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through the thick, warm waters of the river and climbed the incline of the far bank. Outside the cave they sat, watching the trio of Gargoyles.
    Minutes later, from the dark openings of the other caves dotting the limestone bluff, the quick, spry shapes of a dozen Gargoyles emerged and moved off along the bank of the river, heading west.
    Corrie nodded to Rachel and the others, and they set off in pursuit.
    The Gargoyles moved into the jungle, following a well-worn path. The women followed at a distance, Corrie leading. A little way into the jungle, they came to a clearing. The aliens were gathering fruit from low, ground-hugging bushes and plants. Corrie gestured to the others and they concealed themselves behind a stand of ferns next to the path. As she waited, she imagined following the same routine for the next ninety-odd days until the Darwinian arrived, sneaking around like the outcasts they were, stealing food from behind the backs of the Gargoyles...
    Five minutes later the aliens left the clearing and passed the concealing stand of ferns one by one. Corrie held her breath, her heart hammering loud in her ears, and willed the Gargoyles to pass without seeing them.
    As their footfalls diminished, she looked around at the others. Tanya nodded. “We’re clear. Let’s go.”
    They stood and hurried along the path to the clearing. There were the bushes bearing the forbidden fruit. Corrie, impatient, hurried across the clearing.
    The sudden appearance of the alien beside her almost stopped her heart. It stepped from the trees, looming over her, and darted forward. It thrust its great, prognathous mandibles towards her, hissing something loud and admonitory.
    Immediately, other Gargoyles appeared from the jungle, moving around the four cowering women in choreographed sequence all the more discomforting for being not in the least threatening.
    Then Corrie felt hard, cold fingers pincer her upper arm, and she was forcibly ejected, along with the others, from the clearing. The Gargoyles escorted the women along the bank of the river and left them on the shelving slope before the caves.
    For the first time that day, Corrie felt a pang of hunger. As she watched the aliens file into the humans’ cave, a part of her experienced the irrational sensation of envy.
    “So what now?” Rachel said. She, too, was staring at the cave.
    “We wait till the Gargoyles leave, then go see what we can scrounge.”
    “From Rube?” Tanya laughed. “The bastard wouldn’t let you eat his shit.”
    “I wasn’t thinking about begging from Rube,” Corrie said. “Maybe Imran or Jake...”
    Tanya said nothing, but tacit in her gaze was the doubt that the men would give them the slightest succour.
    Ten minutes later the Gargoyles filed from the cave. If they saw the four women, skulking by the river, they paid them no heed. The aliens repaired to their own caves, dark apertures in the limestone face of the bluff, washed pink now in the light of the setting sun.
    Corrie led the way up the incline to the cave. She stepped inside, gagging on the stench. It was a good thirty seconds before her eyes adjusted to the half-light. She made out the men, flat on their backs in their individual cells.
    She found Imran and approached.
    Tanya was beside her. “Good God,” she whispered.
    Imran and the others had been stripped naked. It seemed that, in just a day since Corrie had been ejected, the men had gained weight. Their bellies seemed bloated, as well as their limbs. Their bodies glistened with what might have been oil or grease – perhaps some exudation from their diet of fruit? Tanya gagged at the sight and moved to the mouth of the cave.
    Corrie knelt beside Imran, found his hand and squeezed. She saw that his eyes were open, watching her.
    “Imran, we’ve been thrown out. Me and Rachel, Tanya and Sue. We need food, Imran.”
    She glanced around the cell for any sign of discarded or overlooked fruit, found none. “Imran...”
    “Corrie...”