Ted Kosmatka: Prophet of Bones

“Chimp mother, human father,” the old man said. “And there are differences between the two crosses, it would seem. Just as a liger is different from a tigon and a hinny is different from a mule. This cross is better.”

“Your son?” Paul spit the words out. He thought of the beast pulling him up on the bridge.

“My son?” At that, the old man started laughing. He laughed long and hard, until the laugh turned into a coughing fit, and the chimps joined their voices in screeching. “You haven’t figured it out yet, my boy? You haven’t guessed?”

“Guessed what?”

“I have cystic fibrosis, which impacts the motility of cilia in my cells. This causes my lungs not to function correctly. I would have been dead decades ago if not for lung transplants. But the disease has many pleiotropic effects. It also affects the motility of sperm cells and the development of vas deferens—all men with cystic fibrosis are sterile.”

Paul’s brow furrowed.

“The sperm, Paul, was provided by your father.” The old man gestured to the hooded shape that stood off to the side. “Trieste is your half brother.”

“No.” Paul jerked his gaze toward the creature. A few inches shorter than him, but massively muscular. Black hair. Prognathic face. Wide, powerful shoulders.

“Is he not?” the old man asked. “Look at him.”

“No!” Paul screamed. He lunged for the hoist handle, curling his hand around the cool steel. He swung it with all his strength, catching Trieste in the face, smashing the creature in the eye. Trieste went down hard—the thud of meat on cement.

Paul grabbed Lilli’s hand and ran.

They were at the other end of the building when Paul heard it. A roar of anger and pain. He chanced a look back. Trieste was rising, rage twisting its strange features into a demon mask, teeth bared. It shrieked again.

“Kill them!” the old man shouted. “Kill them both!”

Trieste surged forward.

Paul and Lilli ran for their lives.

They made it to the far door, bursting through to bright sunlight, stumbling into the guard posted just outside. Paul saw the confused expression on the guard’s face as he ran past. The guard hesitated for a moment. He had no orders. Then Paul and Lilli were past him, still running as the guard called out, “Hey! Stop!”

Paul ignored the guard and pushed open the door to the next building. The guard followed but was too slow. Paul and Lilli darted inside, swinging the door closed before he got there. The guard hit the door hard, but Paul kept his shoulder against it. He realized that he still carried the steel bar in his hand, and he wedged it between the door and an I-beam, preventing the door from opening.

“Open the door!” the guard shouted. “Open it ri—” The guard paused, as if startled, his voice leaving the doorway, and a moment later the entire steel door shuddered in its frame as something huge smashed against it. The beast roared again, a sound beyond insanity. The fists came again, and the steel bar shuddered and flexed.

Paul and Lilli backed away. The door wouldn’t hold for long.

They were back in the ape house. Inside the room, the noise had risen to a sickening level. The gorilla-chimp hybrids pulsed in hysteria.

The door frame shook again, as Trieste’s fists struck twin dents in the metal door.

Paul’s gaze darted around. In the center of the room was the control booth. A room with steel bars. “Come on,” he shouted. They ran for it. From behind them came the sound of twisting metal as the door broke inward off its hinges.

Trieste screamed in wordless rage. Paul looked back. The creature’s left eye was swollen nearly shut, its massive brow split and bleeding. It charged, dropping to an inhuman lope, lunging across the room on four limbs.

Paul looked back toward the control booth and knew they wouldn’t make it.

“In there!” Paul screamed at Lilli and shoved her toward it. Then he turned to face the charge, to buy her time. Trieste might have been a locomotive. Paul was knocked off his feet. He skidded across the room, sliding close to the cages as a huge thigh-sized arm reached out from between the bars but missed. Paul rolled away from the steel bars.

Trieste came for him, lost in rage, charging in too close to the cages, and the dark arms clutched through the bars for him, just out of reach. Just brushing Trieste’s shoulder. Trieste raised its arms in a killing attack, but Paul rolled away just in time. The huge fists came down on concrete. Paul rose to his feet. Trieste picked Paul up and threw him at the control booth. Paul struck the safety glass and collapsed. From inside, Lilli screamed.

The creature came for Paul.

Paul raised one arm in defense. The blow would have killed him otherwise. The fist came down like a hammer, battering his arm away.

It was like the creature he’d fought in the woods. Only worse. Bigger. Stronger. Paul realized then that he was going to die.

Trieste grabbed him by one leg and flung him again, knocking him back against the wall near the broken door.

Inside the gated room, Lilli screamed again: “Paul, run!”

But Paul was beyond running now.

The creature approached slowly, taking its time. It seemed to notice something on the floor near the twisted door.

The creature stepped over Paul. Then it did something very human. It picked up a weapon. The same steel bar that had been used to wedge the door closed, the one Paul had used against it. It walked back to where Paul lay, and it stood over him. It raised the bar high in both hands.

“Die, brother,” it hissed in a sandpaper voice.

At that moment, there was a loud clang, metal on metal. Propagating forward, so that Paul heard it next to him and up ahead at that same time.

Trieste froze for a second, confused. Paul turned his head and saw Lilli behind the safety glass, her face pale and bloodless. She mouthed a word to him. His foggy head took a moment to process it, and then he understood. Run.

At that instant, one of the cage doors swung open. No longer locked. Then another. And another. The first gorilla hybrid stepped out of its cage, and then others followed, exploding outward in a snarling burst of black fur, and suddenly the room was filled with beasts.

Trieste turned, eyes wide. The first beast charged. Trieste swung the bar, and the gorilla hybrid batted it away. The two creatures struggled, and then another hybrid, and another, joined the fight. Screaming, thrashing violence. Hair flying, the thud of breaking bones. Paul dragged himself along the floor, trying to attract as little attention as possible. Trieste screamed in rage and pain as it was slammed to the ground. Paul heard bones break, and then fists came down. Inside the control booth, Lilli ducked under the table, staying out of sight.

Paul crawled.

He made it to the far door. He slid across the portal and pulled himself to his feet. As best he could, he walked. Those things wouldn’t be distracted for long. Paul crossed the narrow cement walkway between buildings and made it to the next door. He pushed inside, crossing the room. The room under construction. He hobbled to the far door and opened it. He looked out and saw a gorilla hybrid charging across the open space between the buildings, chasing down a man in a white lab coat. The man didn’t have a chance. It was over quickly. A shot rang out, and the hybrid turned. More shots. The guards were defending themselves. It was a war zone out there. A noise from behind him turned him around. He saw nothing but he knew he wasn’t safe. There was a loud thud as something huge struck the other door.

He looked around for a place to hide but there was none. The room was mostly empty, except for the cages piled up to the ceiling. Paul went to the cages. He looked up, reaching out to touch the cool bars. He started climbing. He climbed all the way to the top. The unstable structure shifted under his weight, swaying slightly. Because the room was still under construction, the cages hadn’t been secured to the wall yet. When he got to the top, he climbed up and over and plastered his body down against the roof the cage.