Planet of the Apes Omnibus 3 Read online

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Also Available from Titan Books

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Planet of the Apes Omnibus 3

  Man the Fugitive

  Dedication

  The Cure

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  The Good Seeds

  6

  7

  8

  9

  Escape to Tomorrow

  Dedication

  The Surgeon

  1

  2

  3

  4

  The Deception

  5

  6

  7

  8

  Journey into Terror

  Dedication

  The Legacy

  1

  2

  3

  4

  The Horse Race

  5

  6

  7

  8

  Lord of the Apes

  Dedication

  The Tyrant

  1

  2

  3

  4

  The Gladiators

  5

  6

  7

  8

  About the Author

  Also Available from Titan Books

  OMNIBUS 3

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

  PLANET OF THE APES OMNIBUS 1

  Beneath the Planet of the Apes by Michael Avallone

  Escape from the Planet of the Apes by Jerry Pournelle

  PLANET OF THE APES OMNIBUS 2

  Conquest of the Planet of the Apes by John Jakes

  Battle for the Planet of the Apes by David Gerrold

  Planet of the Apes by William T. Quick

  PLANET OF THE APES OMNIBUS 4

  (February 2018)

  Visions from Nowhere

  Escape from Terror Lagoon

  Man, the Hunted Animal

  by William Arrow

  OMNIBUS 3

  GEORGE ALEC EFFINGER

  TITAN BOOKS

  Planet of the Apes Omnibus 3

  Print edition ISBN: 9781785653933

  E-book edition ISBN: 9781785653940

  Published by Titan Books

  A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

  144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

  First edition: September 2017

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  George Alec Effinger asserts the moral right to be

  identified as the author of this work.

  Man the Fugitive © 1974, 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Escape to Tomorrow © 1974, 1975, 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Journey into Terror © 1974, 1975, 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Lord of the Apes © 1974, 1976, 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  OMNIBUS 3

  MAN THE

  FUGITIVE

  “The Cure”

  based on the teleplay by Edward J. Lasko.

  “The Good Seeds”

  based on the teleplay by Robert W. Lenski

  Based on characters from Planet of the Apes

  For Sherry Gottlieb and Jim Fenkel, my cavalry.

  THE CURE

  1

  The village of the humans was called Trion. It was a small village, even by the standards of the other human communities that ringed the inner zone. Ape society and the ape power was at its strongest in the inner zone and the human population meant no more than the size of a potential slave force. The humans who lived in Trion did not live as poorly as the humans who lived in the central ape city; the people of Trion had some degree of freedom: a tiny, half-forgotten shred of pride and dignity. That slight bit of freedom could easily be lost, at the vaguest whim of one of the ape leaders. They could never forget that fact, not while the soldiers of the gorilla army patrolled the boundaries of the village, and watched with contempt while the humans sweated in the fields.

  Life was hard for the humans of Trion, but life was… life. The people had learned many years before that to resist the vast number of apes could only bring death. No single man was a match for one of the awesomely powerful gorillas, or even the less brutal, more intellectual orangutans and chimpanzees. Where resistance and rebellion meant death, the only thing that meant life and relative peace was work for the ape masters. This the humans understood and accepted. They labored, and the apes permitted them to live.

  Sometimes, the humans could almost believe that they were happy.

  “I almost wish you hadn’t come here,” said Amy, a bright, pretty girl of fourteen years. She was walking slowly with a man, a stranger to Trion, a strangely secretive visitor who had arrived in the village with his two companions, another man and a chimpanzee. Now Amy and her friend, Alan Virdon, were approaching the village, walking through the fields that surrounded it. The two had spent the morning exploring the forest and marsh lands just beyond the cultivated area.

  Virdon stopped and looked around at the cluster of mud brick huts, and the poor handful of people working silently in their fields. On the far side of the village, beyond the fields, was a low hill. On the top of the rise was a barracks built of wood and stone, where two gorilla guards were tending to their arsenal of weapons. Virdon looked down from the hill and saw another gorilla carrying a rifle, walking along the perimeter of the far fields. The man turned and saw more thatched huts, more fields, and another gorilla, this one watching Virdon and Amy suspiciously.

  “I’m sorry we have to go, Amy,” said Virdon, his eyes still on the gorilla. The gorilla stared back for a moment, gave a derisive snort and turned away, continuing his rounds. Virdon laughed softly to himself, what a pitiable victory that had been for humankind.

  “Why did you tell me who you are?” asked Amy. “Why me and no one else?”

  Virdon seemed to be startled from some deep thought. He studied Amy’s young face for a moment before he answered. His voice was low and filled with emotion. “I don’t know, exactly,” he said. “Maybe because you re special. Because I look at you and I see how it was when I was young. And I wanted you to know—life wasn’t always like this.”

  It hurt Virdon to say those words, more than he thought it would. Just telling Amy brought back a flood of memories, thoughts which Virdon had to bury in his mind or else they threatened to overwhelm him. Before he and his fellow astronaut Pete Burke had been squeezed through time, into this upside-down, nightmare world, Virdon had a pleasant home in Houston, Texas. He had a wife whom he loved more than any person in the world, and he had children. One daughter was just about Amy’s age—except that his daughter, and his wife, and everyone Virdon knew in his former life had been dead for two thousand years. Their world was dead. Ev
erything they had built together had crumbled, and this mad dictatorship of the apes had somehow arisen to fill the gap. The insignificant bits of the old ways that Virdon and Pete Burke witnessed on their travels only made them more homesick.

  “Life wasn’t always like this,” said Virdon again, grimly.

  “But if I’d never known,” said Amy, her expression thoughtful, “then I… I mean… She looked up at Virdon and shook her head. “You shouldn’t have told me.”

  Virdon touched the girl’s hair. It was exactly the same color… he forced the thought from his mind. “Amy,” he said, “knowledge, is a lot like love. You get some pleasure from it, sometimes some pain. Like taking a trip to an unknown place.” He looked up at the central meeting area of Trion, where he stood with Amy. His words were harsh against the gentle, distant sounds of the humans working. “Once you arrive at the unknown place, it’s too late to wish you’d never started.”

  Amy smiled, trying to understand. Virdon gestured, and the two walked toward the hut of Amy’s father.

  Outside the crude shack, Talbert, Amy’s father, was helping Virdon’s companions slip into their backpacks. Talbert was a large man in his forties, browned by the harsh sun, built solid and hardened by long years of endless labor. Talbert held a backpack for Pete Burke, hesitated for a moment, shook his head, and picked up a second backpack. This one belonged to Galen, the chimpanzee who accompanied Virdon and Burke and shared in their changing fortunes. The chimpanzee shrugged his broad shoulders and settled the pack in place. Virdon joined his friends, swung his own backpack up, and waited while Burke thanked their host. Amy, her expression sad and thoughtful, stood a few yards away, listening in silence.

  “Well,” said Burke, a tall, handsome, dark-haired man, “thanks for putting us up.”

  “Why don’t you stay, make your home here?” asked Talbert.

  “That’s a good question,” said Burke with a short laugh. “I guess the answer is—” he jerked his thumb toward Virdon, “—he’s got an itch in his feet, and I’ve got rocks in my head.”

  Talbert frowned, the lines in his deeply-tanned face falling into sharply outlined creases Like his daughter, Talbert had difficulty understanding what Burke and Virdon meant most of the time. The two strangers often referred to people and things that made no sense to him, and they used phrases and figures of speech that conveyed even less.

  Burke, seeing Talbert’s puzzlement, tried to give him a better explanation. “We’re taking a survey of the far side of every hill on the horizon.” Burke sounded rueful but he was cheerfully resigned to Virdon’s consuming urge to explore their new home. Burke smiled, and Talbert only sighed. He still didn’t quite get what Burke was driving at; after all, there wasn’t anything better for a human, any where on the planet of the apes. He shook hands with Burke, and then, solemnly, with Galen.

  “I’d try to give you a better answer,” said the chimpanzee, “but I don’t know what it is myself. Thank you for everything.”

  Talbert nodded. Pete Burke looked at Virdon. “Ready?” he asked.

  Virdon, signalling he was, walked over to Talbert and shook his hand. “She’s very special,” said Virdon, nodding toward Amy. “Take care of her “

  Talbert didn’t reply. Galen, Burke, and Virdon, their equipment secure, their supplies replenished from the sparse rations of the generous people of Trion, moved away along the narrow road through the village. They passed Amy; the girl glanced at her father, but Talbert’s expression was unreadable. The two astronauts and the chimpanzee paused for a moment to say goodbye to Amy.

  “Will you ever pass by this way again?” asked the girl.

  “Anything’s possible,” said Virdon, as gently as he could.

  Amy gestured that Virdon should bend down. He did so, and she whispered in his ear. I’ll keep your, secrets,” she said, “even from my father.”

  “I may come back just to witness that miracle,” said Pete Burke. Virdon jerked himself upright in surprise, and Amy stared at the darker man, obviously displeased that Burke had overheard.

  “Miracle?” she asked.

  “Oh,” said Burke in a careless manner, “a woman keeping a secret.”

  “Women keep secrets,” said Amy defiantly.

  “I know, I know,” said Burke, smiling. “I was joking… It makes the goodbyes easier.” After a moment, Amy managed a smile herself. Virdon bent again and kissed her forehead.

  “Goodbye, Amy,” he said.

  Now Amy could only nod. Virdon joined his companions, and the three fugitives started off down the road. Amy stood and watched, struggling to hold back the tears suddenly welling up in her eyes.

  The three travelers had already given their attention to the problems that would soon be facing them in their trek through the unmapped territory. Amy watched them go. Talbert, too, watched the three strangers who he had quickly learned to call friends. Standing behind his daughter, unseen, his thoughts were melancholy. The daily life in Trion would be the poorer without Virdon, Burke, and Galen. The strange feeling which filled his body must have something to do with the departure of his guests. He felt a little faint, a little uncertain. He wiped his sweating face, blinked the drops of salty moisture from his eyes. The feeling did not pass away. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts.

  On the edge of the village, Burke, Virdon, and Galen stopped, turned and waved. Talbert and Amy waved back. The Talberts watched as Neesa, one of the huge gorilla perimeter guards, paused in his rounds and waited for the three to approach him. Virdon saw Neesa, and put out a restraining hand, holding Burke from getting any closer. Galen would have to handle the situation. Neesa raised his rifle.

  “I am transferring these two to the work force in the next village,” said Galen, stepping forward between the humans and the gorilla.

  Neesa looked Virdon and Burke over carefully, studying their faces. Reluctantly, the powerful but slow-witted gorilla lowered his rifle. Galen smiled and nodded, walked past the guard, paying no more attention to the gorilla, as though he and the two humans had every right in the world to travel about freely. Virdon and Burke acted their parts, the roles of two unhappy but docile slaves. Neesa watched them disappear out of sight, scowling and muttering under his breath. At last, he took up his rifle and started his rounds again.

  The day passed slowly for the three travelers. They talked infrequently, saving their strength for the arduous march. Each was occupied with different thoughts: Virdon wondered if their next stop might give them the necessary clue they sought, some vital bit of information that would return them to their own time and their homes. Burke, on the other hand, was not so concerned with escaping back to the world he had been born into. He had a suspicion that he and Virdon were stranded in the ape world forever and that the main thing for them to do was build a new life in the best way possible. He was not unhappy with that prospect. He had no wife and family. He accepted what fate had given him, and he was prepared to make the most of it. Galen, the sympathetic chimpanzee, observed the two humans with a kind of scientific detachment. He wondered about their stories of technological marvels created by their human culture, and, while bound with them in common flight from the head of the gorilla police and military forces, a cunning gorilla named Urko, Galen wanted to learn as much as possible from the astronauts.

  They climbed through rocky wastes beneath a pitiless sun. They waded through foul-smelling swamps. They helped each other along with a guiding hand or a few words of encouragement; but beneath it all, they shared a curiosity and fear of what dangers their journey might present them with.

  The afternoon waned. Back in the village of Trion, Talbert rested on his straw-filled mattress. His face expressed an unaccustomed fear. As he lay, his body convulsed. His face was streaked with sweat. Again, his body shook spasmodically. Trying to raise himself up, the effort proved too great, and Talbert fell back down, swearing softly.

  At that moment, Amy came through the door, a basket of freshly picked vegetables
on her arm. Her intended lighthearted greeting was stopped short when she saw her father. Hurrying to the side of his bed, she looked down at him, worried and frightened. “Daddy,” she said, “what’s wrong?”

  Talbert forced a smile to his lips to help remove the fear in her voice. “It’s nothing,” he said weakly. “I’m just a little tired. Little tired…”

  “I’ll get you some water,” said Amy uncertainly. She left the bedside to do so.

  * * *

  Alan Virdon, Pete Burke, and Galen had found a pleasant clearing near a fresh-running stream. It was early evening, and they decided to call a halt to the day’s march. Already, the memories of Trion and the people they had grown to like there were beginning to fade, to blur with the memories of so many other places and people they had met since their unlucky arrival in this undreamed-of future. The rigors of their new life were too difficult to allow the three adventurers the luxury of entertaining fond memories; that only weakened their attention, distracted their alertness. In this alien world, if Virdon, Burke, and Galen weren’t alert, they were dead.

  Swinging his backpack off with a loud sigh, Burke knelt by the stream and splashed the cool water on his face. Virdon set his pack down and began looking through it for their supper rations. Galen stood a little apart, deliberately excluding himself from the activities of the two humans, watching, observing, making mental notes with his shrewd, scientifically trained mind.

  Burke took a long drink of the water, then turned to Virdon. “When we were in training a mere two thousand years ago,” he said, “I used to hate all those hours we spent running on that treadmill. I hated that the most. Upward and onward to nowhere! So we get accidentally pushed twenty centuries into our own future, and do you know what? Nothing’s changed.”

  Virdon gave a little laugh. “Except the world,” he said. Irony hung heavy in his voice.

  “Well, yeah,” said Burke, “there’s that. The old world was the nicest world I knew. Still is; was, I mean. Whatever.”