Chapter 15:

(Posted: March 10)

Eventually Harrison and Jessica wandered away from the battleground atop the mountain. Locating the remains of the manor's drive, they followed the road down about half a mile until they came to a large gate. The frigid night, still unceasing, began gnawing into their bodies as the cold seeped under their skin. Harrison gave Jessica his jacket, but they were both still cold. And tired.

Through the trees to the right of the gate, a dirt road extended into forest. At the end of it they spotted an old barn. Approaching the wooden structure, they saw one of its large doors ajar. Harrison pulled it open and they slipped into the dusty building.

Empty of occupants, the barn seemed decrepit and forgotten. Old bales of hay lay stacked around the interior and a rickety ladder led up to a loft. The few abandoned stalls, stuffed with hay, looked like an inviting place to lie down. Falling onto the soft but prickly padding together, Harrison and Jessica finally relaxed, completely exhausted. What had started with a long steamy day-long hike through a jungle had morphed into a dinner party, culminating in a showdown with some military forces summoned by VERSA.

Thinking back on what he'd learned after spending time with her post-battle, Harrison felt relieved that his theory of evil-Jessica proved to be unfounded. She was still the same young woman he knew before, albeit one with some amazing capabilities now. Just listening to her talk about what happened proved she was just as confused and worried as Harrison. Thought it hadn't really bothered her, it still concerned her. Yet she didn't blink when it came to defending them from all those people. Harrison was impressed.

Dazed, the pair slipped into small-talk.

“You thought about what you're going to tell the Senate committee yet?” Harrison asked her.

“Pff, no,” answered Jessica. “I haven't even begun processing all this yet.”

“Yeah me either. I don't know what I'm going to tell my bosses either,” Harrison replied. “If it were up to me, the army should just napalm the whole lab.”

Jessica gave a tired laugh.

“You think they're gonna be ok?” she asked, turning towards Harrison. He looked over at her.

“You mean Rich and Kat?” He'd already shared his worry with her about the gray door their two colleagues had gone through. He really hoped it wasn't a trap set up by the woman in black.

“Yeah.”

Harrison paused to give it thought. “I think they'll be ok,” he finally concluded. “Kat's tough as nails and Rich is no bullshit. They'll work well together. Certainly won't let our friend push them around,” he said, referring to the woman in black. Jessica seemed to accept his answer.

“Do you find it strange,” Harrison continued, “that you weren't able to grow yourself after the fight was over?” Jessica had tried experimenting with her height after she'd shrunk back down, but for some reason it hadn't worked. Something inside her wasn't there.

“Yeah kinda,” she admitted. “I mean, maybe it only works when I'm in danger, like the woman said.”

“That would make sense...” Harrison agreed with her. “I just hope you haven't lost it forever.” He looked over at her again. Even lying on the hay, her make-up mostly gone and her dress half-muddy, Harrison thought she looked absolutely beautiful. And that's when he finally admitted to himself that he was unequivocally smitten with this woman.

A part of his mind couldn't believe it had only taken him a couple days to fall for her. Looking back, it had certainly played a part in him staying in this world. He didn't want to stop being around her. She was intelligent, resilient, fun, and so easy to be around. Her forgiving nature but confident self-respect was always evident and impressive. And then he recalled her casually shoving him into her cleavage, which at the time had been a life or death situation, but now looking back on it...

“What?” she said, noticing him staring at her. She'd caught him lost in a daydream. Stumbling, he tried deflecting.

“Oh, nothing, sorry,” he stammered. “Just thinking...”

“About what?” she asked innocently.

Well, it's not like he could just tell her. First of all, this was still a professional trip, which was not an appropriate setting to bluntly hit on female colleagues. He had coworkers who always did that and he hated it.

Secondly, there was absolutely nothing appropriate about confessing his love to someone he barely knew, especially in such dire circumstances. No way he was going to say anything; he didn't want to make anything awkward between them while they still had to fight for their survival.

“Just thinking about how fucked this all is,” he replied to her, covering his tracks. “Just glad I'm not here alone,” he added out without thinking. The insinuation was obvious. Dammit, he cursed himself, savagely kicking his unconscious for the slip-up.

“Yeah, me too,” she agreed with a smile.

Wait what? Now his head was spinning. Oh shit, was she flirting back? His pulse quickened, his heart rate resigned to elevating itself one more time today.

Deep in her own head, Jessica wondered what Harrison was trying to say. Since she'd met him, his good looks and honest personality put her at an immediate sense of ease. He spoke his mind when he had something to say, and although he might not have been the bravest guy, he was certainly self-conscious and introspective. He wasn't a bullshitter. He'd treated her with respect and dignity, even when she hadn't deserved it. She hadn't forgotten his apology in the wine cellar. She liked him. It shocked her and thrilled her when he'd admitted he'd stayed behind in this world for her.

Harrison continued fumbling his thoughts. He couldn't remember the last time a woman had made him feel this way. If their entire situation in VERSA hadn't been teetering on the edge of disaster, he might have been more willing see how far he could push things tonight. But on top of that, he knew they were both dirty, beat-up, and exhausted. Yet nothing would stop him from subtly flirting with her though.

Resting his hands behind his head, he looked up at the ceiling of the barn. “So if your powers only work when you're in danger, I guess that means you're not in danger around me?” he said, more as a statement than a question. He looked over at her with a cheeky grin.

“Hmm, I guess not,” she playfully agreed after a moment, looking him over. Then she added, “But maybe I know I'm not in danger around you because if you tried to start anything with me, I could easily shrink you down. So maybe my subconscious just knows you're no match for me.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. Harrison blushed: he'd accidentally set her up for that answer.

“Huh, good point,” he had to admit. She'd quickly beat him at his little game. His mind wandered with the idea. Quietly he murmured to himself, “I could live with that...”

Turning back to glance at Jessica, he saw her looking at him seductively. He figured she'd overheard him. He smiled at her, then turned back to stare up at the ceiling. Exhaustion was quickly catching up with him.

A few moments passed and he heard Jessica rustling in the hay. Suddenly she scooted her body up against his, pressing herself into his side, resting her hand on his chest. “We gotta stay warm tonight,” she explained. She rested her head on his shoulder. Harrison easily saw through her excuse. Holy shit, he thought, grinning to himself.

The two of them, quietly entwined, lay together in bliss. Jessica slowly drifted off into sleep, and Harrison followed her once his mind stopped spinning like a top.

“Harrison! Goddammit!” Rich yelled after him. Harrison bounded out of the kitchen, his form soon yielding to nothing but smoke and dust.

“Fuck him,” Kat said, “I'll have to de-sim him too when we get out. Hopefully he doesn't get himself killed first.”

“What has gotten into that kid?” Rich wondered aloud. The deteriorating kitchen around them quickly shook him out of his astonishment.

“Let's get out of here,” Kat said hurriedly, reopening the strange gray door. “This house is fucked.”

“Don't have to say that twice,” replied Rich, quickly following her through the door. It shut behind them and the crumbling mansion vanished in silence.

Glancing around this new world, Kat and Rich saw they were in the back of a shop, fortunately at the right size for them. A Persian rug hanging from a doorway seemed to separate them from the rest of the store, but even in the current room they could see all types of antiques laying about. It was a treasure-trove of old vases, goblets, and oil lamps. To the right, a display of bright rugs lay stacked in a corner. The stucco walls and the dusty wooden floors indicated a building of considerable age. And the heat. Warm, oppressive, but dry.

“Any idea where we are?” Rich asked Kat.

“Not a clue,” she replied without pause. “Let's see what's going on here,” she offered, walking over to the rug-covered doorway. She pushed it to the side and walked into the main part of the shop.

It shouldn't have surprised Kat, but it did, to see another one of VERSA's conjured people standing behind a counter inspecting coins. An older man, clearly of some kind of Middle Eastern descent, sat in contemplation of his task. He looked up at the two of them, his weary eyes conveying no sense of surprise.

“Didn't see you two come in,” he said without any trace of an accent. “Please ask if you have any questions.” Kat expected him to at least sound the part he played, but perhaps VERSA didn't understand yet that Middle Eastern-looking old men sitting in Middle Eastern-looking stores should have Middle Eastern-sounding accents too. It could put a world together, sure, but it clearly didn't understand all the nuances yet of building something believably consistent.

“Um, where are we?” Rich asked him, glancing around the shop. A doorless portal led out into a sandy street. They seemed to be in some kind of desert village.

“You're in my shop,” the man replied. “My name is Dimitris. What are you looking for?”

Kat cut in. “Well some new clothes, probably,” she told him. Kat still wore her blue evening dress and high heels. Not the best attire if they were now stuck in the desert.

“Ah I see,” the man said, hardly looking at the two out-of-place travelers. “I can show you some things in the next room.” He led them through a different rug-covered doorway into a smaller room with various robes and desert garb. “Please, try on what you need. I can take care of you when you're done.”

“I guess we're playing dress-up again,” commented Rich, taking off his tuxedo jacket. “Shame they couldn't have included one of those do-it-yourself wardrobes in here.”

Kat started rifling through various clothes. Some were hung on racks while others were piled in baskets on the floor. “Looks like much better options for you in here,” she told Rich. Glancing over at him, she saw him removing his pants. “Really, no changing room?” she asked him in surprise.

He looked up at her confidently. “You bothered?” he replied. “I figure the sooner we're out of here the better.” He was right, so Kat didn't reply.

After a few minutes of searching, Rich found a robe and some pants to wear under it. He even located a pair of brown boots that barely fit his feet. And spotting a scarf-like cloth tucked into the side of a basket, he grabbed it and carefully wrapped it up and used it to cover his head. “It's called a keffiyeh,” he told Kat. “First saw these during Persian Gulf when I was in Kuwait.”

“You look like Lawrence of Arabia you scoundrel,” Kat mocked him. Rich laughed. He left the room so Kat could find something to change into in private. A few minutes later she emerged, dressed in a plain brown robe and black sandals.

“I liked you better in the dress,” Rich commented.

“Yeah me too,” was her reply. “This thing itches like hell.”

Rich turned to the merchant. “How much for the garb?”

The man studied what they were wearing. “Two coin please,” he requested. Kat and Rich looked at each other. They didn't have any money.

“What about trading us for our old clothes?” Kat suggested, holding up her dress. Rich clutched his tuxedo under his arm.

“Worthless,” the old man spat at them.

“I don't think we have anything else...” Rich started saying.

“Oh wait,” Kat interrupted him. She unhooked the two sapphires dangling from her ears as the man's eyes went wide. Aggressively, she slapped them down on the worn counter in front of them. “These will cover it,” she said confidently.

They left the merchant stunned by his new fortune as they exited the shop. Sure enough, they found themselves on the sandy street of a small desert village in the late afternoon. A sullen orange sun cast long shadows across the narrow, deserted street. If anyone else inhabited this village, they were currently making themselves scarce.

“Let's walk this way,” Kat suggested, pointing down a direction of the street.

Walking with her, Rich started the conversation. “Ok, so we need to find an out-key to get back,” he stated. “I've seen apples used before. Unfortunately it doesn't look like we're going to see a lot of those in this world.”

“Yeah I had the same thought,” agreed Kat.

“But it's not just food that are out-keys sometimes, right? You want to share everything you know?” As they conversed, their feet carried them in an aimless direction.

Kat began talking. “So yeah, we originally programmed apples to be an out-key, and then VERSA kind of started randomly applying it to other types of fruits too. Mostly tree and bush-based stuff. But VERSA is sorta random with this kind of thing. Since we designed change-keys to be books and levers and handles occasionally, we've also seen VERSA use those imprints to create out-keys too, but it's rare.”

“So what, we need to start flicking every light switch we find and hope we wake up in the lab?”

Kat sighed. “Probably not a light switch specifically, but yeah, something like that.”

“Well, unless we want to risk suicide and potentially ending up like Kevin, it sounds like we're pretty fucked then,” concluded Rich.

“Pretty much,” Kat echoed him. The reached an intersection and took a left turn, but they were already practically on the outskirts of this small town. They'd passed a few huddled figures in the street, but far less people than one would expect to find in a village of this size. Somewhere out of sight a dog barked. The sun baked them with heat.

“You know,” Kat said, thinking out loud. “I guess if we stay in here long enough, someone will find us plugged into the sim and will just disconnect us. I'll lose my job for sure, but at least I'll be alive.”

“How much longer do you think until then?” Rich asked.

Kat looked at her watch again and tried doing some mental calculations to account for the time dilation in VERSA.

“Well, nobody is going to find us in California until at least five a.m. or so at the earliest. And that's best-case scenario, realistically six or six thirty is more likely. If we've been in VERSA now about thirty-five hours, I'd say nobody finds us for at least another... twenty hours. But it could be another two days plus.”

“Damn,” Rich said. “Didn't know we still had so much time.”

“If I knew which spoke we were in or could locate a world I've already visited, we'd be much more likely to find an out-key.” She stopped as they came to the end of the street. The buildings simply petered away and the encroaching desert swallowed the street. The village melted into the wilderness as Kat and Rich looked across a vast wasteland to a distant horizon. Sand dunes and emptiness presided over the forbidding landscape. Kat stared, awed by the desolation. She turned back to Rich to complete her thought. “But fuck if I know where the hell this is,” she admitted, gesturing into the abyss. They were utterly lost in VERSA.

Though the cold certainly played a factor, what really woke Harrison up was his bladder. Blinking his eyes open, he shuddered as the chill in the barn ached his joints. Jessica was still curled up on him, wearing his tuxedo jacket over her dress. He could immediately tell it was still dark out, which made him wonder if this world even had a sun.

Rustling in the hay, he gently scooted out from under Jessica and stood up. The dark barn looked the same but he now noticed a door in the back. Walking over and pushing it open, the dark expanse of the forest sloped down the hill in front of him. He unzipped his fly, his teeth chattering in the icy night. As he began to relieve himself onto a patch of snow, he stared off groggily into the empty forest. And then he saw it.

Down the hill, not too far away, a small light twinkled in the smothering darkness. He blinked a bit to make sure his eyes hadn't deceived him. But sure enough, it was there. Hard to tell how far away it was, but maybe about a ten minute walk downhill. Finishing his business, he returned inside the barn.

Because the night never lifted, he couldn't really tell how long they'd been sleeping. He still felt tired, but at least he wasn't exhausted anymore. And coming back to the stall, the sleeping form of Jessica caused him to smile and blush. Upon his return she stirred, her blue eyes fluttering open. She peered up at him and smiled. Reflexively she stretched her arms and let out a drawn-out, tired yawn.

“How long's it been?” she asked Harrison, still half asleep.

“I don't know,” admitted Harrison. “I found something.”

“What?” she said, perking up.

“There's a light outside. Down the hill. Can't tell what but it's not too far.”

His words sank into Jessica, who was sitting up now. Her interest had certainly been piqued by Harrison's mysterious reveal. Though she was still waking up, Jessica replied, “Alright, let's go on a walk then. Whatever this is I hope it's a warm meal and a hot shower. I'm starving.”

Because going barefoot through the snow wasn't an option, Jessica begrudgingly put her heels on again. When they got outside she tried navigating through the snow, but walking proved to be a very slow and accident-prone ordeal. She looked comical wearing his jacket while stumbling across the snow-covered ground. But the light was still there, and as they approached it they couldn't see a building or anything large, just more forest.

Squinting his eyes, Harrison made out a lantern hanging from the low branch of a tree. A lone flame perpetually flickered inside a cylinder of glass. As they got closer, Jessica said in frustration, “I swear if this is just a lantern hanging from a tree I'm going to kill you Harrison.” She was tired, hungry, and cold. Her feet were practically freezing by now, and a hike back up the hill to the barn would be twice as brutal.

“Oh, you can thank me,” Harrison replied, finally seeing what the lantern marked. As he'd come closer, he started studying the tree the lantern hung from, noticing it wasn't a skinny pine or redwood. This tree had a large trunk, and built right into the base of it was a green door.

“Oh thank God!” Jessica cried out, seeing the door and feeling relief. “Let's get the fuck out of here!”

“Yeah, anywhere but here's gotta be better,” Harrison readily agreed.

When the reached the door about a minute later, they discovered it was a bit shorter than their current size. They could still fit through it, but it would be cramped. It wouldn't be possible to run though corridor after corridor searching VERSA's side space for their next world.

Harrison opened the door and let Jessica duck in first. Once she went in he stuffed himself in behind her and closed the door. They were finally out of Dos Palos. The side space felt considerably warmer.

“How about this one?” Jessica asked him, both of them standing hunched over in the hallway. “It says 'BOARDWALK.' I don't know if it's a giant Monopoly board or what, but I'm down.” Harrison saw the door she referred to. It said “BOARDWALK-154” on the front.

“Sure, just go,” he hastily agreed, starting to feel cramped.

Jessica's large hand fiddled with the doorknob until she pushed it open and crawled through with Harrison following her. When he made it in, his first reaction was that they were somewhere big and relatively dark. It was immediately clear they were too small for this world.

Harrison guessed he must have been standing under a humongous machine of some kind, but there was a lot of space above his head. The device high above him stood on long legs. And looking out across the dusty floor he saw more legs and more giant machines. It was dimly lit here, so they must have been in the back of big room full of machines.

Suddenly in the distance a siren went off. It sounded like bells whistling and singing an energetic, up-tempo tune. Jessica walked out from under the machine and looked around, then turned to Harrison and shouted, “We're in a giant arcade!”

She was right. It took them a few minutes to realize they'd entered this world under a massive pinball machine. And the rest of the room contained other games too. They walked around in awe. Harrison guessed they must have been only an inch or two in height.

An unexpected booming alerted them to the presence of something big. It didn't really surprise either of them that VERSA might have filled this world with other people; everything unexpected seemed likely to occur now. A pair of giant feet crossed their path up ahead as a giant man wearing sneakers, shorts, and a t-shirt walked through a part of the arcade. Harrison and Jessica, in no immediate danger, quickly fled to hide under a nearby skee-ball game.

“Well, once again we're small,” said Harrison, catching his breath. He turned to Jessica, who was silently taking off his tuxedo jacket. Handing it back to him, she didn't respond to his comment. Instead she surveyed the room, thinking.

“I've got an idea,” she finally told him. She stepped out from under the machine and walked completely out into the open.

“What are you doing?!” Harrison shouted after her. “Get back here!”

Jessica turned to look back at him and gave him a knowing wink. Her face then contorted in concentration, and Harrison realized what she was doing. A moment later her body expanded in an instant, her once diminutive form replaced by two giant high-heeled shoes that stood much taller than him.

Taking a step out from under the machine to stare up at her, Harrison figured she must have been about the same height as when she'd stomped out that entire army. Except now she was normal sized for this world. Jessica glanced down at the floor and quickly located Harrison. She gave him a smile as she bent down to pick him up.

“Well this should make things easier,” she told him as she pulled him up to her face.

“How'd you do that?” Harrison asked her, confused. “I thought you could only grow when in danger?”

Jessica laughed at his ignorance. “Harrison, I was like an inch or whatever tall. Someone could have stepped on me. It didn't take much for it to kick in.”

“Oh.”

Jessica looked around, setting Harrison on her palm. “What is this place?” she wondered aloud. From her hand, Harrison could see a ticket counter in the distance. The same man they'd seen before wandered aimlessly through the arcade, as if he had to be there but didn't know how to play any of the games. And then looking at the nearest machine, Harrison realized it didn't even work. The screen of the arcade game was certainly on, but it displayed more of a pattern of moving pictures than an actual game. All the other games made noises and flashed their lights too, but it was all contrived. VERSA was mimicking a world to the best of its abilities, but it hadn't filled in all the gaps yet.

Harrison, realizing he still clutched his tuxedo jacket that Jessica had just given back to him, decided he wouldn't need it in this world. The air felt warm and comfortable. Tossing it off the side of her hand, it fluttered down to the floor, forgotten.

“Damn I need to get out of this dress already,” Jessica muttered, watching him. “Maybe I can get some clothes around here.”

“I think it looks good on you,” Harrison said playfully. She looked down on him with a frown and he laughed.

Jessica began walking through the arcade to find an exit. It didn't take long. She stepped out of a doorway and into the warm bright daylight. The smell of the ocean immediately wafted into Harrison's nose. Standing up in her hand, Harrison joined Jessica in surveying the scene.

She stood on the smooth wooden planks of a seaside boardwalk, facing a large beach that led down to a cerulean ocean gently lapping against the shore. The sky above was cloudless, the noon sun casting hardly any shadows on the world below. Harrison could see a strip of low buildings siding the boardwalk that seemed to run forever in either direction. The dilapidated arcade which they'd just exited from was one of many sun-baked structures running down the inland side of the boardwalk. Behind them, larger towers rose skyward, gazing over the coastal playground in silent vigil. The midsummer scene felt picturesque, ripped right off a postcard from some Atlantic Ocean beach.

VERSA had populated a few people into the boardwalk world, but they hardly compared to the crowds a comparable beach would have expected on a perfect summer day. Harrison could see maybe about a dozen figures wandering up and down the infinite boardwalk, along with a few sunbathers laying on the wide beach.

“Are we on the Jersey Shore?” Jessica asked Harrison in amusement.

“I was thinking Ocean City, Maryland, but maybe,” he replied. “At least it's not cold here,” he added. His pants and dress shirt would be uncomfortable in this world.

Jessica didn't reply and started walking down the boardwalk, her heels clacking loudly on the wooden planks. Spotting what looked like a small shop selling beach-related apparel and sundries, she stepped inside. The cool blast of air conditioning greeted them.

The store had many things for sale, but it sat empty of customers. Even the cash register and counter lay unattended. “Stay here,” Jessica told Harrison, setting him upon the counter as she plunged into the store. He found her choice of words funny; where else could he go? He wasn't sure what Jessica was looking for and he lost sight of her after a few moments, so he waited impatiently. It would have been nice if she'd asked him first if she could set him down.

Harrison stripped off his dress shoes and socks, then finally took off his mud-stained pants. He unbuttoned his shirt a bit more and rolled up the sleeves, eventually standing in nothing more than his boxer shorts and his best attempt at a summer shirt. With a sigh, he acknowledged that he wasn't going to find anything in this world that fit him. Locating a change-key nearby seemed highly improbable.

After a few minutes, Jessica returned to him sporting a big grin on her face. It was obvious why; she looked amazing. She'd finally ditched her ruined red dress for a tiny lime green bikini that nearly revealed her entire body to Harrison. It occurred to him that, judging by this store, she could have probably found a sundress or sarong to wear, but clearly she was ready to be at the beach. And maybe she wanted to show off a bit too.

Her body was slim and fit, the bikini accentuating her young hips and breasts. Harrison's breath left him as her stunning presence overwhelmed him. She was hot and she knew it. And standing over him, her imposing size only added to the intimidation. Jessica felt pleased with herself seeing Harrison flail around in awe and amazement. She was showing off a lot of skin.

“Ready to go?” she asked him casually, pretending she didn't notice how shocked he was.

Harrison fought to find words. “Uh... um... wow Jessica,” he finally replied. “That's... something!”

Thinking about their casual flirting last night in the barn, Jessica felt like toying with him again. “What? You don't like it?” she pouted.

“No...! No! I mean, I do like it. It looks good. You look good...”

“Do think it makes me look fat?” she asked him, turning to her side and placing a hand seductively on her hip. It definitely did not make her look fat.

“Oh no, no no,” Harrison stammered. “It looks perfect...” he finally admitted.

Jessica smiled down at him. Even though they were pretty forced, she liked his compliments. She didn't need them to boost her ego, but she found it incredibly fun to play with Harrison, especially in his shrunken state. It briefly occurred to her that she might be taking things a little too far with him, but her excitement in the situation pushed her forward.

“Harrison, did you take off your pants?!” she exclaimed in mock surprise. “That's not a very gentlemanly thing to do in front of a lady.”

Harrison was flabbergasted by her. “You're literally in a bikini!” he retorted, gesturing to her body in front of him.

Ignoring his statement she slowly asked him, “You weren't... trying to, you know... start anything, were you?” She subtly thrust her hips forward. Harrison wasn't dumb and knew she was teasing him, but this was far beyond the semblance of professionalism. Her flirting was getting bolder and bolder. This certainly was the strangest work trip he'd ever been on. He would have loved to flirt with her under normal circumstances, but it just didn't sit right with him doing it while he was a couple inches tall.

“No no! It's not like that!” he denied, still trying to be the adult in the room. “I just needed to get comfortable.”

“Wanna head out to the beach then?” she asked, staring past her breasts down at him. He looked up at her, trying to keep cool.

“You bring your towel?” he asked sheepishly.

“Um, yeah!” Jessica replied, quickly stepping over to a rack and grabbing a towel off of it. It didn't look like anyone was going to show up and make them pay for it.

“Hey Jessica, don't you think we should start looking for a way out?” Harrison asked meekly. “You know, look for an out-key?”

A light went off in Jessica's head. “I'm starving too! That's a great idea Harrison, let's see what kind of food they have here.” Harrison couldn't deny that he was hungry too, but Jessica clearly wasn't interested in searching this world too thoroughly. Trying to read her thoughts, Harrison wondered about her priorities right now. Maybe she'd given up on trying to get out of VERSA on her own? Eventually Kat or someone else would pull them out, but that still might not be for a while. Perhaps the girl just wanted to relax on the beach until then.

Though Harrison acknowledged his crush on her, and despite the fact that Jessica looked very sexy at the moment, his urge to get out of VERSA still overrode everything. His gnawing fear of the woman in black drove him to want to explore more, not for the thrill of discovery but strictly out of necessity. Jessica didn't carry the same fears Harrison did, but he still felt supremely annoyed that she was losing focus on their mission.

Jessica's voice snapped him from his thoughts. “You know, it'd be great if I didn't have to keep constantly carrying you around in my hands all the time, Harrison.” With her hands on her waist and her large face grinning down, she only reinforced her size over him. He broke eye contact with her. Looking straight ahead, he saw her bellybutton staring back at him.

“You think I should just stick you between my boobs again?” she asked him with a grin. His eyes shot back up to her. Was she serious? First of all, her bikini top wasn't as much of a push-up as her last bra, so he wasn't sure he'd even stay in place up there. Was she just teasing him? The thought of being between her boobs sounded great objectively, but he remembered last time it'd been more a hell for him than a fun ride. Confined, sweaty, bouncy, and crushing were all apt descriptions of her breasts. He'd rather look at them from afar than fight for air between them.

She picked up on his silence. “No, you don't wanna ride up top again?” she said, her voice now changing into playful condescension. Harrison found it sort of arousing when she talked down to him like this, but it also filled him with trepidation. “Well I've got a new idea. I think you'll like it.”

Her fingers reached out and pinched his puny body before he could react. Stuck in her grip, Harrison watched in utter shock as her other hand pulled the front of her bikini bottom away from her body. His eyes growing huge, he looked down to see a wisp of blond hair silhouetted against the pale white skin of her mons pubis.

“Jessica what are you doing?!” he yelled out. His mind raced, trying to process what was going on. This wasn't right! It didn't even occur to him in the moment that he liked her; her actions just seemed too forward. And dangerous.

“Oh shush yourself,” she chided him, “I know you'll have fun.”

Lowering him into her bikini, she gently released the elastic waistband once his little legs made it past. It snapped against Harrison's body, pinning his torso back against her waist. Luckily his arms and the upper part of his body remained outside her bikini, but he was certainly trapped now. Her skin felt very warm against his back, and a different heat emanated from down below him.

“Much better,” Jessica cooed. “Hold on tight down there, don't slip.”

Or do, she thought to herself with a blush.

His heart racing, Harrison kicked his legs against her skin to stay above her bikini line as gravity gradually pulled him downward. He was shocked, titillated, and mad as hell, all at the same time. Jessica, contently smug and pleased with her creative solution, casually slipped on a pair of sunglasses and walked back out into the dazzling sunlight.