Page 8
Story: Into Elysium
CALE
Dizzy from the heat and the touch of Eben’s hands on my skin, I leaned my back against the wooden shower wall to steady myself. His palm slid between our bodies as his lips mapped the shape of my shoulder and my neck. Taking my cock in his hand, he kept his eyes on mine as he stroked me with slow and sure fingers. It was overwhelming, and I lowered my gaze, the view before me too surreal. I remembered then, under the hot water, inside the blanket of steam, with his perfect grip, and with the sound of my moan ringing in my ears, a time when I was someone else. Someone strong, working the orchards, with the burn of the sun on my back, the smell of sweat gathering in my lungs, and the soil under my fingers. I remembered the smell of fresh-cut grass and the feel of straw between my teeth and the days I never wanted to end.
But this wasn’t then.
This was a new sky. A new sun.
And I wanted to get lost inside the heat of it too.
“Eben,” his name dripped from my lips as I rose higher, and with my eyes open, I let the past go.
I let the feeling take me, the pull in my stomach, the ache inside me building, let it burn away the last year, and I reached for him. This wasn’t then. And I was a new man.
Eben swallowed as I traced a line down the length of his shaft with my thumb, a quiet hiss escaping past his lips. We worked together with urgent hands, aware that our time dwindled.
“God,” he groaned, his mouth crashing into mine, his teeth digging into my bottom lip as he came with a violent shudder.
He held me as I fell apart a few seconds later, on weak knees, with his name and whispered pleas spilling between lazy kisses. With my arms wrapped around him, and his forehead resting against mine, we ignored the waning water pressure, until we were both shaking with spent need and a month’s worth of more, more, more.
“Thomas will be here any second,” I finally said once I caught my breath, and the water turned to a trickle.
“I’ll grab the towels.” He gave me a shy smile, one I’d never seen before, and I wished for the old days once again, only so that I had a camera to capture it.
I would have pinned the photo on one of those cork boards that had hung on my bedroom wall, or even better, clipped it in the visor of my car. But instead, I saved it inside a private corner just for me, for when I closed my eyes at night and touched my lips, remembering this night and how I realized I hadn’t lost myself after all.
“Here,” he whispered, and when I opened my eyes again, he handed me a towel.
Eben turned off the faucet and we dried off in silence.
“Are you—”
“Cale, I—”
Another shy smile appeared as he rubbed the back of his neck with his towel.
“Sorry,” I said. “You go first.”
“It’s… I was… I was second guessing myself again.” Taking a deep breath, he wrapped the towel around his waist. “Everything is…”
A knock on the door interrupted him and I quickly wrapped my towel around my waist as well.
“You boys finished up or… I can come back if you need a few more minutes,” Thomas hollered. “The snow’s let up, and I don’t mind waiting if—”
“It’s okay,” Eben opened the door and found Thomas standing outside with an armful of clothing. “I think we ran out of water anyway.”
“I bet you did,” Thomas gave us both a once over. “I’m sure it’s been a while since either of you’ve had a real shower.” He cleared his throat with a smirk blooming at the corner of his lips. “Get dressed, and after dinner I’ll show you how to refill the tank.”
EBEN
Self-conscious, I kept my eyes on the ground as Cale and I dressed inside the shower house. With the soft, well-worn fabric of the NEA fatigue rubbing against my skin, every sound, every sensation came with such clear precision, it made it impossible to pretend like the last thirty minutes had been a dream. I didn’t know what to say. I was wrapped up in my head, in all the what ifs. Had I pushed Cale too far? Had I taken advantage? Worry gathered like a pitch-forked mob inside my stomach as I finally raised my eyes and found him staring at me. His blue eyes were brighter than I’d ever seen them. His cheeks were colored in a deep rose, giving life to his irises. Cale’s hair was messy and curling around his ears, and it could have been any day outside the shower house doors. Maybe some time in June and everything was right as rain, and I’d never killed a man to survive. Inside these four walls, the plague of the pandemic, the fear of the war couldn’t touch us.
“You said you were second guessing yourself again.” He shifted and lowered his gaze as he buttoned his shirt. Gnawing on his lip, he asked, “Do you… do you think we shouldn’t have…”
“No…” He swallowed and I hurried to clarify, “N-No, I mean, I don’t regret it.” Cale exhaled and I reached out and brushed my knuckles across the bruise on his cheek. “I thought maybe… that maybe I might’ve have taken advantage—”
“You didn’t.” He stepped closer and fastened the last button on my shirt, smoothing his hands over my chest. “Nothing is as it should be… and I wish I was certain about a lot of things, but this.” He held one hand to his heart and the other over mine. “I feel human again. I’m sure about you, Eben. With everything catching fire around us, you’re the only thing that makes sense.” He leaned up and pressed a soft, chaste kiss to my lips. “This… We make sense.”
“We do,” I said and wrapped my arms around him.
He burrowed into my chest, and we stayed like that for a few minutes, or maybe only a few seconds, but it was quiet and human.
“Not to be a killjoy, but it’s not getting any warmer out here,” Thomas called out, and Cale pulled away with a soft chuckle.
“We better get going,” Cale said, and I gave him a reluctant nod.
If I could, I’d hide in this little hut for as long as it was allowed, away from the prying eyes of strangers, away from all the real problems and death. But Cale’s stomach grumbled, and his comfort meant more to me than anything.
“Let’s go.” I took his hand in mine and opened the door.
“After dinner, Margie wants to talk to you both,” Thomas said as we followed him toward a large bonfire at the center of the camp. “She has questions.”
“About Elysium?” I asked.
“Mostly,” he lowered his voice. “There’ve been some reports…” He cleared his throat, turning his head, I followed his gaze toward the front gate. “She wants to ask you about being a guard, and… I don’t want to say something I shouldn’t. Margie has questions, son. That’s all you need to know for now.”
“Yes, sir, I—”
“Reports? Are we not safe here?” Cale interrupted and Thomas sighed.
He clapped Cale on the shoulder, his eyes crinkling around the corners with a soft smile. “Don’t worry so much, kid. This is one of the safest settlements there is.”
I squeezed Cale’s hand, pretending like I couldn’t hear the lie in Thomas’s tone.
“It’s going to be okay. We made it out, right?” I didn’t care about the reports, or what Margie thought she knew about me, I’d do whatever I had to do to keep Cale out of harm’s way.
“Yeah…” The tension left Cale’s shoulders as he inhaled a deep breath. “We’re safe now.”
He held my hand a little tighter as we approached the rows of picnic tables that were scattered around the bonfire. Multiple sets of curious eyes tracked us as Thomas waved at a few people and chatted about the large metal shipping container they’d converted into a mess hall.
“Those militia idiots derailed their own train,” he laughed. “Gave us enough grain to last a few years. Margie had hoped to bring a few of the emptied containers back to the settlement, but it was a son of a bitch just getting this one here.”
“How did they manage it?” I asked, staring at the rusted metal box with smoke billowing from a makeshift chimney.
“The train tracks are about two miles west of here. It took an entire month and a shit ton of manpower. We had to clear rocks to make a path for the horses and this log-pulley system one of the engineers came up with.” He shook his head with a humorless chuckle. “After all of that bullshit, we decided it wasn’t worth all the work. We can sit inside during meals, if need be, but if the weather’s good, we prefer it outside anyway.” Thomas pointed at an empty picnic table. “Have a seat. I’ll grab the grub.”
“We can help,” Cale argued, and Thomas just laughed.
“Trust me, you’ll have plenty of time to help out. Now go sit your tired asses on that bench.” Raising his voice, he added, “And don’t worry about the nosy locals, they don’t bite.”
It didn’t take long for some of those nosy locals to make their way over to the table once Cale and I’d sat down. Kyle, one of the famed engineers, had been one of the first to introduce himself.
“I built the shower house,” he’d said, but had been quickly contradicted by his wife Cara who claimed she came up with the heating schematic.
After Kyle and his wife moved on, more people started to brave their way over to our table, mostly to say hello on their way to drop off their dishes. People offered their names, and titles, and assured us if we needed anything, all we had to do was ask. No one had seemed hostile or untrusting, at least not on the surface. Eventually Thomas arrived with his promised bowls of stew, granting us a small reprieve of being the novelty of the night.
“Don’t eat too fast… you’ll make yourselves sick,” Thomas warned.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten anything this rich, and I assumed it was the same for Cale, but we scarfed it down anyway.
We were almost finished when Sammie and two other soldiers showed up and sat down with their own bowls of food.
“Is Megs already in bed?” Thomas asked and kissed Sammie on the cheek.
“Yeah, she was asking for you.” Sammie’s gaze bounced between me and Cale. “But I told her you were still working.”
“Megs?” Cale asked and Thomas chuckled.
“Our spawn.”
“Our daughter,” Sammie rolled her eyes.
“She’s a hellion,” one of the two soldiers said, and Sammie swatted the back of his head.
“Like you don’t act up like a five-year-old half the damn time.”
“I do not,” he protested, and the other soldier cracked up. “Well, not all the time.”
I laughed even though I didn’t know any of these people. I wasn’t used to the banter, and smiles, and harmless teasing. In Elysium, every day was a fight to stay under the radar, to hide inside the dark corners where no one looked at me too closely.
“I’m Landon,” the soldier said after his laughter subsided. “And this manchild right here is Jack.”
“I’m not a fucking manchild,” he grumbled and stuffed a spoon overflowing with stew into his mouth.
Landon’s smile cracked across his face. “See what I mean?”
Jack grumbled under his breath as he took another bite.
“Eben,” I offered and reached across the table to shake Landon’s hand.
“And you must be Cale?” Landon asked, the skin around his brown eyes crinkling. “Sammie told us you were both prisoners in Elysium?”
Cale gave me a quick glance as he shook Landon’s hand. “We were.”
“That place is a shit hole,” Jack mumbled around yet another spoonful of potatoes and meat.
Jack looked like a typical soldier with his blonde buzz cut and fatigues that stretched tightly across his wide, muscled frame. Whereas Landon had a slighter build with longer black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Jack was handsome with sharp angles and a square jaw, but Landon was definitely the more approachable of the two with easygoing eyes and laugh lines that reached to a dimple on his right cheek.
“These two will be your squad leaders. The Captain will elaborate more when you speak with her in the morning,” Sammie said, and Thomas’s brows furrowed.
“I thought she wanted to see them after dinner.”
“Something came up.” She shrugged and Landon and Jack shared a look as she stood. “She’s requested that Thomas come alone tonight.” Sammie picked up her half- eaten bowl of stew. “And Eben and Cale are to report to her quarters at 0600 tomorrow.”
Thomas didn’t ask for more of an explanation, and the heavy silence that descended turned the food in my stomach.
“What’s happened?” Cale asked, and I noticed Sammie’s hand was shaking. The slight movement barely there, but enough it made her spoon shift in the bowl.
“The Captain will brief—”
“No,” Landon interrupted her. “They have a right to know.”
“A right to know what?” I asked and Jack groaned.
“Sammie, just tell them.”
Sammie stared at Thomas for a lifetime before he nodded, and she sat down again.
“One of our scouts showed up right after we arrived here with you,” Sammie whispered and leaned in. “There’s a small regime of militia headed this way.” Her eyes met mine. “Some of them are guards from Elysium, some are soldiers they didn’t spare for the front.”
“Fuck,” the word rumbled low in Thomas’s chest. “It’s been confirmed then?”
“Yes.”
“How close?” he asked.
“The storm held them up,” Landon said. “But the scouts think they’ll attack tomorrow night.”
“Hoping we won’t be prepared,” Jack snarled. “Fucking idiots. We’re always prepared.”
“How many?” I asked as Cale’s trembling hand covered my knee.
“Maybe twenty.” Landon’s jaw clenched. “Our scouts didn’t get a full assessment before the storm blew in.”
“What can they hope to achieve?” Cale’s voice was barely audible as though he hadn’t meant to ask the question aloud.
“Survival,” I whispered, and all the shadows I’d thought I’d left behind inside the cold steel and stone of Elysium shrouded over us.
A chill chased its way through my veins until I couldn’t feel the heat from the bonfire, or the steady weight of Cale’s hand on my knee.
We’d escaped from our haunted prison.
But the ghosts had found us anyway.