Birth of the Planet of the Apes

Shelter Part 2

Finding nothing in the main house habitable, it was the semi-attached, lower level garage that ended up as their temporary shelter. Though it was dark and cave-like with its solid concrete walls, it was dry and relatively empty save a group of plastic lawn chairs, an oversized beanbag chair with a few forgotten mouse holes, and a broken ping-pong table.

Riley forced open the garage door to let in some air flow and helped Blue Eyes out of the rain cape and packs before making her way to a chair Alex offered her. Blue Eyes, finding it interesting, trotted over to the beanbag chair and tried to figure out a comfortable way to sit in it, failing miserably.

"Hey, Blue..." he stopped and looked up. Riley's eyebrows were raised in the kind of sarcastic disbelief that only she seemed able to do, "How 'bout you take one of these chairs and leave that thing for the mice."

He looked over his annoying nemesis again before he snorted at it, threw it out of the way, and climbed up into a chair, feet dangling slightly off the ground. Riley gave him a knowing smirk before pulling up her pack in front of her.

"How long do you think they've been in there?" Alex asked, turning the conversation uncomfortably back to the couple in the bedroom.

Riley turned it back around just as quickly, "Ixnay the edroombay....Either of y'all want any of these early season blueberries we found?" she said as she held the bag above her head, eyes still down in her pack.

Blue Eyes hooted gladly. Blueberries were his favorite and he was more than happy to drop Alex's subject. That was one of many images he wanted as far away in his memories as possible.

Alex must've realized his mistake, because he shrunk back under his hood quickly. "Sure," he said, switching to the current topic of food.

Riley held out the berries for Blue Eyes but took one look at his outstretched hand before she pulled them back, "Yeah...how bout you get all that mud off your hands first."

Blue Eyes furrowed his eyebrows and looked over his hands. True, they were a little dirtier than normal, but he'd eaten when they've been just as dirty before. What was the problem with dirt?

He huffed and reached for the bag again but she pulled it back farther, "Ah ah ah, wash first. Then food," she motioned indisputably to the open garage door.

He looked over at Alex for some kind of support, but all he got was a shrug and an 'I can't help you' face. With no back-up coming from that direction, Blue Eyes snorted, stomped over to the door, and stuck his hands out under the rain, scrubbing them together until he hoped they were up to the girl's standards. The second he turned back inside, Riley tossed him a white rag from her pack.

"To dry them off," she explained.

He narrowed his eyes, dried his hands, and threw it back at her in a huff.

She caught it without problem and tossed him the bag of berries with an equally irked stare, "Oh stop being so whiney. They wouldn't be that bad if you didn't slosh them through the mud all the time."

"That's...just how he walks," Alex said, trying to defend him. Blue Eyes nodded.

Riley just looked Blue Eyes over, "And what exactly do you call this?" she motioned at his currently standing form.

Alex and Blue Eyes exchanged quick looks, "Um..." Alex had nothing.

"See, he can walk just fine. No need to get his hands dirty at all."