War Technicalities [UNDER REVISION]

What Is Ape

[Unrevised. 5 Years Old. Prepare for inconsistencies with previous chapters.]

"Malcolm, I think one of us should stand guard tonight."

With the sun set, Muir Woods was finally clouded in the night's eerie shadow. The captivating green grass and leaves were turned to a nauseating, greyish shade and the high treetops were completely blackened out into a mystery, the trees' dark bark becoming nothing more than raven lines in the distance. From the skies, only three patches of fire's light could be seen fighting to stay alive: one hidden between tall buildings and skyscrapers, another dimming out next to a waterfall and clouded in the rough water's mist, and, the last, a weak flicker of orange light between the thickly-packed trees.

Huddled together next to feeble tents and between the few bags they could stuff in the back of their car that was still abandoned in the road a klick away, the group of humans sat around a small campfire in the middle of the forest with fear and hope of what the next day could hold. Not a single one of them felt hungry, dread hanging too heavy in their empty stomachs, but still they took unenthusiastic bites from the rations they had brought along, just to collect their strength.

"With what? They took our guns." Foster quipped as he poked at the fire, his half-eaten bowl of food long-since given away to Alex, Malcolm's son. Alex did pointed out how Foster was the biggest of the group, more like a giant than anything, so he needed more food for it to do him any good, but he merely got the fact that he was young and growing thrown back at him. Foster didn't seem to care that Alex was already

fifteen and pretty much pass puberty.

"If they wanted us dead, we would already be dead." Malcolm intervened, still trying his best to rationalize with the few soldiers on their team.

"Maybe they're just taking their time." Carver interrupted, however, "They killed off half of the planet already." Immediately, the others paused in their movements, confusion emanating from each one of them, but the pause of silence didn't last long before Ellie finally spoke up against his words, wanting to explain their confusion after seeing his inability to notice what it was for.

"Come on." She scoffed, "You can't honestly blame the apes."

"Who the hell else am I going to blame?" He snapped back, oblivious to the rustling above them that was caused by his words.

High above their heads, crouched low on a branch, a pair of curious eyes was lit in the campfire's orange light and watching them in secret from behind the small opening in a bushel of leaves, moving from one speaker to the next slowly and listening to every single word inventively, hoping to see how humans are supposed to act. Gulping with an odd sense of alarm at the angry man's words, Haley hid farther behind her cover and tightened her hand around the leverage above her, fighting the urge to yell at him for what he said. He continued talking about how it was called the Simian Flu, somehow thinking that was evidence for his point, but this only allowed Haley's fury to grow. Still, she was almost grateful, because, hidden behind her rage, she was able to ignore a guilt that had been plaguing her mind – guilt for leaving the village to go watch the humans. Shaking her head at the inner-conflict, she leaned closer to the conversation below and poked her head over the green cloud in front of her to literally clear the air and hear better, unknowingly placing her face in the campfire's light. Although, anger only boiled stronger inside of her as she watched him continue to fight to dignify his hatred, using the losses of everyone around him to stand by his claim, and felt more than pleased when he got shot down by the others every time. So everyone lost a bit of their lives with this flu, she thought, mothers, children, and the ability to see reason.

"Right... I'm the asshole." Were the last words she caught before she saw the cruel wan stand and stomp off, once again resisting her urge to yell – this time to agree with him about him being an asshole.