There wasn't much cover for a hundred feet, but then the terrain turned into jungle very quickly. There was a narrow dirt trail running through the trees and shrubs and the Monkees quickly followed it. As they ran in single file, they could hear the dogs barking behind them from not too far away.
Mike was in the lead, and as he ran he tripped over a hidden wire and stumbled. A swishing sound was heard and darts came from the trees.
"Get down!" Micky yelled.
Mike wasn't quick enough and a dart slashed across the back of his shoulders, cutting his shirt.
"Ahh!" Mike yelled, grimacing in pain.
"It's just a scratch, Mike." Peter told him, looking at the mark.
"Doesn't feel like it." Mike replied, gritting his teeth.
The barking dogs were coming closer. They had to move on.
"We have to keep going." Davy told the others, looking back. Micky and Peter helped Mike to his feet.
"Can you walk, Mike?" Micky asked.
"Yeah, the sting's gone down a bit." Mike replied.
"I'll take the lead." Davy said, running off down the trail. The other three followed behind him, looking back at the trail behind them, expecting to see the dogs any second.
Soon, the trail they were following branched off in two directions, one to the left, the other to the right.
"Now what?" Micky asked.
"Let's split up, make it harder for them to catch us, maybe some of us will get away." Peter told them.
"No, that's what Crocodile wants!" Micky exclaimed. "We gotta stay together!"
"Micky's right." Davy agreed, "We're going to make it out of here together."
"Let's look at our maps." Mike said.
"We only need one right now." Peter said, pulling his map out first. "Hmmm...it's marked really weird."
Micky took Peter's map and turned it right side up.
"There you go, Peter." Micky said.
"Thanks, Micky. The two trails both seem to go around a large chasm and meet up again on the other side." Peter said, looking closely at the map.
"So which one do we take?" Davy insisted, "Which one is the shortest distance?"
"It looks about even." Peter said, then folded up the map. "Well, as Yogi Berra once said, `If you come to a fork in the road, take it!'" With that, Peter began running down the left path. The other three Monkees looked at each other and then followed him.
In the small control room inside the lodge, Captain Crocodile sat on a chair and watched the four Monkees run down the path. He was now dressed in a brown hunter's outfit and had a glass of Chardonnay in one hand and a lit cigar in the other. He took a puff on the cigar and then let out an evil chuckle.
"It doesn't matter what path you take, my little Monkees." He said, his eyes gleaming with madness, "They will all lead to your doom! HAHAHA!"
Howard, standing next to the Captain, laughed too.
"You're the best, Captain." Howard told him. "You've invented a new form of television."
"Oh, I am a genius, aren't I, Howie?" The Captain asked, "This real-life chase will make me very rich!"
"Make us rich, Captain." Howard corrected.
"What?"
"You promised to give me a cut." Howard replied.
"Oh yes, yes Howie." The Captain said with a smile, "You will be given a cut."
The two men then turned their attention back to the TV screen.
A minute after the Monkees had taken the left path, the hunters and their dogs arrived. It didn't take them long to determine which way the four men had gone and they continued in hot pursuit.
The Monkees continued to follow Peter down the path and soon there were tall rocks and boulders around them. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any place to take cover among them.
"We're wasting time." Mike said, "Even if we did find a place to hide there's cameras everywhere." He pointed to a camera up in a treetop.
They continued to travel down the path and soon the rocks were close by on either side of them. After awhile, the trail widened considerably but was hemmed in by the smooth rock on the sides.
"I don't like this." Davy said, looking around "This doesn't seem natural."
"Why not?' Peter asked.
"Look at the walls. They're too even." Davy replied.
The four men stopped to catch their breathes and look around. The rock walls on both sides were high above them, then they sloped down evenly and gradually down to the ground. The Monkees stood in an open area. Micky walked over to one of the rock walls and felt its top.
"There's a groove on the top of this wall." He said, puzzled.
"We're in some sort of valley." Mike remarked.
"Let's go back. Something's wrong." Davy said, starting to head the other way.
"We can't, those guys are still after us!" Peter exclaimed.
"I don't care! I..." Davy stopped suddenly when he heard a rumbling sound.
"What's that?" Micky whispered.
Back in his control center, Captain Crocodile calmly flipped a switch.
"Time to say goodbye to one of our contestants." He purred.
Back at the valley, the Monkees looked up at the source of the sound. To their horror, a huge round boulder running along the tops of the walls, came roaring down! The boulder gathered momentum as the walls sloped down and the boulder slammed to the ground and rolled after the Monkees.