A sudden zipping sound pulled Lenny out of his rather pleasant dream and into the cold, fresh sunrise.
"No," he said weakly. "Please don't do that."
His coworker, Rose, instead finished unzipping his tent and popped her head inside with a smile that was too bright for the dim of morning. She punched him lightly on his bare shoulder.
"Get up! We have to pack and get moving before the other groups if we want to win this thing. I haven't seen anyone else since we started yesterday evening, so we've go no idea how far ahead they are."
Lenny had hardly slept, and his back was tweaked from lying on a thin foam pad all night. Camping had never been an interest of his. Hiking was a little more interesting, but it usually meant chafing somewhere private. At first, the thought of combining the two for a work "wellness" competition had made Lenny's head swim, but he was determined to win the extra two weeks vacation.
Rose had left Lenny's tent flap completely unzipped, which he assumed was motivation to get moving. The pre-dawn light hadn't touched the chilly desert air, but the fire Rose had rekindled was crackling warmly at the center of their camp. He noticed that Rose's tent had already been dismantled and her belongings were loosely gathered around her pack by the fire. Lenny sat up and pulled his backpack to his side, accidentally dragging the top half of his sleeping bag with it.
He felt new chill spread across his legs and groin as his naked lower half was exposed to the morning air. Mortified, he glanced over at Rose to see if she had noticed. She had paused, mid coffee pour, and was staring at his cold and retracted cock. He quickly threw his backpack over his crotch.
"Did you show me your little cock on purpose?" Rose scoffed, half laughing at him.
"No! I'm so sorry! That was completely on accident!" Lenny cried, looking almost as upset as he sounded. He buried his face into his backpack and tried to hide from her stare.
"Good. If I want to see your baby cock again, I'll ask first." Rose said, smirking into her coffee.
Horrified and half panicked at the potential repercussions, Lenny zipped up his tent and changed into his hiking clothes. To not risk irritating Rose further, he quickly broke down his tent and packed his backpack while she sipped down a few cups of coffee.
Their entire company, only 14 people, had agreed to take a long weekend to "improve health and company morale" in the Arizona desert. In the announcement, the compamy owner, Bradley, had told them that they would all be competing in a long distance hike to win the extra vacation days. The only caveat was that certain items had to be scavenged along the way to the finish line. The items collected were worth specific point values and the team to finish by the middle of the third day with the highest score would win two weeks off each.
Despite most people's non athletic lifestyle, the appeal of possibly doubling their time off (at the odds of one in seven) was what had really motivated everyone to participate. Lenny initially wondered if it was safe sending inexperienced people into the wilderness for three days, but Bradley had arranged for each of them to receive specialized training before the event was scheduled.
Rose was their company's marketing specialist who had graciously, and rather quickly, volunteered to pair with him for the competition. Rose was a taller woman, maybe 30, with full black hair, tanned skin, thick legs, and a small upper body. Lenny suspected she was a large part Native American, but he had never asked her about it. Lenny was a young, somewhat reserved loner who programmed the company's software and collected minerals in his free time. Rose always towered over him at work in her high heels, but now in hiking boots, she seemed to only be an inch or two taller than him.
"Are you ready?" She said, as he came back from a bathroom break down the hill.
"Yes-" he said, but she had already turned and was striding out of their campsite.
Lenny bent down to strap the last few things to his pack before setting off after her in a half jog to catch up.
The sun was fully in the sky by the time they left their site and the day's heat was creeping in steadily. Despite how uncomfortable it had been to sleep outside, Lenny found himself enjoying the natural beauty of the area. The sections of cacti and sparse shrubbery led into low areas with trees and large boulders.
Almost two hours after setting off, Rose said they would take a break and asked him to show her the half-completed scavenger list. Prior to this, he had been wondering if Rose was still mad at him for the incident at the campsite.
"Remember that arrowheads and other artifacts are worth a lot of points. We should be able to find something good by a water source, which we need to hunt down anyway because our water supply is getting low." She said factually. Her black hair was up in a ponytail and he saw sweat beading up in her forehead. Her tank top was almost soaked with sweat. "We've got until tomorrow afternoon to get back with as many of these things as we can find."
Lenny noticed her cargo pants, which clung tightly to her thick thighs and the curve of her ass, were also becoming spotted with sweat. His own T-shirt, which had been loose fitting at the start of the day, was now stuck to his chest and back.
"Let's get out of the heat for a minute. We can check our location and cool off before one of us has heatstroke." She said, and led them down the side of the trail into a more wooded area.
Under the shade of a large tree, they both stripped off their backpacks and looked at the topographical map
"We're," she pushed her finger along the paper, "here. We need to keep heading east to get to the finish line, but the map says there should be water somewhere nearby."
She went to sit on a large boulder nearby, and noticing it was cool to the touch, laid back against it.
"Your face is pretty red, Rose. I think we should take it easy for a while so we don't hurt ourselves." Lenny said as he wiped sweat out of his eyes.
Rose looked frustrated at this, but she shrugged as if she knew it was the truth.
"The problem is it's too damn hot out here and we're wearing a shitload of clothes. I didn't think we'd be overheating this early."
