16
David realized he’d just been staring at the page—maybe for a minute, maybe for longer. He took another drink of water and tried to get his focus back. His side throbbed, and pain radiated out from it to touch him everywhere. It felt, in fact, as if he was a hand puppet on a zombie’s hand.
He looked at the clock, and tried to do a little math.
Talia had been gone a long time. Four hours?
Most likely she had reached the hospital, and been drafted for an emergency situation. There probably wasn’t anything to worry about.
He took his own temperature and saw that it had climbed to a hundred and four, which explained some things—like the morbid zombie-hand analogy. He went to Talia’s medicine cabinet and found some aspirin. He took four and then went back to the laptop. Despite the way he was feeling, the story was taking shape.
Sage called an hour later with the corroboration he needed.
“You sound bad,” she said.
“A little fever,” he explained.
“Just send me what you’ve got, and get to a doctor,” she said.
“Right,” he muttered. “So someone else can get my byline.”
“You’ll get your byline, you flinking idiot. Get to a doctor!”
“I’m at the doctor’s right now,” he said. “Now let me finish the damn thing.”
He hung up before she could say anything else.
Caesar sat alone in the topmost branch of a redwood, staring out at the city. In the west, the sun was melting into the sea, and beyond the bridge, lights began coming on.
It seemed to him that there were fewer lights than there once had been, that the city was darker. Once again he wondered what Will was doing. Was Will sick with the disease? He hoped not. He could picture Will and Caroline in the kitchen, talking about what they had done that day. He longed to be there again, to be a part of that, part of a family. But it had never been entirely real. When they went places, Will took him on a leash, like a pet. Caesar knew what a pet was, and he knew that was the best thing an ape could hope for in the human world.
The worst—well, there were members of his troop who knew all too much about that. Apes who had been raised with nothing like a family, nothing like love, who had experienced only pain, degradation, and isolation.
And many of them… weren’t right. They were damaged inside, didn’t know exactly how to act, and maybe they never would. And all of this running, the threat of being captured or killed, the hunger—none of it was helping. But if he could find a place where they could be left alone, he knew things would get better. If some apes were broken, their children would not be. They would grow up with apes, as apes, in the trees where they belonged.
If…
He heard a faint rustling, and to his surprise he saw that Cornelia was approaching. Just seeing her made him feel tired, and he wondered what she had come to complain about this time, what things she thought he was doing wrong.
She approached with deference. Not enough, he thought, but more than she had ever shown before.
Caesar watches the city, she signed.
He nodded.
What are you looking for?
When he didn’t answer, she moved closer.
It will be dark soon, she observed.
He shrugged, and waited for her to say something worth a reply. For a moment he thought she would just leave, but was astonished when she reached over and began picking twigs out his fur. He flinched at first, but then he let her continue. It felt good, relaxing, like when Will and Caroline had brushed him or stroked him.
She started on his back, working around to his side, slowly, methodically.
You’re a mess, she said.
No time to groom, he signed back. Always running.
You did well today, she said.
He jerked away, trying to read her expression. Was she mocking him?
But her expression seemed sincere.
I made a mistake today, he said. Might have lost many.
Didn’t, she pointed out.
Maybe soon, though, he said. I was too confident. Stupid. She pulled at a twig, a little too hard, and it stung.
Not stupid, she said. Apes are free because of Caesar. Apes are together. Worth dying for.
She continued to groom him in silence for a few moments.
Caesar is the smartest, she added. Still, should listen to others, take help from others. Caesar alone strong. Caesar with apes, stronger. Apes together, strong.
Caesar recognized what he had said to Maurice, coming back to him again. Koba had said it, too.
Who says this? he asked. Apes together strong?
All of them, she said. Even ones who don’t talk.
He watched the last of the sunset, then touched Cornelia’s shoulder, a gesture of thanks. He’d come up here feeling like something in him was broken. Now he felt it was just a bad bruise.
Together they went down to join the troop.
“Hey, Dad.”
Dreyfus looked up as Edward entered the kitchen, stifling a yawn. He was a rangy sapling of a fourteen-year-old, with a bushy mess of brown hair.
“Good morning, Edward,” he said. “I’m surprised to see you up so early, with school being canceled and all. I thought you might take the opportunity to sleep in.”
“I kind of… kind of thought I might see you before you left,” Edward said.
Dreyfus had been reaching for the paper, but he left it where it was.
“Is something the matter?” he asked.
“No,” Edward said, his gaze wandering randomly around the kitchen. And then, “Maybe, I don’t know.”
“Have a seat,” Dreyfus told his son. “You want some coffee?”
“Gross. No thanks.” He went to the fridge and got some sort of energy drink instead.
“You worried about the virus that’s going around?” he asked.
“Sure,” Edward replied, studying the back of his drink can. “Everyone is. Aren’t you?”
“Sure,” he allowed. “But I can’t let it stop me from doing what I think is right.”
Edward’s eyes lit up a little.
“Like running for mayor?” he said. “Like getting in front of that mob the other day?”
“Exactly,” Dreyfus said.
“Yeah,” Edward said. “So, there’s this food drive—to try to collect canned goods for the quarantine shelters. I was thinking I should… help out. Do the right thing, like you.”
Dreyfus sipped his coffee carefully.
“I’d rather you not go out, son,” he said.
“But you just said—”
“I know.” He sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment. “It’s just different when you’re a father.”
“Hey, you set the example,” Edward said.
“Tell me more about it, then,” Dreyfus said.
“Mr. Song, our history teacher, is organizing it. He—”
“Hold up,” Dreyfus said. “Henry Song?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The one with the daughter who was over here the other day for a study session?”
“Dad, this isn’t about her,” Edward protested, looking down at the table. “I just want to be like you.”
“Edward…” Dreyfus said, tilting his head.
“Okay, okay,” his son blurted out. “It’s totally about her. Please, Dad—let me. They have filter masks, gloves, fifty kinds of antibacterial hand wash.”