Floyd intercedes.
“Besides, there are unique birds.”
Chandra gets suspicious.
“How special?”
Sheriff Hansen points out to the broilers houses.
“Let me show you.”
The Sheriff guides her to one of the broiler houses. Mr. Floyd follows them. They pass between workers, police, and paramedics taking care of injured workers in a couple of ambulances. Everyone watch them passing by.
In front of one of the broiler houses, there are a couple of dead birds, bigger than ostriches, lying dead with their large white feathers stained with blood.
Chandra is stunned. She checks out the chickens, pulling out her phone and taking pictures. She interrogates Floyd.
“Do you use a particular product, Mr. Floyd?”
“We are using Mutanex, with which we have significantly improved our performance.”
Chandra moves her head skeptical.
“Yeah, right! Since when have you been using it?”
“Since last October.”
The birds’ noise becomes deafening. Chandra covers her ears with her hands.
“Broiler houses have got quite agitated,” explains Floyd, “they have not been fed or given water since the incident. No one dares to enter!”
A thin young deputy comes running, speaking choked to Sheriff Hansen.
“There is a survivor in the broiler house number four, Sheriff!”
Sheriff Hansen turns vividly giving him orders.
“Bring everyone over there! And, bring all the artillery we’ve got!”
“Right away, Chief!”
The deputy runs away.
Sheriff Hansen, Chandra, and Floyd rush to the Broiler House number four.
Upon arrival, the chickens’ tumult threatens to bring down the broiler house.
Behind them, four sheriff deputies arrive carrying assault rifles and high-caliber guns. Some farm workers come too.
The young deputy handles a shotgun to Sheriff Hansen.
Floyd peeks into the front door’s transom. Among the excited crowd of giant chickens, some birds peck on a skeleton, almost clean of flesh.
“We couldn’t do anything for them!” Floyd cannot hold back the tears.
Chandra puts a supportive hand on his shoulder and looks through the door’s transom.
From inside, a giant chicken manages to grab Chandra’s jacket’s lapel with its great hooked beak pulling her inward strongly. She struggles in vain to break free.
A shot booms like an explosion. Sheriff Hansen has blown the head the bird with his shotgun, deafening Chandra, who put her hands over her ears in pain.
The clamor of the birds suddenly gets silent throughout the farm. The atmosphere freezes heavily. Everybody is startled.
Floyd points through the transom at the ceiling of the nave.
“There she is!”
Chandra looks over Floyd’s shoulder into the broiler house.
A modest country girl, small and thin, holds with difficulty on a beam under the roof. She is bloody, dirty, sore and scared. Floyd yells at her.
“Hold on, girl, we’re getting you out of there!”
The lugubrious warble of one of the birds is heard over the heavy silence of the farm.
Time freezes in the silent tension.
Suddenly, the cry of thousands of birds explodes in a massive shriek.
The stridency makes everyone cover their ears. The walls and the wire mesh are shaken violently. It seems they will not be able to contain the birds for too long.
Inside the Broiler House Four, some birds flap and jump trying to reach the young woman on the beam with their sharp beaks. She attempts to kick those that manage to get close enough
Outside the Broiler House Four, Chandra, Hansen, and Floyd talk in a circle.
Sheriff Hansen loads his gun with grit.
“Let's rush in, fully armed, and take her out of there!”
Floyd stops him.
“I’ve got a better idea.”
Floyd turns to a couple of male workers, one small and thin, the other, tall and burly.
“Bring a ladder and the tool box, quickly, please!”
Both workers run away.
The noise and the shudder of the broilers house look like if it is going to come down.
Floyd beckons Chandra and Sheriff Hansen to follow him.
“This way!”
Everyone runs after Floyd between two broiler houses, intimidated by the ruckus of thousand giant chickens.
Some birds get their heads through the wire mesh trying to peck them stretching their necks.
Sheriff Hansen and his Deputies shoot at the chickens that try to get out through the holes in the wire mesh.
Dead animals’ heads hang off from the holes in the wire mesh.
Floyd stops at the side of the Broiler House Four pointing to the roof.
“Right here!”
Chickens crowd in where they have stopped, threatening to bring down the walls and the wire mesh of the broiler house.
The birds from the contiguous broiler house do the same, menacing them by both sides.
Some deputies lose control and start shooting at the chickens. These become even more violent. Sheriff Hansen tries to calm his men.
“Ceasefire! Ceasefire! Damn it!”
The two workers arrive followed by other co-workers, bringing a ladder and tools.
Chandra looks at the girl over the beam through the wire fence.
“She can’t keep clinging from the beam much longer!”
Floyd gives orders to his men.
“Put the ladder right here! We must lift the tile above her and pull her out of there!”
The older farm worker alerts Floyd.
“Boss, the roof won’t hold much weight!”
Chandra addresses Floyd.
“Do you think that it could hold my weight?”
The smaller and thinner worker approaches:
“I can go, too. I just weight less than a hundred pounds.”
Floyd ponders Chandra and the thin worker, and nods. He turns to the other workers.
“Stand the ladder right here and hold it tight!”
The birds get angrier seeing them rising the ladder.
A huge bird manages to get its head through a hole in the wire mesh casting a powerful bite to one of the workers while holding the stairs. He is severely wounded, falling to the floor screaming and bloody.
Sheriff Hansen and his assistants shoot at the bird, killing it.
Another worker replaces him under the ladder. A couple of other employees take the injured away.
The crowd of birds of both birdhouses reacts angrier. The wire mesh looks as if it won’t resist them any longer.
Sheriff Hansen and his men shoot at both broiler houses.
The farm workers hold the ladder. Chandra climbs it. The small worker follows her.
When Chandra reaches the middle of the ladder, a chicken stretches its neck through the wire mesh and reaches her pant with its beak, making her almost fall.
Chandra gets scared at first, but she overcomes her fears, drawing her gun and shooting the bird in the head.
Chandra finally gets to the roof followed by her shaky companion. They carefully walk over the metal tiles of the pitched roof.
From below, Sheriff Hansen and Floyd warn them.
“The girl is exactly under you!”
Chandra’s companion kneels and detaches the metal tile with pliers, lifting it. They peek at the roof opening, finding the surviving girl hardly clinging from the beam.
Chandra holds out a hand to her.
“Take my hand!”
The girl looks down.
The birds get angrier. They jump one over the other, making a pile and almost reaching her.
The girl shouts scared and takes Chandra’s hand.
Chandra and her companion try to pull the girl up through the opening.
Chandra peeks down into the br
oiler house. The birds pile up massively, almost reaching the beam where the girl is. Chandra draws her gun and shoots at the birds. The girl shouts, scared.
Finally, both manage to pull out the girl to the roof.
The birds pile up and bang the roof angrily underneath them. The metal tiles shake.
Both rescuers help the almost fainting girl to walk over the roof.
The birds hit harder underneath the roof taking down the metal tile where they are standing.
The thin worker falls inside the broiler house yelling.
The girl almost falls too, clinging from the roof. Chandra grabs her hand and tries desperately to help her.
Looking down into the broiler house, Chandra sees the fallen struggling and shouting among dozens of giant chickens that attack him tearing him into pieces.
Other birds pile up, trying to reach the girl.
With great difficulty, Chandra pulls up her just before the birds could reach her.
As soon as Chandra gets her hands free, she draws her gun and shoots the birds that are attacking the fallen worker. But she soon runs out of ammo and can’t stop the slaughter.
The crowd of giant birds rapidly rip apart man’s skin, limbs, eyes, ears, muscles, guts. He dies instantly becoming a bloody mass that quickly becomes a clean skeleton under the frantic birds pecking.
Both women watch the scene horrified until they realize that, next to the roof opening, the birds have piled up, threatening to get out. They beat the metal tiles from beneath, shaking the roof.
Chandra hurries to take down the girl to the ladder over the shaky roof.
Floyd and his Workers help the women descend the ladder.
A couple of paramedics arrives, taking the girl to their nearby ambulance.
Sheriff Hansen and his deputies shoot any bird that tries to get out by the roof and the wire mesh holes, which get wider and wider with the pressure of the bird’s pounding.
Sheriff Hansen yells through the radio.
“We are running out of ammo!”
When Chandra climbs down the ladder. She cries, exhausted, and embraces Sheriff Hansen.
“I couldn’t save him!”
Sheriff Hansen pats her shoulder, affectionate.
“You did all you could! And you have just saved that poor girl!”
At the entrance to the farm, a large movement of vehicles of rescuers, firefighters, SWAT team, the press and TV rush in.
Floyd shouts alarmed over the loud noise.
“If the animals get out, all those people are in danger!”
Sheriff Hansen continues yelling through the radio.
“Bring that SWAT team transport over here! We have just run out of ammo!”
But Floyd’s worse nightmares come true.
The birds of the Broiler House number four breakout through the roof and the wire-mesh holes.
Hundreds of angry giant chickens run between the broiler houses toward them and the crowd of people at the entrance of the farm.
Hansen and his deputies shoot at the massive birds’ flock. They must run for their lives when they run out of ammo.
The birds reach them, attacking a couple of farm workers and a sheriff’s deputy. They fall under a group of birds being dismembered with fury in seconds.
The rest of the birds chase them.
Sheriff Hansen drags Chandra by the arm into the ambulance. Floyd and three other Sheriff's deputies enter through the back of the ambulance, too. The paramedics close the door on time. A group of birds hit the doors hard, shaking the vehicle.
Inside the ambulance, Chandra, Sheriff Hansen, his Assistants, the paramedics and the saved girl are crowded together.
A throng of birds surrounds and attacks the ambulance, shaking it violently. They peck the glasses of the windows furiously, splintering them.
Through the ambulance windows, they watch with concern the enormous and ferocious birds running into the crowd of onlookers at the entrance to the farm.
Outside the ambulance, sheriff deputies and state troopers shoot at the flock of huge birds failing to stop them. They get in droves to where the crowd is.
The people flees in terror chased by the birds.
Some victims are attacked simultaneously by large groups of birds that dismember them and clean their skeletons in seconds.
SWAT team members jump from their cars and shoot against the flock of birds.
Some agents install heavy machine guns over the SWAT trucks, strafing the flock of birds.
The firefighters bring out their hoses and throw powerful jets of water against the birds.
Other SWAT team and police cars arrive and help the fight.
News’ and police’s helicopters fly over the place, illuminating the farm with their spotlight. Police officers shoot at the birds from the helicopters.
From a police chopper, a police officer sees in awe the whole extension of the farm at night under the choppers lights shooting his machine gun against the chickens.
There are thousands of giant birds running loose over the place attacking the crowd of people.
At the Broiler House Four, one of the SWAT team tanks approaches to where the birds are escaping and fire against them.
An agent takes out a flamethrower and sets fire to the Broiler House Four.
The police officer on the chopper sees, amazed, hundreds of giant birds turned into living torches running maddeningly around the farm.
Chapter 16. The Aftermath
The sun rises over the poultry farm. It looks like a battlefield in the aftermath. It is full of patrol cars, SWAT team tanks, ambulances, rescue team and firefighter’s cars with their multicolored lights flashing.
There are also several TV news stations trucks and helicopters flying overhead.
A couple of broiler houses are still burning. Firefighters try to put the fires out.
Paramedics, rescuers, and coroners carry the injured and corpses.
A police cordon prevents the crowd from trespassing the perimeter.
The whole place is covered with huge dead birds, human remains, and wreckage.
Chandra drinks coffee from a paper cup, sitting on the back of an ambulance with a blanket over her shoulders. She looks exhausted, shocked and full of scratches and bruises. A young paramedic attends her solicitously.
Sheriff Hansen approaches her.
“Well, Agent Wilkinson, we had a great adventure. Had you seen something like this before?”
Chandra looks at him shaking of cold and in shock.
“I’m considering my transfer to the fight against terrorism. It should be safer.”
The Sheriff laughs, patting her shoulder.
A police chopper flies over them. They look up at it.
On the chopper, sitting at the open door by the machine gun, the police officer watches the poultry farm wreckage in the aftermath. The sun rises between the smoke columns over Arkansas’ fields.
Chapter 17. Back to the Headquarters
The day after the chicken farm’s events, Chandra enters the offices of the FBI agents showing bruises and scratches on her face and a bandaged hand.
On seeing her, Mora and a couple of agents stand up applauding at Chandra. Most of the office imitate the clapping and cheering.
Mora makes the most fanfare.
“¡Dale, chiquita, dale!”
A few agents try to remain on the sidelines.
Chandra is surprised and doesn’t know what to do, flattered.
A tall strongman, who looks like an intimidating Viking, standing near the door takes her by her shoulders shaking her in the air.
“Bravo, Wilkison, you are the worthy daughter of your father!”
A tough female agent hugs her with pride.
“We’ve got a hero! Congratulations, kiddo!”
Chandra makes clumsy gestures of thanks and goes to her desk.
“Thank you…! Thank you…!”
Arriving at her desk, Mora is standing and clapping at her.
&nbs
p; “You really showed what you’re made of.”
“Thanks to you in part, though, I almost got turned into chicken food.”
Mora laughs. Everyone sits and continue with their work.
Mora leans toward Chandra.
“You show them you’re right, that’s what count.”
Chandra smiles at him opening her mouth to reply, flattered, but the tough female agent stands up, grab a TV remote and boosts the volume of one of the TV sets.
Everybody stops their affairs paying attention to the news.
On the TV screen, a young pretty TV reporter gives the story.
“There is more information on the events at a poultry farm near Charleston, Arkansas.”
The image shows an aerial view of the poultry farm in Arkansas. Multicolored flashing lights of patrol cars, SWAT, firefighters, and paramedics are all over the farm.
The TV reporter continues narrating.
“Last Tuesday night, there was chaos at a poultry farm near Charleston, Arkansas.”
The TV screen shows a stampede of people chased by the giant birds’ break. She also must run as some birds chase her and the cameraman.
The TV reporter continues talking off screen.
“Police, SWAT teams, and paramedics were needed at the scene to restore order and help victims.”
There is a video of police officers and SWAT agents shooting at thousands of giant birds who were in disarray on the farm.
Paramedics carry wounded to ambulances. Terrified people runs around them. The scene is chaotic.
The TV reporter explains the situation:
“Witnesses statements point to the responsible for these events.”
On the screen, at dawn, after the events at the poultry farm, Tim Floyd is shown speaking to the camera with the farm in ruins in the background.
A group of reporters with microphones, cell phones, and recorders surround him. At the bottom of the screen, one line says:
“Tim Floyd, manager of the Poultry Farm ‘Healthy Birds’, Charleston, Arkansas.”
Floyd speaks at them.
“GMOs companies should be regulated and investigated to avoid events like these.”
Floyd is replaced by Sheriff Hansen on the screen, who talks, surrounded by reporters who tend microphones and mobile phones.
“The heroine of this evening was the FBI agent Chandra Wilkinson, who saved a worker’s life risking her own.”
Animalypse Page 5