When we last left our heroes, they were stranded in the middle of the desert, with no sign of civilization or water as far as they could see!
Rocky and Bullwinkle are staggering through the barren waste, looking desperately for water. The sun beats down on them mercilessly.
"Hey, you don't happen to have any water, do you?" Bullwinkle asks the Narrator.
Nope, sorry. But I've got some potato chips.
Rocky's face lights up suddenly. "Bullwinkle, I've got an idea!"
"What?"
"Pick me up and throw me into the air as hard as you can, then I'll glide down. Maybe I'll see some water!"
"Okay, here we go!"
Bullwinkle grabs Rocky and hurls him into the air with all his might. As he floats about on the air currents, Rocky glances to the left and right...and sees something.
"Look, over there! I see a town! Bullwinkle?"
Rocky glides closer to the ground, only to be grabbed by a pair of greedy hands...
"Boris Badenov!"
"Muwahahaha! We meet again, squirrel!"
The archvillain Boris tightens his grip on Rocky. Next to him stand Natasha and Bullwinkle, who has been bound hand and foot. Nearby are a pair of motor scooters.
"You won't get away with this!" Rocky vows.
Boris shrugs. "Get away with what?"
"Uh...whatever it is you're trying to get away with."
"What makes you think I'm tryink to get away with anythink?" says Boris innocently. "Natasha and I were enjoyink a little ride in the desert, and we saw you, and decided to tie you up and leave you to be eaten by coyotes for old time's sake." As he speaks, he takes a rope from his overcoat and begins to tie Rocky's hands.
"It would be quicker to blow you up," says Natasha, "but the security guard at the airport confiscated our bombs."
"Boris, you're nothing but a nasty, miserable, rotten, foul, unscrupulous..." As Rocky speaks, his mouth dries up until he can no longer continue, but can only pant. Boris has now bound his hands and feet.
"Oh, please, keep going! I love compliments!" Boris reaches into his overcoat and pulls out a canteen. "Here, have some water." He opens the canteen and carefully pours a few drops into Rocky's mouth.
"...lying, cheating, conniving, ruthless..." Rocky starts to pant again. Boris drops him on the ground, where he flops about helplessly.
"Adios, darlinks!" says Natasha, climbing onto her motor scooter.
"Tell the coyotes we're sorry we can't join them for dinner!" says Boris.
The two spies start their scooters and ride off into the desert. Rocky and Bullwinkle struggle uselessly against the ropes that bind them.
"What'll we do now, Rocky?" Bullwinkle wonders. "We just had a cliffhanger!"
"I...I..." Rocky struggles to speak, but his mouth is too dry.
Just when things can't get any more hopeless for our heroes...
Bullwinkle strains his ears. "Hey, Rocky, what's that noise?"
"It's someone on a horse!" rasps Rocky. "We're saved!"
Moments later, Dudley Do-Right rides past them, seated backwards on his trusty horse. He tips his hat at the boys and continues onward, vanishing into the horizon.
"He must be going to get help," says Bullwinkle.
One hour later...
"Oh, what's the use?" groans Bullwinkle. "No one will ever find us except the coyotes, and they'll chew us into little pieces."
"Bullwinkle, that's it!" cried Rocky.
"What's it?"
"I'll chew through your ropes!"
Rocky inches over the sand toward Bullwinkle until he gets close enough to grab the rope binding Bullwinkle's hands between his sharp squirrel teeth.
So Rocky chews and chews and chews, until finally...
Bullwinkle's rope breaks. He pulls his hands apart, quickly unties his feet, and raises his arms in triumph. "I'm free!" He starts to run giddily through the desert. "I'm free! I'm free!"
"Hey, aren't you forgetting something?" Rocky calls to him.
"Oh, yeah." Bullwinkle stops running. "Thanks, Rocky." He starts to run again.
"Bullwinkle, wait! You're forgetting something else!"
"Oh, yeah." Bullwinkle stops running. "Which way is that town you saw?"
Rocky gestures with his head. "It's right over that hill."
"Thanks." Bullwinkle starts to run again.
"Aren't you gonna untie me?" asks the squirrel impatiently.
Bullwinkle stopps in his tracks. "D'oh!"
And so our tired, thirsty heroes march onward until they reach the nearby town of Muy Quiente, California.
It is twilight, and Rocky and Bullwinkle trudge slowly and wearily into a neighborhood at the edge of the desert. They come upon a little blond girl clad in a white blouse and blue skirt, who is jumping rope on the sidewalk.
"Hey, little girl," says Bullwinkle hoarsely, "how about a little water for us wandering desert nomads?"
The little girl drops her rope and looks at them with amazement.
"You're...you're...Rocky and Bullwinkle! You're from that new show on Cartoon Network!"
"There's a new show?" Rocky marvels.
"What's your name?" Bullwinkle inquires.
"Eureka," the girl replies. "Eureka Camphor."
Bullwinkle sighs. "Oh, I'll never get that smell out of my antlers!"
"Come inside," Eureka offers. "We've got lots of water."
Eureka hurries toward the front door of her house, while Rocky and Bullwinkle walk slowly behind her. "Mom! Mom!" the girl calls out. "Some cartoon characters have come to visit us!"
Eureka's mother, Mrs. Camphor, is busily kneading bread dough in the kitchen. "I hope it's not the Powerpuff Girls again," she says. "Last time they were here, they set the drapes on fire with their heat vision."
"No, Mom, it's..."
Mrs. Camphor's eyes go wide with shock when she sees the two visitors. "Rocky and Bullwinkle! But...but I thought you were cancelled!"
"We were," says Bullwinkle, "but that's not the same thing as being dead."
"Make yourselves comfortable," says Mrs. Camphor. "I'll get you some water."
Moments later, Rocky and Bullwinkle are seated with Eureka and her mother, sipping water from their glasses. "There's a road between here and San Diablo," Mrs. Camphor tells them. "My husband takes it every morning when he goes to work at the lab."
"We would have taken the road, but we saw some weird tracks in the desert and we followed them," says Rocky.
"We're on a secret..." Bullwinkle starts to say.
"Shush, Bullwinkle!"
"You don't have to tell me anything," says Mrs. Camphor. "I understand. Everything's secret around here."
"Mrs. Camphor, have you ever heard of something called Wunderkind?" asks Rocky.
Eureka gasps. Mrs. Camphor's face goes pale with fright.
"You all right?" asks Bullwinkle.
Mrs. Camphor stammers. "Uh...er...no, I...I've never heard of anything with that name."
Rocky glances at Bullwinkle suspiciously.
Is Mrs. Camphor telling the truth? Or does she know more than she's letting on? Don't miss our next thrill-packed episode, "Deceit in the Desert", or, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
