Endangered

Sophie looks up and sees three male bonobos watching her. Sophie assumes a submissive position and waits. A bonobo named Mushie climbs on Sophie’s back and begins grooming her in friendship. The other adults join in the grooming, and Sophie is careful not to make eye contact, waiting until the apes become distracted by eating green shoots growing out of the ground. A female calls to the males, so they leave the clearing. Sophie goes limp with relief and holds Otto, recognizing her loneliness.

In the late afternoon, Sophie hears more gunfire from the sanctuary and realizes that the rebels might stay for a while. Afraid to risk traversing the jungle in the dark, Sophie and Otto sleep near a fallen tree. The next morning, Sophie wakes to find ten bonobos watching her. In front of the group is Anastasia, the matriarch. Sophie makes herself small and submissive as Anastasia shrieks at her. She sees Otto’s worried look and stands to retrieve and comfort him. This movement agitates Anastasia, so she charges Sophie, who runs and dives to protect Otto. Sophie waits for the matriarch’s attack, but when she looks up, she sees Anastasia watching her. The ape has become less aggressive upon seeing Sophie protect Otto. A female named Banalia pats Sophie and sits near her. Mushie imitates Anastasia’s charge, but when Sophie does not react, he sits down, too, and smiles at her. Sophie smiles back, agitating all of the bonobos. Anastasia charges the girl again, biting her on the arm. A bruise appears on Sophie’s arm immediately, but the wound is not severe. She knows that Anastasia is warning her and that the matriarch could easily kill her. Anastasia leaves, and Sophie realizes how thirsty she is. She takes Otto to the pond at the enclosure’s center and drinks from the murky water. Sophie then remembers that she has food in the duffle bag that she left outside the enclosure gate.

Sophie walks to the edge of the enclosure and sees eight soldiers positioned around the sanctuary. She also sees the bodies of the staff lying around the area. Sophie then spots her duffle bag less than 20 feet from the gate, so she creeps out of the enclosure to retrieve it, coming into full view of some of the soldiers. She recognizes one of the soldiers from the sanctuary driveway. Sophie grabs her bag and returns to the gate but stops when she hears a bonobo crying near the nursery. She drops her bag and walks along the nursery wall until she finds Mama Brunelle’s body. Next to her is Songololo, Anastasia’s daughter, tied to a stake in the ground by her wrist. Sophie takes Mama Brunelle’s wrap and bag to remember her by and releases the stake tethering Songololo. She walks back to the gate with Otto and Songololo clinging to her, but as she passes through, the stake catches on the gate, causing Songololo to shriek loudly. The soldiers begin shouting and running toward Sophie, who frees the stake and shuts the gate with her duffle bag because the electricity has returned. Sophie and the bonobos disappear into the jungle.

Sophie and Otto feast on granola bars from the duffle bag. Songololo refuses to go near Sophie, but she does allow Otto to sit with her and touch her injured wrist. Songololo follows Otto back to Sophie and accepts some food from her before moving a few feet away to watch them. As Sophie dozes off, Songololo steals some granola bars and socks from the bag and disappears into the jungle. Sophie and Otto wrap themselves in Sophie’s clothing and fall asleep on a rock.

The following day, Anastasia, Songololo, and the other adult females come to the pond to drink, uninterested in Sophie or Otto. When Anastasia swims across the pond near Sophie, Songololo breaks away and plays with Otto in the trees. As they play, Otto hits Songololo and causes her to fall to the ground. Anastasia immediately climbs the tree, grabs Otto, bites his foot, and throws him to the ground. Sophie runs to him, and when Anastasia drops from the tree, baring her teeth, Sophie bares her teeth in response and pushes the matriarch. She picks up Otto and realizes the bonobos are surrounding her with the sleeping rock to her back. Sophie reaches for the stake and hits Anastasia over the head, and all the other females back away. Anastasia tries to get the stake, eventually knocking it from Sophie’s hand and into the pond. The loud splash startles the bonobos, allowing Sophie to see that Otto’s foot is not severely injured.

The bonobos return to foraging, and Sophie joins Mushie and Banalia as they feed on the ground. She realizes that standing up to Anastasia and defending Otto has earned her a place in the group’s hierarchy. When the group finally leaves the clearing, Sophie follows while Otto and Songololo resume their play in the trees. In the afternoon heat, the bonobos sprawl out to nap. Songololo joins Otto after Anastasia rejects her. Sophie pulls out Mama Brunelle’s bag and looks through its contents, finding pages of notes about each bonobo. She reads and re-reads these notes to better understand her new friends.

At dusk, the foraging group moves to the enclosure’s center, so Sophie and Otto follow from a distance. Their group joins another, which investigates Sophie while Mushie stands guard over her. Anastasia continues to watch Sophie from a treetop. Rain begins to fall, so Sophie follows the other bonobos up the trees with Otto on her back, staying near Mushie. He ties branches together to create a platform, and when Sophie tries to create her own and fails, the male makes a platform for her before falling asleep.

Sophie wakes as she falls through the trees, scraping her arms and legs on the branches on the way down. She climbs back into her nest and sees Anastasia watching her. The matriarch charges Sophie with bared teeth, and Sophie realizes that she did not fall from her nest; Anastasia pushed her out just as she is doing now. Sophie falls again from the platform and makes her way to the ground. She creates a bed for herself and Otto and waits out the night.

When Sophie wakes the next morning, she is wet, sore, and congested, and she knows that she and Otto cannot sleep on the ground again. The rain is heavier that afternoon, so Sophie and Otto sit together under her rain poncho. Banalia eventually joins them, and Sophie watches as Anastasia rejects Songololo again. Sophie places Otto in Banalia’s lap and goes to Songololo, offering to pick her up. The young bonobo climbs into her arms and sits with Sophie and the others. Mushie then joins them, as does an older male named Ikwa. Later, Mushie makes Sophie a new nest closer to him and the other bonobos who have accepted her, but Sophie sees Anastasia constantly watching her.

For 10 days, Sophie climbs to the treetops to check the soldiers’ position. There are a dozen soldiers that Sophie recognizes, but sometimes they are joined by others. Occasionally, the soldiers will stand by the gate and call for her or the bonobos. Sophie can see that the men are starving, but she has plenty of food in the enclosure now that she forages with the bonobos, who they spend most of their time doing so. She knows that the apes will remain peaceful if the food remains plentiful.

After two weeks in the enclosure, the breadfruit begins to ripen. The bonobos bring Sophie the fruit, and she uses a rock to peel back the skin before returning it to them. Mushie continues to make nests for Sophie, but she does not fall asleep until she knows that Anastasia is sleeping. With Otto gaining more independence, Sophie gets to know the other adults, spending most of her time with Ikwa, an older male who is named after a village close to Florence’s release site. Ikwa and Sophie often sit on branches together and watch the sunset. She also learns that Mushie has a crush on Anastasia, who initially ignores his advances but eventually allows him to show her affection. At one point, Mushie wrestles with other young males and falls against the fence, which shows Sophie that the electricity is no longer working.