Part Two

Gordon surrendered to fatigue and drove home, barely managing a short conversation with his wife Tina before he went to his room and collapsed on the bed on top of the covers. It felt to him as though he had only slept for a few minutes before Tina was shaking his shoulder to wake him. As soon as he rolled over to open his eyes, she handed him his cell phone.

“Hello?” he groaned.

“Gordon, you need to get back in here as soon as possible,” Janice said.

Rolling out of bed, he checked the time and cringed. “Look, I’ve had all of three hours of sleep-”

“Yes, and I’ve had two before I got called back in by the FBI. Something happened at the office building. They won’t say what just yet, but they’re gathering all of the detectives who were watching the scene to get their impressions first.”

Gordon shuffled across his bedroom. “I suppose the criminals are still showing up to confess as well.”

“Yes, but the rate is down to a trickle of one or two people every few hours now.”

“Well I’m at least getting a quick shower and shave in before I come back. I may look dead, but I don’t need to smell like it as well.”

Tina watched him hang up the phone before he started to gather a clean set of clothes from the dresser. “How bad is it?”

Gordon shook his head and went into the closet. “I’ve got no clue. Well, I’ve got a few, but they don’t mean anything yet. We were sent out to watch a building last night and wait for the FBI to show up.” He set his clothes down on the counter in the bathroom and started to undress before he thought of something Frank said. “I think the agents who relieved us are missing, and the building is empty now.”

“You wouldn’t say what you were watching last night.”

“Bodies. There were hundreds and hundreds of bodies, and not a one of them wearing a stitch of clothing. They were all just stacked up like… like a warehouse of mannequins.”

***

The FBI agent who walked to the front of the room looked only a little less tired than Gordon felt. Though he’d spoke to a number of agents, no one had yet explained what was going on. He had only been asked a number of repetitive questions. Had he seen anyone suspicious around the building, or did he notice any large vehicles in the area? When the agent asked a rephrased form of the question of whether he’d seen anything suspicious, Gordon ended up laughing and commenting “Yes, I saw a suspicious stack of bleached bodies.”

The agent coughed to clear his throat and waved his hand for quiet. “I’m agent Eric Wesley, and I want to apologize for dragging all of you in so early. I understand that many of you have been working overtime to handle the recent surge in criminal confessions. We had hoped to find some new information through you, but it appears we’ve got no answers for what happened.

“At six oh eight AM, federal agents arrived at the building to relieve the first shift. They found every light on, and every window open with the blinds raised. Inside, equipment was left strewn about as if it had been dropped, and all of the bodies were missing, along with our agents. As near as we can tell, the point at which the building was emptied occurred ten to fifteen minutes after a fleet of vans left with the first bodies. We have calls to confirm those vehicles were in transit, but they never arrived at their destination either. Every van has been recovered empty.”

The room buzzed with detectives trying to ask questions, but Gordon ignored the rest of the meeting. He returned to his desk, remaining silent as he considered an idea.

“Do you want to take a few confessions or take a road trip with the vigilante first?” John asked, breaking the silence between them.

“We never did run Frank’s prints or check his background,” Gordon said. “Before we talk to him again, I want to find out who we’re dealing with.”

***

Frank looked down as the officers removed his cuffs and left the room without locking his wrist to the table. He sat back in the chair and stared at the door for a few minutes before he glanced up to check the time on the clock mounted over the two way mirror. It was eight thirty-two, and he had little doubt he would be leaving the building within the next hour.

The door opened at eight thirty-five, and he nodded to both the detectives as they walked in. “The two of you look like you could use a few more hours of sleep.”

“I have seen better days.” Gordon sat down in the chair across from Frank and set down a folder. “You’re something of a tease, you know that?”

“Yes, all the girls tell me that as well,” Frank remarked.

“We’ve done a background check and found nothing particularly incriminating. You were born Frank Magnus, but you took the last name of your foster family, formalizing your adoption by the Kemp family when you were eighteen. After graduating from high school as a valedictorian, you had a  brief tour of duty with the army and served one term before leaving with an honorable discharge to pursue a degree in criminal justice on your GI bill. You graduated with high scores, but you never worked as an officer or applied for a license to work as a private investigator. Instead, you’ve worked a number of part time night shift jobs. You move around a lot, and beyond that, there isn’t much we can find about you that’s out of the ordinary. If your records are accurate, you’re a pretty boring thirty-two year old bachelor.”

Frank smiled. “I’m disappointed, and at the same time, relieved.”

“What do you mean?” John asked.

“I’d expected you to dig deeper, but then again, with you being so swamped, maybe you were hoping for an easy answer.”

“So what did we miss?” Gordon took his cigarette pack out of his jacket and dropped it on the table.

“A lot.” Frank slipped a cigarette from the pack and leaned over as Gordon lit it. “At every location, I’ve been a student in some form of fighting. I know six styles plus three sword forms, and over the years, I’ve collected a number of black market weapons. I’m also self trained in making improvised weapons and bombs, and a thorough search of my house would reveal a large stockpile of bombs and guns. Finally a search of the storage room I rent would reveal a very large quantity of thermite, enough to make you both very nervous, I would think.” He paused to puff the cigarette. “I’d always wondered if I was really staying off the grid. It’s a shame I had to turn myself in to have you confirm that I was.”

“But what you saw has got you rattled enough to come confessing to us instead of leaving the city.”

“Yes, absolutely.” Frank drummed his fingers on the table. “So are we going for a ride today or not?”

Gordon smirked. “You’re doing all of this intentionally. You’re waiting to lead us around and show us everything. Wouldn’t it just be easier to tell us what you saw?”

“No. It won’t be any easier when I show you, but it’s much harder to deny something once you’ve observed it for yourself.”

***

Gordon slid open the door of the warehouse and glanced back at Frank. “It’s empty.”

Frank stepped around both detectives, moving slowly for the shackles around his ankles. Behind him, two uniformed officers walked with their guns drawn. “Well, this isn’t as surprising for me as you’d think. Come with me, please. I’d like to check for something.”

Gordon fell into step beside him. “Can you tell me what you were doing here?”

“I was patrolling the area when I ran across a particularly violent mugger. I was following him about four blocks back, but he still noticed me and took off running. He ended up in here.” Frank stopped and gestured to the office at the back of the warehouse. “Stacked around that office was a pile of bodies. There were maybe two hundred people.”

“What happened to the mugger?” John asked.

“He ran into the office. I was tempted to go after him, but instead, I stopped to look at the bodies. The way they were so neatly stacked bothered me, but I started noticing other things that I knew weren’t right. Every one of the bodies was milk white. It doesn’t matter if they were white, black, Chinese, or Mexican; they were all bleached white. Not one body showed signs of decomposing, nor were there any signs of trauma. There was no bruising from blood settling, and every corpse looked like it was fresh, as if they had been killed that very same day.”

Frank pointed toward the office. “I heard a frightened scream from a man, and I decided that I needed to be hiding. So I moved over there, under the stairs.” He paused to gesture at the far wall. “I saw a dark skinned man come out of the office, and he was followed by six people. All of them were nude, and they were carrying the mugger above their heads.”

“What, you mean like zombies?” John asked.

Frank shook his head. “I wouldn’t be inclined to think so. Zombies are supposed to be shambling hordes of rotting bodies.” He smiled at John. “I think they chant ‘brains’ or just moan, but these people moved normally, and they were silent. They were just nude, and very pale.”

“Did you follow them?” John asked.

“No, I’m afraid that after looking at six people who greatly resembled the other bodies stacked in front of the office, I decided to leave.”

“Then you turned yourself in.”

Frank shook his head. “Not just yet, no. First, I mounted a small video camera under the stairs over there, and I set it to turn on and broadcast if any motion was detected. After that, I walked back to my car to get my laptop. I hid outside the warehouse to get inside the camera’s broadcast range, but the camera had shut off.

“I was still waiting for something to happen when a van showed up, and the man returned with seven nude people. The seventh was the mugger. The six guards moved back inside the office with their leader, while the mugger climbed up onto the stack and laid down.”

“He just laid there,” John said.

“Yep, and about ten minutes later, the motion sensor shut off. I waited another hour before I just started to feel extremely paranoid.” Frank looked back over toward John. “Then I went home to take off my uniform. I got dressed in some normal clothes and came to you to confess and get off the streets.

“You said you could give us proof,” John said.

“Yes, and unless it was found, there should be a wireless camera right were I left it.”

John gestured at the stairs. “Well lead the way, Frank.”

“I’m afraid with my hands cuffed to my waist, I won’t be able to reach it. I can point to it, and one of you can pry it down.”

John nodded and started walking toward the stairs before he glanced back to check where Frank pointed. “Hey, there’s two cameras here.”

Gordon looked over at Frank, who seemed to have gone a shade paler. “What’s wrong?”

“I would advise that you look down and away from those cameras and back up quickly.” Frank started moving across the warehouse as fast as his leg shackles would allow. The uniformed officers cocked their pistols, and he stopped, turning halfway around to gesture with his hand. “Come along folks. It’s time to split.”

“Why? Just because there’s two cameras?” John asked.

“I planted one, and someone else wanted to find out who did. So they have to be close by unless they have some kind of a transmitter to throw the signal with.” Frank began walking and then stopped, turning to glance at John. “Look up. There’s another camera mounted above the door, and it wasn’t up there before.”

“How can you-”

“Because I checked,” Frank cut him off before slumping over and making a melancholy expression. “I don’t guess there’s much point in running now. We’re all probably dead men already.”

***

Gordon glanced up at the rear view mirror, watching Frank chew his lip anxiously. “Are you sure you only saw two hundred bodies?”

“I didn’t stop to count them all, but I think it couldn’t have been much more than that. Were there many more in the office building? No, wait. Are they still in the office building?”

Gordon glanced at his partner. “No, and the agents watching them are missing. As for the numbers, there were many more than two hundred. It wasn’t quite up to a thousand yet, but I think it was close.”

Frank’s gaze moved up to the rear view mirror to look at Gordon. “You are starting to think about it now, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes.”

“Think about what?” John asked.

“That many bodies don’t just get up and move themselves, or did they?” Frank remarked and smiled at John’s look of disbelief. “Here, let me try saying something else. In one hour, one man moves nearly a thousand corpses, plus all of the FBI agents out of a building. Do you believe that it can be done?”

“No, of course-”

“And yet, somehow the bodies and the agents are missing. I told you what I saw is crazy, but then everything about this situation is. So what I’d suggest is-”

“We’ll go back to the office and start pulling other criminals back into interrogation to ask them about nude white people,” Gordon said.

“What?” John asked. “That’s crazy.”

“Maybe it is, but I’ll lay odds that most everyone reacts in the same way. They’ll try to dodge the issue, and all of them will get nervous,” Gordon said.

Frank sat back in his seat. “I had another idea, but yours works just as well. After that, I’d suggest you take a nap and get ready for what’s coming tonight.”

“What do you mean?” John asked.

“He’s right. Do the math here,” Gordon said. “Three days ago, Frank saw a stack of maybe two hundred bodies. We saw an office building with multiple stacks last night. That’s an additional four or five hundred bodies in two days.”

“Yeah, but you don’t believe they can get up and walk, do you?”

“Not strongly enough to put it in a report, no.” Gordon shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if I believe in them moving themselves. I know that tonight, the number of bodies is going to exceed one thousand. I also know that the person or people behind this will consider one thousand little more than a good start.” He glanced down as his cell phone began ringing and dug into his pocket to fish it out. “This is Detective Reed.”

“Are you still out with the vigilante?” Janice asked.

“We’re just returning back now. Why, what’s wrong?”

“Just get back here soon. The FBI’s found something, and you’re not going to believe it.”
 
“Another pile of bodies?”

“No, they think it’s the same pile, only there are a lot more bodies now. To add to our own problems, we had another spike in missing persons reports this morning. Whole families are missing from the east side. In a couple of neighborhoods, it looks like someone hit every other house.” She waited and heard only silence. “Did I lose you?”

“No I’m still here. I just…” He glanced up at the mirror, finding Frank watching him with keen interest. “Have they confirmed if any of the new bodies are the missing agents?”

“You shouldn’t ask that with a prisoner in the car.”

“He knew about the bodies. He’s just taken us to a warehouse where he says they were stored. If I’m not mistaken, he may have some video evidence to offer us.” Gordon saw Frank give a short nod in the reflection of the rear view mirror before his eyes flicked back to the road. “I may have lied. We’ll have to swing by his residence first to pick up a laptop.”

“No, it’s a DVD, actually,” Frank said. “I burned it already.”

“Did you-” Gordon began.

“Yes, I heard him,” Janice said. “The agents are trying to put as many detectives on the building as they can, but for now, you can stay with the vigilante.”

“We shouldn’t be long before we can return to the station, but I wonder if you could answer my question before I let you go.”

“Which- oh… they’ve found two of the agents, but they think the rest may be buried somewhere in the stacks.”

Gordon frowned. “They want us watching the bodies even though something wiped out all of those agents?”

“I’m not any happier with it than you are, but there’s nothing we can do. Somebody has to watch the place to figure out who’s behind this.”

“Maybe it might make more sense to set up some kind of video surveillance. If we stand a risk of losing people, why can’t we back off and use remote cameras instead?”

Janice was silent for several seconds. “I’ll have to discuss that with the FBI. Maybe I can convince them to try it out. We can’t really afford to lose the manpower, though it seems like the flood of confessions has tapered off at last.”

“Yes, but the rest are probably leaving the city. I’ll let you go. I need to get us headed in the right direction, and hopefully, you can work something out with the feds.”

***

Frank shuffled to the desk in his den and pointed to a blue plastic disc case. “There’s the disc you’re looking for. You can use the TV right over there to check it out. The remote for the DVD player is in the right cabinet by the handgun.”

John chuckled. “Thanks for being so helpful.”

“I tend to think of it this way. The nicer I am to the two of you, the better my chances are of getting a life sentence instead of the death penalty.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” John shrugged and set the DVD into the player. “Of course, if we take you at your word, I think the death sentence might be mandatory.”

Frank sighed, wrinkling his nose at a stray itch. “On the other hand, if you can’t figure out who this new guy is, I might not survive to see my trial.”

John was about to make a comment when the video started. “It’s kind of grainy.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to make out the details. I used a low light camera, so everything comes out in a weird green shade, but you should be able to get a good shot of the guy behind all of this.” Frank took a step forward when the man walked into the frame. “There, you see? And look who’s following him? Why, they look a lot like bodies, don’t they?”

John remained quiet, his eyes glued to the screen as he studied the tall dark skinned man who walked to the door of the office. But Frank’s assessment of the video quality wasn’t quite accurate, and the man appeared more as a dark outline with few distinguishable features.

Six of the people followed him inside, while the seventh and final man in the line broke away to move to the pile of bodies. John’s mouth fell open as several of the bodies in the pile extended a leg out to create a ladder for the man to climb. He laid down over another man and went limp a moment later. The bodies under him tucked their legs back into the pile and also went limp.

John turned to look at Frank, and then at his partner. “We’ve got to move all the bodies during the day somehow.”

“You know, I think that might be a very bad idea,” Frank said. “I was all for the idea of keeping the cops away and using electronic surveillance, and now I’ve given you an idea of who you’re looking for. But rewind that video and watch those bodies move. Then let’s go back over your idea to look for flaws.”

“Yeah, I can see it now, thank you.” John shook his head. “There has to be more than one person behind all of this.”

“There may be, but I’ve only seen one guy in this operation who still favors clothing.” Frank shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not taking guesses at who is behind this. But now you’ve seen what I have. If I told you this outright during my confession, you’d have walked away and called me crazy.”

“But you said they aren’t some kind of zombies, and that’s what they look like to me.” John’s expression pinched in a look of confusion. “How is that possible? I was in a room with these things, and they were all dead. So how could any of them move?”

“You’re asking the very same questions I did, and after giving the matter much thought, I came up with this answer: ‘I’ll leave it up to the professionals this time.’ That’s you, by the way.” Frank gestured toward the door. “Now if you’d like, I can offer you more proof of who I am, or we can start heading back to show that video to your superiors and the FBI. I would think you might want the FBI to see it right away, as it could persuade them to avoid putting more men in danger.”

John gave a short nod as he removed the DVD from the player. He turned to smile weakly at Frank. “Is your concern really genuine, or are you still working for the life sentence?”