Survivors

 

 

Stevie met Alex when he came through the air lock. He breathed a little easier when he saw that Alex didn't have a mark on him.

 

"How did it go, brother?" Stevie asked. Like he needed to—there was no doubt in Stevie’s mind that his big brother could handle himself against Robert Charles in a fight.

 

"I think you should throw RC a sleeping bag—he doesn’t look to be in any shape to come up the ladder. Let's go to bed."

 

That night the boys slept differently than they had been since the landing. Alex and Stevie slept together for the first time in a long time. They made such sweet brotherly love together. Alex worked off the adrenaline that the fight had built up in him by fucking his little brother long and deep and hard. Stevie had such a flexible body that he could lick his own cock, something only Alex and Brandon knew. Stevie was certain he’d be able to suck himself off very soon. He had his feet by his ears as his older brother fucked him with all of the love that he had. Stevie came twice, once without touching himself and once with Alex jerking him off as they fucked for the second time.  

 

Warren slept with Douglas. They had decided to be brothers in the sense that Mike and Matthew were, with Douglas having Warren under his wing, even though Warren was a year older.

 

“Jeremy and I are kind of like boyfriends,” Warren told Douglas. “I need somebody to tell me what to do.” What he wanted was somebody to watch over him like his father had. Douglas wasn’t sure he liked that role, but he was certain he liked Warren, and he had no problem with them kissing and dry humping that night as they creamed over each other twice. They knew they should have shot their loads on the ground rather than on each other, because they were running out of bathing water. Yet, on the other hand, they weren’t going to need that water for long anyway.

 

Scooter and Brandon had sex for the first time since they were eleven. Sex for them that night was the best kind considering the circumstances. Their thin boy cum ended up in each other’s mouths.

 

“I missed you so much after we moved,” Brandon told Scooter. “I was unhappy and lonely for a long time.”

 

“Me too, but I had some old friends that you knew and made some new friends. But none of them were like you until I met Douglas.”

 

“I got a few friends on Mars, but Stevie is my first very special friend since you.”

 

“We both got lucky on the ‘Starkeeper’,” Scooter mused.

 

“I guess not all of our luck was bad,” Brandon grinned. “And we’re lucky Douglas and Stevie let us be together tonight.” Scooter couldn’t argue with that. 

 Ryan and Mike were together, because of all the sweet things Mike had done for Ryan, even when Ryan thought Mike was the person who slugged him on Mars.  Mike didn't know how, but he found Ryan on top of him. They started out as just talking, with Ryan telling Mike how much his kindness had meant to him.  Then they began making out and feeling each other up, and now Ryan was rabbit fucking Mike. Mike felt the pressure build up in himself, and started shooting as Ryan filled his insides. Both Ryan and Mike knew that their boyfriends wouldn't mind what they had done, that somehow they would know their making love together was helping themselves and the whole group.

 

At first Jeremy and Travis thought they were stuck with each other because everyone else was paired up. But then they remembered how they had been thinking how cute the other guy was, so they said, "what the hell," For them it ended up being a sixty-nine. After a satisfying finish they told each other how great their sex had been. They liked how everybody paired up differently, knowing that the tighter their group was, the better chance they had to survive.

 

Jordan had fallen asleep on the seat next to Matthew, feeling very sad and alone.

 

Each pair fell asleep cuddled together feeling comfortable together, but also knowing that soon they would be out in the desert sand and heat trekking to an unknown destination.

 

 

 

After everyone had drifted off to sleep, Robert Charles climbed into the shuttle through the opening they were making for the sleds. He used some of the little remaining wash water to clean himself off some and then went into the area his workers had made for him, rubbing his aching balls and ribs. He lay on top of his sleeping bag feeling powerless for the first time in his life.

 

 

Robert Charles couldn’t sleep so he got up to see what was happening around the shuttle. He ached all over and wanted to make somebody else hurt. He listened to the sounds of the shuttle. He noticed that nobody seemed to be sleeping with their regular partner.  What a bunch of faggots, he thought. No wonder they didn't appreciate him, they wanted another faggot like that fucking Douglas leading them. They would all be sorry before this was over.  Very sorry.

 

Slowly and quietly he made his way around the sleeping boys and climbed up the ladder. He went into the cabin and up to the seat where Jordan was sleeping. He saw Matthew on the floor covered by a blanket. He lifted the blanket and saw his skinny naked body. He felt his dick stir thinking of how tight his butt had been on the "Starkeeper" and what a great fuck he would be now. But he needed to find a way to get him alone. For right now he would wake up Jordan.

 

He reached down and shook Jordan’s shoulder. Jordan was covered by a blanket which Robert Charles pulled back. He woke up slowly and rubbed his eyes. Jordan's smooth, hairless body glowed in the night lighting. He reached down and stroked Jordan's dick until he got hard. Jordan moaned, then tried turning away.

 

"Come on, dude, I want you."

 

Even half asleep Jordan could smell the remaining stink on Robert Charles. He didn't want him touching him or being close to him.

 

"Don't turn away from me. You know you like it," Robert Charles whispered to him.

 

"Leave me alone."

 

Robert Charles started lifting him off the seat, but Jordan resisted.

 

"Come on, Jordy, you know you want it. You know you want to make me feel good."

 

"Noooo. Noooo. Please. Not tonight." Jordan tried making himself into a ball.

 

Robert Charles put his hand over Jordan's mouth and nose and closed them both tight. "Listen, you little shit. I'm tired of people fucking with me. You are supposed to be my friend. Well, now is the time to show it or I'm going to hurt you bad. Understand what I'm saying?"

 

Jordan grunted out, "Uh huh," and tried nodding yes.

 

Robert Charles let go and whispered, “Get up and follow me."

 

He walked back to the galley with Jordan stumbling after him. For the first time since the first day he met him Jordan hated Robert Charles. He thought they were partners in using everybody else, and now he was being used himself.

 

When they got down the ladder they had to maneuver around sleeping bags. One of them was Mike and Ryan’s. It was much darker down below than up in the cabin and Robert Charles stumbled over Mike and woke him up.

 

"What the fuck…," Mike mumbled.

 

Robert Charles tried to get around him while Jordan stepped around the other way.

 

"What's going on?" Mike asked.

 

"You guys can have fun, so can we," Robert Charles said. He was pinching Jordan's butt cheek as a reminder not to say anything.

 

"That cool with you, Jordan?"  Mike didn't trust Robert Charles one bit.

 

"Yeah." It was too dark for Mike to see how miserable Jordan looked.

 

Jordan followed Robert Charles to his “castle” and crawled into his sleeping bag with him. Robert Charles didn't mess around with any foreplay. He went right into Jordan's tight butt, ready to take out all of the tension, anger, and hatred on the twelve-year-old.  Mike lay in his own sleeping bag listening to the sound of Robert Charles fucking Jordan. Somehow the whole thing didn't seem right, but before he could think more he was asleep.

 

 

When morning came Mike was up before everybody sticking breakfasts into the microwave.  Boys were soon coming from the cabin and from down below ready to eat. When Jordan came up Mike followed him to his seat to eat. Jordan had been a real pain in the ass on the "Starkeeper", but the happenings on the "Moonduster" had changed him. He wasn't the cocky twelve-year-old boy strutting around trying to create trouble and problems. He had become quiet and introspective. He appeared to be very attached to Matthew.  Whenever Scooter wasn't there, Jordan was on the seat above Matthew, and even when Scooter was there he would often sit next to Scooter just to be close to Matthew.

 

"You okay?" Mike asked.

 

Jordan looked down at his pancakes.  "Yeah."

 

"Did RC make you have sex last night?"

 

"No," Jordan said quietly.

 

Mike didn’t believe him. "Because if he did, I'll go kick his ass. He isn't going to push anybody around any more." Mike ruffled Jordan's hair. "Okay, buddy?"

 

"Yeah. It's cool." Jordan had a sullen look on his face and Mike decided not to push any more.  But he was certain that Jordan hadn’t been a willing partner last night. For his part, Jordan felt a moment of happiness from the attention he’d just received from the older boy. He called me “buddy” Jordan thought with a smile.

 

Everybody noticed that Douglas was having breakfast with Robert Charles in a pair of seats towards the front of the cabin. They were in deep conversation, but nobody knew what they were discussing.

 

“What if I don’t want to call a meeting?” Robert Charles asked Douglas as their discussion progressed.

 

“We’re going to have a meeting this morning whether you want it or not, Robert Charles. But you’re the leader right now and I think it would be best for the group if you called the meeting. We need everybody working together.”

 

“Yeah right, like you had Alex working nicely with me. You know what he did, in fact you probably told him to do it.”

 

“No, I don’t know,” Douglas said in all honesty. He’d told Alex that he didn’t want to hear anything about what went on when he and RC were left alone outside the shuttle. “All I know is, it would be best for you to be our leader and call the meeting.”

 

Robert Charles grunted, but after the boys finished eating and cleaning up the galley he called for a meeting. When they were all seated in the forward part of the cabin he addressed the group.  

 

“Dougie thinks we need a meeting, so we’re having one. You can talk to everybody,” he told the group and he walked back four rows and sat next to Jordan.

 

Douglas addressed the group saying it was time to have a new election. They needed to have a leader they were all confident in. Nobody said a word about what happened between Alex and Robert Charles the night before, mostly because they all knew the result of their little tête-à-tête outside.

 

Robert Charles sat at the back table with Jordan and glared. Jordan looked unhappy to be sitting next to the older boy.

 

"I nominate Douglas as our new leader," Scooter said.

 

Robert Charles bumped Jordan lightly. "Um...I nominate Robert Charles." Jordan didn't have a clue why Robert Charles wanted to be nominated since he knew he wasn’t going to win.

 

"I just want to say," Douglas said, "that I know I didn't want to be the leader. I still don't really, but I guess somebody needs to do it and you guys seem to think I'm the one. So, I will work hard to do the best I can. I'm going to say this much: if I get elected, we are going to leave the 'Moonduster' and head over the mountains—all of us. Everybody should know that. If we stay here we will die. Food and water will run out—we’re already down to no water for washing because Stevie says he can’t fix that recovery system. Stevie, Brandon, Jeremy, and Jordan are working their asses off, but they can only do so much to keep this wreck going. You all know how I feel. We gotta leave here." Jordan’s ears perked up when he heard his name mentioned and his mouth broke into the smallest of grins.

 

Then Robert Charles stood up to talk. "I know you guys don't like me. You don’t like me because I've had to make all the tough decisions and..."

 

"Put a cork in it, RC," Alex said.  "Let's vote."

 

If looks could kill, then the look in Robert Charles's eyes would have finished Alex off. Mike had the ballots ready again and passed them out. Again everybody voted. The results had a small surprise. The vote was Douglas eleven, Robert Charles one. The surprise was Jordan voting for Douglas instead of his buddy, Robert Charles.

 

Douglas took a deep breath. Now life was more than just coming up with ideas and staying in the background. Now he was responsible for twelve boys who were going to look to him to make the tough decisions.  His decisions could make the difference about whether they would live or die. He took another deep breath. There were no adults to bail him out now, but he had some pretty good friends to give him advice. He wasn't going to make his decisions alone. He was going to ask for plenty of help. But he also understood that in the end the decisions would be his and his alone.

 

"Scooter, Mike, Alex, I need to talk to you guys."

 

He led them downstairs. Robert Charles saw them go down and sat fuming even more.

 

"What's up, Douglas?" Alex asked.

 

"It looks like I'm in charge now, but I'm gonna need you guys. I'm gonna need your advice and I'm gonna need your help. I can't do this alone."

 

"Douglas, I know you can do this. We all know you can," Scooter said.

 

"Scooter, I didn't say I couldn't do it, I said I can't do it alone."

 

‘I love you.’ Douglas could hear Scooter’s thoughts. ‘You can do anything you want. I love you’

 

‘I know I can Scooter.  I love you. I need you with me all the way.’

 

‘I love you, Douglas. I'm in your heart and soul. You will never be alone. NEVER!’

 

Just hearing Scooter in his head made him feel better. Knowing Scooter’s love was with him gave him more confidence to do what he needed to do. He leaned over and kissed Scooter. Scooter gave him a hard kiss back. Mike and Alex were holding hands. They heard a noise and saw Robert Charles coming down the ladder.

 

"Are you guys having some sort of secret meeting?" he asked.

 

"I'm just setting up who is going to advise me," Douglas answered. He figured he might as well be honest about it.

 

"Oh, so you don't think you need the guy who led you here? Like everything I did isn't worth shit?"

 

"RC, didn't you get my message yesterday? Or do you need an instant replay?" Alex asked.

 

"Listen, shorty. I wasn't ready. You cheated. Which is how your fearless leader is working right now—just get anybody to help you and forget the guy who got you here. And the reason he’s doing this is because he is a whiny crybaby who can’t stand up and lead on his own. Oh, no, he needs to have guys like you around to kiss his well-fucked ass."

 

"Robert Charles, you can't be as stupid as you sound," Douglas said. "You never led us. You lied to us, you bullied us, you cheated us, and you talked a big line. If building you that comfortable corner for you is leading what leading is, then you were a leader. If making us all better and giving us a chance to survive on Inferno, then you weren't worth shit. Your dad isn't here to help you threaten everybody.  What we're talking about here is survival for all of us. Pure and simple—survival.  So I think the best thing you can do is go upstairs. And when you're willing to help us instead of getting in our way let us know, and we’ll listen to what you have to say."

 

Robert Charles started to say something, but Douglas shut him up. "It's like this, Robert Charles.  Lead, follow, or stay out of the way. You didn't lead us, you won't follow me, so stay the fuck out of the way." Douglas looked at him. "But like I said, any time you want to follow and help, let me know."

 

Robert Charles sneered at the four of them and climbed up the ladder.

 

"Good speech, Douglas. For a guy RC says is a whiny crybaby, you did okay,” Mike laughed.

 

"He's going to be trouble," Douglas said. "Getting back at us means more to him than helping us survive. He's a mean, sick bastard. If he was interested in helping, he would have stayed."

 

`I love you,' Scooter said in Douglas's head. `You were so awesome.'

 

Douglas concentrated his thoughts. `I love you. I love you so much. With you I am never alone.'  They kissed again, and went up the ladder to start getting the work for the day done. Douglas wanted them ready to depart by the day after tomorrow. There was nothing to stay here for.

 

 

 

They spent the morning working on widening the opening so they could get the sleds out of the hold. Just before lunch Jeremy went looking for Douglas, Alex, and Stevie to tell them they were needed in the cockpit right away.

 

Douglas, who was working outside, dashed up the ladder into the shuttle, afraid that something had happened to Matthew. But when he boarded, he saw that Scooter was in the cockpit, not in the back with Matthew.

 

"Listen," he said. "Something is on the radio."

 

Alex and Stevie arrived and all four of them listened to the radio. A steady pattern was coming over it. Long long. Short short short. Long long long. Short short. Then it repeated.

 

"What is it?" Douglas asked.

 

"I don't know," Stevie said. "Let's see if Jordan or Brandon do."

 

They came to the cockpit fast. Brandon had no clue what it was, but Jordan thought he did.

 

"It might be a locator signal," he said.

 

"Ours?" Alex asked.

 

"No, another one. The communications officer let me listen to one on the radio once and it had a pattern like that."

 

The boys listened to the signal. If it was a locator signal, that meant another shuttle might have made it to the planet. Well, if a bunch of kids found their way here, Douglas thought, there was no reason a shuttle with a regular crew couldn't. And if it was a locator signal, that meant that somebody from the "Starkeeper" survived.

 

"If it is a locator, then we're not alone," Douglas said.  The boys felt a sense of excitement, thinking that maybe a rescue was underway.  Douglas was thinking that there would be adults coming to rescue them, and adults meant they could be responsible and make the decisions. That would take the big weight off his shoulders that already seemed to be dragging him down. He said a quick silent prayer that if that was another shuttle up there it would find them fast.

 

"Can they hear our locator signal?" Scooter asked.

 

"I don't know," Stevie said. "The radio is so messed up I don't know if it is even sending out our signal. I guess something is working because we are hearing that signal."

 

"Why aren't they sending us a message or something?" Douglas asked.

 

"Maybe they don't hear us, or maybe we can't receive it. I don't know," Stevie replied.

 

"I wonder if they are in orbit around Inferno?" Alex questioned. Nobody had an answer to that because nobody knew.

 

They listened to the beeps for a couple of more minutes hoping that maybe a voice would come telling them that they were found and that everything was okay. The beeps stopped as suddenly as they had begun. The cockpit went totally quiet. They waited for them to start again, but nothing happened. The beeps never returned.

 

They spent the rest of the day talking about what they’d received that morning. Were they from a shuttle locator? Was it in orbit? Could the beeps be from whatever aliens terraformed this planet? If it was a shuttle, did they hear the "Moonduster's" locator signal?  The boys would keep popping their heads outside hoping to see something landing next to them, but nothing happened.

 

By the end of the day they were pretty sure nothing was going to happen. The whole group started becoming depressed. Just after dinner Alex and Stevie stepped out from the cockpit with part of the instrument panel.

 

"What do you have there?" Ryan asked.

 

"Well, guys, since the sun is down, and it's cooling off, let's take it outside and find out," Alex said.

 

Some of the boys went out of the airlock and down the ladder. Some went through the opening in the back. They spread a tarp out and the twelve boys sat on it wondering what was going to happen. Only Stevie, Alex, and Douglas knew what was about to happen. Douglas had talked with Stevie and Alex about doing something special on their last full night on the "Moonduster”. He wanted something that was sure to lift everybody’s spirits.

 

Stevie opened a small hatch on the fuselage of the shuttle, opening a small compartment. He took out a power cord and plugged it into an outlet inside of the compartment. They had brought a touchpad from the instrument panel with them which had a couple of speakers from the broken radio attached to it. Alex pushed the pad and a sound came out. It was a musical note. Alex tuned it up, then played a quick song.

 

"I thought maybe us all doing a little singing would get us in the right mood for what's ahead of us."

 

Alex started a few notes of a song he figured everybody would know. The singing was quiet and not everybody was singing. Douglas thought about the concert Alex put on for them in the cargo hold and how alive that had been. Right now they were all dead.  Alex and Stevie started singing with their golden voices, Alex pounding away on his homemade keyboard. But that was about all that was heard, except Douglas singing loudly, but way off key.

 

Robert Charles, who had been sitting quietly on the tarp, got up and climbed the ladder into the cabin. The singing went on quietly. It was more like a murmur than a songfest. Then he reappeared and climbed back down. He was carrying one of the radios that was on the sled. The singing stopped completely.

 

"What are you up to, RC?" Alex said.

 

"I put a radio next to Matthew. It's set for two way. I figure Matthew can't be with us, but he can hear us sing. And he can call us if he wakes up. So let's sing so Matthew can hear us."

 

Douglas grinned at Robert Charles. He forgot that just because RC was an asshole, didn't mean he wasn't a human being, too—just like all of them were.

 

Robert Charles's gesture seemed to lighten things up. The singing got louder and everybody started joining in. Warren lost his worried look and sang. Jordan brightened up and sang. Pretty soon Alex was jamming away, Stevie was keeping the rhythm by banging a hammer against the hull of the “Moonduster”, and the whole group was up singing and dancing. They were naked, some even had erections, and for a little while they were a happy group.

 

Up in the cabin Matthew woke up. His head hurt, his stomach hurt, and his leg hurt, but he heard the singing on the radio and forced a smile before falling back to sleep.

 

The wind started blowing and the temperature started to drop. Most of the boys started back to the shuttle. As Scooter and Douglas helped Alex and Stevie put things away, they looked up into the sky.  It was clear and black and full of stars. The night was beautiful. Suddenly some streaks went across the sky—meteors.  Douglas wondered when he would feel this happy again.

 

 

Scooter checked on Matthew. Jordan took care of Matthew’s waste bag and cleaned him up.

 

Matthew had had a fever earlier in the day and he still felt warm, but his face looked calmer. Scooter turned off the radio and went down below, returning the radio to the sled. He found Douglas in their corner in the sleeping bag they shared. He cuddled up next to him. He loved feeling Douglas's heart beat through his smooth hard chest. He loved touching his skin. He loved everything there was to love about Douglas.

 

They kissed and cuddled and touched and petted. Douglas kissed Scooter's neck and nibbled on it. He kissed down along his chest and licked his nipples, causing the dime-sized pink nipples to stand up hard. Douglas bit them lightly. Scooter moaned.

 

Douglas kept licking and kissing down Scooter's body. When he got to his belly button he kissed it and licked the inside.  Then he licked down to his hairless pubes. Scooter's beautiful uncut dick stood up hard and proud. Douglas licked around it, going along the inside of Scooter’s thighs and then under his balls. Scooter shuddered from the intense feelings.  Then Douglas sucked on each of Scooter's balls and licked up his dick, until he licked the head, which was poking out from Scooter’s foreskin. His tongue played with the pee hole, and then Douglas took it all the way in, sucking him down to his smooth pubic area. Scooter pushed his hips up and humped Douglas's sucking mouth. Douglas flicked his tongue across Scooter's dick as he sucked him.

 

‘I love you’, he heard Scooter say in his mind. ‘I want you in me tonight. We are one in our souls and I want us one in our bodies.’

 

`I love you so much,’ Douglas thought back.  ‘I want to make love to you. I want us linked as one.'

 

Douglas let Scooter's erection drop from his mouth. Within seconds, Scooter’s legs were up and Douglas pushed up against his rose. He pushed inside, Scooter pushed back, and soon Douglas was all the way inside of his lover. He could feel Scooter's insides around his hard dick and he pushed his smooth pubes to Scooter's butt.

 

`Make love to me. Be one with me. Love me.  Love me. Love me'.

 

Douglas started pumping Scooter's butt. He loved being inside of him. He loved being in Scooter's mind. He and Scooter were one. They were linked forever, mind and body together. Douglas was in Scooter's body and in his mind and in his soul and in his heart. He rubbed hard across Scooter's sweet spot sending so much pleasure through Scooter that he quaked.

 

`Touch them, Douglas. Touch them together. Oh, please touch them.'

 

Douglas heard Scooter in his mind, but didn't understand.  ‘Touch what?'

 

`The heads...we need to touch the heads. The heads...they gotta touch.'

 

Douglas knew what he wanted, but wasn't sure why. But if this was what his love wanted, then he would give it to him. He pulled out of Scooter's butt with a pop and got closer to Scooter, laying his hard dick over Scooter's boner. He let the heads of their dicks touch and Scooter let out a long moan.  Douglas almost felt electricity shoot through him as the two cock heads touched. Scooter felt the jolt, too, as all the energy of their sex went between the heads of their dicks.

 

They humped and rubbed and the inevitable outcome didn't take long in coming. Orgasm built up in both of them. Their dicks swelled up with blood, the heads getting big and full of feeling. Douglas was getting sensations in his head that he had never felt before. His brain felt like it was on the edge of exploding. Scooter had the same feelings. They were ready to cum, and the power of their orgasms leaped from one mind to the other. Douglas was sensing his climax as well as Scooter's and Scooter could also feel both of them at the same time. Douglas was lost in Scooter. Scooter was lost in Douglas. In both of their minds the only things happening were the eruptions of sex and orgasm.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. MMMMMMMMMMM..  AAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

It was in Douglas's mind. In Scooter's mind. In both of their pubescent erections. The explosion almost sent their minds out of their bodies as their orgasms detonated like blasts of dynamite and they covered each other with spurt after spurt of hot sweet boy cum.  They both were so lost in themselves and each other they didn't even know they were screaming. "DOUGLAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

"SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTERRRRRRRRRRR"

 

The entire group heard the result of their lovemaking and they didn't care. They were each with their own boyfriends: Alex and Mike, Stevie and Brandon, Ryan and Travis, Jeremy and Warren. All they knew was that something very special must have happened between their leader and his lover.

 

For Scooter and Douglas the explosion in their minds and cocks overloaded some circuits.  Douglas fell on top of Scooter as they both blacked out, totally happy, glowing like the lights of a thousand cities. Their bodies were stuck together by what they had ejaculated, and their minds and souls were stuck together by their love.

 

 

Robert Charles was sleeping in his corner. He was jerked awake by the screams of Scooter and Douglas. That, along with all of the other sex he knew was going on, had him very horny. He lay in his bag stroking his hard leaking teen cock. He knew the exact place he wanted to put it.

 

He waited patiently for things to quiet down. He climbed stealthily up the ladder and walked to the front of the cabin. Matthew was in his usual place on the floor. He had more room because Jeremy and Brandon had taken two rows of seats out. Robert Charles ogled the ten-year-old. He remembered how gorgeous Matt's bubble butt looked on the "Starkeeper”, and he wanted it now. The boy was unconscious and could never tell Douglas, Alex, or anyone else.

 

Robert Charles quietly pulled back Matthew’s blanket and admired his pale, skinny naked body.  He replaced the blanket. No, he thought, doing that to the injured boy was wrong.  He hadn't brought the radio to Matthew so he could rape him. Talking the little boy into having sex on the "Starkeeper" was one thing, but raping him was something much different.  Like Douglas had noticed earlier, even assholes have their human side.

 

Jordan was sleeping on the seats behind Matthew. Robert Charles’s presence woke him up.  "No, please, no, Robert Charles. No. Please. This is different.  He's hurt and sick. He can't be any fun. Don't do it."

 

"I know, Jordan, I didn't plan to.  I was just making sure he was okay. What do you think I am?"

 

Jordan threw off his blanket and raised his legs. "Do me. Do me. Leave Matthew alone. Do anything you want...but leave him alone.  Please."

 

"Jordan, go to sleep.  I'm not doing anything to anybody."  Robert Charles went to his sleeping area, once again feeling very lonely.  For the first time in his life, he was really and totally alone.  He had just done the right thing, he knew he had just done the right thing—yet he felt like a piece of scum.  Is this what everybody really thinks of me? he thought. Not only was he no longer the leader, he didn’t have a single friend on the “Moonduster.”  As much as he tried to fight it, Robert Charles, the arrogant, egotistical leader, but also a lonely young boy, cried himself to sleep.

 

The boys had released a great deal of tension by having sex, even though their situation was desperate. But as they became more tired, anxious, lonely, and fearful, their sexual urges waned. That night they had taken care of their adolescent urges unaware of the fact that those urges would become buried by their need to survive. 

 

 

Sometime after Robert Charles made it back to his corner, the wind that had started that evening picked up. Blasts of wind shook the shuttle. A gust woke up Mike. He untangled himself from Alex, which woke him up as well. They climbed up the ladder up to the cabin. Jeremy and Warren were in a sleeping bag in the galley. The wind had awakened Warren.  When he saw Alex and Stevie, he unwrapped Jeremy and crawled out of their sleeping bag.

 

"What's going on?" he asked.

 

The “Moonduster” shook. "I don't know, but it feels like a pretty big storm though," Mike answered.

 

Then they heard a noise from outside.  Something other than the wind. Like sandpaper being rubbed on the fuselage.

 

 

"What the fuck....." Alex said.

 

Mike went to a view port that had no emergency lights reflecting off of it. He could see something blowing up against it, like brown snow. He knew what it was right away.

 

"It's sand," Mike said. "It's a sand storm."

 

"Shit. I hope that doesn't mess things up," Alex said.

 

"It won't tonight, love. We're safe in here. Let's go back to the sack."

 

They headed down the ladder as the shuttle shook again. Warren knew he couldn't go back to sleep. He’d been waiting for his allergies to kick in now that his meds were gone and knew it was just a matter of time before he was sick again. He didn't want to be sick. He didn't want to be a bother to his friends, the best friends he’d ever had in his life. Once again the wind shook the shuttle.  Warren wiped away a tear and crawled back into the sleeping bag with Jeremy.

 

When morning came the storm had passed. While Mike and Stevie got breakfast set up, Douglas, Alex, Jeremy, and Brandon went to have a look outside.  They found sand piled high up the right side of the shuttle.  The ladder was half buried so they didn't have to go far to touch the ground. When they set foot on the sand, they found it to be loose and sank into it.

 

Brandon tried walking on it and he went down to his knees. Jeremy and Alex joined him. They found enough places to step that they could walk around the shuttle which was half buried in sand. The hole in the hull that they planned to use to unload the sleds was on the lee side, which was a lucky break. With just a little bit of digging they could clear the gap so they could get the sleds out. They went back into the shuttle through the hole. A lot of sand had blown into the back of the hold, but it was nothing they couldn't work through.

 

After breakfast Douglas called a meeting. It was time to finish their plans for the departure from the "Moonduster".

 

The first thing they would do is pull the sleds out of the hold and start loading them. They had their boxes and materials organized and ready to place on the sleds. Douglas was thankful that they had not stacked the boxes outside of the shuttle or who knew where they would have blown to or how many would have been buried. Once again, luck appeared to be on their side. They wanted to have everything loaded and tied down by the end of the day.

 

“Guys, we all took care of our horniness last night,” Douglas told them (Speak for yourself, Robert Charles thought). We need to sleep as much as we can tonight, because it may be our last chance for regular sleep for a long time.”

 Douglas continued with the information that they would get ready to leave the next day. He and his advisers had decided to set the departure time at three in the morning on the following day. They could then get six to seven hours of travel in before it started getting too hot.

Since most of them would have to walk, the going would be slow. Then sometime after around ten or eleven, they would set up the tents and rest. Douglas didn't want them traveling during the hottest part of the day. Then, depending on how they felt, they might put in a couple more hours in the evening before stopping again. They needed to cover a lot of ground as fast as they could.

 

"Does disagreeing with you make it so I'm in the way?" Robert Charles asked.

 

"No. Disagreeing and then doing something against us would mean getting in the way. I want people to disagree so I can see all the sides," Douglas said.

 

"I think again we should stay, and I have some new reasons."

 

"Ok, tell us."

 

"First, the radio signal. How do we know somebody didn't hear ours and they aren't coming to rescue us? If we leave, we won’t have our locator signal for them to use to find us,"

 

"We don't know, but we don't know where that signal came from. All I know is, if we believe whoever sent that signal is going to rescue us then how long do we stay here before we give up? A couple of days?  A week? A month? A year? We decided to go. So unless we have something that we know for sure, we're going the day after tomorrow. I guess there is another reason."

 

"There is, Sir Douglas…the sandstorm."

 

"What about it?" Douglas knew where this was going; he just wanted Robert Charles to say it.

 

"That was one motherfucking storm last night. It half buried us in sand. A storm like that hits us when we’re outside the shuttle and we're dead. We don't know how often these storms happen and I don't want to be caught in one."

 

"It might happen and it might not happen.  Who knows? We stay here and a storm hits again and maybe the shuttle will get buried and the air vents get clogged. Who the hell knows? What's going to make us dead is staying here and not fighting to live. We need help. Matthew could die without help."

 

"He's going to die anyway, unless you haven't noticed. His head is injured, his leg is broken, and he might have other injuries we don’t know about.  He’s always got a fever, and he hardly eats."

 

"What are you saying, RC?" Mike asked.

 

"What I'm saying is we can only take so much food. We could use extra space so more of us could sit instead of walk. And most importantly we don’t have much water. Why waste it on somebody who won't live to get anywhere. I say we give him a bunch of those painkillers and bury him in the sand before we go."

 

Mike stood up from his chair. This was his little brother Robert Charles was talking about.

 

"We have a better chance of surviving without him. I say we leave Matthew behind,” Robert Charles finished.

 

Mike had the vision of Scooter, Douglas, Warren, Jordan, himself—hell, everybody— taking their turns watching, feeding, and cleaning little Matthew. Matthew's cute face and button nose was in his mind as he jumped on a seat and then on top of Robert Charles. Mike knocked him to the ground and the two of them wrestled, crashing into seats. Mike was ready to finish what Alex started.

 

They rolled around some more until Mike was sitting on top of Robert Charles, his fist up ready to flatten his face. "Don't you dare fuck with Matthew, you fucking no good pile of dog shit. How can you think of saying that? As long as I have one ounce of life in me, I will give it for Matthew. He's my brother, and I love him, and I will kill for him!!!!!" Mike stared into Robert Charles's eyes.  Robert Charles had no doubt that Mike would kill him, just like he had no doubt Alex would, too.

 

"Look, Mike, I didn't mean it that way..."

 

"Then how the fuck did you mean it? Tell me while I'm still letting you live!" Mike was livid, angrier than he had ever been in his whole life.

 

"It's just something we need to think about.  I would never...."

 

"Fuck you Robert Charles." Mike was so mad he was crying. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.  You lay one finger on Matthew in any way, you're dead. And

there is no law here that is going to stop me. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, YOU FUCK????!!!!"

 

Robert Charles cowered underneath Mike’s weight and anger.

 

"DO YOU?!!"

 

"I do. But you didn't understand what I meant. I meant to say..."

 

Mike slapped his face hard and got up. "I think we should leave you behind. You're the total waste of food, water, and oxygen." He walked back to his chair shaking, wiping away tears of anger.

 

The door to the cabin was closed, but in the front of the cabin Matthew had woken up just long enough to hear the words, "Leave Matthew behind." He wasn't sure what it meant, but he knew he didn't want to die. He wanted Mike or Scooter or Jordan to tell him they weren’t going to leave him behind. The pain in his leg was unbearable and he passed out.

 

 

After the meeting ended, the boys talked about what happened between Mike and Robert Charles.  Everybody knew the bad blood wasn’t going away and they all left Robert Charles alone. He was becoming more and more separated from the group.

 

Mike, Scooter, and Jordan took turns staying with Matthew. He was pale and shivering and delirious, sometimes mumbling about the green horsey.

 

Mike cried when he was with him. Just when his little brother was getting happy, all this shit had to happen to him. He stroked Matthew's hair and petted his forehead and his cheeks. "I love you, my little brother. I won't let you die on me. You will live so we can be brothers forever."

 

Jeremy, Travis, and Brandon worked an idea that Travis had, one that would give them more capacity for the upcoming trek. It involved fixing up the damaged sled.  They removed the heavy track and the electric motor, both of which didn’t work and were dead weight. Now it was lighter and sat just on its runners.  Then they hooked it up to another sled, making a trailer out of it. Now there was room for them all to ride and they would be able to go much faster. They could also carry more food and water. Douglas complimented the trio on their good work. Things were looking up as they had one more thing go right for them.

 

Douglas picked older boys to be drivers. Everybody who was picked to be a driver got a chance to drive the sled without the trailer. They each drove it around the shuttle a few times so they could learn how it worked. They were pleased to see that the sled rode well on the loose sand.  Douglas, Alex, Mike, Scooter, Brandon, and Travis were going to be the drivers.  Douglas would have liked Robert Charles to be one of the drivers, but he didn't trust him. Each driver then had a chance to drive the two-piece sled.

 

While the test-driving was going on, Stevie, Jeremy, Jordan, and Robert Charles put up the tents and laid all the sleeping bags inside the tents. They then took the tents down and the other boys took their turns raising and taking down the tents.

 

For the first time since the crash Matthew was moved from his place in the cabin. Scooter thought his neck and spine were okay because he could move everything and he could feel pain everywhere. It was hard getting him down the ladder, and here they did use Robert Charles because he was the second biggest kid. But nobody let him have control of Matthew as he was handed down the ladder, carried through the gap in the tail to a tent, and put into a sleeping bag.  He never woke up during the entire move.

 

Just before three o'clock, an alarm sounded. Stevie moaned and flicked a switch, turning it off. The boys had dressed before getting into their sleeping bags. They rolled the bags up and put blankets over their shoulders. It was cold out. They stuffed their bags into the trailer sled, took down the tents, folded them, and placed them in a sled. Then Mike, Jeremy, Travis, and Douglas helped carry Matthew to the single sled. They had packed the sled so there would be a spot to place for Matthew.

 

They had everything they needed from the “Moonduster”. Alex didn't shut anything down on the shuttle. They had taken all of the power chips but one, which would the run the lights and the climate control, everything until it ran out.

 

Douglas started the electric motor on his sled. It purred perfectly. Mike started his sled. His was driving the one with the trailer. They flicked on the big headlights plus the searchlights that Stevie and Brandon had installed. The desert was lit up by the lights. The two sleds started moving. Stevie was sitting next to Brandon and he pointed a searchlight at the "Moonduster". He moved it back and forth.  Light from the emergency lights inside shone through the windows. The shuttle was half buried in the sand. It had been their home for so many days. It had done its job. They would probably never see it again. The boys all looked at it. All but two boys had tears flowing. Matthew didn't know what was going on.  Douglas was staring straight ahead into the dark desert. Everything was on his shoulders. What if Robert Charles was right? What if they should have stayed? What if he was leading all of them, some of them the best friends he ever had, to their deaths?  What if he wasn't big enough for this job?

 

Even Robert Charles had some tears and didn't try to hide them. But his tears weren't for the "Moonduster". They were for himself and how much he had lost the last few days. It should be him leading this group. Leading them to do whatever they could to make the "Moonduster" home until they were rescued. Douglas had turned everybody against him. He, Mike, and Alex would pay. Robert Charles didn't care who saw him cry. They would all think he was sad for leaving too. What he really was, was mad for leaving.

 

Douglas led the string of three sleds into the desert and towards the mountains. He was leading his group into an inferno to find a mysterious green horsey.

 

Next: Chapter 24 The Trek