Burke seemed to be the only one of their group who had been able to sleep, blanket drawn over his face to keep out the light that was already creeping over the horizon. Galen and Zana were huddled together, soaking up each other's presence while they still could.

Virdon knew exactly how they felt. Galen couldn't even nurse the hope of returning to his love one day, that tiny, desperate hope he himself was clinging to.

He leaned forward and touched Galen's arm. "We should get going."

He had no idea when a normal ape workday began, but he wanted to try their luck before someone discovered that they were missing from the makeshift morgue. Zana hadn't gotten around to writing their death certificates - after Galen's revelation last night, the humans were probably the least of her concerns. Virdon couldn't really fault her for it, but it made getting out of the city even more urgent.

He shook Burke awake while Galen whispered to a sleep-drunk Zana who had dozed off on his shoulder. They crawled out of the underbrush and shook leaves and grass out of their clothes.

Zana reached up and plucked a twig out of Virdon's hair. "We need something to cover it," she said, worried. "It's just too unusual a color. You won't stand out so much anymore once you're farther to the North - the people there, umm... have humans with unusual coloring, I heard. Reddish ones, and some with dark skin, too. Do you think it's safe to wait here for a moment?"

She came back about five minutes later with a straw hat. Burke snorted with laughter. "Told you you need a hat to complement that vest!"

Virdon flopped it on his head and smiled. It did cover his hair, and the rim partly concealed his face, so he couldn't complain. Besides, it was a nice protection against the sun.

They started off, the apes leading the way, the humans with their backpacks trotting behind them, heads down like obedient servants - and also to hide their faces as much as possible. Virdon's hat provided him with more cover, allowing him to surreptitiously scan their surroundings.

Apes were already milling about in the streets: children with school bags running in small packs, telling each other the latest news at the top of their lungs; farmers bringing their goods to the market - some driving carts, some directing heavily packed humans; young wives and regal matrons, their baskets still empty, on their way to meet those farmers down at the market; young apes in formal robes, maybe lawyers, maybe office workers like Galen had been, deep in conversation and totally oblivious to their surroundings, expecting everyone to step aside to avoid collision.

Nobody spared them a second glance - they were just another couple on their way to somewhere, their servants in tow. Virdon doubted that he and Burke even registered for many of them; as soon as a human was in his appropriate place - that is, following his master - he ceased to exist as a distinct being. Today, he didn't at all mind being invisible in that fashion.

That wasn't true for the patrols they were passing, though - he felt their sharp glances scanning their group. But they were on the lookout for one ape, or two, not a group of four. There was no reason to think Galen had suddenly acquired a couple of humans, so they didn't match the search parameters.

Yet. This would only keep as long as the relief for the knocked out guard wasn't due, as long as nobody opened the door to the institute's lab, or checked the shelves in Zaius' study... He resisted the urge to hurry; he'd only bump into Galen, who wisely kept their pace at the same level as everybody else's. As long as they were a part of that leisurely weave of people, maybe...

"Your papers, please, sir." Three soldiers were blocking their path, their movements deceptively slow and relaxed.

Well. It had been nice as long as it lasted.

"Oh... of course." Galen fumbled for his papers with shaking hands. He was too nervous, too inexperienced, to act in character; the normal reaction would have been irritation, and perhaps a question of what the heck was going on and why he was being stopped on his way to the market/office/doctor's appointment on a perfectly normal day like this. Maybe even topped off with some muttered remark about times and mores.

The leader was scanning Galen's faked papers with a frown, while his men had casually taken up position at Zana's side, and behind him and Burke; everybody was only a grab away now. Burke was worrying his upper lip and was studiosly staring down at his feet.

"How long will you stay in our city, Yuma?" The captain handed the papers back to Galen, who very obviously couldn't quite believe his luck.

We need to work on your acting skills, son. If we ever get out of this cursed city.

"Oh, uh, another couple of days? Just for sightseeing, now that my business is complete. My wife wanted to visit the zoo..." Galen was babbling.

Virdon bit his tongue. Don't provide him with so many openings for inquiry!

The soldier's eyes rested on Zana. "Your wife, hm? Can I see your papers, please, ma'am?"

... or direct his attention to her.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Burke scratching his chin with his thumb.

Zana didn't have faked papers. She hadn't planned to run off with them, after all. And considering that she was probably on the list of wanted persons, simply because of her connection with Galen...

"I, ah, I think I left them in the lodging house," she stuttered. "I didn't think I'd need them today," she added, a bit indignantly. At least here there was some acting potential; a pity that it wouldn't be of any use to her.

"That's too bad, ma'am." Their captor didn't sound apologetic. "Then I have to ask you to accompany my officer to the watch house while your husband procures your papers from your hostel."

The soldier who had shielded them from the curious looks of passersby or rather, from escaping the patrol, clasped his hand around Zana's arm and pulled her a step away from their group. She turned her head to face them, eyes huge.

"That's a good idea, officer." Her voice didn't betray her fear. She nodded to Galen, a silent good-bye. "Off you go then, darling - hurry up now, don't let me wait for so long." She made a little shooing motion with her hand when a dazed Galen didn't react.

Virdon knew he risked drawing attention to himself if he moved now, but someone had to break Galen's panic spell, or they'd all be doomed. So he leaned forward and murmured, "I think I remember where she put them, master. Shall we go?"

Galen's head jerked a bit, but then he turned around. "Yes... yes, let's go and get them. The sooner we return, the better..."

Virdon took care to keep his head down as they passed the captain. He could feel the ape's eyes on him; but he had no reason to stop him, had he? He was just a servant...

Hopefully, Zana wouldn't get in too much trouble. Could she go to jail for helping Galen? Judging by-

"Galen! Heya, Galen, old chap! Long time, no see, huh?"

Everybody froze. Virdon thought he heard a low moan from Galen. Or perhaps it had been Burke.

The captain stepped into their path again, unhurried. He gazed at the caller on the other side of the street, who was still smiling and waving at them.

"Do you know that man?"

Galen vigorously shook his head. "Absolutely not."

The soldier fixed him with a skeptical stare. "He seems to know you."

"He, he must have confused me with someone else."

"Hm. Wait here." Everyone's eyes followed him as if hypnotized, as he strode over to the ape. Virdon heard Burke shift his backpack.

"Who's that guy?" Burke asked in a low voice.

"Old fellow from university," Galen murmured back.

"Doesn't seem to be the brightest candle in the chandelier."

Galen snorted despite his panic. "He's not... but his father is a lawyer and he's the only son."

"Ah."

Burke sharply sucked in his breath. That was the only warning Virdon needed.

He grabbed Galen and broke into a run. Behind him, he heard a crack and a muffled moan as Burke clocked Zana's guard, and the patter of feet as the two were racing after them. More shouts, as the captain and his guards took up pursuit.

Then a whistle shrilled.

Virdon could feel every hair on his body rise at that sound. He sped up, but Galen suddenly jerked at his arm, taking him off balance for a moment, yanking him hard left and down another street.

"To the market," the ape gasped. "Hide in the crowd..."

The street was sloping softly downward, and he could feel the weight of his backpack accelerating him so that he had to lengthen his strides; his feet hammered hard against the cobblestones and the bruises on his ribs began to wake up with a dull pain. His shoulder connected hard with that of another human and sent the man sprawling to the ground like a beetle; the peaches from the basket on his back spilled all over the street, and schoolchildren descended on them like a flock of crows. He heard their high-pitched screams behind him when they flew in all directions as the patrol rammed through.

Inspiration hit him, and he began to tear at the vendor's stalls in passing, succeeding in toppling one or two; he didn't dare to slow down to see if it made a difference. The market was packed, and they were weaving their way through the mass of people, or just shoving them aside. Toppling people was almost as effective as toppling carts, since they tended to grab the nearest person to keep themselves upright and brought them down with them, creating tangles of people that would hopefully slow the patrols down. He was careful not to do it too often... he didn't want to turn the crowd against him. For now, people were mostly confused and curious, slow to move out of the way of their pursuers. Their presence also prevented the soldiers from shooting at them.

But they didn't manage to shake them off. Already they were reaching the far end of the market, and the crowd was thinning out. Behind him, he could hear Zana wheezing for air. They wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer...

"Weneed... to... lose 'em!" he gasped, and Galen nodded, made a hard right turn, and sprinted down another alley. Virdon let himself fall back and grabbed Zana under one arm, Burke already clasping the other; together, they sped up after Galen who led them deeper into the labyrinth of interconnected courtyards.

Each of these had several archways which led to other courtyards, and after a few moments, Virdon was completely lost. He had no sense of which direction they were moving in, or if they even had one - they might be going round in circles, as far as he could tell. He just hoped that Galen knew what he was doing, but he had to admit that if he did, it was almost as effective as losing a pursuer in the wilderness. They had purposefully avoided the parks; he shuddered involuntarily when he remembered why.

They had slowed down, ears strained for sounds of pursuit, while trying not to make a sound themselves. From somewhere, they could hear the slap of boots against stone, and the guttural sounds of commands, but it was impossible to discern distance or direction: the sound was broken and thrown back by many walls. Their hunters could be five courtyards away from them, or on the other side of the next archway.

Zana leaned against a wall, looking miserable; apes didn't blanch or blush, as far as Virdon could tell, but she did look sick from exertion. He felt sorry for her - she had underestimated what she would get herself into when she had insisted on staying with Galen as long as possible.

And now she was on record for helping Galen. That was... bad. Really bad. But there was no time now to hatch a new plan. They had to keep moving. He took her arm and nodded to Galen to lead the way once more.

They came out of the shadowy labyrinth all of a sudden, stepping into the bright light of a plaza that seemed to be mercifully devoid of soldiers. Virdon took a deep breath and righted his hat, while the apes tried to smooth their robes before they all stepped out into the open with an air of nonchalance-

Burke noticed them first, a dark mass jogging up from main street - Virdon could see the white mural of the institute at its far end - and they forced themselves to turn their backs on them without obvious hurry.

... and came face to face with a second squad, making a beeline towards them. From the labyrinth behind them, footsteps announced that their pursuers had found their scent again.

" Come on!"

Burke yanked Zana forward, barging through the glass door of a little café. Virdon dashed after them, despair rushing down his chest like hot water. Incoherent thoughts lit up in his mind:

... won't get me alive this time... if I die... not strapped to a table...

Inside, pale faces turned towards them all at once, reminding Zana of the weird underwater creatures she had come across as a child; she had refused to go back into the water after that encounter.

The café - their café, she realized with a sudden jolt, the one where she had met Galen for the first time - was packed with people, an incongruent sight like in a dream; it was much too early in the day for so many guests. She tried to ignore them, and the sense of irreality they induced in her, and pushed past Galen and the humans.

"This way." They would try to leave through the kitchen, into yet another back alley, and beyond that, take the little paths between houses, so small that they'd have to walk in a line... trying to slip through the cracks, like cockroaches...

She felt so tired. Hot, and thirsty, and tired, and afraid...

"Zana, isn't it?"

She looked up at the sound of a familiar voice. In the back of the room, an Orangutan rose from her seat, stepped around the apes - who were, she saw now, not only sitting on the chairs and benches, but also on the floor; wherever there was a free spot - and picked her way through the squatters towards her. Zana threw a hasty glance over her shoulder. The soldiers were already at the door. Galen and the humans were pushing against her, hurrying her towards the back.

"I'm afraid I don't have time, Zibaya," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to crash your brunch."

Zibaya had followed her gaze, and her eyes lit up with wry amusement. "Have you run afoul of the military-political complex?"

"I can literally feel the boot of the oppressive system on my neck," Zana said dryly as she opened the door to the kitchen. Of all times, now she didn't feel in the mood for political philosophy!

To her surprise, the professor clapped her hands. "Citizens, you know what to do! We must help a sister in need! Look outside! The hideous face of the system is staring at us through the windows!"

At once, everyone linked arms with their neighbours, creating a huge tangle. Someone began to strum a guitar. Pete laughed, incredulous. "A sit-in? I feel like I'm inside one of those historical documentaries they inflicted on us at school!"

He might find it hilarious, but Zana thought that the blockage could be very effective; it could at least provide them with precious moments needed to escape through the backdoor. Perhaps Pete had realized that, too, because he fell silent, a peculiar expression on his face.

Zibaya had followed them outside. "Here," she said and gave Zana her silk scarf. "It's not much, as far as masking your appearance goes, but it's better than nothing."

Zana took the cloth, a light, multicolored nothing that smelled of jasmine, and put it over her head. "Thank you so much for your help. You probably saved our lives."

Zibaya gave her a searching look, but what she saw apparently convinced her that Zana hadn't just used a tired figure of speech. "What have you gotten yourself into?" she wondered. Her gaze fell onto the humans. "You haven't joined the Human Rights Watch, have you?" Her voice made it clear that she regarded the efforts of that group as yet another example of bourgeois indulgence, a distraction from relevant activism for the sake of Gorillas and other oppressed apes.

"What? No. Galen has... gotten access to information the council wants to keep secret, and now they're out to arrest him!" She felt new panic rise up inside her. "They'll hang him for any number of made up crimes! We need to go now, Ziba, there is no time..."

"Yes, indeed. Here, wait, I have something for you." The Orangutan pressed a paper slip into Galen's hand. "The people on that list are sympathetic to our cause. They will help you, if you can make it out of the city." She held his gaze for a moment. "If you don't make it out of the city, I expect you to destroy that list before it falls into their hands." She didn't need to explain who she meant by they. "Eat it, if you have to."

Everyone jumped at the sound of glass shattering from the other side of the corridor. Shouts erupted, still muffled by the door.

"We need to go. Thank you again, Zibaya." Zana could feel Galen's hands on her shoulders as he turned her towards the alley. She fell into a trot beside him, the scent of jasmine mixing with the sharp musk of the humans' sweat.

Her feet hurt. She was scared.

She had no idea how they'd ever get out of here.

Zana was sure that they had crossed this particular yard already... probably even more than once. At ground level, they were all no more than moist, shady enclosures that were only loved by the children who met there to play ball or hopscotch. At this point, she didn't pay much attention to anything but her aching chest and hammering heart. Perhaps she should have joined the humans' ball games, had she known that she would need to be in shape for running from the law.

A dark mass emerged from the archway - black uniforms, police, and her heart was suddenly hot in her chest. She whirled around, back to where they had come from,

... more guards in that archway, too.

She jerked away from that exit and stumbled back into the midst of their little lot, between Galen and the humans, who had clustered in the middle of the square. Their eyes were dull with resignation, and she scanned the last archway...

All exits were filled with dark uniforms.

Fear rose up from chest into throat.

She felt Galen take her hand, his palm as sweaty as hers, and wondered for a moment if he wanted to give or seek reassurance. Then he gently squeezed her hand, and she held on to it with all her might... as if he could pull her out of this nightmare like he had done once, long ago.

One of the uniforms separated from the dark mass clogging the passageways and stepped into the yard, followed by a handful of men that formed a loose ring around them. The sergeant hooked his thumbs into his belt and surveyed their group. His grin took on a... a somehow more personal quality when his eyes fell on her, and her heart suddenly hammered hard against her ribs.

"Zana!" he cooed. "There you are! I've been looking for you all over town! I even had flowers for you..." sniggers erupted from the archways, "must've lost them somewhere, when you gave me that little chase." He came closer; uncomfortably close.

"Your colleagues told me about all your favourite little hangouts... and here we are! Such a nice and helpful bunch! Didn't think nothing of another man asking for you. Are you known for open relationships? 'Cause I'd like in, if you are." He smirked at Galen. "Are you sure you know what your little bitch is up to when you're not around, mate?"

Galen inhaled sharply as if to say something, but she hastily squeezed his hand to stay quiet and thankfully, he got her meaning. Now was not the time to prove to her he wasn't a coward! She should never have called him that...

The sergeant shrugged. "Won't matter anymore, right? Once we hang you out to dry, you'll be too shriveled up to satisfy her anyway." Now the yard was ringing with laughter. The ape bared his teeth and yanked her into a sudden embrace. Zana's hand slipped out of Galen's grip and she found herself squeezed against the man's leather vest, her face squashed against his collarbone.

"You'll be no good for the little lady, and isn't that a shame?" she heard his voice above her. "She's lucky to have me around, because I know how to make it good for the girls and the boys." He suddenly flipped her around so that her back was now pressed against him and jerked his pelvis against her backside, his breath hot against her ear. "What do you say we do it like the boys first, hmm? I think you'll like that, once you get used to it."

Of all the feelings flooding her, the most intense was shock - shock at the violence of her nausea, at the prickling sensation all over her body as fear rushed out from her heart into her limbs. But most of all, shock that her strongest reaction was neither fear nor revulsion, but embarrassment - that she was mortified to be treated like this in front of Galen, that he had seen, and wouldn't be able to forget, her disgrace.

She couldn't look at him. She couldn't look at any of them.

And then shame turned into fury. Zana dimly remembered what one of her instructors had said during her Community Work Year - that when she hit something, she shouldn't aim at her target, but the space behind it. You never hit at something; you hit through, she'd said.

I want to break his ribs.

She imagined the space behind his ribs, the soft, bubbly sac of lung tissue that would bleed and bleed as the jagged edge of the broken bone ripped through it. She jerked around in her captor's arms, jamming her elbow back and up.

The guard grunted, but his vest cushioned the impact, dispersing the momentum. Zana hadn't taken his leather armour into account.

"Little firecracker," he murmured. "We'll have a lot of fun." To her horror, his hand slid downward, and

she stumbled as something crashed sideways into her, no, her tormentor, and suddenly people were struggling and grappling all around her and she stumbled backwards out of the tangle, her arms slung around herself. Alan was smashing his fist into the face of a soldier whose head jerked back so violently that she wondered for a split second if his neck had snapped

and something cracked, very loud, and everybody froze.

Galen emerged from the dark tangle on the ground, slowly, slowly...

He held a gun in his hand. Dropped it, all of a sudden, as if it had turned hot in his hand. It landed with a thump on the sergeant's torso, slipped and clattered onto the cobblestones.

The sergeant didn't move. Zana stared in horrified fascination at the blood seeping out from under his body. She couldn't see where he had been hit... the black color of the uniform obscured the stain. The irrelevant realization that this was probably the reason for the color choice settled in her head for a moment. So that you didn't see the blood stains. Strange what one could contemplate in such a situation...

"Are... are you alright?"

Zana tore her eyes away from the dead soldier with some effort and lifted her gaze to Galen. She opened her mouth, but found that she was at a loss for words. Was she alright?

"No, Atiba, she's not - thanks to you."

From the shadows under the balcony, another shape emerged, taller than the dead sergeant, and heavier. Zana knew that voice... knew it all too well.

Urko let his eyes wander over her friends; a strange light began to gleam in his eyes when they found the humans. It burned brighter still when looked at her again.

"Ah, well..." he said softly. "Let me correct that statement. She did it all to herself, after all."