Alex Irvine - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

After that, he had shut it away forever.

Koba felt that hunger, and embraced it.

Caesar saw his old chessboard. Then he thought of the chessboard in his tree, up in the mountains. Was it still there? Where were Cornelia and the baby? He moved one of the pieces forward, two spaces as Will had taught him… then he noticed Will’s video camera, still sitting on the table. He picked it up and turned it over in his hands, remembering how it worked.

He opened the side of it to expose the screen and pressed the button to turn it on.

Light came from the screen and the camera beeped. On the screen a red rectangle flashed. Caesar knew that meant the battery would die soon. He pressed the sideways triangle and stared as an image came to life.

Maurice waited. It was almost time. Night had fallen and the guards were whooping and screeching at more human captives, forcing them into the tunnel. He looked up toward Luca, who was watching the mirror.

Luca nodded.

All of the apes reached up and grabbed the bar that ran along the side of the bus over the seats. They lifted themselves up and swung, crashing their feet into the wall and pushing off. The bus rocked to the side, then back. The apes rode its momentum, swinging back as the bus groaned on rusty springs, and then on the return swing smashing into the wall again. They swung a third time, a fourth, and with each swing the bus rocked a little farther.

Between his feet Maurice saw that two of the guards had noticed. The others were too busy with the human captives. The pair of chimps left their post at the fence and came toward the bus. If the prisoners didn’t get out soon, they would be at the mercy of the guards’ guns.

Maurice growled, and the rest of the prisoners took up the sound, roaring and shrieking as together they swung back one last time and drove into the side of the bus, using all their weight.

With a loud groan the bus tipped onto its side. The two approaching apes had made a fatal mistake. They came too close, and were crushed as it toppled onto them. Their dying screeches were drowned out by the crash and the noise from inside.

Maurice heard a thump on the top of the bus and looked up to see Blue Eyes forcing the door open. The prisoners climbed out, still bound at the wrists. Maurice was the last one out and he stood on the bus, amazed at what had happened. Perhaps he would live after all. He looked back at the human pen, and was amazed all over again.

The humans, taking advantage of the guards’ distraction, had forced the gate and were stampeding out of the tunnel. They flooded the plaza, running around both sides of the bus and scattering into the dark in every direction. The three ape guards fired their weapons, but then they were trampled.

Maurice turned to Blue Eyes. He made a circular gesture with one finger. Blue Eyes made a fist. He had a bag over his shoulder and he took a knife from it. It took him only a minute to cut the bonds while the humans kept pouring out of the tunnel, and the shrieks of alarmed apes echoed through the city. The sound was answered from the direction of the tower.

They had gained themselves a little time, Maurice thought. But not much. He looked to Blue Eyes and signed.

Where do we go?

Follow me , Blue Eyes signed.

This was a different Blue Eyes, Maurice thought. He was born of Caesar, but had seemed to want to be Koba instead. Now he was Caesar’s son again, strong and good. Maurice was happy to follow him.

On the video screen Caesar saw himself, looking curiously out. The frame moved and he heard Will’s voice.

“Caesar! Caesar, what are you doing? C’mon, give me that…”

The sound of Will’s voice was a joy and a pain. Caesar reached and touched the screen as the view spun around and he saw Will sitting across from him with the chessboard between them.

“Okay, here we go,” Will said. “This is called chess. This is the pawn. You can go one space…” He moved the pawn from one square to the next. “Or two spaces.” He put the pawn back and moved it two squares. Caesar watched his younger self pick up the pawn and look at it.

The video cut and jumped. Now Will and Caesar were in the kitchen. Will made a sign.

“Home,” he said, and he repeated the sign. “Home.”

In the attic, Caesar mimicked the gesture and remembered learning it for the first time. On the screen, he also mimicked it.

“Yes,” Will said. “This is your home. Good.” Caesar leaned in to hug Will. In the attic, Caesar’s arms moved reflexively to do the same.

The viewfinder went black.

Caesar held still, keeping the memory close. He missed Will. He would always miss Will. He wondered what Will would have thought of the village. He wished Will had lived to see Blue Eyes and the new baby.

He reached out and picked up the largest piece on the chessboard, remembering that Will had called it the king. At the same time he noticed Will watching him…

No. That was Malcolm. Caesar closed his eyes. So much time had passed. He had lost much, and might lose more.

“Sorry,” Malcolm said. “I didn’t mean to…” Caesar nodded. Malcolm walked over to him, taking in the room and its contents. “Who was that? On the video?”

“A good man,” Caesar said. After a breath he added, “Like you.”

He saw Malcolm react to this. He was a good man, Caesar thought. He tried to do right even, when right was hard. And he was stubborn. It took stubbornness to be good.

“Your son’s still not back yet?” Malcolm asked. Caesar shook his head. Malcolm watched him, worried. Caesar did not know whether he was worried about Blue Eyes, or about Caesar’s strength, or both. All he said was, “I’m sure he’s okay.”

It was what a father said to another father when neither of them knew what was true. Caesar knew Malcolm was talking to himself about his son Alexander as much as he was consoling Caesar about Blue Eyes. He had too many thoughts in his head.

Koba had only one thought. That was why he had won so far.

Caesar picked up one of the kings from the chessboard. He placed it in the center of the board and started putting other pieces around it. He thought better when he had something in his hands. He looked at the pieces, shifted some of them around, and stopped when he had put the king in the center of a ring of rooks and knights, with pawns in circles around them.

“What are you thinking?” Malcolm asked.

“Koba will protect himself,” Caesar said.

Malcolm nodded, looking from the board to Caesar. “You have to draw him out.”

“But he must not see me coming.”

Malcolm thought about this. If Koba was staying up on the tower where Blue Eyes said he’d gathered his apes…

“Maybe I can help with that,” he said. He was about to explain about the BART station and the subterranean approach to the tower when the brush growing up the front of the house rustled. The sound was clear in the night silence. Caesar crossed to the round window—the one Malcolm had noticed when they pulled up to the house. Malcolm followed.

In the yard, figures were approaching through the brush and vines that covered the yard and part of the street. Malcolm felt Caesar tense next to him. Then both of them relaxed when they saw the orangutan.

“Maurice,” Malcolm said.

Next to Maurice was Rocket, and with them was Blue Eyes. Caesar placed his palm on the window, filled with pride at the sight of his son. Many more apes, perhaps twenty, followed through the brush, picked out by a bright moon. Blue Eyes looked up and saw his father in the window. Both apes smiled. Malcolm couldn’t help but smile, too.

Blue Eyes had pulled off his part of the plan. Now they would see if Malcolm could do the same.