How It All Goes Down
Z
- Some people believe that Fawcett is still alive today; he's just transcended into another dimension.
- We call it cray-cray. In Brazil, they call it louco-louco.
- In the Kalapalos village, Grann considers giving up. He'll never find Z, especially if it's in another freaking dimension.
- But first, Grann wants to speak with one more person: an archeologist named Michael Heckenberger.
- Heckenberger lives with the Kuikuro, near the place where James Lynch had been kidnapped in 1996.
- Because this is the final chapter, and we need drama, off these dudes go.
- Grann gets lost for a bit, but considering the fact that he wrote this book, we know he'll make it out okay—and he does.
- The Kuikuro are friendly, and the chief suggests that fierce natives killed Fawcett.
- Grann believes that is looking very likely.
- Heckenberger shows up and welcomes Grann and company to the village. He has something very important to show Grann.
- Heckenberger takes Grann into the jungle and shows him grooves in the ground, which he believes are evidence of an ancient wall and moat.
- Heckenberger has found evidence of walls, bridges, and roads, indicating a very advanced civilization that existed from approximately 800—1600 C.E.
- But where are these people now?
- Heckenberger thinks the people were killed by diseases from explorers. He also believes that their city, made from organic materials, deteriorated quickly in the fierce jungle.
- Grann returns to the Kuikuro village, where the villagers dance and play music.
- Heckenberger says, "You can see the past in the present" (25.84).
- For a moment, Grann is at peace—or maybe he's exhausted and hallucinating—and he imagines that "I could see this vanished world as if it were right in front of me. Z" (25.85).
- The end.