Alone (Keiko's Story, Last Part)

Part One, Part Two, Part Three

In front of the big glass window that served as a barrier between the Chimpanzees and the visitors of the zoo stood a very tiny figure. The oversized hoodie and baggy pants made the figure seem a bit out of shape.

It was staring at the window, watching the Chimpanzees walk through their cage, play and eat. Nobody else was around.

The figure made a few steps forward and extended the right arm, to press a hand against the cold glass. The long, leathery fingers were not human, despite having a similar form.

Keiko was shaking. She felt miserable, but her eyes stayed dry. Another thing humans could do that she wasn’t able to: cry. It seemed to help them a lot when trying to release emotion.

It had been a year since Keiko had broken out of the laboratory. The escape had been easier than she had expected, nobody had probably expected her to try and make a run for it. But once outside, she had been lost.

Absolutely alone and with no real knowledge about the human world, she had been walking around for days, hiding whenever a human approached. It was close to a miracle that nobody had caught her yet.

Finally, she had stolen some clothing to blend in at least a little bit.

There were many humans living outside on the street and barely anybody seemed to care about them. Keiko posed as someone belonging to this group which not only had enabled her to survive but also learn more about the humans.

She was still not able to actually speak with them, but she understood almost everything they said without issues. And she understood their way of life.

Humans were cruel.

Not only did they kill each other, they also had brought Keiko’s own species close to extinction. And in an attempt to preserve them, they locked chimpanzees up in zoos to let them breed and be stared at by visitors.

It had taken Keiko forever to find the zoo she had grown up in. The place her mother still lived. But when she found it, she realized that she could never return.

Chimpanzees like her weren’t supposed to be as smart as she was, that’s something Keiko had learned early on. Humans considered themselves the smartest species on the planet. Maybe they were right – usually. Keiko was sure that she was an outliner, outdoing every chimpanzee who had lived before.

But she wasn’t happy about it.

Keiko pulled her hood deeper into her face. She was freezing, despite the pleasant weather. A fever, one of the homeless people had called it. It seemed like Keiko had picked up some kind of disease from one of the humans, for days she had been feeling miserable.

The fever had come with a cough and watery eyes and a few days later, red spots had appeared all over her body. Keiko just hoped that it would go away by itself. She wouldn’t be able to see a doctor.

One last time, she looked through the window and at her mother, who was happily eating some fruit.

”I will come back, one day”, Keiko thought. ”I will find others like me. And then we will end the human’s reign over this world.”

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Sources:

Humans have more primitive hands than chimpanzees
Are humans the only primates that cry?
Gorillas and chimps are threatened by human disease
Measles (Rubeola)
Chimpanzees are Endangered

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