Page 1

Authors Note:This is my ending to the Planet of the Apes TV show.  It is a more adult look at what should have been a much better series.  I was never fond of the original, the way Urko was a buffoon and the way the fugitives were always on the run.  So here is the culmination of five years of them running.

North American Continent
June 3040

The afternoon sun beat down on the three travelers as they trod across a salt flat in what had once been Texas.  The shores of an unseen sea beat a slow rhythm away across dunes to their south.  One of them, a fair haired man stopped and removed a map, brittle from age.  With an exasperated sigh he wiped his forehead and said, "The sea shouldn’t be here!  We should be miles from it!"

Slightly behind and next to him; wearing an ammo bandoleer and a belt with a knife; bearing a pack and toting a rifle – something that would gain him instant death if he were caught with it – stood a slightly taller, harder faced man.  Pete Burke and Alan Virdon had been friends for years, both had been in the United States Air Force, both had entered Astronaut training together.  But since they had warped time and landed on what had once been their home, since they’d been on the run for five years now – their friendship was getting strained.

Burke was something he was sure Virdon wasn’t; a realist.  Virdon had a wife and children back home, Burke hadn’t even left a dog behind.  He’d accepted that somehow, they’d ended up in their own future, a future where Apes had risen to rule over a nuclear devastated world.  Virdon still felt that with the magnetic record he’d risked his life several time to save, that they could get home.  Burke felt they should find some quiet place where no one had ever heard of them, their chimpanzee companion Galen included, and just settle down.  But Virdon was stubborn.  Burke felt lately it might be better for the three of them to go their separate ways, but he was loyal… for now.

Galen moved up and glanced at Virdon’s map.  "What do you mean, Alan? This sea has always been here.  This is another forbidden zone.  There is a place called Hoostone nearby which my people avoid."

Virdon’s face paled at the name.

"How do you know that, Galen?"

Galen rolled his eyes and exchanged the same look with Burke, who just wanted to get out of the sun for a while and eat something.  He wanted to shoot a deer or a cow and really feast, but they didn’t have that much ammo and Galen would disapprove.

"The last farm, where I filled our canteens – the farmer told me.  The local council wants to expand into it, cultivate it, but the Gorillas are against it."

Burke made a face.  "Gorillas who don’t want to fight something?  That’s new."

Galen shrugged his shoulders, settling his pack more comfortably.  "The council in that town is run by all three races of ape.  Very nicely done if I may say so."

Virdon peered at his own map.  "I think we’re going to make a little side trip."

Burke shook his head.  "No."

"What?" Virdon and Galen both looked at their friend.  Their friendship was unique since never in Ape history had any ape been such friends to a human.

"No," Burke repeated.  "We’re not.  At least, I’m not.  I’m not going on another goose chase, Alan.  I’ve had it.  It’s time we found a place and settled down."

Virdon couldn’t believe his ears.  He knew that his friendship with Burke was getting strained, but this was unbelievable.  He shouldn’t have let Pete take that Gorilla’s rifle months back when they’d waylaid him for food.  But Pete had been the target enough – he was a good shot - and he wasn’t getting taken easily again.  He was sure that their luck was going to run out sooner or later.

Virdon’s eyes narrowed.  "Come on, Pete.  This is Houston! Perhaps mission control is still there.  We can read the flight recorder!"

"And do what Alan?" Burke’s face colored with anger.  "Do what? Find out where we are? I know where we are, in the future. A future that we’re stuck in! There is no getting back, so we may as well make the best of it now!"

[ Continue to page 2 ]