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Trapped in Nevada

By: MSTarot



"Molly, have you seen my telescope?"

Since I have just about set my bag down on top of it twice, I knew the answer to my dad's question. But I gave it a few moments before I spoke up. Just for the entertainment factor.

"It's wherever you left it, dear," called out mom pleasantly, from somewhere around the kitchen. The sudden crash of shovels, rakes, and hoes in the garage told me dad was not looking anywhere near where he left it.

"That's really not a big help, Hun."

"Well, when did you have it out last?" asked mom in that same tone.

Shaking my head, I went back to loading the truck. For the hundredth time I looked up as a car came past hoping to see the bright blue of my girlfriend Tasha's, Mom's van. Nope, just a Camry.

"Bags on top, Jim. You know that." The clunk of a metal box next to the truck startled me. "Boxes underneath, bags on top."

"I know that. I thought you already had all the boxes loaded." Pulling back out two bags I shifted things and grabbed the box. Good god, that thing was heavy. Must be the seismograph. Looking up, I felt my face split into a grin as I saw the familiar, blue Kia turn the corner.

I walked down to the end of the driveway to help her get her stuff out.

"Morning, Jim," her mom called out to me. I waved from the back of the van as she popped the gate open. Tasha came around to my side and gave my hip a bump with hers. She and I shared a grin.

"Hey, Emily." My dad leaned on the passenger side window. "Sure we can't talk you into going with us?"

"Ummm, let see. A night out in the desert with a few hundred U.F.O. Hunters, or a night watching American Horror Story? That a tough one." She smiled at my dad. "I think I'm going to have to pass. Oh, hey Molly. Bill, your kind, and loving husband here, was just offering to take me out into the desert tonight and show me something."

Leaving my mom and her mom to traumatize my father, Tasha and I walked up to the truck and started finding a place for her bags. I gave her a kiss while they were not looking.

"Hey! Hey you, get your hands off my daughter!"

Chuckling, I leaned my head around the side of the truck.

"It's her hands on me," I called out.

"Tasha, get your hands off that man!"

"Mom... Hush." Tasha caught my shirt and pulled me back out of sight.

I was blushing a little as I heard our parents laughing. The sparkle in her eye told me my girlfriend liked it though. She and I shared a grin over the plans we had for tonight. Hearing a horn honk, she leaned around and gave her mom a wave as she drove off towards the rising sun.

"Now... the telescope?" I heard my dad ask.

"Well, where did you leave it?" my mom answered.

** ** ** ** ** 

The trailer hooked up and the truck loaded at last, I leaned back against the tailgate and Tasha leaned in against me as we waited for my dad. My hands came to rest on the small of her back. She snuggled her head against my chest and gave a yawn. Lifting my foot, I let it rest against the trailer's yoke, and Tasha used my thigh to lean against. She murmured a soft contented sound as she nuzzled her way closer.

Through the front window I saw Dad give Mom a quick kiss. I wondered, as I held the girl I loved in my arms, will I be like that one day? Will passion give way to creative ways to annoy one another and quick kisses? Closing my eyes, I leaned my head down into Tasha sweet smelling hair. She already enjoys teasing me. Will that be where our love will end up? My nose filled with the smell of wild-berry shampoo. I felt my fingertips drift onto the warm skin under between the back of her shirt and the top of her pants. She gave a sound of approval as I caressed the little valley along her spine.

"Hey, you two, come on. You can sleep on the way," called out my Dad as he walked past jangling the keys.

Tasha opened her eyes and looked up at me. I leaned into the kiss she offered.

"Come on, chop, chop!"

With her tucked under my arm, I walked around to the passenger side. When I opened the back door for her, she crawled in and wiggled around till she got comfortable in the back seat. She moved a few bags and made a nest for herself. Closing her door, I took a second to look back at the front door, then hopped in next to Dad as he started to pull out. I waved to Mom as we cleared the end of the driveway.

"Alright, ten hours to Vegas, then about another hour up the ET highway and we'll be there." Dad gave a wave to our neighbor, Mr. Miller, as we drove past. Holding a cup of coffee, a dog leash, and his morning paper, the old man just nodded back. His little black and white Papillon wanted to chase us though.

Seeing dad's hand stray toward the radio, I started to dig out my ear buds. Mom may have had me babysitting dad, so his weird friends didn't get him into trouble, but I could not endure ten hours of cowboy music.

~ ... centered 130 miles North East of Las Vegas, last night's seismic tremor, measuring a 4.7 one the Richter Scale, shook up a lot of gamblers ice cubes. Spokesmen for the National Geo....~ 

Dad chuckled as he switched off the news to one of his stations. I felt a cringe build at the twangy sounds.

"Yeah, I bet it did. Seismic tremor... good cover word for it. Yeah, likely frigging story you buncha... " muttering to himself, Dad turned up the music.

~ ... through the ages I'll remember, Blue eyes crying in the rain. Someday... ~

I was hiding from Willy and the boys behind my ear buds and under my eyelids long before we passed Albuquerque. 

** ** ** ** ** ** **

The truck-stop men's room was all its terrible publicity built it up to be. I was sure I would never have to trim nose hair when I get older after the first minutes in the place. By the time I was leaving I was sure I had lost brain cells to urine ammonia and Pine-Sol. Walking back out to our truck I walked over towards Tasha only to stop and just admire the view as she bent over to stretch out her back.

"Boy, that ass is going to get you in so much trouble." I heard whispered next to my ear as Dad walked past. He handed me a long bag with a wink.

"Professor Edward..." my girlfriend started to say as she turned around.

"Tasha, out of the classroom you can call me Mr. Edwards, or if you like, I will even answer to Bill." Grinning, Dad handed her a bag with her Subway sandwich.

"Mr. Bill..." she began.

Dad started shaking his head even as I started chuckling.

"No, that won't work at all. I'll spend the whole day looking around for Mr. Hands to squash me."

Chuckling, Dad sat his sandwich on the hood of the truck and started tapping down a pack of Marlboro cigarettes on his palm. I caught his eye. "YOU, didn't see me smoking, and I didn't see you doing... anything... this weekend. Got it?"

I quickly nodded and looked away.

"Now, Tasha, just call me Bill, and what can I do for you?"

"Well, Prof... Bill. Sorry... Mom wanted me to ask you if the government, like, arrests all of us, will your position as a college professor help get us, like, out of jail?" The little girly way Tasha asked it had me grinning.

Dad too.

"First, we're not going to be arrested. The government still has to acknowledge that its citizens have the right to assemble in peaceful protest. And second..." Dad unwrapped then strategically rewrapped his sandwich so he could hold it. "...given that being a college professor didn't help Carl Sagan stay out of jail, I don't think it will help me."

"Carl Sagan got arrested for doing this?" I asked Dad, as I pulled green peppers out my sandwich. He knows I don't like them.

"Yep. He did, so did Kris Kristofferson, Martin Sheen, and Robert Blake." Dad took a bite of his sandwich and chewed while we just looked at him in shock. "Along with about four hundred others."

"How are we not going to get arrested when they did?" I quickly asked my father. I could see that Tasha was suddenly looking a lot more uncertain about this trip.

Dad slowly chewed his sandwich to let us stew a few more seconds.

"Because we're not going to... storm the gates and try to enter the site." Dad wiped mustard from his mouth and smiled. "This is a peaceful, non-violent protest of the nuclear testing."

"How many will be there?" Tasha asked." It's not, like, just us right?"

"Probably a few hundred. Maybe even a few big name stars to get the press stirred up." Dad shrugged. "It's not about the wasting newspaper ink though. It's about the environment. Earth Day needs to become 'The Day' when the world protests what's being done to it. Well, the world can't speak, so we have to be its voice." "But isn't all the testing, like, underground now?" asked Tasha. I inwardly cringed at the question.

"And that has what to do with the price of penguins?" Dad set his half-eaten sandwich down on its plastic bag and crossed his arms. The moment he did that I knew the "Professor" was about to speak.

"Tasha, please don't get him started," I said, as soon as I could get my mouth clear of bread. 

Dad looked at me for a moment, then looked down ruefully. He took his pack of cigarettes and peeled off the plastic wrap. He lipped out a single smoke and lit it before he looked back up. "Yeah, don't get me started."

The sad tone and dejected look was hidden quickly, but his silence spoke that it was just under the surface. As we got back in the truck, Tasha leaned into the space between the front seats.

"My mom also said to say that she thinks you're a complete wacko." She smiled at my dad sweetly.

Smiling, Dad tossed the half smoked cigarette into his coffee dregs. It hissed out as he grinned. "Well, tell your mom I said the feeling's mutual."

"She, like, meant it in a nice way, I think. She says you're cute. That you, like, kind of look like Kevin Costner."

Laughing, dad pulled out and headed down the road.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** 

"That's beautiful."

Tasha's voice woke me from my nap. Looking around I saw the setting sun was starting to make the sky go an incredible number of colors.

"Yes, it is." I said sitting up.

"It is beautiful, but that's pretty too," said Dad pointing out the front windshield.

The long endless road full of cows had finally given up something man made. I saw a small cluster of buildings, but I could tell what dad was pointing at. There was a small herd of silver topper RVs and travel trailers gathered together just off the road. I saw people in small groups moving between the impromptu trailer park and a low building with a large, white roof. "Are we here?" asked Tasha from the back seat.

"Yes. The world famous Lil'ale'Inn is to your left, and we're going there." Dad pointed towards the trailers.

"Do they have a bathroom? At the little whatever?" asked Tasha.

"Yes."

"Let me out!"

Chuckling, Dad watched her sprint across the road and around the corner.

"I think she had to go pee," he said chuckling. "Well, help me park this thing and you can go save her before the aliens eat her, or something."

With the last light of day fading, I had a time getting him to park straight, and then he called back to me to stop being picky.

"It's a damn desert! It doesn't matter if I'm perfectly parked." Shaking his head, he shut off the truck's engine.

"Yes, but Bill, as crooked as you are parked the government drones will think us unprofessional," called out a voice from a nearby RV. "After all, we have a reputation as kooks to maintain."

When Dad went over to shake the man's hand, I looked towards the white-topped building. Just as I was about to start to walk over, I saw Tasha walk out. I noticed at once she had a baseball cap on her head now. As she got closer. I started to laugh.

"Kidnapped by aliens at Groom Lake and all I got was this stupid hat," was printed in a brilliant neon green-on-black. There was the face of a little gray alien on the side, giving a peace sign. She walked up to me and slipped herself in under my arm.

"That place is strange," she said with a chuckle.

"How so?"

"Well, there are, like, dollar bills on the ceiling from all over the world. Then, there are, like, all kind of Area 51 toys and other... stuff. It's, like, everywhere."

"Yep, sounds strange," I said.

"But the food smells good," she added after a moment.

"It is good... not great, but good." Dad handed me a couple of twenties. "If you would, go grab us a few alien burgers. Do some souvenir hunting while they cook and I'll be getting a fire going in the pit."

"Alien burgers? Sure."

The food? I would have to say it was... memorable. And I got a hat.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** 

"So is this where we are doing the protest, Professor? Oh sorry... Bill?"

My dad looked at her kindly.

"You'll get it right about the time for geology class Monday." He wadded up the burger wrapper and tossed it onto the fire. The greasy paper caught quickly and burned bright. "No. We're going to go to the Back Gate. It's about a mile down the road, then ten miles across the desert."

"The Back Gate? And that's where the protest is going to be?" I asked, after a moment of chewing. Finished with my food, I pulled Tasha closer to me as the night chill got worse. Yeah, that's as good an excuse as any.

"One of them," he said, settling back with his feet towards the fire.

"How many protests are there?" asked Tasha

"One at every gate."

"So why are we at this one? Why the Back Gate?" she asked, puzzled.

"Because," said a voice from the dark, "if there is a true gate to Area 51, that's it."

The man that walked out of the dark into the light of our fire was a dead ringer for Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy. For a half-second that was who I thought he was. He had the salt-and-pepper beard the shoulder length hair and the build.

Dad smiled and pulled a beer out of the cooler next to him. Half rising up, he handed it to the man.

"Kids, I would like you to meet and old friend of mine. This is..."

"Jeff Bridges?"

Dad and the guy both laughed at Tasha's startled question.

"No, but you're not the first one to make that mistake." said Dad as he pulled him out a beer as well.

"Of course she's not. That little Hollywood punk stole my whole look." The guy unfolded a chair as we laughed. "I think I should sue him."

"He has more money than you. And probably a better lawyer." Dad grinned at him and the guy nodded and took a long sip. "Jim, Tasha, this is Dr. Miles Kenton. He is a specialist in Paleogeology, Geodynamics and Applied Volcanism."

"Wow. You specialized in, like, three fields?" Tasha sat up and gave him a better look "I thought, like, I was pressing my luck trying for two."

Dr. Kenton smiled away the praise and gestured with the bottom of his beer towards my dad.

"I'm not much more than Bill, here. I've spent my life studying rocks the same as he did." He kind of raised his beer in salute to my father.

"Ah, no, Miles," Dad shook his head, then pointed at his chest. "I studied them in a lab and in the field to some extent. You're the one crazy enough to go stand on the volcanoes while the basalt's being formed under your feet. I saw the YouTube video your student filmed of you on Kilauea. You're nuts."

The man smiled and shook his head.

"I got a little too close."

"A little? You had boulders the size of SUVs that were glowing from internal heat, hitting and exploding next to you. A little too close?"

Dr. Kenton smiled and took a sip. His eyes moved over to the two of us sitting there cuddled up together.

"You guys two of his grad students?"

"I'm sorry," my Dad said before I could answer. "Miles, this is Jim, my son, and his girlfriend Tasha Williams. Tasha is one of my students. One of my better ones in fact."

His smile made her blush beautifully.

"So... Geology and what? You said you were taking two?" Dr. Kenton asked Tasha.

"Material science. Mineralogy," she answered, almost shyly.

"So you like rocks?" he asked with a smile.

"Crystals," said Dad giving Tasha a grin. "Her mom is a full-fledged Crystal Healer."

"She studied with the Hopi Indians!" said Tasha in her mom's defense when both men chuckled.

Dr. Kenton smiled softly, then nodded.

"The Native American tribes set a lot of faith in the power of the Earth to heal. Here." He reached into his pocket. "Can you tell me what this is?"

The small rock he handed her was hardly bigger than my thumb. I noticed that it had a lot of greenish reflectivity. Growing up with my dad, I knew most of the types of rock on sight. When she shook her head, I took it from her hand and held it towards the light.

"Is this green glass?" I asked a few minutes after I got a closer look at the green dots covering the stone.

He nodded after a second.

"Of a sort."

Dad took the stone, looked at it a moment, then smiled sadly. He handed it back. I looked at dad.

"It's Trinitite."

Tasha next to me nodded, but I was still at a loss.

"It's glass made by a nuclear bomb," my dad explained, after seeing my expression. "The fireball sucked sand and other minerals up with it. The heat fuses it, and it rains back down to the desert floor as glass. If it's flat, like that piece, it hit the ground still at about two thousand degrees."

"Give or take," said Dr. Kenton. He took a sip of his beer and turned the rock over in his hand. "Found this little beauty about two days back. I guess it got lofted when the fireball mushroomed."

We sat in silence for a few minutes then Tasha cleared her throat.

"Yes, Miss Williams?" asked my Dad.

"I have a question. But it may like seem silly or stupid." she pulled me a little tighter as if hoping for support.

"Ask away. The only silly question is the one you didn't ask, and the only stupid one is one I can't answer." Dad opened the cooler and offered his friend a second beer. Then he looked at me and Tasha, pulled out two and passed them towards us. "Don't tell your mothers."

"Thank you. I won't." Tasha, got very quiet after she opened the beer and for a second I didn't think she was going to ask her question. "I was, like, wondering. If we are here to protest underground nuclear bomb testing, why are we at the alien conspiracy place and not the Nuclear Test Site gate?"

Dad smiled and looked over at Dr. Kenton.

"Well, it's all one big base." Dad took a sip of his beer. "But the Area 51 part of it is also a bomb testing site. The official records show that most of the bombs were detonated on the other side of the facility. Say, about fifty to seventy miles across the desert. The thing is, that fifty miles... looks like the surface of the moon. It's nothing but huge craters."

"How many were set off here?" I asked, after a slow sip of beer. The hop taste covered my tongue wonderfully.

Dad and the doctor looked at each other.

"Officially... about twelve hundred," said Dr. Kenton. He kind of shrugged. "Just how many have really been set off... only a select few people in the government know that for sure."

Tasha smiled. "So you're like Professor Edward. You think the government is hiding things from us."

"No," he looked at her suddenly very seriously. "I don't think they are. I know they are. And about a lot more than just nuclear testing."

Tasha sat up. I smiled inwardly as I saw her face. This was what first attracted me to her. When she believes she was right about something she would argue with a fence post that it wasn't really wood.

"So the government?" she began. "The government that couldn't hide the Iran Contras scandal, Watergate or any of the other 'gates' and scandals, is keeping this big conspiracy of secrets? I'm sorry. I just find that hard to believe."

Dad and Dr. Kenton shared a smile.

"Let me ask you a question, my dear. You're no doubt aware of the big conspiracy surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy?" he asked, settling in. I could see him slip into lecture mode, just like Dad does. Must be a teacher thing. "The fact that many believe there was a second shooter that day in Dallas?"


Trapped in Nevada



"Yeah. The so-called guy on the grassy knoll." Tasha shrugged. "But, like, there was never any real evidence to suggest that there was a second shooter." 

"There wasn't?" The doctor sat forward, his eyebrows raised melodramatically. "How about eighteen witnesses that came forward to say they saw either a man there, a man with a gun there, or two puffs of smoke from behind the fence on top of that grassy knoll? Or how about the two witnesses that came down the same staircase that Lee Harvey Oswald would have had to have used to get from the window to the cafeteria break room where he was arrested? The ones that said no one passed them in the minutes following the shooting?"

"Well, if there were witnesses, why didn't we hear from them?" she asked stubbornly.

Dr. Kenton looked at my father. Dad smiled and answered.

"Because, Tasha, they were all dead with about a year of the shooting in Dallas."

A silence settled over the camp, broken only by the sounds of our fire and a few muffled voices from the surrounding campers. After a moment, Tasha looked up. 

"So you believe the government had Kennedy killed? Assassinated?" she asked.

"I don't know. I probably never will. Politics is not my field of study. Rocks are." He held up the piece of Trinitite "And the rocks here don't tell me lies. Just the government records about this place do that."

"So you think, like, the government has set off more nukes than they say they have? It's kind of, like, hard to hide a nuclear blast." Tasha insisted.

"Is it?" Dad countered. "How so?"

"The great, gigantic mushroom cloud!" said Tasha, with a laugh that wasn't funny.

"That's above ground. Those were easy to see." Dr. Kenton leaned back and propped his feet on the blackened rocks around our metal fire pit. "It's the underground ones that are hard to detect. The only things that will detect them are overhead photos, which the government controls, and seismographs."

"But there have, like, got to be a few hundred seismographs scattered around this region. I mean this is, like, a rather active region of the country." She waved her hand at the surrounding desert. 

I was about to mention the seismograph Dad has in the back of the truck when Dr. Kenton spoke first.

"Active region of the world my dear! One of the most historically active, seismically, as well. With three of the largest supervolcanoes on the planet within five hundred miles of where we sit. A very, very unstable region indeed. One where a secret nuclear test would be passed off as just a tremor." He held up the piece of green glass rock. "There were reasons why our government chose this place to test the massive power of the thermonuclear reaction. It's real easy here, to hide the ones you want to keep hidden." 

The camp went silent again.

"You seem to think I should blindly put my faith and trust in my government." His hand came up to stroke his beard. His teeth shone out of the bristled hair in a grim smile. He slowly shook his head. "I never fully will."

"Why not?"

"Did you hear we had an earthquake the other night?" Dad asked out the blue.

Tasha turned to look at him, blinking. She slowly nodded with an uneasy look in her eyes. I spoke up.

"Yeah, I heard about it on the radio. It was a 4.7 earthquake," I said.

"Was it?" asked Dr. Kenton. He smiled after a second and tossed the piece of green atomic fire created glass to Tasha. "Was it, really?"

He looked over, our startled faces for a second then looked at Dad smiling.

"Horror stories around the camp fire. Got to love them, right Bill? Come on," he said getting to his feet. "I've got some samples in my RV that I gathered when I was in Iceland, you might want to see."

** ** ** ** ** ** 

Tasha slipped into my tent as I was unrolling the sleeping bag. She snuggled herself up against my back, and then when I turned, pulled herself hard up against my chest. I felt her trembling.

"What's the matter?" I asked softly.

"I don't know. A little scared I guess." She laid her head against my chest. The wild-berry-shampoo smell had faded to a soft, sweet scent, and her own natural scent had taken up the slack. I drank in the scent of her like it was wine.

"Hey, don't be." Taking her chin, I turned her face up towards me. I smiled. "Your mom is right you know. My dad is a wacko."

"But his friend...."

I silenced her with a kiss. 

"Jim, I...."

A stronger kiss settled that argument as well. By that point she didn't want to talk anymore. The endless weeks of us having to sneak little bits of time between classes and studying. The endless days when all we wanted was to be together and that was the last thing we could manage. They didn't matter right now. Nothing mattered right now in fact.

Nothing but this kiss. Her hands were soon becoming adventurous and I let mine roam as well. Her skin held a bit of chill from the desert night that I tried to warm away with my touch. I broke the kiss only long enough to open the sleeping bag and we laid ourselves down upon it. Her on top of me. Then my lips were back on hers.

Her hand reached around and took mine by the wrist. With an audible smack, she brought my hand down on her ass.

"Oh really?" I asked between mumbled lips.

"Um hum," she hummed against my mouth as her tongue then brushed its way between my lips to meet mine.

Slipping my hand beneath the waistband of her jeans I felt that the chill of the night had invaded her skin. As I repeatedly ran my hand over her ass I felt it warm a little, then I cupped it and pulled her tighter to me. My thumb ran along a silky thong as I caressed her growing heat.

Her lips carried a taste of beer, and my nose caught just slight hints of the perfumed simplicity of her morning bath. Turning my head my lips moved to her neck, just under her ear.

"Finally, some, like, time alone," she whispered, as her fingers clawed the back of my head. "I love the suggestions you have been texting me. People keep asking my why I'm, like, smiling so much, in class of late."

Chuckling, I watched her sit up on me, her hips astride my waist. I let my hands run up the sides of her stomach till my fingers touched the warm cotton of her bra.

"Which idea turned you on the most?" I asked as I let my hands explore.

Even in the dim light I saw a slight blush.

"What?" I asked.

She gave me a shy smile then moved her hand down to my shirt. She tugged it up and ran her finger down the sparse line of chest hair. Her finger stopped and circled my navel.

"Oh... that one."

Her hand left my stomach and came up to rub at her elbow.

"It was kinda... weird, in, a, like, kinky, weird kind of way. What made you think of that?" She wiggled on me feeling the hard bulge under her.

"That picture you sent of you in a bikini of course." Catching her shirt with my fingertips, I lifted it up a bit, and my thumb circled her little dimple.

"I'm wearing a skimpy bikini, and you got turned on by my bellybutton?" She started to laugh then flinched back. "Stop that. That tickles."

With a grin I flipped her over till I was on top. I quickly held her down and buried my face in the warm, soft skin just above her hip bone.

"Ah! Quit it! Stop it!" She twisted and turned under, moving my mouth across her I paused and looked up at her face. Her breasts heaving, she looked between them at my face.

Looking down, I saw the sparkle of her piercing. I placed a small kiss on the soft dimple just above it, then let the tip of my tongue trace a simple circle around where I kissed. I softly blew as I looked back up at her.

She shivered.

"I wish we had the honey." she said when I went to lean back in.

"Next time."

Placing kiss after kiss, lick after lick, I soon had her laid back moaning as I played with her bellybutton. My tongue dipped in to lift the little piercing on its chain. I held it between my teeth for a moment. Letting it go, I kissed her just underneath the dimple then I gradually let my mouth sink lower and lower each time till I caught the edge of her jeans between my teeth. Still kissing her trembling skin, my hands moved to open the top button and then a second. When the third button on her pants was opened the soft pale pink silk of her panties appeared. I placed a kiss on the warm fabric.

As my hands caught the sides of her pants, her fingers dug into my hair. She lifted her hips, I slid her pants under her ass, and suddenly my face was buried against pink silk. I nuzzled the fabric reveling in the scents that came to my nose.

"Sorry I'm not cleaner," she mumbled as I slid my tongue along the side of her panties tasting her skin.

"You smell wonderful," I said.

"I don't see how. Oh god..."

My mouth pushed in the cloth just over her lips as I opened her legs a bit. She opened them more, and a hot scent, perfume and musky, came up to meet my nose. I ran my tongue against the silk, trying to taste her through the fabric.

She moaned then begged. Her whispering plea was more than I could take.

Pulling the thin cloth aside, I buried my mouth against her. I was overwhelmed with the scent of her as my tongue was flooding my mouth with the taste. Warm, pungent, heady and floral, they all drove me forward to find more. I licked harder as my knees were slipping on the tent floor. Sitting up, I peeled her jeans the rest of the way off her legs, then dove back in. Then her panties followed. I didn't have to open her legs. She spread them wide for my mouth, opening herself under my tongue.

I tried to see how deep into her I could reach. I pushed past her inner lips and let my hunger to taste more drive my mouth forward. She dug her fingernails into my scalp as I tried to touch the back of her. Then one of her legs moved to rest down my back, almost like she was trying to hold me in place so I didn't leave. Little did she know, I had no plans to ever leave that feast.

Minutes seemed to run hours long as I strove to make her cum. I wanted to hear that deeper moan from her with all my heart. I knew that even as I lapped at her and suckled at those thin wings of skin that she would, and soon. Her breathing had become a panting moan as I finally moved near her clit and circled the slick nub. My hand, placed flat above, rested atop her wiry patch of dark hair, lifting her tiny hood just enough that my mouth could encircle her clit. Gentle suction, even as I licked, caused her to claw at my head.

"Oh, Jim. Oh, Jim. Oh... damn."

Looking up over my hand, I smiled when I saw her grab up a handful of sleeping bag and muffle her screams. Deep, throaty, guttural, and with passion-driven release she cried out first once, and then, when I went back to sucking, a second time. Then she was trying to push my head away from her clit. I gave in and let her, but I didn't move far. I licked down, back down into the warm, wet valley of flesh that was now so very pink and open under my tongue. I placed kisses and licks along one side of her then the other. I sucked in her inner lips feeling the soft labia between my teeth. I had to fight the urge to bite, but then I decided to give into that and I nibbled softly long them and then out to the thicker outer lips.

"No more... please no more."

Reaching down, I unsnapped my jeans as I was kicking off my shoes. I slid my pants down my legs as I moved up her body. Her legs opened, her arms tightened around me, and I felt myself slide into her.

"Oh, god!"

Wet as sin and twice as tight, she parted to let me slip inside. I held still as I sunk to the hilt in one long slow movement. Resting on my elbows I looked down at her face. Her eyes opened and she looked up at me. Slowly a sexy smile appeared.

"I'm all over your face," she said in a husky whisper. 

Burying my answering grin in her hair by her ear I started to pump.

"Oh.... wait, wait. Jim!"

I pushed myself up a bit and looked down at her.

"You, don't, like, have a condom on," she said as she wiggled her hips on the length of me. I could feel that movement all along my bare skin.

"I know. Believe me, I know. I've never, not used one before. I just wanted to feel... you... once without one." I gave a hard thrust that nearly took my breath away it felt so good. "There is a hell of a difference."

Her smile was seductive and sexy. Her hand came up to my face and she pulled me down till my ear was next to her mouth.

"Of course there is, my lover." She ground her hips, bringing a groan from me as she slid up, and then down me. "This is what it's supposed to feel like. Nothing between us but passion. I want you in me like this all the time. I want more than that. I want to feel you cum in me. I've never felt it when a guy has done that. It's always been in a condom."

I gave a hard thrust that made her gasp, then a second, and then more. Many more that had her clawing at my back.

I dropped into a rhythm older than time, and she matched it uplift by uplift. I could feel the need to release building inside me. Then her hand was on my chest her fingernails digging into the hair. Wincing a little, I looked down at her face. Though flushed with passion, it was serious.

"If you cum in me and I, like, get pregnant... you're mine. Do you understand? You will marry me, and you will be a father to our child." Her face softened. "As much as I want to feel you cum in me, I won't let you off the hook."

I paused, panting for breath. I was right on the edge. All I would have had to do was pull out. A moment with my hand or hers, and I would have cum. A few more pumps inside, and I would have cum even if I pulled out. A sudden image of her with my cum pooling by her bellybutton came to me and almost changed my mind. 

Leaning down, I started to thrust into her again. Harder than before, driven now for that needed end. My mouth found her ear in her damp hair. 

"I'm already yours," I whispered without the breath to speak.

"Oh, Jim... and I'm yours. Oh, I love you. I love you so much. Cum in me, let me feel it. Oh please, please let me feel it just once."

With Tasha clawing at my shoulder and then biting into the edge of my neck I felt my body brace and lock. Hard pulses shot from me into her, pulling every ounce of lust and need from my body and giving it to her. She shook and shivered as I felt her orgasm around the length of me as I was cumming in her.

I heard my name in soft whispers as we both panted for breath. I sank down resting my weight on my elbows. She murmured words of love to me that my mind almost couldn't process, as the last moments of orgasm caused us both to pulse. Our hearts beat nearly in rhythm with each other, and our breath was right in time as we placed soft, panting kisses against each other's skin. Where we kissed mattered not.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** 

I awoke to the sound of soft humming. I was lying on a rock. There was a smell in the air that told what that sizzling sound I was hearing was. Looking up at the tent flap, I saw that it was zipped closed. I looked at it, blinking till my sleepy mind registered the problem.

It hadn't been fully closed when we went to sleep.

Leaning down, I gave my lover a soft kiss on her nose. She smiled without waking, turned over, and snuggled into her pillow. A pillow that also hadn't been here when we went to sleep.

Covering her back up, I fished around beside the mattress pad and found my jeans. I also found hers and left them by the foam mattress. The slight sore spot on my side told me that I had only slept half on it last night. I dressed quietly and tried to move without waking her. The floor of the tent rustled, but I got the door zipped open and zipped back without her waking.

Yawning, I walked over to where dad was cooking breakfast over the fire. He looked up at me and grinned.

"Sleep well?" he asked, still grinning.

Scratching the side of my head, I used my hand to make my hair lie flat. "Yeah."

"I bet you did, but then... I didn't see anything. Did I?" He lifted the top of the cigarette pack out of his shirt pocket. After a moment he let it drop back into his pocket and turned back to breakfast. "Do you know if Tasha likes eggs?"

Shivering a bit in the dawn chill, I sat down and rubbed at my arms. I nodded to answer his question. He turned the bacon in the skillet out onto a plate of paper towels. I was still trying to wake up while he finished breakfast.

"I'll fix hers when she wakes up," he said as he handed me my food and took a seat with his. "That will give us some time to talk a bit, while she has a sleep in." He offered me the salt shaker after liberally sprinkling his food.

"About what?" I asked.

"About what I didn't see," he answered around a mouthful of bacon. "I knew you two were getting close. I hadn't realized it had gone to that step yet."

"Last night was the first time we got to really do more than... well, it was the first time I ever..." I stumbled over the words. "I mean it wasn't my first time, but it was my first time with... Tasha."

Dad looked at me then took a sip of soda.

"Well, I gave you a long talk about all this ten years back, so I'm not going to repeat myself. She's a lovely girl, smart, funny and if the two of you get even more serious I can't say I would mind calling her daughter. Her mother's a whack job, but then so is Molly's mom."

"Dad!"

"What? I love your Granna, but that woman is a total loon," he chuckled. "You know she threatened me with a duck once. Well, to be accurate, a goose." He went back to eating without explanation. When he saw the look on my face, he smiled. "Long story that I would have to be a little drunk to tell properly. Anyway... You and Tasha?"

"Him and me what, Professor?"

Looking over, I saw her head poked out the top of the tent flap.

"I was just asking about the sleeping arrangement for the rest of the weekend my dear, Miss Williams."

Unzipping the tent the rest of the way, she stepped out and closed it back. Walking over, she held her chilled arms to her stomach.

"I would like a few more blankets and another pillow but I'm okay with how I slept last night." She bit her bottom lip and sat herself in the seat next to me. The folding loveseat was tight with us both but, I didn't mind. Especially when she wiggled to get more comfortable.

Dad scraped together the last bite of his eggs from his plate.

"Good. I like having the whole trailer to myself. Now," he said. Getting up, he grabbed the skillet and set it back by the fire. "How do you like your eggs?"

"Scrabbled with American cheese, please."

** ** ** ** ** ** ** 

As tight as the windows were rolled up, I still felt covered in dust as the long line of trucks, cars and even a few RVs made their way down the ten miles of dusty desert road. No, not a road. Calling it a road is insult to roads. A bulldozer had driven through the desert with its blade down and made this... path. Thousands of UFO hunters and curious tourists had driven it to keep it clear, but it didn't really qualify as a road.

I discounted the notion that the Government used this as the main entrance to anything.

About ten miles in, I saw the vehicles ahead of us spreading out into the desert on either side of the road. When the dust parted a bit, I saw a gate house with a barricade bar across the road. There were all kinds of warning signs posted.

"There it is. The infamous back door to Area 51." Dad followed Dr. Kenton's RV off to one side and pulled up next to him as it stopped. I looked around at...

A guard shack and a ton of nothing.

"I can't say I'm impressed." said Tasha, as she unbuckled her seat belt. She leaned forward over the front seat till her elbow rested on my shoulder. "Where is all the security?"

Dad chuckled. He reached down into the travel bag that sat astride the center riser between him and me. He handed her binoculars.




Trapped in Nevada



"Look up on the hills. See those weird looking trees' shapes? Focus in on one." Dad opened his door and got out. I saw him walk over to talk to Dr. Kenton.

"Oh my god. Those are, like... those are, like, cameras!"

What?" I asked.

"The trees are not trees!" She handed me the binoculars. "They're cameras."

Looking through the binoculars, I quickly saw what she meant. Sitting up on the hill was a small, metal post with a long-barreled camera. It was pointed our way. Moving a bit I saw a second and then a third. Then as I watched a white SUV with dark-tinted windows pulled up into view.

I hopped out and walked around to Dad. He was helping to unroll a huge banner on poles. As I got there, about five guys stood it up like they were raising the flag on Iwo Jima. It billowed in the light breeze till they got it taut. 

"END ALL TESTING WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME"

As I tried to get Dad's attention other banners were being raised. Clouds of dust blew past as more cars drove up, including a News van from Fox5. I could see other cars following it in. Then in the distance, I saw a larger broadcast truck making its way through the dust.

"Dad. Dad!"

"What?" he asked, turning away from a conversation he was having with a man wearing a clear, green visor hat.

"There are guys up on the hill. A white SUV."

Dad looked up and then nodded like he had known all the time.

"Yeah, those are the CamoMen. They won't come down," he went to turn back. 

"What if someone tried to cross the gate? I mean there is nobody in the guard shack," asked Tasha, stepping up next to me. I noticed she had put her hair up into a ponytail.

"Oh, you can cross the gate," said Dr. Kenton stepping up next to us. "You can cross it and walk about a half mile down that road if you like. Then you will round a little corner and find yourself on the ground with a gun barrel on the back of your head. How are you doing Raoul?"

He turned away from us and began talking with the same man Dad was chatting with. Feeling a bit ignored, Tasha and I moved away from the group to get out of the dust. We finally had to climb a little rise to get above it. Looking back out at the small sea of cars gathering and at the billowing banners that were springing up everywhere, she and I exchanged a look of disbelief.

"This is insane," she said after a few minutes. "And a little scary."

When she pointed towards the top of the hill, I could see that there were now three white SUVs with dark-tinted windows. No one had gotten out of them yet. I pulled her into my arms, and she leaned her head back against my chest. My chin resting by her ear, we watched the protest rally continuing to assemble. After a bit we got tired of standing and took a seat.

I was in the process of stealing a few kisses along her neck when I saw my dad and his friend making their way towards us. I whispered, to the softly moaning Tasha, to direct her attention to them. Getting up she held her hand down to me. I smiled as she pulled me up.

"You have dust on your ass," I told her, grinning. 

"You two aren't up here giving away any secrets you don't want the government to know are you?" asked Dad with a smile as he walked up the little rise.

"What?" asked Tasha in mid butt-de-dusting.

Dad and Dr. Kenton exchanged a grin.

"You two are standing next to a Joshua tree. All the Joshua tree around here are microphones," said Dad pointing to the little scrub tree next to us.

"Well, not all of them. Some of them are heat and seismic sensors," said Dr. Kenton. He looked over the one next to us. "This one is all three, in fact."

"What?" I asked, wondering what these two had been smoking while we were away. Mom was going to kill me.

Dad walked over to the tree and pushed back a few of the spiky fronds. When he did a few moths went flying off into the breeze, but after a moment I didn't even notice them. My eye was caught by the black metal rod sticking out the side of the tree. He then directed me to three other metal shapes.

Tasha and I exchanged similar, open-mouthed looks.

"You did ask where all the security was," Dad said with a grin after a few moments of dead silence from us. "It's all around you."

Dr. Kenton looked at us with a smile. He was about to say something when the ground suddenly began to move under my feet. I felt Tasha grab my arm to steady herself.

"What the hell?"

Looking out across the desert, I watched as the ground moved like a blanket being waved in slow motion. The little hills and trees shook and swayed. Looking down at the protesters, I saw several of the banners go tumbling. The tall antenna of the TV broadcast van lurched from side to side. There was a deep sound. I more felt it in my chest bone than heard it with my ears.

In about a minute, it slowed then seemed to stop. I turned to my Dad to ask something predictable. He and Dr. Kenton were looking at each other, speaking volumes without a word being said.

"That felt shallow," said Dad softly.

"It was. Damn shallow," answered the Doctor just as softly. He looked over to the two of us then after a second, looked back at Dad. "Just a guess but I would say probably about a 3 or a 4 on the Mercalli scale."

"So that was, like, an earthquake, right? Not a bomb?" Tasha asked him while still holding onto my arm.

"Oh, it was an earthquake alright." Suddenly the ground began to tremble under us again. "And a swarm quake at that."

This time the shaking was not as bad, but it seemed to go on forever. I'm sure it was only for a few minutes, but Tasha and I were knelt down hugging till it passed. Dad and Dr. Kenton had each taken a knee to try and keep their balance. Just as we went to stand up again, I felt Dad lurch into my side as he went to stand.

What hit us this time was huge. I was driven to the hard, rocky desert floor unable to even begin to keep my feet. I could hear screams from the protesters down the hill. Car alarms started to go off in a few of the vehicles below as well. I felt Tasha's hand clawing at my leg, and I grabbed it and held on tight even though I could not begin to move. I felt like I was being shaken by giant hands.

"MILES?" I heard my dad shout.

"SEVEN OR EIGHT AT LEAST! It's a BIG one, Bill. Hang on." 

The doctor had to yell back to be heard over a deep rumble that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. Turning as best I could on the trembling ground, I managed to grab hold of Tasha's arm and pulled her into my side. The shaking of fear, spasms of terror would be more accurate, eased a bit between the two of us. I held her and tried to be calm for her sake. I hoped her calming was from lessening of fear and not trust in me. I was far too scared to be worthy of that kind of trust.

And then it... stopped.

Just as suddenly as it began, it ended. It ended not slowly, but like a switch had been thrown somewhere. The ground stilled, the growling sound stopped and all was quiet. After a few moments the people down below began to get to their feet. Several were hurt, judging by the calls for assistance that began to sound out. Lifting my head I looked down to see the wide eyes of my lover taking in every inch of my face.

"Is it stopped?" she whispered. Almost as if she was afraid speaking too loudly would make it start back. I must have felt the same way, as I couldn't even make a sound. I simply nodded. Looking over, I saw Dad half way to his feet and he was helping Dr. Kenton up as he went. At first I thought the older man might be hurt, as his face was as white as a sheet.

Then I followed his gaze.

Beyond the low hills further into the base, say maybe a few miles away was a very tall column of billowy, gray smoke. It was rising straight as an arrow into the sky. Almost like smoke from a chimney on a very calm day. Then as we watched it hit a thinner layer of air and began to fan out into a huge smoke umbrella.

Then I saw a second one... and then a third. A sound began to drift over us then. A whisper in the winds that had the uncanny resemblance to a tea pot on the boil. A hissing sound that grew and grew as we watched more and more of these columns of smoke rising. I soon lost count when I was distracted by Tasha clutching tighter to me. She pointed up at the taller hill where the white SUV had been parked.

Six guys in grayish camouflage were just managing to roll one of their trucks back onto its wheels. The other two SUVs were a smoking pile of metal at the bottom of the hill. Even as I watched, the men jumped inside and with a cloud of dust, sped off down the road from their perch.

I was about to make some stupid, I'm sure, comment when a sickening smell washed over us. The most putrid rotten-egg smell tinged with a burnt-iron reek that seared my nose. 

With the stench came a hot, acidic wind. Billowing with all the force of the Chinook winds but with far more heat than I had ever felt. My eyes streaming from the smell and my face feeling sandblasted, I turned my back to the wind and held Tasha in the protection of my chest. Looking at my Dad and Dr. Kenton, I saw them sheltering their faces, but they were looking off in the direction of the gale.

"What the hell is happening?" I yelled at them. The sound was all but nothing in the howl of air that blew past me then. It staggered me towards them, pushing Tasha backward. They grabbed at us and together we huddled.

"We've got to get out of here!" yelled my dad next to my ear. "Let's get to the truck!"

Dr. Kenton, his face a dead white color like he had never seen the sun, shook his head.

"It's pointless. You know what's happened. What's the point of running?"

That rotten, fetid stench then began to die off almost as quickly as it came.

"We might have a chance!" my dad yelled at him. "Come on. Come on, damn it!"

Stumbling down the hill, we had to all but drag Dr. Kenton. He kept looking back over the group of us towards the center of Area 51. The sky was now a dark gray under lit with a deep reddish orange. That glow lit the sky and, strangely enough, behind the hills. They were cast into the blackest of silhouettes. The mountains looked like eroded spikes of black against a sky afire.

The hill side, once a gentle ascent through man-made shrubs and trees to the top, was now a far more torturous path to the base. Rocks slid and shifted under foot, and large, broken lines, like cracks in a sidewalk, ran down its sides. Laying in our path, sometimes shadow hidden, they were there ready to trip a toe in the growing dark as the sun was being hidden above us.

The protest caravan was a mass of confusion. Some were trying to get the injured to vehicles or simply get them out of the way as frightened people spun their tires in the dry desert ground. Even as we were reaching the side of our truck, I heard a scream behind me.

"LOOK OUT!"

Spinning around, I saw the nose of a tan Hummer plow through the barrier bar of the gate and then, with no care for consequences to life, right through the middle of the protesters' group. It was followed by a half dozen other trucks, filled with people in military fatigues and white lab coats. They waved frantically at us to get out of their way. I pulled Tasha around so she didn't see what happened when someone didn't manage that in time.

The sides of a few of the military vehicles were blistered black. Their tan desert-style coating was submerged under massive burn scars. The Hummer that passed me, close enough to see the frightened face of the driver, had impacts points scarring the windshield and across the hood.

"Move!" yelled my dad.

Scrambling into the truck I pulled Tasha in next to me. I saw a moment's hesitation from Dr. Kenton as he looked over at his RV. The tall antenna from the news van was lying across the front half, the cab-end partially crushed under its weight.

"Miles! Come on," yelled dad as he started the truck.

The bearded doctor was hardly in the seat before Dad joined the military's column of dust fleeing the scene.

"Dad? What happened back there? Was it a nuke?" I winced as my shoulder smacked the side of the door as dad wrenched the truck around a small car and then all-but ran him off the road.

Dad shook his head, but beyond wiping at the running mucus from his nose, he did not answer. It was his action that made me take notice of the fact my nose was running nonstop. As I tried to draw a deep breath to blow it out I also noticed a burning in my chest and a wave of dizziness swept over me. I took and old shirt of mine from behind the seat and cleared my nose on it. It helped for a moment but not for long.

"Dad!"

"I cannot talk right now, Jim. Miles answer him!"

His bearded face, still with its resemblance to Jeff Bridges firmly in place, turned to look at me. Then he looked at Tasha. Wiping his slick mustache in disgust, he sighed.

"What happened was not man-made. Man-caused certainly, but not man-made. You saw the gas geysers?" At our nod, he continued. "If we could have seen the base of them, you would have seen the cracks in the ground leading away from them. Behind us, even now those cracks are billowing huge fountains of lava. Within an hour there will be lakes of it."

He wiped at his face again. I offered him my old shirt, and he blew out his nose. When he passed it to Tasha, I thought she might refuse, but was wrong.

"Lava? A volcano's opened up behind us?" I asked, unable to believe what he was suggesting.

"Not one. Dozens... maybe even hundreds. They are popping up all over the testing site behind us even now." He pointed over my shoulder.

I looked back and wished I hadn't. The sky was ablaze of fire and lightning. Black clouds rose thousands of feet into the heavens to not just block the light of the sun, but hide it entirely. Massive bolts of lightning, far worse than any spring storm I had ever seen, tore through these frighteningly large clouds.

"It's a... Trap?" Tasha's voice was a hollow whisper. 

When I looked at her, I saw that she was beginning to pant like she had run a marathon. When Dr. Kenton slowly nodded, she started to shake and huge tears rolled down her cheeks. She turned and buried herself against my arm. Not knowing what was wrong I put my arm around her and held her tight. I looked to the doctor, my expression demanding an answer.

"It's a huge field of volcanic activity that releases millions of tons of toxic and greenhouse gases. It doesn't erupt lava so much as it flows it out." He looked up at the sky behind me. I glanced back and made the decision that no matter what happened, I wasn't going to do that again.

The sky looked alive and hungry.

"So it's supervolcano? Like Yellowstone?" I asked.

"No," said Tasha next to me. 

When I looked down at her face, her eyes were haunted.

"It's far worse."

Dad locked up the brakes on the truck and still nearly ran into the rear of a tan Hummer. It was just parked, sitting there. Dad fought the wheel around, and we drove past.

Everyone inside the jeep was dead. Eyes vacant as empty windows, mouths lined with a crusting of bloody froth, the bodies were clung to each other in some cases.

Just past the jeep was one of the trucks. It was even worse since there were more people in it.

"What happened to them?" I asked suddenly, terrified even more than I had been. I would have not thought that possible, but those empty eyes looking out to me, as if to question what had happened to them, was too much.

"Poison gas. Most probably Hydrogen Sulfide or Sulfur Dioxin. That was the rotten egg stench you smelled, that's why our noses are running so badly."

"But... but, that stopped." I said, shaking my head.

"No it didn't. Your nose lost the ability to smell it. That gas paralyzed your ability to smell the gas. The Trap back there is going to give off enough poison gas to kill anyone close to it for the whole of the eruption." He coughed. "We were almost too close to it. A few miles closer, and we would be dead now, like them." 

A flash of white ahead of us caught my attention. I realized that I was seeing the shiny metal hull of the fake alien ship that hung from the tow truck in front of the Lil'ale'inn. Dad had covered the ten miles back to the road in almost a third of the time it took us to get to the gate this morning.

A shaking and then a deep rumble from behind told us that sitting here was not a good idea.

"The trailer." I reminded dad when he started to turn towards the north. "Dad where are you going?"

Dad dropped the truck into park. He slowly turned to look back over the seat at Tasha and me. The look on his face made my hair want to stand on end.

"I'm going to Santa Fe. To get your Mother...and Tasha's mom"

"Bill..." Dr. Kenton started to say.

"I know, Miles. I know," Dad sighed and unhooked the buckle of his seat belt. "Jim, I need you to do something. I need you to do exactly what I tell you."

"What?" I asked, looking at him as he and Dr. Kenton exchanged a long look. The doctor nodded and also unhooked his seat belt.

My Dad reached over the seat and held his hand out to me. I took it and he held onto me with painful force. I saw tears in his eyes.

"You and Tasha are going to take the truck. Miles and I will take one of those Jeeps. The military doesn't need them anymore. We will circle around this thing and get back to Santa Fe. I need you to take the truck and head..." He stopped and looked at Miles.

"North. Not all that much better really, but better than anywhere else." the bearded doctor said after a moment's thought.

Dad nodded.

"Jim, head north. Just keep going. Canada, maybe even all the way to Alaska."

"Alaska? Dad, I'm not leaving you. We will all go together," I demanded.

My father looked away from me to Tasha. She was looking at him with those haunted eyes. Something passed between them then. Maybe it was her long months studying under him in his geology class, but she understood him at that moment better than I did. That same class time was also giving her far more knowledge to work with than I had. She looked at me and wiped her eyes dry. "Jim..." Her voice was a soft pleading to me. "We need to, like, head... north."

"Dad, no. Tasha, no. It's wrong for us to split up. Let's just go now before that thing erupts again." I held onto my dad's hand as he tried to turn mine loose.

"It has not stopped erupting, Jim. It won't stop... not for a long time." Dr. Kenton opened the door to his side of the truck and got out. 

Looking over my shoulder at him, I saw him walk back to one of the Hummers and start to pull out bodies. At about that time, a small convoy of cars and trucks came past us, spinning dust from their tires. They turned onto the main road and headed off towards Vegas. A slow trickle of single vehicles then began to appear.

"Jim, do what I'm telling you. Take Tasha and go!" Dad tried to pull his hand from mine but I brought my arm from around Tasha and grabbed hold of him with both hands.

"Dad, no! How will I find you? How will you find us? When this thing stops, we will be scattered all over the place." Dad looked down from my face, and I saw a tear drop off his chin.

"Jim... son, we won't live long enough to see it ever stop." Dad looked up at me, tears flowing freely. "A basalt flood like this, a Trap, can erupt lava and gas for thousands of years. Now I've got to go get your mother. She will be scared there with just herself. When... when I've done that, I'll...I'll come north too. I'll...I'll head to... Anchorage, you do the same. Go there. That way I'll know where to find you."

I looked up to see Dr. Kenton back at the door.

"We're ready, Bill. We need to go, it's getting worse. More vents are opening up back there."

I started to look, but suddenly my dad's hands were on my head. He pulled me forward till his face was next to mine. The bristle of his day without a shave was rough against my cheek. I could smell the stale smell of cigarette smoke in his hair.




Trapped in Nevada



"Son... I love you! Now get your ass up here and go! Drive this thing, and don't you stop till hit an Eskimo." I felt my dad lips kiss my cheek, hard and rough against the side of my cheekbone, something he hadn't done to me since I was a very young child. He grabbed my hair, and looking me in the eyes, shook me. "Go."

Suddenly he was not there. I watched him cross in front of the truck, and with Dr. Kenton running next to him, they sprinted to the Hummer. I took in, but didn't see the still forms lying next to the jeep's tires.

"Jim. Jim, honey we, like, have to go." 

It was her voice and the terror in it that got me moving. Spilling out on the driver's side, I slipped around and into the driver's seat. Tasha didn't use the door, she climbed through in between the front seats. My seat was still warm from Dad's body heat was the thought that hit me even as I looked over and saw the Hummer pull up next to us.

"Anchorage!" Dad yelled out the window. "Now go!" The tan jeep roared past us and turned, with a spray of gravel and dust, towards Vegas. As I pulled the shifter down, I wanted to follow. I wanted to go and help save my Mom. It was Tasha's hand next to mine, slowly putting pressure on the wheel, that made me turn the truck towards the north.

As I drove us north down the empty stretch of long, straight road my eyes kept going to the side mirrors. Looking towards the red clouds and the terrible sky that made everything to the south west look like hell on earth. 

Finally, after what seemed like hours I could feel the truck start to climb into hills. Looking back at a turn, I felt my jaw drop. The sky was on fire as far as the eye could see, and under it boiled a sea of red.

"My god," I said in a whisper. "How could that have formed so quickly?"

Tasha looked out at the hell spreading to the horizon and shook her head sadly.

"We did it. Fifty years of nuclear testing. A thousand plus underground bombs turned the subsurface to broken rubble. The big bombs, the deep ones... one after another cracking the upper-mantle let a hot spot form. A magma bubble plumed." She turned her head away from view. When she looked into my eyes, I saw a pain that was horrible. "It's a human made... Trap... and it's caught us all."

Unable to bear that look in her eyes, I looked past her anguish out the window into a vision from Dante.

"How big will it get?" I asked, seeing the lines of fire running everywhere, the fiery geysers sending lava upwards toward the dark skies. I swallowed and hid myself from the knowledge that my father had driven in that direction. Was Vegas in those rivers and lakes of fire already?

"I studied the ones in, like, Siberia and India in my geology books. The Deccan Traps are, like, in India. When they erupted it covered about half of India in basalt lava. Say, about, like, a third the size of the U.S. It was up to sixty five hundred feet thick." 

At my stunned gasp, she gave a sad, humorless chuckle.

"It was the smaller one of the two," she said softly. "It only erupted for about thirty thousand years."

Tasha's face was so beautiful. It was sad and dirty. There was a shiny mess on her cheek where she had wiped at her nose. But she was beautiful. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen. 

And that I ever would, I came to realize then.

"And the big one?" I asked, not really wanting to hear about it, but too mentally torn apart to not listen.

She sat there looking at me for a moment then turned and looked out the window again at the growing sea of fire, smoke and ash.

"That one was in Siberia. It covered, like, an area that was about, like, the size of Europe. It erupted for, like, a million years." Tasha reached back for my hand, and I let her have it. To me if felt like a lifeless part of me anyway. "Ninety percent of all life on the planet died."

We sat there like that. I was holding her hand, she was holding mine. Then she turned to look at me, her eyes taking in my face the same way I had looked at hers.

"Let's go," she said after a moment. "It's... it's a long way to Anchorage."

I looked at the steering wheel for a moment as if to figure out what it was for. My hands moved almost without thought to the shifter, and I eased the truck forward. I drove till the glow of the sky alone showed the building horror to the southwest. As Tasha leaned her face against the glass window and silently wept, I too cried. I cried for my mother that I knew was probably already dead. The drifting clouds of poisonous gases would have had to have reached Santa Fe by now. I cried for her and for Tasha's mother as well. Emily, had already begun to treat me as her son.

My dad and Dr. Kenton were probably gone as well. Their bodies, inside the blackened metal shell that was once a Hummer, burned to bone and buried under the growing sea of molten rock. My tears fell unheeded as I drove. Drove till the sun, lost behind the clouds, finally set bringing with it a permanent false-dawn sky.

Still I drove on, my eyes on the road. Watching for signs that I wasn't alone on this earth. There should have been traffic. Where were the cars full of people fleeing the destruction?

Were they all dead already?

I thought then of the future, millions of years from now. Would someone study this newly-formed volcanic rock? Would they find the fossils of all these pitiful humans? Would they learn that we had made this happen? Would they learn that humanity had set this Trap for itself?

Looking down at the dashboard, I saw that I would soon need to find a gas station. Looking over at my beloved Tasha, I felt my heart burn with love for her. It hurt. It hurt so much... because I knew, just as I knew that everyone I loved was already gone, that I wasn't driving us to safety. Not really.

I was just driving us to somewhere else to...

 [While this story is fiction and the cataclysmic ending is a product of my imagination, the facts I used are quite true. In the 50+ years of nuclear testing, the United States has set off more than 900 underground detonations, ranging in magnitude from small to massive. The ground at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site has been so heavily fractured from all the testing, that many places are no long usable. This test facility is within 500 miles of three of the largest supervolcanoes in the world. It is also only hours away from Mammoth Mountain a volcano that was thought extinct until the late 1980s when it was detected to be releasing massive amounts of CO2 gas. More than 1,000 tons of it a day.] 

**** (I would like to thank patientlee for her efforts editing this story. She had to chase far too many commas down. Any mistakes you see now are on me.)