Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (8 page)

Far out, almost lost in the sparsely vegetated terrain, were three figures, too distant to be identified. His hackles rose, and he growled deep in his throat. Were they men or apes? “Look . . . there!” he pointed. The other gorillas looked, then reacted. They snorted, they snuffled, they flared their nostrils and fidgeted; they bounced up and down, they grunted, they made noises. They squinted and sniffed and became excited. They stamped their feet and pounded the ground.

“Quiet!” snapped Aldo again. His eyes narrowed to slits. The short, fat one must be an orangutan; yes, he could tell by the way the paunchy little thing waddled. The one on the other side, the one who was limping, was definitely a man. Aldo sneered. The third figure was walking like an ape. Too skinny to be a gorilla. Must be a chimp. Hmf. What were they doing out in the desert, anyway? The desert and the city were forbidden.

Aldo growled orders to his troops. They backed down off the ridge, out of sight.

As Caesar, Virgil, and MacDonald came climbing up the hill, the gorillas came charging down the slope and flung themselves on the trio.

“Hey, what . . .?” cried Virgil, as he disappeared under the thundering black bodies. They went tumbling down over the rocks.

There was the flash of a drawn sword.

Caesar was yelling, “Stop . . . it’s us . . . it’s Caesar!”

“Caesar?” Aldo frowned. “Stop,” he called. “Stop.” He said it without urgency, only curiosity. “Caesar?” The scuffling muttered off into embarrassed silence. The two apes and the man stood up, brushing off the dirt.

“That’s some welcome,” said MacDonald wryly. “We should have stayed in the city. Definitely.”

“I imagine Aldo was hoping we’d stay there
in
definitely,” remarked Virgil.

Aldo came down the slope toward them. “Why were you there? To visit the city is forbidden.” His manner was grim.

Caesar was just as cold. “I know.
I
forbade it.”

“Then why . . .?” Aldo frowned in puzzlement. This did not make sense to him.

“Aldo,” said Virgil. “If a king forbids his subjects to wear a crown, that doesn’t mean he can’t wear one himself. Caesar is Caesar. He went to the city for a purpose.”

“What purpose?” Aldo was suspicious.

“I went looking for my past, but I found our future.”

“Huh? Explain.” The big gorilla was aggressively insistent.

Caesar snarled irritably. “You wouldn’t understand.” He started to shove past Aldo.

But Aldo stopped him. He raised his sword and pointed it directly at Caesar’s heart. “Aldo will make the future—with this.”

“No,” Caesar shook his head. “With that, Aldo will find himself in the past.”

MacDonald smothered a smile, but Virgil laughed out loud. The trio moved up the hill and on toward Ape City.

The gorillas snorted in contempt and moved back toward their outpost. Not a single one noticed the three mutant scouts who had been tracking Caesar all the way from the city. The mutants began moving away from the outpost, circling it widely to move toward Ape City.

The Ape Council meeting was divided into three sections. There were ten representatives of each species. The orangutans were older and more staid; Virgil was the youngest member. The gorillas were all brutish young males; Aldo was chief among them. The chimpanzees included both males and females; they all had kindly faces.

Caesar, Lisa, and Cornelius entered and took their seats on a dais before a table on which were stacked the apes’ laws, a set of hand-lettered parchments. Caesar was deep in thought. He hugged Cornelius fondly and bade him keep quiet, then he called the meeting to order. He rapped the table for silence. “My friends, I have convened this extraordinary meeting of the council in order that I might report on an action that I deemed necessary: a reconnaissance expedition to the Forbidden City . . .”

At that, all the apes reacted visibly. Lisa was startled and concerned. The gorillas became restless and fidgety, rattling their swords. The orangutans were outraged, and the chimpanzees were confused. The Forbidden City?

“. . . with Virgil and MacDonald as my aides,” Caesar finished.

“Why MacDonald?” complained Aldo. “Why not a soldier?”

“You will hear,” said Caesar. Cornelius crawled under the table and stayed there. “When ape history comes to be written, we want it based not on legendary fiction but on facts. We went in search of records that might provide such facts.”

“Did you find them?” asked a chimpanzee.

“Yes,” said Caesar.

“And brought them back?” said an eager orangutan hopefully.

“No,” said Caesar.

“Why not?”

“Because we went in peace to what, we thought, was a dead city; but in case there might still be human survivors, we took MacDonald to parley with them and secure permission for our search.” He paused. “There
are
survivors.”

The Council murmured. “Survivors?” they echoed.

“Maimed, mutated, mad, hostile, and . . . human.”

The murmur became a shocked roar.

“They attacked us,” said Caesar.

At that, the gorillas leaped to their feet. “Then let me lead my soldiers against them!” growled Aldo.

Caesar looked at him firmly, “General Aldo, not only are they armed, for they attacked us with sophisticated weapons . . .”

“We, too, have weapons.”

“. . . but the radiation in the city is still such that if you and your soldiers fought there for just a few hours, you would become maimed, mutated, and as mad as they. So also would your future children.”

The Council was shocked into silence. Then Aldo said sullenly, “Did the humans follow you
here?
”

“We saw no sign of it. But you are right to be concerned. We have to plan for a time when they
may
come out of the city, when they
may
find us.”

Now the chimpanzees and orangutans rose to their feet; what was Caesar saying?

“Our gorilla army will exercise constant vigilance through continuous patrols. Civilians will assist in building defenses. And we should discuss training a militia.”

Lisa gathered Cornelius up in her arms. “Caesar, is this necessary? Isn’t it possible that the humans will stay in their city and leave us in peace?”

Caesar said gently, “Yes, it’s possible. But if we wish for the peace to last, we must be prepared to fight for it.”

Lisa turned desperately to Virgil, “Virgil . . .?”

The pudgy little orangutan said calmly, “If light is possible, so is darkness. If peace if possible, so is war.”

Caesar added, “This has not been an easy decision to make, but it is a necessary one. If we are to build a world of peace, we must survive. And if we are to survive, we must be strong.” At this, the gorillas cheered.

Abruptly, there was a scuffle at the door, a flurry of sudden noise as a group of humans tried to enter. Two gorilla guards had grabbed them and were forcibly trying to evict them. The group included MacDonald, Teacher, Doctor, Jake, and a few others. MacDonald was resisting loudly, “Get your filthy gorilla hands off of me!”

“No humans in council,” the gorilla was insisting.

“Stop that!” cried Caesar. “Release them!”

“Huh?” grunted Aldo and the other gorillas. They were standing, ready for a fight. Aldo turned angrily to Caesar; he stalked up to the front of the room to Caesar’s chair. He towered over him. “No humans in council!” he roared.

Caesar remained seated. He spoke calmly, “They are here because I sent for them. Now that we know of the danger in the city, we need their help, their counsel.”

“No,” insisted Aldo. “No! No!”

The other gorillas also began roaring and pounding their tables. “No! No!
No!
” They began to chant: “No! No! No! No! No!”

Cornelius, intimidated by the gorillas, moved closer to his father. Caesar slipped his arms around the little chimp and stood up. He waited for the uproar to cease. After a moment the gorillas trailed off in their chanting. They weren’t intelligent enough to be embarrassed, just uncomfortable.

Caesar said calmly,"
I
say yes.”

The chimpanzees and orangutans, confused by the rapid pace of events, nodded their heads in agreement with Caesar; he seemed to know what he was doing. “Yes,” they echoed. “Yes. Let the humans in council.”

Cornelius relaxed, realizing that his father had won the point. Aldo realized it too; he was furious as he looked around the room and sensed the support for Caesar’s position rather than his. He growled angrily as he realized that he had lost. He turned to the other gorillas, “Come!
We
shall not sit with humans. No!”

He strode from the room, and the other gorillas followed. At the door they shoved the humans roughly out of their way. They stamped loudly out of the room.

Caesar walked over to the humans. He clapped his arm around MacDonald’s shoulder and led him, Teacher, Doctor, Jake, and the others over to the empty gorilla seats. He gestured them to sit down.

“Now,” said Caesar, “let us reason together and make plans.”

Méndez was saying to Kolp, “Governor, somewhere along the line, this bloody chain reaction of violence has got to stop. A destroys B; B destroys C; C destroys A and is destroyed by D, who destroys E—and before anyone knows where they are, there’ll be nobody left anywhere to know anything. Only nuclear dust, like those apes from the future predicted. The Earth will be a dead star.”

Kolp’s eyes blazed. “The star of our city is not dead. We shall live to see it rise again.”

Méndez muttered, “At whose expense this time?”

As if in answer, Alma ushered in the travel-stained captain of Security, who had come directly to Kolp’s office. He saluted sharply and said, “We found it, sir.” He began to unfold a map. “The site of Ape City.”

Méndez looked unhappy. Kolp seemed to grow. “Where?” he asked eagerly. “Where is it?”

The captain laid the map on a table. He began pointing. “There’s a gorilla outpost here. Below that is a valley; it’s planted with orchards and vineyards. There are orange groves and banana palms here. Enough to feed thousands.” He tapped the map, “Their city is
here
.”

“You saw it?”

“Yes, sir, we did.”

“Did they see you?”

The captain shook his head. “No, sir. They were too busy. They seemed to be holding some kind of a council. Probably a council of war. I’ll bet that Caesar was reporting to them on his reconnaissance. One day soon they’ll be coming for us.”

“No,” snapped Kolp. “We’re going for them.
Now
.”

Méndez groaned.

“Go and alert your men. You know your orders.”

“Yes, sir.” The captain saluted and left.

Kolp beckoned to Alma.

“Yes, Mr. Kolp?” Her eyes were bright.

“Come with me. Méndez, you stay here and oversee the preparations.” He led Alma out of the room. “I want to give you some special instructions.”

“Yes, sir. Special instructions.
Oh!
Yes, sir!” She practically bounced along to keep up with him.

Kolp was in a state of fanatical euphoria. He half-strode, half-waddled, Alma beside him, through huge piles of supplies and scavenged materials from the ruined city. There were piles of rusty tin cans, pieces of ancient automobiles, old tires, bottles, stone columns, street and highway signs, street lights, and other useful and useless debris. The area was some kind of blasted tunnel, perhaps an old subway station. Now it was a warehouse, with mutants moving in frenzied preparation for the attack. They were pulling supplies from piles and loading dilapidated old trucks. There was a dusty school bus and a rickety-looking Cadillac. There were motorcycles and jeeps and even an armored troop carrier.

“We must destroy the whole zoo, Alma,” Kolp was muttering. “Once and for all, we must destroy them. It is not enough to merely cage a dangerous animal.”

“I don’t quite . . . I don’t quite understand.” She frowned.

He stopped and took her by the shoulders. She thrilled to his touch. “You will, you will.” He pulled her through a side passage into a makeshift missile silo. The chamber was gray and featureless, strewn with rubble. And it was dominated by a huge cylindrical object.

Kolp gestured at it, expansively. “Beautiful,” he sighed. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Alma nodded, without comprehension.

He turned back to her. “Alma, we’ve worked together for a long time, haven’t we?”

“Eleven years and three months, Mr. Kolp.”

“Yes.” He stepped close to her, his eyes gleaming. “There’s trust between us, isn’t there?”

“Oh, yes,” she breathed huskily. “Oh, yes.”

“And more than trust—right?”

“Oh, yes.” Her eyes were wide with anticipation.

“There’s . . . friendship . . . isn’t there, Alma?”

Alma sighed almost wistfully. “Yes, Mr. Kolp. There’s friendship.”

“Alma, will you undertake a task that I can only entrust to a true friend?”

“What task, Mr. Kolp?”

Kolp pointed at the huge object behind him. “Do you know what this is?”

“Of course, Mr. Kolp. It’s our nuclear missile.”

Kolp went up to it and stroked its shaft. “It’s operational. Did you know that?” He gestured to her, and she approached timidly. He kept stroking the shaft of the missile as he reached out and took her hand. Her heart skipped a beat.

“Come closer, Alma,” he whispered. She did so. “Touch it,” he commanded. She extended her other hand and pressed her fingertips against the cold metal surface, then her whole palm. She began stroking the weapon in time with Kolp. The smooth steel felt so clean, so strong.

“If the impossible should happen, Alma,” Kolp said. “If we’re defeated by the apes, I will not surrender to animals.” He squeezed her hand and held it tighter. “Neither will my soldiers. If retreat seems necessary, I shall send you a coded radio signal. Fifteen minutes after you receive it, you will range this missile on Ape City and activate it.”

Alma breathed throatily, “Yes, Mr. Kolp, I will. I can do it from the main control console. What will the signal be?”

Kolp looked at her carefully. “Alpha and Omega,” he said slowly.

Alma repeated, “Alpha and Omega.”

He nodded. “You’re a good girl, Alma.”