Day Four

It was with relief that Swanson would not allow Scully to go raiding with the troops the next day. Scully had been sat in the truck, waiting for Holstein to arrive and drive them into the town. Next thing, Briggly was giving orders that 'Dr Scully' would return to the lab immediately as Tranter and Evans had failed to show up that morning. Mulder tried to feign disappointment. He tried even harder to suppress anxiety when the called him and Hagull into the truck to replace her. Now they were travelling along empty streets, tracking the path that Mulder had driven himself only days before. As they neared the centre of town, they began to see groups of people, if you could call them people. At first groups of two or three, then as they neared the hospital the groups had increased. As they ran at the truck, Holstein opened fire. The spray of bullets only knocked them back temporarily. Holstein signalled to the driver to go faster, opening fire once more to keep a new wave of the diseased at bay. As they pulled up along side the hospital, Hagull, Mulder and Holstein disembarked. They had been armed for the journey, although Mulder was sure they would be disarmed when they arrived back at the base. They entered through the open window that Scully had marked out; Andrews staying outside while Hagull and Mulder searched for the supplies that Swanson had listed.

Movement.

A figure drifted past the glass window. Mulder held his breath as it passed, seemingly oblivious to their presence. As Mulder approached the window he could see down a narrow hallway. A hallway filled with the diseased. They wandered aimlessly, bumping into each other and lashing out as they did. It was then that one looked Mulder right in the eyes. Mulder froze, stepping back toward the open window. The body moved slowly on.

"OH MY GOD GET IT OFF ME GET IT OFF ME!"

Both Mulder and Hagull ran toward the window, in time to see the driver being hauled out of his seat and savaged by two bodies. Holstein opened fire, yelling at the top of his voice, " Lets get outta here! Come on move!" Hagull and Mulder jumped back into the truck, just in time for Holstein to put it in gear and drive away. It was a lesson that Mulder was learning quickly – it was every man for himself now.

She couldn't contain her anger any longer.

"What do you mean Tranter has gone? Gone where?" Scully followed Swanson as he disappeared into a storage closet.

"He left, walked out. Yesterday he had a row with Briggly and said his goodbyes. Evans too. Now, I don't have time for this. There's work to be done."

He cut her off at that.

At midday Mulder arrived at the lab, knocking at the door before entering. In his hand he carried a glass case full of dead mice. "Sorry Scully its all I could find."

She walked over, taking the case off him. They would have to do, she hardly expected him to bring back a dead human body.

"It's great Mulder, thank you. Are you ok? You don't look well."

"We lost Peterson today. Those things got him." He looked down for a moment. "Where's Hagull? I thought he would be bringing you the supplies he picked up?"

She shrugged. "I haven't seen him yet. To be honest Mulder I hardly see him. Whenever he isn't in here I don't really know what he does."

"Ok, well I'm going to go and do some poaching around. Will I see you before dinner?"

" Swanson seems to have made a breakthrough. With that and the mice I can see myself being tied up here until late tonight. I'll come and see you before dinner."

He nodded, setting down the mice and heading for the door.

She was true to her word. Just before dinner she sought him out, talking to Wenson in the main sitting room. The minute he saw her, he stood. "I have something to show you." He took her upstairs into a room that stood adjacent to the corridor of cells. He led her to the end of the room and through another door. She went to speak, but he put his hands to his lips, and pointed downward, toward a ventilation shaft. A moment later Scully could hear a familiar voice. Briggly. Briggly talking on a telephone she assumed. No other voice could be heard. They listened in.

"No sir, not yet. No we need more time. Only Holstein and I. Yes sir." They could hear the receiver being replaced. A soft knock at the door came next. "Come in."

They listened carefully as Dr Swanson spoke.

"We have new information based on recent testing. It seems that the virus is transferred through blood. It could be anything as minor as a scratch if the infector has its own blood on its fingernails. I tried a saliva test on the other subject and that came back as negative. I'm hoping that more of Dr Scully's work tonight will help to get a clear picture of what we're dealing with here." They listened for a few more minutes, until Swanson left.

"Mulder how did you know about this?" Scully whispered.

"Snooping." he replied. " I listened in for about an hour today although there was nothing like just now. Briggly definitely knows what's going on."

The atmosphere at dinner seemed different to the last two nights. Holstein was regaling the troops with his story of honour, how he spent the day blasting people to pieces. No one mentioned Peterson. It was Wenson who first noticed the absence of Evans and Tranter. His question had been met with Andrews booming voice, " They ran out on us – but what do we care. I say we get out of here tomorrow. Use up the rest of our ammo."

"Get out how?" Scully asked. " I thought we had no transport?"

" We can reclaim the town –blow those mother fuckers to pieces."

" I've already told you that's impossible. We need to continue working on some sort of vaccine for this. You need to go out and find Tranter and Evans, they're the ones who did the primary testing."

"I don't need YOU telling me what I should or shouldn't do! You know jack shit about what we've been through!"

Briggly stood, instantly quietening Andrews. The rest of the dinner was spent in silence. Scully made herself scarce soon after, saying that she wanted to do more work before it got dark.

She knew she didn't have long. She wanted to find the two test subjects that Swanson spoke of. She pulled drawer after drawer in the steel storage container to no avail. He must have stored them elsewhere. She would have to wait. Wait and follow Swanson. He must do most of his work at night, as he never left her side during the day. She opened the storage cupboard in the corner of the room and waited quietly, watching as with each passing minute the light got a little dimmer.

Mulder looked at his watch. It was ten thirty and Scully still hadn't come to bed. He had been up and down to her room every twenty minutes, being careful not to disturb the children who had maintained a low profile over the last day or so. Many of the troops were still downstairs, he could tell from the number of empty cells. He lay back in his bed, staring at the ceiling, hoping clarity would come.

Swanson showed up. She watched him, quietly hoping he wouldn't approach the store cupboard where she sat. He didn't. In fact, he barely touched anything. He simply took a handful of needles, along with the muscle relaxant. The last thing he did was to go to the big freezer where they had stored the limbs of the disembowelled bodies. She watched him scoop out a hand wrapped in a clear plastic sheet. As he closed the door behind him, she followed, careful not to alert him to her presence. She followed as he walked up the stairs onto the ground floor, crossing towards the hall, but taking a sharp left up another set of stairs. One minute she could clearly make out the outline of Swanson's body, ascending the staircase, the next he had disappeared into the darkness. It was so dark now that she couldn't see her hand in front if her face. She would come back tomorrow. She would get hold of his keys and look around when everyone was at dinner.

Mulder lay still, listening to every sound, every movement made in the bunk next to him. It was Wenson. He was sure he had heard him praying at night. Quietly praying for salvation. For God to save him from all of this. The nights had gotten colder and colder over the last few days. This was the first night he had felt comfortable enough to strip down to nothing but his boxers. He had hated sleeping in his clothes, especially since he didn't have anything different to wear in the day. He lay back, telling himself he would go and find Scully in another half an hour.

Scully made her way back to her cell. The way had been well lit by candles, but the actual corridor was awfully dark. Her only way to find hers was to know it was the first one, and Mulder's the last one on the other corridor. She felt her way along the wall, catching sight of the dark outline of her bed and thanking the moonlight for giving her that tiny bit of light. She sat for a moment on the edge of the bed.

The next feeling she had was of a hand across her mouth and another around her waist, dragging her back onto the corner of the bed. The grip was iron tight and feeling a face next to her neck made her want to scream out – but shock and terror told her she couldn't. Two figures were present now, not one. As the darkness enveloped her she kicked and scratched at the second figure as he reached forward and grabbed her jeans, pulling them down, along with her underwear, to her knees. As the cold air hit her, so did the realisation of what was going to happen to her unless she did something quickly. Thrashing wildly, she bit hard into the hand of the man behind her. For a moment he let go with both hands, yelping in pain. "Fucking bitch." She knew that voice. The man in front of her was Holstein. In another second she felt a stinging across her face as he slapped her hard. The force of the slap threw her back onto the bed, falling against the whimpering body behind her. The fast movement had caused her to lose her concentration and now her eyes had to adjust to the darkness all over again. She couldn't see. But she could feel. She could feel a body pressing on her. For an instant, bile was rising up her throat and she could feel foreign naked flesh lying upon hers. Her heart pounded as if it were about to burst, her face and neck flushed with warm fear.

The watch belonging to the hand across her mouth suddenly emitted a tiny beeping noise. "Shit! C'mon man we gotta go. If Briggly knows we're not out there…."

The man behind her jumped off the bed, she saw his silhouette move towards the door. "C'mon man leave it, she gets it now."

Scully watched as Holsteins frame turned toward her again. "You'll keep." Is all he said, before they both disappeared into the darkness.

Mulder jolted to a sitting position as he felt a warm body collapsing on his chest. Of course as soon as he had felt her skin against him he knew who it was. Skin? "Scully? Where are the rest of your clothes?" He could feel her skin clad in nothing but her underwear.

"I took them off." She said. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs around his waist, pulling herself into him.

"Scully what's the matter?" He was concerned now, she felt desperate, as if she couldn't get him close enough.

"Mulder lets pretend we're back home, okay?"

Her question puzzled him. "Okay, but this is the part where I pester you for sex, you know that right?" He joked, hoping to lighten the moment.

With that, she let out a small sob, burying her face in his neck and pulling him over her. He moved to cover her cold body with his, stroking her hair, waiting for her to relax into him.

" Tell me what's wrong Scully, please."

"Just make me feel safe Mulder. Make me feel safe."