We are a group of college students living in the city of Pinebox, TX. Bo (Paul) is a history and archaeology major; Leafwalker (Matt) is a College of Natural Resources student, a hippie former camp counselor; Eli (Cary) is a Religious Studies student, a sixty-some year old Jewish man; Homer (Jon) is a Science major with a background in electronics, robotics and lasers; Adelle (Brad) is a Journalism major, a young female who is also an aspiring horror writer.

We are all good friends, and are in a book club together. Adelle hears that there is an illegal cock fighting ring somewhere in the county, and we go to investigate. She finds that it is at a nearby farm, and the next match is perhaps two weeks away. Artie O’Connor and his brother Charlie own the chicken farm, after a series of accidents killed the previous owners. (His wife and her parents, from a family he recently married in to.)

We find more information about Artie; he has previously been busted for participating in cock fights but they could not prove that the birds were his. His mother-in-law was a well-known figure locally, she was killed in a fireworks accident. Artie was not charged as he had a good alibi.

Artie’s brother Charlie went to school for genetics and biology. Leafwalker finds a paper that he wrote years ago, on how to genetically modify plants, that was widely panned. He was working for Grendel Faust, a genetic and biological engineering company. After this, he fell off the map completely and hasn’t had any activity in years in the world of science.

The closest branch of Grendel Faust is the next county over, a breeding farm. Their mission statement is all about feeding the world. There are references to the company doing breeding with livestock as well. Charlie is listed as a lab assistant (a much lower role) in later papers. There is no reference to Artie O’Connor with the company.

Leafwalker talks with the university’s Dr. Krystal Manning, a specialist in microbiology and chemistry. She knows of a Grendel Faust project called Turkey Sandwich, where they was studying large birds to genetically engineer them. Adelle realizes that Dr. Manning has been driving to the local army base, Area 12, which has a very Area 51-like vibe, and she previously had worked for Homeland Security.

We decide to set a deer camera nearby to surveil the farm. A few vehicles come and go, and one of them is a really nice red sports car — this is Charlie’s car. We occasionally see a blue Ford F-350 with Artie driving it as well. Once he has a bunch of burlap sacks with chicken feed. On Saturday we notice that several really nice cars pull in. We see that one of the cars is owned by James Flowers, a local businessman. We also see Jimmy Vann, another businessman who is on the city council. They go in and come out a few hours later. There is no traffic on Sunday.

Adelle hears on Monday that a cock fight had happened over the weekend, but not the big one we’ve heard about.

James Flowers owns a body shop and is a member of the wolf hunters club, and is serving on the city council. Jimmy Vann owns rental properties nearby.

Bo does a Google Maps search of the farm area and sees the layout of the area.

We are pretty certain that the big fight is going to be this Saturday.

On Thursday evening we get together for dinner and decide what to do. We will go to the farm again on Friday and investigate to see if we can find the genetically modified chickens. We head out there on Friday and park the truck about a mile away and hike there. Homer brings bolt cutters, wire cutters and his R/C helicopters. We get to the big gate and go around through the nearby woods. We go in to the chicken coops but they seem like normal chickens. Leafwalker checks the feed and he recognizes it as the feed they use on campus, so it is not modified.

The chickens start making noise so we bail, and hide in the woods. We hear a truck approaching, and Artie jumps out with a shotgun looking around. We hear sirens approaching and the sheriff emerges with two deputies. They find all of us, and attempt to take us to jail for trespassing. One of the deputies feels sorry for us and tells us all to get out of here. We run out and at the gate, two pickup trucks pull up behind us with some angry locals yelling about the noise. We are able to make our escape.

At campus the next day we try and figure out what to do. Eli goes to a local establishment and gets an invite to the cock fight.

It is pouring this evening and the wind is gusting hard. We head back up to the farm in Bo’s Durango and see some cars driving in the other direction, quickly. One of them is a local businessman and council member, Manuel “The Man” Travis. We get to the gate and it is wide open. The blue truck is here and is left running, but the windows are smashed. The red sports car is here too. There are feathers everywhere, blood and bones, and the chicken coops were busted open from outside in.