It couldn’t have been more than one second of pain, but suddenly, there I was, standing on the sands of a new world. My first thought was that I should probably pull up my fucking pants. Then I realized I wasn’t wearing pants. Naked but not in pain, I watched the hundred-foot-wide black wall of boiling clouds sizzle across the landscape, but I was having trouble with what I was seeing.

  On the right was a rain forest, with huge redwood trees, ferns, and undergrowth.

  On the left was the desert outside of Grand Junction, in a perfect line, sagebrush, sand, and some of the drooping Junipers. A chunk of cliff wall rose above me about ten feet from where I stood. In the distance was some asphalt and half of the bus. And then there was just more desert. It was like someone had carved out a hundred feet of my world and slammed it down between the rain forest and a real desert, the kind with sand, only this sand was red.

  Shading my eyes, I glanced up, and yes, there was the sun above my Earth, sure, in my Colorado sky. But then, above the red sands, there were two suns in the sky, one that was yellow and one that was far smaller and the color of blood. My eyes went to something winking at me from out on the red dunes. Some kind of metal was there, half-buried in the sand.

  My eyes then went to the sky above the rain forest. Clouds drizzled down a light rain, which pattered down on the tall trees and undergrowth.

  I had to be dead. Or dreaming. Or tripping. Or all three.

  The storm had come out of the northwest, and in my mind’s eye, I mapped out its path. Those clouds had carved away some of the cliffs, hit me, and kept on going, missing the class but hitting the bus. That all tracked.

  But where were Professor Kroft and Billie? They had been standing right there.

  I closed my eyes. It was time to freak the fuck out. It was time to lose my fucking shit.

  Or, I had another option.

  I’d grown up going on hunting trips with my uncle, who couldn’t really hold down a job, but always seemed to have money. My own old man always worked and never saved a dime. It was why I was studying economics. I didn’t want to end up like my father.

  But Uncle Marty was a different story. He had any number of investments working for him, and so he had a lot of free time. Me and my uncle would go hunting in the fall, but before that I had to pass a hunter safety class. I remembered the basic gun safety stuff, but more than that, they talked about surviving out in the wilderness, and how you can freak the fuck out if you’re not focused.

  Uncle Marty had driven it home. First thing you do? Don’t fucking panic.

  Second thing? Start a fire.

  A fire gave you focus. It also could be used as a signal. Even more than that? A fire was friend, you could talk to, nurture. It was something that kept you accountable because if you didn’t take care of it, it would die. Friends don’t let friends die.

  It was stupid to think about building a fire, standing in the hot sun, but I wasn’t going to question myself. I was swallowing some hard fucking truths. Better to take it easy on the logistics and do the next thing.

  I made my way to the bus, which had been sliced apart by the storm. The front was gone, but about twenty feet of the back had been brought over.

  I crawled inside, hoping someone had left something behind.

  Nothing but seats, seatbelts, and a grimy floor.

  I could use it as a home base, though. I wouldn’t want to be out in the open once the sun set. Or would it set? How did that work? I could see different skies, each meeting in a precise line. That shouldn’t be possible, not in any universe that made sense.

  I didn’t need to think about that. I had a fire to light. But there weren’t any matches on the bus. No lighter either.

  I drew a hand through my hair. I should’ve been covered in sweat, but my hair was dry. Did I have a new body? Or had the stormfront magically dried me out?

  I felt my sanity tilt. “Don’t go there, Sid. Just try and build a fire. It’s stupid, I know, and it’s crazy you’re talking to yourself, but come on.”

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  Even with me going crazy, I felt the lust, and I got hard.

  “No. That can wait.” I felt something inside turn into iron.

  “Go check out the dune,” I whispered. “And if you need to talk to yourself, you go right ahead. This is some trippy fucking shit. Let’s focus on building a fire, getting shelter, finding clothing, and finding water. The rain forest is good for that, but you need something to collect that rainwater. Food is going to be an issue, but not for a while.”

  Fire. Shelter. Clothing. Water. Food.

  The order wasn’t right. Water and shelter came first.

  “What if there’s no one else here?” I asked the bad question.

  That first wave of fear hit me hard.

  The second wave was worse. “What if I’m not alone?”

  Anything could be out there. I was clearly on another world…if not three.

  I couldn’t think like that. I had to focus on survival, and for some weird reason, that meant a fire. Normally, I would’ve had waterproof matches or a lighter, but at that moment, I didn’t even have socks.

  Leaving the bus, I walked to the line on the ground. I stood there with one bare foot on the dry brown dust of Earth and the other on the rough, red sand of some other reality. What the hell?

  Something was half-buried in the sand. It was a red crystal, about the size of my fist. I picked it up, feeling the hot, smooth glass. I peeked through it and saw the dunes, painted an even darker color of crimson. I kept the crystal, not really understanding why.

  Jogging across the sand, I felt the heat of the twin suns frying me. It had to be at least a hundred and ten degrees, but it felt cool compared to that storm that had incinerated me.

  I ran toward the structure, half-buried in the closest dune. The closer I got, the more unbelievable my situation became. The metal of the object had a blue tint to it, and it was round, like your classic flying saucer. I didn’t know for sure, but that sure looked like a spaceship covered in red sand.

  Getting closer, I saw that one side of the saucer had been sliced open, like the bus.

  I approached carefully. I had no idea what I was going to find there. However, a fucking spaceship had to have more supplies than the janky bus. If it was a spaceship…

  I climbed up the dune, my heart pounding.

  Reaching the edge, I pulled myself up.

  Yep, it was an alien spacecraft all right.

  An alien lay on the floor, one hand outstretched.

  I wasn’t sure what it had looked like before the crash because only bones were left. Its skull had what looked like fangs. It was wearing some kind of gray jumpsuit, bleached nearly white by the sun.

  It had a thumb and three fingers—the tips were claws—and on one finger was a ring.

  My Aunt Kathy had been crazy about jewels and could name all the major ones. This was an opal, definitely, in a simple bluish-gray steel setting.

  The crazy storm had cut off the front of my bus, but in the case of the starship, it had snipped off the bridge. But with all the dust and the bones, it seemed to have happened a long time ago. There was only the one room, and most of it was that steel-like blue metal. There seemed to be compartments, though.

  I climbed off the hot sand and stepped onto the cool metal of the ship. I gripped the red crystal. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was something.

  Then, the red crystal disappeared from my hand. It was just gone.

  But the opal in the ring gleamed with that same red light. Had the ring somehow absorbed the crystal?

  A second later, something moved, something small, and then, I watched in wonder as the opal ring scurried toward me. It had grown spider legs and before I knew it, it leapt toward my face.

  I put up a hand to protect myself.

  Sharp pain bit into my left hand, my ring finger, where I had hoped one day to wear a wedding band. I looked down in horror at the blood gushing down onto the floor. Those spider legs had dug into my flesh. The opal was gone, and it was only a steel ring, though the surface of it was rippling, like it was liquid.

  I tried to rip the ring off. No, the ring was now connected to me, cutting through my flesh and tightening around my bone. That’s how it felt at any rate.

  “What the hell?”

  This felt like one surprise too much.

  Then the pain in my head made me fall to my knees. I clutched my head, but it wasn’t my head, it was my eyes. My eyes were killing me. My vision went black and for a second, I died a little. How could I navigate the new world blind?

  Then the pain left my head and suddenly I was seeing static. Still, static never looked so good.

  The static cleared for a second, but I was seeing a readout right there in my vision. At first, all I saw were runes, but the pain returned, and it was like someone had taken a Dremel tool to the inside of my skull. Slowly, as the pain got worse, the runes turned into English. It was like my head was being re-programmed.

  I glanced around the ship and wherever I looked, I saw the same thing.

  <<< >>>

  Location confirmed: K’Shaul.

  Power Source Found.

  Anomalous energy detected. Magic???

  New HOST detected. Primate species. Intelligence level???

  Primary mission incomplete

  Biosystems Scanning…

  Results pending….

  <<< >>>

  I now had a name for the strange world where I found myself. K’Shaul.

  The ring felt like fire on my hand, but I didn’t dare try to rip it off. Maybe if I’d had a hatchet, I would’ve cut off my finger. I’d read a book when I was a kid about a guy surviving in Alaska, and all he had was a hatchet.

  Well, hell, I was doing better than that. I had a fucking spaceship.

  Along with the pain in my finger, I felt a tingling in my toes and then a cramping in my calves. Both my legs were suddenly on fire, the pain rising from my calves to my knees.

  What was scanning me? Alien technology from somewhere?

  Every second brought more agony. It would only be a matter of time before it reached my johnson. I wasn’t looking forward to that, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  Land of the Lust). And if you have some extra cash, and you like the story, I have a PayPal. Or if you just wanna escape to another world for free, that's a legitimate option as well.