Birth of the Planet of the Apes

Red - Part 2

The foreign, human scream of pain suddenly brought Blue Eyes out of his haze, the scene coming into focus before him.

Alex was crumpled on the ground, body shaking violently in fear. His arm was clenched tight in Blue Eyes' hand and hung at an odd angle from his side. Blue Eyes dropped his hold on Alex instantly and fell backwards in shock. No no no! Not again! Nothing's happened for days! He was getting better! He could feel his breath start to hitch as panic hit him viciously, blurring his thoughts with dark memories and eating at his hopes like a fire. This is what he was running from! He knew he shouldn't have stayed with...

Blue Eyes froze as arms flew around him and pulled him in tight without warning.

"Shh shh shh, it's okay, Blue. Everything's okay," Riley said softly as she pulled his head down into the crook of her shoulder and started to rock back and forth. Blue Eyes was breathing hard, short hoots coming out of his lungs like a scared child. "Alex! Get a blanket!"

"He...he pulled my shoul..." Alex's voice had tears laced in it.

"Bend your arm in front of you, move it to the side, then lift straight up!" There was a short silence, then a loud pop, followed by another pained scream. The shrill sound caused Blue Eyes to jerk in Riley's arms violently, but she put a strong hand on the back of his head and held him tighter, "It's okay, Blue. You're okay. Just focus on my voice alright. Can you...can you count for me?"

A shaking piece of cloth moved next to his shoulders and he risked a glance up, regretting it instantly when he met the scared, agony-ridden eyes of Alex. Before his panic started back up, Riley wrapped the blanket around him and pulled his head back down into her shoulder, "Say one for me, Blue. Come on, I know you can do it."

Alex's face burned in his eyes and when he closed them, it was still there, ripping at the frayed sides of his heart like the bear had ripped at his chest so long ago. He gripped onto Riley's jacket for some kind of support that he knew would never come and tried to follow the mad request she had given him. "O...o...one," he stuttered, managing to get the word out between his hyperventilating grunts and hoots.

"Good. See? I knew you could do it. Okay, let's see if we can get to ten," she kept rocking him slowly.

This was crazy! "T...two...th...th...three..." What was this supposed to do? "...f...four...five...six..." her rocking followed along with her breathing, and as each number came out, he could strangely feel his own breath falling into pace with hers, "...seven...eight, nine, ten."

She kept holding and rocking him gently until all remnants of the panic attack was gone, then, she slowly relaxed her arms and leaned back enough to leave her hands on his shoulders. When he cautiously caught her brown eyes, she smiled, "You did great, Blue," she kept her voice slow and reassuring, "I'm going to turn you around, alright? Alex is sitting just behind you. I want you to look at him. I know it'll be hard, but I'll be right here."

He flinched away from the pressure she put on his arms and could feel the panic come back as she stood him up and slowly turned him around. His eyes shot closed, but she brought her arms back around his shoulders and he quickly relaxed again.

When Alex met his eyes, the boy flinched slightly. He was stooped over on a stump; hand up on his shoulder and body still shivering in pain. Blue Eyes could feel the ache of shame wrench in his gut when he saw him, but, oddly, the desire to run wasn't there anymore.

Riley squeezed his shoulders with encouragement and Blue Eyes finally found his voice, "I...I am sorry," he said, the truth behind his words made his rough voice crack.