Typecast
The waters of Lake
Okanagan are stirring, forcing the BPRD to investigate.
Notes – This fic is based off the Animated Universe. References to the Ogopogo are a mixture of both folklore and pure fiction. I've been away for a while, but this chapter is also longer. Further updates should not be so far apart from now on. I apologize for any grammatical and spelling errors. Also, thank you to those who reviewed.
Disclaimer – All characters are ultimately copyrighted Mike Mignola, and are property of Darkhorse Comics.
Rating – Rated T.
--
Dead bodies were not something one ever became comfortable around. After years, one could become used to them, expect to see several after any kind of relentless assail. It did not make them less disturbing. It was a matter of just how horrible they were to look at.
Abe Sapien had seen his share of bags that contained beings that at one time could have been considered human. Water was a horrible cause of death. It bloated human skin, deformed faces like silly putty, paled complexions until he could be convinced that they too had blue skin.
The fish studied the girl carefully, tilting his head curiously at the almost spongy membrane stretched over her. "How long was this body in the water?" He turned, and looked up at the medical examiner.
The woman took the clipboard in her hand and flipped through the various pages of recorded autopsy data. The crows' feet bagging around her eyes revealed her age and older physique, and she was unable to hide behind the concealing make-up she wore to impress the dead bodies she examined. "She was the most recent found, so about…" She turned over another page. "Roughly eight hours."
"She seems awfully distorted for just eight hours." Liz was unnerved by the victim. She was very young, probably still a teenager. At first glance, she could not tell for sure, and that made her shudder inside.
The room was dark, the lights hanging from the ceiling having been in dire need for replacing for years. Two bodies were in another room, locked in freezers until their mothers and fathers, their wives and husbands could finally bury them. One lay on a steel table in the center of the group, covered only halfway decent by a smoky sheet. The dead knew no shame, and they cared not for being observed.
Mr. Parker watched from the back, a look of calmness across his features. This had not been the first time he graced the room with his presence, as Director Manning wanted as many details about the situation as possible before sending his agents. He knew exactly what type of trouble Lake Okanagan was holding onto. Three dead bodies. If he ever hoped for Okanagan to pick herself back up, he needed the deaths to be investigated as discreetly as possible.
If everyone knew of Ogopogo, no one would dare tread the waters of British Columbia. Mr. Parker knew without tourism, the area would undergo a terrible economic drought. Until the Bureau could remove the problem, he would have to invest his own time to ensure what needed to be done was done.
As the medical examiner pushed back the sheet further for a better view at the lower torso, Agent Sherman pointed down at several hefty, polygon-shaped marks carved into the girl's hips and legs.
Before she could ask her question, Dr. Carvin spoke. "At first, I thought they were knife wounds. The incisions are consistent with similar cases of stabbed victims. I have to be honest; the idea of a snake killing these people didn't exactly strike me as a legitimate cause of death." Her over-plucked eyebrows curved up. "I started to think it was a murder dump job until I noticed all of their lungs were filled with water."
Liz looked down at the girl. "Water?"
Abe understood. "They drowned." When the examiner nodded in response, he joined Liz in taking a second inspection of the swollen wounds. Definitely bite marks. The size of the incisors indicated something big; too big for his preference. "Something the size of Ogopogo shouldn't have had a problem with these people, if it was concerned about eating." Blue eyes blinked as he tried to piece together the puzzle before them.
Bewildered features crossed Parker's and Carvin's expressions. It was Elizabeth who stated the obvious. "It dragged them underwater." She reached out her hand a bit, as if to touch the girl's arm. She felt a connection, a mutual feeling of the fear she must have felt when losing oxygen and having life slowly sucked away from her body by an element of which no human could control. What must it feel like to drown?
"Liz?"
She snapped back into conscious thought, bringing her hand back down in a rash movement. "Looks like you were right, Abe," was all she could think of saying before turning her back against the victim on the cold table. "It's not about food."
Liz received a perplexed cast from Mr. Parker, but Abe stepped forward to explain after motioning that they were finished examining the body. "At first the Bureau thought that Ogopogo was hunting the swimmers, but with bodies that made no sense. We're concerned now that it may be killing for another purpose."
Mr. Parker's eyes suddenly widened in worry and an abrupt case of nausea swooped down his internal systems. "You mean that thing could be killing for sport?" The sight of dead bodies did not bother the man, but the thought that there was no reason for a monster's rampage was sickening to imagine. That meant no one was safe. Any passing theories that Ogopogo was swarming around specific types of possible meals dissolved, and Mr. Parker felt like he was going to throw up. Ogopogo was looking for its victims.
"Worst case scenario." Abraham felt no better than anyone else in the room. Something dark loomed over his mind, and for the first time since arriving in British Columbia, he felt a hasty pang of fear. He explained further that he and Liz would continue to investigate Lake Okanagan, but he knew it may come down to facing the outsized serpent. But that was their job, defend the general public from monsters, from things that were deemed part of the abnormal and paranormal world; things nightmares were made of.
"You have our cooperation, Agent Sapien," Mr. Parker repeated.
Liz felt the urge for a cigarette. "Keep the people out of the water," she instructed.
As the agents stepped towards the door with their supervisor, Mr. Parker collected himself long enough to restore his professional demeanor. Glasses were pushed over his eyes, giving a condescending feel to the man. "Agent Sherman, I assure you that the well-being of our residents and guests is first on our priority."
"I'm sure it is." The fire starter's tone was not lost on her comrade's ears, but Mr. Parker did not seem to pick it up. He simply smiled, and held the door open for the lady, like a gentleman.
Mr. Parker accompanied Liz and Abe in the taxi, requesting to pay for their expense. For the first ten minutes, the ride was quiet but calming.
Kelowna had a visually stimulating loveliness about it, but as long as they were working they could not appreciate it fully. That was the worst part about working away from home. The urge to just stop and enjoy the look around could rarely be satisfied. These weren't get-aways, to be sure.
"Could I interest the both of you in joining me and my wife for supper?" Mr. Parker asked suddenly.
Abe answered. "Thank you, but we need to have a look at the lake, today." In truth, he didn't want to be around Mr. Parker any longer than he needed to be.
Their overseer shrugged in response, and rolled down one the windows. "Yes, of course that would be better. My wife has been upset lately. Her sister called last week, and our niece has not called in from her work. With all of the ruckus that has been plaguing here, we thought the worst. The Ogopogo, you understand. But, since no body has turned up from the lake, we're just waiting for her to call. I've assured Sarah that the girl's probably with that boyfriend of hers. The young will be young, eh?" He smiled again, winking.
Guilt hung over Liz, as she felt she should have been more interested in Parker's story than she actually was. "I hope you find her."
"Oh, I am certain she'll turn up. She's done this before. Turns out she ran off to Quebec. But I must be boring you now." He could read Liz's face well enough to notice that both she and Abe were not particularly interested in hearing the man's life story. "I just thought Sarah would enjoy some more company. I know she would love to meet the likes of you two."
"Maybe we'll meet later," Abraham said in a means of hopefully ending that part of the conversation.
Unluckily, Parker continued. "I do hope so. She does not get out of the house much. Perhaps you could show her that wonder fire I've heard so much about from the BPRD, Agent Sherman. Agent Sapien, you yourself would be enough to…"
Abe frowned. "We're not here for entertainment, Mr. Parker."
Realizing his words offended, the little man waved his hand in an apologetic manner. "Oh no, I do not mean to show you off as circus folk. It's just not everyday we meet people as unique as yourselves. Surely you understand our…enthusiasm."
"And I'm sure you understand we've got a job to do." Liz crossed her arms and sunk in her seat, remaining quiet for the rest of the drive.
--
Once back at the Inn, Abe immediately returned to his room to prepare for the next part of the mission.
Opening the window so he could value the view of the outside world, he retrieved his belt from the bathroom where he had left it the previous night. From the corner of his eyes, he spotted the full tub that he had forgotten to drain properly. The bed the Inn offered was too hard for his liking, but the tub was big enough; he had to credit the Inn for that, as he often used them as a makeshift place to sleep whenever he was forced to spend the night away from the comforts of his room at the Bureau.
Pushing down the plug release, Abe secured his belt before grabbing his gun. It would not serve him much purpose underwater and he did not want to ruin it, so he would have to leave it behind. A knife would serve well enough, but he hoped he wouldn't have to use it. Hating to go into water blind of what he was looking for, he had no doubt he would know it if he found it.
Through it all, Sapien was just looking forward to the swim. He and Liz couldn't exactly take vacations whenever they felt like it; in fact, he could not recall the last time either she or he took a leave of absence. So, taking advantage of Lake Okanagan while he could seemed appropriate - especially if the Bureau was paying for it.
The crackling of the cell phone forced Abe to pace back to the main front of the bedroom, and scrimmage through his bag. He knew it would be the BPRD checking in for an update on the situation. "This is Sapien," he answered, pressing the speaker button so he could continue what he had to do to prepare.
"Abe, I think I found something that could be useful."
He recognized the voice, and it made him pause for a second. "Kate?"
A small laugh came from the other end. "Yes, it's me."
"When did you and Hellboy get back?" In truth, he was interested in knowing what their emergency had been and how it had been carried out, but he had a feeling he'd get an earful from Hellboy when he returned if it were actually interesting.
"Several hours ago. When I heard that you and Liz were sent to handle Ogopogo, I did a little more research." Where would the Bureau be without Kate Corrigan? "There hasn't been a case of a death by it in over a century, and even those reported back then were sketchy. Some were proven to be homicides concealed as Ogopogo threats."
Abe stepped into the conversation, recalling the morning. "The medical examiner first thought the bodies were stabbed. But everything leads me to think the Ogopogo is drowning them."
He overheard Kate typing away on her computer at the opposite end of the receiver. "It's not impossible. Back when the original natives of British Columbia controlled the land, they believed the Ogopogo was a great beast of the sea. They originally named it Naitaka, before the children's song deemed it Ogopogo. Sightings back then were apparently more common. They even carried animals for sacrifice in hopes it wouldn't attack when they had to cross the lake.
When English settlers came and took over with their own God, many of the natives believed Naitaka became enraged at the lack of respect it received. Apparently the settlers threw it all off as a folk legend. Even though a few sightings were recorded, the only sort of unusual activity centered on livestock drowning."
"Self-sacrificing for the Ogopogo?" Abe asked, making certain he had heard right.
"Yeah, if you want to call it that. When one man tied his horse to a stake to keep it away from the lake, it dragged the stake along and drowned itself. Eventually the farmers learned to keep their animals in enforced pens, but that's when more frequent sightings of the Ogopogo started to appear. Nothing much could be done, because no one could prove Ogopogo was responsible. By then, it was considered nothing more than a fishwives' tale."
Abraham rubbed the back of his head. "When people stopped offering it sacrifices, and the sacrifices stopped coming to it, it's possible that it could be extracting personal revenge on Okanagan."
"I think there's more to in than that." The computer keyboard clicked more before Kate's voice claimed the phone. "There's a native legend of these worshippers of Naitaka. They thought it would grant them immortality in the next life if they supplied it with living sacrifices. They believed animals weren't pure enough, so they tried children and virgins for a while. But when the bodies floated back to the shore, the people of the tribes were furious. Apparently they tore out the worshippers' entrails and threw their bodies into the sea for Naitaka."
"Never a good way to go." His voice didn't falter.
"I know. There are still stories going around about the restless spirits of the Naitaka worshippers reincarnating. The legend continues to say that they plan on offering the bodies of the innocents so that Naitaka can take its place back as a god of Okanagan."
--
Something about the taste of tobacco could not be toppled. Liz knew it was bad for her.
All of those years of living with people preaching lung cancer against her had not accomplished much. Cigarette's knew their place between her thumb and first finger, and the smoke was her companion. To bring new friends was to just exhale, allowing another wave of sweet taste through both her tongue and sinuses. She had gone too long without that company, and it was good to be reacquainted.
A sudden shriek spoiled the serenity of her moment, and she jerked her head around to confirm the whereabouts of the noise.
Liz sighed. It was just the kids on the other side of the wooden fence, throwing each other into the swimming pool. She had not stepped away from the tourists enough, but what could she do when the motel forbade smoking inside of the rooms? She could live with hollering children, and the occasional gaping person who thought she must have been the most interesting person there.
With the lake closed off for "pH testing", the other inhabitants of the building had to find other ways to entertain themselves. Some families went out to visit other areas of British Columbia, assured that they would be given discounts for the unexpected misfortunate of the lake being cautioned. A lot of people stayed in their rooms, enjoying television, while many lived it up by the pool.
Mostly children swam in the controlled waters, their parents close enough to keep and eye on them. Two women argued over the plot of a book, teenage girls swooned over a boy pretending to be the lifeguard, and an old man tapped a cane against the side of his chair, observing the spectacles around him.
The Kelowna Lakeshore Inn had a gorgeous landscape. Beauty all around and Liz could understand why it was a popular tourist attraction. With the storm long since passed, blue skies highlighted the darker waters and pushed out the vibrant trees. The surrounding rocky hills gave the area contours that anyone could appreciate without binoculars.
The lake was breathtaking. Despite knowing something wicked treaded its depths, the cool breeze pushed over the sea like a coarse blanket. Yet, it was so inviting. For a moment, even Liz was tempted to step into the sparkling black lake.
All she needed to wake out of that dream was remember that a snake also tempted Eve with something beautiful.
When the butt of the cigarette threatened to breach her thumb, it disappeared with a wave of her hand and a flash of fire. It was like watching a magician trick, and it caught the passing attention of a couple who had been busy trying to haul their screaming son away from the pool to eat. They were uncertain if they had seen what they thought they had, or if their eyes were playing tricks on them.
Liz ignored them, and drew another cigarette out of its box. In the instant of a thought, it was on fire and dangling from her lips.
"Did they catch you smoking in your room?"
Liz smiled, not bothering to turn around as Abe stepped onto the lake sand. "They smelled the smoke." She felt slightly naughty for getting caught, but her pyrokenetic abilities heightened her yearnings for tobacco. It was her thing.
Abe shook his head a bit to clear the scent away from his face. He never cared for Liz's smoking habit. Being amphibious meant he had two respiratory systems to take care of, and second hand smoking often made him feel queasy. Elizabeth always took note of it, and when her friend showed signs of discomfort, she made the cigarette disappear.
"There's too many people here." Liz's comment resulted in a confused glance from her companion. "I mean, you think with dead bodies floating up, they'd send all of these people away. It's not like a giant sea monster is going to be hard to miss."
"Parker's probably counting on it only appearing at night," remarked Abe.
"And the chances of it playing by his rules?" She did not need a response.
Abraham took a moment to enjoy the scenery, allowing the brisk feeling of the lake scent to pass through his gills. The cold sand beneath his feet dried out his skin, making it only ache to be moistened more. While it failed to hold the stunning imagery of somewhere like Venice, British Columbia was spectacular in its own right.
"Hellboy and Kate are back at the Bureau. Kate suggested a couple of theories that I think are relevant." He proceeded to explain the information the Field Director had gathered from her research, and that the events surrounding the Ogopogo and the drowned were more than they probably appeared.
"I'm getting tired of all of this beast-god crap," Liz muttered.
"Keep your eyes out for anyone on shore." Concluding, the fish man reached down and switched on his communicating signal. It beeped once before bright blue lights flickered on and off.
Rubbing her hands, Agent Sherman could see the awe in Abe's eyes as he looked over the Lake of Okanagan. He was prepared to skim through the waters, check out the area of which they were investigating. She could see that he was eager, and it was not surprising. It was Abe's element. It would take a lot to convince him to stay out of water, but this was what the BPRD sent him to do anyway. "Ready to swim?" she asked.
His markings flushed with anticipation, but Abe remained perfectly calm. "I'm just going to scan the surrounding area for right now. That's where the bodies were found." He pointed a finger over the distance at a set of rocky hills. "They washed up on that shore, so with the current I expect everything has been happening right around here."
Liz responded by flipping on her own signal. It blinked a moment before syncing up with Abe's. "Just don't go looking for trouble."
Abe smiled, his sharp teeth resisting against a chuckle. "Usually it finds me first." Touching the knife on his belt, followed by his communicator to be certain both were in range, Abe leapt into the water.
The cold rush shot speed of adrenaline through Abe's aquatic body, and he suddenly felt his temperature plunge. It was an all of a sudden and painful reaction, as the agent did not expect it. The flash did not stall him, and he continued to swim forward. He allowed his gills to replenish from hours of quenching thirst, and his lungs shut off temporarily until he would need them again.
The water was dark, but the double lids covering his eyes adjusted quickly. Nothing much was out of the ordinary, and he did not expect it to be. He glided faster than any human could hope to achieve, and explored the world any normal man could not see. The murkiness grew the deeper he went, almost like a fog webbed in the water. His body accustomed to the increasing pressure the closer he came to reaching the bottom.
Fish scuttled and dashed out of his way, fearing him to be a predator on the hunt. Unfortunately, there was a larger fish on the prowl.
Abe was uncertain for what he was exactly looking for. He had no clue as to where the Ogopogo dwelled, how far down its grounds were. The longer the silence continued, the more he found himself on edge. Shudders filtered down his spine, but his blind search for nothing continued.
--
She hated this part of the mission, waiting for Abe while he lurked about below sea level. It made her feel useless. Certainly, with scuba gear she could follow, but the bulky apparatus only made her slow and clumsy.
Liz puffed on her fourth cigarette, exhaling black air. Hours passed by before she could blink, and no news from Abe. She didn't find herself as worried as she thought she would be. She knew Abe could take care of himself, because he always did. Both had seen their own share of giant monsters hell bent on destroying anything around them, and they've lived through it before.
Boredom often took over when she was forced to linger, and scenery no longer captivated her. It was more enjoyable when she had someone to watch it with, but she had no intention of mingling with the other residents of the Inn. Several news sets had come and gone as the hours turned, arriving and leaving out of boredom.
All, except one elderly man who never left his white chair. His cane tapped against his leg in a steady beat that never wavered, and his eyes never left Lake Okanagan, mesmerized so much was he.
Liz was not spending as much time with Abe as she wanted to. It had been a while since the two could just talk with each other. Prior to Director Manning calling them for the trip to Canada, both had been away on various other problems. She had been too tired earlier, but now the mission was moving so fast she didn't know what to do now that it had slowed down.
In the back of her mind, she could not trick herself into believing she did not secretly wish the matter didn't even involve the Ogopogo; it was a matter for Kelowna Homicide or whatever police handled murders around the place. She and Abe were not going to be needed, and could spend more time enjoying themselves, something she had not done in a long time.
She kidded herself too much. She was a professional BPRD agent, and she knew something big and bad was causing all of this trouble.
Liz's general frown lopsided and she put out her cigarette. Evening was approaching, tides were turning, and it was starting to get cold. Pulling the zipper of jacket up, Liz turned as her ear's picked up the sound of water splashing. Thinking it to be Abe, she picked herself up out of the sand and walked over to the shallow run. When she did not catch sight of her friend's shape, she strained her eyes out to try and find out where he was approaching from.
"Abe?" she called out.
Nothing but more sloshing. Instinctively, she grabbed hold of her communicator. "Abe, what did you find?"
Again, nothing.
Suddenly, something threw itself from the water, and Liz whisked her gun from her belt. Crouching herself down on one knee, she was ready to put years of BPRD training to use. She tuned out the gasps and shocking cries of the people across the fence, several of whom opened the doors to get a better look at what was making so much noise. Others remained oblivious.
At first, Agent Sherman could not make out what was clawing its way onto the sand. It looked like a blue and black mess, a barrel-shaped body sucked in around a foreign skeleton structure. Two stubs on its head butted into the ground, confusion and anger raging through its mucked features. It was covered in the sea and its life, little kippers and lake crabs plopping onto the sand around it.
Once it was out of the water, it cried out. A horrible, but familiar sounding gurgle filled the air.
Her eyebrow arched, pulling her gun down from her line of vision. "It's a cow."
--
Abe swam like the aquatic creature he was, and lost all sense of time. His search had so far been in vain, for nothing apart from expected marine animals combed the lake. He chalked up his loss of the hours to not being in any large body of water for months. Some kind of primal instinct inside of him enjoyed this, despite the ever present caution of danger that came with it.
It was a constant reminder of how inhuman he really was.
The bottom of the lake held no secrets that he could see, but it did become darker and deeper the closer he came to the rocky hills surrounding.
It wasn't until he reached a dead end, solid, mulch-infested stone did something bright catch his attention out of the corner of his left eye. The water temperature dropped.
He turned around quickly, hand poised over the knife by his side. But, it was not what he anticipated to see. He blinked in surprise, slightly taken back. Figures of pale, disturbing complexions swam forward, stopping as they realized he had spotted them. They were disgustingly repulsive to look at, some worse than others. But, Abe could tell. They were human. Or, they had been human at one point.
Ghosts, Abe thought.
There were so many of them. A few were visibly older, larger than the many who had to be children. Little children, whose beautiful faces were now stretched over distorted skulls, the sea living off of them. Kate's words returned. These were the victims of the Naitaka worshippers, the babies and virgins thrown into the sea for forced sacrifice. Abe felt a pang of pity for their souls.
He swam back against the stone as a handful darted to him. At first glance he was concerned, and considered defending himself, but they meant no harm. The children sent him sympathetic woes, and started crying in a language he could not understand. The words were fast and jumbled, the sea acting as a natural cork to their bloated vocal cords.
He shook his head at them, gills fluttering as their hysteria disturbed him. "I cannot understand you," he tried to explain, knowing they would probably not understand him, either.
Surprised was Abraham to hear a voice speak up.
"You…You speak English, fish god."
The children parted way for the shape of a man to float ahead. He looked considerably in better shape than those of the many surrounding him. The eyes that had not sunken back into hallowed sockets looked sad. "I once spoke, too." His voice was warped, but with Abe's acute underwater hearing, it was audible enough. "They are the natives, fish god."
He waved his hand around to caress the cheek of a small girl, who clung almost cutely to his mangled leg. "You do not recognize them, but they call out for you, fish god."
Abe was taken back by the title given to him. "I am sorry, but I am not their fish god."
"Then let them believe you are." This time, the voice was higher and softer. A woman took to Abe's side, whispering in his ears. "They're too young to understand. We were all murdered, fish god, but there of those of us who are of our own special group. I was the second." She took her hand, and rubbed it across the amphibian's gills. A sharp clasp of cold shot down Abe's nerves, and he curled up in shock. The woman only continued to gesture to the group. "He was the third, and she the fourth. We're the youngest here, but the only ones to speak a language your mind can comprehend."
A girl pushed her way passed the other children, and cast pleading eyes up at Abe. His own blue orbs shot open, and he composed himself back up to recognize her as the same girl they had seen at the morgue.
"I want to walk the shore," she chirped, and cried into her shriveled hands. "Oh, I want to see my mother. Her arms were warm." Without warning, she threw herself into Abe, grabbing hold for the life she had been deprived of for over a day. She was unused to being dead.
Abe recoiled, contact sending waves and incomparable spasm through his body. He jerked back, swimming up to try and escape the contact of the drowned ghosts. Contact between the living and the deceased was abnormal, apocalyptical in the face of what was right in the placement of the world's creatures.
Before he could swim farther, another ghoul threw herself in front of his vision. "Fish god, please do not leave us. You can listen." This was the fourth victim who could speak in the common mother tongue; only three recent people had been reported dead. "Please, fish god." She had the most depressing voice of all. "Each minute is an eternity, and we are all so old now."
Death to the dead was endless.
The young woman wrapped skeletal hands around her arms, and cried.
Abe spoke, "The Ogopogo…."
"It is angered by our presence, but we cannot leave. It does not want us, fish god. It never wanted us."
He took this information in, but before Agent Sapien could ask what she meant his communicator blinked rapidly. The flashing lights sparkled in the dark waters, frightening many of the ghosts away. Several remained, including the English-speaking locals. They recognized the light as not being magic or witchcraft, but were nonetheless enthralled by seeing something bright again.
Abe knew it was Liz, and knew something had happened on shore.
"Fish god?" The last ghost wrapped her arms around herself tighter, her voice never sounding more pleading. It was so cold down there. "Will you please take my body back? Please? My family must miss me so, as I miss them."
That's when it clicked in his mind. This woman, the first of the recent victims of the Ogopogo, was Mr. Parker's niece.
Not even registering in his mind, he nodded slightly. With a response received, she allowed herself to sink down. The girl, man, and other woman followed suit, as well as any other ghost that lingered after his communicator sparked off. As the temperature of the water returned to normal, Abe darted for the surface and did not stop until his head escaped the water. His lungs automatically awakened, and instantly took in a gulp of air.
The sky was growing dark, and Abe reregistered his mind to remember what he had been in the water for. He was by the rocky cliffs, the shore long ways away. He didn't want to be in the water in the night, not in current state. His eyes darted around; knowing what he was looking for, his hand retrieved his communicator and brought it out of the water.
"Liz?" he called into it.
After a couple of seconds ticked by forever, the voice came through. "Abe, there you are." He could detect the hints of both desperation and relief in her tone. "We've got dead livestock here, Abe."
Not even understanding what Liz was talking about, Abe's eyesight locked onto what he needed to find. His voice dropped low. "Liz, we've got another problem."
--
To be continued.