Alex Irvine - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Carver’s battered body lay in the dirt by the lead truck.

“Alexander…” Malcolm said, about to warn him not to look.

“Dad,” Alexander replied. “I have eyes.”

So Malcolm let it go. He couldn’t protect a teenager from everything. Hell, these days he wondered if he could protect his son from anything .

They got Caesar settled in the back of the truck, and Ellie climbed in next to him. As soon as she could, she began cleaning and bandaging his wound. It was bad, but not as bad as it could have been. Caesar’s lungs were intact, and the bullet hadn’t hit his heart. The wound was high in his torso and still bleeding freely, but if they could get the bleeding stopped, he might live.

“My son,” Caesar gasped. “My family. Where are they?”

“We don’t know, “Ellie said. She wiped blood away from the wound and tried to get a bandage in place. “I’m sorry. Try not to speak, you need to rest.”

Caesar went limp again, his eyes rolling in his head. Ellie finished bandaging him and clambered forward to lean between Malcolm and Alexander.

“He’s lost a lot of blood,” she said quietly.

“Is he gonna make it?” Alexander asked.

“We have to get the bullet out, clean the wound…” Ellie paused. “What I need is back home.”

“We don’t know what’s going on down there,” Malcolm said. “There might not be anything left. Best-case scenario, I don’t think the Colony’s going to be welcoming if we show up wanting to treat a wounded chimp.”

Ellie thought about this.

“What about Memorial Hospital?” she suggested. “It’s right over the bridge. It wasn’t completely looted. There might still be supplies.”

Malcolm nodded and looked back at Caesar.

“I don’t understand how this happened,” he said. “How the hell did Carver get another gun?”

Caesar grunted from the back. All three of the humans turned. Malcolm thought he’d tried to speak, but he couldn’t understand the words. Caesar tried again and this time they heard him clearly.

“Ape did this.”

An ape? Malcolm was stunned. It could only have been Koba. The whole show of supplication after the fight in the powerhouse… it had been a ruse. Malcolm grappled with the implications. Koba had planned and executed a coup, using Carver as a patsy and killing him to make sure he wouldn’t complicate the plan by telling anyone the truth.

“Apes?” he repeated, still not quite able to believe it.

Caesar nodded weakly.

Malcolm had even a worse feeling about what might be going on down in the city now. If Koba had pulled off a coup, and removed Caesar from power, his next move would be to consolidate that power. To do that, he would need to remove his other enemy.

The Colony.

They had to get back to the city. The only way to prevent an all-out war—if they could do that—was to make sure both humans and apes knew the truth. Malcolm started the truck.

“Buckle in, people,” he said. “I won’t be going slow.”

He hoped the truck would make it.

With the sun higher in the sky, Koba gathered the apes. Numbering in the hundreds, they clustered on the highest girders of the unfinished building.

“While humans hide,” Koba growled, “apes not safe! This… our home now. We must protect it. Find them… Cage them.”

Blue Eyes watched the apes around him. Some were uneasy, looking away from Koba. Others hooted and danced from foot to foot, freed by Koba’s hate, enabled to become animals again. Blue Eyes identified with the uneasy ones. He looked to Ash.

Everything happened too fast , he thought. Three nights ago, or was it four, he and Ash were chasing a speared fish. The wound on Ash’s shoulder was still fresh, the hair just starting to grow back where the bullet had seared it away. Beyond Ash, Blue Eyes saw the long arm of the crane reaching out from the girders. A metal ball and hook hung from the end of it on a cable, swinging a little in the wind.

“They forget… what they did to us,” Koba said slowly. “But Koba does not forget. We will make them remember. Go… Hunt them.”

The body of apes began to move.

Ash shrugged. They got up and moved, but Blue Eyes was already wondering if he had been right to defy his father. But it made no difference now. Caesar was dead. Koba led the apes, and where he went, they would follow.

Blue Eyes and Ash went with a group sent to search the building they called City Hall. Koba said that this was where human leaders did their work. He told them he thought more humans would hide there.

A pair of gorillas battered open the heavy doors on the front of the building, and the apes flooded in, peering up at the high, domed space with staircases and balconies running around its edge. Blue Eyes admired what the humans had built, and the builders themselves. He thought he would like to build something more than dwellings of sticks and mud.

Most of the apes did not give the space a thought. They flooded across the floor, scaled the walls and banisters, hooting and screeching to flush out any humans who might be cowering within. Blue Eyes knew it would be dangerous to stand out, so he and Ash went with them, running along the balconies, banging in doors and searching rooms full of nothing but desks and shelves filled with books.

“Run! Run!” It was a human voice, echoing from a nearby hall, up another floor on the broad main staircase. Apes surged up the stairs, and Blue Eyes went with them.

There was a small group of humans at the top of the staircase, and they ran into a large hall, the morning light shining down through high windows. They ran the length of the hall and stopped short, as they found that the back stairs were suddenly full of apes. Blue Eyes heard those apes screeching in glee over the humans’ panicked cries.

There was no need for Blue Eyes and Ash so they, with a few other apes, turned back to look through the level they were on. They ducked along a few narrow halls and offices, then came back to the stairs and started down. Blue Eyes looked over the railing. The floor was far away, polished and gleaming stone.

Noises from just above drew their attention. A group of humans ran out from the floor they had just searched. How had they missed them? The humans started to go up the stairs, but they heard the wild screeches of the apes up there and turned to come back down.

But Blue Eyes, Ash, and the rest of their group were there. They looked at the humans, waiting to see what they would do. One of them, an old man, his hair flying around his head like milkweed, suddenly lunged forward, swinging a metal pole at Ash.

“Gonna kill you!” the old human screamed. He kept swinging the pole in front of him, trying to keep the apes back. Behind him, an old human female huddled on the stairs. Blue Eyes could see that she was exhausted, and could run no more.

The old human swung the pole back for another swipe at Ash. Blue Eyes realized that he was no threat, and Ash was just waiting for him to get tired. But the old man staggered as the metal pole was jerked from his hands. He looked up and behind him, taking a step back when he saw Koba come out onto the staircase landing just above him.

The metal pole dangling in one hand, Koba looked down at the old human female. He looked back at the male and thrust out his arm, shoving him down the stairs to land in a groaning heap at Ash’s feet. The old human looked up at Ash, terrified and in pain from the fall. Old humans, Blue Eyes understood, were like old apes. They were easily hurt.

Koba grunted for their attention. When they looked up, Koba tossed the metal pole down the stairs to Ash. Ash looked up at him and Koba nodded. Blue Eyes understood. Ash was to kill the old human as proof of his loyalty.