by Lucas Flint
The beast looked like a gorilla, except it was even bigger than the gorillas they had at the Rumsfeld City Zoo. Its fur was pitch-black, with a few patches of gray here and there to indicate that it was an older gorilla. Its forearms were as thick as tree trunks, while its body was built like a truck. Its eyes were a milky white, but despite that, it was looking directly at me as if its eyes were still working perfectly. It also smelled horrible, like mud and droppings.
I took a step back, raising my fists defensively. “If you want to fight, then let’s fight.”
I flew toward the Blind Ape as fast as a bullet and punched it in the face. The blow sent the Blind Ape staggering backwards, but it recovered quickly and threw both of its fists at me faster than I could react.
The Blind Ape’s fists struck me, sending me flying from the impact. I crashed into the ground and went rolling backwards several feet before I slammed into the trunk of another tree, where I lay dazed from the blow. Dang that Blind Ape hit hard. It was like getting hit by a truck. Had I not been wearing my costume, that blow would likely have shattered every bone in my body. As it was, it just hurt me a whole lot.
Groaning in pain, I rose to my feet, dusting off my costume. But the Blind Ape just rushed toward me and threw another punch at me. This time, I flew into the air, narrowly dodging the Blind Ape’s fists, which crashed into the tree so hard that I heard an audible crack even above the blaring alarms. The tree then tottered backward and crashed into the ground with a loud boom.
I landed behind the Blind Ape, which whirled around to face me, but I kicked its legs out from underneath it and the Blind Ape collapsed onto the ground. But then the Blind Ape jumped back to its feet and lashed out with another punch, which I dodged by flying above it. As I flew above the Blind Ape, however, it reached up and grabbed my cape, yanking me back down to earth and slamming me as hard as it could against the ground before throwing me away.
I crashed into the ground again, where I lay, stunned from the impact. Okay, I was really going to have to rethink the wisdom of wearing a cape now.
Shaking my head, I rose to my feet again just in time to see the Blind Ape charging toward me again. This time, I flew into the air, but I went higher than before, piercing the treetops and emerging into the air outside of the forest. It was fresh and nice out here, but I didn’t stay up long. I just flew up for a few more seconds before turning around and flying back down into the forest.
The Blind Ape had come to a stop and was looking around for me, but when I broke through the treetops, it looked up just in time to see me coming. But I was too fast for it to dodge. With a roar, I slammed both of my fists into the Blind Ape’s face as hard as I possibly I could.
I heard something crack when my fists crashed into the Blind Ape’s face and then the Blind Ape collapsed underneath me like a pile of garbage. It did not rise again.
Panting and sweating from all of the effort I put into that one blow, I landed on the ground next to the Blind Ape and nudged it with the tip of my shoe. The creature didn’t even stir, which confirmed that it was definitely dead.
I heard a slow clap nearby and looked over my shoulder to see Christina leaning against a nearby tree. She was clapping at me, an amused grin on her face.
“Excellent job, kid,” said Christina. “I’ve never seen anyone kill a Blind Ape before. Didn’t even think you could kill one, to be honest. Good job.”
“And where were you the entire time?” I said. I wiped sweat off my forehead. “I thought you had just abandoned me.”
Christina frowned. “You seriously thought that I’d risk my life to take out one of those monsters? You obviously don’t know me well enough. Honestly, I didn’t even think it was possible to kill a Blind Ape. Thanks for proving me wrong, though.”
“It wasn’t easy,” I said. “But—”
I was interrupted by more rustling in the trees above us, followed by a distant howl that sounded much closer than I was comfortable with.
“Uh oh,” said Christina. “Sounds like that Ape’s friends are coming. Let’s get the hell out of here before they show up to avenge their friend.”
Christina turned and ran through the forest. And I ran after her, doing my best not to look over my shoulder in case we were being chased.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Christina and I ran for what seemed like hours, though it was probably more like a few minutes. The alarms in the forest kept blaring in our ears and I kept hearing the sounds of howling Blind Apes, but it was hard to tell how close they were. If the Blind Apes were following us, I doubt they were having any trouble, because it wasn’t exactly like we were trying to be silent or anything like that.
Suddenly, Christina turned off to the right, saying, “Over here!” and seemingly disappeared into some bushes. I had no idea where she could have gone, but I turned at the same point she did and tore through the bushes, only to find myself standing in front of a tree with a thick layer of moss at the base. Christina herself was nowhere to be found.
“Christina?” I said, whipping my head back and forth as I tried to look for her. “Where did you go? Christina?”
All of a sudden, I heard Christina’s voice through the moss say, “I’m in here, idiot! Come in before the Blind Apes find us.”
The moss opened like a door, revealing a very stressed out-looking Christina on the other side. I ran into the hollowed out tree and Christina slammed the door shut behind us. Then she turned to me and held a finger up to her lips to indicate that silence was needed. She didn’t need to tell me twice. Knowing what I did about the Blind Apes’ hearing, I was more than happy to keep my mouth shut, even though I had a lot of questions about our current hiding spot.
It appeared we were in some kind of hollowed out tree. It was roughly about the size of my room back home, maybe slightly smaller, though there was still plenty of room for Christina and me to fit in without it feeling claustrophobic. It smelled of damp earth and wet leaves and I thought there was a cricket in here or something, because something was making buzzing noises and it definitely wasn’t me or Christina.
Another thing I noticed was how clean the hollow was. Based on the smoothness of the walls and ceiling, it seemed like this hollow must have been carved out by someone a long time ago. Meaning that this wasn’t a natural phenomenon, though I couldn’t ask Christina about who might have gone to all the trouble of carving out this hollow just yet.
We sat in the darkness for several agonizingly long minutes, listening closely to the alarms and howls of the Blind Apes. It seemed like the noises were never going to end, but eventually, the alarms shut off and, a couple of seconds later, the howls of the Blind Apes slowly faded off into the distance until soon, the forest was silent once again.
Christina, however, was still and silent for another couple of seconds, before she let out a sigh of relief and said, “Whew. That was close.”
“Why did the alarms turn off?” I said in a low whisper, even though we were alone. “The Blind Apes didn’t kill us.”
“They’re motion sensitive,” said Christina, glancing at me. “The alarms only go off if you walk into one of the tripwires around here, but will stay on as long as they detect an intruder. If you hide, however, then the alarms cannot sense you and will turn themselves off eventually.”
“Seems like a pretty bad design flaw, if you ask me,” I said, gesturing at the place in which we hid, “given how easy it is to exploit it.”
“Only if you know how they work, like I do,” said Christina. “If you’re just some unsuspecting schmo who has no idea what kind of defenses Iconia has, then you’ll probably just get scared by the alarms and run straight into the open arms of a Blind Ape.”
“What about the Blind Apes, though?” I said. “I killed one of their own. I’d think they wouldn’t stop until they tracked me down and avenged their fallen brother.”
“The Blind Apes aren’t very social creatures,” said Christina. “They rarely avenge their fallen brothers and s
isters. The only reason they even work together is because the alarm sounds drive them mad and force them to search for the intruder who set them off. Like I said, the Blind Apes have very sensitive hearing, which is why they go insane whenever the alarm goes off. It’s also why the forest is usually silent. They prefer the silence because it doesn’t hurt their ears.”
“Oh,” I said. “Meaning once the alarms shut off, then the Blind Apes decide that everything is okay and move on?”
“Pretty much,” said Christina. “The Blind Apes are just animals, remember. They’re not as smart as humans, though they’re a lot smarter than most people give them credit for.”
“I see,” I said. I shook my head. “Using pain to control animals … somehow, that doesn’t surprise me coming from Icon.”
“Chaser doesn’t see them as living beings,” said Christina. “He probably just sees them as useful, if brutal, security guards. Chaser has a tendency to see other living things as tools for him to use to achieve his agenda.”
“So he doesn’t even realize that other beings feel pain?” I said in surprise.
“Oh, no, he realizes that,” said Christina with a chuckle. “He just doesn’t care. Like the good sociopath he is, he’ll keep pushing your buttons until he gets exactly what he wants.”
I smirked. “Just like you, right?”
Christina punched me in the arm. “Watch it, kid. I could walk out right now and have all of the Blind Apes attack us and I wouldn’t regret it.”
“Okay, okay, fine,” I said. I glanced around the hollow again, frowning. “But what is this place and how did you know it was here?”
Christina leaned against the wall and put her arms around her legs. “This forest actually has a lot of these hiding places scattered about. They’re supposed to be safe spaces that Icon agents who accidentally trigger the alarms can hide inside in order to avoid the Blind Apes, if necessary. There are about a dozen in all and I have every location memorized.”
“Wow,” I said. “Somehow you knew where we were even in the middle of the night like this?”
“There are certain signs in the area around these safe spaces which a trained eye can pick up even in the dark,” said Christina. “Oh, and I suppose I got a little lucky, too, because I could have easily led us into a dead end if my hunch was incorrect.”
“Well, good thing you had enough luck for both of us,” I said. I listened closely, but the forest outside was as silent as always. “Sounds like the Apes are gone. Time to go?”
Christina shook her head rapidly. “Not yet. The alarms can be reactivated again very easily if they sense intruders. We should wait a couple more minutes for the alarms to shut off completely.”
“Doesn’t that make us sitting ducks, though?” I said. “What if Chaser sends his agents into the forest after us? Surely he has to know that we weren’t torn to shreds by the Blind Apes.”
“And risk setting the Blind Apes on his own men?” said Christina. “Chaser doesn’t care one whit about any living being other than himself, but even he knows it would be stupid to send his own men into a dark forest full of easily triggered beasts in the middle of the night like this. We’re safe here for now, though we’ll have to move on eventually.”
“I see,” I said. “Then I guess that means we can take this time to rest and recover.”
“Yeah, but don’t get too cozy,” said Christina. “Just because Chaser might not send any agents into the forest after us does not mean that we’re home free just yet. He probably has agents stationed around the forest’s perimeter in order to catch us as we leave. It’s what I would do in his situation, anyway.”
“Right,” I said. “I hope that Uncle Josh and the others are okay. If they also ran into the Blind Apes—”
“Doubt it,” said Christina. “The Blind Apes are only in this particular forest. Of course, that doesn’t mean your friends are okay, given how there are plenty of other security systems around the island that are even worse than the Apes.”
I gulped. “Like what?”
“Can’t say, because it all depends on where their pod washed up,” said Christina. “In any case, we need to worry about ourselves right now, rather than them. They can take care of themselves. We cannot.”
I nodded in agreement, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about them anyway. Uncle Josh was family, after all, and I couldn’t stand the thought of him dying or being captured. I’d already lost my brother. I didn’t want to lose another family member.
Of course, if everything went well, then maybe I would save another member of my family tonight. I hadn’t forgotten about Grandfather, who was still being held prisoner somewhere in the dungeons of Iconia. A part of me wanted to rush out and storm the Tower of Icon now, but I knew that that would just result in me being captured or, more likely, killed. Right now, Christina and I needed to be as stealthy as possible, though I had a strong feeling that we would have to come out of the shadows eventually.
All of a sudden, the Trickshot Watch started beeping. Christina and I looked down at the Watch, whose surface was now glowing for some reason.
“What’s going on?” Christina hissed. “Silence it. Last thing we need is for any nearby Apes to hear that beeping noise.”
“I don’t know what it’s doing,” I said, tapping its surface repeatedly. “It’s never done this before. I don’t know what it could possibly be—”
I was interrupted by a voice that suddenly spoke from the Watch, though due to the static, it was hard to understand. “… Jack … it’s …”
It was hard to understand what the voice was saying, but it sounded like an old man, though I didn’t quite recognize it.
“Who’s there?” I said. “Hello? Are you still there? Tell me your name and how you know who I am.”
“… Jack …” the voice said through frequent static. “It’s … me …”
The voice sounded very familiar, stirring memories I had not thought of in a long time in the back of my head, but I didn’t want to believe the conclusion my mind was coming to, even though it was logical. “Still can barely hear you. Who are you?”
“It’s … me …” said the voice again. “Your … grandfather … Gregory McDonald …”
“Grandfather?” I said in shock, exchanging a surprised look with Christina. “Is that really you?”
“Yes … it’s … me …” said Grandfather.
My face cracked into the biggest smile I’d worn in a long time. “I can’t believe it! How are you contacting me through the Watch? Are you okay? Where are you?”
“Doesn’t … matter …” said Grandfather. “You … must … go … back …”
“Back?” I repeated. “What are you talking about? I’m coming to rescue you.”
“You … fool …” said Grandfather. “Go back … go … back …”
“Why?” I said. “Why should I go back? What is the problem?”
The words that Grandfather said next were difficult to understand through the thick static, but I managed to understand them nonetheless:
“You … are walking … into a trap …”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
As soon as Grandfather said those words, the Watch immediately went silent. I tapped the face of the Watch again, but nothing happened. The Watch seemed to have turned off.
Still, I said, “Grandfather, are you still there? Can you hear me? Hello? Grandfather?”
“Sounds like the Watch shut down,” said Christina. She had leaned forward when Grandfather spoke through the Watch, but sat back against the wall of the hollow with a slightly puzzled look on her face. “Though I wonder how he managed to speak through it.”
Lowering the Watch, I said, “Me, too. I didn’t even know that you could communicate through the Watch.”
“That’s not what I mean,” said Christina. “Gregory is supposed to be a prisoner. I know for a fact that prisoners are not allowed any sort of contact with the outside world whatsoever. Yet somehow your grandfather manage
d to get a hold of some kind of device that he used to contact you. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, now does it?”
“You’re right,” I said, nodding. “It doesn’t. That’s what puzzles me the most about it. Still, Grandfather somehow managed to get the Trickshot Watch delivered to me despite being held prisoner here on Iconia, so maybe it’s not as puzzling as it seems.”
“Whatever,” said Christina with a shrug. “It’s still very strange. The connection must not have been very good, even though Gregory is here on Iconia. Then again, Iconia does have jamming signals meant to interfere with transmissions that aren’t from their agents. Perhaps that’s why the connection wasn’t so good.”
“I don’t care about the strength of the connection,” I said. “What matters to me is Grandfather’s warning. You heard what he said. He said I was walking into a trap.”
Christina rolled her eyes. “Like we couldn’t figure that one out ourselves. Chaser has all sorts of traps set up on Iconia for the express purpose of capturing intruders like you and, now, me. Seems to me Greg could have given us a bit more useful information than the obvious.”
“I’m not sure that’s what Grandfather was referring to,” I said. “I think he was talking about a trap specifically set for me. I mean, that has to be what he was warning me about. Otherwise, why go through all of the trouble of warning me about stuff that I already knew existed?”
“Hmm, I guess,” said Christina. “But I kind of doubt Chaser would go through all of the trouble of setting a trap specifically for you. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you, you know.”
“Unless Chaser considered me a big enough threat, that is,” I said. “And given how Icon has tried to kill me several times already, including framing me for Baron Glory’s murder, I’m thinking it’s not as far-fetched as you think it is.”
Christina snorted. “What kind of trap would he set for you, anyway? That would require him to expect you to reach Iconia, even though he tried to blow us up in the submarine.”