Alex Irvine: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Malcolm fumbled for what to do or say next.

“Dad?” Alex said.

“It’s okay,” Malcolm said automatically. The next step was clear. If they started shooting, they would never survive the apes’ attack… and Malcolm did not for one minute believe that the guns would scare these apes off. They had heard Carver’s shot and responded in force with arms of their own. That could only mean they knew what guns were. The one-eyed chimp’s glare made Malcolm even more certain.

There was only one way out.

“Lower your guns,” he said, keeping his voice low and even. “ Everyone .”

Carver looked at him like he was nuts. Malcolm couldn’t see the others, but he figured they were doing the same.

“Do it,” he said.

They did. Malcolm kept his eyes on the leader, the one right in the middle. They sized each other up. This was what it must have been like for explorers , he thought. Thing is, I’ve got no empire backing me up.

The chimp planted the butt of his spear in the ground.

“Go,” he said.

None of the humans moved.

“Holy shit,” Carver breathed. Malcolm amended his previous thought. This wasn’t like being an explorer. This was like meeting aliens for the first time. The chimp talked.

He slammed his mind back into gear.

“Okay, okay,” he said. He took a step back, motioning for the rest of the group to do the same. “We’re leaving right now! Just—”

The one-eyed chimp leaned forward, out over the ridge crest.

“GO!” it roared.

The other apes— Damn , Malcolm thought, there are even gorillas —started to shriek and roar. They were working themselves up to something.

“Come on,” he said to the others. He turned Alex around and gave him a push. “Now.”

They started to run, propelled by the rising hysteria of the apes’ screaming. Alex’s satchel slipped off his shoulder and fell down the rocks to the riverbank. He stopped, turning back for it. Malcolm reached out to keep him with the group.

“Alexander, leave it,” he said. Ellie tried to catch him, too, but he was panicking a little, and he didn’t have much. The satchel was important to him.

Not as important as staying alive, though.

“I said leave it!” Malcolm shouted, dragging the boy up the bank to the trees. “Come on!”

They ran. He just hoped they would get back to the trucks before the apes caught up to them.

Caesar watched the humans go. Around him, the rest of the apes quieted and looked to him for guidance.

He waited until the humans were gone. But where were they running to? Would they return with more humans, and more guns? Everything he had thought yesterday was suddenly uncertain.

Right now he had to take care of his son and see to Ash. He moved down the ridge, keeping a careful eye on the spot in the trees on the other side of the river where the humans had disappeared. The rest of the apes followed him down the rocks and across the river, wary and unsettled. Rocket ran ahead to Ash, lifting him to his feet and helping him out of the water. Ash sat on the bank. The hair on his arm was wet with blood from a wound on the outside of his shoulder. Caesar saw at a glance that the wound was not bad. He left Ash to Rocket, and motioned Blue Eyes to him.

What happened? he signed.

We were chasing a fish , Blue Eyes replied. When we came past the rock, the … He stumbled over the sign. The human was there. He…

Again Blue Eyes paused, not knowing the sign for what he wanted to say.

He shot at you , Caesar said. Blue Eyes nodded.

Caesar patted his son’s shoulder. They had been lucky. The shot could have killed one of them. Still, this was bad enough.

Go to your friend , he signed. Then he moved over to the bag the young male had dropped. For a long moment he looked at it. He prodded it with the tip of his spear. Then he picked it up.

With the humans gone—at least for now—there was time for questions. What were they doing here? Where had they come from? No ape had seen any sign of humans living in the mountains, not in several winters. And the city was dark and quiet. Could these humans have come from somewhere else, over the mountains or the ocean? Had the sickness not been able to cross the water?

Too many questions.

They needed answers.

Caesar turned to Koba, who was still watching the woods. He grunted, and when Koba turned to him, he gave a sharp signal.

Follow them .

They made it to the trucks at a dead run, throwing their gear into the backs, and grinding gears in their terrified haste to get the hell away from the spear-wielding apes. Malcolm drove one truck, with Ellie and Alexander. Carver drove the other with the rest of the crew. Malcolm had already decided that he and Carver were going to straighten a few things out when they got back to San Francisco.

What the hell was he thinking, shooting at a pair of chimps before he even told anyone else they were there?

That was the problem. Carver wasn’t thinking. He wasn’t much of a thinker. He was good with his hands, but he’d absorbed the legends about wild apes killing and eating people in the mountains, back in the days when the Simian Flu had thrown everyone into a panic. Apes had spread the disease to humans, sure. Fine. But shooting them wasn’t going to make the flu any less contagious—and in any case, if Carver had been vulnerable to the flu, he wouldn’t have lived long enough to be at that river and see those chimps in the first place.

Stupid.

Malcolm’s truck bounced off the dirt road and onto the highway, following it down out of the mountains toward the city.

“What do we tell Dreyfus?” he asked. “You think he’ll believe us?”

“I’m not even sure I’d believe us,” Ellie said. “Are we certain that wasn’t some kind of weird echo?”

“I heard it,” Alexander said. “The chimp talked.”

Koba led Grey and Stone through the treetops, following the sound of the trucks. He didn’t need to keep them in sight. He knew where they were going. Trucks couldn’t go through the forest, so they had to be heading for the big road. If the apes got there first, they could see which way the trucks turned, and then they would know whether the humans had come from the city or somewhere else.

They reached the edge of the forest and listened. Koba stilled himself, learning everything he could about the humans by watching closely as the trucks rolled slowly down the last stretch of the dirt track. When they got to the edge of the road, they turned toward the city. Koba saw the humans’ leader driving one truck, with his female and boy. In the other truck were four men. The one who had shot Ash was driving.

You , Koba thought. You shot an ape, and you will die .

He would not tell Caesar that he thought this. Caesar was powerful and a good leader, but he thought too much. Thinking weakened apes sometimes. Koba did not think. He planned.

They will have to use the bridge , he signed to Grey and Stone. We must get there first.

As soon as the trucks were out of sight around a bend, the three apes dropped from the trees, ran across the road, and leaped into the forest canopy again, making a direct line for the orange bridge that glowed like fire every sunset. Koba’s anger grew hotter as they got closer to the city. He had never wanted to return to it. It held for him only memories of bad smells, cages, and pain.

Koba, Grey, and Stone reached the orange bridge, and then swung along the underside until they reached the first pillar sunk into the water. They climbed up to the road level. The trucks were still coming down through the hills, slowed by damage to the road. Koba led the way up the pillar, climbing all the way to the top, where the thick cables rested in steel brackets. They found secure places to stay, on the side of the bridge away from the open ocean, and settled in to wait and watch.