Free Dawn of the Planet of the Apes by Greg Keyes

forward, and trying to sound calm. “What’s going on here? What’s the matter?”
    “What’s going on,” the man shouted, “is this stupid bitch says there’s nothing wrong with me. But I know I’ve got it. I
know
I do. And I want the vaccination or whatever. The cure.”
    She heard a scuffle of feet behind her and saw that Biggs, the security guard, was there, with his pistol drawn.
    “Wait!” she shouted. “Just hang on. I’ll see you, Mr.—?”
    “Max,” the guy said. “I’m Max.”
    “Okay, Max, I’m Dr. Kosar. Come with me.”
    The man looked uncertain.
    “Come on,” she said, and she gestured gently with her fingers.
    He lowered the knife. Talia stepped over as Ravenna edged away. She studied Max for a bit.
    “Yes,” she said. “The nurse made a mistake. Come with me.”
    He looked wary, but followed her, knife still in hand.
    “Randy,” she said, as soon as they were out of earshotof the waiting room. “Prepare an IV for Max here, and make sure the MH and sodium levels are adjusted.”
    She turned back to Max.
    “We’re just going to give you some fluids, get you hydrated. We call it buffing, here in the ER.” She glanced pointedly at the knife. “You won’t need that anymore.”
    “I think I’ll hold onto it,” Max said.
    “Fine,” she replied.
    “You’re pretty for a doctor,” he said.
    “Thank you,” she said. “Okay, here’s the IV. Ever had one of these before?”
    “I guess,” he said. “When I was a kid.”
    “So I have to find a vein and put a needle in it. Are you okay with that? You’re not going to stab me if I prick you? It’s going to sting a little.”
    “No,” he said. “I can handle it.”
    “All right, then let’s get it done.”
    It seemed like a long time before she found the vein and got the catheter in. She felt as if her heart was trying to push itself out of her body. Max’s pupils were dilated and she was pretty sure he was on something—meth, probably. She wouldn’t have time to move if he used the knife.
    But then it was in, and Randall hooked up the bag.
    “All right,” she said. “That’s all we need to do for now. Why don’t you just lie down, get comfortable?”
    “I think I’ll stay sitting,” he said. “And I want someone to stay with me. So that guy with the gun don’t come in here.”
    “I’ll stay for a few minutes,” she said. “But I have other patients I need to see.”
    “I’m sorry I was rough on that other girl,” he said. “But she kept saying I don’t have any of the symptoms, but I do. This friend of mine, Jay-Cee, he got it. He said he got it from a monkey or something. And he and I… you know,we smoked a little weed together. So I know I’ve got it.”
    “Well, you were right and she was wrong,” Talia said. “When we have this many, it’s hard to be right all the time.”
    “Yeah. I guess.”
    The knife fell out of his hand as the methohexital took effect, and she caught him as he fell face-forward toward the floor.
    “Tell security they can have this asshole now,” she said.

6
    Malakai woke in the gray before dawn. The fog lay thick across the land, and he was as wet as if he had been in a brief rain. He remembered hearing somewhere that fog came on cat’s feet—perhaps it was in a poem. But to him it felt more like it had come in like a giant slug.
    He stood and fingered the damp bark of a tree. The water had actually beaded there, as if the tree were a glass of ice water on a warm, humid day. It rarely rained in the Bay Area in summer, but the condensation from the fog provided water for the giant trees and other forest life.
    He was reminded powerfully of another forest, another mist—the cloud forest in the Virunga Mountains. He had awoken there, too, cold and damp. He and his uncle had spent the previous day trekking up from the tropical lowlands to a place so strange that his eight-year-old mind could hardly imagine it. He remembered how struck he had been with the beauty of