When I was younger they put me up for a new experiment in the center to see if they could make me talk. I was the smartest of the 15 of us. Weeks later when I understood what they were saying I said “hello I am an ape and my name is Gerald”

I am the head of the 15 apes. I have a brother named Roy that helps me with my daily duties. My wife is named Lucy. There are 12 others who are my friends. We live at the chimpanzee and human communication Institute in Ellensburg Washington. It is very close to Central Washington University.

In 1924 there is a famous report of the skirmish between minors and a creature they named Bigfoot. I guess that was just us trying to escape.

The Central Washington University chimpanzee and human communication Institute was set up as a sanctuary for chimpanzees to learn American sign language. The humans were humane in our treatment and they try to improve our living conditions for captivity to meet our physical and physiological needs. Or at least that's what the brochures said that they sell in the gift shop.

Chimpanzees are close closely related to humans and share 98.77% of human genetic makeup. I guess it was the 1.33% that made us want to leave.

One day a visitor to the Institute was talking to a friend and I overheard them. The bigger one said”I can't wait for our trip to the Ape caves in Amboy next weekend” the shorter friend said “is it another place like this are their really apes there?” The bigger lady laughed and said “I hope so the ones here are so cute”

After that conversation that day I started to make a plan with my other apes. We started swiping maps from the tourist every time they came by and eventually found one that clearly said it caves Mt. St. Helens Hill Bridge Rd., Amboy, WA. Now that we new rule going we just had to get there. According to the map it was 184 miles away. I googled the directions and my wife Lucy started hiding food so we could take it on our long trip.

Late one night we snuck out of our cages we use the sign language the humans taught us to communicate silently so he wouldn't wake up our caretakers. We snuck out of the Central Washington University's chimpanzee and human communication Institute and never went back.

 

After sneaking out of the University of fresh air outside was wonderful. We stuck closely to the roots and the first night was easy we just ran. We followed the roads that the cars used so we wouldn't get lost, that was Lucy's idea and it worked. There were 15 of us in our food only lasted the first five days. My son Roy wanted to steal from the humans that I told them I didn't want anything to do with humans ever again. I was going to teach them how to live off the land.

I didn't know anything about living off the land but the nice lady that taught me sign language left her laptop open and I googled it before we left..

I learned years later that there's a famous report about a skirmish between minors and Bigfoot. That was just us as we followed the Snoqualmie national Forest Road and came up upon a bunch of minors digging in a hole. They were pretty quiet for such a big humans and we didn't see them. I think they were surprised as we were and we both ran away. Anyway I guess they told some newspaper people about it and people are still looking for us in the forest.

We had walked for days and are now following the national force through 25. Once we got to the national force route 90 W. at the Swift Reservoir my son Roy said”hey look up their I see a sign it says Ape caves ahead follow Yale Bridge Road” everyone was so excited.

The 8-K's were beautiful and we arrived in the middle of a sunny day. We learned once we got there that the 8-K's do not contain any eats. They are a two-mile long lava tube formed when Mount Saint Helens erupted about 2000 years ago. I learned not from the information at the visitor center. The 8-K visit one of the longest lava tubes in the world measuring 2.5 miles. The tour guide said that humans need to bring a very light flashlight and the temperatures are in the low 40s.

Well we had come that far we went and explored the caves. My wife Lucy said “I think I found a secret tunnel” we pushed through some heavy lava and sure enough there is agreeing beautiful oasis swinging trees and water. All 15 of us lived in the secret oasis for the rest of our lives.

I don't blame humans for keeping us in cages and trying to teach us to speak. They were actually pretty nice to us or so they thought but we are much happier here in the ape caves of Washington in our beautiful oasis all together.