Weathering The Storm

Broyles waited at the east side of Central Park. He had sent a text to both Olivia and Astrid informing them of his exact location and expected them to be arriving shortly. He had a bad feeling that Olivia was not going to enjoy this case.

Olivia, Peter, Astrid and Walter arrived and he accompanied them to the assortment of twelve body bags lying in the lusciously green grass. They seemed wildly out of place next to the enormous amount of life surrounding them. Trees and plants were everywhere filled with chirping birds and chattering squirrels, unaware of the death that surrounded them. A large section of Central Park had been cordoned off with yellow tape to stop early morning joggers stumbling across this gruesome sight.

Olivia noticed blood coating trees and covering grass. In every direction there was an FBI photographer capturing these scenes for evidence.

“Okay Broyles,” Olivia said. “We’re here, now what’s going on?”

“At approximately twenty minutes to six this morning an early morning jogger stumbled on to the scene of a man surrounded bodies. The jogger, who we’ve identified as Jim Hargan, was a gun activist and seeing the man he pulled out his gun and shot him… only he didn’t die. Hargan shot the man six times, it was only when the man was shot in the head on the last shot did he finally die.”

“That’s fine.” Said Peter. “But how exactly did the man manage to kill, what? Eleven People?”

“That Peter,” said Broyles. “We are not yet sure about but all the bodies I have seen so far have had their neck torn apart and have had bite marks covering them or chunks of flesh missing.”

Olivia felt like she was going to be sick, and she thought of herself as having a relatively strong stomach.

“Who is this guy?” Peter asked.

Broyles looked from Peter to Olivia giving them a stare that could almost be thought of as a look of guilt. “We ran his face through every face recognition software and data base we could find but we came up with no hits. As you may be aware we have recently formed a group of agents that are a sort of border patrol for the bridge and a contact to the other side.”

“I wasn’t briefed on this.” Olivia cut in. “And I don’t support it, we shouldn’t be sharing any information we have with the other side or do you forget that they tried to destroy our universe?”

“Don’t question my judgment, Agent Dunham.” Broyles reply was filled with anger. “If we wish to maintain a stable truce with the other side we must have people that can make contact with them whenever the need arises and we must share our information with them so that they know we trust them. If you believe that you can do my job better than I can then, please, step right up.”

“I’m sorry Sir.” Olivia understood the necessity of the bridge but that didn’t mean she had to like it. The bridge was created when Peter, using the machine, tore a hole in both of the universes that led to each other. And now sitting under the Statue of Liberty was a secret so big, it was to be protected at all costs. One could now simply walk across to the alternate universe with no harm done and vice versa. Which fixed many problems but created many at the same time.

“As I was saying,” Continued Broyles. “We sent the photo of our killer to the agents at the bridge who then forwarded it on to Fringe Division on the other side and what we got back was rather surprising.”

“He was from the other side?” asked Peter. “But how is that possible? The only way to get here is through the bridge and that is guarded 24/7, not to mention that over there the bridge is also inside the Department of Defence.”

“Yes Peter, he was from the other side but that’s not all.” Said Broyles. “He was identified as one James Norwich.”

“What’s so amazing about that?” Asked Peter.

“What’s so amazing about that Peter is that James Norwich, from the other side, died in a car accident three days ago and was buried last night.”

“Oh, finally!” Cried Walter. “I’ve been waiting for a good zombie case!”