Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Willow and any alterations to the original storyline plot her presence creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.
Born To Lead 1 ½ Chapter 6
After much time scouring the city on scouting missions Willow finally thinks they've managed to pinpoint a suitable place for the females, elderly, and children to settle down in.
A large building on the edge of the downtown area is near a decent-sized park. If Caesar and the other males succeed in keeping the humans at bay with some well-placed tricks of misdirection Willow thinks it might potentially be a good place for the young ones to play under supervised protection and perhaps forage some small plants to eat occasionally. It's not exactly ideal, but this building is one of the few livable places big enough to hide them until anything better is located. Willow would rather they be back in their territory, but she this is all she has to work with.
With assistance from her mother, Tinker, and Lake, Willow does her best to organize groups to make the place livable and maintain their dwindling food supplies.
Despite all the problems laid before them, Willow is determined to take things one step at a time not let the stress get the better of her, and make sure everyone is comfortable.
Still, the popping gunshots they can catch on the wind keep the atmosphere around them a grim one.
It's just a beginning but Willow is under an assumption that things are going well on her neck of things…
And then it happens.
One minute Willow is discussing who to send out to scavenge for food in one or two of the neighboring buildings when a strange sound, a kind of rumbling or tearing in the air itself reaches their ears. It began from far away, quickly getting louder and louder by the second.
The hair on the back of Willow's neck stands up in dread and judging by the horrified expression crossing Winter's pale face he senses it too.
Before either of them can release an alarm call to take cover they're hit. The building they're all congregated in is hit and an explosion rings out. The impact comes from all directions, sending multiple apes airborne with Willow and Winter being amongst them.
Disorientation hits Willow hard as she feels heat and the burning sensation of gruesome smoke hitting her nose when she comes to.
The impact on her body makes it feel like her hours have passed when in fact it was merely a couple of seconds.
It's mayhem.
Everything that had been arranged so far, a sleeping area, a heart for the fire, and a generous food store is in ruins.
Everyone was scrambling away to reach points of relative safety, climbing the walls of balconies that overhung the vast central space. The living area was so open that if the missile had hit them instead of the building next door the lives lost would've been beyond catastrophic.
Willow can't afford to stand there idle after they'd just been on the receiving end of this devastating assault on the noncombatants. Grunting loudly Willow gathers the attention of the gorillas in attendance and orders to assist the injured in moving over to a safer spot and search and retrieve anyone concealed under rubble.
Willow's focus is set on finding her mother and baby Cornelius in the crowd. Eventually, Willow locates Cornelia almost all the way in the back with around five other females who had made a protective circle around their own young children.
Upon spotting her daughter safe and unharmed other than a few scratches and a dusty exterior from the blast Cornelia grabs at Willow's arm and tugs her in close for a tight embrace. Willow is careful not to squish her little brother in the process.
A sudden mass of apes storm through the massive hole in the wall. Caesar's group had arrived and rushed to check if their own families were secure.
Caesar is quickly spotted deep in the throng.
Willow calls out, waving an arm so he knows where they are.
Caesar holds both of his girls to him hard, his usually ordered mind muddled and twisted into a jumble. He's never been so seriously unsettled like this before.
Badly shaken by the experience, struggling to maintain control so as not to frighten Cornelius further, Cornelia signed "What is happening? Where did the sun go?"
Shaking his head, Caesar explained "Human weapon. It missed you and hit the strong building."
"Missed," signed Willow, exasperated, staring out at the blazing fire in the street. "Missed?"
If it had landed even a foot closer, they'd all be dead.
Cornelius tugs anxiously on Caesar's arm, pulling attention over to him. Willow can't tell what her father is thinking behind the frown in his eyes and mouth like to normally would as he stares at Cornelius.
Reaching a decision, Caesar said "We must leave here."
Nodding in instant agreement, Cornelia said "Yes. Koba should never have brought us here. We should never have stayed."
Grimacing, Caesar said "I thought I could protect you. I was wrong. You will go back to the forest."
"We should all go back. Here the humans have the advantage, but in the forest, we would be the ones in control," interjected Willow, steadfastly.
Shaking his head, Caesar said "It'd not that easy. The soldiers willow follow. We will have to run and keep running, trying always to stay just ahead of them. We can't build a village like that. We can't raise children like that." He strokes gentle fingers over their cheeks. "You and the other women will go to the forest, find a new place for our children. A hidden place the humans will not discover. My army will stay here, keep them occupied until you have done that. Until your trail is cold. Then…if we cannot beat them here, we will join you. Willow, you will assist your mother in leading the females and young. Whatever orders you give the Gorilla Guard will heed."
Ordinarily, Willow would prefer to remain by his side, but with the situation so dire she cannot disobey.
Cornelia argued "We should all go. In the night."
Firmly, his tone final, Caesar signed "It will be as I say."
Caesar places his face against Cornelia's breathing in her presence and great relief that she is standing before him alive.
Cornelius would've interrupted this heartfelt scene, wanting to play with his father, if Willow had not timely intervened.
Wrapping an arm around Cornelius and lifting him to her chest, Willow signed "Later, Little Brother. Father cannot play now."
Cornelius pouts, snuggling into her shoulder in protest.
Cornelia takes Cornelius with her to begin organizing the females while Caesar calls Luca over to a more private conversation between them and Willow.
Keeping his movements covered so no one else would hear and panic, Caesar signed "This wasn't a coincidence. They knew where you all were, Willow. They could send another one of those things at any time. You will all get out of here as soon as possible."
"I understand, Father, but we can only move so fast," said Willow, reasonably.
Luca asked "Where should they go, Caesar?"
"Take them toward the water for now but keep out of sight. When night falls, go to the bridge and cross over to the forest. The Gorilla Guard will take them. Help Willow find a place to hide far from here. Do you understand?"
Shifting his eyes, Luca said "Am I to go with them?"
"Just across the bridge. Escort them to the forest. Then return to me. We must move the warrior's camp as well. We will move each day, maybe more than once a day."
"You'll stay in the city," signed Willow, alarmed.
"For a time," signed Caesar. "Until we know the rest of the women and children are safe, we must fight the humans here, stop them from advancing. Then, we too will go to join them, and search for another home. Maybe if we go far enough, they will lose interest."
They can only hope but Willow doubts it.
Authors Note:
For those of you on fanfiction I'm sure you've been facing the many unwanted ads when you're reading a story. Well, yesterday, I finally had enough, and I got an adblocker app. It worked! No more ads on any level! The one I got is Adblock Pro: Safari Ad Blocker. It really works. Just follow the instruction video that it attached to it.
Heads up everyone there's someone on fanfiction you need to seriously watch out for. Early a couple of months ago after I woke up I was checking my email and I saw I had a new guest review on my A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 sequel. I took a look at it and got a very big shock. Some random person I've never spoken to before on here or anywhere else in my life was basically threatening me. Intimidating and practically ordering me to write a threatening letter to someone on their behalf, telling to stay off of for life or else they and everyone else close to them would be killed, disgustingly telling them to kill themselves. And at the bottom of the message this crazy person wasn't done. Warning me that if I don't send the letter then they would kill me and for confirmation to email them to make absolutely sure I complied with their demands. Of course I did nothing of the sort. Instead of doing what they wanted I reported them to the website, sent copies of this deplorable guest review message to police officer cousins of mine so they could have it on file, and I went to a nearby police station and reported it.
When I spoke to the police officers and they checked everything on the message they saw, that while the address and names of business were accurate the people and their names were not. They agree it was more than likely a scam because of the email address on the bottom in order to perhaps get access to personal information or potentially hack my computer. Despite that I'm still very happy they took it seriously as I showed and told them everything. All the same I'm still very happy that I brought this to the attention of law enforcement. Even though the entire thing might be fake I'm still very happy to have brought this to the attention of those who can do something about it if it was legit in some way. This may have been a scam, but it's obvious these people are beyond irresponsible if they try to goad people into sending death threats to random strangers just to get access to info.
Be that as it may if this does unfortunately happen to you do not send any messages to the email addresses they put down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you bring the message to the authorities immediately whether it is legit or not.
Because it's a guest review it might not be visible for a couple of days as it loads if it is sent to you. But when it does you should definitely pressing the report abuse button and send it to the email that leads to the support staff that is available.
Just a heads up to those of you who aren't aware of this yet, Email alerts for this website are now only active if Email opts is enabled in account settings.
I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D
For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.
Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure. I swear it's like they're getting worse and worse all the time and it's like officials are simply just ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist entirely just to go on with their daily lives. Especially those in multi-million dollar companies that rely on certain elements of our planet that we rely on to naturally keep us safe instead of adapting and finding new safer ways to keep in business. There are so many options out there where they can adapt, but they just refuse to see it because all they care about is money. Climate change is altering so much faster than anyone can really keep track of.
So, in light of all this, it is important to live life to the fullest as much as anyone can.
I know I am. ;) See you guys next time.