Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: The Official Movie Novelization

14

Koba led Grey and Stone through the treetops, following the sound of the trucks. He didn’t need to keep them in sight. He knew where they were going. Trucks couldn’t go through the forest, so they had to be heading for the big road. If the apes got there first, they could see which way the trucks turned, and then they would know whether the humans had come from the city or somewhere else.

They reached the edge of the forest and listened. Koba stilled himself, learning everything he could about the humans by watching closely as the trucks rolled slowly down the last stretch of the dirt track. When they got to the edge of the road, they turned toward the city. Koba saw the humans’ leader driving one truck, with his female and boy. In the other truck were four men. The one who had shot Ash was driving.

You, Koba thought. You shot an ape, and you will die.

He would not tell Caesar that he thought this. Caesar was powerful and a good leader, but he thought too much. Thinking weakened apes sometimes. Koba did not think. He planned.

They will have to use the bridge, he signed to Grey and Stone. We must get there first.

As soon as the trucks were out of sight around a bend, the three apes dropped from the trees, ran across the road, and leaped into the forest canopy again, making a direct line for the orange bridge that glowed like fire every sunset. Koba’s anger grew hotter as they got closer to the city. He had never wanted to return to it. It held for him only memories of bad smells, cages, and pain.

Koba, Grey, and Stone reached the orange bridge, and then swung along the underside until they reached the first pillar sunk into the water. They climbed up to the road level. The trucks were still coming down through the hills, slowed by damage to the road. Koba led the way up the pillar, climbing all the way to the top, where the thick cables rested in steel brackets. They found secure places to stay, on the side of the bridge away from the open ocean, and settled in to wait and watch.

The bridge was not completely broken, but pieces of its surface had fallen away. Wrecked and abandoned cars clogged the pathways, leaving only one open. Koba thought it seemed like humans must have cleared it. All those cars would not have died or crashed in every path but one. He decided to include this in his report to Caesar. It meant the humans had been organizing and working here for some time.

That meant there were many of them.

And that meant they were a threat to apes.

He looked toward the city. Below the other end of the bridge was a large ship, damaged and partly burned. Perhaps the humans had fought each other on that ship. It rested at anchor near a heavy stone building, four stories tall, a long rectangle that reached under the curved steel supports holding that end of the bridge up.

Beyond it, the city looked quiet. Koba could not see any more humans.

He heard the trucks approach, and shifted around to watch them. They drove slowly across the bridge, coming to a stop at the far end. Koba squinted. His eye was not good enough to see what they were doing. He poked Stone, who saw farther, and signed.

What are they doing?

More humans are meeting them, Stone signed. Five. With more guns. They are talking.

That made twelve humans. Ten men, one woman, one boy. If there was only one woman, they would not let her go into the mountains. She would be too precious. So there must be more women as well… and if there were more women, there would be more children.

They all have guns?

Stone nodded.

This was enough, thought Koba. He signed to Stone.

Look over the city. Tell me if you see smoke.

Stone shifted around on the pillar to get a better view. He gazed out. Koba looked in that direction, too, but all his eye saw were buildings. Tall buildings, short buildings, made of stone or glass or steel. Some looked unfinished. He wished he could kill the human who had blinded him.

He grunted at Stone.

Well?

Stone eased himself back around the pillar, hiding himself from the distant humans at the other end of the bridge.

Yes, he signed. There is smoke.

Koba nodded. He signaled to the other two.

Back under the bridge. We will see what makes this smoke, and how many humans there are.

They dropped down the pillar, using it as cover to avoid the gaze of any human who might look their way. Caesar would learn much when they returned to the village, Koba thought. The apes could no longer go on believing they were alone, and humans had already proved they would use their guns first, and talk later. There would be no lasting peace between human and ape.

All that remained was to plan for the war.