The State Of Bimbo

Kimberly was hot, sweaty and in no mood to tolerate the continued stares from her guide John. If she had any other choice, she would have found another guide but with the tribal warfare continuing throughout this region of Africa she couldn't get any one else to take her in.

The region, that's how she thought about it. She knew intellectually that the name didn't have the same connotations here as it did back home in the states, but really, Bimbo? The State of Bimbo? Couldn't someone have done just a little bit of research on the internet before they named it?

She wiped the sweat from her brow once more but the oppressive heat continued to hammer down on her. They had been hiking through the tropical forest for three days and had made good progress, but John continued to question her.

"Are you sure this lost tribe is real Kim?"

"I told you John, my name is Kimberly. And for the hundredth time, yes, I'm sure." Kimberly spat out like the hiss of a snake.

'And quit looking at me like you want to tear off my clothes as well asshole!' she wanted to add but didn't.

She had found John after almost a month of looking for a guide to no avail. None of the natives would go anywhere near this part of the jungle no matter what she offered to pay them. The fighting was nowhere near where she wanted to go so she didn't understand why. Finally she found John in a rundown bar in the worst part of town. He wasn't a native and she wasn't sure where he was from, his accent seemed to be a mix of different regions and he didn't give up any information about his past.

This trip was important to her thesis, if she could find a lost tribe in modern day Africa, she would be able to get any job she wanted. She had set her sights high in her field, right at the Harvard anthropology chair.

******

John continued to watch Kim's fine body work its way through the forest behind him. No matter what she said, he was not going to be calling her Kimberly any time soon.

He had only agreed to talk to her that first night because it had been so long since he had seen anyone from the states . While she had a beautiful face, what lay beneath her clothes had remained hidden until they had started out and they had to spend all their time together.

She wasn't much over 5 feet tall, but he guessed she must have at least a set of double d's tucked in under her shirt and she was slender too. She obviously worked out quite a bit to keep in shape and it showed as she had been keeping up with him the whole way.

Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail to keep it under control but it was only just below her shoulders anyway. She was the best looking woman he had seen in months and it was too bad that she was a real prude at such a young age. She was all business.

He had tried to stretch out the negotiations with her as much as possible, but it didn't take her long to see through the ploy and push to get going. While this part of the forest wasn't involved in the ongoing tribal wars, it did have a certain reputation for swallowing people up and a couple of the other guides had even warned him not to take the job.

In the end the money was more important and she apparently had lots of two things, attitude and cash.

******

Kimberly once again looked over the satellite images and checked her GPS. They were close, maybe a day out at most and she knew she would find what she was looking for there.

The satellite maps she was using weren't off of the internet, she had "charmed" a fellow student who had access to better maps to get her much more detailed shots of the area. Then, once again, she had fluttered her eye lashes at another student majoring in computer enhanced imaging and convinced him to help her.

'God, men are dumb!' she thought, between her good looks and knowledge of social conventions it was too easy to get them to do whatever you wanted, especially when they were young.

John hadn't been as easy. She guessed he was in his early forties and had obviously experience some of the worst of humanity in whatever line of work he was actually in. He was in good shape, when he wasn't drunk. A few times she had caught an extremely predatory look in his eyes that sent a chill down her spine.

He had seen through her ruse quickly enough, just as she had seen through his and in the end it had just come down to the finances of the deal. Once that had been settled, it had taken a few weeks to get the supplies together that they needed and then they had headed out.

The first week of travel was easy, mostly run down roads and back trails, they had been able to use the truck through all of it. When the forest finally became too dense, they had to head out on foot.

John suddenly stopped ahead of her breaking her out of her thoughts of the last few weeks. He motioned her to get down, his whole body had tensed up. She felt a bug bite her neck and she started to slap at it, but her hand never reach its target and she slumped to the ground unconscious.

******

John couldn't tell what was wrong, but every bone in his body was screaming to run away. He motioned Kim to get down just as he saw the movement in the forest ahead, he quickly dodged to the right and saw Kim go down, some kind of dart sticking out from her neck.

The forest came alive, dozens of men, painted in some kind of natural camouflage moved out from their hiding places and started towards him. They were the lost tribe Kim had been looking for but they had found them first.

John pulled out his pistol and took aim at the man in front of him but didn't shoot. He didn't have enough bullets to take out this many people and he didn't even know if he should. Instead he aimed his gun upwards and let off a single round.

The noise was like thunder and many of the natives scattered from around him. A few held their ground and surrounded him with crude spears and other weapons.

One of the natives, wearing an elaborate head dress came forward and started speaking, the tongue sounded similar to a few others that were used in the region but it was a unique dialect all the same. After several minutes of back and forth John could make out the general gist of what was being said.

"Strangers are not welcome here, you will leave now."

"Fine, just let me collect my friend and we'll leave."

"No, she is prize for the one who caught her. She will stay."

'Great' John thought, 'they have a spoils of war policy, that's going to make this tricky.' While he held no great affection for Kim, he had taken the job and he always finished the job.

"What can I do to reclaim her?"

"Fight the one who won her, win and she will be yours."

"Alright, bring him on."

The chief pointed to one of the men, a blow gun slung across his back and motioned him forward. Across his face was a red stripe of some kind of paint.

"Well friend, I'm going to call you Red, hope you don't mind" John said aloud in english to no one in particular.

Red put down his blowgun and took a large wooden mace from one of the other natives, spinning it around him in a display obviously intended to intimidate him.

"What are we in an Indiana Jones movie?" John said aloud once more.

Not waiting for Red to attack, John pulled my gun from its holster and took aim at the head of the mace, a single round shattered the mace in to a thousand pieces and Red quickly dropped it.

Red backed away, dropped to his knees and surrendered.

******

Kimberly awoke with a splitting headache and that wasn't the worst of it, John was above her with a broad wicked smile across his face.

"What the hell happened John?"

"Well, the good news is you were right. There is a lost tribe here, the bad news is that they found us first and they don't take kindly to strangers. They kind of have a kill first, ask questions later policy."

Kim rubbed her forehead and asked "So why aren't we dead?"

"Well, that's just a little bit of luck on our part I'm afraid. It turns out that they had never seen white people before and were kind of curious. One of their senior warriors, I call him Red, claimed you as his, so they had to take us alive. They simply used a knockout dart on you."

"So why do you have a smile on your face the size of Montana? What haven't you told me?"

"Well I did manage to avoid getting hit with a knockout dart and even managed to get them in to a stalemate on the whole attack me thing, but it turns out once you're captured, you are property to them. So I had to fight Red to get you back. "

"Wait, you're saying you now own me? How could you have figured all that out?"

"Well according to the local laws, yes. It turns out they speak a hodgepodge of a couple local dialects in the region I know. Kind of like a root language almost, I still only have rudimentary understanding, but so far so good."

This was better than she could have hoped for, not the whole owned by John thing but an unknown warrior tribe with a language that might be the root language for the entire region! This was perfect.

"Oh, Kim, there is one more thing I should probably tell you. It seems I misunderstood part of the conversation with the chief. When you fight a warrior for something he owns, you don't just fight for that one thing, you fight for everything he has. So when I defeated Red, it turns out I inherited everything he had, including his standing in the tribe. Red was the chief's right hand man, so now I'm kind of second in command..."

Kimberly simply stared at John for a moment and didn't even correct him on the misspeaking of her name, "You dumb, lucky, bastard...".

******

John was a lucky bastard alright, but he wasn't dumb by any means. While the native village didn't have much, it was still better being number two of not much than six feet under.

Besides, the village did have a few perks to it. The most obvious one being the women were all half naked. All the time. And if Kim thought he was dumb, wait until she talked to the ladies here, the men seemed fine but every single one of the women were as dumb as a post.

Which was weird as the children, both boys and girls, seemed to be equally intelligent and curious. However there was a big difference in the adults.

******

John had been talking to the chief for the last few hours, trying to translate for Kim, but the chief had refused to talk any more as soon as he realized Kim was the one asking the questions.

"This isn't working John, I'm familiar with some of the dialect, why don't you spend some time teaching me so that I can go talk to whoever I want."

"I believe that's what I suggested in the first place Kim, but you said it would take too long."

"Don't call me Kim damit! I'm paying you well, let's just get to it."

******

Kimberly didn't want to admit she needed John to translate for her, but she just didn't know enough of the dialect to get by. So in the end she relented and spent two days working with him to cover the basics.

It went easily enough, she had always been good at languages. In the end it didn't really help, none of the men would talk to her and the women seemed to be half brain dead.

She spent most of her time talking to the women who seemed to be focused on only three things, serving the men, sex and having babies (which was really just sex again).

It was frustrating and fascinating at the same time. A tribe so segregated in to casts by gender would go over big on the feminist lecture circuit. Unfortunately it meant she had to get almost all of her information by simply observing what was going on in the tribe instead of talking to them.

******

Once Kim had learned enough of the language to get buy, John once more returned to talking to the chief, it turned out he was just as curious about Kim as Kim was about the tribe.

"Why does your woman talk so much?"

"In my tribe, all the women are like that and we've been asking the same question for as long as we have recorded history."

"I do not understand, what is recorded history?"

"Uhm, let's see, we draw things that remind us about the past, does that make sense?"

The chief stood up and motioned John to follow him. After walking for about twenty minutes in silence through the forest they reached a cave. The chief retrieved a torch from just inside and started to use a flint to light it.

"Here, let me." John said taking the torch and pulling out a lighter.

"Such magical things you have..." he said retrieving the torch again and heading inside the cave.

A few feet in to the cave the walls came alive with paintings, "Your past is here?"

"Yes, from the earliest chiefs to today, these walls contain all of our knowledge."

"Kim would love to get a look at this." Joh said.

"No, the women are not allowed here, only the elders of the tribe."

"Thank you for showing me, can I take a look further in?"

"Of course, you now are an elder of the tribe as well. Here is the torch, do you know your way back?"

"Yes, thanks."

******

Kimberly had spent an entire week with the tribes' women and had a great start at recording what she needed for her thesis. It still wasn't enough, the men continued to evade her and some even threatened her when she approached.

She had noticed that John disappeared each day in to the forest to god knows where.

'Probably out beating his chest with the chief and killing something like real men.' she thought to herself.

She still had lots of time, this research trip was for six months and they had only just passed the half-way point but as always she wanted what she couldn't have and right now that was to talk to the men.

******

John had studied the walls for days, the whole history of the tribe and had come to one conclusion. Several hundred years ago, something changed in the women of the tribe. Whereas before the change they had been involved in all aspects of the tribe, from hunting to medicine to the tribes politics, after the change they virtually disappeared from the record.

John had brought the chief today to ask him a few questions about one of the pictograms he didn't recognize.

"So what's this one here mean?"

"That is the bimbo berry, the women have a festival each year celebrating it, but the men do not give it much thought."

"Why is that?"

"The women say the berry is delicious, but the children and the men find it distasteful."

"Can you show me where the berries grow?"

"Yes, they will be ripe soon and the women will have their festival at the full moon to celebrate this year's crop."

The full moon was 5 days away, he wondered if Kim knew of the festival.

******

Kimberly knew something was up with the women, but couldn't get any of them to tell her about it. Any time she brought it up they simply said it was a spiritual matter for the women of the tribe and she was just an outsider and would not understand.

Yesterday she had almost slapped the one woman for suggesting she couldn't understand and ranted for ten minutes about how she was at the top of her class at Harvard. She knew more about EVERYTHING than the stupid women in front of her.

Fortunately for Kimberly she had ranted in English and it had gone right over the head of the woman, who just smiled and wandered off half way through it.

To make matters worse, John was hanging around the village again, with that Cheshire cat smile of his plastered all over his face.

******

John looked at the berry bushes in front of him, probably a few hundred of the bushes were nestled in the undergrowth of the forest and they looked like nothing he had ever seen before.

Well that wasn't exactly true, they looked pretty much like blueberry bushes, except the berries themselves were almost completely transparent.

"The berries start out a dull color, almost like a rock. Then when they are just about ripe, they turn this clear color. In a few more days they will take on a pink color and they will be ripe and ready for picking." said the chief.

"Interesting, is this the only place you know of that the berries grow?"

"Yes, the women have search all over the forest and have found none. The warriors also look for them and have not found any other areas where they grow."

"And the women's festival, where does it happen?"

"Come, I will show you, it is just beyond the berry patch."

Arriving at the other side of the berry patch a wide clearing stretched out and in the middle of it was a well-used fire pit. Around the pit were various logs and stones obviously used as seats. Nearest the fire was a row of stone seats all around it.

"Do you know what those seats closest to the fire pit are for?"

"No, the men do not pry in to the festival. I know where it is only as I am chief, no more."

******

John watch the women dance around the fire, naked and signing songs at the top of their lungs. Each song sang of the virtues of being good tribes women. Devoted to their tribe, their men and the joy of obedience to both. Some sang of the need to bare children and others the pleasures of the flesh.

They had all gorged themselves on the berries only a few hours earlier, including the three young women who sat at the seats around the fire. They had been the most frenzied in consuming the berries but now sat like statues staring at the fire in front of them.

He had spoken to one of them just a few days ago, a bright young woman who wanted to join one of the warrior parties and protect the village. She had said that she refused to help her mother with the chores as it would take her away from her training. She had been very good with the spear she was practicing with when he left her and he had no doubt she was capable of joining the warriors.

Earlier in the day, he had picked some of the berries himself and tasted one of them, the chief had been right, they tasted like shit. But the women could not get enough of them this night and he was interested to see if his hunch was right tomorrow.

******

Kimberly was furious, she could hear the women in the forest shouting at the top of their lungs but couldn't make out a single word.

She had started in to the forest earlier but quickly got turned around and ended up back at the village after only a few minutes. She didn't want to get lost in the forest in the day, let alone at night. She had tried to find John to take her in to the forest but he was nowhere to be found and as usual the men refused to talk to her.

She sat, staring at the glow coming from off in the distance and simmered in her anger all night long.

******

John returned to his tent early in the morning to find Kim waiting for him.

"Where the hell have you been!"

"In the forest, the women seemed to have quite the party last night and I wanted to see what was happening."

"And you didn't think I might be interested in that? Why did I pay you to be my guide if you're not going to guide me through the forest?!"

"Look Kim,"

"FOR THE LAST TIME DON'T CALL ME KIM!" she yelled, picked up a canteen and hurled it at John before storming off.

John dodged the canteen easily enough and he really didn't care about Kim's mood, he needed to get a few hours rest. The women were still at it when he left but they were just about done by the looks of it and he wanted to be ready when they returned to the village.

******

When John awoke several hours later the village was alive with the sounds of sex. Every hut in the village had the sounds of passion coming from it, some from more than two people at once.

After a few hours the noise started to die down and by lunch the women had returned to their domestic chores.

Finding the young woman from the previous night was not nearly as hard as John had expected. She was still in a half crazed, sex driven madness and was still looking for men to satisfy her. There was a line up at her huts door.