With those three massive death birds in the air, we had no place to hide. It was either beach or grassland because there wasn’t a tree or building in sight. It was clear the three dinosaur birds were hunting, and they should be. An Eruvian octosheep would make an excellent meal.

  With no cover, it was a matter of fight or flight, and I wanted to fight, but I didn’t want to risk Billie. I could make it harder for the death birds to hit me. I had Opal alter my survival suit, so I was better camouflaged. I would’ve done the same thing to Billie’s suit, but my A.I. wasn’t paired with her outfit.

  I scooped her up, and then I turned on the afterburners. We both went streaking across the grass. I launched myself off a hill. When I hit the ground, I kept my feet moving.

  It wasn’t long before we were approaching the dark world I’d seen from a distance. There were crumbling buildings there under a sky choked with black clouds, the blackest I’d ever seen. In the sky was the line that separated the sectors—on one side was the blue of New Ireland and the other was the cloudy city. Or was that the smoky city? It might’ve been smoke.

  Regardless, the pterodactyls had seen us.

  They came zooming down, and I had to give up on flight and engage in the fight. I switched my multitool to ax mode.

  Billie was under me, hiding, as the first bird swooped.

  A gigantic claw reached me, and I swung the axe, cutting off a talon in a spray of blood.

  The death bird screamed and clutched its wounded limb to its belly.

  The others circled, probably trying to figure out if we were worth it. They weren’t leaving though. If they were hungry enough, they would try to get us again.

  I took off running with Billie and we made it to the first building, a crumbling cement structure. Crossing over, the smell of burning chemicals filled my nostrils. I had to wince.

  “There’s a new sector, Opal. What are we dealing with?”

  Sector 1.213.B (Voeux, Dezme Province, Fry City)

  “Not really helping, Opal. Can I breathe the air? Is that smoke? Any monsters you can detect?”

  That is smoke from several infinity fires burning in the sector. Prolonged exposure will cause issues in HOST COMPANION: Billie Lynn Kidd. This unit can filter out the chemicals in HOSTNAME: Sid Marshal’s respiratory system. Define monster for this unit. Are there any predators or sentient creatures with ill intent? Ill intent cannot be detected. No biological threats detected except for the three pteraxels above you.

  Okay, they weren’t pterodactyls, but something similar. And I would be okay in Fry City, but Billie wouldn’t be. Noted. I didn’t plan on being there long.

  Once inside the crumbling concrete structure, I changed my multitool from an ax to a bow. I nocked an arrow. Most of the roof was gone, but there was a section of concrete we could take cover under.

  A pteraxel landed on the cement wall across form us. Another landed right on the concrete above us, making dust rain down on us. The whole world was shaking. The wounded death bird circled us, screeching its little heart out. Losing a talon must’ve really hurt the thing.

  I fired an arrow at the reptilian bird across from us. It let out a shriek before taking off, but it didn’t fly very far. It soon dropped out of the sky, hitting the ground somewhere to the north of us.

  The bird above us peeked at us from the roof.

  I put an arrow through its head.

  It slumped down, right into the room with us. It stank like a swamp.

  The wounded pteraxel continued to fly overhead, screeching and squawking, clearly upset I’d killed two of its friends.

  For several long seconds, Billie and I waited inside the place. There wasn’t any furniture, just bare cement and the dead pteraxel.

  “What was this place, Opal? And what’s an infinity fire?”

  Voeux suffered from environmental collapse brought on by several nuclear wars. Infinity fires burn advanced plastics with distinct chemical properties. This unit’s scans suggest that this section of Fry City comes from fifty thousand years in the future. Scanning continued. This unit detects possible vehicles and some signs of sentient life in Fry City. Infinity fires are the Voeuxian term for the various pseudo-nuclear chemical conflagrations.

  So it was a wasteland. and dangerous too.

  Billie coughed weakly. “What’s she saying?”

  I relayed the information.

  “Great,” Billie whispered. “Finally we found a sector worse than all the other sectors combined. I fucking hate how this place smells. We should get back to Lonetree Ridge.”

  “Yeah.” Then I had a thought. “Opal mentioned there were birds of prey, but I didn’t think they would be like pterodactyls. We’re just lucky we didn’t run into the dogs. She did say, though, that there weren’t that many predators. Maybe we just got unlucky.”

  “Okay, so what does that mean for us?” Billie’s face was smudged. Her expression was grim.

  “It means that we have a relatively safe strip of land to explore east. At least it will be safe for a while, since I dealt with at least three of the pteraxels. We need to find Sector X, and we’ve been given a street that might lead us to Sector X. I need to get that gigantic power crystal first, and while I’m out there, I can grab some stuff from San Submerged. Then we can all hit the road.”

  Billie sighed. “Worst. Road trip. Ever. Well, at least now I can’t wait to get back to Lonetree Ridge.”

  I didn’t mention that Opal had mentioned something about vehicles and sentient life in Fry City. I didn’t want to add to Billie’s fear.

  It wasn’t long before the wounded pteraxel finally realized we weren’t worth the trouble, and the monster bird finally flew off.

  The pteraxel had been squawking and screaming so much that once it was quiet, we heard the dull of pounding of drums in the distance.

  Billie’s eyes were wide. “Do you hear that?”

  I nodded. “Opal is that Sleezenak drumming?”

  Unknown drumming detected. Uknown source. Similarities to known drumming sounds possible. Similar rhythms suggest possible relationship with Sleezenak. More information needed.

  “What did she say?” Billie asked.

  “She’s a definite maybe on the subject.”

  Once it was quiet, we didn’t wait very long before we ventured out from the building.

  Soon, we stood on a green hill, gazing at Fry City’s blasted landscape. I didn’t see any cars, only ruins, but I would have to take Opal’s word for it. The wasteland blackened the northern horizon. I couldn’t get the smell out of my nose, and that drumming continued.

  Now that we weren’t being attacked by death birds, the walk back to the beach cliffs didn’t take all that long.

  We found where the three sectors met—New Ireland, Fry City, and the Beachcliff World.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Billie turned to me as the surf thundered in the distance. “So what we were talking about when the pterodactyls attacked us?” Billie asked.

  “You and Khanna sharing me,” I said.

  “Oh. Right.” Billie’s laughter came out bitter. “I said that I’m like totally obsessed with you, and I wasn’t sure I could share. Okay. Fine. But then we ran for our lives from fucking dinosaur birds into the worst smelling place in the universe. It’s like the apocalypse shit out a nuclear war. My lungs still feel like they’re burning. And it should go without saying that I fucking hated the music.”

  I chuckled. “That’s funny.”

  Billie sighed. “That’s me saying weird stuff I’d never normally say.”

  “I like it when you’re not hiding who you are.”

  Billie came up to me, close, and took my hand in hers. “You see? That’s why I like you. You’re so sweet. And then there’s the fact that being around you makes me crazy fucking horny. I hate that you have another woman in your life, one that is fine with sharing, because if Khanna was like ‘no fucking way is my man having sex with anyone but me’ then that would change everything. But no, she’s like, ‘whatever, you can have sex with Billie, and Professor Kroft can watch, and we’ll have huge orgies.’”

  “I don’t think we’ll ever have huge orgies,” I said in my defense.

  “We better!” Bille nearly shouted. “I mean, if we’re doing this sharing thing, we should fucking share, like everything, all the time. It’s kind of like…perfect, you know?”

  “How is that perfect?”

  She only laughed and ran onto the sand.

  I ran after her as she jogged down the sloping sands to the ocean water.

  She didn’t stop but ran giggling into the surf.

  Our Paraxen survival suits were not only self-cleaning, but they dried immediately.

  Billie let a wave wash over her, and she stood, there shivering, her hair wet. “The water is freezing!”

  I walked into the water, wincing at the frigid temperatures. Holly had felt the water at some point and said it felt like the ocean near Santa Cruz, in northern California.

  “It’s good that it’s cold” I said. “That means there will be more life. Cold water draws more fish and larger and animals.”

  “Why does that not make me feel better?” she asked. She then pointed. “What’s that?”

  To the north of us, we saw little houses built into the cliffside. They looked like the cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde in southern Colorado, little houses made out of clay, like caves in the crag.

  “Opal, do you detect any life signs in those cliff dwellings?”

  Negative. The cliff dwellings do match the homes of ancient Marusians. Marusia, while mostly covered by oceans, has many such villages on the various island chains.

  “Anything?” Billie asked.

  I shook my head. “No life.”

  She then rushed over and took my hand and led me out of the surf. “That’s perfect.”

  “Perfect for what?” I asked her.

  We stood on the beach, the clouds providing us with a break from the sunshine. A light misty rain began to fall, just enough to chill the skin.

  Billie then kissed me, on the lips, and I enjoyed her slightly salty flavor. Her skin was warm compared to the cold air. I went to kiss her more deeply, but she stepped back.

  “It’s like this perfect fantasy,” she said. “It’s like how I used to dream about being shipwrecked on a deserted island. Except, you know, with that, there was the possibility we’d be rescued.”

  “We probably won’t be rescued, Billie, but I’ll do everything I can to get you home.

  “Sure, Sid, but until then, you’re going to help me,” Billie said in a very serious tone of voice.

  “How am I going to help you?” I asked.

  Billie started walking away, but as she did, she unzipped her survival suit. She then pulled it down to her waist.

  I had a view of her naked back and her muscular arms.

  She turned around. “Are you going to come help me or what? If I have to explain everything to you, this is never going to work.”

  Being on K’Shaul, I was always a little turned on, but seeing her naked back made me crazy with lust.

  But then Billie giggled and ran, heading toward the cliff dwellings.

  I could’ve used my optimized muscles to get to her, but no, I was happy to chase after her like a normal human.

  At the bottom of the ladder, Billie paused to pull her survival suit back on. She then scurried up the rungs and into the little house.

  I climbed up after her. It was going to feel nice to get out of the wet mist.

  Billie met me at the door. “I think we’ve found a nice little home away from home.”

  Across from us was a mattress covered by a variety of pelts and furs. Near the bed was a little pile of kindling next to a fireplace. A little table made from driftwood completed the picture. The place was sparse, but clean. Outside, a chill rain had started to fall. Storm clouds darkened the skies. A little window in the mud still provided us with plenty of light.

  “Opal, any bed bugs or other critters?”

  Negative. There is some dust, but this room has not been utilized, in any meaningful way for an indeterminate amount of time. This unit believes this ancient Marusian dwelling is more than two centuries old.

  “Thanks.” It didn’t mean the bed was two hundred years old, only that the world was. It seemed the Marusians themselves hadn’t been brought along.

  “What did she say?” Billie asked.

  “No bed bugs.”

  “What’s the mattress made of?”

  Answering HOST COMPANION: Billie Lynn Kidd’s query. Mattress is stuffed with Marusian sleeping kelp, a type of seaweed that expands when dried. The mattress itself was fashioned from that same kelp, woven into a fabric.

  I relayed what Opal had said.

  “Weird,” Billie whispered. “It doesn’t smell like seaweed.”

  Then, me and my former crush stood there, somewhat awkwardly. The only sound was the surf below.

  “You should start a fire,” she said softly.

  She walked farther into the room, unzipping her survival suit before peeling it off her shoulders. She then pushed it down and stepped out of it.

  There was she was…as naked as the day she was born.

  “But you’re naked.” It was a lame thing to say, but my head wasn’t working very well. My eyes went from her gorgeous face down to her perfect B cup breasts capped by pink puffy nipples. Then I drank in her entire body—her waist, her hips, and the triangle of blond hair between her legs.

  Billie smiled. “I am naked. You’re going to be naked soon. A fire would feel so good.”

  It wasn’t long before I had a little fire snapping and crackling. The wood was so old that it was easy to light.

  Billie knelt on the bed, wrapped in fur, while I worked.

  The fire removed the chill from the room.

  I turned, and she gave me a big smile. “Come here.”

  I knelt down in front of her. The mattress was surprisingly soft. Our little shelter would’ve been gloomy if not for the happy fire burning away.

  It was so nice and warm in there with her.

  The fire put a golden glow on one side of her face. The other side was lost in shadows. “Sid, I want to be honest with you.”

  “Good,” I said. “We wouldn’t want you to keep your emotions hidden. You’re such a mystery sometimes.”

  That made her laugh. I was grateful. “Right. I’m sooooo hard to read.”

  “So hard,” I agreed.

  Then she kissed me, and this time, it was long and sweet. I inhaled her familiar scent, a little musky after the pteraxel fight.

  She drew back and looked me in the eye. “I want this. I’ve thought about the fact that I have to share you, and I’m okay with our setup. You and Khanna. You and me. And I bet it won’t be long before you hook up with Professor Kroft.”

  “I don’t know about that. Holly has made it clear that she still sees us as students.”

  “Maybe that gets her hot,” Billie said. Then she took hold of the zipper on my suit and pulled it down until my chest was visible.

  She bent and licked the exposed skin. Before I knew it, she had pushed the survival suit off my shoulders and halfway down my arms. She had let the fur fall back, and I was given a view of her breasts. Her ass was in the air, and I couldn’t help but put a hand on one cheek and gave it a squeeze.

  Then she kissed me again.

  Unexpectedly, she pulled back. Her voice was hushed. “I’m not like normal girls. I never have been.”

  I smiled. “You’re not like a werewolf, are you?”

  “No,” she said, sighing. “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “I won’t. You’d yell and throw things if I did.”

  Her eyes dropped, and she was suddenly staring at the mattress. “I’m weird, Sid. In all kinds of ways. If I’m going to be trapped here, and if I’m going to be living out my fantasies, I’m not going to hide myself anymore. I want to know if you can handle that.”

  She then looked me full in the face, and I could see how afraid she was.

  I think a part of her expected me to reject her.

  Instead, I leaned forward and kissed her gently. Moving to her ear, I whispered, “I’ve been optimized by alien technology fueled by magic. I think I can handle anything you can dish out.”

  “I’m super nasty,” she said. “I love to smell things. I love to taste things. Maybe I am a werewolf but more like a sex werewolf. I don’t want to hold anything back.”

  “I don’t want you to.” Staring into her eyes, I wanted to make it clear that I was determined to accept her as she was.

  But how weird could she be?

  She smiled. “If I can’t be myself in this fucked up place, where can I be?”

  “Why haven’t you felt free to be yourself?”

  She winced and looked down. “That’s a whole big story. But a lot of it was because my dad was such an asshole. Nothing was ever good enough. I had to wear a mask. My mom…I love my mom…but she encouraged me to hide myself away. To wear a mask. To watch every word I said. At home it was bad, but at school it was worse. I saw how people who didn’t fit in were treated. I swore to myself I wasn’t going to be an outcast in college. I was going to win the game, no matter what.”

  I’d thought all of that popularity stuff was stupid, but then, I had other shit going on. Most of high school was just a lot of talk and posturing. I’d rather go hunting with my uncle.

  “Even if you win the game,” I said, “it’s only four years. Maybe eight if you win both high school and college. Life is a lot longer than that.”

  “And it’s stupid, right? I mean, I’m with a guy and I can’t really remember his name, so how important is he going to be, really?”

  “So you’re breaking up with Scott? Or is it Mike?”

  Billie giggled. “It’s Scott. I wanted to get with Mike. But not anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  She grew serious. “Because I found someone better. I won’t forget your name, though, Sid. Never.”

  It was my turn to feel shy. “Well, it’s probably more about K’Shaul than it is about me.”

  “Maybe,” she whispered. “But there’s more to it than that. You never once pressured me or Holly into doing anything we didn’t want to do. You’re a good guy. I’m so glad I’m here with you and not Scott or Mike or whatever.”

  Then she tackled me, and I wound up on my back on the mattress.

  “I want to really be with you,” Billie said. “I’m done with those boys back home. I want you, here, now.”

  I kissed her, long and hard, and I wasn’t going to stop until we were both satisfied.

  .

  Land of the Lust: Guns of K'Shaul), so if you can't wait, you can run on over there to keep on reading. And if you have some extra cash and like the story, I have a PayPal.