It has been a while since I was turned into a monkey and my brother an ape. We can be proud of how we have adapted and it is thanks to our resilience that we are alive today. I can now say I am ready to relive the nightmare as I recount the incidents that happened moments after we woke up in the forest with our minds inside animals.

We had been dumped in an opening among the trees, like garbage. My brother and I were, once again, lucky to be among the last who went through the procedure. The earliest to arrive had died from health complications caused between being suffocated and crushed by everyone who got piled on top of them. - They might as well have killed us all, but I guess they couldn't be bothered to slit our throats.

I wasn't among the first to wake up. I was shaken awake by another person who had also been inserted into a soaring monkey. He was part of a group of monkeys who were searching for other survivors of the same species, since they could communicate. After a short break, adjusting myself to the situation, I joined the people searching and provided the aid I could to the wounded.

Some survivors had limbs caught and crushed underneath others who had been stacked on top of them. Many of them wouldn't live long after we broke them free, as the weights on top of them had kept pressure on open wounds and they would rapidly lose blood, as it gushed out, when the weight was lifted. Some we couldn't get to before they became silent and we had to assume it was too late for them.

This must be how it feels to have a bomb drop on you. One moment you are watching tv with your family in the living room. The next you are caught under rubble and, if you are one of the luckier once, tending to the survivors. This traumatic experience, I'll likely never move away from. It is part of who I am now and I have to adjust to it. Blood, gore and death would be a big part of my future and this terrible experience likely helped numb me from the dread that was to come.

I remember vividly the smell of rotten eggs that lingered in the air. Insects were swarming us as we checked for survivors. One monkey I tried to rescue screamed in pain and once I got him out, his right leg sprayed a gust of blood in my face and covered me. The taste of iron was enhanced as my eyes were closed and I was kept blind, as I rubbed my face in my hairy arm. All I could hear was cries for help, dispair and screams of pain.

I'm surprised how calm I was, given the chaotic and disturbing situation I was in. While I was shaken by it all, I was able to collect myself and keep calm enough to provide aid and take part in rescuing and helping the more unfortunate.

I was able to communicate with others who had had their souls transferred into soaring monkeys just fine, but the people who had been trapped inside other animals groaned and growled like wild beasts. Some of the survivors in my group of monkeys were building a fire, supposedly to cremate the deceased and send them off proper. I asked people to search for a gorilla, as that was what my brother had seen inside his room.

There were multiple gorillas, many who had died. The survivors grouped together, just like us. The gorillas were clearly able to understand each other and kept organized, just like our group of monkeys.

Many survivors were alone in their species. A few had a couple who shared the same fate. Among the survivors, the soaring monkeys were by far the largest group, there were dozens of us. The gorillas were the second largest group, yet they were only four.. maybe six survivors. I was unable to tell if my brother was among them. Luckily he was, but our reunion was not immediate.

Maybe if I had taken the basic first aid lessons seriously, I could have saved some more. It was not just an exam and now my poor study has had real consequences.I don't think I will ever shake this haunting feeling.

It felt like hours went by as most of us sat in silence. We were all shaken to the core by our recent experiences. Everyone had stopped searching for survivors, except one gorilla. I didn't know it at the time, but it was my brother. He was desperately looking for me, as I had not been among the surviving gorillas.

The soaring monkeys were the only ones with members who arranged a fire. It was a controversial act and some of us, me included, were in disapproval of the idea. We argued with them, but they had made up their minds. They were a religious bunch. To me it seemed like a meaningless and potentially dangerous act, that could reveal and attract others to our position. The bodies were of animals, our attachment to the body was lost the moment it was transformed in the hall. Once they began burning the bodies, hell broke loose. Not only was there disagreement among the monkeys about the act of burning the bodies. It had upset people of other species as well. I've since learned from my brother that people among the gorillas thought the fire was for cooking and eating the dead. This was probably a shared misunderstanding among the other species as well.

The smaller groups mostly ran away in silence, distancing themselves from an open conflict between the monkeys and the apes. People attempted to communicate across species with sign language, but it couldn't douse the fire, as the religious monkeys continously refused to stop the burning. The gorillas eventually walked up and stood between the fire and the pile of bodies, while two of them grabbed and dragged the roasting bodies off the flames.

Smaller scuffles broke up between the the religious monkeys and the gorillas who stood in their way. The monkeys were confused as to why the big gorillas would hinder them and attempted to get through, but the gorillas kept getting in their way and became more hands on as it went on.

The religious monkeys were furious and started screaming and swearing, eventually coming to blows. The gorillas mostly stood and took it, as they didn't see the small monkeys as a threat. It all excalated once one gorilla had enough and pummeled one of the violent monkeys into a bloody and broken mess. Most of the other gorillas joined in and barbarically slaughtered the nearest monkeys. They considered us all as part of the burning. I kept back and tended to one of the wounded. He spoke to me, it felt like I knew him, perhaps he was the one who woke me up. He succumbed to his wounds shortly after. All he told me was to run for my life, and so I did.

I didn't get far away from the conflict before a gorilla caught up to me and blocked my escape. As he brought his arms up, ready to smash me to pieces, I screamed. I shouted my brother's name at the top of my lungs and as I looked up, the gorilla had frozen in place. He must have been shocked at the sudden uproar, he looked intensely at me and I noticed his arms shaking. His eyes were watering, maybe I was reflecting my feelings into him. I was scared, gripped by fear of death. He may have been innocently riled up to the point of fighting as if his life depended on it.

It only stopped him momentarily and shortly after he would unleash a brutal smash down on me. As he swung down, all I did was crumble up into a ball and continously apologize. It was what I had done whenever my parents were on a rampage. Huddle up and repeatedly apologize until the beating is over. This time my conditioned reaction would spell my death.

I thought back to when I played video games with my brother, he had always saved my character from receiving a deathblow in the games we played. This time was different and when he saved me, he became a real hero. He tackled the gorilla infront of me and saved my life. He must have recognized me, when I was tending to the wounded, but it may first have been when he heard me scream, that who he had seen was, beyond any doubt, me.

My brother had a short exchange of blows with the other gorilla before he shoved him away, granting him some distance as he refocused his attention to me. My brother ran to me in a rushed sprint, almost falling over himself. He grabbed me and held my tight under his chest and ran deep into the thicks of the forest, with only one arm free. He kept running, until he fell down from exhaustion. We were safe, far away from the bloodbath. I don't know how many survived the brutalities, I am sure many more lives were lost.

I haven't spoken of this with any soaring monkeys and I think it is best I keep it to myself. I don't want to out myself to be different, but this also means I may never know if anyone else were victims of the body swap.

Other than the gorillas, we wouldn't be able to tell the other species apart from the wild life. We can only hope they have found a way to survive.