A's/N: I AM BACK FROM THE DEAD! :D Sorry about the long wait for an update guys, I literally got sick the day after Christmas and then had writer's block when I recovered and then my classes for the semester started again (which is also why I never answered the reviews from the last two chapters-sorry about that too!) so the last couple of weeks were a mess. DX But no worries, I'm back and I promise to update this story (and answer future reviews!) whenever I can.
You may notice that this chapter is a little sticky (or maybe that's just me cause I just finished writing it today). This is because I'm trying to get back into it and fricken write the stuff. XD Does anyone ever get that? You know what you're going to write but for some reason, you've forgotten how to make words? X3 I had that today and for weeks.
Anyways, holy cow you guys! forty-four reviews! :D Ok, I'm gonna take a moment here and thank you all for these reviews! Like literally, you guys are the blood of this story! Without your reviews, I won't have the motivation to write this story and you guys make me excited about it. 3 Again, thank you all so much!
Alrighty! Now, who's ready for story time?! There is some cursing in this chapter, but nothing crazy!
There's something magical about the early morning hours. The way the trees stand still, and how cold the air can be. How fog lightly blemishes the surroundings like a gentle cloud and the only noise being the birds as they wake from their slumber. It's a peacefulness that many sleep through, but isn't hard to miss as it repeats itself every day. Today, it was Grey and the many apes and humans on patrol who had the pleasure of witnessing this peace. On happier circumstances, they would have enjoyed it more.
The remnants of street felt rough and cold against his feet as he trudged forward. With each step, he felt himself get further away from Cedar but he knew he had to do this. Actually, it was the deaths of Hazell and her daughter that motivated him to join the patrol, against Cedar's wishes.
Flashback:
Hazell was buried in the meadow. It was the most peaceful place the ape colony knew of, hidden deep within the Muir Woods. The meadow was small, but it's beauty was undeniable: Large, healthy trees with moss decorating their trunks, a wide open field of green grass, and dandelion flowers everywhere. Caesar had deliberately kept the meadow a 'no hunting zone' so that it's calming atmosphere would not be tainted with death. He wanted it to be saved for a special occasion, and Hazell's funeral deserved a special location.
Cooper, a teenage gorilla who was still currently the only child from the base who was willing (or able enough) to help the team, explained that Hazell and her colony had been taken by the colonel shortly after his own was. He had never known Hazell personally, but he knew from Tanoddah that she wanted nothing but peace between humans and apes.
In a way, her wish had come true….But it took her death, and the murder of her child, for it to happen.
Hazell's body was wrapped in a white blanket with blue flowers sown in the fabric. It was clean, untouched by time. Her bullet wound was cleaned and covered by what little makeup they could find. Her daughter-who had been named 'Harmony' in honor of the two colonies uniting and what her parents stood for-was wrapped in her own baby blanket and placed in Hazell's arms.
They looked as though they were sleeping. As if what the others were looking at were a mother and her child settling down for a nap.
It wasn't just the ape colony that came to mourn her. The entire human colony did as well. The only ones who weren't there were those who were still in the infirmary, and the ones who were watching over them. It was a short ceremony, no speeches or much talking at all. No words could possibly describe the sadness that came with the loss of two innocent lives.
Grey had spent the entire funeral thinking about the two deaths and about himself and Cedar. Hazell's death was said to have been by the hands of the very human who loved her-Preacher. But he had been forced to do it by the man who murdered their daughter. It never should have happened. If Hazell had just escaped the base with the children, she would have given birth in the city where she would have been protected. If not by the humans, then by the apes. Even if her twins weren't completely ape, Caesar would have made sure they were granted absolute protection as well.
What truly got under Grey's skin, however, was that the Alpha-Omega were evil enough to kill a newborn baby and with Cedar's pregnancy progressing, Grey couldn't help but suddenly feel like he needed to do something more than just stay with her.
It was later, after the funeral, when he had told her what he intended to do.
"You want to join the patrol? Are you out of your mind?!" Needless to say, Cedar did not take it well. Her signs reflected that.
"Maybe I am." Grey had expected this, but he found it hard to sign and look at her angry and scared face at the same time. "But I need to do it."
"No! You don't!" Cedar signed back in anger. "Grey, I need you here! The patrol could be the first ones to be attacked! You could die out there!-"
"They killed a newborn and her mother, Cedar!" His own anger was finally showing it's ugly face. "What if that were you? What if they killed our baby?"
That stopped Cedar in her tracks. Her hands, once shaking with her words, now wrapped around her growing bump of a belly protectively.
Grey knew he had finally got her listening. More calmly, he continued. "I want to live too, Cedar. Every night, I dream of what our life could be when this is all over and the day our child is born and watching them grow." Grey wished that they were already living that life. That what was actually happening was just a terrible nightmare. "These humans are threatening our family. Our future. Caesar and the council may be working with the good humans to stop them, but I can't just stand by and do nothing."
Cedar sniffed and looked down. She sighed as her tears ran down her face. Grey moved in closer to her, pulling her into a gentle embrace.
"Please…" He whispered to her. "…Let me protect you…"
End of Flashback:
Cedar had made him promise he'd come right back to her the second he was done with patrol every day. He also promised her that he'd never leave for patrol without telling her he loved her first.
As he kept on walking, Grey kept his unborn child in his mind. Who would they look like? Him? Or like Cedar? Maybe both? And now that the two colonies are united, what world would his son or daughter grow up in? He smiled, knowing that his baby's childhood would not be like his own. That his child's life, and the lives of all the future children, will be happier and filled with more promise than he and the other apes couldn't imagine possible. That their world will be more peaceful than the one he and Caesar and the other apes lived in.
Even if I don't live to meet my child He thought. I'll rest easy knowing I fought this evil to protect them.
Although Dot shrunk back into the corner when she first saw Rex and Bon, she wasn't afraid of them for long. Once she knew they were Pope's friends, she came out of her hiding place but was still too unsure to come any closer. None of the three apes forced her to, they decided it would be best to let her come to them when she was ready. Even though Dot was deathly afraid of the humans, she seemed calmer around other apes-as long as Pope was with her when they were around.
"So, she was a slave?" Asked Rex as he turned from Dot to Pope.
Pope only nodded in reply. He kept glancing over at Dot to make sure she was ok. So far, the female chimp had done nothing else other than stare out the window. He wondered if she was truly gazing out at the city, or if she was actually lost somewhere in her mind. "I don't know how long she was in there, but they did terrible things to her."
"How bad? Like what you went through in the labs?"
"Worse." Much worse. Pope found it impossible to picture Dot before she ever met the cruel, dark side of the humans. He wondered if she had ever known pain by their hands before that.
Bon, who was staring at Dot the longest, finally looked at Pope. "So you took her so she'd be your mate?"
"No-!" Pope wheezed at the startling question. He quickly glanced at Dot and was relieved to find that she still had her eyes glued to the window. "Why would you think that?" He asked as soon as he was looking at Bon.
"Well, you did save her and…" Bon grew nervous as Pope frowned at him. "Well, just look at her! Minus the sad face and the scars on her back, she's a real cutie!"
Cutie? Despite his annoyance, Pope did as Bon suggested and looked at Dot. Without any dirt or mud, her fur was as golden brown as an elk fawn's pelt and her short hair, which went down to her shoulders, was full of wavy curls. One of which claimed it's spot on her forehead and dangled just over her eyebrows. The small birthmark she was named after was located directly on her cheek, just inches from her eye. Her silvery eyes had this far away gaze to them. Almost as if she were daydreaming.
As much as Pope didn't want to admit it, Bon was right. If Dot's eyes weren't red from her eternal pain, if her face wasn't raw from years of crying, and if she smiled more, Pope could easily see her being one of the females that males would fight over. The kind who could make other females jealous without trying to. The kind who'd have better suitors than me.
Shaking the thought from his head, he looked back at Bon and Rex. "That's not why I brought her out with me!"
"Then why did you save her?" Great, now Rex has joined in.
"Because she reminds me of me!" Pope signed without thinking. It was true that back in the base, Pope saw himself in the female. He saw the same, scared and vulnerable victim he once was in her eyes. She needed someone to protect her just as much as Pope had.
Bon and Rex took the hint and fell silent, knowing this was much more than whatever they were thinking it was. "…She looks like your type though." Bon signed boldly. "Neither of you like humans because you were both hurt by them and they disfigured you."
Pope growled at the other chimp. Bon was lucky he was the scarred chimp's friend and Dot was in the room. If not, Pope would have beaten him to a pulp. But it wasn't that he was offended by being described as disfigured. Pope had known and accepted his disfigurement years ago. It was Bon calling Dot disfigured that rubbed his fur the wrong way. She was damaged, but disfigured was too strong of a word to describe her. Even with the scars on her back, Dot could probably attract a mate much easier than Pope himself could.
"Enough of this. Why did you two come here anyway?" Pope asked, changing the subject.
The other chimp and the gorilla exchanged a glance before answering. "To ask what the plan is. What are we going to do about Caesar?"
At the mention of Caesar, Pope rolled his eyes in disgust. As much as he disliked Caesar's rule, it had become the last thing on the scarred chimp's mind. He still thought the Ape King was unfit to lead and he still didn't like his sympathy towards the humans, but it was clear to Pope that Caesar wasn't the enemy. That following him would be better than facing McCullough and the Alpha-Omegas alone.
"Nothing, that's what." Pope ignored the shock on his two followers faces. "I was there. I saw what these humans are capable of doing. Their leader, the colonel, is a madman. Look at what they did to Dot, at what they did to Caesar, Dolly, and Ash, and what they did to Hazell and her daughter. If we're going to stop them, we need Caesar and all the help we can get." For good measure, he added. "Even if it comes from humans."
Rex frowned and Bon made a noise deep in his throat. But neither dared to disagree with the scarred chimpanzee. Pope stood his ground. He doubted the two of them would listen to him, but he wouldn't blame them if they didn't. Pope could hardly believe what he was saying himself.
"…Fine…" Bon said coldly. Rex answered with only a nod.
Pope gave a single nod of his own. They claimed to understand, but Pope had no way of knowing if they were being sincere or not.
Dot, oblivious to their talking, reached out and touched the glass of the window. The sight of the city was completely new to her. In the past, she had only seen the sky and the humans as they gazed down at her. The few buildings, if any, she saw were far away and she'd only see the tops of them. But the window offered a much wider view of the world. The buildings were old and covered in green, but they stood tall and mighty. They made her feel small and hidden away.
So this is where you came from, is it Pope? She wondered. Dot wasn't ready to trust the humans just yet, but she was impressed with the home that they had built. Even if the city wasn't the same as it was in it's better days, it still looked strong to her.
Could she really trust the humans here? The apes seemed to trust them enough and, as far as Dot could tell, none of them were being hurt or tormented by the humans.
Her hand found it's way to her scar, the one directly over her heart. It was her son who gave her that scar, now it was the only thing left of her family she had. Every time she touched it, she thought of them.
…Remy…Thyme…The faces of her son and mate came to mind naturally, just as they had for years. I may have Pope to protect me, but I'll always remember you…
Carlos was a mess. He saw McCullough every time a human came near him and if he saw any other apes, he'd see the faces of all the dead apes that he had seen get killed in the base. The only time he was ever calm was when Koba and Dolly were by his side, and even then he'd be shaking from whatever hallucination he was having. Ellie suspected the old bonobo was suffering from drug and alcohol withdrawal, but his behavior was so erratic that even she was beginning to wonder if there was something else wrong with him.
The infirmary room was dark, lit only by what little light came from the window. The candle next to the bed, which had served as a night light for Carlos, had long since gone out. Dolly was fast asleep, but Koba woke up when he heard Carlos mumbling.
The older bonobo wasn't in his bed at all. He stood at the window, peering out at the cloudy morning. Koba couldn't tell if he was hallucinating or not, but he seemed calm which was usually a good thing.
"You. Alright?" He asked in a whisper. He wasn't ready to call him 'father' just yet. Maybe Dolly was willing to embrace Carlos as their father with open arms, but Koba still had trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that his father was this boney, paranoid male who can't stop picking at his own skin.
Carlos was silent for only a second before turning around to face him. "Where is your mother?" He asked, knocking Koba off guard. "Why isn't she here?"
Koba wondered if he should have seen that coming. He got out of the bed and walked over to Carlos. "She died years ago. When Dolly and I were children."
"How?" The voice sent chills up and down Koba's spine. When he looked up, he saw the anger in the older male's eyes. No, it was more than anger…It was Rage. It burned in his eyes like a forest fire. The aw sores on his face were wrinkled as he frowned.
Oh no..! Koba knew this kind of rage. It was the very rage he had come to know as a demon. The one that haunted him, and possibly, Pope as well. ..He could be vengeful too..!
"Rodger...Our caretaker killed her..I don't know what happened to him after that." Before Carlos could sign anything, Koba immediately added. "It doesn't matter anymore. You're with us now."
"Yes, it does!" Carlos was bitting at his lip as he signed. It didn't take long for blood to spot at the already damaged skin. "Humans took me away from her! I never got to say goodbye or anything to her! I didn't even get to meet you and your sister until now-!" He suddenly paused, thinking.
Koba waited for whatever he would do next. He didn't expect Carlos to suddenly run a finger down the scar on his face. The touch was cold, but Koba found himself unable to pull away. It was as if the soft touch of his father's finger had paralyzed him. He kept his gaze locked on the two green eyes that were so much like his own. Watching the emotions in Carlos' gaze.
"…What..Have they…Done to you?…" A question he didn't need to ask. He knew full well that this was a wound inflicted by humans. Even though the scar was years old, anger boiled in him that someone had hurt his son in such a manner.
Uh oh. Before Koba could answer him, Carlos threw another question at him. "…Who...Did this?!.."
"It happened years ago." Koba signed before the older bonobo could get any louder. "The human who did it is dead. He can't hurt me or Dolly anymore." Or Milo, he mentally added.
"He wasn't the only one! A different one killed your mother! Many others have hurt you and your sister!" His eyes became watery at the thought of what kind of horrors his children has had to endure throughout the years. "Look a what they did to you! To your sister! To your eye! How do you know these other humans won't do the same thing?!"
"They won't!" Koba felt like he was arguing with himself all over again. Please don't bring back to that dark place! His mind begged. Koba could only look at Carlos with pleading eyes. "I promise you, they're different than the ones that hurt us! They're good humans!"
Carlos huffed at him. He glanced at the still sleeping Dolly. Due to Carlos's erratic behavior, he was given his own room with only Koba and Dolly with him. Why did she have to look so much like Tina when she was sleeping? Sighing, he looked back to Koba.
"Do you trust these humans?" He asked.
"They saved my life, of course, I trust them." Koba didn't hesitate at all when he signed those words. He only hoped his father wouldn't press him for details.
But just as he feared, Carlos frowned at his words.
The older bonobo took both of Koba's arms and searched them over. Whatever it was he was looking for, he didn't find it. His brows furrowed at them. Koba looked at him with an eyebrow raised. What was he doing?
Carlos looked back at his face, then frowned again. He then reached over and gently lifted Koba's chin. Exposing his neck. Revealing the red mark, which was slowly healing into a bruise.
"...You...Hurt yourself?" Carlos asked as he let go of him. There was a look in his face that Koba didn't expect. A look of pure sadness and worry for him.
Koba couldn't bear to look at him and turned his head away. Should he really tell his father, who he's just reunited with and met for the very first time, that he almost killed himself recently? He didn't want to, but he also didn't want their relationship to be built on a lie.
He winced when he felt Carlos touch his face and force him to look at him again.
"…It's alright…" The soft tone took Koba by surprise. "…Not all…Of my scars…Are from needles…"
The scarred bonobo blinked at him, confused by his words. He glanced at his father's arms. It was hard to tell because of the pale skin, but Koba could make out the distinct marks made by a sharp blade. It suddenly clicked in his mind.
…His father…Had attempted suicide too…
Koba looked back at his father, eyes widened in shock. "Wh-When..?"
Carlos chose to answer in sign. "I've lived my entire life under the control of humans, never knowing anything else. I was a slave before I was a servant. By then, I.." He paused to compose himself before continuing. "…I had no reason to live…My only love was gone, I had no family and I was nothing more than a stepping stone in a human's world…That's when I tried to kill myself, but...But he kept stopping me every time…He didn't want his 'favorite servant' to die.."
It felt like a weight was in his chest. Koba blinked and felt tears roll down his eyes. He let them stain his face, unsure if he was weeping for his father's past suicide attempts or if it was for the fact that both of them had tried to take their own lives.
"…But now…That I have…You and Dolly…" Carlos cupped Koba's face in his hands. "I..Want to…Live again…Be…Your…Father…"
The two bonobos pulled each other into a hug, Carlos squeezing his son tightly while Koba held on to him with gentle arms. He felt like a little child again, finally being with someone who wasn't his mother but was the next best thing. For a brief moment, the pain of the past seemed like a distant memory: a nightmare that Koba had finally awaken from.
"…Want to…Live again too…" He whispered and he meant it.
The base had never seemed so full. The soldiers were lined around the walls while the apes were in the middle. All the slaves were chained to one another while the gorillas-or Donkeys, weren't but were guarded by some of the soldiers. The colonel had ordered all the soldiers and all the apes to this meeting and though the reason was not spoken, everyone seemed to know that it had something to do with that gruesome scene that unfolded just the previous day.
Red and Winter had been practicing with guns again when it happened. Red wished he had shot McCullough but he was so mortified at what he saw that he forgot he had the firearm in his hands. Winter's fear of the soldiers had intensified after that, to the point where he was too afraid to eat any food he was given. Only ever eating when Red begged him to.
When they were being gathered for this assembly, Red held Winter's hand and did not let go ever since. Even now, as they stood in the heavy silence, his hand was wrapped firmly around the younger gorilla's. Though Red wondered if he was protecting Winter to spare him from the horrors of the base, or if he was simply doing so for the sake of not being alone in this madhouse. Either way, he wasn't going to let the white-furred gorilla out of his sight.
The colonel finally appeared on the balcony, followed by four other humans. One of them was Will. Red couldn't see Preacher anywhere, he wondered why.
"Yesterday, we were betrayed!" McCullough announced. "An abomination had been born! An abomination born to human and ape!"
This wasn't an apology for what he had done…This was something else…Something that made Red feel as if spiders were crawling under his skin. At the corner of his eye, he saw Lake chained up next to Andy and Lucky. He could barely recognize her, her hands were crusty with dried blood and dirt and her back had healing lash marks running down her spine. Her eyes were so much different now.
The look in the teenage female chimp's eyes was of pure anger and deep hatred. A look Red never thought he'd ever see in her.
"Human-ape hybrids are a symbol of surrender! Of abandoning the human race!" McCullough's voice boomed from where he stood. It seemed to come from everywhere. "Any human who forms an alliance with an ape, abandon's the fight for humanity! They ALL must die!"
There was a roar from the gathered soldiers. Winter squeezed Red's hand as the albino shrunk into the slightly older ape's shoulder. Red kept a straight face but couldn't hold back a frown. Humans who alley themselves with apes must die? The human city appeared in Red's mind, and so did Malcolm and the other humans. Was McCullough really going to kill them? Just because they had worked alongside Caesar to fix the dam?
Lake, meanwhile, watched on. Clenching her hands into fists as the colonel put his hand up to silence them.
"We all know the plan." His voice was different. Steady, but colder. "It's just a matter of when we act. When I get the signal, we will make the move and capture the entire ape colony and the human colony of San Fransisco. We kill their leaders and their leader's families-"
An ache burned Lake's ears at those words. Her chest felt fluttery, and she knew her heart was pounding. The beautiful eyes of Blue Eyes appeared before her own. Blue Eyes. What will become of him if he were to be brought here?
"-and then we will rise!" Another roar followed McCullough's voice. Lake didn't even hear most of what he was saying. She took slow breaths to calm herself but to no avail. With each hating word the colonel spoke, deep down in her heart a spark ignited and grew into a flame that just kept on growing…
…Until!
The scream that erupted from Lake's throat was out of her control. Her body moved without her telling it to. She felt the rusted chains on her wrists and ankles cracking and breaking as she bolted. The flame in her heart had become a forest fire and Lake lost the will to hold back her fury. She heard gunshots, but the bullets missed her. She lunged at one soldier than the next, breaking their bones and wounding them in the process. Lake didn't care if these soldiers weren't the colonel, she just wanted to hurt as many of them as she could.
She was only stopped when a gorilla, bearing the word DONKEY tattooed on his back, grabbed her and held her down with the help of another gorilla bearing the same marking. But what woke her from her rage was the sharp and sudden pain that came with the smack of a whip. Then another, and another, and another until she could no longer count them.
Andy and Lucky could only stand there and watch helplessly. There was nothing they could do for the female but as scared for her as they were, Lake's rampage astonished both of them. Somehow, her anger was strong enough that she had broken out of the chains and managed to kill one soldier and mortally wound the other two.
Winter flinched every time he heard the whip crack and snap. His fingers digging into Red's skin, hoping he wouldn't have to feel the sting of the long, snake-like weapon. Red's own mind was blank as he watched the scene.
The lashing halted when McCullough appeared. When no one was looking, he had sneaked down from the balcony of his fortress and now stood before the crowd. He waved the donkeys away as he approached the now bleeding female. He squared down in front of her and forced her chin up to look at him. His eyes hidden behind his blue gassed shades, though they couldn't protect him from Lake's own hate-filled glare.
Lake could feel her blood running down her back. She wondered if the sharp whip had exposed her muscles and bones as it tore her flesh away. She didn't care if it had. She let the sharp pain fuel her anger.
McCullough removed his sunglasses. His eyes were blue-but not at all like the ones Blue Eyes was named after. The colonel's eyes were empty as if there were nothing inside of him and Lake found herself shrinking at the look they held.
"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" His voice sent shivers up and down her body. He held her jaw tightly, possibly sensing her desire to sink her teeth into his face. His gaze dug deep into her's, and Lake felt as he could see her insides. "What is your name?"
Lake growled at him. She started to lunged at the human but he shoved her back with enough force to land her on her back. The snow beneath her stabbed painfully in her fresh wounds.
"Send her to the breaking room!" McCullough demanded as he stood up. "It's apes like her that need to be destroyed! We need to inspire fear in them! Fear is what gives us power!"
Will, who had been standing still for the longest time, gulped nervously. There were no more children in the base, but the colonel could still send her back to the city so she could kill anyone she loved there just as he had done to Caesar and the other two apes. If that's what would happen to her, Will hoped that the humans in the city would know what to do.
There was a brief silence as two soldiers started to drag Lake away when a new voice spoke.
"I don't fear you."
All eyes turned to the source of the voice. Lake looked back into the crowd of many apes and, to her surprise, saw Red. Despite the eyes of the entire base staring at him, and Winter clinging tightly to his arm with a pleading look on his face, the red furred gorilla stood tall and showed no emotion on his face.
Lake could feel her heart pounding in her chest again. She knew both of these gorillas, but not as well as she knew Blue Eyes and Ash. Winter was the same age as them-though younger by a few days. She remembered Winter as the one who all the other gorillas bullied and picked on because of his white fur. Lake always felt bad for him, but at the time she didn't know how to stop Dexter (who everyone nicknamed 'Dex') from his antics. Red was slightly older than them. If Lake remembered correctly, he was a year old when Caesar freed him and his mother from the humans. Like Winter, Red had been teased by the other gorillas because of his fur but not as severely as the albino was. It seemed like Red was naturally more of an introvert than Winter was. Though Lake had glimpsed Winter with his father almost every day, she hadn't seen much of Red ever since his mother passed away.
"You must fear." Red's green gaze was directed at McCullough. The colonel stood just as still as the red and black furred silverback. "Caesar, apes, and humans in city won't tolerate murder of newborn. How long you think it take for them to find you? To stop you? They destroy you!"
Two soldiers grabbed the gorilla tore him away from Winter, who was crying out for him. The soldiers brought Red over to where the colonel stood and threw him where Lake had previously laid. The whip was ready, raised high in the air until-
"Sir!" It was Will this time, yelling the single word as loudly as he could.
McCullough turned and glared at him. "What do you want, Roscoe?" The annoyance was evident in his voice as he waited for his soldier to explain why he had interrupted a punishment.
Ten years of working under it and Will still hated the false name he had created for himself just as much as he hated it the day he invented it. He didn't want these people to know who he was, so he had joined them under the name 'Charlie Roscoe'. While he was mostly called Roscoe by the soldiers, Charlie was the name he had chosen in memory of his father and to remind Will why he joined the Alpha-Omega and what he was fighting for.
What was he going to say? Will realized with a panic that he hadn't thought this through. He had spoken out without a plan. "Sir, we need more security due to the recent escapes." By now, everyone in the base knew of the slaves and servants disappearing. "What if, instead of breaking these two apes, we just use them to replace the missing servants?" It was a stretch, but it was worth trying.
McCullough's gaze was deep within Will's eyes. Him being small in comparison to the other soldiers had helped Will hide in plain sight and make him seem, outwardly, not likely to cause the colonel any trouble but that mask could break at any given moment and Will always feared the moment he would be found out.
Finally, he spoke. "What makes you think they'd be worthy servants, Roscoe?"
"Hazell was one of your favorite servants, wasn't she? Maybe that female chimp could replace her." Will tried not to stumble on his words. He moved on to the gorilla. "And this-this gorilla is a strong one! I mean, I know he's on the short end, but just look at him! He can make an impressive bodyguard!"
Bodyguard? Red would rather tear this human apart himself than protect his body from others who'd want to do the same but he knew better than to say that out loud.
"Besides if we send any more apes, drugged up or not, back to the city, wouldn't that just deter us from falling through with the plans?" If the last two reasons weren't enough, Will hoped this one would be the kicker. He didn't know what he'd do if it didn't work.
The colonel glanced at Red, then at Lake. Eyeing each of them. He considered his options. The female was different than Hazell, and much younger too, but she was just as pretty. The gorilla meanwhile, really was a sight himself. He could seriously hurt someone with his muscles. Plus, the extra security seemed like a good idea. He looked back at Will.
"You're smarter than you look, Roscoe." He said.
You have no idea. "Thank you, Sir." Will mumbled.
McCullough turned his attention back to the soldiers and the two apes. He motioned for the first two to bring Lake back and let Red stand up. "In light of Roscoe's advise, I have decided to make these two my newest servants!" He announced.
Lake swallowed. She glanced over at Andy and Lucky, who were watching with wide eyes. Even with Red standing next to her, she felt unsafe. What's going to happen to me?
"Won't serve you." Red suddenly stated. "Unless he servant too." He indicated with a nod at Winter, who was easy to spot because of his white fur.
McCullough narrowed his eyes at the albino. He ordered the soldiers to bring him closer. His frown only deepened when he got a better look at him. "He doesn't look much like a fighter." Winter was too scared to look the human in the eye.
"That his strength." Red was thinking on his feet. If Will was going to help him and Lake, he wanted to make sure that Winter would be safe too and he knew the only way the albino would ever be safe in this place is if he were with him. "He braver than he look. He stronger than you think. He take down bear." A lie, and a big one. The only apes Red had ever seen kill a grizzly were Koba and Pope, and Winter wouldn't go near a bear even if all that was left of it were its pelt. But it was the only way to convince the colonel to make the albino his servant.
Red, what are you doing?! Winter could feel his anxiety growing into panic. What if I have to prove I'm that brave?! They'll kill me for sure!
Lake glanced from Red to Winter. She didn't know what Red's plan was but understood that he was protecting Winter. Standing up for someone else…That's something she had never seen him do before.
McCullough tilted his head at Winter. He looked like a big, white blob with feet and a face to him. Like one of those toys, he used to see in the toy section of the market-a furby. He didn't look intimidating, unlike the other gorilla, but his white fur would make him blend into the snow and that could work in surprise attacks. Besides, if one gorilla is strong, two must be more powerful together.
"Fine." He finally answered. McCullough turned his attention to Lake. "You will serve under me in my quarters, like the others." He then snapped his fingers and Lake was escorted away. He then glanced back at Red and Winter. "And you two will have your own duty."
The two gorillas glanced at each other. What will McCullough do with them?
Lake, meanwhile, kept looking back at the colonel. Her hatred for the human building as her anger slowly returned. I'm going to kill you. She swore in her mind. One way or another, you're not going to get away with killing that baby or all the other horrible things you've done. I'll make sure you'll get exactly what you deserve. Lake could feel her thoughts feeding her anger. She could feel it with every breath she took.
Whether they knew it or not, McCullough and the soldiers had set off a fire in her, and now they will be burned. Maybe not today, but soon.
McCullough walked through the door. His lover was always easy to find so when he didn't see her right away, he knew he'd find her in their bedroom. Sure enough, there she was. He removed his hat and hung it up along with his uniform. He glanced at her, eyeing her white tank top and baggy gym pants. "That all you're wearing?" He asked.
"I just woke up." She replied. She always looked tired as her hair was always a mess of blonde hair in the morning.
He walked over to her, eyes still casted on her. "I assume you saw that scene the other day?" He nodded at the window. "Of the abomination?"
She sighed and turned her head away. "…I can't believe you would do that…I understand why, but…Isn't it a little…Petty? To kill a baby?"
If this was someone else, he would have had them killed. But she was not someone else. She was his goddess. And his alone. When he decided he wanted a queen, he chose the most beautiful woman in the base. There were others of course, but there was something exotic about her that he found attractive. He sat down next to her and pulled her into a side hug by wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"Now my dear, Elaine," She tried not to flinch at her name. "you know I'd never do that to a normal baby, human or ape." His voice was sickeningly sweet. Like cake frosting that make's one gag after a few bites. "..It's just that hybrids aren't meant to exist."
You're disgusting. She thought silently. Out loud, Elaine said: "How did that happen anyway?…Ten years ago, humans and apes wouldn't have been able to have children together."
He chuckled at her silly question. "Humans had the sense to not have sex with those beasts back then." He shook his head at the thought. "I'd like to know what Preacher was thinking. I told him to watch Hazell, not get her pregnant."
It was love. Elaine only shrugged, letting her thoughts roam freely in her mind. You choose hate, he chose love. "How long are you going to keep him in solitary confinement?" She asked. "Don't you need him?"
"What's with you and your questions today?" He asked playfully. Part of the allure to Elaine was her silence: she always seemed to be somewhere else, and McCullough couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about. He never minded at all when she asked questions. "I'll keep him in there until I decide to let him out, of course." He kissed her cheek and stood back up. "Now, get dressed, my lady. You and I are going to walk around the base today." With that, he walked out of the bedroom so she could change privately.
Elaine rubbed the disgusting kiss from her cheek as soon as the door closed behind McCullough. She made her way over to the closet and picked up the first thing she saw.
Long ago, when she was someone else, she uses to count the days she had spent in the base. To her, each day she woke up in the dreadful place, was another day of worry and of sorrow. She lost count at nine-hundred and eighty-seven days and stopped counting from then.
As she slipped on the dark blue coat dress, she glanced at the mirror. She stared at her fluffy, blonde hair, trying to remember when it was long, straight and black. Her life before all this madness was now nothing but a memory that was so distant and so far away, it may as well have been a dream. All she had left as proof that she had lived it was Will, and the many ear-rings in her ears. One for each person she ever loved: a pearl for Charles, a chocolate-chip cookie for Caesar, a tiny, silver hoop for her parents and an angel wing for Will.
Elaine glanced around before going closer to the reflective glass. She took a deep breath as she prepared to say the words that, if spoken out loud, could possibly kill her and all the rebels in the base. These were the words she only spoke to herself when she was alone. When she knew no one would hear her.
Then, in a hushed whisper that was so quiet, that even Elaine herself could barely hear it, she breathed: "…My name is Caroline…"
Ellie watched as Pat opened Milo's mouth and looked inside. In the last ten years, Ellie had come to know the medical staff of the survivors and had befriended them. Pat had been a dentist in the past but since the virus and riots broke out, he now used his experience to fix and replace teeth.
"Yup." He finally said after a while. "Look at this."
Ellie moved closer so she could see what Pat wanted to show her.
"You see how his back teeth are broken like that?"
"Yes."
"It's hard to tell, but I think his mouth may have been wired shut in the past." He adjusted his glasses. They were the weird kinds that dentists used to wear, with the extra lenses. "I'm going to guess it wasn't removed by a professional. It looks like it was ripped out of his mouth.'
Ellie cringed at the thought. She couldn't believe Milo had been tortured like that. "Do you think you can fix his teeth?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, I can do that." Pat took off his glasses. He was in his mid-fifties, but his brown hair made him seem slightly younger than that for some reason. "I can remove his broken molars and give him a full set of new teeth. They'll look different than an ape's typical set, but I'll try to make them resemble an apes as best as I can."
"Thanks, Pat, that means a lot." There was still so much about Milo that she didn't know and it was very possible that he had more problems than just broken teeth, but Ellie felt like fixing his mouth was a step in the right direction.
The early morning light shone through the window, catching Ellie's eye. Last night, she and Malcolm and the others agreed to regroup at their building at sunrise so that they could get back to find out more about the Alpha-Omegas. With the two colonies united, and the whole 'Koba in jail' drama over, there was hope that the team could finally figure out whatever McCullough was planning.
"I have to go." A thought came to her and she glanced at Pat one last time. "Uh, can you make sure he's still asleep while you fix his teeth? If he really was tortured, I don't want him to be any more afraid of human than he may already be."
Pat chuckled. "I knew you were going to say that. No worries, I gave him some sleeping gas for the procedure. He won't be aware of it until he wakes up."
Good, so we're on the same page! Pat was just an acquaintance, but a good one. Before Ellie never talked about the apes with the other medical staff and none of them wanted to bring up such a touchy subject but none of them ever had any ill-will to Caesar or his colony and it was relief to see that they were willing to help them if they needed it.
After thanking Pat again, Ellie walked out of the room. Knowing she was leaving Milo in good hands. But she couldn't stop thinking about his scars. Upon closer inspection, Ellie had noticed that Milo had 'DONKEY' tattooed on his back and AO on the side of his right eyebrow. They made him a donkey? But I thought they only did that to gorillas! She wondered if there were other apes, aside from the gorillas, who ended up with that horrible tattoo. Milo had other scars on him: A scar across his left cheek, an on old burn scar on his right one, and both of his ears were ripped up-not enough to cause any damage to his hearing, thankfully, but it still looked painful.
She knew it would be too risky to ask the chimp herself what he had been through. Ellie doubted Milo would be just as untrusting towards humans as Koba was, but she didn't want to assume otherwise when he hadn't even woken up yet. Maybe he'd be more willing to talk to Koba and Dolly than to a human.
Speaking of Koba, as Ellie walked down the hallway, the door to the room that he and his sister and father now shared opened and the scarred bonobo walked out. Koba rubbed his eye, looking sleepy.
"Morning, Koba." She said softly. It was nice to see him out of that jail cell.
Ellie didn't expect him to, but he answered her.
"Hi, Ellie." Koba's tired voice was loud enough for her to hear. Poor guy sounded like he hadn't had much sleep.
Hearing him say her name made Ellie's heart skip a beat. Did this mean he trusted her?
At that moment, Caesar stumbled his way from a corner and toward them. He looked just as tired as Koba, only there was something different about him. His gaze felt different. Ellie couldn't describe it. Caesar looked much better, having fully recovered from his fever, but there was still something off about him.
But what really got her worried about him was when Caesar glanced at Koba and then looked away. It wasn't like he was shunning the scarred bonobo or avoiding him. It was more like…like it pained him to look at him. As if the very sight of Koba alone was enough to case the Ape King some sort of pain. Ellie gave a side glance at the scarred ape herself and realized Koba hadn't seen the strange glance. Having been too preoccupied with rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes.
Sleep had been hard on Caesar. All night long, he dreamt of nothing but feeling angry. Most of his dreams would be of him punching at walls and yelling at anyone he saw, but the worst ones were the dreams he had about his enemies. Both current, and former. He dreamt about going into the AO base and shooting any and all humans he saw, of beating up Koba violently enough that he'd crush the all scarred bonobo's bones, of setting fire to Gen-Sys and all the other buildings that had ever harmed an ape. They all blurred together in one, hellish nightmare.
What disturbed Caesar the most about them was that in each one of his dreams, he always felt…content. At peace. Satisfied….Almost happy… And when he woke up, he'd feel disappointment. It was as if some part of him actually wanted to do those things, which worried the Ape King.
That's why he had to look away when he saw Koba again. Because when he saw the scarred bonobo, he felt the need to hear his skeleton crack. Thankfully, Koba didn't notice it.
He still felt that need as he stood in the room that belonged to what Blue Eyes called 'the file room building'. One look around and he could see why it was called that. The room, while big enough to hold the Ape Council and the humans inside, was also full of files. Files that held the backgrounds of every human and ape in San Fransisco. The room itself felt like a chamber of secrets to an extent.
The group, which consisted of Caesar himself, Blue Eyes, Rocket, Luca, Ash (who'd recovered enough to join them), Koba, Maurice, Malcolm, Tori, Ellie, Dreyfus, Derek, Forster, Stone, and Kempt, were looking at the discs and flash-drives that were found days earlier. Derek had a projector which hooked up to the computer they were using and the image on the screen, showed on a screen curtain that hung over the whiteboard in the room.
The flash-drives they looked at so far had nothing but what looked like notes from the human experiments-some contained graphic pictures or videos, which made Derek relieved that the volume on his computer didn't work but he still skipped over the gruesome scenes anyway.
Finally, something other than human experiment notes popped up. Everyone stared at it, trying to put a name to the very odd picture. It looked like a clumsy mix of random boxes and rectangles. It was only when Derek zoomed in did they realize what it was.
"Is that a map?" Asked Kempt.
"If that's not a map, I don't know what it is." Said Foster.
Caesar squinted at the image. Despite having been in the base, he hadn't really seen much of it. He felt almost grateful for that. But his eyes landed right on one part of the map. A spot that he knew all too well.
"Breaking…Room." He rasped. He could feel eyes on him but he didn't have the heart to explain. The only person who knew what he was talking about was Ash, who only crept closer to Rocket. His body shaking.
The only humans who had heard Caesar was Malcolm and Tori, and neither of them dared to ask what the breaking room was.
"How are they able to have so many people in there?" Asked Dreyfus. "It doesn't look big enough to have that many apes and humans and the AO soldiers in it all at the same time."
"Maybe there's another base?" Suggested Ellie.
"Then how could the human children have come from the same base as the ape children?" Asked Malcolm, returning his gaze to the others. "They have to be in there somewhere."
Derek stared at the screen for a second. Then, something caught his eye. "Wait a minute.." He pressed one of the arrow keys on his keyboard and the screen immediately changed to another map. This one was shaped as a big square inside another square. The middle one, however, resembled a kitchen of some sorts while the one around it looked like a giant train track.
It wasn't hard to figure out what it was.
"Labs." There was a slight growl in Koba's voice.
"It's underground." Said Tori, eyeing what looked like stairs or ladders of some kind. "Beneath the base."
"That's weird." Said Kempt. "Why would they separate the humans from the apes?"
"Why are they doing any of this? These people don't make much sense at all, do they?" Added Foster.
Malcolm only stared at the map with mixed feelings. Was that really where those innocent human children had been born and held captive in? It broke his heart to think about it. Even more so when he thought of Alex in there.
Wait..!
"Ellie?" Malcolm suddenly turned to look at his wife. "Did any of the human children have any injuries on them?"
Ellie blinked. "Just the oldest ones, on their throats and inside their mouths."
Why would they experiment there? "What about Alex?" He asked.
"He wouldn't let me examine him so I don't know."
A lump began forming in Malcolm's throat. Why would his son not want Ellie to make sure he wasn't hurt? A new fear began to take hold of him. Just what did his son go through while in that lab?…What did they do to him?
"What the heck?" Dreyfus gasped, making Ellie and Malcolm look up. The screen had suddenly changed and became black. Everyone could only stare at it in confusion.
"Derek, what's happening?" Asked Ellie.
"I don't know, it did that on it's own." Derek looked almost alarmed at the sudden and unexpected change.
The screen suddenly changed again. The screen lid up with a scene-a video! It appeared to have been taken at a downcast view, as if the camera was looking down when it was filming it. No one had to ask, they all had a good idea of what this video was from and where it was filmed at.
But what got their attention the most were the two gorillas.
Red and Winter could clearly be seen with a soldier. Both of them had guns in their hands. The soldier appeared to be trying to teach them how to use them. Red fired first, but before Winter could fire his own, Pinto came running into view. The young gorilla was being chased by a gorilla-one that had to be the meanest, scariest ape the team had ever seen. He made even Koba seem harmless!
Red dropped his gun and got in-between the two. Shoving the crazed gorilla to the side and picking up Pinto but then was chased by the other gorilla until he ran into a fence. The gorilla was about to strike at Red again but was shot by Winter.
But then, the soldiers came and started beating the poor albino…But it only got worse when, to the horror of the group, one of the soldiers…Pulled out a blow torch…And brought the blue flame closer to Winter's back.
Thankfully, at that moment, the screen changed again. This time, the camera footage was taken inside the fence that Red had hit. It started with a soldier yelling at a bunch of apes who were digging up a bolder. The apes recognized Lake among them and even though she was covered in mud, they could almost make out Dot, the female who came back with Pope.
One of the apes lost their grip on the rope and the bolder fell back into the pit. The soldier got mad and began to whip the poor ape but Lake, enraged by this, lunged at him and bit his nose. She was then tased by another soldier, and then the screen changed again.
It was as if Will (or whoever sent them the flash drives) had collected as much camera footage as possible and crammed it all in one space.
The next scene was the strangest…And the eeriest. The room was small, a perfect cube shape. It was empty except for a rag on the floor, what looked like a tire swing hanging from the ceiling and a corner full of long-forgotten children's toys. The room reminded Caesar of his old bedroom back at the Rodman house-only this one had fewer toys and the walls were blank, with no windows. It was a colorless room of dark loneliness and it honestly looked like a cage without bars.
"What the hell?" Muttered Dreyfus.
"What is this?" Malcolm wasn't sure if he wanted an answer. The room was disturbing, regardless of it's purpose.
They thought the room was empty until they realized someone was inside. She was a blur at first, easily mistaken for a shadow. But then, she stood up and walked over to the rag (that must have been her blanket) and wrapped it around herself. What little light there was in the room was just enough to see her fully.
The child was a bonobo, who had to be no older than two years old. Her dark skin was paler than it should be, and her limbs were long and stringy from lack of muscle (or possible malnourished). She moved just like a spider. Her large, brown eyes seemed to take up half of her face.
Derek had just enough time to take a screenshot of her before she covered her tiny frame under the rag. Only her face peeked out as she pulled the thing over her head.
"Why is she in there?" Ellie's voice was tight with concern.
"I thought Will took all the kids out of that base." Said Foster, some anger was hinted in his tone.
"I don't think he knows she's there." Said Tori. "There aren't any windows and I doubt the colonel lets her leave that room."
Maurice, clearly disturbed by the footage, looked at the other apes. "We have to get that child out of there." He signed. "She could be in danger."
Caesar was barely aware of the orangutan's signs. He could feel himself boiling on the inside and knew his hatred for the Alpha-Omegas and their leader had just grown a little bit more.
"We know, Maurice." Blue Eyes answered for him. "But we need to find her first."
Rocket held Ash in an embrace. His hard gaze glaring at the screen. He couldn't imagine why anyone, human or ape, would lock a child away in a room so bare like a prisoner but he knew that Maurice was right. Whoever that little girl is, she needs to get out of that room. Out of that base and away from McCullough.
Luca's hands twisted into fists. He could only hope that someone in the base knew of that girl and would help her-or at least, protect her from the soldiers and the colonel.
Outwardly, Koba was still and silent but he was fuming on the inside. What's with humans abusing children?! First Tori, and now this?! And not to mention all the others that came from that base-! Wait. Koba narrowed his eyes at the screen, at the image of the little girl. He blinked at it, suddenly seeing the resemblance.
That girl, whoever she was, looked exactly like his father.
Suddenly, the screen changed again-only this time, the scene was too horrible to watch.
The room in the scene could easily be the execution chamber from death row in jail. Only instead of one restraining bed, there were three with its own machine by its side. In each bed, an ape was restrained.
One was Caesar and the other three were Dolly and Ash.
The humans who were hovering over them were torturing them! Stabbing their bodies with giant syringes and then turning on the biggest machine in the room which would send a bolt of electric shock through electrodes that were connected to their heads. Their bodies shook with the horrible vibrations.
The second the scene popped up, everyone either gasped, yelped or jumped back. Ash ran out of the room, Caesar covered his eyes. Koba ducked. The two chimps didn't want to relive that awful torture and the scarred bonobo didn't want to see how much his twin had truly suffered.
Luckily, Derek immediately yanked the flash drive out of his computer before the scene could fully start. With the screen now permanently blank and lifeless, the group just stared at it in mute shock.
"…M-Maybe we should take a break..?" Dreyfus sounded concern, which was weird coming from him.
"Better make it a long one." Said Foster.
A break sounded like a good idea. It's one thing to look at maps and experiment notes. It's a total different thing to actually watch security footage and see unspeakable acts of cruelty.
Rocket left the room to look for Ash. The young chimp was in the hallway, shaking and whimpering. Poor boy was scared out of his mind. Caesar wasn't as emotional as the teen, but he wrapped his arms around Blue Eyes and held him tightly. The prince didn't even try to escape his father's embrace. He needed this just as much as the Ape King did.
Malcolm and Ellie were embracing each other too. Possibly trying to recover from what they had just seen.
Derek only stared at his computer screen. He had a screenshot of that girl on his desktop, but he had seen too much to look at them and get a better look at the child right now. Still, though, he knew they had to find her and get her out of that room.
Koba stayed where he was. Back against the wall as he absentmindedly scratched at one of his old scars. The anger and the confusion he felt made him feel as if there were something crawling under his skin. He hated it, but could not tell which of those scenes made him feel that way.
He only stopped scratching when he felt hands take his. It was Tori, she had come over to him and was now sitting next to him.
Koba hadn't seen Tori much since their secret kiss during the unity celebration. It was mostly due to Koba spending time with Dolly and helping both his sister and father heal. While Dolly was doing better, their father's hallucinations and jumps from paranoia to anger to depression was emotionally and mentally exhausting. Between all that, Koba barely had much time to think about anything else.
But he didn't forget how that kiss made him feel.
"Are you ok?" Tori asked. She didn't feel like using her voice.
Neither did Koba. "I don't know." Why did he feel awkward all of the sudden? "They hurt my sister."
"I know but she's safe now and those humans are going to get their asses kicked for what they did to her." That honestly made Koba chuckle. Tori smiled, knowing her 'get back at the idiots talk' worked. "We'll figure out who that girl is and get her out of there somehow." She added. "I know we will."
Koba wondered if that was even possible. That girl looked like she never seen the light of day in her life, let alone been allowed to leave that room. If Will and Preacher didn't even know who or where she was than how could the team figure it out on their own?
But then again, someone in that base had to know she was in there. How else could her video have ended up on one of the flash drives?
Suddenly, the front door to the building opened and seconds later, the chimp with the wire sticking out of his head-who the team now knew was called Spazz-walked in the room. He walked the same way he did when they first saw him: unblinking eyes kept forward and nothing reflected on his face. Just like before, he just kept walking. Even when he banged into the wall. Repeatedly.
Werner peaked his head into the doorway, having followed the chimp here. "I thought I told you two to watch him!" Dreyfus angrily spat as Finney appeared.
"Sorry, he got all sparky again and just wandered out here." Said Werner.
Finney watched as Spazz kept banging into the wall. "Shouldn't you guys do something about that wire?" He asked.
"It may be too dangerous to remove it." Said Ellie, also watching Spazz. "If we take it out and it's connected to his brain, it could cause brain damage." Ellie had considered doing the procedure, but with the lack of medical screening, there was no way to tell if it would cause more harm than good and she didn't want to take the risk.
"I think he already has that." Muttered Finney with a slight chuckle. Earning an elbow to his rib from Werner.
Caesar struggled to suppress his annoyance at the human. He and Blue Eyes, Maurice, Koba, Rocket, Ash, Stone, and Luca had officially met Spazz, in his non-sparking, radio-like self, just before the unity celebration. He's actually a nice male, friendly and curious. Spazz, despite his obvious problems, wasn't at all 'brain damaged' as Finney joked. No, Spazz was just…Eccentric. Humorous and delightfully odd, but seemed nice all the same.
Spazz continued to bang into the wall until a spark popped out from his wire and he shook his head. He then blinked several times and glanced around the room before seeing the apes and signing. "Why do you all look so sad?"
"We're not sad." Signed Blue Eyes. "We're just not happy."
Spazz tilted his head to the side. His wire sticking upward like a flag. "Why?"
"Because the humans in the Alpha-Omega base have hurt Ash, Dolly, and my father and are hurting other people and some of our friends are still trapped inside." Blue Eyes didn't need to look at Ash to know that he was still hiding in Rocket's embrace. It scared him that the soldiers had reduced his once playful and mischievous honorary cousin and best friend to this.
The wired ape blinked at the prince. He glance at Caesar and Maurice. Stone and Luca were watching Werner and Finney as the two argued with Dreyfus (possibly making sure neither of them did anything). Rocket was preoccupied with Ash to pay any attention. Tori had her arm wrapped around Koba. If they were watching the conversation, they gave no indication.
"If your friends are still there, why don't you all just go to the base and get them?"
The question took Blue Eyes by surprise. "Because we don't know where the base is."
"Then get a map and then go." Spazz wasn't arguing with him, it was more like he was trying to suggest a way to get the others out of the base.
Caesar and Maurice exchanged glances. They wished it was that simple: Just show up at the base and whisk all the imprisoned away back to the city without even a peep from the colonel and go back to normal life-whatever that is now that the colonies are united. But war just doesn't work that way.
"Even if we find a map, we can't just go to the base and assume the soldiers aren't armed. There could be a death trap just waiting to go off in there." As much as Blue Eyes wished he could charge at those soldiers and make them pay for all the pain they cause, he knew better than to go running into danger without knowing what lay ahead.
"Then get guns and then go."
Blue Eyes allowed the corners of his mouth to lift just a little bit. Apparently, Spazz has a talent for making serious problems sound easy to resolve. "We'll do that as soon as we know where the base is. Besides, we still don't know why they're doing all this."
Truthfully, Blue Eyes didn't really want to know what the excuse for this cruelty was. It felt like no good reason McCullough and his soldiers had would be enough to justify this level of evil.
Spazz raised an eyebrow, looking confused. "Why don't you put the black bug in the box and see what's in it?"
Blue Eyes blinked. "The what?"
"The black bug." Spazz repeated.
Black bug? Maurice remembered that Koba and Dolly called apes who didn't use sign language 'big black caterpillars' during the first days after they were freed. Was that what Spazz was talking about? But that doesn't make any sense! Caesar squinted at Spazz's signs. What 'black bug' could fit into a…The Ape King glanced at Derek's computer and then at the screen. That video they saw was on a flash drive. Caesar had seen only a few of them in his life but he knew they came in various different colors…
…And the black ones sometimes looked like bugs…!
Just before Caesar could ask him anything, Spazz's wire popped and sparks flew out. "Who let the dogs out?!" He sang, startling everyone in the room. "Woof! Woof! Woof!" There was another pop and he was back to banging into the wall again.
"And that's why I didn't want him to be left in the infirmary alone." Said Dreyfus.
Finney huffed at him. "What happened to you, Dreyfus? You use to be sane."
Dreyfus made a face at the younger man and Finney backed away. Werner got in between them. "Ok, next time we'll be more careful."
"What was he saying?" Asked Malcolm to the apes.
"Something about a black bug." Said Blue Eyes with a shrug.
"I think he meant flash drive." Added Caesar.
Malcolm glanced at Spazz. "Flash drive…?"
There was a pause. Now everyone was staring at Spazz as the wired chimp continued to bang into the wall. They were all thinking the same thing. Spazz hadn't told them much else other than his…Unusual name…But the wire sticking out of his head suggested he had been in a lab or something of the sort in the past. But if he was truly an infant at the time of the Ape Rebellion, than he couldn't have been an experiment for long…Unless…Unless he was born in the base, which would explain why he wouldn't have a file or reports of his disappearance.
But then it dawned on the group….If Spazz had been born in the base, than why and when did he get that wire? In fact, what was the wire's purpose to begin with? Were the Alpha-Omegas trying to make contact with other bases if there were any? Or was it…
"What if he's a spy?" Kempt asked without thinking, breaking the silence.
Finney snorted at him. "No offense, but does he look smart enough to be a spy to you?"
Oh, that did it! Caesar was about to turn around and growl at the human for that comment but Werner was, thankfully, faster than he was. "Hey Finney, why don't we go somewhere else and leave the guys alone?" Before Finney could reply, Werner pulled him out of the room. The door of the building slammed shut a second later.
Dreyfus rolled his eyes at his two followers, ignoring the fact that they left Spazz there.
"Do you guys think he's a spy?" Asked Foster, once the two morons were gone.
"I doubt it." Said Malcolm.
"He doesn't look much like a spy." Dreyfus eyed Spazz head to toe. "He's too goofy, I don't think McCullough would want a loose cannon like him spying on us."
Spazz's wire popped and crackled again, and he stopped. But instead of returning to himself, the chimp fell unconscious on the ground. Blue Eyes had just managed to catch his head from hitting the floor.
"Is he ok?!"
"Holy moly!"
Ellie ran to Spazz and touched his head. She sighed in relief when she didn't feel anything broken or see any bruising. "He probably just had a short-circuit."
"Blue Eyes, Ash. Take him back to the infirmary." Caesar was rubbing his head now. His head felt thick, like bread dough. He wondered if it was from stress or from annoyance at the whole situation.
Ash hesitated but, with an encouraging pat from his father, joined Blue Eyes and together they carried Spazz out of the room.
Derek had stayed silent the entire time. He tried to focus on what was happening, but his mind kept going back to those videos. To what went on in that base. Derek had accepted that there are some who see apes as animals long ago. It was the harsher lesson he learned as a child. But these were things no one would do to any creature. No…These were things no creature should have to go through. Despite all his years of seeing the worst of humanity and placing real monsters in prison, Derek never thought of anyone as pure evil. He once believed that the term was a myth, that there was no such thing as being 'pure evil'.
But now he knew just how wrong he was. The Alpha-Omegas were pure evil. McCullough was pure evil….Everything that went on in that base, under that colonel's rule, was pure evil.
"I need to go for a walk." Derek suddenly got up from his chair and grabbed his coat.
Everyone looked at him with surprise and some concern. "Are you ok, Derek?" Asked Dreyfus.
"Yes, I just need to think." Or not think. His mind felt too overwhelmed for any thinking right now. He just knew he had to go and be alone right now. "Carry on without me." With that, he left.
Everyone stared at the doorway where Derek had been. The silence was almost deafening.
Finally, Dreyfus broke it. "I have never seen him do that before.." He said with a suspicious frown.
"He just needs time to cool off." Said Tori. She was still sitting next to Koba. They had stayed silent throughout the whole scene. Just sitting there and watching it unfold without knowing what to say or do. "We wouldn't get anything done with him stressed out."
"I think we're all a little stressed out here." Said Foster.
Ellie was thinking. Her mind trying to piece together the Spazz mystery. She felt like she was working on a giant puzzle and Spazz was somehow a piece of it. He came from a lab, he had an owner in the past. Who else? She glanced at Koba, who was signing with Maurice. They had owners. They may not be alive anymore, but the scarred bonobo and the orangutan had belonged to them all the same. They may not have had wires stuck in their heads but…
Wait! Ellie thought back to the days where things made sense. Back in the days where humans lived without a care in the world and apes were ignored and tormented. Before the virus. She remembered one time when her daughter had begged her for a puppy for her birthday. It was literally the only thing she wanted more than any doll in the toy store. The one thing she asked for every chance she got. Ellie had finally gave in and, while Sarah was at preschool, she had gone to the pound and picked out a spaniel puppy. Sarah was over the moon when she got her and had named the dog Lady, after the spaniel from Lady and The Tramp. Her favorite movie.
Pounds. Labs. Zoos. Circus'. They're all different from each other, but they all house animals….And if she remembered correctly, when she got Lady for Sarah, the little puppy had fresh stitches in her abdomen…
If pounds do this to future pets, then would…?
"Guys!" She gasped, surprising herself. "We need to look at all the files of apes who used to be in captivity."
"Why? What is-"
Ellie barely looked at the surprised and confused looks. She was already looking through boxes. Her mind racing.
"I think I have an idea."
Red's back still ached from the tattoo the humans had given him. He was surprised the instrument they had used hadn't drawn blood as it distorted his skin in white ink. Winter had it much worse, as his own back was still healing from that beating he had not too long ago. Due to his white fur, the younger gorilla's tattoo was in black. It looked horrible on him.
They now both had the 'Donkey' tattoo on their backs. Red felt like the tattoos themselves meant that he and Winter were no longer free. Like from now on, they were mere objects that belonged to the colonel and the soldiers. It made him sick to his stomach.
"You better listen up cause this is the only time I'm going to say this." McCullough's voice echoed. Where were they? The colonel insisted on them being blindfolded as he and his followers lead them here. All Red knew was that after his and Winter's backs were distorted in the ugly ink, the humans had tranquilized them and when they woke up, they were blindfolded and were being forced to follow the colonel and whoever else was with him as they walk through what felt like a maze.
He had absolutely no idea where they were, which only added to his growing anxiety.
"What I'm about to show you is highly confidential. Only a select few of my soldiers know of this place, but no one knows where this place is or how to locate it." If his voice wasn't intimidating enough, the echo made him sound worse. Red felt something grab his hand and knew it was Winter. For once, he felt the same fear as the albino did. "If you leave this premiss, for any reason, you must be accompanied by a soldier and you must be tranquilized in order to be brought here and taken out. I will not allow anyone, human or ape, knowing how to get in and out of this place. Including those who follow me."
I will never follow you. Red thought fiercely. I may bare your mark, but you will never be my leader. He bitterly held his tongue, knowing better than to speak those words.
They turned a corner and stopped suddenly. McCullough snapped his fingers loudly and the blindfolds were taken off of the two gorillas faces. Red blinked in surprise. The white-bricked walls were smooth and solid, possibly causing the echoing. Both the floor and the ceiling appeared to be solid concrete or cement.
"Now then." McCullough barked. Grabbing their attention. "Your job, Red, and Winter," Their names sounded wrong in the colonel's voice. Like he was spitting on them. He suddenly opened the door next to them. "Is to watch her."
Inside the room, much to Red and Winter's shock was a little, female bonobo child.
A's/N: I hope you guys like conspiracies because the next several chapters will be FULL OF THEM!
So it looks like Grey is coming back to the team-sort of! XD He's going to become important later on in the story, so yeah.
A lot of you have been asking if Pope and Dot would save each other...Let's just say, you guys won't be disappointed! 3
Now then...Koba's been forgiven by Caesar and the others, has been reunited with Dolly and his long-lost father, found love and has decided to redeem himself...He's on the right road, but he's not out of the woods yet! I still got lots of plans for our favorite bonobo! :3
LOL! Ya know how in the Hunger Games, Katniss is known as 'the girl on fire'? Well then, Lake is the girl on fire in this story! You guys can expect to see her and Red and Winter more often from here on. ;D
This would be the first conspiracy...Caroline is alive, and is apparently McCullough's lover!...While I'm on the subject, you guys may wanna keep an eye on Milo, Tori, that little girl in the video, and especially Derek!...Yeah, things are about to get dramatic again!
Thyme- Dot's late husband
Remy(name from the rat in Rattaolie)- Dot's late son
Now, who is Pat? LOL, I imagine there are other medical personal like Ellie in the city (such as doctors, nurses, dentists, shrinks and stuff. This may come into play again later!). Pat's just a minor character who will give poor Milo some new teeth. XD
I noticed a lot of you are also saddened by Hazell's death. Don't worry guys! Even though she's dead, Hazell is still one of the main characters of the story! Much like Ishmael, I plan to have her reappear in Preacher's flashbacks to explain how they met and how their relationship made Preacher choose to fight for the apes so even though she's gone, you have not seen the last of her. ;) (speaking of Preacher, what is the colonel doing with him?)
Anyways, I hope you all had an awesome New Years (I know it's late but still!) and you had a lovely Valentines Day! (Honestly, I just do nothing on that day but eat chocolate and heart shaped cookies! XD)
Thanks for reading and please review! 3