A/N: Based on the script by Stephen Candle (unaired episode)
They ran into the patrol shortly before sunset.
After Galen's accident in the woods some weeks ago, Virdon had decided against hiking cross country in the middle of the night; they now traveled during the day, keeping to lonely trails and deer tracks that meandered through the hills. He had said they should risk it, since Urko seemed to have called off the search parties in the meantime - he must have come to the conclusion that they had somehow managed to slip through his fingers again.
If they had in fact traveled during all those days that Polar had kept them out of sight of the patrols, Burke calculated, they'd be more than a hundred miles away from the ape capital by now. In reality, they had been heading straight west in the past days, trying to get out of Urko-controlled territory as quickly as possible. The western parts bordered on one of the mysterious "forbidden zones" - ape density was pretty low there.
Just their luck that they had to find apes in a region that was supposed to be mostly free of them, Burke thought darkly, while the guard rifled through Galen's faked papers. They were "real" fakes, using authentic paper and Zaius' seal - come to think about it, Galen had quite the criminal energy given the opportunity. Still, they didn't know how far and fast news of their stunt in the council building was traveling around these parts, and whether the guard knew that this particular seal was compromised.
Burke surreptitiously wiped the sweat off his upper lip.
The other guard was coming over to Virdon and him, and Burke tried to look casual. The chimp gave them a bored once-over and ordered them to put their backpacks down. Then he went to tear at their necklines to expose the right shoulderblade; then the left. "Take off your shirts."
Burke dared to frown at him over his shoulder. "What for?"
That got him a cuff upside the head. "For checking your brand, boy. Now get to it."
Burke hesitated. Virdon and he had no branding - Galen hadn't dared to go that far with the authentic looks - but they couldn't get rid of the ritual scars the jungle tribe had forced on them when they had crashed into their reservation, and he was pretty sure that those were part of their "wanted" posters that Urko must've been sticking at doors and lampposts all over ape country. Exposing his chest to that ape was a risk he wasn't willing to take.
Finally, he just dragged his hemline up to his neck, exposing his whole back, but keeping his front covered above the navel and to his relief, the ape was content with that, though not with the result of his inspection.
"Don't you have a brand anywhere?" He began to pull down Burke's pants.
"Hey!" Burke grabbed his waistband.
"We didn't brand our humans," Zana stepped in. "It's cruel."
The guard gave her an exasperated 'Mothers, one of those!' look, but just growled, "Show me their papers, then," and left Burke alone.
He breathed lighter once the guards had remounted and vanished around a thicket. "Why the hell were those chimps haunting this trail?" he asked no one in particular and kicked at the weeds overgrowing the path. "It's not even a cart track!"
Galen leaned heavily on his walking stick; he had gotten rid of his crutches the other day and looked like he was just missing a top hat for his outfit now. "This prefecture has had some problems with strays," he said. "I believe they had introduced a new human control directive last summer. That means tighter controls, even on, on offroad tracks like this one." He shrugged when Burke glared at him. "They did seem to accept our papers just fine."
"Does that mean I have to strip every other mile until we're out of this police state?" Burke demanded to know.
"Let's hope not," Virdon commented and adjusted his backpack. "It would slow us down quite a bit."
"Well, if that's your only problem..." Burke muttered and bent down to retrieve his own load. It was awfully light for his taste. "We need to stock up on food," he said, and saw Virdon frown. "Unless you want to go a-hunting. No? Thought so."
"It's not that easy," Galen cautioned. "Since the prefect introduced the HCD... the human control directive," he explained at Burke's stare, "humans need a written permit to even leave their own settlements. Curfew at sundown. I read the reports when I was Zaius' assistant, their movement has been severely restricted. You can't just walk into a village and ask for the market. I don't even know if they can still hold them."
"Surely we won't get into trouble as long as we're with you," Virdon argued.
"Just into strip searches," Burke muttered.
"Well, I'm sure I can buy us food somewhere ," Zana said and began to march ahead. "As an ape, I can go wherever I want. And as you said, they accept our papers. According to our map, there is a village about a mile ahead, if I remember right - we'll be there long before sunset."
Yeah, you can go wherever you want, Burke thought to himself as he trudged behind her. That's something I could do, too - when this was still a planet of humans.
The village seemed to be half asleep; people were lingering in the doorways or sitting on the benches in front of their huts, the women mending clothes, the men playing some board game. A small band of workers came home from the fields, a single rider trailing them like a prison guard. Yes, Virdon thought as he let his gaze wander over the scene, the whole village had a gloomy atmosphere hanging overhead; the people were resigned, frustrated. Prisoners, on life without parole.
His group hadn't yet left the woods, but were crouched down in the grass at the treeline - he had wanted to get an overview of the situation first. As far as he could see, there were two guards on horseback in the village, although he suspected that more were patrolling the outskirts. Virdon wondered how many human settlements this prefecture had, and if every one of them was afforded the luxury of its own warden crew. It had to be a drain on this prefecture's resources, but perhaps they had been granted a special war budget from Zaius. The thought left a bad taste in his mouth.
"I'd say we wait here with Galen," he murmured uneasily to Zana, "and you get in and out as quickly as possible. I don't like what I'm seeing down there - people seem to have given up, but you never know what's brewing below the surface. I don't want us to be in the middle of a revolt all of a sudden."
"Look," Burke whispered behind him. Virdon turned and followed his gaze.
A young woman was trotting along a hedge on bare feet, looking casual, but moving away now from the last house, and heading for the edge of the forest. The last beams of the setting sun lit up on her chestnut hair, turning it into a flaming copper that stood out against the dark green like a signal light. Virdon involuntarily glanced to where the chimps were circling the villagers. The woman wasn't exactly invisible...
"She's taking quite a risk, defying curfew..." Galen murmured to his right.
"Yeah, and it's gonna break her neck," Burke growled. Virdon saw what he meant: two chimpanzees were trailing her, not quite cutting her off yet, obviously intent on staying unnoticed by the young human. Virdon frowned. They seemed to think the girl would lead them somewhere - probably to other humans who also rebelled against the "human control directive"...
A rustle to his left, and Burke had vanished through the bushes. Virdon cursed under his breath - Burke usually didn't stick out his neck out for anyone but the members of their group. With a last glance towards the riders making their rounds on the village square, Virdon began to jog after him. He'd need to have a word with Pete later.
They found Burke standing a little distance away in an overgrown clearing in the forest, turning on his axis and looking as if he'd seen a ghost. Or not seen a ghost - both the girl and her pursuers had vanished without a trace. Burke looked up and spread his arms.
"Poof," he said, "one girl going up in smoke - maybe she's just a damn good ranger. A girl and two apes going up in smoke together? That's damn strange."
Virdon had to agree as he scanned their surroundings. The trees stood spaced widely apart, he could see through the forest at least a hundred yards in every direction. It was unlikely that they were lying low somewhere in the undergrowth, not as close as Burke had been on their heels.
Burke had begun to search the ground for tracks, going in ever widening circles, and after a moment, Virdon joined him, intrigued despite himself. Zana and Galen, who had caught up with them in the meantime, stood under a pine tree and watched with interest as if they were on a safari; Virdon half expected Zana to start taking notes.
Somebody had come through here recently, though they had moved with great care - there were no broken twigs, no snapped stalks, just some bent tufts of grass that were gently straightening themselves. And then nothing. The track was gone. Virdon circled back, looking for what he must have overlooked a few steps earlier.
And froze, staring at a leaf that disappeared into the ground. Not cut off - bent, at an unnatural ninety degree angle.
His sudden stop had alerted the others; Burke stopped looking for tracks himself and came over to him. "What did you find?"
Virdon held up a hand to silence him, and pointed to the ground.
"Son of a..." Burke breathed and crouched down. He swiped his hands through the dry leaves, trying to find the contours of the trapdoor that lay hidden underneath. Invisible save for that one crushed milkweed leaf.
"Hat's off to you, Davy Crockett," Burke murmured as he traced the gap, looking for a way to lift the door. Virdon didn't answer as he sat back on his haunches and watched Burke's efforts.
He didn't like the implications of their find. A trap door in a forest... leading to a hiding place underground. People going to these lengths to hide from the apes were either desperate or violent. Or both - these qualities tended to go hand in hand. And Galen had mentioned that the local prefect had some problems with his humans. He rose.
"Leave it," he said to Burke, who looked up at him in surprise. "Let's get out of here, before..."
A strangled cry from the trees cut him short.
Zana stared at him, wide-eyed, a blade pressed against her throat, a human arm clamped around her chest. Then he heard the click of a rifle being cocked behind him. He slowly turned his head.
A chimp was standing in the underbrush, his gun trained at him. Not a soldier...
"Quiet," he said. Virdon nodded and slowly raised his hands. The ape walked around them, gun trained steadily at him, and waved him and Burke to step back from the trapdoor before bending down, eyes still on them, and pulling a hidden handle. A whole section of forest floor lifted up, revealing only darkness below.
At a hissed command from the man who had Zana at knifepoint, Galen hobbled forward and peeked cautiously down into the hole. "The stairs are very steep...," he said dubiously. The chimp, who seemed to be the leader of the posse, jerked his gun an inch towards the opening.
"Move."
Galen obeyed, more creeping than walking downstairs, followed by Zana and her shadow who still had his knife at her throat when he walked her down.
Burke didn't need a prompt; he passed Virdon with a murmured "sorry..." and vanished into the darkness. Virdon followed him. He could feel the barrel of the gun pointed at his neck as the chimp jumped down lightly behind him.
The trapdoor closed with a soft, heavy thump.