"I'm curious about something Iris? Before you met Malcolm and his son and moved into the colony, you lived in the abonanded part city for about a year after the incidents with Alpha-Omega and from what just learned Pope...isn't that right?" he asked her.
She just stared at him blankly.
"And even though the colony kicked you out you still stayed in San Francisco...the place where most of your trauma and pain happened... why?" he asked curiously.
Iris started to feel her braclet then slowly trailing up her hand to feel the scars on her arm.
"Because it was my home...despite eveything that happened to me...and back then I had no where else to go..."
The Abandoned City 3 years ago
Iris was walking around the city looking for the building that she was suspose to meet Malcolm in, Maurice left awhile after they got in the city stating he had to do something as well. While Iris was a little curious she didn't brother with it, happy not to have a shadow looming over her anymore.
Her destination had brought her to a old decaying office building. She didn't really like the city because of a lot bad memories, very bad memories. She didn't want to stay here any longer then she should have to so she went inside the building. The building didn't look any better in the inside, the place was in a state of disarray but this didn't surprise her after everything that happened in the last 10 years.
Malcolm walking into the room snapped her out of memory lane. She could tell he was still a little upset about her bailing on him the the other day. Bruce who had standing patiently by her side the whole time looked back and forth between her and him, he started to wine at the tension causing Iris to pet the shepard to reassure him.
"Hey...I'm sorry about yesterday..." She said she said hoarsely.
"We can talk about that later, let's go to the back room the bodies are there" he said he gestured to the back room.
"Ok what did you find out?" she asked as she walked right past him along with Bruce.
"Iris there's something I need to tell you before you go in there!" he hollered while trying to catch up to her.
But by the time she opened the door to the room she found out what he was trying warn her about. Ellie who was comparing notes with what seemed like another doctor turned her head to Iris when she entered the room, she looked at her with worry how her reaction was going to be and she had the right to be worried. While she was happy to see Ellie and didn't really care about the other doctor, she wasn't really happy to see the two other people there. Both of them were men, the one guy who was staring hard at her was maybe close to Malcolm's age, his head was shaved with lightly tanned skin, and he wore brown cargo pants and jacket. His eyes showed her he had years of experience and seen a lot, everything about this man screamed military. She turned her head to the other man who was sitting in a chair against the wall, this man she knew quiet well and she definitely didn't like him, she hadn't seen him since they were teenagers. The man waved lazely at her while giving her a smug smile, she told Bruce to sit and not to move.
"Malcolm what's this soldier doing here?...Or better yet what's this asshole doing here?!" she yelled while glaring.
"Your not happy to see me Iris, I'm hurt"he said sarcastically while gesturing a hand over his heart.
"Why would I be fucking happy to see a lazy, sexist, obnoxious, son of a bitch like you Zack..." she practically growled at him.
Zack looked around a little bit older then Iris, he was wearing a black shirt, a grey wind breaker jacket, blue worn jeans with brown hiking boots. He had short brown hair, grayish blue eyes, and cleary hadn't shaved in a couple days.
"Hahaha!...Wow I've missed your nick names for me" he said chuckling.
She just continued to glare at him and he continued to smile smugly at her.
"Well you would know who is a son of a bitch since your the queen bitch yourself"he said matter afactly.
"Ok knock it off you two your not childern anymore" Malcolm said to the two of them as grabbed Iris's shoulder and pushed her back lightly, he then bent his head down to to talk in her ear.
"James ratted out the bodies to some people and the soldiers stationed in the colony found out..." he whispered making her close her eyes in anger.
"That fucking moron...remind me to kill James...how many are here?" she hissed under her breath.
"Just him...it was ethier let him come to observe and decide what action needs to be done or they would call in the rest of them to handle the situation...I brought a colony guard with me as back up...along with this...just in case " he said as he gestured to the pistol in his belt.
"Just how many soldiers are-
She cut herself off when something caught her eye out of the huge window but quickly turned her head to Malcolm's ear.
"Looks like you forgot to tell me who else would be here Malcolm..." she whispered to him, his eyes trailed to see what she was looking at when he saw what she was refuring too he turned his gaze back to her.
"Like you said...let's talk later" She said quietly.
He nodded in aggreement.
She then had a realization at something he just said.
"Wait, when you said colony guard you don't mean Zack do you?" she asked in shock as she turned her head to look at Zack who just continued to smile at her smugly.
"He became a guard a couple months after you were kicked out."
She looked between him and Malcolm in disbelief.
"How did a fucking delinquent like him-
"I must say Malcolm when you said you knew some one with military training I didn't suspect someone who was so outspoken..." The soldier said finally cutting in his opinion after being silent the whole time.
Iris could feel him judging her causing her to glare at him.
"Iris this Lieutenant Liam Sykes one of the few soldiers left from the original U.S. Army, Lieutenant this is Iris Rodman."
The soldier's face fell to shock at this this information.
"Rodman? As in William Rodman? Your related to him?" he asked seriously.
The whole room became tense.
"I'm his daughter..." she said plainly.
The soldier then turned his gaze from her to Malcolm, clearly not happy.
"Your letting the daughter of the genocider help us with this" he said dangerously low to Malcolm.
"Iris isn't her father and she has training-
"I've heard all about how she used that training in the colony, she's kinda popular over there, I also heard she bashed a kid's skull so bad that he got a concussion" he said basically grilling Malcolm.
"If you knew the whole story then you would know she did that to defend herself against the boy along with his two friends if my might add who were assaulting her" they turned there heads to the one who spoke this to see it was Ellie who was obviously getting upset by the Lieutenant's comments, Iris also noticed Zack looking down at the ground depressingly with his face full of guilt at Ellie's comment which kind of surprised Iris, but she didn't have time to think about it because there was something she wanted to confirm about this soldier and when she remembered Malcolm's pistol she realized how she could do it.
The Lieutenant then turned his head back to glare at her.
"They also told me she tried to get others to sympathize with those-
He was quickly cut off when She snatched the pistol from Malcolm's belt and aimed at him.
"IRIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Malcolm yelled, suprised my the action she just pulled.
"Iris give the gun back to Malcom please!" Ellie pleading to her, the other doctor beside her who was a guy obviously looked freaked out.
Zack just watched Iris attentively, waiting to see what her reason was.
Bruce could feel her distress and started to growl at Sykes.
"I'M NOT GETTING RID OF THE GUN UNTIL I SEE THE BACK THIS BASTARD'S NECK" she screamed while staring Sykes inraged.
The Lieutenant showed no emotion on his face but just looked at her.
"Iris why do-
"Alpha-Omega have brands in the back of their neck as proof they one of the group!" she yelled cutting Malcolm off.
Malcolm looked at Sykes then back to her unsure.
"Are you saying he's-
"I won't know for sure unless I check his neck, did you forget what those guys tried to do to Alex..." said she lowly this time but was still obviously inraged.
He closed his eyes her comment, making him remember what happened 5 years ago, it wasn't pleasant. He back away from her and she walked over to Skyes, still pointing the gun while he stared at her blankly. She grabbed his shoulder and roughly turned him around to look at the back of his neck to see nothing this made her a little relieved, she also showed Malcolm and he was relieved too but she still had this shakey feeling something wasn't right about him.
"Is that enough proof for you Ms. Rodman..." he asked her monotonely.
"For now..." she said as she backed up away from him and gave Malcolm back his gun.
"If all of you are done arguing over there I would like to tell you what we found" Ellie said straight to the point.
Sykes walked over to the table while keeping a eye on Iris, when he was close to Bruce the shepard snapped his jaws and the man quickly backed away before he could do anything.
"Don't take it personally...he doesn't like assholes" she said lowly as she walked past him along with Malcom up the table that had one the bodies, he glared at her in response.
"Well you were right Iris they where all killed ethier by a sharp rock or a big piece of glass, those are my best guesses since we don't have the weapon, not to mention the bodies where moved so we don't know where they were killed..."
"They were found in the forest though right? and they were killed savagely it has to be the apes" Sykes said.
Iris scoffed at this.
"You think just because they were found in the woods and slashed up that it was the apes...your an idiot.."
He turned his head to look at her.
"They could have been in the city for we know and dumped into the woods to make seem like it was like the apes...we don't know yet."
"And the way they were killed?"
"You should know there's sick people out there Lieutenant...I've met a couple myself both ape and human...there's good apes and there's bad apes just like there's good humans and bads humans...we are not really that much different from each other...even our DNA 94% compatiable " she said softly.
He just continued to state at her.
"I wonder why you sympathize with these animals so much Ms. Rodman since there's proof of how much they brutalized on your body" He said as he roughly grabbed her arm pulling her towards him, his action catching her off guard , He then grabbed by her neck with his other hand to hold her in place.
Everybody reacted, the hand that wasn't holding her neck was now ripping off her jacket and her shirt showing her half naked body to everyone, Malcolm aimed his gun but his grip loosened and his face turned distraut when he saw the naked part of her upper body, Ellie covered her mouth in horror, Zack didn't know how to react , and Bruce was barking and growling ready to pounce but Malcolm grabbed him by the scruff of his neck keeping him from doing so, though he really wanted to go of him and let Bruce have his way. They could see all the bite marks on her upper body.
She just glared at Sykes as he held her by the throat.
"You thought by covering yourself with your jacket that no one would notice, if you hadn't pulled that gun and got closer to me I probably wouldn't have..." He told her queitly.
She grunted in frustration while still glaring at him.
"While at first glance these marks look like they were done by a some kind of animal but when you look at them closer you can tell they are also similiar to a human so I'll ask you again Ms. Rodman...how can you still defend these beasts after one of them used you as a chew toy..." He said while staring into her eyes.
"I would recommend that you let go of Iris and slowly back away from her..."Zack warned The Lieutenant dangerously low while pointing a gun at his head, Iris was surprised he was trying to defend her.
"Son...what your doing right now isn't wise..." he warned Zack while never turning his head.
"Neither is what I'm about to do..." Iris said softy, now having her knife positioned at his groin ready to plunge it in.
He looked at the knife then back at her, surprised that she was able to pull it out with our him noticing, the whole room became tense.
"Like he said...get your fucking hands off me...or your going to bleed out from your balls..." she threatened as she lightly pressed the tip to touch his pants.
Sykes slowly let go of her and backs away this makes Zack lower his gun. Ellie walked over to Iris right after he did, she helped her put her jacket back on then gently cradled her face in one of her hands, looking at her with worried eyes.
"You ok?" she asked her softly.
Iris nodded as she put her knife back into her pants.
"Iris it's ok for you go home now..." Malcolm said queitly while leting go of Bruce.
Not having to tell her twice she turned around to head outside while telling Bruce to follow her. But before she even made it out the room she saw Malcolm go over to Sykes and punched him right in the middle of his face making him stumble a little, Zack smirked a little at this.
"If you ever touch her like that again...I swear I won't hesitate to shoot you next time or let Bruce tare out your throat" he threatened him, he then turned around to go outside with Iris following behind him, Skyes glared at them as he watched them go.
Once they got outside the building they walked aways until Iris stopped and turned around to look at him.
"You wanted to talk right?...let's talk" she said straight to the point.
"I do Iris but I can understand if you not feeling up to it right now..." he said sympathetically, knowing she had been through enough today.
"Let's just get over with it I don't want to bugged about this later..." she said as she brought a hand up to her head to rub her temple to help ease the headache she has.
He sighed.
"Why did you run off like that yesterday?...I know you have anxiety when your around to many people but there was only those two plus Alex and I..."
"That wasn't it..."
"Then what was it the apes?...was it Caesar?..."
She turned her eyes away from him while still rubbing her temple, confirming that it was.
"How do you know him Iris? What did he-
"He's my brother Malcolm..." she cut him off.
Malcolm was shocked at this.
"You mean the one who you hadn't seen since you where a kid?..." he asked.
"Yea that one..." she said queitly.
"Iris why didn't you ever tell me..."
"There was never much to tell...we haven't seen each other 10 years and we both lived different lives in all those years...we both changed..." she depressingly.
Bruce rubbed up against her sensing she was sad, making her pet him.
"I'm tired, dirty, and have huge headache so I'm just want to go back home myself now...thank you...for sticking up for me" she said as she turned to walk away.
Malcolm watched her sadly.
"Also tell them to hide better next time...they got lucky that I noticed them not that bastard...next time they wiki probably not be so lucky..." she said as walk off back to the woods.
Malcolm watched her leave then looked on top of a building, locking eyes with Caesar and the apes who were trying to be unnoticed, Caesar's gaze then switched to Iris, watching as she left.
Muir Park
Iris was in the slow currant part of the river, washing off all the dirt and sweat she needed to get rid of, the water was cold but she didn't care it felt better then how she been feeling lately and she liked to swim anyways. She closed her eyes while running her hands through her long hair then down her face and neck until she stopped at the bite mark on her neck. She opened her eyes with her face blank, she started to feel around the other bite marks on her body.
Sykes words and the way he shamed her had started to come back her, making her relive something that she desperately wanted to forget.
She hugged herself as she began to sob while lowering herself into the water until she was completely under water she then screamed.
Wow I wrote a lot, it took a lot out of me I'm tired now lol I hope you guys like the chapter thell me what you think I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can :)