by Logan Jacobs
“Thank you,” she said as she walked away.
I turned to study the other occupant of the room. The blonde was in front of the stove, in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants that ended at the knee. Her hair was bright and shiny in the candlelight, and her brown eyes looked remarkably warm. She already had a pint in her hand, which she sipped from as she watched whatever was in the pan.
“You couldn’t wait for me to join you?” I teased as I took a seat at the table.
“Oh, it’s not like I downed yours,” she said and gestured to the table. “There’s still two left.”
“Why did you get three?” I asked as I unwrapped one of the pints and took a sip. It was light and refreshing after our exhausting day, and I quickly took a second swallow.
“I didn’t want to leave anyone out,” the blonde said. “Besides, if Hae-won really doesn’t want it, I’ll have it.”
“As long as it doesn’t go to waste,” I joked. “What’s for dinner, by the way?”
“I’m cooking some of that pork we got from the shop,” she explained. “I’m going to roast these veggies, too, but the toaster oven is too small for everything to fit.”
“It sounds delicious.”
“It’s not as good as it could be, if I had the proper spices,” the British girl countered. “But it will do for now.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” I replied. “By the way, did Hae-won tell you about the articles we found?”
“Yeah,” Becka scrunched up her nose. “It sounds like a bunch of rubbish to me. I mean if they figured out where the portals were going to be, why wouldn’t they have just blocked them off and sent the military there?”
“You saw the size of the one that appeared today,” I said. “I don’t think it’s as simple as sending in the Marines whenever you think one of these things is going to open. What they really need to figure out is how to stop them from opening at all.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Becka said as she took another sip.
“But if it’s true, and there is a pattern to some of them, then we can use that,” I added. “We’ll know what areas to avoid and when.”
“I suppose,” Becka said as she flipped something in the pan. “Did you look into how the military is doing, though? Maybe that’s starting to pay off.”
“I haven’t checked yet,” I replied and then belched.
Becka shot me a look as I covered my mouth, too late. I know I blushed, and all I could heat was my mother telling me that it was very rude to do that in front of guests. Becka giggled and returned her attention to the stove. I looked down at my pint and realized I’d already drunk nearly half of it, and while that normally wouldn’t be a problem, I’d only had crumpets and stale potato chips to eat. I was definitely tipsy, and I needed to slow down or I’d fall asleep before dinner.
“How long until dinner’s ready?” I asked as I set my pint to the side.
“I put the pork in on the grill setting so it should just be a few more minutes,” Becka assured me.
Hae-won returned just as Becka started to set the plates on the table. I managed to hold off until both women were seated, and then I attacked the still sizzling pork and roasted vegetables with my fork and knife. Wolfing down my food in front of company was another thing my mother would not have approved, but when I glanced up I saw the girls were plowing through their meals as well.
We had eaten every crumb from our plates in a matter of minutes, and I’d even sucked on the bones just to make sure that I’d found every last scrap of meat. Still, when I sat back, I was still hungry, and I stared at the empty plate in desperation.
“Can we make something else?” I asked. “We did skip lunch, after all, so we should be able to spare something.”
“We should wait,” Becka said. “We ate that pretty quickly. Sometimes if you wait a bit you don’t feel as hungry.”
“I could eat more, too,” Hae-won said. “Crisps and crumpets aren’t really food anyway.”
“Drink your pint,” Becka said. “That will help you feel full.”
Hae-won scowled at the last unclaimed pint. “Jason has been drinking his pint, and he is still hungry.”
Whatever Becka had been about to say was drowned out by the sound of her stomach growling. I found myself grinning at the blonde, who scowled in reply.
“Tell you what,” I said. “We’ll sip our pints and give it half an hour. If we’re still hungry, we’ll get something else to eat.”
“That’s fair,” the raven-haired girl replied.
Becka scowled at the two of us for a moment longer, then finally sighed.
“Fine,” she said. “But someone else has to clean up.”
“I will gladly clean up,” I said as I moved toward the sink. “In the meantime, we can figure out what we’re doing tomorrow. After today’s encounter, I think we need to move shooting lessons to the top of the list.”
“Finally!” Becka declared triumphantly.
“Could we maybe go to my apartment tomorrow?” Hae-won asked.
“Yep, of course,” I said.
“We should also search for a pharmacy next time we are out,” the Korean girl added. “But those have probably all been looted. If we go to my apartment, I can find my pills and pick up the rest of my contact lens supplies as well.”
“So….” Becka drawled. “You two….? I mean… I know we all had some tongue play the other day, and I liked it, I just… Right. So, there are three of us. Maybe we should talk a bit about where we, uhhh… are comfortable?”
“We have not really--” Hae-won began but didn’t finish.
“It’s fine!” Becka assured her with a smile. “It’s the end of the world as far as we know, and we’re trapped in this place with a very handsome and sexy young man who’s done a brilliant job of protecting us from the dinosaurs. I’ve actually thought about it myself.”
“You have?” Hae-won and I asked at the same time.
“Of course,” the blonde replied. “Well, you might as well enjoy yourselves now, right? We could be dead tomorrow.”
“Yes, exactly,” Hae-won agreed as I cleaned the last plate and finally turned to look at the two women.
“So, how much exactly do you enjoy it?” the blonde asked with a sly grin. “Let’s open up one of these wine bottles and talk it over.”
“Are you asking for a review?” I raised an eyebrow at Becka.
“Think of it more as a fact finding mission,” she said. “A chance to learn what turns you on and how best to keep you going. I’m kinda randy at the moment. So I’m fine with having a bit of a chin wag, if you two don’t mind.”
“Uhhh… maybe tomorrow?” I dropped into my seat and hid my blushing face with my pint. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to be here for this conversation, but I couldn’t ignore what Becka was implying. Did the gorgeous blonde with the sexy British accent want to sleep with me, too, even knowing that Hae-won and I had already had sex? It seemed too good to be true, but the speculative look she cast in my direction was definitely inviting.
“Does that mean we can go to my room?” Hae-won changed the subject.
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “I mean, you need your contacts, too. If anything happens to the pair you’re wearing, you’ll be in trouble, not to mention a terrible shot.”
“How far away is it?” Becka asked as she slid the final pint closer to herself and took a long gulp.
“Not far,” the Korean girl replied. “It is on the river to the east.”
“Yeah, you said the Boathouse dorms,” I added as I remembered our conversation from what felt like forever ago but was only really last week. “It won’t be too hard to get there. If it’s clear tomorrow morning, we’ll do some target practice. Then we’ll head over to the dorm.
“Sounds great,” Becka said and sipped her mug. “And we can carry the guns when we go to the dorm, since we’ll have had our lesson.”
Hae-won yawned and stretched.
“I think Becka was rig
ht,” she said. “I’m not really hungry now. I really just want to go to sleep.”
“Told you,” Becka replied just before she took another long gulp.
“We should pack a lunch to take with us,” I said. “We can’t risk getting dizzy or feeling faint when we’re away from the campus.”
“Good idea,” Hae-won noted. “We’ll pack a nice picnic in the morning.”
“Gods, it sounds like we’re going on holiday,” Becka snorted.
“At least we don’t have any more dino bodies to move,” I replied. “Except that big one. I’m sort of hoping the townies will take care of that one for us, though.”
We did some last bit of cleaning, and then we blew out the candles and tumbled onto the mattresses. I found myself drifting to sleep pretty quickly, though Hae-won must have fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Only Becka stayed up as she scrolled through the news reports in search of information or even rumors about her hometown, but when she finally fell asleep, she nestled her nose into my neck and threw her arm over my chest as if I was her body pillow.
I slept soundly, even though my dick felt like an angry flag pole, and if I did have any dreams, I didn’t remember them. My alarm started to beep at seven thirty, though neither of the girls moved at the sound. I rubbed my eyes, carefully returned the arms draped across my chest to their owners, then crept over to the window.
I peered around the edge of the blanket and saw a streak of blue sky between the slats. It looked like a good day for shooting practice as well as a trip to the river. I stepped back to the mattresses and nudged both girls with my foot.
“Hey, wake up,” I said loudly.
“What?” Hae-won said. “Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s time to get up,” I replied. “And it looks like it’s a nice day. We can have a quick breakfast and then get some target practice in.”
“It’s too early,” Becka’s muffled voice insisted from beneath her blanket.
“It’s not,” I said. “The sun is up, the birds are out… well, maybe not the birds.”
“I miss the birds,” Hae-won noted as she sat up and scratched her head.
“How late did you stay up looking at the news?” Hae-won asked Becka.
“Too late,” the blonde replied.
“Any news?” the Korean girl asked as she stood up and stretched.
“Mostly the same things they’ve been saying,” the British girl sighed as she finally emerged from her cocoon. “They’re still going strong and using all the tools they have. Blah, blah, blah. I stopped reading because it just said the same thing over and over again. Mostly, I just looked at pictures. I found a few that look like the one we saw yesterday. They think it’s called the Dilophasaurus, and they think it might spit acid.”
The last part was said in a sarcastic tone, and I chuckled at Becka’s expression.
“For real?” I snickered. “Michael Crichton was fucking right.”
“Who?” Becka asked.
“He’s the guy who wrote Jurassic Park,” I explained. “In the book, he made that dinosaur spit acid, and all the scientists said he was wrong because they had no proof or something.”
“Seems as if he gets the last laugh,” Becka snickered. “If anyone can laugh at all this strangeness.”
“I think he’s dead,” I said.
“It’s the Internet,” Becka sighed as she flipped down the screen. “Ahh.. here they are talking about that Crichton guy, but people are arguing that it’s not confirmed the dino spits acid.”
“Maybe we should reply that we can confirm it spits acid,” Hae-won mused.
“One guy said it’s a venom, like a snake would use, but highly corrosive to the skin,” Becka added.
“Maybe it is an early ancestor of the spitting cobra,” the Korean suggested.
“A meeting I could have done without,” the Brit replied.
“Well, our local acid-spitting dino is dead,” I added. “And I’d like to get in as much practice as we can. So on your feet.”
“You know, just because you’re cute doesn’t mean you can boss us around,” Becka replied as she finally stood up.
“You can have tea now that you’re up,” I said with a smile.
Becka tried to keep a stern expression on her face, but the mention of tea was too much. She giggled, then turned toward the supplies we’d brought in the night before while I filled up the kettle. Hae-won started to check our food supplies and pulled out crumpets as well as some mixed berries and a banana.
“Oooh, strawberries,” Becka said as she grabbed several.
“Hey, save some fruit for me,” I replied as I tossed the crumpets into the toaster oven.
Both girls giggled, but they did save me a nice collection of blueberries and strawberries. We ate standing up, since everyone was anxious to get moving. I barely tasted the crumpet or the coffee I made in the French press, though it was definitely stronger than any of the k-cups we had in the staff room.
We cleaned up the crumbs, visited the bathroom and found whatever clothing still looked reasonably clean. I wondered if we should pack up our dirty clothes and take them on our picnic to the Boathouse dorms since there would probably be a laundry room in one of the basements. It would definitely be worth it to have clean clothes again, though it might be easier to just raid the other rooms for new clothes. I had my doubts about how well the detergent would work on dried dino blood, but I also still felt a bit guilty about stealing someone else’s possessions. Well, it was something to think about while the girls practiced their shooting.
“So, step one, I’ll explain the rules to you on how to handle a gun,” I said when we were all gathered in the staff room again. “Then I’ll show you both how to check the chambers and the magazine, and then how to load the guns.”
“When do we get to shoot?” Becka asked.
“After we’ve covered the rules and learned the basics of handling a gun safely,” I replied. “While you two practice how to load and unload, I’ll set up some targets.”
“Yes!” Becka cheered.
“Let’s go,” Hae-won encouraged as she skipped to the door.
The Korean girl had opted for a pair of black athletic shorts and a dark green Puma tee that stopped just above her navel. It wasn’t exactly the usual shooting range gear, but it did emphasize the lithe body beneath. I shook my head and told myself that she had only selected the clothing because it wouldn’t be so hot under the armor, and it had nothing at all to do with me.
I heard Becka snort, and I glanced quickly in the Brit’s direction. She still wore a pair of skin tight jeans, but she’d opted for a white tank top that did a marvelous job of showing off her perfect breasts and almost her entire supermodel stomach.
“Like what you see?” She gave me a wicked smile, and then followed Hae-won into the gallery.
“Fuck me,” I whispered to myself.
When I could think about something other than the lovely pair of breasts, and the stomach I wanted to lick chocolate off of, I followed the girls to the first floor. Hae-won and Becka were already strapped into their armor and were checking their swords, so I gathered my own armor without saying anything, then checked the guns and picked up the ammo bag.
“Are you both ready?” I finally asked.
“Yeah,” Becka agreed with a nod.
“We are anxious to begin,” Hae-won added.
“Okay,” I said. “I think the quad is the best place to do this.”
“What about the townies?” Becka asked.
“I’m hoping the sound of the guns will convince them to stay away instead of trying to break in through the gate and investigate,” I said. “But if they make it inside somehow, we can get back to the gallery easily enough.”
“And we can shoot them,” Hae-won pointed out.
“If they fuck with us,” I said.
The girls seemed happy with my words, so we lined up and moved the barricade away from the door. I opened it just enough to
study the surrounding area, but our little section of the campus remained dinosaur free. I stepped outside for a better look, then waved the girls outside as well.
“It’s nice today,” Hae-won noted.
“Just a few gray clouds,” Becka added as she looked at the sky. “We might get a drizzle later, but nothing like we had yesterday.”
I led the way to a spot along the edge of the quad and set the ammo bag down on the low wall, as well as the rifle. The girls looked at me expectantly as I picked up one of the other guns, and I held it up like a professor about to begin a lecture.
“So, every shooting range you go to always posts several signs with the rules,” I began. “There may be a few variations, but they all say essentially the same thing. Now, a few don’t apply to us, like always wearing eye and ear protection and taking your gun in for servicing, but the rest still work.”
“How many rules are there?” Becka asked impatiently.
“Not that many,” I assured her. “But we have to cover them in order to keep everyone safe.”
“Please, go ahead,” Hae-won said with a sidelong glance at Becka.
“Rule number one is to treat every gun as if it is loaded,” I said. “Even if you just saw me unload the ammunition from this gun, don’t assume it’s empty.”
“Make sense,” Hae-won said with a nod.
I looked at Becka, who gave me a more grudging nod.
“Rule number two follows directly from that,” I added. “Always point the muzzle in a safe direction, and never point it at something you don’t want to kill. The last thing we want to do is accidentally shoot each other.”
“I read somewhere that most gun accidents happen in the home,” Hae-won replied.
“People are sometimes careless at home,” I agreed. “Or you get a visitor who doesn’t know how to handle a gun.”
“Or the kids find it and start to play with it,” Becka added.
“Sadly, yes,” I agreed. “And I’m sure you’ve heard some tragic stories about that.”
The girls nodded solemnly, and even Becka finally seemed to appreciate the importance of the rules.
