Sorry this took so long (especially after that last chapter)

Scrapped and rewritten...twice :P

In the Dark

The ground was moving underneath him, rising and sagging in smooth but rapid movements. Initially, Blue Eyes felt as if he was floating above his body, his mind and nerves separate from its stable shell, yet as the swaying continued and consciousness began taking hold of him, he could slowly feel this separation come back together, bringing with it the pain of injuries shredding over his back and the stabbing throb of his head.

Time passed in this painful rhythm for what felt like days until the 'ground' shifted abruptly and sent him into a weak wince and reflexive flinch of his fingers. Those who noticed reacted instantly.

"Ohmygod, WAIT!" a high-pitched voice yelled through the fog.

Another, lower voice was quick to follow, "Stop! Stop please! He…he's waking up…please!"

There were groups of grunts and snorts around him before the 'ground', or as Blue Eyes finally realized, ape, lurched to a stop, sending him into another sharp twitch. He felt multiple hands clasp at his arm and side before the ape who carried him lowered to the ground and he was slid off.

He sagged lifelessly in their arms, legs dragging and head swinging around like a ball hanging from a string. They quickly laid his limp body across someone's lap while arms came around his shoulders and another hand grabbed his wrist. Words kept taking form in his ears, starting out as hazy, incoherent mumbles that soon cleared.

"Is…is he really…? How bad is he hur…?"

"I don't know, Alex. Here…rip this up for me, he's still bl…" there was a growl somewhere off to their side, low and threatening. Arms tightened around him as the familiar, annoyed sound of Riley's human growl shot back, "You can grumble all you want! Alex and I are not moving until we've taken care of him! Besides, you said yourself he's no good to you dead. If you don't let us help him now, he won't survive the night."

There was a long pause, which Blue Eyes knew included some intense glaring, before the ape in charge finally gave an annoyed snort of consent then grunted to those around them, the sound of crunching leaves and twigs signaling several ape departures. Before their exits had silenced, arms moved again around his shoulders and a hand pressed a wad of cloth onto the back of his skull, causing another wince, "There you go, Blue…wake up," she shook him, "We've gotta get you awake…come on…come on! Ergh…comeonyoublue-eyedbastard…Open your eyes!"

"It's us, Blue Eyes," Alex's voice was shaking in rhythm with the cloth he held to his head, "It…it's Alex…and Riley…"

The voices of his friends helped give him enough strength to crack uncoordinated eyes, but when they met nothing but dark, fuzzy shadows, his weak body suddenly went into a panicked wrench in Riley's arms.

She clenched tight to keep him still, "Woahwoahwoah calm down, Blue. It's alr…"

"I…can't…s…see," he stammered, voice ragged.

Riley's hand came to his face and shook him, "Blue…Blue! Focus!" her voice relaxed, "Breath. It's okay. This can happen when you get hit on the back of the head like that. It's only temporary. You…"

"Wh…where are we?" he begged, then tried to shake free again as memories of recent events started to flash through his pounding head, "Where…is my family?! What hap…happened?"

Alex tried to hold him with his bad arm, "Blue Eyes you've got to stop mov…"

"No, I have to get to…" he writhed out of their arms to his feet and dropped just as quickly, the lack of control to his limbs and the sudden wave of lightheadedness driving him to the ground with a thud. Alex and Riley were back by his side fast.

"I know you probably don't know what I'm talking about," Riley said as she pulled him back onto her lap while Alex pressed the cloth against his head again, "But you have one hell of a concussion. You've got to stay still or you'll only make it worse."

The ever-present panic of his heart kept rising with his breath-rate. He tried to grab one of their arms for support, but couldn't get his useless limbs to do anything except swing around through the air, "B…but…my fam…"

"Shh…," one of his waving hands was grabbed and pressed to his chest, "You'll see your mom, dad, and brother again soon. I promise. But first we have to get you stable enough to move, alright?"

He felt the heavy unsureness behind her words and quickly clenched his eyes tight to rid himself of fearful tears before he finally forced himself to relax and nod. He blinked a few more times to try and get his eyes to clear, and though the fogginess remained, silhouettes slowly began taking form, outlining dozens of apes around them. He found one in particular sitting close to them, the ape's massive size a telling sign as to who it was.

Blue Eyes felt his lip curl back, "Aldo…what…are you doing…with us?"

The silverback's blurred face lowered as another gorilla stepped in front of him, his off-white teeth glaring through the haze, "Aldo lead nowhere. He gift…like you."

"W…what?"

"They're taking us back to San Francisco," Alex said quietly. It was odd, but Blue Eyes could hear the shadow of anger behind the boy's usually timid voice. "They think if they bring Riley and I back, along with the 'leaders' of the apes, Fremont will let them go."

Leaders? "I…am not…my father…" a quick fear leapt back up, "Why…you not…? Where…father? Where…?"

"Easy there, Blue," Riley pressed his hand tighter to his chest, "Your dad's fine. He's safe back at the colony," he heard that same unsureness as before and gripped her hand tighter with a grind of his teeth, "With all the craziness going on, they could only grab us three before they had to get out of there. They think you'll be enough to…"

He glared over at the silverback beside them, "How…did they get Aldo?"

Aldo dropped his head again before the other gorilla snorted concededly, "Aldo try to rescue humans and Caesar's son. Think Caesar friend now."

"Aldo does not call Caesar friend," the gorilla growled, "Caesar have Aldo's apes. Caesar have Koko," he paused with a drained sigh, then the weight of his eyes fell upon the three of them, "But Caesar fight against bad humans. Caesar fight for apes…fight for family…so does Aldo. Aldo knows bad humans not give up if good humans return. Aldo knows bad humans not give up if Aldo and Blue Eyes prisoner. Marcus lead apes to more death. Aldo try to bring…"

Marcus let out a booming roar and backhanded Aldo across his face with his fist, the sound of bone on jaw cracking through the trees like a spear breaking over stone. Aldo fell to his side with a weak grunt then slumped to his knuckles and growled. Returned growls, yips, and blows from multiple spear-ends silenced him into compliance. Blue Eyes didn't need his eyes to know that the once fearsome silverback was no longer in control. These traitor apes around them had beaten their leader into nothing but a pawn in their plan.

Alex's voice came through the shouts and hoots of the apes around them, "I think it's finally stopped bleeding," he said quietly to Riley as he tapped and pressed the cloth against his skull.

Riley was equally as quiet, "Good. Now we need to clean it and get it wrapped up so we can…" another growl sounded followed by a painful yell from the girl as she was pulled out from under him.

"If he no bleed…we go!"

"He still can't be moved!" she shouted back, "We need to…"

He threw her down in a huff, "We go now!"

Blue Eyes felt Alex tense beside him as if to argue, but he managed to get a hand on his arm and settle him before the gorilla could turn his anger towards the already injured boy. He found Alex's good shoulder and used it as a boost to get up to his feet. This proud stance didn't last long however, for the second he tried to take a step, he promptly fell forward again, not even able to catch himself.

Marcus rolled his head over with his foot and snorted a laugh, then pushed off of it and growled at the two humans and gorilla beside him, "Get him up. We go."

The pace Marcus set was torturous. At first, Blue Eyes had hobbled and drug his feet beside Alex while Riley tried her best to remove the caked blood from his hair and tend to the wound on his head, but within minutes, even lifting his feet became an arduous task. Walking may have become more than uncoordinated steps, but his body just didn't want to move anymore.

Aldo had noticed him fading fast and quickly came to their aid. Though almost as tired as he was, the silverback managed to lay him across his back as before with Alex and Riley's help. "Caesar never forgive Aldo if son dies," he had said. Blue Eyes had to admit he spoke the truth. His father would be furious with just knowing his son was in this situation, none-the-less if he died. Unfortunately, as Aldo had mentioned earlier, the situation they were heading into didn't pose well for their lives either. Fremont would most likely keep him and Aldo alive for a while, but only until they served his purpose. Even then, Blue Eyes wasn't sure if them being kept alive would do anything for the colonel's cause. They could just as easily be shot the instant they were handed over.

"How…long…have we been going?" Blue Eyes asked as he opened his eyes. He had fallen asleep not too long after being placed on Aldo's back, much to Riley's chagrin. She claimed he shouldn't sleep because he still couldn't walk or see well, or something of that nature, but Blue Eyes didn't care. Besides, the rest seemed to help, for his eyes no longer had the foggy haze around them anymore.

"How long since we left the colony or how long since you fell asleep?" Riley asked.

Blue Eyes breathed a weak laugh, "Does it matter?"

She gave the same breathy laugh, "Well, Fremont's not gonna be too happy…"

Alex came up beside her, "Why?"

"It's almost three," she shrugged, "Then again, doubt he'll care much about radio check-ins after what happened this morning."

Though their conversation kept going, Blue Eyes' focus had deviated from words to the images before him. Alex's bottom lip was swollen almost twice its size and his face was black from a dried wound somewhere above his right brow. His shoulder still sagged in what was left of the sling Riley made for him, though its use was fleeting at best. Riley was black, left side of her face cut and inflamed and body so covered in crusted blood that he couldn't tell if it had come from her or him.

"Both of you are hurt," he said as he reached out and tried to unstick some of the girl's hair from her wound.

She jumped as if buzzed by a fly, "W…oh…" she winced slightly as she touched her swollen face, "Yeah…I know we look pretty gross, but nothing's too bad. It's all superficial."

"You saved us from most of the explosion," Alex added, "We would've been a lot worse if you hadn't gotten us out of the way."

"We can clean ourselves up tonight…" she dropped her voice to almost a growl and glared in front of them, "If Marco Polo up there lets us stop."

Blue Eyes lifted his head enough to glance at the gorilla in front of them, then dropped his eyes as their previous discussion of time came back into his mind. If what Riley had said was true, then they must've been travelling for well over seven hours. Why had they not been found? He knew his father would've seen that he and his friends were missing. He would've sent apes to get them, or most likely lead a search party himself. Tracking a group of apes this large would be easy.

He gripped Aldo's hair tight, ignoring the gorilla's irritated grumble. What happened to them?

I'd like to give some BIG thanks to everyone here. It's all of you guys and gals that keep this thing going and there honestly wouldn't be a "Birth of the Planet of the Apes" without y'alls ever-present support.

To those readers who do not have an account on here (Martin, Vick, Lance, Gage, Fanficfan, and everyone else) I want to thank you personally for the many comments. I like to PM everyone who follows, favs, and comments, so since I can't PM y'all directly, I hope this call out brings a smile to your face :D

Till next time ;)