Chapter 1

God damn, I hate when it rains like this. No nice gentle sprinkle for us. Not even a moderate afternoon thundershower. For our sins we're getting a mother-fucking deluge. One of those big drop downpours where each fat dollop actually hurts when it hits. It reminded me of the words to an old campfire song. "Though I didn't mind when it sprinkled a bit, I cried when my house floated by."

I nearly cried when the lightning got serious. Each bolt and following thunderclap felt like a body blow. Here I was trying to impress Karen, my new girlfriend, with my romantic sensibilities by taking her for a nice walk in the woods. Then comes the storm, scaring both of us nearly shitless. Wasn't this swell?

One tiny stroke of luck finally fell our way as we were trying to run the two and a half miles back to my pickup. A closer than I cared for lightning bolt lit up the entrance of a small cave in a hillside nearby. We were in it like mice through a knothole with a cat chasing our asses. Thank God I'd put a blanket in the picnic basket I was carrying.

Our clothes were soaked and after some serious teasing I let Karen convince me we needed to shuck them so they could at least drip dry a little. I'll admit it made me feel more kindly toward the storm. Unfortunately one thing didn't lead to another until...

The biggest God damned lightning bolt and the loudest thunder on earth came, right at the cave's entrance. Karen lunged into me so hard it almost knocked us down, and then her mouth latched onto mine.

Somehow the storm made us nearly insatiable. Even though we were naked and soaked, foreplay need not apply. The next few minutes were strictly a savage game of the ever-popular in-out in-out. Civilized behavior was gone for now as Karen and I fucked like animals, over and over until we wore each other completely out.

When sunlight woke me through the small cave's entrance I was surprised, and in the light of day I couldn't put my finger on exactly what had set us on fire yesterday. Karen was still sleeping, still naked, and even though her beauty was still tempting I must have had my quota the night before.

I pulled my damp jeans off the rough ledge where they'd dripped the night away and pulled them up. Nothing could come next but a long piss, and I went outside to find a convenient tree.

The sun was bright and the freshly watered earth seemed more alive than ever. A light breeze caressed my uncovered upper body and birdsong serenaded my ears. Something was odd though.

The country path we'd been walking was gone. My sense of direction was confused since we'd been walking south from my pickup last night and now sunrise was facing me as I walked in what I thought was the same direction. Something was dreadfully wrong and I didn't even feel a deep burning pain in my side.

There it was. Proof the world had gone even crazier than Karen and I last night. As I walked into the rising sun, Smilodon fatalis, in his terrible ferocious magnificence was walking to greet me.

This is where the original short story ended.

Sometimes a slight difference of degree is vastly significant. If I'd been reading it, knowledge that saber tooth tigers were still possible would have been interesting, but practically meaningless to me. Seeing one walking toward me early in the morning and not very distant at all was a hell of a lot more than interesting. It was life or death, and for me!

To the best of my knowledge I was armed only with a Bic lighter. Going back to the cave for shelter would only put Karen on the cat's menu along with me since there was no handy door to shut in his face.