Alex Irvine - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

That was what would happen if Caesar led the apes.

That was why Caesar could no longer lead.

He left Grey and Stone at the edge of the clearing and approached the lead truck alone. In the truck’s mirror he saw the human react to the music.

“Son of a bitch,” the human said, and laughed.

Yes , Koba thought. Laugh now. All of you humans, laugh now. You will not laugh long.

The truck window was open and Koba saw the flare of fire from within. The human was keeping his… cigar—that was the word. Apes knew that word because many of them had been on television shows where the humans thought it was funny to make them smoke. The human was keeping his cigar going.

He walked right up to the window and stood, waiting for the human to notice him.

The human reached out to tap ash through the open window. As he did, he noticed Koba. His eyes widened and the cigar fell from his fingers. Before he could do anything else Koba reached through the window and dragged him out. The human tried to fight him, but Koba flung him to the ground. Before he could get up, Koba unslung the rifle from his back and smashed the butt into his head.

The human went down and his hat fell off, tumbling a few feet away. Koba hit him again. He tried to raise his arms and Koba raised the rifle like a club, bringing it down with all his strength. First he broke the human’s arms. Then he kept pounding until the human’s head broke open.

He stopped. From the edge of the clearing Grey and Stone were hooting with bloodlust. Koba looked back at them. His fury—with nowhere to go again now that the human was dead—began to build inside him. The music drifting through the trees just made him angrier.

Grey , Koba signed. Pick up the… cigar . He stumbled over that sign, making the letters as best he could. Keep its fire alive. Stone, pick up the hat.

They went on toward the village, but did not enter through the gate. Leaving the horses on the path beyond the totem gate, the three apes ducked off and began the climb along the face of the canyon wall. They could not be seen. Not just yet.

The music carried better than Malcolm would have thought. Even up in the ape village they could hear it. The apes came out of their dwellings, looking around uneasily. Many of them were younger than ten, and had never heard recorded music before.

Or any music, probably , Malcolm thought. They were also nervous seeing the humans, after the rocky start to the human-ape relationship over the past couple of days. But he and Caesar walked together, and Caesar’s calm assurance seemed to spread as more and more apes saw that they were together and united.

Caesar led the five humans and his closest apes through the gathering area at the center of the village and to the edge of the raised stone slab that seemed to be a kind of throne. The apes climbed up and reached back to help the humans. It was a pretty good view, Malcolm thought as he got his feet under him. The whole canyon was visible, with the river rushing down toward the dam impoundment. The dam itself wasn’t visible, but the mountains to the west made for quite a vista. He turned to see what the view to the east was like.

“Oh my God,” he said.

San Francisco, in the distance, glimmered and twinkled with a thousand lights. Lights from houses whose power had failed and whose occupants had died without bothering to turn off the switches. Lights from sources directly connected to the grid. Fort Point blazed, the airport runways were outlined in red and green, beacon lights at the top of the bridges shone into the deepening dusk as fog spread through the strait and across the bay. The elated humans hugged one another.

“Damn if you didn’t do it,” Foster said.

“All of us did it,” Malcolm said. He wondered what kind of pandemonium was breaking out in the Colony right then. How do you like that, Dreyfus? he thought, gloating just for a moment. Alexander, who barely remembered electricity, gaped at the sight. Malcolm was overcome, partly with pride and partly with a joy that his son would grow up, not as one of the last survivors of humanity, but as one of the first generation who would make their way in this new world.

Even the apes seemed affected by the sight. Maurice studied it and signed something at Rocket, who signed back. Malcolm wished he knew their sign language.

“What did they say?” he asked Caesar.

“City looks alive,” Caesar said. “Maurice is happy for humans.”

“Humans are happy for humans, too,” Malcolm said. “And listen, now that we’ve got power, we can help you, too. There’s no reason we should keep on being afraid of each other, right?”

Caesar thought about this.

“Maybe not,” he said. He saw Cornelia and Blue Eyes emerging to look at the city. Malcolm tapped Ellie’s shoulder and nodded up.

“She looks a lot better,” he said.

“The wonders of antibiotics,” Ellie said. Cornelia held the baby in the crook of one arm. Caesar climbed up to her and greeted her, stroking the side of her face and then doing the same to the baby. Blue Eyes stood a little apart. Malcolm could read his body language as clearly as if the young ape was carrying a sign. He was contrite, but unsure whether his father had forgiven him for yesterday’s outburst.

Then Caesar reached out and gestured for Blue Eyes to join his family. The young ape did, kneeling at arm’s length and extending a supplicating palm. Caesar reached out, but did not swipe his son’s palm. Instead he grasped Blue Eyes’ arm and pulled him up, embracing him.

Now here was an unexpected bonus, Malcolm thought. Twenty-four hours ago, Caesar was on the verge of killing us. Now we got the juice going, and everybody’s reconciling, human and ape alike. He started to envision a future where the two species intermingled, building a new civilization together.

Amazing , he thought. Who could have predicted this?

Koba watched ape and human celebrating together, and his rage and disgust grew. He had been right. Caesar had betrayed them. Now that humans had the lights, they would come for the apes. Koba saw clearly. He knew what he had to do.

He looked down the slope at Grey, who had the dead human’s cigar in his mouth. He puffed to keep the fire alive. Grey looked at Stone, and they both turned their faces up to Koba. He nodded. Grey took a last puff. The end of the cigar glowed bright and hot. Then he tossed it into a cluster of dry bushes, with a litter of dead leaves and pine needles underneath it. Smoke rose instantly, and then fire.

Koba looked back up toward the mass celebration. Caesar and Blue Eyes broke their embrace and Caesar rubbed his son’s head. Blue Eyes smiled back and both turned. Koba knew they were looking at the lights in the city. They smiled! How could they smile at this ?

As he had seen the humans do, he braced the butt of the gun on his shoulder and looked down the barrel with his good eye. A small piece of metal stuck up at the end of the barrel. If that was on the target, that is where the bullet would hit. Koba waited for Caesar and Blue Eyes to separate a little farther. He needed Blue Eyes.

Below the flames grew. Soon every ape would smell the smoke and know it did not come from the fire in the courtyard.

The time to act was now.

Caesar turned, as if he sensed something, and walked to the edge of his perch, peering over the steep drop-off and into the canyon. He saw Koba, and Koba saw Caesar look first surprised, then welcoming. He smiled and started to beckon Koba to come up.

Then he saw the gun. In the split second before Koba fired, he saw Caesar’s understanding.