Chapter 7
Each second that passed seemed to go on forever as William stood transfixed on the stone wall, watching with horror as the gunman continued to fire randomly into the fleeing crowd.
After an eternity, a soft click was heard, signaling the semi-automatic had run out of ammunition. Any hope that this would bring about a stop to the attack was crushed as the crazed guard dropped the gun and ran at the tourist he had shot only moments before. William gaped as the guard straddled the man. The poor man was screaming for help at the top of his lungs, but there was no way anyone was going to put themselves at risk to help a complete stranger.
As the White House guard bent over the tourist, a muffled gurgling noise began to rise up from his throat and his head pitched forward suddenly. With a disgusting hacking sound, shiny black goo poured from the guard's mouth, eyes, and nose and splashed onto the victim's own face. The strange liquid congealed quickly and somehow slithered up the nose of the frightened tourist like it had a mind of its own.
The gunman jumped back to his feet and grabbed the arm of the person nearest to him, the bizarre black fluid dripping from his eyes…
William turned his attention back to the gunshot victim. His body was shivering, as if it was in shock. After a few jerky convulsions, the man got up off the ground and dusted off his pants, paying no attention to the gaping bullet wound in his leg. Maybe it had to do with the black ooze that had invaded his body, because now his eyes were swarming black as well.
"William!!!"
Jim appeared out of nowhere and grabbed William by the waist and pulled him down to the ground. Debbie stood next to him, her eyes wide with complete and total terror. Without saying another word, Jim took William's hand in a tight grip and they took off down the street. Debbie ran behind them, taking occasional glances over her shoulder to see just what was going on.
"Look!" She screamed.
Jim and William paused briefly and glanced back. The side doors leading to the White House were all fully opened, and dozens of people were rushing out. It seemed at first that they were running to escape a threat from inside, but closer inspection revealed that each of them had that same black oil swimming over their eyes.
"Come on!" Jim took hold of his wife's shirt and forcibly tugged her down Pennsylvania Avenue. Screams and gunshots filled the air. All around them, people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Running with no particular destination in mind, just running to escape the source of the chaos.
The tour bus the Van de Kamps had been on was gone by now. With no means of transportation, that meant that they had no choice but to travel by foot back to the hotel. But the idea of the hotel as a safe haven was diminishing quickly. By the sound of things, more and more people were being infected with the black ooze – and going completely crazy in the process.
They ran and ran until William felt as if his lungs would burst. Finally, when it seemed as though they had left most of the insanity behind them, Jim quickly ushered his family into a nearby store that was positioned along the road.
Once everyone was safely inside, he turned his focus on the man behind the cash register. "Call 911! Something's happened at the White House!"
The man behind the register put his hands on his hips and cocked his head to one side. "What's going on out there? Sounds like World War III or something."
Out of breath and shaking, Jim managed to piece together what he had seen. "I don't know! People are just going crazy! They're attacking people! I – I just don't know! But call 911 or something!"
The man still didn't seem to get it, but he moved in the direction of the phone that was hanging on the wall behind him. As he was punching in the numbers, he froze. "What the-"
Smash!
The door to the store was kicked open with a powerful thrust and the glass in it shattered. A horde of crazed city-dwellers came spewing out into the tiny shop, their faces were blank slates, but they moved with such swiftness it was clear that they meant harm to anyone they could get a hold of.
The few customers in the store and the cashier himself were momentarily dazed and confused by the sudden bedlam. Jim, Debbie, and William, however, lost no time in springing to action. Through a miracle, a back door was clearly visible at the far end of the room. The Van de Kamps dashed like mad to the exit. Not one of them looked back this time. The screams and gurgling noises behind them was clear evidence as to what was happening.
Thankfully, the door was unlocked and the three of them managed to escape into a narrow alleyway. The alley was pretty long, and led back out onto the street. Great. They were stuck. Going back out onto the street meant they would merge with the growing mob of crazies, but turning around and going back into the store wasn't an option either. Either way they were trapped.
Ultimately, Jim motioned for his family to proceed quickly but cautiously through the alley. The street, as seen through the opening of the alleyway, seemed deserted. No cars, no people. Just happy sunshine pouring through the sky and lighting everything in a summer light. The sight was deceiving.
Inching their way along the narrow back alley, William's mind raced with a thousand different thoughts. He couldn't believe he was running for his life. It was all so insane! A few minutes ago, he and his parents had been standing in line for a boring tour of the White House and the very next second, he was being chased by black-eyed zombies! And the scary part of it all was how well he and his parents were copping with the sudden crisis. The way everyone was handling the situation, especially his dad, you would've thought zombie outbreaks were an everyday occurrence back in Wyoming. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush telling them to run now and ask questions later.
People are going crazy. That was what his father had told the man in the store, and William couldn't disagree. But what was that black stuff? Maybe it was some kind of weird virus, spread when that suited man with the briefcase entered the White House. It was almost certain that the virus, or whatever it was, had been inside that briefcase and for whatever reason, that man intentionally let it loose.
Add that to the fact that, judging from what William saw, it only took about 5 seconds from the virus to be spread from one person to another. That meant in a span of only one minute, 12 people could become infected. And before an hour was over, 720 people could be in the same boat.
Jim held up a hand, signaling everyone to stop in their tracks. He peeked quickly around the corner of one of the buildings that made up the alleyway. "Okay," he said. "I think the coast it clear. Let's move. Quick!"
Just as Jim placed one foot on the sidewalk outside, a large man in a New York Jets t-shirt came crashing out of nowhere and without a second's hesitation, gripped Jim by the neck. The man's face was emotionless as he began to weep black tears.
"DAD!!!" William started to rush to his father's aide, but Debbie held him back. She had collapsed onto the ground, her eyes bulging out of their sockets and her mouth an open O of horror.
"Let me go!" William shouted to his mother. "Let me go! I HAVE TO HELP DAD!!!"
But Debbie was either too concerned for his safety or simply too frightened to make any kind of response. In either case, she said not a word, still holding her only child tight in her arms.
"Run!" Gasped Jim as he struggled against his attacker. He kicked and punched the man, but it was all to no avail. It was as if the man couldn't register pain.
Run, he had said. That was easier said than done, for at the other end of the alley, the back door they had used for escape swung open and a dozen blank-faced people came filing out. They stopped when they saw that the New York Jets man already had things taken care of. Once they realized that, they quietly turned around and headed back inside. They trusted that New York Jets would infect Jim, who would then infect the other two.
William himself could only watch as the man he had loved all of his life tried to fight back. It was no use. The black liquid was pouring out of every opening on the other man's face and splashed onto Jim's. The liquid condensed itself and began to crawl upward, toward the nose and eyes.
Seeing that his handiwork was done, New York Jets let go of Jim and took off down the street to find somebody else to infect. Jim meanwhile, was standing erect. His head jerked from side to side and a strange gasping sound resonated from deep within his lungs.
"Urrgh! Uaaaaahhh!!!"
Debbie's grip on William's arm grew tighter. "Jim? Honey, what's going on?" Her voice cracked. "Oh, God help me. Jim, please talk to me! Are you okay?"
He wasn't. He turned slowly to face his wife and son, but as soon as he did so, it was clear he was no longer the man they had known. His eyes were swarming black and his arms were outreached as he tried to lure them into a fatal hug.
No! No, this couldn't be happening! William flattened himself up against the dirty brick wall of the alley and shut his eyes as hard as he could. His mom was screaming bloody murder next to him, but he paid her no attention. All William was thinking about was his father. As he waited to be infected himself, he remembered how his dad had carved him a buffalo mobile and placed it over his crib. Many a night, William could recall staring up at the floating buffalos and reaching out for them as Jim and Debbie looked on lovingly. And then there was the time William started kindergarten. It had been his dad who had taken him inside the school and walked with him to his classroom. And then when he cried at the thought of being separated, Jim had simply stroked his hair and kissed him on the cheek and promised that after school they'd go out for ice cream. And it was only last year that William made his elementary school's soccer team. And who had made it to every one of the games? His dad. Jim Van de Kamp.
Tears fell in rivers from William's eyes as he ran through these memories. But he didn't feel them. It wasn't fair! Why did it have to end like this? There were still so many things that life had in store for them. It just wasn't right or fair that it had to come to an end during the family vacation to Washington! No. He wouldn't believe it. Thee had to be some kind of way to fight this! He wouldn't accept that this was the end! No! No! No!
He pounded his fists into the cold brick wall behind him, his eyes still squeezed shut and teary. His heart thudded in his chest like a jackhammer and a cold sweat broke out all over his body. He was having difficulty breathing. His mind was a jumbled mess – memories and fears and hope falling all over themselves. He-
A cold inhuman hand fell on his shoulder. Debbie screamed.
And then, just then, it was as if a wall came crashing down in William's mind. A wall that had blocked him from his true potential. And as that wall came thudding down, William could feel the alien force inside his father. He could almost physically see it as it latched onto Jim's brain and forced him to become its unwilling vessel. It was a vile thing, an evil force.
Get out, William's mind shouted at the black force. Get out!
Jim's body shuddered.
Yes, it was working! But he mustn't loose concentration now! Get out! Go! Leave him alone!
The virus, or whatever it was, resisted the command. It latched itself even tighter onto the brain, But William could hear its thoughts. Odd, he knew, but he could hear them anyway. It wasn't thinking in any kind of language, but rather in emotions. And right now it was afraid.
GO! William scrunched up his brow and gritted his teeth together. Whatever he was doing (and he didn't exactly know what that was) was taking an enormous strain. But he was so close. LEAVE HIM!!! William pictured his mind as a giant hand that was ripping the black virus out of his father's body. OUT!
It was coming. Just one more mental tug and-
Jim took a sudden deep gasp of air. His back arched backward at an impossible angle and to both William and Debbie's surprise, the black goo began to leak out of his eyes. And not just his eyes, but also from his opened mouth, his nose, and both of his ears. It was trying to escape from William's unrelenting thought commands. Then, to everyone's amazement, the stuff actually lifted itself off of Jim's face and began to twist skyward. It was as if it was being poured into a glass, but the glass was in the air and upside down.
Noxious smells began to drift from the substance as it twirled even higher. A white mist rose from the liquid and soon, the stuff simply vanished into thin air. Evaporated.
"Dad!" William retched himself from his mother's arms and ran to his father's side. Jim, who had collapsed onto the ground, put a shaky hand to his face.
"What… What happened?"
"I don't know," William said. And that was the truth. He had saved him, but he didn't have the faintest idea how. But that didn't matter. Nothing mattered except finding a way to escape.
Jim seemed to realize this too as he got back to his feet (a little shakily, though). He took William's hand in one of his and Debbie's in another and together they ran out onto the street.
The reason for the lack of cars on the street soon became apparent. A couple hundred yards further on down, a massive multi-car pileup blocked traffic from the north. Flames were shooting out of the wreckage and the smell of smoke overpowered all else.
Since that way was a dead end, Jim and the others headed in the other direction. As they rounded a corner of the street, the squeal of tires shattered the oppressive stillness.
A black Ford stopped just a couple inches short of running them over.
Jim let go of his wife and child's hands and pounded on the hood of the car with both fists. "Help us! Let us in!"
The occupants of the car, a middle-aged man in the driver's seat and a youthful looking redheaded woman in the passenger side, motioned for them to hurry and get inside.
Jim nodded his thanks and threw open the back door of the car and stuffed William inside. He was thrown against another woman, who was already sitting in the backseat, as both Jim and Debbie managed to squish themselves into the small car.
Once he was sure everyone was inside, Jim yelled at the driver as loud as he could. "Go! Go, go, go, go!!!"
The driver didn't have to be told twice. He put the Ford in reverse and did a crazy 180-degree spin. Before all four tires were safely on the ground, William could hear the soft clunk as the gearshift was put into drive.
Off they drove. Buildings and those infected whizzed past as the car sped down the semi-empty streets of Washington at speeds close to 100 miles an hour. Occasionally, a few crazed citizens would thrown themselves in front of the car in an effort to get it to slow down so other crazies could infect the occupants. But whenever this happened, the driver paid it no mind. He simply kept his foot on the gas pedal as the car ran them over.
Once they were out of the city proper, the woman in the passenger side turned to the driver. "Mulder, what is going on?!" She asked in a slightly hysterical voice.
The driver, - Mulder – pounded the steering wheel with his fist. "We've been tricked, Dana!" He swore under his breath. "Gibson must've been found out and they must've …. must've… I don't know! But we were led here so that we would die." He jabbed a thumb back in the direction of the ruined streets of Washington. "The whole city's been infected!"
"Infected with what?" Dana cried.
The woman squished up next to William frowned. "Purity," she said. Her voice was extraordinarily calm. "What you call 'The Black Oil'."
Jim pushed himself up closer to the driver. "Do you know what's going on? If you do, tell us!"
"Just relax, okay?" Mulder said. The car was still speeding along the highway. Traffic, while still sparse, was getting back to normal the further away they got from the infected city.
"Don't tell us to relax!" Debbie screeched. "Tell us what's going on! Tell us!!"
"Tell us!" Jim joined in.
"Tell us!"
"Tell us!"
Dana whirled around in her seat, her blue eyes flashing. "Shut up! Both of you!"
Debbie's eyes swam with tears. "We just want to know what's going on," she sobbed.
"Alright, fine." Mulder mumbled from the front seat. "Washington's been infected with something called The Black Oil. It's extraterrestrial in origin and-"
"What?!" Jim exclaimed in disbelief. "I don't believe this!"
"Well, I suggest to start," the woman in the back commented. "It's the truth. The Black Oil is the life-essence of a certain group of aliens, whose main goal is to re-colonize the planet. It can control the behavior of others."
Any reactions to the contrary were cut off as Mulder spun the car into the parking lot of a Food Lion. He motioned at the three adults in the back. "Come on, get out."
"What's going on?" Debbie asked shakily.
"We need supplies. We're going into hiding. Pretty soon, the entire country, probably the world, will be infected and we need to gather as much food as we can if we want to survive." He turned to the woman up front. "Stay here with the boy. And keep your eyes open. The Oil will spread pretty quickly. If you see anyone that looks suspicious, take the kid and just run. Okay?'
Dana nodded as Mulder and the rest of the adults leapt from the car.
"We're not going to take the time to pay for the food we get," he was saying. "Just fill up your shopping carts and run as fast as you can back out here."
…
Scully watched as Mulder, Marita and the other man and woman ran toward the supermarket. She wished Mulder had stayed behind with the boy. That way, she could have gone inside. Staying out in the car made her feel uneasy. This section of town was still happily uninfected, but it was only a matter of time. And she didn't have a gun. But no matter. She had a job to do, and Dana Scully (former FBI) always got the job done.
She turned around in her seat and looked at the boy in the back. His eyes were wide open with fear and his little body was trembling. Hoping to aleve his tension, Scully decided to attempt conversation. "Hi," she said in her most kid-friendly voice. "My name's Dana. What's yours?"
The boy shifted in his seat. "Uh… Um… William."
What was that? William? Scully froze. William had been the name of her son. The son she had been forced to give up for adoption. Could it be that this boy, this boy in the car with her, was her son? No. That was crazy. So they had the same name. So what? It would be too much of a coincidence. And Scully had always prided herself in not jumping to conclusions.
"So, William," her voice was shaking slightly. Stupid. Stupid! Get ahold of yourself, Dana, she thought. "I bet you're really scared right now. But everything's going to be okay. We're going to get through this – you, me, your parents, Mulder and the other lady, okay? Do you trust me?"
William lowered his head. "Yes, ma'am." He said.
Well at least he believed her. Scully wasn't sure is she believed herself.
"Um, Ms. Dana?:
Scully turned around.
"You've seen this thing before, right? The Black Oil?"
She smiled and nodded. "My friend and I used to be FBI agents. We investigated it on a couple of our cases."
"Well, do you … I mean, is there a way to cure it?"
Scully looked down at the ground. The hope of a child. Both hearting and disillusioning at the same time. "There was," she told him. "But it's gone now. It was a vaccine – a shot – but it's no longer around."
William remained quiet for a few seconds longer. And when he spoke again, Scully had to strain to hear him. "I did it," he whispered. "I healed my dad. He got infected with the Black Oil and I just …. just … I don't know what I did, but I just shut my eyes and healed him."
Scully was too overcome to make any kind of comment. If what this kid was saying was true, then he was her son. Her William also had strange powers. It was why she had to give him up for adoption. The Syndicate had wanted William all to themselves, they wanted to use his powers for their causes. They had claimed he would play an instrumental role in the re-colonization of the planet.
And as Scully looked at the William in the back seat, she noticed things. She noticed his physical appearance. His hair was a dark brown color, with red highlights running through it. His eyes were an identical match to Scully's, both a clear sky blue. And the shape of his nose, it was the exact replica of Mulder's own "distinguished profile".
A tear slid gently down Scully's face.
"Are you okay?" William asked. "Ms. Dana? Ms. Dana? What's wrong?"
Scully wanted to shake her head. She wanted to take this boy in her arms and cover his face with kisses and shout, "William, it's me! Your mother!" But she didn't. She was too thunderstruck to say anything. Too incapacitated with emotion.
The trunk of the car popped open. Mulder, along with everyone else had returned from their shoplifting-shopping spree and began to pile unbagged groceries into the trunk like mad.
Turning around in her seat, facing the front, Scully put her head in her hands and wept.
Everyone pilled into the car at once and Mulder gunned the engine. The Ford lurched forward and sped out of the parking lot.
"Hey, Will, look what I found for you." The man, William's adopted father reached into his jeans pockets and pulled out a small bag. "Sunflower seeds. Your favorite!"
William managed a thin smile and took the bag and popped a seed into his mouth and began chewing.
His father put an arm around him and ruffled up his hair. "It'll be okay, son."
Scully let out a loud sob and covered her mouth with her hand, Mulder averted his attention from the road for a second. "Dana? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"These are tears of joy," she informed him, a broad smile coming over her face. "I just found something that I had lost a long time ago."
Stop it, her rational mind ordered. This is crazy. That boy isn't your son! Just think about this for a minute. What are the chances you'd just pick him up out of the blue? Hmm? A billion to one! It's just too big of a coincidence!
No, a softer, quieter voice whispered. This isn't a coincidence. This was meant to be, Dana. Mean to be.
Yes, Scully agreed. She reached up and touched the small gold cross necklace she had word ever since she was a little girl. This was a sign. A gift. A gift from God.
…
Mount Weather, Virginia
7:56 pm
Dona Lola sipped a glass of 1787 Chateau Lafitte as she watched the world go to Hell. According to the news reports she was watching, every major capital of the world, Washington DC, London, Moscow, and Tokyo were being ravaged by "crazed citizens".
That was a shame. She swirled her wine around in the crystal glass and took another sip. Ah. Most refreshing.
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
Dona Lola smiled. "Come in, come in."
Heterochromia Man nervously entered Dona Lola's private quarters and bowed at the waist. "I've just received the report from our New York operative. The United Nations building has been successfully infected."
"Fabulous." Dona Lola closed her eyes. It was all going so smoothly. With the leaders of the world gone, a power void would occur – a void that would be filled by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And after FEMA, the Neo Syndicate would take over things from Mount Weather. Glorious. But there was still one more thing: The capitals of the world were lost, but the world itself remained mostly unaffected. Only one thing to do about that.
Dona Lola took another sip of wine and motioned Heterochromia Man to come close. "Release the bees," she said.
