Sighted

Happy (Body) Harvest

Alex

These bodies all look...too fresh.

The bright sunlight has slowly been warming away the autumn chill of the morning. I stand up from kneeling on the firm ground next to the last body. One of my assistants from the hospital is still taking pictures, having helped take down my coroner's report.  It's taken a lot of hours but the last examination at the scene is complete.

A lot of people say things about the newly deceased, such as "she looks like she could be sleeping" but that's inaccurate. Humans have instincts even if we don't rely on them. Another person breathing, hearing them take in air as they talk, or their body shifting as they sit next to us are all things our brains take note of, even without acknowledging it. A body being absolutely, completely still is more interesting to our instincts and much more noticeable.

This body, that was laid out by the forensics team almost twelve hours ago,  looks like she could be newly deceased. Her hair, lightly streaked with gray still shines.  Her skin still has its elasticity. All of the victims' bodies here look minutes fresh. No rigor mortis. No bloating. No blood pooling. As if the killer could just be a few steps off into the treeline.

I've seen some messed up stuff but a tractor-trailer abandoned on the side of the highway with fifteen bodies really is sick. And that's even considering the truly weird stuff I've seen in the last four years.

The call for a coroner came in the early morning hours after getting the emergency call. The scene along this narrow stretch of highway outside town was already hectic with law enforcement agents when I arrived. The forensics team had their hands full documenting the grotesque scene inside the trailer and then carefully untangling each corpse.

A make-shift tent was set up with a covering overhead and one side braced against the wind. Bright works lights were brought in for use while it was still dark but have since been taken down as our work went on past sunrise.

The victims range in ages and genders. They are all dressed in what we are presuming their own clothes since they each fit the victim wearing it, in various styles and types.

It's the similarities that are chilling. There are no physical wounds, aside from a minor bruise here or there. They've all been washed recently, an unfamiliar soap scent is on all of them. No identification or personal effects. And all of their shoes were unfastened.

Currently, the local police and state patrol are on the scene, along with their forensics team and my staff from the hospital. There has been a lot of talk about this case reaching the F.B.I. You don't need supernatural senses to feel that there is something uncanny behind the deaths. Still, I called in an expert.

Peeling off the last of many pair of nitrile gloves, I head over to one of the hazmat bins set up and toss them in.  Scanning the crowd swarming the grassy shoulder of the closed off stretch of road, I quickly locate my expert.

Gin's small figure is heading back this way, her athletic stride easy and precise. Among all the uniforms here she's easy to spot, her casual clothing is perfect for running down a demon or confronting a goblin. She was already out patrolling last night's Halloween festivities but I had to call her here after seeing the strangeness of the victim's bodies.

The dead bodies appeared in all ways, to me, to be human. There was a time I wouldn't be questioning if the bodies I dealt with were human. Or not. Or, if what killed them was...something else. Now, Gin's brought me into a different world.

She's been talking to Owen in her earbud since a little after she arrived.  Knowing those two, Owen probably hid a camera on her, so he has fast and easy access to the deceased , to start digitally diving for information on them.  Out here on the highway, he loses his omnipotence the city gives him with all it's smart security and CCTV.