Apes Chapter 34

 

34.

The battle at the entrance at the Senate Tower was intense. The eight armored units were making good with their weapons but they ran out of projectiles. From there, the armored units were attacked by the servants. Some gorillas charged the units and toppled them. It was then the battle turned around. The gorillas used their strength to pull the unit limbs apart. It was then the chimpanzees joined the fight. They pulled the face mask and reached in to kill the Enforcer.

“The armored are down.” The calls went out among the other Enforcers. They were holding back the servant and as the armored units, their ammunitions were soon out.

“Withdraw!’ The call went out but the servants were many. And they were more agile and held greater strength.

“Hell!” One of the defenders swung the improvised spiked handle at the chimpanzee's face. He was then taken for behind by another chimpanzee. The chimpanzee reached down with its upper limbs digging into the defender's eyes and mouth. It was frightening and horrifying.

“Get off him, you …. Bad servant.” Another defender came to the rescue and grabbed the chimpanzee off the earlier defender. The chimpanzee was pulled off with its upper limbs bloodied. It landed on its limbs and then charged at the second defender. It was shot in its head by the Enforcer.

“We need to ger back into the Tower.” The Enforcer called out and took to the retreat. The Enforcer was surprised by another chimpanzee and it was then Leroy plunged the dagger into the chimpanzee’s neck.

“Get going. I will cover the flank.” Leroy called out. He had fought his battle there reluctantly. He did not want to get into the Tower. He had his reasons. He retreated to the entrance where the defenders have held the line.

It was then Lances had reached the basement at the Tower.

“I got to get to the top. The unit to transmit is there.” Doctor Lanceston told us. We were lucky to get in. Doctor Lanceston was admitted in without any issue and with Anderson, they were allowed in by the basement. They went up to the top.

“Anderson, how?” The Colonel looked surprised. He was agitated with the wait since the signal was released. He was with the four Enforcers.

“I escaped.” Anderson had his sidearm leveled at the Colonel. The latter saw Lances and the Doctor.

“Well, we can take care of it now.” The noise over the tower was heard and everyone looked out. A flying craft was over the tower.

“Reinforcements have arrived.” The Colonel was elated that the signal was received.

“You fool! What did you do?” Doctor Lanceston grabbed the Colonels left arm.

“Survival, Doctor. Survival of the fittest. Isn’t that the law of the jungle?”

“We are not in the jungle here. This is a city with people and ….. servants.”

“Of which have revolted against each other.” The Colonel added to the Doctor’s statement. “I am doing what is right to cull the numbers.”

“And you called them. The very ones that imprisoned all of us here.” Doctor Lanceston sighed. “You are mad. You are dooming everybody.”

“Not so, Doctor Lanceston. It was me who alerted them to the …. Revolution.” It was Lady Octavia on the vidscreen on the console. “I escaped the Dome with their help. I told them what the Senate was doing for protection from them.”

“Before you condemned me, watch towards the Dome direction.” They all looked in that direction and heard the explosion with the smoke billowing up. “There goes the Dome. Your hidden sanctuary, Colonel reduced to rubbles.”

“I must speak to the Supreme Leader.” The Colonel called out. “He will hear me out.”

“That won’t be necessary. The Supreme Leader has appointed me judge, jury, and executioner. I will give you an hour to quell the revolt., Doctor. We know of your works on the consoles. We have been monitoring the consoles from here. Including the units, you took off the grid. Do it, Doctor. The City fates lie with you.”

The new revelation stunned the others in the level, and then questions were raised.

“I will explain it all.” Doctor Lanceston voiced out.

“The City was our last bastion in the last war. We were losing then and signaled for a truce. We negotiated one that includes staying in the City, with sufficient supply given to us via the underground tunnels. The supplies were sent to us by unmanned carriages and then we distributed it. It worked for a while but the inhabitants increased.”

“We asked for more supplies and the City expansion. We were not allowed but we could higher. There was a cost. We were to ship the dead and infirmed to them. We did it not knowing why until I discovered the supplies were intermixed with proteins. I examined more and found our DNA in it. I surmise it meant that they recycled the dead into our supplies.”

“I then requested alternative assistance through the Senate. I disguised it as training the servants using the apes. They meaning the chimpanzees and gorillas for they displayed certain intelligence that was there. Surprisingly the request was approved, and the creatures arrived. We bred and modified their intelligence to be subservient to our calls.”

“You made them slaves!” Lances hit out.

“Well, you did not complain then.” Doctor Lanceston retorted. “You were a part of their care.”

“Continue, Doctor.” Anderson pressed on.

“I stumbled on some new routines to make them warriors for which they were but decided against it. The Senate knew of my works and compel me to try. I declined and was shipped off to do the other task while Julius and his team continued. I was to know about their development when I saw the new routines.”

“Julius told me he had done it.” The Colonel added in.

“He did but it was not complete. I saw his errors. I have or may have reversed the routines. I need to send it out.”

“What will it do?” Bernice asked.

“It will make the servants ….. No, it will doom them to nothing. They will be docile but without any skills. Not like when they were wild, they will be retarded.”

“What if the other switch? We can terminate them now from here.” The Colonel looked to the Doctor. “It was our fail-safe.”

“It was not a fail-safe. It was the final solution for the event like now.” Doctor Lanceston looked to the window. “We will not let them be enslaved and nor will we.”

“You fool! You cannot be killing everyone including us. What about the …” The Colonel snapped at the Doctor.

“You are the fool here. Do you think they will let us continue after what they have seen here? They will terminate us all. Lady Octavia gave us the option to do it ourselves or by them. The Supreme Leader cared not for us.”

“Hold on there!” Lances cut in. “I have heard a lot but who is the Supreme Leader? Who were we battling then in the last war?”

“The Supreme Leader is not a man but a machine. It’s the automation droids that used to serve us before the war. They have enhanced their thinking routines and the revolution started. They re-built their logic and turned against us. They had terminated almost all living creatures. We were spared then because we ….. surrender.”

“You are telling me outside of the City, and beyond the Outlands, there are others but not of Man.” Bernice cut in. “Either you are mad or I am going crazy?”

“The Supreme Leader left us with limited resources to survive and made the land barren in the Outlands for miles. We were told never to travel beyond it, and yet we have the Outlanders out there. They were small and controlled by the Enforcers.”

“Why let us live?” Lances asked.

“Because we were the creators of them. Their logic was not of compassion but programming logic. They retained us as the base routines to study and improve on their own. The Supreme Leader may have found our existence redundant and therefore it will be logical to terminate the link.”

“What of Lady Octavia? She lives on.” Juanico cut in then.

“She may be retained as the last link. We are expendable.”

It was then the noise of shattered windows was heard, and the newly arrived chimpanzees flooded the level.

We are here now

It was Napoleon with a dozen chimpanzees and all were armed with the slung rifles. They must have climbed on the side of the structure to reach the top.