Find The Future - Chapter 2
Dana blinked, but she couldn't make out much of her surroundings. It was too dark, and all she could see was a few thin shafts of light from an open air grille. She was lying on a metal floor, and so she presumed she was in a truck, or some sort of storage container. There was no engine noise though, only a low mechanical hum. She thought she could hear voices outside, but they were distant and muffled. This wasn't the first time Scully had found herself a captive of person or persons unknown. It had been a fairly regular hazard of the job during her time on the X Files, which didn't mean she minded it any less. She groggily lifted her cheek from the cold floor, but couldn't get much purchase to change position, as her hands and feet were very tightly bound.
There was no way to know how much time had passed since she was intercepted on her way to work. Dana retraced the event in her mind, to try and make sense of it all. She set off for her shift at the hospital as normal, and must have got no further than a couple of blocks away from home, when she became aware of the presence of someone else in the car. The rest happened so fast, it was no more than a blur. She remembered feeling a sharp pain in the side of her neck, which was obviously some sort of sedative being administered, and then the sound of the car breaking. The drug she was injected with must have taken effect then, as she could recall nothing more of the journey to her present location.
A shiver went through her body, as she thought about the recurring dreams she'd been having about William. She was still a sceptic at heart, but something told her they were somehow linked to her present situation. The voices coming from outside were getting louder and closer, until the door shutter was flung open and the container was filled with blinding sunlight.
Skinner took a step towards Mulder and offered his hand to help pull him back up onto his feet.
"Who was that on the phone?" He questioned with deep concern.
"They've got Scully," Mulder said falteringly.
"They'll kill her if I don't find William and give him to them. What the hell am I supposed to do?" He asked.
Skinner was shocked, but he quickly recovered his composure. They had to get moving, and fast.
"We have to find the boy before they do," he said whilst reaching for his phone and dialling.
Mulder was about to protest, when the other man cut him off.
"I think I know someone who might be able to help us," Skinner said.
He gestured for his friend to stay quiet as the person he was calling answered the phone.
"I'm with Fox Mulder. Yes, we'll be there in one hour," he said as he disconnected the call.
"What are you doing?" Mulder questioned angrily.
"I'm trying to get your wife and son back, but I can't say anything more right now. You do trust me, don't you?" Skinner questioned.
Mulder gave a nod of his head.
"Good. Let's go. We'll take my car."
Skinner headed out of the door, with Mulder following close behind. He paused only to take a gun and one other item from his desk draw.
Skinner drove fast, but with due care. They didn't need to attract any unwelcome attention.
"Where are we headed? Who are we meeting?" Mulder was frantic and fidgety.
He felt that something was off about the whole thing with Skinner. It wasn't just his concern for Dana and William making him jittery. His instinct for sensing imminent danger might have been a little rusty, but it seldom steered him wrong.
"It's not much further now, and we're meeting a friend, someone who I believe can help us."
Skinner took a sharp left, and looked carefully in his rear view mirror to make sure they weren't being followed.
"Why are you being so secretive? This is my wife and son for Christ's sake," Mulder felt for his weapon.
"Calm down," Skinner ordered.
"You'll get your answers soon enough."
Mulder was sure he was being led into a trap. He inwardly chided himself for not acting on his suspicions sooner. He reasoned that if he was being deceived, it might at least lead him closer to finding his son. It was a risk worth taking if it brought him information which he could use to save Scully. He took a firm grip on the stiletto weapon which was concealed in his coat pocket, and drew it out ready to strike. But first, he had questions that he needed answering.
"Stop the car, now," Mulder demanded.
Skinner looked at the pointed weapon with due wariness but he didn't comply.
"Let's drop the pretence, shall we? You're not Walter Skinner, so I'll ask you one last time, where are we going?"
The other man kept on driving, and he didn't take his eyes from the road. He didn't deny Mulder's accusation, and his appearance began to morph into another familiar face; that of Jeremiah Smith.
"Would you be more comfortable if I looked like this?" He asked.
The transformation was complete, and Smith reached to remove his now redundant glasses.
"We have your son, and we hoped to secure both you, and your wife. But it appears we were too late to stop them from taking her. That was very unfortunate," he explained.
"Unfortunate?" Mulder echoed with bitter incredulity.
"We will reach our destination very soon, and you need to understand that we are on your side. I will answer some of the questions you have once we get there. Mr Mulder, we'll do all we can to try and help you recover your wife. But you must understand there are more important things at stake."
Smith took another turn, and they emerged at the entrance of a deserted car park to an apparently derelict storage facility.
"There's nothing more important to me than Scully and my son," Mulder stated.
"We're here," Smith said as he brought the car to a halt outside the broken down building.
Dana blinked and tried to focus her eyes to see who her captors were. After spending so long in the dark, it took a few moments for her vision to adjust. The man who had entered the container was advancing towards her, and Scully could now see he was the shape-shifter they knew as the alien bounty hunter.
"What do you want with me?" She demanded to know.
He said nothing, and he bent down to scoop her up from the floor. Dana began to thrash around in protest, but he had too firm a grip on her. He carried her outside, of what she could now see was a white truck, and into a waiting black SUV. The bounty hunter set her down on the back seat and checked her bindings were still tight. Once he was satisfied that she was still secure, he placed tape over her mouth. He then got in the driver's seat and drove them away, all the time ignoring Scully's muffled protests.