When she hugged him tightly, she could smell his cologne, his favorite and hers too. Most people didn't see the tender side of Will except for those closest to him. She remembered what it had been like when she first met him when he brought Caesar in to be examined and stitched up after a confrontation with a neighbor. The one who had disliked him from the start and made trouble for him…until the day he had rushed out to see Charles get in his car and crash it.

He had threatened Charles who had suffered from dementia that had been staved away by a miracle drug but had returned because Alzheimer's disease had been a progressive illness and soon pulled ahead in the competition between it and the virus created to stop it.

The first virus, 112 but the second one had been different. It had been accelerative in its effects on the apes' brains and had been lethal to humans in ways Caroline hadn't understood but Will had and he still had created it, an act of scientists not nature. Why it had manifested itself like Ebola, she had no idea but those who died from it had experienced excruciating and gory deaths. Including most of her friends and colleagues and maybe her family as well….she sighed as she sat on her bed in her cabin about ready to lie down and fall asleep. She hadn't eaten much for dinner because she'd been so exhausted from working hard. But her mind remained alert as it did in a world which mandated that skill.

When Caesar had attacked the neighbor, he had realized too late what he had done and he had hugged Charles who had been bloodied by the altercation. Will had run out to see the two of them together and the neighbors who had gathered around to witness it, stepping backwards, retreating almost in unison when Caesar looked at them. Will had told her later about it and she had sighed, because the police and animal control had come for him. But the decision was made to stick him in the primate sanctuary with Landon and Dodge…two sadists as it turned out. She knew Dodge had died but didn't know what became of his father Landon; if the apes hadn't killed him then the plague had done that.

Will had to leave Caesar locked up confused in the sanctuary and walk away from him. Caroline had been with him and she felt the loss keenly…she had helped raise him herself. She had stitched up that initial wound and then had given him periodic examinations while Will worked up the nerve to pursue her. Not that it had taken much because she had liked him a lot at first glance, when he had shown how devoted he'd been to rearing Caesar as his own child. She had warned him about Caesar's future as an adult chimpanzee but Will had just smiled and wrestled with Caesar on his bed before the chimpanzee had scampered off to look out the window in the attic.

"You might want to think about open space," she had told him.

Will had done that and the bond between them had grown even as the freedom of the forest had stretched it at least until Caesar heeded Will's voice calling him back to head to the car.

He had worn a harness and a leash. That had confused Caesar when he saw the large dog on a leash like him but Will had assured him he wasn't a pet but the scientist was his father. Even though that wound up puzzling him….until Will finally told him the truth after taking him to the laboratory where he had worked and where Caesar's mother had given birth to him and died.

Caroline had felt uncomfortable with it, she knew there was something very different about the ape that she had treated but didn't know why until Will finally told her. She sighed now months later about what it had been like back then. Caesar's departure had left a hole in their lives even as their own relationship continued to blossom.

"Hey are you still up?"

She looked up to see Burke dressed in a old shirt and sweats…attire that they'd found at the camp. The weather had turned chilly at night so they had looked for warmer clothing.

"Yes…I guess I've been thinking…"

He stood by the doorway gazing at her, his body always tensed as if prepared to fight or to flee. He had grown more wary since the discovery of the trio of chimpanzees. But nothing had indicated so far that they intended harm or even had been in contact with other apes.

"About what…?"

She rested her hand on her stomach which had barely begun to show. Her tie to the past and the man who had been close to her and to Caesar before the plague hit.

"Caesar….what he must be thinking….now that the world is theirs…"

Burke shook his head at her.

"No…I refuse to believe that's what is ahead for us," he said, "We're going to win this war."

She sighed.

"We've already lost 90% of us," she said, "to the plague and others weakened…They became stronger while we weakened."

And that's how the world had become turned upside down. A world her baby would see when it was born.

"The strongest will survive and hopefully pass their immunity to the next generations."

Caroline knew that was possible but a gamble even for her own baby. She hadn't gotten sick but what about Will? If he hadn't been shot to death would he have survived the plague that followed? After all, so much of the population in San Francisco had been decimated in a matter of weeks.

And would he be able to live with himself if he did? The virus had his signature on it and when the lab aides had asked him why they were risking so much by working on 113, he told them to keep working. They had all stood in a semi circle and watched the latest results on the retrovirus's replication and they all knew it was too fast. Too many chances for mistakes or more appropriately labeled mutations and 113 had mutated from exposure to some other germ agent perhaps inside of the earliest recipients. Will had tried to warn Jacobs of what might happen but Jacobs had other ideas in mind than extinguishing 113. Will had died not knowing of the cataclysm that would soon follow, had that been a blessing in disguise? But she couldn't even think about that because she wanted him alive with her right here and now.

"I don't know what will happen Burke," she said, "If it doesn't, that might be the last generation of us."

She knew Burke would always resist that as long as he could do that. Like he must have resisted a lot of things in his life. She knew that even though she didn't know what they were.

"They'll live…."

He seemed so sure and she didn't want to shatter his hopes. She had to hope the same for her baby. But what would Caesar's reaction be if he knew? She wondered what he had thought about her relationship with his surrogate father, was she like a stepmother? But Will hadn't had time to explain to Caesar about how humans paired off with one another in relationships which were imperative to survival of the species. Caesar would be in the same situation when he matured into adulthood to find a mate and become a father.

She remembered the day she had moved into the Victorian house near Golden Gate Park Will had shared with Caesar and his father. Carrying some boxes and suitcases she'd moved her things in to share space with them after she and Will had decided that they were ready for that step. They loved each other and wanted to be together and they sat down and explained that to Caesar. Will signed back and forth with the chimpanzee.

"She here live us…"

Caesar's brow furrowed…and she saw the look he gave Will, showcasing the tight bonds between them that had existed back then. The ape had finally sighed and sidled over to her placing his hand on her shoulder looking at her. Caroline knew not to be afraid or concerned but to look at him back as Caesar considered her as a family unit member. Will had wrestled with Caesar after that and the three of them had settled down for a while before preparing dinner, their first as a family living together. Caesar's presence had livened up the house…his toys everywhere, games that he outgrew so quickly…except chess. But he also had to learn to share the only father he'd ever known with someone else.

Will and Caroline went out quite a bit as young couples did leaving Caesar alone in the attic, one that no longer served as his whole world given that he knew what lay out there. He had watched the little girl grow up before his eyes, from a shy child who had waved at him, to a tomboy girl who played catch in front of the house. Caesar had gotten out and had tried to play with her and her friends. She had smiled at him then too and when they played catch, it didn't take Caesar long to figure out that the other boys were trying to keep the ball away from him, tossing it to each other over his head. The little girl had looked at them, a pained expression on her face as if to tell them to stop but then they started jeering at him and Caesar realized he wasn't like them after all.

When she'd been a teenager leaving the house and getting into cars with other people to leave, he'd wonder if he would do the same but his world seemed to be more narrowly confined than ever. The larger, he grew with his awareness matching his growth, the more his isolation grew.

Caroline had watched Will try to bridge that gap the best he could but Caesar wasn't a human child. He was a chimpanzee who would grew up into a powerful adult capable of ripping a human's face off and temperament wise, territorial and unpredictable. She had tried to explain that to him in quieter moments but Will's mind had been focused on the Caesar who had depended on him for guidance and rearing not the adolescent questioning his identity.

She hadn't even seen him since the day on the Golden Gate Bridge when she and Will had tried to find him. Will had gone running through all the chaos of confrontation between man and ape, yelling his name but Caesar hadn't listened. She had tried to find him weaving her way through dented cars with shattered windshields to where he had stood staring at Caesar who looked back at Will, with emotions in his human like eyes that she would never forget. Next to him, was a motionless smaller ape who appeared dead. The rage that had been on Caesar's face had been diluted by resignation as he'd reached down to embrace the limp chimpanzee. Caroline looked at Will and then she remembered what he had done earlier at the sanctuary. What he had meant to do to Caesar.

Caesar took off then with his army of apes leaving the bridge in smoldering ruins without looking back…and Will, he just looked so broken down. She'd gone over to wrap her arms around him while people including police officers milled around them and held him close to her.

Now she looked back and she wondered about Caesar and where he might be now. She wondered if he'd witnessed the last few moments of Will's life and whether or not they had come to terms with their relationship with each other.

"So you going to get some sleep?"

She looked up at him and nodded.

"In a minute…," she said, "Burke did you ever have children?"

She saw starkness in his eyes but it soon passed as he shook his head.

"I come from a military family," he said, "though one of my brothers wound up working for NASA."

She digested that because he really hadn't told her much about his family roots or his past for that matter.

"He was an astronaut…dead now probably," he said, "But not here."

She listened to him as her eyes began to grow heavier as he talked about him.


Landon just cursed at Jacobs in what used to be the laboratory's cafeteria.

"We need to just find some nukes and blow them all to Hell."

Jacobs' brows rose even though this hadn't been the first time that Landon had raised that issue.

"You mean kill off the rest of humanity with them?"

Landon shrugged.

"Most of us are dead anyway," he said, "it's the only way to be sure they're dead…wiped off the face of the earth,"

"A new virus could do that."

Landon laughed his bitterness apparent inside the confines of the trashed area by the kitchen.

"Your track record with messing with them isn't very good," he said, "What if you just make one that'll finish the rest of us off anyway?"

Jacobs just looked at the unkempt man who'd lost his son who from what Jacobs could gather hadn't been much of a contribution from humanity anyway.

"We've got the generator up to the electron microscope."

Landon just laughed bitterly again.

"Big deal…those apes have to be taken out and finding some nukes and getting the job done…"

Jacobs sighed. It was a bit more complicated than how he'd made it sound. Nukes were held in tightly secured places, had clearance and launch codes, none of which any of them knew. And then there was always cross contamination through radiation if any of it drifted to where humans still lived. But he knew that if they could create a virus fatal to the apes then it could be engineered specifically at them. Even with their technology compromised, he thought they would get it done.

"I want to take out that troublemaking leader myself."

Jacobs knew he'd been talking about Caesar who had roots back to the laboratory but had never lived there. It didn't take long for Jacobs to figure out that Caesar had let the revolution. But he figured the chimpanzee probably would be long gone because the city had grown rather desolate.

Just as the world soon would as well of human life even as the monuments built by it endured.