The Seeds of Cain
An Extract from The Seeds of Cain

The seeds took. Rudimentum experimentum primum Dei was back. And it had made its way to Prague. It knew intuitively that it and all of its kind were under threat. And it also understood, from a time when the creatures had roamed the Earth unhindered, that man, that being that now controlled both heaven and earth, was their enemy.

    It had come to Prague to stop a threat to itself that it knew about so that they could once again roam free. It had left Paul David Devon’s Caribbean lair and come to Europe back when it remembered that it was originally a European, from a Swiss-Italian barony. But somewhere over the Atlantic it had begun its transformation. And it had wandered Europe aimlessly waiting for someone or something to tell it what to do, itself only knowing that how it looked could get it killed.  And so it hid and waited. Until finally, a signal came from two others like itself. It was an order, telling it where to go.

    It had followed European railroad tracks to get to Prague, not that it understood railways, but because there were thick woods that grew densely on either side of the tracks that would keep it out of sight. It had run through gardens and vineyards, small creeks and large ponds, always staying hidden in the brush. ‘Man is the enemy,’ an internal voice desperately pled, ‘he has wiped us from the Earth before, and he will do so again.’

    It did not ignore the voice. It was no longer human enough to pick and choose its battles. It ran on intuition. It was also learning. Early on it had come across a four legged animal. An animal which barked at it angrily and growled until a puddle of drool coated the ground below its sharpened teeth. The creature had no problem killing the animal. Killing it and then eating it. Little did the creature know that where this animal went, usually man was trailing a tad bit behind.

    The creature now avoided all forms, shapes, and size of this animal. As well as animals, as inviting and as defenseless as they were, which stood behind fences, in cages made of thin wire, or that had a rope or chain around its neck.

    These beasts were the property of man. And man protected what was his.

    The creature ran through Stromovka Park, the largest park in Prague and one that occupied the center of the city. Though as a creature it would never be able to identify the park, it knew that there were trails outside of the city that led inward to this park, and it knew that once it left the park it would be in the urban center of the city--within the dwelling of man.

    It had no choice. They as a species had to be preserved until they could reproduce. And as a predatory animal, it also knew that they had to destroy that which was hunting them to survive.

    The creature came out of the park and ran alongside a major highway. It knew the danger of these roads, as it had dwelled in the woods around them. But within the city center, the woods usually vanished and were replaced by soaring buildings of brick and mortar, metal and glass. It was no different next to this road. But still, it ran alongside it, in what man would call an emergency route, though this information would be lost on him now.

    It could see its destination. The odor, or the signal, or whatever it was that was driving it was stronger here. It knew that the building it was looking for was old, near a park with a panoramic view of the city. Though the creature could not distinguish Baroque Era architecture from Post Modernism, it could imagine the view perfectly in its head. It saw tram tracks and a giant museum. But here, with its quarry in sight, it stopped. Something was setting off an alarm—an internal alarm.

    At some time, centuries ago, man used the creature to fights its battles. The creatures would be sent stoically into battle, pitted against an army that laid in wait behind a huge wall. Though the creatures oftentimes went when ordered, they could not get into the rage that their masters so desired until they began to feel pain. And man always delivered—throwing spear, stone, hot burning oil, and whatever else it could, until thus enraged, the creatures provided man with the blood and destruction that he continuously seemed to crave.

    But, with their numbers deteriorating, and extinction a near certainty, the creatures developed some defensive weapons that man could have never dreamed possible. The creatures began sending out a signal like the odor which attracted bees to flowers and a brainwave which brought turtles back to the same beach year after year to reproduce. It was an alarm that would trigger an internal signal within the attacking enemy and send them into a frenzy of self-destruction. The signal never lasted long, but it always lasted long enough to bring about the collapse of some well-defended cities.

    The creature sent out that signal now. Little did it know that it was standing above the Vltavska Metro Stop. That walking towards it, perhaps three and a half, four blocks away, was John McFadden, the enemy. It did not know that it could be rid of its enemy now. It was still following the trail left by its brothers. But it somehow knew that now was the time to release the trigger and drive man mad. That a threat to its existence was nearby, and that it had to stop it so that it could reach its destination. It released it and moved on, starting its sprint across the river and leaving behind the forests and the trees of Stromovka Park that had so protected it.
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