Strange Times: The Body

This was the first "Strange Times" story from Strange Worlds. It was improvised on March 2nd, 2013.

Episode Summary

Morgan McNulty and Nate Jester investigate a body found floating in the lake, uncertain of if it’s a person or a bloated fish. McNulty finds an ID on the body, identifying it as Jason Finkelman.

They proceed to the address on the ID and meet Jason’s wife Susan and her nine cats. McNulty callously tells her of her husband’s death. Weeping, she confides in Jester that her husband was a fisherman who had recently started working for Johnny MacNaughton. She gives them Jason’s journal and they leave her to her grief.

The two head to the docks and watch MacNaughton’s boat arrive at the docks, noticing a green glowing ooze leaking out of it. They consider getting closer to investigate, but opt to call Maxine Maker for her assistance instead.

Maxine begrudgingly arrives at the docks on her day off and tells the two that even though the Slime Guts gang is dead, the gamma radiation and spill off from their chemical compound is still poisoning and killing people, but that once her Confabulator is perfected she’ll be able to contain the effects...and that is, in fact, what she was doing with her day off. She and Jester begin flirting about what they do on their days off and a jealous McNulty insists that Maxine leave them to their investigation.

MacNaughton instructs his gang to dump the toxic sludge into the water lest he return to jail. McNulty and Jester happen upon them in the act and a shootout ensues. McNulty shoots one of the goons and another rushes her to get revenge, only to be thrown into the sludge filled water. McNulty runs out of ammo, allowing MacNaughton to get the drop on her with a shotgun as she reloads. As they stand off, Jester rushes MacNaughton and grabs his gun away, telling McNulty to arrest him. Instead, McNulty empties her clip into the scoundrel, sending him to a dissolved bloated fate in the toxic waters.