Jack picked up the passed out female ebu gogo, slung her over his shoulder again, turned, and ran off into the jungle, leaving everybody sprawled out helplessly on the jungle floor.
Clare said, “Uh-oh," and then thought a moment and asked, “How come we’re not passed out?”
Lewis answered, “The darts aren’t strong enough for something our size. Luckily, we are merely paralyzed from the neck down. Can anybody move at all?”
They all tried to move their limbs.
Dr. Stern said, “No.”
Clare said, “Nope.”
Stephanie said, “No.”
The tall skinny intern said, “No.”
Linda said, “Not at all.”
Lewis said, “Well, we’re certainly fucked.”
A couple of small, furry male ebu gogo bounced joyfully into the clearing. They sniffed around the ground a bit, and then one went to a bush where the bright red berries that had given Lewis so much energy that morning grew, picked a berry, ate it, and jumped into the air ecstatically, with wide eyes and a big smile as he shouted, “Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!”
More male ebu gogo ate berries from off the bush, and each one reacted in the same way, by jumping straight into the air and shouting, “Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!”
Lewis sighed with relief and said, “This is it. We’re saved." Lewis looked over at the male ebu gogo, trying to get their attention with his eyes, and called to them, “Over here. Come here," and then said to his team, “I think I can communicate with them.”
The tall skinny intern said, “How? Obviously ebu gogo can’t talk.”
Lewis said, “I observed them talking earlier today. I forgot to say anything in all the excitement.”
The tall skinny intern said, “Really?”
Stephanie said, “Yeah. They can definitely talk.”
Linda added, “In fact, you can’t get the fuckers to shut up. But even so, I don’t see how it does us any good.”
Lewis explained, “The tranquilizer serum is a depressant. The berries are stimulants, and if I can get an ebu gogo to feed me one it should counteract the effect.”
Dr. Stern, who lay paralyzed on his back, said, “That’s ridiculous. You keep on making these statements without any evidence to back them up.”
Clare, who was frozen on her side facing Dr. Stern, narrowed her eyes, and said in a pissed off tone, “Really Dr. Stern? Really? I mean, we’re about to die so we might as well try something.”
Lewis said soberly, “Dr. Stern, I find that when something seems like it should work, that usually means it will.”
Then, Lewis turned to the ebu gogo and said as if he were talking to a dog, “Come here, boy. Over here.”
A curious ebu gogo turned and approached Lewis repeating, “Cooome heahhh booy, ovahhhh heahhhh.”
Lewis motioned to the berries in the ebu gogo’s hand with his eyes and said, “I am very, very hungry. Could I please have a berry to eat?”
The ebu gogo stopped in front of Lewis and asked, “Mua?”
Lewis shook his head yes and repeated back, “Mua.”
The ebu gogo asked, “Mua Mua?”
Lewis answered, “Muahhhh," opening his mouth wide like you do when a doctor asks you to say “Ah" and shaking his head yes.
The ebu gogo stuck its finger into Lewis’s mouth and asked, “Mua?”
Lewis looked at the berries in the ebu gogo’s hand and said, “No. No. Muahhhhh.”
The ebu gogo held a berry out to Lewis and asked, “Mua?”
Lewis motioned his eyes vigorously towards the berry and said, “Yes! Mua! Muahhhhh!”
The ebu gogo put the berry into Lewis’s gaping mouth and exclaimed happily, “Mua! Mua!”
Lewis chewed the berry. With much effort he got up, lumbered over to the bush where the berries grew, ate a few more berries off the bush, and stretched as movement came back to his arms and legs.
Then he picked many more berries and fed some to Linda, Clare, the tall skinny intern, and Stephanie, and soon they were all on their feet and stretching as well.
Dr. Stern, still paralyzed, said, “What about me?”
Lewis answered disdainfully, “First you have to admit that I was right about the berries counteracting the effect of the tranquilizer serum, and that you were wrong.”
Dr. Stern pleaded, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You were right and I was wrong.”
Lewis contemptuously flicked a couple of berries into Dr. Stern’s mouth, turned to the group, and exclaimed, “That double crossing bastard! Trying to steal my glory!”
Dr. Stern, who immediately began to get movement back in his arms and legs, and whose injuries, thanks to the power of the berries, no longer bothered him, said, in the most scientific and professional manner he could have possibly mustered, “Mr. Dare, that is not what’s going on here. You see, Jack is a furry, and to him the ebu gogo are real life furries, and after hearing Linda’s frankly astonishing story regarding Martin, he has decided that he wants to yiff with one.”
Lewis said, “What you have just said means absolutely nothing to me, because nobody will tell me what in bloody Hell a furry is!”
Lewis looked at Dr. Stern as if demanding an explanation. Dr. Stern mulled over how to answer for a moment, and then averted his eyes to the ground.
Lewis turned to his daughter shouted, “Just what in God’s green kingdom is a furry?”
Clare said, “Dad, can’t we just go the fuck home before the ebu gogo rape and kill us?”
“I need to know. Now.”
“Dad, it’s embarrassing.”
“Tough. It is information that has just become vital to our mission.”
Clare rolled her eyes, sighed, and rapidly said, “A group of people exists who call themselves furries, who are sexually attracted to pictures of anthropomorphic animals with realistic human genitalia, also called furries. The act of masturbating to these pictures is called yiffing. These individuals sometimes get together and wear furry costumes called fursuits and engage in a sexual practice, which they also call yiffing. Jack is one of these people, and in his sick and twisted mind he has decided that he wants to yiff with an ebu gogo.” Then she added, “Now can we go home?”
Lewis took this all in and replied, “No. We have to go after Jack.”
Clare shouted, “Dad! We have to get off this island!”
Everybody shouted at Lewis at once in agreement with Clare, but Lewis quieted them by raising a hand and answered soberly, “If Jack is planning on raping that ebu gogo, we need to stop him.”
Clare said, “Dad, why would we want to save the ebu gogo? They raped and killed mom’s team!”
Lewis said, “Linda and Stephanie said that humans and ebu gogo can reproduce, and we all know how damaging a human-ebu gogo hybrid would be to humanity. Such a creature could do irreparable harm to the human genetic code if it were to mature and spread its genes with other humans. If Jack is planning on uh, err, yiffing with the ebu gogo, we have to stop him.”
Linda said, “Damn you Lewis, why do you have to be right?” She picked her gun up off the ground, looked at it thoughtfully, and said, “But let me just say this: The only reason I am alive is because of this gun. The females are terrified by the noise it makes, and every time I fire it they go crazy and roll around on their backs, as you saw back at the clearing.”
Lewis answered, “That’s good to know.”
Linda finished, “But the problem is, I only have two bullets left.”
Lewis said, “Then we’d better be quick.” He turned to the tall skinny intern and ordered, “Hey intern, gather up our things.”