I woke up the next day with a painful erection. God, I was so fucking horny, and the girls smelled good, even though their perfume was long gone. Something about their bodies made me crazy.


    I’m sure the ring would say that it was their pheromones, and it probably was, but it was still weird. Normally, fighting for survival wouldn’t make me aroused.


    My belly—not my new dick—solved the problem for me. I was starving, and that meant we needed to get down from the tree.


    Billie wanted to stay up there, but finally, Professor Kroft and I got her moving.


    The sun had risen both on the strip of Earth and in the Rainforest World, though we couldn’t see it from our treetop perch. There was a dense mist, cold and wet, that would’ve soaked us if our clothes didn’t provide protection.


    Like with the stains, they absorbed the water and kept us dry. I was curious what would happen if we went swimming in them. I would imagine the material would get wet, but the minute we were out the water, it would be dry again.


    Climbing down was harder than climbing up, but we took it slow. We were soon standing on the ground, where looked like a slaughterhouse. Blood and bug parts were everywhere, crushed further into the soft soil by big three-toed footprints.


    I’d watched the Jurassic Park movies. I had my theories.


    Then again, it might be the Jurassic period from another planet and not my own.


    Did the energy storm cut through time as well as space?


    On the way back to the bus, we found some purple berries, big and juicy, hanging in clumps on the limbs of a green bush.


    The professor warned us that eating random berries in a strange forest was a good way to end up dead. However, she had a method she used to test them. First, she said not to eat berries if they were a certain color— green, yellow, or white. Next, she said we needed to avoid plants that had spines, bitter smells, or milky sap. Lastly, she used her fingernail to break open the berry. She licked the berry, checking for sweetness.


    Standing there in the forest, Billie and I were watching her closely.


    Professor Kroft’s eyelids fluttered. “Oh, yes, they are so sweet. Almost like a blackberry, but sweeter, without the hint of tartness. Now, I will eat one, and we’ll wait fifteen minutes. If there is no cramping, and I don’t think there will be, I’ll eat another one. If I don’t get sick or die, we have a food source.”


    Billie stood there with no expression on her face.


    There was no way I could guess what she was thinking.


    I knocked her with an elbow. “Are you okay?”


    She nodded, almost robotically. “Yeah. I was, you know, just thinking. In class, I would’ve memorized all that and forgot it ten minutes after I aced the final. Now? I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget Professor Kroft’s berry-testing method.”


    The professor laughed. “And that is why Homo sapiens were so very successful. Trauma reinforces memory. Finding safe food sources was of the utmost importance, and starvation is the ultimate motivator, without a doubt. The human mind evolved to remember what is edible and what is deadly. So far, I am feeling fine. This is very good news.”


    Billie was staring at Professor Kroft with a look of awe on her face. The day was warming up, and like always, she had cleavage showing. The water had misted on the luscious valley of her breasts, and she looked so good, her hair tied up in a bun.


    Billie was clearly looking at Professor Kroft with a look of lust on her face.


    Then she turned to me, staring into my eyes. She knew I knew she found our teacher hot. Her eyes sparkled with lust. It was like she was getting off with me knowing. For once, she wasn’t glaring at me. Her eye contact meant only one thing—she wanted both of us, me and the professor.


    Then Billie closed her eyes. “This is stupid. Okay. So, we need to come up with a system. We all know this place makes us…uh…tingle. Don’t make me say it. So, I think we can all agree that we can’t just have sex all day long. For one, I’m hungry. For another, I don’t want to have to transfer to a new college once we get back.”


    If we get back, I thought. I didn’t mention she wanted to transfer to Denver University after she married Mike Westa, the football player.


    Billie continued. “If we were to hook up, well, it would be so awkward. And I don’t want to cheat on my boyfriend.”


    I thought about mentioning the football player, but no, I didn’t want to use Billie’s breakdown from the night before against her.


    The professor nodded. “I agree. But we can’t wander off. For now, the bus and the spacecraft aren’t safe. Nor will I think they’ll be safe in the future, since, like us, the fleas know that they found a potential food source, and they’ll return to the bus to see if that food source returns. My solution? We find a private place, we take turns, and we deal with our desires that way.”Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Billie gulped in a breath. “This is so embarrassing, but I think you’re right.”


    Professor Kroft squinted. “My eyes are not good, and I would kill for my glasses, but I think there might be a rocky outcropping beyond these bushes and those trees in the distance. If we are lucky, we might find a cave or an overhang.”


    While we waited to see if the professor got sick, we found a game trail through the undergrowth which led us to a pool surrounded by boulders piled against one another. That was why there was a game trail in the first place—to help animals to get to the water.


    There was a little lip of rock that led to a cave-like overhang above the crystal-clear waters of the pool. I wasn’t sure about drinking the water, not without boiling it first, but at the moment, there was plenty of leaves for us to drink from. The leaf water was fresh from the rain, and it was unlikely that anything had peed in it.


    Professor Kroft nodded at me. “Stay by the sweetberry bush. I’ll be with you in a moment, and no peeking, Mr. Marshall.” She said it with a wink and smile. That made me want to peek even more.


    Instead, I grabbed Billie’s arm and led her away. It was like she wanted to stay and watch.


    We returned to the bush. The professor had the rifle, and she was only a two-minute run down the path. She’d be fine.


    I tried not to think of her slowly unzipping her jumpsuit all the way, getting out of it, and then teasing her nipples while she rubbed herself.


    Billie shrugged me away. “Okay, Sid. You don’t have to grab me.”


    “I didn’t grab you,” I sighed. This girl. What was I going to do with her?


    She brushed her hand over her arm. “Okay. You didn’t grab me. I’m sorry I said that, but there’s something I need to talk to you about.”


    “Sure,” I said. “We have some time.”


    I then remembered we might have a lot of time. I’d waited for the professor a good half an hour the day before. Maybe she’d be quicker today.


    Billie folded her arms across her chest. “Last night, in the bus, before you were, uh, optimized, I…you…we.” She winced. “This is so humiliating.”


    There didn’t need to be that much drama. We’d survived a giant sand flea attack and spent the night trying to sleep in a redwood, taking watches. “I was there. I know what happened. Just spit it out.”


    Her worlds tumbled out of her. “It was a one-time thing, okay? I was feeling insane. I probably should still feel insane. I’m not going to cheat on Mike.”


    “Scott,” I muttered.


    “What?”


    I knew I was treading on dangerous ground, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Scott Fullerton. You’re with Scott Fullerton, even though he drinks. Mike Westa is the better bet. You were going to hook up with him this summer.”


    She looked at me for a long time, and I wasn’t sure if she was going to slap me or laugh.


    Turned out, she laughed. “Right. Yes. Scott. He really is sweet most of the time, and he’s trying to count his drinks and stop before he gets bad.”


    “Gets bad?” I asked. She didn’t scream at me for correcting her on the name of her boyfriend, so I figured I could keep going. “He doesn’t hurt you, does he?”


    “No,” she said quickly. Too quickly? It was hard to say. “I shouldn’t have said any of that last night. I kinda freaked out, but in my defense, I’ve never fought giant bugs before. And then the roaring and the growling and the monsters. I hate this. Do you hate it?”


    I thought for a long time, and I knew I needed to say what she wanted to hear, but I kind of didn’t care.


    “You like it!” she hissed like the words most pissed-off snake.


    Wow. You can pack a ton of accusations into three words.


    She didn’t let up. “You love being a superhero on another planet with two magically horny women and a ring of power, or whatever. Ring of power. That’s a thing, right?”


    I wasn’t going to answer that. Warner Brothers didn’t need my help promoting their shit.


    “I’m not a superhero, Billie.” I held up the ring. “And this thing calls me its host. There’s a good chance that it’ll kill me. I have no idea what it is, and it could be fucking up my cells as we speak, but yeah, this entire situation is kind of amazing.”


    Billie’s lip quivered. “How can you say that?”


    “We’re on another world. I bet you a million dollars that there are dinosaurs here, or something similar, and I’m guessing that energy storm is collecting all sorts of things from around the universe. I stood on the deck of a spaceship, a real spaceship, with a real alien. And there’s the possibility of cat girls.”


    “But what about your family and friends back home?” she asked. A tear a slid down her cheek.


    “I’m not close with my parents. My aunt and uncle, yeah, but I can tell you that my Uncle Marty would think this if the fucking coolest. And I’ve been thinking about my Aunt Kathy nonstop. They would be happy I was having this adventure.”


    I could’ve kept going. I could’ve said that I was being spared decades of work in construction, job sites, invoices, taxes. Fuck. At least the ring wasn’t asking me about my W-2.


    And who knew? There might be a way back, but I didn’t think so.


    “I’m close with my mom,” she said. “She’ll be worried. No one will know what happened. She’ll think I’m dead. My dad, though, definitely won’t give a shit. And my so-called friends probably won’t either. I wasn’t really me around them. I wanted so much to be…”


    She closed her mouth. “Never mind. We’ll get home. We’ll figure this thing out. I shot a lot of those bugs yesterday. Professor Kroft would shoot better if she had a pair of glasses. Maybe your ring can magic up something.”


    I laughed. “The ring did detect an anomalous energy source. It could be magic. I think it tapped into it somehow.”


    Billie sighed and turned away. “I’m going to try my best to keep it together. I don’t want to be a bitch to you, or to Professor Kroft. I also don’t want to be that whiny, crybaby girl in horror movies. I hate that. And I know, I’ve been that here, and it makes me feel bad.”


    I risked everything by going up to her and touching her back. “Listen. I was here alone, in the desert, and it was hot as hell, and all I could think about was finding a way to start a fire. We are all handling this stuff differently.”


    “I just wished I wasn’t so hungry,” Billie said softly.


    I was so fucking surprised when she leaned against me. I put my arm around her, and she put her head on my shoulder.


    A couple of months ago, this was exactly what I had wanted. Then she’d turned so cold.


    I now knew what she was capable of, and I had to be careful. Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice, shame on me. Aunt Kathy loved that particular phrase.


    We chatted more, but it wasn’t long before Professor Kroft came walking up the game path, putting her hair in a bun. “I feel so much better, refreshed, clean, calm. And the berries are perfect. I say we eat our fill, and then you two can take your turn at Privacy Rock.”


    “Not together, Professor!” Billie said out of nowhere.


    The professor took the outburst in stride. “Not together.”


    I only shook my head and chuckled.


    Billie Lynn Kidd was showing me more of her human side, and yet she could still be such a spoiled little brat. I didn’t think that was ever going to change.