Planet of the Apes Omnibus 4

by William Arrow

  Then, as he watched, the mist closed in again, banishing the sun and obscuring the city. Angrily, Jeff shook his head.

  “We’re about twenty miles from the edge of the city,” he said. “We can move on a bit farther, but I think we’d best figure on holing up for the day—before we get too close. There’s bound to be a lot of activity nearer the city, and if we get too close there’s a chance we’ll be spotted, and bring the whole Gorilla Army out after us again.”

  “So let’s find a spot to lay up for the rest of the day and get some sleep. We need it. We can see about getting into the city after it gets dark.”

  Throughout the afternoon the two astronauts lay concealed, while traffic, light at first but steadily thickening as the day wore on, rattled by on the road fifty yards from their hiding place. Plagued again by mosquitoes and flies, they were unable to sleep. When the sun finally began to dip toward the horizon, they were only too happy to be on their way once more—even if that way was toward the danger of being captured again by the apes.

  “Do you know where the laboratory is from here?” Jeff asked as, an hour later.

  He and Bill were moving cautiously down a suburban street, ducking behind hedges and trees whenever the lights of an auto appeared, circling around the infrequent streetlights. “Not really,” Bill replied.

  “Then how do you expect to find it?”, Jeff demanded, his voice rising.

  “Keep your voice down,” said Bill, stopping for a moment. “I didn’t say I didn’t know where the lab is. I said I wasn’t sure where it is from here. I’ve never been on this street before. What we have to do is find the central square. That’s where they took me in the cage, and once there I can find my way to the lab. I’d guess the square is somewhere near the center of the city.” Bill had a laugh in his voice. “If it isn’t, I’ll just have to leave finding it to you, oh great jungle tracker.”

  Jeff merely shook his head at that, and the two men continued their penetration of the city.

  They finally came to a large park, where they were able to move a bit more openly and therefore more quickly. The park seemed to be completely deserted, although there were paper wrappers and fruit peels scattered around on the grass, indicating that the park was used during the day.

  A short distance into the park they came to the edge of a small lake or reservoir. Reflecting on the water in long, sparkling shafts were the lights of buildings of the central square, directly across the lake from them. Bill could see the tall Arch of Triumph.

  “Well, there’s where we’re headed,” Bill said.

  “What’s that over there?” Jeff asked, diverting Bill’s gaze from the massive buildings across the lake.

  “Where?” Bill asked, turning to see Jeff pointing down toward the near edge of the water.

  “There, by those two tall posts.”

  As the edge of the lake became clearer to Bill, he made out what appeared to be a small building and a jetty sticking a few feet out of the water. “Maybe there’s a boat,” he suggested.

  “There’s a pier,” Jeff answered, and moved off down the slope towards the water, Bill following along behind, his eyes scanning their surroundings and watching for any sign of life.

  “We’re in luck,” Jeff called back to him. “There’s a rowboat. That’ll save us quite a walk around the lake.”

  Moving quietly, to keep the sound of the oars from echoing across the water, Jeff and Bill untied the small boat, cast off, and rowed for a dark opening on the opposite side of the lake, where the creek that fed it entered between two large marble buildings.

  The creek, when they reached it, proved to be of the man-made—or ape-made—type rather than natural. Instead of sloping earthen banks, concrete steps led down to the waterline. And just past the mouth of the creek a massive stone bridge arched across the waterway—a bridge that almost proved to be a trap for the two astronauts.

  Jeff was directing the boat toward the steps just past the bridge, but as they drifted under it, luckily concealed in its shadow, they were startled by the sound of boots pounding on pavement. Many boots.

  “It’s a patrol,” Jeff whispered urgently.

  “Looking for us, probably.”

  Jeff angled the boat toward the right bank directly under the bridge, easing it against the concrete gently, and spotted a rectangle of darkness even blacker than the shadows.

  “Quick, in here!” he exclaimed.

  “Here” proved to be a storm drain, an entrance to the underground sewer passages crisscrossing under Ape City. A highway for Jeff and Bill, if they could figure out which direction led to the laboratory.

  Bill began following the semi-circular wall with his hands. He came to an opening, bridged it, then reached another opening, then a third and a fourth.

  “Four choices,” he whispered to Jeff.

  “Any idea which way the lab might be from here?”

  “I think—but I’m really just guessing—that it’s off to the left. I think I know the building I saw almost straight ahead, just before we went under the bridge. But I was looking at the backside of it, compared to my previous visit. Without seeing the front of it, I can’t be sure.”

  “Then let’s try the tunnel on the left, and go far enough to get to the front side of these first buildings that face the square, then come up for a look.”

  “If,” Bill said, “they have some kind of openings for us to come up to look through.”

  “They’ve got to have some kind of openings. Otherwise, why have a sewer?”

  “Did it ever occur to you that the only openings might be through their toilets?” Bill asked.

  When Jeff didn’t answer, Bill led the way into the left-hand tunnel, feeling his way with fingers on the wall and one hand stretched out in front of him. He was counting paces, trying to keep track of how far they had come, and when he reached two hundred and three his left hand, the one which had been feeling along the wall, suddenly contacted a damp, cold piece of metal. He stopped suddenly and Jeff stumbled into him, knocking both of them to their knees in the murky, evil-smelling water.

  “What did you stop for?” Jeff groaned, climbing to his feet and trying to shake some of the muck from his hands.

  “There’s something here—a ladder, I think.”

  “Going up?” Jeff asked.

  “No. Sideways.”

  Bill took a firm grip on the sidebars of the ladder and started to climb. Several times his thin boots, tough, but designed for the dry interiors of spaceships, slipped on the slime-covered rungs of the ladder, but he managed to reach the top without actually falling. There he found a heavy iron cover.

  I hope it blocks a sewer access in the STREET, he thought.

  “You’re going to have to give me a hand with this thing,” he called down to Jeff in a soft voice. “I can just barely budge it.”

  With that, he swung off to one side of the ladder, keeping one foot wrapped around a rung and holding on with one hand to the upright. Jeff climbed up next to him, feeling his way slowly in the pitch darkness, and swung out on the other side of the ladder.

  “What if there’s someone up there, on the street?” he asked. “Like an army patrol? Or a cop?”

  “That’s a chance we’ll have to take.”

  “Okay,” said Jeff, with resignation in his voice. “Let’s see if we can get this thing open.”

  Both astronauts braced themselves as well as they could on the slippery iron ladder, then, on Bill’s signal, they heaved with all the power they could muster from their back and shoulder muscles. Neither was in a position to exert much leverage on the sewer cover, but slowly it began to lift, the iron lid grating harshly against the concrete of the street. Fractions of an inch at a time it moved; then, suddenly, it was free, and Jeff almost fell back into the sewer as his body lunged upward too easily.

  The cover itself flew to one side, clanging into the street with a crash the two astronauts were sure could be heard all over Ape City. For long minutes they crouche
d near the top of the ladder, waiting for a cry of alarm to go out. But all remained quiet above.

  Finally, when he could stand the suspense no longer, Bill stuck his head up through the opening cautiously, unconsciously tensing his body for the impact of the bullet he was sure would be coming his way as soon as he showed himself. But the street was empty, and Bill’s breath gushed out of him in a loud whoosh of relief.

  “What’s going on up there?” Jeff demanded, impatience in his voice.

  “Nothing. It’s deserted, except for a couple of chimpanzees spooning on a bench on the other side of the square. But their backs are toward us.”

  One time more, Bill studied the central square, with its triumphal arch rising majestically. Then, gingerly, he rose from the sewer hole. Jeff followed, an instant later. Immediately the blond- and black-haired astronauts hurried to the side of one of the government buildings. There it was shadowy and the streetlights could be more easily avoided.

  Bill knew his route now, and crossed the western side of the square, turning into a wide street that branched off it. He arid Jeff halted an instant later, and retreated back into the square.

  “Wow! That was a close one! It’s the main movie’ theater street, I guess. Those line-ups of apes waiting for tickets would be sure to spot us.”

  “What was it that was playing—Zantar of the Humanoids! Sounds like a takeoff on Tarzan of the Apes—in reverse. If you’ve got your wallet, why don’t we—?”

  “Cut it, you joker!” Bill, smiled. “There! Let’s take this side street, instead.”

  A few short blocks’ walk away stood a building Bill had seen before, both from the outside and inside—and from the roof, where he’d escaped one night not long before. The Humanoid Behavioral Studies Laboratory.

  “Bingo!”

  “You spotted the lab?”

  “Just a couple hundred feet away, Jeff. How’s that for pinpoint navigation?”

  Moments later, Bill and Jeff were crouched against the back wall of the laboratory building, one on either side of a lighted window.

  Still not believing their luck so far, and sure that any moment the entire Gorilla Army was going to come crashing down on them, Bill slowly and cautiously raised his head, squinting his eyes against the light inside to peer through the window. Then, in a shock that froze him to motionlessness, he found himself staring into the equally shocked eyes of scientist Zira. She was standing just inside the window, a clipboard in her hand.

  In a fraction of a second, the shock wore off and Bill tapped lightly on the window, motioning that Zira should open it. She looked at him for a moment longer, then turned and spoke to someone out of his line of sight. He hoped this was Cornelius, her scientist husband.

  It was Cornelius.

  With his help, Bill was able to pry the tight-sashed laboratory window up enough to get his fingers under the edge. After that it was no problem pushing it all the way up. With a grunt as he hit his knee on the sash, Bill climbed into the laboratory he had fought so hard to escape from once before. He turned and helped Jeff in the window, closed it again, and turned to embrace Zira.

  “Oh, Blue-Eyes! I’m so glad you’re safe!” she gushed.

  “We’ve been worried about you ever since you escaped,” Cornelius said, sticking out a paw for Bill to shake.

  “Cornelius, Zira—this is Jeff, my partner.”

  “Can he talk, too?” Zira asked.

  “Of course I can,” Jeff said with a laugh.

  “Sorry. I still have trouble remembering at times that you’re not our ignorant humanoids. That you’re… ‘men’. That’s the word, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, we are men,” Bill said, “and right now we’re men with a problem.”

  “Can we do anything to help?” Zira asked motioning Jeff and Bill to chairs at a long table covered with graphs and reports in untidy stacks.

  “I hope so,” Bill said, sitting down. “We picked up some papers—orders—signed by… uh, what was his name, Jeff?”

  “General Urko.”

  “Yeah. Urko. Anyway, we got hold of these papers, and they seem to be telling his underling soldiers, without coming right out in plain language—”

  Cornelius broke in. “Urko often does things that way.”

  “You know him?” Jeff asked.

  “We’ve met. He’s the commanding officer of all the ape military forces. And he hates the humanoids. Also, he hates the Council of Elders. He’s one of those military fanatics who thinks that government is too important to be left in the hands of mere civilians.”

  “Sounds like a really pleasant fellow,” Jeff said.

  “Yes,” Cornelius said with the grimace that passed for a smile among the apes. “Pleasant like a case of the plague.”

  “Well,” Bill continued, “that explains the orders, at any rate.”

  “What do you mean?” Zira asked.

  “The intent of the orders seems to be to kill all the humanoids.”

  “What? He can’t do that!” Zira burst out, shock and anger in her voice.

  “Who’s going to stop him?” Cornelius asked bitterly.

  “Doctor Zaius!”

  “Hah! Doctor Zaius is a fair ape, my dear, but he has no great love for the humanoids—and he knows he’s soon going to be in a major fight with Urko for control of the government. So, he’s not going to waste his time contradicting Urko’s orders for something as unimportant—to him—as a roundup of the humanoids.”

  “Are you sure?” Zira asked, pleading in her voice.

  “I’m sure,” Cornelius answered. “Besides, if Doctor Zaius did take sides, it would just lead to an immediate confrontation between him and the general. And I don’t think he’s ready for that quite yet. He’s got the rest of the Council of Elders on his side, but Urko has a lot of strength in the Senate, and they can override the council. It’s in the Book of Laws, even if that particular law has never been used.”

  “Well,” Bill said, speaking for the first time in a few minutes, “if Urko can’t be stopped, then we’ll just have to take his target away from him.”

  “What do you mean?” Cornelius asked.

  “Get the humanoids away!”

  “Away? Where? And how?”

  “That’s what we were hoping you could tell us,” Jeff said.

  “What we need,” Bill explained, “is a place to take the humanoids where it will be difficult for Urko and his men to reach them, and where there is some chance of constructing defenses, fortifications. We know we can’t get completely out of Urko’s range, but if we make it hard enough for him to round up the humanoids, maybe he’ll figure it isn’t worth the effort.”

  “I think you underestimate General Urko’s fanaticism on the subject,” Cornelius said.

  “Perhaps. But even if we have to fight him, it’s better than just giving up and letting him kill off all the humanoids. And we’ll be able to fight better if we pick the ground for the battle. A place where the land favors us, rather than him.”

  “But what will you fight with?” Zira asked. “You have no weapons, and the humanoids only have sharpened sticks. And how will you build this defensive position you want?”

  “I don’t know,” Jeff admitted. “We’ll have to design and build what weapons we can, and hope we can train the humanoids to use them. Spears, bows and arrows slings. Maybe even catapults. And as for buildings, perhaps we’ll be able to use adobe—mud-and-straw bricks.”

  “Wait, a minute!” Bill broke in. “What about the hand laser?”

  “It’s back in the spaceship,” Jeff told him.

  “But if we can get it,” Bill said with enthusiasm in his voice, “it can solve most of our problems. With it, we’ll have a fine weapon to use against Urko. And, more important, we’ll have a construction tool. Because we can use it to cut stone, rather than depending on adobe, which takes time to bake. And then, in a good position on a hill, we could build a fort this gorilla general wouldn’t dare attack, no matter how much of a fanati
c he might be.”

  “But you don’t know where your spaceship is, do you?” Cornelius asked.

  “In a lake, over in the Forbidden Zone.”

  “How will you find it?”

  “Don’t you have maps of the Forbidden Zone?” Jeff asked.

  Cornelius shook his head. “Only of the fringes of it. No ape, in our recorded history, has gone into the Forbidden Zone more than a mile or so—except soldiers on military expeditions. Or, at least none have ever admitted going there, since it’s against one of our most sacred laws.”

  “How about Nova?” Jeff asked, turning to Bill.

  “Who?”

  “That humanoid girl we met. Couldn’t she guide us to the spaceship? Her people’s caves are near the Zone, and since they don’t live by Cornelius and Zira’s laws, they may have moved about in the Zone pretty freely.”

  “Of course!” Zira exclaimed. “She’d probably know where the lake is, too, and either she or her people could guide you there.”

  “Okay,” Bill admitted with a smile, “maybe she can get us back to that lake. But that still leaves us the problem of where to take her and her people, after we get the laser. Someplace far enough away to make it difficult for Urko to move troops against us, and someplace where we can build a decent defensive position in case he does try to move against us.”

  “I think I might have the answer to that,” said Cornelius, getting up and walking over to a file cabinet. “Let me see if I can find the right map. Ah, yes! Here it is.”

  Cornelius came back to the table and Zira quickly brushed aside a stack of papers to clear an area for the map. When Cornelius spread it on the table, the two men saw that it wasn’t really a map. It was more of a sketch.