Dark Seasons

Case 3964: Document 2

Papers rustle again, and Pierce's chair scrapes against the floor as he stands to slide a piece of paper across the interview desk.

CP: Is the man in this picture here the one you found in the snow?

Yunis waits for thirty seconds in silence, studying the photograph carefully before replying.

JY: Yes sir, I think that's him.

CP: His name is Doctor David Quinn, and he was one of the lead psychologists at Blackgate. Our medical examiner found the cause of death to be hypothermia from extreme exposure. Continue, please.

Yunis clears his throat, tapping nervously against the table as he continues.

JY: We had no choice but to move the body so we could break in the doors. Two of my men used manual hydraulic rams while the other eight of us took up defensive positions around them, semi-auto weapons at the ready. We all had expectations for what we'd find inside, but I'll be honest sir, I don't think any of us were prepared for what we found when the doors crashed open.

CP: Describe every detail of that lobby exactly as you first saw it. No detail is too small or insignificant.

JY: Well, the minute the doors were clear, my two men with the rams immediately stepped back and the rest of us rushed forward in front of them. Before I even got a good look into the room, the first thing that hit me was the smell. Even with the cloth that covered the lower half of my face, I could clearly pick up the stench of rot. You know that smell, like when a rat dies in your roof or something? Take that, only ten times as thick and putrid.

There's another pause as Yunis takes a moment to compose himself.

JY: The second most obvious thing in the room I saw seconds later as we swept the room, weapons and flashlights raised. There were at least twenty bodies strewn about the entranceway and the lobby. Some lay on the floor as close as a foot away from the doors. Some were strewn across furniture, some slumped against the wall, but they were all dead. That much was obvious fairly quickly.

CP: Describe the bodies, please.

Yunis stops his tapping as he speaks.

JY: Six of them looked like they were patients. At least, there were six of them that wore the white jumpsuits of the inmates, patients, whatever, but most of the white in their clothes was now stained deep red. I recognized the uniforms of three of the male bodies as that of security guards, and the last eleven looked like they were maybe orderlies or nurses. We still had to check each body to confirm the deaths, and when we got closer, we realized how gnarly things really were.

Yunis stops, takes a shaky breath, then continues.

JY: They weren't all dead from the same causes. The lucky ones, they looked like they had just been shot or stabbed. For them, there was minimal blood, usually from a single lethal stab wound or bullethole. There weren't very many of those bodies. Most of the corpses in the foyer looked like they had literally been ripped apart. Their chests had been carved open, with their intestines and other organs spilling out onto the tile floor, floor that was almost entirely covered in dried blood and human entrails. It was a fucking bloodbath in every sense of the word.

CP: Did you touch or tamper with any of the bodies in the lobby?

JY: With all due respect, sir, we only got as close to those corpses as we had to, and then we got the hell out of there. My men and I, we've seen a lot of shit while on the force. Hostage situations gone wrong, school shooting aftermaths, you name it. We kept our heads through all of it. But our first sight in that asylum, that made half of my squad lose their stomachs. I've never seen anything like it, and I pray to God that I never do again.