Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“Wrath’s not going to be happy with Allie,” Cadence smirks. “If he was mad when he found out we left, imagine how mad he’ll be when we’re gone… forever?”
“I know. She’s really going to get it. Did we walk past this tree before?”
“They all look somewhat the same.”
“They do. We should mark them. That way we would know if we had seen them before.”
“Good idea,” Cadence says. “Don’t worry, we have energy weapons and knives. We’re going to be fine.”
The problem, which I am sure has already occurred to both of us, is that you cannot eat energy weapons and knives, and we are both getting pretty hungry.
We’ve been walking for days. First we hunted. Then we realized we don’t know how to hunt. If it is sort of hoping that an animal leaps into the path of our weapon fire, that’s what we did.
Once we gave up hunting, we followed a stream. Then we thought we saw something that looked almost mechanical because it was rusty red, but when we got to it, it was just a flower patch.
I make a little notch in the bark of the largest tree next to us, and then we keep going.
“Water would be nice,” I add. “I am quite thirsty too, you know?”
“Yes,” Cadence says. “Water is nice.”
We walk for what feels like an eternity, making marks on trees intermittently. The good thing is, if it is a good thing at all, we’re not passing the same trees twice. This means we’re not walking in circles. The bad thing is, we don’t know where we are going.
“The ship crashed on the volcano,” I remind Cadence. “So we should just be heading for higher ground.”
“I agree,” she says. “Where is higher ground?”
“I don’t know.”
The problem is it’s a very dense forest and not much in the way of any directional markers whatsoever. Not even a sign. Nature likes to make things difficult. We have thought about climbing a tree, of course, because we’re not stupid, but the trees are either very willowy and would not support our weight or are giant behemoths with smooth bark and limbs that start dozens of feet above the ground. They’re not suitable for climbing, is what I’m saying.
“Shhh!” Cadence suddenly shushes me. I don’t really get why, until I stop to hear rustling getting closer and closer.
“Thank god,” I murmur. “Something might be coming to kill us.”
“That would save us the trouble of having to keep staying alive,” Cadence says, immediately getting my joke.
Two saurians come through the undergrowth, by which time the two of us have settled in at the foot of the tree, waiting for whatever is going to arrive to arrive. They are very tall, very handsome, and very golden. They gleam in the light filtering through the trees like a couple of sexy saurian Adonises. Cadence and I look at one another, and I know we are thinking the same thing: they’re hot.
The saurians look at us, somewhat surprised.
“Hello,” I say.
“Hello,” Cadence also says.
They stare at us, their green eyes appraising us. I get the impression they were looking for something, but maybe not us, exactly.
“Do you guys come here often?” I ask the question with a nervous smirk.
“Do you have anything to eat?” Cadence asks a better question.
Our stomachs mutually growl in the silent aftermath of that question.
“Leave them alone, Atari,” one says to the other. “We’re not looking for random human females.”
“We’re not going to leave them alone, Sega. They need our help.”
I’m learning their names, and that one of them is worse than the other, but it’s possible that neither one of them are any good.
Sega rolls his eyes. “What are we, a charity service for lost human females? They are humans, aren’t they? Unfortunate scaleless things.”
“I think they’re cute.”
“If you think they’re cute, then why don’t you try fucking one.”
“Whoa!” Cadence cuts in there. “That’s not happening.”
They ignore us, in the way males who don’t realize that both of the women they’re talking about violating are fully armed. We might be lost, but we haven’t discharged either of our weapons. That means we have more than enough juice to turn these two into saurian colanders.
“You can’t just fuck random forest humans,” Atari says, glancing at us. “I am sorry, ladies. I know this is very disturbing.”
“Stop talking to them like they’re people,” Sega sighs. “Just pick which one you want. I’ll take the short one.”
He’s talking about me.
Just like that, he starts walking toward me, as if he plans to just fuck me right here against the tree. I reach for my weapon…
BANG!
Sega, a saurian I just met, but already decided I did not like, crumples in front of me, very dead. But I did not shoot him. I haven’t even touched my weapon. It remains holstered, and very much fully charged.