"Hector, wake up it's time for breakfast." A chimpanzee woke up from his perch and looked down at the human outside the enclosure she wore a green buttoned shirt and tan shorts and was holding fruit and other foods in her hands. Hector the chimpanzee's face was pinker showing his youth and had light brown eyes that looked down at the female named Claire. He began to clap in excitement seeing her, she had raised him since he and his brother Paris and a female named Helen were adolescents saved from a side show where they were abused, Hector still kept several scars from a whip the trainer used against them. But Claire and other humans saved him and brought him to this Ape sanctuary south of a large iron jungle he learned was called Miami.

He had lived here now for five years now becoming a young adult and his strength from both being constantly performing and earning treats from visitors and now in safety led him to be the dominant ape of his cage. The natural violence of the apes was tempered by Claire. She would not harm them but the apes knew that if they harmed others, apes or humans, they would be separated from their group and not be given the same treats and toys.

Claire was like a mother to all of the apes partially because many were orphaned or separated from their families and she was their only nurturer. She was responsible for raising many of the apes since they were taken here for safety away from the cruelty of other humans. While there were other people who volunteered at the sanctuary Claire was the only one that lived there and spent the most time with the apes. Hector howled to wake up his brother and they both leapt down and rushed to the gate waiting for their food. She smiled to them and waved "Hi Hector, hi Paris how are you today?" Hector pursed his lips in excitement and began to clap as she opened a hatch and put different fruits and nuts on the ground. Paris was always partial to walnuts in part because he enjoyed cracking them and grabbed a handful before climbing up the tree with a big stick in his free hand. He laid down the nuts and smashed them before eating the insides. The other five chimps in their cage gathered around the food plate. One of the younger males Wolf moved in to grab some of the food. He also had a light pink face but several scars from the traffickers who illegally shipped him into the country, fortunately the DEA saved him. The younger upstart tried to grab figs which were Hector's favorite. Hector howled at him and Wolf stood up straight and began to beat his chest as he hooted and hollered. Claire knew a fight was happening and rushed to find a tranquilizer dart gun.

Hector lashed out and smacked Wolf in the face as he howled. Wolf rushed backwards but suddenly stood up straight and howled back showing his fangs and grabbed a branch beginning to shake it with rage. This was a challenge that Hector would not back down from, if he lost he would lose the status of command. The other chimps watched from a safe distance eager to see how the social dynamics would change. They rushed forward and began to strike each other leading to the other apes howling and pounding against the ground and trees. Paris looked down concerned for his brother, he leapt down and helped his brother chase Wolf who ran in fear from now two rivals. Hector rushed and grabbed a thin stick and hit Wolf several times before he suddenly stopped as Wolf curled up.

Hector understood this as showing he surrendered, Hector stood above him and gave several hoots of celebration as he dropped the stick. Wolf moved his head upwards as he put out his hand in submission, Hector responded with brushing it and let him take a banana and several figs still left in the pile. Claire returned to see everything was back to relative normality. After eating his fill Hector allowed himself to be groomed by the two females of the troop Dido and Helen, Wolf sheepishly inched towards the alpha who showed no response. Wolf began to groom him picking out dirt that was scattered around during their fight and Hector picked dirt from Wolf in return. All became well again for the troop of chimps.

The other chimps in their sanctuary included an older chimp male with grey hair covering his chin. His name was Preacher and was one of the first chimps rescued by Claire and the organization she worked for, he and his son Moses were once used for medical experiments before being released to the sanctuary. After the grooming ended Hector climbed up one of the trees where Preacher and Moses sat ready to learn more about signing. Preacher signed to him "Want to learn more signs Hector?"

"Yes Preacher." Hector may be the stronger and more dominant of the chimps but he respected the older chimp. "When fight Wolf what did Hector feel?"

Hector did not know this new word feel and responded slowly repeating the sign "What is feel?" Preacher responded with the sign again and pointed to his own chest "Feel is inside, feel anger at Wolf? Take figs."

Hector was beginning to understand and responded "yes, anger at Wolf. Now no anger." Preacher nodded "Good anger not good for long." Moses stood up and signed to his father and his Alpha "Mother and humans come." They turned and saw Claire with a large group of people including human children walking towards them. Hector did not fully know their importance but knew more people meant more food especially if they were good. He, Paris, and Helen were trained to preform and this time if they messed up they weren't whipped or shocked afterwards. Paris and Hector climbed down along with the rest of the troop and began to hoot at the humans. Several of the human children got up close to the fence before Claire called out "Don't get too close, chimpanzees are often calm but can quickly become angry sometimes it seems without cause but they are smart, and notice small details such as if someone stares at them for too long might see it as a challenge." One of the parents was startled "I thought it was gorillas who were violent."

"I wouldn't say violent ma'am for either gorillas or these chimpanzees it is only nature telling them how to act. But Hector, Paris, and Helen were all saved from a circus and were mistreated and they don't know how to react sometimes."

"Are they happy here?" One of the children asked Claire. Hector knew that word happy, Preacher taught him the sign for it and he thought of Helen when it came up. "I like to think so." Suddenly one of the older humans sneezed and his eyes widened "I am so sorry, I must be sick." Hector saw drops of blood splattered on Claire's arm. He bared his teeth and began to howl in anger thinking the other human attacked Claire and hurt her. She became confused and looked at her arm covered in blood and began to quickly clean herself off as all of the chimps grabbed the chains of the fence in rage and began to shake and holler. Claire began to move the children away from the cages, Hector noticed the fear in her eyes as she spoke "I'm sorry everyone they normally aren't like this. Let's go see the orangutans ok?"

Several hours later Claire returned with her mate George. Hector sat perched at the top of the tree looking at the city when he first smelled them, Helen was on a branch close to him and he absently touched her hair to clean it.

He barred his teeth at George as he saw them approach. George glared back at him, he never liked the apes, he grabbed Claire's arm as he spoke with concern "You've heard about that new disease right. The Simian flu? It could have been one of your monkeys. You need to go to a hospital now instead of taking care of these animals."

"One, it was a person who sneezed blood on me and how do you know it is the Simian flu anyway? It could have just been bronchitis."

"Or it could be the flu, you should take care of the monkeys just to be sure you and anyone else won't be infected." Suddenly Claire slapped George "Don't ever say that again. Just go away, I need to be alone for a bit."

"Alone with animals? Fine whatever." George walked away and leaned on another chain linked fence away from the animals.

Claire went away for a few minutes leaving George to glare at the apes before she brought them more food that brought all of the chimps down from the trees and to the gate "Sorry about that before…" Suddenly she sneezed and blood came out of her nose and hit the chimpanzees who all began to panic. "Oh no, no, no, no."

"I told you they got you infected!" George appeared behind her shouting and pointing at the apes "I'm going to kill them!" He took her keys and opened the doors to the cage. George looked around and grabbed a heavy branch that fell from when the apes were panicking before. Claire was coughing uncontrollably and could barely stand let alone speak to stop him. He grabbed Helen by the arm and began to hit her with the branch. She howled and tried to fight back against him hitting him a few times. Hector bared his teeth in silence and leapt at George, he quickly unhanded Helen and tried to fight back against the ape who was twice as strong as him. Hector grabbed his head and smashed it against the ground and began to pummel George. He did not stop beating him even as blood covered his fist and face. The human's body was shaking violently before it became suddenly still.

"Hector… I'm sorry, so sorry." He turned and saw Claire laying on the ground breathing weak breaths. The chimps for the first time in years stepped outside the opened cage and gathered around their "mother".

Hector signed the word mother which brought a small smile to her face "Yes mother. Mother has to go now." She slowly stood up and went to the other part of the sanctuary and unlocked the door to let them all go. Claire knew that riots and violence were now common through the world and many blamed innocent apes for it, she had to free them before she died to save them and ease her before she left this world. She turned several times as noise erupted from the city and a blazing light shined but continued her task. The seven chimps gathered with the twenty other chimps in other parts of the sanctuary and the fifteen orangutans and waited for Hector and the "king" of the orangutans Marcus to lead them.

Claire sat down by them and all of the apes hugged her not caring about the blood she was trying to wipe off of her face. Hector reached her and put his head on her shoulder as she patted his back. "Keep them safe Hector." Those were her last words as she suddenly had a coughing fit getting more blood on the apes and ground before falling onto the soft grass.

They heard the sound of destruction and death in the human places and smoke rising, in the distance the sound of shouting increased.

Hector climbed a tree followed by the others. He looked out and saw dozens of humans carrying weapons and marching in the direction of the sanctuary. They were yelling and screaming.

Preacher grabbed his back and signed "Run." The apes turned away from the humans that seemed to be violent like George and rushed into the forest surrounding the sanctuary. Hector turned back and saw the humans gather around the cages and run inside. They found no apes and left frustrated. Hector knew if he stayed he would be dead.

They found a grouping of trees and the apes quickly climbed up and made bed amongst the leaves. Hector was the last to sleep in this alien world only a few miles away from his former home.