Mulder grabbed Scully's hand and started pulling her along, his other hand moving the flashlight over the ground, his eyes searching for the reflection of water in the light.
Scully let herself being dragged after him, a bit confused still about what he wanted with water. I really should start listening to him sometimes, she scolded herself. She tried to recall what he had said earlier, then it came to her. Water, of course!
Scully looked around and noticed the lights came closer to them.
"Mulder, hurry up, please!", she whispered to him. He didn't reply, eyes busy searching for evidence of water.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Meanwhile Daniel Vaughan and his fellow companions had – after the two FBI agents had run off chasing – not seen any other evidence of a fen fire, yet one of them, Randall Owens, stumbled over something that reacted with a howl which gave all of them a fright.
In next to nothing all the flashlights were on Owens and the thing he'd stumbled over.
"It's a dog", Vaughan said, somewhat surprised.
"Could it be the dog of that boy?", Owens asked.
"I'm not sure. We didn't get a word on how that dog looks. But look, his leg is injured, it could be him."
After a bit of contemplating they decided they should take the dog with them in any case. The dog itself had not made any sort of an aggressive move to either of them. He must be used to humans. Yet, they couldn't do much right away. The fog was too dense, and they still didn't have a clue of what had happened to the two agents.
They kept observing their surroundings when they all heard the hissing growl of the fen fire, evaporating into thin air.
"What was that?", Lockwood, the youngest one of the group asked, the fear evident in his voice.
"No idea", the others mumbled towards each other. But it caused them to keep their eyes open even more.
After a while, when nothing further happened they decided to stay put until the fog cleared and they could move again safely.
xXxXxXxXxXxXx
After frantically searching for water for a few minutes that seemed like hours Mulder's flashlight finally found what he was looking for. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that the lights were still closing in, the nearest being about 50 yards from them.
He let go of Scully's hand. Scully had recovered a bit from her fear wondering how they could now make use of the water. She turned around again and counted 3 fen fires. Not like they're going to hold still when we throw water at them, she thought grimly.
"Scully, take off your coat!", Mulder demanded.
"What for?", she asked while taking it off, never leaving her eyes off the approaching lights.
"It's quite thick fabric, it won't soak so fast. I can use it to throw more water at them in one go", he explained.
She threw him her coat, seeing he had taken his shirt off in an effort to try and see if it could be used, but apparently it was in vain. He was standing there now, just in his pants and shoes, the scratches showing on his side in the moonlight, making an attempt to shovel water. To her relief it seemed to be working.
"Mulder, they're getting close", Scully's voice was slightly trembling.
"Okay, get behind me!", Mulder said, turning to face the fen fires.
Scully obeyed him but suddenly remembered the plastic bottle of water she had taken with. She didn't even know why she had taken it, but now she was glad.
Quickly she unscrewed the cap, holding it ready to spray. She stepped close to the water so she could refill it quickly.
The creatures were now only a few yards away but Mulder made no attempt yet to use his "weapon".
With a bang all three exploded to double their size and Scully took an involuntary step backwards. Mulder in turn seemed just to have waited for that moment, splashing the water onto them tirelessly.
Hissing could be heard all over, Scully for a moment thought she was standing right next to an old steam engine. Then she joined Mulder in his efforts to get all the water out of the hole onto the creatures.
To them it seemed like the minutes were dragging into hours until the three creatures finally, almost simultaneously, blew up into thin air with the characteristic explosion.
Both Scully and Mulder were flung a good few yards back, landing hard on the ground.
After a couple of seconds they both sat up, staring at each other.
"Look", Mulder said suddenly, "the fog is clearing!" Indeed the moonlight was now sufficient to illuminate the whole area and let them find a way out of the moor.
"You're freezing, Mulder", Scully noticed,
"I'm okay", Mulder replied. "Just let's get out of here before the fog is back."
A deafening growl made them both freeze in their tracks. Turning around they saw one of the creatures, but it was way bigger than the rest. It was reaching about 12 feet into the night sky, approaching with big fast steps, anger obvious on its face.
"Oh shit", Mulder gasped, grabbing Scully's hand again and they both started running as fast as their feet would carry them, in the direction away from the beast and where they thought safety was waiting.
TBC, feedback welcome as usual... thanks to everybody for reviewing and reading!
