Professor Kroft had found a good place to start a fire. It was right in front of a massive redwood with a trunk so big you could park a Ford F350 inside and have room to spare for your biggest Husky rolling toolbox.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that she’d found enough dry grass and tinder to get a little blaze going. It hadn’t rained that much day in that world, and so things had dried out a little. We’d be lucky if the dry spell lasted the night.

It wasn’t very dark, not with all the moons shining down. The few shadows were lit by fireflies the size of my fist fluttering around. The light show was beautiful.

“Are you seeing that?” I asked the professor.

She didn’t respond. Was she depressed?

I had to know. “Listen, Professor, normally, I wouldn’t mind the silent treatment. But our lives are on the line, and I need to know you’re not about to snap.”

She crouched in front of the fire, feeding it sticks. For a second, I thought she wasn’t going to respond. But then she whispered. “Why did you leave Billie behind?”

“What?” I asked.

She blinked and stared at me. It was like she was someone else. Her voice came out measured and fucking condescending. “I said…why did you leave Billie behind?” She emphasized every word.

I controlled my anger because I didn’t want to say anything I couldn’t take back. “Billie suggested I come and talk to you alone because you’re struggling, and we need to know what is going on with you.”

“I’m fine,” she said.

“And I have two dicks. You’re not fine.” I thought about sitting, but no, this felt like a fight.

The professor grimaced. “Two dicks would be a lot to handle. But I’d try anything once…if not twice. Sometimes it takes a bit to enjoy new depravities, but remember, it’s only kinky the first few times. But I can’t talk about that with you. Or Billie.” Her voice drifted off, and she seemed mesmerized by the flickering flames.

She then cleared her throat and repeated her bullshit. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me. Now, why don’t you get the meat started? It’s late, and I’m tired and hungry for something more filling than sweetberries.”

“No,” I said firmly. “We’ll start cooking once you tell me what’s wrong.”

She shot to her feet. “You don’t get to decide that. You don’t get to rule over us.”

She stormed over. Yes, she was taller than Billie but taller than me.

Why was she acting like this?

I stood my ground. “I’m not ruling over anyone. I’m the only one strong enough to pull the meat down, and I don’t want to do that until you come clean. This is important, Professor Kroft. If you were physically wounded, I would need to see the wound to help treat it. This is the same thing. Don’t hide your pain from me, or it might fester.”

“Wise,” she said, a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips. “I didn’t expect wisdom from my B-minus student.”

“Not sure an A in anthropology would help me run my business better,” I said. “No offense. I liked your class, but my GPA was the least of my worries, but let’s talk about the here and now. I’m glad you’re here, and I think with your knowledge, you can help us survive. But your personality change in the last half hour has me worried. Maybe you breathed in spores, or maybe you’re under some sport of a spell. According to Opal, there is magic in the air. Or were you poisoned? Did something bite you?”

She laughed a little. She sounded exhausted. “If only it was physical.” She closed her eyes and then turned away from me. “Sid, I can’t open up to you, but you’re right…I am not in my right mind. I hardly slept a wink last night, and then today…the giant rattlesnake out in the dunes, and the dinosaurs, and the mysterious women in the forest. I’m scared.”

“Only the one huntress.” I risked closing the gap with her and gently put a hand on her back. “Look, Professor, I know this is all terrifying. I have a fucking alien ring connected to my bones, and it’s optimizing me so it can go on some kind mysterious mission. It’s all kinds of fucked.”

She turned to me, and before I knew it, I was holding her.

What had happened? What was happening?

She had her arms around my neck. My arms circled her waist. She must’ve worked out, because the muscles of her lower back felt solid. At the same time her big breasts felt so pillowy pushed up against me. I had the urge to grab her ass and squeeze it. She felt so good, so soft in my arms.

She had her face in my chest, and my nose rested on the top of her hair. I smelled her hair, and her body, and while it was strong, it was like a perfume to me. Before I knew it, I was getting hard. There was no way she wasn’t feeling my erection pushed up against her.

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It was like we were slow dancing at a prom, only the age difference made that impossible. She was only a little younger than my mom, and her friends would’ve made fun of her if she’d taken a kindergarten to her high school homecoming dance.

It was clear that this older woman was coming unglued. It was ironic because I figured Billie would’ve been the problem child. Billie, though, was an open, bitchy book.

The professor was different.

She wasn’t crying, though I had the idea that she might start sobbing at any minute. She murmured into my chest. “There’s no going home. Even if we could find the energy storm again, chances are it would take us somewhere else. The pictographs, near the Kokopelli, were a warning for others. We should’ve listened.”

I eased the professor back. “How could we? We can’t predict the future. When my mom died, I was nine, at school, and I threw up. It was just the flu, right? But the nurse called my mom to pick me up. She never made it. There was this big car accident, and she never made it to the school. For a long time, I blamed myself for her death.”

“You were vomiting,” she said softly. A tear tracked down her face, cutting through the dirt.

“Yeah, but that didn’t matter. If she hadn’t left work to come and pick me up, she’d still be alive. Fuck, Professor, shit happens. There’s no protecting ourselves from that shit.” We were still entwined, but she’d dropped her arms to hold onto my hips. I had my hands still on her lower back, right above the swell of her hips.

Professor Kroft glanced away. “Billie thinks you’re enjoying this.”

I decided to be honest. “Part of me is. I think part of you is as well.”

Then she found my eyes, and I could tell she was pissed. “That’s incorrect, Mr. Marshall. I do not like being afraid. I don’t like relying on—”

She pushed herself away from me. “Please. I’ll feel better after I eat and after I rest. If we have a pleasant night, I’m sure my attitude will improve. I told you what was wrong with me. I’m afraid, and I’m so fucking aroused. This place has me thinking about sex constantly, far more than usual. And feeling your body, seeing your handsome face, and your cock, so fucking big and hard. It’s bigger, isn’t it? That’s what you said, right?”

She was trying to change the subject. I couldn’t really blame her. We were all going to be dealing with the shit in our own way, but I had to make sure she was okay. “Look, Professor, we don’t know what is really happening to us, and we don’t know if we’re stranded here. But we’re in this together, the three of us. We’re stronger together. You said that Homo sapiens were so successful because we could work together.”

“We tell each other stories,” she said softly. “The story of our tribes. The story of our gods. The stories of hope and survival. Maybe I’m telling myself a sad story that isn’t helping me.”

“I don’t know. Are you?”

She couldn’t meet my gaze. “Yes, and it’s the saddest of stories, the story of sorrow, loss, and death.”

“Change your story, professor.” I didn’t’ have a clue if I was saying the right thing, but I wasn’t going to stand there silently. “We need to have hope. We need to trust that while life gives us shit sandwiches sometimes, but we also get peanut butter and jelly every so often.”

Oddly enough, she smiled. “I have a peanut allergy.”

I laughed a little. “Why am I not surprised? And Billie was a vegetarian, but you saw how she chowed down on the meat.”

We laughed a little about that.

I found myself staring into her green eyes. I saw new strength in them. “Part of me is enjoying this, Sid,” she said softly.

“How so?”

“The adventure, the excitement, using the knowledge I’ve spent my life accumulating. It really is an opportunity I’ve dreamed of my entire life. To survive using my own intelligence and the natural world around us. But you can’t tell Billie.”

That made me smile. “I won’t. That would definitely push her over the edge.”

The professor raised her chin. “Yes, my new story will be one of hope and adventure. Life has given us this extraordinary experience. We shouldn’t waste it.”

“Sounds good to me, Professor.”

“My first name is Holly, Sid. I think it is far past time that you and Billie use my given name.”

I knew having us call her by her first name was a big step, and so I put out a hand. “Well, Professor Holly Kroft, I’m Sid Marshall. Pleased to meetcha.

She took my hand and shook it, looking into my eyes for several long seconds. Her hand was soft, and her eyes were so brave.

Then she sighed. “You do know I’ll have to see this obelisk for myself tomorrow.”

That made me chuckle. “If we’re lucky, you’ll be able to read some of the runes. Who knows, with your doctorate, you’ll be able to find a way inside.”

Holly smiled. “No doctorate for me. I have a master’s degree from Metro in Denver. I did extensive field research all over the Western United States and in Papua New Guinea as well as Malaysian Borneo. I was working on my doctorate from Phoenix University, and that was good enough for Mesa, at the time. Now, I’m nervous that my basket weaving won’t be up to snuff.”

“Is that why you thought maybe pottery would be better for storing water?” I asked.

The professor’s eyes traveled down my body, pausing at my groin, before she turned, obviously both turned on and embarrassed. “Yes, but we’ll still try the baskets first. I’ll tend to the fire.”

I had to adjust my suit. “Yeah, and I’ll grab the meat.”

“That’s what she said!” Billie came walking out of the darkness, holding the plasma rifle. “Are you guys okay?”

The professor cracked a stick on her knee and tossed it into the fire. “Yes, Billie. I was telling myself some sad stories, which scared me. Sid reminded me I need to be hopeful. We’ve only been here a short time, and there is so much we don’t know.”

Billie came over. “Okay. We’re going to eat, right?”

The CrossFit queen seemed far calmer, and I knew why. She’d used her alone time up in the trees to take care of her desires. That probably wasn’t going to be happening with me and the professor, at least not that night.

It was going to take me a while to get used to calling the professor by her first name.

Holly stirred the fire. “Since we are stuck here for the time being, Billie, I want you to call me Holly. If I become distant and difficult again, I would like you to remind me to tell myself hopeful stories.”

Billie’s cheeks flushed. “I’m not fucking dying here, if that’s what you’re saying. I’m going to get home. This is all just a weird dream…like, we might wake up any time.”

Both the professor and I exchanged glances.

“Sure,” I said. “This all might be a dream. But I’m going to eat.”

The professor went over and gave Billie and long hug. The embrace was nurturing, sure, but there was an edge to it, at least on Holly’s side. I remembered how she’d pressed herself up against me. She was doing the same thing to Billie. Would we be eating? Or would something else be happening?

No, even though the professor was letting us call her by her first name, I didn’t think she would let herself have sex with students any time soon. Besides, Billie had a boyfriend.

And so, it was going to be another long night for me. Little did I know that I had something waiting for me the next morning.