Well, first order of business was to keep the assholes from coming after us, so Irin and I sloshed out of the pond, rubbed each other down to warm up, then collected as many rocks of a decent size as we could and piled them up at the base of the crevice. It wouldn’t fool a spelunker, but it might make any guard coming down that way think it was a dead end.
Then we chowed down on some of the food Irin had grabbed, including the pickles.
“Vinegar in the juice,” he said, “sterilizes the hands. A little.”
“And very sticky,” I sneered back.
“We’re eatin’, idiot. We can wash our hands later.”
And I must admit, never in my life has a ham and cheese sandwich tasted so fucking good.
Mustard helped.
Then we held each other and slept a little. I kept hold of the AR-15 and he held the knife, but we didn’t hear anyone even trying to approach, so in minutes I was out of it. No idea for how long, but there was still a hint of light coming down from above, meaning it can’t have been more than an hour or two.
Irin used the knife to cut one of his aprons into coverings for his feet then had me remove the pajama bottoms and cut most of the legs off to do the same for me. Leaving me, essentially, with a pair of boxers.
Meanwhile, I did a bit of exploring around the pool.
I found an open space of sandy dirt beyond a spot where stalactites and stalagmites had melded together, looking like bars. It had been washed down during a rain but now was somewhat dry. Oh, and there were sticks and twigs and plastic bags caught in the rocks that were also dry, with what looked like little tumbleweed pieces.
I waved Irin over, then as he wrapped my feet in my faux sandals I said, “There had to be space for these things to come down here.”
“In a gully-washer?”
“However it works. You up for trying it?”
He shrugged, so I aimed to start up...then he stopped me.
“Those branches and twigs,” he said. “They’re dry enough for a fire and to make torches. Let’s bring some with us.”
“There’s probably more up the way...”
“...Maybe, but...”
“Okay...how can we carry ‘em?”
He grabbed one of the plastic bags, twisted it into a sort of cord and grinned at me. “Allow me.”
Mr. Mountain Man’s mind was racing along, so we gathered as many as we could into a decent bundle then he tied them with a couple of the bags.
I was still leery. “It’s gonna slow us down.”
“Look at the charge on the Arc,” he said as he lit one small bundle of twigs on fire then handed it over.
It was down to twenty-one percent. Not good. The twig-torch would give us enough illumination so I shrugged and started climbing, Irin right behind me.
It was tight-going but we were able to get through, him in his kilt and me in my boxers. Sometimes they’d get snagged on a sharp edge, the passages could be so narrow, and a couple times he had to pass the bundle of branches up to me then follow.
Up and up we went...and I cannot believe how weary I was growing.
He gathered a couple more little bundles of twigs as we went along, to use as mini-torches, and that did a lot to save on the Arc. And also let me warm my hands, a little.
Funny...I was sweating like a pig on a spit but still cold.
“Hypothermia,” Irin told me when I whined about it. Then we took a break and burned some of the sticks to warm us, a little.
I’d started hearing the scurrying patter of light-footed critters, which was good. I guess. It meant we were nearing some sort of opening to the surface. Maybe. Still, I did not want to know what they were. Instead, I forced myself to keep focused on the path ahead.
Until we reached a small open area with a mini-pool by an area of water-smoothed earth...and I fell flat on my back, exhausted. Irin curled down on top of me and lay his head on my chest. He was breathing as rough as I was.
“So when does our next round of hypothermia set in?” I chuckled.
“About a thousand feet ago.” Then he looked at me. “Dirc, you feel the breeze?”
Breeze?
I let my brain shift into the moment and finally realized it was slowly whispering past us. Coming from the direction we were headed. But I could see no tell-tale light beyond the crevice.
“Let’s make a fire,” I said. “Warm up. See where the smoke goes.”
He forced himself up and set half the branches and twigs up like a little tee-pee then used the last of the current little twig-torch to set them going. Oh, my God, did that fire feel good. I hadn’t realized how cold I was.
Irin huddled next to me and we luxuriated in the gentle beauty of those dancing little flames for some time. Almost like little spirits swirling and twisting between the sticks.
“Look where the smoke’s going,” he finally said.
It was sort of filling the cave, but I could see where it was also being sucked away, going up.
“What the fuck?” whispered from me.
“We are close to the surface.”
“But...no, we haven’t climbed two miles...”
“Smoke don’t lie, Dirc. Maybe it’s the bottom of a canyon?”
I had to nod, at that. “I don’t know the area we’re in. But wouldn’t that be perfect? Out in the open to be seen.”
“Not if it’s night. Gives us better cover.”
I massaged his back and could feel the tension in his muscles. And his slow, careful breaths.
“So what you saying? You want to keep going? Right now?”
He gave a long sigh then said, “I’m too tired not to. I halfway think if we stop, now, I won’t be able to get started, again.”
I nodded, because I felt the same. “How much water’s left?”
“I filled the bottles from this pool. We might get sick, but at least we’ll be hydrated.”
I had to chuckle. I grabbed one of the burning branches and held it like a torch. “Then it’s onward and upward.”
He held up a branch that was about to stop burning and we continued on.
From here, the path was a bit smoother thanks to what had once been some water-flow, and it was a bit more open. In fact, I don’t think we went more than a thousand feet...well, maybe fifteen-hundred...before I saw moonlight casting shadows against the rocks. I didn’t have to say a word to Irin. We shoved the torch fires into sand to kill them and slipped up into a wide, rocky crevice at the base of a mountain, with sandy ground under our feet.
Then I looked up so see solid rock shooting straight up to either side of us, and I understood.
“We were under a mountain,” I said. “Two miles under the fucking mountains.”
We continued to about a thousand feet further on, where it opened up to...
Holy, shit...it was wide open desert. Nothing but space in every direction. Joshua trees here and there. Some scrub. And brilliant sky above, glistening with stars.
I was so overwhelmed at the beauty of it all, I started to laugh. I grabbed Irin and held him close.
He was as ecstatic as I was., then said, “Dirc, look.”
He pointed at headlights in the far distance. Driving along a road. Heading towards...
“There’s a town down there,” I said, pointing to an area of numerous pinpoints of light shimmering across the desert. One of which was a brightly lit truck stop.
Relief swept through me. “I know what to do, from here.”
We carefully made our way across the desert to the town. Avoiding rocks as much as possible, since our faux-sandals were now shreds. Lots of night critters skittered away, probably thinking we might eat them. But we still had some ham, cheese and bread left. And mustard. Just no more pickles.
Dawn was hinted to the East when we reached the first house, a flat adobe-style thing, whitewashed and surrounded by a cyclone fence that enclosed a puppy that was very unhappy with us. Scrub and trash were caught along the fence’s base...
As was a pair of dirty jeans. Crusted with dirt and a size too small, for me, but might fit Irin.
Two houses and another unhappy dog down, I noticed a faucet and hose were available. We quietly washed each other off and rinsed the jeans. Irin slipped into them, despite them being soaking wet, and wiggled his ass.
“Perfect,” he whispered.
Next, we found an RV park with a dumpster and dropped the AR-15 into it, along with the knife. We covered them both with more trash. No need to have some cop see us and freak out regarding our weaponry. Then we pulled out some half-full bottles of water...and a nice tight tee-shirt with coffee stains all over it for him to wear. I found a large woman’s blouse. It was plain and one sleeve was torn partway off at the shoulder, but I didn’t care. It looked fine. We also noticed a pair of torn tennies for Irin, since they were too small for me. But I did get some flip-flops. Of course, everything was dirty, but there was another faucet available to rinse them off and put on. I shivered from how cold they were, but felt a hundred times better.
Then we slipped over to the truck stop...well, glorified gas station right on the road. The sun was finally rising behind the distant hills, so we se sat at the corner nearest the dumpster and munched on the last of our ham and cheese as I watched truckers and RVs and cars roll in and out. I learned we were in Alamo, not all that far from Las Vegas, so I paid special attention to the vehicles heading down the 93 towards it.
Irin scrounged around the area and managed to find just over two dollars in change, so I had him buy a pack of gum. Then we used their bathroom to clean up sa bit better.
Finally, one of those big burly truckers with a beard, ponytail and hair and tattoos up his ass, cast me more than a simple glance as he entered the building. Irin and I strutted over to his truck and casually posed, casting him looks right back, as he returned, while letting him see how pretty we both were.
Thus...we wrangled a ride to Vegas.
I paid for it by sucking him off as he drove while he played with Irin’s dick. His big beefy hands stroked it. Squeezed it. And he dove his fat, grubby fingers deep into Irin’s jeans to really have fun with his balls. Which made Irin squirm in discomfort more than once. But my guy played his part well, moaning and sighing as if he loved the man’s touch while I did everything needed to get the guy off.
Which he finally did, just before we hit the city limits.
I did not swallow.
He let us out at the 15 and the 159, thoroughly pleased with how things had gone. Glad he was. Some people really need to learn that soap and water don’t work unless you use them.
And enough said about that.
It was a bit of a walk, but we got back to the place where I’d made some money before...and made some more, even though it was mid-afternoon. It helps to be young and pretty, especially in a town where middle-aged men like to let loose because they’re too scared to so, at home.
I made a couple hundred while Irin pulled in an extra fifty by letting himself get sucked off, but I could tell he wasn’t enjoying it. Still, it was enough to catch a cab to the In-n-Out by a Walmart, then get a fresh outfit for each of us...including shoes, socks and undies...and make ourselves presentable, again. By now, it was just growing dark.
We got a cab to a gay bar and waited outside, since they won’t let you in without an ID. It didn’t take long for this older queen straight out of the RuPaul school of style to strike up a conversation, realize we were basically offering ourselves as a pair, lead us to his beat-up Olds 98, and take us home to one of those ranch-style houses on the east side that looks bland as you approach but has an interior that is full-on Thousand and One Nights.
No cash was offered or exchanged, just a bed for the night. I offered to handle him all by myself, but he whined about a three-way so that’s how we went. On a four-poster bed swirling with draperies and covers and ornate pillows and attachments that I’m sure were meant for leather and chain restraints. With me fucking him as he and Irin sixty-nined. Which wasn’t all that bad, really. He had a nice ass and decent dick. And he got everything he wanted.
Then he came.
And Irin came.
And I came.
And the queen fucking vanished!
Seriously, I hadn’t even pulled out, yet, but he was gone.
Mother-fucking son-of-a-bitch, was the Beast back? Oh, that was not acceptable!
Hey, motherfucker, this is NOT what I need, right now! A guy who people know vanishes after being seen with me and Irin? What the fuck? You trying to get us busted, again?
Suddenly, the queen was back on the bed, face up and out cold. Then, This is not the quality we agreed to, hit my brain.
Irin cast me a glance of shock and awe. I think he heard it, too.
He wasn’t supposed to be, you son-of-a-bitch! You canceled the contract! Why the hell’re you back here, anyway?
You have exhibited more resilience than I thought possible. And in truth, the quality of your merchandise is not being met by others I have contracted with.
Tough shit, bitch. There’s no way I can work with you, again. Fuckin’ us around like that.
“Dirc.” It was Irin’s voice but it still startled me.
“What?” I snapped. “Do you hear what it’s saying?”
He nodded.
Oh? “...Are you responding?”
“I’m thinkin’ there could be a renegotiation of terms for a new and improved contract...”
And he had this sneaky little look on his face, like he’s about to pull something cute. So I murmured, “...Like...?”
Compressed carbon? The Beast was confused, but Irin wasn’t.
“Diamonds,” Irin said. “I know a guy in Carson City who could handle ‘em for us.”
“Carson City?! How we gonna get there? Those cave-dwellers’ve probably called the Seals, by now and...
BAM! We were in Carson City. In a park! In front of the Capitol Building!!
FUCKING NAKED!? Could you have let us get dressed, first!?
Our freshly bought duds wound up in a pile next to us. I yanked mine on, pissed as hell, as Irin calmly dressed.
“Okay, where we gonna sleep?” I snapped. “We were gonna stay with...”
“Calm down, Dirc. I told you; I know a guy.” Then he showed me the prettiest little cut diamond I’d ever seen. Square cut and gleaming, even in the shadows. “I think this’ll be enough to get us a bed, new IDs, and even wheels out of town.”
“...Irin...how long’ve you been talking to the Beast...?”
“Just now, that’s all.”
“But you already got a plan.”
“Not a new one. I’d been thinkin’ about it for a while. But it’ll work.”
I smirked. “You gonna run things, now?”
“Dirc...you got us out of that shit-hole place to an area where we could be safe. Let me set us up, now.”
Oh.
Well, I had two choices. Say no fucking way or trust Irin to do what I knew he knew how to do. So all I did was grin and say, “Whither thou goest, and all that shit.”
His smile was so fucking gorgeous, I couldn’t help but grab him close and give him our first real kiss of freedom.
And oh my God, how he kissed me back.
We were completely together, again.
