Prologue

The thunder rolls across the darkened sky, lightning flashes earthwards splitting a tree in half, smoke rising from the ruined remains and the rain hammers down on the parched soil of Africa. The creature sits on its haunches as it takes refuge in a shallow gully as night covers the valley like a blanket, the rain hitting its body like a volley of pin pricks, but it pays no heed to the sting from the rain as it tests the air for the scent.

The scent of the She is strong… it hangs in the air pulling the creature like a magnet and then another scent assaults its nostrils… a scent that brings a guttural growl from deep within its massive chest, exposing its killing fangs in a snarl, its hairs rise on its back and rage surges through its body. Its muscles tense and it makes ready to attack… to kill… to rent and rip… the unmistakable scent of the one they called Father… the one that was different from them, the one that had to be obeyed, the one that was a creature called human.

Standing erect, it moves along the length of the gully, the wind whipping the rain down in a torrent, the branches from the trees slapping at its hideous form, but it pays Mother Nature no heed. The scent has whipped all thought of the She from its mind… all it will do is attack and kill, to rid the stench of human that taunts it on the wind.

It moves with stealth and cunning for it has the mind of a killer. The gully ends in thick shrub and its evil yellow eyes take in the scene below it. A cluster of mud huts, the scent of the hated human stronger now, but no visual source of the smell that offends it. It sits back on its haunches, puzzled and slowly a memory surfaces… a memory of the lair where Father kept it, the lair that it escaped from and the memory of the She.

With a harsh bark of rage that echoes across the village below it, the blood lust rises and its fangs longing for the coppery taste of human blood. The creature now becomes the watcher as it sits and waits for it knows the humans are safe in their lairs, but soon they will emerge to be greeted, not only by the calls of the wild but by a creature that was not made by nature… a creature that was made by the hands of man… a creature that will kill for the pure pleasure and enjoyment of killing.

The songs of the birds greeting the day are muted by the screams of terror and horror that fill the village at the creature’s swift and lethal attack… its fangs tearing out the throat of one of the villagers, its bark of rage filling the villager's ears as they run, only to be brought down and killed, tossed aside as another victim catches the killers attention, and with lightning speed is overhauled and dispatched by those razor sharp instruments of death… the head of the corpse torn from its shoulders by a powerful silverback gorilla’s hands.

Silence descends on the village… the smell of death hangs in the air, and finally, the creature feeds, its hands and fangs tearing flesh from the bodies that litter the ground, their blood staining the earth beneath them.

The wind sweeps across the dry compound, rustling through the leaves of the trees. The cry of a pack of wild dogs on the hunt brings the man to a standstill as he listens to the frightened bleats of the waterbuck desperately trying to outrun its pursuers. Through a gap in the thick brush that surrounds the compound, he catches a quick glimpse of the fleeing antelope, and then the pack overwhelms it and brings it down to the ground.

Ernst Libowitz watches the drama being played out under the searing African sun… survival of the fittest and smiles to himself knowing that his work is just that, the survival of the human race… the birth of the next generation of human, a bigger, stronger and better adapted human being.

Libowitz a scientist who worked on DNA and cell-regeneration using the cells in umbilical cords in his early life became bored with having to stick to the ethics in his job and obsessed with the idea of creating a new human species. As a result, he was shunned by others in his profession and considered insane, with one driving obsession he turned his back on the world, moved to central Africa and is now playing God in his own laboratory, manipulating genes… striving to create the perfect human being, undisturbed on the secluded game farm, bought with the millions he made selling his research to pharmaceutical laboratories.

“Ha… those fools, they distance themselves from me, but soon, very soon they will beg for my attention for I will be the Father of the new race, the world will praise my work.”

A harsh bark full of rage cuts across the compound from a corrugated iron building set apart from the rest of the buildings, bringing a smile to Libowitz’s lips.

“Hercules, my hybrid, you smell me and I know you would like nothing better than to get your fangs into my neck… you hate me for I am your creator, half mandrill half silverback gorilla, but you should thank me for you are the perfect killing machine… my first success.”

The man moves across the compound towards the sound of the enraged gorilla, opens the door and looks into the dim interior… the rank smell of blood and body waste assaults his nostrils as his hand searches for the electric cattle prod, his eyes becoming accustomed to the dimness as the Manrilla throws itself at the bars of the cage in an effort to get to its creator. Its fangs bared, in a savage snarl, its eyes smoldering with malevolent loathing as it grips the steel bars in its massive hands and tries to pry the bars from the cement bed in an effort to get to the object of its creation.

The electric cattle prod is pushed through the bars, making contact and sending the Hybrid back to cower in a corner… the dog face of a mandrill… the body of a silverback gorilla but slender, taller with a mean killer instinct looks across at its creator, open hostility burning through in its eyes. Hercules barks at the sound of the man’s voice, showing his fangs.

“Hercules, you are the perfect killing machine, you are dominant, have the strength, you are cruel and like the smell of blood, but I’m sorry my friend, for you, will live out your days behind these bars… you are not what my purpose is.”

As the door closes behind Libowitz the Manrilla watches the figure of the one they call Father leave and then attacks the bars in frenzy, its cries of fury echo in the man’s ears as he walks away. The animosity that the hybrid feels towards the man radiates off its slender muscular body like a heat wave. The creature feels movement in the steel bars and a crack appears in the concrete bed. It attacks the bars with renewed vigor.

***

Moving across the compound towards the area where he keeps his private zoo, Libowitz feels a tightening across his chest, his breath is short and he feels lightheaded. He pauses allowing the feeling to pass and then with a shake of his head turns towards the huge structure that houses the great apes… the link to creating his perfect human, but so far all his work with DNA and cell-regeneration has managed to produce hybrids… hybrids that have not survived.

He stands and watches the female chimpanzee; the mother of his greatest success… a sixteen-year-old female humanzee called Eve #4, the only one of his attempts at cross breeding between ape and human to survive in the twenty years he has been living in his self-imposed exile in Africa. The first three Eve’s all died within a year of being produced, but Eve #4 has survived… the only one to survive long enough to produce two offspring. The offspring died after a few weeks, but the man sees it in a positive light, and not a setback. Soon the world will recognize his brilliance and hail him as the Father of the perfect human.

With the African sun burning down on the parched red earth, he wipes a liver spotted hand across his dry lips as his eyes sweep the rest of the compound, coming to rest on the area where Eve is housed. The humanzee shares a smaller compound with two of his other successes at cross-breeding, two Ligers, a cross between a white lioness and a male tiger who share a special bond with Eve as she nursed them as her own.

Romeo and Juliet are about five hundred kilograms of solid muscle, the fifth generation of Ligers and are bigger than any hybrids ever produced. Both cats are very gentle with Eve and Libowitz is confident that they would protect her from any danger, but he knows that deep down inside the instinct of a hunter is there, as he has seen time and again when the cats are introduced to their live prey.

Unaware of being watched from the shelter of the smaller compound Libowitz makes his way across the dusty space that separates his laboratory from the three areas where his successes, failures, and specimens for future work are housed.

The wind comes up, sending dust devils spinning across the dry earth, and on the horizon Libowitz sees huge thunderheads gathering as if for a full-scale onslaught on the earth below them. He bows his head against the full force of the wind as it picks up momentum and rattles the corrugated iron roofs around the compound and for a second he thinks that they sound like the gates of hell opening and a shiver runs down his spine. He glances behind him, his heart racing from an overactive imagination, and on seeing that no hounds of hell have been let loose, opens the door to his sanctuary, his temple where he works to become the father of the all new human race.

***

Eve watches the only human she knows and whom she calls Father cross the compound towards the building where she grew up, where she learnt that the world outside the compound is cruel, where she was subjected to videos of wars, human killing human, bombs, the effect of radiation on human bodies, animals used for tests in laboratories. It is also where she learned sign language, where she learned she is unique, different and the world is not yet ready for her. People would kill her because they fear what they don’t understand. Father had told her, that mankind was busy destroying their own world, but soon the time would come and she would save them from themselves.

As the fury of the storm hits the compound, cutting the sun from the sky, she hears the splutter of the generator kick in as darkness descends… the small lamp in her bungalow slowly lights up as the power builds. The large splatters of rain thunder down on the iron roof, thunder rolls across the heavens and lightning forks across the dark sky, flashes of white brilliance against the black backdrop as Mother Nature hammers the earth.

Eve turns from her small window, dropping her erect posture onto all fours and moves across to where both Romeo and Juliet are lying curled up, unworried by the forces of nature being thrown at them and curls up between the two large cats, seeking warmth as her body is hairless, except for body hair on her shoulders and running down her spine to where a tail would normally be found.

***

In the laboratory, Ernst Libowitz pauses in his work as he attaches electrodes to the brain of a drugged mountain Baboon immobilized by leather straps, the top of its head removed. He waits for the sound of the generator to kick in and the fluorescent lighting over his work area to come to life. Attached to the electrodes is a screen where he is monitoring the primate’s reactions to electric shock. Slowly he turns the voltage up one notch, the eyes of the primate follow him, filled with hostile resentment and fear for it knows what is coming next.

The pain in his chest is sudden… an iron band wraps around him and all the air is squeezed out of his lungs… Libowitz collapses to the concrete floor… he pulls himself onto his hands and knees and crawls towards his desk... the pain hits him again, harder and he slumps to the cold floor… he dies under the hateful glare of the Mountain Baboon.