Peter Venkman slammed the lab door angrily. "Dammit! We could've found them," he snapped. "Fifteen more minutes and they could've been here and out of that place!"
"The portal can only stay open for three hours at a time, Peter," Ray explained.
"We don't need to find three of you Pete," Winston added. "Egon and Janine are hard enough to find as it is."
Your friends are right, Peter Venkman. And already my colleague knows there have been intruders into Pala'lan. He will begin the next step of the experiments. You must find them tomorrow.
"What's the next part of the experiment?" Ray asked worried.
Everis looked over at him. You would not like to know.
Peter grabbed the pack Winston had discarded. "The second these twenty-four hours are up, we go back in and hope it isn't too late."
Winston applauded. "Very dramatic Peter."
Peter nodded, grimacing. "Thanks. Let's get some rest," he said replacing the pack. "We have a busy day tomorrow."
Everis may think he could enlist the aid of mortals to take the subjects, but they'd have to survive Pala'lan first.
It was time for the next experiment.Janine woke up, suddenly feeling nervous. Something wasn't right. Without warning, the sky opened up. Janine yelped, jumping up and looking around frantically. Egon wasn't at the camp. Before she could call to him, he raced into the clearing.
"This way!" he yelled, grabbing her hand.
"What's going on?" she asked, struggling to keep up.
"There was a sudden dramatic decrease in the barometric pressure, then the downpour started."
He led her to a small cave they'd found earlier in their abduction. Both ducked in, soaked to the bone and shivering.
"It's been perfect the entire time here. Why now?" she asked him, trying to ring out her skirt and top.
Egon shrugged, his attention on the weather. "Many countries have a type of tropical rainy season where it's dry for months on end, then suddenly it's raining day and night. This could the climate of this...wherever we are."
One cue, lightning struck a tree close to the cave. The tree exploded, splitting right down the middle and flying everywhere. One piece flew towards the entrance of the cave. Janine screamed.
"Duck!" Egon yelled, grabbing Janine and pulling her down with him as the tree flew into the entrance, embedding itself into the soft rock wall at the back of the cave. As the tree flew past, Janine felt an intense pain cove the right side of her body...only she wasn't hurt. "Egon," she choked, but he didn't respond.
Outside, the storm had stopped as suddenly as it had started. Janine pushed Egon off of her, receiving a pained grunt in response.
She sat up, suddenly worried. "Egon?" she ventured again. No response. Then she noticed his shirt. The entire right side of the back of his shirt was ripped and was changing from a pink to a deep crimson.
Her heart leapt into her throat. He was bleeding bad and she didn't know from where.
She had no idea what to do. Her mind raced frantically as she tried to pinpoint where the wound started.
Oh God, what do I do? she thought, lightly touching his back. I don't know what to do.
Janine, please clam down and help me up, she heard his voice in her head. She looked down at Egon, who was pushing himself up and grimacing painfully. She grabbed his left arm and helped him to his feet.
He grimaced again. "How bad is it?" he managed to get out.
"Pretty bad," she told him. "Your shirt's ruined."
He managed a small smile.
"Lean against me," she said. "Let's try to get to the lake, maybe wipe some of the blood off."
He nodded, leaning heavily against her.
There were no quirky thoughts, no silent triumphs, no smug grins. There was only one thought: to get to the lake.Ray pushed a button and again the portal came to life, this time revealing a different section of Pala'lan.
You must find them this time, Everis told them. Earos knows you've been there, he knows you're coming again. He will stop at nothing to keep the experiment on schedule.
There were no remarks this time. The three men stepped into the portal and were gone.After several stops for Egon to catch his breath, they finally reached the lake. She helped him sit down, leaning him carefully against a rock. "I'm going to have to see how bad your back is," she told him. He nodded, his eyes closed in pain.
Taking a deep breath, she started unbuttoning his shirt, careful to both keep her eyes on the task, and to keep her mind empty. On a normal day, this would have been a fantasy. But nothing abut this day, or rather their time here had been normal.
Sliding the shirt off, she peeked at the right side of his back. It was shredded, From the middle of his shoulder blade, to the small of his back was nothing but ripped skin. The back of his arm fared a little better. Only the upper arm was sliced open.
Tears sprang into her eyes as she struggled to keep a check on her emotions. It didn't work.
"That bad?" he asked. She swallowed hard.
"Not really," she lied, trying to keep a cheerfulness in her voice that she didn't feel. "It'll look better once the blood is wiped off."
He sighed. "Janine, now is not the time to spare my feelings. I felt your terror when you saw my back. I know it's bad."
"It needs to be cleaned," she said, avoiding his statement.
"Use the shirt. It's ruined anyway," he said. "Besides, it isn't like you could use your shirt."
She smiled at his attempt at a joke and took the shirt over to the lake. Rinsing the blood from the shirt, her thoughts turned to Peter and the other two Ghostbusters. In this place, it seemed twenty-four hours had come and gone. And they still didn't know if time her coincided with time in their world. She didn't know when they guys would return and she knew Egon needed help.
He glanced up as she walked towards him carrying the soaked shirt.
"By my estimations, they should be here soon, if they aren't here already," he said.
Frowning and not understanding for a moment, realization finally dawned on her. "You were prying," she accused, gently dabbing his back.
He hissed in pain. "I wasn't prying, " he said through clenched teeth. "You were projecting."
"I was not," she insisted. He winced as she pushed a little too hard on his back. "Sorry," she said.
"I can understand your concern," he told her. "Even if Ray, Peter, and Winston find us, there's no guarantee we'll be able to return home."
I don't want to think about that," she said. "We have to get home, you need more medical treatment than I can give you here."
She felt him wince again and stopped dabbing
"I'm going to rinse this out," she told him, getting up and walking back towards the lake.