"He can't let us go, you know that? Urko won't allow it."

Burke pushed away from the edge and jogged to where Urko's grey was tethered to the fallen tree. "I just need the rope to pull up your commander," he assured the ape (an ugly guy with an even uglier scar across his face) before he turned to Galen.

"He gave you his word, on his honor - he won't want to break it. Not to an ape, anyway," he added, and Galen winced at the bitterness in his voice.

"He won't like it, but he won't defy Urko... and Urko has no qualms about breaking another man's word if it suits him."

Galen was right, Burke admitted to himself. This was far from over yet. But before he could worry about that, he first had to get Al out. The next quake could...

The ground began to tremble as if on cue. Burke cursed and ran back to the hole, flinging most of the rope down into the darkness.

"Wait for my signal, Al!" he shouted, "I'll have to hook up the horse first!" Al's upturned face was a white blob in the twilight, a mask of dust and blood. Way too much blood. Burke hoped his injuries were from the fall, and not from the psycho gorilla.

The ground was shaking stronger now, and new debris was raining into the hole. The horses were dancing and whinnying. Galen hurried over to them and took the reins, trying to calm them down. Burke followed him with his end of the rope, trying to decide which of them looked the least crazy. The horse closest to him was jerking its head, rolling its eyes at him, and he hesitated. His only experience with a horse so far had him left sore and walking bowlegged for two days. He had no idea how that beast would react in its panic - probably kick him.

"Good boy... or girl. Lemme just fit you with this nice, shiny rope..."

The horse was less than cooperative, dancing away from him and finally stepping on his foot. Burke cursed - his shoes weren't much more than moccasins, fit to shield his soles from sharp pebbles, but no match for hundreds of pounds of horse concentrated in a hoof. Scar-face howled with laughter.

"Your general is down there, too!" Burke snapped. "Think he'll laugh with you when the quake hurls a fucking boulder at his face, just because you didn't move your ass here to help me?"

The chimp grabbed the reins, still snorting, and kept the beast under control long enough so that Burke could fasten the rope to its harness. He was barely finished when the ground pushed with a sudden jerk against his feet, and the horse jumped in the air with all four legs at once. Burke leaped back - no need to meet the next hoof with his face.

"Ok, Al, we're ready! Grab the rope, hurry up!"

The next quake was already here.

Virdon reached for the rope again, missing it by the breadth of a hair - again. It was maddening. He pushed against the rubble around his thighs, straining to lift himself out of it for that fraction of an inch he was short...

It was hopeless.

"Urko... help me..."

He didn't really believe it; it was far more probable that Urko would grab that rope, let himself be pulled up, and then proceed to kill Pete and throw his dead body down into the pit to him.

Virdon looked up when he heard the gravel grind under the gorilla's heavy boots. Urko was slowly climbing up the slope, his huge bulk only visible in the darkness because the falling dust had powdered his fur. It made him look like a vengeful ghost.

His eyes were fixed on Virdon, not the rope.

Urko stopped at the border of the wedge of daylight that was now falling into their pit, and stared at him with an unreadable expression. Uncertainty gripped Virdon. He knew the other's look of contempt by now, of hatred, even that of pleasure and amusement while he had abused him, but this one was... meditative?

Then he saw the dagger in the ape's hand.

Virdon's gaze flicked up to meet Urko's unforgiving glare.

"Why?" Quietly; he wasn't shocked. Just... confused. Tired. Why now, why not later, when Urko could take his sweet time, as he had promised him earlier?

To his surprise, Urko sheathed the dagger. He pulled something from the cuff of his glove, shook it out - it was a flyer, Virdon realized. The Olympics flyer? What could've set him off about...

It was a different flyer. One which exhorted people to come visit the zoo.

Their eyes met again over the ancient piece of advertisement, and Virdon felt his shoulders relax with relief. To not be alone with that terrible truth... even if the only other person on the planet was a being that despised him so thoroughly that it shouldn't have been possible to deepen his hatred of humans - of him - even more.

"So now you believe me," he breathed.

Urko began to roll up the flyer. "I knew you were different somehow, from the first time I saw you in that cage. We thought it was because you fell from the sky, from another world." He stuffed the thing back into the glove. "But it doesn't make a difference in the end. I'll still kill you. I won't allow you to take this-" he waved at the darkness below him, "with you, back into my world. Because make no mistake, Alan: this is my world. Apes rule now, and humans... humans will soon be only a memory. And then even that memory will fade."

He stepped out of the shadow, the sun flashing on his blade.

The ground was clamping around Virdon's legs, unyielding against his frantic struggle, the rope still dangling just out of his reach. He jerked his head around, desperately searching for something to shield himself against the knife.

Urko's shadow fell over him.

The tremors that had at first only raced down the length of the tunnel like fever chills were now a constant shudder beating against Zana's feet. She was stumbling on, one hand pushing the weak light of the lantern against the endless darkness, the other brushing against the slick, smooth surface of the wall to keep her from accidently falling into the ditch that still ran along to her left. The constant twisting and heaving of the ground made her nauseous and unsure on her feet, and there was still no sight of the opening that Delia had promised her.

Maybe there was no exit. Maybe the human had tricked her into climbing into the churning mouth of the earth, where nobody would ever find her. Even if Galen and the humans escaped Urko, they would have no idea where to even start looking for her.

She'd be buried here in the darkness forever, millennia growing over her bones.

Zana stifled a sob - she could not panic now! There would be an exit somewhere, if only because an underground network of streets, strange as they were, wouldn't make sense without a connection to the surface. These tunnels had held for Mothers knew how long - they would withstand this episode, too. She was safe in here, as safe as one could be under the circumstances.

The next hit pushed her off her feet.

She fell hard on her already bruised hip, unable to cushion her fall because she was desperately raising the lantern to keep it from hitting the ground and going out. The ground was bucking against her like a horse, and kicking her ribs just as painfully.

The shudders subsided, but didn't vanish completely. For a moment, Zana stayed where she was, fighting for breath. Her whole left side felt like one big bruise.

She struggled to her feet eventually, more out of stubbornness than conviction, and trudged on. It seemed to her that the air was getting cooler now, and not as difficult to pull into her lungs as before, but she didn't dare to get her hopes up yet - the darkness surrounding her was as impenetrable as ever.

The next quake hurled her into the ditch. The lantern slipped from her fingers as if the darkness itself was grabbing at it and tearing it from her hands; the dim yellow glow floated away from her in a wide arch and winked out as the construct smashed on the ground somewhere above her, below her, she didn't know. She dug her fingers into the gravel between the metal rods, clinging to the only thing existing beside her in the roaring blackness, moaning with fear, too terrified to scream.

This time, the tremors didn't subside; they didn't subside, and she was lying here, blind and panicked and alone and... and she needed to get up!

Get up and get going, stumbling over gravel, falling to her knees as the next quake hit her like a giant fist, coughing from the dust that was rolling down the corridor-

Dust. Where did it come from?

Zana fumbled for her scarf, green and golden like sunlight on young leaves - she remembered what it looked like, remembered it with all her might, held onto that image in her mind, sun peeking through canopy, sky and wind and light - and tied it over her mouth and nose. Then she plunged into the suffocating cloud that was breathing into her face; the tiny grains made her eyes water, but she didn't mind, because those grains were riding on a wind that was blowing from outside, from a hole in the ground, a hole opening into the sky...

And now she could see the durst swirling in the air, a dull gray mass twisting in the darkness like a nest of snakes, betraying the light it sought to obscure: A patch of daylight hovered before her, like a trick played by tired eyes.

Zana grabbed the edge of the embankment, ignoring the sharp pain as the glass shards that were still embedded in her palm bit deeper, and hoisted herself up. She would have to climb another landslide, like the one she had descended years ago, but this pile was shaking and shivering from the tremors, spitting gravel at her like an angry llama. Small boulders were jumping down into the canal as if they were made of cotton.

Twice she slid down when the whole slope began to skid; she only managed to outrun a second landslide because she crawled up on all fours. She kept crawling even after she had climbed over the edge and had reached solid ground; it was sensible, since the quake still hadn't stopped, but in truth it was simply because she was too panicked to think straight. Only when she reached the corner of an unnaturally cubic hill did she realize that she was still on all fours.

Then her legs gave out.

She knew this wasn't the time to take a break, that she was in danger of being smashed by something falling on her, or being swallowed by newly opening gaps in the ground, but for a moment, she just sat there, staring uncomprehendingly at the scene unfolding before her eyes.

Across from her, on the other side of what had to be the main street Delia had spoken of, Galen and Peet were leading a pair of horses that were harnessed to a big slab of rock. They were surrounded by Urko's men.

Captured.

The realization formed slowly, as if her mind had turned to jelly. They had been captured, and...

... what were they doing there? Where was Urko?

And where was Alan?

Urko loomed above him, blocking out the sun, the only thing not moving in a world that shook and trembled as if gripped by a fever. Far above him, Virdon could hear the horses scream. The big slab of concrete jerked, then slipped into the hole a bit, as one of the ropes snapped.

Urko didn't pay attention to any of this; he was savouring his kill. Virdon saw his nostrils flare, sucking in the scent of his blood, his fear.

Heat shot up inside him, from his gut to his chest and into his arms, his head - hot, roiling rage at this creature that fancied itself to be his jury, judge and executioner, his master and his butcher. Virdon's hand dug through the rubble around him, through gravel and sand, fingers bruising on ragged concrete and fragments of tarmac.

... finding the cold, smooth curve of the metal rod.

He yanked it up just as the blade fell down on him, blocking Urko's arm a short distance above the wrist. If he hadn't held the rod with both hands, at both ends, the dagger would still have found its mark; even so, the impact reverberated through him down to his hip that was still half-buried in the rubble.

Urko made a grab for the rod with his free hand, and Virdon let go of one end, using the rod as a baton to hit that hand as hard as he could. He knew how hopeless his own position was, rooted like a tree, so if he could manage to numb that limb, take it out of the equation...

... and not forget about his other arm in the meantime! He jerked his left arm down in the last possible moment and twisted his body around as much as he could, and the blade scraped along a rib instead of sliding between them and burying itself in his heart.

Virdon brought the rod up again and dashed it against Urko's temple with a yell, putting all his strength into the blow, all his rage, all his despair, all his heartache.

The gorilla fell like a tree.

Virdon just stared at him for a moment, sucking in air, then choking at the dust that was already puffing up all around him. He felt the ground shifting, kneading his legs in a terrible, bone-crunching embrace. He coughed, a strangled, sobbing sound.

"Al! Goddammit, grab that fucking rope already! I gave you more length, now get to it!"

The rope landed at his side with a heavy slap. Still numb, Virdon grabbed it and gave it a pull to signal Pete. The rope tightened with a sudden jerk and he felt his spine was going to be ripped apart. He tensed up, clenching his teeth as the rocks scraped against his legs.

Then he was free. Urko was still out cold, lying prone in the rubble. There probably was no time to get them both out, one after the other. The ground was jerking now, the slab of concrete rotating over the edge.

"Hold that fucking horse!"

A second rope snapped with a crack, and the slab began to tilt into the hole.

With a growl, Virdon let go of his rope.

"What's he doing? What's he doing?"

Peet let go of his horse and ran to the edge of the hole, dropping on his belly to peer over the edge. Galen grabbed the reins before the spooked animal could escape. The trembling didn't pause anymore, but right now, it didn't get more violent, either; he hoped they would be a safe distance away from the ruins when the inevitable climax came.

Peet was waving at him to lead the horse away from the hole, not that the poor beast needed a prompt - Galen hung on to keep it from bolting, but even so, he had the impression that it had to fight more against the weight hanging on the other end of the rope than before. So Alan had jumped off to hook up Urko first.

Galen admired the human's insistence to honor their shaky agreement, but he wasn't sure if it was wise. The angle at which the boulder was hanging over the pit worried him. With the ground now constantly shifting and sliding, that slab could begin to move any moment, and it was too heavy for them to control it. Perhaps they wouldn't have enough time to save the second man waiting on the ground of that trap.

He admitted to himself that he'd have preferred Urko to be that second man.

But of course it was Urko's body who first appeared; the lieutenant hurried to drag his still body away from the edge. Galen frowned; if the general was dead...

Peet cursed and shoved the ape aside to untie the rope - he didn't seem worried, but then he wouldn't exactly mourn a dead Urko, either. Galen could see the terrible hurry in his jerking movements and lost no time to force the protesting horse back towards the abyss. When Peet gave the signal to pull, the horse bolted.

And the rope snapped.

Galen could only stare as Peet dove down for the severed rope that was whipping away with the weight of Alan's body. He seemed to have caught it, because a jerk went through his whole body, and in a nightmarish repetition of what Galen had witnessed earlier, Peet was sliding towards the hole.

The lieutenant threw himself on Peet's prone body, and his additional weight was enough to stop the human's momentum. For a moment, both just lay there, panting. Then they began to pull in the rope, hand over hand, human and ape.

Galen shook off his paralysis and darted to the edge. Virdon's head was just an arm's length away now, his hair grey with dust, his upturned face bruised and bloodied. Galen plopped down and pushed his hand down to him. Virdon let go of the rope with one hand and grabbed his wrist. Behind him, the slab began to turn with an ominous crunching sound.

"Pull!"

The slab dove into the hole with a screwing motion as the three of them hauled Virdon up over the edge. At the fringe of Galen's awareness, one of the soldiers was cutting the rope that still tied one horse to the giant fragment before it got pulled into the pit by it.

They all retreated from the site as far as Virdon was able to walk before he broke down, which wasn't nearly far enough for Galen's taste. Urko was still unconscious - probably knocked out by one of the greater fragments that the tremors had shaken loose. For the moment, the vibrations had decreased to a barely noticeable shudder, but Galen was certain that there would be many more quakes until the ground would calm down. If it ever did.

"Sweet Mothers, Alan!"

For a moment, Galen thought his heart had stopped; it wasn't possible, it wasn't... they had left her behind in the village, in safety-

He whirled around and there she was, dusty and dissheveled and with a wild look in her eyes that woke up his heart again and sent it into a frenzied race. She was clutching his leather bag to her chest. The bag with the Book in it. Galen inhaled shakily. He wanted to clutch her against his chest right now, press her against his heart and never let go.

But the frozen moment dissolved, and she hurried to Alan and took a quick inventory of his wounds. The human's shirt was torn and soaked with blood; he looked as if he'd gotten a vicious whipping. Peet hovered at her shoulder and eyed his friend's wound with a grim expression. Galen saw his gaze wander to Urko, then to the lieutenant and his men; the human visibly kept himself in check.

Galen decided that it would be best if they parted on their agreed terms before Peet's self control snapped, or the general woke up to override the lieutenant's word. His eyes met those of the lieutenant in wordless understanding, and the other ape nodded almost imperceptibly.

Galen took one of Alan's arms to help him up and gestured to Peet to do the same. Once they were out of the city, they'd need to find a place to hide, and care for Alan's wounds, but right now, their first priority-

"Kill them... all of them!"

Galen forced down a roar of frustration. Now the old baboon had to wake up? He half turned, Alan's arm still draped over his shoulder, and fixed the lieutenant with a glare. "We had a bargain, remember? And we kept our side of it."

The Chimp straightened indignantly. "Don't you talk to me about honor, outlaw!" he growled.

"Didn't you hear me?" Urko had pushed himself up on one elbow; he looked dazed, and his speech was slurred. "Get your guns, soldiers!"

"No!" The lieutenant stepped between them and the soldier who had grabbed his rifle, a brutish looking Chimp with an ugly scar on his cheek. "We honor our bargain."

The other Chimp pointed to Urko. "The general says something else."

"The general isn't fit to command right now," the lieutenant growled. "Now put that down."

"He just gave an order," the Chimp said stubbornly. "Seems fit enough to me, an' I won't disobey an order from General Urko."

The lieutenant inhaled with a sharp hiss. "Fine. I'll..."

The ground began to weave again. Farther down the street, another balcony crashed down.

"Put the general on his horse, get him out of this cursed place!" the lieutenant barked. When the Chimps hesitated, he grabbed his rifle. "I'll take care of the executions myself."

They were staring at each other silently while the soldiers tied Urko to his horse. Peet was whispering with Alan, but Galen understood only every third word or so. "...has to reload manually, ... jump him between... you and Galen... distract..." Alan was shaking his head; whatever madness Peet had thought up, it had to be something insanely suicidal.

More suicidal than standing here and patiently waiting for our execution?

Zana at least seemed to be eager to attack the Chimp, gun or not, so perhaps she had caught on to Peet's daring plan. If he were the lieutenant, Galen thought resignedly, he'd probably shoot Peet first.

He had to do something.

"It seems you were right, Lieutenant," Galen said softly as the soldiers were leading Urko away on his horse. "I shouldn't have spoken about honor to you."

The soldier didn't move a muscle, staring him down with flinty eyes. "When I catch up with my comrades, Urko will want your hides. If he doesn't get them, he'll want my hide." He cleared his throat and spat. "An' some of these baboons are eager to get my job. 'm sorry, but I won't stick my neck out for some animals." He cocked the rifle.

"You gave your word," Galen repeated, incredulous. How could he break his word? He was an officer of the law!

"If you could present satisfying proof of our deaths to the general, you'd let us go?" Zana's voice was hoarse, but her eyes were blazing as she stepped forward and boldly stared at the ape.

The Chimp stared back, apparently unmoved. But then he shrugged. "Maybe. It'd have to be pretty damn convincing proof. The general is sharp as a knife."

"Yeah, my knife!" Peet muttered. Everyone ignored him.

Zana grabbed the scarf that was loosely slung around her throat. Its colors were muted, and a cloud of dust billowed up when she pulled it loose. "If you took something from each of us and gave it to him," she said. Then her eyes fell on Alan, leaning heavily against Peet with his eyes closed. She quickly stepped behind him; Galen couldn't see what she was doing, but Alan jerked up and opened his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Alan," Zana said and rounded him; the scarf in her hands was dark with his blood. She offered it to the Chimp. "Does this look 'pretty damn convincing'? It's a lot of blood on a woman's scarf - I'm quite sure he wouldn't suspect that it belonged to you."

Galen held his breath at her cheek; but after a moment, the Chimp took it. Zana whirled around. "Great! We need something from you, Galen, and from them-"

"The general will ask me why I didn't bring the bodies with me," the Chimp interrupted her. Galen could see her eyes narrow, before she plastered a friendly smile on her face and turned to face their captor once again.

"Look - what's your name? I can't keep calling you 'you'."

The Chimp scratched his chin and regarded her with an expression that made Galen's blood boil. "Name's Nelva, but you can call me 'sir'."

"I think I can't," Zana said with the same frozen smile. "So, Nelva, it's a bit lively here right now-"

The ground trembled as if to agree. Everyone stumbled a bit before regaining their footing. Behind them, Nelva's horse whinnied and jerked its head up. Zana pointed at it. "So getting four dead, heavy, limp bodies on your spooked horse proved to be impractical, and you... you..." Her searching gaze fell on the hole that had almost swallowed Alan for good, "You threw the bodies into that hole. As a, a sort of gesture. Toward the general."

Nelva frowned. "What gesture? And the hole is closed!"

Zana flapped her hands. "Poetic justice, you did it in his honor because he came out victorious, but his enemies didn't, Mothers, think of something! And the ground is moving so much here, who's to say that hole didn't open up again? Do you think he'll come back and have a look?"

Nelva stared at her. Then he snorted - apparently he liked spunky women. Galen ground his teeth and told himself that Zana was bargaining for all their lives right now. If she had to flirt with an ugly old officer - so be it!

"You're cutting off my bloodflow," Alan murmured at his ear. "I may need that hand in the future..." His voice was even more hoarse than Zana's, a wheezing whisper, but Galen thought he could hear wry amusement in it.

Nelva raised his gun, and everyone froze.

Then he pointed it to the sky and fired. Reloaded and fired again into the sky. Again. And a last time.

Galen flinched at every shot. He couldn't help it. His ears were ringing, and his knees... his knees were wobbling a bit. The lieutenant smiled. Well, a corner of his mouth twitched. Galen doubted that his amusement was good-natured.

"Go quickly. When I see you again, there'll be no bargain."

" If you see us again."

The lieutenant shook his head, and this time, his smile was visible. "Oh, I'm absolutely sure I'll see you again." He pressed Zana's bloodied scarf against his chest and bowed to her in mock regard. "The general was right - you really are a clever and elusive game.

"Don't think we'll ever stop hunting you."

"I'm sorry..."

"I know you're as careful as possible, Zana - you don't have to apologize every time I flinch," Virdon said. "I'm beginning to feel guilty for not having greater self control..."

"Oh no, no such nonsense," Zana said briskly. "You have every reason to flinch, and moan, and curse, and throw things against the walls..."

"If we had walls," Pete interjected from his pine. He was leaning against the trunk, chewing on a slice of old bread that Zana had actually wanted to use for soup. Virdon saw her scowl at his friend, but then she resumed spreading ointment on his back. He flinched.

"I'm s... nevermind."

They were still inside the Forbidden Zone, although it had lost its illusion of safety now; Urko had broken one of the most powerful taboos of his world, and survived it. Worse, he hadn't been alone. If the Forbidden Zones had been sanctuaries for strays such as Katlin, they now no longer existed. Virdon couldn't help but feel responsible.

He still felt weak, and a bit feverish, but except for coughing up tons of dust (and alright, maybe it was a bit purulent, but he hadn't gotten pneumonia... he hoped) and having to sleep on his belly, he'd gotten away surprisingly well. Zana had traded his compass for that foul-smelling, stinging ointment that kept infection at bay. It was the same thing apes used on their slaves after whipping. Slaves were expensive - you took care that they didn't die from a bit of discipline.

Perhaps that was what made him flinch every time.

"What do we do now?" Zana asked with a little sigh, as if she'd read his thoughts.

"Hurry up, I would say," Galen answered for him. "We still have to go North if we want to get out of Urko's sphere of influence, so there's really nothing else we can do."

"You heard the guy," Pete muttered. "He'll never stop hunting us, even if we're outside of his 'sphere'. Urko is our very own damn Ahab."

"Ahab died in the end," Virdon said lightly.

Pete wasn't convinced. "Yeah, but so did the whale."

"That's not confirmed..."

Zana gave him a little cuff upside the head. "Stop talking in riddles, you two - it's rude."

Virdon smiled. "Sorry, ma'am."

"You're hitting a weak, injured human," Pete cried out in mock anguish, "You cruel, unfeeling ape!"

"Well, you're right," Zana retorted, "I should hit you instead, you are strong and healthy enough..."

Their banter became a soothing background noise as Virdon's thoughts drifted back to Urko. Galen was right; they had nowhere else to go but away - and according to Galen's map, everything West of the Forbidden Zone was a scorching, impassable desert. To the East, the ocean; and in the South, the apes.

Urko would know this, too, of course. His lieutenant had been right - they would meet again. Pete had begun talking of weapons, but Virdon was loathe to start carrying a gun; not only was it illegal for humans - they couldn't even carry a knife, and had to ask Galen to hand it out when they needed to shave - but if one of them ever killed an ape, it wouldn't just be Urko's private hunting party on their tail, but every adult ape in the district, civilian or not, police officer-slash-soldier or not.

No, he still favoured outsmarting Urko over outgunning him. Although he admitted to himself that it had been a combination of both that had saved them two days ago. Ironically, he hadn't played the outsmarting part.

He'd had no choice - Urko would've killed him... killed him for having uncovered this world's greatest secret: the truth of humankind's lost and forgotten past. That was the real reason he'd never stop hunting them. Perhaps they'd really have no choice in the end. Like Ahab's whale.

He hadn't told Pete yet; he didn't know if he could. Pete hadn't believed there could be a way back for them from the beginning, yet here he was, whether out of loyalty or unadmitted hope, Virdon couldn't say. It was this uncertainty that made it impossible for him to foresee his friend's reactions: would he feel vindicated? Start a war to win back the planet for the humans?

He... needed more time to think about it. He'd need to find the right moment to tell him.

But not today.