Arriving at the cage, Preacher unlocked it with one of his other keys, while Red kept Caesar on a tight leash. An angry red welt over Red’s right eye marked where Rocket had head-butted him the night before; the mark was disturbingly reminiscent of the scar over Koba’s dead eye. Caesar made a point to look directly at the welt, earning him a dirty look from the gorilla. Irking Red was feeble revenge for the traitor’s crimes, but Caesar took some small pleasure in it nonetheless.
You deserve worse, he thought. And have it coming, perhaps sooner than you think.
Preacher opened the cage and Red shoved Caesar inside. Stepping closer to Caesar to unhook the chain from his collar, Red snarled in his face.
“You know Kerna shoot apes tomorrow… before battle begins.”
Caesar looked past Red at Preacher, who averted his eyes. Caesar took this as clear confirmation that Red was telling the truth.
Tomorrow, he thought. The slaughter is planned for tomorrow.
The revelation was alarming but not surprising. The Colonel had made no secret of his intention to exterminate the apes once he no longer needed them, but now Caesar knew for certain that there could be no hesitation or delay when it came to freeing his people. The time for action was rapidly slipping away.
Tonight, he thought. It has to be tonight.
Red seemed to think that he had shocked Caesar into silence.
“What?” he scoffed. “Caesar nothing say?”
The ape’s gloating was pathetic, actually. Did he truly not see the bigger picture here—or understand the full consequences of what was coming? Caesar shook his head sadly. A note of genuine pity entered his voice as he finally spoke.
“I wonder… how long they will wait… before they shoot you?”
Red’s spiteful expression gave way to a look of uncertainty as Caesar’s words struck home. It looked to Caesar as though Red was struggling to come up with a dismissive reply, but couldn’t find a convincing one. All he could manage was another hostile glare before wheeling about and exiting the cage. The malignant gorilla lumbered past Preacher in a foul mood. Caesar doubted that Red would sleep well tonight.
Nor should he.
Preacher kept avoiding Caesar’s accusing stare as he locked the door of the cage. He turned to leave, then turned back to look at Caesar one last time. Despite everything, a trace of regret could be seen on his face.
“You must’ve known this fighting would never stop,” he said quietly. “It was always going to come down to this. It was going to be you… or us.”
Caesar had never believed that. He still didn’t want to believe it.
But could he say for certain that Preacher wasn’t right?
He looked back at the young soldier, wishing that matters had not come to this. In a better world, Preacher might have been a good man, maybe even an ally.
But this was not a better world.
Whistles blew, calling the work crews away from the wall. Caesar felt time bearing down on them. Had Maurice received the vital information he had signed to him from high upon the cliff? Without binoculars, Caesar had no sure way of knowing whether his signs had been seen by his allies outside the camp. He could only hope that the plan was proceeding on schedule.
Otherwise, there was no hope.
* * *
The girl watched the apes come down from the wall. Bad men with guns made them go back toward their cages. Bigger guns now sat on top of the wall, which no longer had any holes in it. She realized that she could not sneak into the bad place anymore, even if she wanted to.
She lowered the far-seeing glasses and stared silently at the distant camps, worried about the apes. The bad men had too many guns.
And they hurt her friends.
Her other friends had been under the ground for a long time now. Had something happened to them? Concerned, she climbed down into the pit and went searching. The tunnel was scary and dark, but she kept on going until she came to a wall of cement blocking the way. Two new tunnels headed off in different directions.
Which way to go?
She paused for a moment, then chose one at random. She followed it, worried that she might have chosen the wrong way, but was soon reassured by the comforting glow of a flashlight up ahead. Drawn to the light, she found Maurice digging away at the wall with his bare hands. Dirt covered his shaggy hide. More dirt was piled to the side of the tunnel.
He was working very hard.
* * *
Soft footsteps alerted him to the girl’s arrival. Maurice paused to look back at her and acknowledge her presence. It dawned on him that they had perhaps left the child alone on the surface for longer than they should have.
But there is so much digging to do, he thought, and so little time.
Concerned over what might have prompted the girl to seek him out, he searched her face and pointed toward the ceiling, wanting to know if everything was still quiet and secure up on the surface. She still knew very little sign language, but he liked to think that they were getting better at communicating with each other.
She nodded solemnly, which Maurice took to mean that no humans had discovered them yet. He smiled at her, pleased that she had apparently understood him.
You are very brave, he signed.
She stared at his large, expressive fingers in confusion, and he patiently repeated the sign:
Brave.
Her brow furrowed as she concentrated on the gesture, then hesitantly mimicked it.
Brave? she signed back.
Maurice nodded, proud of her progress. She had come far in the days since they had first found her hiding in that rundown shack. He still didn’t understand what had made her mute, but there were other ways to speak, and she was proving to be a fast learner.
The girl beamed at him, happy to have gotten the sign right. Then her smile dimmed as a new thought seemed to occur to her, dampening her spirits. She raised her small hands in inquiry.
Ape?
Maurice wasn’t sure what she was asking. He gave her a puzzled look.
Me? she signed again. Ape?
He understood now. The child was mute, not blind. She had obviously noted that she looked more like a human than an ape, despite her present company. He couldn’t blame her for being confused, although he was uncertain how to respond. There was no easy answer here, or at least not one that wouldn’t leave her more conflicted about her own identity than before. Humans were the enemy. Apes were her protectors. So what was he to tell her?
You are…
At a loss for words, he noticed a shiny silver solution poking out from the pocket of her jacket. Leaning forward, he gently plucked the chrome car emblem from the pocket and showed her the trinket. The gleaming steel letters spelled out a name from a vanished world of cars and consumerism:
“Nova,” he said aloud, pointing at her.
The girl took the emblem back. She turned it over in her hands, watching it catch the glow of the flashlight, and a smile broke out across her face. She knew who and what she was now.
She was Nova.
An urgent grunt intruded on the moment. Bad Ape appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, looking worked up for some reason. For a moment, Maurice was afraid that something had gone wrong, but then he realized that the chimpanzee appeared more excitable than alarmed.
“Come!” Bad Ape said eagerly. “Come see!”
Maurice and Nova hurried to find out what had the chimp so worked up. In their haste, they failed to notice a trickle of water seeping through the dirt where Maurice had been digging.
The water kept coming, even with no one to see it.
29
“…thirty-five… thirty-six… thirty-seven!”
Bad Ape counted out his steps, intent on his feet, as he led Maurice and Nova down a freshly dug tunnel. Reaching the end of the passageway, he turned around and threw out his hands to show off his handiwork. He looked very pleased with himself.
As he should be, Maurice thought, admiring the chimpanzee’s pro
gress. He had quietly counted the number of steps himself, just to double-check Bad Ape’s calculations. It was not that he’d distrusted the chimp’s ability to do the job correctly, at least not too much, but better safe than sorry. While Nova beamed at Bad Ape, mutely sharing his jubilation, Maurice consulted the compass to verify that Bad Ape had indeed tunneled in the right direction. To his relief, the compass needle confirmed that they were in the correct place.
He nodded approvingly at Bad Ape.
Good job, Maurice thought. Perhaps he’s not as much of a clown as he seems.
Bad Ape basked in his success.
“What now?” he whispered.
Maurice surveyed the new tunnel, gazing up at the ceiling. In theory, they should be directly underneath the pen holding the adult apes. Getting down on his hands and knees, he gestured for Bad Ape to climb onto his back, as Rocket had done before. With any luck, the scrawny chimp weighed less than Rocket. Maurice’s back was already sore from all the digging.
But Bad Ape didn’t seem to understand. He stared at Maurice with a baffled expression, scratching his head in confusion.
“What?”
Maurice sighed, wishing the other ape was more fluent in sign language. He pointed at the ceiling, then patted his back impatiently. There was no time to waste. Caesar and Rocket and the other apes were counting on them.
Understanding dawned on Bad Ape’s face, along with a look of utter horror. Terrified eyes practically bulged from their sockets as he backed away from Maurice in fear, almost stepping on Nova, who had to dart out of the way.
“Ohhh, no,” he whimpered. “No, no, no…”
He looked to Nova to back him up, but she just looked on wordlessly.
“Nooooo…”
Maurice revised his earlier estimates of Bad Ape’s intelligence and courage. Had the chimp truly not grasped the purpose of this undertaking until now, that the plan was to burrow up into the camp from below? What had he thought this entire operation had been all about?
Who knows, he thought irritably. Anything could be going through that childish brain of his.
Or nothing at all.
Shaking his head, Bad Ape kept backing away, but Maurice had neither the time nor the patience to put up with his foolishness. Spinning around in the tunnel, he grabbed Bad Ape by the ankle, startling the frightened chimp, who had never seen Maurice behave aggressively before. Bad Ape stared at the orangutan in shock.
Don’t look surprised, Maurice thought. He considered himself a gentle soul, but he was still an ape, and a battle-tested ape at that. A low, menacing growl issued from his throat. His meaning was clear.
Don’t test me.
Bad Ape got the message. He took a deep breath to steady his frazzled nerves.
“Okay.”
* * *
Bad Ape was scared and tired.
But mostly scared.
Standing on Maurice’s wide shoulders, his long arms stretched above his head as he reluctantly dug a shaft up toward the surface, he couldn’t believe that he was actually working to claw his way into the bad, bad place. He understood now that they were trying to free Caesar and the others, but didn’t Maurice realize how hopeless that was? The camp was full of angry humans with guns, who beat apes and tortured them and sometimes even shot them in the head. It was no place for an ape… or even the little human child they were calling Nova now.
You don’t go into the bad place! he thought. You run away from it! Caesar went into the camp, to get even with the Colonel, and look what happened to him! Rocket went into the camp and the bad apes beat him!
Not for the first time, Bad Ape wished that he had stayed on his mountain where it was safe. He had been alone, without any friends, but at least he hadn’t been afraid all the time.
Loose dirt rained down on his face. His fingers ached from tearing at the hard, frozen earth. His nails were cracked and bleeding. Worse yet, he knew that every inch he gained brought him closer to the bad place and the bad humans waiting there. He almost thought that he would rather keep digging forever than actually reach the surface, so his heart sank when his fingers finally pushed through one last layer of dirt and ice to touch cold, empty air instead. Harsh electric light shone down through the tiny hole he had just created above his head.
Oh, no! I did it.
He yanked his fingers back before anybody saw them. Straining his neck, he peered up through the hole—at a human soldier’s boot right before his eye!
No, no, no!
He clenched his jaw to keep from yelping in fright. He started to shrink away from the hole, then realized that one of the gorillas being herded into the pen had spotted him. The imprisoned ape blinked in surprise.
Ssssh! Bad Ape pressed a finger to his lips, terrified that the gorilla would accidentally alert the guards to his presence. You don’t see me!
The gorilla understood. He glanced covertly at the oblivious soldiers and held up his palm to indicate that Bad Ape should stay put and keep still. He moved closer to the hole, positioning himself as a lookout, even as the other apes gradually spotted Bad Ape and realized what was happening. They too moved to discreetly block the humans’ view of the hole, while pretending not to have seen anything unusual.
Smart apes! he thought with gratitude. Very smart apes!
He felt Maurice shifting his weight impatiently beneath him. Bad Ape knew that the orangutan had to be wondering what was taking so long, and why Bad Ape wasn’t digging anymore, but there was no way he could say anything to Maurice without risking being overheard by the soldiers.
Have to be quiet now, he thought. Maurice will have to wait.
Bad Ape held his breath until the soldier’s scary black boot stepped out of the chimpanzee’s line of vision. Bad Ape kept his gaze glued to the gorilla serving as his lookout, who was still stealthily signaling him to hold tight. The gorilla’s own eyes were busy watching something Bad Ape could not see, but he was pretty sure it had to do with the soldiers locking the apes into the pen. He listened anxiously to the sound of boots crunching through the snow, but it was impossible to tell what was actually happening.
What were the humans doing? How far away were they? Did he need to jump down into the tunnel and run away as fast as he could?
His heart was pounding so loudly that he couldn’t believe the soldiers couldn’t hear it. He felt like he had been hiding forever by the time the gorilla finally glanced back down at Bad Ape and indicated that it was safe for him to show himself.
Okay, he thought. If you say so…
Standing on his tiptoes, he nervously poked his head up through the hole in time to see the departing soldiers marching away from the pen. The sight relaxed him slightly, allowing him to focus instead on the gang of apes crowding around the hole, gaping down at him. Suddenly feeling self-conscious about being covered in dirt, Bad Ape took off his colorful wool cap and brushed it off before putting it back on his head.
That’s better, he thought. Need to make good impression.
He smiled sheepishly at the other apes, not sure what to say, as one of them shoved his way through the crowd to get to Bad Ape, who was briefly spooked before realizing that the ape coming at him was Rocket.
Rocket’s face was a mess, all swollen and bruised from what the humans and turncoat apes had done to him. Bad Ape cringed in sympathy as the other chimpanzee stared at him, as mutely as Nova might. Bad Ape feared that he was in trouble, until an enormous grin lit up Rocket’s battered features.
I did good? Bad Ape thought. Yes, I did good!
* * *
Rocket had never been so glad to see that silly ape in his ridiculous hat. He had been starting to worry that Maurice had not received Caesar’s message after all, but apparently the digging had just taken longer than Rocket had hoped. He excitedly signed to the other apes.
This is the ape I told you about!
The other apes stared at Bad Ape in fascination; Rocket had to admit that Bad Ape wasn’t the most impressive of libe
rators, but beggars, as the humans used to say, couldn’t be choosers. He assumed that Maurice and the girl were waiting down in the tunnels, out of sight.
The gorilla who had first spotted Bad Ape came forward to greet him.
Thank you, he signed.
But Bad Ape didn’t know that sign, Rocket realized. He stared blankly at the gorilla, looking slightly uncomfortable, until the gorilla shrugged and reached down to offer Bad Ape his hand.
Bad Ape regarded the hand uncertainly. Rocket recalled that the timid chimp had fled from Caesar and the rest of them when they had first met. He’d lived as a hermit for years, cut off from other apes. This was probably the biggest crowd of apes Bad Ape had encountered since he’d escaped the zoo too many years ago. No wonder he appeared a bit insecure.
For a second, Rocket thought it might all be too much for Bad Ape, but then the other chimp seemed to overcome his trepidation. He eagerly clasped the gorilla’s hand while beaming from ear to ear. He thumped his chest with his palm and shook the gorilla’s hand energetically.
“Bad Ape,” he introduced himself. “Bad Ape.”
More apes jostled forward to get a look at him, greeting him warmly, and Bad Ape shook each of their hands in turn. His earlier bashfulness evaporated and it seemed as though he couldn’t meet his new family fast enough. His eyes grew moist, betraying the powerful emotions behind the never-ending stream of introductions.
“Bad Ape… Bad Ape… Bad Ape…”
Rocket, who even caged had enjoyed the company of other apes back in the bad old days, could only imagine what Bad Ape must be feeling now.
He’s one of us now, Rocket thought. He just needs a better name.
If any of us live to see another day.
* * *
Maurice peered up the shaft, trying to figure out what was happening high above his head. Bad Ape was practically dancing on the orangutan’s overworked shoulders, while beams of artificial light invaded the tunnel. Maurice assumed that meant that Bad Ape had reached the surface and gained access to the interior of the ape pen, but Maurice would have been much happier if the chimp would just inform him what was going on.