After the Fall: Close and Confined (Taboo Erotica) (Eden Harem Book 1) by Anya Merchant

attention her way.
    “Molly, hey.” Jack stood up from the bed and walked in towards the wall monitor. “What’s up? Did you make contact with any other people?”
    The female astronaut frowned slightly and shook her head.
    “No, unfortunately. But I do have a little bit of good news.”
    Rebecca walked over and joined the conversation.
    “What is it?”
    Molly waited a moment, drawing in the anticipation of her tiny, captive audience.
    “I’ve been monitoring the temperatures on the ground,” she said. “By tomorrow afternoon, they should be low enough for the two of you to be able to go outside.”
    “That’s amazing!” Jack laughed and pulled his mother into a hug. “We’ll be able to get out of this tin can, explore, maybe even find people on our own.”
    “Well, there is a bit of bad news to go with that.” Molly furrowed her brow. “I’m not sure if the atmospheric oxygen levels have held steady. We don’t have any sensors for that anymore. The fire was enough to burn, well, essentially everything made of carbon. It may have used up too much oxygen in the process for the air to be, well, breathable.”
    That would mean…
    “Let’s hope that’s not the case,” said Rebecca. “And if it is, we’ll find a way to cope.”
    Jack’s initial reaction was to disagree with her, to explain just how totally doomed they would be if there really was no hope of taking back the surface, but instead, he held his tongue.
    “Anyway, I just wanted the two of you to know.” Molly smiled as cheerfully as a person could after sharing something distasteful. “Well, that, and I was really bored. I can totally relate to what you must be going through. There isn’t much to do up here, either.”
    The three of them were quiet for a long moment. It was the kind of empty silence common to sad situations of all types, funerals, hospital rooms, and memorial events. Finally, Jack let out a sigh and took a step closer to the monitor.
    “How did you end up in the station, anyway?” he asked. “I mean, I know you probably took a space shuttle, or whatever, but before that? How did you end up as an astronaut?”
    Molly looked as though she’s been waiting for him to ask since they’d first met.
    “I was always fascinated with space as a kid. I remember learning about the planets, dreaming about traveling off to them, and exploring them. You can imagine my disappointment when I eventually learned just how uninhabitable they were, and how impractical they would be, at least to live on the other ones we have here in the solar system.”
    Our planet might be just like the rest, now. A place where humans are not welcome.
    “Anyway, I got really good grades in high school, and then in college, and started out at NASA as a sustainability intern, if you can believe it. I wouldn’t shut up about wanting to become an astronaut, and eventually the brass took notice. This is actually the first time I’ve gone up into space for real… Lost my orbital virginity, as we used to say.”
    Molly’s eyes were locked onto Jack’s through the screen, and even over the distant connection, it was enough to make his body feel a little hotter than it should have. He heard his mom cough over to the side and move in closer to him.
    “That’s very impressive, Molly. For both of our sakes, we’re glad that you were so committed.” Rebecca reached her arm over to Jack and ran it through his hair.
    “Anyway, what about the two of you?” Molly gestured to the edges of the screen. “And what about the one of a kind bomb shelter that you guys are in? I feel like there must be a story behind it.”
    Jack shrugged.
    “It was one of my dad’s projects.” He suddenly felt a little embarrassed, even though he knew that pride would be a much more appropriate emotion. “He was a little paranoid… I guess rightly so. We always knew that it was down here, below the cellar, but he put a lot more work into it than either of us ever