ALLSBURG RESIDENCE

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SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2009

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"We have to get back to the Sol System," Kari said urgently, and ran down to the basement. Mulder and Scully followed.

"Why, what's going on?" Mulder asked.

"Quick, whoever's turn it is, go now! The BTF have a vessel marked with the NASA symbol—that confirms our worst fear. They're going to bypass our security by building a ship that looks just like one of ours. And they'll destroy our planet!"

"I'll get the game," Scully said dryly. She walked over to her backpack and pulled the game out.

"What's the matter, Scully? Earth being destroyed isn't exciting enough for you?"

"It's so predictable. I knew what the ending was going to be at the beginning. It's just disappointing," she said.

"It's your turn. Maybe the game will turn it around for you."

She smiled slightly. "Maybe so." She rolled the dice, and moved her piece. Then she took her card. "'Unpredictability,'" she read. "Maybe you're right—maybe it is about to—"

She was cut off by the ship going to warp drive, and they were thrown off the couch. The items in the Allsburg's house flew around and Mulder and Scully were both thrown into a nearby window. It suddenly opened, and they nearly flew out before everything abruptly stopped. They dropped to the floor.

"Not the usual warp trip," Kari said as she came up the stairs. "I think we're off course. Let me check the fridge."

She jogged into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, grabbed an apple, and nodded. "Yeah," she called. "We're about fifty lightyears off course. We're right in the middle of BTF space." Taking a bite of the apple, she pressed a button on the microwave. "I put the supercloak on but it won't be long before our signature is spotted by someone." She came into the room and sat down on the couch. "What did the game say?"

"Unpredictability," Scully said, and ran a hand through her hair. "Does this count?"

Kari shrugged. "Eh, not enough. We need something else to happen."

"Should I roll?" Mulder asked.

"The fact that the BTF aren't attacking us yet tells me that the game wants us to do something with the fact that we're here," Kari reasoned. "So yes, roll, Mulder. Your rolls seem to complement each other. Which is a good thing, if you ask me. Sometimes you've got three players and the plot gets all messed up because they have different styles of playing."

Mulder rolled a five, and moved his piece. Then he took his card. "'Monster of the week'," he read. "What, are we going to find an X-file out here?"

Suddenly, a large, hairy beast collided with the window and started scratching and roaring outside.

"Oh, God. Space ants!" Kari said. She ran to the window, on the other side of the house and groaned. "We landed on a space ant mound!"

"Those things look more like wolves," Scully said, exasperated, as she pulled her gun.

"We call them ants because they behave like ants. They're just looking for food to bring back to their mound…"

"And you had to get 'monster of the week,'" Scully complained to Mulder.

"Sorry!" he exclaimed. "Can you get us out of here, Kari?"

"I'm gonna fly us out of here and try to shake these things. But we're supercloaked! How did they sense us?" She yelled as she ran down the stairs. Mulder took the front and Scully guarded the back as the ship lurched into impulse drive. Many of the large mound of hairy abominable-snowman-like creatures were shaken off the house by the movement, but a few remained. Mulder fired a well-aimed shot at one after it nearly scratched through the front door. It floated away in space. Scully fired two shots and wounded one, and killed another. There was one more, but it was trying to claw its way through the roof of the porch. Mulder opened the door and fired one shot, and then quickly closed the door as the beast rolled off, and was plastered to one of the front windows like a dead bug.

They gained enough distance from the mound, but Mulder saw something out the front window, past the dead beast, that made him scream, "Stop the house!"

Kari abruptly pulled the brakes and ran upstairs. "What?" She asked, just as Scully left her post guarding the back door and gave an inquiring look to Mulder.

"Look out there! Who is that?"

Kari got up against the window and looked out to see a blue humanoid child, about the size of a human six-year-old, riding a tricycle. When he pedaled, three small thrusters let out a bit of air, propelling him. "That's a BTF child…but…what's he doing here without his mother?"

"We'd better bring him in here. How can he breathe out there without any gear?"

"Jigro children don't need to breathe oxygen except for two hours, every three days," Kari explained. "The Jigro are a species inside the BTF. We should keep moving. If his mother shows up, we'll be attacked."

"We can't leave a child out there," Scully argued. "We'll just take him home and drop him off close to where he lives, and then leave here before we're detected."

Kari considered it, and then nodded. "Okay. I'll lure him in here." She took her half-eaten apple and placed it on the front porch. Immediately, the little boy stopped cycling, sniffed space with small, blue, tentacle-like objects protruding from his nose, and then cycled toward them. "Jigro children love apples," Kari explained.

The little boy left his tricycle on the porch as he picked the apple up, and then looked at the three adults standing in the door. "You're human," he said. "I'm not supposed to talk to humans."

"Come on in here, and we'll take you home to your parents," Kari said.

The child looked petrified. "I'm not supposed to accept rides from strangers."

"We won't hurt you…and we have more apples," Mulder reasoned.

The little boy thought about it. He nodded. "Okay. But I'll have to melt your minds if you try to hurt me." He walked past them, and straight toward the kitchen. "Where are the apples?"

"Right here," Kari said, and opened the fridge. "What are you doing out here all by yourself?"

"Riding my trike," he answered at first, and then frowned. "Actually, trying to escape. I ran away from home."

"Why'd you do that?" Scully asked gently.

The little boy wiped his nose with his blue hand, and shrugged. "They know I'm different, and they already used me to make pictures for them. I don't want to do that again—those pictures hurt someone."

"You can understand pictures?" Kari asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I know, I'm Jigro, and Jigro don't see pictures, but I do. That's why they want to experiment on me. Can you take me to Earth instead of home? If I go to Earth, I'll have asylum."

Mulder thought something was off about this little boy. But he wasn't going to voice his opinion until he confirmed his thoughts. "So we should probably set a course for Earth and get this kid out of here," he suggested.

Kari nodded, and headed down to the basement to adjust the controls. Moments later, Mulder grabbed onto the small blue boy as they lurched into warp speed.

And once they came out of warp, the little boy squirmed in Mulder's arms. "Let go of me," he insisted.

Mulder complied, a somewhat confused expression on his face. As soon as the child was free, he pulled a small device from his pocket.

"What is that?" Kari asked him cautiously.

The boy smiled, and showed it to them. "It's a camera phone. They'll know what it is—they're from a long time ago. Their time signature is really strong." He pointed the phone at the three of them, and took a picture. Then he ran as quickly as he could down the stairs, and began frantically taking pictures of everything in the basement/engine room.

"Stop him!" Kari yelled, as she ran after him.

"Why are we stopping a child from taking pictures?" Scully asked as she followed closely behind.

"He's Jigro—he'll take the pictures back with him and interpret them. They'll be able to exactly copy a vessel if he just tells them what he sees," Kari said, and launched herself at the small boy. He moved quickly, though, and ran into the alcoves of the unfinished part of the Allsburg's basement.

"But don't they already have an exact replica vessel?" Mulder asked as he started searching.

"They do, but it's nothing like a house. The game transports houses into superior fighting ships—none of the players are taken to the BTF territory, and they've been trying to get their hands on one of these things for generations."

"Then why did we let him in the house?" Scully protested.

"I didn't think a child would be dangerous," Kari said, and rounded a corner only to be confronted with a dead end of storage boxes and a furnace.

Mulder went through a doorway and pulled the switch to activate the lightbulb overhead, and when he did, he froze. "Um…I don't think we're dealing with a child here."

Scully and Kari rushed to his location, and both froze in place as well. Before them was a massive blue creature that looked like something out of Predator, with massive fangs, yellow eyes, and a camera phone clutched in long fingers that ended in talons. The creature roared and they were blasted with slimy saliva and a gust of bad breath.

"RUN!" Kari screamed, and they all turned and ran as quickly as they could up the stairs. The creature took the steps six at a time and just as Kari and Scully made it through the door, it reached out with a massive, scaly arm and snatched Mulder into the air. He called out and tried to pull his weapon but it crashed to the base of the steps after the creature easily knocked it out of his hand.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!" Kari yelled, but Scully was lunging toward the creature.

Kari pulled Scully back with all her might and slammed the door shut, pulling out her weapon and sealing the lock in one smooth motion.

"What the hell are you doing?" Scully demanded.

"Delaying it so you can get to the game and roll."

"Are you out of your mind? It has Mulder!"

"And the only way you're going to rescue him at this point is to roll! I'm going for reinforcements. I have to take one of the bedrooms."

"What?"

"I'm taking one of the bedrooms as a shuttlepod—there's no time to get my suit on," she said as she ran toward the main stairwell, taking the stairs two at a time. "I'll be back in four minutes with reinforcements. We're around Earth orbit!" She yelled from the top of the steps. "It shouldn't be long! In the mean time, roll!"

Scully hesitated for just a second, and then in utter desperation, ran to the family room, and practically threw the dice on the board. She moved her piece quickly and then snatched her card violently. It read 'C4.' And she actually smiled.

Seconds later, there was a terrible roar and the house shook to the point where she was nearly thrown to the floor. Plaster rained as an entire section of the family room ceiling was wrenched off, and Scully squinted through the dust to see one of the Allsburg's bedrooms flying away. Then the doorbell rang.

"Please be C4," Scully said as she ran toward the door, and opened it to find a UPS package on the porch. There was no UPS man in sight, however much she wanted backup. She grabbed the package and ripped it open, leaving the front door hanging wide open. Inside was a charger and three stacks of C4.

She left the packaging on the floor as she ran back to the family room and stuffed the game, the C4, and the charger all in the backpack. She then checked her weapon and ran to the basement door. Standing back, she shot the lock off the door and kicked it in, and then proceeded to walk quietly down the stairs, surveying the area.

She immediately spotted Mulder, who was laying against the wall. He didn't appear to be hurt at first glance, and she was grateful for that. He was just dirty as hell. His clothes were covered in some kind of slime.

He glanced over at her, and then nodded toward where the creature was. She nodded that she understood, and silently slung her backpack off her back on the stairs. In her pockets, she packed the C4 and the chargers. She then pulled the game out, and walked the rest of the way down the stairs with her weapon extended in front of her. She went directly to where Mulder was.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

He nodded. "Give me the game. The creature's around the corner in the furnace area, taking pictures," he said.

"Get out of here," she said, and handed him the game.

"I…I can't."

"I thought you said you were okay," she whispered, frustrated.

"I'm fine…I'm stuck to the wall."

She glanced at him, and realized that the slime on his clothes was like glue. He looked at her, helpless. She rolled her eyes, and said, "You're going to have to take your clothes off."

"Scullllly," he whined in protest.

"If you can move your arms, take your clothes off!" she insisted, and then walked away with the C4 and the charger.

Rounding the corner, she spotted the creature. It turned quickly, roared, and then before her eyes, reduced itself to the size of the small boy they had naively granted asylum to.

"You wouldn't blow up a small child, would you?" he asked, and looked up at her with innocent eyes.

"I've heard that one before," Scully said angrily, and waited for the moment the child lashed out. As soon as he tried to launch the slime from his nose, and as soon as she could see the stream, she threw the C4-charger combination directly at his face. The slime/glue caught it, and it recoiled directly into the creature's face. It fell to the ground from the impact, and Scully darted to the stairs. She caught Mulder by the arm just as he freed himself from his pant leg, and she reached down and grabbed the game as they ran up the stairs as quickly as possible. She hit the button on the detonator just as they made it through the basement door, and slammed it closed.

The door pushed against them as the explosion occurred, and they held it back with the full force of their two bodies.

When they looked up, they were met with the sight of Kari and five other astronauts in full battle gear, slowly lowering their weapons. Kari glanced at Mulder in his boxers and socks. "What happened to you?"

"Slime boy," he muttered. "You think Chris Allsburg has any clothes in his bedroom?"

"I just flew his bedroom off the house," Kari told him sympathetically as the astronauts tried not to let their eyes fall at waist level. "But you only have one more roll left. Why don't you go ahead and take it?"

"Gladly," Mulder said, and placed the board on the floor. He got down on one knee, and tossed the dice. He rolled a twelve, and he moved his piece. It hit the little cloud in the center, which was marked 'Dormito'. "Hey, I think I won," he said with a smile.

This time, two cards popped out of the box. He took them both and read the first one. "Conclusion," he said. "That's what it says. This one…it says 'Thanks for playing. Play again and have a completely different adventure.'"

"If we're done, then why are we still here?" Scully asked, and glanced at Kari.

"Oh, come on. You've read the books and seen the movies in the year 2009 and you still don't know what to do?"

Mulder and Scully glanced at each other. Then one of the astronauts offered, "Why don't you do what seems obvious?"

"Well…we would've done it by now if it was obvious, don't you think?" Mulder asked, and the astronaut shrugged.

He glanced at the board.

"Dormito," Scully said. "Say 'Dormito.'"

Mulder smiled. "Oh, yeah! Dormito."

Suddenly, their surroundings swirled and they felt as if they were falling. They called out each other's names, but stopped when they heard music playing. It took them a moment to realize it was coming from a hazy image of Javan. He walked toward them on some kind of cloud-like floating object, and smiled as he raised his music player for them to see. "'Magic Carpet Ride' by Steppenwolf," he explained. "Hope you had a nice dream." Then he vanished.