Survivors

 

 

 

The boys started their long trek up the mountain.  The double sled was placed in the lead since it would be slower.  The trail was steep and narrow, but Alex and Jeremy had reported that it was wide enough for the sleds. 

 

The pace was slow and the grade got a little steep in places.  Sometimes there was a drop at the edge of the trail and sometimes they were on a plateau or a shelf with plenty of room on each side.

 

Both Alex and Mike were skilled drivers and they kept their sleds moving at a steady pace.  It had taken Alex and Jeremy six hours to walk up the trail—it took them a couple of hours longer to drive up.  Jeremy said that once they got to the top the going would be faster.  All they had to figure out was where they would go once they reached the pass.

 

They found a spot to stop for dinner and set up their tents. The ground was much more solid than the desert had been and they had to drive the stakes into places that weren’t solid rock. But the tents were also much sturdier than they had been in the sand. 

 

Douglas decided that they would again wait until after sunrise to start moving.  While it was still warm and dry on the plateau, the day hadn’t been as hot as it was down in the desert.  They could now travel during the daylight with a bit more comfort than before. Leaving at dawn also meant they could have more like a normal night’s sleep.  

 

Ethan, Logan, Scooter, and Douglas took up one tent, Mike, Alex, Warren, and Jeremy another, Jordan, Travis, and Ryan were in the third.  Stevie and Brandon got the last tent to themselves.  They also drew first guard duty as their payment.

 

Before heading for bed Douglas met with his cabinet.  Scooter, Mike, and Alex sat with him in his tent.

 

"Now that we're at the pass, where do we go?" Douglas asked.  "It's a big plateau."

 

"Before we left the ‘Moonduster” Stevie thought from his computer readout that going west was best.  But I guess any direction would be okay except the one we came from," Alex said.

 

"Well, when you think what of side ‘Moonduster” Matthew was sitting on, west seems the best bet," Mike said. “After all, that was the direction he was looking.”

 

"But the way I was dodging mountains and hills, who can be sure?" Alex asked. "I made some pretty wide turns.  It could be west, southwest, south, or maybe southeast.  East is pretty much out, because Matthew would never have seen something from that side of the shuttle, because I would have had to do a 180, which didn’t happen.”

 

"So, it looks like going west or southwest is our best bet,” Douglas stated. “But what if we go right past the valley, because we made the wrong choice?  I wish I knew exactly where to go.  I wish I had a map, or a marker to look for, anything to help.  If we guess wrong, we might end up nowhere.”

 

Mike sighed.  "And maybe there is no place to go to.  Maybe the green valley doesn't exist."  Mike was usually such an optimist. Douglas knew things were getting rough when Mike started to express his doubts.

 

"I know, Mike.” Douglas tried his best to sound positive. “But, we won't survive even thinking negative shit.  We have to fight to get to wherever we're going, even if we’re going nowhere.  The valley has to exist—Matthew has to be right."

 

"What about the guards?" Scooter asked.  "Do you really think we need them?"

 

"At least for tonight we do, since we're at the top of the pass.  After tonight, I don't think so, because there will be more than one direction we can travel.  I don't know if RC is going to follow us up here, but if he is this is his one time to make trouble.  So we will post guards tonight." Then Douglas set up the schedule for the night and took off his watch to give to the first two guards.

 

The meeting broke up and they headed for their tents.  Douglas and Scooter joined the twins, who were sitting outside of their tent. They had been naked all evening, but the twins were reluctant to do that in front of everybody. Nobody pushed them to undress—they were accepted as they were.  For their part, the twins were trying to get used to seeing boys holding hands and kissing each other.

 

"No wonder mom didn't want us hanging with them," Logan whispered to Ethan. Ethan just nodded his head and stared when he saw Alex and Mike holding hands. Sometimes a boy had a boner and didn't even seem to mind it.  He reached down and adjusted his in his pants. He wondered if he should take his off and show what he had.  But if Logan wasn't going to undress, then he wasn't either.  Yet.

 

Scooter and Douglas led the twins into the tent and they laid out their sleeping bags.  Each boy got in his own bag. Ethan and Logan had slept in the same tent as Scooter and Douglas the night before.  Scooter and Douglas were too exhausted and thirsty to try anything sexual that night. But tonight the weather was pleasant, they had enough water (almost), and they desired each other in the worst way.  Douglas wished now he had assigned Scooter and himself to be the single pair.  He could have some privacy—he felt he’d earned it for the night.  Scooter and Douglas each lay in his sleeping bag as they held hands, hoping they wouldn’t fall asleep before the twins did.

 

‘I love you, Scooter.  I want you with me tonight.’  Douglas sent his thought to Scooter.

 

‘I'll be with you.  I love you, Douglas.  I love you so, so much.’

 

They were holding hands and trading thoughts of love, both of them sporting major wood.  Scooter's only cum since leaving the "Moonduster" was a wet dream, while Douglas had had his tryst with Mike when they were scouting. They were both ready for each other.

 

After they thought they heard regular breathing from the twins, Douglas moved into Scooter’s sleeping bag.  They held each other, exchanging kisses. Their erections rubbed together as they kissed and hugged.  Scooter was on top of Douglas kissing and hugging and humping.

 

The activity woke up Ethan.  His sleeping bag was closer to Scooter’s than Logan’s was.  He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew it had to do with sex.  His eyes could make out movement in the dark, and he could hear the sounds coming from Douglas's sleeping bag.

 

‘I hope we don't wake the twins up’, came Scooter’s thought. 

 

‘They have to find out about us some time,’ Douglas thought back.  ‘Now is as good as any. Besides I barely have the energy to do this now, so who knows what it will be like in a couple of days?’

 

Scooter and Douglas kissed and humped, but their horniness was being trumped by their fatigue.

 

Ethan saw the sleeping bag moving as the boys humped.  He could hear their quiet moans and kisses. The action in the sleeping bag had given him a boner. He pulled his undies down and put his fingers around his hard, two-inch hairless cocklet.  He rubbed it, like he had done many times before. Usually he rubbed it until he couldn’t stand the feeling and stopped. Sometimes he and Logan would watch each other.  This time was different though, he couldn't stop himself if he tried.

 

He heard moans from the other bag.  He kept beating off as Scooter and Douglas came to their orgasm.  Douglas arched, pushed against Scooter, and had an orgasm that was almost dry.  Scooter came right after him, mixing his light cum with what little Douglas had shot.  They were both breathing hard as they stayed wrapped around each other. They were asleep almost instantly after cumming.

 

Ethan heard their orgasms, not knowing what had happened, and his hand kept flying.  His dick had never felt like this before.  His fingers flew across it.  Suddenly his back arched, his dick felt like he was gonna pee, a sensation shot through him like he’d never felt before. His cock and body twitched and shuddered with his first ever dry cum.  He moaned without even knowing it. The sound woke Douglas up, but he fell right back to sleep wondering which twin it was that he’d heard.

 

Ethan fell asleep with a strange glow around him, wondering what had just happened to him.  He would have to tell Logan about it in the morning.

 

 

When Douglas and Scooter got back from guard duty, the noise woke up Ethan—he’d slept through their leaving. He noticed that they once again shared the same sleeping bag.

 

When morning came Ethan was the first one awake.  It was still dark, but he could see that Douglas and Scooter were still together and were wrapped around each other.

 

Alex poked his nose into the tent. "Time to get up guys,” he crowed. “The sun is going to peek out any second."

 

Douglas moaned and stretched.  He shook Scooter awake. He noticed Ethan observing them and blushed, thinking that maybe he and Scooter should have each slept in his own sleeping bag after returning from guard duty.

 

Ethan was blushing fiercely as well.  He turned and woke up his twin brother, hoping Douglas hadn’t noticed him staring.  Ethan and Logan were identical twins with dishwater blond hair, deep brown eyes, and slender builds with little baby fat on them.  They were on the cusp of puberty, but were still little boys.

 

Ethan saw that Scooter and Douglas were naked as they climbed out of their sleeping bag. Scooter and Douglas were even more surprised when Ethan got out of his sleeping bag—he, too, was naked.  Logan was even more surprised than Scooter and Douglas when he saw that his brother was naked. He left his sleeping bag still wearing his dirty white briefs.

 

"You took your clothes off, brother.” Logan was stating the obvious.

 

"Yeah.  It was more comfy that way."  He pulled his briefs out of the sleeping bag.  "Plus these things are dirty and they stink."

 

The boys of the “Moonduster” had developed full-body tans since their crash-landing on Inferno. They felt comfortable being naked all day while saving their clothes for when they really needed them.  They still had a lot of sunscreen, using it mostly on their faces, butts, and crotch, but their bodies now had a dark tan.  Scooter told the twins they might want to be naked and they would let them have extra sunscreen until they got used to the sun and started tanning.  Logan shrugged and pulled off his dirty undies.  If being naked was good enough for Ethan, then it was good enough for him.

 

The boys left the tent for breakfast.  Ethan sat next to Scooter while they ate.

 

"You guys were doing nasty stuff last night, huh?"

 

Scooter laughed.  "Noooo, not nasty.  It was making love.  Sorry if it woke you up. I hope us making love didn't bother you."

 

"So doing that isn’t nasty?"

 

"Not to us.  All of us have done it."

 

“But not a lot.”

 

“Not as much as we want. We’re all pretty tired and thirsty and hungry and don’t have the energy for it. Douglas and I almost fell asleep before we finished last night. And we didn’t make very much…well, we were tired.”

 

Ethan nodded, not certain he understood everything Scooter was saying.

 

"We all love each other, Ethan.  It's helped us to survive.  But we had this love even before we came to Inferno.  It all started on the ‘Starkeeper'."

 

"Okay."  Ethan nodded like he understood, but he really wasn't sure he did. It sounded like everybody here was gay or something.  "And what you were doing, the love thing, didn’t bother me any."  He thought about telling Scooter about the feeling he got last night, but decided not to, at least not yet.

 

When he was alone with Logan he told him what he saw last night.  He also told him about the good feeling he had while he watched.

 

"Really?" Logan asked.

 

"Yeah.  You gotta try it tonight.  It feels good like you can't believe."

 

"Maybe."  Logan wondered if Ethan was going to be like the older kids.

 

The sleds were started up and they headed southwest.  Jordan sat next to the twins.

 

"You guys remember me?  We talked in the games room the few times you came in."

 

"Yeah," Logan said.  He and Ethan didn't like Jordan.  They thought he was too pushy. The older boy he and Ethan liked was Matthew, but Douglas told them that he had died in a storm. They thought about how close they came to being dead, and how lucky they were to be found by Douglas and Mike.

 

"You think maybe we could be friends or something?" Jordan asked.

 

"Maybe."  Logan wished Jordan would leave them alone for now.  But he and Jeremy were the closest to them in age.  They were the only boys from the “Moonduster” who weren’t teenagers.

 

Time dragged on for everybody.  While the weather was hot, it was not as hot as in the desert. The extra water bottles had given them four more days of water at two bottles a piece, which was still their allotted ration. Douglas knew it wasn’t enough and it was starting to show.

 

Douglas decided they were going to have to cut them down to two meals a day. He’d discuss it with his cabinet when they stopped for the night.  If they didn’t ration the food, it wouldn't last as long as the water. If they couldn’t find the green valley, it wouldn’t matter if all of their food and water ran out.

 

Nobody talked much.  Most of them sat and held hands or napped.  They were all naked, tired, dirty, hungry, and thirsty.  Nobody was thinking much about sex any more.  They wanted it and missed it, but were too tired for it.  They were all sweaty, dirty, and stinky.  Logan and Ethan might have been in the best shape of any of them despite their being in the crash.  The dirt on them hadn't crusted yet.

 

When dinner time came they stopped. They ate and sipped water without enthusiasm. After traveling for a couple more hours they stopped for the night.

 

Douglas met with his cabinet again.  They decided that they would go in the same direction, even if they didn't have any reason to.  It just seemed the right thing to do based on what Stevie had traced of the incoming route of the “Moonduster”.  It would be another day going southwest.  They also agreed they wouldn't need any more guards.  It didn't seem very likely that Robert Charles, even if he could survive the walk on minimal water and food, would be a threat if he showed up.

 

Douglas had asked Ethan and Logan if they had seen anything green from the "Sundancer".  They said they hadn't, which didn't surprise Douglas.  Only Matthew had seen it from the "Moonduster" and he only did because he had unbuckled himself, an act that led to his death.  Shit, Douglas thought, I can't be thinking like this.

 

Alex and Mike got to be alone tonight, switching with Brandon and Stevie.  Mike and Alex didn’t even have the energy to make out, beyond a couple of kisses.

 

"This must be how early man lived," Alex said.

 

"How's that?"

 

"Making love when he's dirty and stinky and smelly."

 

"Well, you can never smell bad to me, love."

 

“Now if I just had the energy to actually make love we’d find out how early man actually did it,” Alex lamented.

 

Scooter and Douglas crashed right away.  Ethan wanted to talk to Logan about what he’d seen and done the night before, but Logan had fallen asleep instantly.  Ethan took his dick in his hand, got it hard, and repeated what he felt the night before.  It felt so good.  He couldn't believe he waited this long to find out about the good feelings. But he wasn’t to enjoy an orgasm that night—he fell asleep with his cocklet in his hand.

 

 

Morning came and the sleds headed southwest.  The plateau seemed to go on forever.  But their supplies wouldn't last forever.  Was southwest even the right direction?  That was the question in everyone’s mind. Nobody knew.  They kept moving, hoping they would find something, anything.

 

Douglas knew everybody was looking to him to get them somewhere.  And all he had were the words of a dead boy who had been delirious.  Green horsey.  What was the green horsey anyway?  And why did he think he could find it?  All he could do was keep them going, keep them alive, and hope for something lucky.  They hadn't seen a lot of luck so far. He wondered who would be the next one in the group to die. He shook his head, trying to get rid of his negative thoughts.

 

Scooter had every confidence in Douglas.  He believed, like Douglas did, that there was something out there for them to find—all the evidence said so.  And every day, every hour, he seemed to become more and more their leader.  He knew he would follow Douglas anywhere—even back into the desert of Inferno.

 

Alex was driving a sled.  He knew Douglas didn't have a clue about where they were going, but then neither did anybody else. Stevie’s guesses regarding the path of the “Moonduster” was all they had to go by. He also knew he would follow Douglas to wherever.  His decision to exile RC was an awesome one. He and Mike wanted to kill him right then, but Douglas had made a hard choice and stuck with it.  The piece of shit was out of their lives forever.

 

Mike sat up front with Alex. He thought of the night he spent on the mountain with Douglas.  Douglas had vented his feelings that night, not to mention some of his boy seed.  He was becoming more and more the leader they had expected him to be.  Things were hard right now, but Douglas kept telling them it would be okay. Early on he would often display his own feelings, but now he simply led them to believe they would survive.  When somebody got down, Douglas would prop them back up.  Only he, Alex, and Scooter knew how Douglas really felt sometimes.  Then it became their job to prop him up like he did for everybody else.

 

Stevie was glad he had Brandon and Alex both in his life.  He was proud of Alex for the things he did.  He knew how much Alex helped to make things happen.  And he knew Alex didn't mind having Douglas in charge.  Alex liked being in the middle of everything without having to take charge, unless it was piloting or driving—or singing.  Brandon was sitting next to him.  Brandon was missing his mother.  Like all of them he was lonely and homesick and scared.  But Brandon had his Stevie, who helped him so much.  He didn’t know if he wanted to live without Stevie in his life.

 

Warren was still feeling a glow over how he had hidden the power cells.  He and Jeremy lay in each other's arms.  He was lonely and afraid, but he had the strong arms of Jeremy to help him.  He was sick at times, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t handle. Everybody was weak and tired now.  Jeremy looked at his thin little lover. Warren had been tougher and braver than he ever thought he would be.  He kissed Warren's lips lightly and held him close.

 

Ryan and Travis were always quiet, but they were ready to do anything to help.  They both were worried about where they would end up, but they trusted Douglas to figure out something.  They just hoped it was before they ran out of food and water.

 

Jordan was the loneliest of any of them.  He had no boyfriend.  Matthew and Robert Charles were gone.  He often felt badly about the things he did to Matthew on the "Starkeeper".  He tried to make up for it on the “Moonduster”.  Now Matthew was dead.

 

Sometimes he found himself hating Warren, and he didn't know why.  Sometimes he got so angry at everybody he wanted to mess everything thing up.  But he knew he would die if he did. He wanted anybody to like him.  He was tired of being alone.  He looked at Ethan and Logan hoping one of them would like him.  He wondered if he could make them like him.

 

Logan and Ethan sat close to each other.  Ethan told Logan about his good feeling when Scooter and Douglas were “making love” next to him. Then he saw Jordan looking at them, and he became embarrassed.  There was something about Jordan he didn’t like, and that something scared him.

 

Another night came followed by another morning.  They headed off southwest again. Douglas had decided if nothing happened that day they would split up.  He didn't want to, but they needed to find something, and two groups had a better chance at it than one.  The radios they took were worthless.  For whatever reason they were only good for 100 yards or so.  He wished they had worked when they went on their scouting expeditions. 

 

Stevie kept working on them without success.  Douglas would have to think of a way for one group to tell the other group if they found something.  Or maybe they would simply travel a certain distance then come back to a meeting place.  The problem with splitting up was that they may never get back together again.

 

That night everybody fell asleep almost instantly.  They were more tired, hungry, thirsty, and dirty than ever.  All but Jordan, Ethan, and Logan slept with a lover in his arms.

 

 

When morning came Robert Charles felt the sun beating on him again.  He had tried going back to the "Moonduster", but he got totally lost. He was almost out of water.  Fucking Douglas, he thought.  Mr. Nice guy.  I don't want to kill you, he says, and then he leaves me out here in the desert to die. Fuck him.  He'd rather have had Alex kill him on the spot.  If I ever see Douglas again I will kill him.  No questions asked—he will die the instant I see him.

 

Robert Charles stood up, semi-naked body filthy and burned.  He grabbed his water bottle to get a drink.  He opened it, had a sudden dizzy spell and stumbled. The bottle dropped out of his hands, spilling its precious contents into the sand.  Fuck, he thought.  I'm dead now.

 

He fell onto the hot sand, sobbing. He was ready to die right then. He started to hallucinate. He heard noises and saw something he knew was out of a dream. I must be dead, he thought. How else could I be seeing a unicorn?

 

He saw a golden unicorn.  He saw somebody with pointed ears and a green and blue mane. He closed his eyes and lost consciousness.  He knew he was dead for sure.

 

 

The two sleds ran slowly across the plateau.  It was just past noon. Suddenly, they heard a loud bang and the first sled stopped and tilted to the left.  Parts of the track lay scattered in the sand.  The entire left track had broken into pieces.  The boys hopped off the stopped sleds and inspected the damage.  It seemed as if there was nothing left to put together.

 

"Looks like we're fucked," Mike said.  "I don't think that can be fixed."

 

 Douglas asked Brandon, Travis, and Stevie, his Mister Fix-it, what they thought.

 

"I think we can fix it," Travis speculated.  "But it's gonna take time. I think we have the tools we need to fix it. It's gonna take all of us working together to do it."

 

The rest of the day was spent picking up the pieces and hooking them together.  The metal track wasn’t all that large, but it was still heavy. Mike, Travis, Brandon, Douglas, and Jordan all worked to get it on.  Everybody was now covered with grease on top of the dirt and grime already covering them.

 

They had the track repaired and back on the sled just before sunset.  The sled was started up and tested. The jury-rigged track held up over a short distance. While Travis was the brains behind the repair job, it took a lot of teamwork among the boys to get the sled back into running order.

 

While the repair was being completed, the other boys set the tents up. After a small, unsatisfying meal, Douglas and Scooter sat on a rock watching the sun set.

 

"We lost almost a whole day today," Douglas said.  "I guess it could have been worse.  At least we got the track fixed and can move tomorrow."

 

"I love you," Scooter said. “You did an awesome job getting us through the day.”  They held hands and watched the sunset.

 

"I have to split us tomorrow, Scooter.  I hate doing it, but I have no choice.  Better some of us make it than none of us.  I don't know what else to do.  We're going to be out of water and food in a couple of days."

 

"I know, my sweet love.  I wish we knew where to go."

 

"I wish I could take us there.  Matthew is dead—and we don’t even know what he saw. I am so afraid we are looking for something that doesn’t exist.  I suppose RC is dead, too.  On top of everything else we have two new little kids to watch.  I don't know if we can make it, Scooter.  In a few days it's going to be over.  We have to split up and hope somebody finds something."

 

Scooter snuggled up against Douglas, sending thoughts of love to him. Douglas stroked Scooter's hair.

 

"Stevie’s performed his miracles and so has Brandon. Travis was today’s miracle worker. I wish I could perform my miracle."

 

"You've kept us alive, Douglas."

 

"But did I do the right thing?  I'm beginning to think we should have stayed with the “Moonduster”. I mean the “Sundancer” found this planet, who’s to say some other shuttles didn’t come searching for us?  

 

“Look at us.  We're all filthy, dirty, stinky boys.  Our hair is long and gooey.  We are hungry and thirsty.  We’re too tired and hungry and thirsty to even get horny and have sex. At least there we would have lived a year more and died in comfort."

 

"And we would have died not fighting.  We would have died giving up.  You gave us a reason to keep going.  You had us fight, Douglas. Just keep leading us and we’ll get to where we want to go."

 

Douglas looked at the red sunset.  The rocks were beautiful.  To the southwest, the direction they would head the next day, their silhouettes stood tall against the setting sun.  To the west it was the same, with the sun behind them.  He would send Alex, Mike, and a couple of others to the west in the morning.  He looked up northwest.  There was nothing there but rocks. What if they had passed up the valley?  What if the valley was now toward the northwest?

 

One rock caught his attention.  It was tall, with two ledges sticking out the front.  The top was shaped almost like the head of a horse.  The ledges looked like the legs of a horse rearing up into the air.  It was silhouetted by the sunset.  The sun dipped below the horizon.

 

"Well, I guess we should walk back, Scooter; the show is over.  Tomorrow we might be seeing some of our friends for the last time."

 

They stood up and started back to camp.  Douglas held Scooter's hand, sad about the decision he had to make tomorrow.  Just like he’d told Scooter, he was going to lose some of his friends, just like he had lost Matthew.  Matthew? he thought.  Matthew?

 

He turned and looked at the silhouette of the rock.  He could still see it pointing into the red sky.  From that angle it looked like a horse rearing.  A horse…or a horsey.  Horsey!!!

 

"Scooter!!!  Look at that rock over there on the horizon," he said pointing to the northwest.  "What does it look like to you?"

 

Scooter shaded his eyes with his hands and gave it a careful look.  "Like a horse rearing up."  Then he turned to Douglas.  They both were grinning.

 

"Yes, Scooter.  Horsey.  Not green horsey.  It's horsey...green.  Matthew saw the horse rock and the green valley past it.  Horse and then green. Horsey...green!!!!!." He grabbed Scooter and hugged him.  "I think Matthew has just saved our lives."

 

They ran back to the camp and took everybody to the spot before the sky turned too dark.  They all saw what Scooter and Douglas had seen.

 

"Ok, gang, tomorrow we don't split and go southwest and west.  We all go northwest together.  If we're right, on the other side of that rock is our green valley."

 

"And if we're wrong?" Jordan asked.

 

Nobody had to answer that out loud.  They each knew the answer.  If they were wrong, then they were all dead, because there would be no time for a second chance.

 

NEXT:  CHAPTER 28 The Hakaanen

 

Comments are welcomed.  E-mail me at TheHakaanen@Hotmail.com