“They Were Not Deer”

[APPALACHIA OBSERVATION & CONTAINMENT INITIATIVE] Incident Report #: #1276-A | Anomaly Class: Eta Location: ████████ — ████, West Virginia Date of Incident: October ██, 2024 Reporting Officer: Agent ████ At 21:44, the A.O.C.I. received a call via local law enforcement channels from ██████ (56), owner of local a farm, reporting a “bad situation” involving two local hunters on his property. Dispatch flagged the language as potentially related to ongoing anomaly watch in the region, and an immediate response team was dispatched. Upon arrival at the farm, operatives were greeted by the witness outside on his front porch. He stated that earlier in the evening, he had seen two acquaintances, ████ and ████, going to hunt on the northern edge of his land. He emphasized that he had known both men for years, and this was a regular occurrence. According to the witness, after nightfall, ████, returned to the farmhouse alone. He was covered in mud and visibly shaken. He described him as pale and repeatedly muttering: “They were not deer, they ate ████.”