Higher Ground (22 page)

Adam almost said
they made their choice
. But he restrained himself. Zach wouldn’t respond to that reasoning. Right now, perhaps there was only one thing he might respond to, to at least temporarily relieve his grief and pain.

Adam kissed him.

ZACH PULLED ADAM closer, held him tight, as if the water already lapped at their feet and only by holding on to each other could they be saved from drowning.

“Adam, oh, Adam,” he gasped, kissing, pulling back to nuzzle Adam’s ear and neck, kissing again.

“Shh,” Adam said softly. “It’s okay. Relax.”

It was comfort, Zach knew. Pity even. But more than those things too. Adam loved Zach—he’d said so. Lovers would do anything to ease each other’s pain. Perhaps Adam sought relief from pain too. Zach lay back, pulling Adam down half on top of him.

They were in the open, no shelter, no privacy, but Zach didn’t hesitate. He’d walked a long way from the camp. His lover had followed him. Nobody would be crass enough to follow them. The darkness hid them well once they turned off the flashlight. Starlight made only enough light to see the outlines of each other’s bodies as they shed their clothes. Zach missed the moon. This planet had none, and he longed for nights with a close, full moon, making it almost as bright as day sometimes. One day, he vowed, he’d take Adam home to Earth, where they could make love by moonlight. If they lived.

Adam undid Zach’s pants and pulled them down. “No underwear?” he said, sounding surprised.

“I ran out of clean,” Zach said. Adam chuckled, the sound vibrating against Zach’s skin as Adam kissed his neck, moved on to his chest. Zach didn’t want to talk about underwear. He stroked Adam’s broad shoulders, tried to restrain himself from pushing to speed Adam on downward.

He’d only laugh and go even slower anyway, determined to tease. Such a tease. It drove Zach to delightfully frustrated begging. Tonight he didn’t tease so much. After what they saw today, even Adam had little sense of humor left. Adam slid Zach’s pants right off, leaving him naked. The grass felt damp under his back, butt, and legs, the air chilly on his skin. But heat pooled in his groin, and his cock felt as if it should glow, it was so hot. Adam stroked it with his familiar slow and gentle rhythm.

“Nice?” he said.

“Adam, please. I can’t stand waiting.” His voice rose to a plea, and Adam quickened the pace of his stroking.

“Nice?” he said again as if Zach hadn’t said anything in between.

“Nice! Yes, it’s nice!” Nice didn’t begin to cover it. “Please, Adam.” He tried to keep his voice down in case it carried on the night air to the rest of the camp. What would others make of it, he wondered, Zach and Adam having sex despite the horrors of the day? Was it insensitive? Or were other people doing the same in their tents or in the shadows away from camp? Others needing both the oblivion of orgasm and the assurance they were still alive. Celebrating life in the face of death.

Adam’s lips touched the head of Zach’s cock. A small kiss, almost a greeting before he slid his mouth down over it, the tongue licking the shaft as he went, stimulating the throbbing vein. Zach groaned and pushed his hips at Adam, then made himself lie still.
Don’t rush him. Don’t push him. He knows what he’s doing.

Driving me crazy, that’s what he’s doing.

He buried both hands in Adam’s hair, stroking, not pulling, trying to stay gentle. Difficult when the fire roared in his belly, and he raced too fast toward completion. Difficult to be gentle and slow. But Adam demanded it. Adam deserved it.

It began to rain. Tiny drops, like icy pinpricks on his skin, but the rain couldn’t chill Zach. He thought the drops should sizzle and evaporate instantly when they touched him, like they would hitting a hot plate on a stove. The drops sparkled in Adam’s hair like jewels, reflecting starlight.

“Adam.” He wanted to say “I love you” again. The words he’d said during the quake before the flood. Death had felt so close then. He had to say it before he died. But could he let Adam think that was the only time he’d say it? “Adam, I…” Before he could speak, the words and thoughts were washed away as the orgasm flooded his brain, making him a mindless, writhing beast. A caveman, naked on the grass, all higher thoughts drowned in the rush of climax.

He became a modern human again after a few moments, to find Adam lying naked in his arms. The darkness had grown more profound, clouds blocking most of the starlight, but Zach didn’t need light to know Adam was aroused and ready for his turn. His hard cock pressed against Zach’s hip; only a slow rhythmic movement suggested his desire.

Zach turned into his arms. “Inside me,” he said. “If you want to.”

“If I want… Gosh, no, I’m entirely uninterested in that kind of activity.”

Zach growled and pushed Adam onto his back. “You talk so much rubbish sometimes.”

“So I’ve been told. The stuff’s in my pocket.” Of course, Zach remembered him putting the lube into his jacket pocket right before they left Zach’s apartment.
A good hiker is always prepared.

Finding the lube was easier said than done. First Zach had to find the flashlight and then rummage through their scattered clothes, trying to pick out Adam’s jacket, which turned out to have many pockets to search through. When he found it at last, he was surprised Adam hadn’t fallen asleep while waiting.

“Keep still,” Zach said and prepared Adam, rubbing lube onto him, making him moan softly and become fully hard again under Zach’s hand after softening a little during the search of the clothes. Zach prepared himself with the lube, took a couple of breaths to relax, and then straddled Adam on his knees, tall over him. Naked, stripped of any marker of civilization, he felt savage. Primitive. Bonded to Adam by grief and danger.

He moved down slowly, guiding Adam’s cock inside him with his hand, sliding down it. Adam’s groan of pleasure was the most beautiful sound Zach had heard in a long time. His cock, fully recovered from his earlier orgasm, began to perk up again. Adam took hold of it at once and started caressing it. He knew how to use the calloused and roughened areas of skin on his hands to stimulate the most sensitive spots of the whole sensitive organ. Zach gasped, and the words he’d wanted to say came back to his mind.

He didn’t say them yet. He had all of Adam’s cock inside him. His legs trembled as he took weight on them, not wanting to be too heavy on Adam. He moved, rocking a little back and forth first. Enjoying Adam’s moans and pleas for more. Adam could push up with his hips, since Zach was mostly supporting himself, but it couldn’t last for too long. As his excitement built, Zach’s legs trembled and weakened enough that he rested on Adam on the downward stroke, pinning him. He leaned forward slightly, looking for the right angle, and found it. Adam’s cock brushed his prostate, and Zach cried out.

“Adam! Oh God, Adam. Never stop.” Adam’s hands ran up his arms to his shoulders, clinging to them. Their limbs made a ring, Zach thought. Eternal. Joined. Never to part.

Now he would say it again.

“Adam—”

“Zach, I love you.”

Adam’s panted-out words electrified Zach, beating him to the punch before he could say the same words.

“I love you,” Zach replied. “You already know that.” He wanted to laugh, with joy and at his foolish words. He loved Adam. He loved Adam, and Adam loved him. They might yet die out here, and he’d seen hundreds of people die today. But he’d never known happiness like this. Never imagined he could feel it. He’d said he felt detached from people, but that would never be true again. He and Adam were one. Even after this sexual encounter ended, they’d never really be apart. Their words tied them together forever, however far they might be from each other.

Adam thrust as best he could with Zach’s weight on him, moving with a kind of desperation. He pumped Zach’s cock, and Zach moaned when he came. His semen spattered Adam’s chest, pale in the starlight, paler than Adam’s well-tanned skin. Adam climaxed too, as Zach’s body tightened around him, gripping tight, as if he’d never let him go.

The rain started again as Zach collapsed onto Adam’s chest. He kissed Adam, making him open his eyes, then rolled off him. The raindrops grew larger, and Adam cursed.

“We’d better get back.”

“No. This is the first shower I’ve had in days.”

Adam stared at him, then laughed and lay back. They lay side by side under the rain and let it wash them clean.

Only the quake a few minutes later made them move. A small one which passed quickly, but it reminded them of reality and their responsibilities. They scrabbled around for their clothes—all rather damp; they’d need some dry ones from their packs—dressed hastily, and headed back to camp.

It wasn’t in chaos, but people were shaken up and frightened again. For the next hour, Zach and Adam helped people put up tents and get out of the rain. Zach hoped there’d be no more quakes tonight. His people needed rest. At last he and Adam retired to their tent, put on dry clothes and settled into their sleeping bag.

“Adam,” Zach said, as Adam turned off the lantern. “I love you.”

Adam chuckled in the darkness. “Yes, you mentioned it.”

“I just didn’t want you to think I’d only say it during sex or an earthquake.”

“Good, because it would be rather tricky if that was the case. We’d either have to have a lot of sex or move some place seismically unstable.” He stroked Zach’s still-damp hair. “I love you too, Zach. I don’t need an earthquake either. Though I have no objection to having lots of sex.”

“What now?”

“Like we said. See what happens once we get out of this.”

“Okay.”

It was the only answer he could expect in the circumstances. They couldn’t decide where they went next with this. Right now they had only one destination—the top of this mountain. Tomorrow they’d climb again. Every step would bring them closer to deciding what they did do next.

Chapter Nineteen

Adam walked up to Zach, who was looking down into the flooded basin with binoculars. He didn’t know why Zach had to look down at that. What did he hope to see?

“Zach, there’s a problem.”

“Hang on.” Zach didn’t lower the binoculars.

“There’s nothing to see,” Adam said quietly. Did he hope someone had got themselves into a boat? There were—or had been—a few boats down there, little ones for messing around in the rivers. Nothing that could have survived the flood.

“I’m watching Barbara’s group.”

Okay, that was more constructive. Adam nodded. “How are they doing?”

“They’re still moving. About a day and a half behind us, I think. I hope they’re okay.”

“We were right not to wait. Don’t feel bad about it.”

Zach lowered the binoculars and smiled weakly at Adam, then frowned. “A problem? You said there’s a problem.”

“Yeah, we’re lost.”

“What? How can we be lost? We’re following the stream.”

“We were. I don’t know if the quakes have diverted that, or we’re in the wrong place, but there’s no stream.”

“Damn. How much water do we have left?”

“Hard to say. A day and half maybe. More if it rains again.” He took Zach’s arm and steered him back to where the group’s little leadership team stood around looking tense. They stood away from the rest of the crowd, not wanting anyone overhearing them. Only Amina, oblivious, sitting on a backpack at her father’s feet, smiled as Adam and Zach approached.

“So, what do we do?” Visha asked.

“Find the stream,” Adam said. “I know this area, and I think I’ve got a good idea of where it is. I’ll go find it and contact you all to follow me when I do.”

“What?” Zach stared at him. “You—you want to leave, go off on your own?”

“You can’t go on your own,” Howie said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Right.” Zach nodded in vigorous agreement. “I’ll go with you.”

“
You
can’t go at all,” Howie said.

“He’s right,” Korrie agreed. “Not now, not after what happened. Not now that we don’t have Barbara either.”

“You’re the leader,” Adam said, taking Zach’s arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You have to stay with the group.” Zach groaned, his face a picture of torn feelings that made Adam want to hug him and tell him it would be okay, he’d never leave Zach’s side again.

But he couldn’t indulge in such things. The group needed him to do a job.

“Then it has to be me,” Simon said. Visha looked at him with the same agony Adam had just seen on Zach’s face.

“There’s plenty of people in the group who could come with me,” Adam protested, not wanting to split up the family.

“No, we’ll move faster with just the two of us. And if we start explaining and choosing volunteers, we’ll still be arguing about it by sunset. Better if you and I just go now.”

Adam couldn’t argue with the logic. “You’re right. So that’s agreed. Let’s go.”

“Agreed?” Zach protested. “Who says? We never—”

“Best lighten our packs. Simon, leave your tent but bring your bedroll.”

“Do you think we’ll be away overnight?”

“Look, just slow down,” Zach said, a pleading tone in his voice. Adam turned to him and spoke quietly.

“Zach, we have to do this, and there’s no sense in waiting around. I don’t want to leave you any more than you want me to go, but this is for the group.”

“But, Adam.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “What the hell will I do without you?”

“You’ll be amazing, that’s what you’ll do. And Ann and the doc and Visha, they’re all here too, all helping you.” He leaned in to kiss Zach quickly. “Butch up, Benesh. You’ll be fine.”

He turned back to the group and found with some alarm that they were going through his and Simon’s packs, lightening them as much as possible, making sure they weren’t both carrying anything they only needed one of. He quickly stepped up and almost grabbed his pack from Korrie when she started opening pockets.

“I’ve got it.”

“Your walkie-talkie still holding up?” Simon asked as Adam knelt by him on the ground and started rummaging in the pack. “Battery not flat?”

“It’s fine. Will we still be able to contact the group?”

“Range can be several kilometers as long as we have line of sight. Since we’re going higher, we generally should. And I’m taking one of the radio beacons, so Visha will be able to track us down if we get lost.”