Goddess Cruise Lines: The Complete Collection (Taboo Erotica)

by Anya Merchant

  Given the way things have been lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s avoiding mom.

  Jack pushed the thoughts out of his head and made a quick trip upstairs to grab his telescope. His mom was in her room sprawled out on the bed, an open book in one hand and a glass of red wine within reach of the other.

  The summer had been going by quicker than Jack had expected. As he made his way back outside and onto the front lawn, he couldn’t stop himself from musing about what the fall would hold. He’d gotten accepted into several colleges, and the one that he’d finally settled on was on the other side of the country from his family’s northern New Hampshire estate.

  Things can’t stay the same forever. That’s just a fact of life.

  He set the telescope down in its usual spot, on the lawn that his parents forced him to keep neatly trimmed and maintained. Mars was out and easily visible to the naked eye, and Jack picked out the right lens to bring it into focus and slipped it into the bottom of the cylinder.

  The wind was still blowing, softly now, with just enough chill to make the hair on Jack’s arm tighten up. He leaned forward and looked down into the telescope’s viewfinder.

  There’s Mars, and…

  Jack squinted as the metal casing of the lens pressed against the ridge of his eye. He could see a strange object next to the familiar red planet, so alien and bold against the dark backdrop of the sky.

  That’s…

  It was moving across the sky, and getting bigger. It took Jack a second to realize and accept what that meant.

  My god!

  The object began to glow around the edges, and for a moment Jack could see what looked like a newly born star in the sky. The color shifted from shining bright white to a neon orange tint, so bright that Jack could feel his pupils burn. Slowly, as if forcing himself out of a trance, he pulled his face away from the telescope.

  His heart was beating with the intensity of a racehorse in the midst of losing a race, desperate to go faster than physically possible. Jack turned toward the house on unsteady legs, feeling adrenaline and tension take a firm hold over him.

  “Mom… Mom!” He ran towards the door of the house and threw it open. “Mom! Get out here! We…”

  Jack trailed off as he looked back up towards the sky.

  That’s a fucking asteroid, and it’s headed straight for Earth!

  The thought had a strangely surreal overtone to it, dreamlike and hollow. Rebecca ran down the stairs towards Jack, and all he could do as she walked over to him, smiling and oblivious and still dressed in her tiny gown, was point up to the sky.

  “Oh my…” Rebecca could see it at a glance.

  It’s so much bigger than it just was!

  He took a deep breath , blew it out quick, and felt his survival instincts kick in.

  “Come on!” Jack grabbed his mom’s hand and pulled her through the house. The door to the cellar was on the other side of the living room, and he threw it open and took only enough time to pull the cord switch for the lights as he made his way down.

  “Jack, what was that?” Rebecca squeezed her son’s hand . “It must have been a plane, or a satellite, or something, right? That must have been-“

  “We don’t have time!

  He was right. All this time, he’s been right.

  Jack led his mom over to the corner of the house’s sublevel. A thick metal door, complete with a combination lock circular handle, was set into an even thicker looking metal frame. Jack scrambled to spin in the correct numbers, thanking his luck as he twisted the handle and felt it give way.

  “Get inside, mom!” Jack pushed himself out of the way and pulled her towards the passage. She was shaking her head slightly, as if the most hopeful part of her was still insisting that her son had misinterpreted the situation.

  Jack looked towards the open front door of the house. The asteroid had dropped even further, moving into view on the horizon. He gritted his teeth and stepped into the passageway, pushing the heavy door into it behind him and then following his mom.

  Dad insisted on this shelter. Just in case something like this ever happened.

  “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it,” he whispered under his breath. Rebecca turned to face him, her expression still a mask of confusion.

  “Jack, why are we down here?” she asked. “This can’t-“

  The ground suddenly jumped underneath them, sharp and intense. It was enough to knock the two of them cleanly off their feet and bounce them around on the ground, like freshly popped corn jumping up from the frying pan. Jack covered his head with his hands, listening to the sound of his mother screaming as his body collected bruises from the impacts against the wall and the ground.

  It went on for what felt like an eternity, but must have only been a couple of seconds. Jack had enough time to start to pick himself up when more shaking commenced, starting gentler than it had before but building with every second.

  “No way…” Jack was the one shaking his head now.

  It hit us. It really did just hit us. This can’t be happening.

  Jack took a deep, shaky breath, and then leaned up against one of the walls of the shelter. He stared up at the ceiling and felt his pupils burn slightly from the fluorescent lights.

  CHAPTER 2

  “What’s going on?”

  Rebecca let out a scream and ran down the stairs as the shaking continued to intensify. Jack walked deeper into the main room of the shelter after her, the earthquake making every step an act of faith.

  “Mom!” Jack stretched his arms out and felt her fall forward into them. She was still wearing her tiny evening gown, and even in the middle of an emergency it was impossible for his mind to ignore how thin and insubstantial the fabric was.

  “Sweetie, this is insane!” Rebecca pushed tightly against him. Jack could feel the softness of her body, and her breasts. Her body felt hot against him, and it was made even worse by the way the floor insisted on bumping and grinding them together.

  “It’s an earthquake, mom.” His voice was barely audible over the shaking and the far-off sounds of destruction outside. “The asteroid must have…”

  It set off an earthquake. How large of an impact would be needed to do something like that?

  “I’ve got you!” Rebecca pulled him more tightly against her, and Jack could feel the flesh of her boobs sliding across his chest. “Don’t worry, Jack!”

  It was a ludicrous suggestion, but Jack said nothing. He had looked up into the sky and imagined this very scenario an uncountable number of times before. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever thought it could actually happen.

  The shelter was holding up surprisingly well. Jack half expected the roof to come down on their heads, but after several minutes of shaking, the earthquake slowly began to subside. He and his mom were lying against each other on the floor, and regular sensation began to return to his body.

  “Is it…” Rebecca’s voice was quiet, as though she was afraid that the earthquake would start up again if it overheard her. “Is it over?”

  Good question.

  Jack had one of his arms around her and realized with a slight start that his crotch was pressed directly into her buttocks. His cock had hardened into a stiff rod, either a strange way of reacting to the stress of the situation, or just because of how good his mother’s soft body felt against him.

  Of all the things I need right now, embarrassing thoughts are at the bottom of the list.

  He slowly began pulling himself to his feet. The heavy steel shelter door was behind him, no worse for wear from the quake. The entrance room of the bunker was larger than he had realized, with another set of doors that led off into…

  Into what? I never spent very much time down here, or anytime down here, really.

  “I guess dad was right to be so paranoid,” said Jack. “This place, this shelter, may have just saved our lives.”

  Rebecca let out a sigh and pulled herself to her feet. He
r hair was in a tangle, as though she had just climbed out of bed or stepped off a roller coaster. She straightened her gown and managed a quick smile for Jack before stepping over to him and cupping one of his cheeks in her hand.

  “We’re alive, and that’s all that matters,” she said. “I was so worried…”

  Jack felt his cheeks begin to heat up. It felt strange, and even though he knew he was too old to relish in his mother’s physical affection, at that moment, there was nothing he wanted more.

  “We’re okay,” he said, walking over to the door at the far end of the tiny room. “And I’m willing to bet that this door leads to another exit, in case we can’t get the one we came in through open.”

  That must be where it leads. I know dad spent a lot of time and money setting this up, he would have thought things all the way through.

  There was another combination lock on the handle of the second door, and after putting in the combination again, his father’s birthday, he turned it and pulled it open.

  “Jack, hold on,” said his mom. “Maybe we should just-“

  “What the…”

  Jack was stunned by what he found on the other side of the door. In all the time that his father had spent constructing the bomb shelter, the extent of what he’d seen consisted of the small hallway that the main stairs down led down into. He had never seen the door in the back, much less what was behind it.

  “This is incredible,” whispered Rebecca. “All this time, and all of that money that I thought he was wasting on alcohol. This is where it ended up.”

  I can’t believe it either.

  The main room of the shelter was about the size of a large bedchamber, except with walls composed of thick, shiny metal. A carpet covered the entire room, but Jack could feel the hard, solid floor underneath it, even through his shoes.

  Tucked away in the corner of the room was a bed that looked just barely big enough for two people. The sheets and pillows on top of it were arranged with surgical precision, giving the appearance of it having never been used.

  A large TV monitor covered the wall directly across from the door, with a button filled instrument panel attached next to it and two plain office chairs in front of it. Large black tote bins were stacked high on either side of it, and there were two more heavy doors on each wall.

  “This must have taken years to set up,” said Jack. “How the hell did dad manage to get all of this in here?”

  Rebecca just shook her head.

  “When we bought the house, the realtor only ever showed us a glimpse of shelter. Some of this stuff could have already been in here, maybe?”

  Maybe…

  Jack walked over to one of the chairs and ran his hand across it.

  “There’s no dust,” he said. “Dad’s definitely been down here recently.”

  Was he really this paranoid?

  “We need to see what’s in the other rooms!” Rebecca walked in front of him, her tiny gown sliding up along her thighs a bit higher with every step. Jack followed, pulled in by both his curiosity and a strange urge to stay close to his mother.

  Jack and his mom turned the handle on the door to the left and peered inside. A motion activated sensor light switched on, revealing a small, somewhat cramped room. The center of it was taken up by a small table that was, just like the bed, only big enough for two people. In the corner and along the back wall, Jack could see a sink, what looked like a microwave, and two large clear tanks, one filled with water and one empty.

  “It’s a kitchen…” said Jack. “Huh.”

  There were more storage containers filling up all of the rest of the free space in the room, and it was obvious to him at a glance that his father had packed them full of canned and preserved foods. He turned and walked across the main room over to the other unopened door.

  “We should head back outside,” said Rebecca. Jack stopped in midstep and looked over his shoulder at her.

  I’m a little afraid of what we’ll find. That was an asteroid strike. This isn’t a dream.

  “Hold on, mom,” he said. “We have to be careful if we do decide to. The house could have collapsed from that quake.”

  Jack finished turning the handle on the new door and swung it open. Inside was a room that was almost a mirror image of the kitchen, with two huge tanks for clean and used water on either side and motion activated lights. In the center of this one, however, was a metal low flow toilet built into the wall, and a small shower stall.

  “He designed it with literally everything a person could need to survive,” said Jack. “What in god’s name was he expecting to happen?”

  His mom didn’t answer him. Jack turned around and saw that she was heading back up the stairs, towards the door to the outside.

  “Mom, hold on!” Jack rushed after her, starting up the stairs just as she was reaching the top. He could see right up her skirt, and the sight of her light blue panties made him flush with both excitement and embarrassment.

  “Jack, people could be hurt outside!” said Rebecca. “We need to do what we can to help, to get them to safety.”

  “We don’t know what’s going on outside, mom!” It was the truth, but Jack left out what he already could feel was the truth in his gut.

  I know what’s happening. The world… is ending.

  “Everyone in the town, our neighbors, your friends, my friends…” His mom looked at him seriously. “And your father, too!”

  She started walking up the stairs and this time, Jack ran over to follow her. His feet tapped out metal echoes as he set them down, slowing to a stop next to his mom in front of the main hatch leading into the cellar.

  “There’s a good chance that rubble from the earthquake is blocking the way,” said Jack. “I’m only going to open the door enough for us to see outside.”

  His mother nodded, and then moved far enough out of the way for him to slide by her in the doorway. Jack tried not to notice the heat that formed in the air as his body brushed against hers.

  Staying in here will be dangerous, in more ways than one.

  He set his hands on the door’s handle and slowly began to turn it. Surprisingly, there was little resistance from the outside, even as he began to push forward. Air rushed in through the widening crack, bringing dust and the smell of something that Jack couldn’t recognize along with it.

  “Well, at the very least we know that we can get out.” He pushed the door open further, creating enough space for a person to slide through if they pressed themselves flat.

  “Just lean out and look around,” said Rebecca. “I think you’re right. It’s too dangerous for us to rush right now.”

  Jack nodded and then began slipping out into what had once been the cellar of his family’s house. He edged his shoulder through, followed by his head, and started to take a look around. What he saw made his jaw drop open In surprise.

  The house had been reduced to splinters. It was the house he’d grown up in, the house that his mom had bought with his father and raised him over 18 long, nurturing years. Now it was nothing more than a scattering of tiny pieces of wood, with various recognizable objects like forks, broken picture frames, and couch cushions littering the destruction.

  “Jack? Is it safe?” His mom’s voice followed out the door after him, more concerned than afraid. The cellar was still essentially intact, but there was no house above it anymore, and the building’s remains layered every inch of the foundation.

  Jack climbed onto a beam that was leaning at an angle up to where the living room had once been and pulled himself up to ground level. One glance around the neighborhood was enough to confirm what he’d already expected.

  Jesus Christ…

  Nothing was left standing. The houses that had once belonged to his friends and other families were in just as bad, if not worse shape than his was. It looked as though a tornado had swept through town, except the damage was even worse, more severe and with more finality. The asphalt itself had been split by several foot high cracks
in a number of spots, as though a giant had pushed too hard on it at either end.

  “Oh my god…” Rebecca had followed him out and was peering across the street from a pile of lumber in the middle of the cellar. “We have to find someway to help!”

  “Hello?” Jack acted on her suggestion immediately, raising his voice and shouting off into the ruins. “Can anybody here me? Does anybody need-“

  “Jack!” His mom yelled his name with more terror, more urgency than he’d ever heard before. He looked over at her and followed her eyes, noticing all at once the danger that they were still in.

  The sky was a scene of smoldering chaos. Burning streaks of red and orange were slowly descending all across the night horizon and above him, like dyed contrails, or the marks of a celestial surrealist painter. They were multiplying even as Jack tried to make sense of them, and the wind had an unusual upward pull to it, as if being sucked in by the brilliance of the flames.

  “It’s… ejection rock,” whispered Jack. “From the asteroid’s collision. It must have been big enough to knock debris above the atmosphere, and now it’s all falling back down.”

  “Jack… We need to get back inside!” Rebecca walked across the cellar and reached her hand up to where he was, only barely managing to grab the back of his shoe with her fingers. It was enough to bring him back to his senses, and he only stared down at her tiny, gorgeous, nightgown glad body for a second before lowering himself down.

  “You’re right,” he said. “We need to…”

  His words began to trail off as the flames in the sky became even more vivid. Paradoxically, it began to grow harder to see rather than easier, the air warming around them and slowly filling with a strange fog.

  “This is bad,” said his mom. “We can’t stay out here any longer…”

  Jack nodded. The temperature was rising fast, like a sauna after being refilled with hot coals. He followed his mom as she walked through the shelter’s heavy door, closing it and the outside world off behind him.