Or Die Alone

"This should be good," Boyd cackled as she hooked her fingers around the edges of the crack, preparing to pull herself through. She gave him a sour look over her shoulder, then heaved herself forward. The cave went dark again as she plugged the hole with her bulk, Boyd raising the brightness on his oh-bis display to watch her struggle. She was stuck fast again, and he laughed as her clawed feet scrabbled against the floor, her long tail waving in the air.

"Come on, you can do it! You somehow managed to get that ass in here, you can get it back out again!" She struggled for a couple more minutes, Boyd's laughter faltering as he realized that she really was stuck, and him with her. If she was blocking the cave entrance then he wouldn't be able to get out, he might even run out of air for his mask to filter in the enclosed space. He heard her muffled voice calling from the other side of the entrance.

"Push me! I'm stuck!"

He eyed her huge butt, straining against the fabric of her overalls, two massive globes of flesh that might each weigh as much as he did. He sighed, and put his shoulder forward, preparing to scale the incline and give her a good shove. The ground was slippery and his boots found no purchase on the ice, he wouldn't be able to push her exactly, but he could ram her until she broke free.

He sprinted up the icy incline that led to the mouth of the cave and slammed his shoulder into her ass. It was so springy, taut muscle beneath the layer of pliant fat that surprised him, and he had to grip her tail to save from rebounding with enough force to send him tumbling back down into the cave.

"Ouch! Don't pull my tail you asshole!"

"Don't talk to me about assholes right now," he grumbled, releasing her tail and preparing for another shove. He sped up the incline again and gave her another hard push, and he heard the ice crack. "It's working, stay put."

"Oh very funny, why are you always such a- ouch!"

He slammed his shoulder into her again, sinking into the meat of her ass, under different circumstances he might have marveled at its softness. Lorza was a whole lot of woman, too much in his opinion, but a woman nonetheless. He resisted the urge to cop a feel on the next push, and this time the ice around her hourglass waist cracked and shell forward into the snow. Boyd followed her, his momentum carrying him out of the cave and onto her butt, draped over her as her tail batted his face.

"Off, off!" Lorza used her tail to throw him off her rear and into a nearby snowdrift, shockingly strong, using her tail like a fifth limb. He sputtered, spitting out a mouthful of snow and rising to his feet, his suit melting the powder that clung to its circuits and details.

"How about, 'thank you for helping me Boyd'," he spat. He realized his mistake as she rose to her feet, smirking at him, her smile decidedly unfriendly.

"So is it Jones or Boyd? Having trouble keeping your story straight, miner?"

"Let's just get moving while we still have sunlight, I'm not looking forward to spending another night in a sleeping bag with you, you overgrown bathmat."

"What's a bathmat?"

"Don't worry about it, you'd have to actually bathe to know that."

They set off into the snow, Boyd holding his wrist display up to check his compass. They had made it about fifty miles the previous day, and they had another fifty ahead of them before they could rest again. Marching from dawn 'till dusk, it was like being in damned boot camp again, if he survived this he was going to put in a transfer request for a desk job.

"Lead on, mister Boyd," Lorza said.

The sun was getting low again, cold and distant as it neared the flat horizon, Boyd almost exhausted enough to stagger as they made their way through the snow. They hadn't spoken all day, neither had anything to say to the other, and he could almost pretend that Lorza wasn't there if he focused on the ground beneath his feet.

She called for him to stop, and sat down on a snow bank, resting her hands on her knees and catching her breath.

"I need a break for a minute, let's have a rest."

"We should keep moving," Boyd panted, "we don't want to be caught out in the open when the sun goes down. We can rest when we've found shelter." Her stomach growled audibly, and she closed a clawed hand over her paunchy belly. "What's wrong? Hungry? Well I guess you shouldn't have eaten all of our rations in one sitting, serves you right for being so gluttonous." She shot him an angry look, she seemed tired, perhaps the lack of food really was getting to her but she only had herself to blame. If she had done as Boyd had said, they would have had enough food to keep them both going for a week.

"I told you, I'm a Borealan, I need far more food than a human. I can't subsist on melted snow."

"Well you're not going to starve, that's for sure," he said as he looked her up and down conspicuously.

"No, but I'm going to get colder and weaker as I burn through my fat reserves."

"Well then you should have brought a jacket or something, it isn't my job to babysit you. How do you even get into those overalls? You're practically...spilling out of them."

She looked up at him with a sly grin, her hunger temporarily forgotten.

"Does that bother you, Boyd?" She crossed her legs and leaned back on the snowdrift, pressing her copious chest together with her biceps. "You're always making comments about my body, it sure seems to be on your mind a lot for something that you claim to hate..."

He looked away from her, waving his hand dismissively.

"Don't delude yourself, you're basically an animal to me, now get your oversized ass off the snow and let's find a damned cave to sleep in."

"Eager to share a sleeping bag with me again, are you?"

He scoffed, shaking his head and walking off into the snow. Lorza watched him with a smirk, then shrugged and rose to her feet to follow after him. She was bored, flirting with him for her own amusement, if he didn't give her a reaction she would eventually get tired of it and stop. That kind of behavior might work on someone less disciplined than Boyd, but he would be damned if she was going to get under his skin so easily.

They had searched for a good hour, but there were no caves to be found, and Boyd sat and fiddled with the settings on his monitor as a means of distraction. The charge was rapidly depleting as the temperature dropped, they couldn't sleep out in the open, they needed some kind of shelter. There was nothing in this tundra, it was an arctic desert, a wasteland. He looked up as Lorza appeared over a snowdrift and descended it to skid to a halt nearby.

"You find anything?"

"No, looks like we're going to have to make our own shelter tonight."

"How are we going to do that?"

"Oh 'now' you're interested in hearing what I have to say?"

"Just cut the shit and tell me what I need to do."

She crossed her furry arms and sighed.

"Fine, here's what we need to do; we find a suitable snowdrift and we dig a tunnel into it. The tunnel needs to be at an upward angle so that fresh snow doesn't fall inside and block it. Hot air rises, and we want to trap as much of it as we can. Once we get far enough inside that we're shielded from the weather, we need to carve out a chamber with a flat floor to sleep on. Doesn't need to be big, just large enough to fit the both of us. Pack the snow as tightly as you can."

"Ok, that makes sense. I'll let you choose the location."

"As if you'd know where to start," she chuckled. She wandered off and started scouting the snow dunes, testing the consistency of the powder between her fluffy fingers. Eventually she came across one that she seemed to like the look of, and called him over, beginning to dig with her enormous hands. She dug out great handfuls of snow, huge scoops that Boyd could not approximate with his tiny human hands, and before long he decided it was best to just take a step back and let her do it. She seemed to be the expert after all.

She didn't complain, slowly vanishing up to her hips in the snowdrift as she tunneled deeper, leaving a huge pile of snow behind her. Eventually she disappeared completely, only her tail visible, and Boyd crouched to look up into the passage that she had dug. It was large by his standards, she was so much bigger than him and needed a lot more space. Finally she was finished, and called for him to enter. He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled up the incline, the roof and walls tightly packed with frozen snow, it looked sturdy enough.

As he climbed the tunnel opened up into a larger chamber with a domed ceiling, almost tall enough for him to stand in. Lorza was sat in the middle of the room in the process of unfolding her sleeping bag and lying it on the floor. It already felt warmer in here than outside, sheltered from the wind and their body heat already beginning to warm the space.

"It won't collapse on us or anything?" Boyd asked.

"No, it will be fine." She flattened the sleeping bag, then slid down inside it, leaving the zipper open expectantly as Boyd watched from the corner. "Aren't you coming in?"

"It feels pretty warm in here," he replied, "I think I'll chance it and see if I can stick it out for the night."

Her brow furrowed.

"Do you really hate me so much that you'll put yourself at risk just to avoid sharing a bed with me? I don't know what I did to you to deserve such scorn." She waited a moment for a reply, but he gave none. "The way I remember it, I was the one who helped you, when you were putting on your little show of being an oppressed miner back at the spaceport on Hades."

"Just drop it, go to sleep."

She zipped up the bag and rolled away from him, the space illuminated only by the dull glow of his oh-bis.

"We have a popular saying in Russia, 'a liar should have a good memory'. If you're going to lie, at least keep your story straight. Don't take advantage of me and my crew and then insult my intelligence by denying it."

He ignored her, turning up the heat a little on his suit control and lying down to sleep.

Boyd woke up a short time later, shivering violently, his breath freezing into clouds of glittering ice crystals. His suit had run out of power again, and the warmth that was being trapped in the den was not enough to sustain him. He was getting dangerously cold, and yet again his only option was to go to Lorza for help. Damn her and her sleeping bag.

He crawled over to her bag and gave her a shove, the giant alien turning over to blink at him with her blue eyes. She was still awake, also shivering, unable to trap enough heat on her own to stay warm. She hadn't forced him into the bag this time, was she being stubborn? Trying to teach him some kind of lesson?

"Oh, you came crawling back I see, literally..."

"Don't be a bitch, let me in."

"Tell me your real name," she stated, her tone adamant.

"Come on," he muttered through chattering teeth, "let me in or I'll freeze to death. You're freezing too, are you putting yourself in danger just to fuck with me?"

"Not until you tell me your real name, and don't lie this time or I'll know."

"Fine," he spat, "it's Boyd. Now let me in before I freeze."

"There, was that so hard?" Lorza asked, unzipping the sleeping bag and opening it for him. "Come join me, mister Boyd."

He reluctantly climbed inside, and she wrapped an arm around him to close the bag, sealing him in with her. She lingered for a moment, practically spooning with him, knowing that it would make him uncomfortable and relishing his reaction when he shoved her away with his elbow. She laughed, her warm breath blowing in his hair and sending a shiver rolling down his spine. She leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"You know, we're going to be stuck out here together for a long time, might as well learn to get along. You might find that you enjoy my company, if you'd only take the time to get to know me better."

He ignored her, staring intently at the wall of packed snow as he warmed. He felt her breasts press against his back again, the soft globes deforming and molding around him, and he turned to glare at her. He was growing tired of her games, whether she found his negative reactions amusing or if she was genuinely trying to manipulate him, his patience was wearing thin.

"Just turn away and stay on your side of the bag, leave me be and we'll get along just fine."

Her stomach grumbled loudly, which seemed to distract her from her game, her hand sliding down his back to rub her belly. She groaned, more gurgling sounds emanating from below.

"How are you 'that' hungry?" Boyd asked. "You ate your damned weight in ration packs just a day ago. Well, that would be an exaggeration, you ate 'my' weight in ration packs. 'Your' weight in ration packs would feed a damned battalion for a month."

"I keep telling you that I have a higher calorie requirement than you, you fool. I'm burning fat, my body is running out of energy to keep me warm. You have your fancy suit, but I can only rely on my biology, when I run out of fat my fur isn't going to be enough to stave off the cold."

"Then the sooner we get to our destination, the better."

"You don't seem to be faring too badly," she muttered.

"Yeah well I'm tough, I'm not going to let a little hunger get me down."

"You'd better hope I don't get so hungry that you start to look tasty, Boyd." She bit his ear playfully with her pointed teeth, and he batted her away, the chuckling alien rolling over to face away from him as he fumed.

Soon her breathing became regular and deep, she never seemed to have trouble getting to sleep, but just sharing a sleeping bag with her was enough to irritate Boyd and keep him awake. Whenever she stirred or shifted, her pudgy body pressed against him, he would have given his left arm for a dividing barrier that might separate the two. She was just so...distracting! Everything about her was oversized and exaggerated, from her appetite to her ridiculous breasts. He flinched away as he felt her furry tail curl around one of his legs, Lorza murmuring in her sleep.

He muttered curses under his breath and tried to ignore her, eventually joining his unwelcome companion in her slumber.

CHAPTER 5: THREAT CONDITION

Boyd was startled awake again, Lorza upending the sleeping bag and rolling him out of it onto the cold snow. He gasped, eyes wide, and scrambled to turn his heating system on. He rose to his feet, fists clenched, and glared at the alien as she rolled up the bag and returned it to her pack.

"Are you going to do that every day? Just wake me up 'before' you put the sleeping bag away!"

"But you looked so peaceful," she whined sarcastically. "The only time you're not insulting me or throwing childish tantrums is when you're asleep."

"Keep it up, you giant tub of lard, and I'll show you a tantrum."

"Great comeback, proved my point, now pick up your backpack and let's get moving again. I feel the best course of action is to walk you until you're too tired to start fights, like some kind of unruly puppy."

She crawled down the tunnel on her hands and knees, and he slung his pack over his back, making his way down after her. What was the point of even lugging these packs around? He doubted that they would need toothpaste or duct tape any time soon.

He emerged from the hole in the snow into the sunlight, seeing Lorza stretching her arms above her head and yawning. She watched him approach, waiting until he was in range before shaking herself like a wet dog and showing him with cold slush. He wiped his face with his hand, scowling up at her.

"One of these days I'm just going to strangle you in your sleep."

She put her hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter, an oddly dainty gesture coming from such a massive creature, and reached out to pat his head condescendingly.

"I'd like to see you try, I could hold you at arm's length, like in one of those old cartoons."

"Whatever, come on let's get going, I can't wait to be rid of you."

She followed behind him as he marched off into the snow, checking their bearing on his wrist display, Lorza still chuckling as she jogged a little to catch up.

"I'm sure you'll agree that we have to find ways to amuse ourselves, Boyd. Don't tell me you can't handle a little teasing? You certainly seem to lay it on thick when you joke about my weight." She doubled over, gripping her stomach as it growled audibly. "Ugh, I can't believe there's nothing to eat on this entire moon, we've not seen a single plant or animal on the surface since we arrived."

"You could make a hole in the ice and go fishing," he smirked, and she scowled at him.

"Do you think that thing is still following us under the ice?"

"Maybe, frankly I'd rather not know if it was."

Lorza gripped her stomach again as it gurgled.

"Are you not hungry?" She asked, giving Boyd a quizzical look.

"I am, but I'm dealing with it."

He wasn't sure if she really believed him or not, but with any luck she'd know as little about human biology as he did about Borealan. He wasn't about to start sharing now, it was her own fault that she was going hungry, and he doubted that the pills would even make a dent in her hunger considering her vastly larger nutritional requirements. It should only be another four or five days until they reached the oxygen farm, she wouldn't die, so he should ignore her complaints and keep moving.

They trudged through the snow for a few hours, now knee-deep, flakes of fresh powder being blown on the wind to hammer the pair in a relentless blizzard. Most of them melted before they reached Boyd's suit, his circuits projecting a small aura of heat around his body, but Lorza had to shake herself periodically to shed the layer of snow that clung to her white fur. Her pelt was becoming increasingly matted as the strands froze together with melting snow and ice, she looked like a walking snow sculpture. She trailed a short distance behind him, struggling against the wind.

"We need to take shelter," she shouted over the gale, barely audible to Boyd. "I can't keep going in this weather!" As if on cue, Boyd spotted the mouth of an ice cave in the distance, its entrance not yet buried in snow.

"We'll take a break in there," he bellowed back to her, "wait out the blizzard!" The wind was increasing, and even he had to admit that it was getting hard to walk, it was a miracle he had even seen the cave through the swirling snow that clogged the air.

They made their way over to it, Boyd digging through the snow that was piling up at the entrance to let them through, and they scrambled inside. Droplets of water fell from Boyd's suit as the snow melted off it, freezing almost as soon as they hit the icy floor. Lorza shook herself, spraying him with slush, but she still looked bedraggled. They made their way deeper, this cave was larger and went further down than the previous one had, while the tunnel was narrow it was still big enough to allow Lorza to pass without too much difficulty as long as she turned to her side in places. Boyd lit their way with the glow from his oh-bis monitor, illuminating the curving walls, careful to avoid slipping on the floor as they walked.

After a couple of minutes they reached a chamber with a more level floor, and Boyd sat to rest, watching Lorza as she tried to scrape the ice from her matted fur with her claws where it had been exposed to the air. She still wore her overalls, though they were looking the worse for wear as the constant freezing and thawing took its toll on the fabric.

"Should have brought a comb instead of toothpaste," he chided, and she shot him a scathing look. She started to unzip the front of her overalls, releasing a puff of white fur as the weight of her breasts pushed the garment open. Boyd turned away in surprise and embarrassment.