Planet Redemption: Episode One - 4. Here Comes the Thunder

Danni was standing on a planet that was not cold and barren like Planet Redemption; yet somehow he knew that it was the same planet. The planet was lush with gigantic trees. Birds squawked, lizard-like creatures scrabbled on the tops of slick rocks. He smell moss and something that might have been honeysuckle. Before him there were mountains almost placed side by side.

Just before the mountains there was a great temple made of gold. It almost looked Mayan in nature. To reach it you had to climb steps that looked steep and dangerous. To climb them would be a test of endurance and surely was not for the faint of heart. Danni wondered if he had the strength, the endurance. He thought he did.

He started to walk towards the temple when he heard a flood of voices. They swarmed around him like flies, coming from every direction.

"Don't go in there..."

"Stay away..."

"It's too dangerous..."

He ignored them, swatted at them as if they were actually there. He moved towards the temple steps. When he reached the first step the sky darkened. Something was floating across the sky, heading for the sun. At first he thought there was getting ready to be an eclipse but when he looked at it directly he could immediately tell that it wasn't the moon. It was a space craft and it was huge. It filled the sky with its sheer size and mass. Soon it blocked out the sun, plunging the world into darkness...

Danni was on his feet before he even realize he was awake. Still half-dreaming he tugged on his snow pants, his brain telling him only one command: Get to safety. He dressed quickly and ran out into the cold, snowy night. A snowstorm had hit and the wind was blowing at him relentlessly. His cheeks were numb within seconds but he kept half running half slipping. He had one destination in mind. Duke had shown him where he lived on his way to drop Danni off. This was after his meeting with Diana. "Come over anytime. My sister would love to meet ya."

Danni was going to take him up on that offer.

It seemed to take forever to reach Duke's building. What streetlights there were did little to illuminate the darkness. The snow flurries half blinded him. He'd said that his dorm was the third one down on the right side. With his cheeks a blaring red and still stinging profusely, Danni pounded on his door. His breath was swelling in his chest, struggling to get out.

Duke was dressed in his pajamas. He frowned. "Danni, what in God's name are you doing running through the cold? It's below zero right now."

"Were you in bed?"

"Yes. Until my sister gets back from work."

Danni stepped back, feeling ashamed of himself. "Sorry to wake you up. I'll just head back, then."

Duke grabbed his shoulder with a beefy hand and gently pulled him inside. "No you don't." He closed the door behind him.

Danni stayed where he was. Now that he was here he didn't know what to do or what was going to happen. He felt stupid. Duke seemed a like a nice guy and he wanted to believe that the deputy wouldn't hurt him, but there was a part of him that wanted to remain cautious. He'd been fooled before.

"You're half frozen to death," Duke rumbled, looking him over. "Here, let me take your jacket and you go over there and curl up with that blanket."

Danni did as he was told. He pulled his shoes off and curled up on the couch, cocooning himself in the blanket. The couch was still warm from where Duke had been sprawled out. He could hear Duke rummaging around in the kitchen. This apartment did not feel empty and alien like his own did. It felt warm and homey. It felt safe.

Just as his nerves were starting to relax, the door opened and a young woman stepped in. There was only one person that she could be: Cecilia, Duke's young sister. She looked just like him, just more feminine with softer features. Not so broad or tall. She was wearing her uniform from the processing plant. He sat up feeling as if he was doing something that he wasn't supposed to.

She turned, smiled at him. "Hi."

"Hi," Danni said.

"You must be Danni. Duke has told me so much about you. You're the one that the transportation went through all the trouble for to bring just one prisoner. What'd you do?"

"I killed two men." Danni said it casually as if it was something that anyone would say in a typical conversation. On Planet Redemption it seemed to be pretty typical, so why not?

"For fun or something else? Not that I'm judging. From the Earthies point of view we're all pieces of shit that don't deserve to live. They just don't want to deal with the moral obligations of having to kill us. So they ship people here."

"They were chasing me."

"Did you know them?"

"Not particularly well. They worked for my father."

She threw herself in the free spot next to him. "Who's your father?"

"It doesn't matter, he's not my father anymore."

"Okaaay. I can understand that. Sorry for all the questions...I was just curious."

"I'm curious too."

"About what?"

"Everything."

Duke came into the living room with two steaming mugs of hot cocoa. "Hey Sis, I thought that was you I heard jabbering like Road Runner. There's some hot cocoa in the kitchen if you want some."

"I'll grab some a little bit. I'm going to go take a shower, give you guys a minute to yourselves." She bounced to her feet and beamed at Danni. "It was nice to meet you. Come back anytime. We love company."

Danni waved as she turned and disappeared down the hallway. Duke and he were alone again.

"That girl has so much energy," Duke said. "She's been working two shifts a day at the processing plant. I like I told you yesterday that's some hard ass work. When she comes home she still runs around like Road Runner?"

"You mean the ostrich? The one that goes meep-meep?"

Duke laughed. "That's the one. You do a good impression of him, kiddo."

Danni felt proud of himself for being able to make Duke laugh. He liked it when Duke laughed; it made him want to laugh too.

"Can I sit next to you?" Duke asked.

"Sure."

"If not it's okay, it just feels awkward sitting so far apart."

Danni smiled. "I don't mind if you sit next to me."

He has such a beautiful smile, Duke thought as he stood up and went over to the couch. His dimples show when he smiles. I don't give a rats ass what he did, he's too beautiful to be on this frozen rock. He watched Danni take a sip from his hot chocolate.

Danni looked at him thoughtfully. "When Aethyx colonized this planet did they find any other forms of life?"

That made Duke sit up. Where the hell had that come from? It took a moment to answer. "No. It was just a frozen rock that happened to have breathable air. Why?"

Danni shook his head. "It's nothing."

"You can tell me. I won't tell anyone."

Danni scratched at his chin which was starting to show some stubble. "I wish I could believe that. I want to believe that. I hope you can understand if I don't."

"Danni I want to be your friend. You can trust me."

Danni sighed. "I had a dream and it felt very real. I was on this planet but it looked very different. There were trees and streams and living creatures like birds and lizards. There was this one mountain that had a temple on top. It looked Mayan in design but it wasn't. And then this thing flew over the sun and blocked it out. It was like watching an eclipse but it wasn't. It just made me curious, that's all."

"Well it sounds like an interesting dream." Duke thought for a moment. "This planet was colonized two hundred years ago and no one has found anything and I don't think anybody will. Why would any alien civilization want to come here or better yet stay?"

Danni couldn't think of a hypothetical answer. After all it was just a dream. Not every dream had meaning and not every dream came true. But most of the time they did for Danni.

He was at the temple again. He could feel the heat of the planet’s two son’s on his back, feel the fresh breeze. He got the sense that in these days the planet had been much younger and thriving with life. He looked up at the sky, waiting to see the big spacecraft that would block the sunlight, waiting to hear the storm of whispering voices. He set his foot on the first step and-

Danni could hear someone crying out. Somebody was weeping; it almost sounded like the weeping of a small child. He looked around to see where the source of the sound was coming from and saw that Duke’s door was open. He stood up, throwing the blanket back on the couch, and carefully walked through the darkness to Duke’s doorway. He peeked inside.

Duke was thrashing around in his sleep and making a terrible crooning sound that made Danni think of a suffering animal. He'd never thought such a big man like Duke could make such terrible sounds. It made Danni want to run over to him and hug him as tight as he could and whisper in his ear that everything was going to be okay. There was nothing to be afraid of.

"No!" he cried. Duke sat up. His eyes were open which meant he wasn't really awake. "Benji, please forgive me-Please!" Then he looked directly at Danni. He was crying real tears. But still he wasn't completely awake. He was somewhere in between the dream world and the waking world.

"Benji," Duke croaked. "Is that you?"

Danni simply remained frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do. And then something in his mind clicked. Whoever Benji was Danni must look a lot like him or else Duke's sleeping brain wouldn't have called him Benji. That was why Duke sometimes acted so weird around him. And whoever this Benjamin was Duke must have done something really bad to him. Something that haunted him with guilt still.

Before he knew what he was doing Danni stepped forward until he was at the end of Duke's bed. ''Yes, it's me."

Duke sobbed fresh tears. "Oh Benji, I'm sorry for what I did to you. I'm sorry for what Mike did to you. I'm sorry for not stopping him. I could have stopped him but instead I did the same thing to you that he did. I'm just responsible and I'm no better."

"Shhh." Danni climbed on the edge of the bed and crawled over to Duke and hovered before him. The bigger man scooted back as if afraid that the ghost of Benjamin would take vengeance on him. Danni took his face gently in his hands. "The dead are forgiving, Duke."

"Do you forgive me?" Duke asked.

"Yes."

"But I don't deserve it."

"You do. It's people like Mike that don't deserve it. He's naturally evil. It's in his blood. There is no hope for him. But there's hope for you still. It's not too late to it around." Then Danni positioned himself on Duke's laugh and kissed him deep on the lips. The feeling of Duke's lips against his made his insides turn to liquid, made him so hard it hurt.

Duke pressed back, wrapping his arms around Danni's bony ribs and pulling him in. The way he hugged him to him made Danni feel safe. He started grinding against Duke, feeling the bulge pushing against the fabric of his pajama pants against the cleft of his ass. Now Duke was rocking with him, his tongue and spit seeping into Danni's mouth. Danni reached back and pulled off his shirt.

Suddenly Duke shoved him off the bed hard enough to make Danni's head hit the mattress. Before he could move Duke was hovering over him, pinning his arms over his head. "What are you doing in here Danni?"

Danni's heart was thundering in his chest but he wasn't afraid. Seeing this wild, frenzied Duke only turned him on more. "You were crying in your sleep."

"You shouldn't be in here. It's dangerous."

"Why?"

"Because of me. Because of what I did."

"I killed two men. What difference does it make?"

Duke gritted his teeth; his eyes burned with lust. His mouth was an inch away from Danni's. "You have no idea how bad I want to fuck your sweet tight little ass."

"Then do it." Danni wrapped his arms around his neck and his legs around his hips. "I want you inside me."

Duke helped Danni pull off his pants. He threw them to the floor and then pulled off his briefs. Seeing Danni's hard six and a half inches sent a pulse of blood down to his cock. He was painfully hard and it was everything he could do not to give into his more primal urges; to just thrust into him as hard as he could and start thrusting away.

He reached for the tube of lube that he kept on the table along with the box of condoms. Both items had been sitting there for months now, unused. He went to pull out a packaged condom when Danni grabbed his hand. His grip was surprisingly strong. His eyes were steely. "No," was all he said.

Duke didn't question him; he was too horny for formalities. He squeezed the lube out onto index finger. He stood on his knees as Danni spread his legs and set them against Duke's shoulders. This Juan guy taught him well, Duke thought as he gently slipped the tip of his finger into Danni.

Danni closed his eyes and let out a moan. The feeling of Duke's finger slipping inside of him was sublime. He suddenly felt airless, like he was floating even though he was still lying on the bed. The simple feeling of being touched by someone that he found attractive and that potentially liked him made him feel things that he hadn't felt in a long time.

"Deeper," he breathed. "Deeper. Please."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Fuck that. Deeper. Please."

Half of Duke's finger was inside of Danny. He pushed it the rest of the way inside of him getting another groan of pleasure out of Danni. As he fingered him he leaned down until his lips were pressing against Danni's in another kiss. Their tongues danced together. His hand cradled Danni's head, pressing him deeper into the kiss, his tongue probing the inside of his mouth. His other hand placed Danni's legs around his hips. He started to rock into Danni, the engorged head of his cock pressing up against Danni's hole. Without warning Duke thrusted into him; another gasp escaped Danni's mouth, this one higher pitched.

Duke's cock was long and fat, not at all like how Juan's had been. Juan's had been long and skinny with a pointed tip. Danny could feel his inner ring expanding, trying to take Duke's massive girth. It hurt but he didn't care. Duke's weight was pressing him into the bed and he loved it, he loved it all. Duke's rocking picked up speed and rhythm. His teeth and lips and tongue sucked and lapped at his throat, occasionally sucking and nipping. Where Juan's hands had been soft and gentle Dukes hands were coarse and strong. They took what they wanted, grabbed what they wanted without hesitation or waiting for Danni to catch up. His balls tapped against Danni's ass.

The room was filled with their moans and growls and squeaks from the bed. Somewhere in the back of his Duke's mind, through the pressure building in his loins, Duke wondered if he was hurting Danni. He felt comfort in the fact that Danni wasn't telling him to stop or crying out in pain. His face was one of the pleasure. Who the hell is this kid? he wondered. Who is this strange, beautiful kid condemned to this planet? How did he get to be here? It was senseless thoughts really, lost in the whirlwind of his mind and the thunder building in his loins, about to explode out. Here comes the thunder, he thought.

Duke didn't try to hold back. He couldn't. The thunder burst out of him in an endless wave of pleasure unlike anything he had ever felt before. His moans mixed with Danni's. Their hands were entwined together. Duke didn't want the pleasure wave to end and neither did Danni. He wanted to Duke to keep coming, to fill his insides with his seed until he was ready to burst. When the pleasure wave finally trickled out Duke did not pull out immediately. He wanted to stay inside of Danni where it was sublime and silky and warm.

They continued to kissed and touch one another, sucking and licking wherever they pleased. Then Duke pulled out and he and Danni laid next to each other.

"You're something else," Duke said. Danni's back was turned to him. Planet Redemption's two moons shined through the windows on his pale, milky ass. He had the most perfect ass. It was small but there was just enough meat and voluptuousness to be able to grab onto. Somehow it matched perfectly with his tiny figure. Duke held onto it, playing with Danni's ass, grabbing the cheeks in his hands and gently squeezing them. A glimmer of his come caught the moonlight. It was just above the little mole on Danni's flesh.

"You are too. Do you feeling better now?"

"Yes. Much, thank you." Duke could feel his eyes starting to grow heavy. He didn't want to go to sleep, not when he had an angel laying next to him. But he closed his eyes and went back to sleep anyway.

It had stopped snowing. For the moment its consistency was like powder. By the time Planet Redemption’s twin suns rose it would be hard and compacted.

Danni couldn’t bare to stay in bed with Duke, not after what he’d done. The shame sat in his stomach, green and acidic. He had exploited Duke so that he could sleep with him. That hadn’t been his intention. His intention had been to help Duke, to ease his mind from whatever was burdening him. And in the end he supposed he had succeeded and gotten something out of it himself. So why did he feel so bad?

He was halfway back to his dormitory.

He was startled by the sudden sounds of voices. He stopped and looked ahead. Heading in his direction were four men. They laughed and weaved drunkenly. Danni felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. These were not good men, they were dangerous men. He remembered the warning Diana and Duke had given him about walking around at night and hated himself. Danni turned, prepared to run back to Duke’s place. But it was already too late. One of them had spotted him.

“Hey boy!” one of them hollered, almost stumbling directly into Danni. “What are you doing out here so late at night?”

Danni stepped back into a chain link fence, unsure of what to do. All four men surrounded him, blocking all access of escape. They were tall, with long beards, dressed in green cameo. They had their hoods up and with the low lighting it was hard to tell them apart except for the one in the front, which Danni could only assume was the leader. His gums were black, his teeth gone, his face pockmarked with some kind of red rash.

“Walking home,” was all he could say.

“Really? All by yourself, lad?” The leader of the group pulled out a razor and flicked the blade open. “You picked the wrong day to be out past curfew, pretty boy like yourself, wouldn’t you say? What do you say we have a little fun with him boys.”

That was when Danni reached out with both hands and snapped his neck.

Their leader’s body fell into the snow.

Silence filled the night as the rest of his comrades stared down at his corpse.

“What the fuck?” one of them said.

Danni said nothing, his eyes blank. He held their deceased friend’s razor in his hand.

All at once the other three charged.

Mike sat in the warmth and safety of his snowmobile and watched the scene play out.

As it turned out he’d been on his way home from the bar when he’d seen Danni heading in the direction of Duke’s dormitory. Curious, Mike had decided to follow. As it turned out his hunch was right, Danni was going to Duke’s, the little whore. He’d watched from their window as Danni, Duke, and his little cunt of a sister sat on the couch with their chummy mugs of fucking hot cocoa. He’d watched as Danni and Duke got all heart to heart together, his blood seething inside of his bones.

Mike couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so mad. Duke was always acting like he was so righteous and ashamed of himself, always looking down on Mike when he’d joined in on what they did to Benji. He was just to blame as Mike. He was just as much of a monster. He’d gone back to his snowmobile and decided he would wait for Duke’s new fuck toy to come out so that he could tear into his ripe little hole just like he’d done to Benjamin. But then he’d fallen asleep.

Then he’d woken up sometime later just as Danni was leaving Duke’s, hands in his pockets, head slumped. It couldn’t have been more of a perfect opportunity. He waited until Danni was up ahead several yards and then creeped along behind him. Danni never once even looked up or showed any awareness that he was being followed. That was when the four men from the pub came along and things that got more interesting.

The four men were going to do to him what he was going to do. That was okay, he could wait. He didn’t mind a little bit of a show and he didn’t mind sloppy seconds. Or in this case sloppy fifths.

He watched as the one with the rash pulled out the razor blade, flicked it open, and pressed it to Danni’s throat. He said something that must have been funny because the other three in the group laughed. Then Danni reached over and snapped Razor-Blade’s neck as if it was nothing.

Mike felt his eyes widen. He was still drunk. Did I just see what I thought I did? he thought. Had that little shit who was really no bigger than a minute just snapped a bigger man’s neck? He shifted in his seat and leaned forward. Now his attention was truly caught.

The other three looked down at their fallen comrade which meant that it had really happened; Mike’s drunken mind wasn’t just seeing things. They looked at the kid. Somehow the little shit had the razor. How the fuck did he get that? The three drunkards charged.

The sight was beautiful: Danni made as short work with them as he’d made of their friend-if not shorter. The razor blade slashed through the air and where the blade went blood followed. It came out in sprays of dark crimson. In the dark it almost looked black until it hit the snow, then you could really see the contrast. Danni didn’t move a single step. He made the razor dance as if he’d been doing it all of his life. Throats were slashed. A few severed fingers dropped into the snow. Now four bodies lay in the snow instead of just one.

Mike wasn’t afraid. He had never been so turned on in his life. The idea of tangoing with this boy, overpowering him, and then fucking him like the bitch he was made all the blood in his body go down to his cock. He was starting to get blue balls. Let’s see how well Duke’s newfound little squeeze could hold himself off against Mike Meize, the sheriff of Colony 12.

As he reached for the double barrel shotgun he kept in the passenger’s seat, Mike softly began to sing under his breath. It was a song that he fondly remembered his mom singing: “Three little devils all dressed in red, trying to get to heaven on the end of the thread. And the thread fell down and down they all fell, instead of going to heaven they all went to hell.”

The next verse went: Three little angels all dressed in white, trying to get to heaven on the end of a kite. The kite fell down and down they all fell. Instead of going to heaven they all went to hell. And then the Martians: Three little Martians all dressed in green, trying to get to heaven on the end of a string. You could only imagine what happened to them.

He shut off the snowmobile, climbed out with his shotgun, and moved in Danni’s direction.