Our story pt2

Chapter 25: New beginnings

Caesar's heart ached as he watched the sun rising above the trees it had been two weeks since his human family left and he found that he had greatly underestimated how much he was missing them the noise from the city had been getting so loud in recent days that many of his new tribe were beginning to fear the humans were bringing their chaos into the sanctuary of the redwoods whilst it was likely the only movement his scouts had reported was a surge in wildlife the zoo where many of his people had come from had seemingly released its other animals rabbits deer medium sized rodents and even a pair of brown bears had been left to fend for themselves as the human world collapsed he wondered a lot what Canada was like and he thought more and more about his human sister sad that he would never see her again

As a bright ray of sunshine bounced off the red bridge Caesar looked down at the mass of apes that were slowly waking up he hid his smile as Koba spotted him and climbed up to join him scars covered the others body and his blind eye told of the horrors he had suffered at human hands Caesar had wanted to ask what happened to him for days but he had stopped himself when he and the others had been awoken one night by Koba growling loudly in his sleep at first they had thought a wild cat or a lost dog had stumbled upon them until the chimp started actively screaming prompting Caesar and Rocket to wake him up he had apologised profusely for being disruptive but Caesar and many others had assured him that it couldn't be helped and that after what he had likely suffered night terrors as his mother used to call them were normal

As the lower ranking chimp offered a supplicating open hand Caesar swiped it as gently as he possibly could before shuffling over on the branch Koba sat beside him and looked at the golden rays of sun that were illuminating the early morning fog "does it feel real yet" Caesar signed after a moment Koba promptly looked at him then shook his head dreamily "I keep fearing that any moment I could wake up back in that lab still prisoner to humans experiments" Koba admitted Caesar winced descretely at the honest admittance he had come to learn that fear and weakness was not something commonly admitted by his apes and it went to show how much the other trusted and respected him "no human will ever harm you again you have my word we are safe here" Caesar spoke as he signed and maintained a stony no nonsense expression

Koba looked at him doubtful for a moment before shrugging dejectedly Caesar made a point not to take it personally after all he knew from experience that actions spoke louder than words he shrugged as well and they went back to watching the calming sunrise they shared a moment of silent thought as they thought about their future home the mountain they currently resided on had proved relatively safe and the natural chasms within the rock formations had provided secure nesting places for their recovering wounded there was also a stream directly beneath the overhanging cliff that Maurice and Cornelia had discovered contained a plentiful amount of freshwater fish the biggest problem was however that the nights and early evenings had begun to get very cold so much so that he had been awoken by a frantic Gorilla female who's child had woken up with minor frostbite and had fallen into a deep sleep as her body frantically tried to conserve heat

As if Koba had read his mind he began signing "many cold nights here" Caesar acknowledged the thought before signing a suggestion that in light of their recent hardships sounded almost delusional "I've been thinking about that much and I may have a solution many years ago after humans attacked my human carers home we were forced to move the new place had a big garden behind it where the humans liked to sit and drink in the evenings when it began to get cold Mark and Jordon built a pit made of heat resistant bricks and in the centre they would build small fires that were easily contained but gave out much warmth which allowed them to sit out for longer while resisting the affects of the cold"

Caesar fought back a smile as he recalled the endless memories of him and his family sat around the fire pit laughing and joking with each other while talking about their lives he hoped he had sounded more practical than sentimental but by the mistrustful look on Koba's face he supposed he hadn't "so your suggesting we build pits of fire like the humans used to try and kill us" Koba sounded more curious than angry but it was clear he was contemplating how much Caesar should actually be trusted "in a way but our fires will be contained not as destructive as human fire" Koba nodded slowly before voicing a potential kink in their ambition "how will we make this calm fire" Caesar felt his gut tighten at the reminder that Koba along with most of the others had almost no survival skills

None the less he answered the man determinedly while trying to sound sure of himself without bragging "we'll start by gathering dry wood from the surrounding area and then we will find dry dead plants and use a simple method coined by ancient Vikings before the invention of metal where they would take two sticks and rub them together creating tiny ember's that are just enough to create a spark which will ignite the wood and plants" Caesar was amazed by how smart he managed to sound when in reality he was making educated guesses based off a combination of documentaries he had seen as well as what he'd been told by his human parents Koba on the other hand was idolising him like a child would idolise their parent it was a few moments before Koba broke out of his thoughts and signed amazed

"How do you know everything" Caesar chuckled and shrugged his shoulders there was so much he didn't know but the more he spoke to those of his own kind the more he fascinated himself with how much he had picked up over the years "come on let's see what the others think about building our home here" Caesar signed standing up he stretched to his full hight before launching himself onto the branch below Koba followed soon after and they paused realising their absence had been noticed "race you" Koba signed cheekily as Maurice called out for them from the ground Caesar grinned widely and ducked his head "don't go letting me win" Caesar grunted aloud once again Marvelling at the sound of his own voice as he and Koba set off for the ground

They spent the rest of the day and the few weeks after planning what their new home would look like it was to be a paradise in the making by all accounts a place free of humans and while the idea was proposed of moving entirely out of sight of the human city the continuous shouting and gunfire was a painful reminder that while they had seemingly forgotten about the recovering colony the humans were far from gone scouting parties were regularly bringing windswept newspapers to Caesars attention most of it was the same updates on the virus and statistics of the dead more and more countries seemed to be closing their boarders and to Caesar and Maurice's surprise there wasn't a single mention of their old human family for weeks

Until one morning when Caesar was awoken by a frantic Rocket who had alerted Maurice and dragged them both into a secluded spot in the apes camp "what is it Rocket" Caesar groaned tiredly he was really not a morning person Rocket grunted in concern and showed him the front page of that days newspaper the front page read;
BREAKING NEWS
SIMIAN TERRORISTS SIGHTED IN RIOT OUTSIDE A CANADIAN ANIMAL SANCTUARY after protestors stormed the building with the intention of culling primates held at the facility after rumours circulated that said animals had begun displaying signs of intelligence equal to that the apes from Gensys exhibited before their aided escape from the city

Beneath the text was a ripped picture taken from a security camera clearly showing Trish Mark Beth and Jordon forming a wall in front of the main entrance Caesar forced himself to stop reading and looked hopelessly at his oldest friend who like him had formed a close attachment to their human allies "there are others like us in the world" Maurice signed purposely taking the focus away from the humans Caesar nodded and forced himself to appear unbothered hoping to hide the weighing guilt that had been dropped on his shoulders Maurice and Rocket saw straight through it tho Rocket looked guilty as he placed a comforting hand on his leader's shoulder "they'll be okay right the humans they strong humans" Caesar forced a skeptical smile and nodded before raising his hands

"Of course they've been through worse than one riot and by the looks of it they're still looking out for our kind" Maurice cooed sadly also feeling the news had hit them like a dead tree on their chests he nodded however and flashed Caesar a look that told him he shared his pain they would talk about this when they were sure they were alone and wouldn't be judged by the less sympathetic apes

THE END

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Editors note: WHOOO another great story has come to an end and in such a wholesome way hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it lmk what you thought of it and if you'd like a sequel in the comments feel free to vote and share all ur support means a lot see u soon in a new book 🥳🤩🥰🍻