War Technicalities [UNDER REVISION]

Inevitability Part 2

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

Once Haley completely numbed against Rocket with all her strength crushed beneath shock and horror, he finally allowed her to collapse on the ground so he could go do damage control, not thinking about the consequences his lack of presence could bring.

Like the crash after a sugar rush, Haley couldn't move from her knees, suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion and tire. Though she discovered that she went unharmed under the fire of the gun, Haley could still feel something die inside of her, murdered by the death of the king of the apes, destroyed by the blow of what she had witnessed. Like a blanket of dread, the night's black weighed heavier than ever on Haley's shoulders and cruelly kept her down, not a hint of remorse there.

"Human. Gun." Blue Eyes' scream inevitably grabbed her attention and pulled her eyes away from the cliff's edge to the rocky outgrowth at the village's center on which he stood, but still she remained anchored where she sat. With the ape's furry figure darkened before the campfire's yellowish light, Haley's eyes had to narrowed to see it inside of its bright outline, but as the image unclouded and as the shape in Blue Eye's hand cleared, something foreign and unwelcomed sparked inside of her. With her eyes studying the ghastly weapon's metallic and undoubtedly cold surface with a growing scowl, Haley could feel her blood unwillingly boil under the fiery heat of rage, fists trembling at her sides. Under normal circumstances, Haley would have quipped about the fact that there was no other type of gun than a "human gun" but the chance escaped her as hate swelled in the newly opened space in her heart.

As if controlled like a puppet by the strings of wrath, Haley's body, on its own, spun around on its knees and whisked her own weapon off of her back and into aim, holding it tight against her chest and making the string shake under the strain of her pull – she didn't pause before she let go and sent the projectile zipping through the air, only to see it bury deep into the beam of the village's wall. Haley's vision clouded red as she searched pointlessly for the humans who were supposed to be standing in her arrow's path. Despite her efforts, however, she could barely glimpse at the group of bare-skinned targets as they fled through the village gates, the growing fire that framed their route going unseen by the blonde's focused scowl.

"Go! Get them!" Koba's deep and hoarse screech echoed overhead, but by that time, Haley already leapt over stones and branches in lead and swung from tree to tree after the humans. Bark and broken branches ripped through her palms while she moved without a cautious pause, not even wavering when the group split ahead of her. She didn't know who were in the group which she followed, but as she neared them with each swing, she didn't care. With a warrior's cry, Haley threw herself from the last tree in her wake and aimed her bow and arrow mid-air as she soared. No time for hesitance, she fired at her target before hugging her bow to her chest as she crashed to the mossy forest floor with a groan and tumbled to an eventual stop, her coat barely managing to protect her from the impact. Only the pained scream that sounded behind her was enough to tell her it was worth it.

With adrenalin born from nothing but her fixed temper, she pushed herself back to her bare, bruised feet with wobbling arms, and moved to pull her very last arrow from her quiver to aim it at Foster, who still lay, bleeding, on the ground, holding his punctured thigh in agony.

Before she had the chance to finish her work, Kemp interrupted and slammed into her side with all the force he could muster, sending her crashing back to the ground with a feminine yelp. He charged forward to tackle her down completely, but before he could touch her, she circle back around and backhanded him with her bow like she had done Carver only a few days prior. Carver – Haley bared her teeth with a chilling growl as the name resurface in her thoughts, realization dawning that it had to be him who killed Caesar, and so, before Kemp could even clutch his burning cheek, she hurdled herself forward and jumped him, ramming his back against the stone ground below. Haley could hear the revolting crack as his head collided with earth, rendering him in a helpless daze while she pounded her fists at his face with in vicious frenzy, sending his head whipping back again, and again, and again, and again, his scull shattering against the solid surface below until he finally fell limb, that infamous last breath slipping from his lips.

Haley's arms immediately dropped at her sides when Kemp stopped fighting back, her chest rising and falling desperately while she caught her breath. Stumbling once or twice on her tired legs, Haley rose from her straggle on the man's lap, eyes never leaving the red-drenched spheres where his once were. Sluggishly, she nudged his side with her foot, but only saw his corpse wobble lifelessly. She had no time to process her kill when a grunt tickled her ears and forced her to turn around and witness the sight of Foster crawling without dignity or pride to the bow and arrow a few feet away from him, reaching for the weapon as if his life depended on it, terror evident in his eyes. Nevertheless, just as his fingertips grazed the wooden surface, he was left to observe while mutilated fingers picked it up instead, the single arrow aimed at him a second later.

Finally, Haley could feel the skin of her hands throbbing in pain when she grasped her weapon again, but she didn't blink or flinch and merely continued to leer down at the terrified man that she once revered. Too ready she was to put a hole in between his human eyes, and even when those brown eyes flickered to a bright blue, her arms didn't lower. "Out of the way, Blue Eyes." She hissed venomously, instead,

Crouched low between the humans, Caesar's eldest son peered up at Haley with fear of his own. He had not borne witness to the previous events, nor did he know what compelled him to do as he did, but as soon as he saw his father – his dead father's – friend readying to kill one of their human allies, he quickly got in the way. Despite the fact that it had been his family that was shattered only moments before, there were voices nagging at him, telling him to take a step back and clear his head; they were the voices of his father and, ironically, the seething woman in front of him. Lowering himself more, Blue Eyes hid Foster behind his own body while his brows furrowed with concern, not for the man, but for her. Fear for his friend's sanity inflated his ape heart as his big eyes flickered to the mangled corpse behind her. "Move!" She snapped down at him, but still he didn't dare to move, simply looking up at her with pleading eyes.

"Father," He signed cautiously, "wouldn't want you to—"

"Well, he's not here for you to be sure, is he!?" Haley cut him off with a scream, not conscious enough to be satisfied when he flinched back, but oddly enough, it was Haley who weakened at her own words, her shoulders slumping with grief, "He's..."

Blue Eyes only allowed himself to breathe when he saw the fire in her eyes finally cool to an icy sorrow, her glower fading. "He's..." She breathed again, but couldn't bring herself to say it – only in a last rush of anger, Haley aimed her arrow at the eyes that peeked over Blue Eyes' shoulder and croaked out, "He's gone because of a human!"

"Car-... ver..." He grunted out, and alas, only the sound of his voice seemed to be enough to make her rage dissipate, disbelief showing on her features while her arms collapsed, "No... human... the same." He added before returning to his hand language, "You told me that – so did father. Wasn't Foster who did this—"

Against her desire to ignore him, she knew he was right, so, releasing one last bellow of frustration, she tossed her weapon to the ground in defeat and dropped down next to it. "Damn you." She hissed under her breath, "You're not being fair." Blue Eyes knew almost as much as Maurice that using Caesar's words against her was the one way to pierce her stubborn nature, and now more than ever, the young ape didn't care – he already lost his father, he couldn't bear to lose any more of his family on the same night, even if just in personality. He couldn't allow Haley to kill Foster and lose what makes her, her.

Nonetheless, her calming and him succeeding didn't changed the situation of Foster's torn leg and murderous glare – though, deep down, Foster was already fighting the truth of self-protection and justified anger on her part.