20. Who Is Ape (1/2)

"what... what do you mean in trouble?" malcolm asked the burly chimpanzee, noticing rocket glancing back to where the ape village was before turning back to face him.

"bad apes. take over home. caesar. my friends. other apes. all captured," rocket grunted out, explaining it as best as he could, hoping that both malcolm and alexander understood what he was saying through his limited vocabulary usage.

"okay... okay," malcolm spoke out calmly to the big chimp, mulling over what the ape had just told him.

"have you three seen the other apes? did you guys see my mother? or the other woman, nova?" alexander asked quickly, gaining the attention of rocket as well as the other two younger chimps who stood a little ways behind him.

"not see. but... hear," rocket answered noticing alexander's shoulders sag down slightly.

"okay... you heard them... do you remember in which direction?" malcolm asked hopefully causing the burly chimpanzee to think about it.

"that way," milo spoke up quietly as he pointed a finger towards the east. "heard other ape calls coming from that direction," he informed.

"let's go there then," alexander announced quickly.

"might be. trap," rocket warned, knowing that the two humans wanted to find their own but they really had to think things through first as it was not safe to blindly go searching within the dark.

"maybe... but we don't have any other choice," alexander voiced.

"it dangerous," rocket rumbled lowly to the younger human.

"alex, calm down. rocket here has a point. we can't just go searching through the dark forest for the others, who knows what we'll find," malcolm reasoned.

"we go," a small voice spoke up, causing everyone to turn their heads at cinder whom stood there with her hands held over her heart. "let us go. it may be trap, but... we might find missing apes. they can help," cinder finished.

making eye contact with her father, cinder and the older chimp stared at each other for a long moment before rocket slowly nodded at her, agreeing with her words.

"let us. go find them," rocket agreed, placing a reassuring hand onto his child before turning to face the two humans.

"you got it," alexander answered as he jogged on over to where his truck was and started it up.

"seems like you guys are with me, come on," malcolm beckoned the three apes and opened the truck door for them to get inside.

once they were all settled into the vehicles, malcolm turn on the engine and started down the trail that slanted off towards the east side of the forest, hoping to find their missing companions.

...

looking around in his cell, caesar found himself to be in a familiar situation that had happened to him many years ago. as he observed his surroundings, caesar noted that most if not all of the apes were locked up in their own cages, all lined up near each other, with the wooden bars just thick enough so that they couldn't easily

eak them. noticing a few of their captors walking on by caesar had

iefly made eye contact with one of the chimpanzees whom stared back at him for a

ief moment before leaving the king be, trailing after the others.

"so this. is what. you call. home?" a voice suddenly spoke up from caesar's right, causing the ape king to startle and turn to see who was speaking to him.

there leaning onto the bars of his own cage was pankun who dully let his green eyes wander around at the other occupants who surrounded them. as his eyes circled the area, pankun's gaze finally landed on caesar's and they both stared at each other intently before the ape king heaved out a foggy

eath before

eaking eye contact.

"i am. sorry. did not mean. to get you. and other apes. involved," caesar voiced.

"did you know. this will happen?" pankun asked gaining a slow head shake from the ape king.

"then you don't. need to. apologize," pankun responded as he slowly wrapped his fingers around one of the wooden bars of his cage, testing it all the while.

thinking about what the chimpanzee had said to him earlier, pankun turned to look back at caesar who seemed to be deep in thought. pankun was not sure what caesar and his apes had gone through in the past but if they were all going to get out of this situation he would need to know a little more of their history.

"who is ape?" pankun asked causing caesar set his gaze upon him once more.

at first caesar did not know to whom pankun was referring to but after a second or so it came back to him. pimu had mentioned to pankun earlier that an ape was the cause and reason for all of this happening to them. huffing a

eath, caesar closed his eyes and thought to himself a moment. should he tell this new ape leader of their tragic past?

"i need to know. so i can help," pankun voiced, gaining caesar's attention once more.

that was right, pankun had given his trust to him and caesar should trust the ape leader as well if they were to get out this place.

"koba... his name. was koba," caesar answered slowly as he unconsciously reached up and placed two fingers over his old bullet wound that was located just right above his left pectoral.

"what that other chimpanzee said about this... koba. was it all true? did he lead the apes to war with the humans? did he try to kill you?" pankun asked, thankful that the torch lights were all still lit so that he could sign instead.

at first caesar did not answer but after a while he gradually nodded in response giving pankun all the confirmation he needed that the chimpanzee who had captured them was not lying.

"who is koba?" pankun asked the ape king, trying to figure out why the other chimpanzee was being so hesitant in telling him.

"was... who was koba..." caesar corrected pankun. "he was a good and valuable friend... he was like a

other to me... a

other that i could not save..." caesar trailed off as he grunted to himself remembering all the good and bad times that both he and koba had interacted with one another.

noticing that distraught look on the ape king, pankun decided to respect caesar's silence and held himself on trying to pry anymore information from the ape king. instead pankun allowed the silence of the night to fill their time.

as he glanced around pankun saw that maurice the orangutan who had been by caesar's side most of the time was hunched over in his own small cage. furrowing his

ows. pankun signed to the orangutan, asking him if he was doing well and the older ape merely gave him a smile and told him not to worry about it. curiously, pankun then started to sign to maurice asking him questions to see if he knew anything regarding their past with what pimu had told him earlier.

"what did that chimpanzee mean? that other ape species could not be trusted?" pankun gestured to maurice when glanced in his direction.

"he means other apes like maurice and i," luca gestured uncomfortably within his own cage that was set behind maurice.

"so why does he not trust other apes then?" pankun asked as he glanced on over to where caesar sat before eyeing the two bigger apes once more.

maurice sighed as he let his beady green eyes wander up towards the stars for a moment before letting them fall back onto pankun. knowing that this will take some time to explain. deciding to make himself as comfortable as possible, maurice sat at the bottom of his cage before he answered the other chimpanzee's questions.

"if you recall, pimu, that is the chimp's name that put us in here, does not like the other ape species very much. he detests the bonobos because one of them was the cause of the human and ape war that happened a long time ago. he hates the orangutans because it was i who was suppose to lead the apes to safety... and failed in doing so because we were attacked by the humans. he blames the gorillas because in his mind they did not fight hard enough to save his family," maurice explained solemnly.

"then why put the blame on the other ape species for the mistake of a few? not that i blame you of course. besides that, you all did what you could do, am i correct? in trying to save his family as well as the other apes from the fights with the humans?" pankun questioned.

"to pimu he did not see it that way. after he had lost both his mate and child... he had not been the same. all he sees now are that the other apes species were the cause of his suffering, their... our mere presence reminding him everyday why his mate and child are still not by his side," maurice finished.

"from what i could see, pimu is not the only chimpanzee who sees things this way," luca grunt gestured as he let his angry eyes glare around at their jailers who stood on by. "they believe they are doing the right thing in locking us up. as to what they are going to do to us, i do not know," the gorilla ended with a grunt.

"i do not. agree," andy's voice could be heard next to pankun's cage, causing him to look at the other chimpanzee. "pimu and the other chimpanzees can blame all the other ape species they want but just as pankun had said, they should not condemn the majority for the mistakes of a few," andy signed angrily. "what these chimpanzees are doing to all the apes right now... they are wrong. what it will do is accomplish in dividing all of us apart. did we not all build this... our home, so that we may all live together in peace... away from the horrible humans that were willing to hurt us?" andy asked as he turned around to look at the apes in their cages. "apes... together... strong," andy finished in a quiet voice.

"apes... together... strong," caesar whispered to himself as he averted his gaze away from the others and let his hazel green hues wander up towards the sky. what would happen now since most of the apes were now captured and are under the rule of the chimps. was andy right in stating that this will no doubt divide the apes further apart from what they were all built on? they would have to do something, something to mend all the hate and mistrust that resided in all of them.

closing his tired eyes, caesar let his thoughts wander elsewhere to where his mate and sons were. his heart ached for them, hoping that they were safe and out of harms way and not captured like he was. "cornelia... blue-eyes... milo..." caesar whispered as he leaned onto the bars of his cage.

...

it has been nearly an hour now and charlie had a frown set onto his lips, allowing his thoughts to wander back and forth recalling the events of the last couple of days when he was captured. there was a sudden lurch and charlie quickly fastened his grip on his companion, standing firm while tykki recovered his footing.

"forgive me," tykki grunted quickly with a slight hiss, feeling quite ashamed at himself for stumbling within the dark woods.

"why?" charlie asked as he adjusted his hold onto the wounded chimp, hefting him up so they could walk properly.

"for-" tykki started but was quickly interrupted when charlie gave off a low grunt, silencing him.

"not your fault. just... just keep. on walking," charlie informed as he helped the ape along, not wanting to hear an apology or anything else.

after that the two fell into a quiet while they were lead by the smaller chimpanzee who had helped them out earlier. as everyone reached a certain clearing within the forest the young ape had told everyone to wait as he quickly sprinted ahead, disappearing into the dark. after a few seconds more gregoire, if charlie recalled the young ape's name, had returned and informed them that they were by the creek that was close to the ape village. with that announcement everyone gave off a relieved sigh.

as they were all beginning to relax and was about to move out again everybody stopped when they all heard the sounds of rumbling in the distance. both ellie and nova to glance at each other in surprise, recognizing the sounds of their vehicles. the two woman then asked the apes to stay calm while they both go see whom it was that was approaching them.

fearing for the safety of their human teacher, gregoire, michael and ndume quickly trailed after the two woman and stopped with them as they stood within the middle of a large trail. in the

iefest of moments two sets of glowing spheres lit up their view and ellie quickly flashed alexander's pocket light at the two oncoming vehicles. the two trucks slowed down into a stop before turning themselves off and out jumped malcolm, alexander and a few apes. the man quickly rushed on over and pulled ellie into a great big hug.

"thank god you two are safe," ellie spoke softly as she was em

aced by her husband.

"we have some pressing news we need to discuss," malcolm said slowly.

"right, you can tell me on the way. i think we really need to help that other chimpanzee first as well as some of the other apes," ellie explained quickly as she quickly rushed towards one of the trucks and started to pull out the emergency medical kits with malcolm following after her.

as ellie gathered her medical equipment from the vehicle, malcolm did his best to explain the situation to the woman. informing her about what both he and alexander had come across when they were returning to caesar's colony only to find rocket, cinder and milo not too far from the village itself. ellie paused for a moment and took it all in before she explained her side of the story of what had happened to them, informing the man about the apes who used themselves as bait so that they could all escape.

"oh malcolm, what do we do?" ellie whispered as she hugged the equipment close to her. "the apes, they're all in trouble," she finished.

"no... but we should still help them in anyway we can," malcolm informed gaining a few nods from ellie.

"right and first is to help that other chimpanzee," ellie said quickly as she turned around the

isk-fully walked back to where the apes were all hiding.

while they both had walked back they noticed that most of the troops seems to have a gloomy air about them, probably learning of what had happened to the colony. both ellie and malcolm glanced at one another before ellie quickly made her way to both nova and alexander. when she approached the two she gave them two some medical materials and asked them to work together and to treat any sick or injured apes that were in the group. both of the younger people nodded and started off right away with their jobs while ellie heaved out a tired