Shattered Remains
righthandape:
It was something Rocket hated to do, but he had to give an affirmative nod to Blue Eyes’ question. The way the footsteps sounded was exactly the way an ape would move through the bushes. No other animal could make that sound.
Thankful at least that the unwelcome visitor was not human, Rocket made a sign to his companions not to make any noise, and reached for his gun. Taking care to move as silently as he could, the veteran warrior moved towards the source of the footfalls, and then froze, waiting to see if the ape would come into view. Would it be one of Koba’s apes? Or had one of their own followed them for some reason? With a sinking heart, Rocket realized that it was unlikely to be the latter. A friend would not be sneaking around like that.
The chimpanzee hoped that he would not have to use the human weapon, as although guns were now a necessary evil, Rocket absolutely despised them.
Whoever was approaching appeared to be heading toward the horses, and when they finally came into view, Rocket did a double-take at what he saw.
The ape was not one of Cornelia’s, nor one of Koba’s. This ape was no one he had ever seen before, and was… only a white-tail.
Creeping towards the horses and then reaching one hand inside Lana’s saddle-bag was a young male chimpanzee. He appeared to be about four years old and was obviously looking for food.
Rocket slowly moved closer, lowering the gun. Lana had by then got up, and Rocket nodded to her to come forward. If there were other apes nearby, strange apes who could become allies against Koba and/or the humans, perhaps it might be better for a female to make the first approach.
Lana held out one of the cookie packets to the little chimp.
“Here,” she said softly. “No need to steal from us. We share.”
The youngster looked startled, but he was too desperate for food to run off. He hesitantly took the packet she was offering and devoured several cookies before he uttered a call.
“Mother! Reuben! There apes here – and they have food!”
@exoduswounds
Yet again, Blue Eyes found his fingers touching the cold, dead metal of a human weapon in anticipation for some enemy to attack them. How had life gone to this so quickly? It still made the chimpanzee’s head spin, and he doubted that he would ever grow used to it, as he flipped the little switch on the gun that he knew allowed it to fire when the trigger was pulled.
Though, it did not appear that the weapon was necessary. At least not immediately. Blue Eyes’ brows raised at the sight of a small ape child. One that had followed them, somehow, from their troop’s camp? No, the prince realized. This wasn’t a chimp he recognized. His eyes flicked briefly to Bad Ape, brows furrowing. How many strange apes had lived so close to them without their knowledge? All this time, too? He, and all of the others, had thought that they knew their home. It seemed now that they knew far less than they thought, both about their home, and the apes that they had trusted without question.
The young ape lowered his gun as well, inhaling sharply through his nose and looking to Rocket with an expression of confusion after Lana approached, and the little chimp called out for his mother and another ape. More? Another whole troop, perhaps? For ten years, they had been completely oblivious to the presence of other apes – in fact, Maurice had signed of his doubts that there were any other intelligent apes, outside of their tribe. Clearly, even the wise old orangutan could be wrong.
‘How many apes here that we not know about?’
He knew it wasn’t a inquiry that Rocket could answer; it was more of a statement, questioning the true depth of their knowledge… At any rate, Blue Eyes kept his weapon in hand. The child could do them no harm, but there was no guarantee that the others that he was calling to would be friendly. The prince took a few steps towards the white-tail, but stopped at a respectful distance, watching the forest in the direction the child had called. He could hear other apes approaching now, and they did not seem to be trying to cover the sounds of their footsteps.
| @righthandape |
Rocket gave a shrug, not knowing what to say. He was not the smartest of apes when it came to abstract questions, despite his great knowledge of hunting and horses. The burly chimpanzee had not been able to even imagine apes beyond the original Muir Woods colony until he had met Bad Ape.
Yet there were, indeed, more apes coming.
The group that emerged from the forest was by no means as large as Cornelia’s troop, or even Koba’s, but there looked to be several families there – chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas. No bonobos or gibbons, and the adults mostly seemed to be on the youthful side. In fact, there were no elders at all in this motley crew of apes, though there were quite a few adolescents, children and infants.
A female chimp carrying a baby on her back approached – she appeared to be the “Mother” that the little male had called out to, and a leader of sorts. She was a pretty ape with freckles, and both her children bore a strong resemblance to her. Beside her was what Rocket initially thought to be a reddish-furred gorilla, but then he saw the flanges and realized that this male was in fact the largest orangutan he had ever laid eyes on. The orangutan too was carrying an infant, which was very strange, as males of his species did not usually carry their young around… he appeared to be second in command to the female chimp, and was presumably “Reuben”.
Even more oddly, there seemed to be no silverback with the gorillas, who appeared to be led by a bushy-furred female with the scar of a healed bullet wound on her left arm. Another female with a suckling infant was close by her side, and something about them suggested a mated pair to Rocket rather than friends or sisters. Bonobos were the ones most likely to take mates of the same gender, but occasionally female gorillas in their own troop had done so...
“Tommy? What you find? Who are these apes?” the female chimpanzee called. And then she stopped and stared – not at Blue Eyes, Lana or Rocket, or even the food her son was holding out to her.
The mother of the oddly named Tommy was staring at Bad Ape.
“Can’t be… humans drive you off… all grown apes died…” she cried out in an anguished voice.
Bad Ape gasped, and drew closer.
“Missy?” he cried out, and the female chimp rushed up to him with an excited hoot that alarmed all the other apes.
“FATHER!” she shrieked, and pressed her forehead against Bad Ape’s.
@exoduswounds














