by Titan Books
“Believe me,” said Burke, “we’ve got to go.”
“Give me one good reason,” said Galen.
“Gorillas!” said Burke, gesturing with one hand.
Galen looked in the indicated direction, only to see two of the town’s gorilla troopers heading their way, nonchalantly, more or less on patrol, but clearly without any notion of apprehending the fugitive trio.
“Better not ask for trouble,” said Janor.
Galen looked at Burke. “Humans are always so convincing,” he said. “They really shouldn’t be, you know. That’s what we are taught.” Galen smiled and followed Virdon and Burke as they headed in the opposite direction from the gorillas. They turned once to wave at Janor. Then, shouldering their packs in preparation for a long day’s march, Virdon, Burke, and Galen turned their faces westward.
THE GLADIATORS
5
There were many villages along their route, and sometimes Virdon, Burke, and Galen were able to stop their fugitive running for a few days and rest at the home of a sympathetic human. The sight of two humans traveling with a friendly chimpanzee, though, was often enough to force the trio to make a quick exit from the premises of a suspicious human. There were more than enough people around who might try to earn extra food or privileges by turning in the astronauts and their chimpanzee companion to the local police authorities. Still, Virdon, Burke, and Galen managed to plot their course westward with a minimum of trouble.
The summer was coming to an end. Already the leaves on the trees had turned from green to a variety of colors. The air was taking on a crispness at night that was refreshing after a tiring day’s journey, but that same coolness promised only the inevitable slide into deep winter. The three travelers wanted to be well west and south by the time the first snow fell. In their situation, constant exposure to the cruel winter could be as deadly as a bullet from a gorilla’s rifle.
One morning, not far from a small village called Kaymak, the three friends found themselves pushing through a large area of dense underbrush. The work of crossing the tangled jungle had made them weary, although it was still early in the day. Virdon, leading the others, almost stumbled as his foot became caught in a mass of tough roots. He managed to recover his balance, but he paused and looked around. Behind him, Burke leaned against one of the gnarled trees that grew in the area and Galen sat down on a boulder, panting from near exhaustion. Virdon muttered something, but his words were inaudible to the others. He took out an animal-skin water container which he carried slung over one shoulder, untied the mouth of the bag, and drank long and deeply.
“Let me have some, too,” said Burke, coming up to take the improvised canteen.
“Sure,” said Virdon. “This place here is really something. It’ll take us all day just to get across that clearing.” The blond man pointed. Burke, still drinking, nodded. He finished and gave the canteen to Galen.
* * *
“This is where they must be.” There was a large wall map of the western part of the North American continent, constructed of several sheets of dark, parchment-like paper. The details of the map were only roughly sketched in, and there were vast areas of the country that were left entirely blank. In one particular area, near the west coast, there was a cluster of five villages. A leather-gloved hand hovered above that place on the map and with an angry blow struck it.
The hand remained on the map for a few seconds, as though to pin down its elusive quarry. Then General Urko spoke again, reading from a report, “‘reported at Radec and Slonk and possibly sighted at two more hamlets in the vicinity. Two humans calling themselves “astronauts.’” Urko crumpled the report and threw it across his office. Near him stood another uniformed gorilla, Urko’s current top lieutenant, an ape named Jason. “And that renegade chimpanzee, Galen, has been seen with them,” said Urko. “That proves it. They’re heading for the sea.” Once more he indicated the cluster of five villages, each about twenty miles from the next.
“Are you sure, Urko?” asked Jason.
Urko turned to face his aide. His expression was the same mask of hatred he wore whenever he thought about the three escapees who so constantly eluded his grasp. He scowled at Jason. “I’m sure of nothing!” he said, with great intensity. “These reports are next to useless. They come in days, weeks late. They are prepared by country apes who don’t even know what they’re looking for or what they’re seeing. My patrols let those three slip through their fingers time after time. I’m sure of nothing except that they are a dangerous threat to our security and they must be caught. I must study the settlements in that area.” He turned to the map once again, and Jason looked over his shoulder.
“General Urko,” said the aide, “are these villages primarily human settlements?”
“In this area, yes,” said Urko. “There is very little manufacturing or trading done here. The majority of the population is human. Tenant farmers. Each village has a garrison of gorilla guards and an incompetent prefect.”
Jason smiled behind Urko’s back but dared to say nothing. He waited for Urko to devise his plan of action.
“I want you to go out there, Jason,” said Urko at last. “I want you to alert every prefect. Give each of them full descriptions. The three of them will show up sooner or later. Tell the prefects that all strangers—all strangers— are to be arrested on sight; this office is to be notified. No travelers are to be allowed to leave any area until they have been checked out by me or by one of my representatives. Do you understand?”
“We’ll find them!” said Jason, with the kind of enthusiasm a junior officer forces into his voice when he feels just the opposite about an order.
“Finding them has not been the problem in the past,” said Urko, with the greatest scorn and malice. “Disposing of them after I’ve found them has given me a great deal of trouble. I want to end that. Take troops from the main garrison, collect those three criminals, and bring them back here to Central City, unless they try to escape. Of course, even Dr. Zaius has granted that prisoners attempting to escape should be shot.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jason. He turned to leave, believing that his briefing was over. He crossed the chamber to the door, but before he could open it, Urko’s voice stopped him.
“Jason,” said the general.
Jason turned to face Urko, puzzled, wondering what he had done wrong. “Yes, sir?” he asked.
“I expect them to try to escape. Have I made myself understood?”
Jason smiled. This was the Urko he had grown to know and fear. He was glad that the general’s wrath was directed away from himself and at the three unfortunate fugitives. “I understand, sir. Their treacherous corpses will lie where they fall, until the weasels and the buzzards take care of them.”
“Fine, fine,” said Urko, his mind already moving on to other matters. “Now, get out of here and get going.” He looked at another report and dismissed Jason with a wave of the hand. Jason turned to the door again and left.
* * *
As Jason checked his supplies and mounted his horse giving orders for his gorilla troopers to do the same, Virdon, Burke, and Galen came to a rest stop in a wooded area many miles away.
“We don’t need a rest yet, Pete,” said Virdon, although there was not the slightest trace of reproach in his voice.
“I’m leading this excursion at the moment,” said Burke. “And even if Iron Man Virdon doesn’t need a rest, maybe some of the rest of us do.”
Virdon only nodded. Actually, he was glad for the stop, too. He was only more concerned for their safety. He knew only too well how precarious their position was. He would have been happy if they could have traveled without resting at all, without stopping to look for food or water, without sleeping. He sighed.
“It’s getting cooler,” said Galen.
“It’s getting on to winter,” said Burke. He looked at the trees around him. “It looks to me like autumn is almost over.”
“It’s going to be a hard winter,” said Galen
.
Burke pulled the thin, homespun shirt closer to his slender body. “We’re going to have to find something warmer,” he said. “Like Miami Beach, for instance.”
Galen didn’t understand Burke’s reference, but that didn’t make much difference to the chimpanzee. He had come to learn that he wasn’t expected to understand about half of Burke’s references. He let this one pass in silence. Then he changed the subject slightly. “I think this will be an exceptionally hard winter,” he said.
“How can you tell?” asked Burke.
“The hair on my face,” said the chimpanzee. “It’s growing in thick. That always means that the winter is going to be heavy and cold.”
Burke laughed. “Do you really think that the hair on your face can predict what the winter is going to be like?”
Galen looked offended. “Of course,” he said.
“That’s nonsense.”
Galen seemed about to become angry, but he controlled himself. “How do you know that autumn’s almost over?” he asked.
“Just look,” said Burke. “Look at the trees.”
“If the trees can predict the seasons, my hair can do the same,” said Galen huffily.
“The leaves on the trees aren’t saying a word about what kind of autumn we’re having,” said Burke.
“But you use them as a sign, because it’s the same every year,” said Galen. “And the same is true of my hair. It’s right, year after year.”
“Alan,” said Burke, “will you explain to this genius why he’s sounding like a total idiot?”
There was no reply from Virdon. Both Burke and Galen looked in silent appeal to the blond astronaut, but he seemed completely lost in thought. He stared past his friends, unconsciously fingering the smooth metal disk that he wore on a thong about his neck.
“Oh, oh,” said Burke, recognizing the signs. “He’s back home again.”
“Uh,” said Galen, respecting Virdon’s loneliness, knowing that Virdon occasionally slipped into long, melancholy reveries concerning the wife and children he had lost by hurling through time into this fearful future. Burke and Galen left Virdon to his thoughts. Burke sat down and began whittling a stick. Galen started looking for something edible among the trees and bushes of the area. After about twenty minutes of silence, Galen returned, carrying a number of strange looking pieces of fruit in his arms. They were round and lumpy, about the size of a small grapefruit, pink in color, with a peel like a banana that split along three seams. He put some of the fruit down near Burke. “It’s good,” said the chimpanzee. “I was lucky to find it.”
Galen then put some down by Virdon, who smiled up at him but made no move to pick up the fruit. “Thanks,” said Virdon.
Galen sat down, took one of the fruits, and peeled it. Burke watched him with interest, then did the same. “I’ve never seen one of these before,” he said. “What do you call them?”
“They’re opers,” said Galen. “Didn’t you have them where you came from?”
“No,” said Burke, “but I’m willing to try one.” He took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “It’s kind of odd,” he said. “It has a sort of mushy consistency, like a banana.” He chewed some more. “It is good. Feels like a banana, tastes sort of like an orange. It must be some kind of mutation, obviously subtropical. But if the compass and the sun aren’t loused up, we’re somewhere north of what was San Francisco. We should be eating apples and pears.” He took another bite, staring up at the bright blue sky that glittered through breaks in the foliage above. “Whatever turned this world upside down produced at least one good thing,” he said, looking at the fruit in his hand. Then he grinned up at Galen. “No offense, Galen,” he said.”
“It’s nothing special, Pete,” he said, not understanding Burke’s apology. “It’s just an oper.”
Burke finished the fruit and peeled himself another. “In our time,” he said, speaking with a mouthful of oper, “we’d call it a banorange or something, and we’d have singing TV commercials, and billboards, and weekly specials at the supermarkets. And you don’t even know what TV, billboards, and supermarkets are. But you have these, and if you didn’t know what they were, I’d be going hungry right now. I’m grateful, Galen.”
“I don’t understand, Pete,” said Galen, wondering about Burke’s unaccustomed seriousness.
“I mean,” said Burke, “that you fit in this world, and we don’t, no matter how long we stay here. I see this fruit in my hand, and the only thing I can think about is that there would surely have been a Banorange Bowl along about New Year’s every year, with a contest to pick Miss Banorange, and a parade, and two football teams that couldn’t make it to one of the better bowl games.”
“Now I don’t understand,” said Galen.
“Call it a draw,” said Burke. “Right, Alan?”
Virdon, still lost in his own thoughts, glanced at Burke, hardly having heard any of the preceding conversation. He was still fingering the metal disk on the cord around his neck. “Hm?” he said. “I’m sorry, Pete, I wasn’t listening.”
“I know,” said Burke.
“So say it again,” said Virdon.
“I was only thinking that anybody who believes a magnetic disk is going to get us back home is strictly off his rocker,” said Burke. He laughed briefly, more to let Virdon know that he wasn’t completely serious. But, in a way, he was; unlike Virdon, Burke had left no family, no ties in the old world. He was content to try to build a new life in the new world. He wasn’t satisfied with the ape world, but then he hadn’t been satisfied with the human world, either. All he needed was peace and freedom to pursue his own happiness—and that had been a rare commodity in both eras.
Virdon realized that he had been fingering the disc, and removed his hand with a quick, embarrassed smile. He was glad that his friends permitted him his quiet moments of memory, because it was possible that in those moments were his final visions of everyone and everything he had loved.
“Try an oper,” said Burke. “It’s good.”
Virdon picked up a piece of fruit, glanced at it thoughtfully, then looked back at Burke. “It’s our only chance, Pete, and you know it. I don’t care how you ride me about this disk, it’s our only chance. With it, maybe we go home. Without it, for sure, for absolute certain, we never do.”
Burke was a bit afraid to answer, knowing that almost anything he said would only start the same old argument they had carried on since their arrival on the planet of the apes. “If you say so,” he said flatly, obviously trying to humor Virdon.
“I do say so!” said Virdon vehemently. “All the details of our flight are recorded here,” he said, tapping the disk. “It can tell us when, maybe how and where, we hit that time warp. If we run it through a computer, reverse the direction, then—”
Burke had had enough. “What computer, Alan?” he asked. “Where? Behind that tree?”
“No, Pete, no,” said Virdon wearily. “We’ve been through parts of what the apes call the Forbidden Zone. We’ve seen places we used to know. There’s been evidence that somewhere, somehow, our entire civilization didn’t disappear overnight. We just have to keep looking.”
“I do keep looking,” said Burke. “About once a minute, over my shoulder, for gorillas. That’s all that has me worried right now.”
“There’s got to be…” said Virdon, defeated, letting his voice trail off. He struggled to get his mood under control. After a moment, he looked up at Galen. “Do you know this area, Galen?” he asked.
“Not very well,” replied the chimpanzee. “Our study of geography was limited, and my education was somewhat rudely interrupted.”
“Are there any settlements near here?” asked Virdon.
“I’m not sure,” said Galen, “Tell me where we are, and I might be able to make a guess. But heading in the direction we’re going, west, there’s just a large ocean. Between here and there are possibly a few farming communities. Certainly nothing large enough to have one of your computers.” The a
pe shuddered; he recalled previous adventures during which Virdon and Burke had shown him examples of the ancient, forbidden human knowledge. Galen had seen millenia-old human machines operate in ways that even the intelligent and logical chimpanzee thought almost magical. The one thing that these adventures had had in common was danger. Each time they had been observed and nearly captured by gorilla patrols, whose duty it was to keep the Forbidden Zone off limits to apes and intruders.
“We’ll search until we—” began Virdon, but he broke off. He was startled by the sound of crashing in the woods some distance away.
“Listen,” said Galen.
“I can hear it, too,” said Burke.
They all froze, listening intently. The sound was of something being thrown around in the underbrush; a few seconds later came grunts and yells of pain. “Humans, I think,” said Galen, using his more acute sense of hearing. Virdon glanced at the others, then swiftly and quietly moved in the direction of the sounds. The others followed.
The three went stealthily through the woods toward the noises. There was clearly the sound of a struggle, now, punctuated with more cries and grunts. Virdon, Burke, and Galen came to the edge of a clearing and cautiously peered out.
The clearing was a natural open area in the woodland, dotted with occasional rocks and small boulders. A path through the woods ran along the far side of the clearing, opposite to that where the fugitive trio was hiding. In the center of the clearing, two men were involved in a violent struggle. Both men were of amazing size and physical strength. They were both well over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, extremely muscular, and powerful. The elder of the two seemed to be in his late forties; as he had passed through his younger years and approached middle age, he had not allowed himself to grow soft in any way. His face was badly scarred, almost disfigured. His nose looked as if he had broken it and then had had it reset by an incompetent doctor. The younger man was in his early twenties and showed a quickness that the older man could not match. It was clear to the hidden observers, however, that the younger man was not the dedicated battler that the scarred veteran was.