"The day the bombs dropped in 2077 towering buildings were brought to rubble, thousand-year cultures demolished, human life lost, and entire animal species decimated. In Stone Zoo, Massachusetts, less than a handful of the once vibrant and diverse animal population remained. Among them Oscar the ostrich survived the blast of radiation from the nuclear fallout by burying its head in the ground when the bombs went off.

Although Oscar kept his head protected, the rest of his body was irradiated causing weakening of the wings, unnatural growths of skin around the exposed neck and extra-muscular, trunk-like legs. Eventually Oscar's wings, which acted as a shield during the blast, sloughed off the ostrich's torso, making room for his now over-sized legs.

After days of starvation confined in his cage Oscar resorted to eating his dead mate's carcass; after weeks he resorted to auto-cannibalizing his fallen wings. No one knows exactly how the eggs emerged from the ostrich's plumed body, but guesses are they appeared after Oscar ate his born and unborn young. Some say eating his family made Oscar feral, others say the radiation melted his brain--and still others speculate he shares a hive mind with his unborn children.

Today, Oscar's name has long been forgotten. The Ghouls simply call him "The Mother"."