Monkey Business

"Please don't say that, Janet. I couldn't bear it if you died." Barbara started to cry.

Both women were startled when Princess appeared and hugged them. She patted Janet on her head and wiped away Barbara's tears with her finger. She left them for a few minutes and then returned and gave each of them a banana. This was so amazing that they laughed. When she heard this Princess clapped and smiled. She patted their heads and made soothing sounds until they smiled.

Once the heat of midday had passed Janet and Barbara were put back in harness. The harness was a belt of woven rope that tied around the hips, with more rope over the shoulders and through the crotch. Their wrists were tied to the belt just in back of their hips. The driver led them into the forest and hitched them to a fallen log with rope traces that were tied to the back of the belt.

Barbara didn't like the looks of this. The log was big, and the ground was soft. When the driver gave them the signal she and Janet pulled as hard as they could, but the log didn't move. The driver shouted at them, and then started beating them with a bamboo rod. Barbara was closest to the driver, so she received most of the blows. She screamed as the driver's rod cut into her back, and she heard Janet scream as the driver lashed her too.

Barbara heard an ape shouting and the beating stopped. Princess berated the driver until he released them from the log and took them back to the shelter. She went away for a while, but returned soon after Janet and Barbara had been chained to the tree and unharnessed. Both of them were lying face down on the leaves and moaning. Princess applied a poultice of mashed leaves to their welts and gave the women other leaves to chew. The pain faded and they slept.

Barbara woke up when Princess shook her shoulder. She didn't know how long she had been asleep, but now it was dark except for moonlight that filtered through the leaves. Janet was already awake and sitting up. Barbara didn't know what was happening, and a hand over her mouth stopped her questions before they started. Something felt strange and then she realized what it was: she was free of all the chains she had worn for so long. Princess led the women out of the shelter and onto a trail. The three of them walked for a long time, but finally they pushed through a few meters of undergrowth and were back in the clearing at the Institute.

Princess tugged at Barbara's hair and when she bent over whispered in her ear. The accent was bad, but Barbara and Janet could make out the words: "We people. You people." Then Princess ran back into the jungle.

The sky was just starting to brighten in the east as Janet and Barbara walked down the path towards the Institute buildings. They passed the punishment tree and Janet saw that three apes were chained to the cables. She signaled Barbara to wait and got a key out of the feed shed and unchained the apes, who immediately ran into the jungle. "Now let's go tell Dr. Hanson what he has created. If he had plans to sell apes he's going to have to revise them."

"Yes. And if he doubts that the apes have the same traits as humans we can show him the welts on our backs."

The End

Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Zack. All rights reserved. 022211