A/N'S: HUHZZZAAAHHHH! I FINISHED THIS STINKEN CHAPTER! :D :D :D :D :D WHOOOO HOOOO! Fifty reviews! For that, I think I'll do something a little special at the end of the chapter. ;D Thanks, guys!
Trying to think...No, I don't think there's anything in this chapter that I need to warn you guys about so, enjoy! XD
The two gorillas glanced at each other, speechless. It was Red who looked at the colonel with a frown. "You. Imprison. Children?" There was a hint of a growl in his voice but he didn't care if this despicable human heard it or not.
McCullough scoffed at his words. "Not all of them. Just her." He glanced at the child before looking back at the gorillas. "Since all the other children have disappeared, I suppose that makes her the only child left in the base."
Red kept his mouth shut. He didn't have to look at Winter to know that the albino was also holding his tongue. If the colonel suspected the two knew where the children were or that it was Will and Preacher who had helped them escape, he gave no indication.
"Why don't you two go in there and meet her for a bit." He suggested instead. "She doesn't get any visitors."
Before either of the apes could object, Red felt himself get shoved inside the room. Winter was pushed inside just seconds afterwards. The ones who forced them inside turned out to be two other Donkey's. Both were gorillas with some sort of mask on their faces. The door closed before they could get a good look at them though.
Now in the dark, Red felt the fur on his neck, shoulder and back stick up. There was something about the room that just didn't feel right. Looking around, he and Winter could tell that the walls were devoid of any color and the floor was just cold cement, like the floors in the hallway only littered with lonesome toys with fake smiles.
It was the smell that got to them the most though. It smelled exactly like how the girl looked: as if she never left the room…At all…For anything. The only hint of a different door other than the entry door was a curtain that hung on the right however, Red and Winter had a feeling that wasn't an exit.
But none of this creeped them out nearly as much as the girl herself. When they glanced at her, they realized she was staring right at them. Her large eyes seemed to have grown slightly bigger, as if she'd never seen another ape up close before. How long had she been in here?
The three just stared at each other. It was only then that the two gorillas realized the girl's eyes were brown, like tree bark. This only confused them further. Why would McCullough keep a primitive ape child locked away like this? Primitive apes are normally just regular apes who aren't smart, but one that's a child would probably be useless in a war. Not just because of their age but because primitive apes would lack the knowledge to survive and would likely run away or try to fight without thinking.
Despite this, there was something off about the girl. Her gaze wasn't threatening or menacing by any means and she could easily be the most harmless, defenseless ape that Red had ever seen, but she made him feel uneasy. He felt as if she could see his insides. No, as if she could see his very soul.
Winter trembled. Why? He asked himself. This was no bear. This wasn't a soldier, or any other threat. This was a child, no different than the several that had been born and raised within the colony back at home. Even if she did attack, him being nearly an adult gorilla meant that Winter could easily overpower her with just one hand and she was already much smaller than normal as is. There was nothing about her that indicated that she was dangerous, but her eyes frightened him nonetheless.
She was still for a while, the only movement she made was blinking her eyes. When she finally stood up, it sent shivers down their backs. Her legs and arms were so long and skinny that they looked like they belonged to a spider. Heck, she looked like a spider herself!
But it was what she did next that caught them off guard the most.
"Gorillas."
What...?!
"You're…Gorillas."
The furs on Red's shoulders stood up and his eyes widened as he stared at her. Winter's jaw fell open.
This girl…Just spoke…And she's a primitive ape! The few primitive apes Red and Winter had ever met rarely ever knew sign language, let alone could speak.
She spoke slowly and with a light stutter, as if each word was almost too complicated for her small tongue to sound out. "...You...C-Come from..Here?"
Red, still in shock that she could talk, didn't know what to say so he dumbly said: "What?"
"Where...Did you..C-Come from?" She asked again. She didn't seem annoyed in the slightest.
"The-the forest." Red stuttered himself. He gulped. So she can talk. Big deal, she's still just a little child. What could harm could she really do? "How you learn to speak?" He asked her. He would have signed the question, but, given the fact that she was living down here in this dark place with seemingly no one else around, he had a gut feeling that she probably never even learned the language.
She pointed at the door. "The man…The man with…H-Holes in his F-face."
Holes in his face? Only one human fit that description. McCullough. His sunglasses did make his face resemble that of a human skull: Hollow and empty, with large holes as eyes gazing back at you. Ironically, the colonel was the bringer of death in this horrible place.
Winter glanced from the door to Red, his eyes growing wide with worry. Wordlessly, the two gorillas sat down on the floor. They were still giants compared to her, but it was as close to her eye-level as they could get.
"I'm Winter." Winter wasn't as good around kids as Lake was, but he could relate to them better than Red could. He nodded at Red. "He Red...What your name?"
"Rose." The girl squeaked without trouble. It was probably the only thing she knew about herself.
Someone cared about her. Someone named her. It may not have been her mother, but someone gave her a name. Where are her parents?
"Why you here?" Red asked. He was no longer uneasy about the girl, but rather for her safety.
Rose pulled a rag over her shoulders, possibly her blanket. "He use me to…Find P-People...The ones who…Hate him…"
That's a weird reason to keep any child in a room like this. Besides, wouldn't McCullough have someone older and above ground do that? This room isn't even equipped to be an office, let alone used to identify and locate McCullough's enemies.
"How...?" Winter sounded just as unsure as Red felt. The unsettling feeling was creeping its way back at them. Rose didn't belong in this room, and neither did they. Red wanted to get out of here and take both Winter and the tiny bonobo with him, but couldn't think of any way to do that.
"They sleep..." Rose climbed on her tire swing, now she was at perfect eye-level with the two gorillas. She placed one tiny hand on Red's head and the other on Winter's. "...They dream..." She returned her hands to her own head. "I…Go...In.." She put her hands down. "…I see…What's...In-S-side"
Red and Winter could only stare at her. She had to be making this up, children her age do it all the time. When they were her age, Ash thought he could fly (which ended when he leaped from a rock and face planted into the mud. It was mean that the others laughed at him, but it was funny at the time) and Winter used to cover himself in mud and grime to hide his albinism while Red thought he could disappear by shutting his eyes tightly. They were lies that were dreamt up by the imagination of children. As harmless as can be, and as embarrassing to remember as ever.
But this was different. Rose obviously didn't grow up in the forest like Red, Winter, Ash and the other teenage and young adult apes did, and it was unlikely that she had any sort of interaction with other apes her age. Her room hardly looked like a decadent place to sleep in, let alone daydream. Even her toys offered little chance for imagination. So how could Rose dream up a story about herself like that if she lived in a place as empty and dark as this?
"He..Hurt you?" Red needed to know this. If McCullough could kill a newborn baby, what could he do to a child?
Rose tilted her head to the side. "He hurt me?" She asked. "Dreams hurt…S-sometimes…But he…Not hurt me."
Just then, the door opened again. "Times up, Donkey's." Is that what they're called now? "Get out and stand watch."
Winter hesitated before walking over to the door. He glanced at Red and Rose, his concern showing in his soft green eyes.
Red felt a feeling he hated more than Caesar's sympathy for the humans. Helplessness. He didn't know what to do, he just knew that he didn't want to leave Rose in this room by herself like she had been for who knows how long. But he didn't want Winter to be alone outside the room either. Red knew from training that Winter's way of fighting was running away from his opponent. If that albino were to be left alone in that hallway, with no one to protect him, he'll likely get killed…And leave Red to fend for himself.
There's nothing in here that can hurt her. He reasoned with himself. If the colonel is using her, then he wouldn't kill her, right? She should be perfectly safe here…Well, safer down here than she would be above ground.
"You outside." Rose said suddenly. Her brown eyes were cast down. "Guards…Always Ou-outside." The sad words seemed more for herself than for the red furred gorilla.
"To protect you." Red told her. "Keep you safe." It was an attempt to reassure her, but Red wondered just how safe he and Winter could keep her.
Rose shook her head. "..Don't want..Pro..Tech..S-sion." She looked up at him. "Want…Outside.."
"DONKEY!" Red flinched at the loud yell. He had to get out before they punish him. He glanced at Rose one last time before finally obeying the soldier's demand. He joined Winter outside the door as the solider closed and locked it behind them. McCullough was still there, his glare intensified by his sunglasses.
"Interesting child, isn't she?" He asked as he walked over to the two gorillas. "She was a lucky catch. Apes like her are hard to find because of their eyes. It's so easy to mistake them for a primitive ape."
The way he talked about Rose was disgusting. It was as if he was talking about his best and finest kill or a trout he caught rather than a person he had locked up.
"What..You doing with her?" Red tried to hold the growl that he knew was waiting to erupt deep in his throat.
McCullough snorted at his question as if it were a joke. "Three minutes in that room with her and you already care about her?" He asked sarcastically. He looked at the door, then back at Red. "Let's just say that she is an asset to my success." With that, he turned and left. The soldier following behind him.
Red frowned as he watched the humans go. What did he mean by that? What does any of this have to do with Rose? He glanced at Winter, who never took his eyes off the door. When their eyes met, Red knew the white-furred gorilla was thinking the same thing as him.
The colonel brought them down here to keep Rose in her prison room. But they're going to protect her from him. And somehow, set her free.
Darkness was everywhere. It didn't matter if Preacher was fast asleep or wide awake. The pitch blackness never left him.
Preacher didn't know where he was, but he had a pretty good idea. There were rummers in the base that McCullough had a secret prison underneath his quarters. It was only rummers, but it was a known fact that some people, both humans, and apes, would go into the colonel's office and would rarely, if not then never, be seen again.
Preacher suspected that's where he is now. His cell reminded him of the solitary confinement cells they used to use in the bigger jails. But it only made him feel numb inside. He felt like McCullough could do anything he wanted to do with him but nothing would break him any more than he already was.
Hazell is dead. By not the colonel's hand, but by his own. He had killed the one person who brought color to his gray and empty world. The one who made him see what he had been blind to for so long. But worst of all, he had killed the last, and only, living person he loved and who loved him in return. To make things even worse, their children were gone too. Hazell had lived long enough to see their daughter die at the hands of the man who, in Preacher's mind, was more dangerous than any virus…And their son…Their Hopely…What has become of him?…Preacher hoped his son had made it to the city, but knew his son may be dead too.
It was because of this that the renegade soldier spent most of his time in his dark cell asleep and dream only about Hazell. It was his only escape. The only place he knew Hazell would always remain.
She was dead. She was gone. But her memory will never die and her spirit would never leave him.
Flashback:
Normal.
The word itself felt alien to him. It was a word who's meaning was long forgotten. A way of life that died out before he could fully appreciate it.
Even though it had been years since the last time he had lived 'normally', Preacher could still remember the playing field he and his childhood friends played baseball in, the heat and sweat on their bodies, and the anticipation of chocolate and cake batter flavored frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles for lunch. He also remembered his home: his mother's pancakes, his father reading a newspaper, his old attempts as a young boy to get out of going to church on Sundays and only looking forward to seeing his friends at school from Monday to Friday.
It was his normalcy, his life. But now it was just a memory. An echo of conversations and events in a world that no longer existed. The hauntings of people he had once known and were now ghosts to him.
What probably intimidated Preacher the most was his fellow soldiers themselves. They reminded him of the bullies from his elementary and middle schools: big, bulky, and mean-faced. The few women in the base were tough and fast. They made the famous 'girls are weak' belief seem like the words of a drunken idiot. The female soldiers often looked so strong, that Preacher wondered if they could bite through metal with their teeth and shatter bones to pieces with their bare hands.
In other words, don't piss them off!
However, Preacher had learned long ago that it was the soldiers who were the closest to Colonel McCullough that were the most dangerous. The colonel had power over life and death, and those who followed him the closest, were the ones who carried out his orders. They could be the ones who killed, or the ones who spared lives with a simple nod from the leader.
Preacher chose to keep to himself. It was hard, since those who formed alliances or, what he called, 'base gangs', often tried to intimidate or show dominance over any soldier or 'Donkey' who walked alone. But it felt safer than putting trust in a person who bragged about killing and looked like they could…And WOULD…kill you in a second.
Today was an average day…Or as average as it gets in the base…Preacher had just gotten his lunch for the day: a slice of bread pulled over old peanut butter, some jelly and bits of cooked bird meat. It wasn't much and it certainly wasn't anything, but it'll do.
He was walking to the safest place he knew in this dark world of death: His quarters. Or rather, the barracks. It was one area of the base that was vacant during lunch time as most of the soldiers would eat at the mess hall. It was a long walk, but nothing too bad. It just made Preacher wonder just how big this base actually was.
Just then, someone grabbed him and pinned him to the wall. "Where do ya think you're going, Small Fry?" Boyle. His face was just inches from Preacher's.
"I..I..I.." Preacher struggled for words. Boyle was one of the soldiers who had his own 'followers'. Travis and Lang were behind him, both smirking at Preacher as their leader held him against the wall. He didn't care for any of the three in the slightest. Boyle was a literal firebomb, ready to explode at anyone who got him mad while Lang and Travis only acted on orders without hesitation or second thoughts. However, whenever Boyle decided to pick on someone, Lang and Travis always found it amusing.
"You were what? Going somewhere? What do you got there anyway?"
Before he knew what was happening, Boyle yanked his fold over sandwich out of Preacher's hands. "Mmmm looks yummy!"
"Th-That's mine! It's my-"
Boyle took a big bite out of the sandwich, ignoring Preacher completely. He chewed, and then spat out the contents on the ground and handed what was left back to Preacher. "Here you go, enjoy whatever's left." He said sarcastically.
Preacher only stared at his ruined food as the three walked away laughing at him. Hurt wasn't enough to describe what he felt. That was HIS food! Boyle had no right to take it from him! It was all he had! What was he going to now?!
His stomach growled hungrily and Preacher sighed, trying to force the building tears back into his eyes. If things were different, he'd go back to the mess hall and get a fresh sandwich and be on his way, but food had been going scarce. Forcing the cooks in the mess hall to make a 'one serving per person' rule.
He'll starve today.
Why me? He thought. I never did anything to him.
There were many reasons why survivors joined the Alpha-Omega group. Preacher himself had been forced to join by his mother. She was one of the many who believed the virus was a holy curse, meant to cleanse the world of the impure-yeah, one of those crazy heads!-While Preacher himself never followed his mother's beliefs of the virus, he had no choice and there was no reasoning with her after his father fell victim to the virus-which had, of course, strengthened his mother's beliefs since his father never converted or ever went to church.
Boyle's reason for joining was unclear. He very well may have joined just to try and survive, but Preacher felt like it was just so he could bully him
The sound of footsteps reached his ears, but he didn't move. Assuming it to be Boyle or someone else to pick on him. But then, he heard a soft hoot. He turned his head to his right, and saw an ape staring at him.
An ape? Oh. He was so startled by Boyle's attack that he didn't notice he was right next to the slave pen.
The ape was a female chimp with rich, brown fur and eyes the color of spring. She should have been afraid of him, but she wasn't. The look in her eyes as she gazed at him was that of pure sympathy.
Preacher could only stare back at her. Waiting for her to make a move.
Then, much to his surprise, she reached out and held something in her hand. An apple. She held it out to him, offering the red and yellow fruit to the soldier.
Preacher was so shocked he was speechless. Ever since the moment he first stepped foot into this base, he'd been told that apes were the scourge they had to destroy. That they were the evil monsters who created the Simian Flu. That they could not, under any circumstances, be trusted. By all means, he should get up and leave. He shouldn't even look at her.
But his hunger got the better of him.
With a shaking hand, Preacher slowly reached over and took the apple into his own hands. Amazingly, despite it being given to the apes, it was fresh. He looked back at the chimp. "…Th…Thank you…" He stuttered, not sure if she understood him or not.
She answered in the form of a small nod. She was about to turn around and return to wherever she came from when Preacher stopped her.
"W-Wait a minute." His own voice surprised him. What was he doing? Preacher knew he'd get in a lot of trouble for this if he was caught and he should just take the apple and run, but it didn't feel right.
She had given him her food, and she was an enslaved ape. She and her people were suffering because of soldiers like him. But that didn't stop her from showing a little bit of generosity to him. He shouldn't do this, but how could he take her food with nothing to give back other than a thank you?
He took his pocket knife out of his pocket and cut the apple in half. He then held out one of the pieces to her. "For you."
Her eyes darted from him to the apple piece. This must have been the very first time any human had shown her kindness. She hesitated before reaching out again and taking the apple half. She then looked at him again. Her lips slowly formed a smile.
"…Thank you…"
Preacher wasn't expecting her to speak. He knew some of the apes could talk but they usually didn't around the soldiers. Their voices sounded strange, almost disturbing, to Preacher. But not her's. Her voice made him feel calm…The most calm he had felt in years…
There was a loud noise from somewhere inside the pen, causing the chimp to turn around and look. From where Preacher sat, he couldn't see it but he recognized the sound of the door of the pen opening.
She glanced at him one last time before taking a bite of the apple half and eating it as fast as she could. The look on her face was enough to tell Preacher that it was time for him to go.
He stood up and rushed over to the barracks. He wasn't sure why he ran, just that he felt like he needed to.
Once he knew he was safe, Preacher looked down at his apple half. It's tasty juice getting the tips of his fingers wet and sticky. He took a bite, and then another. Savoring every delicious crunch of the fruit.
He tried to enjoy it, and he honestly did, but his mind kept going back to that wall and, despite his efforts, all he could think about was the female chimp and her small act of kindness.
It was a flicker of light in the dark world he knew all too well.
End of Flashback
The last thing Lake expected to happen to her once she had entered McCullough's quarters was to wash dishes. She'd never done this before so the smooth plates and silvery utensils felt slippery to her and the sponge she was given had to be the weirdest object she had ever seen. She had been mentally and emotionally preparing herself for the worst, but this chore made her previous expectations for torture and possible death seem laughable.
There were other apes with her, which made eased her nerves for now. There was a severely burned gorilla who was, half-heartedly, moping the floor while the female elderly orangutan was folding clothes…Or was pretending she was. They weren't too bad to look at, but the orangutan seemed ancient to her and the gorilla's scar made Lake wonder if the colonel used fire to torture apes. She didn't really want to know. Every scar on the two strangers seemed like a result of torture. Each item in the sink seemed like an instrument of pain in Lake's shaking hands as she tried to scrub and clean off whatever debris was caked on them.
Lake saw only one other human inside. A woman who McCullough had called Elaine. Right away, Lake knew there was something off about her. She couldn't say what, but there was something about Elaine that let the female chimp know that she was not like McCullough.
Elaine didn't stay long enough to talk to though. Just half an hour after Lake started washing the dishes, Elaine walked out of her room, wearing a knee-length skirt and a matching short jacket over a white collar blouse. Her earrings catching what little light the room had. She then left with McCullough, although she kept her gaze downward the whole time.
Lake had just finished scrubbing off something pink and squishy on a plate when she felt someone tap her on her shoulder. She looked up and saw the gorilla. His eyes were as green as moss. "You attacked and killed the soldiers outside." He signed.
Lake didn't know how to answer, so she just nodded.
"Why did you do that?" He asked her.
Lake placed the now clean plate on the counter as she reached for the next one. Clearly this gorilla had seen what happened outside. She was still trying to recover from the adrenaline she had felt and the shock that she wasn't dead yet to let the reality of what she did sink in.
"I was angry." She answered, feeling relief at finally doing something normal with her hands.
"Why were you angry?"
She eyed him suspiciously for a second. If the gorilla was a Donkey, his burn scars covered the tattoos too well for them to be visible. The old female orangutan certainly didn't bare them, the Donkey word itself may have been camouflaged by her whitening fur but not the AO letters which would have been right over her eyebrow.
"Weren't you?" Lake asked instead. "He killed a baby and then acted as if it was the right thing to do, never mind the fact that the baby was just born, and declaring war on innocent people."
There was a look in his eyes that Lake couldn't quite place. It had to be sadness, but it felt deeper than just that. "I was." He signed. "I was especially angry because I knew the mother of that child."
Lake almost dropped the plate she had picked up. She looked at the scarred gorilla in shock. That's right. The colonel had forced a soldier to kill a female chimp just seconds after he crushed the baby. That female was the baby's mother…And that soldier…He…He was one of the soldiers she had seen when she attempted to escape!
Seeing her interest, the gorilla continued. "Her name was Hazell. She was one of the bravest apes I ever met." It wasn't just sadness in his eyes. It was regret.
At this point, Lake had put down the plate she was supposed to clean and was now fully facing him. "Why did McCullough have her killed?" She asked.
"She met Preacher." He shook his head at the memory. "It wasn't meant to be. She was a slave, and he was a soldier. She was ape, and he was human. But they fell in love anyway. He got her pregnant but the colonel didn't know a thing until the twins were born."
Twins? "But he killed only one baby."
"She was the second born." He explained. "We managed to hide the first one before McCullough came but we were too late for the other one."
"We?" There was something about the gorilla Lake couldn't put her finger on. It was like he knew something…Something that, in a place like this, should remain a secret.
But whatever it may be, he felt he could tell her. "Hazell wasn't just an ape who fell in love with the enemy. She was one of the leaders of the rebels."
Rebels?! Lake said nothing as he went on. Her full attention on him as she wanted to know every word.
"It started with Hazell organizing troops of apes to go and steal food from the soldiers. Then she met Preacher, and he became a rebel himself but it turned out that there are human rebels in the base too. Will, another soldier who goes by the name of Roscoe, was one of them. After that, the human rebels and ape rebels united and started figuring out ways to stop McCullough."
Lake took a moment for all this to sink in. Rebels within the base. Both humans and apes. Working together to try and defeat the colonel. It sounded impossible, considering how everyone in the ape colony had said humans were their enemies. Uniting to destroy the same enemy.
She suddenly remembered what Roscoe-or Will, had said earlier."The escapes…They weren't just escapes, were they?"
"They were mass escapes." He replied. "We organized them to get the slaves and anyone captured in here out." He looked regretful again. "Hazell should have been one of them. But that stubborn chimp wouldn't leave until everyone inside were free."
"Even though she was pregnant?" Asked Lake.
"Yes." He confirmed.
Well, that wasn't smart of her. Why would an expectant mother want to stay in a place like this? Lake asked herself. The base itself was hardly fit to be a home to any creature aside from the humans who followed the colonel, and they were merely tolerating it. She wondered if McCullough himself ever liked living here. If Hazell wanted to leave, she had her chance. Why would she stay here and-It suddenly hit her. Maurice's teachings repeated themselves in her mind. "Caesar was raised by humans." He had said one day. "They raised him like one of their own. As their son. He never saw their dark side until he was placed in a cage in the shelter. When they came to get him back, he had a choice. Return to his human family, or stay and free his own kind. It is because of his decision that we are all here."
Lake never liked having to listen to Maurice's teachings. It wasn't that she didn't like Maurice, it was more out of the boredom that came with learning about about things that happened before she herself existed.
But that lesson about Caesar's decision she had long forgotten and had ignored at the time suddenly sounded a lot like Hazell's own choices: Both Caesar and Hazell had a choice. They didn't need to stay and fight for the freedom of their kind, but they did. They could have left all the horrors they had witnessed behind them and live with their loved ones as if they'd never seen suffering at all, but they didn't. And in doing so, they both risked their lives but they were willing to do it if it meant saving their fellow apes. The only real differences were that one of them fought for just the apes and the other fought for both apes and humans and one of them survived while the other was killed.
"She didn't want to leave without fighting for the others." It wasn't really a question, more like putting the pieces together as Lake realized just how similar Hazell was to Caesar.
"If that's how you want to put it, yes." Signed the gorilla. "Hazell was a fool for staying here even though she knew she, or her children, could die if she didn't leave. Rowena and I told her to go, but she just wouldn't listen."
Lake didn't know what say so she let the gorilla rant until she could no longer hold the question back. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because of what you did out there." He told her. "How you attacked the soldiers and didn't stop until you were forced to. You reminded me of Hazell. She never attacked like you did, but she had the same fighting spirit as you."
Fighting spirit? "I'm not a fighter." Heck. Aside from today, Lake had never fought anyone in her life. She argued with other apes from time to time, but never physically fought them. Males were naturally trained to fight, to protect their families and the colony. It was the whole point of the Ape Army and Gorilla Guard, the very grounds for which they were built on. It wasn't a law that only males could fight, just that females usually didn't have the need or interest to train.
Besides, Lake had chosen her place long ago: taking care of the ape children. She wanted to be like Maurice and be a teacher. She didn't know what she'd teach them, just that she felt safer and more at peace when they surrounded her.
The gorilla smiled a little at her. "You don't have to be a fighter to be make a change." He signed, surprising her. "You just have to try."
There was a loud noise outside, a gunshot perhaps. The noise startled them out of their conversation and Lake scrambled to clean as many dishes as she could while the gorilla went back to moping the floor. Even if the shooter wasn't going to come inside, no one wanted to be caught not doing their chores.
It at least gave Lake time to think once the shock of the gunfire wore off. Me? She asked herself as she stared at the soapy water. How can I make a change? I'm not Caesar, or Hazell…I'm just…I'm only…Lake struggled to think for a moment, until it slowly came to her. Me…
She looked up out the small window. Through the clouded and old glass, she could clearly see the slave pen…And the fence she had tried to escape from. She remembered that ape she had tried to protect from the soldiers. It resulted in her being tased, but she successfully got to bite the human's nose nonetheless. There are other apes in the base, some may be rebels and others may not be, but they had to have followed or agreed with Hazell, right? And if they did, then surely they'd follow Caesar too, right?
Forget about Caesar. She told herself. These apes don't want to be here. They'd follow anyone who could free them.
Lake didn't get a chance to talk to the gorilla again, but she overheard the colonel call him Cortez when he returned. She also learned that Rowena was the old orangutan he had mentioned. It didn't take long for Lake to figure out that both of them had known Hazell and were two of the rebels within the base. She wondered just how many there were. If there were more human rebels, or ape.
She tried to focus on whatever chore the colonel had her do. From washing the dishes, to making his and Elaine's bed. But despite her best efforts, she found herself continually thinking back to Cortez and what he had told her. I'm no leader. She thought to herself. That's what she said about being a fighter. Yet, Cortez had said she had a fighting spirit. Even If I did, how can I make any sort of change?
It wasn't until she glimpsed Andy and Lucky outside that she remembered her rage from earlier. How badly she wanted to tear and rip the soldiers apart and how she wanted to roar until the earth split in two. The fire, her fire, that McCullough had unknowingly ignited her.
I can't be the only one who's angry.
She still didn't know if she should trust Cortez and Rowena, or by how much, or if what the scarred gorilla said was even true, and she knew that if she went down this road, she could very easily be McCullough's next victim.
But Lake, one of the most peaceful and quiet apes in Caesar's colony. The one who played with the children. The girl who's had her eye on the prince ever since they were little. Decided to put whatever fear she had aside, and let her fire burn.
"Here's another one." Said Foster as he came back in the room, carrying yet another box full of files. "Not sure how many of these are apes though."
"That's ok, just look through it." Ellie replied her focus on the file she was currently looking through.
She still hadn't told them what they were doing, just that she had Foster, Koba, Dreyfus, Luca and Tori go looking around for any and all file boxes inside the building (surprisingly, there were a few that weren't already in the file room) while she and Malcolm, Caesar and Maurice pulled out the ones that belonged to apes and Kempt, Stone and Rocket moving the rest back into the corner.
"This is wasting our time, what if the Alpha-Omegas attack again?" Dreyfus grudgingly asked as he dropped the box of files he was carrying on the floor. "What are we looking for anyway?"
Ellie would have snapped at him if she hadn't realized at that moment that she had been so caught up in her idea that she never even told the others exactly what it was. She picked up a file, flipped it open and searched it until she pulled out one of the documents. "This."
The document she held up was titled MICROCHIP IMPLANTATION INFORMATION. It listed the ape's name, date of birth, gender, species and where they were born in and underneath that, it had numbers next to CHIP NUMBER:.
"Back when the apes were in captivity, humans used to inject them with chips."
"Chips?" Caesar wasn't sure if he liked the sound of this.
"Tracking devices." Ellie clarified. "They were meant to find any ape that had escaped or got lost."
"Wait a minute." Dreyfus frowned. "Are you saying most of these apes have tracking devices inside of them?"
"If they have the document in their file then yes." Ellie suddenly felt wary of Dreyfus.
"Why the hell didn't Anvil know that? They could have found all the apes using those things!"
"Because Anvil was a bunch of nincompoops who didn't do their homework and didn't care where the apes came from, just as long as they were all dead." Said Kempt.
The apes became silent and still. Caesar could feel his ears burning. Koba's fur was sticking up. Luca, Stone, and Rocket were glaring at Dreyfus while Maurice breathed slowly. In a near growl tone, Caesar spoke: "You. Were with. Those humans?"
Uh oh. Dreyfus realized his mistake. "I knew of them. I did not send them out to kill you."
If Dreyfus was trying to ease the tension, it wasn't working. Caesar could feel his insides getting tight and his throat closing. Wasn't this the very human who had locked Koba up in the Jail and wanted to throw the apes out of the city?
Seeing the look on the Ape King's face, Dreyfus frowned at him. "What? Are you going to condemn me just because I was afraid of you in the past?"
"Guys, we don't have time for this." Malcolm intervened before the tension could rise any further. His voice was calm, but his eyes were filled with worry. Internally, Malcolm was screaming No! Not this again! but out loud, he said: "We're all on the same page here. The only enemy we have is the Alpha-Omegas. We don't have to fight each other."
Before anything else could happen, Foster added. "Ok, back to the chips. Where would the apes have gotten them from?"
"Anywhere." Ellie was just relieved Caesar and Dreyfus had settled down for now. "Zoo's, circus', research centers, laboratories. It's possible all the apes Caesar freed has one."
At this point, Caesar didn't know what was making his so mad. Dreyfus having any knowledge of the humans who'd tried to kill him and his apes ten winters ago felt like a betrayal but the possibility of his apes having a human object floating around inside of them was disturbing. He wondered if Will and Charles had that done to him, but wasn't sure.
"Human work." Koba grumbled after he set the box he was holding down.
When he looked at him, Caesar realized he wasn't the only one. Koba was scratching at the scar on his right arm as he glared at the files. Stone, Maurice, Luca, and Rocket looked just as disturbed as the scarred bonobo. It was different though. Caesar might be angry with the fact that his apes were forcefully infected with this device, but his fellow council members must be feeling violated by the knowledge that something human-made was lodged somewhere in their bodies and they couldn't take it out even if they wanted to. Like an invisible leash and collar.
"No." Ellie wasn't blind, she could see the anger and the hurt in the apes. "It's good human work. These chips are stronger than the ones they implanted in dogs and cats. They're injected into the back of the ape's skull and if the ape suffers head trauma, the chip will send a stress signal to all it's contacts-including the ape's location."
That got their attention.
"If we make contact with those chips and they add us to their contacts, and one of those apes get hurt, we'll get a stress signal containing their location. We find that ape, we find the base."
Ellie waited for that to sink in. What Dreyfus said next told her that they understood her words.
"…Caesar?…Of those apes that were taken from your colony and are still in the base…Which ones did you free?"
Caesar, his anger gone now that he knew the value of these devices, answered: "Red, Andy, and Lucky."
Malcolm searched through the files until he found the ones that belonged to said apes. He opened each of them up. There was a new feeling as he did. It felt as if the room had been stuffy and closed up and fresh air had finally been released inside. As if the sun had finally started shining again after so many days of rain and dark clouds. As if the shadows of nighttime had been chased away by the arrival of daylight after a long night of fear. Hope. Real hope.
"They have it." Malcolm couldn't hold back a smile. "All three. They all have chips."
"…You guys…" Foster's eyes were huge. "…You realize what this means, right?"
The apes knew alright. Caesar looked at his fellow council members and he knew they knew. Maybe this kind of human work isn't so bad after all.
"Ok, ok, so what's the plan?" Asked Kempt.
"Make contact with Red, Andy and Lucky's chips and hopefully get their location and go from there." Said Malcolm as he pulled the documents out. They'll need them.
"With what though?" Reality was sinking into Dreyfus's mind. "Not very many computers work and Derek's is only good for flash-drives and DVD's."
Tori was about to make some smart comment at him when she remembered something. Usually, she didn't pay the mayor much attention but there was one thing that she knew he and Malcolm, and some of the other humans had been working on. "Wait a second. Weren't you and your brainiacs working on some radio thingy?" She asked as she looked at Dreyfus.
Dreyfus snorted at her. He wouldn't call Werner or Finney 'brainiacs', but Werner knew more about computers and radios that he did and Finney knew a lot about the gears and gadgets that went into those things. "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Doesn't it include a computer?"
"Yes, in fact, it use to-" Dreyfus paused, suddenly realizing where this was going and, more importantly, remembering where that computer came from and what it's original function was."Holy shit…!"
Carlos had fallen asleep, giving Dolly a chance to leave their room so she could wander freely. She needed it, after all she'd been through and all the revelations, she just wanted a few moments to herself to let it all sink in.
She walked around the infirmary, exploring the hallways and glancing at each door and window she saw. According to Ellie (who she had gotten to know as the human healer helped with Carlos' problems), the infirmary was the last known working hospital in the city since the riots. From what Dolly could tell, there were only four floors in the building. If there had been more floors in the building, they were destroyed years ago.
With the marbled floor and white walls, Dolly would have thought the place would resemble the labs but the vibe she got from the atmosphere was different. Back in the labs, humans caused pain but here, they make it go away. It was like a reversed Gen-Sys if such a thing existed.
She had just climbed down the stairs to the third floor when she noticed one room in particular with a large, clouded with dust, window and just inside the room behind the window, Dolly could see Cornelia and several other females inside. They were talking and hoot-laughing about something as their young children played with each other. It was then that Dolly noticed the unique, little hybrid being held by Sparrow, one of the healers.
Dolly knew what they were doing before she saw it. She continued on walking, hoping they didn't see her. With his mother gone, Hopely needed someone else to feed him and Cornelia was still breastfeeding Cornelius so it made sense that both she, and anyone else who were producing milk, would help nurse him and they were more than willing to. Even if he was half human.
She knew this…But it didn't make her feel any better. You're only damaged goods. Dolly shook her head to try to get the horrible words out but she knew it was futile. When she found out she was unable to bear children, Ishmael may have left her but her fellow bonobos completely turned against her. As if it were a crime to be…Neutered…Caesar was the one who taught her that word, and she honestly hated it with every fiber of her being.
No one would marry a barren female like you.
It bothered her that while her wounds have all healed, the words that had been spoken to her by her kind have never left her. She wondered if they ever would.
This was why when Ash ran up to her and hugged her tightly, she didn't hesitate to hold on to him just as tightly.
"Aunt Dolly…" He whimpered as he inhaled her scent.
"It's ok, Ash." She whispered to him, knowing full-well what was making her honorary nephew cry. "We're safe…We're home."
They weren't in the breaking room anymore, but it still haunted them. Ash wasn't his usual, happy and playful self anymore. He had become a scared and easily frightened young ape, who'd hide behind his parents, and any adult, for protection and comfort. It broke Dolly's heart to see him like this.
She looked up and saw Blue Eyes standing there. His eyes weren't wet with tears, but they were filled with the same sadness. Dolly extended her arm to him and the young prince eagerly ran to her and accepted her embrace. He didn't need it as badly as Ash, so Blue Eyes pulled away after a few minutes.
Dolly didn't need to ask, he already knew what she wanted to know.
"We saw it." He signed. "The humans recorded what they did to you and Ash and my father. We saw the video."
So that's what's making poor Ash so upset. Dolly could only cast her gaze to the floor, trying to hold in her own building tears. She'll just have to cry about it later. "You didn't need to see that." She signed instead.
"We didn't even know it was there." Blue Eyes wished he could unsee that video entirely. In fact, everything that flash-drive contained was horrible. He stomach turned as he thought about what the other flash-drives and whatever videos they carried. "If we knew, we wouldn't have watched it."
"It doesn't matter." Dolly didn't want to talk about this anymore. "How is your father?"
Blue Eyes didn't know what to tell her. He hadn't talked to his father that much, but there was a subtle change in him. To Blue Eyes, his father seemed angry. He wasn't acting like it, but it felt as if something was brewing inside of the Ape King. Something that worried both Blue Eyes and his mother. Cornelia had tried countless times to talk to him, but whatever Caesar felt, he chose to keep it to himself.
"I don't know." That was all he could say in reply. "Has he talked to you recently?"
"Not since the unity celebration." Dolly had assumed her king was simply spending time with his family, just as she had with her own. He had missed them so much when they were in the base and Dolly was so busy worrying about her father and brother that Caesar never crossed her mind. "Is something wrong?"
Blue Eyes hesitated. "I think he's angry…Like Koba, or Pope." He immediately doubted himself. His father was never angry like that. In fact, the only times Caesar was ever angry with him was whenever he disobeyed him but even then it wasn't like how it felt now.
At the mention of Pope, Dolly sighed and gave the still whimpering Ash another hug and rubbed his back, thinking. Though she hadn't talked to him since the argument they had in the breaking room, Dolly had seen Pope with a female chimp by the name of Dot. He still seemed angry, but for a different reason.
"Everyone seems angry nowadays." She signed. "Your father…My father…Koba…Pope…And that's just the ones we know about."
Blue Eyes nodded as they fell silent. For a while, the only sound was Ash's whimpers and Dolly soothing him. Blue Eyes distracted himself by looking out the dirty window and staring down at the street below. He tried to go back to the Ape Village in his mind. Back to when the humans were thought to be all gone, and apes could just live peacefully in the forest. He felt homesick for the life that died the second that first bullet was fired.
Dolly hooted softly to him and signed. "That's her, isn't it?"
Blue Eyes blinked, then looked out the window again. The others were down below, heading to the tower. He wondered if he should join them, but Blue Eyes really didn't want to deal with whatever they were doing right now. Then he realized what Dolly was talking about.
Though they were feet and heights away from them, Blue Eyes could clearly see Tori and Koba holding hands.
"She"s the one they call Tori." Dolly went on. "The one who stayed with my brother in the jail cell?"
Now he understood what Dolly meant. "Yes." Blue Eyes wasn't the one who told her, but Dolly had found out more about Koba's suicide attempt and what happened afterward. He assumed she found out from Maurice, since he'd visit her the most.
Dolly watched as her brother and the pink haired human walked together. They were just holding hands, it wasn't anything more than that. From the outside, one would think that the two were long-time friends. "There's something special about that human." She signed as she looked back to Blue Eyes.
"But she's the daughter of Jacobs, one of the human's who abused you." Blue Eyes suddenly remembered how Koba and Tori fought each other all those days-no, weeks!-ago. If the young prince hadn't stopped them, Koba would have killed her.
"That isn't her fault. She can't control who her parents are any more than you can." Dolly was calm compared to her brother, who had wanted to kill Tori when finding out who she was.
Blue Eyes glanced outside but the others had by now disappeared. He looked back at her. "What's so special about Her? She's no different than the other humans."
"I didn't say she was." Dolly's face seemed to change, though Blue Eyes couldn't quite read it. "She's special because of what she did for Koba….I believe Koba has locked himself away in a cage of his own design years ago…Caesar may have freed him from the humans, but only Koba could free himself from his cage…I don't think he had the courage to free himself before…But now…I think he finally does.."
"Because he met Tori?"
"Yes, but more because…She can see him…The real him…When most humans couldn't." Dolly finally looked at him. "Does that make any sense?"
"Sort of, yes." Blue Eyes found himself reflecting back to when they first met Tori. From the moment they met, she was never afraid of Koba. Even after their fight, she never feared him and when Koba was in the darkest place he could possibly get, Tori was the one who stayed by his side the whole night.
There was a monster living inside Koba…It was consuming and the monster could become him…But Tori had tamed him…
Ash, who'd only made whimper noises up until now, suddenly poked his head up. "W-Want.." He sniffled. "…Want…M-My…Mother.."
Dolly nuzzled her cheek to his, not minding at all that his tears were now staining her fur. "Ok, Ash." She soothed. "I will take you to her." When she looked at Blue Eyes, she asked. "Do you want to see your mother too?"
The thought of his mother was enough to make his eyes hurt and he knew tears were filling them. Blue Eyes nodded.
She walked them to the room where Dolly had seen their mothers at. Despite Ash still holding on to her, it wasn't hard to walk. Dolly was used to the 'hugging walk' by now, having done it so many times before with her brother. Once they reached the room, Ash immediately bolted for Tinker, and wrapped his arms around her tightly. Tinker didn't ask, she just held him and let him sob on her. The tears broke free the second Blue Eyes saw Cornelia and he ran to her waiting embrace.
Not knowing what to do with herself, Dolly decided it might be time to go back to her father and walked out of the room. Saving herself the agony of seeing the others nurse Hopely, and being reminded that she'd never get to experience motherhood.
She hardly paid any attention to where she was going, other than the steps on the stairs and the left and right turns that seemed to be everywhere. She was about to open the door to Carlos' room, when she noticed one of the doors in the hallway was left open.
Curiosity got the better of her and she found herself walking down the empty hallway. I'm just going to peek inside. She told herself. It's probably empty anyway.
But she was wrong. The room was occupied. When she looked inside, she saw the chimp laying in a bed with ice on both sides of his face. His eyes closed, yet Dolly couldn't help but stare at them anyway as she quietly crept over to his side and stared at him.
There was so many things she wanted to say to him that not even a simple 'hello' would suffice. All those years in the labs, she never thought she'd ever see him again but she never forgot about him either and she always wondered what became of him.
The ape who laid in front of her was Milo.
The radio was really just a bunch of hand radios all spread out and connected to this one computer. It kinda looked like a mess of electronics on the desk table it all sat on. It looked simple, but it had to have taken Dreyfus and his followers years to find the parts and put them together and to get it all to work.
"It all came from the Police Department," Dreyfus explained. "The computer was one of those computers that connected to other electronic devices and could locate them."
"You think it could find the chips?" Asked Malcolm.
"Possibly." Werner was looking through a thick book that must have been the computer's manual. "We had to take some of its insides out to make it work as a radio, but I think if we found the right parts and modified the radios, it could those chips."
Finney grabbed the book from him and flipped through it. He then bent down to one of the machines underneath the desk, unscrewed the side and opened it up. "Yup." He showed them the page he was looking at, which showed a picture of the machine all opened up and it's insides showing.
"We're missing this." It was one of those green things. Caesar recognized it, but didn't know what it was called. "We may also have to do some rewiring and get some satellite dishes to make the connection stronger." Said Finney.
"Ok, so the computer needs some fixing. No biggie, we can do that." Said Foster in an attempt to be optimistic.
"How are you going to do that?" The voice belonged to Aaron, one of Dreyfus' followers. He had to be the one Tori despised the most. Werner and Finney were fine, they were just two nerds who were too dumb to see Dreyfus' flaws. But Aaron always looked like he knew more than he'd let on. "In fact, how are you guys doing anything? You're literally just a group that consists of a former nurse, a former architect, a mayor, a pink-headed runaway, a dam worker, a goofball and a bunch of monkeys."
Really? More of this 'monkey' talk? Caesar rolled his eyes at him, not impressed with the human at all. Despite Aaron's words, he was scrawny. Clearly, one of the humans who ate very little. He had a handgun attached to his belt, but it looked bigger than his hand. Like it was a hand-me-down from someone much stronger than he was. That gun was the only thing threatening about him. The only reason Luca kept his eyes locked on him and Maurice, Caesar, Rocket, Stone, and Koba stayed close to the other humans but kept a distance from him.
"Aaron, how many times do I have to tell you?" Asked Werner. "If they have tails, they're monkeys. If they don't, they're apes. Do they look like they have tails to you?"
"Oh, why do you care anyway?"
"Guys!"
That worked, the two humans looked at Dreyfus.
"We really need to get this working. If we do, we could find the base and maybe stop those Alpha-Omegas from killing all of us." Relief wasn't enough to describe how nice it was to finally hear Dreyfus talking like that.
"Let me see that book." Said Tori to Finney. After he handed it to her, she carefully looked at the picture. The green thing was rectangle shaped with what looked like 340A imprinted on its side. She frowned at it. "I can probably find that in the junkyard. There's lots of computer stuff there."
"Ok, then you go out there and see what you can find." Said Dreyfus, though he didn't like the sound of the junkyard. "Take the book with you."
"Rocket, Koba, Stone." Caesar looked at the three of them. "Go with her."
"I'll go too." Ellie volunteered. "I don't want anyone getting tetanus."
"Ok." Malcolm looked at Caesar. "You and Maurice and Luca want to go back to the file room with Foster and I to look at more files?"
"Yes." Said Caesar, followed by nods from Maurice and Luca.
"Kempt and I will stay with Werner and Finney and see what else we can do with the computer." Said Dreyfus.
"What about the others? Ash, Blue Eyes, and Derek?" Asked Ellie.
Caesar and Rocket exchanged glances. Ash was obviously too traumatized to be here and only time will tell just how much all this has already affected Blue Eyes. Both of them have been through so much, yet they are only teenagers. Still children. "Ash and Blue Eyes stay in infirmary." Caesar turned to look back at the humans. "Their mothers are there. They can take break."
"Best if they do anyway." Said Rocket.
"Alright, fine. Then where the hell is Derek?" And there's the annoyance back in Dreyfus' voice. However, it wasn't directed at the apes this time. It was at Derek.
"I'll go look for him." Said Aaron. As he walked out he called: "You guys just do whatever Human-Ape Councils do."
Everyone watched as he left, surprised by his comment. "Did he just call us a 'Human-Ape Council'?" Asked Dreyfus.
"Isn't that kind of what you guys are now?" Asked Finney as he got under the desk to open more machines up.
The group looked at each other. They never thought of it that way. Caesar, Maurice, Koba, Rocket, Stone, Grey, Luca, Blue Eyes and Ash were the Ape Council, but the humans didn't appear to have a 'human council', just Dreyfus. Yet somehow, him and Malcolm, Ellie, Foster, Kempt, Derek, and Tori became something like a council and since have been working together…
"…I think I like the sound of that." Said Malcolm.
Caesar hadn't had any reason to smile since the unity celebration, but this made him happy. "So do I." He said as new hope filled him.
Maybe when all this is over, there will be peace between humans and apes.
Derek didn't mean to go home, but he found himself in the doorway of his bedroom anyway. He didn't care. A bedroom was much more than just a place one's bed was placed, he learned that years ago. A bedroom offers a safe, anxiety and stress-free, haven. A place where one can unwind, sit, lay down, relax, reflect, breathe and be alone with simply closing the door behind them. This may not be the bedroom that Derek grew up sleeping and playing in, but it gave him the same clarity as if it were.
He stood at the entrance even after closing the door behind him. Letting the air fill his lungs as he inhaled slowly and let it out in a long sigh. What happened, Derek? He asked himself. You were just fine when you woke up this morning. You've been able to control your emotions so well up until now. What changed?
Derek walked over to his bed and sat down, pinching the bridge of his nose as he did. What happened? How could he have been so calm whenever they found a dead body (minus Hazell's child), or when they found the children in the streets, or when Caesar, Dolly, Ash, and Alex reappeared or while Dreyfus was trying to kick the apes out of the city and Koba had tried to commit suicide in jail but now couldn't because of a few videos? He'd seen worse things, most of which didn't have to be recorded for him to know their brutality, but he felt as if the videos had cracked the armor that he'd covered himself in since the moment he became an FBI profiler.
I know them. His mind screamed. He may not have met Lake, or Red and Winter, but he knew Caesar and Ash and Dolly. Even if just for a few days, he had met them and knew who they were. He still had no way of knowing if their abductions were planned, or by chance but if it wasn't, then Blue Eyes, Cornelia, Rocket, Tinker, Koba, Maurice and all the other apes in the colony could have ended up in that base.
Shit! He should not have done that! Now images of them appeared in his mind as Derek, unintentionally, imagined the apes in the base. Either being enslaved, or tortured until death showed them mercy ends it all. Whether they surrendered or not.
…They were his friends, his allies…And their lives, their very existence, was in grave danger…
With trembling hands, Derek picked up the picture frame that sat on his nightstand. He had many pictures. Souvenirs. Reminders of his past and of who he had been. But this picture was his most treasured possession. It was the one thing from his childhood that he still had. A piece of himself, untouched by time. The picture itself was old and slightly torn, and it was in black and white, but it meant everything to him…
…It was all he had left…Of his first, and only, friend…His best friend…
The peace was shattered when he heard a very small and light crack coming from his closet. He looked up from the door across from him, half expecting it to be a mouse or something. Another sound, this time a light thud.
He frowned. That doesn't sound like a mouse.
Hands suddenly grabbed him from behind. Derek struggled, but whoever the assailant was, was stronger and faster than he was. He heard the closet door open and realized there was another one.
He felt a sharp pinch of a needle as they overpowered him...The last thing Derek was aware of was the frame falling from his grasp and hitting the floor.
A/N'S: *Containing my exitment*...You guys are gonna have so much fin in the next chapters...! :D If anyone has(or is) read/ing Revelations, you'd probably know/remember Aaron. I guess this'll be the perfect way to announce that I now have the book and am currently reading it. Yippee! More characters for me to exaggerate! XD
Let's just say Rose is the 'Rapunzel' of the story-though she doesn't have long hair! XD I'm actually a little nervous about her being called a Mary-Sue, but not really because her role is largely based off of a theory/idea of the Simian Flu and how it affects apes (which is actually really important!) AND! May I add her name is LITERALLY my middle name?! I don't think the name 'Rose' is THAT uncommon!
Preacher's flashback was basically about how he and Hazell met (crap, they're becoming the Disney's 'Pocahontas and John Smith' of the story!). And yes, I gave Preacher a little background. Reason, why I chose to make his past like that, is because of his name. Assuming that 'Preacher' is his last name, and if I'm right, that would mean that either his family had a religious or he had religious relatives. His mother's attitude is completely inspired by the 'Simian Flu being a holy curse/impurification cleanser' talk from Firestorm. I hope that doesn't offend anyone!
I'm planning to do another one of Dolly's so expect to see a lot of flashbacks. X3 Oh LOL, and Dolly is now reunited with Milo!...Sorta!
Caesar, Caesar, Pumpkin-eater...Poor guy is having some issues...He's kind of a ticking time bomb...0_0...Speaking of Caesar, the more I write this fanfic, the more like him Hazell is beginning to look (which Lake has figured out before I did! XD) while Rowena and Cortez are like Maurice and Luca (or Buck). X3
I'm not even sure if most of this chip, radio and computer logic in the story is accurate. Buuut, it is fiction so I guess I can play with it a little bit. XD
And Derek and his 'visitors'...I sincerely hope you guys like Derek, cause he's gonna have a major impact on the story!
Ok, so here's my surprise! XD I don't even know if this is ok or not (I think it is considering I'm not actually going to post any links in this chapter but if not tell me!) but I think I'm beginning to come up with theme songs for the characters (both OC and Canon) in the story! XD Does anyone ever have that happen to them? You're writing up your fanfic and you realize you know a song that reminds you of one or more of the characters? XD
I don't have a whole lot yet, so I'll just share what I have so far:
Pope - Iris (The Goo Goo Dolls)
Winter - Cool Kids (Echosmith)
Malcolm - Something Wild (Lindsey Stirling)
Koba - My Demons (Starset)
Rose - Tag, You're It (Melanie Martinez-although Dollhouse also reminds me of her too!)
John - Ain't it Fun? (Paramore)
Dolly - Run (P!nk-Lonely Girl suits her too, though!)
Dreyfus - It's My Life (Bon Jovi)
Derek - Leave out All the Rest (Linken Park)
Lake - Girl On Fire (Alicia Keys)
Caroline(known as Elaine in some chapters!) - Reflection (Christina Aguilera)
Maurice - I Won't Let Go (Rascal Flatts)
Carlos - Hangover (Taio Cruz-I wouldn't call this a theme song, but it is the song that inspired his creation so...I guess?)
All these songs can be found on Youtube. If you know these songs/listen to them, please tell me what you think! XD I can't find anything in the rules that say I can't list theme songs AFTER a regular fanfic chapter so I'll just assume it's ok and if not, then I'll post it on DeviantArt.
I don't have anything else to say here, so I guess I'm done. XD
Thanks for reading and please review!