Everyone suddenly stood alert and looked around, trying to determine the source of the strange noise. Then Stephanie’s head appeared bobbing above the undergrowth as she ran towards them. Lewis relaxed and turned to his team in relief. “It’s just Doug and Stephanie playing a trick," he assured them, and called out into the jungle, “Doug, Stephanie, cut it out and get over here.”
But then Stephanie burst through the brush into the clearing. Everybody looked at her in shock. She had a terrified expression on her face, and she wasn’t wearing a single garment of any sort, except for her pith helmet and boots. Lewis shouted, “Stephanie! Why are you naked?”
But then the female ebu gogo that had been chasing Stephanie burst out from the undergrowth in their high stepped gait, their enormous breasts flapping in the wind behind them, and their spears held overhand above their heads. Everyone stood frozen in shock at the sight.
Stephanie ran past the group and shouted, “Behind the tree,” as the ebu gogo let their spears fly. Ducking, everybody rushed for cover behind the large tree where the male ebu gogo, who still jumped around playfully, were tied.
From behind the tree Lewis, the tall skinny intern, and Dr. Stern raised their tranquilizer dart guns into the air. Lewis counted to three and then he, the tall skinny intern, and Dr. Stern leaned around the tree trunk and fired at the ebu gogo that were rushing them. Dozens of small darts silently sprayed out of the barrels of Lewis’s and the intern’s guns, but not Dr. Stern’s, and zipped through the air towards the advancing ebu gogo, as the ebu gogo threw their spears. Lewis, Dr. Stern, and the intern ducked back behind the tree to avoid getting hit. The moment an ebu gogo was hit by a dart she stopped running and fell to the jungle floor passed out.
Lewis shouted, “Dr. Stern, why didn’t you fire?”
Dr. Stern said, “I did. But when I pressed the trigger nothing happened.”
Lewis looked at Dr. Stern’s gun and shouted, “They’re rapid fire dart guns. You have to pull that lever over there.”
Dr. Stern fiddled with the lever and said, “Rapid fire dart guns?”
“Yes," Lewis boasted, “I designed them myself!”
Lewis, Dr. Stern, and the tall skinny intern stepped from the cover of the tree and let loose another spray of darts. Once again, Dr. Stern’s gun did not work, but despite this the remaining ebu gogo that were rushing them all fell to the ground.
Dr. Stern continued to fiddle with the levers on his dart gun as another wave of ebu gogo rushed them from the jungle. As the ebu gogo rushed the tree, Lewis and the intern fired a spray of darts, but there were many more ebu gogo this time, and a third gun was definitely needed, so Clare, exasperated at Dr. Stern, grabbed the dart gun out of his hands, set the levers, and sprayed the ebu gogo with tranquilizer darts. Clare, Lewis and the intern knocked out all the females with their darts, but then even more ebu gogo rushed them from the jungle. Clare turned to her father with a grim smile and said, “I love you so fucking much, Dad.”
Lewis answered her back, “I love you too, Clare.”
Both were about to step out from the cover of the tree to fire their dart guns again, but before they could, a gunshot rang out. Every single female ebu gogo that was not tranquilized broke into a panic as they fell to the ground, kicked their legs in the air and waved their arms, and shrieked, “Eeeeeee!!!! Eeeeeee!!!! Eeeeeee!!!!”
Linda stepped from the jungle into the fray, holding a smoking .45. She wore nothing but a loin cloth, a pith helmet, and boots, and her eyes were hard as steel as she called, “Come with me," and quickly ushered everybody out of the clearing. But Jack, instead of going with her, ran into the fray of panicking ebu gogo.
Linda shouted, “Come on, you moron." Jack ignored her, grabbed one of the tranquilized females, threw her over his shoulder so that her breasts hung down his back, and rejoined the others, and once they were together they ran off into the jungle as fast as they could go.
As they ran through the jungle, Dr. Stern stumbled. Lewis grabbed him before he fell to the ground and shouted, “What’s wrong?”
Dr. Stern said, “Spear nicked me. I’ll live.”
Lewis looked down at Dr. Stern’s thigh. His pants were torn and he was gushing blood. Lewis lowered Dr. Stern to the ground, leaned him against a tree, and said, “Must have hit an artery. Intern, get me the first aid kit.”
The tall skinny intern handed Lewis the first aid kit and he got to work on Dr. Stern.
Dr. Stern said, “No. You all go on and leave me.”
Linda said, “You are in worse danger here than you could possibly imagine.”
As he worked Lewis said, “Linda, would you mind telling me why you are dressed in a native loin cloth, and Stephanie, would you mind telling me why you are naked?”
Linda, remembering everything she had been through, trembled. Then she said, in a voice that wavered strangely, “The females… The females…”
Dr. Stern, in a voice labored from pain and loss of blood, asked, “What do you mean, the females?”
“It’s only the females you have to worry about. The males are harmless. The males are immature and stupid. The females are smart, vicious and psychotic. The males live on the surface. The females live underground.”
“How do you know all this?”
Linda said, “I made a couple of observations while I was held captive.”
Everybody except for Stephanie exclaimed at once, “While you were held captive???”
Stephanie said, “The man… The man who is with them, is he one of yours?”
Linda then told them the story of what had happened to her, not leaving out a single detail, no matter how humiliating. She told them how she and the two female interns were held captive, and about Martin and his perverted degeneracy, and about how he had impregnated the ebu gogo leader. Once she was done, everybody sat in shocked silence.
Then Stephanie said that the ebu gogo leader must have given birth. She described Bob, and told them how she had killed the abomination by throwing it against a wall, and how this facilitated her escape. She also told them that she had seen many pregnant ebu gogo during her brief captivity.
Then Linda said, “Lewis, I came back here, putting myself in immanent, danger to make you an offer. I know this jungle, and I know how to survive here. As soon as you are done patching up your intern, I will lead you all back to the Keo village, but this does not mean we’re an item again.”
Dr. Stern groaned, turned his head with difficulty towards Linda, and said, “I am not an intern. I am a respected scientist.”
Lewis considered his ex-wife’s offer for a moment and then said, “Fine. But quit pretending you hate us. You just saved us, didn’t you?”
“I do hate you. Just not so much that I want you to die. Anyway, gloating wouldn’t be much fun if you were dead.”
“What do you have to gloat about?”
“I discovered the ebu gogo before you did.”
“Oh yeah? Where’s your proof?”
Linda bit down on her lower lip as she thought bitterly about the recording she had made of the ebu gogo war cry when she had first heard it. That recording was gone. The ebu gogo had taken it when they took her clothes. Then, she smirked at Lewis and said, “Well, where’s your proof?”
Lewis took a plaster cast from his pocket and said, “I made this from one of their tracks. I am sure it will be proof enough.”
As Linda bit down on her lower lip again, a spray of tranquilizer darts whizzed through the air and struck her. She immediately fell to the ground. Lewis quickly turned to see where the darts had come from and saw Jack holding one of the rapid fire dart guns. Lewis rushed to Linda’s side and grabbed her gun from where it had just fallen, but before he could turn it towards Jack and shoot him, Jack fired again, hitting Lewis, who immediately fell back and dropped the gun. Clare lunged towards the gun but when she was midway there Jack fired another spray of darts at her. When they struck Clare she fell to the ground where she was. Jack then fired a spray of darts at Stephanie, the tall skinny intern, and Dr. Stern.