At the bottom, she knelt down at the edge of the crystal-clear water. The stream was no more than a few feet wide and only deep enough to go up to one’s ankles. It’d be flowing hard for a few more days, at least until the local supply of fresh rainwater had been emptied from the land, and assuming that no more precipitation added to the already wet April. For ten of the twelve months, there wasn’t even a stream here. All the excess rainwater had to collect somewhere—the lowest point in elevation. Three miles to the west, the stream ended at a river.
Michelle reached into a pocket and pulled out a small glass vial. Carefully aligning the tip against the rush of fresh water, the vial filled instantly. She took it out and screwed on a small lid.
Isolated from the fast-moving stream, the water now appeared somewhat murky, even greenish. Michelle shook the vial quickly, causing a faint cloud to swirl around inside. There was already a fine substance solidifying on the bottom of the vial, a millimeter thick.
Michelle stuffed the now-full vial into the same pocket and stared upstream. Seven miles to the northeast was a nuclear power plant.
Even though regulations regarding radioactive waste disposal were long enough to fill up three full-length novels—including the much-acclaimed sequel and the disappointing third entry—it wasn’t impossible to come across illegal dumping grounds. Why not? The land out here was isolated and more than ten miles from the nearest town. Unless there was a hobbit occupying some hole in a hillside, not a single person was out here.
No one would ever know. Theoretically.
Unless, of course, the radioactive waste happened to leak into a local stream which then dumped into the closest river. Before long, the evidence of buried waste could be showing up a hundred miles downstream.
One of the more dangerous contaminants was the radioisotope strontium-90, created during the process of nuclear fission. Once a living organism consumed it, it could remain for decades, depositing in the bones and the marrow. Strontium-90 had been linked to bone cancer and leukemia.
Of course, there was no way to visually check if the water was contaminated with it or not. Michelle would have to take the sample back to a lab to be properly analyzed. After—perhaps a week later—a team would come out and pinpoint the source of the spill. In most cases, the nuclear waste was buried underground in the foolish hope that it would never be discovered. Nature always had a hand in leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.
A small green shape moved out of the corner of her eye. Michelle turned and spotted a frog hopping up to the water’s edge. It didn’t seem to be alarmed by her presence.
“Hey there, little buddy,” Michelle greeted it.
The frog jerked its head to the left, shooting out its tongue to catch a small fly hovering above the stream. In a quick flash, the buzzing insect vanished.
And then its second head did the same, Michelle saw.
“Oh, you poor thing.”
She felt sorry for it. Having one body with two heads surely made things twice as complicated, two sets of instincts in conflict. She reached out to touch its slimy back, but the friendly amphibian hopped away before her fingers made contact. It leapt away from the water, and then lunged back toward it, as if it couldn’t make up its mind—or minds.
Then, Michelle heard voices from not far off, and apparently so did the two-headed frog. It jumped into a nearby shrub, disappearing out of sight.
With the densest section of the fog swirling around her, Michelle stood and concealed herself behind a tree. Voices carried far and clear out here in the forest. They couldn’t have been more than a few paces away, though the thick haze made spotting them more difficult.
“—should be far enough out,” said a girl’s voice. “Isn’t it so nice out here?”
“It is,” a second girl said after a pause. “It smells so … so naturey.”
“You live in a suburb for so long that you forget what this smells like. There’s nothing else like it. It’s heaven.”
“You want us to stay out here for how long?” a guy asked.
“Two nights. You can survive that long, can’t you?”
“Of course he can. He’s just scared of being eaten by some wild animal.”
“No. I’m scared that I’m going to starve to death. Any of you seen the closest McDonald’s?”
Michelle peered around the edge of the tree. There were three of them, all young adults around her age. Right away, her attention settled on one of the girls, the one with a buzz cut. She was obviously taller than the other girl, and almost equal in height with the guy.
The second girl was a blonde, standing close to the only male in the group. They appeared to be a couple.
“Clothes,” the girl with the buzz cut announced.
“Already?” the guy whined.
“It’s only the three of us, Aiden. Who’s gonna see?”
“Uh, you two obviously.”
“The only way we progress is if we strip down. Your clothes will remain safe until you return to civilization.”
The leader of the three had already discarded her top, and the blonde was in the process of doing the same thing. Only Aiden was lagging behind. A playful slap on the abdomen encouraged him to do as the others were. A few seconds later, all three of them were topless, with the two girls quickly unsnapping their bras.
“Pants and underwear, too,” the leader instructed.
It was some sort of nudist outdoor adventure, Michelle realized. She had heard of them before. It was a way to get away from the real world and return to nature, or something or other. She didn’t quite understand the appeal of it all. And in April? They’d sure be missing their clothes once the sun went down!
Aiden was clearly the most reluctant of the three, as he was the last to remove the final piece of clothing. The two girls were already rolling everything they owned into a pile and carrying it at their chests.
“You know,” Aiden started after he was butt-naked just like the others, his white skin pale and untanned, “we didn’t bring any food or water.”
“Nature will provide. The animals live out here just fine. We’re animals too.”
“So, that’s a no to McDonald’s, then?”
“Come on, you wanted to do this with me,” the blonde said, raising her voice. “Now you’re chickening out?”
“I thought she’d bring some protein bars or something.”
“Ugh. Don’t listen to him. I explained it all perfectly clear.”
“Hey, I heard you! I just thought there’d be tents and other people. I didn’t know we’d be totally naked without anything.”
“By yourself, you might struggle,” the leader explained, “but we live together in a pack, and I’ll be your guide.”
“See? We’re in good hands.”
Aiden mumbled something that Michelle couldn’t hear.
The trio of wannabe adventurers crossed through the forest. Michelle turned to the other side of the tree, not wanting to make a single sound. She hadn’t meant to spy on them inadvertently! The window of time to make herself known had already passed, though. Stepping out and introducing herself now would just be too awkward. So, spying it was. Besides, she was honestly sort of curious about it all.
Michelle gulped when the three came upon the stream—the same stream where she had met that friendly two-headed frog.
“Like I said, nature provides,” the leader told the others. “There’s plenty of fresh water for us all right here.”
“And berries!” the blonde exclaimed, pointing to a series of green branches just near the water. Clumps of dark-colored, tiny fruits hung on the ends of them, dangling just above the stream. With how close the plant was, the roots of it had to be bringing in water from the stream.
“Blueberries,” the other girl said. “You’ll never taste any as fresh as ones taken from the plant itself.”
A bit early in the year for blueberries to appear, Michelle thought to herself. How odd.
“We have what we need right
here. Plenty of food and water. It’ll be easy to last two days.”
“I knew you were the right guide,” the blonde said. “Oh Aiden, isn’t this so wonderful? I feel so liberated without clothes.”
“Yeah, awesome,” Aiden grumbled. “But what about shelter? Are we just gonna find a big leaf to crowd under in case it rains? And some of the other animals … they might not be so friendly.”
Michelle’s eyes widened as the girl with the buzz cut snapped one of the branches with the berries. She popped one of the fruits off and aimed it toward her mouth.
“We won’t be staying in the woods. Just over the ridge there’s a—”
“No! Don’t eat that! Stop!” Michelle shouted, jumping from her hiding place and running to the group at full speed. The blonde was so startled by her appearance that she dropped her pile of clothes into the dirt to cover herself with her hands. It was an acceptable reaction to some crazy person jumping out from behind a tree!
“What the hell—” Aiden started.
“What are you talking about?” the blonde asked. “And who are you?”
Michelle pointed to the berries in the other girl’s hand. “Don’t eat those. I have reason to believe that they may be harmful to your health if you consume them.”
“Nina, what is she talking about?”
Nina’s eyes squinted. “How about you answer Meg’s question. Who are you?”
“Were you spying on us?” Meg shrieked.
Michelle shook her head, while retrieving her badge from the inside of her coveralls. She didn’t want it to get dirty out here.
“I work for the EDAD.”
“What’s that?” asked Meg, the blonde.
“The Environmental Disaster Assessment Division. I’ve been out here since this morning. I don’t want to ruin your little naked field trip, but that water isn’t safe to drink, and you shouldn’t eat those berries.”
Nina eyed the fruit in her hand. “It looks perfectly healthy to me.”
“So it does, but I’d rather you not take that risk.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
Michelle pointed to the northeast. “A few miles that way there’s a nuclear power plant. They’ve been dumping radioactive waste on this land. It’s all in the water.”
Nina rubbed her forehead. “Okay, from one professional to another, do you have any proof of this? My clients have paid a great deal of money to get away from smelly civilization. This stream flows quick and strong. On any other weekend, it might not be here at all.”
Michelle remembered the slimy amphibian. “Well, I saw a two-headed frog.”
Aiden and Meg exchanged glances, while Nina raised an eyebrow.
“So, you saw some two-headed frog. That’s your proof?”
“I have samples that I have to take back to a lab to get—”
“Don’t listen to her,” Nina interrupted, right before tossing the blueberry into her mouth and chewing. “Nature’s fruit is the purest of all.”
“Spit it out! It’s dangerous!”
Aiden took a blueberry and rotated it between his fingers, eyeing it suspiciously. “A two-headed frog is kinda weird. Where’d you see it at?”
“Not far from here,” Michelle explained.
“But that doesn’t mean anything,” Meg added. “What are we supposed to think? That nuclear waste caused that frog to grow an extra head? It sounds like something from a cartoon.” She popped a blueberry into her mouth before praising the fresh taste.
“So, how long were you spying on us?” Aiden asked.
“Long enough to see you about to eat those berries.”
“So you came instantly?”
Michelle nodded. “As quick as I could.”
“Aiden, you have to try the berries,” Meg said. “They’re so good!”
Michelle shook her head. “Don’t. You’re taking a great risk to your health.” She looked around the group. “There may be cancerous side effects.”
Aiden shrugged. “What doesn’t cause cancer these days?” he asked before stuffing a blueberry into his mouth and chewing. “Wow, that’s like the best one I’ve ever had! I don’t taste any cancer.”
Michelle sighed.
“Shelter isn’t far ahead,” Nina told them. “Just over this ridge. Not more than a five minute walk.” She turned to start in that direction, but a force pulled her arm back.
“No more of them,” Michelle said, yanking on the branch of berries in her hand. “Leave them.”
“We need them!” Nina shouted back, pulling hard. “We need food to live, you know.”
“Go back! Give them a refund, or … whatever! This stuff is dangerous!”
“What’s dangerous is my call! You go back and leave us be! We’re out here to get away from people like you!”
Michelle grimaced as she used every ounce of her strength on the branch of berries. It was a miracle the thing hadn’t split in two yet.
“No! I’m trying to save your lives!”
Nina turned her head. Further downstream was another batch of the plumpest blueberries anyone had ever seen. They were all clumped together, dangling from a low-hanging branch right next to the water.
“Oh, more of them!” she announced.
Suddenly, the counter-force keeping Michelle standing was gone. With the branch of berries now firmly in her grasp, she flew backward, landing directly in the middle of the stream. The ensuing splash was enough to soak most of her clothes and her red hair.
She immediately rolled out to the dry land, pulling every limb out of the cool water as quickly as possible. The inside of her mouth tasted wet.
Nina stood over her. “It’s going to rain soon. I reckon your vehicle isn’t that close by. No roads are.”
“Rain? That’s impossible. The sky is—”
Michelle looked up. Clouds had rolled in, and they didn’t look all that friendly. A dark gray sheet had been placed over the forest, and the scent of moisture was heavy in the air, despite the fact that the fog had mostly cleared out. It smelled like rain.
“There’s a place for us to stay, not far up ahead.”
“I don’t know how well a tent is going to hold up,” Michelle replied, ignoring what had happened just seconds before.
“It’s not a tent,” Nina corrected her. “It’s a house. A glass house.”
It was perched on the slope of a gentle hill, almost lost behind the trees that surrounded the foundation. Sturdy stilts kept the front of it off the ground, while the rest of it progressively sank into the hillside.
Nina hadn’t been lying; it really was made totally out of glass! The walls and the roof and … well everything else really. There wasn’t one opaque surface inside the place—except for the wood floor.
“Not much in the way of privacy,” Aiden remarked.
“Privacy was invented by humans,” Nina explained. “Out here, it’s pointless. What do we have to hide?”
Michelle was the only one of the four who wasn’t naked, but she wasn’t about to just strip out of her clothes right then and there to join them! Clothes were kind of useful, for one thing. Besides, this place didn’t look like it had any sort of heating system, or electricity whatsoever for that matter. It was just a giant cube made of glass.
Nina was heading for the stairs leading up to the place, but then altered her course toward the foundation of the glass house.
“Damn stuff,” she muttered.
“What is it?” asked Meg.
“Kudzu. It’s a plant that grows over everything,” she explained, pointing to the thick coiled vine wrapped around one of the support stilts. Nearly the entirety of it was covered by the winding plant. The end of it had made its way up to the glass. “It gets longer every time I see it.”
Michelle crossed her arms, seizing the opportunity. “I thought you liked nature.”
“Kudzu is unnatural. Humans brought it to this country. Now let’s get inside before it pours.”
Sprinkles were coming down by the t
ime the four had gone indoors. Despite its primitive intention, the glass house was quite roomy. There were three rooms with beds, though having sections of glass between them was rather redundant. Anyone could see any part of the house at any time, and the glass did little to prevent the travel of sound.
“No bathrooms,” Aiden sighed, eyeing each room curiously.
“No running water actually,” Nina added. “The glass house only provides a roof over our heads. Nothing more.”
Michelle straightened her back as she came over to her, sauntering in a way that seemed especially deliberate.
“You might want to take those clothes off to let them dry. It’s only going to get colder later.”
“I value a little bit of privacy. Besides, I’m leaving as soon as the rain lets up,” she told her. “The EDAD needs to know about this contamination right away. And, I recommend you three get checked by a doctor as soon as possible.”
Nina snorted. “Doctors are thieves. They don’t care about your health. I’ll know if something is wrong if I feel it.”
“But you might not feel it! When you do, it’ll be too late.”
Nina said nothing more.
As the rain came heavier and louder, Michelle entered the one bedroom that hadn’t been taken yet. Truthfully, they were all the same. Two walls overlooked the forest and beyond, while the other two offered an unlimited view into the rest of the house. Michelle saw that Meg and Aiden had taken refuge in the second identical bedroom, and Nina in the third. Their respective piles of clothing were nearby.
She wants to get back to nature, but stays in some man-made glass house, Michelle mused. Seriously, what the hell is this place?
Someone had to build it for a reason. Maybe it was one of those millionaire lunatics who was trying to reinvent the housing industry by constructing something totally outlandish. Or maybe it was modern art. Michelle couldn’t see any other purpose beyond that. Glass wasn’t exactly known for its insulating properties, and it wasn’t all that durable. A storm could come raging through, knocking down a branch from up above. That’s all it would take. Say goodbye to the roof over your heads!
Michelle observed Meg for a period of time, just watching the naked girl with whom she presumed to be her boyfriend. Neither of them had a ring on. They were chatting about something, probably about the house and going out into the woods without the familiar accommodations of modern life.
A Gender Swap Mega Bundle 6 Page 11
