by Maurice
Most of them anyway.
Malcolm was there, too. He looked weary and hurt. Some apes surrounded him, threatening him, but Caesar called them off.
Malcolm came to tell Caesar something.
“You’re not safe here,” he said. “They made contact. Other people are coming. Soldiers. You have to leave now, everyone.”
Caesar shook his head.
“Caesar, if you don’t go, it’ll be all-out war,” the human told him.
“War has already begun,” Caesar said. “Ape started war. And humans will not forgive. You must go, before fighting begins. I am sorry, my friend.”
“I thought we had a chance,” Malcolm said.
“I did, too,” Caesar said.
He clasped Malcolm’s head and touched foreheads with him, as he might an ape. Then he turned back to us. The females and children had arrived; he embraced Cornelia and his infant son. Then he began receiving the submission of those who had followed Koba. Grey was among them.
And then we prepared for war.
I hated the City. I wanted to go back to the forest. But Caesar said we should not.
We have many wounded, he said. Remember those first days in the forest, trying to run, to hide while carrying wounded? No. And we have the women and children here now, too. Our village is burned; we have no wall, no gorilla gate, nothing to defend us. If we go into the forest, the humans will come after us. They will have guns and other weapons. Last time, we were lucky. The disease stopped them from chasing us. This time they will keep coming until we are all dead. Here we can defend ourselves. Guns are here, explosives, and other things. We will need these things to fight the humans.
Must we fight them at all? I asked. Can’t we find some other way?
He shrugged. Maybe. If we show we are strong enough, make the humans know how costly a war will be, then maybe they will talk to us. Maybe we can have peace. But we must be prepared to fight.
Malcolm didn’t leave right away. He stayed and helped the human survivors pack and leave—those who hadn’t already fled the City. Caesar didn’t want them there. Considering how most of them had been treated by apes, it was probably wise not to trust them. When the ship from the north arrived, they might join the soldiers against the apes.
Malcolm also helped us prepare for the soldiers. He didn’t want war, but like Caesar, he thought the best way to avoid it was to show strength in the hope that whoever was coming would decide to talk first rather than shoot.
He and Caesar talked a lot. About ships, because we knew they were coming in a ship. About human armies and how they fought. Caesar saw it would be best if the ship was not allowed to land. On the ship, the soldiers would all be in one place. Once they got off, they could go anywhere.
We put weapons and guards on the bridge because the ship might try to sail under it to reach the City. We also placed guards along the coast, in case it landed there. The plan was not to run from the ship, but to run to it, wherever it landed.
We moved the women and children to a building far from the water, and the Gorilla Guard moved in with them. Ellie helped the midwives learn to care for the wounded. We gathered weapons and ammunition, everything we could find. Not just for our use, but so the humans on the ships would not be able to use them against us. We floated barrels in the water below the bridge. Malcolm said the men on the ship might think they were bombs.
How the War Began
Six days after Koba died, the ship from the north arrived. Caesar was on the Orange Bridge, waiting as it approached. Rocket, Malcolm, and I were there, too, along with many others. Malcolm pointed out that ships were of different kinds. Some were designed to carry humans from place to place and no more. Some were made for fishing or carrying supplies. But this ship was built for war. It had guns, very large ones. But it didn’t shoot them. It seemed to be waiting for something.
It was a hopeful moment. Maybe we could speak to the ship, negotiate peace.
But like many hopeful moments, it was very brief.
All the humans didn’t leave the City. Some remained, hidden. They still had guns. When they saw the ship arrive, it must have given them hope, urged them to action. If apes held the bridge, the ship couldn’t come into the City.
So the humans attacked the bridge.
One of our scouts, an orangutan named Ray, was watching on the shore south of the bridge. He brought the alarm, and apes rushed to fight our human attackers. There weren’t that many of them; they must have been desperate.
Still, the ship did nothing.
We stopped the humans at a barricade on the south end of the bridge. Caesar sent apes underneath the bridge to get behind them, just as he had all those years ago, in our first battle there.
Then the guns of the ship spoke in voices louder than thunder. The bridge shuddered as explosions burst along the side and below the bridge. All but one of the apes swinging underneath were killed. Although none of the ship’s giant bullets struck the top of the bridge—we were sheltered by our height—the blasts along the side were powerful enough to kill several apes too near the edge. Ten times the ship fired, leaving us in smoke and confusion. Apes were shooting back at the ship, but it was too far away to be damaged.
Then Ajax, one of the gorillas, shot one of the big tubes we found in the human weapons cache. It hit the ship, and a fire flower bloomed there. Apes hooted and cheered, but when the smoke cleared, the ship seemed undamaged. But it stopped shooting. It turned and sailed south.
We beat back the humans attacking the bridge. We set up more barricades. Caesar sent scouts to watch what the ship would do.
Our best chance at peace was gone. We were at war.
Blue Eyes Travels South
With the war now under way, Caesar decided to send Malcolm and his family away for good. He told Blue Eyes, Rocket, and Ray to see them safely out of the City. After that, the three apes were to explore to the south. Malcolm had found some evidence that the humans in the City had been in contact with someone in the south, as well as the north. From our explorations, we knew much about the north. We knew the ship came from the north. But we had never explored south, because until Koba’s war, we avoided the City. Maybe in the south we would find the Forest of Fruit. Or at least a place far from humans. Or maybe we would find an even greater threat than the ship. Either way, we needed to know what was down there.
Rocket protested. He had been with Caesar from the beginning and wanted to stay with him. But Caesar wanted Rocket with Blue Eyes. To protect him.
Two Battles
It wasn’t long before the humans on the beach sent soldiers into the City. They were led by humans who had lived in the human colony and knew where Koba’s tower was. Caesar was expecting this; no ape remained in the building. But we didn’t leave it empty. We piled explosives inside, along with the fuel that made cars run.
Two humans scouting ahead of the others walked into the trap. After the explosion, Caesar sent four apes along the rooftops, shooting at the rest of the humans. These humans were brave, disciplined. These were not just humans with guns. They were soldiers. They retreated without panic, without running. Drew us back to a place where they had prepared their own ambush. When they reached it, they stopped retreating and turned to fight.
But ape lookouts had watched them come from the coast. Saw them prepare the ambush. The soldiers left men behind, and large, three-legged guns. They thought they were ready for us, that they would draw us into their trap.
But Caesar had his own plan. Apes slipped in from every other side, subduing the soldiers, and waited.
Only four apes were chasing the humans. Moving back and forth from cover, firing constantly, they seemed like more to the soldiers.
The soldiers had hoped we were dumb animals to be drawn easily into a trap. Instead, Caesar turned their trick against them. When they arrived, they found apes behind them, in control of the large guns.
Caesar no longer cared about sparing humans. He had to send a message of stre
ngth. Apes shot all the soldiers.
As that was happening, the second fist of Caesar’s plan struck. Apes attacked the humans on the beach.
On the Beach: Oak’s Tale
We moved from Orange Bridge, down beach, and waited. It was warm day. Everything seemed quiet. Then, far across City, we heard gunfire. They were small sounds. I was born in forest, never heard guns shooting until Koba led us against humans. Now I was getting used to sound.
Caesar was not with us. He was leading from high place, where he saw everything. Apes spread out between him and us relayed his orders.
I could just barely see ship. I was afraid. The explosion gun hadn’t hurt ship. Maybe nothing could.
The order came to charge. Four of us gorillas, on foot. Ajax was our leader. Rest were chimps mounted on horses, led by Branch, who rode in front of Koba’s charge. We ran forward, but horses outpaced us. We came around bend in beach and saw human settlement.
It seemed like long time before humans noticed us. I think they distracted by other fight going on across City. But then they finally started shooting. Chimps and horses screamed. You do not want to hear horses scream.
Then guns on ship shoot again. Chimps and horses exploded. Arms and legs and heads flew about separately. Blood and smoke everywhere.
We gorillas stopped, hoping we were close enough. We aimed big tubes that were explosion guns. We shot not just at ship but at even bigger explosion guns on it. I remember how ship’s guns jumped back every time they shot. Like when gun pushes your shoulder but made so big. It was like dream. I could not feel myself.
We shot. I hit one gun, and so did Ajax. We waited for smoke to clear, unsure if plan worked. Ajax said he thought plan must have, because huge guns didn’t shoot again.
But humans were not defenseless. At barricade in front of human camp, three-leg guns began speaking; whole front rank of chimps died, including Branch.
Apes retreated. Humans didn’t follow, and we made it back to bridge.
Little later, we watched ship move farther out into sea, too far away for any of our guns to reach.
Caesar said we did well. With so many dead, it was hard to think so. I began to doubt. Later, Red talked to me.
The Humans Strike Back
In truth, things had not worked out as Caesar had hoped. His goal had been to overrun the human camp and make a wreck of it, but the combination of the ship’s guns and those at the barricade had proven to be too much. They might have managed a second charge, but after so many dead in Koba’s attack and more, later, when the tower fell, the cost in ape lives would have been unacceptable. Hours after the attack, the soldiers had built a fence of sharp wire and blocks of broken stone, with a ditch in front that would break a horse’s legs, so a second attempt was now impossible anyway.
The attack in the City, though, turning the human’s trap against them, had been completely successful, with no ape lives lost. It seemed to Caesar that if we could not push them back into the sea with one grand attack, we might be able to chip away at their numbers a little at a time until they were all gone.
The humans built their camp bigger, tightening its defenses. And they began sending out groups of soldiers to hunt for us. The City had many high towers, and it was easy for us to keep track of them. Caesar sent small bands of apes to harass them. As in our first days in the woods, it was in part misdirection. Caesar tried to make them think we were where we weren’t. The City was big, and that strategy worked to our advantage. Until it didn’t.
From our high place, we heard a strange sound, as if the air was tearing. We looked for the source of the sound.
Luca saw it first.
The ship was very small, almost on the horizon. But something was coming out of it, a long thin cloud. It went up and then bent down toward the City. As it drew nearer, we saw something like a spear pulling the stream of smoke. It wasn’t coming toward us.
“The women!” Caesar said. “The children.”
The cloud touched a building and became a ball of flame and black smoke. A moment later, the air itself seemed to slap my face.
Caesar was already running toward the blast.
Why the Women and Children Returned to the Woods
We arrived to discover the sky spear hit the wrong building—the one next to our troop. The women and children were choking on smoke, and some of the flame had nearly reached them. The windows of their building were all blown out. They crouched together in terror as the Gorilla Guard tried to organize a defense.
Each time we thought we had learned the limits of human weapons, they used something even worse against us. What else might they have? How had they figured out where the women were, in a city of this size?
Caesar didn’t know. All he knew was he couldn’t risk it happening again. If the sky spear had hit the place where the women were, they would all be dead, and our future along with it.
Caesar decided that the women and our children should return to the forest; the warriors would remain in the City and fight. They would fight until they won or, if that wasn’t possible, until the trail of the women grew cold.
That night, the Gorilla Guard escorted the females and children across the Orange Bridge and into the forest. Their orders were to go as far away as possible, to find a new place to live.
The Third Battle of the Orange Bridge
The humans began to move up the coast, toward the Orange Bridge. They would push forward, fending off our attacks, and then build new barricades. They put bombs in the ground to stop apes on horses from charging. They hid men with guns to shoot us at great distances.
They’re going to try to take control of the bridge, Caesar said. Then they can bring their ship into the City.
What can we do? I asked.
Slow them down, he said. Kill some more of them. He studied the road leading to the bridge, the distance between it and the barricade. The distance was getting shorter every day.
That night, Caesar went out, alone. The next morning, he told me he had an idea.
Meanwhile, I was starting to understand that some of us were missing: Grey, Shell, Stripe, a few others. As far as I could tell, they hadn’t been killed in Koba’s war, but no one had seen them, either. I asked those who knew them best, and soon I became suspicious. Grey was a close follower of Koba. After Koba’s death, he begged Caesar to forgive him. He told Caesar that he did not know it was Koba that shot him. Like everyone else, he thought a human had done it. Caesar took him back but used him carefully. He was one of our best scouts, but Caesar never fully trusted him again.
I was reporting this to Caesar when the humans began their charge. We were at the top of the bridge and saw an explosion at our barricade. Then cars started forward.
Apes on the bridge fired the last of their big shoulder guns, wrecking the cars and setting them on fire. A moment later, the exploding bullets from the ship hit the bridge tops, but our apes were no longer there. Caesar knew that firing their missiles would give away their positions, so he told them to come down right away.
More cars came up from behind the burning ones, and the humans began throwing bombs of liquid fire over the wall we had made from machines. The flame forced apes back, farther onto the bridge. Caesar watched all of this calmly. A moment later, I saw why.
The very ground below the soldiers suddenly exploded. When the smoke began to clear, I saw apes leaping out of a long ditch that cut across the road and went down toward the sea.
The City had tunnels underneath it. Some for humans to travel through—that was how we reached Koba’s tower unseen. But other, smaller tunnels carried water from the City out to the ocean. Caesar found one of these leading underneath the road and placed explosives in it. Apes hid farther up the pipe, and once the bombs went off they scrambled out of the trench that opened right in the middle of the humans.
At first, watching this battle was just confusion, but then we saw the humans retreating to their last set of barricades.
That was a good
trick, I told Caesar.
He nodded, looking at the carnage. Ape and human bodies lying together in death.
Worked better than I thought it would, he said. But that’s my last trick. Next time they come, we’ll have to fight-retreat.
Why don’t we leave now? I asked. With all of this smoke, they might not even notice.
The women won’t be moving quickly, he replied. I want to give them all the time we can.
Then Luca arrived with bad news. There were now humans on the other side of the bridge.
Caesar didn’t know how they had gotten there. So far as we knew, the only way to the other side of the bridge was the bridge. Or a boat, but we would have seen a boat going that way.
What are they doing? Caesar asked.
Building a wall, Luca said.
Caesar was starting to understand what Malcolm meant about these soldiers. They didn’t fight like any humans he had met before. Everything they did was deliberate. And behind them he sensed a leader who understood war far better than Caesar did. Apes had made some early gains, but that was probably because the human leader thought he was dealing with dumb animals. Now he had adjusted and was outthinking Caesar. Thousands of years of experience, Malcolm had told him. Now that was starting to tell.
It wasn’t a war Caesar ever wanted to fight. It had been forced upon him. And now he saw it was a war he was going to lose.
Our only chance is to go through them, he said.
I knew what he was thinking. We were in exactly the same position we had been in ten winters before.
But we weren’t the same apes. We were stronger, smarter. I hoped it would be enough.