17
EZRA
I woke up to the sound of an explosion.
It was impossibly loud, even through the tent wall, and bounced me off the ground. I yelped, and tried to leap to my feet but something held me down, and for a few crazy moments I fought against the restraints.
Only when I remembered that I was inside a sleeping bag did I stop, unzip it, and climb out.
The sound of the explosion echoed on the mountains, bouncing back at us from several directions at once. Sam put a hand on my arm but I stared at the tent wall, waiting.
"Ezra..." he began.
CRACK-BOOM.
Another explosion to our left, a massive thunderclap that was louder than before. I felt this one in my pelvis, and had the inexplicable urge to run. We were under attack. That psychopathic dragon dude had come, and brought a bazooka or something, and we were going to die on this mountain.
"Ezra," Sam insisted. "It's not what you think!"
"Then what is it?" I hissed.
Boots crunched on snow across the clearing, and then I heard laughter.
"Rise and shine!" Thomas called. He chuckled some more, and then I heard the long zipper of the work tent open, then close.
"Planned explosions," Sam said.
"I know I don't have the same fancy college degree you do," I muttered, eyes still wide, "but I'm struggling to understand why you would need to blow shit up to build some radio dishes."
Sam stretched his legs out in front of him and groaned a morning groan. "To cause avalanches."
"You're making less and less sense every second."
"Planned avalanches. We set them off with small explosions while we're up here."
I gave him a you're still not making any sense look.
"Avalanches are a risk this time of year," he explained in a patient voice, "especially as more snow accumulates. So smaller avalanches are triggered with explosions before they can build up into dangerous ones. Sometimes the Colorado Parks Department sub-contracts it out to teams like us since we're already up here." His frowned. "You've never heard of this?"
I punched him on the shoulder. "Don't act like I'm the dumb one. I'm not used to this shit!"
We both froze as we heard the zipper to the work tent open again.
"Gunna grab a load from your van," Thomas called out. "There's coffee steaming inside. If I don't see bright faces by the time I return I'm gunna roll each of your tents down the mountain!"
We listened to him crunch through the snow toward the path.
"See?" I said. "He doesn't know we shared a tent at all. And you were mister worried."
I lay back down on the sleeping bag and sighed.
"How long's it gunna take him to get a load--half an hour?" I asked. "Wake me in 20."
Sam slid sideways, pressing his body on top of mine. His smile was inches from my face. "Or we could do other stuff."
He kissed me before I could kiss him, his lips pressing me back against the tent floor. I closed my eyes and melted into him as his weight surrounded me, holding me in place. I spread my legs to let his body descend into me, pressing against my sex through our clothes while Sam's curtain of dirty blond hair shielded our faces.
"I need you now," he whispered.
Safe in the bubble of warmth that was our tent, I shimmied out of my pants and underwear, kicking them to the other end of the tent. Sam leaned back on his heels to do the same, his long cock bouncing into view as his own pants came down. I couldn't keep my hands off it, and I grabbed it like a sword and stroked him rapidly while he pulled his clothes off.
"Hurry," I moaned, touching my sex with my other hand, spreading my juices all around for him.
Sam's eyes were intense with need as he kissed me again, lowering his nude body onto mine. The touch of his skin everywhere was incredible, a warm blanket covering me. He held himself in a push-up position with one hand--which made his muscles bulge like a fucking god--and he used his other hand to guide himself in.
But he was moving slowly, coating his head and testing my entrance, so I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him close.
"Oh God!" he moaned as I used my legs to shove him all the way inside. There was the tiniest flicker of pain from taking him all at once, with the ache from yesterday's fun, but it only lasted a heartbeat, and it was overwhelmed by the pleasure of every nerve feeling his cock all at once. I opened my mouth wide and gasped, my chest heaving in our dim tent.
His lips found my left nipple, sucking gently before using his lips to nibble at it. I arched my back into him as he licked around my areola, keeping my legs around him tight so he had to stay inside of me. I ran my hand through his crazy hair, tightening on the strands while he pleasured my nipples and sent shocks up and down my spine, and then he broke away and kissed me roughly, trying to move his hips while I held him close.
"I want you so bad," he said, stopping to look into my eyes.
I loosened my legs and he pulled back eagerly, slow thrusts that made me sigh. But I could feel the animal inside of him raging to break free, to fuck me hard and fast.
"Give it to me," I commanded, and he sped up while smiling at me. "Harder!"
"You like it like that?"
"Oh baby, I do."
He lifted himself into a push-up position, biceps like hard boulders on either side of my body. Then he thrust deep inside of me, a long stroke that touched every grain of my inner skin, a wonderful ache of flesh.
"Harder," I moaned.
Sam obeyed, his body crashing into mine each time and making my butt slide on the fabric of the sleeping bag.
Within moments we were both crying out so loud with pleasure we thought we might start our own avalanches, two orgasms on the top of the world.
"Want some breakfast?" Sam asked afterwards, his head resting on my breast.
"What we just did was better than any breakfast."
"So is that a no?"
"Pfft," I sputtered. "I didn't say that!"
By the time we'd climbed from the tent, and had shared a cup of coffee and warm toast in the work tent, Thomas was crunching his way back into the campsite.
"I trust you slept well, Ezra?" he asked, ducking back into the tent and rubbing his hands together. His cheeks were so windburned it almost looked like red paint.
"You know, I really did," I said, keeping my eyes conspicuously away from Sam.
"Good. Then you're fresh enough to go get the last two boxes from the van."
I considered making a half-joke, half-complaint, but Sam gave me a look. I needed to keep up appearances if I was going to stay here. And I certainly didn't want to get Sam in trouble.
"I'll get right on it," I said, stretching.
"I'll help you." Sam rose from his chair, but Thomas shook his head.
"I need you here to start working on the array calibration," Thomas said. "We need to get that right before we set up the other three dishes."
Sam gave me an apologetic look as I left the tent.
*
I didn't mind being a grunt. At least, not at first.
The sun made things significantly warmer, once it began rising into the sky. And I actually enjoyed the trek back down to the van. The wind had died down, leaving the mountain peaceful and quiet. Just me, the crunch of my boots, and the fresh air.
But once I'd grabbed the next pack of supplies, the return trip wasn't as fun. It seemed harder today than it had last night when I'd been following Sam. I even began to sweat underneath all my layers, and my core muscles ached from the weight of the pack. Sleeping on the ground made for an achy back. So did getting pounded against the ground.
I dropped off the pack with an exasperated groan, then sat down on the cold ground next to it. Sam was inside the tent, but Thomas was out working on the second radio array, which currently looked like three metal crates stacked on top of one another.
"Oh good!" He came crunching over and looked in the pack, and his smile waned. "Drats. I was hoping this was the pack with the extra bolts we needed. Need those to finish the array base..."
He trailed off with an expectant look at me. I groaned as I got back to my feet and began the second trip.
It took me longer to retrieve the final pack of supplies; I took a long break at the van to catch my breath, and the climb back to camp was significantly tougher. I'd always thought I was in reasonably good shape, but the lack of oxygen up here had me winded within seconds. I constantly had to stop along the path, drop my pack, and rest.
Thomas grumbled about it when I finally did get back to camp, but then he was too busy focusing on his work.
I retreated into the work tent, but then it was Sam's turn to put me to work. The crates that were already up here had been loaded randomly, and they needed them unloaded and sorted. Spools of electrical wire in one pile. Batteries the size of my head in another. Circuit boards and network cards and all sorts of other stuff I didn't recognize after that. It was slow, menial work, but at least I was inside where it was warm.
And every now and then I tip-toed across the tent to give Sam a kiss. I deserved a reward.
Then I was back out in the cold bringing the previous equipment to Thomas by the radio array. He didn't even acknowledge me as he focused on the array, which was slowly beginning to look like an actual radio dish instead of a random hunk of metal parts. But something was frustrating him, and he grumbled to himself in the cold.
"Having a problem?" I asked.
He took a moment to notice me, then frowned in confusion. "Where are the two-by-three batteries? I thought I told you to bring them first."
You didn't tell me shit, I wanted to snap, but thoughts of Sam's career held me back as I retrieved what he needed.
When I came back with batteries in both hands, Thomas had moved over to the first array to check something. I dropped the batteries next to the half-constructed one and took a look. A panel was open in the side to reveal the circuitry within, where Thomas had been grumbling. I knelt and stuck my head in, and immediately saw what the issue was.
"What are you doing!" Thomas came running over, which in the snow was more of a waddle. "Get out of there!"
I pulled my head out. "Board on the left has a short."
"Interns should not be--what?"
I pointed. "This board shorted out. At the top, near the capacitors. See the black mark?"
Thomas leaned inside. "No..."
I leaned in with him to point, keeping my finger a few millimeters from touching the board. "Right here. That black smudge is from a short."
"I... huh," he said. "I never would have seen that with these old eyes."
"Happy to help," I muttered, standing and walking back to the work tent.
"Wait!" He rose and joined me. "We have a voltmeter and multimeter in the tent. With those, you should be able to test all the other circuits before we install them."
It didn't seem like much, but I could tell it was a promotion of sorts. Thomas giving me a little more responsibility. "Yeah, no problem," I said casually.
Sam arched an eyebrow at me inside the work tent. "So you do know electronics? Or was that a lucky guess out there?"
"Hot-wiring cars," I said simply. Sam mouthed, ahh in understanding.
That work was just as dull as sorting equipment, but it was infinitely more satisfying knowing I was being trusted with greater responsibility. The rest of the morning flew by as I touched the multimeter points to the inputs on the circuit board and verified the output on the screen. By the time we were breaking for lunch I felt satisfied with my work, and my contributions to the campsite. We were focused, and didn't expect a thing.
I can't believe we were so stupid to let our guard down.