Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Read Online Free PDF Page A

drawn the hunters far enough, they settled beneath the protecting branches of the trees and the fog that had rolled in from the sea. They waited for the helicopter to leave.
    But it didn’t leave. It kept circling, and after a time, Caesar heard another join it. And another.
    Sam, another chimp, began to whimper.
    What?
Rocket wanted to know.
What to do?
    Don’t know
, Caesar replied.
Wait
.
    But he didn’t like it. Soon it would be dark. Humans couldn’t see any better than chimps. Everyone would be blind. Why were they still there? Could the machines see at night? He knew it wasn’t impossible.
    Caesar glanced over at Rocket, who rewarded him with a look of utter trust, and he felt his gut tighten. Because he knew something Rocket didn’t.
    Back in the “shelter” where he had been held prisoner, he had known what he wanted to do, and he had worked out how to do it, piece by piece. First he had figured out how to get out of the cages at night, then how to gain dominance over Rocket and the others, then how to escape the facility. He had gone to Will’s house and found the mist that made apes smarter. One thing at a time, all put together beforehand.
    He had had a
plan
.
    Now he was just reacting. He hadn’t expected them to follow him out here. This was where apes belonged—people belonged in the city. Things had been wrong before, but now they were as they should be. It seemed to him so obvious that he thought the people would understand, especially since he had been careful to hurt as few of them as possible. He didn’t want humans as enemies. He didn’t want them as
anything
.
    He just wanted apes to be free.
    In hindsight, he should have known better. But his plan had ended with them in the woods, safe, and free. He hadn’t thought it through any further.
    They were free, but they were far from safe. His only hope was to evade the humans long enough that they decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.
    His thoughts were interrupted when bullets began shredding the leaves above them. He knew from the sound these weren’t the kind that knocked apes out—these guns sounded like the ones humans had used on the bridge. Loud. It was unexpected. Since the bridge, the humans had tried to capture them, but never to kill them.
    Down
, he commanded.
    They scrambled to obey and, one by one, the eight apes dropped as quickly as they could without injuring themselves. By the time they reached the rich leaf mold of the forest floor, it was very nearly dark. The ground here was steep and somewhat rolling. Caesar motioned for them to follow, and they began moving away from the helicopters. He felt exposed and out of sorts. When it was dark, apes were supposed to be in a tree, as high as possible.
    They moved through the fog. There was a moon, but very little of its light worked its way through the vast, leafy ceiling above.
    He heard something and stopped, tapping Rocket on the shoulder. Rocket passed the order around by touching the rest.
    Caesar heard the sound again—a thin, faint human voice, like he used to hear coming from the phone when Will was using it. He looked around frantically, trying to find the source.
    “Up!” he whispered to the others.
    As they started back to the trees, guns barked, this timethe quieter hiss-pop of tranquilizer rifles. A dart thudded into the redwood inches from Caesar’s face. He saw them now—men in black clothing, wearing some sort of masks.
    I did exactly what they wanted me to do
, he understood suddenly.
Stupid
.
    They swarmed desperately up into the trees, darts hissing past them. He heard a human cry of fear and then an explosion of real gunfire. An ape screamed in pain, but Caesar’s ears were ringing enough he that couldn’t distinguish who it was. They were fleeing in absolute darkness now. He flung himself into space, reaching for the next limb, hoping it would be there.
    It wasn’t.
    He fell with a yelp, arms flailing. He caught a branch, and it felt as if his arms