Planet of the Apes Omnibus 2

by John Jakes

  Great Semos, he thought, now what?

  He moved toward the window…

  A few streets from where Limbo stood, staring worriedly out his window, Attar was at the head of a troop of apes thundering down the street, heading for the apartment house where most of the reports of wild human atrocities were coming from. What few citizens were still on the streets scattered before the onslaught of grim-jawed, snarling gorillas and chimpanzees. Within seconds the troop swept past and vanished around the far corner, leaving behind a stretch of deserted pavement still echoing with the roar of their passage.

  High above, a pair of human legs extended out over the gutter, then dropped. Davidson hung there for a moment, then let go and landed on the street in a springy crouch that absorbed the impact of his fall. Daena appeared at the edge of the roof, looking down at him as she extended the little girl she carried. Davidson looked up at her and nodded, setting himself. Daena took a breath and released the girl. She dropped like a stone, straight into Davidson’s waiting arms. He sighed with relief, and smiled into her wide, blue eyes.

  Daena hit the pavement a moment later, quickly followed by Gunnar, then Birn, and finally Tival. They stood in a tight group, looking up at Karubi, who dangled precariously by one arm, trying to catch a grip with his other arm. He almost made it, but missed by a finger’s-length, and lost his hold entirely. He fell awkwardly and landed hard in a crumpled, groaning heap.

  Daena hurried to him, knelt, cradled him in her arms. He looked up at her, his breath coming hard, sweat blooming on his brow.

  “Leave me…” he gasped.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  Karubi licked his dry, cracked lips. “I’m tired.” He paused, rasping air into his lungs. Looking up into her eyes, he saw the tears gathering there. “And just too old. And old men get scared,” he whispered.

  Davidson was standing over them, listening. When Karubi finished, Davidson caught the old man’s eye and said, “You might be old and tired. But you’re done being scared.”

  Karubi glanced at his daughter, then back at Davidson. Their eyes locked. Something invisible but terribly important passed between them. Slowly, Karubi lifted his good arm.

  Davidson took his hand, and together with Daena, helped the old warrior to his feet. Daena slipped his arm across her strong shoulders, helping him to stand. She looked at Davidson, an odd expression on her face. Davidson nodded at Karubi.

  From across the street, Gunnar’s deep voice shattered the moonlit silence.

  “Apes!”

  Davidson wheeled, jerking the kitchen knife out of his shirt, as two dim forms materialized from the shadows. A huge gorilla and the smaller shape of a chimpanzee. Davidson tensed, getting ready to attack, sensing Daena and Karubi at his back also preparing to fight. Off to the side, Gunnar was also moving toward the new arrivals.

  We can take them, Davidson thought. Maybe…

  The two apes reached a lighted patch of the street, and Davidson was finally able to make out their features.

  The gorilla was Krull, Senator Sandar’s majordomo. The chimpanzee was Ari, the senator’s daughter.

  Davidson threw up one hand, stopping Gunnar. But he still held the knife in his hand, and Krull saw it. The big ape moved with a speed amazing for his age. His mighty fingers closed over Davidson’s hand, twisted, and suddenly Davidson found himself unarmed.

  Ari began to speak as this was happening. Her tone was upset, her words rapid and filled with both anger and worry.

  “You’re lucky I found you before they did! Come back with me to the house. I can reason with them.”

  Karubi came limping up, along with Daena, whose face had turned fierce and cold. She glared at Ari.

  “I know how apes reason,” she told the female chimp scornfully.

  Ari’s lips tightened. Behind her, another figure appeared, shuffling up to stand behind her in a hunched, fearful posture. It was Bon, the small Chinese woman who was Ari’s servant. Bon saw Tival staring at her and quickly lowered her head, whether in shame or fear, Davidson couldn’t tell. And it didn’t matter anyway. Bon had made her choice. Let her live with it.

  He pressed toward Ari and spoke urgently.

  “Is there another way out of the city?”

  Ari started to reply, caught herself, glanced at Krull, then looked back at Davidson. Davidson could see it in her eyes. She knew something, but was trying to hide it. Krull knew it, too. He eased closer to her, glared at Davidson, and growled, “Do not get involved with these humans.”

  Davidson ignored him, moved even closer to Ari, invading her space. He could see it unnerved her. That was good. Somehow he had to convince her, and her uncertainty could only help.

  He spoke forcefully.

  “Why did you save me? Why’d you take the chance?”

  His question upset her even more, not to mention that Krull’s lips were now pulled back, exposing a mouthful of huge fangs. Davidson thought it wouldn’t take much more to send the big gorilla over the edge, but he couldn’t worry about that now, either.

  Ari dithered helplessly a moment, then said slowly, “I… don’t know. You are very unusual.”

  Davidson grinned mirthlessly. “Like you can’t even imagine. Come with me, and I’ll show you something that will turn your whole world upside down.”

  Daena had been listening to this conversation with growing agitation. Now her anger boiled over.

  She glared at Davidson and barked, “So this ape will understand you but I can’t?”

  Why me? Davidson thought, but he couldn’t spare time for Daena and her jealousies—if that’s what they were. He could see that Ari was thinking furiously, and began to hope that maybe he’d gotten through to her. He hoped so. The street around them was still empty, but he could hear the blood-chilling howls as the ape patrols tearing up the city grew closer and closer. Finally, obviously fighting her own inner battle every step of the way, Ari reached some kind of decision, and spoke again.

  “When I was little I found a way to sneak outside the city walls. Where no one could find me. I can lead you there.”

  Krull’s frustration and concern had reached a fever pitch. He looked into his mistress’s eyes and pleaded with her: “If you are caught even your father won’t be able to protect you.”

  But Ari had reached her decision.

  “You know what the soldiers will do to them.” Davidson could tell that Krull obviously didn’t care whether the soldiers ground up every human on the street for monkey chow, but Ari was his mistress. The big gorilla fell back on his last, and to his own mind best, argument. “Your father did not order it.”

  Ari winced. It was obvious Krull’s words carried weight with her, but not enough. She raised her chin, adamant. “He didn’t forbid it, either.”

  The old gorilla was helpless. He had spent his life in her father’s service, and he respected him, but he loved his daughter.

  He turned and stared at the ragtag band of humans as if nothing would make him happier than if all of them vanished in a sudden puff of smoke. But they obviously weren’t going to do that. He sighed as he spotted the little girl Daena had rescued from Thade’s niece, who was now clutching Daena’s hand as if it were her last lifeline.

  “This human child cannot survive the journey.”

  Ari glanced at the human girl, then looked over her shoulder at Bon.

  “My servant woman will hide her in my house.”

  Ari reached for the little girl’s hand, but Daena pulled her back. No matter how necessary it might be, she just couldn’t bring herself to release a human child into the care of an ape.

  For a moment, Davidson feared there might be a new confrontation, as Daena glared at Ari, and Krull glared at Daena. But then Karubi walked up to his daughter, reached down, took the little girl’s hand, and gently tugged her away. He took the child to Ari, nodded, and stepped back.

  Bon turned and raced off into the shadows. Ari and Davidson exchanged a long look. A moment later,
Ari was racing down the street, with Davidson and the rest of the humans trailing after.

  * * *

  The street was long and narrow, cloaked in shadows, and echoing softly with a thud of running human feet. Darkened clifflike houses loomed on either side.

  Karubi lurched along as best he could, his crushed arm dangling, pain etched across his sweating features. His eyes darted back and forth, watching everything. He was an old man. He had not survived to become an old man by being stupid, or by being unaware of his surroundings. To him, with his wilderness-trained senses on high alert, the city was like a vast living, breathing thing. Light and shadow, sounds and smells. The very air carried messages to him.

  There was a sort of collective howling all around him, as if the city itself had been roused to the hunt. He knew that wasn’t far wrong. There had to be literally hundreds of ape soldiers searching out and tearing apart every possible human hiding place, it was inevitable that, if they couldn’t get beyond the city walls soon, they would be captured again.

  He glanced at the chimp female, Ari, running at the front with Davidson. The humans had put their lives in the hands of these two strangers because Karubi had shown that he trusted them. But what if he was wrong? He was old; he’d made mistakes before. And so much depended on his being right this time…

  Up ahead, Davidson and Ari, in the lead, pounded around the corner into a new street as empty as the last. To Davidson, it was like racing through some vast, vacant mausoleum, with the sound of distant ghosts howling in their ears.

  He knew that there was almost no margin for error remaining. This was a city built by apes for apes, and it was filled with apes. A pack of wild humans running through the streets could not hope to go unnoticed for long. It was a miracle they hadn’t been spotted by one of the roving bands of troops already.

  And just as that depressing thought skittered through his mind, several large, dark shapes wheeled around the far corner and began to thunder down the road toward them.

  The humans scattered. Krull grabbed Ari and pulled her into a shadowed doorway, with Davidson diving in right after. But they were too late.

  It was Attar at the head of that troop of soldiers, and he recognized Ari’s willowy silhouette as easily as he would know the palm of his own hand. The sight of an aristocratic ape woman, the daughter of a senator, consorting with a pack of blasphemous beasts, maybe even helping them, sent a bolt of white-hot rage blasting through his brain. He let out an earth-shaking roar and charged forward, the rest of his squad an avalanche of enraged apes behind him.

  Krull took one look at the nightmare rushing down on them, and knew the worst had happened.

  “They’ve seen us!”

  Daena and Karubi slipped into the doorway just in time to hear Krull’s despairing cry. The warrior woman supported her father as he took in the sight of the approaching apes. His expression was odd, half smile, half resignation, and over all, determination. He laid a light hand on his daughter’s shoulder.

  “Hurry,” he whispered.

  Somehow, with only that single word, she understood what he intended. Her voice was choked with emotion—pride, fear, anger, resignation—as she answered him.

  “No, Father…”

  His eyes glowed as he brushed her cheek with his fingertips. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I’ll be right beside you. Just like always.”

  With that, he twisted out of her grasp, slick as an eel, and darted out into the street, one lone man charging toward a whole squadron of heavily armed, angry apes, as the sound of his daughter’s final cry rang in his ears…

  “Father!”

  He smiled to himself as he rushed forward. He was doomed, he knew it, but he’d never expected to live forever. And if by throwing his own body on the warrior’s altar he might save his daughter and his fellow humans, well, then, that was a sacrifice worth making. Besides, he’d never wanted to go out as a sick old man. Far better to leave the world as he’d always walked it, as a man and a fighter, strong and brave, a weapon in his hand with which to slay his enemies.

  On that thought, he swerved sharply toward the side of the street. His hands were empty, but his eyes were still sharp, and he’d spotted a great wooden poleax left standing beside some ape’s door. If he had to take on a squad of armored gorillas and chimps, he’d much rather do it from a distance, with a good, stout bow and a quiver full of arrows. But he didn’t have the luxury of that, and the poleax, though old, felt strong and deadly in his rejuvenated grasp.

  And so it was with a light heart that he stepped out into the street again to face Attar’s wild stampede. He aimed the point of the poleax at the closest gorilla, spread his legs, braced himself to absorb the shock of collision, and waited.

  What came was not entirely what he expected, but not much of a surprise, either. He’d already seen this Attar ape in action. He knew him, knew how he felt about humans, and so when the huge, armored gorilla didn’t simply cut him down, but instead jerked aside at the very last instant, Karubi only turned to keep him in the sights of his poleax.

  Trampling me to death probably isn’t personal enough for him, Karubi thought. And that’s just fine with me. Maybe I can surprise him a little, before he figures out he’s got a little more on his plate than just squashing a cockroach…

  Attar’s red-rimmed gaze was watchful as he spread his arms and began to shuffle in a circle around Karubi, who kept on turning to face him.

  Karubi was dimly aware of the rest of the apes pulling up, gathering around to watch their commander and his sport with the wild human.

  Good, he thought in the back of his mind. More time for the others to get away…

  But the contemptuous way Attar was refusing to take out his sword and fight him, as if his blade were too good for soiling on human flesh, finally goaded Karubi beyond endurance. He lunged toward the gorilla, jabbing ferociously at his throat with the sharp end of his poleax.

  Attar was a highly trained warrior, his reflexes keyed to a fever pitch, as strong as any five men. His right arm flashed out and slapped the tip of the poleax aside as if it were no more bothersome or threatening than a buzzing gnat.

  Karubi felt the parry as a tremendous blow that nearly ripped the weapon from his grasp. The power of it spun him halfway around, exposing his undefended blind side to the ape’s ferocious attack. The next thing the old human fighter knew, down was up, up was down, and he was flying through the air, his poleax spinning from his numbed fingers like a child’s toy top.

  He crashed back to the pavement with stunning force, felt something snap near his spine, and then everything went fuzzy and distant. When the world came back, it was with a ringing of bells in his ears, and a splash of white stars across his vision. Finally the fireworks faded away, and he looked up to see Attar looming over him, looking down. Vaguely, Karubi could see the rest of the ape soldiers gathered in a circle surrounding them, and he felt again that flash of triumph at helping his people to escape.

  A curious calm settled over him. He felt no fear as he looked up at the grinning ape, only a spreading lassitude, and a sensation of peace.

  Attar, evidently, had been expecting a different reaction. His forehead wrinkled. He tilted his head to one side, then the other, suddenly uncertain. Finally he spoke.

  “Why do you not tremble before me?”

  Karubi felt no fear at all. Instead, a sudden rush of freedom filled him and lifted his spirit, the freedom that comes to a man when his life moves beyond everything that has come before, moves beyond even himself, and rests at last in something greater. Death may wait in that place, but fear is forever banished.

  The strange human, Davidson, had been right, Karubi realized.

  His cracked, bruised lips spread in a slow smile, and when he spoke, his voice was clear and strong.

  “I’m done being scared,” he said.

  Only four words, but their impact on Attar was clearly visible. His head jerked back, his forehead wrinkled, and his eyes sudd
enly grew wide, as if he were seeing this human prostrate before him for the first time.

  All thinking beings recognize bravery beyond self, for it is the quality that transcends the beast, and lifts the heart toward the stars. Nothing is more prized by a warrior, and as a warrior, Attar recognized it now, even though he was seeing it in the most unexpected of places.

  Karubi, whom he’d thought a beast, stunned him. He raised his arms, lowered them. His ferocious leer became uncertain, faded, vanished. He’d set out to squash a bug, exterminate an animal, but what faced him now, even though vanquished, was as brave and pure and bright as any ape he’d ever faced. This battered, matted, tattooed man smiling up at him so serenely was as good as any ape!

  Something deep inside Attar’s simian soul creaked, cracked, and was transformed forever. And as he locked his gaze with Karubi’s own, he realized that things would never be the same again…

  A thunder of iron-shod hooves crashed across the pavement. A foaming, rearing stallion shattered the circle of mesmerized troopers, as General Thade arrived in all his fury.

  The chimp leaped from his steed, his armor flashing white-gold in the moonlight. Attar staggered back from his general as Thade flashed past, a sword gleaming like a flame in his hand.

  The rising moons cast shadows on the walls, and in those shadows danced a picture. A sword, rising, falling, rising again.

  A terrible cry shattered the night.

  In other shadows, rapidly growing distant, the humans ran for their lives. They heard Karubi’s final shout. Daena turned, blood in her eyes, for she knew the source, and the cause. But Krull was there, blocking her passage like a wall, her furious blows falling on his chest with no more effect than a gentle rain. Finally the huge old gorilla took her in an iron grip and handed her over to Davidson, and after a long moment, she grew quiet.

  But it wasn’t Davidson who calmed her. It was the death cry itself. As she listened to it again in the silence of her memory, she realized there had been no fear in it, no hopelessness, not even any pain. It was her father’s farewell message to her, and now she understood. Not a wail of despair, but a cry of triumph.