Gorillas in The Mist(ake)

Gorilla Gorilla Amazonia... The Amazonian Gorilla.

A new subspecies of gorilla that was recently discovered deep within The Amazon rainforest in 2023. These apes may have looked similar to their African relatives in several ways such as appearance and diet, but several key elements made them different.

While most gorillas could only walk on two legs for a short time before returning to all fours, Amazonian gorillas could walk bipedal for as long as they wanted.

They were the only primates, and only mammals, capable of reproducing asexually, which is why only female specimens had been found.

They were capable of primitive speech, with some captive individuals even developing basic and even advanced speech over time.

But perhaps the biggest difference was their intelligence. The Amazon Gorilla was shown in various tests to be frighteningly intelligent, matching and even surpassing human intellect on several occasions. In fact, this high intellect was what was responsible for keeping them hidden for so long, only being discovered by accident. Fortunately, they were far more docile than other great apes. However, their high intellect had made several in captivity master escape artists, but they were always caught before they could escape the zoo.

Until one incident...

"Okay, Girls! Chow time!" Clara called out as she unlocked the gate at the zoo she worked at, pushing a wheel barrel with fruits and nuts native to South America into the zoo's new Amazonian Gorilla exhibit.

A few moments later, a large troop of gorillas approached the clearing as Clara dumped the contents of the wheel barrel onto the ground, grabbing up the food as Clara stepped back and did a head count.

"Tank... Ou..." One of the gorillas muttered, proving to Clara her primitive speech.

"... Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine..." Clara counted, trailing off as she noticed the Silverback, the newest arrival from this morning, was missing. "Oh no."

Clara looked around as she walked through the exhibit. "Kiko! Kiko! Come here girl! Ki-"

Clara was cut off as she heard a snapping sound, looking down to see a vine that was tied between two trees... Before feeling a sharp pain in her ass, making her jump with a yelp. Turning around, Clara caught sight of the tranquilizer gun in the tree that was aimed at her.

"Hey. Wasn't that the tranquilizer rifle that we... Lost... This..." Clara trailed off as she started to feel sleepy, a dumb smile on her face before she fell to the ground and passed out.

Ten minutes later, Clara groaned as she sat up and rubbed her head. "What happened...?"

Looking around, Clara noticed two things. Firstly, she was surrounded by clumps of ape fur with an electric shaver nearby. Secondly, she was naked! Clara yelped as she brought as she brought her knees to her chest and blushed scarlet. "Where are my clothes?!"

"Hi, Clara!"

At the voice, Clara turned her head to see she was in front of the bars to the exhibit, a look of surprise on her face as she saw Kiko standing on the other side waving at her, standing on her hind legs... And more importantly, wearing her uniform!

"Kiko!" Clara yelled as she got to her feet and grabbed at the bars. "Kiko! This is not funny! Bad Kiko!"

"Maybe it's not funny. And maybe it's bad." Kiko said with a smile as she walked away, "But it's freeing."

"You're never going to get away with this!" Clara shouted as Kiko left, the gorilla ignoring her as she headed off towards the exit. Taking a few minutes to breath, Clara pinched the bridge of her nose as she slammed her thighs together and covered her breasts with her arm.

"Okay, no matter." Clara said to herself, "Sooner or later, someone will find me, get me out of this exhibit, help me get this mess straightened out, and put Kiko back. I mean," she gave a half-hearted chuckle, "it's not like people are going to mistake me for some sort of zoo gorilla, right?"