That night they camped on a ledge in the rock wall high above the lake. Ruth was relieved that it was such a safe place and had no trouble in falling asleep.
The next two days were more of the same as they steadily followed the lake upstream. Several times they had to sit and wait as a few team members searched out the best way forward, and Ayla meticulously updated their maps and sent the changes back to Travis and Dave.
Twice they passed places that had obviously been campsites of the Edu-Tech group. Each time there were piles of discarded possessions. Mostly these were clothes and personal possessions, things like books and photographs. No food had ever been left behind, but Kenan found two guns that had presumably been discarded when the owner had no ammunition. He quietly put them in his pack.
Each night they tested the lake water with a gadget the science team had provided, and each time it came back as slightly contaminated. Safe to drink if they were desperate, but better to avoid if they had a choice. So they used the lake for washing and continued to drink the water they’d brought with them.
On the fourth day, Greg was leading the team and raised his arm in the sign that meant halt. Ruth immediately stood beside her partner of the moment, Jed, their backs together, facing out, weapons on the alert. Gideon hurried forward to Greg, and Yuri scrambled up the rocks as lookout, his rifle in his hands.
Ruth waited patiently. She could neither see nor hear anything that seemed unusual, but she was no soldier. Then she inhaled deeply. There was a faint smell on the air. Nothing nasty, but maybe like food that was about to turn. Not carrion but not the best either.
Suddenly she understood that maybe there were dead bodies ahead. Her heart lurched, and the faces of people she knew ran through her mind. Thank God we didn’t drink the water! Or were they shot by bad people? Did they die of hunger? Or am I just being stupid here and imagining things?
She looked up at Yuri high up the rock wall, but he was scanning the area, not looking anywhere in particular. She sighed and continued to wait.
Reuben and Kenan were motioned forward while Gideon got out one of the rope ladders. The rest of them watched and waited while the two men removed their backpacks and slung their weapons over their shoulders before climbing down into a hole. Ruth couldn’t tell if it was a cave entry, a pothole, or another rock chimney. She didn’t have long to wait. Kenan’s voice carried quite clearly. “They were murdered.”
“Ayla, leave your pack here, climb up, and back up Yuri. Ethan, Lucas, go down and back up Reuben and Kenan. The rest of you, be very alert.”
Ruth sat on a rock facing back the way they’d come, her gaze constantly moving, looking for anything out of the ordinary, any flashes of light or signs of movement. After a while, Reuben came back with photographs of about a dozen faces, most of them women, two older men, one an emaciated young man. She was able to name them and send the pictures back to Travis and Dave, with the comment Gideon had made that it appeared the leaders of the Edu-Tech group had culled people they considered they could spare.
“The thin man, Peter, was never a fat person, but he wasn’t that thin either. I suspect they’d been not giving him his share of the food for a while,” she said sadly.
Jed rubbed her back. “A friend of yours?” he said sympathetically.
“Not a friend, no, but a harmless person and certainly not deserving of death. None of them were.”
Yuri and Lucas both came over and hugged her, too. But there was no time to mourn. They all wanted to get well away from this area before camping for the night.
* * * *
Ethan, who was scouting ahead of them, found a cave partway up the cliff that had a narrow, easily defensible opening into a wide sandy cave, with plenty of room for them all to spread out.
Ruth was coming to understand the logic behind pairing people in constantly changing partnerships on the various watches and tasks, and allowing them to spread out when it was safe to do so, to avoid different personalities coming into conflict.
She was also fairly sure people were planning on fucking this night, too. Such a narrow opening meant two people on guard duty was ample. Besides, Gideon had allocated the guard pairings so the different family groups were off duty together, which meant sex was pretty much inevitable. She spent a moment feeling sorry for Greg, who had no significant other with him. In fact, he had no significant other back at the base, either. Maybe he’ll meet someone special when we find the survivors, she thought.
It was Ruth’s duty to bury their day’s rubbish. They generated very little rubbish as everything possible was designed to be saved and reused, so this wasn’t a big chore. Each person had a plastic bowl and cup, and metal knife, fork, and spoon which they washed and reused. Most of their food was packaged in flat plastic containers which held one portion. These containers all stacked into one another, and the lids stacked on top of each other, too. They were retaining the containers and taking them back with them.
“I remember when granola bars came individually wrapped, then inside a box,” said Lucas in a false little-old-man voice.
“Ah, back when you covered your feet with rags and walked five miles through the snow to elementary school?” teased Ruth.
“Back when I had to peel the potatoes before cooking them anyway,” he responded.
“We were wasteful, weren’t we?
“I see the importance of canning to protect food from spoiling. Or packaging to protect from insects, but likely we’d taken it too far,” he replied.
“There’s nothing like a sharp dose of hunger to make you realize vegetable skins taste good, as well as providing extra fiber and nutrients,” Ruth said.
For a while the group talked idly about food, but soon they let the campfire burn down. Once the meal was cooked, they were using it more for light than heat anyway, since the temperature underground was a constant one, neither hot nor cold, and they only used their flashlights when they absolutely had to. During the day they used night vision goggles to see as they walked through the caves.
Jed had set up their beds together along one side of the cave. They slept on an insulated foam sheet that folded up very small but provided good protection from any cold coming up from the ground. On top of that he’d laid their sleeping bags.
They all silently undressed, rolling their clothes up and placing them at the foot of their sleeping bags. Weapons were placed beside their heads, and boots lined up neatly, ready to be stepped into at a moment’s notice.
It really is like a military camp in many ways. There had been no sign of living people at all. The rocky ground left no footprints, and even when they walked through sand, it was fine and thin, so their boots didn’t leave any marks. But the abandoned possessions, and the bodies down the rock hole, made it very evident danger was—or at least had been—all around.
Once again she thought of the thin, dead young man, Peter. He was a harmless person. No way would he have challenged the leaders. She could only assume someone had picked on him, and he’d been too weak to assert himself and get a fair share of the food. But all the bodies in that hole had been shot, so clearly someone was getting rid of people they didn’t want. Two older men, a group of women, and Peter.
Of course, the leaders had already shown their true colors when they’d rejected Tatiana and had tried to not supply Charlie, Tatiana, and her with food. Ruth could only hope a more ethical leader had been able to save the rest of the group.
But there was no more time for thinking. Hands, slightly rough hands, were pulling her down onto the sleeping bags. She was placed on her side with Lucas in front of her and Jed behind her.
Lucas began dropping light, gentle kisses all over her face, while Jed’s hands were on her ass. Yuri was behind Jed, and she guessed he was going to fuck Jed. Which was annoying because mostly the men fucked her, and she liked to watch on the occasions when they fucked each other. Nothing was hotter than watching the raw, animal passion of two men together. Because they were behind her, she
wouldn’t be able to see anything tonight. Damn shame! What a waste of an aphrodisiac!
She ran her hands down over Lucas’s muscular shoulders, over his long, strong back, and down to his taut ass. She loved the men’s rears. They were all so very hard and toned, yet each was different.
“What do you think you’re doing, woman?” Lucas breathed into her ear. His voice barely heard even from that minimal distance.
“Playing,” she replied, her voice as soft as his. She stroked up and down his spine then cupped the cheeks of his ass. She had to pause and catch her breath from time to time as fingers penetrated her own ass, softening the ring of tight muscles and stretching the entry. Lube was being rubbed into her walls, and the damp head of a cock was resting against the back of her thigh.
Which reminded her, there should be a cock at her front somewhere, too. Where was it? Ahh, there. Her palm circled the cock in question and squeezed. Hmm, he liked that. The cock in her hand was growing as she touched it. Gently, she rubbed a finger over the head, noting the tiny bead of cum in the eye. Ruth rubbed the drop of moisture into the head, reveling in the contrasting sensation of the soft head and hard shaft, the hard chest pressing against her soft breast, the rock-roughened hands on her rounded ass.
Then Lucas was pushing her hand away and guiding himself into her cunt. She wiggled a bit and let him in, welcoming him into her heat, loving the way her walls expanded to take him all inside her. She enjoyed the sensation of fullness and anticipated the coming feelings of being stretched even farther when Jed took her ass.
Almost as if he were reading her mind, Jed lifted her upper leg and laid it over Lucas’s hip, held her ass cheeks apart, and pressed his own cock at her rear entry. She pushed back against him, and he rocked his way into her, sliding in easily once past the ring of tight muscles.
As she’d anticipated, he stretched and filled her. Her walls seemed to expand to take him in, grabbing him close and holding him, but making room for his entry.
It never ceased to amaze her that while one man filled her totally, the second man always fitted in as well. One of life’s little mysteries!
She was tightly sandwiched between Lucas and Jed now and could feel Yuri taking Jed from behind. For a moment she envied Lucas, able to see some of what was happening in the dim light of the dying fire. But then she realized she’d be able to feel him through Jed being inside her as well, and decided that might be even better.
There was a long pause when nothing happened, but just as she was about to demand action, Jed and Lucas pulled out from her together. That’s when she understood the men were orchestrating their movements, synchronizing them with each other. Oh yeah. I get to just lie back and enjoy this!
Sure enough, when only the heads of their cocks remained inside her, they stopped still for a heartbeat then began to push back in. Slowly, oh so incredibly slowly, they dragged their cocks in and out, in and out. But each time there was a fraction more pressure, a tiny bit more speed.
She rubbed all the bits of them she could reach, heads and arms, sides and thighs, trying to show each man that she appreciated his part in their erotic dance. A pas de quatre, she supposed.
In they plunged, filling her completely until her walls were stretched around them. Then out, leaving her feeling empty, wanting more. Much more. Then in again. Just a fraction faster. And out.
When Ruth concentrated, she could feel the added pressure of Yuri behind Jed. She was fascinated by the extra dimension this gave to their lovemaking, by the whole concept of double-double penetration. She could hear all their breaths in the stillness and silence of the evening. Then back in they plunged again, harder and faster, more earnestly, until she was a tense bundle of nerves, quaking with the need to come.
Her breasts were aching, the nipples hard, tight little points, demanding someone touch them. Her clit was hot and throbbing. It, too, needed someone to touch it. Desperately, she pressed her breasts against Lucas’s chest, rubbing her nipples against him. She heard his harsh intake of breath, felt him press back against her, giving her that friction she so desperately needed.
Hands came from behind her, cupping her breasts, teasing and elongating her nipples, rolling them. She relaxed back against Jed, welcoming his touch on her, and as she did so, Lucas’s hand pushed down between their bodies to rub her clit. Ah, yes, that’s what I needed. So good.
The pace of the men’s pumping sped up, Yuri into Jed, Jed and Lucas into her, harder and faster, hands touching everyone, hips thrusting and pounding.
The orgasm coiled in her belly began to grow and spread. The tension drew tighter. Need dragged at her until she could think of nothing but coming. She was close, so close. The men were jackhammering at an incredible pace, and she knew she was just seconds away from bliss.
Like a thunderbolt, the climax exploded deep inside her, splintering her into a million fragments of delight. Her cunt and ass gripped onto the cocks inside them, and she shook as she broke apart. She felt the tension break in every part of her as she was held tight in the arms of her three men. Cum jetted in her ass and her cunt, and she could feel Yuri’s hips pumping, too. It was so good to know they’d all come together in this amazing, erotic act of double-double penetration.
They belonged together. It didn’t matter in what configuration they had sex. They were a united group, four parts that came together into a single body.
* * * *
Over the next week they located and followed two small tributary rivers that flowed into the river. Both came through the rocks from above at their source, and both contained small amounts of contamination. Along neither of them were any signs other people had been here.
“I think the one we need, the clean one, will be coming upward from below,” said Ayla.
“That makes the most sense,” agreed Ethan.
“The real question now is, who is going back to bring us more food and water?” said Greg. “I’m happy to lead the re-provisioning party. Maybe we could meet you a little farther round. Back at the main body of the lake, but where the next river—if you could call these trickles of water a river—flows in.”
“That may save you some walking,” agreed Gideon.
“Yeah, we get to start from here instead of going onward and then having to walk that distance twice. Reuben and I’ll go with Greg,” said Kenan.
“I’ll go, too. It’s important to protect our caches of supplies, and I’m the best shot in this group,” added Yuri.
“The trip back will be a lot faster without all the back-and-forthing we’ve been doing, looking down dead ends and tracing streams. Take the food and water from the fourth cache. We need to leave the one closest to us untouched in case there’s an emergency,” said Gideon.
“We’ll be moving fast, and we know the best route now, with our new maps, but it’ll still take us at least two days, maybe three,” warned Greg.
“Understood. You four are excused from guard duty tonight. Get the best sleep you can and leave early tomorrow,” said Gideon.
“Do you really think you can get all the way back in one day?” asked Ruth.
“I don’t know, but it’s quite likely. We won’t be stopping to look at anything. We won’t have to search out the best path to take or backtrack after finding dead ends. The four of us can move very fast with almost empty packs on the way there. Coming back with a full load will be slower, but the track will be even more familiar by then,” said Greg.
Ruth nodded. She didn’t envy them with all the extra walking, but these big men never seemed to tire. At the end of each day she was tired. The men weren’t.
* * * *
Ruth didn’t wake until Yuri kissed her good-bye as he left very early the next morning. “You be careful, you hear,” she threatened him.
He grinned and swatted her ass, then disappeared into the gloom.
The six remaining people cleaned up their campsite then hiked back to the lake and followed it steadily south, looking for the next tributary. I
t was midafternoon before they found it, and there was nowhere nearby to camp, so they started following it. It was hours later, and Ruth was feeling quite hungry, before they came to a suitable place to camp. A rock ledge jutted out from the wall maybe ten feet up.
Ethan climbed up and agreed it was the best choice they had, and then the others climbed up and set up camp. As always on these ledges, Ayla and Ruth slept hard against the rock wall, with the men either beside or in front of them. Six people meant three two-hour guard shifts, so as soon as they’d eaten, Ruth went to sleep.
The next day they followed the water to its source, only to find no people and no signs anyone had been there. The good news was the contamination at the source was the lowest they’d found so far, so they all indulged in the best wash they’d had yet.
“Will we sleep back on the ledge again tonight, or go back to where the tributary joins the lake?” asked Ayla.
“Realistically, carrying full loads, I don’t think they’ll be back tonight, so we’ll stay on the ledge tonight then wait back at the junction for them tomorrow,” said Gideon.
* * * *
Yuri either led the re-provisioning group or hung well back, wanting to be in a position to fire his weapon at any sign of danger. He was hyperalert, well aware that with only four of them they’d be at a disadvantage in a fight. Especially if they were laden with food. Any group down here after all this time would be sure to kill first at the sign of food.
He noticed Greg leaving tiny markers at intersections that would give them warning on the way back that someone had been through the area. Damn smart idea. But then Greg had been in a few major military actions, and the old skills were useful in this strange new world.
They made very good time back to the cave, deciding to load up and start back instead of sleeping first. They took only food and water, leaving the bag of empty containers they’d brought back with them in the cache with the other things. Hopefully, most of this stuff would never be needed. Only the food.
Brown, Berengaria - Raw Want [Raw Claiming 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 4
