THE CITY OF

THE APES

It was a quiet, peaceful city.

It was a city ruled by apes and served by men.

It was a city unaware of an angry band of vicious gorillas anxious to revolt and an insane cadre of mutated humans hungry to kill.

It was a city on the brink of an horrendous destruction that had happened once—and was suddenly, inexorably, happening again . . .

20th Century-Fox Presents

An Arthur P. Jacobs Production

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET

OF THE APES

Starring

RODDY McDOWALL • CLAUDE AKINS

NATALIE TRUNDY • SEVERN DARDEN

LEW AYRES • PAUL WILLIAMS

and

JOHN HOUSTON

as The Lawgiver

Directed by

J. LEE THOMPSON

Produced by

ARTHUR P. JACOBS

Associate Producer

FRANK CAPRA, JR.

Screenplay by

JOHN WILLIAM CORRINGTON

and JOYCE HOOPER CORRINGTON

Story by

PAUL DEHN

Based on Characters from

PLANET OF THE APES

Music by

LEONARD ROSENMAN

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

FIRST AWARD PRINTING June 1973

Copyright © 1973 by

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.

All rights reserved

AWARD BOOKS are published by

Universal-Award House, Inc., a subsidiary of

Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation,

235 East Forty-fifth Street, New York, N.Y. 10017

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

Title

Copyright

Dedication

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET

OF THE APES

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Epilogue

For Harlan Ellison,

who will appreciate the thought.

PROLOGUE

Many years, many centuries, after the fact, an orangutan sat on a hillside and taught a class. He read to his students from a large handwritten book. And in this manner does history become legend and legend become myth.

“In the beginning, God created Beast and Man, so that both might live in friendship and share dominion over a world at peace.

“But in the fullness of time evil men betrayed God’s trust and, in disobedience to His holy word, waged bloody wars not only against their own kind but also against the apes, whom they reduced to slavery.

“Then God in his wrath sent the world a savior, miraculously born . . ."

The time of the Savior was a time when the world needed a savior.

The surface of the Earth had been ravaged by the vilest war in human history. The great cities of the world had been split asunder and were flattened.

Out of one such city came a remnant of apes and men who had survived. History would report that they came in search of a place where Ape and Human might live together in friendship. But their thoughts were of survival, not of friendship.

And after survival, retribution.

One does not live peacefully with one’s former oppressors. One punishes. One seeks vengeance.

And that was their mistake. The apes had brought the ways of evil men with them. The apes were proud that they had thrown off the yoke, but they failed to realize that they had not thrown it away. They put men into it and made them live in shame.

They adopted other ways of men, too. Like men, they quarreled among themselves. Like men, they argued over directions and goals. Like men, they forgot their original purposes.

And like men, they paid homage to strength.

When the apes planted their orchards and sowed their fields, they also planted fruits of bitterness and sowed seeds of discontent.

That crop would soon be ready for harvest.

One among them might be a savior—but like other saviors before him, he had to find a way to make his people listen . . .

ONE

Aldo the gorilla knew how to save his people.

Aldo the gorilla had a plan. It was a good plan. It was right. He knew it. He smacked his lips in anticipation as he thought of it. Yes. Apes should be strong. Apes should be masters. Apes should be proud. Apes should make the Earth shake when they walked.

Apes should rule the Earth.

He knew that someday they would. And he would be the gorilla who would lead them to victory.

He sat on his horse, on a ridge, and stared out over the desert below. Somewhere out there was a city . . . or what was left of it. Perhaps there were men there, too. Dangerous men. With guns. And bombs. Apes should be ready for them. Apes should kill them.

The thought excited him. He leaned forward in the saddle eagerly, squinting and frowning. Was there something out there? The city was forbidden, but the thought was so alluring . . .

But now was not the time. Not yet, not yet.

He snorted loudly and kicked his horse in the ribs to make it move. He pulled hard on the reins and wheeled the animal around. He trotted toward the gorilla outpost farther along the ridge.

The gorillas came to attention, grumbling. They were slovenly and untidy, and that made Aldo glad—it was a sign of their strength. As he rode through their ranks, they saluted, and he grinned in response.

He kept on going and headed down the side of the ridge, away from the desert, toward a valley that was startling in its sudden lushness so close to the blasted sand. The valley was deep and peaceful. Vineyards, fields of crops, clusters of trees—Aldo grunted, restless at the sight. There was so little challenge there.