by Marla Monroe
“You can’t tell me that that mop kept that thing off of you.” Andrew shook his head.
“No, my screaming did that. Every time I screamed, it held its head and backed away. So I kept screaming until you showed up.”
“I’d have backed away, too, if you were screaming at me,” Danny said.
“I think he’s drunk,” Rachel commented.
“Naw, just feeling better now,” he said.
Andrew looked at him and shook his head. “So screaming scared it off?” he asked.
“No, I think it was more that the noise hurt its head.”
“Hmmm.” Andrew sighed and pulled her closer to him. “Don’t ever do something like that again. You could have been hurt.”
“What was I supposed to do, let it eat the baby cow?”
“Calf,” they both said.
“And yes,” Andrew told her. “Better it than you. I don’t mind sacrificing it if it keeps you safe.”
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” she told them.
Danny snored.
Andrew pulled her over on top of him. “I need you, Rachel. I need to feel you around me, know that you’re really okay. I thought something had gotten you when I heard you screaming.”
“I want you, too, Andrew.”
“Ride me, Rachel.” He held his cock with his fist and kept a hand on her waist to steady her as she slipped down on top of him. They both sighed when she slid down only partway.
“You’re not ready yet. I’m sorry.”
“No, it will be okay.” She moved up and down on his thick cock until she was able to sink all the way to his pelvis. She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes as their bodies met.
“Fuck, you’re tight.” Andrew grimaced as he pulled back and pushed forward to meet her downward thrust.
Rachel felt the sweat begin to gather at her brow. It was so intense, maybe too intense. She felt as if every part of them was joining at that moment. She pushed down as he pressed upward. He pulled out as she moved up. His thick cock rubbed over all her nerve endings, telling her she was alive. Danny was alive, Andrew was alive. She rode him in long, hard drives until they both lost their rhythm and came in grunts and cries.
Chapter Six
Early the next morning, Rachel slipped out of bed to start breakfast and a much-needed cup of coffee. She had fallen asleep as soon as Andrew had settled her next to him in the bed. She had no doubt they would be up soon. It was nearly five in the morning.
As soon as the coffee finished brewing, she sat down with a cup and sipped it, waiting on the fear of the night before to come back over her. Only it didn’t. She had always been one to get overly upset over things according to most people, but she seemed to be handling this better than she’d handled anything else in her life. Maybe she’d grown up overnight. She was only twenty-two.
It was funny. Even after all the years of watching space horror movies, when the choice had been given to her to stay in her Earth-bound locker or fly to some far-off planet, she’d jumped at the chance to get out of the bunkers. She had never once thought about those horror movies or that they might have some truth to them. Now she knew better. There were scary things on other planets. And she had survived one of them.
“You’re thinking awfully hard over there.” Andrew’s voice startled her.
She turned to watch him pour a cup of coffee. He didn’t look any worse for wear. She was sure she had circles under her eyes and was even paler than normal.
“Just thinking about when I used to watch those scary space movies as a kid.”
“I remember some of those,” Andrew said. “Seems like a whole other lifetime ago now, though.”
“Yes, it does.” She smiled at him and got up to start breakfast.
“Is Danny up yet?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s getting dressed. I took a shower before I woke him.”
“Oh! He shouldn’t get those stitches wet.” She started to run up the stairs, but Andrew caught her.
“He knows, Rachel. We’ve both had stitches before.”
“Oh, okay.” She felt foolish. Of course they would know better. They were grown men.
Andrew sat down then wound his arms around her waist and buried his face between her breasts. She thought at first he was being sneaky about playing with her tits but realized he was just seeking comfort at her bosom. She wrapped her arms around his head and smoothed his wayward hair down with her hands.
When Danny walked downstairs, they were standing at the table waiting on him.
“How do you feel?” she asked him.
“Like something took a swipe at me.” He grinned. “I’m okay, though. Thanks for patching me up, doc.”
She rolled her eyes and got back to cooking.
Once the men had left for the day, she went about cleaning up. She swept and mopped the floor with the mop that had saved her and the calf. Then she went into the office and began reading everything she could find on the planet and its inhabitants. She would be better prepared from now on.
Several hours later, she realized there was nothing in any of the paperwork about the thing that had attacked them last night. It was, for all intents and purposes, a new species for the planet. She sat down and wrote down everything she could remember about it and then drew a sketch of it the best she could. She was no artist by any means, but one of the men might be able to use it to make a better drawing.
She walked the floors of the house, wondering what to do next. She needed to work in the garden but promised she wouldn’t go out there until one of them had the time to show her around. She needed to make sure they showed her today when they got home.
When she wasn’t thinking about the garden and the creature, she wondered how Danny was doing with his wounded arm. She hoped he didn’t pull the stitches out working. She didn’t think she could sew him up again. He needed antibiotics, but they didn’t have any. Maybe she should insist they go to town and get him some. They had a doctor there.
Finally, the men walked through the back door at close to six that evening. She refrained from throwing herself into their arms, knowing they were both tired and dirty. Still, she smiled at them and offered them coffee before they went to get cleaned up.
“How is your arm, Danny? Can I see it?” she asked.
He shrugged and pulled off his shirt so she could see his bandage. She slipped it lose and checked to be sure the stitches were still intact.
“You can leave the bandage off after you clean up. Just don’t get it wet.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smirk.
She slapped his good shoulder.
“How has your day been?” Andrew asked.
“Boring. I need to get out and work in the garden. Can you show me around now so I can do that tomorrow?”
“We’re not sure you should work outside at all with this new thing running around.” He and Danny exchanged looks.
“Like hell! I’m working in the garden. Besides, I have a weapon you two don’t have.”
“What is that?” Danny asked clearly confused.
“I can scream like a banshee, and you can’t. That thing can’t stand loud noises or high noises, for one thing,” she said.
“Still, it’s not safe out there.”
“It’s not going to be safe for either of you in here if I have to stay cooped up in here from now on. So what’s it going to be?” she asked sweetly.
“Fuck, Rachel. I’m scared for you to work out there alone. We’re anywhere from one to three miles out at any given time during the day. You’re all on your own out here.” Andrew cursed then turned around and slammed his hands at his waist.
“I’ll be careful. I won’t take chances, and I’ll keep my trusty mop with me at all times.”
“It’s nothing to joke about, Rachel.” Danny slapped his hands against the table and stood up.
“I’m not joking, guys. I’m dead serious. I have to be able to work out there. I know there are dangers, but I didn’
t get out of those bunkers on Earth just to sit in a house here on Alpha. The garden has to be worked, or it’s going to go to weeds. We have to have the garden to eat. You don’t have time to deal with it. If you think I need to know how to shoot a gun, teach me. I can learn.” She stopped with her hands on her hips, breathing like a race horse.
“She’s right, Danny,” Andrew finally said.
“Hell, I know.” Danny ran a hand over his face. “You teach her how to shoot. I’ll walk the garden and yard with her. We’ll hope for a set of puppies from Rex and Skippy sometime, and she’ll have some guard dogs then.”
“Come on. I’ll go ahead and take her out to show her around the yard. You need to rest. We’ll be back inside soon.” Andrew held out his hand to Rachel.
“I’m going to go ahead and take a shower. I’ll see you in a little while.” Danny walked through the kitchen to the stairs.
Rachel smiled in triumph. Next she had to learn to use the radio. They needed to be able to all keep in touch.
“Watch that smirk, Rachel. It could get you in trouble.” Andrew shook his head and opened the door for her.
Once outside, he was all business, explaining the differences between some of the plants. He pointed out the poisonous ones that grew wild around the yard and showed her an insect that would swell her arm up like a squash if she let it bite her. He told her to always wear gloves and to check inside of them before sticking her hands in them after she’s taken them off for any reason.
They spent nearly an hour outside in the garden and surrounding yard before he called it a night.
“You might not be, but I’m hungry,” he told her as they walked inside.
“I went to the liberty of warming up the soup she had on the stove,” Danny said as they closed the kitchen door behind them.
“I’ll finish the cornbread,” she told them and pulled the batter she already had mixed up out of the fridge.
The men disappeared while she put the finishing touches on supper. A few minutes later they walked back in the kitchen with frowns on their faces. She looked from one to the other.
“What?”
“We were just talking to Cam and Phillip a few miles east of us. They are finding some big tracks on their land that look like it might be from the same animal we have bothering us,” Andrew told her.
“Do you think it’s the same one, or is there more than one?” she asked.
“There’s bound to be more than one. For all we know, there are hundreds around here.” Danny opened the oven door to peek at the cornbread. She swatted at his uninjured arm.
“The thing is, it’s dangerous. We need to know what to do to get rid of it, or at the least keep it away from the house,” Andrew said.
“Have they seen it?”
“Not yet. They hope they won’t but are worried about it now because it’s been close to the garden where their wife, Lacy, has been working.” Andrew looked out the window over the door into the back yard.
“I hope they keep it away from her. It’s one scary monster.” She pulled out the cornbread and set it on top of the stove to cut.
“I’ll take care of it from here,” Andrew told her. “It’s too heavy and hot for you to deal with. Why don’t you go have a seat, and I’ll bring it to the table.”
Danny pulled out her chair, and she sat down feeling like a queen. They were good men. She really couldn’t have chosen better. She frowned then smiled. She wasn’t going to sweat it. She was happy enough.
They ate in silence, and then the men returned to the office while she put up the leftovers and washed up the kitchen. As soon as she finished, she knocked on the office door. Danny called for her to come in.
“What is it, honey?” he asked.
“Will you show me how to use the radio, so I can call you if there’s a problem and I need you?”
“Sure.” Danny walked over to the contraption and identified each of the dials and parts on it. Then he had her repeat them. Once he was satisfied she could remember them, he showed her how to call them on their handheld radios and how to call the city if she needed help from there.
“We just got the radios this month. Before that we were just out here on our own. It took them awhile to get them to work in this atmosphere. Evidently it’s denser, and the frequencies are screwy.” Danny pulled out a radio from the desk and added a battery to it.
“Keep this on you when you’re outside. You can call us using it, but you can’t reach the city with it. It’s set to our frequency.”
“Okay, thanks, I feel better knowing I can get hold of you in case of a problem.”
Andrew wrapped an arm around her. “I’m just sorry we didn’t think about it sooner.” Then he handed her a sketch he’d made of the monster, having used hers and what he saw.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“That looks just like it. You’re good at drawing. Mine looked like a cross between a short Godzilla and a walking stick.”
“You wrote down some interesting information about the thing that we hadn’t noticed. I think you need to keep a journal of what you observe. It could help us or someone else later down the line.” Danny handed her a notebook and pen.
“Oh, okay.” She hadn’t thought she could be of any real help keeping notes, but she would do it if they thought she should.
“Make good notes on the garden, ’cause you’re going to want to refer back to what grew well and what didn’t, so you don’t keep planting the same things every year. I can attest that eggplants grow wild here. They make more than a zucchini does on Earth,” Danny said.
“Hell, you just about can’t kill the things, either. They were still producing all the way up until they froze on the plant the first freeze we had,” Andrew added.
They talked about the garden and the wildlife around the area for another hour. When they caught her yawning, they called it a night.
“We’ve got another long day ahead of us. If you’re going to be working outside some, you’re going to need more rest.” Danny ushered her upstairs where he helped her undress while Andrew took a shower.
Rachel crawled into bed and tried to stay awake for when the men joined her, but the next thing she knew, she was asleep.
* * * *
Rachel worked out in the garden every morning from when the men left until around lunchtime, when they often would show up for sandwiches. She wasn’t sure if they were just keeping close because of her being outside or if the creature had them spooked as well. Still, she was glad to see them for a short while at midday.
In the afternoons as it grew hotter, she stayed indoors to clean house and wash clothes, or sometimes just to read. May turned to June, and the days were growing hotter. The men spent less time out in the heat in the afternoons. Sometimes they all took a nap together after a quick round of sweaty sex.
One afternoon, they were showering when Danny began fingering her ass with his soapy finger.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, laughing.
Andrew held her still so that she wouldn’t fall. “He’s getting your ass ready for his cock.”
“Oh really? And you were going to ask me when?” she teased.
“Hey, we know this was mentioned in the literature you got.” Danny nipped her shoulder with his teeth.
“But we haven’t discussed it,” she persisted.
“We are now,” Danny said, shoving his finger in and out of her ass.
“How does that feel?” Andrew asked as he played with her clit.
“I can’t concentrate on it while you’re doing that to my pussy,” she said.
“Good. Then I’m doing my job well.”
He looked over her shoulder at Danny and pinched her clit at the same time that Danny added a finger and more soap to her ass. It pinched but didn’t hurt that badly. She moaned as Andrew began shoving two fingers into her cunt at the same time. She could feel them both gliding in and out of her, touching through a thin layer of tissue.
“How does that feel, honey?” Danny asked.
“Ooh, it feels good. I can feel both of you at the same time.”
“Think of how good it’s going to feel when both our cocks are inside you at the same time.” Danny pulled free of her ass and cleaned up.
“Why did you stop?” she complained.
“Because we need to be somewhere besides the shower to go any further,” Andrew told her. “We don’t want to risk falling in here. We could break something.” He grinned at her.
Rachel just laughed and shook her head. They all climbed out and dried off before dressing. It was late afternoon now, and the men would go round the cows up to bring them in closer tonight. They’d noticed tracks of their resident creature on the outskirts of the herd the day before.
“Be careful.” She always warned them before they left.
She worried about them when they were out in the evenings. She fixed supper and waited on them to come in. When their usual hour passed and there was no sign of them, she began to worry. She waited another hour then pulled up the radio to locate them.
At first, she didn’t get an answer from them, and then Danny radioed her back.
“We’ve got a couple of cows stuck in the mud out here. Have you ever driven the transport?”
“You know I haven’t, but I can try. What do you need me to do?” she asked.
Danny walked her through starting it up and how to back it up and go forward. She managed to get out of the garage without hitting the wall but once, and that wasn’t so bad. Once she got out in the open, she just drove slow and headed in the general direction of the compass readings.
“You should be here in the next few minutes,” Danny told her. “Do you see the stream yet?”
Daylight was fast disappearing, and she knew once it got to be night she would have a more difficult time finding them. Just when she thought she was totally lost, she found the stream.
“I see it. So I just follow it till I find you. Right?”
“That’s right,” Danny told her. “Won’t be long now. I think I hear you.”
Seconds later, she rode up on where they were, and her heart sank. The reason Andrew hadn’t been talking to her was that he was stuck in the mud with one of the cows. She could tell he was having a hard time keeping his head above water.
