Prelude: Brothers in arms

[Congo Free State]

A man was frantically running through the dense jungle of Congo, he was practically naked, only wearing an underwear that barely covered his private parts. His body was filled with injuries, traces of whips and bruises could be seen clearly, and worst of all, he didn’t have any hands, it was cut clean, only stumps remained.

He was crying all the way when he was running, desperately trying to run away from whoever behind his back. Sounds of gunshots echoed from behind him, making him flinch in fear.

He stumbled from the terror, dropping to the ground below, adding more bruises to his skin. He didn't even stop after stumbling, he kept crawling, trying to stay away from whoever’s shooting.

Eventually, the chaser caught up. They had the same skin colour as the man, but they were wearing proper soldier attires, and armed with rifles.

“We got him!” one of the chasers shouted to his friend behind. The chaser then grabbed the man’s head, and made eye contact. “You want more whips?”

“N-No… please…” pleaded the man in fear.

“Or do you want your wife this time huh? Your daughter not enough?” sneered the chaser again.

“NO! Please! Anything but that!”

“You already lost your hands…” the chaser hummed, he then scanned the man’s body, stopping at his crotch. “How about this one?”

The chaser kicked the man’s balls, and he screeched in pain, dropping to the ground once again.

The rest of the chasers caught up, staring at the man on the ground in disgust.

“We should just kill him.” spat a soldier. “He’s no use to us anymore anyway, he doesn't have any more hands, can’t even harvest rubber.”

“Let the governor choose.” another soldier said. “But he’ll probably be another one of the governor’s skull collections again.”

“True…”

The man on the ground was practically cowering in fear, he slowly backed up, but the chaser shot the ground, making him flinch.

“Don’t try to run again, or I’ll kill you.” the chaser threatened.

The man gulped in fear, nodding vigorously at the threat.

“Where’s this anyway?” a chaser asked, looking around the jungle. “Quite far you’ve run…”

But then, the one who spoke suddenly fell to the ground, his head had a hole in it. Somebody had shot him, silently.

The other soldiers frantically turned around, trying to see the culprit.

“Who’s there?!” the soldier shouted, aiming their rifles around.

But no answer, just silence. The soldiers kept looking around, while slowly taking cover between the trees.

“Hey, check around.” a soldier whispered.

“Splitting? Are you nuts? We’ll be killed instantly!” another soldier answered.

The soldier that ordered the check clicked his tongue. So, he decided to do it himself. As soon as he walked off from the cover, something shot his legs, there was no sound whatsoever, which scared the man. He held his scream and crawled to the tree again.

He looked at what had shot him. It was a dart, made out of pure steel. As he wanted to take it, the dart suddenly flew back, making the man surprised.

“What the hell?!” the soldier shouted. He aimed his rifle, and shot his rifle towards the direction the dart was going.

He kept shooting and shooting, and out of the confusion, his colleagues followed suit, shooting into nowhere. But the soldiers quickly realised that there was no one there.

“Why the hell did you do that?!” a soldier shouted.

“I thought someone was there!” the man who shot the first bullet defended.

He then heard ruffling sounds beside the trees. He quickly turned to noise, and saw nothing. But, the trees were moving, which made him gulp.

He then heard footsteps walking towards him, but again, he saw nothing, he was confused as hell on what was going on.

But, he saw something revealing in front of him. It was slow, but he could tell what it was. It was a gorilla, wearing strange armour that looked like metal, but it was flexible.

The gorilla stared at him for a little while, making the soldier scared shitless.

“D-Don’t come closer.” the soldier stuttered.

The gorilla frowned, and just gruffed at his words. The soldier panicked, and shot the gorilla, the sounds of gunpowder echoed throughout the jungle, before the jungle was silent again.

As the soldier saw the condition of the gorilla, his face paled. It did nothing to the gorilla, and it just made it angrier.

The gorilla growled in front of him, making the soldier shit his pants. The gorilla grabbed the man’s head, slammed him to the tree, until the tree itself broke, killing him instantly.

Meanwhile, the rest of the soldiers have been killed by other gorillas, all wearing the same attire. All of these were witnessed by the man who was previously running, and he was trying to escape again, but it was too late, the gorillas had gathered around him.

One gorilla raised his hands, making the man panicked, but it didn’t punch him, instead, he made strange signs from his hands, making the man confused.

Another gorilla then hit the gorilla that was making signs, that made him realise something. The gorilla pressed something from his attire, and did the signs again.

This time, a voice came out of nowhere.

The voice, which was probably the gorilla’s, said:

“Hello friend. Are you well?”

At that point, the man just wanted to pass out, confused about what the hell was happening in front of him.

—

The half-naked man was now standing in front of a table full of gorillas in strange dresses. They were discussing something apparently, as hand signs were thrown everywhere. In the edge of the room, there was a throne, and a king that was radiating a wise energy sat, watching the debate silently.

The man had no idea what was going on, but suddenly, the king, who was also a gorilla, spoke.

“Silence.” he spoke calmly, surprising the man. In his words, all of the gorillas didn’t move, respecting the king’s wish.

The king then stood up. He was practically standing straight unlike other gorillas, and he looked like he had seen history itself. He walked to the man, and knelt, as the man was significantly smaller than the king.

“What happened to you, friend?” the king asked softly.

The voice was not like he would think, it had this soothing feeling, like the man had known the gorilla for a long time.

The man’s toes curled as he heard what the gorilla said, and broke down, crying on the ground.

“T-They chain us… f-forced us to work… cutting rubber from trees… i-if we didn’t meet the required amount…. T-those white men… t-they cut our hands…”

The king frowned as he heard it, and the man heard loud stumping from the table, possibly from other gorillas.

“M-My daughter…” The man continued to break down. “S-She was killed…. Her feet… her hand… brought to me…”

The loud thumping sounds were louder, the man couldn’t see it, as he was on the ground, trying to erase his tears.

The king stood up, his fist clenched. But then, he patted the man’s head.

He then spoke. “Don’t worry brother. We will help you.”

The king then did hand signs in front of him, slowly, as if trying to teach him something.

“Apes. Together. Strong.” the king said.

The man looked at him, and towards the others. All of the gorillas were doing the same thing as the king, a simple hand sign.

The king then changed his hand sign, and spoke again.

“Family. Protect.”

And the other gorillas followed suit, following their king.

The man just looked at the ground, tears dropping to the ground.

“Please…” he pleaded. “Help us…”

“Stand up, brother.” the king spoke, helping the man stand up.

“We, will not fight for you,” he said, making the man almost lose hope.

But the king continued.

“We, will fight with you.”