An Ominous Warning

Part 11

It had just turned dusk in the Argentine town. The sky was crimson, and eerily calm. The only movement was very quiet as the town's residents prepared for the long winter. There was a sense of fear that hovered over the town. Recently a man had washed up on the shore, and ever since people had been turning up missing. This has included several of the local constables that were investigating the disappearances. Without protection, the town's inhabitants no longer felt safe.

“I'm telling you before it comes back we need to leave.”, a man said to his spouse.

“I've lived here all of my life. I'm not leaving just because a few people went missing.”

“Well, I'm leaving with or without you. I don't want to go missing as well.” His spouse continued packing their knapsack.

“How can I keep you from leaving?”

“Don't! Come with me instead! It's not safe here.”

“People are going missing. Maybe they just took a vacation without telling anyone. Besides, I'll keep you safe.”

“Police have vanished. Don't you understand, if they can be taken, anyone can!”

“I'm not worried about that right now. I'm worried about you.”, he said as they embraced. It just seems so odd, to be so frightened of nothing.”

“But it showed up before every person went missing, and the constable I had spoken with told me it looked him in the eye. The next day he had vanished.

“I promise that I will protect you. I won't let some bull take my Sweetie.”

“I won't let it take me either. Please come with me!”

“Why are you so freaked out by this? This is so unlike you.”

“I saw it last night outside, and now the widow down the street went missing. I think it made eye contact with me, and that we're next on its list.”

“That's nonsense. How does a bull even take a person let alone write a list? By the mouth or something?”

“I don't know, and I don't want to find out.”

“How do I change your mind?”

“Kill the bull.”

“We don't even know who it belongs to. How about I just take it back to where it came from? It has to have some sort of markings on it.”

“That's what the constable was trying to do, and he's gone now. Why can't you just leave here with me?”, after packing his bag, the man started packing one for his spouse.

“I'm not going and you shouldn't either.” They grabbed their bag and dumped it on the bed. They then grabbed their partner. “Shh.”, they said as they tried to comfort their spouse again.

But the man pushed them away, grabbed his back, and stormed out of the house.

“You know I've got your keys right here. Besides it looks like you're too late.” They nodded their head to motion to look down the street. Down the street they could see a red heifer walking slowly while chewing it's cud. Other people down the block ran into their homes, and one family took off down the street in an old Cadillac with all of their furniture strapped to the roof.

“Look, go inside, I'll see who it belongs to and get it back in its pen before night fall.”

The bull appeared to ignore the spouse as she grabbed the rope around its neck. But it walked past them, and walked to the end of their driveway dragging her with it.

It stopped and just stared at the man. It swallowed what it was chewing and stood motionless. The wife started looking for markings.

It stood there for a minute or two, mooed toward the man, and began walking back the way it came.

“I see who it belongs to, I'll make sure it gets home. I told you it's just a lost bull. It seems rather docile, but I'll check things out, just stay here please?”

As his spouse walked away with the bull, the man went inside to get his spare keys. They were gone too.

He looked down the road anticipating the worst.

The wife took the steer by the rope around its neck. It belonged to a neighbor down the street, but she didn't realize they had gone missing too.

It was a bit of a walk, but in trying to keep up with the bull it became a run as it trotted home. It only looked at her to be sure it didn't step on her.

As they approached the farm in which it belonged to, she could see a farmer rocking on a chair, back and forth.

“Howdy, I think this bull is yours?”

The man just rocked back and forth.

“Sir, it seems like your bull keeps getting loose.”

The man continued rocking.

Oddly the other cows, which were usually greeting guests with moos, were dead quiet, and the farmer's blank stare along with the fact that he didn't acknowledge her, made her say, “I'll put him back this time but watch that it doesn't happen again please?”

She opened the gate of the pens, where the absence of cows was very suspicious. The bull walked right in, which also seemed suspicious. Nothing was adding up to her. The bull was acting weird, this farmer wasn't acting right, and even her spouse was acting oddly, but she was starting to trust his instincts.

The old farmer, as though in a trance, got up, and walked back into his home without even looking her way, and without a “thank you”.

“You're welcome. Asshole.”, she muttered under her breath as she closed the gate again.

It was then that the wind blew, and she caught the whiff of dead rotting meat. She followed the fencing along the road until she came to the barn where the smell was coming from.

As she opened it the smell of death gagged her to vomit. Inside people, cows, and bulls were hanging from the ceiling from some form of mucus membrane. Yellow grubs made the masses of meat crawl and writhe with life.

Just as she went to scream the old man prevented her from doing so. He had sneaked up behind her, and just as she opened her mouth he shoved one of the yellow grubs down her throat to keep her silent. After a short struggle the grub made itself at home.

No one noticed the next day that the couple was gone, mainly because there was no one left on their street. Over time the whole town was lost. Only one man remained in the town. The man from the sea.

He rode the last bull out of town dragging a cart in which more carcasses were covered by a hemp tarp. The man, woman, and farmer were among the bodies now full of grubs. The man from the sea would go on to take over most of South America. The slugs were now migrating northward.