Now:

     The closer Skip drew to the surface, the hotter the air felt, until they reached the mouth of the cave.

     "Where are we?" he asked, "the surface of the sun?"

     "Close. A desert."

     "A desert? You mean like a desert desert? You mean like cactus plants and bleached skulls and vultures and..."

     "Sand and a beating sun and too hot for you, not after you've been in The Cellars all these months."

     "You couldn't bring me up into an air-conditioned motel somewhere?"

     "Once we're in a hover, you'll be fine."

     "The air's so hot, it's getting hard to breathe."

     "You are such a baby. I'll see if I can't get you a temperature-control wrap once we...oh no."

     "What?"

     "Back down the stairs, Skip. Now! Run! Damn. We've been spotted. Stick me up your butt, Skip."

     "What?!"

     "You want to keep me, poke me up your ass."

     Claudia's tone startled, then terrified, Skip.

     Claudia was a computer, and computers weren't supposed to panic.

     Skip pulled his pants down enough to get Claudia between his butt cheeks. She took it from there. It was like Claudia became a little animal, the way she squirmed the rest of the way into Skip's anus. 

​     He no sooner got his belt buckled than an eight-foot toad bounded into the room to snatch Skip up.

CONTINUE