A/N: One more chapter till the end. Hope you're enjoying the story.
~"Soldiers everywhere! How will we get in?"~ Rocket said looking at us.
~"Must get in somehow...Must get in!"~ Maurice said. I nodded in agreement. I needed in to protect Caesar.
"In? In?" Bad ape asked. Maurice nodded. "No! No go in! No!" he said backing away before he fell through the ground.
"Looks like we found away in. Good job Bad ape," I said.
"Friends! Friends! No! No go in! No go in! Friend! Friend! Thank you." ROcket pulled him from the hole as he continued to tell us not to go in. "Thank you, friend. You save our lives!"
~"Sick humans must have escaped down here!"~ Maurice signed as we explored the tunnel we had accidentally stumbled upon. At the end of the tunnel, we found a ladder and Maurice gestured for one of us to climb.
"No, no! No, no climb!" I climbed the ladder to see where it led. It was a locked trap door. I came back door and followed the others through the tunnel. "No! What? What you see?" Bad ape asked. 'APE-APOCALYPSE NOW' was painted on the wall. Bad ape and the girl and gone back up to watch what was going on.
~ "Wonder where we are,"~ Rocket signed. He climbed onto Maurice's back and started digging.
Bad ape's POV
The girl and I were watching the humans as it was getting dark. She started to walk out towards the gate of the human zoo. "No! Friend...No!" I called to her. She turned to face me for a few moments before turning back around. "No! No!No! Come, come!Come!Come, come.No! Come! Come! Come, come!" She completely ignored me and kept walking into the zoo. I ran for the others. They would know what to do.
Caesar's POV
I was still tied out and a bucket of water had been dumped on me earlier that day so I was freezing. I thought I saw Koba as I opened my eyes. "Koba."
"Sleep. You cannot save them. Apes all die here," he said touching my face.
"No!" I replied.
"Yes. Join me..." he said before the image cleared and Red was standing in front of me and he cut me down.
"If he's still alive in the morning...He goes back to work as everyone else. Or you shoot him," I heard the COlonel say before I was dragged off into a cage by myself.
Gabrielle's POV
Bad ape dragged us out of the tunnel, "Come. Come. Come. She go in!"
"Shit," I said taking on my ape form and sneaking in, the others following me. I watched as the girl easily found Caesar and dropped her doll on him. He looked up at her and she signed something to which he nodded. She came back with a bucket of water. As he drank she stroked the hair on his head. When he was done the apes across the way called to her and she went over to them. I kept watch as they handed her some oats and she took them to Caesar.
Caesar took them from her as I heard humans getting closer. The other apes started to sign ~"Strong together"~ and the little girl looked at them and repeated the gesture. Just then she and Caesar could hear the humans too.
"Hide. Quick," Caesar told her. She hid behind his cage and Caesar gestured for her to get further back.
~"Humans will kill her!"~ Maurice signed.
"I know what to do! Go!" I said walking out making as much noise as possible. I kept my arms up showing I didn't want to fight. The gorilla that had been captured back in the forest was the one to walk towards me after several guns were pointed at me. I wanted to transform and kill these guy but that would ruin the escape plans. I let the gorilla slam me into the ground and pound on me.
" Are there others out there?" the Colonel asked. "What about the tiger I shot that night?" I still said nothing. "Sweep the area. Put her in the pen." I was dragged in and chained.
Once the humans were gone I signed to Caesar, ~"Feeling better?"~ He nodded. ~"Good. Then we can talk about escape. Apes together strong!"~
After that, I settled the best I could for the night after talking to the others. The troops woke me with the footfalls and shouting.
Caesar's POV
I was brought out of my cage in the morning, still feeling a bit weak. "Still alive. Send him to the quarry." I was hooked up to the chains so I couldn't run." Alone. Hold on." The Colonel reached into my cage and grabbed the doll. "What is this? How did this get in there?" I remained silent. "Get him to work."
Gabrielle was below me counting steps between cages and sending them up to me. ~"Thirty-seven. Fifty-five."~
I nodded and turned to sign the information to Rocket and Maurice, ~"Thirty-seven steps to the adult cage. Fifty-five to the children."~ At the end of the day Red was taking me back to the cage. He was undoing my chains and collar.
"You know, Colonel shoot apes when wall is done," he said.
"This wall is madness. It won't save him. Anymore that it will save you," I replied.
"I save myself."
"Is there anything left of you to save?"
Maurice's POV
I was signing to Rocket as the girl I took in came in. ~"Apes going back to the cage?"~ She nodded. ~"You are very brave."~
~"Brave?"~ she asked.
~"Brave!"~ I answered her.
~"Brave!"~ she smiled. She then looked confused. ~"Ape? Me? Ape?"~ she asked.
~"You are..."~ I started pulling the gift from Bad ape out of her pocket and read the word, "Nova. Nova."
"Come! Come! Come to see! Come to see! Come! Come to see!" Bad ape said coming into the tunnel where we were before taking off again. We followed him as he counted, "34, 35, 36, 37! 30!37! I do. What now? What? No!No, no! No, no!" I wanted him to get on my back to dig and he refused and I yelled at him and his jaw just dropped. "Okay."
Gabrielle's POV
A little hole appeared by a soldiers feet and I saw Bad ape looking through the hole. I turned away so as not to draw attention to him. Once the human left the cage I turned to him and introduced him to the others, "This is the ape I told you about!"
~"Thank you."~ one of my friends signed holding his hand out to Bad ape.
"Bad Ape. Bad Ape.Bad... Bad Ape," he introduced himself. Suddenly I heard Rocket hooting and Maurice pulled away causing Bad ape to fall.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Maurice told me the tunnel was flooding.
I passed the message to Caesar, "We can't keep digging! It will flood the whole tunnel!"
~"If we don't, we can't reach the children! We must keep looking down there...Find another way to reach the children,"~ one of the female said.
~"We must leave now! More soldiers are coming! Humans will destroy each other! And us with them! WeII have to get the children out above ground."~ Caesar signed.
~"How?"~ someone asked.
~"I have an idea. Next passing soldier, fling poo at him. We can take his keys. Maurice, pull him into the tunnel,"~ I signed. Everyone agreed. It was gross but it would piss off the humans. We didn't have to wait long for the human to pass on a bridge above our cage. I took the first shot and hit him in the back of the head.
He scream when he realized what had hit him, "You animals!" He came running into the cage and shut the door. Moron. "Who did that? Who was it?" Another pile of shit was flung at him and hit him in the side of the face. "Was it you?" he asked turning to another ape, Blue Eyes. He was in the perfect position to be pulled into the tunnel and Maurice grabbed his ankles and pulled him down. A few moments later the keys flew up out of the hole.
"Thank you," I called. I passed the keys around so we could get the chains off ourselves before unlocking the door. Soon we had Caesar free and we were heading over to the children. Caesar went straight to his children, "I love you, sons." He held them both close. We quickly got to work getting everyone out, sending the young ones out on the cables the humans had set up. The adults went through the tunnel. Rocket had joined us to help.
~"Go, go. Hurry! Let's go! Caesar, what's wrong?"~ ROcket signed to him.
"Hurry. You must go," Caesar replied. Not this again.
~"Without you? No."~
"Maurice was right. I am like Koba. He could not escape his hate. And I still cannot escape mine."
"Go ROcket, I'll make sure he comes back to you. Tell Blue Eyes and Cornelius that I love them. Tell everyone that for me." I pulled Rocket into a hug, "I love you too Rocket. I had a feeling I wouldn't survive this.