CHAPTER SEVEN

PROMISE KEPT

"So what's your name?"

The girl scowled at the dying flames of the miniature campfire, ignoring the question entirely. Pete glanced briefly at her, then back at the fruit he was slowly dissecting. "It's Bridget or Brittany or something like that," he mumbled.

"It's Christine!" she shot angrily.

"Ah, so you aren't deaf," Pete replied offhandedly.

She pulled her knees tighter to her chest. "Fuck you."

Galen studied her curiously, curious as to how such a simple question as the one Alan had posed led to anger like this. But then, really, she'd been angry from the moment he'd met her. So much so that on occasion, she'd followed them only when she was being dragged screaming through the overgrowth. She had finally given up on that, but there seemed to be no indication that she was any more cooperative, only that she was tired of being pulled along by her arm.

"You know... I don't understand why you are so determined to work against us," he observed. She didn't look at him. "I mean, we very likely saved your life back there..."

"Yeah, and it very nearly cost us ours!" Pete added.

"I never asked for your help," she shot back.

"But... they would have killed you!" Galen reminded, dumbfounded.

"Well, it wouldn't be any worse than wandering around in the fucking wilderness with two crazy guys and an overgrown monkey!"

Pete took a breath. Alan saw him stiffen, and caught a good look at the fire that suddenly blazed to life in his eyes. They locked stared briefly, and Alan shook his head, pleading with his friend to keep calm. For a brief moment, Pete seriously considered ripping into her whether Alan liked it or not. But he decided against it, and only a low growl escaped him as he cut his eyes to the ground, glaring hard.

Christine spent a moment watching him, daring him to fight with her. He could feel her eyes boring into him, but forced himself to ignore it. If he could just shut up, and stay out of it, it would cause less of a war...

"Look," Alan sighed. "I don't know what gave you the impression that we were the enemy here, but we want to help you. Do you understand that?"

"I don't want your help," she shot back.

Pete bit his tongue. Hard. So you want to stay here the rest of your life then?

"Unless you take us to that ship, you have no chance of getting home," Alan tried to reason with her. "But if you take us there, we'll do everything we can to..."

"You're out of your fucking mind, you know that?" He sighed as she cut him off, staring at him as if she couldn't believe he was so stupid. "Look, you abducted me and you expect me to help you?"

"We didn't abduct you!" Galen corrected, shaking his head. "We rescued you! There's a difference!"

She laughed. "What the hell made you think I wanted to be 'rescued' by fugitives!"

Pete couldn't stand it. "Uh... because they would have killed you?" Sarcasm rang in his voice.

"Well, you were wrong," she shot. "So if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would take me back now."

Pete stared down at the fruit that was making his hands sticky. "Careful," he warned, eerily calm as he studied the food. "I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of leaving you right here."

She opened her mouth, but realized she had no answer for that. A tiny flicker of fear sparked in her at the thought of being left in the middle of the wilderness alone. There was no guarantee that she would be found if they took off, and girl scouts had never been her thing...

"Why do you think we're fugitives?" Galen asked, unable to sit still. He was frustrated with this human that he could not understand. He had never seen one so... difficult!

"You fucking said as much," she shot.

Alan and Galen both looked to Pete, but he didn't raise his eyes. Instead, he shrugged, and continued picking at the remains of the fruit. After a moment, Galen looked back to the girl. "Do you know why we are fugitives?" he asked.

"Do I care?" she mocked.

He ignored her sarcasm, trying to make his point. "We're fugitives because we refuse to believe what Zaius and the High Council want us to believe. We know that apes and men should be equal." He nodded, clearly pleased that he could say that now with no reservation.

She only glared at him. "Bull fucking shit."

"I beg your pardon?" For two out of those three words, he had no definition. Though it seemed that one of them was a significant part of her vocabulary.

Alan sighed, and shook his head. "Ignore the language Galen. She's just in a foul mood."

"Foul mood?" she challenged. Pete glanced up with a hooded look as her control teetered on the edge. He could hear it in her voice. "Foul mood!" Then, suddenly, it was gone. "I've been abducted by a talking animal and two psychos who haven't...!"

"Hey!" Pete cut her off, feeling his own anger rise. His resolve to stay quiet was forgotten in an instant.

She was on her feet, hands on her hips, almost immediately. "Hey what!" she shot at him.

He stood and took a step closer, pointing a finger at her. "I warned you once," he growled. "And I won't do it again. Push me too far and you will be tied up to that tree over there until and unless Urko finds you."

She glared back, but didn't answer. Somehow, instinctively, she knew he was serious.

"Watch your fucking mouth," Pete ordered. "This is the last warning you get."

Alan watched closely, but didn't get involved, his own anger seething as instinct threatened his calm. A part of him very much identified with Pete's words; he couldn't have said it better himself. He would not stand for that kind of treatment of his friend.

Christine backed down - it was clear that Pete had no intention to - and Alan shot a quick look to Galen. He was wide-eyed, probably a bit stunned. As Alan thought about it, he didn't recall seeing Pete truly angry in Galen's presence before. At least, not angry enough to threaten. Frustrated, yes. But not angry.

"Look, you would have died there," Alan stated, staring at the girl as she took refuge against the trunk of a nearby tree. "You can think what you like, but that's the truth."

"Fuck you," she shot back, offhandedly.

Galen glanced back and forth between all three of them, watching Pete as he settled back down and Alan as he shook his head. And then there was her. Christine. With that same root word again. Sooner or later, when she wasn't around, he was going to have to ask one of them what that word meant.

He sighed as he realized that the conversation came to a standstill. He was tired of the bickering, tired of her attitude, tired of wandering around aimlessly. His eyes lingered on the small fire as he reached for a stick and scratched the dirt ground with it. "How much further do you think that ship is?" he mumbled, not really asking any particular person.

Alan didn't have an answer to that. He glanced to Christine, and saw her glare turn into a sadistic smirk. He considered his words carefully before speaking. "Who knows. Without help, we could wander around in the wilderness around here for the next few months until we find it." Christine's smirk turned to a frown.

"Sleeping on the ground..." Pete picked up, knowing where his friend was headed. "Hiking five to ten miles a day until we cover every inch of the land within a hundred mile radius..."

"You won't last that long," Christine concluded.

"Wanna bet?" Pete answered simply.

"Sooner or later, I'll make sure I'm found and rescued. And then I'll tell them where you are."

Pete rolled his eyes, but didn't answer. But Galen couldn't keep quiet. "Now what would that profit you?"

She glared at him. "A little something called revenge," she shot.

He shook his head, dumbfounded by her stubbornness. "Well, I hope you enjoy your revenge as you live out the rest of your days in an ape prison," he stated.

"Which might not be that long," Pete mumbled under his breath. He glanced up just briefly, and gestured to her. "With your mouth, you probably wouldn't live long enough to see the High Council."

She rolled her eyes. "You know... I am so sick of hearing you talk." She glared at Pete. "Do you ever shut up?"

He looked up again, and gave her a sadistic smile, but didn't dignify her sarcasm with an answer.

"Why do you refuse to help us?" Galen asked. He was confused, but it was a different sort of confusion than what he felt when his two human friends would purposely mention some gadget of the past. This was a very foreign, mean-hearted type of cruelty that he did not understand. "We have risked, and are still risking, our lives to save yours."

"I never asked you for that," she reminded.

"But we only want to help you get back to wherever you came from!"

She rolled her eyes. "You know, somehow, I think I'll have a better chance with the governing authority than I will with you freaks..."

"And what happens when they decide that they don't need you and then turn you over to Urko to be killed?" Galen wasn't going to back down this time.

But still, she was not taking him seriously. "What proof do I have that anything you criminals tell me is actually true!"

"What proof do you have that we are telling a lie?"

"None," she clipped. "But I'd rather trust my life to what makes sense."

"Oh, come off it!" Pete laughed. "Look around you, babe, none of this makes sense and you know it!"

"What if what is right doesn't make sense?" Galen challenged, ignoring Pete. "Sometimes you just have to trust your heart and not your head."

She chuckled, without humor. "I'll tell you what my heart is saying... It's warning me to get the hell away from you people!"

"I think your fighting a losing battle, Galen," Alan sighed. He glanced to Christine. "But you do realize that we will eventually find that ship, with or without your help. It would only make things easier if you would cooperate."

"Easier for you," she corrected.

"You're along for the ride, like it or not," he pointed out. "And like I said, we will find it."

She shrugged, pulling her eyes back to the ground. "So? It's not like you can do anything with it." She looked up just enough to glare at them. "There are people who go through years of training to learn how to fly it. Now, I know that's something you can't fathom, but they have schools. And they learn things a little more difficult than your basic arithmetic."

Alan blinked. That was it. She was now certified as the most unobservant person he had met so far. To his left, he actually heard Pete's growl. Very slowly, the indignant anger began to rise in him. She thought they were stupid. She really and truly did not see that they were different from the people - both human and ape - on this planet.

"What do you think they are!" Galen cried, flabbergasted. "Have you heard a single word we've said to you?"

Christine glared hard at the ground, and didn't answer. She didn't care what they were. "I think you're all fugitives, all clinically certifiable, and completely incapable of getting to and getting in that ship without my help. And I think I'm not the least bit interested in helping you to kidnap me!"

Alan tensed slightly as he realized her words. "What do you mean, getting into the ship?" he asked, eyeing her carefully.

She smirked sadistically. "You can't get in," she informed with a shrug. "You don't have the access codes and I'm not about to give them to you!"

Pete chuckled. "You'd much rather sit in the heat outside of the ship while we break the codes..."

She glared at him. "In your dreams, asshole."

Pete yawned loudly and stretched his arms above his head as he leaned back. "I'm tired." He glanced to Christine. "You gonna be a good girl or do we need ta tie you up so you don't run off and get yourself lost and eaten by wild animals?"

The girl blinked at the prospect of being eaten. So far, she'd not seen anything threatening enough to eat or even harm her. But the more she thought about it, she didn't particularly want to take any chances like that. She was probably safer to stay with the group, even if they were enemies.

She glared, but didn't speak, and Pete smirked slightly. "Take that as a yes," he mumbled, exchanging knowing glances with Alan.

"Better get some sleep, Christine," Alan warned. "We start bright and early tomorrow morning."

"Fuck you."

"Good night."

"Alan, can we please stop for a while?" Galen was tired. Alan could hear it in his voice.

With a sigh, Alan wiped his brow with the back of his hand, and looked up at the next ridge. There were too many trees where he was now to really see much of anything, and that worried him. He hadn't really had a good layout of the land in more than two days. They had the maps - and that kept them from getting horribly lost - but really... it all came down to the fact that they were wandering through the wilderness with a stubborn woman who would not tell them where they were headed.

Alan took a quick glance at her, then at Galen. He looked completely worn out. So did Pete and the girl. But Alan couldn't rest not knowing how far ahead of their pursuers they were. "Hey, Pete?"

Pete looked up as he pulled himself up the jagged path, coming closer to his friend. "Yeah?"

"Why don't you three sit down and take a little break." Alan nodded toward the half-visible passage that led further upward. "I'm gonna go see if I can get a better look at the area around here."

"Okay, sounds good." Pete shrugged his shoulders out of his knapsack. "Don't get lost, huh?" It was a needless warning, but it was also a habit.

Alan nodded as he turned away. "I'll be within shouting distance if anything happens."

The girl scowled as she watched him go, and hoped he just so happened to fall off a cliff while he was "exploring". But his departure did mean they got to rest a while, and that was a plus... She flopped down on the grass and glared at the ground. She could feel the eyes of both the human and the ape on her, but she ignored them completely for a long moment. "Where are we going?" she finally demanded.

"To find the ship that you refuse to help us find." He was getting pretty good at guessing when she would ask that very same question again. By now Pete had come up with about fifteen different ways to answer. That was #7.

She looked up just long enough to glare at him, and briefly at the ape who sat down beside him. "You all are out of your fucking minds, you know that?" There was no particular evidence she offered in support of that, just a flat statement.

Pete rolled his eyes at the girl, and looked away as he reached for his canteen and took a drink. She had no idea how grateful she should be...

"What was that?"

Pete straightened at Galen's immediate alertness, and he turned to look into the bushes behind him. His eyes narrowed at the empty area, but there was nothing to suggest that there was any danger... He glanced back at Galen, who whimpered slightly. "I..." He sighed, and shook his head. "Oh, I must be imagining things."

Pete frowned, and looked back up toward the path that Alan had disappeared down. Whether it had been the wind or something more threatening... it didn't make much of a difference at this point. They couldn't be too careful, and any possible danger had to be taken seriously. "We can't move 'til Alan gets back," he informed quietly.

"Well, they couldn't be that close..." Galen tried to reassure. "Surely we would have more warning than..."
"Omigod!"

Pete swiveled around just in time to see the girl break into a dead run into the brush. "Hey!"

He scrambled to his feet, running before he was even steady. "Damn it, get back here!" He raised a hand to shield his face from the thin branches that slapped him. He could see her figure up ahead, and hear her voice, but she had gotten a pretty good head start.

"Help! Over here!"

Suddenly, she broke free of the wooded area, and was at the edge of an open field. Pete slowed, skidding to a stop as his eyes came immediately to rest on a white horse, and a half dozen darker ones. Oh... fuck...

Instantly, he hit the dirt, crouching behind a large boulder as Christine bent with her hands on her knees and gasped, laughing. "Oh, thank God I caught you!" she cried. "These... men... they kidnapped me!"

Pete looked to Urko, to the stunned look on the gorilla's face. Yeah. She's not too bright, Urko. She straightened, and brushed herself off. "I'm so glad you found us," she continued, still slightly out of breath. "I was afraid they would manage to hide from you and you would leave me here and I have to get to the High Council. The sooner I can get off of this ungodly hot planet the better. That and I'm in serious need of a shower. You'd think I was some kind of..."

Finally, Urko found his voice. "What humans helped you?"

She cut off abruptly, and stared at him for a long moment. Pete clenched his jaw, frozen in place. Damn it... "Look, you'll have time to deal with them later and I'll be all for helping you catch them and send them to jail for a good long time after I get an audience with the High..."

"Oh, shut up!" Urko reached for the whip at his side. "Were the humans who helped you Virdon and Burke?"

She stared again. "Excuse me?"

She didn't know their last names. Not that it mattered a whole hell of a lot. Pete knew it was a rhetorical question. What other humans had the balls to break her out of jail and take off running? It was a short list.

"Burke, and Virdon," he repeated, more slowly although he was clearly losing patience.

Her patience was thinning as well. "What kind of fucked up...?"

Unfortunately for her, he was the one with the whip. "Answer the question, human!" he threatened. "Yes, or no."

"I don't fucking know what..."

"Lies!"

The whip cracked. Pete cringed at the sound, and she screamed as it caught her shoulder, wrapped around her back, and sent her to her knees. So began her awareness of just how insignificant she was to her "savior"...

"Virdon and Burke! Where are they?"

She was on her knees in the tall weeds, clutching her shoulder and all but screaming in pain. Urko growled audibly, and raised the whip again.

"Don't do me any more favors!"

Her voice echoed in Pete's head.

"I need to get out of here, Pete..."

But so did Alan's.

"If I have to hog-tie that blonde bimbo and drag her through the mountains we will find that ship."

And his own.

"She's one of us, Pete... We can't let them have her. Even if she won't help us."

"No, we won't let Urko get his hands on her. Or on that ship, either."

"You sound pretty optimistic for a guy who just threatened to shoot her..."

"Hey, I can kill and torture her. But no overgrown gorilla is gonna lay a hand on her..."

In an instant, a hundred snapshots came to his mind.

"She's one of us..."

And he reacted without thinking.

"No promises..."