To The Moon And Back

Chapter Six

Pretty quickly John realised he had made a mistake in asking her to go first. He might have been decked out in the most advanced space suit the world had to offer, but she was not, and all he could focus on was just how shapely her behind looked in her tight jeans until they flared out at the knees. It was not at all professional to be staring, let alone picturing what she might look like out of said jeans, so he quickly averted his gaze, dragging his eyes higher up, focusing instead on the heavy fall of wavy, dirty blonde hair that hung down her back to her slender waist.

Unaware of his internal battle and supreme display of the legendary Tracy control, Selene stopped at a door that had originally been marked as Cargo C, but now said nothing, the letters long since faded away.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Sure, how bad could it be?" John said, brushing off her question with a casual shrug.

The lifting of her eyebrow as if to say 'Don't say I didn't warn you,' wasn't comforting as she opened the door.

A wall of noise hit them the moment the door opened, numerous voices calling out questions as they surged forward en masse, they were a rag-tag bunch if ever he'd seen one. Three women, one around the same height as Selene, maybe four or five inches under his 6ft 3, with short cut hair, wearing a long brown dress that rather reminded him of a sack and did nothing to complement her more muscular frame, led the way. Another, around middle height and wearing a colourful patchwork skirt and frilly blouse, peered at him like an owl from behind large, round glasses, her wild curly brown hair floating in a bushy halo around her head. And the last, shorter and plumper than the other two, dressed in a demure skirt and fluffy cardigan, with her hair in a low ponytail and her eyes still red-rimmed from crying, trailed along in their wake.

With them came two men, both were tall, but that was where the similarities ended. One, who wore thin wire-rimmed glasses, had a bald head that shone under the lights with close-cropped hair at the sides, and a thin goatee sprouting from his chin, reminding John of a professor he knew in university. His baggy brown trousers and a vividly orange shirt with leaves embroidered on the sleeves hung from his bony frame making him look rather like he had a coathanger still inside his shirt. The other man was wider in the shoulders, his baggy denim shirt hiding a muscular chest and thick arms, which he too had paired with brown trousers. But where his friend was balding, he sported a thick crop of reddish hair that hung down to his shoulders.

"Are we safe?"

"Is the rocket fixed?"

"Are we going to the Moon now?"

"Are we going to die?"

"Woah, woah, everyone needs to calm down," John instructed, holding his hands up in a futile attempt to fend them off. "Yes, you're safe. Yes, you're on the Moon-"

Spontaneous, delighted, cheering broke out, forcing him to bite off his last words.

"Thank you so much!"

"We made it guys!"

"We're gonna live!"

Selene hung back, a small smile on her face as she watched her friends. She could give them this, she didn't need to be involved, she'd monopolised enough of the International Rescue guy's time already. Sage and Meadow were hugging each other and bouncing up and down with delighted little shrieks, while Rain clung to an uncomfortable looking Cosmo, sobbing on his shoulder as he awkwardly patted her back. Where was... she sought out Atlas, finding him a little apart from the group, standing quietly, staring unblinkingly at their rescuer. His eyes were fixed, unmoving, not on John himself, but the half-hidden logo on his suit.