Officer Cassie Lorenz could tell how far East she'd traveled just by looking at the trees. As the cascades turn into foothills and valleys the trees also shrink, from the giant hemlocks and maples to shorter ponderosas and junipers. Dense forest turns into arid plains, which is where Officer Lorenz spotted them.
"Wait a second..." It was parked as from the rest stop bathrooms as possible, out where the pavement turned to gravel. Brown pickup, mismatched camper cover. That alone was distinct enough, but just to be certain she grabbed the radio handset. "Echo 14, Dispatch?"
The radio squaked to life "Go ahead."
"Can I get a nine on the BOLO for the pickup?"
"That's two females in a tan 1972 Ford F100 pickup with blue shell, license plate Tango Whiskey November Papa Kilo Sierra, wanted for questioning in connection with the Sunriver bank robbery. Break"
The plate was too far away to read, but the rest matched exactly. "Go ahead."
"One suspect Chloe Price, nineteen, five foot ten, short blonde hair, other suspect Maxine Caulfield, eighteen, five foot three, shoulder-length brunette."
She smiled to herself slightly at the idea that the two teenage girls she was looking at could have robbed a bank of thirty thousand dollars, and put her squad car into gear.
"Echo 14, Spotted suspects in north lot at Sage Hen Rest Stop. Approaching."
"Copy."
Her smile evaporated as she approached. The two girls waited by their pickup and watched her intently, in a way that her years of instincts translated to danger. The taller suspect-that would be Price-stood against the driver's door trying to look more relaxed than she actually was, and the other-Caulfield-leaned over the hood, her head resting on one arm, but the other arm tucked behind her back.
"Dispatch, Echo 14, suspects may be armed."
She filtered out the radio's terse response and pulled the Crown Victoria off the pavement, to the sound of gravel crackling beneath the car's tires and a twig snapping.
As if on cue, the two girls jumped into the car, and Chloe cranked the engine.
The officer leapt from the car, weapon drawn, and shouted orders. "Out of the vehicle NOW!" The blond ignored her and kept trying to start the pickup. As soon as the engine came to life it screeched out of the parking lot in a spray of gravel, leaving the officer to run back toward her squad car. But the car didn't look right. The front had dipped down, and as the sounds of the pickup receded she could finally hear the hiss of air escaping the front tire.
She cursed loudly and holstered her weapon. Standing there, hands on hips, she noticed another thing that wasn't right: her belt. She checked the gun, taser, radio, ha-. Her hand rested on an inexplicably empty handcuff pouch. It had been full just minutes before. She swore again.
"Echo 14. Suspects heading east on US 20 from Sage Hen. Cannot pursue."
In the pickup, Max's shoulders heaved heavily. A few drops of blood ran down her upper lip and she reached for a fast food napkin to stem it, revealing the silver glint of a cuff around her wrist.
The living room reminded Scully strongly of her mother's house. Kate Marsh rose from a floral patterned couch and introduced herself. Behind her, the wall displayed a crucifix and a series of family photos, interspersed with the occasional bible quote. Scully didn't want to look again, but she was pretty sure there was more than one Virgin Mary figurine on the table behind her. A bit much, even for her mother's sense of taste.
Kate didn't seem entirely comfortable in the room. She kept eyeing the doors to the other room, and seized on Scully's suggestion that they go for a walk. There were no sidewalks, and hardly any other finished houses nearby; the Marshes lived at the end of a cul-de-sac that was dotted with new foundations and frames sprouting from ground that used to be too dry to grow houses.
"Looks like it's going to be a nice neighborhood," Scully said, over the distant sounds of hammering and sawing.
"It's my aunt's house. She's very kind to let us stay with her."
"Your home was destroyed by the tornado?"
"Yes. We were lucky though. Everyone was visiting me at the hospital when it hit. I still have what matters."
Mulder, ever tactful, jumped right to the question at the front of his mind: "Could you tell me about Maxine Caulfield?"
"Max was my closest friend at Blackwell. I wouldn't be here if not for her."
Kate spoke of sharing tea with Max every week, of her unwavering support as Kate was bullied over a scandalous videotape (which she refused to describe), and of her words during Kate's darkest moment. "I couldn't have asked for a better friend."
"Is there anything that Maxine did that you couldn't explain?"
Scully glared at him. He'd already tried to ask Kate another variation of 'did you notice any superpowers', and Kate had already given no indication that she'd seen anything supernatural.
"Nothing. It all makes perfect sense. God sent her to me on that roof to save me. I don't know why He took her from us, but I know I need to live up to her memory." A tremor began to creep into her voice. "She was my closest friend."
Mulder and Scully shared an uncomfortable glance. 'Actually she's alive and robbing banks' was too insensitive even for Mulder to say, although he was thinking it.
Fortunately, Mulder's phone chose that exact moment to ring, and as he answered it Scully took the opportunity to ask a carefully-worded question. "When was the last time you talked to her?"
With Mulder diverted their conversation was pleasant. Kate talked about flowers and healing, and the pastor's suspiciously unseasonal sermon about redemption and rebirth.
Kate showed Scully a sketchbook of drawings and illustrations, colorful animals and landscapes, punctuated by a few vivid but mostly abstract charcoal sketches. Scully's compliments were genuine. "Yes, I suppose I do have a talent for it. I've sent them to a bunch of publishers of children's books but I haven't heard anything back yet."
Mulder snapped his phone shut and interrupted. "Scully, you're not going to believe this." He hardly concealed his glee at the news. "She made the sun go out."
Scully rolled down her window as they sat by the highway. The air outside was cool but sitting in the morning sun was getting to be uncomfortable. Of all the boring, indistinguishable spots to park alongside this highway, Mulder had chosen... one of them. She lamented her now-doomed weekend plans and kept her eye out for the suspects.
Mulder reread the police report with barely-contained excitement. "They left a rusty nail right where the squad car was going to park. Held it in position with bubble gum. That has got to be planned."
"But how on earth could they have put it right in the path of the tire? Unless they put nails everywhere."
"Nope. I think she knew, somehow."
"'Knew'? You mean some kind of precognizance?"
"Maybe."
"That plus teleporting and super speed. And however she accomplished the missing handcuffs, since you seem pretty sure that was her too. Quite the list of powers."
"I'm not sure that's it. I keep getting a feeling there's something I'm missing. A simpler theory."
"One that doesn't involve comic book characters?"
"Not that simple."
"And I assume you're going to tell me that her powers caused the sun to disappear in yesterday?"
"They have top meteorologists flying in from all over the country, and they still can't explain it. It's right where she used her powers on Officer Lorenz. The sun set at 2pm in Hines, just ten minutes later, and it's almost noon and still dark there."
"Let's assume all this is true. How on earth would we even catch someone like that? She's already gotten away from a bank security guard and a police officer."
"I have a plan, actually."
"Really."
"I do. The first step is to meet them and see what she can do."
"And how do you know that they're going to go down this particular highway?"
"I just took a look at their route and made a few guesses."
"Such as?"
"Well for starters, every time we hear from them they're further Southwest. But more importantly, if you had this kind of power and needed money fast, where would you go first?"
It only took a second for Scully to extend the line in her mind to the answer. "Vegas."
"But...?"
"They're still teenagers, the gambling age in Nevada is 21."
"And...?"
Scully hesitated, and eventually Mulder answered for her. "If they cause a disaster there, right in the middle of the Vegas strip, thousands of people could die."
"You still really believe-"
Scully interrupted herself mid sentence. "That's them." Sure enough, an extremely ugly pickup was cruising down the road, at exactly the speed limit. Mulder reached up to flick on the temporary police light and gave chase.
It continued down the road for almost a minute before pulling over near some bushes.
Mulder pulled up behind, and the two agents approached the pickup. He heard the steady idling of his rental car stop behind him, and he turned to see Max, sitting in the driver's seat for a split second before she disappeared. Then the pickup gunned it's engine, and left them in a cloud of dust.
They ran to their car to give chase, but as the doors closed Mulder's hand grasped air where the keys should have been hanging.
They shared a look. "You saw that right?" Mulder asked. "She was here, for just a split second."
"I saw someone. Could have been her, maybe. Whoever it was, they just disappeared."
"And took the keys with them." Mulder watched as the pickup became a speck that vanished in the distance, then noticed a small white piece of paper, folded and tucked in the windshield wiper. The door opened, he reached out and picked it up. A small black pen with a silver band in the middle fell out as it unfolded.
"""
Agents Mulder and Scully:
I never meant to hurt anyone. I don't want you to get hurt either. I threw your keys in the bushes. Please don't try and follow us any further. It'll just cause more disasters.
P.S. It's "Max". Never "Maxine"
"""
"This confirms it." Mulder showed Scully the note. "She is causing them." A large bug smacked against the windshield.
"At least she seems to think so. The note doesn't actually prove it."
"Maybe not, but she somehow knew our names. How could she know that? And look at this pen." Mulder held it up to Scully. "Notice anything special about it?"
"I've seen hundreds of them, exactly the same."
"Because you work in a government office. These are manufactured by blind people for the General Services Agency. Not sold in stores."
"Where could she have gotten it then?"
Mulder paused, then patted his jacket pocket. He stuck his hand it to search it more thoroughly, but still came up empty. "From me."
"So she's a teleporting precognizant with super speed and magical pick-pocketing skills? Is there even a superhero with that many powers?"
"Telepathy too maybe. And no, not many. Maybe a few supervillans." Mulder left the seat and started walking slowly toward the bushes to look for his keys.
Scully followed. "What about the disasters? Anything about that in the comic books?"
"Not so much. It seems like it's caused by using her powers, almost like some kind of cosmic backlash." Mulder shooed a grasshopper off his tie and looked up. He saw in the distance an odd black haze, covering the landscape and slowly approaching.
Scully saw it too. "What on earth?"
"I think we need to find those keys right now."
They hurried towards the bushes, and had almost arrived there when the swarm hit. The roar of the bugs was difficult to hear over, and they had to shield their faces to keep them out of their eyes.
Mulder scrambled to find the keys before the ground was completely covered. "Locusts!"
"Can't be!" Scully said as she joined him in kneeling. Further conversation was drowned out by a the insects chirping around them.
The clump of bushes was thankfully small, and after a few minutes Mulder saw the glint of his keys amongst the locusts. They rushed back toward the rental, shaking off as many of them as possible before diving in the doors. A handful of hitch-hikers made it in on their clothing, providing Scully with a sample to examine.
"This isn't possible. The last species of locust in North America went extinct a century ago."
"Aren't locusts just a grasshopper in it's swarming phase?"
"Yes, but none of the species on the continent go into that phase. The Rocky Mountain Locust was the last one, and it's been dead since 1902. I'd need an expert to identify this definitively, but it doesn't look like a species I recognize."
"Darkness, and an impossible plague of locusts..."
Something from Scully's Sunday school education bubbled up in the back of her mind. "They covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened."
"Sounds about right." Mulder smiled slightly as he put the car into gear and crawled off of the shoulder. "Think we should stock up on lamb's blood?"