ISIPHO SOKUZALWA (Gift of Birth) by MINENHLE S MKHIZE

BIRTH

The year now is 2029 as 17 years have passed since the unfortunate incident occurred by the result of the deadliest disease ever to be created in the face of Earth. The planet is overgrown with vegetation as it has covered roads, train tracks, and buildings which have rusted from the foundation to its apex; due to the climate changes of temperature, making the buildings crumble down into bronze and red dust. Animals of the wild that were once captured and living in zoos have all escaped and they roam the streets of Sydney, Australia, the Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium of South Africa, London, Tokyo, the Lake Michigan Bridge, and other locations. Even domestic animals have to adapt to the new environment in order to survive. Each different species populated the world, increasing the numbers that were once going extinct due to the limited freedom of movement, and human overpopulation.

A web of food chains preceded naturally and the world blossomed gang-green coloured forests with various species of primates climbing up trees and moving from branch to branch. The date is precisely unknown. While the animals were venturing in all places, a pair of chimpanzees are play wrestling under a tree rolling and grappling one another. The further away they distance themselves from the group, the more easy to be preyed. The two apes stumble upon boulders of concrete discovering a ragged old building that seem to look like it was blown up halfway to pieces - it is the laboratory near the Pentagon.

They begin to enter into it, level by level they use the stairs to go down deeper and deeper. What they saw when going down at each level were gadgets of equipment hanging on the wall, symmetrically-designed tubes filled with orange and green coloured concentrated amniotic fluids (the fluid from the woman's womb), and embryos in each stages of development. It is a horrific scene to see for the apes as they ran screaming in fear trying to get out of the laboratory. However, in the shadows of a corner wall as daylight seems to never shine there, they encounter a full grown female white tiger in the hunt for their blood. She pounces on them but they jump on opposite directions; in their struggle to find a way out, swift agility is used as they dodge the tiger as it tries to catch them, and little by little she fail to do so.

You can see into the eyes of the predator that she may be exhausted; perhaps, due to the injuries she has suffered when growing up or she has not had much luck in catching any big prey to feed herself. This can be the reason as to why she stays in the darkness. As the the tiger and apes move at one place to another, they arrive in a certain area where large capsule-shaped chambers are stored in and chains hanging in front of the open doorway space that enters to these capsules. Both chimpanzees climb up the chains and hung there while the tiger jumped with much strength that she could use hoping she will grab one of them. As the tiger uses the wall to leap on and thrust herself towards her prey, her paw accidently presses on a button that opens the hyperbaric chambers, it makes this blinking zooming sound that frightens the three animals away.

A cold misty cloud comes out; you can almost imagine the feeling of the cold chill going down your spine, what it reveals were two human beings: one is a female Caucasian and the other is a male African. They are naked, they feel cold and are confused as they crawl onto their stomachs and elbows because their legs are so numb from being asleep for 17 years. They gaze around their surroundings not knowing where they are. They struggle to stand on their feet, working their way up to the knees; curling their feet while doing so, pressing their jaws together in agony - at last they managed to stand firmly on the ground. They shivered in bitter coldness and their skin began to have goosebumps all over, on that account they search for any clothes to cover themselves but managed to find white coats hanging on the wall from scientists who wore them.

They look around in amazement at every demolished detail of the laboratory like detectives in an investigation searching for clues. They are pressing, touching, licking and smelling at any object they find. All of a sudden, while doing this they start having visions of past events right back to where the scientists experiment on the human anatomy, they see samples of blood, and hair in compact size zip-lock folders; also, how they were placed into the hyperbaric chambers.