Chapter 455

The Prison Planet

...”Peeccckkkak! Peeccckkkak!” Gertrude’s morning screech woke Jasmine with a start. Her body jerked and she grabbed her forehead, moaning although she hadn’t yet opened her eyes. Then, snapping her head to the right, she stared at Gertrude. “Granted you’re probably a tough old bird,” she snarled, “but I’ll bet I can boil your ass until you’re tender, anyway.”

“Peeccckkkak!” Gertrude screeched again before going over to stare at Morales, who was sitting by the fire sipping coffee.

“It is not time for you to be fed,” but experience had taught Morales that arguing with Gertrude was less than useless. Muttering, he put his cup down on a rock and went to get the chickens’ morning grain.

Jasmine, now fully awake, realized she had to pee – right now. Scrambling out of her sleeping bag and not taking the time to put on a bra, she jerked her fatigue shirt and pants on with little thought to modesty, not realizing that Morales had quickly turned away. “Oh, crap,” she griped as she pulled her cold boots on without socks. Standing, she was halfway to the door when Morales bellowed, “Do not even think about going outside without your weapons. There is a profusion of animals on this planet that would love to have you for breakfast.”

Profusion, she thought. Not a bunch, or lots of, but a profusion. But she didn’t have time to think more about his vocabulary at the moment, because her bladder was screaming at her. After grabbing her crossbow and quiver of bolts, she opened the door as Lobo and Lila, obviously wanting to go out, too, hurried by. Barely taking the time to push the door closed, Jasmine hastened on out the passageway, and forgetting where Morales usually threw his bath water, put her weapons on the snow just to the right of the entranceway, before jerking her pants and panties down. With a sigh, she squatted and let the stream go.

A little later, after dabbing herself dry, she stood before leaning over to bring her panties and pants back up, but she moved her right foot and inadvertently put weight onto the sheet of ice where she and Morales had dumped the water last night. The ride down the hill on her ass with her feet in the air might have been fun under different circumstances; the different circumstances being with her pants properly fastened and her shirttail firmly inside them, but neither of those things was true this morning.

The wolves, now finished with their morning business, noticed Jasmine a second after her impromptu start down the hill. Loving to play in the snow, Lobo and Lila bounded after Jasmine and soon caught up to slide with her. While they were having a ball, she, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to get her feet under her, and, with her bare ass sliding on the snow and a good portion of that snow going up inside her loose shirttail, she continued to plummet down the hillside.

As she scrambled to dig her heels in so she could stop, she could see the frozen stream coming up at an appalling rate. But no matter how desperately she tried to break her plummeting descent, she couldn’t seem to slow herself, let alone stop on the impossibly steep incline. All the while, her pants, still trapped around her ankles, were gathering a ball of the powder snow that kept her from jamming her heels firmly enough into the hillside to have any chance of stopping. The wolves, on the other hand, could stop anytime they wished and did so as she flashed on down the steep hill. Desperate now, she knew she had to stop, but no matter what she did, she still rocketed down the near vertical incline. All the while, the ball of snow that was accumulating against her back was continuing to grow because of the loose shirttail, and all that cold against the delicate tissues of her back was practically taking her breath away.

With her hands frantically digging in, she almost managed to stop in time, but wound up sliding out onto Morales’ frozen swimming hole. “Oh, shit. Oh, shit,” she whispered over and over as she could hear the ominous sound of cracking ice. Carefully turning onto her belly with the snow-filled shirt humped up on her back, she spread herself out as much as possible while slowly edging toward solid ground.

When her hands finally managed to grasp a big rock at the edge, she, trembling with fear of the ice breaking under her, launched herself onto the hillside. But her pants, filled with a big ball of snow, were still caught around her ankles with her panties also in that ball somewhere. With numb fingers, she got her boots off and then her pants while sitting with her bare ass in the snow. Frantically, she shook most of the snow out of her pants while still sitting. Her teeth chattering, she managed to pull the fatigue pants back on with first one foot then the other propped against the rock to keep from sliding out on the ice again. Eventually, she worked the pants up enough to fasten her belt, before slipping her untied boots back on, but there was still the ball of snow under her shirt that made her look like a frozen hunchback, not to mention that the cold from that frozen ball seemed to be sucking the breath out of her body. She had no idea where her panties had wound up.

The snow-covered incline was too steep and slick to stand on at this point, but by keeping a foot braced against the big rock, she managed to shake most of the snow out of her shirt my yanking on the shirttails. By then, her teeth were chattering so violently that, she knew she really needed to get somewhere warm, but the hillside was looking more and more like an impossible obstacle. You stupid bitch, she groused. You knew that ice was there, but, oh no, you stepped on it, anyway. Good thing there wasn’t a saber-tooth nearby. He would have killed you with your stupid pants around your stupid ankles.

Struggling, off again on again on her hands and knees because of how steep and slick the hill was, she managed to get twenty feet or so up the hillside before her feet went out from under her and she plastered her face in the snow while sliding back to stop against the helpful rock at the stream’s edge. Her comments were becoming less and less ladylike as she spit a mouthful of snow out while wondering if she would ever manage to get back up the hill before Morales came out to look for her. Glancing around, she realized that she could make her way downstream a hundred yards or so to where the slope was a lot less steep, but... Most probably, he already suspects I’m an idiot for even coming to 2214. If I spend that much time looking for a way up, he’s bound to come out to check on me, and ... figure out what happened, plus, I’m not sure I can make it that far. I’m really, really cold. My hands and feet or numb already. I’ve never been this cold in my life. Crap, I didn’t even take time to put a coat on. Stupid. Stupid.

Her exertions had apparently melted some of the snow that had remained under her shirt, and now she could feel a cold trickle of icy slush ease down her side. When her numb feet slipped from under her again, causing Jasmine to bury her face in the snow for the second time, without thinking, she grabbed Lobo around the neck as he stood beside her whining. If her chokehold on his neck bothered him, he didn’t show it, but just powered his way up the seemingly near-vertical hillside, dragging her half-walking, half-stumbling on her knees beside him.

At the top of the steep slope, (she later marveled that Morales had been able to pull the resupply case up the incline, even with a block and tackle) she managed to stand on a reasonably level place a few steps to the side of where she had begun her impromptu descent. As she was trying to shake the last of the snow from under her shirt, she hissed in a breath while thinking, Oh, crap, maybe he doesn’t realize what happened. Then, it dawned on her. Oh, shit, I hope the cameras didn’t catch that. If they did, I’ll never live it down. I came out to pee, so maybe their programming kept them away. I had rather even Morales see me do something stupid like this than the cameras. Maybe I got back up before their programming realized I’ve been gone too long, or maybe that same programming won’t allow them to take any notice of me. After all, they’re here to observe him, not me. I darn sure don’t want to star in a video that all the troops will watch. And just maybe Morales won’t realize how long I’ve been gone. Oh, my. Some kind of professional I’ve presented, huh? How could he ever take me seriously if he saw me go down that hill on my bare ass? How could anybody, for that matter? I couldn’t have looked any dumber. Oh, well, if he saw me, he would be standing out here laughing his butt off, she thought as she, now shivering even more violently, stooped to shake some of the snow she had missed out of her right pant leg.

Crap. Who else slides down a hill with their pants and panties around their ankles? She thought about her panties again. Where are the darn things? Oh, shit. Is he going to find them? They have to be down there somewhere. What excuse am I going to use to retrieve them? And how the heck do I get down there in one piece, let alone back up? Oh, the heck with them. No way am I going back down there to look for them. She stared down the hillside again, but the panties didn’t seem to be visible in any of the scuffed snow. Maybe he won’t see them, but if he does, I’ll just ... I’ll just ... frigging die. Oh, crap. I can’t think of anything that I could say about them that wouldn’t leave me looking like an idiot. Oh, well. At least they’re white, so maybe the snow will hide them.

Suddenly, she turned to Lobo. “Don’t you dare tell him what happened,” she demanded, then added a forlorn, “Please.” Bending slightly, she hugged the giant animal. “Thank you. I would never have made it up the hill without you, and by the time I had found an easier way back up, I would have been in serious trouble. But please don’t tell Mr. Morales. He’ll kid me forever.” Turning to Lila, she hugged the female wolf and asked her not to tell as well. Realizing what she had done, I guess I’ve lost it. Now he has me believing he and the wolves can really talk to each other. Oh, well. Better safe than sorry.

Her hands and sockless-feet aching, she managed to pick up her crossbow and quiver from where she had lain them prior to her impromptu slide down the hillside, making certain she didn’t step on the ice again while she retrieved them.

As she straightened up, Morales said from the entranceway, “I was getting worried about you.” With a frown as he took in her disheveled appearance, he asked, “What happened? Did you...”

She stood as straight as she could, not realizing how much snow was caked in her tousled hair – the scrunchie was long gone – or on her clothes, “We will talk about it later – much later, or maybe not at all,” she muttered as she pushed past him to stomp her way inside.

With a glance down the hillside, Morales took in the slide marks in the fresh snow and had a good idea what had happened, although he didn’t realize that she had done it with her pants and panties around her ankles.

Glancing over at Lobo, “What happened, Boy?”

Lobo chuffed, and when Morales looked at Lila, she did too, but neither would look him in the eye. When he noticed the yellow spot in the snow where Jasmine had relieved herself, and the sheet of ice right next to it, he almost burst out laughing, but remembering Jasmine’s attitude, thought he had better pretend he didn’t know what happened. Still, he had no idea she had done it with her pants and panties around her ankles.

But the more he thought about it, the funnier it got, and, as he neared the entrance, he broke into sniggers despite himself. Looks like she went down the steepest part. Even when the wolves and I were sliding down the hill, I didn’t chance that section. It’s way too steep. Then, with a widening grin, Fuck, I’ll bet that was one hell of a rush.

It was a few minutes before he could control his sniggering enough to go inside. Shut the fuck up, Dumbass. Laugh at her and she’ll never bake you another cake. Women take shit like this personal. But logic or not, he was worried he would at least break into a grin when he faced her, but then it crossed his mind that she might just be hurt. Oh, shit. I need to see if she’s okay.

Inside, he realized Jasmine could be in real trouble. She was in the middle of changing clothes, her hair still a mess. Even with the aborted glance he gave her, he had also seen how red her skin was, and her hands seemed almost chalky white, tinting toward blue, and she was violently shivering. But he did get one glimpse of her body from the side as she jerked her fatigue shirt on. That half second of swaying breasts with long thick nipples protruding before she closed her top was destined to play in his mind many times throughout the coming days.

Get your mind out of the gutter, he chided himself. She needs to get warm. Grabbing the soft hide he slept under, he turned it skin-side outward and wrapped it around her. “Get over by the fire and I’ll put some more wood on.”

“I’ll be fine,” she argued, but he could barely understand her past the chattering teeth.

“Bullshit, Woman. This isn’t the time to argue,” he said as he picked her up, still protesting, and hurried to the fire, some part of his mind wondering at how light she felt in his arms.

After sitting her on the cook stool, he threw a half dozen pieces of split wood on the fire before pouring a cup of coffee. Dumping some sugar and a couple of spoons of creamer in, he stirred it a bit before handing the cup to her. “Here. Drink this while I warm up some of that stew we had left over.”

Done arguing for now as she continued to mentally lambaste her own stupidity, she concentrated on holding the cup in both hands so she could steady it enough to sip the near-boiling coffee without scalding her tongue or spilling it on herself.

Morales put the pot of leftover stew on to warm, then hurried to get another skin that he held near the roaring fire until it was almost hot, then added it to what was already wrapped around Jasmine.

She opened her mouth to thank him, but blurted, instead, “I slipped on the ice and slid down the damn hillside – with my pants and panties around my ankles.” Although she was trying to laugh, there were tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my whole frigging life,” she managed to get out.

“Shit,” he said while looking at her, but to her amazement, he wasn’t laughing. “Hell, Girl, at the place where you went down, it’s a wonder you managed to stop before the stream.”

“Well, I ... Actually, I didn’t,” she admitted.

“You went out onto the ice?” he hissed out. “That stream is a long way from being frozen solid. The water is moving pretty damn fast and it hasn’t been cold that long. Chances are you would never have made it back up the hill if you had fallen into that thing.”

Remembering what her survival instructor had said when he taught them about hypothermia, Jasmine was beginning to realize just how lucky she had been.

The tears didn’t seem to want to stop, though. He stepped closer, and suddenly, she was sitting on his lap with his arms wrapped around her. It seemed natural to put her head on his shoulder. She was still shivering, but now, part of that shivering was from emotion.

“Easy, easy,” he kept saying as her tears trickled onto his neck. “If you had gone in, Lobo would have gotten you out. You know how smart he is, and ... who else would bake him a cake or bring him ice cream like you do, hmmm?”

“I should have gotten up in the middle of the night and gone out,” she mumbled, “but I was warm and snuggled in my sleeping bag. I didn’t want to go out in the cold, so I just went back to sleep. When I woke up, I had to go really, really bad. I was about to pee on myself when I got outside, so I ... Oh, how stupid can I get? I know better. I’ve been in the field too many times to do something that dumb,” she finished with a half chuckle, half sob.