บท 137: Chapter 137: The Origin of the Cannibals
"Something's not right."
Hiding behind a rock and observing the shabby wooden hut for a long time, Jack murmured to himself.
"What's wrong?" Jessie, suppressing her nausea, watched the four ogres in front of the hut devouring a human leg by the campfire.
"Everything's wrong. The hut is too small, there are too few people, and they all seem to be adults. There are no other buildings nearby. Strange, aren't these people supposed to live in groups?"
Jack was puzzled. The group of ogres they encountered before numbered no less than fifteen. He had killed or injured about half of them, and even counting the two he killed on the way here, the numbers didn't add up.
Moreover, the four ogres here were armed with axes, machetes, and shotguns, not the crossbows capable of shooting a couple of hundred meters.
While he hesitated on whether to act, the sound of an engine approached from afar. Jack quickly pulled Jessie down, lowering her head to avoid being seen.
Within minutes, an off-road vehicle appeared on the path behind the hut, circled around it, and stopped by the campfire. A figure in uniform jumped out.
Jessie widened her eyes in surprise at the sight of a normal-looking southern white man dressed in a tan ranger uniform and wearing a cowboy hat.
After getting out of the car, he angrily yelled at the four ogres, accompanied by punches and kicks. Because his speech was filled with southern slang, Jack and Jessie, hiding behind the rock, only caught bits and pieces.
The gist of it was that he was berating the ogres for being too careless while hunting, resulting in too many casualties, and worrying that there would be insufficient labor for work in the future.
Surprisingly, the ferocious ogres remained silent, letting the ranger vent his anger. Even when kicked to the ground, they quickly got up and continued gnawing on their human meat.
"Get ready to move. Be careful; I need that man alive."
Jack whispered into Jessie's ear. She nodded, loading her crossbow.
The ranger, seemingly exhausted from venting, took a deep breath and pointed at the tallest ogre, ordering him to get something from the hut.
The tall ogre silently hobbled into the hut and soon returned, carrying a heavy sack, which he handed to the ranger.
Just as the ranger was about to open the sack, a low shout came from behind, "Move!"
A crossbow bolt shot into the tall ogre's eye socket, followed by a series of dull gunshots. In just two or three seconds, the remaining three ogres were shot in the chest and head, collapsing to the ground.
The ranger's right knee was blown out from the side, and he fell, screaming in agony.
Jack walked over, reloading his magazine as he went. By the time he reached the ranger, his gun was ready.
He kicked the man over, pressing his foot on his chest, and placed the distinctive square barrel of the silenced gun under his chin.
"I ask, you answer. Got it?"
"Ah, help! Please, take everything; just don't kill me."
Jessie struggled to lift the heavy sack from the ground. Opening it, she gasped—inside was a pile of golden sand.
"Who are you? What's with these monsters?"
"I'm Sam Eugene, a ranger here. You can't kill me."
Jessie stomped on his wounded knee, her eyes red with fury. "Tell us, what are these monsters, and why do you let them eat people?"
"Ah, spare me! It's not me who made them do it. They were born this way. Please, stop."
In Sam's broken narration, they gradually learned the origin of these ogres.
The story began over a century ago. In 1907, Indiana passed the first eugenic sterilization law, mandating forced sterilization of criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles held by the state.
California followed in 1909, and eventually, 32 states passed similar laws.
Thousands of Native Americans and numerous immigrants of color were forcibly sterilized. Surprisingly, these laws were quite egalitarian, also targeting impoverished white people.
Among them were the early "rednecks" from southern states, considered degenerate, unintelligent, and inferior.
Under the influence of widespread social Darwinism at the time, some believed that these 'redneck whites' reproduced faster than respectable white families. Without control, they would eventually replace the respectable whites and ruin the Anglo-Saxon race.
The ancestors of these ogres were those rednecks who fled to New Mexico to avoid being 'castrated.'
"How did they end up like this?"
Jack, who had a general understanding of this history in his previous life, couldn't understand how isolation and inbreeding led to such degeneration.
"I don't know either. According to my grandfather, they initially hid in an oasis in the Alamogordo Desert, numbering in the thousands. But later..."
Well, they got hit by a nuclear bomb.
Jack understood. On July 16, 1945, the USA detonated the world's first nuclear bomb at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, just a few hundred kilometers from their current location in Lincoln National Forest.
"They then fled into the mountains. Since my grandfather's time, our family has protected them. There's a small gold mine upstream, where most of them live, trading gold for supplies, while we cover up their presence."
"Then why do you attack tourists and resort to cannibalism?"
Jessie angrily twisted her foot on his wound, making Sam cry out in pain.
"We had no choice. The gold mine is exhausted, so I organized them to pan for gold downstream. It's all their doing."
"Their doing?"
Jack sneered and shot Sam's left knee, causing him to scream in pain. Immobilized by the foot on his chest, he could only writhe in agony.
Jack aimed the gun between Sam's legs. "If I catch you lying again, it won't just be a matter of spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair."
He intentionally left a hint that Sam might be spared, though in his mind, this man was already sentenced to death, regardless of his involvement in cannibalism.
"No, no! Stop, I'll tell the truth. Just don't hurt me anymore."
Sam gasped for breath, trying to cope with the excruciating pain.
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