Chapter 462

... When they were again in the main part of the ice cave, she said, “Let’s just leave the hide over the crack.”

“No problem,” he returned with a grin. “That was one of my first attempts at tanning and it didn’t exactly turn out the way I had hoped, shall we say. Leaving it hanging over the crack will keep it from continuing to smell up our campsite.”

With Morales carrying one end of the ice chest and Jasmine the other, they made their way back to their camp, this time with the strap of her equipment case slung over his shoulder. “I can take that,” she tried, but he just shook his head.

As they trudged along the sometimes-uneven floor of the passageway, both with their thoughts focused on other things, they said little, both busy thinking about the new area and what it would mean to their lives should the General or his people find out.

Jasmine wanted to explore the column area a lot more thoroughly, but she was well aware how under-equipped she was. If she got word to the General, he might well send someone to head up an expedition, and that person would, without doubt, take charge and most probably would not even consider her as a viable part of the effort.

Since she had only a Masters in Physical Anthropology and, in addition, wouldn’t be Dr. Greer’s come dump, she assumed she would wind up with work barely above what an intern would be expected to do – basically, a gopher for Greer or the others with the doctorates. Then again, would the General consider this important enough to take highly specialized professionals away from their work on other planets, she wondered. And what would happen to Morales, should they decide to investigate the site? Then answering herself, He would certainly be moved out of the cave – his home – because they would want the ice cave to remain untouched, but available for further research. Not only would they move him, they would most probably never allow him to live in here again. He would be a hindrance to research, and since he has been sentenced to life, they wouldn’t want to associate with him in any way. But darnit, the man has more compassion and common sense than most of those assholes have – far more. I am not going to let them throw him out of his home if there is anything I can do to prevent it. For now, that means that we need to keep it a secret from the General.

Jasmine was so involved in her thoughts that she failed to notice a small depression. When she stepped into it, she stumbled and went to her knees.

Morales quickly set his end of the case down and knelt by her. “What happened, Jas? You okay? Did you turn your ankle or something?”

Embarrassed, Jasmine disdained to take his offered hand and quickly came to her feet. “No. No. I’m fine. I had my mind on something and wasn’t paying enough attention to where I was putting my feet. Nothing’s hurt but my pride,” she finished with a forced chuckle while rubbing her left hip.

As she reached for the handle on her end of the case and stood upright, their faces weren’t that far apart. When their eyes met, she could see the questioning look on his countenance.

Since their faces were momentarily close together, she seized the opportunity to remind him. “Don’t forget the cameras,” she mouthed to him. When he raised an eyebrow and shook his head, she leaned closer to whisper into his ear. “Later. Watch what you say. Cameras.”

There was a half second of a blank look before recognition showed on his face. Another second and the look changed to his version of an evil grin as he covered for them. Straightening, he laughed. “Ah ... naughty, naughty. Young ladies shouldn’t say things like that.”

Grinning back, she returned, “Who said I was a lady?”

Both of them laughing, they started on their way. “Sure you didn’t hurt your ankle?”

“No,” she said with a grimace, “like I said, just my pride,” and my ass, she added mentally.

As they continued on down the passageway, Jasmine thought, He may not have the best education in the world, but his mind is fast. There was barely a hesitation before he came up with that comment to cover for my whispering in his ear. If somebody watches this segment of the videos, chances are they’ll only think I made a quick and maybe off-color joke. Now if I can figure out how we can talk about that column area without the cameras overhearing – if ... they haven’t already seen and heard too much.

Darnit, I hope whoever reviews the videos hasn’t already heard about the new area and notified the General. But then again, I watched hours and hours of those vids, yet it seems that I missed several significant events, so maybe the cameras didn’t go in that area with our first short excursion, and we were careful to put the hide over the crack this time. And ... with all those hours of video that someone has to scan before sending the highlights to the General, he or she might miss our little excursion through the crack. After all, we were only going to get meat from 2214’s version of a freezer. How interesting could that be? Oh, well, I’m worrying over something I can’t change. But ... we’re going to be very careful in the future. I want to explore that area, but I don’t want to be demoted to the peanut gallery while the glory hounds take over. And I do not want Mr. Morales and his ... friends to be thrown out of the cave.

Back at the campsite, they prepared their late breakfast of steak and potatoes with toast from the last of the bread. After their excursion, the two humans were ravenous, and the wolves were always hungry.

“Do you like oatmeal?” Jasmine asked as she refreshed Morales’ coffee before sitting beside him to eat, not realizing that next to him had become her regular place for meals.

Morales shrugged. “Oh, I’ve eaten it, usually with fresh fruit cut up in it, or raisins, but it’s always just been something to fill me. It’s really too bland to be good as far as I’m concerned.”

Jasmine took time to swallow before answering. “About the same for me, but ... you have an enormous supply of both oats and wheat. It wouldn’t take long with your little hand mill to have enough oats for oatmeal. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll see what the mill turns out. It certainly does well with grinding the wheat for flour. With your syrup or some sugar, the oatmeal will be a substitute and something different to go with our breakfast. Maybe we can have oatmeal instead of potatoes in the morning.”

“Maybe,” Morales returned uncertainly. “Oh yeah, there are a lot of apples. I stored them the way the article said, and so far, they seem to remain good.”

“Excellent. Adding some fruit should help with the bland taste.” After a moment, she went on, “We already have enough eggs for breakfast tomorrow, but I want to save them for baking – if it’s okay with you, that is?”

“Sure, but what were you thinking of baking?” he began before suddenly shaking his head. “Don’t answer that. Just surprise me. Whatever it is, I won’t have to bake it, even if I somehow manage to learn how, and besides, you’re a far better cook than I ever will be,” he finished with the crooked smile that she was beginning to really look forward to seeing.

“And the flattery...” she asked.

“ ... will, hopefully, get me biscuits, cakes and whatever,” he said with a chuckle.

She winked at him. “Can’t ever tell.”

After breakfast was over, Morales waved Jasmine away when she began cleanup. “You cooked. I’ll clean up and wash the dishes.”

Jasmine poured both of them another cup of coffee, sitting near where he was working. Grabbing the makeshift broom, she began sweeping the area. The floor of the cave was mostly hard-packed dirt, and with Morales’ frequent sweeping, there was actually very little loose dirt on the floor. What loose dirt she did sweep up she put near the chickens manure pile to be used to keep the smell down.

Finished, she put the broom where she had found it. When she turned back, she realized that Morales had poured some hot water into the big rectangular pan she had brought, and had begun washing his clothes.

Hurrying over to her second case that she still had not unpacked, she quickly found what she was looking for. Taking the item over to Morales who was kneeling on the floor working on a pair of fatigue pants, she knelt across from him to slide the legs of her find into his wash water.

Morales froze, then smiled. He had once seen one in an old western movie, but he hadn’t really realized they actually existed in real life. “Wow. Where did you get this?” he asked with outright laughter in his voice.

Looking up at him with a grin, she responded, “My friend that I told you about, uses one to wash her family’s clothes. She gets a number of things from an online store that has all kinds of primitive items like this. I doubt if a washboard reduces the labor that much, but it has to be faster than endlessly scrubbing your clothing against themselves to try and get them clean.”

“Jas,” he said as he paused to look at her, “you’re full of surprises. Thank you.”

His thanks were so obviously sincere that she couldn’t think of anything to say in return, so she just smiled at him, got up, and walked away.

When his clothes were washed and rinsed, he poured the dirty water into a waste bucket before restringing the paracord he had been using for a clothesline, then set about putting up another line for Jasmine’s things.

“Do you have anything else to wash?” she asked.

“No. That’s it, and thanks to you, it only took a tenth of the time it would have, plus, I think I actually got them clean this time. Again, thanks a bunch.”

“Mind if I do my washing now?” she asked.

He paused with his work to look back at her. “Of course not. That’s the reason I put more water on to heat.” Suddenly, old habits took over and without thinking, he blurted out, “Hey, can I sniff your panties...” A half second later, it dawned on him that his crude joke might very well not be received as a joke.

“Oh, shit,” he mumbled, then very earnestly, “Look, Jasmine, I’m truly sorry. I used to run with trash and that’s something we used to say sometimes when we saw a sexy woman. Oh, shit. I just...” and he wound down.

But instead of being furious as he expected, Jasmine giggled. “You’ve been too long without a woman if you even think things like that.”

“I guess my mouth and the people I associated with were two of the biggest reasons that women didn’t tend to stay around me that long. But something happened to me in the General’s cell when it finally dawned on me what following other people and blindly carrying out Mr. Mazarella’s orders had gotten me. Jasmine,” he very earnestly said, “I know it’s far too late, but I’m not the same man I was.” Then with a sigh, “Too bad I didn’t figure it out sooner.” After a long pause, he finished bitterly, “My mom taught me better. At least she didn’t live to see what happened to me because of my stupidity. But I deserve everything the General did to me.”

Jasmine didn’t know what to say, but found herself going over and hugging him instead.

Embarrassed, she stepped back, almost said something, then hurried to get the blood-splattered pants she had put in a bucket of water to soak overnight. After scrubbing them on the washboard in lye soap water, she inspected them, but couldn’t find any stains. With a grin, she chastised herself mentally. They’re fatigues. What difference would a few stains make? After wringing them out as best she could, she hung them on the line he’d put up for her.

When her fatigues were all washed and hung, she washed her bras and panties before hanging them next to her fatigues. Somehow, the very feminine undergarments looked out of place hanging beside her rugged outer clothing. As she picked up the empty bucket she had brought the clothes over in, she glanced at her hanging clothes again and realized that it wouldn’t take a genius to note there were far more panties than bras. Well, if he didn’t realize that I went braless, he certainly should now. The panty and bra numbers don’t match – at all. Four panties and one bra hanging there. Much to her consternation, she felt her face warm yet again. What’s the matter with me? I practically never used to blush, so why am I doing it now? Unconsciously shaking her head, her thoughts went on, Crap, he’s a prisoner. Get it together, Girl.

With his comment about sniffing panties in mind, she tried to catch him looking at her underclothes hanging there on the line, but if he did, he hid it well. Guess he didn’t mean clean ones, she thought while barely suppressing a giggle. Do I even care? He’s a man, and men do things like that – don’t they? Besides, I wonder if he would really do it. Glancing over at him, her thoughts went on. I’ve heard that expression too much without there being some truth to it, but what would a man get out of sniffing a woman’s soiled panties? I’ve certainly never thought about sniffing some guy’s used undershorts. Thoughts of his smelling her panties brought mental images of him doing other things to her that involved his tongue and her pussy. Stop it, Girl; you’ve been too long without a man. But he’s a prisoner and will be on 2214 for the rest of his life. There was, however, another part of her mind that said, Yeah, but he’s far from bad looking, not to mention sexy as can be.

Her thoughts were finally distracted when he said, “Watch for me and I’ll get rid of our wash water.”

As he picked up the buckets, she nodded, not trusting herself to say anything just now. Grabbing up her weapons, she followed him outside where he threw the water down the hill.

Back inside a moment later, he knelt to take the ski assembly off the case. Realizing where he must be thinking of going, Jasmine dressed for the cold and again strapped on her weapons.

Turning to her as he pulled on his coats, he said, “You don’t have to do this. It’s cold as hell out there this morning, as I’m certain you’ve noticed. Why don’t you stay here and grind some oatmeal like you mentioned doing, or maybe dig out some more shelves for your equipment? I’ve gotten logs many times by myself.” When he saw the look on her face, he quickly went on, “Not that your help isn’t appreciated, but...” he wound down.

“So? I guess I’ll just keep busy so I won’t get cold while we’re out there,” she returned as he put Lobo’s pull harness on. When he reached for his axe and wedges, she took them out of his hands, leaving him to carry the saw and pull the axle/ski rig.

Realizing that she wasn’t going to change her mind, he shrugged and started for the door. “Then let’s get it done.”

“How far is it?” she asked a moment later as they stepped clear of the entranceway, checked for danger and headed out.

He pointed toward a grove of hardwoods in the near distance, “Like I said, only a little more than a hundred yards, and since the hill generally slopes upward toward the trees I need, it will be a lot easier dragging the logs back. But ... I have to limit myself to logs small enough that I can handle, so cutting and falling the trees isn’t too much of a job. Wood is still heavy, though, particularly hardwood, and in addition to dragging the logs back to the cave, you have to be careful. Getting a foot caught under the log while dragging it back, and we could have big problems.”