Beginning of the Story

The interrogator stared at her for a few minutes in thought.

"And where does this story begin Ms. Rodman?"

She brought her hands together.

"Just call me Iris....it will begin a month after the ape called Koba lead the attack against the human colony."

"I'm surprised your not going to talk about the beginning...where it all started."

"If you have files on me from what I've done the last 13 years...then I don't think you be stupid enough not do your research of our origins" she said straight to the point.

He chuckled a little at her comment.

"Well they did say you are clever...well you would have to be after all the shit you pulled off, yes we do know about both of your origins but there are some blanks we like to fill."

"I think my story will fill most...of your blanks and when I'm finished...you can decide yourself which one is the savage race."

-------

Muir Park Woods, 2026 3 years ago

She was hiking through the woods for a while now, trying to reach a certain destination, after 30 minutes of walking she had finally reached it at the edge of a mountain. She started to climb up it, most people wouldn't climb up with out the proper equipment or least make sure it was safe first and this mountain definitely wasn't sturdy enough to climb but something being unsafe has never stopped Iris before. She's been climbing as long as she could remember and there was a reason she needed to climb this mountain. She was trying to get a herb called Rhodiola Rosea aka Rose Root. After climbing about 3 minutes she finally found the yellow flower plant next to her about 2 feet away, she carefully started to make her way over trying not to lose her footing, after a couple of seconds she made it over to the little ledge the herb was sitting on.

"There you are you little devil, been looking for you" she said sort out of breath while pulling the herb out.

While pulling she lost her footing, trying to keep her balance she leaned her back against the wall of the mountain with one hand gripping on a random rock and her other hand holding on to the herb.

"Fuck" she gasped as she looked down noticing she was 10 feet above ground.

"That would have been a nasty slide" she said raising her head against the mountain and took some deep breaths before she started to chuckle, full of adrenaline.

Most people wouldn't chuckle about almost getting seriously hurt but Iris was kind of a daredevil so she was kind of use to it. She put the herb in the brown bag that was hanging from her shoulder and was about to climb down but she had a look up and started to have a thought. It was probably the adrenaline but she decided to climb to the top, it only took her another 3 minutes until she got to it. She pulled herself up and turned around to look at the view. She could see the sun shinning on the trees and the river, she stared in awe. She turned her gaze to see part of the colony, the place she was driven out of a long time ago, her face scowled at the sight of it. She was happy she was no longer living in the place that treated her like shit just because she was Will Rodman's daughter and because they didn't really like her beliefs. She had been living in these woods by herself for 5 years now but frankly she didn't know why she didn't try to leave this park a long time ago especially since there was a good chance that she would run into him eventually.

She had memories of this park most of them where good but they where still depressing to think about. Not wanting to remember the past she started to climb down and headed home.

After awhile she eventually reach her home, it was a old ranger station. She looked down at herself to see her baggy white shirt was covered in dirt, along with with her jeans, her puffy dark blue winter jacket and her brown boots.

"Great going have to wash these later" She grumbled.

She walked up the steps of her home when she felt a presence coming up behind her. When you've lived out in the woods alone as long as she had you pick on a few things. She slowly pulled out her knife in her back pocket.

"Iris-

The person never got to finish because she spun around to slam her arm in the persons throat along with getting her knife ready though she stopped her action when she saw who it was.

"Fuck! Malcolm! I've told you not to sneak up on me like that!" she said as she lowered herself to him who was choking on the ground.

She patted his back trying to help him catch his breath.

"God!...Do you!...Have to!... Do that!" he said in between chokes.

"Hmmm let's see, I'm a young woman living alone in the woods in a apocalyptic world... yea I think I'm aloud to do that" she told him sarcastically." Besides your fine you big wuss" she said as she helped him up.

"Honestly I'm surprised I didn't run into your dog first" he said after he got up.

"Bruce? He should be around here some where, Oh there he is" she said as she spotted a German shepard came running towards them, once he got closer he started to jump on Malcolm, excited to see him.

"Ok ok down boy" she said as she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and made him sit.

"So what do want?" she asked with her arms crossed.

He sighed.

"I need your help."

"With what?" she asked with a raised eyebrow not liking to where this was leading.

"Some people have gone missing from the Colony, scavengers, they were last seen in the woods there's already soldiers patrolling the Colony and with everything that happened a month ago people are scared, I managed to convince the soilders to let us set up a small search party-

"No" she cut him off plainly and turned around to walk to the back of her home, Bruce following closely behind.

"Iris please" he said following her.

" If you recall Malcolm they hate me just because I'm that man's daughter, do actually think a group of them is going to want to work with me let alone listen to me" she said as she got to her destination which was manmade coop with pigeons in it, she bent down to pick up a water can and opened the coop to pore more water into their water cups.

"Iris they want to use this as excuse to call in the rest of them, The colony may be scared, but we definitely don't want more soilders coming, Hell we didn't want them to come here in the first place."

"Yea blame that idiot Dreyfus for that one" she scoffed.

"I admit that what he did was stupid-

"Stupid! More like the most dumbest fucking thing that anyone could ever do! But then again he was a dumb fuck so it's not really a surprise!" she said as she slammed the bucket on the ground angrily.

"If they call the rest in they'll take over, you've had experience with them you know what will happen, not everyone in the colony deserves to go through that.... You know how to do certain things...please I really need help with this Iris" he said.

She could see the desperation in his eyes, she sighed and ran her hand through her semi long hair.

"Let me get some stuff inside and then I'll come out to meet you."

"Thank you" he said relieved.

"Yea, yea" she grumbled past him to head back into her home with Bruce following behind her.

When she got in she started packed the essentials she needed, after she finished that she went over to the part of the room where she hid her weapons which where in this old trunk, she mostly had knives, one old hand gun, 3 bb guns, and one sniper rifle. She didn't like guns, and didn't use them but it didn't mean she didn't know how to use them they were more like hand me downs then anything, she didn't mind using the bbs though. She decided to use a machete and she put it in her belt. After getting everything she needed she headed back outside where Malcolm was.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded and signaled for Bruce to follow her.

"Your bringing Bruce ?" he asked.

"He can help us track" she said as walked passed him and he followed after her.

When they got deeper into the woods Iris could see a 2 men along with Alex who was the only one that wasn't giving her a cold glare.

"So you already gathered them, why didn't you guys come with him to meet me?"

"We didn't want you to shoot us" one said who she recognised as James, He has messy brown hair with a flannel shirt.

"I wouldn't have shot you, punched you maybe but not shot you" she said as she rolled her eyes.

"You shot me before!"

"With bbs and you didn't die James, besides you pissed me off."

"When are you not pissed off Iris?" he asked angrily.

"I don't know James,when are you not a dumb ass?"

Alex chuckled at her comment, James glared hard at her.

"Ok Ok both you calm down before you both start something, we got a job to do remember" Malcolm said trying to defuse the situation while walking ahead pushing James forward.

"Hi Alex " she said softly.

He went over to hug her gently which she returned, Bruce then started to nudge him affectionately.

"Looks like he's missed you"

"Hey Bruce" he said while petting him.

They then went to follow the rest of the group.

------------

The scavenging group had headed to the other side of the woods at the end, from what Malcolm told her when some of the military started coming and started to bring supplies, others started to go out of the colony to find their own supplies, they knew if they used the military as a crutch it would help them take over more. Iris gave Bruce a command to track while looking around herself, he had been searching around that area for about 10 minutes now.

"What's he looking for?"Alex asked.

"Some thing that doesn't belong" She said softly.

Bruce then signaled that he found something by barking. She went over to him crouched down to see at large portion of disturbed dirt that has some blood.

"Is that blood?" Alex asked a little scared.

She carefully walked closer while crouching to see that the blood trail was going down a little hill, she looked to find the 4 missing scavengers...dead and covered in blood.

"Alex go get you father...." she said quietly in shock.

"Why?" he asked as he went over to see what she was looking at.

"Alex! don't-"she tried to stop him but it was too late, he saw what she was looking at and the next thing he did was hurl up his breakfast at the sight.

"Go get your father Alex..." she told him again gently.

He nodded quickly and ran off, not wanting to be near the sight anymore. She went down the hill soon after he left signaling for Bruce to follow her. She bent down to look at a man, she could see he had been slashed near his stomach, arm and neck by what appeared to be done by a sharp object, mostly likely a knife but then again she wasn't so sure because the slashs where almost ragged, like they couldn't cut through easily or cleanly. It was like that for the other 3 as well but the only difference was the slashes where different parts of their bodies and some had more then three of them.

She then felt a presence behind her, she slowly turned around while gripping on her machete, for all she knew it could be the murderer standing behind her. When she finally turned around she saw it was a gray ape holding a bow.

"I don't want any trouble" She signed quickly, lowering herself closer to ground while avoiding eye contact, trying make herself submissive.

The ape was shocked that she could sign but he snapped out of it quickly when he turned to look behind her, seeing the dead bodies. She knew what he was thinking and it wasn't good.

"I know what this looks like!but I swear- but she never got to finish what she was signing because he growled and pointed his bow at her.

"Ok Ok" she signed as she bent her head down then slowly bringing up her hand submissively. She knew could handle him with out a problem, but she didn't do anything because she knew he wasn't the murderer and knew he was only doing this because he felt threatened. Bruce started to growl at him getting ready to pounce, the ape returned the favor.

"Bruce heel!" she yelled but never bringing up her head, he reluctantly obeyed her.

"Enough!" a voice yelled.

Even though she hadn't heard that voice in such a long time she recognised it immediately, it someone she was afaird to meet again.

She could tell they were signing to each other but couldn't make it out because she still had her head lowered.

The new ape walked closer to her until he stopped right in front of her, She could tell he was surprised at the submissive gesture she was doing since only apes do it and knew what it meant.

"What...happened...here?" he asked.

"I don't know..." she said quietly.

She could feel him looking her and she noticed her handmade braclet on her submissive hand caught his eye, she flinched when he grabbed her hand to take a closer look at it, he then pulled up her sleeve and turned her arm around to see a scar in the middle of her arm that sort of looked like a star, She looked up a little to see his eyes widen a little in shock, while she had a lot of scars on both of her arms, this one was most important to him.

His hand then gently but firmly grabbed her chin to bring her head up to look at him, green eyes met hazel, it was then his suspicions were confirmed when he looked into her eyes.

"Iris...." he said softly in disbelief and shock.

"Hello Caeser...." she said quietly.