Monkey Business

Janet was shocked. This was the first time in her life that she faced serious consequences for some misdeed. "Oh, Lourdes, I didn't realize I was in such bad trouble. What should I do?"

"Above all, don't annoy the captain. Then memorize the regulations; that's the only thing that will get that chain off your neck. Here, I've brought you some insect repellent and a bottle of water." Lourdes put down the bottles and picked up a hose. "Stand over there away from the tree and I'll spray you. That monkey piss smells terrible."

The water from the hose was warm, and Janet was glad to be clean again. She asked, "Can you get me some clothes?"

"No. In fact, I have to take what you've got on. Captain's orders, so don't argue with me."

Janet reluctantly removed her bikini bottom and gave it to Lourdes. "I missed lunch. Can I have some food?"

"The keeper will feed you when she feeds the rest of the animals. I'm sorry, but you get the same thing they do."

"What's that?"

"Monkey chow." Lourdes didn't like this. Janet may have deserved some punishment, but this was rubbing her nose in it. Janet looked stunned, and Lourdes couldn't do anything to help her. Captain Marcos had made it clear that if she interfered with the punishment she would suffer the same fate. She patted Janet's arm and returned to the office.

Janet knelt and wept. Things were happening too fast. A few hours ago she had been part of a team of scientists and was doing useful technical work, and now she was a naked prisoner. She cried for a long time, but eventually she was able to stop and notice her surroundings. Her tree was near the large tree that supported one end of the ape's cables, and the four apes were looking at her with what seemed to be sympathy. Janet waved to them, and when they all waved back she felt her mood lighten. At least somebody cared about her.

Janet may have acted foolishly, but she was no fool, so she diligently studied the copy of the regulations that Captain Marcos had given her. It was written in turgid government-speak, but at least it was in English. She read it over and over, and practiced reciting it. This quickly became boring, and she had to take frequent breaks to keep herself alert.

During these breaks she watched the apes. They looked a lot like chimpanzees except for their smaller size and the brown hair that covered their bodies. Three of the apes looked so much alike that Janet couldn't tell them apart, but one was noticeably larger than the others and had a patch of reddish hair on his head. He seemed to be the dominate male, and Janet named him Big Red. Most of the time the apes were running or wrestling, but occasionally they put their heads together like a football team in a huddle and they seemed to be talking to each other. Janet realized that if what Dr. Hanson had written was accurate they really WERE talking to each other.

About an hour before sunset the keeper fed the animals. She had a wheelbarrow containing several sacks of monkey chow, and she placed a measured amount of the food into the feeder attached to each monkey cage. When she got to the apes she put the chow into four wooden bowls, and she also gave them some fruit. All Janet got was a wooden bowl half-full of monkey chow. The keeper ignored her so obviously that she didn't even try to talk to her. The monkey chow tasted bad, but Janet was so hungry that she ate it anyway.

The apes had also finished their chow, and now they were eating their fruit. Janet watched them eat and wished that she had some fruit. Big Red picked up a banana and lobbed it over to her. She caught it in the air, and quickly peeled and ate it. Another ape lobbed a banana and she caught and ate it too. When the next banana was tossed she fumbled the catch and it hit the ground. The apes jeered, and she didn't get any more bananas. Janet was glad she got the fruit, but humiliation gave it a bitter taste. When she was a girl she often visited the zoo and fed the animals, and now the animals were amusing themselves by feeding her.

It was getting dark and Janet started to prepare for her first night in the open. There were about two meters of chain between her neck and the tree, and except for a short length of the gravel path all of the area she could reach was bare dirt, packed hard. She went as far away from the path as she could, squatted down, and relieved herself. She had noticed that there wasn't any apeshit on the ground, and she hoped the keeper would clean up after her, too. She put the tree between herself and the impromptu latrine and lay on the ground. She rolled and twisted but couldn't get comfortable until she remembered something she had learned as a Girl Scout. She used the wooden bowl to scoop out two shallow holes to accommodate her hip and her shoulder, and she was finally able to sleep.

The next day Captain Marcos appeared just after lunchtime. Janet remembered what Lourdes had told her, so when he reached her tree she was kneeling and her head was bowed. She was embarrassed to be naked, but she decided she would look foolish if she tried to cover herself with her hands, so she forced them to stay at her sides.

Captain Marcos reveled in this display of submission and nudity, but he was careful to conceal his arousal. "It's time for the test, Janet. Give me the regulations and take this pad of paper and the pen." The exchange was made and he instructed, "You have an hour or so to complete the test. I want you to write the regulations out exactly as they were printed, and spelling counts. You start with a hundred points, and I will take off one or more points for each mistake. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Then start writing." Janet sat with her back against the tree and the pad on her lap and started to write. Captain Marcos watched for a few minutes and then wandered away. Janet found it awkward to write without a desk or a table to work on, and she had barely finished when Lourdes appeared.

Lourdes said, "Are you done? Captain Marcos sent me to get the test."

"Yes, here it is. While you're here, could you turn the hose on me? I'm covered with dirt."

Lourdes obliged, and soon Janet was almost clean. After Lourdes left her she sat with her back to the tree with her eyes closed until she heard footsteps on the path. It was Captain Marcos, so she quickly went to her knees.

"Well, Janet, I'm sorry to tell you that you failed. Your score was only 36, and passing is 90."

Janet was disappointed, but not really surprised. "Please sir, can I have my test paper? I'll do better if I can see where I made my mistakes."

"All right, that seems fair. I'll see you tomorrow."

Over the next week Janet had test scores of 49, 55, 61, 73, 69, 78, and 83. She was starting to believe that she would never get the chain off her neck. She wondered if she could seduce Captain Marcos into letting her loose. He was attractive, and she hadn't had sex with a man since she broke up with her boyfriend over a year ago. But it seemed to be too much like prostitution, so she decided not to do it.

The next day her score was 89. To come so close was heartbreaking, and Janet spent most of the afternoon crying. The loneliness and the physical discomforts were wearing her down. Her failure was especially disheartening because she knew the regulations, and her mistakes were now just random spelling errors.

At feeding time she ate her monkey chow and was going to lie down and cry herself to sleep when a hoot from an ape attracted her attention. Big Red had a banana and was waving to her. She stood up and put her hands out to catch it, but he shook his head. He knelt, and made an up and down motion with his hand. Janet was puzzled, and then guessed that he wanted her to kneel too. She did so, and he clapped and tossed her the banana. She ate it and looked for more. Now Big Red was sitting, so she did the same and was rewarded with another banana.

Next Big Red knelt with his back to her and his forehead on the ground. His bare rump was his most prominent feature. Janet hesitated, but then she assumed the same position. Big Red tossed her another banana. The next position was the same, but this time with knees spread apart. Janet did this too, even though she knew it made her pussy protrude behind her. She got another banana, but this one wasn't lobbed, it was thrown hard, and it made a direct hit on her pussy. The apes hooted and pounded Red on the back. Janet decided she'd had enough humiliation for this day. She took the banana and moved so her tree shielded her from the apes.

The next afternoon at test time Lourdes appeared instead of Captain Marcos. She unlocked the padlock and took the chain off Janet's neck. "Captain Marcos decided that your score was good enough, and your punishment is over. Dr. Hanson said to rest in your room until dinner time."

Janet hugged Lourdes. "Oh, thank you! I'm so grateful for all you've done for me." She would have been even more grateful if she knew that Lourdes had let Captain Marcos spend the night in her bed in return for Janet's release, but Lourdes didn't mention it.

Before she left the area Janet said goodbye to her friends the apes. She waved, and they all waved back. She sensed that something was out of place, but she didn't realize what it was until she had reached her room. Then she knew: last night, Big Red had been fastened to the cable nearest the path, and this morning he was fastened to the cable farthest from the path. Janet pondered this, and then she decided that either the keeper had moved him without her noticing, even though she had been awake since dawn, or she was mistaken and he had always been on the farthest cable.

That evening at dinner Dr. Hanson made some announcements. "I'm sure everyone has noticed that Janet is back with us. She made a serious mistake, but her punishment is over now and it won't be mentioned again. On another topic, we've had another theft. Last night somebody stole the wheelbarrow and a load of chow from the monkey area. I can't understand it, because these are not items that would normally be pilfered. Everyone please be alert for anything unusual."

* * *

Janet spent another week transcribing notes and then she was rotated to another job, working with the monkeys and apes. One afternoon, a few days after she started working in the monkey area, she heard crying coming from the jungle not far from her punishment tree. She followed the sound until she saw that it was being made by a young ape standing alone close to the edge of the clearing. It was holding its left arm, and Janet could see blood. She looked around for the keeper or anybody else, but she was alone. She walked slowly towards the ape, and it let her approach to within a few meters before it moved into the jungle. Janet saw that it was limping badly, so she followed.

She pushed through the undergrowth that edged the clearing. After she had gone a few meters she was surprised to find a trail. The injured ape was standing on it just ahead of her. She tried to get close enough to grab it, but it managed to stay out of her reach. Janet noticed that the ape's limp was getting worse, so she was confident that she could catch it eventually. Finally, after they had gone over two hundred meters along the trail, the ape stopped and sat down. Janet crept to within a meter, but before she could pounce the ape was up and running down the trail.

Janet sprinted after it, but on her third step a hidden rope tripped her and she fell face down. Before she could move apes jumped out of the undergrowth. Some held on to her arms and legs, and two who had ropes each slipped a noose over Janet's head and tightened it around her neck. The ropes were carried to opposite sides of the trail, wrapped around small trees, and pulled tight. Janet couldn't breathe, and she started to black out. Other ropes were tied to her wrists, and she couldn't keep her hands and elbows from being tied together behind her back. Once she was helpless the nooses were loosened.

The apes were making noises that could only be described as cheering. Finally one of the apes shouted until the others had quieted down. He issued some orders. Janet's ankles were hobbled and she was helped to her feet. An ape in front of her held one of the ropes on her neck and an ape behind her held the other. She tried to say something, but as soon as she started to talk the nooses were pulled tight. The boss ape gave her a shove in the back and she shuffled down the trail.

Janet walked for a long time, and the trail had so many branches and turns that she had no idea where she was. Finally they arrived at an area where the undergrowth had been cleared away. Janet was led next to a hut with walls made of leaves and branches and a thatched roof made from palm fronds.

The boss ape forced her to kneel and then he went into the hut and brought out a rusty chain and two padlocks. He padlocked one end of the chain around her neck and the other end to a staple that had been driven into a log. Two apes acted as guards, and they kept Janet on her knees while dozens of apes of all ages and sexes trooped past her. It was like a zoo, and she was the star attraction.

Several hours passed. Only the ropes on her neck had been removed, and Janet's arms and shoulders were hurting her badly. Her hands were numb, and she was starting to worry about gangrene. Her neck still hurt from the near-strangulation. She tried to stand to relieve the pressure on her knees, but one of the guards had a staff made of bamboo, and he rained blows on her bottom and thighs until she was kneeling again. A young ape approached with a stick in his hand, but a guard drove him off before could hit Janet; beating her was evidently a pleasure that was not available to everyone.

Janet was so distracted by her pain that she didn't notice the woman until she heard a voice say, "Oh, God. Not another one!" The speaker was a naked human female, with long blond hair, tanned skin, and a lean, muscular body. A chain was padlocked around her neck, with the other end locked to the wheelbarrow she was pushing. Another chain hobbled her ankles, and rope wrapped around her torso pinned her elbows to her sides. The boss ape made some sounds and the woman pushed the wheelbarrow to a hut and dumped its load of tubers. Then the boss ape unlocked the chain from the wheelbarrow and locked it to the staple that held Janet's chain. He untied the woman's elbows.

There was another command from the boss ape and the woman started to untie Janet's arms. Janet asked, "Are you Barbara or Gloria? And have you been a captive here since you disappeared?"

"Yes, and I'm Barbara. Welcome to the planet of the apes." Her words were jocular, but her voice revealed the tension caused by fear. When Janet was untied she said, "I have to take your clothes. If you resist you'll be beaten and they'll be ripped off."

Janet had expected this when she saw that the other woman was naked, so she cooperated as best she could, although the pain in her arms was excruciating. "My name is Janet. Where's Gloria? Were you captured together?"

"They caught Gloria two weeks after they got me. She's dead now." Barbara paused, a look of pain on her face. "I don't like to think about it, but I don't want it to happen to you."

"What do you mean? How did she die?"

"You have to understand. The apes are merciless. Gloria was too proud to submit to animals. No matter what they wanted her to do, no matter what they did to her, she refused to obey. One time they had her hitched to a plow, but she wouldn't move. They beat her until her back and legs were bloody, but she still wouldn't submit. I begged her to give in, but she just looked at me with contempt. Finally the apes decided she wasn't worth feeding and they killed her. But they used her death to condition me." Barbara pointed to a sapling near the center of the clearing. It had been cut off about a meter above the ground and the end had been sharpened. Dark stains covered the point. "They impaled her. Her weight on the point drove it into her pussy and ripped up her insides. She took hours to die. She was quiet at first, but before long she was screaming. The apes made me watch. I just can't watch it happen again. Please, do what they want, no matter how revolting it is."

Janet was horrified. Was it going to happen to her? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of apes cheering, and she was astounded to see Big Red stride into the clearing. He was immediately surrounded by the cheering apes as he made his way across the clearing towards Janet. The boss ape was very deferential as he replied to a query by Big Red. Big Red motioned to Janet as he had done the last time he gave her bananas. Janet guessed what he wanted and knelt. He clapped and then rubbed the back of her head. He scuffed the dirt until he found some large white grubs and ate all but one. This one he put on the palm of his hand and held it in front of Janet's mouth. She hesitated, and then picked it up with her lips and ate it. Big Red patted her head.

The next day Janet started her new life as a draft animal. She and Barbara did most of the heavy work around the settlement, work that would be done by horses on a human's farm. They were always chained, and usually tied. At first Janet was beaten often, but as she learned the ape's commands she was able to understand what they wanted of her and the beatings stopped. She never refused an order; she felt herself to be so degraded that further humiliation was not possible.

As the weeks went by Janet learned to function without the pain of thinking. Physically, she was in good condition. She got a lot of exercise. Her staple food was monkey chow, which was scientifically designed to provide all of the nutrients that a primate needed, and it was supplemented by fruit and tubers grown by the apes. Big Red treated her as a pet, and he frequently rewarded her with tasty grubs. She had expected to be tormented by insects, but at regular intervals Big Red had her chew some bitter leaves that caused her body to exude an odor that repelled the insects.

Except for their driver the apes mostly ignored Janet and Barbara, but Barbara noticed that there was one ape who spent a lot of time observing them, both when they were working and when they were in their shelter. This ape was female and she appeared to be Big Red's mate, because all of the other apes deferred to her. She took advantage of her position and was so domineering that Barbara named her 'Princess'. Princess seemed to pay close attention when Barbara and Janet were talking together. These conversations were mostly one-sided, with Barbara doing most of the talking, because Janet was too depressed to do more than occasionally nod or answer in monosyllables.

* * *

After a hard morning pulling a plow that the apes had built from wood and scrap metal, a sweaty Barbara was returned to the palm-thatched shelter that she and Janet shared. She and Janet were usually teamed together for this kind of heavy work, but Janet had eaten a bad grub the previous night and had been so sick this morning that their driver had let her rest. Janet was kneeling on the pile of leaves that served as a bed, the neck chain that tethered her to a tree dangling between her breasts. She was pale and stared at nothing. Barbara was alarmed and waited impatiently while the driver locked a chain around her neck. When he finally released her from the rope harness she idly rubbed her chafed wrists and went to Janet and hugged her. "Janet! What's wrong?"

"I can't take any more of this. I want to die."

"Janet! You can't give up. We'll escape somehow. You've got to believe that."

Janet shook the chain locked around her neck. "How can we escape? We're never free of these chains. We don't know the way to the Institute and our ankles are hobbled. Escape is impossible. I knew that grub was bad when I ate it. I hoped it would kill me."