Ape Kodomo Escape REDUX

Chapter 1 - Running Start (Side B)

"It's raining again." A quiet voice echoed through the box room, to meet no other ears.

Silence refilled the room, except for the rain bouncing off of the window and the ground outside. The world inside of the young boy's brain was not as silent, but he wouldn't dare speak a word. He knew that he was being recorded, as he had been his whole life. For protection, obviously, but it still lead to the fear of being seen as too emotional by his father.

From the time he was young, he had been taught that a good leader would show little to no emotions and would know the right time and place to show them. This would be easier to do, if the young monkey even knew what he was experiencing – the only way he ever knew was by comparisons to other things. His greyish blue eyes stood half open, as he was sitting upright, in a ball, on his cold bed. He stared at his window, almost completely covered by his curtains except for where he had slightly pulled them back. Rain hit the window repeatedly, leaving lines of running water and random drops.

"From streams, it returns to the ocean – only to be put through the cycle again. Even if it takes awhile, it will always returns." The young ape thought to himself.

This same thought ran through his head every time it rained, it would always distract from his studying. A biology book laid open in front of him on his black covers, where he had left it. The page showed the different parts of the human brain, annotated in a language that didn't exist in humans. The monkey's language, to be specific.

It was clear that he needed to understand which part of their brains controlled what, in case he needed to create a mind control device or something of the sort. Despite all the research his father made him do on humans, he had never actually seen one. That wasn't a bad thing, as humans were their biggest threat. He had specific orders if a human ever came his way – run. Don't look back, just keep running forward and don't stop to hide unless he was 100% sure it was safe. Simple enough orders.

His room was equally as simple. It was small, small enough where his metal bed frame reached from wall to wall underneath the window. The headboard and footboard were five centimeters wide and completely hollow. He had the same mattress without a cover for his entire life, with a black blanket working as his type of duvet. The walls and floor were both steel plates bolted together, the walls being a darker grey than the floor. Piles of different books laid next to the headboard, books of mathematics and sciences were the most common.

His room stayed the same no matter where they moved, and he liked it that way. His days would stay the same as well, waking up, studying in his father's office for a while, dinner in the conference room, and then back to his own room to study more. And yet, he longed for change.

He would often wonder what he would do if he was all alone without his father or the strange monkey six. That one would usually be terrifying though, and would lead him to more studying to ignore it. He would imagine how life would be like if the youngest member of the strange monkey six and son of Pink Monkey and Blue Monkey, Paru, wasn't so annoying and hadn't given him the nickname he hated so much. "Ian".

That wasn't his actual name, as his father would correct everyone in the group every time they said it – His real name was Phantom. The nickname seemed to stick, however, to the point where his own father would use both "Phantom" and "Ian".

He wanted change, but at the same time it scared him. It wouldn't be possible without the reality that things could never go back, which he was terrified of. These thoughts flooded his head, and his only response was to shake his head and get up. He was planning to get a glass of water and go back to studying, but the book would never move from his bed that night.

As his door slid open, his routine was broken by the echo of an usual sound. Something, or someone, had crashed onto the ground at a good speed. Ian's head turned to the direction which the sound came from. He didn't think about the possibilities of danger or anything bad happening.