The Aftermath of an ***

On another planet, very far from Earth by Earth's measurements but very near Earth by measurements of outer space, five teenagers, very like the teenagers of Earth, are, as you would describe setting, lazily sitting in a slightly deformed circle shape in a forest clearing, a few last remnants of their sun hanging in the sky and ever so slowly fading into night. The oldest of them, Dick—whose name in your language is more ironic than they know—begins to construct a fire that the others gather closely around. Meanwhile, they are carrying on a meaningless discussion, the details of which are translated into English for the purposes of this story.

"Do you think you could go any slower?" Kirby requested sarcastically of Dick, distracting me and forcing me lose my staring contest against Zakyra's breasts. I cursed internally and glanced back to find them bouncing triumphantly as Zakyra laughed at Dick's unappreciative expression.

"Could you be any more fucking useless?" Dick retorted. "Get the fuck over here and help me with this fire before I feed you to it."

"If he actually managed to start it himself, I'd let him," Kirby whispered to me, but got up to help nonetheless.

I decided I wanted to rematch Zakyra's tits, but she had moved and taken Kirby's place next to me. She leaned in close and said, "It's cold out here. This is one of those times I almost wish I wore clothes."

"Yeah, I know," I agreed, instinctively wrapping my arm around her. The five of us—excluding Kirby, who had a peculiar fondness for dressing in women's clothing—had taken an interest in the ever-expanding nudism movement. But since we spent the majority of our time hanging out in the woods, hardly anyone seemed to take offense to it.

Zakyra huddled even closer to me, her body pressed tight against mine from knee to upper torso. I could feel the side of one of her champion tits lightly touching me below my arm. It was hard for me to get used to things like this, and worst of all, I found myself hating Zakyra very frequently. I was touching her, and she was letting me, but not because she wanted me, because she was cold. She was too damn casual all the time, and I hated how she could turn me on and feel absolutely nothing. What a fucking tease.

All of a sudden, the center of our clearing lit up in a flash of orange and gold. Without a word, Zakyra left me to get closer to the flames, and I instantly felt a thousand times better, despite the cold wind that froze my bare skin where she had been. I followed her after some time, but kept my distance until I decided I could forgive her, which I always did after no more than five or ten minutes.

We sat in silence for some time, simply enjoying the warmth. In addition, I enjoyed Zakyra's body as she yawned and stretched, her dainty arms lifting to reveal her unshaven armpits. To some, body hair took away from a woman's attractiveness, but it didn't change my mind about Zakyra in the slightest. I guess it was because Zakyra was never exactly "a woman" to any of us. In elementary school, all the boys loved her because she could burp the loudest and do all the most terrifying and disgusting stunts in a game of truth or dare. When boys stopped liking girls for stuff like that and instead began to notice their hair and eyes and short skirts, it was the outcasts that stuck with Zakyra. We would only ever be her friends, but now I was starting to notice her hair and her eyes and what would be under her short skirt if she wore one. I could only wonder if the other guys were too, but I guessed I would have known.

I heard a thud and saw that Chrysis, who was so silent I had very nearly forgotten he was there, had toppled off the rock he was on and almost into the fire. Dick jumped up and dragged him back into safety, and Chrysis began to squirm before any of us got the chance to wonder if he was dead.

"What the hell, man?" Dick shouted. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Chrysis started giggling, which infuriated Dick even more. Dick grabbed Chrysis by the shoulders and shook him. "What the hell are you on, you crazy fuck?!"

He stopped laughing just long enough to point a shaking index finger at the bag he had brought with him. Then he was cracking up out of control again.

Dick dropped Chrysis into the dirt, not harming him but causing him to laugh harder. He proceeded to dig through Chrysis' bag and came out with handfuls of brightly colored mushrooms that vaguely looked toxic yet made me salivate almost as much as Zakyra's chest could. There was little I liked more than a good trip, and mushrooms gave me a great one.

I could tell Dick felt similarly by his smile. His devious eyes on me, he said, "Jan—catch."

I did, just barely. In my hand was a large bluish green mushroom with off-white spots, starting to dry up on the outside, but clearly still fresh. Chrysis must have been picking these the whole way up to the clearing, I realized, feeling kind of angry that he hadn't said anything to us although I knew he rarely said anything at all. Chrysis worried us sometimes, because he wasn't just quiet, he was the diabolical kind of quiet. Under his benign facade, he was plotting something dangerous, and no one would ever know what until he set it to work.

I pulled the mushroom into two pieces and gave half to Zakyra, who was standing nearby, watching me. "Thanks," she said, before stuffing the whole thing into her face. I smiled nostalgically. Zakyra always did have a knack for stuffing her face.

Stupidly, I tried to copy her and ended up with a mouthful of sticky, nasty-tasting mushroom. I forced the fungus down my throat and made a face. My mouth felt dry and tasted like shit, but I was already starting to feel colors and see noises. Across from me, Zakyra was turning into a mastodon with the wings of a bat. I ducked to avoid being trampled.

Suddenly, a horrible sound, like nails on a chalkboard amplified times a thousand, assaulted my eardrums. I knew it wasn't a hallucination because I also heard faint, drowned-out cries of "Holy shit!" and "What was that?!" from the other four.

Something largely atrocious was about to happen, and we were not only helpless to it, we were right at its very epicenter.