The next chapter is here! Enjoy :)
Kylie woke up the next morning to a soft breeze and sunlight filtering into the tiny hut.
She felt very comfortable, like it was the best night's sleep she had in a long while. She actually felt refreshed and not so tired upon waking. Until she noticed something. The mattress beneath her was moving.
Kylie went to lift her head. When she did, she was met by a pair of wide brown eyes looking down at her.
"Uhh, good morning." He said awkwardly.
She pulled back so quickly, that she ended up falling off the side of the bed with a small yelp.
Kylie laid there on the floor for a moment, red faced and all embarrassed. Then she saw Galen's face pop up over the side of the bed and look down at her.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
Though when he saw she was fine, and her face was resembled a tomato, he couldn't help but find it all amusing.
"Ye...yeah. I'm good." She blurted out.
Galen was silent for a moment, before chuckling.
"Well, can't say I ever had that reaction before from a female that woke up in my arms." He said, with laughter in his voice.
He watched as she leveled him with a look and rolled her eyes.
He still had an amused grin on his face when he reached down and offered her his hand to take. She eventually grabbed his hand, and he helped her back up.
Kylie sat on the edge of the bed. While Galen laid back with his arms crossed behind his head. But kept his gaze on her.
"Funny, I find it hard to believe you have been close like that to a female. Let alone had one in your bed." She quipped.
She watched his gaze shift from her to stare up at the ceiling.
"No, sadly you're right." He said.
Then his gaze shifted back to her, and a small smile appeared on his face.
"But it was nice while it lasted." He added, in a teasing tone.
She snorted, "Next you're going to tell me you're still a virgin."
Kylie muttered that last statement under her breath. But he still heard her.
She saw him go silent, then swore his cheeks turned pink.
"Umm..." He trailed off.
Her eyes widened a little, "Oh shit, I'm sorry, Galen. Didn't mean to put you on the spot like that."
He awkwardly coughed into his closed fist.
"It's...fine. Just wasn't expecting that remark." Galen said.
Kylie still felt bad for saying it. Her friends have always told her in the past that sometimes her mouth has a tendency to work before her brain does and apparently, this was one of those times.
"I guess, I should've told you sooner that sometimes my mouth has a tendency to run before my brain does. Another expression would be my foot sometimes likes to live in my mouth." She awkwardly stated.
He was silent for a moment before he started to laugh a little.
"I swear, you humans do have endless amounts of these funny expressions. It really is quite amusing." Galen says, with laughter in his tone.
"Yeah, I like to think that's the point." She says with a small smile.
Before either of them could say another word, there was a knock on the door.
They both got up and went to answer it, already knowing who it could be. Galen opened the door to see Alan and Pete standing there.
"Hey, good morning, guys. How'd you sleep?" Alan asks.
Fine, you?" Kylie asked.
"We slept well. Beds were very comfortable." Pete says.
"Of course, she slept fine. She rolled over on top of me in her sleep and slept on my chest. Woke up to her still laying on top of me." Galen said, with an amused smirk.
Kylie's eyes widened and her cheeks turned red as her gaze snapped to the chimp standing beside her. She couldn't believe he just flat out told them this.
"Really? Well, can only hope you two were able to keep your hands to yourself." Pete teased.
Galen's face started to turn red to match hers. Before either of them could speak though, Alan spoke up.
"Wait, why would you two be in a bed together? Were there not two in here?" Alan asks.
"No, there's only one. Wait, there was two in your hut?" Kylie inquired.
"Yeah, there were two in ours. So, wait, you guys really had to share a bed then?" Pete questioned.
"Yes, was quite awkward to say the least. Seems quite obvious this one is a bed hog. Hence, why she probably rolled over on top of me." Galen pointed out.
"Still standing right here you know. And no, I'm not. I also distinctly remember that I awoke very briefly at some point last night to someone pulling me to lay with them, then felt their arms around me." Kylie stated.
She may have been more asleep than awake, but she does recall being lightly pulled into him and then him wrapping an arm around her. She could feel the light pressure of his arm as it curved around her side to her back.
"I did not!" Galen blurted out, all embarrassed.
Pete just placed a hand over his mouth with a slight cough, trying not to laugh.
"So, in other words, Galen grabs things in his sleep?" Pete inquired, with some laughter in his voice.
"No!" The chimp called out, still red in the face.
"Ok, Pete. That's enough. Let's not embarrass them anymore than they already are. Let's just sit down and eat some breakfast." Alan said.
"Yes, I agree. Let's just drop it." Kylie added.
The pair moved aside to let their friends in. Though Pete still had an amused look on his face as he bypassed them on the way in.
Galen gave him a dirty look for it while Kylie just gave him an annoyed look. But neither of them said anything. They headed to wear the wooden table was and started pulling some food out of their packs.
While Galen and Kylie went to grab some food out of their packs, which were still on the floor against the wall by the bed.
Then they went to join the others at the table. Though there were only two chairs at this table. So, Alan and Pete just leaned against the wall and allowed Galen and Kylie have the chairs.
"So, we going to stay here a little longer or move on?" Pete asks, between bites.
"Not sure yet." Alan replied.
Then his gaze shifts to Galen and Kylie.
"What do you two think?" He asks.
Kylie shrugs, "Don't know. You three have been at this much longer than me. It's up to you."
"Well, so far, place seems safe enough. Probably could do another day or two here or even a little longer. If you all want to." Galen says.
"More time to share a bed together you mean?" Pete joked.
"Or maybe you can share a bed with Galen tonight while I take the second bed in the hut you and Alan were in." Kylie quipped.
Both the chimp and human man grimaced at that.
"Or we can check out the third hut on the other side of the hut Alan and Pete were staying in. Perhaps there is two beds in there." Galen surmised.
"Hate to tell you two this, but on the way out of our hut right before we walked to yours, we saw an ape couple sporting travel packs going into that third guest hut." Alan admitted to them as he ate.
And just like that, there went their solution.
"Of course, someone went into that last hut." Kylie muttered.
Galen was silent for a moment, before speaking.
"Well, might as well look at it this way. You're not that heavy. So, I don't have to worry about you crushing me in my sleep if you were to roll over onto me again." He teased.
Kylie glared at him, "No, but I can't promise you won't get punch. Especially, if you're going to make fat quips about me."
The chimp's eyes widen, his smirk quickly disappeared, and he closed his mouth.
Both Alan and Pete started to laugh a little at that.
"Ok that's it, Alan we're switching huts tonight. You can stay here and share the bed with her. Because at least she won't try to kill you in your sleep." Galen quickly said.
Alan continued chuckling at his friend's hasty remark.
"Sorry, Galen. While my family may not be here, I'm still a married man. So, I can't." The older man replied.
"I'll gladly volunteer though." Pete stated with a big smirk."
"Ow!" The younger man blurted out and started rubbing his arm.
Kylie was unamused and threw a rather hard piece of fruit at Pete, nailing him in the arm with it.
"On second thought, you can stay with her, buddy. She's all yours." Pete said, quickly retracting his earlier offer.
Galen let out a drawn-out sigh, then shifted his gaze to the young woman sitting across from him.
"Will you at least give me a chance to write out my last will and testament first?" He retorted.
Kylie just gave him a sweet smile, "Nope."
"Guys, it's alright. If the living arrangements are that awkward and uncomfortable, we can leave here and continue traveling." Alan said, though still finding this conversation highly amusing.
Galen shifted his gaze back to Kylie.
"What do you think? You may not have been here for very long, but this is still your decision too. If this arrangement truly makes you uncomfortable, we can move on. At least in the woods, we have plenty of room to spread out when we turn in for the night." He suggested.
Kylie was unsure. She honestly didn't mind all that much sharing the bed with him, even if it was a tad awkward. But at the same time, she didn't want to make Galen feel uncomfortable either.
Several seconds went by before she answered.
"Honestly, I don't really mind all that much sharing a bed. If it makes you feel uncomfortable though, I also have no problem with us moving on." She said, in all honesty.
Galen was a bit surprised at her answer. He would've thought after that embarrassing spill she had this morning, would've made her opt for moving on.
He nodded, then turned to his friends.
"Perhaps, we can stay a little longer." He told them.
"Alright, that's fine with us." Alan said.
After breakfast, they all set out and started walking about the village wanting to see more of it.
Thankfully, no one was really staring all that much at them anymore. Kylie was relieved no one was really staring at her, like they were yesterday when they all arrived here.
Because even she noticed, the people seemed to be staring more at her than the Alan, Pete, and Galen. Probably due to the odd choice of clothing she had on, wearing Pete's oversized vest over herself.
When they all turned the corner to go down one dirt path though, they saw a commotion up ahead.
There was a large group of people all crowded together. The group of friends shared a look, before they decided to head over and see what was going on.
Once they got there, they saw the group was surrounding what was once someone's dwellings.
It looked like the place had collapsed or caved in. Either way, it didn't look good, and the friends were concerned if there were people trapped in there.
"What happened?" Alan asked a gorilla standing next to him.
"The storm that came through last night, did this. We know that Quor and his family are still alive in there somewhere, we can faintly hear them. But we don't know how to clear this mess away without it collapsing any further.
He must've brought his family down into the old storm cellar last night beneath the house while the storm was going. His house was very old, and they knew it was gradually falling apart. But still, none of us could've predicted this would happen and the whole house would just collapse in on itself." The gorilla explained, clearly perturbed and worried.
Pete, Galen, and Kylie heard the whole thing, and they were all deeply disturbed by this upsetting news.
"There's got to be something we can do." Kylie tells them.
"Yes, question is what?" Galen replied.
"Has anyone tried, carefully clearing this debris away to get to them?" Alan inquired.
"Some of us have. We tried pushing away one of the beams that supported the house, but it only made it worse. And more of the weight of the house caved in a little more." Another ape standing by said.
Alan and Pete moved in a little closer inspecting the pile of rubble. Galen and Kylie followed them and started looking around as well.
"Ok, so there is a strong possibility they are definitely alive then. Especially, if the apes here said they could hear them beneath all this. First, we need to find that 'void' space they would be trapped in and start there." Alan explained.
"They said they have a storm cellar that was beneath this home. We need to ask one of the villagers here where the entrance of it would be located." Pete surmised.
Upon hearing that, Kylie approached another nearby bystander, who happened to be a young human man.
"Excuse me, we heard this family has a storm cellar located beneath this house. Would you happen to know where the entrance to the cellar would've been located?" She asks him.
He thought about it then shook his head.
"No, I haven't been into this home before. But a few people over there knew the family better. And some of their friends have been in there and probably know the layout of the house better." He said, gesturing to a couple apes and humans several feet away.
She thanked him and walked over to the group he pointed out.
"Hello, do you by any chance know where the entrance to this storm cellar would be located within the home?" She asks them.
They all shared looks with one another.
"Yes, but why do you ask?" One of the chimps asked.
"Because if we can locate it, then that maybe an area we should try to start removing the rubble." Galen said, walking over.
"We have already tried, there is a large heavy slab along with some other chunks of debris covering it. Too heavy for any of us to lift." Another ape told Galen.
"Besides, when we did try moving some debris from another area of the collapsed home trying to find another way in, more heavy debris started to make it cave in." A human man added.
Alan and Pete heard what the man said as they walked over to their friends.
"If that is the case, we may have to try something called selective debris removal." Alan said to himself.
"Except we don't have the equipment here for that, Al." Pete told him.
"What is this selective debris removal?" Galen inquired.
"It's where you use heavy duty machines to carefully remove heavy pieces of debris and essentially dissect the collapsed building piece by piece." Pete explained.
"In which case, like you said, there is no heavy machinery in this time." Kylie said.
Then a sound caught Kylie's attention. She turned and looked for the source and saw what looked like a large horse stall containing several horses across the dirt path from the collapsed home.
As she stared at them, she suddenly got an idea and turned to her friends.
"Horses. What if we used horses to remove the heavy pieces? People in the past have done it before, by hooking the horses up to a special harnesses or gear and then have them pull heavy objects behind them." She explained to them.
Alan and Pete exchanged quick looks.
"Just like we used horses that one time to remove that heavy slab covering that hole you fell through with Urko that one time during an earthquake in the city." Alan mentioned.
They silently contemplated it and went over it for a few moments.
"It's possible, it could work. Especially if we focus on the one area the entrance to the cellar is located." Alan said.
Then he walked over to the group of bystanders that Kylie and Galen were just talking to.
"Where is the entrance to the cellar located?" He asks them.
One of the apes pointed, "There in the far back left corner of the home."
The group followed his extended arm and found the area he was pointing at.
"Thanks." Pete said.
Then they all went over to that area and started inspecting it.
Like one of the other villagers said, there was a decent size slab of rubble covering where the entrance could be. It was surrounded by other pieces of debris ranging from small to medium size chunks.
"I can hear them. They're under there." Galen told his friends.
"Then we have to move quickly. Because even if they are in a cellar, we don't know if it has received any damage or if parts of it collapsed or caved in." Kylie says.
"Right. We may need a few horses for this job and something sturdy to hook them up to." Alan stated.
Afterwards, the group walked back to the people still surrounding the home. Many were still discussing the best course of action on how to get to the family trapped underneath.
"That won't work, it'll only make it collapse more." One ape said to another.
"Yes, it will. That method was done at least once before in the village of Ganthor." The other ape argued back.
"And more than half the people died utilizing that method." The first ape countered.
"Wait, wait, hold up everyone. Listen, who owns those horses over there across the street?" Alan asks them, cutting into their heated debate.
"That would be Draco. He's right over there." One of the apes said, gesturing to another ape about fifteen feet away.
"Thank you." Alan said.
Then he and the others made their way over to this ape.
He was a slightly older chimp with some gray hairs around his face. He looked to be closely studying the wreckage as if trying to find his own solution on how to breach it.
"Excuse me, are you Draco?" Pete asks.
The older chimp shifts his gaze from the wreckage to see a human man addressing him.
"Yes, I am." He replied.
"We heard you own all those horses over there, correct?" Galen inquires.
"Yes, why do you ask?" The older chimp asked.
"We ask if we can use them. It's possible we can use them to remove the heavier pieces of debris. If we can hook them up to some kind of draft harnesses and fix up rope to them and tie the ropes around some of the larger pieces of debris, then we can steadily bring the horses forward and have them pull the debris away." Alan explained to him.
The older chimp hung onto every word.
He was silent for a moment, then nodded.
"I see where you're going with this. It could work. I do have a few horses that I used for heavy duty pulls as well as the kind of harnesses needed to for it." He replied.
He then gestured for the group to follow him.
They didn't have to go far, seeing as the stalls were just across the road. The older chimp led them to a couple stalls that held some of his strongest horses. Then he turned around to face them.
"How many do you think you'll need for the job?" Draco inquired.
"I want to say at least two or three. We're not removing all of the debris from the entire wreckage. Just the debris covering that cellar door." Alan told him.
"Makes sense. Alright, I keep the harnesses and other tools over here. We'll get them than saddle up the horses and bring them across." Draco said.
Alan, Pete, Galen, and Draco went to work saddling up the three horses. Kylie knew next to nothing about horses, but still helped a little. Galen told her where to hook up certain things.
It took several minutes to hook up what was needed to the horses.
"Ok, now we'll need your strongest rope." Pete told Draco.
"Right, it's over here in the shed." The older chimp said.
He walked over to the shed next to the last stall and opened the door.
He then went inside and grabbed a few rolled-up pieces of the lengthy rope. Then he brought it back out to the group. Afterwards, they brought the horses across the street to the wreckage.
"Everyone, we need you to step aside. We need to bring these horses over to the back left corner of the wreckage." Pete called out.
They all turned around and saw the group coming in with three of Draco's large draft horses.
The crowd quickly parted, allowing them through and watched as they headed to the back.
"We'll still need some volunteers to come back and help carefully remove some of the smaller pieces of debris while the horses move away the larger and heavier pieces." Galen told a few villagers in passing.
After several seconds of silence, three gorillas, two chimps, and three human men followed the group back.
They got to the back left corner of the wreckage about three minutes later.
"Ok, I believe our best bet is to remove this large slab. It's the one main huge piece that is supposedly settled right over the cellar's entrance, right?" Alan surmised.
"Yes, this is where the point of entrance would be." One of the gorillas informed him.
"Remove that piece, and then we would mainly just have to focus on the smaller pieces both beneath and around it right?" Kylie deduced.
"Yes, because if we especially try to remove the chunks of debris beneath it, then the slab will just fall into the entrance more. Which could become dangerous for the people trapped underneath." Pete replied.
"So, we use the horses to carefully remove the slab. Then you want us to move in and start to carefully lift the chunks, piece by piece?" One chimp inquired.
"Exactly. Because even if it does cave in a little. The smaller pieces will do lesser harm than the bigger heavier pieces." Alan explained.
"Now, we just need to look for a good place to tie the ropes to the slab." Draco stated.
"Right, so let's start looking for a good place on this slab to tie them around." Pete instructed.
The group of friends along with the group of villagers started looking around the large, flat slab.
It took about a few minutes until they found a couple areas to tie the ropes on. They had to carefully maneuver a couple pieces of rubble out of the way. But they were able to manage.
They tied the ropes in place on the slab. Then tied the other ends to the horses' harnesses.
"Alright Draco, let's get them moving." Alan told the older chimp.
The two of them went in front of the small row of horses.
Draco grabbed a handful of reins while Alan grabbed some of the other reins.
"Ok, we need to go slow with this. Otherwise, if we jerk this sucker out too quickly, it can cause another bad collapse or start coming apart." Alan told him.
The older chimp nodded, then he started to carefully coax his horses forward very slowly.
Galen, Kylie, Pete, and the group of villagers stayed behind them and carefully supervise the pull of the slab.
"Ok, it's starting to move along. Take it slow." Pete instructed.
Alan and Draco followed the instructions and made sure to inch out the large slab. It may take a little time, but they had to be careful, one slip up, and things could quickly take a turn.
Some of the other chunks of debris both around the slab and beneath it started to slide and move a little. But that was bound to happen. As long none of the chunks do a major shift, that would cause other pieces to go, they were good.
In the end, it must've taken at least fifteen to twenty minutes to pull away the large slab completely.
Once they did though, the others can finally start moving some of the other smaller pieces.
"Just focus on the pieces covering the trap door to the cellar." Pete told them.
Everyone focused on that general spot and started lifting some of the debris away.
A few chunks required upwards of two to three people to move them. At times it even got a little risky because a few of them slipped on some loose pieces of small chunks while trying to walk off the small mound of debris with the large pieces in hand.
Kylie went to pick up one thick chunk. She went to pull it up but struggled a bit.
'Shit, this piece is heavier than it looks!' She thought.
It was then she saw someone approach her out of the corner of her eye.
Then Galen appeared before her.
"Need a hand?" He asks.
"Yes, please." She says, between huffs.
He bent his knees and placed his hands on either side of the piece.
Then slowly but surely, the pair was able to lift it off the ground. It was a bit of a struggle though as they carried it off. Her arms were shaking, and Galen clenched his jaw as them moved it along.
One of the human men came over and started to help them. It made quite the difference with another set of hands and became less of a struggle as he helped them move it off and to the side.
They set it down carefully.
Galen nodded a thanks to the young man. While Kylie told him thank you. Then they went back to the wreckage to remove more. Thankfully, it didn't look like there was much more to remove. Especially with all the extra hands involved.
After another few minutes, Kylie shoved a flat piece of debris aside, and spotted something beneath it.
It was flat wooden floorboards. She brushed some dust off of it and saw some of it fall in between the thin cracks between the planks. Then she thought she heard something beneath it. Almost like movement.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" She says down at the boards.
There was a brief moment of silence before she heard a frantic voice coming from underneath the boards.
"Yes! Please help us!" A muffled grown male's voice said from beneath.
Kylie quickly stood up to alert the others.
"Here! They're here! I can hear them beneath these boards!" She called out to the others.
They all came rushing over and looked down. One of the gorillas knelt down, while looking down at the boards.
"Quor, Linna!? Can you hear us?!" He called down to them.
"Yes, we're all here!" An adult female's voice called through.
"Hang in there, we're moving the rest of the debris away from the trap door!" Pete called down.
"Hurry! It's getting harder to breathe down here!" The male's voice called up.
"Everyone! Grab all the pieces you see around the trap door and pull them away!" Alan instructed hastily.
They all quickly got started and began pulling everything back at a more rapid pace.
Little by little the small area was cleared away, revealing the trap door that led to the storm cellar. One of the villagers gripped the indented handle in the door and started to pull it open.
Not long after it was pried open, a couple of chimps popped their heads out.
By the looks of it, they weren't adults though. They looked like kids. One of the other villagers approached and held out his hand to at least one of them.
"Chase, take my hand." He said.
The chimp boy took it and was helped out of the cellar. While Galen extended his hand out to help the other boy out.
Afterwards, an even smaller child popped her head out. It was a little chimp girl. She looked around with a scared expression, that really tugged at Kylie. She carefully knelt down and held out her hand to the frightened child.
"It's ok now, your safe." Kylie said softly to her.
The little girl hesitated a moment then slowly reached out and took her hand.
Kylie started to help her out. At one point, she lifted the small girl the rest of the way out. Not long after an older female chimp, most likely the mother came out. Alan grasped her hand and helped her out of the opening.
Then the last one out was the older male chimp. Two of his friends grabbed a hand and hauled him out.
Not long after they got him out, they all heard loud cheers from behind them near the front of the wreckage. They all turned to see the rest of the villagers cheering, excited to see that their friends were alright.
They all escorted the family safely away from the wreckage that was their former home.
Everyone surrounded them and gave them all pats on the back. Then one of the chimps came over and started asking them if they were alright and if anyone was injured.
The chimp in question was one of the village doctors.
Thankfully, they all said they were fine. Just a bit shaken up from the whole ordeal. They all apparently made it into the storm cellar minutes before the home collapsed and caved in.
"That really was a good idea you had with the horses. Probably wouldn't have been able to find another solution otherwise." Draco told the group of friends.
"You're welcome. Though it was mainly Kylie's idea and suggestion to use the horses." Galen said, gesturing to the young woman standing next to him.
"Perhaps, but it took all of us to pull it off." She replied.
"Either way, we thank you all for helping us." The chimp known as Quor told them.
"Yes, thank you very much." His wife, Linna added.
"Again, you're welcome." Alan said.
Once everything settled down, the group helped Draco take his horses back across the street to their stalls. They helped him take the harnesses and rest of the gear off before putting them back in.
Afterwards, they left the horse stalls.
"Damn, removing all that debris was hard work. That's for sure." Kylie said, rotating one of her arms back and forth.
"Yes, but at least we were able to help get them all out safely." Galen replied.
"Yeah, and that's what matters." Pete says.
"Agreed." Alan added.
"Still, it was another typical day at the office for us. Right guys?" Pete told Alan and Galen.
"Like always." Galen said.
A small smile appeared on Alan's face.
"Exactly." He says.
"You mean to say you run into a lot of problems like this that you end up having to fix?" Kylie inquires.
Galen shifts his gaze to her and grins.
"Pretty much." He tells her.
"More like we prefer to fix things and Galen just goes along with it." Pete jokes.
"Hey! Not true! I've made plenty of suggestions in the past to help." The chimp blurted out.
This caused the group to laugh a little. In turn, Galen gave them the stink eye.
"Well, Galen. You've been called out. May as well own up to it." Kylie teased.
He turns to her with an arched eye ridge.
"Hah! Never. There is nothing to own up to. These two can be bonified liars at times." He stated.
The two men shared a look, before shifting their gaze to the chimp.
"Yeah, because you never lie. Right, Galen?" Pete retorted.
He opened his mouth to say something but paused. He did this a couple times, giving the impression of a fish out of water.
Galen huffed, "Still not nearly as much as you two." He muttered.
Kylie couldn't help but chuckle a little at his response.
He couldn't hold his frown for long. For some reason, her laughter brought a smile to his face. Even prompting a small chuckle from him. Guess her laughter was just contagious.
They decided to continue doing what they originally planned to do before lending a hand to help, they walked around exploring the rest of the village.
Until Next Time ;)