The next chapter is up! Enjoy :)
The early morning sun peeked over the horizon to a cloudless sky.
Galen was slightly awoken to movement beside him then a faint pressure of lips against his. He slowly smiled into the kiss while returning it. He then reached up and wrapped his arms around Hanna as she pressed her front to his. She reached up and cupped his cheek as she deepened the kiss, making a soft grunt leave him.
Then a few moments later, they pulled back for some air.
"Good morning to you too." He says.
"Figured you'd like the wake-up call." She replied.
"Well, I could never say no to it." Galen said, with a wide smirk.
He then dragged one of his hands down her back and lightly grasped her ass.
"Or to this either." He purrs.
"I can tell your looking for a repeat of last night. I can feel it against my stomach. But I'm sorry to say, your friend is already up. I heard him come down the stairs and walk down the hall." Hanna told him.
Galen huffs, "Guess this means we have to get dressed then."
"Yep. Plus, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. And... stop looking at me like that. I'm not on the menu this morning." She says, with some laughter in her voice.
Galen just gave her his sad puppy look. But it only made her laugh more and she wasn't going to fall for it this time.
"Sorry, buddy. It's not happening. We're getting up, getting dressed, and getting food. And that's final." Hanna teased.
"Fine, only because I know you sometimes get cranky if you don't eat." He mutters.
"And don't you forget it." She stated.
That's when a small chuckle left him.
"Ok, firecracker. You win. Let's go then." He says, then gives her ass a light slap before she rolls off of him.
In return for the slap, Hanna reached over, grasped his prick and gave it a couple strokes, before pulling away.
"Hanna!" He whines.
The young woman just laughed as she got out of bed then started picking her clothes up off the floor and began pulling them on.
Galen eventually got out of bed and went to do the same thing as he bent down and started picking up his things. Both of them had dressed pretty quickly. Then before they left the room, Hanna gabbed both their packs. It was out of habit, just in case they need to grab and run.
As they went down the hall and through the living room, a lovely aroma started filling the air. It was coming from the kitchen.
The pair entered the kitchen and saw Lario with his back to them standing over a charcoal stove top, humming a little tune to himself. They could faintly see steam, indicating he was cooking something. Hanna dropped their packs near the couch before entering the kitchen.
"Morning, Lario." Galen says.
The older chimp turns around and gives them a small smile.
"Good morning, I take it you two slept well?" He inquires.
"Yes, very well, thank you." Hanna says.
"Very good, I'm making eggs, would either of you two care for any?" Lario asks.
"I would, thanks." She replied.
"No thank you." Galen said.
"Alright, how do you take your eggs?" The old chimp asks her.
"Scrambled, please." She replied.
"Coming right up." Lario told her
"Make yourselves comfortable at the table over there. I made a fruit salad. It's in that big bowl over there on the table. I also have fresh mango juice if anyone wants some." He added.
"Is that what's in the pitcher here?" Galen asks, pointing to one of two pitchers that were on the table. One clearly had water in it while the other had this yellowish liquid in it.
"Yes, that's it. Feel free to pour yourselves a drink." Lario says, as he cooks the eggs.
"Thank you." Galen says.
"Yeah, thanks." Hanna adds.
They could see there were already three plates out with forks and knives, along with cups.
Hanna poured herself some water than reached for the fruit salad bowl and grabbed the large wooden spoon. She then scooped herself a serving then asked Galen if he wanted some.
He said yes, so she scooped up some an put it on his plate for him. Afterwards, she picked up a fork and tried some of the cut up mixed fruits.
"This is a very good fruit salad, Lario." She says.
"Yes, he claims it is his 'world famous' fruit salad. He makes it all the time apparently." Galen teased.
"Hah! It may as well be world famous. Whenever there is a small party or any other festivities, people always asks if I'm making fruit salad to bring." Lario stated, proudly.
"I was kidding, Lario. I know it's good, I've had it a few times before the last couple times I was here visiting you with my parents." The younger chimp says.
A couple minutes later, Lario came over with the finished eggs.
"Here you are, scramble eggs. I take it yours weren't scrambled enough last night as it was." Lario joked, with a knowing smirk as he shoved the eggs out of the skillet and onto her plate.
Hanna's cheeks became bright red, while Galen started choking on his sip of mango juice.
"Lario!" Galen blurted out, clearly mortified.
The older chimp started to laugh at the flustered looks on the young pairs' faces.
"What!? You two were not exactly as quiet as you thought you were, you know." Lario says, between laughs.
"We're sorry." Hanna apologized, her face still red.
The old chimp waved a hand at them and shrugged.
"Oh, I don't care. At least it sounded like Galen was doing something right." He jokes.
The younger chimp's face turned red, and his mouth dropped open.
In the end, Hanna couldn't help but laugh at the joke herself. She was all for crude humor and used to it, having a lot of male friends while in the service, more than half their jokes were dirty jokes.
"You're not wrong there." Hanna said, with laughter in her voice.
Galen's gaze quickly shot to the young woman sitting next to him.
"Hanna!?" He blurted out.
"What? Just being honest." She teased.
"Yes, but you don't have to go and announce it!" He replied, still embarrassed.
"Would it make you feel less embarrassed if I told you about some of my flings?" Lario inquires, with a grin.
"No!" Galen called out.
Both Lario and Hanna just laughed at his tiny outburst and the look on his face.
"Too bad, I actually had at least a couple with a human woman before out of curiosity. Let me just say, each time didn't disappoint." The old chimp stated, with a teasing smirk.
"I don't think I'm hungry anymore." Galen mutters under his breath.
"So, you're indicating you have had a lot of dates in the pasts?" Hanna implied, as she ate breakfast.
"Oh yes, while I wasn't one for marrying and settling down, it didn't mean I didn't have flings at all. Had quite a few on and off ones, especially in my younger years. Even engaged in what they called a threesome once with two females. That was very interesting to say the least and a lot of fun." Lario stated, wistfully.
"I think I'm going to be sick. Please stop." Galen mumbled.
Hanna chuckled, finding the whole thing amusing.
"Sounds like you hardly missed out on anything, Lario." She teased.
"Nope, I even went as far as fornicating with a female in a public bath house. And let me tell you, things certainly got interesting when we moved our activities to the small indoor whirlpool in the back..."
"So, Lario what are your plans for today? We certainly wouldn't want to keep you from them." Galen quickly said, cutting into his conversation.
Lario's grin just widened in amusement.
"You're not. I was going to restock my food supplies to bring when I resume traveling tomorrow. You and Hanna are more than welcome to join me to restock yours. You both will have a long walk ahead of you, trying to get to Akron." He told them.
"Sounds good to me. When did you plan on heading into the village to restock?" Hanna asked.
"Was probably going to go after breakfast." Lario replied.
"That's fine, just please...no more stories about your 'escapades'." Galen requested.
"Aww, why not? They sounded like they were starting to get interesting too." Hanna teased.
"Ehh, Galen's always been a bit of a spoilsport." Lario says, nonchalantly.
"I am not, there are just some certain things I don't like to talk or hear about." The younger chimp stated.
"Guess that includes sex stories. Probably shouldn't bring up some of the sex blunders I've had in high school then." Hanna joked.
"Please don't. Or at least bring them up at a time when I'm not in the middle of eating." Galen told her.
"Fine...spoilsport." She teased.
Galen grumbled then shifted his gaze back to the older chimp sitting across from them.
"Now look what you started. Bad enough you call me that, now she's calling me that." He told his old friend.
"What? She's just merely pointing out the obvious like I have." Lario joked.
The three of them continued to chat while they ate breakfast. Thankfully, Lario didn't bring up anymore inappropriate, yet amusing stories. Instead, he talked a little about some of the places he visited in other districts during some of his previous travels.
Lario even shared how he stumbled upon some breathtaking views in some areas. From these beautiful waterfalls to nice lakes, to interesting cave systems even.
"I'll tell you, the view over that lake with the setting sun, it was gorgeous to say the least. So many colors littered the sky from pink to purple, to orange, and red. The way the colors reflected off the clouds gave it a neat effect too." Lario stated, as he recalls the image quite clearly in his mind.
"It does sound amazing. I've seen some nice sunsets too and your right, the colors are quite amazing when the sun really starts to set." Hanna says.
"Yes, I recall a nice one I once saw with the sun setting over the ocean. Once the sun touched the water line in the distance, this thin sliver of yellow stretched some distance on top of the water line emanating from the sun itself. Gave the illusion that it was highlighting the ocean." Galen said, chiming in.
He recalls Alan and Pete seeing it with him. It was the night right after they escaped from the beach labor camp that one time. They walked along the stretch of beach for the remainder of the day, putting distance between themselves and the camp. Then that night around dusk, they stopped and watch the sun dip down to the water line. Pete made a remark saying it looked like the sun was gradually melting as it sunk below the ocean's water line. Hence the rays creeping along the water line in either direction from the sun itself.
It was one memory; Galen doubts he'll ever forget. It was so serene and peaceful. He along with Alan and Pete sported small smiles as they took in the beautiful view.
After a few more minutes, they all finished breakfast. Then they helped Lario cleanup the kitchen.
Once they finished up in there, Lario went into his closet and grabbed a couple empty sacks. Then he met up with Galen and Hanna as they went to retrieve their packs that were leaning against the front of the couch.
Afterwards, the three of them left the dwellings together.
The pair walked with the older chimp as he led them to the village square where majority of the food stands were. They all stayed together as they navigated the stands. Every now and then, Lario would chat up the ones running the stands. Most of which were friends.
Not only that, but Hanna was happy to see the rebels they helped rescue last night out and about, also restocking food supplies.
Galen and Hanna did stop momentarily to chat with Carla and her husband while seeing how baby Markus was doing. In which case, they were all doing fine. Most of the rebels were about to hit the road again very soon and try and return to their villages once they finished grabbing supplies here.
When Carla and Jared asked where the couple was headed, they just told them they were going to eventually head out too and continue their travels. Though they didn't disclose to any of them where their actual destination would be. The less anyone knew, the better and safer it was.
Galen and Hanna were mainly just happy that they did now have a safe destination in mind and the sooner they leave the sooner they could get to it. With that in mind, they may leave as soon as they are done restocking here too. Something that never really takes them long because most of the times they know what to get or what to look for at these stands. Which were usually favorites.
When the couple did finish grabbing what they needed about ten minutes later, they met up at one stand with Lario, who was still conversing with the stand vendor there that was a friend of his.
Though the old chimp turned his attention to the pair when he saw them approaching his way.
"You two find everything you need?" Lario asks, as they came over.
"Yeah, pretty much." Hanna replied.
"Yes, we're all set." Galen said.
The old chimp went to open his mouth to say something but stop short and looked behind them with a surprised look.
"Urko!" He said quickly.
The couple quickly shifted their attention to behind them and to their horror, they saw none other than the notorious gorilla chief himself, along with about five to six of his men riding behind him.
He had just ridden into the square and started looking around for Galen and the alien woman. Word got out quickly about what happened last night with a small group of troopers that were in the midst of waiting for a transfer of rebels to Centra City down the wide dirt path he and his men had just gotten off of. Plus, the ambush that occurred with three troopers that left one dead and the other two injured.
Once he gotten a description of the attackers, he came running out here with some men and started searching some of the nearest villages off of the dirt path. He didn't have any luck in some of the villages he hit during the night. Now, he and his men were here in Concordia looking for Galen and the woman with him.
Galen, Hanna, and Lario froze as they saw him begin looking around from atop his horse along with his men.
"Go, quickly! Take one of the back village streets out of here and into the woods!" Lario hastily told the pair.
Galen grabbed Hanna's hand, and they quickly started navigating through the throng of people within the village courtyard.
The couple barely made it to the end to the nearest village street that led off of it Before Urko's beady gaze finally zeroed in on the elusive pair.
"There they are! After them!" Urko yelled, while pointing at the pair.
Galen and Hanna's gaze quickly snapped back to Urko upon hearing his loud, booming voice.
They noticed how he and his men were trying to ride through the congested courtyard toward their position. Many people were scrambling to get out of the way so they wouldn't get trampled by the horses.
The pair turned and started running down the small side street in front of them.
While the dispersing crowd could only slow down Urko and his men so much, even Lario could see it was a matter of time before Urko would clear the courtyard and catch up to the pair.
The old chimp spotted some water barrels neatly stacked on top of each other on their sides only a few feet away from him. A small rope was the only thing binding them all together.
He casually made his way over to them while eyeing Urko and his men as they were making their way through the courtyard, then he took out his small knife from its holster in his waistband and brought it to the thin rope. As Urko and the others drew closer, Lario cut through the rope quickly and like a domino effect, they all came tumbling down and rolled right into the path of the horses.
It quickly stopped them in their tracks and lightly startled the horses as the barrels rolled right in front of them.
The old chimp smiled proudly at his sneaky little trick, then casually walked away while Urko and the others with him started to slowly make their way around the barrels.
It took a little time and slowed them down just enough. But once they were around the barrels, they all went galloping full speed, crossing the courtyard and onto the small village road that they saw Galen and the woman take.
They covered the road in no time, only to see Galen and the woman now making their way through the woods beyond the village.
That didn't deter Urko, and he urged his horse on to pursue them. His men followed close behind as they started to filter into the woods. The trees slowed them down a little as they had to dodge and go around many to try and catch up with the fugitives.
Galen and Hanna ran as fast as they could through the trees. Every now and then they looked behind them to see how far off Urko and his men were. While they were still several paces behind, they were gradually closing in.
The pair made a quick left, changing directions and trying to throw their pursuers off.
As they ran, the ground started to shift downward, and they found themselves running downhill through the trees. The downward momentum made them pick up speed as they ran. The hill wasn't very big, only going down about twenty feet or so before they hit even ground once more.
Once they hit level ground again, Urko and his men made it to the downward incline and started making their way down. They still had the pair in sight and knew it was only a matter of time before their horses caught up to them.
Galen and Hanna weren't running for much longer. They slowed down a little when they saw another hill before them. This hill was very rocky and uneven. There was also large clusters of trees and boulders going up the hill. It created a very narrow and rock uneven path that looked only big enough for people to get through but not horses.
"Let's go." Galen told her.
He took Hanna's hand again and they started to make their way up the uneven, rocky hill.
They were about fifteen feet up the hill when Urko and his men made it to the bottom of the hill. The gorilla chief and his troopers slowed the horses to a quick stop and idled briefly in front of the narrow, uneven passage up the hill.
"Dammit, it's too narrow for the horses! We must dismount and follow them by foot! Move now!" Urko said, as he quickly got off of his horse and started making his way up the hill.
It was quite tricky, he almost tripped over a few rocks on the way up and his men were not keeping up as well as they trailed behind him. Many of them stumbled and slipped trying to make their way up behind the gorilla chief.
But Urko was determined and pushed himself to go faster, trying to catch up with the two fugitives.
His tenacity paid off and he was now only several feet behind the pair as they continued upwards.
Galen and Hanna made it to level ground again and started running. It was clearer here at the top, as it opened into a clearing. Unfortunately, Urko had made it up too and continued chasing them.
As they ran, Hanna's foot caught on a rock, and she fell down to the ground. Galen went to help her and saw Urko was just about there. Then when the gorilla chief was almost on top of them, something unexpected happened.
The ground beneath them all suddenly caved in and all three of them found themselves falling.
They all let out small screams as they fell through the air. Rocks, grass, and debris falling with them as they plunged below. Then as sudden as it happened, they all found themselves submersed in water.
Hanna found Galen's hand beneath the water, and she tugged him to the surface. The water must've been pretty shallow because she and the others touched the bottom briefly when they fell in. She braced herself and kicked up off of the pebbled ground and to the surface.
They both took deep inhales as they broke the surface. Galen flailed around a little, his feet barely touching the ground below them in the water. Urko too found himself back at the surface and struggled at first to gain his bearings as he coughed up a lungful of water. His feet also barely touched the bottom.
If they had to guess, the water couldn't have been more than maybe six feet deep.
They looked around and Hanna spotted dry lands a few yards away on their left. She pointed it out to Galen, and he too saw the gravelly embankment. Then the couple started making their way over to it.
Urko set his gaze on them and saw them swimming away. He then noted the embankment several yards away and that was where they were headed. He started following them to the shoreline.
It took about a few minutes, before the pair finally got there. They clumsily made their way onto the embankment, feeling exhausted and a bit bruised from the fall.
Though they hardly had time to recover before Urko made his way to shore behind them.
While the gorilla chief was a bit winded while making his way out of the water, it didn't slow him down. He charged the pair and ran headlong into Galen knocking him to the ground.
Galen fell with a startled yelp from the impact.
Urko sat up, straddling him and started hitting the chimp beneath him. Hanna saw this and quickly ran over. She then shot her leg out and kicked the gorilla harshly in the side of the ribs. The force of the kick sent Urko sprawling onto his side and off of Galen.
Hanna then went to help Galen up, which was a mistake on her part because she didn't count on Urko recovering as quickly as he did and while she was preoccupied with pulling him up, the gorilla came in and sent a punch to the side of her head and face.
The young woman saw stars from the hard blow to the head and she landed roughly on her back, getting the wind knocked out of her in the process.
Urko then went for her with a snarl and sat astride her. He lifted his fists and started hitting Hanna.
All she could do was hold up her bent arms in front of her face to try and stave off the harsh blows. But it was apparent that gorillas hit harder than humans, and it was becoming very painful. The way he was sitting on her, she could hardly move her legs or hips to buck him off of her.
Galen saw this and went for Urko. He picked up a small rock on the way, that was roughly the size of a baseball. As he ran over to the gorilla, he arched his arm over his head with every intention of slamming the rock down hard into Urko's head.
The gorilla quickly shifted his gaze as he saw the chimp come charging over towards him with the rock in hand.
Once Galen was close enough, Urko lifted his arm and slammed it into the chimp's sternum and roughly shoved him back and off of his feet. He landed hard onto the ground from the impact, clutching at his sore torso.
Urko then let out a small cackle.
"It's over Galen. You lose. Again. Now, you get to watch this woman die just like you watched Virdon and Burke die. Then, you will be next." The gorilla chief said with a sneer.
The chimp watched in barely concealed horror, as Urko pulled his pistol out of his holster and began to point it down at Hanna.
Her eyes widened in fear as she saw the gorilla above her slowly pull his gun out and begin to raise it towards her. There was a loud click that rang through the air and bounced off the cave walls as he cocked it.
"NOOOO!" Galen yelled, as he quickly reached for his knife and pulled it out from the holster in his side.
Before Urko could react, the chimp quickly came in, arched his arm back and slammed the knife into the left upper side of Urko's back. The knife went all the way in to the hilt, nicking the gorilla's heart in the process.
Urko let out a sharp gasp, his eyes widened, and he dropped the pistol to the ground as a sheer, sharp pain tore through his body. Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, and he could feel blood pumping out of his back around the embedded blade and coating Galen's hands as he held the knife in there for a few seconds more.
Hanna watched from below, seeing the surprised look on Urko's face. Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he started falling to the side.
Galen dislodged his knife and dropped it to the ground. Clearly shocked that he just killed someone outright. But at the same time, he knew he didn't have a choice.
This monster already taken his best friends away from him and he wasn't about to allow him to take the woman he loved too.
Once the initial shock wore off, he quickly went to tend to Hanna. He helped her sit up, she let out a pained hiss and clenched her jaw as he pulled her to sit up. It felt like she had just got hit by a car and once reality kicked in and she realized how close to death she was, a few tears left her eyes, along with a silent sob.
Galen wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
They were both very bruised and beaten. But at least they were both alive. Though the relief they suddenly felt quickly left when they heard Urko's troops up above.
"Chief Urko!" One of them called down into the deep hole. His voice echoing off the cave walls below.
By the looks of it, it had to be a good forty-to-fifty-foot drop and they could just about make out water down below.
"He and the fugitives must've fell in and drowned. I told you I saw him and the fugitives fall through the earth as I made it to the top of the hill." Another trooper explained.
Though some of the others didn't want to truly believe their chief was gone.
"Chief Urko! Can you hear me!?" The same one repeated once more.
The couple remained silent. The hole was directly over the water into which they fell. So, the embankment was out of sight from the gorillas way above.
When they heard no response from the gorilla chief a forlorn look overcame the troopers. As much as they hated to admit it, they now believed he was gone.
"He's...gone. They all are dead. It's clear, no one survived the fall into the water below." One of them said.
Then he turned to his comrades with a sigh, "We go back to Central City and inform the high council of what has happened. While we were victorious of ending the last of the fugitives, we sadly lost Chief Urko as well during the pursuit."
The gorillas then started retreating from the edge of the hole and started going back downhill to retrieve their horses. Once they made it down, they all mounted up and turned the horses around to leave.
Back down below, Galen and Hanna still remained sitting on the embankment.
"From what I could hear from here, I do believe they think we're dead. I think I also heard them mention they were heading back to Central City." Galen said.
His gaze shifted back to Urko, who was lying dead only a few feet away.
As horrible as it looked, Galen couldn't help but feel like the nightmare was finally over. Urko was dead and his men thought they too were dead. In a way, this puts both Hanna and him in the clear.
"Is it...over then?" Hanna asks, barely above a whisper as she still clung to his front.
He shifts his gaze back down to her.
"Yes, I do believe it is. Now, all we have to do, is get to Akron." Galen told her.
Hanna looks around their surroundings, she could see it looked like they fell into some large cave or cavern of sorts with some small underground lake.
"First, we got to figure out how to get out of here." She says.
Galen looked around until he saw light out of the corner of his eye to his left.
He shifted his gaze that way and saw an opening in the cave wall a few yards away and several feet up a mound of rocks. He saw the sky and some clouds through the hole, and it looked big enough for them to get through.
"I see an opening over there. Looks big enough to get through and it clearly leads outside." He told her.
Hanna pulled back from him, and he gestured to the left and slightly up.
It didn't take too long to see this exit he spoke of.
"Let's go then." She says.
Hanna started to slowly stand. Galen stood with her, keeping a hand around her shoulders to steady her.
Then the pair began to head over to the cave's exit up ahead. They crossed the several yards across the cave and started scaling the rocky mound that led up to it. The mound was a bit slippery, but after a few minutes, they were able to make it up to the opening.
The pair walked out into the sunshine and an into an open field before them.
Relieved smiles touched their faces. It was like they were just set free and now, they were able to move on.
Galen pulled his pack off. Both of them were lucky they didn't lose their packs during the fall. He opened his and reached in to grab the map Lario gave him. Unfortunately, it got quite wet when they fell into the water. So, he had to be very careful when he unraveled it.
The wet paper was very floppy, so, Hanna had to help him hold it open.
Luckily, they could still make out the writing on it and the directions.
"When we left Concordia, and I believe we went this way into the woods. As we briefly ran through the woods, we turned left about here then went uphill here. If my calculations are right, there is another foot path to the left up here right beyond this open field." He said, pointing to another path on the map.
"This path is not very long, and it looks to lead to a road here. Once we get to the road, we should be good. Then we will figure out where to go from there." He further explained.
"Ok, lead the way then." Hanna said, with a small smile.
Galen smiled back. Then he carefully rolled up the wet map and held it loosely in his right hand. While he took her hand in his other hand.
Afterwards, they started walking through the field to look for this foot path that according to the map, was not all that far from their position. It was nice being able to travel now, without being hunted any longer.
Until Next Time ;)