Birth of the Planet of the Apes

Teachers

"We've got to wake him up, Alex," Riley's voice was full of annoyance and impatience.

"I promised him we wouldn't bother him," Alex replied, his shy voice trying to keep up with Riley's strong one.

Blue Eyes heard her almost growl. It was a strange noise coming from a human, the tone guttural yet still lacking the power an ape had. Her growl didn't sound threatening either but more irritated, like when a parent snorted at a child who wasn't listening. Did humans growl when they were annoyed at another human? It was hard to tell as both were hidden from his sight by the thin fabric of the tent.

Alex had kept his word. Blue Eyes slept harder that night then in a long while, the warmth and closeness of the blanket giving him a sense of security that he couldn't find out in the trees or even in the colony for that matter. Perhaps Alex would let him keep it if he asked.

Riley's voice caught his attention again. "It's already mid-morning, Alex. We haven't even packed up the tent yet. There's only a few hours before check-in and Fremont's gonna be pissed if he finds out we haven't covered any ground today."

Fremont? Who was Fremont? Blue Eyes, now fully awake, unrolled himself from his makeshift nest and eased himself to the wall with the zipper. He didn't open it though, but waited until the conversation changed to something less suspicious. He was pretty sure Alex wouldn't protest at his nosiness, yet the human girl was odd and he didn't trust her.

"What about Blue Eyes? You gonna tell Fremont about him?" Alex's voice seemed to show a reflection of what he thought of the girl. Maybe Alex didn't trust her as much as Blue Eyes thought.

She was quiet, like she was thinking of what to say, "Not yet," she said finally, "But we really should. Our mission was to find the apes and we found one. And not just any ape, but Caesar's son. This is real progress, so Fremont, and your dad I might add, should be happy to hear about it," she went silent again and Blue Eyes wished he could see what their faces were doing. He wasn't sure what Alex did, but Riley sighed and continued, "If he sticks around then we'll have to tell them sometime. If not, then we'll forget we ran into him and keep with the plan like before. He'd be a huge help to us if he stayed, but I got the feeling yesterday that he didn't want much to do with us and I can't exactly put a leash on him to keep him here."

Leash?

Alex must've done something else, for her next words were calmer and more relaxed, "Okay, we'll wait until Blue wakes up then see what he's gonna do. He'll probably be hungry so I'll pull out some of the dried fruit and hope he likes it more than you do." Her voice seemed to smile at the end.

Blue Eyes heard movement around the camp as both humans started doing whatever humans did in the morning. He had never seen humans groom each other like apes did so he wasn't sure how they passed the time. A few minutes passed before Blue Eyes felt secure enough to 'wake up', moving around the tent just enough to make the fabric shift.

"Speak of the devil," Riley said as Blue Eyes eased open the tent door, fumbling with the zipper the whole way.

He caught her brown eyes and bared his teeth slightly to show her he still didn't trust her. She showed her teeth as well in more of a mocking way, "Grr to you to," she said before she went back to her bag.

He knuckle-walked over to Alex with the blanket dragging behind him through the mud. Once he reached the boy, he handed the blanket back and gave him a grunt and a sign of 'thank you'. Alex seemed to get what he was saying and gave a quiet 'you're welcome' in return, though his eyes were less than enthusiastic as they looked down on the mud-covered blanket Blue Eyes held in front of him. Blue Eyes cocked his head. Did he not want it back? Maybe humans cared about mud more than apes did, he thought.