“About ten years after the war the changes started,” Yeddt said, and coughed again.
“Changes?”
“Yeah. The survivalists began to change, to become hairier and heavier.
And their babies were even more different. No one could figure out what was going on. They thought the radiation might be to blame,” Yeddt related, then trembled briefly. “Later they found the canisters.”
“What canisters?” Blade probed.
“About a dozen metal canisters were found in the lake. Biological-warfare canisters.”
Blade stiffened. “How did the canisters get in the lake?”
“No one could figure that out, either, until the hermit told them about the plane.”
“Who was this hermit?”
“An old geezer who lived all by himself way up in the mountains. He came down to trade with the survivalists every now and then, and he told them about this plane that had been flying real low over the mountains one night a month after the war started. He’d seen this plane, a bomber he thought it was, circling as if looking for a place to land. Smoke was coming from one of its engines. The bomber went over a ridge to the west and never came back, and the old man didn’t think much of it,” Yeddt said. “A few days later, the survivalists showed up.”
Blade mentally filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle. The bomber must have been carrying biological weapons and either taken a hit or developed engine trouble. Too far from the nearest base, and probably losing altitude, the pilot undoubtedly decided to ditch the aircraft. But before taking the bomber down, the crew apparently opted to dump their load of biological weapons somewhere relatively safe, away from inhabited settlements. And what would have been safer, in their point of view, than an isolated lake in a remote valley? So they’d released the canisters into the water and later crashed. Maybe every crew member was killed. In any event, no one ever returned for the canisters.
A few days later the survivalists moved into the valley and used the lake as their source of drinking and bathing water. Unknown to them, some of the canisters had sprung leaks and contaminated the lake with biological toxins. So after a decade of consuming the tainted water, after the chemicals permeated their systems and warped their glands, the survivalists began to change into something other than human. The poor, vulnerable embryos in their mothers’ wombs were especially susceptible to the gene-altering effects of the compounds.
Dear Spirit!
What a horrid fate!
“Eventually everyone became as you are,” Blade stated. “A bearish mutation.”
Yeddt nodded.
“Why didn’t the survivalists just move out of the valley? They might have been able to reverse the effects.”
“Some tried. But when they left the valley, they were killed by people who feared them for no other reason than their appearance. The rest realized they could never leave. They weren’t about to abandon the children already born. And they couldn’t mingle with their former fellow humans. So they stayed and multiplied.”
“And decided to call themselves the Breed?”
“Yes. They considered themselves a breed apart from humans. The name fits, don’t you think?”
Blade nodded.
“Over the years the Breed have grown in numbers, and now we fill our valley. Our leader, Longat, decided to send an expedition into the outside world, to test the humans, to see if we can spread outward and control more territory.”
“But why do you hate humans so much? You were humans once.”
“No, I wasn’t!” Yeddt declared with surprising strength. “My great-great-grandparents were humans. But I was born as you see me now. I was born special. One of the Breed.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you hate us.”
Yeddt leaned toward the giant, malice radiating from his feral eyes.
“Because your kind hates us! Humans despise our kind. They kill us every chance they get. The inhabitants of the town twenty miles from our valley once sent an armed posse to wipe us out.” He smiled. “We taught them a lesson!”
“What did you do?” Blade asked.
The creature smacked its lips. “Yummy.”
Blade glanced at Achilles, then at the mutation. “Are you telling me you ate them?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know!”
“The Breed are cannibals?” Blade declared, aghast at the prospect.
“Cannibals are those who eat their own kind,” Yeddt stated arrogantly. “Humans aren’t our kind.”
“But surely the Breed don’t eat humans?”
“And why not? Human meat is the tastiest there is, even better than buffalo steak.”
“You’re disgusting!” Achilles interjected.
“Are we, swine? Let me give you some advice. You take what you can get in this life, and only the strong survive. About sixty years ago the worst winter in Idaho history had the Breed boxed in. Twenty-foot drifts blocked the passes to the lowlands. The game was scarce and hard to catch, so the Breed turned to another food source to stay alive.”
“They took to eating humans,” Blade said distastefully.
Yeddt grinned and nodded. “There were a lot of humans living in the mountains surrounding our valley back then. This was before we declared war on humanity. That winter, when there was no other food to be had, the Breed turned to the only other source of nourishment available.”
Blade thought of Hickok, Geronimo, and the others. “Do the Breed still eat humans?”
“What a dumb question. Of course.”
“Are our friends still alive? Have they been eaten?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“What about the woman you captured?” Achilles queried.
“Which one?”
“The Breed captured more than one?” Achilles responded puzzled.
“They must have Milly Odum,” Blade conjectured.
Achilles took a step nearer the mutation. “Where are they?”
“I’ll never tell.”
“We need to know,” Blade said.
“Tough.”
“Do you want your torment to end or not?” Blade asked.
Yeddt stared at the giant. “You promised.”
“Only if you answered all of my questions.”
“I can’t tell you were they’re at.”
“Then do the next best thing. Tell me the direction the Breed are taking? Tell me where they’re heading?”
“I can’t.”
“Then suffer.”
Yeddt hissed. “I should have known you wouldn’t keep your word. All humans are alike!”
“In one respect you’re right,” Blade stated. “We stick together when the going gets rough. For the last time, which way are the Breed heading?”
“Go play with yourself.”
Blade had anticipated such a reply and he instantaneously reacted, surging forward and arcing his right Bowie down and in, lancing the tip into Yeddt’s groin.
The mutation screamed and tried to cover its genitals while sliding backwards.
Jerking the knife out, Blade wagged the weapon in front of the creature’s nose, splattering blood on its face. “I won’t ask you again. If you don’t answer, I guarantee you that your suffering will just be beginning. By the time I’m done, you’ll be begging for mercy.”
“You son of a bitch!” Yeddt cried, hands over his groin, blood dripping between his legs, a scarlet stain discoloring his loincloth.
“I gave you your chance,” Blade said, and made a movement as it to stab the creature again.
“Hold it!” Yeddt declared.
“I’m listening.”
A low whine issued from Yeddt’s throat. He stared at his loincloth and shuddered. “You’d make a good Breed.”
“Don’t change the subject!”