose injury took the biggest toll.
She said very little, but her limping was clear, and it left more of the work for me and Deeve.
In addition, the hydra monster had spooked the girls. They kept looking about as if expecting it to reappear and resume the attack, and because of this, the rhythm we’d found before largely deserted us.
Yet there wasn’t a great deal of choice. We had to keep going, in part to reach the promise of the green belt, and in part to get away from where the hydra monster had attacked.
Grimly, without saying a word, I simply took as much of the weight of the sled as I could, and kept forging ahead.
Even so, instead of our usual two-hour hike before taking a break, it was clear before a single hour had passed that some of us needed a rest.
By then, we were in a desert area, a dustbowl devoid of all signs of life, without even any skeletons or desiccated plants to break the monotony.
But at least, I figured that we would be able to spot any predators before they attacked, and perhaps that was a good enough advantage to cling to.
When the girls shrugged out of their harnesses and largely collapsed onto the sand, I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my sleeve, and cracked open the water container.
“Is this whole fucking world full of nothing but inhospitable wastelands and monsters?” Jayloo muttered to no one and everyone all at once.
“It might seem that way,” Uma said. “But the only creatures that are going to seek us out are those that might think of us as prey. Those that would see us as more dangerous would do what they can to keep out of our way.”
Sydney was nodding as if in agreement even as she took off her shoe and studied her ankle. I offered her a drink first, and she accepted without a word. At the same time, I studied her ankle closely.
“How is it?” I asked.
“There’s a little swelling,” she said. “Nothing serious, I don’t think. Although ideally, I would like to put some ice on it and rest for a couple of days.”
Jayloo had a look of scorn on her face. “What are you now, some kind of doctor as well?” she asked me. Apparently, she didn’t appreciate my interest in Sydney’s ankle.
I shook my head. “Far from it. But my training did include the basics of first aid.” I nodded to the supplies. “The med kit probably has a bandage or two, and perhaps some cooling foam as well. Would you like me to get it for you?”
Sydney nodded. “Yes please,” she said.
Before I turned away, I said to Jayloo, “I could also look at that arm of yours, if you like.”
The purple-haired woman snorted. “It’s just a sprained wrist,” she said. “And a bit of bruising. And if you cared so much, why didn’t you offer yesterday?”
There was far more venom in her words than I felt I deserved. This time, I didn’t feel like letting it pass.
I returned her glare calmly. “You mean when you were advocating letting me wander through the wastelands all by myself, with my chains still in place?” I asked her. Unlike her, I kept my tone light and largely non-judgmental. “Mostly because I thought you wouldn’t be receptive to anything I said.”
Leaving her looking vaguely stunned at my words, I returned to the supplies and dug through the medical kit.
It was about what I had come to expect from a Company transport. Nothing very sophisticated. If I’d hoped for some sort of electronic diagnostic tool, or for anything more than the most rudimentary bandages, painkillers, medical glue and stapler, and a few other odds and ends, then I was shit out of luck. There was however a collection of needles and thread, whi
ch I thought might prove useful in the future, and some scissors as well.
Other than that, it looked like the type of med kit that would have been in use before people had even made their way into space.
I gave a quiet laugh at the contents. Humanity as a whole had reached a point where we could cure most anything. But people, by and large, weren’t a high priority, and they were easily replaced.
This kit did include a can of cooling gel as well as the bandages I sought, so I returned with them to Sydney, and helped her with her ankle. Then I spent a few minutes more, bringing water to those who needed it.
I would have offered to check out Uma’s and Jayloo’s blisters, but the Commander didn’t seem to want my help in this matter, and in the end it was Deeve who tended to them both, applying an assortment of plasters to the two women’s feet.
As far as breaks went, this one wasn’t filled to the brim with cheerful conversation. In fact, there wasn’t much talking at all, beyond Deeve voicing a question that perhaps all of us had wondered.
“What was that thing?” she murmured. “And will there be any more?”
She directed the question toward Kia more than anyone else. But I answered anyway.
“We’ve only been here a short time, and already, we’ve been attacked more than once. The chances of those wolf things and the hydra thing being the only dangerous creatures on this whole world are non-existent.”
“You know,” Sydney said, and this time I was sure she was trying not to smile. “You really should learn to maybe not tell the truth all the time.”
At her words, both Deeve and Kia actually chuckled out loud, but Uma was too serious for that, and Jayloo didn’t want to join in the fun if it had anything to do with me.
I smiled and had another go. “But here’s the thing. So far, we’ve survived—or avoided–every attack. We’ve survived a pretty serious sandstorm, not to mention a crash landing of epic proportions. And we’ve done all this with no resources to speak of. Someone asked if we could survive on this world, and none of us really knew the answer. But I’m giving you one now. We’ve done okay so far, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t continue.”