You Are Not Ape

Chapter 13

Mary felt warm arms and heard worried voices all around her. "Aunt Cornelia? Aunt Tinker?" She tried to call out to them, but they faded away, leaving Mary back in the last place she ever wanted to be again, and the harder she fought against the nightmare, the more it sucked her back in to its depths.

Koba's daughter felt twice guilty. The first reason was for sneaking away from the still recovering Cornelia and Tinker, and the second was making Lake promise not to tell anyone that she was sneaking away from the females. It never crossed her mind that the one thing she did not feel guilty over was disobeying her father's orders to stay in the woods with the other females and young, but there were more important things than safety, like telling her father about Stone and Gray and who really burned the ape homes. No matter what Blue Eyes had found, Mary had serious doubts whether the humans shot Caesar or not, but she did know who set the fires, and it was not a human. And her father must know about his friends before things went too far.

The first glimpse of the human's home was so strange that for a long moment all Mary could do was stare in amazement and dread. The signs of terrible fighting were painfully obvious. How many apes are dead now? Mary thought. How many humans? What did the apes do with the human bodies?

Beginning to wish that she had listened to her papa, Mary made her way through the unnatural landscape of the human's home. It was not an easy task to keep out of sight of all the apes. and the first thing she saw filled her with disgust and dread. A large group of her people, with her lifelong shadow, the gorilla Red, right out in front, were herding a terrified group of unarmed humans, many females and elderly and children among them, into pens like horses. NO, on second glance, it was not like horses at all. The horses were treated much better. The apes were being deliberately brutal to the humans, who had no hope of fighting them. The wails of the terrified children, who clung onto the human adults much like an ape child would do, broke Mary's tender heart, and she nearly broke her cover. She opened her mouth to order them to stop right now, but she caught herself at the last minute, remembering that she was not supposed to be there in the first place.

The disgusted ape girl promised herself that she would find some way to help those humans, particularly the children, later. The key to stopping all of this was finding her father and telling him what she saw. Once he knew the truth, he would deal with Stone and Gray and end all this. After all, there was much rebuilding to be done back home.

But how could they ever rebuild without Caesar?

Mary bit her lip until the blood came to force back her tears for her beloved lost uncle and waited for her chance. When the gorillas were too busy harassing the poor humans, a tiny shadow slipped all unseen through their midst and crept into the strange human structure.

And after wondering hopelessly lost for what felt like years, Mary would never be able to forget what she saw.

It was Ash, lying on the cold unnatural human floor, and as Mary ran to him, overjoyed to see her beloved, she knew something was very wrong. Ash did not stir at her approach. How could he sleep at a time like this? Mary knelt down to wake him up, and when she touched him, it felt like the bottom dropped out of her world.

Forgetting that she was not allowed there and was supposed to be keeping out of sight of the other apes, forgetting the suffering of the humans and their children, Koba's daughter began to scream her love's name as she gathered Ash's dead body in her arms.

"Ash!" Mary cried, but when she opened her eyes, Ash was not there. Everyone she ever knew was gathered nearby, however. Hovering the nearest, of course, was Aunt Tinker and Aunt Cornelia, and Lake holding baby Hope. Winter was there, ringing his hands, his perpetually frightened look plastered on his timid face, and her two favorite Uncles were also nearby, Uncle Maurice with Aunt Karin always at his side, and Uncle Luca, too. She saw spotted Ellie and Alexander back in the crowd of apes. And even Red was lurking at the very back of the crowd, looking more concerned than Mary ever remembered seeing him before now.

As she started to sit up, Cornelia pressed her firmly but gently back down between herself and Tinker. The ape Queen motioned to Lake, who came into the tight-knit circle and handed the baby over to nurse. "Rest a little bit, my sweetling," Cornelia sighed worriedly. "Yu have been doing too much lately. How are you feeling?"

"I feel sick," Mary muttered out loud. "Must be the air from this awful place. Aunt Cornelia, when can we go home? When can we leave this terrible human place and go back to the woods?"

Mary's question started a general murmur of consent throughout most of the milling throng of apes until eventually Maurice, Luca and Aunt Karin began to usher most of them away.

"We will soon, darling," Cornelia signed, but Mary was in no mood to be comforted.

"That's all we've been hearing for days, Aunt Cornelia, and it isn't good enough!" she cried before she could stop herself. Then, the miserable ape girl immediately let out a low groan and bowed her head. Mary felt even more sick, heart sick this time. She had never meant to snap at Cornelia like that. It was not Cornelia she was angry with, after all. It was Caesar, and his unnatural attachment to this horrible place.

One of the nearby older ape females raised a hand as if to reprimand Mary, but Cornelia cut her off with a quick gesture and a hard look. "No, leave her," the queen signed, her gestures curt and commanding. "The child only said out loud what we've all been thinking,"

Mary stayed silent as the ape queen beckoned for Maurice and Luca to come closer.

"One of you, go and tell Caesar I need to see him as soon as possible. And if he doesn't come," Cornelia added, the old stubborn defiant look that had not been seen much in public for years coming over her pretty features. "Tell him I will leave this place and come find him myself."

"No?" Mary cried.

"Cornelia!" Tinker gasped out loud. She grabbed onto her friend's arm and made a loud distressed noise, and she was not the only one. Mary latched on to Cornelia as well. Clearly, no one wanted to let their queen roam too much out in the human ruins, but she was adamant.

"I'll go," Luca signed. "Stay here and help the females," he ordered Winter, but took red out with him, much to Mary's surprise, and Winter's annoyance. Knowing that Luca did not think too much of the red gorilla — he was never included Luca's inner circle, and this was before her Father's rebellion—Mary assumed that Luca wanted to keep his eye on most of Koba's staunch followers. And Red had been in Koba's very small inner circle for as long as Mary had been alive.

"Cornelia, it's time for another injection," Karin reminded the ape queen gently. "Ellie, can you come and supervise?"

"You stay here and rest," Cornelia ordered as she and Tinker got up and followed Aunt Karin and the human Ellie to another room.

Mary was afraid Aunt Karin had another reason for taking Cornelia off to herself, and her fears were confirmed when a stunned-looking Tinker came back out.

"Is it true?" Tinker demanded of her former daughter-in-law-to-be. "Why didn't you come to me? Or to Cornelia about this?"

Mary bit her lip, her head bowed as she began to visibly tremble. She could not meet Rocket's wife's gaze now. The other person she never wanted to hurt was sweet Tinker. She could not be angry with Aunt Karin, either. The woman threatened that if Mary did not talk with her mother and/or Tinker, then she, Karin, would do it for her. Mary knew that the woman never made empty threats.

Seeing how terrified the girl was, the tender-hearted Tinker immediately relented. She drew the girl up and held her close. "Come now, dear," Rocket's wife signed gently, stroking the girl's head. "Let's talk about this. Lake, go and find Sparrow."

Lake shot Mary a concerned look, and she tried to give her friend a smile before she went to do Tinker's bidding.

"Yes, Aunt Tinker," Mary replied meekly. She was still so lost and confused and now frightened that she had no energy to argue. So, she let Tinker lead her deeper into the female's safe haven. Perhaps Sparrow could say if Aunt Karin's guesses were right

A/N:

Hello new and old patient readers. And welcome back to Mary's continuing story.

I bet many of you have good guesses as to what's wrong with Mary? 😀

Thanks so much for reading. I look forward to everyone's feedback.