Birth of the Planet of the Apes

Runaway

Blue Eyes pushed his horse to its limit, weaving through trees and over logs like a cross country race. He knew he had to get as far away as he could as fast as he could, for his father and the others would be sure to follow him. He couldn't face them, not after what he had just done.

It had all happened so fast...

He and one of his friends, Bronk, had been goofing around when Oliver decided to jump in and cause mischief. Blue Eyes still couldn't recall all that happened after that. He remembered Oliver's playful hoots and hollers, him jumping on he and Bronk, and then the world went fuzzy, like a haze of terror suddenly washed all over him. It was only after Bronk and Rocket, who had come out of nowhere, pulled him screaming off of Oliver that the haze lifted and he saw what he had done...

His horse snorted angrily under him as he forced it down a steep hill. He could feel his eyes start to burn with tears...

There had been hooting and screaming all around him, but all he could focus on was Oliver at his feet. The young bonobo's face was covered in dark red, his brown eyes completely terrified and confused at what had just happened to him. Bronk had rushed over to him and quickly dragged him to the healers.

Blue Eyes remembered he had been frozen to his spot, both figuratively and literally, for the mass of muscle that was Rocket held him hard in place. He didn't fight him. He couldn't fight him. He couldn't do anything.

He remembered Rocket yelling at him, or more like hooting and yipping with sign language mixed in, but it all met deaf ears and blind eyes, and before the giant chimp had gotten really into it, Blue Eyes had broken out of his grip and ran up into the trees to his home.

He remembered how he had tried to hide there, a naïve notion when one really thought about it, but he had been too delirious with panic that any thoughts past closing himself off in his room were quickly disregarded.

He was alone long enough that he had started giving himself hope that somehow all this was a bad dream or that it had been strangely overlooked. Unfortunately, one look at his blood covered hands screamed that it was real and the sound of his father's footsteps said it wouldn't be ignored.

Blue Eyes had to admit that his father's first words surprised him. Go and hunt? Just the two of them? What was he getting at? His confusion only lasted a few seconds though.

He knew his father too well. Probably better than his father knew him. No...definitely better than his father knew him. The great ape couldn't tell he had figured out what was going to happen when they went on their 'hunt', but it was written between his words like rivets in a tree's bark.

He was planning to take him out and talk with him alone. To find out what was wrong with him. And after they returned, there would be some sort of council meeting to decide how he should be punished.

It was there, looking into his father's concerned green eyes that Blue Eyes decided on his own punishment, and once he was alone again, he made his move.

He had leapt from his perch, weaving his way through the tops of the trees as quietly as he could, careful to not alert the others. Once he had reached the pen where they held the horses, he kept himself low, trotted to the back, climbed over the fence, and found the fastest horse they had. In his haste, he didn't bother opening the gate and ended up jumping over the fence, his horse barely making it over. He had thought his escape had gone off without a hitch until he weaved himself through the makeshift maze of a main gate and right into Luca. The giant gorilla had only enough time to exchange startled glances with him before he spun the horse around him and took off into the woods...