by James Cox
“Lily, no. No nice shit right now.” She was too damn trusting.
Suddenly Beast walked passed me. Not just walking, charging and he was fucking naked! His cock swung as he walked toward Peter. The poor fucker went wide-eyed and stepped away until his back hit the building wall. “You touch her again.” He wrapped his hand around Peter’s throat and squeezed. “I. Will. Kill. You.” He growled after the threat.
I didn’t know whether to be proud or scared. A little bit of both.
“Stop. Please. Really. That’s enough. This is just a misunderstanding.” Lily pushed pass Kurt. “Welliver, please tell your naked boyfriend to let go of Peter. He’s turning purple.”
I shrugged.
Beast grunted.
Kurt smiled.
But Beast let go and Peter inhaled a gulp of air before he started to cough. “Go back to the camp, Peter. Please,” she said and he all too quickly ran from us. “He didn’t do anything, not really. I think I gave him the wrong signals.”
“You know, Lily, there are assholes out there. Not everyone is so nice,” I said with my hand crossed over my bare chest.
“I know that.”
“You’re naive.”
“Fine, insult me. I’ll leave you explain to Dad why your naked boyfriend just choked a member of the expedition.”
I snorted then my eyes went wide. Please, don’t be there. Please, don’t be there! Sure enough, turning around showed me not only my father but the rest of the crew.
“Yes, Welliever, explain to me why he’s naked and why she just called him yours.”
Yup, that was my sister.
****
Beast left to put on pants as I explained what was going on. From Peter, which Lily insisted isn’t a bad guy, to my new relationship. It ended with a grunt from my father as he walked away and a pat on the shoulder from Lily who followed him. Eh, could be worse. If our other father, Tage, was here there would be a three fucking hour conversation about our feelings. Eye roll, please. At least now I could concentrate on work and by work I meant showing Beast what it was like to be an Outlaw MC member.
My hover bike.
They were brought over from the camp this morning by the guys. I stood back, watching them give a shiny glint under the sun. It was gorgeous out, warm but not so hot I’d sweat. Black exterior, soft seats, they smelled bitter like a well-cared for machine should. “This is my bike.” I smiled. Sure, I didn’t ride it as much as the other MC members did. Hell, I couldn’t do have the tricks they could on them. I’d seen some crazy shit too but Beast didn’t need to know that.
“I know.” He reached out and touched the handle.
“Yes but this is the newest model there is. I even made some modifications on this baby that no one else has.” I swung a leg over the bike and settled in. It felt so good to have it between my legs again. Not as good as Beast but definitely second place. “Want to ride bitch for me?” I asked as I glanced back at him.
Beast grunted. He easily hopped on the bike behind me. “Anytime.”
For some reason that made me smile so damn wide. He was sweet on me and it made me feel fantastic. I started the bike and Beast wrapped his arms around my waist. Activating the hover tech, it slowly lifted us off the ground. He held on tighter as we jerked into motion. I weaved through the city, passed decayed building overrun by vegetation and others that were completely intact. There was a small stream that disappeared into a pile of rubble and trees so tall that they blocked out the sun as it climbed overhead. I drove us under bridges and above ancient vehicles that no longer functioned. There was a ten-foot waterfall up ahead. The clear liquid gushed from an open window in a building, forming a pond right in the middle of the street. I slowed us and stopped beside it. “What do you think so far?” I asked smiling. I missed my hover bike. It was the one thing about the Outlaw MC that made me feel me.
“It’s fine,” Beast said before resting his head on my shoulder. His dreadlocks were even more of a tangle and I reached up to tug on one.
“Keep going?”
Beast answered with a kiss to my neck.
We went around the pond because it looked like there was some kind of aquatic creatures in there. I didn’t want to destroy their home by my lack of understandings. We headed north now, and in a few minutes, came to small homes that dotted the area in place of the tall buildings. There were maybe four or five left, the rest were rubble. Beyond them were the woods that seemed to have crept upon the city over the years. I slowed as we reached the edge and then turned left to keep exploring. I don’t know how long we drove around, it was just relaxing. There was no protest from Beast as I sped up and followed a road that was clear of most debris. This city must have been amazing in its prime. I reminded me of our home on Mars, kind of, less advanced but just as brilliant.
“Welliver, come in,” Lily’s voice came over the radio on my bike.
I slowed, hovering as I answered. “Go for Welliver.” Beast slid his hands down to my thighs and my cock instantly began to perk up.
“I need help. Dad’s trying to get through to Mars but our long-range communications aren’t working.”
“Did you try rebooting the system?” I wiggled my ass, leaning back into him.
“Yes. Peter tried to fix it but now all we’re getting is static.”
I sighed. “Okay. I’ll come back.” I glanced over my shoulder at Beast. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
A goofy smile formed on my lips as we headed back. Although the trip was faster because I used top speed, I also enjoyed the view just as much. We’d have to do this again. Just Beast and I exploring the city. Maybe next time we could stop and spend the day beside one of those ponds. Hopefully, naked. I swerved to avoid some small furry mammal that was mating with another of his species. Poor things glanced wide-eyed at us and then scattered. “Sorry, didn’t mean to cock block you,” I muttered even knowing it didn’t understand me or that anyone heard me. All too soon we were down the familiar street, pulling up between Beast’s home and the new building we’d be calling home. “Lily?” I called as I shut down the hover tech.
Beast hopped off before we touched the ground.
“She’s at the ship, genius,” Deviant said without any real heat behind it. He eyed Beast.
“She’s there alone?”
My father glanced at me. “Of course not, she’s with Kurt.”
I relaxed. “Okay. I’ll head over there.” We couldn’t take the bike through the thick forest area anyway. “You got any food?” I was starved too.
Deviant threw me the backpack that I hadn’t known was hanging over his shoulder. “Make sure she eats something too. I tried to call after…” He pointed between Beast and me. “That happened but got no response. We need to contact them so they can start evacuating Mars. Peter tried to fix it and when he came back, I sent Lily and Kurt over there.”
I nodded. “Understood.” He should have asked the genius first. I picked the backpack up off the ground. “If were not back by nightfall we’ll probably stay there.”
“I’ll keep working on fortifying this place.” My father paused. “Welliver? … be careful.”
I smiled, he loved me. “You too.” I whistled as I made my way through the long grass and into the beautiful shade of the trees. Not a moment later, Beast came up beside me. Like I didn’t know that was going to happen. Together we walked, despite my suggestion of clearing a path through here so we could ride the hover bikes. I must have been getting faster because it only took about ten minutes to make our way to the old prison. My legs didn’t even ache. “Lily?” I called out as I opened the gate and then closed it behind Beast.
“In the ship…” she answered.
Kurt sat on the ramp, lying in the sunshine. “Hey.”
I gave him a wave and them climbed up to find Lily sitting in the pilot’s seat. The panels below were open, exposing wires and switches. She frowned as she turned toward me.
“I can’t figure it o
ut. I tried everything. I fixed the static that Peter caused but still…” She let out an exasperated huff.
“Let the genius try,” I said with a grin and got down on the floor to get to work. One miracle coming up.
Chapter Twelve
It took hours for me to rewrite code, check interference, reboot the ship’s system, and finally attempt to rewrite the tech macro. Nothing. Fucking. Worked. I understood now why Lily was getting annoyed. She ate while I tried again and again without success. I ate while she went over my work. Both Kurt and Beast napped for a while and then started to spar outside. I heard the occasional slap of a stick hitting flesh and harsh breathing. “I just don’t understand.” I finished off the protein square and then sat beside Lily. “That should have done it. All the math was right.” I knew it was, but I looked to Lily for confirmation.
She nodded, her expression in a permanent frown for the last few hours.
“The ship says were connected and yet…” I snapped my fingers as the idea came to me. “The satellite!”
“What?”
I grabbed the handheld from her. “All I have to do is take the old Earth satellite, use our tech to boost its signal and we can bypass the ship all together. Use that to contact Mars.”
Lily sat back. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because I’m the genius.”
“How many times you going to say that?” Kurt yelled from outside the ship.
I ignored him. “I should have thought of this sooner.” The sun was only about half an hour from going down. The fence was already electrified but we were stuck here all night because I was late with this idea.” My chubby fingers scrambled over the screen, downloading software, boosting systems. It took a matter of fifteen or twenty minutes before everything was in place. “Mars please respond, this is the expedition on Earth,” I said as I held the radio button down. I was grinning, waiting for that elusive response.
None came.
My smile faltered. “Mars come in?”
Kurt and Beast, freshly showered walked in.
“Hello?” I clicked the button several times. “This should have fucking…” I tapped the screen. “It is working.”
“But no one’s answering,” Kurt said as he bit into a piece of fruit.
“Because no one’s there.”
“What?” Lily scrunched up her face and then took the handheld. “How can … by the stars.”
“The communications are working but no one is there to answer them. It’s not our side that’s not working, it’s Mars.” My heart started to beat faster. “Something is wrong on Mars.” I snatched the handheld from Lily and quickly used the long-range scanner on our home planet. “Oh, fuck me. All communications are down. I can even get a feed from them.” Nothing. The sand storm must have hit. I haven’t been keeping track of it but I sure as hell didn’t remember it being that big. I swung the screen so the others could see. “They’re fucked.” Shit, our father Tage was still up there! I shot to my feet, fear making me pace the small confines of the room. Tage wasn’t some hardened MC member. He was soft like me and he came from money but left everything for my father Deviant. Now he was up there alone. Unsafe.
Lily looked pale as she stared up at me.
“He’ll be okay. They’ll all be okay.” I knelt down and hugged her, knowing it was an empty promise. We couldn’t do anything for them being here on Earth. “Kurt, can you radio camp and let them know what’s going on?”
“Of course.” He moved to the pilot’s seat. “Um, this light just started blinking…” He dangled my handheld from his fingers.
“By the stars!”
I jerked my head up and grabbed the machine. “That’s … that’s ship detection.” I grabbed the radio from Kurt. I was silent a moment, watching their speed and angle of descent. My handheld blinked the ships number quickly. It was the second ship from Mars. We only had two original ships and were in the process of building two more because we had a lot of people to ferry to Earth. “Mars ship two, entering orbit of Earth, do you read me?”
“Welliver?”
“Dad!” It was my father Tage’s voice, high pitched and nervous.
“Welliver, there’s damage. The pilot’s been killed. I’m flying this thing!”
Oh, fuck. “Switch to autopilot, Dad!”
“It’s not working,” he answered quickly and out of breath.
“Slow your speed, ease it down then.” I know two things about flying, don’t crash land and leave the flying to a professional. How the hell was I going to help him? I stared out the front of the ship. The fence was glowing bright in the dark night but there were no clouds. “We lit up the prison. Just head for the glow on the ground.”
Tage gasped. “I just lost steering. I can’t steer the ship!”
“Slow your speed. Dad, listen to me. Slow your speed. Land wherever you can, we’ll come for you. Just make the landing softly.” That sounded like the right advice, didn’t it? Fast landing bad as Beast would say. “Dad?” The line was all static. I jerked my gaze back out the window and saw the bright flare that was their ship heading toward the surface. They were going to be well out of the fence with their trajectory. Deviant and the camp couldn’t even get here without being in danger themselves. It was up to us. Fuck! “Lily, I want you in this ship. Turn the fence off so we can go through and then back up when we leave. We’re going to need you to monitor us so we don’t smack into the electricity on our way back.”
“But, Well…” She started to protest with tears drying on her face. “Our father.”
“Is going to be fine. We need you here. Kurt, Beast, weapons are in the back of the ship. I say we load up and make sure the octopuses aren’t the first ones to greet the new arrivals.” If the creatures got to the ship first … who knew if they had weapons or anyone to use them. If my father Tage was the most qualified person on the ship left to fly it, I had serious doubts that they had anyone left to defend themselves. Worry later, focus now, I told myself as I grabbed guns and stuck them into my belt. I took a big one with a strap that went around my neck and added two knife ankle holsters just in case. When I turned around Kurt had even more weapons than I did but Beast looked exactly the same. “Do you want a gun?”
He pulled the teeth blades free. “I’m fine.”
Crazy son of a…
The ground actually trembled, the walls shook, and I flung out a hand to keep myself from falling. “Impact ripple effect?”
“Yes!” Lily shouted.
“Is that a good thing?” Kurt said as he charged down the ramp.
“It was so strong it means they landed close by but it does mean they landed.” I followed, pointing to the plume of smoke. It’d take a couple of minutes to get there for them. For me, a couple more. I hated running, damn it. I thought of my father Tage with his soft voice and sweet smile. “Let’s do this!”
Lily shut off the fence as the deep roar sounded through the woods. But not in our direction.
The creatures were heading toward my father!
Chapter Thirteen
Branches slapped at my body as I sprinted through the woods. Beast was so far ahead I lost sight of him. Kurt was nearly eight feet in front of me. He traversed the trees like he knew the path already. Meanwhile, I dodged prickly bushes and random baby trees that seemed to pop up like I was running blind. Not one complaint left my lips. Mainly because I was breathing so heavy but I would not stop. Despite my legs already aching, somewhere in this dark vastness of trees was my defenseless father. I stumbled and fell into a tree trunk. Without thinking I pushed off and kept running for the smoke.
“Come on, Well!” Kurt slowed but never stopped. “I can’t let either of you be eaten.”
What did that mean? I charged toward him, gasping for breath. We burst through a few scorched trees. I skidded to a stop as the trees taken out by the ship revealed the chaos.
We were too late.
The creatures were already here. I was breathing so heav
y that I couldn’t talk. No need for it I guess. I swung the big weapon around my neck into my arms. This ship was badly damaged. The front glass shattered and glinted on the ground. The side of the ship had a massive dent from the crash or the creatures? Even the ramp was down. No, the ramp had a hole in it big enough to fit several people, which is where I spotted my father Tage holding a gun … the wrong way. “Pointy end goes boom!” I shouted as best I could while running toward him.
“It’s empty,” he yelled back, then ducked inside when another octopus came out of the woods.
Kurt was shooting into the pilot’s area at a creature trying to get in. Beast? I skidded to a stop in front of the ramp and nearly passed out at the sight. Fuck it all to Earth. Beast, my Beast was straddling a creature’s head between his legs and making stabbing motions downward. He rolled off when another octopus swiped a limb at him. I fired, aiming at the furthest one from him. The blast was so strong I actually fell backward, tripped into the hole and landed inside, sprawled on my back. I had no idea if I hit anything.
My father Tage was wide-eyed and pale. “Welliver!” He helped me to my feet and wrapped his arms around me. He brushed his hands down his tailored clothes which were spattered with blood. Even at forty-five he was neat looking and only had a little gray peppered into his hair. Right now though, he looked … scared. “Are you okay?” He hugged me.
“Dad!” I pushed away. “I’m trying to save our ass here.” I peeked out the hole, braced myself and fired at one of the two octopuses advancing on Beast. The blast was bright and loud. Several energy bullets sprayed outward. They slammed into a tree near the creature but it gave a crackling sound and promptly fell over.
It landed right on the fucking thing.
“Ha!” I shouted.
Beast leaped onto the other octopus, avoiding flailing limbs. Kurt joined him, shooting when he could.
“How many people are here? Injuries?” I asked as I hopped out of the hole in the ramp.
“Seven. The pilot is the only one that’s deceased.” He brushed a hand through his hair. It was splattered with blood. I’d never seen him so ruffled. “We have cuts and bruises. We can run.”
