Read Before the Darkness (Refuge Inc.) Online
Authors: Leslie Lee Sanders
Tags: #erotic MM, #Romance MM
neck, panting and grunting with each thrust.
Elliot's hands caressed his shoulders, his back
and ass. They were rubbing, gripping and
scratching at his lesh making him tingle with
pleasure. Adam breathed in Elliot's scent. The
smell of a hot, aroused man turned him on more
than ever. His thrusts began to change from
short and rhythmic to long and hard, and it all
felt amazing.
He nibbled Elliot's skin and a warm
wetness brushed the side of his face, stealing his
attention. He lifted his head to once again look
down into Elliot's eyes. Tears ran down the
sides of Elliot's face to puddle in his ears. Elliot
stared back at him. Neither said a word. Adam
thoughtlessly kissed the tears away.
"I don't want to die," Elliot whispered.
"Not now that I found you."
"Sshh." Adam kissed him; alternating
between sucking Elliot's bruised lips and licking
his sweet tongue. "Let me help you forget."
Adam picked up the pace, rocking and
thrusting. The momentum caused the bed to
rock back and forth and Adam to pant and moan
with his thrusts. Elliot's head went back,
exposing his neck, his eyes squeezed shut and
his mouth opened slightly. Adam felt Elliot ist
the bed sheet on either side of him, pulling at it.
Adam lowered his head and sucked and gently
bit the hot lesh on the side of Elliot's neck. Elliot
cried out, moaning and groaning as Adam
pressed on. Adam could no longer hold it in. He
let go and forcefully released while deep inside
of his favorite place. Elliot soon followed. Warm
wetness splashed between their bodies, creating
a pleasurable yet sticky mess.
Breathing hard, Adam attempted to catch
his breath and get his vision back fully. He rolled
over onto the mattress, eyes closed.
"Thank you," Elliot panted. "I can sleep
better now."
8: Dust to Dust
Elliot awoke to a dank smell that
suddenly caught in his throat as he breathed. He
coughed, struggling to catch his breath. Even
Titan, who lay in the corner of the room, hid his
nose under his paw from the harsh smell.
"What is that?" Elliot sat up in bed and
looked through the splintered glass of the
broken sliding doors and saw brownish dust
blowing into the room through the small
opening.
"No idea what that is." Adam got up from
the bed and wiped the sleep from his eyes as he
and Elliot quickly got dressed. He went to the
broken door, picked up a handful of the dust
and pressed it in his ist. They both were
surprised to see the ine, smelly, dry material
mold together under the pressure of his grip
like a batch of clay. Adam shined the lashlight
outside into the darkness. Elliot could see tiny
lakes of the material falling from the sky and
shimmer in the beam of light like snow. "What's
going on?" Was this it? Was this Death itself
creeping upon them?
Adam looked at the residue on his hand.
"This stuff is dry and loose but sticky at the
same time. If we breathe this in—"
"We just won't go out there." Elliot
blinked, shaking his head.
Adam mimicked him by shaking his head
too. "We can't just stay here. No one's looking
for us. No one knows that we even exist, let
alone that we need help. We need to ind Refuge
Inc."
"What if there's no Refuge Inc.?" Elliot
threw his hands up. "Has that crossed your
mind? Then what?"
"There has to be." Adam scoffed. "Who
would put all the effort into printing and passing
out lyers and painting billboards all over
Phoenix? Who would do that?"
"Maybe the question you should ask is,
'
why
would someone do that?'" Elliot's ingers
drummed against the sides of his thighs. "What
if Refuge Inc.
is
some sort of sick hoax like the
old man said, put on by sick people that want to
send you on a wild goose chase for nothing?
What if they were a refuge and meant well but
are now doing no better than us? What if it's
just another hospital somewhere were there's
no medicine and it's illed with people like us
waiting around for help that's never coming? Or
worse, waiting to die."
Adam picked up his pack and dug inside.
"Guess there's only one way to find out."
Elliot grimaced at the back pack. "What
are you doing?"
"I'm leaving some food with you so I can
go look for help. It's not much."
"What are you talking about? You're
gonna leave me here?"
"I can move faster and get farther by
myself. Plus, you can watch over Edna and
Harold until I get back." Adam handed Elliot a
handful of broken granola bars in their
individual packages. "That's all I got. I'll keep the
dried fruit." Titan didn't provide adequate help
carrying the grocery bag full of packaged beef
jerky while Adam assisted Elliot in their trek to
the hospital, so he left it and the orange juice
behind.
Elliot pushed his hand away and scowled.
"No. You're not leaving. You want to die, is that
what you want? 'Cause that's what you're gonna
get if you go out there."
"No, that's what's gonna happened to all
of us if we stay here and do nothing." Adam
moved forward with the bars in his hand. "Now,
take these."
Elliot backed away. "I said no. No!"
"Fuck, Elliot. I'm doing this for us, don't
you get it?" He threw the handful of granola
bars onto the empty bed.
"And I'm trying to protect you. The best
thing for us to do is stay put. We're safer here.
We're safe from everything out there."
"No, we're not. Soon the dust will get in
here and we'll be breathing that stuff in. We'll
run out of food and water. Your leg will get
worse. The backup electricity will go out for
good. Hell, we'll probably be forced to eat Titan
or turn to cannibalism just to stay alive, who
knows." His jaw tightened with tension.
"Don't say that." Elliot refused to hide his
disgust. He let it hover in his voice. "That's not
funny."
"It's not a joke." Adam gave him serious
eyes, a no nonsense look. "We're gonna have to
do all we can to survive and that starts with me
inding this Refuge Inc. and getting us all some
help." He stared at Elliot unblinking. "You
understand?"
"I understand that I will never see you
again, if that's what you mean."
"Jesus." Visibly annoyed, Adam shook his
head, gave Elliot a quick peck on the cheek,
threw his pack over his shoulder and made his
way to the door.
"Fine," Elliot cried out. He balled his ists
and dug his fingernails into his palm, straining to
hold back tears in response to the kiss that felt
like nothing more than the goodbye it was. "Go
save the world, Midnight Man. Go ind refuge
and medicine and make it all better for us poor,
suffering folks. I bet that magical place has all we
need; all the medicine known to man, all the hot
food we can eat, showers too—no, hot tubs,
tons of them for you to fuck in. Everything we
ever wanted."
Adam didn't turn around. He didn't do
anything but attempt to make the opening to the
door a bit wider so he could squeeze through
comfortably, pulling and tugging on the warped
metal frame that held the splintered glass.
"Maybe that's a sign," Elliot said angrily.
"Maybe that's a sign telling you to stay here."
"I'm leaving, Elliot," Adam said, still trying
to pull open the doors wider. "I'll be back with
help. I promise."
"No, you won't." Elliot felt it in his heart,
in his bones, in the air. Adam wasn't coming
back. Before he could say another word he saw
his own hands on Adam's shoulders forcefully
pulling him away from the door and its twisted
metal frame. It was as if he were watching a
projection of himself acting out—taking hold of
Adam's back pack, and pulling, yanking with all
his might—but had no control over it.
Adam squirmed, trying to free himself
from Elliot's grip. Calmly he demanded, "Let me
go."
"No, you're not going out there." Elliot
tugged and jerked, grunting through clenched
teeth and wheezing in the struggle. Titan's quick
barks echoed throughout the room as they
scuffled.
"No, I'm leaving. Now let me go, Elliot!"
Adam shrugged, turned and lurched forward,
pushing Elliot back. Elliot stumbled and fell to
the loor on his ass, twisting his injured leg in
the process.
"Fuck." Elliot grimaced in pain. "My
fucking leg."
"Sorry." Adam rushed to his side along
with Titan who immediately began licking Elliot's
face. "Here, take my hand. I didn't mean to—"
"You asshole!" Elliot quickly stood and
swung his ist, connecting it to Adam's right
temple. Adam grunted and spun around with the
force of the punch. He kept his back to Elliot and
brought his hand to the side of his face. Elliot
sniffed. He swore he heard Adam sniff too.
"Leave. Go on, leave. Just like everyone else who
betrayed me and gave up on me. Just leave."
Adam adjusted the pack on his back,
switched on the lashlight, pulled the collar of
his shirt over his nose and mouth, and without
even a glimpse over his shoulder he slipped out
of the door and into the darkness. Elliot was
more than sure he wouldn’t see him again. The
darkness had already taken him.
9: Refuge or Rescue
The dust wasn't as bad as Adam initially
thought. It fell slowly, sporadically, and there
was less of it than he originally believed. The
clumps near the hospital door must have
collected there over time and the crevices made
it dif icult for it to blow away. He had realized he
didn't need to shield his face so he let go of the
collar of his shirt a while ago.
Heading in the direction they came from
and shining the lashlight at any and all debris
that he passed, he looked for more painted R's.
Maybe he had missed some on the way to the
hospital. Stepping over gravel and litter and
hearing only the soft echo of the crunch made
him realize how lonely he was. His irst instinct
was to look back over his shoulder at the
hospital where he'd left Elliot, Titan and the
elderly couple. Some of the hospital windows
shone with a dim yellow light. He felt better
instantly.
Bringing Titan along would have been a
good idea. Even though he would be without a
back and forth conversation, he would've still
had someone to talk to. Titan wouldn't want to
come along anyway, the way the dog had barked
at him during his and Elliot's little scuf le told
him who the dog sided with. Even though there
were no sides, just two scared men reacting to
trauma. Besides, initially he had attempted to
put the dog out of his misery. If it wasn't for
Elliot, he might've gone through with it and
would've regretted it as well. Maybe Titan
remembered that incident too and had picked
Elliot's side then, long before their scuf le. Either
way, Titan never meant any harm. He knew that
now and was pleased Elliot had intervened.
Approaching the place he had seen the
last R, he slowed his pace. He had walked about
a mile from Arrowhead Hospital and although
the arrow pointed the direction he was going, it
drew him further from the hospital, Elliot, and
the old couple. How long would he have to walk
until he found this place? And as Elliot had put it,
what would he do if this place didn't exist? But
Refuge Inc. had to be something important. Who
would put themselves through so much for a
prank, and at a time when lives were at stake? It
was inevitable he'd find
something
.
The rotten smell lingered in the air and