by J R Hogan
One cautious step at a time, they approached me. We gathered around to stare at its contents.
I spared one look for Chastity. Her arms were wrapped around her chest despite the sweltering heat. She stared at the ground, her head turned away.
But she stayed close.
I turned back to examine the briefcase contents.
“She sure is interested in you,” Ling announced.
My jaw fell as I watched Ling extract and flip through several pages of information about me. It had my class schedule and home address. The hair on my neck stood when I saw a schedule of my daily routine, along with several candid pics of me.
“This is… unreal,” Sarah gasped.
She had taken another handful of pages and was staring at the first one, her eyes wide behind her glasses. “This is all incredibly complex theoretical physics, and there’s no way that any single person would have the resources or funding to carry out what I think is being described here.”
“And a switchblade,” Ling added, plucking it from a briefcase pocket. “I’ll keep it safe for her.”
I took one loose piece of paper and held it close. My hands shook.
“Professor?” Sarah asked. “What’s wrong?”
I lowered my hand and looked around at the four of them. “This is a list of opportunities to transport between worlds,” I explained in an even voice. “Several have happened in the past, far more than we knew about. But there aren’t any scheduled for the future. My return trip here was the last one.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
TOC
I returned the files and gave the briefcase to Sarah.
“Chastity,” I called, turning around to approach her. She clutched her arms tighter as I marched forward. “Why does this schedule show no more opportunities to go home? How do we get back? Who transported here before us?”
She looked genuinely sad. “Is there any point in telling you that I don’t know?”
I put my hands on my hips, standing three feet before her as she continued to stare at her feet.
She was either truly defeated, or she was a very, very good actor. I looked over her lab coat, now smeared with dirt and grass stains, and sighed again.
There didn’t seem to be any advantage in her continuing to lie. My lips drew thin. “I believe you,” I said. “But I don’t trust you.”
I turned my back on her.
“Every answer leads to five new questions, and there’s nothing for us here. Let’s go home.”
Chastity glanced at the briefcase in Sarah’s hand. “Can I have my-”
“No,” I snapped.
Jessica and I led the way back through the jungle. Chastity took the end of the line, distantly following the rest of us. We moved without speaking; pushing through the landscape was challenging enough. Every fallen log I had to climb preceded a different one that I had to crawl under. By the time we emerged on the beach, I was drenched in sweat. I couldn’t articulate how grateful I was in that moment for the shampoo and soap waiting for us back at camp.
“Something’s wrong,” Jessica gasped as she whipped her assault rifle into the attack position. Adrenaline bolted through my chest as Ling raised her shotgun and Daisy whipped out both Glocks. I followed Jessica’s line of sight and nearly keeled over.
Our entire camp had been raided. All of our food, weapons, and supplies were gone.
Ling raced forward. I chased after her. “Wait!” I yelled, “WAIT!”
I grabbed Ling and wrapped my arms around her bare shoulders just before she burst into our campsite. “We don’t know if it’s safe,” I whispered directly into her ear.
“We aren’t safe!” Ling screamed at the campsite. “You can’t get rid of us! We’re not going away!” She sobbed. “We’re not going anywhere.”
I let her go as she knelt down and cried. I was unfailingly awkward when handling tears; I stood over her for a moment before squatting and hugging her close. She pressed her face against my shirt. I held still as the cloth grew warm and wet.
The footsteps made me turn around. I was shocked to see that Chastity had reached us before anyone else.
“You’re going to hate me no matter what,” she said.
Ling looked up and scowled at her.
“For better or for worse, our fates are linked right now.” She lifted her own pistol and marched into the campsite, exposing herself to several blind corners all at once.
No one stopped her.
The other three moved in behind me, rubbing Ling’s arms and hugging her. I felt even more awkward in that moment, so I stood and followed Chastity’s path. I crouched behind a bush, heart pounding, and peeked over the leaves.
Chastity didn’t know that I could see her wiping away a tear.
Snap
I nearly shit my pants before realizing that I had broken a twig. She whirled around and aimed the pistol at my head.
For a moment, neither of us breathed.
Then she lowered her weapon. “It’s clear,” she announced, “that whoever was here didn’t want to stick around.”
I stepped forward to check the damage. “Damn,” I breathed, bending down to pick up a plastic spoon that had been dropped in the sand. “They took everything.”
“That just means we have nothing to lose,” Jessica responded as she stepped behind me. Her finger was on the trigger. “Chastity, I think it’s time for you to lead us to some thieves.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
TOC
Chastity stepped back in surprise. “I – it doesn’t work that way.”
“Sure it does,” Jessica pressed as Daisy moved next to us. Both Glocks were now holstered, looking greatly oversized in comparison to her tiny shorts and shirt. An image of Lara Croft ran through my mind, and I had to force myself to stop thinking about her thighs so that I could focus on the task at hand.
“I don’t know enough about these people to find them,” Chastity stammered.
“Could you do it if your life depended on it?” Sarah asked, stepping forward with Chastity’s briefcase held tight.
“Are you threatening me?” Chastity squeaked, stepping back farther.
“You need supplies to survive, and this jungle doesn’t forgive any mistakes,” Ling announced as she moved in front of the rest, eyes red but head held high. “So if you want to stay alive, you’ll need to get on our good side.”
Chastity’s eyes darted around wildly before she stared at the ground again. “They were here before us. We didn’t send them. The hope was that you’d be able to make contact, and we’d learn more.” She sighed. “It’s not clear if they came from our world or not. All we really know is that they possess only very primitive technology, but are still able to thrive amongst the dinosaurs.”
“How did you know about our personal objects?” Sarah pressed, stepping forward. “One of the first things that you told us was that we must have found our ‘linking objects’ from the past.”
Chastity was actively fighting tears now. “You aren’t the first people we sent, either.”
An involuntary snap shot through my body. “There are others here that you sent?”
She looked at me through watery eyes. “Not anymore.”
“Did you bring them home?” Ling asked the question I was too uncomfortable to speak.
“It… was too dangerous to risk searching for what was left of her,” Chastity answered in her quietest voice yet.
The sun beat down on my head. The waves crashed. The jungle buzzed.
I wanted to take it all in, to enjoy the moments of whatever life I had left, but I couldn’t. My heart was on my sleeve and divided four ways; I realized that I may never feel peace again.
I nodded. “You say they have no advanced technology. They stole our bullets, but we have the guns. We’ll fight.”
All five glared at me.
I knew I had to win them over.
And I knew they wanted
to be won.
“We need to move right now if we want our supplies back before dinner. They clearly think we’re no more intelligent than a pack of dinosaurs; our advantage is that they don’t know how dangerous we really are.”
For a moment, no one said anything.
Then Daisy stepped forward. “Lead the way, Professor Swift.”
Adrenaline rolled through my chest. This was the first unprompted thing that Daisy had said to me since she’d gotten distant. I was overcome with the same ‘high school crush’ anxiety and mild nausea that I thought I’d beaten.
I smiled. I’m sure it looked awkward, but it was real. “Jessica, if you can track wild hogs, you can track people, right?”
She moved next to me. “The two are a lot more similar than you’d think,” she answered. “Everybody ready?”
Sarah pulled the katana strap tighter around her back as Ling tucked the knife under her bra clasp and slid behind me. Jessica stepped toward the jungle with Daisy close by. We crossed Chastity, who waited for all of us to pass before falling in line.
Together, we stepped away from the beach and followed the jungle path.
I moved close to Ling as we picked our way among the trees. “Hey,” I whispered, “do you think that-”
“It’s not quite time to approach Daisy. She still needs space.” Ling turned to me and offered a half-smile. “But she’s warming up.”
I nodded. “So I should-”
“No.”
“Ah,” I responded. “But I haven’t-”
“Still no.”
I nodded as I ducked under a low-hanging branch. “So you think-”
“Yes.”
I stopped talking, because I felt smarter that way.
The path crossed a thick log that I scrambled over, rolling to the other side.
“Professor,” Ling called from behind me.
I turned to see her standing on top of the log, looking down at me with an expression that sent a thrill through my gut yet had no name. It felt like my spine was being massaged from the inside, oddly pleasant but unnerving in its power.
“Will you help me go down?”
Her silhouette loomed over me with the glowing canopy of leaves just behind as I reached out both arms and took her. She leapt into my grasp, and my mind melted just a bit at how soft her skin felt beneath my fingers. She was so light; Ling had such a strong edge that it was easy to forget she was miniscule but fierce. The scent of cinnamon and coffee flashed by as her hair brushed my face, and for just a moment I was lost in her endless brown eyes. Ling’s body pressed against mine as I imagined being back at home, holding her in my arms as we walked into the night together.
“Professor?” she asked, pinning me between reality and imagination.
I raised an eyebrow.
She leaned into my ear and whispered, her hot breath filling me with cold chills. “Thank you for helping me off the log. But given how hard your dick is drilling into my stomach right now, I think that you need to re-focus on the task ahead.”
I looked down at my jeans to see that she was quite correct. My face burned as I let go of Ling and turned away from her knowing grin.
I had to concentrate.
“Look, Professor,” Jessica called from ahead. She bent down and lifted a Q-Tip from the soil. “These certainly don’t appear naturally in the wild. I think our thieves crossed this stream. Let’s get to the other bank.”
I nodded and moved with her into the gently flowing water. I almost slipped; the bottom was slick, gooey, and muddy. Jessica grabbed my biceps in a sudden, fierce grip to avoid falling herself.
“Let’s move slowly, everyone,” I called. “It’s going to be very easy to lose our balance.”
I glanced behind me to see Ling pulling off her socks and Chastity removing her heels before following us into the stream. We moved delicately, which allowed us to keep our balance. We had gone about twenty feet before hitting the halfway point.
That’s when something whizzed past my head.
“DUCK!” Jessica screamed as the AR-15 erupted next to my ear. Instinct took over and I found myself stumbling forward onto the opposite bank, knowing that I had to confront whatever danger lay ahead of us before someone got hurt. I realized, distantly, that I was more terrified by the prospect of losing one of the women than I was of my own death.
I lost my balance as I stepped out of the water and fell onto the dirt, my palms smacking the ground, disoriented and quite vulnerable. Head and heart pounding, I sprang to my feet and ducked behind a tree, peeking out to view the landscape ahead.
Nothing.
“What the hell was that?” Ling called from behind me.
I turned to see that the others had followed me through the water and were scrambling onto the nearby riverbank.
“Get behind me!” I yelled, bordering on the edge of panic. “Hide! Now!”
The five of them raced toward me and dove behind the tree. We huddled close, everyone panting.
“Guns up, eyes up. Jessica, aim at that small rise ahead, I think it came from there. Ling, scan left, Chastity take the right, and Daisy – turn around and protect our rear. This could be a diversion.”
Everyone’s heaving body was pressed against mine, writhing in tension. I felt vulnerable, alive, angry, and raw.
“Did anyone see what flew by my head?” I demanded.
“It was an arrow,” Jessica answered. “It stopped in a tree behind us. It looked like the ones used to massacre that dinosaur pack.”
“Shit,” I breathed. This enemy had the twin advantages of surprise and our supplies.
I teetered on the edge of panic. What was I supposed to do if an unseen enemy was holding all of the cards? These women counted on me to protect them. But in this moment, I had no idea how to do so, even though I was willing to give anything.
Anything.
An idea flashed through my mind, and I knew I had to chase it before my conscious brain considered it too deeply.
“If they attack me, they’ll have to reveal themselves. Your guns will give you an advantage, and they will no longer have the element of surprise. Only follow me if they don’t attack.”
“Professor,” Jessica gasped, her eyes wide, “you’re not going to-”
I grabbed the back of her head and kissed Jessica, because kissing is better than thinking. She melted into it, taking my scratchy cheek in one hand.
If I was about to die, there would be no regrets in that kiss being my last.
I pulled away before I was satisfied, because that’s the only way to make a kiss truly memorable.
Then I walked into the open.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
TOC
Movies would have us believe that anyone facing a devastating yet noble fate exudes righteous valor. Movies are full of shit; I would have pissed in my pants if it weren’t for the women watching me.
My wet, muddy shoes squelched in the eerie calm as I stepped away from the tree. On one hand, I wanted to know where the enemy was. On the other, I really, really didn’t want to be impaled by an arrow. I wondered how badly it would hurt to die from being run through by a crude wooden stick. The only realistic options were “very badly” and “extremely badly.”
I tried to swallow, but my throat was sandpaper-dry.
Squelch, squelch, squelch
Waiting for death is an odd experience. While you hope it doesn’t come, part of the mind so desperately craves the release of tension that the prospect is nearly welcome. My breaths came in short gasps; the air felt thick, pressurized. I kept listening for the slightest sound that would signal an imminent attack.
I stopped breathing.
“No!”
I nearly passed out from shock as I whirled around.
“I’m not letting Professor Swift use himself as bait!” Sarah cried, her voice ready to break. She ran toward me, her sword awkwardly raised.
“Wait!�
�� I yelled, but it was too late.
Every one of them had followed her.
Even Chastity.
They formed a protective barrier around me, facing five separate directions.
We froze.