I found several stories I wrote, circa 1994/95 or so. Thought it'd be a trip to re-post here for anyone wishing to read them. Enjoy.
The X-Files, and the characters of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder
belong to Chris Carter and Ten-Thirteen Productions and FOX Broadcasting.
I have used the characters without permission. No copyright infringement
intended.
I started this sometime in August, and finished it uh
November something let's say the 3rd. The story is based on my little
trip to a diner, which if anyone ever comes to where I live I warn you not
to go there, but the rest comes from my sick little mind. And any
resemblance to the episode The List is purely coincidental. I came up
with this first. They took it from ME. Oh yeah and any feedback on the
story would be great, I'm all ready for them flames! And without further
due:
B u z z
By: FilmGrrl99
The fly circled around the hamburger three times before deciding
where it wanted to land. It prodded the piece of meat then flew away.
Seconds later two more flies came and landed on the hamburger.
That was the last straw, he was truly disgusted. "Excuse me miss?
Miss?" Martin Lear couldn't believe the luck he was having today. First
he was late for work, then he missed an important business meeting, on his
way to play tennis at the YMCA a bus had splattered mud all over his new
suit, someone then stole his pants so he had to walk around in his Umbros
for the rest of the day, and now flies were all over his hamburger and no
one was going to acknowledge it. "Miss!"
The waitress turned around. After working in the diner the entire
day, the last thing she needed was some jerk complaining about his food or
the service. "Yes, Sir?"
"There are flies back here. They are all over my food, and they keep
biting me. Ow!" He bent down and rubbed his leg. "Don't expect me to pay
for this."
"Let me go get the manager," she said in that typical "bite me"
tone. They both knew she had no intention of getting the manager.
Another fly landed on his burger, and Martin hit it- killing it. A
second fly landed on his leg, but before he could swat it away, it bit
into him. Suddenly his head began to ache. He brought his hands up and
rubbed his temples. He watched the flies land on the hamburger, then fly
away. His headache was getting worse by the minute. Another fly landed
on his right calf and bit him. This time blood slowly streamed out,
running down his leg and coating the wall beneath the table with his
blood. Martin looked down to see his blood flowing from the bite. He
began to panic. Getting away was all he could think of as he scrambled to
escape the booth. However, his feet entwined and he fell to the floor.
The other few diners who were seated near him began screaming for the
waitress. Martin grabbed his head feeling nausea spread over him and wave
after wave of dizziness. He screamed out in pain as something under the
skin of his head began moving. He screamed as long and as loud as he
could until he felt his throat burn and his lungs protest from lack of
oxygen.
The waitress came running over to see the man see had spoken to not
five minutes earlier screaming and bleeding on the floor. Suddenly the
skin on the side of his head began to tear and instead of blood, a thick
green liquid came gushing out.
Everyone began to panic. Children started crying, women and men
screaming, and the waitress felt her stomach turn as she ran in the
opposite direction, towards the bathroom. On her way she hit into the
manager, who was coming out of the kitchen to see what was going on. He
was only halfway there when he saw the dead man with still more of the
green liquid coming out. His mouth dropped open and he ran towards the
phone.
Eatins Diner
Losen, NH
2:35pm
He glanced at his watch. It had been almost two hours since he had
called the State Police Forensic Lab at the Capital hoping someone there
would have an answer. No one there, however, had any idea, but suggested
that two FBI agents who were at the lab on other business might be of
help. The agents, the lab director said, worked in some special section
of the FBI dealing with abnormal crimes. "Just great," the Sheriff
thought, "What the hell are abnormal crimes? Probably the FBI term for
serial killings. What good are these two going to do," the Sheriff
continued to wonder. "This is no serial killing. In fact, it probably
isn't a killing at all. Just a strange death." The Sheriff had no clue
to explain the green liquid and thought the FBI agents would be equally
mystified. At least, he thought, he could tell his superiors that he
consulted with the FBI and they were stumped. Yes, it might even be a way
to cover his butt. Anyway, where are they, he thought glancing again at
his watch. They should have been here already.
A car pulled into the parking lot behind him. He walked towards it,
ready to tell the driver to pull out. The driver opened the car door and
immediately the sheriff heard yelling and arguing. The driver and
passenger both emerged at the same time, still arguing. The sheriff
looked at the passenger, finding it remarkable that a little thing like
her could yell that loud.
"Scully, give me a break. I got us here on time didn't I?"
"No Mulder, we're half an hour late. I told you the parkway would be
faster. Why don't you ever listen to me?" It had been a long week for the
two agents, and their annoyance with their present assignment had begun to
show in their tempers. One week traveling up to the East Coast, meeting
with State Forensic Labs to go over revised reporting procedures being
requested by the FBI was not something they wanted to do or, for that
matter, thought they should be assigned to do. This assignment had, in
their minds, really nothing to do with the X-Files, although their
superiors claimed otherwise. Mulder spent the week explaining that it was
a conspiracy to interfere with their work. Scully was tired of hearing his
paranoic diatribes on a routine assignment, but inwardly felt he was
probably correct. Anyway, both agents were irritable and it showed
The two looked forward and found the sheriff watching them with a
half-smile on his face. All conversation abruptly stopped and
professionalism came back.
"Hello, Sheriff, we're from the FBI. I'm special agent Mulder and
this is special agent Scully." Mulder took out his ID and watched Scully
do the same.
"Sheriff Sampson." He looked at them both one more time before
saying, "The body is this way." The sheriff brought them through a small
crowd of people outside and through the diner's front doors to the covered
body, which was located at the rear of the diner. "I've got no idea what
happened to this guy. It's a little strange. The man's name is Martin
Lear." Scully knelt down at what appeared to be the head and removed the
cover. Her expression changed from annoyance to amazement and horror.
Seeing this, the other agent bent down for a closer examination.
"Uh, Scully. . ."
"Autopsy?" she managed to say.
"Later today. At Doctor Philip Greenberg's office. He'd be
assisting you, but he came down with a case of the flu. Ironic isn't
it. So you'll have to do it by yourself, unless you feel safer with a
more qualified person then we could wait for the doctor to get better."
Scully looked up at the sheriff. He had that same smile that Hodge
had had up in the Arctic when he accused her of being infected with the
worm. She hated that smile.
Mulder knew what was going to follow. It was never a good idea to
piss off Scully. He decided before she could say anything that could get
them kicked off the case, he'd change the subject. He quickly leaned over
and squeezed her shoulder with his hand and nodded his head over to marks
he had discovered on the body's leg. "What are these on his legs?"
Before letting go of Scully, he made sure the sheriff went ahead of them
to avoid another confrontation. Scully gave Mulder a dirty look, and bent
down over the body.
"They look like insect bites," she said.
"From a. . . *mosquito*?" Mulder inquired. Scully looked at him, he
was smiling and his eyebrow was raised.
"Maybe," she said, giving him another one of her pleasant looks as she
stood up and stepped away from his grasp on her shoulder.
"Excuse me folks, but it's winter. There aren't too many mosquitos still
hanging around." Some experts, the sheriff thought sarcastically. He
took another look at the bites and noticed a stream of dried blood coming
from one. "What kind of insect draws that amount of blood?" he wondered.
The manager came up to the three of them. He looked very pale and focused
his eyes everywhere else but in the vicinity of the body. "Um Sheriff, I
got the waitress to calm down enough so that she could talk. She said
that he was complaining about flies that they kept biting him." His gaze
darted back and forth between the sheriff and the two agents waiting for
one of them to comment.
"Where is that waitress now, I would like to talk to her," said the taller
agent.
"She really can't talk too well. She's too shook up, we all are. This
was a very unexpected incident. . . and not too easy to stomach. Although
it might be easier for her to talk to the sheriff instead. FBI might just
shake her up even more."
Mulder nodded and walked back over to the body. "Are there usually flies
around here?"
"No, never. I run a very clean business. I have never even seen a fly
in here."
"Never?"
"No."
Mulder nodded again thinking that he answered that question a little too
fast. He looked up at the booth, towards the unfinished burger. "Was
that his table?"
"Yes, I think so. I saw him to his seat. Unless he moved, which is very
unlikely, that's his seat."
Mulder got up from his crouching position to look at the remnants of his
food. "Well, I'd hate to break this to you, Sir, but there is a dead fly
on this burger."
The manager gave him a dirty look, turned around, and stormed out through
the door.
The sheriff looked over at Mulder, who shrugged. "Anyway back to the
autopsy. Agent Scully was it? Are you going to perform it?"
She disliked this guy already. What was it with these small town
sheriffs. They all think they're better than everyone else. "Yes I will
be." She looked over towards Mulder. He was still examining the
hamburger. "Anything?"
"Yeah. Do have one of those evidence bags on you?"
She reached in her pocket of her overcoat, pulled out one and handed it
to him. "These flies are about all we have for now." He looked down at
the body and the green liquid. "Let's take a sample of that, too."
Office of Doctor Greenberg
4:28 pm
"Mulder, this was pretty bizarre," Scully said as she walked towards her
partner.
"Oh, and I missed it."
"Where were you?"
"Just checking up on our victim. Med records mainly."
"Did you find anything unusual?" Scully questioned as she slumped into
the overstuffed leather chair in the doctor's lab.
"Nope. Why?"
"Well, when I cut open the body. . . not even you would be able to
stomach what I saw."
"Try me."
"There was a lot of this green stuff-"
" Stuff'. I love those medical terms of your's, Scully."
"I haven't identified it yet, Mulder. Anyway, I found microscopic
organisms of some kind throughout the body." She brought him over to the
microscope and focused the lens over the slide.
He bent over the scope and looked through, seeing all these tiny white
organisms crawling around. They seemed to be attacking each other with
the victors consuming the bodies of the vanquished. "What are they?"
"Nothing I've ever seen. They seem almost cannibal like, but once I add
some of the victims blood," she took out a small dropper with some blood
on it and squeezed the contents on the slide, "they leave each other alone
and go after the blood."
"So they eat the blood?"
"Not exactly. I examined some of this man's blood afterwards. The
organisms were still present, but they weren't moving, they just died.
However, I also found eggs. They laid eggs in the blood, then died"
Mulder started to back away from the microscope, mouth open, looking a
little sickened. "Scully, if that waitress was right, these bugs could be
a larval stage of that fly I found on the hamburger."
"Mulder these "bugs" as you call them are. . .well I don't know exactly
what they are, but the larval stage of flies are maggots. And regular
house flies do not bite. Horse flies and deerflies bite, but neither lays
it's eggs in a humans blood and neither would cause this green fluid to
come out. This fly," she took the bag in her hand, "is a regular house
fly."
"Well maybe this is a new species of fly."
"That is highly unlikely, Mulder. Now can I just give you some more of
the information I found?" He nodded. "This man's head was filled with
this green liquid, his brain looked. . .well it was almost as if. . . as
if it had exploded inside his skull."
"Exploded?"
"Yes, I have never heard of anything like that ever happening. . .but
there were small pieces of his brain scattered around, unless maybe his
brain was eaten. There were traces of the eggs all around the skull. The
pieces of the brain I found were covered in eggs." If Mulder wasn't sick
before, he was now.
"What about that blood on his leg," he managed to croak.
"What about it?"
"If the fly did bite him how did it draw that much blood?"
"I already wondered that myself, so I magnified the bite." She took out
a pocket microscope and held it over the bite in his leg. "If you look
closely you'll see very tiny teeth marks." Mulder bent over the
microscope and looked at the marks.
"But flies don't have teeth."
"I took some pictures of it maybe we could have the guys in Washington
analyze it."
"Maybe. Why don't we look at that green stuff now."
While she was preparing a new slide Mulder couldn't help but wonder.
"Scully isn't it true that flies could live as parasites under the skin of
animals causing myiasis? Maybe, if this is a new fly, instead of maggots,
it starts as these little bugs."
"Maybe, but Mulder most likely these are regular house flies that have
been. . . disturbed, much like the killer bee, which could possibly
disrupt the fly's regular behavior." She made a few adjustments and
looked through the microscope. "Oh dear god."
"Scully? What is it? What's wrong?"
All the blood rushed out of her face and she turned white. "You might
just be right, Mulder."
That caught him a little off guard. Although he was surprised she had
actually accepted his theory, he was also a little scared by her
reaction. He looked through the microscope and saw many tiny maggot-like
creatures. "What the hell?"
They looked at each other and then towards the dead fly in the bag.
Sheriff's Office
20 minutes later
Both Mulder and Scully came running into the office only to find a
sleeping sheriff. "Sheriff!"
He jumped up onto his feet immediately fully alert and hand on gun.
"What!"
"You have got to isolate that diner, do not let anyone in. And I would
like a list of the people in the diner when that man died, we need to test
them for infection."
"What? What are you talking about? What did you find?"
Scully tossed the report to the sheriff and began explaining about the
eggs, bites, and the maggots-like creatures. "We sent the fly out to get
tested. The results should be here either later tonight or early tomorrow
morning. The green liquid is also with it, as well as some blood samples."
"Let me get this straight. You want me to gather up everyone who was in
the diner that day and ask them to come down to my office so we could see
if there are any killer bugs in their blood. Then I am supposed to close
down the diner and prevent people from going in and these little flies
out. Do I have this all right?"
"Yes, Sheriff. I know this might sound a little odd, but this could be
some genetically altered fly."
He's crazy. This man is damn crazy. "Uh-huh a genetically altered
fly." He gave each agent a glance, seeing that they weren't kidding.
"Okay I'll bring the people, but you're going to do the explaining." He
looked back up at the pair to see if either changed their minds before
saying, "Doctor's office okay?"
Office of Dr. Greenberg
"Maybe we should wait for the tests to come back on the fly before doing
anything, Mulder."
"Scully, if these people have those bugs that means it could spread. It
could also kill. We have to."
The minute the sheriff walked through the door the hallway began booming
with shouts of protest. The sheriff poked his head into the room.
"They're heeeere."
"Well that kills that thought." Mulder, feeling both disappointed and
relieved, slumped down into the doctor's chair.
"Maybe this Martin Lear was just a very sick man. Maybe he just
possessed some kind of parasite."
"Scully, a parasite wouldn't make his brain explode, it wouldn't have
these bugs in the body, and it wouldn't have the larvas encased in that
green stuff."
"Mulder there is no proof that. . ."
"Is the sheriff still questioning people?"
"Yes. He's asking questions that don't even pertain to the case."
"Hmm I think I'll go pay the sheriff a visit. Why don't you call
Washington, see if they came up with anything."
Mulder came back into the sheriff's office with a grin on his face. He
looked around for his partner and saw her sitting in the doctor's chair
arguing to someone on the phone.
"No, not later NOW. . .no *I* can't, but I know people who will if you
won't give me what I'm asking for. . .Fine. . .Yes I understand. . .no I
won't. . . yes. . .goodbye." She looked up to see Mulder grinning like a
big idiot. "What did you find?"
"I asked them if they had been bitten. Everyone said no. I thought
that was a little strange that the flies would bite one person, so I
filled out a chart of where everyone was seated. Our Mr. Lear was seated
in the back booth, everyone else was further forward . The closest person
to him was two booths forward to the left. What did you find out?"
"Something very interesting. The fly had a needle puncture in it.
That's all he would tell me over the phone and I had to fight just to get
that."
"Could they have been injected with something that could produce those
bugs? When are the results coming back?"
"The report is being faxed out in an hour. But I don't know, Mulder,
who would inject flies?"
"I think we should take another trip to the diner."
Eatins Diner
Next day
"I thought you two said no one is allowed in?"
"Right." This sheriff was really starting to get annoying. Why he
was joining them Mulder would never know. "The flies only attacked the
man in the back booth, they left everyone else alone."
"When we were here yesterday we were at the back booth and I didn't see
any flies."
"Maybe the flies are nocturnal."
"If they are, why are we here now?"
"It's only a guess, Sheriff. Anyway if they are, we'll be safer now
rather than tonight." Mulder shivered sub-consciously in memory of the
last time he had dealt with nocturnal bugs.
The door had been locked shut. Only the sheriff and manager had a
key. The air inside was very damp and heavy. Scully reached toward the
light switch and turned on the lights. For only being abandoned for a day
the place had a remarkable amount of cobwebs. The sheriff started towards
the booth and pulled something out of his coat.
"What's that?"
"Raid. Just in case something happens." The two agents followed his
lead. The hamburger had been removed and thrown away even though Mulder
had told them to preserve it. The floor had been washed and cleaned, once
more against Mulder's orders. The three came upon the back booth, and
began to search for any traces of flies.
"Agent Mulder, I think I've found something."
Both Mulder and Scully came over to where the sheriff was kneeling.
Peering down they saw what had caught his attention. "What the. . .?"
Attached to the wall was a translucent green casing. Inside the casing
movement could be seen. The agents focused hard on the casing and soon
realized the movement was caused by tiny maggots, which were slowly
forming into flies right before their eyes.
The sheriff got up, holding his hand against his mouth, and ran towards
the bathroom. Mulder watched him wondering if he should do the same,
instead he took deep breaths and moved away from the table. "Mulder, we
have to remove it. If these are the pupa stage of this fly that means
they'll be hatching soon. We have to remove the case and destroy it."
"Destroy it?"
"Oh, no. I am *not* having this conversation with you all over again.
Maybe if it could be contained we could send it to Washington for further
testing, but we have to get it out now." By that time, the sheriff
emerged from the bathroom, wiping his mouth and spraying some Binaca into
it.
"Sheriff do you have a pocketknife handy?" The sheriff handed it to
Mulder. "Okay thanks. Now where are we going to put it?
"There are some food containers in back I could get." The sheriff left
then came back with a container.
"Hold it underneath the casing and don't let the casing touch you."
Mulder placed the knife at the top and brought it down behind the casing
to peel it away from the wall. Mulder noticed blood at the very back of
the casing, which he realized, must have been the medium for the flies to
develop the casing. As he cut it away, it made strange sucking sounds as
it slid off the wall. The case fell with a sploosh into the container.
The sheriff's hand started to quiver. "Thanks, Sheriff I'll take it
now." Mulder placed the cover on top of the container and turned to go
before remembering Scully. "Scully?"
He heard someone whisper "Mulder" in a barely audible voice. He looked
around and saw Scully standing very still, her arm on one of the tables,
and her eyes fixed on her arm. He took a closer look and saw one of the
flies on it. She opened her mouth just a little to whisper, "Get it the
hell off of me."
He matched Scully's rigid position, waiting for a chance to spring
forward and kill it. The fly kept walking around her arm, taunting her.
The sheriff walked up to the table from behind Mulder then walked to the
left so he was right in front of the fly. He took out his can of Raid and
a lighter. "Agent Scully I'm going to spray him, once I do I want you to
get back," he whispered. Mulder tightened his hold on the container and
watched the sheriff bring the can closer to the fly.
Sheriff Sampson looked directly at Scully and mouthed one. . .two. .
.three. He sprayed it and Scully darted back. Before the fly could
re-orient itself, the sheriff clicked the lighter on and sprayed the Raid,
again aiming once more toward the fly. The fly and half the table lit up
in a brilliant orange flame. "Mulder, get me that fire extinguisher."
Before putting out the fire, the sheriff waited until he was sure the fly
was dead.
Scully collapsed to the floor in relief, then looked at her arm making
sure it hadn't bitten her. She was shaking. "Scully, are you okay?"
Mulder was immediately at her side.
"I'm fine, Mulder. Thank you Sheriff." She slowly calmed herself down
and walked towards the bathroom to wash her arm off. Both men waited in
silence for her to return.
Sheriff's office
"Here's the technician's report. Needle puncture in body. . .traces of
an unidentified chemical. Here's something interesting: it was identified
as a housefly, but it had a mandible and maxillae, which would allow it to
bite."
"What about that chemical?" asked Mulder.
"All he says is that it could not be identified."
"So what we're talking about some mutant bug,"the sheriff joined in the
conversation only to get strange looks from the agents.
"Maybe, but more like an altered bug. A genetically altered fly. If
this fly was implanted with a mandible it won't know how to bite. A fly
knows how to bite through it's genes. This fly's genes would also have to
be altered or implanted. Mulder did you talk to them about the casing yet?"
"Yeah. I'm sending it out on the next plane there. They're going to
test it, but for the meantime they want us to quarantine the building and
keep watch on the people that were there."
"So what, that's it. Keep watch? What about the flies? Can't they get
out of the diner?" the sheriff asked, having his nervousness seep into his
voice.
"Sheriff all the doors and windows are shut, locked, and sealed up. A
fly cannot get out of there. Besides there is nothing else we can do.
All we could do now is watch and wait.
Scully's Apartment
Washington, DC
Three weeks later
"X-File #X278G9A1: The case of Martin Lear and the death he encountered
at Eatins Diner in Losen, NH by a mysterious fly of unknown origins. The
housefly Agent Mulder found in the diner had been injected with an unknown
chemical, when analyzed it was also found that it had a mandible and
maxillae- these two features alien to a housefly-allowing it to be able to
pierce the skin of its host. The small bugs that were found in the blood of
Lear have also yet to be identified, although it is speculated that they
are the larval stage of this "fly". After extensive testing it was found
that these bugs could reproduce themselves as long as the eggs were in the
host's blood. It is my theory that the flies were injected with the bug
and upon puncturing the skin, released the bug into the host, where they
would develop into the pupa stage inside of the casing. The flies had an
accelerated development, and would change from one stage to the other, as
long as they were provided with blood and protection, in a few hours.
Upon genetic testing and research, the fly was found to have two different
pairs of genes. One of which was again, alien to a housefly, belonging to
a fly most likely resembling that of mosquito but not belonging to an
actual mosquito. The other was that of a housefly. The organisms found
in the casing- which I speculated earlier were the pupa stage of this
creature- were also unidentified, as they had all died immediately after
removal from the casing. It is my guess that if they did hatch they would
have the same characteristics as the fly from which they came. There has
been no attempt as of yet to study the casing. The body of Martin Lear
was quarantined by the government to prevent the possible spread of the
bug. Both Agent Mulder and I as well as the patrons who were at the
diner, and all others who had come in contact with the body and the flies
have just been released after a two week quarantine. No one became
infected with the bug. Eatins Diner was destroyed in a mysterious fire.
Nothing more remains of it, including any remaining flies, which may have
been in the diner. There has been no talk about rebuilding another
diner."
Scully turned away from the computer for a moment. She rubbed her eyes
that were now burning from staring at her computer screen. She reached
over to her coffee table and took another bite of her pizza, then she
turned back towards her computer to finish typing. "Because there is no
evidence as to how the flies got to the diner or to who injected the flies
and corrupted their genetic makeup, this case remains open and unsolved."
Scully let out a sigh of relief as she typed the last word. She turned
back towards her pizza and stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth fell
open and her eyes filled with horror. For there, on her pizza, was a
large black fly. The fly walked on the pizza, then flew off, onto her
hand. She stared at it, unable to move. She felt it's legs on her skin
as it walking up and down her fingers. Finally it flew away, back out the
window from which it came. Scully lunged towards the open window, and
slammed it shut. She then let out a breath she didn't know she was
holding, and sagged back down into her chair. Suddenly the phone rang.
She made an attempt to get up, but was too drained. "Screw it," she
thought. The machine answered and a familiar voice came on.
"Scully? Scully it's me pick up. Scully?"
Scully jumped up and raced towards the phone. Mulder's voice did not
sound pleasant. She yanked the phone up from the stand. "I'm here."
"There's been another one."
"What?"
"Another death in a town fifty miles south of Losen. All they would say
was that someone died under the same cause as the one in New Hampshire.
And I just got a call from an agent in New York, he said another person
fell victim. The body is going to the CDC. Scully, this time nearly
fully developed flies were in the green liquid when the guy's head opened
up."
"How could that be? The flies were destroyed in the fire, a-and the
body is in quarantine, and the infection tests came back negative. . ."
"Well Scully, somehow something has survived, and migrated."
Scully's mouth opened slightly in recognition, her heartbeat began to
quicken, her face went pale, and her body began to shake. She looked at
her half-eaten pizza, and then slowly turned her head to look out the
closed window. Through it, she could almost hear the faint buzzing in the
distance. Her grip on the phone loosened, and it fell to the floor with a
thump.
"Scully? Scully are you there? Are you okay? Scully?"
THE END