Jack walked over to his mom’s backpack and began digging out some food. There was enough left for several more days of traveling, but he was still careful with rationing the portions he took out. Not being especially hungry himself, he gave Molly and his mom slightly bigger shares.
“Good morning…” Molly was the next to wake up, and she came out of the tent in her underwear just as Jack had. She smiled at him as she noticed his leering gaze and did a quick pirouette.
“Do you like what you see, sailor?” she asked, straightening her long blonde hair with her fingers. Her breasts were threatening to pop out of her bra, and it was all that Jack could think about.
“I do,” he said. “I really, really do.”
He set breakfast down and closed the distance between the two of him. Molly pushed into his arms, and for a moment all was forgotten as they kissed and groped at each other’s bodies like horny teenagers.
I am a horny teenager. Maybe I'm too hard on myself.
“Hey.” Rebecca came out of the tent at the worst possible time, already dressed in the clothes she’d worn the day before. “Oh, sorry to interrupt.”
Molly pulled away, letting her breath tickle Jack’s ear as she whispered a single word in his ear for only him to hear.
“Later…” Molly then turned to Rebecca and smiled at her warmly. “Good morning, Rebecca. Did you sleep well?”
Rebecca looked over at Jack, glancing at the bulge poking out against his pants before catching his gaze and frowning.
“Well enough, given the circumstances,” she said. Jack felt shame throb in the back of his head.
I need to get a hold of myself. This is not okay.
“Here, I uh…” He scooped up the food he’d taken out and passed it out to the women. “Breakfast.”
“Thanks!” Molly immediately started digging into her portion, some nutrient rich survival bread and carrots.
“We should get moving as soon as we have everything packed up,” said Rebecca. “I think it would be best for us all if we find whatever it is we’re looking for and get headed back to Eden.”
“Yeah, you’re right, mom,” said Jack.
This trip was my idea. I’m responsible for whatever we find, along with my own disgusting actions.
Jack packed up the sleeping bags and the tent while Molly and his mom ate breakfast. It gave him a chance to be on the outside of the conversation and he listened to them chatting about the food they’d brought, their lives before the impact, and what they could do to spruce up their camp back in Eden. He did his best to not feel like the elephant in the room as he shouldered his pack and walked over to them.
“Almost ready to get going?”
Molly nodded enthusiastically to him, and his mom smiled.
“Great.” Jack double checked to make sure he had everything, fingering the seeds in his pocket and reminding himself to keep an eye out for spots to plant them. The women pulled on their bags, and the three of them continued across the wasteland.
It was an odd feeling. The remains of their campsite were the only sign of anything being disturbed in the sea of ash, as far as Jack could see. It reminded him of the images he’d seen of the moon landings, where the footprints and traces of humans stuck out on what was clearly an untouched landscape.
“Maybe that’s what Eve was trying to tell us about?” Molly was walking beside him, and she tugged on his arm, pulling him from his thoughts.
“What?”
“Can you see it on the horizon?” asked Molly. “That mountain up ahead.”
Jack saw what she was talking about and narrowed his eyes into a squint.
“Huh? We’ve passed a couple of mountains, what makes this one any different?”
“Look at the channels heading up to the top of it.” Rebecca pointed her finger towards the mound in the distance. “And also, something looks off at the base of it.”
It took Jack a second to see what she was talking about.
The ash… It’s been disturbed.
“That’s got to be it,” said Molly. “And even if it isn’t, my curiosity has officially been piqued.”
“Alright. It’s northwest of here, and that’s where we’re headed, anyway. Let’s check it out.”
With a destination in sight, the traveling became even easier than it had been before. Jack felt almost like he had when he’d been on hikes during the summers of his teenage years, when he and his friends would pick out landmarks and see if they could make the trip out to them in a day.
As they drew closer, more irregularities began to stand out on and around the mountain. The ash had clearly been disturbed. With only about a half mile left in between, Jack could see what he thought was a trail of footsteps, leading around the other side of the mountain and then looping back in.
“Let’s be careful,” he said. “After Dimitri, there is no real telling what might await us if…”
He trailed off, but Molly and his mom nodded, understanding what he was getting at.
Even if they don’t mean us harm, discovering other humans would change everything. We can’t be too careful.
They approached with slow, cautious steps. Jack took the lead and crouched over slightly, mimicking the sneaking posture he’d seen action heroes adopt in movies and video games.
This is ridiculous. We could very well be the only ones around for-
“That’s far enough.”
A new voice, deep, masculine, and aged, cut through the air. Jack flinched with surprise and began scanning the area around them. There were a couple of large boulders scattered around the bottom edge of the mountain. A balding man stepped out from behind them, wearing ash stained military fatigues and carrying an assault rifle.
“Who are you?” Jack glanced over at Molly and his mom and saw that they were having similarly cautious reactions.
“Take the knife off your belt, and that silly spear off your back, son.” The man lowered the rifle and began walking towards them. “I don’t mean you any harm. Quite the opposite, really.”
Jack felt his mom squeeze his arm tightly. He glanced over at her, unsure of the message she was trying to send to him.
“I don’t trust him,” she whispered. “But he has a gun. We can’t risk doing anything stupid.”
“Sir, my name is Dr. Molly Campos. I served as a Mission Specialist for NASA on the ISS.” Molly gave a formal salute, and the man responded in kind. “This is Rebecca, and her son Jack. They are survivors from the impact that assisted me during my return flight to Earth.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” His face softened slightly, though his grip on the rifle held firm. “I’m Colonel Robert Taylor of the United States Army. And this…”
He gestured to the mountain behind him.
“Is JENSEV, the James Erwin National Security Emergency Vault.”
Jack blinked blankly at the man.
I don’t see anything other than a mountain covered in ash…
The Colonel flashed a gummy smile and adjusted the shoulder strap on his rifle. He turned to Molly and nodded.
“Now, if you would be so kind as to disarm your companion and bring me his weapons, I can show you the inside.”
Molly looked more than a little conflicted as she turned towards Jack. She shrugged and turned her palms up, frowning slightly.
“I don’t think we have any other choice,” she whispered. “I can’t say I trust him, just yet, but if he’s telling the truth, this might change everything.”
Jack sighed.
The last thing I want to do is gamble our survival on someone else’s goodwill, but in this case, it might end up paying off.
He slowly took the knife off his belt and the spear off his back and handed them to Molly.
“Good, good, good,” said the Colonel. “From the looks of it, the three of you have been outside for a while. Where did you find the wood to make that thing, anyway?”
Jack felt his mom begin to respond automatically and squeezed her hand before
she could get a word out.
“I found it buried under a rock,” said Jack. “Quite the lucky score.”
“I know you’re lying, kid, but I’d probably do the same thing if I were you.” The Colonel took the weapons from Molly as she reached him, slipping the knife into his own belt and holding the spear. “If I really wanted to know where the three of you came from, I could just follow your trail back from here. It’s one of the few conveniences of this god damned ash.”
“You could, if it weren’t for the ash storms,” said Rebecca. “There isn’t much of a trail beyond where we last set up camp.”
“True enough,” said the Colonel. He gestured for Jack and Rebecca to approach and began pulling something out of his pocket while he waited for them to make their way over. It wasn’t until Jack was a few feet away that he realized that it was a pack of cigarettes. The Colonel held them out, offering one to the group.
“Anyone? I’m sure it’s been a while since you’ve had access to such vices.”
Jack considered taking one out of novelty’s sake, but his mom shot him a reprimanding glance.
“No, we’re fine,” said Jack. He and the women waited while the Colonel lit the stick up and began inhaling, letting loose a deep smoker’s cough into the crook of his elbow after a few puffs. He snuffed out the end and then tucked the half smoked cigarette back into the pack.
“Alright,” he said. “Before we head inside, let me make one thing clear.”
He spoke to all of them, but his eyes lingered on Jack, as though emphasizing that the words were mainly for his benefit.
“Don’t get any ideas. This is my house, and if you fuck around inside of it, I won’t hesitate to kill you. I’ve killed people before in the name of my country, and I won’t hesitate to do it for the future of the human race, either. Are we clear?”
Jack didn’t say respond, but Molly and his mother nodded, and it appeared as though that was enough for Colonel Taylor.
“Alright, good.” He began leading them around the boulders, walking backward and keeping them in his view at all times. Jack gasped as they rounded the corner, noticing a gigantic scorched, metal, door that had been hidden by the rocks.
“Welcome to JENSEV,” said Colonel Taylor.
CHAPTER 36
Jack stared at the doors blankly. It was surreal, and the similarity to the door that he and his mother had hidden behind in their own shelter made the feeling even more intense. JENSEV was a bigger operation, and it gave off a much more industrial, official aura.
“Jesus…” whispered Rebecca. “This looks like the entrance to some kind of fortress or something.”
“In a manner of speaking.” The Colonel smiled at her, and then pulled something off his belt. It wasn’t until he’d squeezed a button on it and a familiar crackling came out of it that Jack realized that it was a radio. “Private, do you read me? I’m outside, open up.”
There was a muffled response, and then the Colonel turned away from the door and to his guests.
“It was never widely publicized, but the United States government has been funding border defense facilities, such as this one, for the past decade.” The Colonel chuckled to himself. “The political debate on whether or not we should erect a border fence was a complete farce, political pandering of the highest degree. This facility, and others like it, were designed to be hidden bases full of soldiers who could react to any international intruders, regardless of their threat level.”
“How large of a facility are we talking about?” asked Jack. The Colonel dusted his hands off, and a loud creaking noise began to come from the door.
“You’ll see soon enough,” he said. “Follow me.”
Colonel Taylor waited until the door had opened far enough for them to pass through, and then led them inside. Motion activated lights flicked on as they walked down a long, oversized hallway, and Jack was reminded of the setup of his family’s own emergency shelter.
The door behind them began to close as soon as the group was a couple feet within the facility. Jack glanced at his mom and Molly, seeing nervousness expressions on their faces that mirrored what he was feeling inside.
“There’s nothing we can do now, even if we wanted to,” said Rebecca. “There wasn’t anything we could have done outside, either. He could have shot us if he wanted to.”
Let’s hope he doesn’t have anything worse than that planned for us, now.
“Private Bradford, we’re in front of the inner door.” Colonel Taylor spoke into his radio again as they reached a blocked off passageway that matched the one that led in from the outside. Slowly, the door began to creak open, with lights flashing on the frame and a klaxon blaring on the other side.
“This is the main operations room of JENSEV,” said the Colonel. “This little room is where most of the action happens.”
Calling it a little room was a bit of an understatement. The ceiling was high, and the space was big enough to have fit Jack’s family’s old house into if the rooms were jumbled around.
There were dozens of computer desks, each sporting what had been the latest in computer and monitor hardware on them. In the center of the room was a raised strategy stage, with more desks and computers on it and surprisingly, a single woman dressed in army fatigues.
“Sir!” The woman stood up and saluted. Even in modest military attire, Jack couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. She looked to be in her late twenties, with blondish red hair, large breasts, and a trim waist.
“At ease, Private,” said the Colonel. “We’ve found survivors, at last. It’s time to pop open one of those bottles we’ve been saving.”
It was only then that Jack realized that the woman was grinning, and so was the Colonel. He couldn’t resist smiling himself, and felt a powerful feeling of good will begin to fill the room.
We found them just as much as they found us. Another man, and another woman. This changes everything.
“Come on, let me give you the grand tour,” said the Colonel. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Uh, Colonel…” The red haired woman was waiting sheepishly at her desk.
“Oh, where are my manners. Private Bradford, this is Rebecca, her son Jack, and Dr. Molly Campos of NASA.”
He turned to Jack, his mom, and Molly.
“Private Bradford, Jessica, was the only one of my garrison to forgo their leave allowance in the days leading up to the asteroid strike. Her loyalty and work ethic is a big part of what’s going to save the human race.”
“Er, my family was just on vacation,” said Jessica, quietly. “But it’s true, I was here after everyone else had left.”
“At ease, Private,” said the Colonel. Jessica skipped down the steps from the strategy stage and over to the group. The Colonel began leading them forward, walking with a slight limp in his right leg.
“The JENSEV facility has everything needed for a temporarily self-sustaining emergency outpost, as you’ll soon see.” Colonel Taylor turned the wheel handle of a door ahead of them and creaked it open. “It was originally designed to support a resident population of fifty soldiers. What that means is that we won’t have to worry about finding you a bunk, or rationing food.”
“Good to know,” replied Jack.
The five of them walked down another long hallway and then passed through another heavy metal door.
“This is the main bunkroom,” said the Colonel. “It was originally coed, but since the impact, it’s just been Molly sleeping in here.”
There were rows upon rows of bunk beds, and a number of them looked to have been occupied up until recently, with personal possessions and intimate pictures scattered about.
“I’ll let you two girls pick out a bunk in here,” said the Colonel. “Jack, you’ll be sleeping in the old staff sergeant’s private room.”
A private room? I’d almost forgotten that those existed…
“Uh, thanks,” said Jack. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Throu
gh this door are the showers.” The Colonel pulled open a heavy door on the far side of the barracks and led them through it. “There are a couple of private baths in the back. We never used them back before, but what with all the ash now, they’ve proved their usefulness.”
“Um…” Molly scratched her head and looked as though a question was on the tip of her tongue. “Would there happen to be hot water in these showers and baths?”
“Oh yeah.” Jessica answered with a smile, weaving through the group over to Molly. “We’re currently running on battery power, but we have several kerosene generators in the basement, along with solar cells to put out once we’re sure that things have settled down.”
Both Molly and Jack’s mother looked as though they were about to burst into song. Jack smiled.
“Let’s continue on,” said the Colonel. “We have a lot of things to cover.”
He led them back out into the main operations room, through a door on the other side of it, and then down another hallway. At the end of it was another sealed door, which the Colonel pulled open after letting out a rough smoker’s cough into the hallway’s corner.
“And this…” He stepped beyond the door’s threshold and gestured around. “Is our mess hall.”
There were as many seats at the four huge tables in the room to match how many desks there had been in the main operations room. A motion activated light switched on, and Jack saw what looked a bit like a cafeteria in the back, complete with a food line with a kitchen behind it.
“We haven’t been using it to its full potential since we arrived here, but if we find more people it will come in handy.” The Colonel limped further in, gesturing for the group to follow.
“How are your food supplies holding up?” asked Jack.
“Fantastically, especially if you don’t mind eating MREs.”
Jack glanced over at Jessica, who was rolling her eyes.
“Meal, ready to eat,” she said. “Military rations. They’re kind of disgusting, but we have enough to live off of for literally months.”
“They’re not disgusting!” The Colonel coughed into his hand and waved a finger at the Private. “You should have gotten a taste of the ones we had back in my day. You should be grateful!”
After the Fall: The Complete Collection (Taboo Erotica) Page 26
