The man laughed. He threw his head back and held his stomach with his hand while using the other to keep the gun on them.
“He did, did he? Well come on in, we’ll see what we can do.”
Baston felt a bit uncomfortable. “Could you take the gun off us, please?” His hand was resting on the knife at his waist.
“Oh, I will when you take your hand off that big-ass knife.” The man nodded at him and Baston lifted his hand from his knife. The man then lowered the gun. “Come on in, I’ll get you some water.”
When they walked into the small house, Baston was surprised to see it was full of men. There weren’t any women or children anywhere.
“Where do you come from?” Baston asked, noting most of the people looked human with an occasional scaly member and one guy in the corner with royal blue skin.
“Earth Two and Sarta.”
“No kidding, we’re from Sarta. Well, Cherie is from Earth, but Sca and I here are from Sarta.”
“Name is Han.” The man ignored Baston’s outstretched hand and grabbed Cherie’s.
“I’d introduce you to everyone, but there are a lot of names you won’t remember.”
“So, we just need fuel and were told you’d give us a ride back to the ship. We can pay you.”
Baston reached to take out his wallet and thought better about it. He didn’t trust something in the air at this place. The men were all looking at Cherie in a way that made him uncomfortable.
“Why don’t you sleep off your trials, and then we’ll talk. You all look exhausted.” Han was still looking at Cherie while he spoke. Baston noticed she was looking at the ground and shifting her weight from foot to foot.
“Okay, thank you. Show us the way.”
A woman came from the back of the house and smiled at them. “The girl can stay with us in our room.”
“Ada, take Miss Cherie to the back and let her have a bath and a nice nap. I’ll show the men to the guest room.
Cherie all but ran to the woman. Baston felt relieved that there was a woman in the group of men. He’d started to think the village was made up only of men. Sca and he were completely outnumbered if the men tried to do something to Cherie.
“Come on boys,” Han said. “I’ll show you where you can get some R and R.”
Baston and Sca followed Han through a side room where there were at least a dozen beds.
“Why do so many of you live together?”
“There are not enough houses for everyone. You’ve seen the nightmare the area can be.” He stopped for a minute and looked dazed, then shook his head. “Chopping down wood is too difficult. The trees will fight you, as I’m sure you’ve witnessed. It’s just easier to keep the houses here. If we ever grow too large, there’s a ghost town about two hundred miles from here that no one’s claimed. We’ll go there if we must.”
Baston wondered who must have lived in the ghost town before it became abandoned, and how they would grow their population with so little women. He realized he was tired and wanted to lay down. Maybe the paranoia was coming from his exhaustion.
“Who lived in the ghost town before?” Baston asked.
“Military men, I think. I haven’t ventured that way, but I know it’s there. I saw it before the planet became a death trap.
“Here you go,” Han said, pointing to a bed off to the center of the room. “You can sleep there, and you, my friend,” he walked over to Sca, “can sleep here.”
His bed was in the same room all the way across the way from him. They didn’t question their placement. Both of them climbed into the beds they were shown, and were soon asleep.
Chapter Eight - Not Friendly
"Baston!" Cherie yelled.
He jerked awake from a dream. He'd been running from the worms in the maze and they were gaining on him. The sharp teeth had just been bearing down on his arm when his eyes shot open.
He sat up straight with a cold sweat on his body. Had he imagined her screaming? Looking around the dark room, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
"Baston, Sca! Help!" She was yelling for sure and close by.
Falling out of bed, he took off running towards where he thought she might be. The house was empty as far as he could tell. How long had he been asleep?
"Cherie! What’s wrong?” He yelled in the dark, trying to listen for where the noise was coming from. His chest tightened as he didn’t hear anything. Was he too late? Running through towards the back, he had to throw all his weight against the door. They’d locked her in, or they’d locked other people out. His chest tightened with panic. Finally, the door gave and the wood splintered as he made his way inside the room.
He stumbled over a chair that had been blocking the door, and found two men holding her down. The woman who had led her into the room was trying to put some liquid in her mouth. Cherie was struggling and had one of her legs free, kicking the woman hard in the stomach. It didn’t seem to deter her.
Baston moved forward and one of the men stepped away and hit him in the throat. Choking, he lashed out with both fists, angry that he’d let the guy get the best of him. He landed a punch right in the middle of the guy’s face.
"What are you doing to her?" Baston got free of the guy, only to have him kick his legs out from under him. His head hit the ground painfully, only making him angrier. He jumped back up to his feet, circling the guy as he did the same, the two moving around each other like boxers in a ring. Baston landed another good punch and took one to the chin.
Sca ran into the room with a yell and shot the guy still holding onto Cherie in the leg. He cried out and fell away from her. Sca shot again, aiming at the woman but missed and she shrieked, climbing under the bed. Cherie grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out, stomping on her stomach with rage.
"I took Han’s gun, but he’s gone to get the rest of them. We need to go." Sca took hold of the guy holding Baston down, and he grabbed some sheets to tie him up.
Cherie walked over and kicked him. "You bastard." The woman she’d just finished with lay groaning on the floor.
"Come on, we have to go!" Sca urged, dragging her from the room as Baston finished tying the other guy they'd shot to the woman, and both of them to the bed.
They plowed through the front door and headed around the back as men shouted for them to stop. A shot was fired and hit a house close to Baston’s head. He heard Sca firing back.
Baston didn’t feel rested, but the adrenaline pumping through him got him moving. His injuries screamed at him to slow down. The short time they had to rest combined with the stillness had caused the cuts and scrapes to really make themselves known.
They moved fast past the houses. There would be no fuel for the ship. Who knew if they'd even find it if they came back when they were completely healed to take it from them? The running away was getting old. They all ran, pumping their arms and legs. There was quite a distance between them and the men. They ran straight into another forest and prepared to fight the trees. The men stopped at the entrance to the woods and yelled at each other.
None of their pursuers wanted to go in, so they stopped and caught their breath. One of the trees slapped Baston in the back, but it seemed a lazy effort. Maybe the trees had to sleep too. They made their way through the forest and didn’t speak.
Baston was full of defeat and anger. They should have been able to take those men. Having a woman with them had really put them at a disadvantage, but as he looked at her, he knew he wanted her there. Her skin was flushed, her clothes were dirty, and her hair was matted to her face with sweat. She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and he knew they would do anything to keep her safe.
“What were they doing to you, Cherie?” he asked, finally breaking the silence.
She shook her head as if she didn’t want to tell them. “The liquid was from that plant, the lust plant or whatever. They wanted me to be in the mood. The men wanted to take turns, um...” Her voice trailed off.
“Oh God,�
� Sca said, moving towards her and putting an arm around her.
“They wanted a baby from me. I guess they would have taken me and killed you. It wasn’t clear, but they didn’t hide their plans while they were trying to drug me.” Tears slid down her face and Baston moved to wipe them away.
“We will never let anything happen to you.” He bent and kissed her. Rage filled his body and he couldn’t believe those men would have the audacity. “I’ll kill all of them.”
She leaned her head against his chest as Sca rubbed her back. “I’ll help kill all of them,” he said.
“No, you saved me. It’s okay. Let’s just keep going.”
Baston agreed they should keep going, but there was no way to know what they were in for.
“We should try to sleep,” Sca said, looking up at the trees.
“We’ll have to find a cave or make a shelter,” Baston said. “I have a feeling that when these trees are fully awoken, they won’t just be giving us love pats.”
They ended up walking for the rest of the night. They weren’t able to find shelter or a cave, so by the time they finally saw the end of the trees, they were exhausted. Baston was glad they would be out before the daylight hit so the trees wouldn’t fight them again.
He didn’t think he had the strength to go through another fight with the trees. When they made their way out of them, he could see houses in the distance. The ghost town. He’d almost forgotten Han had told them about it. They could possibly find a way to live there until they could figure out how to get back to their ship.
They made their way towards the ghost town and found it fenced in. The grass on the other side of the fence looked as though it had just been manicured. There were flowers growing in rows in front of the houses. It was like the people living there had just left. Was it possible they were still there and the bastards with Han had been mistaken?
Cherie didn’t seem to share his thoughts as she took off running for the houses. There was a large open field she was leaping through, but it gave Baston bad feeling. Nothing they’d done so far had been easy.
“They might have running water!” she shouted as she went.
“And food!” Sca added as he took off after her.
“Wait! They could also have people with weapons!” Baston yelled after them, but he was too late. They were already almost to the houses, and all he could do was follow.
Cherie had made it halfway across the open field when Baston spotted something in the grass.
“Stop, Sca! Cherie, stop!” He yelled and waved his arm.
To his surprise, they stopped. Perhaps almost losing their lives several times had given them a more cautious nature.
“What is it?” Cherie stopped and turned, shielding her eyes from the suns to see him.
He slowly walked up to Cherie and drew his knife, kneeling down on the ground. He caught the rope she’d almost ran across and watched as the ground gave way in front of her. There was a deep hole; deep enough to cause at least one broken limb if someone fell into it.
In the bottom of the hole, in water just deep enough to submerge it, was a giant moon cricket. It was a little bigger than Cherie, and raised its fat head above the water when it saw them.
“How has that thing grown like that?” Cherie asked with disgust.
“Whoever set this thing up as a trap, must have rigged some way to feed it blood. I told you they could get big.”
“It would have eaten me. Just one more step...” Cherie looked up at Baston with wide eyes. He felt an overwhelming urge to protect her from everything.
“It’s okay, we'll find the rest of them,” Baston said. “We just have to be careful.”
“What are they protecting themselves from? What if they’re still here?” Sca asked. Now his eyes were wide.
“They aren’t still here. They set this up to protect them from the enemy, or what I’m leaning towards is this was part of the military trials, and this is where they lived. It’s why it’s a ghost town.”
Cherie nodded as she stepped backward, and yelped as something lifted her up into the air. A large net had enclosed her, and she was hanging above their heads.
Baston couldn’t see what the net was attached to. To his amazement, she just seemed to be hanging in the air, floating there. She flailed her arms about, taken by surprise.
“What the hell?” Sca said to himself as he walked beneath Cherie, looking up at her.
“Some kind of technology that’s invisible,” Baston said. “Invisible trees, maybe?” He walked all the way around, being careful not to trigger another one.
“You guys can have this conversation after you get me down!” Cherie cried, kicking so the net swung back and forth.” Baston cut her down with his knife, and then set about trying to find the different booby traps. Not a single one was the same, and they were all equally intricate.
By the time they made it to the houses, he’d found five more. He was certain there were more around them that they just hadn’t stumbled upon.
They made their way into the first house they came to. The home was three stories and there were still sleeping bags all over the floor. Baston wasn’t sure whether they’d just abandoned them after the war was over, or whether they had had to evacuate quickly.
They found rations in the cupboards and helped themselves to some food and water. It wasn’t gourmet, but they were so hungry that it didn’t matter. It was a relief to be able to sit down without having to worry that something was coming for them.
Chapter Nine – A Home for Three
Once they’d determined they were staying on the planet and making a home nearby, they were able to relax. Baston sat in the grass, watching Cherie and Sca talking and enjoying the suns. The backyard didn’t seem to be booby-trapped like the rest of the place. Baston had spent an hour going around checking it, while Cherie took a bath in the water he had heated up for her from a nearby stream. He’d have to get some power going to one of the houses eventually.
The ghost town gave him a lot of ideas and tons of projects he could do.
Cherie told him the lush grass tickled her feet, wiggling her toes and giggling. Baston smiled at her as he sat down on the grass, pulling a long blade and twirling it in his fingers. Sca moved over to Baston and sat down next to him. They were waiting for her, and anticipation skittered up her spine.
They were amazing men individually, but together, they were perfection. Cherie couldn’t stop the feelings she felt toward them, and she no longer wanted to. In a bold move, Cherie pulled off her shirt and pushed her pants down, not worried about having second thoughts.
Baston laughed as Sca sucked in a deep breath. She trailed her hand down her stomach and dipped her fingers into her wetness.
“What do you want, Cherie?” Baston asked, his hand no longer twirling the blade of grass, his attention completely focused on Cherie.
“I think she wants us,” Sca answered for her as she beckoned to them.
“Do you want us?” Baston asked, his voice even lower.
“More than anything,” Cherie’s said, lying down on the thick grass. Cherie opened her legs, revealing everything to them when they finally reached her.
Both of them moved to her, but she stopped them with her hand. Baston’s eyebrow arched as Sca smirked at her.
“Take off your clothes,” she ordered them as her fingers circled her nipples.
Baston and Sca moved quickly to remove their clothing as she had demanded. “Touch yourselves.” Cherie tweaked her nipples as Baston and Sca both took their shafts in their hands. Baston didn’t need a flower to get turned on for her. She oozed sexuality.
Both of them stroked themselves and Baston watched her bite her lip, clearly enjoying the show. He felt himself harden in his hand and longed to be inside of her.
“What about you?” Sca asked her, his jaw twitching from the enjoyment he was bringing on himself.
“I want to see you come undone,” Baston murmured huskily to her.
&n
bsp; Cherie complied and one of her hands moved down her body to touch her wetness. She moved her fingers quickly and Baston felt his body light up with desire once more.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Make yourself come,” Sca told her, and she smiled widely at him.
She pushed two fingers inside of her, making her hips jump off the grass. Her mouth opened and she threw her head back in a way that drove Baston crazy. She knew how to pleasure herself and nothing was sexier.
“That’s it,” Baston urged her on.
“You’re so sexy,” Sca said.
Once again, Baston kept his eyes glued to Cherie, not looking at his friend when he spoke. It was all about her. Cherie moved her fingers faster in and out, wet from her arousal. She ground her palm into herself and her breathing came out harsh.
“I’m close, Cherie. I need you to come soon,” Baston ordered, taking control. He was surprised by the intensity of his building orgasm. It had come on him suddenly.
“I’m close too. You are so amazing,” Sca added, his voice harsh as he was clenching his teeth together.
Their encouragement pushed her over the edge as she started to jerk and twitch, moaning loudly. She stroked the inside of herself as she circled her clit with her palm. She screamed when the orgasm took her. Her hips shot off the ground as she felt her walls contract around her fingers.
“Yes,” Baston encouraged her.
“That’s it…” Sca added.
Baston watched droplets of seed hit her stomach as they released over her, the sight of her orgasm bringing them to completion.
“No more. I need you,” Baston dropped to his knees and sucked on her fingers. He cleaned them completely, already ready for another round with his beautiful woman.
“I need you, too.” Sca moved to the other side of Cherie.
Sca moved until he captured her nipple in his mouth, sucking deeply on it. Cherie grabbed the back of Baston’s head and brought him down to her other breast. He didn’t mind being there.
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