Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: The Official Movie Novelization

62

Ten stories from Koba’s perch at the top of the skyscraper, Caesar saw Grey look down. The face disappeared, and Caesar kept climbing until Grey and Koba’s other closest loyalists came climbing down to meet him.

Blue Eyes, right behind Caesar, called out to him and Caesar slowed, planting his feet on a beam and awaiting their arrival. Caesar was grateful for the brief rest. He did not see Stone, and wondered what had happened to him as Koba’s loyalists dropped onto the beams around him.

Each of them in turn looked stunned to see Caesar alive. They hesitated, wavered—then Grey raised his gun and pointed it at him. The sight brought back Caesar’s memory of Koba’s bullet, tearing into him, stealing his breath and the strength of his legs, dropping him down the rocky slope through the trees. He would have died had it not been for humans.

Now he stared at Grey as around him first a dozen, then a hundred, then a hundred more apes flooded up onto the beams. They surrounded Caesar. Grey looked at them—Luca, Rocket, Maurice, Blue Eyes, all the rest—and he looked uncertain. The other Koba loyalists, unnerved by the return of so many apes to Caesar, raised their own guns.

Caesar peered at him and did not waver, but he breathed deeply, wondering which would be his last breath before Grey pulled the trigger.

At his side, Maurice grunted. Maurice! The last ape Caesar would have expected. The orangutan stared hard at Grey and signed.

Koba’s fight… Not yours.

If Maurice could be roused to action, Caesar thought, Koba had no chance. He kept his gaze steady on Grey, who looked at Maurice for a long time. Almost long enough that Caesar thought he might yet fire. Then, slowly, Grey lowered the barrel of his gun. Koba’s other loyalists did the same.

And so, Caesar thought, the king stands alone. He thought of the chessboard, and of Malcolm sitting in Caesar’s old room where Will once sat. He stared at Grey until Grey looked away. Then Caesar called to his apes, and resumed his climb.

A minute later he was on the top level of beams, whipped by the chill wind from the harbor. It hummed around the cables that were hanging from the end of the crane, swinging the hook and ball back and forth.

Caesar got his feet onto the highest beam and looked up at Koba, who sat alone on a girder that reached up. It was higher than the distance from the ground to the top of Caesar’s tree. He was looking at Caesar, and then he looked around as the rest of the apes swarmed up over the edges of the building and massed around an open area left at the base of the spire. Koba shifted, a bottle in his hand. Slung over his back was his gun, and crossing in the other direction was the strap of his harpoon.

He looked back at Caesar, and Caesar smiled up at this king, alone in the kingdom he had never really had. He could see Koba’s shock that Caesar was still alive. Would he be smart, or would he fight?

Leaving his weapons behind, Koba dropped down the girder, using one hand and both feet. He got to the grid of beams and looked at the assembled apes. Grey was nowhere to be seen. Koba leered and looked Caesar up and down. He knew Caesar better than any ape, and he could tell Caesar was weak.

“Caesar has no place here,” he said. “Apes follow Koba now.”

“Follow Koba to war,” Caesar growled.

Koba made a sweeping gesture to the surrounding apes, the bottle sloshing in his hand.

“Apes win war! Apes together STRONG!” He did a pantomime of a kooky-chimp act, mocking as he repeated Caesar’s own words to the assembled apes. Then he looked back to him and added, “Caesar weak.”

Caesar looked at the bottle in Koba’s hand and made sure that the assembled apes all saw him looking at it.

“Koba…weaker,” he said.

At that, Koba snapped. With a roar he charged at Caesar, who leaped at him, meeting him in mid-air with a bone-jarring thump. They slammed down to the nearest beam. Around them, the assembled apes started to hoot and screech. Below that noise was a rhythm, a chant, wordless but powerful. The apes saw their once and future leaders, and they chanted to give strength to the ape who deserved to win.

Caesar and Koba grappled and bit, kicked and swung, leaped and punched across the grid of beams with a drop of three hundred feet below them. Caesar took the measure of his opponent. He was strong and he was fueled by his hatred… but he was also drunk. Caesar was strong and he was fueled by belief… but he was also torn by a bullet. Every time he swung from the arm on his wounded side, he felt something tear a little inside him. This could not be a long fight. He would not survive it if it lasted.

Then, Caesar thought, I must end it quickly.

“Okay, Malcolm,” Dreyfus said. “I don’t know what happened to you up there. What got into your head.”

“I know how it sounds,” Malcolm said.

“Do you?” Dreyfus shouted. “I don’t think you do.” He stepped down from the crate and took a step toward Malcolm, who took a step back. “You think stopping me will even matter?” Dreyfus said. “They’re coming! We made contact! A military base up north. They’re already on their way.”

Malcolm couldn’t believe this, but it fit with Werner’s offhand comments from before. Other humans, he thought. We aren’t alone—

Dreyfus charged him, taking advantage of Malcolm’s surprise. He slapped the gun out of Malcolm’s hand and knocked him over backward, jamming a forearm down on his throat. Dreyfus had been a soldier. Malcolm was an architect. He’d inadvertently started a fight he couldn’t finish, and he knew it.

But he tried anyway, thrashing around and getting lucky when he drove a knee up and landed it squarely in Dreyfus’s gut. Dreyfus gagged and Malcolm sprawled across the floor after the gun. He got it, spun around… and saw Dreyfus getting to his feet, covered with concrete dust and holding the detonator tuned to the wires leading to God only knew how many bricks of C-4.

“Don’t,” Malcolm said.

Werner had heard the scuffle and come running just in time to see the standoff.

“Dreyfus, what’re you doing?” he said. Malcolm could see him trying to figure out the situation, and deciding that Malcolm was trying to stop Dreyfus from blowing them all to hell. Malcolm hoped Werner didn’t ask himself too many questions about how he had ended up with Finney’s gun.

Dreyfus looked at Werner, and back to Malcolm.

“I’m saving what’s left of the human race,” he said.

Koba was getting stronger as they fought, riding the crest of his hate. Caesar fought from will more than strength, still feeling the deep wound in his chest and the loss of blood. When both were healthy, Caesar was more than a match for Koba. He had proved it in the powerhouse. But he was not healthy, and he would only be able to hold out for so long.

He grappled only when he had no choice, preferring to swing and dip around the beams and girders, landing a blow here and a two-footed kick there. Koba shrugged them off and kept coming. He was trying to maneuver Caesar out onto a beam that extended toward the frame at the core of the building. The opening extended unbroken all the way down to the basements.

Caesar feinted a fall, then swung under a beam and came up behind Koba, striking him hard in the small of the back. Koba lashed around but Caesar ducked away, feeling his bullet wound tear a little more. Koba leaped after him and Caesar jumped up onto a girder, springing over his opponent’s head and landing on the beam near where he had started.

Screeching in frustrated fury, Koba pounded the girders, which transmitted the sound throughout the steel skeleton. Something rattled behind him and both he and Caesar saw the abandoned crane cab at the same time. It sat at a beam junction not far from the core. Its arm stood up at an angle, ball and hook drawn tight. Koba was closer to it than Caesar. He stepped to it and snapped off a piece of the crane arm, a six-foot length of steel with a sharp end. It was not a harpoon, but it would serve well enough if Caesar didn’t stay clear of it.

He charged after Caesar, who evaded him and counter-attacked as best he could. He was getting weaker, though, and Koba landed two heavy blows with the metal bar. One numbed Caesar’s arm for a moment, and the other opened a bloody gash on the side of his head. Then, jabbing at Caesar with the sharp end, Koba forced him to the edge of the core.

Caesar charged at him in desperation, grabbing the length of steel and jumping off to the side. Startled, Koba instinctively fought to keep his grip. That resistance let Caesar use him as a pivot point. He swung around and dropped back to the beam on the other side, a little farther from the drop into the core.

When he let go, Koba overbalanced—just for a fraction of a second. Caesar took his chance, leaping up to grab the ball and hook hanging from the crane arm. He kicked back and then forward, flinging himself feet-first.

Koba was recovering his balance, but the impact toppled him off the beam. He caught it with the fingertips of one hand and hung there, glaring hate up at Caesar.

Caesar returned the glare. If Koba tried to climb up or tried to attack him, Caesar would kill him. Both apes knew it. Caesar stood over Koba, waiting for him to make his choice. Koba had one last chance to be forgiven, one last chance to supplicate and rejoin the community of apes. But Caesar did not intend to wait forever.

“Put it down,” Malcolm said.

Slowly Dreyfus shook his head.

“You think we can just go back?” he said. Malcolm saw Werner starting to freak out. He held the gun leveled at Dreyfus, who brandished the C4 detonator.

“Dreyfus, put it down!” Malcolm shouted.

Dreyfus raised the detonator, a haunted look in his eyes. He wasn’t really there any more, Malcolm realized. He was gone, back into the world that had died with the Simian Flu.

“There’s no going back—” he said.

Werner tackled him from behind, cutting him off. The detonator flew out of Dreyfus’s hand. Time slowed to a crawl, as the options flashed through Malcolm’s mind. One, he could try to grab it before it hit the ground. Unlikely to succeed, and it would result in Malcolm being vaporized.

But there was a short countdown, which was included as a failsafe. Two, he could try to stop that. Unlikely to succeed because he had no idea how to do it, and it would also result in Malcolm being vaporized.

Or three, he could run like hell and hope the countdown was just long enough to save his life. Unlikely to succeed, and Dreyfus was a good man. So was Werner. Neither of them deserved this. But Malcolm could not save them.

He ran.