Bystanders

by Phillip Murrell

  The program transitions to a recording during a press conference from the previous afternoon.

  Cammy pesters the police captain with another question. “Captain Jefferson, was this attack the work of the terrorist who struck the abortion clinic a few weeks ago?”

  Captain Jefferson, a weathered veteran in his late forties, sighs from the barrage of questions he seems to consider irrelevant. “We don’t have any leads right now into this open investigation.”

  Cammy presses him further. “But, isn’t it true that the tactics and weapons used are similar to those the terrorist, The Psycho Knight, has used of late?”

  Cammy senses Captain Jefferson’s disgust at yet another sensationalized name for the vigilante who seems to have a thousand already. “We don’t know if this is the work of the vigilante or other criminal elements. We’re looking into it, and we’ll keep you informed as we gather more information. Thank you, please excuse me.”

  Captain Jefferson starts to walk off camera. The shot shifts back to the present report by Cammy.

  Cammy, with a radiant smile, continues her report. “As you can see, folks, the police are once again keeping us in the dark. They wouldn’t commit to The Psycho Knight being the aggressor, but the facts point to a clear case of who did this. He may have started out as a benevolent citizen helping to clean the streets, but it’s clear that the power has corrupted him. Now he’s just a bloodthirsty maniac.”

  Alex and Kim hold each other. Tears fall down their faces. Many of their friends are dead, and the grief is overwhelming.

  Alex wipes away his numerous tears. “I’ll call Father Tom and see if there’s anything we can do.”

  His wife nods. “That’s the right thing. Let me know if I can help.”

  Alex weakly smiles at his wife and picks up the phone.

  The police have caution tape surrounding the community center. The final moments of dusk force the police to pick up the pace before night becomes another obstacle in investigating the scene.

  Inside the community center, Benji reviews the scene. Present with him are Smith, Mendez, Carlos, Karen, and Maria.

  Carlos approaches Benji. “Find anything?”

  “Yeah, a bunch of dead people,” Benji quips.

  Carlos frowns. “Pretty dark, Benji.”

  Benji sighs. “Yeah, I know. How did this happen?”

  Carlos shrugs. “There were a lot of violent crimes today, in every corner of the city. We were spread extremely thin. There weren’t many officers in this part of town because it frankly doesn’t need us as much.”

  “I know,” Benji agrees. “These are the wholesome people. I’m just sick of picking over scenes like this.”

  Karen walks up. “I hear that. Do you think it’s the vigilante?”

  “I don’t know,” Benji admits. “I can’t figure that guy out. Sometimes he seems like he’s doing the traditional superhero thing and other times he seems like a lunatic.”

  Carlos’ eyes light up. “Maybe he is crazy. Maybe he just lives near the criminals, and it’s just been coincidence that’s who he’s been hitting.”

  Karen stares at her partner in disbelief. “That doesn’t sound likely. Too many weeks of a perfect record and now this?”

  “I’ve been combing through the internet at all of the various websites dedicated to this vigilante,” Benji informs. “One is run by two boys, and they collect all the footage out there.”

  The other cops present approach the conversation.

  “So?” Smith asks.

  Benji stifles a glare. “So, there are at least two guys out there. One video clearly shows them fighting.”

  “We’ve all seen the video; so what?” Smith asks again.

  “Do you have to be such a jerk?” Maria screams at Smith.

  Smith ignores her and addresses Mendez. “Why is the rookie mouthing off to me?”

  Mendez steps closer to Smith. “If you have a problem with Maria, why don’t you tell me.”

  Smith closes the gap further. His nose is less than an inch away from Mendez. “You don’t intimidate me.”

  Benji defuses the situation. “That’s enough! Let’s re-focus. The so what is we could have a superhero supervillain dynamic at play here.”

  “Shouldn’t a supervillain make demands or something?” Carlos asks.

  “Not necessarily,” Maria chimes in, “There are a lot of examples in comics where villains just kill for sport.”

  They all look at Maria perplexed.

  “I can’t have a hobby?” she asks.

  Smith remains snarky. “No, you can’t say stupid shit. This isn’t a comic book or a movie. It’s real life, and I can’t believe we’re having a conversation about superheroes and supervillains. I’m going to get back to work. Just as all of you should.”

  Smith storms off.

  Karen voices what Benji assumes the rest are thinking. “So, what else is new? He leaves, and we don’t know why.”

  “To get back to work?” Maria offers.

  “Please stop talking. Just observe for a minute,” Mendez says to Maria.

  Benji begins to walk around the room as he thinks out loud. “There weren’t reports of that purple shield thing when this happened.”

  “No, and that sort of thing tends to stand out,” Karen agrees.

  “Exactly. So, that probably means one wasn’t used,” Benji continues.

  “Because his targets were mostly old?” Carlos ponders. “He didn’t think they could outrun him?”

  “Maybe,” Benji considers, “if he is psychotic, but if he’s a rational person, he would know some would get away. We don’t have any witnesses, so I don’t think that happened.”

  Maria nods along to Benji’s rationale. “Plus, there are too many bodies to make sense that one person got them all.”

  “Or, even two people, for that matter,” Karen adds.

  Benji gets excited from the synergy. “Exactly my point! The more you put the pieces together, the more this looks like a group of at least a dozen people attacking. At least four to block exits and the rest to slaughter those inside.”

  Carlos scans the room. “There aren’t any bullet holes in the walls or spent casings on the floor. No shots were fired. Plus, it doesn’t look like anything was stolen.”

  “There wasn’t anything to steal, Partner,” Karen notes.

  Mendez jumps in. “All the more reason to rule out a gang of evil men. We don’t know all the vigilante’s gadgets. He might have set up his barrier inside the building. Then nobody passing by would have noticed anything out of the ordinary.”

  Benji sucks on his teeth. “Maybe. I just feel like I’m missing something. Perhaps outside.”

  The group walks out the front doors. Outside, the evening has fully enveloped the crime scene. The streetlights offer some visibility but also long dark shadows. The police officers turn on their flashlights as they all look around.

  Benji scoffs. “Of course, Smith would already be gone. Where does he wonder off to?”

  The others grumble in agreement.

  Benji brushes off his annoyance. “Let’s split up and see if anything sticks out in the dark.”

  Mendez addresses his partner. “You go around the left of the building, and I’ll go right. Take your time. I don’t want to see you on the back side until at least ten minutes pass.”

  “Got it,” Maria says in a perky voice.

  The police officers separate and search the area.

  Benji calls over his confidant. “Carlos, stay with me, please.”

  Carlos looks at Karen, who shrugs and walks off. He goes back over to Benji.

  “What’s up, Benji?”

  “You’re just a good sounding board,” Benji admits. “I prefer our conversations without all of the extra comments.”

  “I don’t know if I should be flattered or offended for the rest of the uniforms around here.”

  Benji lowers his voice to a whisper. “You have to admit this is looking more and more
like a black ops government mission.”

  “Why would the government slaughter these civilians?”

  “I don’t think this attack was the government. I think this was a bunch of hooligans. The murdering kind. The kind that SOF targets.”

  “Then how come the vigilante didn’t stop them?”

  “The city isn’t huge, but it isn’t exactly small either. He can’t be everywhere, regardless of how many ‘hims’ there are.”

  Carlos shines his flashlight around the area and looks. “That’s a spooky thought. An army of armored vigilantes.”

  “That has to be step two of the government plan. This is just the beta period.”

  “Alright, I’m going to join my partner.”

  “Fine.”

  Carlos looks up again. He shines his flashlight and focuses on a nearby rooftop.

  Carlos looks back at Benji. “Did you see that?”

  Benji pokes at the ground, but he casually looks up toward where Carlos shines his light. “Huh?”

  “It looked like something was hunched over and shimmering. It was on the building over there,” Carlos says.

  Benji follows the beam from Carlos’ flashlight.

  “I don’t see anything,” Benji says.

  “Never mind,” Carlos says. “It’s gone now, but it gave me a serious eighties jungle movie vibe.”

  “Very funny,” Benji says at what he assumes is a joke about his conspiracy theories surrounding the vigilante.

  “Never mind,” Carlos says again.

  The comment is unsettling for Benji. He thinks he hears sincerity in his friend’s voice. He looks again at the building with more than a cursory glance this time. Still, there is nothing to see. Benji returns his attention to the possible evidence beneath him. He continues to poke at the ground for several more minutes.

  Mendez walks back up, having completed a full circuit of the community center.

  “Either of you see Maria?” he asks.

  Before they can answer, she rushes toward them with her smartphone in hand.

  Mendez begins to admonish her. “Where were--”

  Maria doesn’t wait and thrusts her phone into Benji’s hand. “Benji, I think you need to see this.”

  Benji looks at the small screen while Mendez and Carlos huddle over each of his shoulders.

  The video on the phone shows a team of vigilantes, one taller than the other two. They are all attacking the community center patrons. All three indiscriminately kill everyone in the room. There’s the shimmer of a purple barrier on the inside of the building. The would-be escapees bounce off it on contact and fall to the ground.

  “Where is this coming from?” Benji asks.

  “It just hit the internet,” Maria answers. “It’s going super viral.”

  Benji hands the phone back to Maria. “Well, my night just got longer.”

  Mendez slowly nods. “I think all of our nights just got longer. What do we do?”

  Benji is dour. “Wait for the ass chewing from the captain. I’m sure he’s getting his from the chief as we speak.”

  “Great,” Maria mutters. “I should have been an actor. Less drama.”

  Mendez shakes his head. “Lame, Maria. Lame.”

  In the Pierce the Issue studio, the crew busily prepares for a special bulletin.

  Cammy is joyful as she readies herself for the report. “We’re going live on a special bulletin break. Get ready, people!”

  “Okay, you’re on,” her producer says.

  Cammy is caught unaware. “Uh, um, okay. Good evening once again. I’m surprised to be on again so soon, but recent footage has just hit the internet showing that The Psycho Knight was in fact responsible for the attack on the Catholic community center that I reported on earlier this evening. I warn the audience that what is about to be shown is extremely violent and graphic. Viewer discretion is highly advised.”

  Cammy looks off camera. The footage fills the screen and plays for the Pierce the Issue audience.

  Keith and Tina are fixed to their television. Keith goes into a rage.

  “It’s not true! Beatdown wouldn’t do that!”

  He throws a pillow onto the couch and anything else he can get his hands on as hot tears stain his cheeks.

  “Calm down, Keith. It’ll be okay.”

  Keith doesn’t want to be comforted. “It isn’t true. They faked it. It has to be a fake. It has to be.”

  He starts to cry more forcefully. He feels so betrayed. Tina is finally able to wrap him up in a hug.

  “I know, Sweetie. I know.”

  Keith sobs in her arms while Tina glares at a picture of Beatdown frozen on the television screen.

  Larry watches his competition from his office. He’s in an extreme fury.

  He screams into his telephone, “I don’t care where the hell she is. You get that devious bitch in here pronto!”

  Larry slams the phone down. He looks up and notices an equally irate Gabe stands in his doorway. “I know. I know. We’re gonna fry that bitch.”

  Gabe’s fists shake from constant clenching. “That’s not good enough. She’s probably tanked my career. She got me to be the biggest First Line cheerleader there is. First Line; that name is stupid. I think we need to start calling him a terrorist like everyone else.”

  Larry nods. “Agreed. How do we recover from this? The ratings have been dropping over the last few days, and this is about to make them dive bomb.”

  Gabe doesn’t hesitate. “I think we have to sacrifice a lamb.”

  “More like a scapegoat.”

  “Exactly. Think about it. I’ve always reported on our sources this and our sources that. Same as every other reporter at this station.”

  “So?”

  “So, everyone knows Claire is that source. We throw all of this on her doorstep. We say we trusted a long-time employee, and she violated that trust in the interest of progressing her career.”

  “I like it.”

  Gabe continues to sway Larry. “You and I and the rest of D2I News are just victims. We were duped, just like the rest of the country.”

  “You know she won’t play ball. How do we handle her?”

  “Easy. We put our pieces in motion before she has a chance to use that silver tongue to convince us otherwise.”

  “Good thinking. That one is clever. She could convince you that a poop-flavored popsicle is your favorite flavor.”

  “Yup.”

  Larry expresses his decision. “So, here’s what we’re gonna do. You’re going to go on the air now. You’ve reported the First Line stuff more than anyone. You need to denounce him in light of the new information and throw Claire under the bus. I’ve got her coming here. She’ll try to run damage control. Unless she hears you reporting. If that happens, then she’s going to be a tidal wave of fury. Either way, we tell her to take the blame and that she’s fired for shoddy reporting.”

  “She won’t take that lying down. What if she sues?”

  “I doubt her lawyers are as good as mine. I’ll bog her down in legal woes. She’ll give up eventually.”

  “If that doesn’t work?”

  “If that doesn’t work, we’ll pull at her heartstrings. Remind her that Lou is dead. In fact . . .”

  He pauses. A smile slowly spreads across Larry’s face as he realizes his ace. “When you go on, mention that she was delusional after the death of Lou Drive and is seeking psychological help. Be nice on the air and wish her a speedy recovery. Then, if she complains, it’ll be the ravings of a mad woman.”

  “She’s really speaking with the loony docs?”

  “I think so. She said she planned on seeing one.”

  “Good enough for me. It’ll be hard for her to un-ring that bell if it isn’t true.”

  “Exactly why we’re in the predicament we have now. Go, get on the air.”

  Gabe runs off, as instructed.

  Keith has regained his composure. He’s still in denial of the whole thing.

  “Keith, l
et it go.”

  “I’ve got to watch D2I, Mom. They’re usually the best coverage on Beatdown.”

  “Are they the best, or the ones who think the most like you?”

  Keith ignores his mom while he turns the TV on to D2I News.

  Gabe is in the middle of a sentence. “--to apologize for being overzealous in our coverage. One reporter, Claire Kennedy, was disingenuous about her relationship with the terrorist whom this station has been calling First Line.”

  Keith erupts again. “What? What the hell was that?”

  “Calm down!” Tina demands.

  Gabe is behind his desk as he continues his report. “It appears that Miss Kennedy initially lied about her connection to First Line to gain favor at this studio. Claire was previously a hard and honest worker and had given us no reason to believe that she would violate her journalistic integrity.”

  Claire drives at aggressive speeds in her green sports car, trying to race back to D2I. She has the D2I talk radio station on, and she’s furious.

  “You bastards!” she screams at her radio. “You miserable sons of bitches!”

  Claire increases her speed and races through traffic lights, not all of them green.

  Gabe continues. “Her poor judgment was directly responsible for the death of Lou Drive.”

  Lou’s picture is shown on the television screen for a brief time, then the cameras turn back to Gabe.

  “After Lou’s passing, we at D2I believe that Miss Kennedy lost her grip on reality. You’ve heard her in this very studio claiming to have a relationship with First Line. She even spoke with him. However, it’s clear now that she only spoke with him one time and that was, looking back on it, most likely coincidence.”

  Gabe pauses for dramatic effect. “She fabricated a story that, I’m ashamed to admit, we all fell for. It was so romantic, who didn’t want to believe? Her awareness of the facts continued to falter, and she eventually succumbed to seeking psychological help. We at D2I wish Claire Kennedy a speedy recovery, but we would be irresponsible and disloyal to our viewers if we didn’t set the record straight. The footage we have just shown you proves that the terrorist First Line, or Psyops, as we are now calling him, was responsible for the deaths of forty-two people.”