The man who lived inside the cylinder slept inside of it, while the ship that carried him and the other astronauts headed further into the depths of space. Their journey had started with the ship blasting off and the bluish yellow of the sky fading away into purple and then sheer darkness as they began leaving the earth behind and heading out into the space.

Mars had been their target; its exploration had been the goal for the team of three astronauts, besides him. They had waited until they reached the point where the newly designed rocket ship could be switched onto where the computer that managed the craft would then be at its controls. The journey even though the craft traveled faster than any ever had, would still take too much time for them to spend the months and even years that would lapse by, awake so their bodies would be put into suspended animation or hibernation as it was called by the lays men to diminish what was needed for them to survive.

And so George Taylor had eaten one last meal with his crewmates of crudely packaged processed food that tasted like crap but packed more calories and nutrition than a five-course meal before heading into hibernation…listening to the other two men and one woman laugh and joke before they would be separated by more than a few millimeters of glass. They had also contacted NASA in Houston before and everything had been fine back on earth. There had been a strike of several unions at the shipyards on the east coast and an upcoming presidential election but not much else going on, NASA still basking in the limelight of their historic accomplishment before life slid back to normality.

"So who do you think will win the World Series," Landon asked, "I'm calling the Yankees."

Stewart, the female snorted.

"I'm saying it's going to be the Astros…I'm a Houston girl after all."

Taylor had looked at her, finding her mildly attractive but he'd left behind a few women back on earth because an astronaut who would be gone for five earth years couldn't have much of a family life after all. His brother had little to say to him, the younger one who had just come back from another one of his missions. The one who had faced the tragedy that somehow Taylor who had always been the golden boy had eluded during his own professional rise through NASA since joining the astronaut program.

The four of them had bantered about baseball and what movies they'd be missing on earth during their mission. None of them talked about their mission, what they might face and what it'd be like to return back home out of the loop for those few years.

But after saying goodnight and preparing for the long sleep that wouldn't register in their minds as being more than a few seconds, they had settled in their beds encased in metal and shielded by glass. While they slept the computer watched over them like a parent as it guided the ship through outer space but ahead of them loomed something that even if they'd seen it, they wouldn't be able to define let alone escape.

The ship entered into the hollowness of the vortex, jostled by a seemingly rapid current while its inhabitants slept their dreamless sleep.

"Hey bro, you going to go pick up the ball and throw it to me or you just going to stand there?"

The younger brother looked up at the older one and then he stooped to pick up the pigskin football and tossed it back to the dark haired man who stood two inches taller than him. A star quarterback and double science major, he had eschewed a professional football contract to pursue his Phd in astrophysics.

"Throw a spiral next time," the older brother said as he lobbed the ball effortlessly back to Burke.

Burke just knew he'd never be able to throw it as hard or fast as his older brother who had been the shining light in his family so much so that the shadows he cast hid his other two siblings.

"How's this," Burke said back, gritting his teeth.

The ball nearly took off his brother's head but the agility that would win him the Heisman Trophy allowed him to avoid it while palming it in the hand that almost every NFL team coveted at one time.

"That's much better…but you'll never be as good….or as fast…."

Burke woke up in a sweat in his bed, looking into the darkness of night. At night, they restricted the amount of lighting outside so the pitch blackness of the room had been more noticeable at first than now. He sighed and the mattress squeaked beneath his body as he got up and dressed in sweats, headed to the kitchen to get some water.

He saw a small glow of light looking like it came from a lantern and when he walked inside, he saw her sitting there. Caroline looked up at him quizzically from a book she had been reading.

"What is it," she said, "You can't sleep either?"

He shook his head.

"I went to bed exhausted but after that meeting, I just couldn't settle down…"

She sighed, putting the book down and frowned.

"I know…I think it's wrong what they're planning to do," she said, "But Carlton's adamant about getting Daniel and Shiloh and the others and all we can do is warn them if it comes to that."

"Caroline…this could lead to war if there are other apes in the vicinity."

"I know but only if Carlton, Denny and the others make any aggressive moves," she said, "They're not going to hurt us and if other apes show up, maybe they'll leave us alone."

Burke's brow furrowed, obviously in disagreement.

"That's not likely…they want to take over the planet….this Caesar that's leading them…"

"We don't know that and Caesar's not violent," she said, "If we give him a chance, there could be peace between us…it's the others perhaps…"

He sat in a chair next to her. She just looked at him, dressed in a loose shirt over some sweats with a hand on her swollen abdomen. Sleeping had gotten to be nearly impossible because of her growing condition so she had spent some nights quietly reading while Burke slept. She had thought about reading further in Will's journals but right now…no she hadn't reached the point where she could read them and not miss him so much. In some ways, she had moved past his death but the closer she came to giving birth to their child, well in some ways his absence became more acutely felt.

"We might not get that chance and maybe the movement's spreading faster than one leader can control," Burke said, "Revolutions are messy and very violent, and this one was facilitated by the plague that's wiping us out."

She couldn't deny that but she'd known Caesar longer than anyone except Will and he'd never shown any tendency towards violence…though there had been that massacre in Muir woods where a cadre of armed men who betrayed Will had tried to take out Caesar and the other apes.

"I'm going out tomorrow Burke and I'm going to warn them."

Burke's eyebrows arched.

"Caroline you can't do that, it's too dangerous," he said, "at least not alone."

She tilted her face.

"You can come with me," she said, "if you want but this is something I have to do. Daniel and Shiloh haven't hurt anyone and if Carlton and Denny go after them….it'll be murder."

Burke just looked at her, the determination lining her face and the way her eyes lit up. He knew when she spoke just now, she thought about the man who she had loved who had died. Her hand had rubbed her abdomen absently while she spoke.

"Caroline if this is about him…"

She interrupted him quickly enough.

"No…this isn't about Will, this is about what's going to define the rest of our lives," she said, "and what's going to be left of them and of us as a species."

"What's left is to fight with everything we've got," Burke said, "We can't give up, we just can't disappear….my brother…"

She looked at him quizzically again.

"What…about him," she said, "You said that he's part of that spaceship crew that disappeared before all this happened."

He nodded.

"Yeah…just as well that they're likely dead in space rather than returning to an earth so different than the one they left….one where their species is dying off…fighting for each day of existence not to be the last."

Caroline heard the pain in his face and she got up without thinking and went to him, embracing him, his face against her abdomen where her baby grew and she stroked him as he rested still against her.

Mourning the loss of his brother and the losses still to come but in her mind, she thought of a better future…one for her baby to grow up and live without the certainty of extinction.

Caesar and Kara watched as Alisa signed with other chimpanzees about her baby, the one she would have in a few months no matter where she and Caesar found themselves.

"Kobas gone…"

He sighed back at her, because they hadn't found any sign of the ape who had left with a small cluster of others who had silently slipped into the forest not long after he had disappeared. They still had enough left in their own group but the defections weighed on him heavily. What had he done wrong to cause such a splintering in forces so soon after their revolution begun and would others leave as well? It didn't seem like it right now as Kara had assured him that she had made the rounds to discourse with others and they seemed content. Alisa and the other chimpanzees had found another food stash and they had plenty to eat before slumbering again sheltered in brush where they could see the starry skies that dominated the nightscape of the new world.

Last night, he had dreamed of the old life, the one with Will and Caroline and even Charles before he had died inside even while still living. They had picnicked in the Muir woods, beneath the trees which towered above them, the ones that he loved so much to climb.

The ones that had sheltered him and the other apes as they waited for the time to take their turns as lords of everything around them…the day that had come much sooner than he had expected.

He had seen Will die but what had happened to Caroline? He had seen her sitting in the police car looking out from his hiding place and then when he'd gone back to his old home no one had been there. Had she died with all the others from the sickness or had she just left the city as part of the migration to what the remaining humans had hoped would be enough to save them.

After he left Kara, he went back to his satchel and reached inside for the necklace with the locket that held the pictures of his family, holding it in his hand. He gazed at it, not needing to open the clasp to view the inside, the photos were already etched inside his memories. Will had given it to him in his last seconds of life with instructions and Caesar knew he had to do his best to honor them. His last action for the man who had saved his life and raised him as his own son…so he thought of that right now that he was awake, trying to figure out where in this great expanse he could find Caroline and give her the locket.

But for now, he slipped it inside the satchel and turned to rejoin Alisa and Kara who gazed at each other from a small distance apart before both looked at him.

Kobas traveled in the stealth of night sleeping during the day in the brush or in some tree with thick strong branches with his cadre of chimpanzees and gorillas. The small cluster he'd been able to woo away from Caesar with promises of grandeur that would be so much better than what they left.

But now that it was dark again, they wandered down a worn trail until they left a grove of trees heading to a clearing. Kobas looked ahead of him and saw a family of chimpanzees sitting around a blazing fire cooking food. He watched them a while, silently as he figured out a plan to approach them.