Utterly Mad

    The three of them talked as they walked, and Catnip found L and Kyle to be ready conversationalists. From L she learned about the Misling and from Kyle she learned what there was to know about the Cor.

     Simply put, the Misling were humans mutated into a small selection of rodent forms. Specifically, mice. There were a few bird and ferret Misling, but these were anomalies. Incapable of reproducing. The Misling were made from America’s cast offs, mainly homeless people abducted off the streets. For most of them, the transformation into a virile workforce had been traumatic but beneficial. For one, it got those of them who were addicted to drugs off the crap they were putting in their bodies. For two, it had provided them with food and shelter until the cataclysm began. “That was when the AI in the lab went apeshit.” L explained, “Took all the handlers and scientists and turned them into Misling too. We managed to shut it down about two years later and escaped. Since then, we’ve been mostly living and working in pricetown.” L herself went on to explain that before her transformation, she’d been out on the streets because of a gambling problem. After the Cataclysm, it had got her in trouble. “But that’s none of your business.” She told Catnip.

     The Cor on the other hand weren’t the result of a controlled experiment. Instead, they were the result of poor handling of Prescott’s water supply. Someone had mixed the wrong batch of “stuff” up at the ol’ water treatment plant. “Something in the filters I guess. Turned everybody into freaks.” Kyle said casually, “Even other mutants can’t drink the water, so we pass out bottled to visitors and warn them away. Whole sections of Old Prescott don’t even get water anymore since we shut the valves. You don’t wanna be a Cor, death ain’t pretty for us. Most of us are sterile, thank god.”

     “They explode when they die.” L explained. Catnip looked at the deformed man with a bit of sympathy and confusion. “She’s telling the truth. It’s a… messy sort of death. No fuckin’ clue why whoever installed those damn filters had to turn us all into volatile freaks. My daddy went not long ago, wandered off into the desert. We do that, so nobody else has to see it or clean up the mess.”

     “I’m sorry…” Catnip said, not sure what else there was to say. She didn’t know what having a father was like, except maybe a little. She thought about Floyd, and wondered how he was taking her disappearance. She hoped he hadn’t gotten hurt in the attack, hoped he didn’t believe she was dead.

     “No need to be sorry, just our lot in life. Besides, so far as I can tell, we live full lives. My daddy was eighty six. Remembered the good ol’ days. Liked to bitch about ‘the liberals’ and their ‘commie leaders.’ Heh. I guess I’ll miss the old guy. Uh… gimme a sec.” Kyle seemed to be overcome suddenly as his lips seemed to squirm a little. He turned quickly from Catnip and L so they couldn’t see his face and crossed the road. It was like he’d gone to examine something only he could see, but Catnip could hear the sounds he was making. She guessed that even here in this place, it was sad times.