She looked over at him as they ate in the mess tent just after saving a man's life. A life that shouldn't have been at risk wouldn't have been in earlier times. A simple scratch had led to an infection which became the gangrene which threatened to kill him.

Now, even with less of a leg left, he still had a chance to survive, to make his way in the new world. She had thought of all the diseases that medicine had conquered in the past century, the progress now erased. After all, who could they find to perform even basic surgeries like tonsillectomies and appendectomies? Neither she nor Burke were doctors and reading medical journals and text books diagramming surgical procedures would only do so much to make up for not having years of formal education not to mention experience and training as doctors.

She brushed her hair out of her face, a loose strand from her bun that she'd refastened to eat. Will hadn't been the most attentive of boyfriends because he'd been so consumed by his research, his long-term experiment on Caesar but he had commented on how he liked her wearing her hair down around her shoulders when they went out. But the world they had both known had changed so drastically and now, it seemed more practical just to get it out of the way. Sometimes even forgetting she'd been a woman who had enjoyed dressing to please a man, now it had turned into a fight for survival.

Burke looked over at her.

"You're going to finish that?"

She looked down at what looked like processed meat cooked over a stove that hadn't been working in months. But she picked up her fork again and took another bite. She'd struggled to eat with the morning sickness so she had to make up for it when she'd actually had an appetite.

And it had grown in the past few weeks as her pregnancy progressed. But she had been thinking a lot too of how she'd fare when it came time to give birth to her baby in a world without degreed doctors, clean hospitals and ways to deal with the hundred or so complications that could arise impacting the two of them. Situations that could easily be handled in a hospital but now…she rubbed her abdomen.

"You feel okay?"

She looked up unaware that he had been watching her and nodded.

"What do you think his chances really are…the infection is not entirely gone…"

He sighed.

"Not entirely but with the liquid antibiotics we found to add to the IV, he stands a better chance than he would have a week ago."

She hoped that they'd always be able to find the drugs they needed but knew the day would come when they'd be gone or spoiled. And how would they then be manufactured? The medical advancements of the society that was disappearing each day had been indefinitely rolled back unless they could stop it. Find out how to produce some of the most essential drugs themselves or go back to their organic roots.

And that didn't even address chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes where people needed medications to survive. There'd be more deaths in the days and weeks ahead….the months as humanity wound down. The apes wouldn't need to do anything but watch.

"We're going to survive."

Burke's voice sounded so resolute. But she knew that he had the strength inside of him, given to him from someplace else in another time perhaps to push the bleak future further there one day at a time. She didn't allow much emotion to intrude in her life now but her eyes stung sometimes when she thought about what kind of future her child would face.

A world where his kind had dropped a few rungs on the evolutionary ladder….and each day a struggle to survive extinction. He or she would either be hunted down or enslaved and what kind of future lay in that?

"How Burke…we're losing ground every day?"

His eyes held so much but then they all held secrets from each other, mostly parts of their lives that no longer mattered but were too painful to share with others. Her life with her family, her work, Will and…all that had been part of the old world.

Time to face the new one and she'd find a way to ensure that life would go on.

Caesar woke up and scrambled down from his nest with Alisa behind him. Armando waited for him at the bottom and he signed that they needed to deal with the humans cleaning the rubble out of the streets in the center of town. So Caesar and a small convoy of chimpanzees headed out to where the gorillas had herded some men who had been carrying shovels to clear it to some vehicles that would be useful if the apes figured out how to drive them.

Progress had been slow but a couple of the quicker studies had been able to maintain almost straight paths. He turned to Armando who signed that the humans had asked for more food.

Caesar signed back, asking if the gorillas had done that and Armando sighed vigorously no, that they couldn't let the humans order them.

Caesar saw his point because the effects of years of bondage and captivity had more than lingering effects but if the humans didn't eat enough food, what good would they be as slaves?

He signed back to Armando who scowled at him but then gestured for other gorillas to get more food for them. Caesar turned away and thought it a practical situation, because he didn't care for the humans. Any humans left at all, because the two that had raised him from babyhood were gone. The rest represented those who had exploited the apes in so many ways and abused them in others. Hitting them, shocking them with the hateful sticks and spraying them with hoses.

The gorillas had given humans back that same treatment as had the chimpanzees. The Orangutans had just watched because their numbers were still the smallest and the Bonobos had shook their heads and signed back that negotiation was still the best way to increase worker productivity in the new world.

So many disagreements and dissention already on the handling of the species they have stepped above. He'd assumed the role of leadership in the rebellion not long after he'd first encountered his own species. For most of his life, he didn't know who he was let alone his destiny.

Maybe it was time for him to journey out of Seattle and out into the world to figure out his place in it.

Burke and she walked back to the cabin after the dinner. Someone had found some left over wine and poured glasses for everyone in the mess tent. Harder liquor proved more popular but they needed it for sterilization purposes.

She of course didn't take a glass and no one questioned her on that, they just went through the wine which helped them forget for a little while. Burke hadn't drunk any wine either and they had left early because the ordeal from earlier had caught up with her. She'd been feeling her defenses lowered and some wistfulness slipping through for what no longer existed.

The faces of her families, her friends, and her colleagues…the man she'd loved for a little while and everyplace she used to go, the things she took for granted would always be there.

Life just couldn't change that much, until everything had changed.

She wiped her eyes a bit before she followed Burke inside to the living room where he'd be sleeping not far away from her. That made her feel better because as a woman, she felt vulnerable in ways that she hadn't before and a pregnant woman…even more so.

"Would you like some tea," she asked.

There had been some boxes inside the cupboard which held packets of different flavors of hot tea. She didn't know how long it had been there but imagined it'd taste just fine.

He nodded.

"Maybe just one mug…"

She smiled at him and went in the kitchen to pour the water to boil to steep it. The water had been coppery in color until it ran clear and didn't need to be boiled to be safe like in some places they stayed. She remembered how she used to dine out in San Francisco at outdoor cafes with people she worked with drinking tea and watching the sun set in the coastal city.

She missed that so much, just the casualness of living much more carefree than she did now. Back then, she'd have scoffed at the word, believing her life to be stressful though mostly in a good way.

After boiling the water, she poured it into two mugs that she'd rinsed out and steeped it over the packets of chamomile tea which would help them relax enough to sleep. She wondered if he felt as wired as she did now.

He looked up at her as she handed him a mug to hold in his large hands and thanked her. She sat down on the couch, tucking her feet beneath her and sipping her tea slowly letting it work its magic. She watched him and thought of all the things he could do, she hadn't seen anything yet he couldn't handle, the man had brought a myriad of talents.

"I don't know what we'd do without you."

He glanced up at her surprised by her words.

"You'd make do," he said, "We all are going to need each other to survive."

She nodded.

"I know but is there anything you can't do?"

He thought about it and she saw something pass over his face but he sighed when he decided to answer.

"I'm trained to do a lot of things," he said, "Part of my life including in the military. Those skills pair up better in a situation like this than most. That's all."

"But…"

"There's probably things I can't do," he said, smiling at her.

"I need to ask you a question about your…skills if that's okay with you."

He nodded.

"Sure…ask away."

She paused for a long moment, feeling so many different emotions run through her just then, both from the past and the present but mostly for the future.

"Do you know how to deliver a baby?"

He just looked at her then, his brows furrowed and then his expression changed like he begun to understand.

"I think I can figure it out," he said, "though I've never done it myself."

She nodded accepting his answer. She trusted it and that he'd find a way to help her. He looked at her again.

"Is this in general or is this for a particular reason?"

She just looked at him and started to tell him.