Randy and I are film students in Thailand. We’ve been wanting to film a ride-along with corpse collectors for a long time. Corpse collectors are part of Thai first responders. They collect bodies and detached limbs from the scene and deliver them to a coroner.

We arrived at our third stop and the air felt different. It was completely dark. No wind and no sound of insects. A dog could be heard howling in the distance. A police car passed us while we were walking to the scene. A cop rolled down his window, pointed to a small alley, and said, your dead body walked that way.

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All four of us were confused about what he meant. When we got there, we saw a crowd blocking a small alleyway between two apartment buildings. Ben and Sam (our corpse collector friends) pushed through, and we tried our best to pretend that we were one of them (we had a sticker of the foundation’s logo on our shirt).

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When we finally got a look, we saw him. He was an old man with a cleaver buried in his head. It was like he didn’t know he was dead and was still walking. He kept pushing people away from him. His strength was surprising. Two full-grown men fell to the ground from the force of his shoving.

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A woman in the crowd kept yelling, Where are you going? Please stop. The man with a cleaver in his head finally took a seat on the bench. According to one of the onlookers, that was where he fed the pigeons every evening.

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I was so shocked at the sight, I didn’t notice Randy moved past me. Randy went right up into the old man’s face and just started filming. The man didn’t look into the camera. After Randy moved around him, trying to get a different angle, the old man slowly slouched over and passed away.

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I wanted to scold Randy, but the onlookers and the corpse collectors didn’t, so I thought I shouldn’t either.

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While Ben and Sam (our corpse collector friends) talked to the old man’s family, Randy and I got back to the car. Randy playback the raw clip he filmed on his DSLR, his face full of pride. When we got to the clip of the old man, it showed the old man staring directly right into the camera, right at us. I was so startled my heart skipped a beat. Randy almost dropped the camera. We both looked at each other. It was clear that both of us were sure he didn’t look into the camera at any point while Randy was filming.

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While on our way to the coroner’s office, I looked through the rearview mirror and could have sworn I saw the old man sitting up at the back of the truck. It could have been the wind moving the bag, I told myself. I didn’t want the others to think I couldn’t take it and started freaking out.

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We were at a traffic light in a still pretty remote area at the edge of the city, and a pack of stray dogs started barking at our car. Sam looked at the dogs confoundingly. Suddenly Sam started freaking out when he saw Randy through the rearview mirror.

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Sam got out of the car, opened the passenger door, and dragged Randy out by his shirt collar. We were confused about what was going on. Sam showed Randy’s sticker to Ben. Ben closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

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Earlier, before we left the headquarter, we were given stickers with the logo of this particular corpse collector’s foundation. Sam and Ben made sure we put it on and took a look at us before they okayed us to get into their car. We just assumed they want people to think we belonged at the crime scene. But that was not the main reason.

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There are several corpse collector foundations, but if you look at their logos there was something similar in all of them. The logos all had a symbol incorporated into them, and that symbol served the function of warding off evil spirits.

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I took a look at Randy’s sticker and couldn’t believe it. His sticker was upside down.

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Ben and Sam made sure we put our stickers on correctly. The fact that it was upside down must be deliberate. When Sam threatened to leave Randy in the middle of a road at night, surrounded by woods with no building in sight, Randy started to apologize profusely. He admitted that he put it upside down just to see what would happen because so far the night had been so boring.

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Sam yelled that the upside-down symbol is an invitation and that we were now marked. While Ben tried to calm him down, Randy and I looked closely at the stray dogs. I gasped when I saw that none of them have eyes. And, I thought I was seeing things, but I thought one of them that was furthest away looked like it didn’t have a head.

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The dogs were not barking anymore. They didn’t even look at us. They were looking into the field next to us. And that was when we saw it. Pale naked people. They seem to be about 7-8 feet tall, judging from the distance. Standing in rows. Slowly marching towards us.

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I wanted to tell Ben and Sam, but when I turned, I was shocked to see the cleaved old man clutching onto the side of the cargo bed like it was a side pillow. He was not moving, but he had a grin that he didn’t have before. I felt my soul leave the body. I wanted to collapse on the ground so badly and just weep.

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I turned to look at Ben and Sam to gauge their reaction. Ben just sighed and shove the old man’s body deeper into the bag and tie it up completely. Sam finally allowed Randy back into the car but said that they will drop Randy off at the dorm.

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I looked at the row of pale naked people and was creeped out by how much closer they were to us now. Like the dogs, none of them have eyes. It was so surreal to me that Ben and Sam were not panicked, though they do seem frustrated. I was so scared I could throw up.

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Ben saw that I was fixated on the figures. Ben told me to remember the old Thai adage. I knew he was talking about an old Thai saying: do not call out anything that looked like a ghost.

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While inside the car, several calls were coming in. The dispatcher asked Ben and Sam to go to a nearby school where a drunken man with a gun climbed onto the cell tower demanding to see his wife. Ben, however, radioed in and said they have to make a detour and dropped one of us off at the dorm first because we were all marked by evil spirits.

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I thought for sure the dispatcher was going to yell at Ben. But, he just told Ben he was sorry that happened.

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On the way back to our dorm, while in the car, I saw a reflection on the glass window of a building. A man was standing on top of the roof of our car. I almost said something. My mouth was opened, but then I remember the adage and thanked god no sound came out. In the next window, the man disappeared.

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Randy himself was quiet. He knew that Ben and Sam didn’t have to drive them back to the dorm, but they did anyway. Once we were on the road that lead right to our dorm, however, Randy became braver.

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He asked what it meant to be marked, and if there was something he could do. Ben said that their boss could cleanse him, but he won’t do it tonight. Not on payday.

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Randy became agitated. He begged for their help. Sam taunted that he could drop Randy off at the temple if he wanted. Randy started cursing at them. Claiming that they are abandoning him because of the question he asked earlier while they were collecting fingers.

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Ben gave Randy a sticker with their foundation’s logo on it and told Randy to put it on the door of his room and not open it for anyone. That should help him survive the night.

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Randy was jumped by the sound of the dog howling and he started crying. Benand Sam were unmoved. I told Randy I would collect plenty of footage for our movie, and I could tell Randy couldn’t care less.

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We finally made our way to the coroner’s office to drop off the old man. The coroner's office was conveniently right next to the headquarter of the corpse collection foundation. Sam radioed a security named Rita who was guarding the gate. He asked her how many people she sees inside our car. She said five.

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Ben turned to me and said two extra people came with us and that Rita could see them. Normally the logo would prevent any spirit from attaching itself to our car, but some of them are powerful enough to override it. They still could not get inside the car though.

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As Ben and Sam took the old man’s body to the coroner, I waited outside. I suddenly felt like I had to use the restroom. I could see that the men’s room was at the end of the a hallway. But, lights were coming out of it.

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As I moved closer, I could hear people talking, and laughing, almost like they had a party in there. I thought, well, this was not that scary. Then I opened the door, and there was nothing. There was no one in there. I ran as fast as I could back to the central area where some other people were sitting.

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Then, on my phone, Randy sent me messages. He said that the abandoned half-constructed building opposite our dorm suddenly have a bunch of people standing on them looking right into his dorm room’s window.

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I messaged him back saying to follow Ben’s advice and not open the door, but Randy just swore at me and said that this was all my fault. I didn’t know what to say.

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The dispatcher, who was also Ben’s boss, came to pat me on the back. He was scary looking but seemed like a nice guy. He laughed like a jolly Santa, and asked me if I had fun and if I got enough footage for my assignment.

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I nodded, then took out my camera, hoping to show him some footage. My heart dropped when I saw that all the 100+ video clips had a thumbnail of the old man looking into the camera. And the files all have 0 bytes of memory.

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The dispatcher closed his eyes and nodded in understanding. He then casually told me that he knew some people who were marked and ended up gouging their own eyes out, couldnt take what they were seeing.

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Wishing he didn’t tell me that, I sat down on the curb and wiped my face with both hands, telling him that it has been a long night. The dispatcher laughed, patted me on the back again, and told me that it was only 8.00 PM.