“Wait a minute!” Jeff said.
He reached for the girl and she shrank back, afraid again. But the black astronaut caught her shoulder and, reaching into the top of the sarong-like garment she wore, pulled out a thin chain that hung from around her neck.
“Dogtags!”
“What?” Bill was on his feet in an instant.
“Where did you get these?”
The girl cringed, her face tight with fear.
“You’re scaring her, Jeff,” Bill said. He knelt next to her, smiling. “It’s all right. Don’t worry.”
He reached gently for the tags and bent to read them. “Brent, Ronald…” he read aloud. “USAF number 553386086!” Bill looked up at Jeff with a stunned expression. He started to speak, then quickly bent to read the rest. “Date of birth: 5/2/2079!”
The two men exchanged startled looks and Jeff asked, “When did we enter the space program? April 1973, wasn’t it?”
Bill nodded, staring down at the metal tags in his hand. “That’s more than a hundred years before this guy Brent was born!”
The girl scrambled backward, tearing the tags from Bill’s grasp, and got to her feet. Nimbly she avoided them and ran out of the cave. Bill and Jeff rose and walked to the entrance. They could see her running into the trees. They sat down, still somewhat weak from their ordeal, and watched her disappear.
“Dogtags,” Bill muttered. “Apes on Mount Rushmore. A desert planet. Flames out of nowhere. Earthquakes, lightning… and Judy gone.” He shook his head.
In a few minutes, the girl returned to the cave, accompanied by an old man, white-haired and dressed in the same skins and furs worn by the other cavepeople Bill and Jeff had seen earlier. Appearing both apprehensive and fatalistically resigned, he beckoned the astronauts to follow.
The two Earthmen looked at each other, shrugged, and trailed after the old man and the girl, deep into the cave’s nether regions.
The girl brought out some skins and gestured at Bill’s tom leggings, which hung like rags from his muscular body.
Jeff laughed. “A change of wardrobe, Commander Hudson!”
Bill nodded. “I’m in rags and you’re almost like new.”
Jeff smiled at him. “Some people are born to be fashion plates and others…”
Bill started peeling off his trousers, his shirt having gone into the fissure with Judy. His boots were scratched and almost worn-out. In a few moments, he was dressed in the height of fashion—for a caveman.
Jeff grinned his approval. “If they ever remake One Million B.C. again, you are a cinch for the part of Ugh, the Caveman.”
“Never insult a superior officer.”
“Your commission is about four minutes older than mine, ole buddy.”
“First come, first served. Now let’s find out about those tags.”
Bill walked over to the girl, aware that she was actually very attractive—by any standards.
“They look so human,” he said to Jeff. “It’s astonishing.”
“Yeah, but they don’t talk much.”
“Women that don’t talk are highly prized by chauvinists everywhere.”
“Don’t let Judy hear you say that—” Jeff’s gibe died in his throat, and he gulped, “Sorry.”
Bill stared at the girl and quickly plucked the dog-tags from between her dress top.
“Brent?” Bill said, jingling the tags. “Where is Brent?”
She blinked her eyes at him, uncomprehending. “Brent?” He rattled the tags again and watched as her big, dark eyes began to fill with tears.
Her lips moved, as if she was trying to form words, but only a low moan came out. Then she formed a word. “Brr… ent…”
Bill looked around at Jeff. “She knows his name.”
He turned back to the girl. “Bill. My name is Bill.” He pointed at himself several times. “Bill…”
Her face brightened and her tears stopped flowing. “B-ill!”
Bill smiled at her. “Great! You can say my name!”
“B-ill,” the girl said again, pointing at him.
“And you. What’s your name?” A frowned appeared on her face and Bill pointed at himself. “Bill. Bill.” He pointed at Jeff. “Jeff. Jeff.”
“Jeff,” the girl said. “Jeff. Jeff.”
Bill smiled again, pointing at himself. “Bill.” Then again he pointed at Jeff. “Jeff.” Then his finger pointed at her. He raised his eyebrows. “What’s your name?”
“No-va.”
“Nova?”
The girl nodded, smiling shyly, her dark eyes going from Bill to Jeff and back. She pointed at herself, then at Bill and Jeff and said, “Nova… Bill… Jeff!”
Bill jangled the dogtags again. “Brent. Where’s Brent?”
Nova opened her mouth, but immediately there came the sudden deep-throated sound of a horn. Both the girl and the old man became instantly alert. The horn continued, and Nova grasped Bill’s arm.
“Uh-roh-gohs!” she said awkwardly.
“I don’t get it.”
“Something’s happening outside,” Jeff said and trotted to the cave entrance.
Bill grasped Nova by both shoulders and said, “What’s going on? Where’s this Brent? How did you get the tags? What’s that horn for?”
But Nova twisted away from him and ran to the cave mouth. Bill joined her, and saw the skin-clad figures of the cavedwellers running up from the forest into the caverns. Some swung up into the trees in what Bill thought was a futile attempt to hide. For the second time, the astronauts saw the cavepeople dropping their hard-found berries and fruit, and Bill even saw one man throw down what looked like a rabbit.
Frightened cavedwellers, squealing in fear, rushed passed Bill and Jeff into the shelter of the grotto as the two astronauts searched for the meaning of the alarm.
Then they saw it.
A line of armed and uniformed figures, dressed in dark green and black, carrying rifles and other weapons, came up over the opposite ridge and looked down at them.
* * *
General Urko stepped up onto the rocky edge of the ridge and surveyed the little valley with arrogant disdain.
His thick lips twisted in a brutal sneer. “Those stupid humanoid beasts are hiding in their caves! Sitting ducks!” He raised his rifle high, in the air. “Sound the battle call!”
A gorilla herald raised the horn again to his lips, this time uttering not the long bleats of the Advance, but the thunderous sound of the Attack!
“Charge!” Urko’s bull voice rang out over the valley and there was an answering roar from his troops.
“Charge!” cried Captain Mulla, his aide-de-camp.
“Charge, you hairy lumps!” a sergeant shouted.
Jeff’s head jerked back in surprise as he heard the battle cries. He had already been shocked to see that the advancing soldiers were—or seemed to be—great hairy gorillas in uniforms and were carrying very lethal-looking weapons. But when they spoke he was astonished.
“Those apes—they can speak!”
Nova and the old humanoid frantically pulled at the two Earthmen.
“Come on, let’s get out of here!” Bill said.
He started to run into the open, but pulled up short when he saw the number of big gorilla soldiers coming at him. Then he let Nova push him into the cave.
They heard the guttural commands of the gorilla officers as they charged. “Fan out!”
“Cover the left flank, Tummo!”
“Sergeant Rak, catch those beasts running that way!”
Above the din of pounding feet, squealing cave-dwellers, and the bellows of the gorillas, Bill could heard a louder voice-—a deep, commanding voice.
“Charge the caves! Charge the caves!”
Nova and the old humanoid shoved Jeff and Bill into the depths of the cavern, into what seemed to be no space at all. Bill glanced back at the cave mouth and saw something fly, bouncing noisily, into the cave and emit great clouds of white smoke. Panic ensued among the cavedwellers.
“Gas!” Bill yelled.
A wisp reached them and Bill gagged, then tried to hold his breath. He saw the old fellow stumble, recover, then fall limply to the floor. He turned back, attempting to pick him up. Then he heard Jeff’s shout from the passage beyond, at the rear of the cave.
“Bill! Where are you? Come on!”
Bill wanted to answer, but was afraid to take in the breath needed. Grabbing the old humanoid under the arms, he tugged him farther toward the cave’s depths.
A second canister of gas now arced in and exploded still more smoke.
He dropped to his hands and knees, trying to get under the gas, pulling at the old man stubbornly. His lungs ached for air and he heard Jeff’s voice as if in a dream.
“Bill…!”
The cave blurred in Bill’s eyes. He heard deep, raspy voices but couldn’t tell where they were coming from.
“Take them alive!”
“Rak, herd them over here!”
“Bring up the wagon cages!”
The effort was too great, and Bill dropped the old man; then he sank to the floor himself. Everything was too hard to do.
Bill Hudson sank into oblivion.
Jeff and Nova were reaching back for Bill, but by now he lay on the cave floor alongside the old man. Shoving past Jeff and the girl, several humanoids slid into a hole, worn smooth by time, water, and the rumps of cavedwellers. Jeff joined them at last, sitting down hard and sliding away into darkness as streamers of gas drifted back through the cave.
“Bill…!” he yelled one last time as he disappeared into the hole, followed by Nova.
* * *
The gorillas dragged the unconscious cavedwellers across the rough ground and shoved them unceremoniously into wagon cages, heavy structures built of logs set together on crude cart frames. Those who were conscious were herded with rifle butts and thrust into the cages. Each wagon cage was pulled by an army vehicle.
Captain Mulla looked over the captives, then strode briskly up to where General Urko stood watching, his face alive with lustful triumph. The officer saluted and reported.
“We got all of them, sir!”
“None escaped?”
“I don’t think so, sir. Of course, they do have a lot of rat holes they can get into. But that’s the beauty of your sudden attack, sir! Caught ’em all, I’m sure!”
Urko grunted in satisfaction. “All right. Mount up! Take them to Ape City!”
“Yes, sir!”
The captain turned to the troops who were locking up the last of the cages. “Good work, men! Now it’s home to Ape City! And a triumphant return it will be, too! This is the greatest catch we’ve ever made!”
The gorilla soldiers cheered and began to mount up. General Urko strode down from his watchpoint and past the wagon cages of cringing humanoids. His eyes passed over the limp and unconscious form of Bill Hudson, clad in his cavedweller skins, but saw nothing extraordinary about him.
“Move out!” he commanded.
The column of Gorilla Army trucks and jeeps chugged into life and started rolling. The prisoners squealed in fear, but they were helpless.
* * *
Tumbling through the smoothly worn hole, Jeff and Nova fell into a secret cavern upon several other humanoids who were lying about in various stages of consciousness. Jeff groaned, coughed, and tried to get to his feet.
“Bill…? What happened to Bill?”
Nova tugged at him as he swayed, almost passing out from the gas he had inhaled.
“First… Judy, now Bill…”
Nova tugged at him, pulling him toward a small and inconspicuous cave mouth, hidden by thick brush. She darted out, looked quickly around, saw the Gorilla Army caravan moving over the hill, and dashed back inside to pull at the big black astronaut.
“J-eff! Jeff!”
“What’s going on?” He ducked drunkenly, swaying to avoid hitting his head on the low exit, as they staggered out into the brush. He resisted as Nova pulled him along. “Where are you taking me?”
But the cavegirl did not answer. She couldn’t.
* * *
Dr. Zaius stood with Zira and Cornelius, looking out of a window of the council building over the central square of Ape City. In his hand the venerable leader of the orangutan council held a message form, just delivered by a fast scout from Urko’s army.
Zaius eyed his companions with his wise, sad eyes. “This is a report from General Urko. He is bringing in a record catch of humanoids.” Zaius glanced again at the slip of paper and his voice was wry as he continued: “I think he expects a rather effusive welcome.”
“That egotistical brute!” Zira said primly, her nose twitching.
“But an effective one, let me remind you,” Dr. Zaius said. “He has captured more humanoids for our labor force and other needs than any previous gorilla general.”
Cornelius sniffed. “Good! That will give Zira and me an opportunity to obtain new research animals.”
Zaius nodded. “Yes, I have given orders for Urko to permit you to select the six finest specimens from this catch.” He scratched reflectively at his nose, his eyes swiveling to study the beginning preparations for the arrival of the army. “I expect Urko to make demands regarding the new catch of humanoids,” Zaius said, almost to himself. “But that is nothing new. Each time, he grows more arrogant, more demanding. But we of the Council of Elders must resist his pressure.”
“I sometimes think, Doctor Zaius,” Zira said, “that without your patronage, simian science would soon die of disinterest.”
Zaius grunted, his eyes still on the square below. “You may be right,” he said to the chimpanzee scientist. “Our gorilla cousins have never been too eager to forego their rather primitive pleasures for those of the mind.” He looked at Cornelius and Zira with this shrewd, dark eyes. “The future of simian society lies in your hands, Cornelius, and yours, Zira, and those like you. We orangutans serve our purpose: we govern, we act as guides to the entire race, we mediate between various factions. Not an easy task.”
“Oh, no, sir, we never thought it was,” Cornelius said quickly.
“And our gorilla friends also serve a great purpose,” Zaius said. “Their great strength and tenacity have proven extremely valuable hundreds of times in our history. The Battle of the Bridges; against the Underdwellers; in the Sogan Desert; fighting the ice apes—in all the dangerous and deadly areas where we are vulnerable.”
Zaius shook his finger at them both. “Don’t forget that! Let none of your generation forget that. The future of Apedom lies with you and the power of your intellects, but do not become arrogant in your self-esteem. We all serve a function here.” He turned his eyes toward the square. “Even the humanoids,” he said darkly.
Cornelius and Zira exchanged glances. Doctor Zaius is in an unusual mood today, they both thought.
The golden-furred Elder turned again to his chimpanzee guests. “Remember, children, our credo.” He raised a finger and intoned solemnly: “‘The free ape is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.’”
“True, true,” said Cornelius. “As my father, Trajan, used to say, ‘Liberty means responsibility, and that is why most apes dread it.’”
“Your father was a wise man, Cornelius. I knew him well, and your grandfathers, Julian and Fabian. Good workers, staunch members of society, Cornelius. See that you follow in their footsteps.”
Cornelius nodded. “Of course, I always thought my father referred to the gorillas when he said that. They believe only in their rather dread and primitive approach to things. If it moves, smash it. If it doesn’t move, eat it.”
Zaius shook his head. “Ah, Cornelius, it is not all that simple, I assure you.” The old orangutan looked out into the square, where gorillas were watching over a group of humanoids who, with brooms were cleaning the square. “No,” he said softly, watching the humanoids cringe under the whips of the gorillas, “not that simple at all.”
* * *
The
wagon cage bumped roughly over the rutted road, the heavy wooden bars of the cage squeaking as they rubbed against the sturdy leather straps that bound them together. Bill rolled limply on the splintery floor while the other humanoid captives pressed themselves against the bars, fearfully eyeing the strange new creature that had been thrust among them.
The gorilla-soldier caravan of humanoid captives weaved its way through the forest. In the lead vehicle, General Urko raised his deep-set simian eyes to look beyond the trees along the road. His gorilla heart beat faster as he looked upon the proud monuments carved with great skill and immense size upon the rocky face of a nearby mountain. Four huge simian faces could be seen there, intelligent faces, powerful faces from the history of Apedom, captured forever in stone—a sight to make any ape proud. The massive commander tilted his head ever so slightly in the direction of the monument, a salute in silence, even as his dark eyes estimated the space left on the cliff. Perhaps they have room for just one more face? he wondered.
The caravan rumbled on, again into the trees, and the huge carved-stone visages were lost from sight.
* * *
In a crude tree house, Jeff Allen was coughing hard, still whoozy from the small amount of gas he had inhaled. Nova squatted nearby, her eyes big with wonder as she watched the dark-skinned astronaut cough out the last wisps of the knockout gas.
Jeff shoved himself partially erect, pressing against the rough wooden poles that formed the floor of the tree house, and looked around with incredulous eyes.
He coughed again, then spoke in a choked voice. “Those apes… they’re… they’re almost human!” Nova wet her lips nervously, her eyes darting from Jeff to the door of the tree hut. Another humanoid like herself, who actually talked made her extremely nervous.
Jeff looked around for his fellow astronaut, his brows knitted angrily. “Bill?” He looked at Nova, but she was no help. “Bill? What happened to Bill?”’
Nova stared in nervous, frightened incomprehension and Jeff’s shoulders slumped. He coughed again, his head aching and his eyes watering. He rested his head on his forearm a moment, breathing deeply, trying to rid his aching lungs of the deadly gas.
“Bill… where are you?”
Planet of the Apes Omnibus 4 Page 4