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Peter Burke had no choice.
With Urko’s men right behind him, he knew he should head for the woods and disappear among the trees. But the woods at the edge of Central City were far away and he knew he would probably be caught before he even got close. So he slipped into the first open building that he came to on the way out of town. The Museum of Natural History was a huge building with many floors and Burke felt that he could find a place to hide in there or slip out a back door or a side window. If it’s one thing he had learned, it was that gorillas were not that smart.
Easy to evade.
This was supposed to be an easy mission, he thought as he raced through the dark halls of the nearly empty museum. Sneak into the closest settlement, grab what he could or get help from friendly humans, listen for information, and get back to the woods where the three fugitives had set up a camp. The three of them had decided that it would probably be easier for one of them to go in alone to ensure a greater chance of anonymity. It really should have been Galen, who could move around with relative ease. But he was easy to recognize and if there was another thing they had learned in the last few months, it was they could always count on the apes to be unable to identify Burke or Virdon--all humans looked alike, of course--unless they were seen with Galen. What they didn’t count on was Urko and a contingent of gorillas being in Central City at the same time. As soon as Burke saw them, he ran and, as is their nature, the gorillas gave chase.
With the sound of running boots echoing in his ears Burke slipped into a room and breathed a silent thanks that it was empty. No apes were in the room and no gorillas had beaten him there. Around the perimeter of the very large round room was a series of displays that depicted a range of human activity. Burke stopped short and quietly stole up to one of the displays. It showed human men harvesting corn. Something about all these displays looked off to him. The human figures were not your average department store mannequins. They looked...alive. Real.
Very real.
Too real.
He reached out and touched one. It was soft but felt cold and stiff. Like leather. The human’s unblinking eyes shone in the light like glass.
Burke’s eyes widened as a wave of nausea swept over him. At that precise moment, had fear not been a more powerful emotion, he would have loudly vomited all over the stone floor. He knew--just somehow knew--that these figures were actually humans. Or had once been humans. Humans that had been executed --or hunted-- and stuffed to inhabit these displays. Like the wild animals he remembered from the museums back home.
As he looked around, Burke saw that all the motionless human figures, once living but now doomed to an eternity of being stared at in an ape museum, were placed in every possible staged setting from hunting grasslands to ape homes. Burke felt light-headed. He gagged and dry heaved again, sure that his breakfast was going to loudly splatter all over the floor.
The closest display caught Burke’s attention. It was a group of six nearly nude, primitive-looking humans squatting around a fake campfire as a leader, a human male with shaggy dark hair, posed with outstretched arms in a wildly expressive position towered over his audience and seemed to be entertaining them with a story.
The clatter of the boots sounded closer. Burke had only moments to decide what to do. Flee? Hide? What other choices did he have? He looked around in a blind panic.
There was nowhere to hide.
Then he thought of it. Quickly stripping off his clothes and tying his shirt around his waist like a loincloth, he tossed the rest of his clothes into a display that showed a human female and two human children doing household chores in an ape home. He took a seat on the ground, joining the other nearly naked and stuffed humans around the campfire. He struck a pose looking at the fake fire in the center of the display and froze in position just as a group of gorillas and General Urko rushed into the room. They looked around.
“We can’t find him, sir,” one said. “We’ve looked everywhere. He must have escaped out a window or something.”
“He’s still here,” Urko growled. He sniffed. “I can smell him. He’s one of those astro-nauts. I am sure of it.”
“Which one?” another asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Urko rumbled. “Virdon or Burke. Whoever it is, we want him dead.”
The gorilla soldiers exchanged looks but said nothing.
“Find that human,” the general hissed.
“Sir,” one officer nervously began, “there are human figures everywhere in this museum. And they all look alike. How are we supposed to find one?”
Taking a step to get into the gorilla’s face, Urko spat out, “Look for the one that’s running away from you.”
“But what does he look like?” another asked.
“Like a guilty human,” Urko snapped. “One who needs to be arrested, tortured, and put to death. One who needs to be put on display here so I can visit him every day.”
“You search in these rooms,” one of the other gorillas quickly added, pointing to the gorilla who had just spoken. “We’ll take the other floors.” With that, all the gorillas but one left.
The remaining gorilla began to slowly walk around the room, looking at each of the displays and reading the description card in front of each one. The ape house. The cornfield. The fishing village. When the gorilla got to the campfire display, Burke stared at the fake flames and held his breath. Though his mind was racing, his body moved not a fraction of an inch. If he could just sit here, he thought, without moving, until dark, he could slip out and join Galen and Alan at the hiding place in the woods.
A female chimpanzee with two young chimps, one at each hand, came into the room. The gorilla called out, “This room is closed to the public. The whole museum is. A violent human is loose. Go away.”
One of the young chimpanzees pulled his hand away from his mother’s and ran to the campfire exhibit. When he reached the gorilla soldier, the young chimp looked at him and, pointing to Burke, whispered, “I just saw that one blink.”
Burke's heart turned to glass. The gorilla looked towards Burke and narrowed his eyes. After holding his gaze there for a few seconds, the gorilla turned to the young chimpanzee and sneered. Then grabbing the boy by the shoulders, he pulled the boy close and growled, “Stuffed humans do not blink.”
He called to the female chimpanzee. “Come get your son.” He paused for a moment and added, “Before I teach him a lesson about wasting a gorilla’s time.” He shoved the boy, who stumbled backward into his mother’s arms. “Come, Roan,” she said softly. “Let’s go.”
Burke breathed out a slow and silent sigh of relief.
After the family had hurried out of the room, the gorilla continued to wander around the room. Burke remained frozen in place. Except for the sound of the gorilla’s boots on the stone floor, the room was silent.
Until that is, Burke’s stomach growled.
To Burke, the sound seemed to fill the room. The gorilla stopped walking and cocked his head as he listened intently. Burke prayed that his body did not betray him again.
From the far side of the room, the gorilla began to walk towards the display Burke was in. He approached the display and raised his rifle towards the stuffed human storyteller. For a moment, he listened again. Then he very slowly pushed on the human with the muzzle of his gun until the human figure fell over, crashing to the floor like a mannequin.
Burke had a flash of a memory from when he was a child, maybe six or seven years old. His mother had taken him to a big department store and while they were waiting in the checkout line, he noticed that a nearby mannequin had an untied shoe. He left his mother’s side and went over to the mannequin. He bent down and started tying the untied shoe but must have leaned in too much or pulled on the laces too hard because the mannequin fell over and little Peter Burke fell over along with it. He was red-faced when he stood up to the applause of the store patrons nearby. He almost smiled and laughed out at the funny memory.
Almost.
Burke swallowed hard and was convinced that the click it made in his throat could be heard by the ape soldiers everywhere.
But the gorilla moved on to the first sitting human figure who was looking up and smiling, as if the storyteller was still standing there. The soldier pushed on that figure too. Hard. Remaining in a seated position, that human went over as well.
He took a step towards Burke.
He put the muzzle of the gun against Burke’s shoulder.
It felt cold and hard and it was all Burke could do to remain still.
At that moment, Urko ran into the room.
“Sergeant!” he shouted. “We are not here to damage property. We are here to find a fugitive.”
“Yes, sir,” the gorilla responded. “Has anyone had any luck?”
“No,” Urko muttered. “Somehow that slippery human has escaped again.” He paused for a moment. “I don’t know how they do it. Every time.”
The gorilla snapped to attention. “What are my orders?”
“Go outside. Join the others. Look for evidence. Footprints. Anything. See if you can find where he got out and where he went.”
“Yes, sir.” He hurried out of the room.
Urko started to leave but stopped at the door and turned to go back to the campfire display.
He righted the two human figures.
As he walked away, he stopped again and turned.
He looked at the campfire display and stared. Burke could feel a bead of sweat on his forehead. It began to trickle down his nose. Burke began to pray again: Just turn around and keep going. Just turn around and keep going.
Urko took a step towards the display. He was looking at Burke and his eyes narrowed.
He took another step towards the display. He tilted his head to the side and sniffed the air.
From outside a voice called, “General Urko. We found something.” With a snort, Urko turned and left.
It was dark before Burke dared to move again. He stayed motionless by that fake campfire in an empty, silent museum, surrounded by shadows and stuffed humans, for many long hours. When he finally dared to stand up, the popping of his knees broke the silence. He found his clothes and dressed but before he slipped out of the room and into the cool darkness of night, he turned one last time to look around the room at all the humans on display there. He wanted to sit and cry. He wanted to scream at the unfairness of this world. He wanted to burn this house of horrors to the ground. But instead, like all the other humans in this museum, he remained silent. Then, with a slight shake of his head, he climbed out the window and disappeared into the darkness.