Dan McClellan worked for the U.S. Forest Service back in the late 1930s. Dan was part of the WPA and loved his work as a docent or guide.
Dan spent his days off as an outdoorsman exploring the hidden treasures of the Sierra Blanca Mountains, where he was stationed.
Dan’s golden retriever, Buck, was Dan’s full-time companion, and the two were never apart. During the Second World War, Dan found that few folks came to the park, so he and Buck spent most of their time mapping the mountains.
When Oppenheimer tested the A-Bomb at Trinity, few in the Manhattan Project understood the consequences of radioactive fallout.
The Sierra Blanca Mountains are downwind during the Trinity test, which exposed Dan and Buck to a unique radiation bath.
The Sierra Blanca Mountains are formed from an extinct volcano. Their rocks contain elements from the time of the earth’s creation, and when exposed to gamma rays, they produce Cherenkov radiation.
The two became incapacitated. Dan, however, dragged Buck into an abandoned railroad tunnel before collapsing.
Over the next few days, Dan became inhuman, with Buck following his master a few days later. During the transformation, the ranger lost most of his memory, retaining only the primitive drive to protect his range from outsiders.
After the war, the Sierra Blanca Mountains became a popular tourist destination for Sandia National Laboratories employees. The stories of a mutant and his creature companion began to filter back to the park service.
In 1956, a newlywed couple was found torn limb from limb, instigating a scientific team to check into the stories of the Sierra Blanca Mountain’s Mutant.
After a year, no evidence supported the stories, and the case was officially closed. Amateur cryptozoologists continued to search, and several disappeared—their deaths were recorded as accidents.
Eighty years on, folks around the Sierra Blanca Mountains claim that the mutant still roams the land with his monstrous companion.
I wonder if Dan remembers the time before Trinity when he and Buck would hike the mountains seeking new hidden treasures to record in his field book; if so, he must miss those long-gone days of bliss.
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