My mother always used to feed the ducks and seagulls back when we lived at ‘her’ mother’s old house in Pasadena. And almost every fucking day, she had to go out there with a hose and spray the shit off the pier. Now this was a time long before I devolved into an OCD germaphobe, so I never really cared.

However, things change. Now the bird-shit covered pier was like an insurmountable trench. I needed to make dozens of trips across that damn filthy bridge, so I guess, I just needed to make some sacrifices. There were actually a few brave and arrogant seagulls casually standing on the wooden pylons.

The waves were crashing along the beach, with ducks waddling around down there or swimming on the water. It really did bring back memories. Of course, I also had the urge to take out my revolver and start using them as target practice. In fact, I did hear some gunshots echoing out in the distance, as I stood on the top of that yacht. Totally naked, displaying my cumdenched female body to the world.

Michael was down in the cabin, gathering up the bags and bringing them to the top of the ship. I was placing everything up there, in order to avoid having to go in and out of the cabin a hundred times. Still, Ana needed to stay on the boat in order to keep those nasty fucking birds from shitting all over it.

Hell, she really was holding the loaded revolver and aiming at the shore. However, I didn’t want to waste bullets on stupid seagulls or ducks. I was still wary of the ‘various big cats’ that might be lurking behind the treeline. Fortunately, the house was at the top of a decent sized hill. The jungle was cleared away for at least a couple dozen meters to the South, East and West. I couldn’t see what was behind it, but at least I could tell that there were no giant monsters or demonic creatures lurking around the front and sides.

There was a five meter ‘tall’ concrete staircase connected to the end of the pier. It really did remind me of my grandmother’s place, hence I figured it was a lot safer than the other two options I was given. At least safe from flooding. There’s no accounting for pterodactyls or other things that I figured, ‘might’ be lurking on the island.

All the stuff I packed was only enough to somewhat fill the living room of the yacht, so there was plenty of space on top of the boat to place everything down. As I brought up the amp, I grumbled: “I never thought I’d say this but… It’s really fucking hot.”

It must have been in the nineties, while the inside of the boat was about a hundred degrees. And it was pretty early in the morning. I knew I had to work faster, so that I wouldn’t be stuck out there, doing manual labor in the scorching sunlight. Speaking of which, I could see some big white wind turbines along the beach, but they weren’t very loud. The roof of my new house was also covered with solar panels. While the walls were just generic grey, and looked like they were made out of concrete.

In case I didn’t make this clear. Although the house was on the hill, from the end of the pier, I could see it pretty clearly. To the left and right, I had a clear view of the treeline, while the hill itself only had some grass and bushes. Elephant ears, kresna, and a bunch of other generic tropical foliage was covering the hill. There were also a bunch of vines, some of which kinda looked like poison ivy. But nothing was hanging over the surprisingly wide concrete stairs, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

“Alright, I’m not gonna worry about hygiene at a time like this.” I sighed as I struggled to carry the last item up onto the deck. It was that forty pound dumbbell, which was granite colored and covered in some kinda coating. Even if I just left it on the pier, it probably would have been fine, but I wasn’t gonna do that.

*Waaak, wak wak wak~!*

The ducks and seagulls suddenly freaked out and started flying off in random directions, but a few of them weren’t so lucky. I heard a bunch of splashing and looked down at the crystal clear crashing waves, as a single huge and fat saltwater crocodile emerged with two brown ducks in its mouth.

“Holy fucking shitballs!” At first I thought it was a gator, but well, it was a big goddamn water lizard. Not much of a difference either way. The phone that was sitting on top of the amp suddenly beeped and the croc turned its giant head towards me. Of course, it was at least ten meters away. Theoretically, the fat bastard could have crawled up onto the beach a bit more and then easily traversed the pier but…

[∞: That crocodile is named Mo-172, part of the Guardians of Eden. Essentially, they are either tamed cybernetically enhanced or biologically evolved creatures that protect the island from internal and external threats. For example, the Mo series crocodiles are mostly responsible for ensuring that the beaches and riverbanks are relatively safe from dangerous predators. They also thin the waterfowl population, though not enough to prevent them from taking over the shoreline… There are other types of animals as well. It is important that you do not harm or threaten them, because they are extremely dangerous when angered.]

I wasn’t planning to shoot the gator, I mean, ‘croc’. However, it’s a good thing I didn’t aim my gun at him or her, since they might have shot me with lasers or some shit? Anyway, soon enough, they finished eating those few birds and receded back into the crashing waves.

“Alright, well I’ll start with the lighter and less fragile shit first, in case I need to run for my life or whatever.” I sighed and picked up two trash bags full of clothes. On the other hand, Ana held the revolver with both her hands and literally watched my back. In other words, she followed right behind me, as I traversed the shitty pier.

“Maybe I should’ve worn shoes… Fuck!” The pier was really hot, even though the sun had only been up for a few hours. Not to mention the dried crab shells, twigs and well, splinters from the wooden boards. It was definitely an unpleasant experience for both of my bodies.

Soon enough, I reached a short concrete sidewalk, which led from the pier to the stairs. Speaking of which, maybe those stairs were made for super tall people, but each one was about a foot tall. Making it a total of twenty stairs. When I finally made it to the top, my legs were shaking and I looked back down with Ana, realizing how annoying it will be if only one of my bodies is carrying shit.

There was about three meters of concrete sidewalk, until I reached the single step, which led to the front door. Ana walked in front of me and reached out with her left hand to turn the shiny silver door-knob, for the reflective metal door. It literally looked like it was made out of stainless steel. The door was unlocked, but it was pretty heavy to push with only Ana’s left arm.

Once we both made it inside, she closed the door again. As much as I hate clothes, I was starting to realize some of the benefits. For example, Michael was naked, with his hands full, so I ended up leaving the fancy Infinity cellphone behind on the boat. Fortunately, I already asked the important question beforehand: “How long with this yacht stay here?”

[∞: Approximately 12 hours. However, it will leave as soon as you finish transporting your luggage to your house.]

So I wasn’t really in a rush. Although I got a good idea of what the place looked like from the pictures, it still wasn’t the same as physically being there. The first thing I noticed, aside from the fact that the place looked really bland, was that the temperature was much lower than outside. It wasn’t cold by any means, so I didn’t think an AC was on, but it was more like the sensation of being in a basement. I know, enough of my basement fetish. But seriously, it’s really nice to be in a basement during the summer.

The second thing that was really apparent, was just how big and empty the place looked. The wooden ceiling was about three meters off the ground, which is pretty standard. However, the whole place was wide open. The whole floor was covered with grey tiles, and the walls were covered with wooden panels, that were painted white. Meanwhile, there were a lot of big windows, so the place was really bright just from the sunlight alone.

The first floor reminded me of the sun-room in my grandmother’s house, to an extent. That sun-room was big, but ultimately, it was just one room. And it had really shitty insulation, due to all the windows and the doors on each side. Plus, there was an earthquake up in fucking Canada and it managed to screw up the old building pretty badly. In ways that really can’t be fixed easily.

Anyway, enough about that. Instead of automatic blinds, those windows would get darker with the flick of a switch on the wall. Don’t ask me how the fuck it worked, because I honestly don’t know or care. It was pretty cool though.