Battle For The Planet Of The Apes by David Gerrold Page A

Galloping down the street toward the corrals was a gorilla on horseback, pulling a running man behind him on a rope. The human tripped and was pulled down the street by the gorilla. The gorilla looked back and laughed. He kicked his horse in the ribs and urged it on to greater speed.
    Virgil shook his head in sadness. All around him were the sounds of pathetic screams and cries—and the shouts of exuberant gorillas. The pudgy orangutan dashed quickly across the street to Caesar’s house.
    All the shutters were closed, and when he let himself in, he had to pause because of the darkness inside. As his eyes slowly adjusted, he became aware of Lisa, Caesar, and Doctor, clustered around Cornelius’ bed. He moved to them and quietly touched Caesar’s shoulder.
    Caesar looked up, puzzled. It took him a moment to recognize Virgil, a moment longer to understand the urgency of his expression. He followed Virgil into the main room.
    Virgil spoke quietly and intensely. “Caesar, forgive me . . . but you have to come.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Aldo has seized power.”
    Caesar shook him away. The whole idea seemed somehow trivial. “Let him. There is no power to seize. The council is the power.” He started to turn back toward his son. “We can settle it later.”
    Virgil grabbed Caesar’s arm. “Caesar! He’s passing out guns! And he’s ordered all humans to be imprisoned. The gorillas are rounding them up and driving them into the horse corral.”
    Caesar frowned. “What about MacDonald?”
    “He was dragged from the council room by Aldo’s gorillas.”
    Caesar shook his head slowly, unable to comprehend. “But Virgil, I can’t leave my son. He needs me.”
    Virgil was insistent. “Every ape and human in Ape City needs you— now! ”
    “But . . .” Caesar raised his hands helplessly. The two apes stared at each other.
    A thin voice broke the impasse. From the other room, Cornelius called weakly, “Father . . .”
    Caesar hurried back to his son and leaned over him.
    Cornelius spoke haltingly. “They . . . hurt . . . me.”
    Caesar wasn’t listening to the words, though. He touched Cornelius’ face gently. “Just relax, son.” He smiled at the tiny spark of life that was his child, happy that it was still glowing, however faintly.
    “They . . . want . . . to . . . hurt you.”
    Abruptly, the words registered. Cornelius was telling them that his injury was not accidental. Caesar stiffened angrily. “What? Who? Who hurt you? Humans?”
    Cornelius’ eyes closed, then opened again. He answered very weakly, “No.”
    “Then who? ”
    There was a long silence then, broken at last by a change in Cornelius’ labored breathing. Doctor caught her breath. “Oh, no!” She knelt closer, but there was nothing she could do. Even Caesar recognized that now.
    Cornelius suddenly opened his eyes again. His mind flickered back, to a word he had heard. “Shall I be . . . malformed?” he asked.
    Caesar said reassuringly, “No, my son. One day you’ll be as tall as a king.”
    Cornelius smiled at the thought. The smile faded slowly on his face. His soft simian eyes closed again slowly. And didn’t reopen.
    Caesar touched the little body hesitantly. “Cornelius?”
    But Cornelius wasn’t there. There was nobody there at all. Just a small, broken body.
    Caesar gave way to Doctor. The human woman listened for a heartbeat for a moment, then turned to Caesar and shook her head. Lisa wailed and threw herself across the bed, clutching hopelessly at Cornelius’ tiny form.
    Caesar’s face twisted slowly from grief into rage. He stood up, saying, “They hurt my son. They killed him!”
    Lisa continued sobbing on the bed. Caesar didn’t even hear her. He rushed from the room angrily. He was totally distracted; he looked furiously from side to side. He rushed from the house in confusion. Virgil followed him, puffing to keep up.
    Caesar started heading for the horse corrals. “He said . . . they hurt him. Who?” he