Who knows how long we remained there—just hanging with our bad, crucified selves. It was long enough to realize what kind of trouble we were (still) in, I know that. For while there was an overwhelming sense of relief—even euphoria—at having survived the ordeal (indeed, and at the vortices having quenched the fire), the fact remained that we were now just going to die a little slower of thirst, starvation, or exposure. That is, if we weren’t eaten alive by a predator first—that allosaur, say, which couldn’t have gone far.
So you can imagine how intrigued we were when the ape man showed up and started picking through the c*****e—especially when I called to him and he responded; squatting on the edge of the fountain like Chaka from Land of the Lost, c*****g his head as though understanding
