The Lost Experiment

Chapter 9

We had gone back to the woods for the time being. We didn't know when the humans would come so I moved my camp into the village and helped fortify the place. Caesar didn't want me out on my own. He thought I would be safer living with them. Not all the apes agreed but I did move at his insistence. I would help protect my cousins.

 Seasons passed as our defenses grew and no humans had been seen. Slowly we started to relax a bit, thinking that maybe, just maybe the humans had heard the message wrong. Or maybe the flu had finally killed them all off. More seasons passed and we had built traps all over the forest. Rocket and Blue were out scouting for a new home, just in case. They had been gone for months now.

I sat down next to Maurice as the sun was setting. I had just come back from patrols, I had found no sign of humans on our borders. I kept catching on odd scent though, I couldn't place it. It wasn't quite human, or ape. I didn't know much of the human world and their things. I didn't know what all their things smelled like, I knew all the smells of a lab and the forest. That's where I grew up, that's what I knew. "Have you been smelling something odd today Maurice?" I asked. Caesar chose that moment to join us.

~"No,"~ Maurice signed. I looked at Caesar and he too shook his head. The two of them then entered a conversation about the humans. Both Caesar and Maurice knew the human world and their things. Maurice had been in the circus, Caesar was raised by them. Surely they would be able to place the scent if they smelled it. It had been ten years since we had seen them, ten years since the start of the war. I wondered if the disease they had created had changed any in the last ten years if there were any humans left and that was why no one had come.

Suddenly in the distance, I heard a sound I hadn't heard for years and I could hear pained screams. I took on my panther form and started running. I heard Caesar hoot after me but I didn't stop. I could smell gunpowder and that meant one thing, the humans were back. I ran through the green forest to where we had placed a trench and I knew the fighting was taking place.

I launched myself into the fight where several humans were already injured and many apes had been killed. I started attacking the humans, drawing fire to me as more apes arrived on scene and all but two humans were defeated. the sickest part was the humans were using their own apes as slaves, apes that had followed Koba. They feared what Caesar would do to them.

The ape that was with them ended up escaping and Caesar decided to let the two humans we captured go, as a message. I just hoped as dumb as humans could be that they would receive the message correctly. Humans in my experience had a one track mind, these humans wanted revenge. I had a feeling this was long from over.