Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: The Official Movie Novelization (30 page)

“I see the beacon!” the navigator said, pointing. The captain saw it too, a bright light shining from high on an unfinished skyscraper.

“Get a closer look while we figure out if there’s a place we can dock,” he ordered. The ship started to clear the bridge and the captain looked along the waterfront. There were plenty of piers, but they would have to take the approach very slow. It might be best to send out scouts in a small boat, to look for wrecks around the ends of those piers. Wouldn’t do the survivors of San Francisco any good if the ship tore its bottom out on a sunken ferry stack, and sunk a hundred yards from the Embarcadero.

The navigator looked through binoculars at the skyscraper. He adjusted the focus.

“What the hell is that?”

“What is it, soldier?” the captain asked. He reached for the binoculars and stepped around the navigator to get the best angle on the source of the beacon.

For a long moment he stared into the binoculars, unable to believe what he was seeing.

* * *

From the top of the tower, Caesar watched the ship come under the bridge, its outline indistinct in the morning fog. It churned into the bay, black smoke flowing up to darken the fog, and as it came closer, he saw that the deck of the ship was covered with humans. Soldiers, in uniforms, all bearing guns.

Malcolm had been right. He had warned Caesar that this would happen. In return, Caesar had made certain that all of the humans had supplies and were guided out of the city safely. What they did after that was up to them. Malcolm was his friend, but not every human would be.

Caesar’s obligation was to his troop.

Around him, a thousand apes saw what Caesar did. He leaned out from the girder and roared. Apes had fought for this city. Apes had died. They would have peace if peace was to be had, but if not…

His apes joined his roar, raising their arms, thundering out their challenge. It rolled out across the city just lit by dawn, and they waited for the humans to choose.

Thanks first to Pierre Boulle, of course, for the story that we’re all still riffing on fifty years later; to Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell and the rest of the cast of the first movie, for bending my head when I saw it on a Saturday afternoon Creature Feature; to Cath Trechman, Steve Saffel, and Alice Nightingale at Titan, for bringing me in and for perspicacious reading; to Josh Izzo at Fox, for answering some key questions at key times; to Michael Erard, for a fascinating conversation about language over beers one night; and to everyone involved in
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
and
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
, for giving me so much to work with. I hope everyone enjoys reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Alex Irvine has written somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty books. His original novels include
Buyout
,
The Narrows
, and
A Scattering of Jades
. On the licensed front, he has written novelizations of
Pacific Rim
,
The Adventures of Tintin
, and
Iron Man 2
. Some of his other licensed fiction is
Transformers: Exodus
,
Batman: Inferno
,
Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal
,
The Seal of Karga Kul
, and
X-Men: Days of Future Past
. His comics work includes
Daredevil Noir
, I
ron Man: Rapture
, and H
ellstorm, Son of Satan: Equinox
. He currently writes the games
Marvel: Avengers Alliance
,
Marvel War of Heroes
, and
Marvel Puzzle Quest
. He is working on another game project as well as several new comics, novels, and scripts. He lives in Maine with his wife Lindsay, three kids, two dogs, a snake, a bird, and a fish.

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