The Final Stand Chapter 4
The first thing William became aware of was the steady beeping sound.
Then he became aware that he was cold. The next thing he felt was a
headache that would make a migraine feel like a paper cut. He groaned
in agony and whimpered. Instantly, he felt his mother's arms around
him and felt her rocking him slowly.
"It's OK, Wil, it's OK. I'm here now.." she whispered.
Slowly he opened his eyes. Everything was a blur and out of focus but
he could see he wasn't outside anymore. He was in a hospital and the
beeping was from the monitors. He felt someone else move in bside them
and heard his father's voice.
"Hey buddy, welcome back. You gave us a hell of a scare. Scared Eric
too, he found you out cold on the ground."
Scully sounded a bit more miffed. "I knew it, I knew it was a bad
idea." She hugged him closer.
"How long was I out?" asked William.
"Almost a day," said his mother. "William, what happened?"
He slowly lay back and smiled at his parents before drifting back off
into sleep. "I called 9-1-1."
Mulder and Scully looked at each other, puzzled. William ended up
staying in the hospital for an extra day for obsevation, then, the
doctors satisfied he was on the mend, was sent home.
In the days that followed, William begun to understand the meaning of
the term "mother-smothered." Dana Scully had been very upset by what
had happened and had to convince herself that her son was really ok.
That involved confining him to bed for the next few days drinking a
gallon of water a day. Mulder had been frightened too, but was more
convinced that William was not going to die from his ordeal. After
arriving back home, and to pass the time, William wrote down
everything he could remember about his experiences and gave them to
his parents to read. They had held off from questioning him for the
most part, but as they read the notes, the questions came pouring out.
Scully seemed to think that it was all a dehydration induced
hallucination, but Mulder, who had himself been through the Navajo
ritual of the Blessing Way, was all too familiar with such
experiences. And the information was intriguing. If it was correct, it
meant that they were all either in deeper trouble than they
thought, or maybe there was a ray of hope for the human race after
all.
On the third day, William was on his computer talking with Josh via
video conferencing. He hadn't given his friend the details of his
vision quest, opting instead to simply tell him that VR games had
nothing on the ancient ceremony. Scully popped in once to gather up
some laundry and to admonish both boys not to try anything like the
vision quest without adults around. After assuring Josh that they
would be visiting later that summer, William signed off
and went out to enjoy the first day outside since his mother sprang
him from his imprisonment.
He walked out into the backyard and saw his mother swinging in the
hammock. He walked over and crawled up next to her.
"Where's Dad?" he asked.
"Finishing up that intersession psychology class he was teaching at
the college. He'll be home later this afternoon." She paused a second,
then said, "We want you to come to the Aegis meeting tonight, you
might need to tell them what you saw."
William was momentarily stunned. Him? An eleven year old kid speak to
all those grownups about his vision? He knew about the meeting, of
course. It would be the first time since its inception that all the
leaders of Aegis would be together in the same room, hell the same
town, for any period of time. They had planned to disuss the final
preparations before the invasion in six months. It would be the last
time they would all see each other alive, probably. Agents
Doggett and Reyes were coming along with Director Skinner, from the
FBI. Lone Gunmen Jimmy and Yves had arrived last night with what
information they had. Several others from various clusters were
arriving either by car or plane all throughout the day. William hadn't
even expected to be there himself, figuring he was going to be left at
a friend's house or with a babysitter. Tomorrow was the fourth of July
and they had been planning a BBQ and fireworks, possibly the
last party or festive time they would ever have as a group. He had
been planning on going to the picnic, but not the actual meeting.
Not knowing what to say, he simply nodded and snuggled close to his
mother. The day was beautiful for a summer day, not too hot and
breezy. They were under the shade of the arbor and could see the
clouds passing by. William relaxed, enjoying the day and wondered if
he would ever have a normal life. It was as normal as his parents
could make it, sending him to Pecos Elelmentary School,
involving him in activities, giving him birthday parties and vacations
to Disney World. But there was always the unspoken invasion
overshadowing it all. Like the way he had to carry his phone weapon
everywhere and be on the lookout not just for strangers following him
but UFO's in the sky. It was in the way that his father always set up
portable motion detectors in the hotel rooms they stayed in, as well
as his grandmother's house. It was the fact that Roswell was
the only place his parents felt safe enough to let him go outside by
himself, which he was never allowed to do at his grandmother's house
or anywhere else also reminded them of the inevitable future.
They stayed outside for a long time, just looking at the clouds, both
wondering about what was to come. Scully knew her son was scared, but
she admired the way he handled himself, never giving in to panic. She
knew it must be a terrible strain on him, and she knew it wasn't fair
that he should have to live like this. She alsmost wished he had never
started searching for her, never started the chain of events that had
alerted those dark forces to his whereabouts, killed his adoptive
parents, and destroyed the safe haven she had made for him.
But she was so glad she had him back now. She knew, as she had perhaps
always known, that no place was really safe, not even Roswell. After
all was said and done, she was his mother and he belonged with her and
Mulder. She felt terrible guilt and sadness for the Van de Kamps and
hoped God would forgive her for putting them in this situation that
had ended thier lives. And speaking of God, where was he right now?
She remembered a vague dream she and Mulder and William
had all had on the night they had brought him home to Roswell, of all
three of them on a beach. The Van de Kamps had been there, and there
had been a voice and a glowing cross in a fog. She had wondered if it
had been a sign from God or wishful thinking. She supposed they were
all about to find out.
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Later that night, Mulder, Scully and William walked into the giant
meeting hall of the local church that they had rented for the night
for the meeting. William, bowing to his mother's wishes, had put on
his nice shirt and shorts, and his parents had put on thier work
suits. Several people were gaurding the doors and surrounding area,
and William could see the telltale bulge of both MagGuns and regular
guns beneath thier coats. But other than that, it looked
for all the world like a simple large meeting, with chairs set up and
a podium in the front, as well as a table heaped with sandwiches,
punch, fruit and cheeses and cookies. After giving a plaintive look to
his father, William scooted off for the table with Mulder calling
after him not to go too far.
It seemed like all of Aegis was here as well as thier families.
William waved to several children he recognized from his neighborhood
who were the sons and daughters of scientists, government officials,
military personel and other assorted professions, all whose parents
had come to Roswell for the express purpose of joining the underground
resistance against the invasion. Like him, these children had been
raised on the knowledge of the future and he felt a certain
familiarity with them. Gibson Praise came in with his friend Doug
Eagleman, followed by Eric Hosteen and his father, Albert Hosteen's
son. He spotted Reyes and Doggett and Skinner talking to his parents
up front and Jimmy and Yves nearby. He scooped up some more sandwiches
on a plate and grabbed a cup of punch, and turned to go to his
parents. Suddenly he bumped into someone, nearly spilling his
looked up and felt his mouth drop open.
It was Jeremiah Smith, or one of them anyway. He knew them to be
clones, half alien and half human hybrids created by the Syndicate who
had rebelled against them and were fighting with the resistance now.
William had seen one of them before (or was it this one?) but, knowing
what he now knew, he openly stared. This man was part alien. He could
sense it in the man's thought processes, as Gibson could. Also, he
knew, the man could change physical appearances. He didn't sense any
bad feelings from the man, but was still uneasy with the alien
presence. The man only smiled, excused himself and walked on. William
shook himself and went to sit down next to his parents.
What followed in the next two hours ranged from attnetion gripping
interest to coma-inducing boredom. Several people got up to speak
about the progress of thier particular field in the resistance
movemnt, which would be carried back to the indavidual cells and
clusters of people who had not come to the meeting. A group from the
Center for Disease Control reported that 2/3 of America had
been vaccinated with the vaccine with more every day, that similar
reports from other countries insured that over half of the human
population would survive the virus holocaust. However, they reported,
it was likely that with the death of the Syndicate and the destruction
of the bee fields, the virus would likely be airborne now, as well as
inserted into food and water sources and, thought he vaccine worked on
all forms of the virus, to be on the lookout. A man in a
military uniform reported that several groups within the military had
placed various troops in strategic locations and armed them with the
new MagGuns adpated for tanks and ships. He said that while the
average serviceman didn't know much about the upcoming threat, they
had been told to be on alert for December and any time before that. It
seemed though, that the higher levels of the military were still
operating until vestigial Syndicate orders, and so the bulk of the
resistance in the military were enlisted men, who would do most of
the fighting.
Skinner, Doggett and Reyes spoke about the government itself, and
those they had formed contacts with in Congress and the CIA who could
be trusted. They had extensive information from former Syndicate
sources stating that the aliens knew about Aegis, probably even the
weapons, and were possibly stepping up the timetable, meaning that the
invasion could come at any time, maybe even later than December, just
to throw us off. It wasn't clear if they knew about the
vaccine, though Reyes figured they didn't, otherwise it would be more
likely that they would postpone the invasion until a new virus could
be developed. Jimmy and Yves spoke about the warnings and preparations
they had been putting out on the internet the past decade, avoiding
detection from the government as best they could, warning people about
the upcoming invasion. Groups such as MUFON and NICAP had been sending
out the word, preparing people, anyone who would listen, about what
was coming.
Finally, Mulder and Scully got up to speak about alternatives, and
that was hiding. Scully had been in contact with several groups in
northern Canada, South America and Africa who had built hiding
facilities in the jungles and underground caves where people were
stocking up on everything from food to books and recordings of
everything they could save on the human civilization. It was a sort of
Noah's Ark and was considered a final ditch effort at saving
anyone who could carry on the present civilization after the
invasion. William was beginning to think that they had forgotten about
wanting him to speak and was just beginning to relax when Mulder
announced that his son would speak about his vision during a vision
quest.
William felt his face turn red as Mulder spoke, "My son is a very
special person. From the moment he was concieved it became apparent
that he was important in the entire business in a way we didn't
understand. We had people telling us he was a miracle, others telling
us to terminate Scully's pregancy, to not let this baby be born. When
he was born, several SS arrived, even though Dana had been hidden. We
knew they were there to take him away from us, but when he was born,
for reasons we still don't fully understand, they left him
alone and left the scene. From that day, it seemed everyone and thier
grandfather wanted him. Members of a strange UFO cult in Canada
kidnapped him, saying that the SS were angels and he was thier leader
who would bring God's kingdom to Earth. This was a quite a
misinterpretation on thier parts about the SS, but it didn't change
the fact that William was important to the Super Soldiers. From what
we heard, whoever raised William would be the ones whose
victory in the upcoming battle would be ensured. This is why I was
marked. The SS figured that if I raised my son to my own values, he
would fight against them. If they took him, he would end up fighting
on thier side. My brother Jeffery decided to end this debate by
hampering William's gifts with a magnetite injection, but this didn't
work as well as he had hoped.
So we did the only thing we could do to keep him safe. Dana arranged
for him to be adopted by an annonymous couple and raised in secret.
This fell apart three years ago following the murders of these people
and William came to be with us again. From an early age, William has
demonstrated amazing abilites, some of which many of you are familiar
with. However, just last week he underwent a special test of the local
Native American tribe, and he saw something I'd like for him to share
with you."
Mulder beckoned to his son, and, face still on fire, William slowly
went to the podium. He stood on a box to reach the microphone and was
relieved when his parents stayed up there with him. He looked out into
the sea of faces and felt his knees knocking together. Scully put a
hand on his sholulder and whispered, "Don't be afraid, Wil. Just tell
them as best you can."
Gulping, William pulled out the papers he had written for his parents
describing what he saw. In as much detail as he could his wavering
voice described seeing the birth and evolution of all life on Earth
and the creation of modern man from an already evloving species. He
descibed what he had been told by his grandfather Bill Mulder about
other species all arising from one founding species, and that to
tamper with or make war on a brother species was considered against
the law of the galaxy, that it had been ignored in thier
case becuase humans and all life on Earth had only four DNA base pairs
while offspring species of the founders had six. William stressed,
though, that he had been told that life on Earth was also from the
founding species and therefore what had been done to them was wrong,
although it should seem obvious. He also told them abolut sending out
a distress call as best he could and having made contact with some
unknown entity. Coming to a close, William stepped back behind his
mother who leaned into the microphone.
"People," she said, "Niether I nor Mulder can confirm or deny any of
this, but I believe my son. I can't say for sure how much of this I
can accept, and I do not suggest we should change any of our plans,
but I'd like to know how all of you think this might fit into the
whole operation."
Mulder then spoke up, "Also, taking into account that yet another
entity is involved or knows about what's going on, we have no way of
confirming that they'll be any help. Hell, they may agree with the
greys and decide we need to be eradicated. Or they may do nothing at
all. But if they decide to help us, we just might have a real fighting
chance."
William slipped back to his chair as questions broke out and everyone
started speaking at once. William glanced over his shoulder at
Jeremiah Smith, whose expression had not changbed a bit. Then, he
turned and stared at William and winked.
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Though the mood of the meeting had ended on a grim note, the family of
three had decided to go ahead with thier anual trip to visit freinds
and family. William was glad to be going to see everybody, but nervous
about leaving the safety of the magnetite zone. he had a bad feeling
that unseen forces were just waiting to pounce like a fox waiting for
rabbit to come out of its hole in the ground. He knew his parents felt
the same way, but it didn't stop them from flying out of Santa Fe a
week later headed for Des Moines.
William always enjoyed visiting Midville. For the first six years of
his life he had grown up in the small town knowing everybody and,
though Josh's family had really been the only ones he had been close
to, he missed the familiarity of the small town. The first summer he
had visited with his birth parents, they had gone out to the farm
where he had lived with Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp. He had wanted to
see it and so had his mother. But once in sight of it, William
felt a desolate feeling come over him and had wanted to leave. The
farm now belonged to another family and it was someone else's home. He
always left roses on the graves of his adoptive parents and they
managed to squeeze in going to his old church at least once a visit.
But it was visiting with Josh that William really looked forward to.
The boys had remained friends, even with a four year age gap and
several hundred miles between them. Thank God for the internet. Josh's
parents and sister had been equally as glad to see him and
meet his birth parents.
During this year's visit, William had been told not to mention
antyhing to anyone about the upcoming war. There was nothing any of
them could do about it and it was better if they just didn't know, to
let them live out the rest of the few months in peace. What's more, it
was likely that Midville wouldn't be a high priority area in the
invasion anyway, so it was likely everyne would survive the intial
wave of attacks. After that, if the humans were going to win
it would depend on how well the intial attack was diverted anyway.
William found it hard to keep quiet, especially with Josh asking him
every five minutes what was up. William just contented himself with
spending as much time as possible with his friend. After all, even if
Midville survived the invasion, there was no garuntee William himself
would.
It's a strange realization for a child to come to, contemplating his
own immenent death. After all, what eleven year old lived his life as
if he only had five months left? Maybe one with terminal cancer.
William had been surprised with himself at how calmly he was taking
it. The only thing he hoped for was that it wouldn't hurt too much
when his time finally came. He wouldn't allow himself to wonder if he
would survive. he hoped he would, but steeled himself for the worse as
his parents seemed to be doing. They only spent three days in Midville
and William walked to the cemetary with his mother the last
afternoon. She laid a white rose on the Van de Kamps' graves, and
whispered, "Thank you both, for everything."
With a brief hug to William, she turned and walked a few steps away to
give him some time to himself. William looked down at the headstone
marking the graves, remembering three years ago standing here with
Doggett and Reyes. A super soldier had come to get him and he shivered
in memory. He remembered his dream of the beach, with Bob and Nancy
dressed in radiant white smiling at him as they vanished into a
brilliant white fog. He remembered the booming voice and
the glowing cross. The voice had said they were not alone, they were
being protected. Was it true? He had been raised to believe in God,
but did he really?
Had it been God or another force that had spoken to him during his
vision quest? And if there was a God, would He help them? He had
prayed for help as he knew his parents and many other had, but so far
they had not gotten an answer. The aliens were still coming. He closed
his eyes trying to quiet the turmoil of his mind, when he felt the
wind blow his hair. The sun peeked out from behind a cloud nd shone
right down onto his head. As he opened his eyes, he was suddenly
ware of how beautiful a day it was, and how pretty the churchyard was.
Trees, swayed in the wind, a cool breeze swept thorugh the town, the
sun was shining in the most clear blue sky he had ever seen. He let
his mind wander back to Sunday school at this same church, and the
stories they had learned through the songs they had sung. He
remembered the stories telling about how humans were favored best of
all creation, even over the angels, how they had been given
paradise and this beautiful planet. They certainly hadn't done a good
job of showing any gratitude for it, maybe they deserved to loose it?
What would it look like when the grey's got a hold of it?
No, he told himself. It's ours.
He looked into the distance and saw a storm cloud far off. It was
casting a rainbow across the distant sky. Suddenly he remembered the
stoy of Noah, and how the rainbow was the promise that humanity would
never be destroyed again. Was this a sign? A sign form God? He felt
that it was and felt a weight lift from his chest. He smiled.
Looking down at Bob and Nancy's graves, he whispered, "No more. No
more of this. No one else is going to die, no more families are going
to be torn apart. I'm ending this. I promise you."
He turned and wlked back to his mother.
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Leaving Midville was always hard and waving goodbye to Josh made
William certain he would never seem him or the town again. He didn't
even try to fight back the tears as they drove away. Mulder tried to
lighten the mood by getting them to sing along to old Ray Stevens
goofball songs. William never thought he'd see the day where he and
his parents were singing along to "Osama Yo Mama"...
"Osama, Yo Mama didn't raise you right
When you were young she must've wrapped your turban too tight
She shoulda kept you home on those Arabian nights..."
They sang along to "Ahab the Arab" and "Sitting up with the Dead"
amongst others. By the time they were on the third verse of
"Mississippi Squirrel Revival" William was feeling a little better.