Page 27 of Factory Controller

“Yes, I’m sure. We crashed north of the Amazon river, and then got turned around in the woods, and we haven’t come back across it yet. As long as we keep heading south, we’re bound to run into it sooner or later.”

Heather nods, then gazes all around her. “It’s so…oddly peaceful here. Like we’re the only people in all the world.”

“Adam and Eve, right?” Suddenly I’m standing very close to her, and she’s not shrinking away. I feel her body melt into my own as I lean in to taste the lips I’ve longed for ever since I first laid eyes on her.

Her kiss is soft and warm and wonderful, everything I want it to be. It feels good, and not just in the usual way. This time I feel stuff in my chest as well as below the belt. It’s almost like there’s tendrils reaching out from my heart trying to connect to hers.

The very idea of connection triggers a primal panic within me. I gently disengage and look down the path, because I can’t stand to face her. What had I been thinking? I can’t get close to anyone. It’s not worth the pain of losing them forever.

“We have a lot of ground to cover. Come on.”

Heather only hesitates for a second. “All right.”

We start hiking again, neither of us even mentioning the kiss.

Was she caught up in the moment too?

I consider the other option.

She could also be feeling something for me.

HEATHER

Trent and I march on through the rainforest, only speaking when necessary. Mostly he does the talking, telling me to watch out for one hazard or another. I don’t know how he keeps seeing all these snakes. They’re practically invisible.

You think you’re alone in the rainforest and then you realize there’s probably a dozen—at least—living creatures within two square feet of you. I move past a tree and yelp when I spot a foot long, red and yellow millipede curled around the trunk. It skitters out of sight as I stagger away.

“Don’t worry, he’s more afraid of you than you are of him.”

I turn a baleful eye on Trent and my lips twist a sneer. “Impossible.”

Trent laughs and we continue on. Sweat drips into my eyes in a nearly constant stream. My shirt is plastered to my body by a sticky film, and I don’t want to think of the state of my socks at this point. I suppose, if we want to keep dangerous wildlife at bay, all we have to do is air out our shoes.

“It’s so hot,” I groan as we struggle up another steep rise in the terrain. “Does the wind ever get in here?”

“Not very often, unless there’s a storm.” Trent consults his compass, which also has a thermometer. “Looks like we’re at a toasty ninety-eight degrees at the moment.”

“It seems a lot hotter.”

“That’s because of the humidity. It’s nearly one hundred percent most of the time unless there’s a storm.”

“How can there be one hundred percent humidity? Isn’t that air converting directly into water?”

I stop and tilt my head back, glowering up at the forest as a whole.

“You hear me, rainforest? Stop being an implausible ball of suck right this instant!”

Trent waits for me to wind down, a bemused smile on his face. “Feel better?”

“No, but I’m ready to continue on now.”

If I’m being honest with myself, it’s not the heat, or the humidity, or the bugs which have me distracted. It’s Trent, and that kiss. That damned kiss.

Kissing Trent felt right on a lot of levels. As in all of them.

I can’t help but wonder if I can really trust him. After all, I stumbled across this man naked in the jungle eating a fruit like an idiot. Then he pretended not to understand me so I blathered on about embarrassing and taboo subjects.

I have no choice but to trust him. He does seem to know generally what he’s doing. His compass can’t lie. If we keep heading south, we will hit the Amazon.

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