William had just started to eat a roast dinner when a knock at the door interrupted him. Evening visitors were a rarity, more than likely it was Sam, the only worker in his employ with some farm related query.

"Sorry to disturb your dinner but I think you need to have a look at this." The look on Sam's face adding weight to his words.

"What is it?" William inquired already pulling on his coat and recently discarded work boots.

"The chickens, they are acting strange." Said Sam, sounding almost embarrassed to be bringing something so bizarre to his boss's attention.

"Strange how?" William asked reaching for the torch he kept by the front door.

"It looks like they are attacking each other." Sam replied.

William gave his farm hand a firm look. The lad wasn't akin to pranks, something was wrong and he intended to find out what.

The torchlight threw shadows against the corrugated barns that housed the chickens, walking between the two large structures the sounds of something unusual could be heard from within. By the time they reached the access door, whatever was happening was in full swing. Thousands of birds all flapping made it hard to pick out the individual animals as the entire mass moved in a frenzy.

"Go back to the house and tell Liz to call the vet. Tell her it's an emergency and to get him to come straight out." William instructed Sam firmly. "And try not to worry her when you do it."

When he was alone the weathered farmer walked among his birds, wings beat at his calf muscles, leaving blood spatter across his pants. His eyes sought to make out the individuals that made up the group. Finding what he looked for, he moved towards the broken body and plucked it from the masses. Blood ran from its wounds dripping steadily on to the oblivious hens below. He had seen many a hen pecked bird in his time but never one like this. They had pecked it to death and beyond, tearing at its flesh until it came away in chunks. Looking he found several more such corpses before he retreated from the dusty barn interior. Laying the birds on the ground he turned to meet Sam who was returning from his errand.

"He is on his way, probably be here inside of an hour." Sam puffed. "What's happening in there?"

Damned if I know!" Will replied. "If it doesn't stop soon it will be a whole rotation lost."

"Damn! I didn't know chickens ate chickens." Sam exclaimed eyeing the corpses laid out before him.

"Well they don't eat chocolate bars, you know what they eat and it ain't normally each other." Will regretted being so harsh on the lad, it wasn't his fault. The stress of the situation was getting to him and standing helplessly while the sound of thirty thousand birds pecking each other to death did nothing to change that.

The vet, true to his word arrived within the hour but most of the behavior had ceased before he had a chance to observe it. Ben had been the towns only vet for fifteen years and in all that time he had never seen anything like it. At first it had been gradual as some of the animals seemed to calm. Slowly the calm had seemed to spread as the creatures started to enter a trance like state. The few remaining birds had kept their aggression up to the point of exhaustion before finally the whole barn was calm once more. Almost all of the animals were injured to some degree. All that was left to do was assess the wounded and analyze the cause as best he could. He had William run a dozen of the less damaged carcasses through the farms pluck-er while he bagged a few of the feathered ones for study.

"What is your best guess?" William asked respectfully of the educated man.

"Some kind of virus I suspect, although I'm yet to hear of anything so rapid." He replied looking over the barn. "I'll take some back to the clinic and have a look first thing in the morning. There's not much more I can do here."

"I have a long night ahead of me sorting through this lot." William motioned to the dead and dying birds.

"I will not wish you good luck. I'm afraid it wouldn't do you much good anyway." Said the Dr while motioning to a round shape hole in the roofing iron about a foot across ."That's some hole you have in your roof there?"

"Well I'll be damned." Will stared in amazement. "That's the first I have seen of it."

Well I'll leave that mystery up to you and let you know as soon as I solve this one." Grabbing his bagged evidence, he headed back to his vehicle.

Directly beneath the hole in the roof was a small crater, it had gone unnoticed in all the confusion of birds. Whatever had come through the roof had done some damage, pieces of chickens lay littered around the edges of the crater and a red stringy mess covered everything. William knelt to closer inspect the substance which to him seemed more like plant matter than something he was used to seeing in a chicken shed. He was just starting to rise when a movement behind him caused him to turn, as Sam swung a torch, catching him across the head and sending him backwards into the crater. The last thing William seen was Sam's emotionless face before he lost consciousness.