Chapter 2
The forest smelled pungently of gorilla feces and damp, tropical moisture. I had been tracking a gorilla patrol for a few days now. Damn this forest was hard to maneuver, and the map I had lifted off of that dead guard was written in a different language. But these apes, these were different; they carried strange weapons, looked to be made of energy, I could tell that from the bright light that even I could see from my cozy tree alcove hiding place some yards away. The energy seemed to be held together by some kind of gold casing, in the shape of a rifle. I hadn't seen any of the apes fire a shot, but I assumed it acts just like your standard M4, just with a little more boom. The head of the patrol, a huge lug of an ape, easily 7 feet tall, wore a really fancy looking golden helmet like something out of an old school space flick, and a flowing red cape that ended just at the bottom of his back. The rest I could tell were regular grunts; a head shorter than the big guy, carrying some energy rifles and wearing nothing else but a loincloth, I'm assuming for decency.
I edged forward slightly, keeping a stiff hand on my sidearm. A U.S. special forces Beretta M9, heavily customized, fit with a silencer, red dot sight, extended mag, you name it. The fact that these monkeys might be carrying hardware using energy clips and advanced technology that made my weapons look like nerf guns made me cringe. Nevertheless, I edged slightly closer to the patrol, this one was a big one. Six apes, with a decent amount of space between each other, but I could tell from their body language, and the way they would periodically look around that these weren't the dumb, lumbering apes I had taken down at that supply camp. These goons were trained, they were ready for guys like me, trained to be. It wouldn't be easy to ruin these guys' day. As I soon found out, I wouldn't have to.
The big ape with the golden helmet motioned to the other guys in the patrol group, and blustered out what seemed like an order; to me it seemed like a bunch of gorilla grunting and yelling. A couple of the apes produced machetes and started hacking away at some heavy brush, and before long there was a stone door where a bunch of leaves and weeds had been. This wasn't a patrol. Turned out there was another gorilla, trailing behind the patrol, and he had somebody in tow. This seventh ape emerged from the foliage, dragging behind him a human man. The man was very frail, clearly starved, and from his clothing it was obvious he had been on this island much, much longer than I had been. The big oaf that had brought the prisoner to this party passed him to the ape in charge. Huh, tossed him like a set of car keys to the other one. What exactly was I dealing with here? The ape looked like he was pressing some buttons on the stone door. I tracked his hand movements easily; I wanted to see what they were hiding in there. The cave was very dark inside, but they weren't here to sightsee. The patrol commander lifted the human with one fist, and, barking some kind of one-word insult at the man, threw him into the cave like last week's laundry. Pretty soon they were on their way, but I wasn't.
I crept up to the door, with my head on a swivel looking out for any other primates that may have stayed behind. Coast was clear. The technology of the stone door was like nothing I had ever seen; it was almost like a touch-screen keypad, but it was on a stone face, and if I hadn't been stalking my quarries from the bushes, it would've looked just like a big rock to me. But, mimicking the button presses of the gorilla patrolman, the door creaked and slowly rolled open. Reaching down to my utility belt, I produced a flashlight to help me see through the darkness.
What I saw… Well, let's just say that the disheveled gentleman the apes had just disposed of was not alone. The cave walls were littered with corpses, all straggly, all emaciated. It was disgusting. It looked like something out of those old pictures of Nazi concentration camps, littered with starved men, only these images were right before my eyes. The cave, or should I say, graveyard, had a small passage in the back that seemed to lead to more caves.
"Graagh!" The roar echoed through the caves before I could react. The exit had closed, and I had nowhere to run. I heard footsteps, coming right in my direction. I wasn't alone, and this was a big S.O.B. Just as I reached for my M9 to have a fighting chance, I was knocked off my feet by what felt like a semi-truck. I shook off the blow and looked up; a huge silver-back gorilla, with menace in his eyes stood over me. Shit. He turned around for another charge, and as I ducked out of the way, I wondered how the hell I was gonna take this guy down.