THE FOLLOWING IS A RECORDED CONVERSATION BETWEEN FIRST RESPONDERS AND ONE DETECTIVE ANDERS. ANDERS IS AN OLDER DETECTIVE IN THE FIELD, AND WAS PRIVY TO THE EVENTS OF FIFTEEN YEARS PRIOR, DURING WHICH THE MAGGOT MAN WAS MOST ACTIVE. HE WAS THE HOMOCIDE DETECTIVE IN CHARGE OF THE LOS ANGELES MURDERS DURING GRANTHAM'S STEADY STRING OF MURDERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.

--File 018: Detective Anders--

10/12/XXXX

Anders: "Do we know if the kid is dead?"

Mendez: "No, he's not dead. EMT's didn't look too good, though, and neither did he. He's going to need to be pumped, at the barest minimum."

Anders: That's if he survives this particular breed in the first place."

The camera strapped to Officer Mendez's chest catches Anders holding up the body of a fly, lip curling in disgust, the lines of hatred clearly on his face. He drops the body and grinds his foot on it more aggressively than is probably needed.

Mendez: "Anders, some of the guys at the precinct were saying that this is a copy cat."

Anders: "A copy cat."

Mendez: "Yeah. You know- of that Maggot Man killer, fifteen years ago."

Anders: "I'm well aware, yes."

Mendez: "Is it? Do you think it is? They say you're the professional on him."

Anders: "I am far from a Professional on the subject, Mendez."

Mendez: "Well, you know what I mean. I wasn't there. None of us were."

Anders: "I don't know what this is, and I have to keep a clear head to try to determine for myself what is going on. Where's the girl? Is she still waiting to be questioned?"

Mendez: "Shock squad should be done on her. She's sitting with the other kid, [BEEP]. You know- the one who killed his dad."

Anders: "I remember the case, Mendez. I was there for that one, too. He's in my jurisdiction. I saw for myself what happened. He is not a killer."

Mendez: "You know best."

Anders: "I do. I'm going to go question them. keep the perimeter up while the school's getting evacuated. Fly Swatters should be here, soon."

Mendez: "Fly... swatters? I think we need more than a couple of swatters, Sir."

Anders: "That's not what I'm talking about."

The video ends here as Anders walks away. The file picks back up from Blaine's hand camera, which is currently in his hands and filming as Anders approaches Blaine and Emma. Emma is sitting beside Blaine on a bench, and there are EMT's nearby, watching closely for signs of duress. Emma is wearing a shock blanket, and though there is a nervous tick to her movements, she seems otherwise in grim control of her faculties.

Anders: "Fancy seeing you again, Blaine."

Blaine: "Detective."

Anders: "She know?"

Emma: "About his dad? Yes."

Anders: "Good. Glad to see you're opening up, kid."

Blaine: "Anders fancies himself a surrogate father figure."

Anders: "Hardly. Just keeping an eye on you."

Blaine: "You going to get to the point, Jim?"

Emma has a faint smile. It is postulated that Anders's intention here is to bounce off of Blaine to lighten the mood; if this is the case, the two worked in perfect sync to do so. Without visual confirmation of Blaine's expression, however, it is impossible to confirm this theory, and Detective Anders is known for one hell of a poker face.

Anders: "What the hell happened? What the hell IS happening?"

Emma hesitates, seemingly at a loss for words. It is Blaine who responds.

Blaine: "You can show him. Anders is old. He was there."

Anders: "Punk."

Emma holds up the game console, and any sense of Anders's humor dies instantly. His eyes harden, and he steps forward to take the game out of her hands sharply, causing her to flinch.

Anders: "Where the hell did you get this?"

Emma: "Wynona's house."

Anders: "And you kept it? You hung on to crime scene evidence?"

Blaine: "We had no idea what we were dealing with."

Anders: "Clearly! This is a felony, you know that, right? You witheld evidence!"

Emma: "I didn't mean to. It got put into my backpack when the ambulance took me, and I didn't realize it was there until I got back to it a week later."

Anders: "You have no idea what you're dealing with, the fire you are playing with."

Blaine: "Then tell us, because I don't think we can go back."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Anders: "Tell me you didn't mess with this thing."

Emma: "We figured out how to reset it. We got it running again."

Anders is visibly startled, an impressive feat, as generally, he does not show emotions at all.

Anders: "You did what?"

Emma: "There was a code hidden on the main screen. It might not have been visible at all fifteen years ago, but this is an LCD screen."

Blaine: "Emma took it with her to her dorm, where she had a fight with her boyfriend, Keith. She left, and the game was in her backpack."

Emma is visibly distressed now.

Emma: "I don't know why that stupid asshole went through my stuff! He was probably looking for signs that I cheated on him, or, or, I don't know!"

Blaine: "Cheated on him?"

Emma: "He kept asking why I was hanging around you, even after I told him what happened. I... I don't think he could... I don't think he could grasp what I'd seen."

Blaine: "Talk about insecure."

Emma: "He let slip that he made some stupid ass fucking bet with his stupid ass fucking friend about when he'd sleep with me, and I just felt so pissed and upset and hurt and betrayed- and then I left, and I left that stupid ass fucking game with that stupid idiot, and he actually played it!"

Anders: "You're saying you got the game to run?"

Emma: "Yes. We did."

Anders is suddenly very alert and alarmed, and he comes forward to kneel in front of them,s peaking quietly and urgently.

Anders: "I need you to tell me exactly what happened in that game."

Blaine: "I can do you one better, Jim. I have this."

The camera is lifted up, and Anders's attention is drawn to the little handcam. He shakes his head, looking like he's not altogether too surprised, and the video is cut off as Blaine stops recording to play back their previous videos for the Detective.

When the video starts up again, it's uncertain if Anders knows he's being recorded once more. Blaine sets the hand camera down beside him on the bench while Anders looks off, expression completely unreadable. Silence continues between them; beyond Anders, there is a large group of people in what looks like hazmat suits heading into the dormitory, equipped with strange equipment that resembles large, oversized shop vacuums. These are the "Fly Swatters", who haven't been in use by pest control companies in roughly fifteen years, but for which there thankfully still exists protocols.

Anders: "I need you two to drop this."

Blaine: "I don't think we can."

Anders goes quiet again. He has not moved, despite his very sudden command. He is very clearly unhappy when he turns back to them.

Anders: "You really don't understand what you're getting involved with."

Emma: "The Maggot Man."

Anders: "It's so much more complicated than that. I was there, fifteen years ago, when that... when it all went down."

Anders is clearly working to control his language in front of them.

Anders: "Anyone who was directly involved with these cases... we saw things. I'm one of the very, very few who continued in this line of work following that murderer's capture."

Blaine: "You're talking about the games?"

Anders: "I'm talking about all of it. If this is a copycat, it's a good one, and that's almost as bad as having the real deal. You do not let those flies touch you, do you understand? If you see any more like this, no matter where you are or what you're doing, you call me. These flies aren't just creepy and weird. They're deadly."

Emma: "I read about that in 'Chasing the Maggot Man'."

Anders: "Ah. Bartosz. He was a good guy. I worked with him when he had followed Grantham to LA."

Blaine: "Do you agree that he's a crack pot?"

Anders: "I think you know the answer to that question."

Neither Emma nor Blaine say anything, though there's a small sag to Blaine's shoulders, just in view of the camera.

Anders: "You'd better hope to God and any other force of nature out there listening that you aren't involved in this- that if it's a copycat, it's one by sheer dumb luck, and not by the same rules that Grantham followed."

Blaine: "How will we know? No one's ever cracked the games before, right?"

Anders snorts.

Anders: "The FBI cracked them- once."

Emma and Blaine look at each other, startled.

Emma: "Bartosz didn't write about that."

Anders: "He wouldn't. He was the one who found the guy that cracked it. There were no notes on how he'd done it, and the whole Bureau had to get shut down for days while the Swatters went in to clear it out."

Blaine: "Flies."

Anders: "Big fu- big ones. Big, enormous, massive, huge ones. The maggots were the size of my face. It was insane."

They all fall silent, lost in thought for a moment.

Anders: "What's your next move, kid?"

Blaine: "Depends. What's yours?"

Anders: "Officially? I can't do anything. I have to follow the laws of reality. If I bring up my experiences years ago, they'll laugh and laugh until we're under another epidemic, places are getting shut down, and people are getting locked in their houses while the Swatters sweep the streets and try to rid us of a Biblical plague. I can't tell you to find Bartosz, either, even if that were the best move, and I can't tell you to wait there when you do find him for me to catch up."

Emma and Blaine are both startled. Anders is regarding them very seriously as he says this.

Emma: "Bartosz? Does he really have answers?"

Anders: "He wasn't the only one to go out there to look for anything he could get his hands on... but he was the only one to throw everything away to find it. He's sacrificed nearly his life for what he has, and we'd better hope no one else knows that."

Blaine: "What about the game?"

Anders: "I have to take it. I'll mark it down as accidentally removed from the crime scene and tell them that you never realized it was mistakenly placed in your bag by cops who didn't know better."

Emma: "Wouldn't it be better for us to hang on to the game, in case we need it?"

Anders hesitates, and a look of uncertainty crosses his features. Flickering emotions battle it out for dominance.

Anders: "If you're in this, you won't need it back."

Blaine: "The hell does that mean?"

Anders: "You'll find out. If you don't wind up finding out what I mean by tomorrow, then I suggest you take that as a sign that you've been spared, and you move on with your lives."

Emma: "My best friend blew up on me, Detective. I can't let this go."

Anders: "If you have the chance to, you take that chance, Miss [BEEP]. I have buried far too many stupid punk kids who thought they were the plucky young stars of some horror movie mystery. If you have the CHOICE to get involved, you turn around and you go home. You lay low. You hope you remain forgotten. You stay away from flies. You got that?"

Emma and Blaine exchange looks. The intensity on Anders's face is clearly too strong for them to deny him to his face, so the two of them simply nod.

Anders: "I will hold you to that, so help me God."

He produces a small, white card from his front pocket and hands it to Emma. He doesn't hand one to Blaine.

Anders: "Call me the second anything changes. Blaine, you have my number."

Blaine: "Yes, Detective."

Anders: "Good. Do you both have somewhere to go, while all of this gets sorted out?"

Emma: "I have my parents' house. Blaine, if you have nowhere to go..."

Blaine is clearly uncomfortable.

Blaine: "I can stay at the library. It's no big deal."

Anders: "My couch is open, kid."

Blaine: "Your wife hates it when I'm there."

Anders: "She does not. She's worse at showing her feelings than I am."

Emma: "It's fine. You can come to my parents' house."

Blaine: "I'm sure they'd love to meet the guy who they think convinced you to walk into a demon fly infested house in search of your roommate."

Emma: "That is not how they think of you."

Blaine sighs, turns behind him, and reaches for the camera.

Blaine: "Look, I seriously don't need-"

Whatever Blaine is about to say is cut off by the end of the recording.

--END TRANSMISSION--