Chapter 1 - Roxanne's Mired Memories


The night fire crackled behind her as Melinda considered her friend's answer. She knew that not everyone was super eager to talk about their experiences within the ARK. But she could sense something about her friend Roxanne, something about her experience that still hung over her. 

“Surprised?” Mel repeated, curious about why the normally energetic and proud Roxanne was now becoming silent and reluctant. “Well what happened?”

“Eh...you wouldn't care...” Roxanne replied waving her hands in front of her shaking face. “I tripped into some mud...then I didn't make it...the end...”

“Really?” Roxanne was a terrible liar, especially when she wasn't trying. “You fell into mud and didn't make it? Is that what really happened?”

“Alright! That's what happened the second time okay?” Roxanne confessed while shaking. “I...I hit my head the first time...I couldn't really tell you how or what got me. It wasn't as interesting as a giant snake anyway so...it's not like you'd care.”

Mel pointed to Roxanne's cheek. “Is that how you got the scar?”

“No! That was a sabertooth and I gutted it.” Roxanne reminded Mel with a small hint of her normal pride. “This was before...forget I said anything and let's just drop it for tonight...”

“Come on now. I told my story...it's only fair that you tell yours.” Mel countered, her friend's face flushed red with embarrassment. “You said that you didn't die easily. So what got you?”

Roxanne sighed. “It's really dumb...you wouldn't care...”

“Roxanne...” Mel got closer to her friend, making the later blush heavier from how close their bodies were to each other. “It will help if you told someone...maybe not tonight...but...it helped me to tell you...”

Roxanne looked down to see an earthworm crawl out of the ground. She furiously stomped her foot on the worm, surprising Mel. “What? It scared me.”

“Was it a-”

“I'll tell you.” Roxanne conceded. “But promise that you won't laugh when I do...got it?”

“Got it.” Mel agreed, taking out her notebook. “Ready when you are.”

“Alright then.” Roxanne corrected her voice, straightening her back so that she could present her best self. “Well...you can laugh at this part if you want. I woke up in a heavy forested area and I was completely naked.”

Mel chuckled a little, earning a scowl from Roxanne. “What? You said that I could laugh at that part.”

“I laughed too honestly.” Roxanne admitted and put her hands on her head. “I thought that someone was playing a stupid prank on me. So I figured I'd wonder around the park, find my friends and give them a good scolding for this trick.”

Mel frowned with concern. “Did...did she know about the ARK? Did everyone join of their own accord? Or were some of us tricked?”

“When you see a few trees that don't belong in a park, you start to realize that you're not at college anymore...” Roxanne's expression hardened, narrowing her eyes down at where a small lizard was slurping down a bug while a worm latched onto its underbelly. “Then I saw a few other sights and I realized...I realized that I was in deep shit. But I didn't know of how deep of shit I was in until...my first time...”

xxx

“Fuck!” Roxanne held her arms over her chest and then threw them over her crotch. Her gaze wandered all around the strange jungle she had woken up in. Strange noises and calls were coming at her from all around, making her increasingly nervous about what or who was in this place. Though she couldn't see anyone around at the moment, her nerves refused to calm down, she couldn't relax while she couldn't tell what was going on or why she was naked.

Her feet were hurting form the rough ground she stepped over. Pebbles and stones stuck up like tacks waiting for a foot to bother. The tall grass and low hanging branches and vines repeatedly swiped onto her back. Her silver blond hair was getting caught in cobwebs and twigs, all while the sun was beaming down onto the nude girl and making her more and more thirsty by the hour.

“Why wasn't I dropped by a river or something?” She groaned sarcastically, increasingly aware of how she was not in some pervert's prank. Or rather, the prank she was now stuck in was worst than she could imagine. She prided herself on being able to live on her own and not need anyone, but the sheer isolation gripping her was something she had never felt before. She was not just by herself by choice, she was in a strange unknown place far from home or anyone whom she'd ever known.

“Shut up Roxanne! This is nothing.” There was no one around, but the green-eyed tan girl smiled anyway and gave off an air of boastful pride and confidence. Moaning and crying about the situation wasn't going to help anything, she had to change her mindset and take control. As a start, she stopped trying to hide her nudity and instead set her hands on her hips.

“I'm a babe! If they want a look, I'll just charge!” Roxanne declared with a forced laugh, trying very hard to deny the nerves and embarrassment welling up in her mind. False or not, her change of demeanor was letting her step through the forest more easily and with less complaint. Once she found shelter, she could string together some makeshift clothes and make the best of things.

“Besides...it could always be worst-” Roxanne stopped in place immediately, catching a sight that made her curse her words. “I really need to shut up.”

A giant lizard was laying down on the ground a dozen feet from her, chewing and gnawing on something she couldn't make out from behind it. The lizard looked like a komodo dragon, but the scaled thin leather skinned reptile was at least as large as a horse. Its tail was resting over the eaten out red skeleton of a large rodent-like creature and its front legs were gripping over a pair of legs.

Human legs. “What. The. Fuck.” Roxanne now realized that the lizard was eating a fair skinned woman and was in the process of ingesting and tasting the woman's modest breasts. The unknown victim gave out muffled moans, unable to resist being consumed by this large unknown creature. All while Roxanne stood there and just watched like a deer frozen in headlights.

Roxanne shivered as the lizard gulped upon a pair of long luscious legs sticking out of its mouth. Someone screamed from within the lizard's gut as it sucked up her legs and swallowed, sending an unknown woman down to its distended belly where another woman was shaking and struggling within the lizard's guts.

“Oh fuck this...” Roxanne stepped back and away from the lizard, trying her hardest not to make any sound. Besides, the lizard already eaten two people so it wouldn't try too hard to look for someone else. “Just a few more feet...just a little bit of distance and you're home free-”

Roxanne cringed as a twig snapped beneath her step. The lizard turned its head in her direction and roared, picking up its legs to run towards her with incredible speed. Without thought or even daring to act fearless, Roxanne started to bolt away as fast as she could. She peaked back to see that the lizard was gaining on her fast and tried to duck and weave through vines, branches and stones to lose the creature.

She had some success, getting some ground between herself and the lizard. However, the lizard was super persistent and didn't care about dragging its distended body down along the ground. Roxanne continued to run as fast as her athletic body could carry her, but the lizard was gaining on her even faster now.

Closing her eyes in frustration, Roxanne put all concentration into running. “You won't eat me! You won't eat me! You won't-” She had been so determined to run away, that Roxanne lost sight of her surroundings and was now running right off a cliff. She turned around in time to scream and see the cliff go further away from her while her body descended down rapidly and at the mercy of gravity.

“I don't want to-” Roxanne didn't finish the thought before her body hit a large leaf and then hit another leaf. She was spun and fell into the embrace of three vines. Roxanne took a moment to relax, thinking that she had been saved from the fall. However, the vines strained and snapped under her weight and sent her falling down into dark sludge with a loud splash. 

“Shit!” Roxanne coughed out sludge, standing up and realizing that she had fallen down into a marsh. The muddy water ran up to her knees and Roxanne found it hard to move her feet through the thick liquid. She to reach down to pull up her legs with each step, sometimes nearly falling over back into the dirty waters.

“Damn it! It's in my fucking hair!” Roxanne ran her fingers through her hair, trying to get the mud out as she heard the lizard's growl further up the steep hill. Fortunately, the growls were going away from her, a sign that it had given up the chase and was going off to hunt elsewhere. Roxanne sighed in relief, assured that the mire was the only thing that she would have to worry about.

“Just gotta get out of here and-” Roxanne froze when she heard something stir through the water. She turned her gaze to where something was coming out and started to shake. The creature that emerged looked like an earthworm, but was twice as long as her and had a sucker on its front end ringed with tiny teeth. Even though it looked blind and deaf, it was still looming closer towards Roxanne and did not seem impeded by the sludge.

“Is that a worm or a leech?” She saw the worm taking small gulps of the air, a sign that this was a creature that relied on tactile senses to perceive and move through its environment. Roxanne spotted a rotting tree branch sticking out of the mud and pulled it up. She held the branch in her hands, looking from the worm to the hill and quickly weighing her options. “The hill's too steep to climb...I'll just have to fight off this thing and make my way through the marsh.”

Just when she smirked about fighting a single worm, Roxanne felt something latch onto her back and she turned to swing her branch into a second worm. The second worm wordlessly reeled from the blow and slung back into the sludge just as Roxanne spotted a third worm emerging out. “Damn it! They must have been alerted to me when I fell in.”

“Sorry bitches! But you'll need to find another pretty girl to eat today!” Roxanne broke the branch on the first worm and managed to knock it aside as the second worm re-emerged and Roxanne saw an opening. She swung her fists at the worms each time they attacked her, taking advantage of their apparent disorientation to scare them away from going after the naked girl. 

“This is it!” Pumped up by adrenaline and confidence, Roxanne moved past the worms and aimed a punch at the third worm. This worm was only modestly battered, but if she could get past it then she would have a chance of getting to more shallow ground and escaping.

“Sorry, but you're not catching this girl today-”

She didn't know if it was a previous worm or a new worm, but Roxanne felt something latch onto the back of her head. She screamed as she turned to start punching and pulling against it. Her struggle managed to get the worm off of her, but she lost her footing and her head splashed down into the mud.

“Damn it...” Her vision hazy, she managed to get her feet on something solid and then felt her feet get pricked by a hundred tiny needles. She pulled her head up in time to see her shins disappear into the mouth of one of the worms. She winced as the worm moved up to her calves, the worm's teeth were not puncturing deep enough to be lethal, but they were sharp and they were drawing small amounts of blood.

It was enough to make Roxanne snarl, her emerald eyes blazing with determination and anger. She tried to crawl away from the worm, but it was no use. The worm's suction was stronger than her anger, easily pulling in her knees and now salivating over her thighs. The struggle between prey and predator threw Roxanne onto her back where she started showering her fists onto the worm to make it leave her alone.

“That hurts you bastard! Leave me alone-” Roxanne screamed when her vision went dark, another worm taking the chance to gulp down half of her face in one swallow. Roxanne gripped onto this worm, trying to pull it off of her as the first worm advanced over her thighs in peace. A third worm latched onto her belly, trying to get a taste of her skin and blood as a small consolation. A fourth went for her small, but pliable and pleasant bosom to try and swallow over her right breast.

Still trying to dislodge the worm struggling to get over her mouth, Roxanne didn't know how many worms were attacking her. She couldn't even say that she successfully forced the worm off of her or it gave up to wait for another opportunity. All she knew was that she was panicking and losing control of her emotions really fast as the situation went further downhill. She threw her fists out at all of the worms, managing to bother all, but the one hugging its mouth around her hips.

“Get off! Get off! Get off!” Roxanne grabbed onto the worm's maw, trying to pry it off of her sore and slightly bleeding belly as the other worms enjoyed their taste and gave up. Just when it seemed like she had gotten some success, she instead found her hands stuck inside of the worm's mouth. Wriggling did nothing to dislodge her hands and soon her forearms were sucked in along with her torso. With her arms trapped at her side, Roxanne was now left without any realistic way of escaping or fighting back.

“Get off...” Her breath was getting more ragged, feeling the worm's insides slap and slide up to her breasts. She realized that the previously thin worm was fattened and enlarged, the squirming of its bulges coinciding with the struggles of her twisting body. Fighting against the worm was doing nothing, it wasn't keeping her from sinking deeper into the worm's body. Her resistance was just washing more of her nude body in sticky juices, a flesh glove tightening and rubbing over her bare skin.

“It can't be...” It was starting to hit her, just like how the worm's mouth was rubbing over the swells of her small breasts. She gasped and began to tear up as her erect nipples felt like they were being pinched and dipped into warm water. As her breasts disappeared into the worm's maw, they were pressing onto the worm's insides and adding to the opaque feminine bulge molding around her consumed body.

“It's eating me...It's eating me...” Feeling everything from her toes to her breasts being slurped on inside of a worm fitting around her body, Roxanne remembered the lizard. She remembered the muffled sobs and screams coming from inside of its squirming belly. She remembered the slobber pouring down the woman's nude lower body while the lizard licked and sucked her in. “That's going to me...isn't it...It's going to eat me...it's eating me right now...”

“No...No...No!” Roxanne screamed out, her shoulders being sucked into the worm's maw with only her head sticking out. Mud and slobber mired all over her hair and face, her own tears drenching her cheeks further. The worm's lips advanced over her neck and began to press upon her chin as she kept crying out. The wet and tight pressure on her body increased, the worm continuing to pulse upon her skin like a living glove.

“Help me! Someone help!” Roxanne cried out before her mouth was forced closed by the advancing maw. She whimpered and groaned, feeling more of her face get consumed by the worm. She could only look up and away from the worm now, her vision slowly turning dark and pink as her eyes sank into the worm's mouth. A slow gulp sucked in the girl's scalp so that only strands of her hair were left outside of the worm's closing mouth. With its prey fully consumed, the worm swallowed once more and closed its sucker.

“Let me go!” Roxanne screamed inside of the hot, tight and wet insides of the worm. She was being pulled down further and further into the living soap, the foul air inside just barely breathable. Her tears were mixing with the worm's inner juices, her eyes irritated by the mushy flesh constantly rubbing into her face. All as her energy was sapped by her own panic and the constantly prodding and massaging of the worm's bowels.

“No...no please...” Her consciousness faded in and out as her despair and terror broke the fight in her. She could only cry and beg, the fleshy muscular walls around her pressing upon her tightly from all sides again and again. A hot liquid was building up around her, no longer merely dampening her skin, but now flooding the meat chamber that she had settled into. If time was passing at all, Roxanne would have no way of knowing about it.

“What am I doing...” She cried out one more time and let the darkness settle in. There was no use in fighting it, she was just food to the worm now. What more could Roxanne do than to accept the inevitable and go to sleep...

xxxx

“I don't know how long I was in there...” Roxanne was holding herself, shivering in fright after recounting her awful experience. “I didn't feel any pain...just a lot of tightness and discomfort...maybe I just suffocated in my sleep before the worm digested me...”

“I can't even tell you how crazy I went when I woke up. A dodo bird was enough to-” Roxanne stopped when saw Mel furiously scribbling away in her notebook. “You were listening right?”

Mel held up her notebook, showing a vividly accurate sketch of the worm with someone in its mouth. “I haven't added details on the victim yet-”

“Please don't.” Roxanne said and then stopped when she realized how pathetic she sounded. The proud girl cleared her throat and fought down her trauma. She didn't want to look like a frail and weak girl, not in front of Mel of all people. “It's a scientific thing right? So keep it bland so that it could be anyone in the worm's mouth. Got it?”

“I see your point.” Mel replied, seeing Roxanne's point. “A blind and deaf worm that can stretch its body over any prey? Maybe it lives in mud because its body can only handle tepid environments. Maybe in deeper mud pits, it feeds on larger prey that already drowned after sinking by latching on and tearing off bite sized chunks. Smaller prey like humans, it just swallows whole...I wonder if it prefers living prey or dead prey? How can it tell the difference?”

“You know? You should make a translator so we can ask them.” Roxanne joked. “Come to think of it, we should ask whoever came up with this Ark crap and tell them to go fuck themselves.”

“Hey Roxanne! You don't know if they're listening.” Mel pointed out, not wanting to test the theory. “I know that life here can be tense, but don't say something dumb to make it worse.”

“Why the hell would that matter.” Roxanne laid back against a log and looked up at the sky. “You can do everything right and still get killed or eaten. You can be really unlucky and then die twice in a row in only a few hours.”

“That happened to you?”

“Not to me.” Roxanne explained. “Remember Sandra? Ran into a man eating pod flower and was stuck there for days before she respawned. She happened to respawn right next to a cave with a flesh blob in it! She didn't have a chance to get her bearings straight before she got pulled in and eaten.”

“You know...it's very brave and strong of you to talk about what happened to you.” Mel said, surprising the blushing Roxanne. “A lot of us just go into denial or just don't think about it. No one wants to admit how fragile things are when you're constantly dancing on the line between life and death. No one likes the idea that humans can be part of the food chain too...strip us of our advanced technology, societal titles and modern conveniences and we're not much better than animals-”

“Except we can think and we don't hump anything that moves when we get horny.” Roxanne countered. “But thanks...that does mean a lot coming from you Mel.”

“No problem.” Mel answered with a smile that made Roxanne blush deeper. “You know, you don't have to talk about the second time if you don't-”

“You gave me two so I'll give you two.” Roxanne insisted. “I didn't exactly trip into mud...but I was being careless...”

xxxx

“Get back here dinner!” Roxanne roared out, dashing through tall grass as fast as she could to keep up with her prey. A large gray feathered dodo bird was darting away, cawing in panic as it fled the human chasing her. Roxanne was gripping her spear and clenching her teeth together in a toothy smile like a wildcat anticipating the first bite. 

Her slender tanned body was more toned due to her time in the jungle of the ARK. She had managed to find cloth to form a slim band around her small breasts and create a makeshift mini-skirt to wrap around her hips. Bandages were tied around her arms and shins while her cheek sported a scar from a close encounter with a predator she had fought and evaded.

Roxanne had become a hunter in this jungle where the grass was very tall and vines sprang out everywhere. The bronze silver blond was proud of how she'd become a terror for both herbivores and carnivores. She'd started with small and slow prey at first, getting better and better with her accuracy and ferocity. She'd learned how to make traps to trap animals so that she could stab them while they were incapacitated. The easiest traps were the trap holes for bovine creatures and tree snares for birds and rodents. 

Today, she'd found a dodo bird which had managed to get out of her tree snare. The bird's leg was somewhat injured, but it still managed to flee Roxanne very rapidly. A healthy flightless bird was able to outpace a human with ease and were even hard for faster predators to catch. The dodo bird that Roxanne pursued was a lucky catch that she couldn't afford to let escape.

“Get over here!” Roxanne let her spear fly ahead of her and cursed when the spear narrowly missed the dodo bird and emdedded itself into the dirt. “Damn it! Stop being so fast you damned bird!” She snatched up the spear and continued her pursuit out of the trees and into a meadow where the grass was much taller.

She started to slow down, now realizing that the Dodo would be trying to hide rather than run. The tall blades of grass made for a forest of their own, Roxanne's vision obscured by the walls of green all around her. She gathered her breath and slowly stepped forward, noting how soft the dirt was beneath her bare feet. Small puddles already filled the dodo bird's tracks, a sign that this area had gotten a surplus of rain recently.

“Hide and seek? I always win this game.” Roxanne confidently whispered, slowly treading through the grass in search of her quarry. She paid attention to every sound, trying to pick out anything that could help her detect and catch the hiding bird. She also noted the tracks, following their trail to keep an accurate idea about which direction the bird had gone.

Then she heard the fluttering of feathers and smiled. “Gotcha.” She hustled in the direction of the fluttering, trying not to make too much noise with the grass she passed through. She slobbered slightly, already imagining how delicious the bird would taste once it was seasoned and cooked over a roaring fire. How good the juicy meat would feel when she ripped it from the bone and swallowed it down into her belly.

“Hi there dinner.” She pots the bird just a few dozen feet ahead of her. The bird must have thought that it evaded Roxanne because it was standing in place picking worms out of the ground. It's injured leg was shaking slightly, a sign that it could give out with any further strain. All Roxanne would have to do is raise her spear, throw it forth and take down the bird.

But caught in the moment of victory, Roxanne instead charged. “I'm eating good tonight-” Roxanne's cry was cut off when the ground gave way around her and her feet slipped into something thick and wet. Her vision returned to her after wiping a dark syrupy muck from her face and then looked down to see that her legs were submerged to the thigh in muddy tar.

“So that's why it flew.” Roxanne steadied her breath, looking over to see that the dodo bird was casually strolling away from the scene. In her excitement, Roxanne had run into a hidden bog that streamed through the grassland. Mud bubbled around her as Roxanne took in her new predicament with nervous frustration. “It could be worst.”

“One leg at a time...” Roxanne giggled as she tried to lift up a leg and saw globs of dark goo sticking to  her lower leg and pulling it back down under. She grumbled and shifted around her legs, trying to dislodge herself. The mud bubbled around her and the soft upper surface parted around Roxanne to expose the lighter sludge that composed the bog's mud. 

The mud's grip tugged onto her skirt, Roxanne's struggles causing the cloth to slip off and expose her crotch. Roxanne grit her teeth and whined as she felt her legs sink deeper into the mud up to her bare hips. She moaned as her genitals were kissed by the mud and a blush appeared on her face. She started to stab into the mud and realized that she couldn't find any firm ground to mark how deep the mud really was.

“Shit...it's...deep...” Roxanne's rising panic wouldn't let her keep her legs still, causing her feet to sink deeper into the watery mud. She twisted around her body, trying to move herself towards solid ground, but it was a losing battle. She noticed the skeleton of a tiger sticking out of the mud and a shrill shriek left her throat. She was using her spear to try and paddle herself forward, feeling the mud rise up to her navel and grip upon her sweating skin.

“No...no...no...” Roxanne wasn't getting close to the edge at all and more of her torso was siding down into the bubbling mire. She held up her spear above her head and quickly tore off her top, letting her small breasts spring out. She tore up her top as quickly as she could and wrapped the straps around her spear's shaft, creating a makeshift lifeline for her to grab onto. All while the sludge was moving up to her ribs and dark mire splashed up onto her chest.

“You can do this...Roxanne you can do this...” Roxanne threw her spear to the pit's edge and smiled hopefully when the spear lodged into solid ground. However, the long wrapping was just out of touch from Roxanne's reaching hands. The huntress had to strain her hands out more, causing her chest to start lowering into the muddy tar like it was concentrating on pulling onto her. 

“Please...” Roxanne narrowly managed to grab the wrapping, laughing desperately as she pulled herself towards the edge. Her nipples sank under the mire, making Roxanne gasp as her feet were largely wriggling around beneath unable to find anything solid to stand on. But the makeshift wrapping tore in half under Roxanne's weight and threw her hands onto the edge of the pit.

“This is fine...I can still make it...I can still-” Roxanne screamed when the ground under her hands broke and fell into the mud. Her hands could only hold onto fistfuls of loose dirt and grass that she could only stare at in disbelief. Any trace of reason or calm evaporated as Roxanne started to claw at the pit's edge, trying to find anything she could use to escape. “HELP! HELP ME!”

Roxanne's shoulders vanished beneath the mud, Roxanne's struggles and panic accelerating her own submersion. All of this time, her shifting body had been releasing trapped gasses from beneath the mud, creating a vacuum which was sucking her down. But her terror and fear wasn't letting Roxanne realize this due to her earlier surprise, sealing her doom. “SOMEONE! ANYONE?! HELP!” 

With her chin barely able to stay above the surface, Roxanne was gulping down sludge as her head bobbed up and down on the mud's surface. Her breaths became fast and ragged, the reality of her impending fate making her cry with her tears falling down into the careless mud. “NO! I DON'T...SOMEONE PLEASE HELP-”

In less than a few long minutes, Roxanne had sank up to her eyes. She was only able to give one last look at her situation before her face was lost beneath the mud. The crown of her dirtied blond hair could be briefly seen before the mud claimed it. Her arms madly and desperately waved around above the sludge, sticking out and still looking for anything to save the sunken bronze blond.

But the arms movements grew slower as they were sucked down, the girl underneath the mud silently giving and letting the darkness below take her...

xxxx

Roxanne was silent, holding her knees up to her chest while Mel sketched away in her notebook. The blond girl gave her friend a rare vulnerable look. “Like I said, embarrassing...”

“Quicksand doesn't work that way...” Mel stated while continuing to draw out a dark pit consuming a screaming young woman. Tall grass surrounded the pit, hiding it from other faceless travelers moving through the illustrated bog. “At least not the quicksand back at home.”

Roxanne groaned. “It wasn't quicksand...it was tar or a bog...or whatever...”

“Still...getting stuck is one thing.” Mel commented and held up the sketch to Roxanne. Roxanne was oddly comforted when she saw Mel's sketch and surprised when she saw a question mark underneath the drawn mud. “Personally, I think that there's something under the mud.”

“I was unconscious and choking, so I can't help you there.” Roxanne admitted. “Why does there have to be something down there? No need to spare my feelings-”

“Tar can be deep, but never deep enough to hold a person.” Mel explained. “Well...the tar pits at home that had bones in them were from animals who were stuck and couldn't get out. The animals then eventually died from starvation and hunger, or were eaten alive by opportunistic predators. Many of those predators got stuck themselves and faced the same fate.”

“It's possible that there was another worm under the bog.” Mel theorized. “A mud worm that eats anyone submerged or partially submerged in the bog. Maybe it digs under where it senses movement and releases gases to pull the prey down to them. Or maybe there's some kind of underwater plant that's able to survive being buried under mud and tar and that's what's using the bog to feed itself. It could have even been a mud blob of some kind...”

“Mud blob?” Roxanne rolled over in a laughing fit, even Mel had to giggle with her friend. “That's some imagination! A mud blob...really? Man I love you Mel...”

“Yeah, I'm not sure where that one came from.” Mel admitted, her giggles turning into laughter. The two girls howled and laughed for five minutes before they'd tired themselves out. Both gave out some last remaining giggles, catching their breath and holding onto each other.

Roxanne was the first to notice how close the two girls were and quickly pulled herself out of Mel's embrace blushing wildly. “So...it's getting late...need sleep and all...”

“It's been dark for a long time.” Mel observed, looking up at the night sky and completely missing Roxanne's shaking embarrassed expression. “But...yeah, we should get to bed.”

“My tent's closer if you want to share.” Roxanne blurted out and immediately resisted the urge to hold her hands over her mouth.

Mel just tiredly laughed. “Good one. I'll be alright. You have a good night, Roxanne.”

“You too Mel.” Roxanne watched her friend leave the campfire, her gaze drawn to the sway of her friend's hips and the perfect curves of her friend's fuller body. Then the blond smacked herself to keep from being distracted or caught by her friend. 

“Why did you have to be so damned...sexy and smart...” Roxanne muttered as she put out the fire and settled into her own tent for the night. Tomorrow as going to be another day and everyone would need their strength for the dangers known and unknown that awaited them in the ARK...

