X-File Eve
Part 1
A Parasite Eve 2/X-Files x-over
By: M.H. Torringjan
Okay, I know that I'm breaking my once-cardinal rule of never writing
cross-overs, but I thought that this one would work very well. I mean, they're
both supposed to be about government conspiracies, taking place in real-world-
like situations, involving out-of-the-ordinary phenomena. The only difference
is that in one, the phenomena have already been explained (merely ignored by
most of the populace and scientific community). Second off, don't think that
I'm just saying that there was coincidentally another facility out there. In
the "normal ending" it was commented by the President that there were other
facilities. So there. :-)
For starters, I don't own Parasite Eve 2. Squaresoft does. I don't own
X-Files. Chris Carter (IIRC) does. This fic should probably be rated PG-13 to
R, depending on who's reading it for strong language and violence.
November 15, 2001, 10:05 p.m.
Outside the Okefenokee Swamp, Florida
Naturalist Thomas Manfield stooped down to get a water sample from the
stream that ran underneath the road just outside of a small town (that was only
called a town because people lived there), Harden, Florida. He hated working at
night, but he was the one who had put off doing this until "later" about five
different times. He would much rather be at the hotel, relaxing while watching
the "Who's Line" marathons that Comedy Central seemed so hell-bent on showing.
Instead, he was outside, getting bitten by bugs, getting wet, and trudging
through mud a foot deep.
He had known from the start that this would be a bad assignment. As much
as he enjoyed Florida, he'd much rather be on vacation there. His department
head at the National Science Foundation wanted him to get some tests run on the
water quality and depth readings on the lakes and streams of the area. He would
have thought that they would have had better things to do with their time than
re-measure bogs that had been classified as still in danger two months before.
Well, at least the weather had been nice (relatively speaking). It hadn't
rained once during the three days he had been there.
As he screwed the top on the bottle of water, he thought that he heard a
baby's whine further out in the darkness. A moment later, he heard a loud splat
from the same direction. "Hey, is anyone there?" Thomas said. He didn't hear
anything in reply to his call and chalked it up to his imagination. It probably
didn't concern him anyway. He just wanted to get the water sample analyzed
quickly and get to bed.
He turned to walk to his rental jeep, not at all unnerved by the odd
sound. The mud was fairly thick under his feet. As much as he wanted to hurry,
he wasn't going to be doing it in that mud. He had left the lights on his jeep
on so that he could find his way back. The strong beams were visible between
the trees, leading him back to the road. It kind of made him wish that he had
turned the jeep to shine the lights in the forest, but that would have probably
disturbed the natural wildlife or something.
Thomas stepped up onto the shoulder of the road and walked to his jeep.
He opened the door and grabbed the map and his shoes. He quickly changed from
the boots that he wore into his tennis shoes for comfort's sake and threw the
boots in the passenger's side floor-board. He spread the map out on the hood of
the jeep and found where he was. He quickly scribbled that on the bottle's
label and put it in his pocket.
Behind him, he heard something squeak from the swamp. He turned and
looked fat the source of the sound. In the dim light from the headlights, he
saw what he thought looked like a deranged cartoon rabbit. He bent down to get
a closer look at it when four others jumped out of the swamp behind it and stood
beside it for a moment. To his right on the shoulder, Thomas heard another
baby's whine. He looked to see a small baby with something covering its face
crawling towards him quickly. He walked over to the baby to see what was on its
face.
As he reached down to pick it up, it grabbed onto his leg and plunged the
thing on its face into his leg. As he watched in pain, the baby's head began to
become redder, as though all of the blood was rushing straight to its head. He
began kicking to try and get the baby off, but to no avail. The baby's head
continued to swell until it was twice its original size, when it popped. The
sickening splat was close enough to Thomas that he could see its effects this
time. However, he couldn't keep his eyes open.
When he reopened his eyes, he felt a pain in his leg. When he looked
down, he realized that the pain was because his lower leg was gone. He screamed
in pain and fell to the ground. He tried crawling back to his jeep, only to be
stopped by the deranged rabbits. They squeaked greedily as they dug their teeth
into the flesh of their dinner.
November 20, 2001, 10:24 a.m.
FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
John Doggett sat in the office of the X-Files looking over a pile of
papers that had been dropped by his office earlier in the day. He was a bit
confused about what he read. The file was about a dead naturalist in Florida,
found with most of his chest torn out, his leg blown off, and human tooth-marks
left on his bones. According to the report, the body was discovered the day
after he had been killed. Little predation or decomposition. An interesting
piece of information laid in the pictures that had been taken on a spray of
blood and bone shards near where the body was located. According to forensics
teams, the blood wasn't the naturalist's, and neither were the bones. They had
found bone fragments that looked like they were from the cranium of a fetal
human.
Doggett looked up as the door opened and Dana Scully walked into the
office, wearing her usual conservative suit.
"Morning, Scully," Doggett said. "You're a bit late. What kept you?"
"I was giving Kirsch a report on our last assignment," Scully said. "What
have you got there?"
"It may be our next case," Doggett replied. He handed the folder to
Scully for her perusal. "Single homicide in Florida outside a little town
called Harden. Pay special attention to the forensics report on the blood spray
located near the body." Scully looked at the report for a few moments before
Doggett spoke again. "So, what do you think we've got here? Homicidal
spontaneously-combusting baby gangs?"
"I really couldn't say," Scully said. "I haven't seen anything like this
before, not even in any of the other X-files."
"So, are we catching a plane?" Doggett asked.
"It might be a good idea," Scully replied.
"What, you're not going to ask your 'outside source' for help?" Doggett
asked.
"Not this time," Scully said. "I doubt even he'd know what's going on,
and he'd probably follow us. Even if I told him not to."
"Geez, doesn't he have anything better to do with his time?" Doggett
sighed.
"I think all he's doing these days is working with some techie friends of
ours. He doesn't tell me anything," Scully said. "Basically, he's always
asking what's going on here."
"All right, I'll call out there and let them know we're coming," Doggett
said, walking out of the office. "Should we leave tomorrow or the day after?"
"Tomorrow should be fine," Scully said. "I'll need some time to get
ready, get a baby-sitter and whatnot. We'll meet here tomorrow morning at five
a.m."
"You're asking me to baby-sit while you go off with Doggett and take care
of a case?" Mulder asked when Scully visited his apartment that night. "I don't
know the first thing about babies!"
"Please, Mulder! You're the only one I could find at such a short notice!
Besides, it's not that hard! When he cries, he wants one or more of four
things, a bottle, a diaper change, attention, or comfort!" Scully said,
simplifying greatly to try and convince him. She'd write down instructions for
him after he agreed hopefully. "Besides, if you need any help, I'll have my
cell phone with me and you have the phone number."
"Well, I suppose it'll be all right with me," Mulder said. "As long as he
doesn't wake me up during the night."
"Sorry, Mulder, he's not out of that phase yet," Scully said, handing him
the baby and the bag that held his things. "Hopefully, this'll last you until I
get back. Thank you so much, Mulder!" she said, giving him a quick peck on the
cheek. "I've got to go get ready. We're leaving at five tomorrow morning."
"Where are you two going, anyway?" Mulder asked.
"Mulder, if I tell you, you'll just follow us. Right now, I need you to
take care of him and not worry about me. I'll be all right, so don't worry,"
Scully said. "Now, I'll see you in less than a week." She turned and walked
through the door. As soon as she had left, the baby began to cry.
November 21, 2001, 7:19 p.m.
Harden, Florida
Scully's white car drove up to the hotel where they were going to be
staying with Doggett in the passenger seat, about to go crazy from listening to
Scully's music for ten of the fourteen hours that they had been driving. Only
three other cars were parked around the parking lot. Not a very large place.
It was on the outskirts of the "town," which had a population of one-hundred
people. The swamp was not very far away from it. Scully was surprised that
anyone had even thought of building a hotel in such a small town.
"I'll go get our rooms," Doggett said, getting out of the car. He walked
around to the front desk to get their keys. When he rung the bell that sat on
the desk, no one came to the desk. "'Scuze me, anyone here?" he called behind
the desk. No answer came back. He waited for a few minutes before opening the
door to the back room. He quickly surveyed the back room. No one was there.
"Hey, is anyone here?" he asked again. He cautiously walked into the room to
get a better look around. There was a door on the far wall that was slightly
open. A small trail of blood was on the floor, leading through the door, and
the chair behind the desk was overturned.
Doggett drew his gun and slowly approached the door. He peeked through to
see what was there. There wasn't much to be seen in the darkness of the room,
so he pushed the door open and turned on the light. The room was a small
bathroom, and a man laid against the wall, his chest ripped open. The stench of
old blood was not very comfortable, nor the sight.
"Man, can't go five minutes..." Doggett said as he went back to the front
desk to use the phone. He tried 911, then realized that a town as small as this
wouldn't have a 911 system. He opened the phone book and called the police
station.
"Harden Police Department, how can I help you?" the voice at the other end
asked.
"This is Agent John Doggett with the FBI. I need to speak to Chief
Drowser. We spoke yesterday."
"Just one moment," the voice said. A few moments later, the Chief picked
up.
"Agent Doggett, nice to talk to you again! Are you here in Harden?"
Drowser asked.
"Yes, my partner and I are here at the hotel. We just walked in and found
a man down," Doggett said. "You may want to get some people out here to look
into this."
"What?! Someone down?!" Drowser exclaimed. "All right, Agent, we'll get
some people out there right away."
"We'll be here, looking for some clues as to what happened," Doggett said,
hanging up. He went outside to Scully at the car.
"So, do you have our keys?" Scully asked.
"Not exactly," Doggett said. "There's a bit of a problem inside."
Doggett led Scully inside to the body.
"What happened?" Scully asked.
"I don't know," Doggett replied. "I just walked in here and found him
down like this. Check out that wound. Looks like a knifing to me."
"It's too large to be a knife. The only thing that I can think of to
describe this would be a scythe," Scully said.
"Who'd use a scythe to kill a hotel-owner?" Doggett asked. "And, more
importantly, why? They're in the middle of nowhere. It's not like they make
that much money to have stolen."
"Judging by the dried blood, this wound is probably a day old," Scully
said. "There were guests here before that, or else it would have been
discovered earlier. Maybe they saw or heard something."
"Or maybe they did it," Doggett suggested. "Either way, we should look
around for some clues as to what happened. I've already called the local cops.
They should be on their way as we speak." The two went out of the office and
walked around to start trying doors. The five doors on the first floor were
locked and showed no signs of forced entry. The two walked to the second floor
and found that room 201's door was unlocked and had been forced open somehow.
There were scrape marks like claws on the frame. Doggett pushed the door open
and peered inside the room.
Some rather large moths flew around the ceiling light. Doggett began
looking around the rest of the room for anything. He soon found the body of the
visitor from that room in the bathroom with much of the flesh torn from her arm
and parts of her face missing. She had tried defending herself, to no avail.
She appeared to have been in her twenties. She must have been taking a shower
when the attack took place. "God, I love this job," Doggett thought
sarcastically to himself. He called back out to Scully, "There's another body
in here. Young female African American. Looks like she got eaten to death."
Scully joined him in the bathroom. "This looks similar to how Thomas
Manfield died, without the blood splatter."
"Call me crazy, but I think the two may be connected somehow," Doggett
said. The two walked back into the main room to investigate further. Doggett
looked at the ground, finding footprints. "Scully, do those prints look human
to you?"
"They do look human," Scully replied. "So, was the attacker human or
animal?"
"Or both?" Doggett replied. "Not like we haven't seen it before."
Outside, two police cars had arrived in the parking lot. "Looks like the
cops finally got here," Scully said. As the two headed for the door, the three
moths flew down, two flying towards Doggett and one heading for Scully. The two
ignored the moths, thinking nothing of them. One ran into the back of Doggett's
head and Scully's head. They exploded in a small display, scattering a sort of
dust around them. The two grabbed the backs of their heads in pain and turned
around. The second one flew at Doggett and exploded in his face, sending the
dust flying in his eyes. Doggett exclaimed in surprise and pain.
"You all right, Doggett?" Scully asked.
"I can't see, Scully! The moth did it to me!" Doggett exclaimed.
"Let's get you outside," Scully said, taking his hand and leading him
outside and down to the police cars. She showed her badge to the officer in
charge. "Dana Scully, FBI. I believe my partner called you."
"Yes, Agent Scully, of course," the officer said. "I'm officer Jenkins.
What's going on, anyway?"
"I'll explain after we get some first aid for my partner," Scully said.
"Some kind of moth flew at him, exploded and blinded him."
"Now, that's odd," Jenkins said. Scully led Doggett into the bathroom of
the hotel manager's office and let him wash off his face. After splashing some
water over his face and letting his tears wash away the stuff in his eyes,
Doggett could see again. The two returned to the officer and explained
everything that they had found to the officer.
"Later on, I'll want to autopsy the bodies," Scully said.
"I think it can be arranged," Jenkins replied. "For now, though, if you
could help us with investigation, it'd be a great help."
"We can do that," Scully said. She and Doggett walked back to the second
floor and went around to the other rooms. Room 205 showed more signs of forced
entry. As Doggett pushed the door open, gunshots came from the room.
"We've got shots!" Doggett yelled out to the cops. "I need some backup!"
"Wait," a voice inside called out. "You're human?! Come in!" Doggett
cautiously opened the door and entered, gun at the ready. A thin man stood
against the back wall, holding a handgun. He had piled the furniture around him
in a barricade style. "I knew that if I could last long enough, someone would
come to rescue me!" the man said. He pushed the bed out of the way with a
certain amount of effort and ran to Doggett.
"Do you have any idea what went on here?" Doggett asked him.
"A bunch of strange creatures came out of the swamp and killed the
others!" the man said.
"Oh, boy, one of these," Doggett said.
"Sir, we're going to have to take you into custody," Scully said. The
officers ran to the door and entered with their guns drawn and loaded. "You're
the only one who survived this that we've found."
"As long as I get out of here!" the man exclaimed. He surrendered his gun
and practically jumped in the police car that sped away to the station. Doggett
and Scully waited around for the ambulance to come for the corpses. Scully
drove to the coroner's office to examine the bodies and Doggett took the car
over to the station to interview the man.
November 21, 8:03 p.m.
Harden Sheriff's Department
"All right, sir," Doggett began. "I just want to ask you some questions
about that hotel and about yourself. Is that all right?"
"That's fine with me," the man said.
"What is your name, sir?"
"I'm Jonathan Avery."
"All right, my name's John Doggett. Where are you from, Mister Avery?"
"I'm from Asheville, North Carolina," Avery replied.
"Oh, that's a nice place," Doggett replied. He wanted a calm
interrogation. It's easier to get the truth and to find lies when the questions
were calm. "So, what brought you down here to Harden?"
"I was passing through to visit some relatives in Orlando," Avery said
calmly.
"Do you know anyone here in Harden?"
"No," Avery said.
"What made you decide to stop here instead of somewhere a little further
down the road?"
"It was about two a.m. two nights ago. I was running on fumes, so I
basically had to stop until I could buy gas in the morning," Avery replied.
"Do you know this man, Thomas Manfield?" Doggett asked.
"Never heard of him," Avery said after thinking for a moment.
"You said you got here the night before last. Could you explain what went
on since you got here?"
"Well, not much happened the rest of that night," Avery began. "I went to
sleep the instant my head hit the pillow. The next morning, I woke up at about
ten the next morning and went down to pay for my night. When I got there, I
couldn't reach the manager, and I tried looking for him in the back room. I
found him in the bathroom, killed by one of those things. I panicked and ran
out to go back to my room and get my gun. On my way, I heard a scream from the
room down the way from mine. I walked in and saw a monster attacking her. Too
bad, too. She didn't look all that bad. Alive, that is. Anyway, I screamed
like a moron. That got the monster's attention. I ran out and to my room,
closing and locking the door behind me. The monster tried bashing the door in,
and I grabbed my gun from my suitcase. I always have it with me, just in case.
As soon as it bashed the door in, I started shooting it. After a few rounds, it
was dead. Apparently, there was one more, since it came running in to help its
friend. I took it down with a few more shots."
"We found no corpses in your room, Mister Avery," Doggett said.
"They melted after I killed them," Avery replied.
"What did they look like?" Doggett asked.
"Well, they looked like a couple of big piles of goo," Avery said.
"I mean before you killed them," Doggett said.
"Oh, before that, they looked like people with small bodies, really short
arms, big and strong legs, long necks, and human faces," Avery said. "Anyway,
that was just during the day. I didn't dare leave, because I was afraid they'd
kill me. I took the furniture and piled it around me so that they'd have a
harder time of getting at me. That night, it got even worse. I was running
short on ammo and these chameleon critters came in. They disappeared while I
was watching them. Before they could get to me, though, I was able to spot them
and kill them. Luckily, nothing else came in until you."
"Well, that's quite a story, Mister Avery," Doggett said.
"And every word of it true," Avery insisted.
"That's all I've got to ask you for now," Doggett said. "But I may be
back here later to talk with you some more. Thanks for your cooperation."
Doggett walked out of the interrogation room and back out to the car. He'd have
to talk to Scully and see what she had found in the autopsies.
Scully pulled off her gloves and re-covered the first corpse, that of the
young woman. She had found human tooth-marks in the bones of the forearm, which
was broken in two places, and the face bones and ribs, which were also broken.
She had died of blood-loss. There were didn't appear to be any signs right off-
hand of poisoning or anything else, but she'd have to wait for the toxicology
report. And she would have to send the samples to Jacksonville for that. It
would be the next morning before she got the results back at the earliest. Her
cell phone went off. She went to the table-top where she had laid her things
and turned it on. "Scully," she greeted.
"Hey, Scully, I've got a problem," Mulder said from the other end. She
could hear crying from the background. "He won't stop crying, and I've done
everything you said in the list."
"Here, put the phone beside him," Scully said. She could hear the crying
loudly and clearly, so the phone must have been as she had requested. She began
singing a lullaby. By the time she was finished, the crying had stopped. The
breathing from the other end was steady; the baby had fallen asleep.
"Good job, Scully," Mulder said into the phone. "What did you do?"
"Let's just say that I applied that 'mother's touch' that everyone always
goes on about," Scully said.
"So, how's the case going?" Mulder asked.
"Weird as always," Scully said. "It's turned form a single homicide to a
triple homicide, perhaps involving organisms of unknown origins. The first man
had his leg blown off with pieces of a fetal cranium and blood that wasn't his
around his body. Another dead by a scythe cut. A third dead by some sort of
attack that tore the flesh from much of her body. Human tooth-marks were
located on two of the bodies. We found one person who was just so happy to be
taken into custody, ranting about monsters."
"Just another day at the office, eh?" Mulder asked.
"Yeah, another day..." Scully sighed.
"You sure you're not telling me where you are?" Mulder asked.
"Very, Mulder," Scully said. She'd need some sleep soon if she was going
to keep up with the investigation. She'd had some sleepless nights on the job,
but she really didn't want to make it a regular practice. "Anyway, Mulder, I've
got another autopsy to do tonight, so if you'll excuse me..." She hung up and
considered turning it off. That would be a bad idea, though, since Doggett
might need to reach her. She washed her hands, put on a new pair of gloves, and
pulled the blanket from the second corpse.
She turned on her tape recorder and began to describe the body for future
reference. As she was about to cut into the body, Doggett walked through the
door. She stopped the tape recorder to talk to him.
"What did you get out of the man?" Scully asked.
"Well, his name's Jonathan Avery, and he's from Asheville, NC. He was
passing through here to visit some relatives down south. Apparently, it was
just a coincidence that he stopped here. Says that he woke up later yesterday
morning and found 'monsters' eating on the other two. He claims to have killed
some of them with that gun of his and that they melted when he killed them,
which would explain why we didn't find any monster corpses when we found him,"
Doggett explained. "Sounds to me like he did it and he's repressed the whole
experience, replacing it with this whole monster story."
"I wouldn't be too sure, Doggett," Scully said. "The wounds that killed
these two weren't gun-shots, and they don't even seem to be something that any
normal human could have done. The wounds were delivered by something strong
enough to break bones with a single bite and almost cut a person in half with
one clean swipe of a scythe."
"I don't know about you, but I don't know if I want to go back to our
hotel any time soon," Doggett said. In his pocket, his cell phone went off. He
turned it on.
"Agent Doggett, I thought that you should know about this," Chief Drowser
said. "We got an emergency call from the gas station right down the road from
the hotel, the owner screaming about monsters. He was cut off before we could
get him to calm down. When some of my men got there, they were met by some
other agents. They claimed that they were with the FBI, from MIST. I've never
heard of this MIST, so I thought that I should see what you thought about it."
"I've never heard of them, either," Doggett said. "I'll get right out
there. Thanks for the heads-up, sir." He hung up and told Scully what he had
been told. "I'll head out to the gas station to look into this. You keep up
with the corpses and get out there when you can. I'll call you if anything
comes up." Doggett walked out of the room, mumbling about how they were really
being jerked around on this case.
November 21, 2001, 10:36 p.m.
Todd's Gas Station, Harden, Florida
Doggett pulled up in the car to the sound of gun shots all around the
building. Through the front windows, he could see the flash of the gun and the
figure of the agent silhouetted as by a strobe light. He nervously walked
towards the door of the gas station. When he got to the lighted area near the
gas pumps, he noticed a shadow of something sitting in front of the pumps. As
he watched, the something appeared from out of nowhere and began running towards
him.
He pulled his gun from the holster and pointed it at the creature, which
had faintly human features about it. It had skin that was orange and black
striped, and Doggett noticed the scythe-looking claw on its right arm as it came
running towards him. He backed away, aiming the gun carefully. He pulled the
trigger and shot it in the head. It continued running towards him, as though it
hadn't felt the shot. Doggett pulled the trigger again, and the creature kept
coming. Doggett shot it twice more in the head, finally dropping it. He
approached it to inspect it. Before he could get a good look at it, though, it
began melting just like Avery had said. A few moments later, it had completely
melted, and the goo was disappearing, as well.
The shots inside the building had stopped, so Doggett ran to the door and
opened it. He looked inside and saw a lone man standing in the center of a ring
of goo, reloading a large, military-style rifle. Doggett aimed his handgun at
the man and exclaimed, "Freeze! FBI!"
"So am I," the man said, placing his gun on the floor. "Can I show you my
badge?"
"Yeah," Doggett said. The man reached into a pocket in his Kevlar vest
and produced a badge. The name attached to it was Robert Shriver. "Mister
Shriver, who are you and your partner with?"
"We're with an organization in the FBI called MIST. We got word of this
yesterday and were dispatched to suppress these creatures, if they were real,"
Robert said.
"What are these creatures, anyway? And why haven't I heard of this MIST?"
Doggett asked.
"MIST is the Mitochondrion Investigation and Suppression Team. Do you
remember the New York Incident in 1997?"
"Yeah, I heard about it, some crazy stuff about an international terrorist
group about to nuke the city," Doggett said.
"Well, that was just a cover story. This is sort of what happened there,
except on a much larger scale. And these really are different breeds, but the
premise is the same. Basically, these creatures have a different cellular
structure, which gives them destructive and violent tendencies. The only way to
calm them down is to kill them."
"Well, that's a bit hard to swallow," Doggett said.
"All right, after we've taken these critters out, I can take you back to
our central office and fill you in on the details," Robert said. He reached
into another pocket and pulled out a small device. "My GPS says that there are
still critters in here. Too bad the lights are out." He reached into a third
pocket and pulled out a flashlight. He pointed the beam all over the floor,
finding nothing. Then, he looked up at the ceiling. Towards the back, he saw
another creature, similar to the one that Doggett had killed outside. This one
was larger and colored differently.
As the light shone on the creature, it rushed towards Robert and Doggett.
Robert pointed his gun and shot at the approaching monster. The shots hit the
legs and head of the creature. "What are you waiting for, man? Help me!"
Robert exclaimed to Doggett. "You've got a gun! Use it!" Doggett pulled his
gun out and aimed at the head of the creature. With a small burst of speed, it
took its scythe claw and stabbed Robert through the chest, picking him up and
slamming him on the ceiling before dropping him to the ground, lifeless.
"Game over," Doggett said mirthlessly as he continued shooting at the
creature. The creature turned its attention to Doggett, roared, and fell to the
ground. It began melting as soon as it was on the ground. Doggett rushed to
Robert and checked his pulse. It was too late to help him. Doggett doubted
that he would mind if his gun was borrowed. He grabbed the rifle and the GPS
and headed outside.
In the back of the building, he heard more gun shots and ran around to the
back. He found another agent, a woman, in a close quarters battle with two
creatures like those that Avery had described. She jumped out of the path of
the jaws of one and shot at the other one in the chest, sending it flying to the
ground. She re-aimed at the first and took a few shots while backing away. The
second one had gotten up from the floor and was slowly lumbering towards her
again. She began alternating shots between the two, sending both of them
sprawling to the ground quickly. The two bodies melted and the woman reloaded
her weapon.
Looking back, she noticed Doggett near the gate. She had a wound on her
non-shooting arm and on her leg. "Hey, do you think you could give me some
assistance here?" the woman asked. "You are human, aren't you?"
"I've been asked that a lot today," Doggett replied. "Relatively
speaking. I assume you're from MIST, too?" The woman nodded. "I'm John
Doggett with the FBI. Hate to tell you this, but your partner in there was just
taken out."
"Bob?!" She exclaimed, running through the back door of the gas station.
As soon as the door closed, Doggett heard a low squeaking sound from the
darkness. The GPS he held beeped softly and showed five dots around him. He
turned so that one of the dots was in front of him, and he saw a small creature
with large ears, a large head, no arms, and large legs. He aimed and fired the
rifle, killing the small creature. The other four dots jumped out towards him
from the darkness. He took aim as best he could, but they jumped to the sides
to avoid getting shot. Just as they were about to pounce on him, Doggett jumped
to the side.
"Two can play at that game," Doggett said. The four creatures landed in a
pile, flat on their faces. Doggett quickly took aim and shot them before they
could get up. He rushed into the gas station before any more monsters could
jump out at him. The lady MIST agent was sitting over Robert's body, crying.
"I told him that we should have stayed together! I thought that I felt
something bad about this assignment! Gods, why couldn't he have listened to
me?!" she wailed.
"You know, this is hardly the time to mourn," Doggett said. "We are
fighting for our lives, after all."
"Look at the GPS," the woman said. Doggett glanced at the screen, which
had changed to an area map. "Is there any red on it?"
"Not that I can see," Doggett replied.
"Then we're safe," the woman said. She went back to crying.
"Where are the police who were sent here?" Doggett asked.
"They got injured, so I put them in the bathroom, out of the way," the
woman replied between sniffles. "I gave them some medicine, so they'll be fine
for the time being. They'll need a hospital soon, though." Doggett went to the
phone and called Chief Drowser. A few moments later, an ambulance was on the
way to pick up Robert and the two police officers up.
"What's your name, ma'am?" Doggett asked.
"I'm Laura Flash," she said. "These were stronger than we've seen before.
We may need to get some outside help for this one. I'll recommend that we send
word out to Los Angeles. Their specialists are the best on the force."
"There's more than one office?" Doggett asked. "Why haven't I heard of
this MIST before?"
"Probably because we keep our practices secret most of the time. Usually,
the only ones to know about them are the ones involved," Laura said.
"Look, do you have a place to stay for the night? You should get some
rest," Doggett said. Of course, he needed some rest, too, but he wasn't about
to worry about himself in that situation. Agent Flash might need medical
attention herself.
"Not really," Laura replied. "There's only the hotel to sleep at, as far
as I know, and that place has been locked down by the cops."
"I'm sure that we can find somewhere near here for you if we try," Doggett
said. "But first, I want to get someone to look at you. You may be in shock."
"No, I'm fine," Laura said.
"That's what they usually think. Just let them take a look at you, and
we'll go from there," Doggett said. Flash stood up and walked to the phone.
She dialed the phone, apparently to her superior.
"Trace? It's Laura. I've got some bad news... They got Bob... Yes,
dead! Look, these NMC's are stronger than any that either of us has seen. I'd
like to recommend that we call out to Los Angeles for some assistance from the
specialists. From what I heard about the Mojave Desert, these are right up
their alley... Yes, I'll be all right. I just need a good night's sleep, and
I'll feel much better... Well, I'm sorry, too...! Yes, we cleaned the place
out. There aren't any more on the GPS, so I think we're done for the time
being. But when I look at the map of the swamp, the place is blood red...
Yeah, it's filled to the brim, according to this... Yeah, I'll come back after
we finish this mission... Yeah, I'll have a shitload of BP. And well-earned,
I'd say. My counter's already at five thousand. That's enough to get that M41A
Grenade I've been wanting for a while... I'd appreciate it if you did that,
Trace. I'm getting kind of low on ammo... By the way, they've got another
branch of the FBI out here... Okay, can do... Yeah, talk to you later."
She hung up the phone, smiling weakly. "Well, Mr. Doggett, you've been
drafted to help us kill some critters. You up to it?"
"Well, I've got a case to solve," Doggett said nervously.
"And this is part of your case, I'd assume," Laura said. "If you've been
to the hotel, then you must have found a dead woman. She was one of ours, too."
"How are you people so easy to kill if you're specialists?" Doggett asked.
"Usually, we're not," Laura replied. "The two of them were fairly new.
Boss thought that it would be a cake-walk, something to give them field
experience. Apparently, he was wrong. Look, you're going to need a better gun
than that standard issue if you're going to help us out. Something more along
the lines of the M41A that you borrowed from Bob. I think we can give you some
BP for the ones that you killed, so you should be able to get some stuff from
the police. My boss's going to talk to them and get them to trade us stuff for
our BP."
"Ummm, what exactly are BP?" Doggett asked.
"They're Bounty Points. Each creature you kill gets you Bounty Points
that you can trade for stuff," Laura replied. "Usually, we keep track of them
in special devices in our contact lenses, but we'll have to use some less high-
tech stuff for you." She dug through her pack and handed him a small, hand-held
device with a scanner and receptor antenna. "This is one of the old BP
counters. I always keep one with me, just in case. You can use it until the
end of this mission." She looked him over. He was still wearing his dress-code
suit. "You may want to change into some more comfortable clothes. Ones that
you don't mind getting dirty. These missions can be kind of messy."
"Do you mind if I give my partner a call real quick?" Doggett asked,
taking out his cell phone. Scully picked up her cell phone, irritated.
"Scully, I've found our killers."
"Really? Already?" Scully asked.
"It wasn't as difficult a task as we could have hoped. I've been told
that these things are a type of monster with weird cellular structures," Doggett
said.
"But you've found them?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, well I found them and was told that I had to kill them," Doggett
said. "Just get out of that autopsy room and get down here to Todd's Gas
Station. I'm sure that they'll want to talk to you, too. This is getting into
some deep biology stuff."
"I'll be down there as quickly as I can," Scully said. "Don't go
anywhere."
"I don't think we were planning on it. The cops will be coming around
soon to talk to us as well," Doggett said. It was going to be a long mission,
he could tell.
End Part 1
Part 1
A Parasite Eve 2/X-Files x-over
By: M.H. Torringjan
Okay, I know that I'm breaking my once-cardinal rule of never writing
cross-overs, but I thought that this one would work very well. I mean, they're
both supposed to be about government conspiracies, taking place in real-world-
like situations, involving out-of-the-ordinary phenomena. The only difference
is that in one, the phenomena have already been explained (merely ignored by
most of the populace and scientific community). Second off, don't think that
I'm just saying that there was coincidentally another facility out there. In
the "normal ending" it was commented by the President that there were other
facilities. So there. :-)
For starters, I don't own Parasite Eve 2. Squaresoft does. I don't own
X-Files. Chris Carter (IIRC) does. This fic should probably be rated PG-13 to
R, depending on who's reading it for strong language and violence.
November 15, 2001, 10:05 p.m.
Outside the Okefenokee Swamp, Florida
Naturalist Thomas Manfield stooped down to get a water sample from the
stream that ran underneath the road just outside of a small town (that was only
called a town because people lived there), Harden, Florida. He hated working at
night, but he was the one who had put off doing this until "later" about five
different times. He would much rather be at the hotel, relaxing while watching
the "Who's Line" marathons that Comedy Central seemed so hell-bent on showing.
Instead, he was outside, getting bitten by bugs, getting wet, and trudging
through mud a foot deep.
He had known from the start that this would be a bad assignment. As much
as he enjoyed Florida, he'd much rather be on vacation there. His department
head at the National Science Foundation wanted him to get some tests run on the
water quality and depth readings on the lakes and streams of the area. He would
have thought that they would have had better things to do with their time than
re-measure bogs that had been classified as still in danger two months before.
Well, at least the weather had been nice (relatively speaking). It hadn't
rained once during the three days he had been there.
As he screwed the top on the bottle of water, he thought that he heard a
baby's whine further out in the darkness. A moment later, he heard a loud splat
from the same direction. "Hey, is anyone there?" Thomas said. He didn't hear
anything in reply to his call and chalked it up to his imagination. It probably
didn't concern him anyway. He just wanted to get the water sample analyzed
quickly and get to bed.
He turned to walk to his rental jeep, not at all unnerved by the odd
sound. The mud was fairly thick under his feet. As much as he wanted to hurry,
he wasn't going to be doing it in that mud. He had left the lights on his jeep
on so that he could find his way back. The strong beams were visible between
the trees, leading him back to the road. It kind of made him wish that he had
turned the jeep to shine the lights in the forest, but that would have probably
disturbed the natural wildlife or something.
Thomas stepped up onto the shoulder of the road and walked to his jeep.
He opened the door and grabbed the map and his shoes. He quickly changed from
the boots that he wore into his tennis shoes for comfort's sake and threw the
boots in the passenger's side floor-board. He spread the map out on the hood of
the jeep and found where he was. He quickly scribbled that on the bottle's
label and put it in his pocket.
Behind him, he heard something squeak from the swamp. He turned and
looked fat the source of the sound. In the dim light from the headlights, he
saw what he thought looked like a deranged cartoon rabbit. He bent down to get
a closer look at it when four others jumped out of the swamp behind it and stood
beside it for a moment. To his right on the shoulder, Thomas heard another
baby's whine. He looked to see a small baby with something covering its face
crawling towards him quickly. He walked over to the baby to see what was on its
face.
As he reached down to pick it up, it grabbed onto his leg and plunged the
thing on its face into his leg. As he watched in pain, the baby's head began to
become redder, as though all of the blood was rushing straight to its head. He
began kicking to try and get the baby off, but to no avail. The baby's head
continued to swell until it was twice its original size, when it popped. The
sickening splat was close enough to Thomas that he could see its effects this
time. However, he couldn't keep his eyes open.
When he reopened his eyes, he felt a pain in his leg. When he looked
down, he realized that the pain was because his lower leg was gone. He screamed
in pain and fell to the ground. He tried crawling back to his jeep, only to be
stopped by the deranged rabbits. They squeaked greedily as they dug their teeth
into the flesh of their dinner.
November 20, 2001, 10:24 a.m.
FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
John Doggett sat in the office of the X-Files looking over a pile of
papers that had been dropped by his office earlier in the day. He was a bit
confused about what he read. The file was about a dead naturalist in Florida,
found with most of his chest torn out, his leg blown off, and human tooth-marks
left on his bones. According to the report, the body was discovered the day
after he had been killed. Little predation or decomposition. An interesting
piece of information laid in the pictures that had been taken on a spray of
blood and bone shards near where the body was located. According to forensics
teams, the blood wasn't the naturalist's, and neither were the bones. They had
found bone fragments that looked like they were from the cranium of a fetal
human.
Doggett looked up as the door opened and Dana Scully walked into the
office, wearing her usual conservative suit.
"Morning, Scully," Doggett said. "You're a bit late. What kept you?"
"I was giving Kirsch a report on our last assignment," Scully said. "What
have you got there?"
"It may be our next case," Doggett replied. He handed the folder to
Scully for her perusal. "Single homicide in Florida outside a little town
called Harden. Pay special attention to the forensics report on the blood spray
located near the body." Scully looked at the report for a few moments before
Doggett spoke again. "So, what do you think we've got here? Homicidal
spontaneously-combusting baby gangs?"
"I really couldn't say," Scully said. "I haven't seen anything like this
before, not even in any of the other X-files."
"So, are we catching a plane?" Doggett asked.
"It might be a good idea," Scully replied.
"What, you're not going to ask your 'outside source' for help?" Doggett
asked.
"Not this time," Scully said. "I doubt even he'd know what's going on,
and he'd probably follow us. Even if I told him not to."
"Geez, doesn't he have anything better to do with his time?" Doggett
sighed.
"I think all he's doing these days is working with some techie friends of
ours. He doesn't tell me anything," Scully said. "Basically, he's always
asking what's going on here."
"All right, I'll call out there and let them know we're coming," Doggett
said, walking out of the office. "Should we leave tomorrow or the day after?"
"Tomorrow should be fine," Scully said. "I'll need some time to get
ready, get a baby-sitter and whatnot. We'll meet here tomorrow morning at five
a.m."
"You're asking me to baby-sit while you go off with Doggett and take care
of a case?" Mulder asked when Scully visited his apartment that night. "I don't
know the first thing about babies!"
"Please, Mulder! You're the only one I could find at such a short notice!
Besides, it's not that hard! When he cries, he wants one or more of four
things, a bottle, a diaper change, attention, or comfort!" Scully said,
simplifying greatly to try and convince him. She'd write down instructions for
him after he agreed hopefully. "Besides, if you need any help, I'll have my
cell phone with me and you have the phone number."
"Well, I suppose it'll be all right with me," Mulder said. "As long as he
doesn't wake me up during the night."
"Sorry, Mulder, he's not out of that phase yet," Scully said, handing him
the baby and the bag that held his things. "Hopefully, this'll last you until I
get back. Thank you so much, Mulder!" she said, giving him a quick peck on the
cheek. "I've got to go get ready. We're leaving at five tomorrow morning."
"Where are you two going, anyway?" Mulder asked.
"Mulder, if I tell you, you'll just follow us. Right now, I need you to
take care of him and not worry about me. I'll be all right, so don't worry,"
Scully said. "Now, I'll see you in less than a week." She turned and walked
through the door. As soon as she had left, the baby began to cry.
November 21, 2001, 7:19 p.m.
Harden, Florida
Scully's white car drove up to the hotel where they were going to be
staying with Doggett in the passenger seat, about to go crazy from listening to
Scully's music for ten of the fourteen hours that they had been driving. Only
three other cars were parked around the parking lot. Not a very large place.
It was on the outskirts of the "town," which had a population of one-hundred
people. The swamp was not very far away from it. Scully was surprised that
anyone had even thought of building a hotel in such a small town.
"I'll go get our rooms," Doggett said, getting out of the car. He walked
around to the front desk to get their keys. When he rung the bell that sat on
the desk, no one came to the desk. "'Scuze me, anyone here?" he called behind
the desk. No answer came back. He waited for a few minutes before opening the
door to the back room. He quickly surveyed the back room. No one was there.
"Hey, is anyone here?" he asked again. He cautiously walked into the room to
get a better look around. There was a door on the far wall that was slightly
open. A small trail of blood was on the floor, leading through the door, and
the chair behind the desk was overturned.
Doggett drew his gun and slowly approached the door. He peeked through to
see what was there. There wasn't much to be seen in the darkness of the room,
so he pushed the door open and turned on the light. The room was a small
bathroom, and a man laid against the wall, his chest ripped open. The stench of
old blood was not very comfortable, nor the sight.
"Man, can't go five minutes..." Doggett said as he went back to the front
desk to use the phone. He tried 911, then realized that a town as small as this
wouldn't have a 911 system. He opened the phone book and called the police
station.
"Harden Police Department, how can I help you?" the voice at the other end
asked.
"This is Agent John Doggett with the FBI. I need to speak to Chief
Drowser. We spoke yesterday."
"Just one moment," the voice said. A few moments later, the Chief picked
up.
"Agent Doggett, nice to talk to you again! Are you here in Harden?"
Drowser asked.
"Yes, my partner and I are here at the hotel. We just walked in and found
a man down," Doggett said. "You may want to get some people out here to look
into this."
"What?! Someone down?!" Drowser exclaimed. "All right, Agent, we'll get
some people out there right away."
"We'll be here, looking for some clues as to what happened," Doggett said,
hanging up. He went outside to Scully at the car.
"So, do you have our keys?" Scully asked.
"Not exactly," Doggett said. "There's a bit of a problem inside."
Doggett led Scully inside to the body.
"What happened?" Scully asked.
"I don't know," Doggett replied. "I just walked in here and found him
down like this. Check out that wound. Looks like a knifing to me."
"It's too large to be a knife. The only thing that I can think of to
describe this would be a scythe," Scully said.
"Who'd use a scythe to kill a hotel-owner?" Doggett asked. "And, more
importantly, why? They're in the middle of nowhere. It's not like they make
that much money to have stolen."
"Judging by the dried blood, this wound is probably a day old," Scully
said. "There were guests here before that, or else it would have been
discovered earlier. Maybe they saw or heard something."
"Or maybe they did it," Doggett suggested. "Either way, we should look
around for some clues as to what happened. I've already called the local cops.
They should be on their way as we speak." The two went out of the office and
walked around to start trying doors. The five doors on the first floor were
locked and showed no signs of forced entry. The two walked to the second floor
and found that room 201's door was unlocked and had been forced open somehow.
There were scrape marks like claws on the frame. Doggett pushed the door open
and peered inside the room.
Some rather large moths flew around the ceiling light. Doggett began
looking around the rest of the room for anything. He soon found the body of the
visitor from that room in the bathroom with much of the flesh torn from her arm
and parts of her face missing. She had tried defending herself, to no avail.
She appeared to have been in her twenties. She must have been taking a shower
when the attack took place. "God, I love this job," Doggett thought
sarcastically to himself. He called back out to Scully, "There's another body
in here. Young female African American. Looks like she got eaten to death."
Scully joined him in the bathroom. "This looks similar to how Thomas
Manfield died, without the blood splatter."
"Call me crazy, but I think the two may be connected somehow," Doggett
said. The two walked back into the main room to investigate further. Doggett
looked at the ground, finding footprints. "Scully, do those prints look human
to you?"
"They do look human," Scully replied. "So, was the attacker human or
animal?"
"Or both?" Doggett replied. "Not like we haven't seen it before."
Outside, two police cars had arrived in the parking lot. "Looks like the
cops finally got here," Scully said. As the two headed for the door, the three
moths flew down, two flying towards Doggett and one heading for Scully. The two
ignored the moths, thinking nothing of them. One ran into the back of Doggett's
head and Scully's head. They exploded in a small display, scattering a sort of
dust around them. The two grabbed the backs of their heads in pain and turned
around. The second one flew at Doggett and exploded in his face, sending the
dust flying in his eyes. Doggett exclaimed in surprise and pain.
"You all right, Doggett?" Scully asked.
"I can't see, Scully! The moth did it to me!" Doggett exclaimed.
"Let's get you outside," Scully said, taking his hand and leading him
outside and down to the police cars. She showed her badge to the officer in
charge. "Dana Scully, FBI. I believe my partner called you."
"Yes, Agent Scully, of course," the officer said. "I'm officer Jenkins.
What's going on, anyway?"
"I'll explain after we get some first aid for my partner," Scully said.
"Some kind of moth flew at him, exploded and blinded him."
"Now, that's odd," Jenkins said. Scully led Doggett into the bathroom of
the hotel manager's office and let him wash off his face. After splashing some
water over his face and letting his tears wash away the stuff in his eyes,
Doggett could see again. The two returned to the officer and explained
everything that they had found to the officer.
"Later on, I'll want to autopsy the bodies," Scully said.
"I think it can be arranged," Jenkins replied. "For now, though, if you
could help us with investigation, it'd be a great help."
"We can do that," Scully said. She and Doggett walked back to the second
floor and went around to the other rooms. Room 205 showed more signs of forced
entry. As Doggett pushed the door open, gunshots came from the room.
"We've got shots!" Doggett yelled out to the cops. "I need some backup!"
"Wait," a voice inside called out. "You're human?! Come in!" Doggett
cautiously opened the door and entered, gun at the ready. A thin man stood
against the back wall, holding a handgun. He had piled the furniture around him
in a barricade style. "I knew that if I could last long enough, someone would
come to rescue me!" the man said. He pushed the bed out of the way with a
certain amount of effort and ran to Doggett.
"Do you have any idea what went on here?" Doggett asked him.
"A bunch of strange creatures came out of the swamp and killed the
others!" the man said.
"Oh, boy, one of these," Doggett said.
"Sir, we're going to have to take you into custody," Scully said. The
officers ran to the door and entered with their guns drawn and loaded. "You're
the only one who survived this that we've found."
"As long as I get out of here!" the man exclaimed. He surrendered his gun
and practically jumped in the police car that sped away to the station. Doggett
and Scully waited around for the ambulance to come for the corpses. Scully
drove to the coroner's office to examine the bodies and Doggett took the car
over to the station to interview the man.
November 21, 8:03 p.m.
Harden Sheriff's Department
"All right, sir," Doggett began. "I just want to ask you some questions
about that hotel and about yourself. Is that all right?"
"That's fine with me," the man said.
"What is your name, sir?"
"I'm Jonathan Avery."
"All right, my name's John Doggett. Where are you from, Mister Avery?"
"I'm from Asheville, North Carolina," Avery replied.
"Oh, that's a nice place," Doggett replied. He wanted a calm
interrogation. It's easier to get the truth and to find lies when the questions
were calm. "So, what brought you down here to Harden?"
"I was passing through to visit some relatives in Orlando," Avery said
calmly.
"Do you know anyone here in Harden?"
"No," Avery said.
"What made you decide to stop here instead of somewhere a little further
down the road?"
"It was about two a.m. two nights ago. I was running on fumes, so I
basically had to stop until I could buy gas in the morning," Avery replied.
"Do you know this man, Thomas Manfield?" Doggett asked.
"Never heard of him," Avery said after thinking for a moment.
"You said you got here the night before last. Could you explain what went
on since you got here?"
"Well, not much happened the rest of that night," Avery began. "I went to
sleep the instant my head hit the pillow. The next morning, I woke up at about
ten the next morning and went down to pay for my night. When I got there, I
couldn't reach the manager, and I tried looking for him in the back room. I
found him in the bathroom, killed by one of those things. I panicked and ran
out to go back to my room and get my gun. On my way, I heard a scream from the
room down the way from mine. I walked in and saw a monster attacking her. Too
bad, too. She didn't look all that bad. Alive, that is. Anyway, I screamed
like a moron. That got the monster's attention. I ran out and to my room,
closing and locking the door behind me. The monster tried bashing the door in,
and I grabbed my gun from my suitcase. I always have it with me, just in case.
As soon as it bashed the door in, I started shooting it. After a few rounds, it
was dead. Apparently, there was one more, since it came running in to help its
friend. I took it down with a few more shots."
"We found no corpses in your room, Mister Avery," Doggett said.
"They melted after I killed them," Avery replied.
"What did they look like?" Doggett asked.
"Well, they looked like a couple of big piles of goo," Avery said.
"I mean before you killed them," Doggett said.
"Oh, before that, they looked like people with small bodies, really short
arms, big and strong legs, long necks, and human faces," Avery said. "Anyway,
that was just during the day. I didn't dare leave, because I was afraid they'd
kill me. I took the furniture and piled it around me so that they'd have a
harder time of getting at me. That night, it got even worse. I was running
short on ammo and these chameleon critters came in. They disappeared while I
was watching them. Before they could get to me, though, I was able to spot them
and kill them. Luckily, nothing else came in until you."
"Well, that's quite a story, Mister Avery," Doggett said.
"And every word of it true," Avery insisted.
"That's all I've got to ask you for now," Doggett said. "But I may be
back here later to talk with you some more. Thanks for your cooperation."
Doggett walked out of the interrogation room and back out to the car. He'd have
to talk to Scully and see what she had found in the autopsies.
Scully pulled off her gloves and re-covered the first corpse, that of the
young woman. She had found human tooth-marks in the bones of the forearm, which
was broken in two places, and the face bones and ribs, which were also broken.
She had died of blood-loss. There were didn't appear to be any signs right off-
hand of poisoning or anything else, but she'd have to wait for the toxicology
report. And she would have to send the samples to Jacksonville for that. It
would be the next morning before she got the results back at the earliest. Her
cell phone went off. She went to the table-top where she had laid her things
and turned it on. "Scully," she greeted.
"Hey, Scully, I've got a problem," Mulder said from the other end. She
could hear crying from the background. "He won't stop crying, and I've done
everything you said in the list."
"Here, put the phone beside him," Scully said. She could hear the crying
loudly and clearly, so the phone must have been as she had requested. She began
singing a lullaby. By the time she was finished, the crying had stopped. The
breathing from the other end was steady; the baby had fallen asleep.
"Good job, Scully," Mulder said into the phone. "What did you do?"
"Let's just say that I applied that 'mother's touch' that everyone always
goes on about," Scully said.
"So, how's the case going?" Mulder asked.
"Weird as always," Scully said. "It's turned form a single homicide to a
triple homicide, perhaps involving organisms of unknown origins. The first man
had his leg blown off with pieces of a fetal cranium and blood that wasn't his
around his body. Another dead by a scythe cut. A third dead by some sort of
attack that tore the flesh from much of her body. Human tooth-marks were
located on two of the bodies. We found one person who was just so happy to be
taken into custody, ranting about monsters."
"Just another day at the office, eh?" Mulder asked.
"Yeah, another day..." Scully sighed.
"You sure you're not telling me where you are?" Mulder asked.
"Very, Mulder," Scully said. She'd need some sleep soon if she was going
to keep up with the investigation. She'd had some sleepless nights on the job,
but she really didn't want to make it a regular practice. "Anyway, Mulder, I've
got another autopsy to do tonight, so if you'll excuse me..." She hung up and
considered turning it off. That would be a bad idea, though, since Doggett
might need to reach her. She washed her hands, put on a new pair of gloves, and
pulled the blanket from the second corpse.
She turned on her tape recorder and began to describe the body for future
reference. As she was about to cut into the body, Doggett walked through the
door. She stopped the tape recorder to talk to him.
"What did you get out of the man?" Scully asked.
"Well, his name's Jonathan Avery, and he's from Asheville, NC. He was
passing through here to visit some relatives down south. Apparently, it was
just a coincidence that he stopped here. Says that he woke up later yesterday
morning and found 'monsters' eating on the other two. He claims to have killed
some of them with that gun of his and that they melted when he killed them,
which would explain why we didn't find any monster corpses when we found him,"
Doggett explained. "Sounds to me like he did it and he's repressed the whole
experience, replacing it with this whole monster story."
"I wouldn't be too sure, Doggett," Scully said. "The wounds that killed
these two weren't gun-shots, and they don't even seem to be something that any
normal human could have done. The wounds were delivered by something strong
enough to break bones with a single bite and almost cut a person in half with
one clean swipe of a scythe."
"I don't know about you, but I don't know if I want to go back to our
hotel any time soon," Doggett said. In his pocket, his cell phone went off. He
turned it on.
"Agent Doggett, I thought that you should know about this," Chief Drowser
said. "We got an emergency call from the gas station right down the road from
the hotel, the owner screaming about monsters. He was cut off before we could
get him to calm down. When some of my men got there, they were met by some
other agents. They claimed that they were with the FBI, from MIST. I've never
heard of this MIST, so I thought that I should see what you thought about it."
"I've never heard of them, either," Doggett said. "I'll get right out
there. Thanks for the heads-up, sir." He hung up and told Scully what he had
been told. "I'll head out to the gas station to look into this. You keep up
with the corpses and get out there when you can. I'll call you if anything
comes up." Doggett walked out of the room, mumbling about how they were really
being jerked around on this case.
November 21, 2001, 10:36 p.m.
Todd's Gas Station, Harden, Florida
Doggett pulled up in the car to the sound of gun shots all around the
building. Through the front windows, he could see the flash of the gun and the
figure of the agent silhouetted as by a strobe light. He nervously walked
towards the door of the gas station. When he got to the lighted area near the
gas pumps, he noticed a shadow of something sitting in front of the pumps. As
he watched, the something appeared from out of nowhere and began running towards
him.
He pulled his gun from the holster and pointed it at the creature, which
had faintly human features about it. It had skin that was orange and black
striped, and Doggett noticed the scythe-looking claw on its right arm as it came
running towards him. He backed away, aiming the gun carefully. He pulled the
trigger and shot it in the head. It continued running towards him, as though it
hadn't felt the shot. Doggett pulled the trigger again, and the creature kept
coming. Doggett shot it twice more in the head, finally dropping it. He
approached it to inspect it. Before he could get a good look at it, though, it
began melting just like Avery had said. A few moments later, it had completely
melted, and the goo was disappearing, as well.
The shots inside the building had stopped, so Doggett ran to the door and
opened it. He looked inside and saw a lone man standing in the center of a ring
of goo, reloading a large, military-style rifle. Doggett aimed his handgun at
the man and exclaimed, "Freeze! FBI!"
"So am I," the man said, placing his gun on the floor. "Can I show you my
badge?"
"Yeah," Doggett said. The man reached into a pocket in his Kevlar vest
and produced a badge. The name attached to it was Robert Shriver. "Mister
Shriver, who are you and your partner with?"
"We're with an organization in the FBI called MIST. We got word of this
yesterday and were dispatched to suppress these creatures, if they were real,"
Robert said.
"What are these creatures, anyway? And why haven't I heard of this MIST?"
Doggett asked.
"MIST is the Mitochondrion Investigation and Suppression Team. Do you
remember the New York Incident in 1997?"
"Yeah, I heard about it, some crazy stuff about an international terrorist
group about to nuke the city," Doggett said.
"Well, that was just a cover story. This is sort of what happened there,
except on a much larger scale. And these really are different breeds, but the
premise is the same. Basically, these creatures have a different cellular
structure, which gives them destructive and violent tendencies. The only way to
calm them down is to kill them."
"Well, that's a bit hard to swallow," Doggett said.
"All right, after we've taken these critters out, I can take you back to
our central office and fill you in on the details," Robert said. He reached
into another pocket and pulled out a small device. "My GPS says that there are
still critters in here. Too bad the lights are out." He reached into a third
pocket and pulled out a flashlight. He pointed the beam all over the floor,
finding nothing. Then, he looked up at the ceiling. Towards the back, he saw
another creature, similar to the one that Doggett had killed outside. This one
was larger and colored differently.
As the light shone on the creature, it rushed towards Robert and Doggett.
Robert pointed his gun and shot at the approaching monster. The shots hit the
legs and head of the creature. "What are you waiting for, man? Help me!"
Robert exclaimed to Doggett. "You've got a gun! Use it!" Doggett pulled his
gun out and aimed at the head of the creature. With a small burst of speed, it
took its scythe claw and stabbed Robert through the chest, picking him up and
slamming him on the ceiling before dropping him to the ground, lifeless.
"Game over," Doggett said mirthlessly as he continued shooting at the
creature. The creature turned its attention to Doggett, roared, and fell to the
ground. It began melting as soon as it was on the ground. Doggett rushed to
Robert and checked his pulse. It was too late to help him. Doggett doubted
that he would mind if his gun was borrowed. He grabbed the rifle and the GPS
and headed outside.
In the back of the building, he heard more gun shots and ran around to the
back. He found another agent, a woman, in a close quarters battle with two
creatures like those that Avery had described. She jumped out of the path of
the jaws of one and shot at the other one in the chest, sending it flying to the
ground. She re-aimed at the first and took a few shots while backing away. The
second one had gotten up from the floor and was slowly lumbering towards her
again. She began alternating shots between the two, sending both of them
sprawling to the ground quickly. The two bodies melted and the woman reloaded
her weapon.
Looking back, she noticed Doggett near the gate. She had a wound on her
non-shooting arm and on her leg. "Hey, do you think you could give me some
assistance here?" the woman asked. "You are human, aren't you?"
"I've been asked that a lot today," Doggett replied. "Relatively
speaking. I assume you're from MIST, too?" The woman nodded. "I'm John
Doggett with the FBI. Hate to tell you this, but your partner in there was just
taken out."
"Bob?!" She exclaimed, running through the back door of the gas station.
As soon as the door closed, Doggett heard a low squeaking sound from the
darkness. The GPS he held beeped softly and showed five dots around him. He
turned so that one of the dots was in front of him, and he saw a small creature
with large ears, a large head, no arms, and large legs. He aimed and fired the
rifle, killing the small creature. The other four dots jumped out towards him
from the darkness. He took aim as best he could, but they jumped to the sides
to avoid getting shot. Just as they were about to pounce on him, Doggett jumped
to the side.
"Two can play at that game," Doggett said. The four creatures landed in a
pile, flat on their faces. Doggett quickly took aim and shot them before they
could get up. He rushed into the gas station before any more monsters could
jump out at him. The lady MIST agent was sitting over Robert's body, crying.
"I told him that we should have stayed together! I thought that I felt
something bad about this assignment! Gods, why couldn't he have listened to
me?!" she wailed.
"You know, this is hardly the time to mourn," Doggett said. "We are
fighting for our lives, after all."
"Look at the GPS," the woman said. Doggett glanced at the screen, which
had changed to an area map. "Is there any red on it?"
"Not that I can see," Doggett replied.
"Then we're safe," the woman said. She went back to crying.
"Where are the police who were sent here?" Doggett asked.
"They got injured, so I put them in the bathroom, out of the way," the
woman replied between sniffles. "I gave them some medicine, so they'll be fine
for the time being. They'll need a hospital soon, though." Doggett went to the
phone and called Chief Drowser. A few moments later, an ambulance was on the
way to pick up Robert and the two police officers up.
"What's your name, ma'am?" Doggett asked.
"I'm Laura Flash," she said. "These were stronger than we've seen before.
We may need to get some outside help for this one. I'll recommend that we send
word out to Los Angeles. Their specialists are the best on the force."
"There's more than one office?" Doggett asked. "Why haven't I heard of
this MIST before?"
"Probably because we keep our practices secret most of the time. Usually,
the only ones to know about them are the ones involved," Laura said.
"Look, do you have a place to stay for the night? You should get some
rest," Doggett said. Of course, he needed some rest, too, but he wasn't about
to worry about himself in that situation. Agent Flash might need medical
attention herself.
"Not really," Laura replied. "There's only the hotel to sleep at, as far
as I know, and that place has been locked down by the cops."
"I'm sure that we can find somewhere near here for you if we try," Doggett
said. "But first, I want to get someone to look at you. You may be in shock."
"No, I'm fine," Laura said.
"That's what they usually think. Just let them take a look at you, and
we'll go from there," Doggett said. Flash stood up and walked to the phone.
She dialed the phone, apparently to her superior.
"Trace? It's Laura. I've got some bad news... They got Bob... Yes,
dead! Look, these NMC's are stronger than any that either of us has seen. I'd
like to recommend that we call out to Los Angeles for some assistance from the
specialists. From what I heard about the Mojave Desert, these are right up
their alley... Yes, I'll be all right. I just need a good night's sleep, and
I'll feel much better... Well, I'm sorry, too...! Yes, we cleaned the place
out. There aren't any more on the GPS, so I think we're done for the time
being. But when I look at the map of the swamp, the place is blood red...
Yeah, it's filled to the brim, according to this... Yeah, I'll come back after
we finish this mission... Yeah, I'll have a shitload of BP. And well-earned,
I'd say. My counter's already at five thousand. That's enough to get that M41A
Grenade I've been wanting for a while... I'd appreciate it if you did that,
Trace. I'm getting kind of low on ammo... By the way, they've got another
branch of the FBI out here... Okay, can do... Yeah, talk to you later."
She hung up the phone, smiling weakly. "Well, Mr. Doggett, you've been
drafted to help us kill some critters. You up to it?"
"Well, I've got a case to solve," Doggett said nervously.
"And this is part of your case, I'd assume," Laura said. "If you've been
to the hotel, then you must have found a dead woman. She was one of ours, too."
"How are you people so easy to kill if you're specialists?" Doggett asked.
"Usually, we're not," Laura replied. "The two of them were fairly new.
Boss thought that it would be a cake-walk, something to give them field
experience. Apparently, he was wrong. Look, you're going to need a better gun
than that standard issue if you're going to help us out. Something more along
the lines of the M41A that you borrowed from Bob. I think we can give you some
BP for the ones that you killed, so you should be able to get some stuff from
the police. My boss's going to talk to them and get them to trade us stuff for
our BP."
"Ummm, what exactly are BP?" Doggett asked.
"They're Bounty Points. Each creature you kill gets you Bounty Points
that you can trade for stuff," Laura replied. "Usually, we keep track of them
in special devices in our contact lenses, but we'll have to use some less high-
tech stuff for you." She dug through her pack and handed him a small, hand-held
device with a scanner and receptor antenna. "This is one of the old BP
counters. I always keep one with me, just in case. You can use it until the
end of this mission." She looked him over. He was still wearing his dress-code
suit. "You may want to change into some more comfortable clothes. Ones that
you don't mind getting dirty. These missions can be kind of messy."
"Do you mind if I give my partner a call real quick?" Doggett asked,
taking out his cell phone. Scully picked up her cell phone, irritated.
"Scully, I've found our killers."
"Really? Already?" Scully asked.
"It wasn't as difficult a task as we could have hoped. I've been told
that these things are a type of monster with weird cellular structures," Doggett
said.
"But you've found them?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, well I found them and was told that I had to kill them," Doggett
said. "Just get out of that autopsy room and get down here to Todd's Gas
Station. I'm sure that they'll want to talk to you, too. This is getting into
some deep biology stuff."
"I'll be down there as quickly as I can," Scully said. "Don't go
anywhere."
"I don't think we were planning on it. The cops will be coming around
soon to talk to us as well," Doggett said. It was going to be a long mission,
he could tell.
End Part 1