[Game Thread] Chapter 2 - The Chicken is Back

The chicken-thing's tentacle-like tongue whips out of his... mouth? It swats at Rasputin while Apple Tart hops about on the other side. With the chicken-thing distracted, Middie sees an opening and leaps on the it's back. lands on the beasts back, sinking his claws into the meat, following that with a vicious bite. Foul goo spurts from the wounds as Middie tears chunks out of the thing. Although some of the goo gets into Middie's mouth, he manages to hack and spit right out. It smells and tastes terrible - almost overwhelming. The chicken-thing bellows from it's not-mouth.

Although it doesn't seem at first like Middie did that much damage, it quickly becomes evident that there wasn't much holding this thing together. It seems to start tearing apart under it's own weight.

As Rasputin and Middie tear at the chicken-thing, whatever was animating it leaves. The carcass falls to the floor with an unpleasant "splurch". The monstrous appendages melt into black goo, and after a moment, the meat itself turns the color of week-old rotting meat. The smell gets worse, but somehow also less scary. A "normal" awful smell.

In the kitchen, Mr. Bigfoot pushes himself up to a sitting position. He's alive, but not unharmed. He seems weaker than his visible injuries would suggest, as if the chicken thing somehow drained him of energy. "Dumb chicken," he grumbles.

In the other room, Jane seems to shake off the daze that had overcome her when she saw the chicken thing. She looks at the rotting chicken carcass on the floor. "What happened?" she says, seeming to genuinely not know what just transpired. "I..."

Before she can finish her thought, the sound of an engine revving comes from the front yard. Through the window, you can all see the pickup truck with the strange driver spin its wheels in the dirt. It backs up, away from the mailbox it ran into, then shifts gears and lurches forward onto the street. As it speeds away, you can all see a sign painted on the rear gate of the truck.

"Cavendish farms..." Jane says to herself. "That's where Jim said he got the chicken from." Jane seems lost, like her mind isn't focused. Then she looks around at the darkened room. "Where is Jim?" she asks to no one in particular.

Jane looks down at the too cats near her feet. "Aww. Middie. You're hurt. How'd that happen?" She kneels down and pets both cats. "Did... did something happen? My head is so foggy."

After a few moments of petting, Jane picks up Middie and stands up. She holds him and scratches his head while she looks out the window again. [b]"I need to find Jim." she says. She walks over to a comfortable chair and sets Middie down in it.

Over the next few minutes, Jane goes up and down the stairs, collecting her car keys and her phone. She attempts to make several calls, but it seems like no one answers. Watching Jane walk around, you notice that she never looks at what's left of the chicken. She barely looks in that direction at all.

"Well that does it," she says. "I guess I'm just going to have to drive around town. Can't be too many places he could be. Town's not that big." She looks at you cats. "You guys be good while I'm gone, ok?" Then she turns and heads for the back door.