CHAPTER FOUR

SURVIVORS

Warning on this chapter for language. If it offends you greatly, please don't read.

Galen was relieved to find that his other "servant" was in the horse pen, right where he belonged. For himself, Galen knew there would be no more trouble from the humans in this City. But the other apes certainly didn't know that. The guard stationed right outside the pen was proof of that. He glared at Galen as he passed, and received a polite smile/nod in return.

Aside from the fact that his canteen was empty and it was at least 95 degrees out, Alan was relatively comfortable, sitting with his knees to his chest against the tree in the corner of the pen. He glanced up as a shadow fell over him, already well aware of who it was. "How'd it go?" Alan glanced up, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand.

Galen frowned deeply as he rubbed his neck. "I doubt I'll ever have hair growing there again."

Alan smiled just slightly, gauging the guard's distance before deciding that there was no way he could hear them as far away as he was. "Sorry, Galen," he offered sympathetically.

"I just wish you would tell me when you intend to do something so utterly... human!"

"There was no time," Alan explained. "You left last night before we finalized our plans."

"Well, it was some plan, believe you me," Galen half-laughed as he shook his head, but it held no humor. "Pete was convincing enough to nearly get himself shot."

The sympathetic smile remained in place. "I'm sure he would thank you for convincing them otherwise if he were here."

Galen sighed deeply and glanced over his shoulder at the guard, who was looking the other way. "If anyone asks, you are officially property of the High Council. Not that anyone would..."

Alan nodded. He could handle being the property of the High Council if it kept him from being shot. "The prefect won't want us around here for any longer than absolutely necessary," Galen continued.

Alan lowered his head again. "That's okay, I don't intend to be here any longer than absolutely necessary." He looked up again and his eyes showed a hint of concern. "He wasn't injured, was he?" He wasn't certain if he'd actually been hurt as he stumbled out of the prefect's house, or was just playing the part.

"No," Galen shook his head. "While he was trying to slit my throat, I was able to act as a shield for him."

Alan smiled a bit at the cynicism in his voice. "Pete never has been one for subtlety..."

"Yes, apparently," Galen replied dryly.

"Did you get to see the jail at all? Will they let you in and out to see Pete?"

"I followed them whether they liked it or not," Galen informed. "It isn't a very large building."

Alan nodded. "It didn't look very big from the outside. I don't imagine they have much use for it without humans in their city..."

"There are four different cells," Galen recalled. "I saw two different humans with strange clothing on. I assume they are your 'survivors'?"

Alan straightened instantly. "Are they alright?" A part of him did realize that Galen had said two and not three, but he was too excited about the prospect that they had been seen alive to call attention to it just yet.

"I didn't get a very good look at them," Galen answered, shaking his head. "They are in separate cells, and Pete is being held in the third from the door."

"What about the guards?"

Galen sighed. "There is one guard posted inside with the keys and about seven outside, all around the building."

Alan nodded slowly. "Well at least we know what we're up against..." He bent his knee, and rested his arm over it as he stared at the dirt. "Is there a office quarters separate from the cells? Where there might be more guards?"

Galen shook his head. "I really couldn't tell much. I think so. I was not exactly given a tour..."

For a moment, Alan was lost in thought. Finally, he shook his head, breaking his trance, and glanced up. "I'll need your help tonight as soon as it gets dark. We can't afford to spend any more time here..." His look was almost pleading.

Galen nodded in agreement. "I think the prefect is more than a little nervous about us being here, but he can't very well cast us out with Pete in their jail."

"What do they plan to do with Pete? Do you know?"

"Send him back with Urko, when he arrives," Galen answered.

"Yeah, well, we need to be long gone by the time that happens," Alan mumbled.

"They shouldn't treat him too poorly." Alan glanced up again and met Galen's eyes. He could read the worry written all over his face. "They believe him to be property of the High Council, and they don't want to have to answer for mistreatment of a valuable, trained servant."

"Yeah, but the High Council isn't going to be quite so concerned for his well-being..."

Galen nodded in agreement, his concern still evident. "Oh, I just hope he behaves himself in there..." The chimpanzee wrung his hands. "High Council or no, it only takes one moment of irrationality..."

Alan sighed, and looked away, staring down at the dirt beside him as he trailed his finger along it. He was well aware of the risk. But then... so was Pete.

Pete fell to his hands and knees on the hard floor of the cell. His arms ached from the grip of the gorillas who had stationed themselves on either side of him, and he could feel a bruise forming where the barrel of a gun had prodded him through the streets. Of course, he'd expected less than perfect treatment. For that reason alone, it didn't anger or even bother him. They were playing along with the plan just fine. Of course, his part wasn't quite as comfortable to play.

He pulled himself up slowly, and looked down at his hands. They had scraped the floor as he fell, and the scrapes were by now tinted red. He glared, and brushed them on his pants as he stood, and walked around the perimeter of the cell, inspecting his new surroundings. It was about the same as any other jail cell, stone walls and not much of a view. No chance of escape from inside and not easily penetrable from outside. The wooden door was the only way in or out.

He walked to it, and looked out through the barred window, watching as the gorillas chatted amongst themselves. He watched until the guards left, all but one of them. The clattering of keys, the open and shut of doors - he could only see one of them from where he was stationed, and knew that the other was the one he'd been brought in through - and then silence. The remaining guard set his gun against the wall and sat down in a chair, leaning back and preparing himself for a nap. Nice.

Pete licked his lips as he stepped back from the door, and realized he was extremely hungry. He hadn't had anything to eat since the night before, and from the looks of the sky, it was probably almost noon. He sighed, and walked to the other side of the cell, pulling himself up and looking out. Guards everywhere, damn... Alan and Galen weren't going to have an easy time getting in.

When was it ever easy? he asked himself. As it was, there was no reason that they shouldn't have shot him without a second thought once he'd let Galen go. No reason except for the fact that he was "property of the High Council". And that wouldn't hold up for very long once Urko showed up.

Pete sighed, and walked to the door again. But there wasn't much to see. Until there were guards coming and going in the room, there was no reason for him to hang on the door. He ran his fingers through his hair, and moved over to the cot on the edge of the room. He wasn't the least bit tired, and didn't want to sleep for fear that he'd miss his one chance to gain some useful information about the place. But there was all of nothing to do until that one chance came.

He rested back against the wall, and slowly slid down until he reached the straw-woven cot on the floor. All there was to do was wait. He was left alone with the sound of his breathing, and his heartbeat, and nothing more. For a long time, there was nothing more to contribute to his awareness of the world around him. Then, the very faint sound of crying caught his attention.

His eyes darted to the far wall, but he remained perfectly still. It had become a force of habit by now to watch, and remain silent, until he was one hundred percent sure he knew what he was dealing with. But what he was dealing with appeared non-threatening. And even if it were a threat, it was on the other side of a three inch wall of stone. The survivors...

"Hello?"

No answer, only the quiet crying. A frown creased Pete's forehead. The sound was almost childlike, and distinctly female. He quickly ran through the women he'd known at NASA who held plans of actually going out into space at some point. It was very possible...

He stood, and walked to the other side of the cell, toward the thin crack in the wall where the sound had to be coming from. It was nowhere near big enough to aid an escape, but it allowed sound through. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

"Quiet, human!" the guard shot.

Pete glared briefly at the door, and then turned his attention back to the wall, lowering his voice. "Are you okay?"

"No," Definitely female, and definitely not happy to be here. "I'm dirty and I'm hot and I'm hungry and I'm stuck on a planet with fucking talking monkeys! And I..." Suddenly her voice raised to a scream. "... HATE IT! DO YOU HEAR ME? I FUCKING HATE YOU!"

Faintly, Pete could hear the sound of her banging on the wooden door to the cell. "Quiet, I said!" the guard warned harshly.

"Fuck you!" But by now her voice hoarse, and she resigned to her sobs.

Pete realized he was smirking. Damn, that girl had a mouth on her. Chances were, she wasn't from around here. "You new in town?" he questioned.

"Yeah, fuck you too," she shot through the wall.

"Hey, now..." He leaned back on the wall, pulling one knee up. "It's not all that bad, is it?"

He was pushing her buttons. He knew he was pushing her buttons. But some small part of him got an incredible thrill out of hearing a human speak her mind to a gorilla and the rest of the world. "Not that bad? Not that bad! My... I..." She was too angry to make a coherent sentence. "I swear to fucking... I... When I get out of here... When I get off of this fucking planet...!"

Pete chuckled, "Uh huh. Why don't you just slow down and take a deep breath..."

"Fuck off!"

"... and tell ol' uncle Pe-uh... Trunt what the problem is." Damn, he hated it when Galen came up with names for him or Alan. Where in the world did he get those name? But he had to use it. Even though he already knew the girl wasn't from around here, he didn't want to seem too conspicuous. If he drew too much attention to himself, he would put Alan and Galen in danger.

"The problem..." She spoke a lot like a schoolteacher would to a disobedient first grader. "Is that I'm marooned on some god-forsaken planet in some god-forsaken galaxy in some -" suddenly, she lost her cool "- GOD-FUCKING-FORSAKEN UNIVERSE, with talking GORILLAS who carry thousand year old guns!"

Pete leaned back against the wall with his hands behind his head and a faint smirk on his face. "Well, what are you going to do about it?" he challenged. "Why wouldn't gorilla's carry guns?" It was the same song and dance he'd been greeted with, and he thought he could guess her reaction.

He was only half right. She growled audibly - that part he'd anticipated. But her words were a different story altogether. "When I get to that High Council they're taking me to see, I am going to find who's in charge here and I'm going to give them a piece of my mind."

He blinked. "And you think that'll actually accomplish anything?" he replied. "Besides getting yourself shot?"

"They are going to get me off this planet and back to my family. And if they don't, when my father shows up here, he will make them all very sorry they ever treated me this way!"

He stared. Very slowly, he ran his tongue over his teeth. She was sorely mistaken if she believed that her human father had any chance of making these apes sorry for anything. But her words struck something in his subconscious...

"Oh really, and what is your father going to do about this? And how is he going to get here?"

"There are people who will be looking for me." She spoke firmly. She clearly believed this to be true. "And they will not be pleased to find that I am being manhandled, and held in a dirty prison cell at the whim of a monkey!"

"Ape," he corrected. He wasn't entirely sure why he had bothered to correct her, but he'd somehow felt the need. "They're apes."

"I don't give a flying fuck what they are!"

Okay, Pete, maybe that wasn't the brightest thing you've ever said... "Well, if that's the way you feel about it..."

"It is." She was determined. He could hear it in her voice. Whether or not her determination was going to get her anywhere was a different story entirely. "And you know what else I feel? I feel that you're as fucking stupid as the rest of them so just leave me alone!"

Pete sighed, and let it go. Playing dumb was never something he'd been particularly good at, though he was certainly getting better the longer he stayed here. He leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes, sighing deeply. He knew he should try to rest. But he felt distinctly useless in here, and he didn't like that.

He stood, and walked to the door again, looking out again and seeing it just the same way it had been a few minutes ago. He checked the edge of the door, all the way around, and found that it was sealed as tightly as he'd known it would be. He went to the window, and saw everything the same as it had been the last time he looked. It was going to be a very long, boring afternoon.

He sighed as he walked back to the cot and sat down, resting his elbow on his knee and his head in his hand. He considered Urko, and the fact that he was headed here and would arrive in a few days. Funny, no matter how many times he cheated death, he couldn't really get completely used to it. Granted, being shot at didn't bother or even startle him half as much as it had the first time it had happened. But there was something very unsettling about being locked in a cell that he knew he couldn't get himself out of, and knowing that he was set to be executed in a few days. But he trusted Alan. And he trusted Galen. His life was in their hands, and that was true. But it wasn't the first time. They would get him out alive, just as they had every time before.

The silence wasn't broken by the girl's crying this time. After a good fifteen minutes of nothing but his breathing, it was quiet snoring that attracted his attention. Quiet snoring that was not coming from the cell beside him...

Pete rose and walked to the door, peering out through the small, barred window. On his little stool, the gorilla guard sat propped up against the wall snoring. The gun was beside him, also propped up, and the keys were on the table. But there was no way in hell he could get to them. He was just as trapped now as he'd been with the guard awake. It was far too light outside to think that Alan and Galen would make use of the sleeping guard. All it really meant was that there was no longer an ape audience to the sound of his breathing. Still, he could use that to his advantage...

"Hey, you, girl," Pete dropped beside the crack in the wall again, trying to crane his neck to see her. But he couldn't see anything through the thick wall. The crack was far too narrow. Still, he could talk freely now that the guard was asleep. Now it was time to find out what she really knew.

"Fuck off." Unfortunately, she didn't seem like she was too terribly interested in cooperating.

"No, just listen to me," he tried. "What's your name?"

"Why the hell should you care?"

He frowned. Now she was the one pushing his buttons. Oh well... Paybacks. "Look, I'm not from around here either. And I'm a wanted man because of it. I'd like to help you." He was trying hard to reason calmly with her. "I'd really like to know your name and where you come from."

She was silent for a long moment. When she finally spoke, it was clipped and cold. "Look, if you're a fugitive, the last thing I need is to make you a dear friend and ruin my chances of talking to the High Council."

Pete blinked again, and found himself staring blankly at the wall. "Why the hell would you want to talk to the High Council!" Pete's voice went up, but then he quickly lowered it to an angry whisper. "The High Council will kill you," he stated. "The last thing Zaius and Urko want is a human from the past. Trust me, I know."

"I'm not listening to you anymore." Her tone reminded him of a five-year-old who chose to plug her fingers in her ears and close her eyes rather than listen to instruction.

"But what I don't get..." Two could play that game. "Is why your father would come and get you. I can't think of any astronauts that are a father and daughter duo. Why would NASA send your father to get you?"

She growled audibly. "What the hell are you talking about? No one is sending my father, he'll come all on his own, thank you very much." Pete's eyes widened, but she cut him off before he had a chance to speak. "And he will come. And these... beasts had better hope that they're treating me well when he does!"

"You're not with NASA?" he managed. The thought of someone going into to space and not being part of the space program was a new idea to Pete. "Then how did you get here?" He did wish that she would lower her voice a little bit since he didn't want to wake the guard up.

"I don't know what the hell 'NASA' is," she clipped. "And what is it any of your business how I got here? You're just a fugitive prisoner."

Pete's eyes narrowed, and he glared at the wall. "I'm part of the NASA Space Program, lady," he shot back at her. "I know you're not from around here, and I don't know how the hell you got here without knowing what NASA is. But it's my business if my ass is on the line to bust you out of here, and you're givin' me a hard time!"

She laughed mockingly. "Oh. Great. Now there's a mentally unstable fugitive trying to plan my escape." She sighed. "You know, I think I'd do better without your help."

"Damn it..." He would've throttled her if he could've gotten his hands through the wall. "Look, what the hell is your name? I can't just going around calling you 'that thing in the next cell', now can I?"

"Britney Spears," she shot back.

Finally, cooperation. He sighed. Well, the up front and in your face approach didn't seem to work, so he decided to backtrack. "Okay now, Britney, the names Peter Burke."

"Thrilling," Her voice dripped with sarcasm. "The psycho has a name."

'Great', thought Pete, 'and I thought I was the only one on this planet that was sarcastic. My reputation is going to suffer...' "Is it completely impossible for you to pretend that you're not the wicked witch of the west for a few minutes?"

She paused for just a moment at the mention of something familiar, but only briefly. "I don't want your help," she said coldly. "Get that through your head and we'll get along just fine. I'm not gonna be here long enough to be your friend, or to be any use to you."

Pete growled, frustrated. Fine. If she wanted to be nasty and sarcastic so could he. "Okay, fine. You go talk to the Council. And when they have you lined up in front of the firing squad give me a ring."

Fine. If she wanted to be nasty and sarcastic so could he.

"I'll be sure to keep it in mind."

Galen was as quiet as he could possibly be. Still, it seemed that every step echoed loudly and reverberated off the walls of the prefect's house. He kept his worry to himself, careful not to make a single whimper or sound as he slipped out through the front door and looked both ways down the barren street. Convinced that it was clear, he took off, skipping and running as quickly as he could toward the pen where Alan was being kept.

He slowed as he came closer, and caught a brief glimpse of Alan in the corner of the pen. They exchanged glances, and the human rose to his feet. Galen nodded to him, then approached the guard, his mind wandering over possible excuses and scenarios that could help him out this time. Ordinarily, he could have simply sent him off on a wild goose chase, off into the weeds to search for some threat that didn't exist. But this time, he didn't want to send him anywhere that he might cause trouble in the next few minutes. The less gorillas they had to deal with, the better.

The guard straightened as he came close. "What do you want? What are you doing here?"

"The prefect has requested that I take my human to the jail immediately."

The guard blinked in surprise, and Galen immediately knew that that excuse wasn't going to work. "At this time of night?" Plan B, then.

Galen nodded. "We don't want another incident like this morning, do we?" His voice was chastising. "Did you hear about that? Dreadfully awful. Not that I think this human would pose any threat because he's been nothing but a loyal servant from the start, but then I didn't really expect such actions like that from my other servant either."

Alan watched for a moment as the gorilla tilted his head back and forth, listening. Galen was clearly rambling for the sake of keeping the gorilla's attention on him, hands on his hips as he went on in an almost singsong voice. "You know, you just can't trust any human nowadays!"

You tell 'em, Galen... Alan smirked as he skirted around behind the gorilla. The deepening shadows hid him as he made a run for the tall tree that stood near the guard. "My family used to have servants when I was young who had the best manners... I mean, they were almost civilized...." Galen shook his head as if in disbelief. "I just don't know what's become of this world when human slaves begin thinking it's perfectly acceptable to threaten their masters... Believe you me, that human will be thoroughly disciplined once the High Council gets their hands on him again, I will make sure of it. I, you know, I've never been so frightened in my life! Horrible beasts they are sometimes..."

Galen continued to ramble, careful to keep his eyes on the gorilla and not on Virdon. He didn't want to attract any attention away from his story. He certainly didn't want to draw attention to the fact that the human was uncomfortably close. "Anyway..." But he was running out of interesting things to say about that topic. "The prefect and I were discussing, just a short while ago, that as it was so surprising that my servant would step out of line that way, and as humans do have a tendency to pull stunts, that I should be concerned about both of my servants and any other human that might come into the city like that one that walked in unaccompanied just a short while ago? Around dinner time? Did you hear about that? Fascinating story..." For now, he still had the gorilla's attention. As long as he didn't stop to take a breath.

He didn't have to carry on much longer. Suddenly, Alan was on the gorilla, one forearm across his throat as the other jammed into the side of his neck. The gorilla was too startled to immediately react. Galen jumped back, out of the way, whimpering excitedly. He watched the brief struggle, then the gorilla collapsed in a heap on the dirt.

Galen stared, tilting his head back and forth. "How did you do that?" He continued to study the gorilla, though the question was clearly aimed at Alan. He hadn't looked like he had used much force at all...

"I'll show you later," Alan promised. "Come on, we don't have much time to get Pete and the survivors out." There was no time to try to explain to Galen about pressure points and nerves...