I'll Be Back

Alone

Alpha pod flew down to D.C. . Finally. Leo Davidson didn't care he was entering restricted airspace, or that no one on Earth would ever believe him. All that mattered was that he got home. Where everything made sense.

At that moment Leo's pod smacked onto the water. Metal parts flew. It bounced off the reflecting pool and skidded across the steps to The Lincoln Memorial. Sparks and stone flew, the pod finally stopped.
Leo breathed in deeply. He was home.
The busted hatch mechanism blew off in a storm of sparks. Leo stepped out and walked up the familiar steps. As he glanced around him he realized somehow that something was different. Something felt wrong.

The last time Leo had really seen the Memorial was when his father had taken him, back when he was ten years old. He had marveled at the stone giant that sat before him, looking solemn and wise. He had asked his father why they made the statue.

"Because Abraham Lincoln saved the country from the confederates. He's an American hero" his father had replied.

Leo had wondered if he would ever be a hero like that. Maybe. In a way, he had. He had defeated Thade's army, even created peace between the humans and apes on Ashlar. So why did he feel something was missing? It must be Earth. Had to be.
Still something felt wrong.

As Leo got to the last step he walked across the smooth stone floor and stared at the memorial that lay before him. It looked the same as---
"Oh hell" Leo thought.

It wasn't human.

The face was protruding, hairy. The fingers were extended, the feet more like hands. It was not Lincoln. It was a monkey. Not just any monkey. It was Thade.
General Thade.

A million questions spun through Leo's head. His eyes roamed up to the inscription above,

In This Temple
As In The Hearts of The Apes
For Whom He Saved The Planet
The Memory of General Thade
Is Enshrined Forever

Leo couldn't believe it...what had happened? Saved the planet? Shivers ran through his already seething mind. How did this all start? None of it made any sense---that's when he heard police sirens, voices. Leo turned around and stared at the scene that lay before him in horror. He could see figures. All slightly hunched over and hairy.

"Hands in the air!" An officer barked from below. He was an ape. More and more police cars were arriving on the scene. The cops all carefully stepped out, guns pointed in Leo's direction. They were all apes.
A particularly hostile chimpanzee cop snarled at him. Pedestrian apes crowded around the police cars, gasping and openly wondering at the strange sight. One, a particularly young gorilla, snapped a photo.
Leo couldn't believe it-it was just so surreal, he almost expected the voice of some godlike being to remark,

"Leo Davidson, has entered the Twilight Zone." Leo's head spun so that he stood gaping, speechless with the buzz of energy. The space around the monument was now filled with curious civilians, and a ring of officers pushing them back. More of the force ran up the steps to where Leo stood staring, actually unable to comprehend what was happening. Leo was surrounded by them, at gunpoint.

"Alright, keep your hands up!", the lead gorilla officer shouted, in a stern but not menacing tone of voice. Leo didn't respond, just kept holding his hands up and stared out on the chaos he had caused. Not by crashing into that damm monument, but by going after Pericles in the first place.

A gorilla grabbed Leo, shoved on some handcuffs. He felt himself being dragged, down the steps, across the grounds. Surrounded by a nightmarish simian crowd. Leo hardly remembered anything after that. Just being shoved into the back of a truck, the doors slamming, collapsing on the hard floor covered in coarse thin straw. He soon lay down, exhausted and realizing how utterly alone he was.

Outside, the head detective (a large gorilla) walked up to the driver of the vehicle.

"You know where to go?" The detective asked. The chimp driving nodded vigorously.

"The Great Human House, right?"

"Yes. Go quickly."

With that, the chimpanzee drove the truck away from the confused simian crowd surrounded the accident, off towards the heart of the large city, which in almost every other respect looked exactly like it did centuries earlier.

Okay, so I just want to thank people who have read this first chapter, I will be updating three times every week if any are interested in reading further. Also, to be clear, this fanfiction is a sequel to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001). I openly admit I love that movie. I honestly think that it's misunderstood, and I love the romance between Leo and Ari, which is the goal and motivation in this story. Anyways, please read on tomorrow if you liked this chapter and tell me what you think in the comments.
See ya'll later,
-LopEar