August 10th, 1997
There's a horrible yelp from downstairs, and Mulder nearly drops April in shock. His older daughter looks at him with wide eyes, seeming a little frightened too. "Daddy, what was that?"
Mulder pats her on the head with his free hand, as much to reassure himself as her. "I'm not sure, I'm going to go see. Here, I'm putting April in her crib, you keep an eye on her, okay?"
"Okay!" She seems pleased by the responsibility, not realizing that her sister is way too young to get out on her own.
He misses a couple of steps on his way down the stairs and nearly breaks his ankle. When he skitters to a stop in the living room, ready to come to Scully's aide against whatever's attacking her, he pauses in confusion.
Scully is alone except for Sammy, without an adversary, and she's just on the phone. Her face is all smiles. Sammy doesn't even look up from playing with his wooden blocks.
"I love you too, Bill." She hangs up with a happy sigh.
"What's going on? Page and I heard you scream…"
"It's finally happened, Mulder. Tara's going to have a baby around Christmas."
"Wow, that's great," he says in a daze. ::Bill as a father. That's scary every time you think of it:: "That's not too long from now, though."
"They wanted to wait until it was safe before they got everyone's hopes up," Scully tells him. "Bill said they found out today that it's going to be a boy."
He nods, thinking about the "until it was safe" part. When she'd been carrying William, had she waited to tell people, too? He didn't know, because he hadn't been around, and she'd never said. "Your brother must be thrilled."
"Oh, they both are. They've wanted a baby for so long…" Scully sighs. "Thank god we've never had that problem."
She doesn't notice when he winces. "Your sister better watch out, now. She's the only one who hasn't given your mother a grandchild. Maggie will buy her a clock now."
"A clock?" Scully looks puzzled.
"Since she doesn't have a biological clock of her own."
"Bad joke, Mulder." Even so, she smiles. "I can't believe I'm going to have another nephew."
"And maybe this one won't be obsessed with movies about barnyard animals."
"One can only hope."
August 14th, 1997
8 a.m.
"Hey Page, wake up." Mulder gently pulls the sheet off of his daughter.
She rubs her eyes and gives him a sleepy smile. "Hi, Daddy! Where's Mommy?"
"Mommy and April are sleeping. Here, let's dress you in this first." Mulder showed her a purple bathing suit; purple is currently her favorite color. "Then we'll put on your coveralls and t-shirt on."
"How come?"
"It's a surprise."
Once she's dressed, Mulder heads for Sammy's bed. Since the two-year-old wasn't quite potty-trained, Mulder puts him in the new disposable swim trunks for toddlers, then dresses him in coveralls and a t-shirt too.
When he hands them buckets and shovels, Page figures out their destination. "Going to beach, Daddy?"
"Yup."
A huge smile breaks out on Sammy's face, and he runs for the closet and tries to open the door. Curious as to what he wants, Mulder opens it for him. After peering in for a moment, Sammy grabs something on a hanger and tugs it.
It's the wet suit that he'd bought during the last Max case. His son gives him an expectant look. "Daddy wear."
The idea of wearing a wetsuit to the beach for no apparent reason strikes him as silly and slightly embarrassing both, but it's easier to give in than to disappoint his little boy. "Okay. I'll put it on when we get there."
Sammy tilts his head. "How come?"
"Daddy can't drive if he wears it in the car."
"Oh!"
Mulder quickly scrawls a note for Scully - Took the kids to the beach, be back in two or three hours. Love ya - gathers the wetsuit under one arm, and opens the front door.
He shepherds the two children out the door, taking a moment to notice again that Page is just a few inches taller than her brother despite being nearly a year older. It seems as though she'll be petite like their mother. And Sammy won't.
Once he lifts a rock, a small armored creature scurries out. Sammy yells in surprise and lands on his bottom in the sand, giggling. Page, on the other hand is nearly as inquisitive as her mother, so she squats down and looks closely at the little creature in the tide pool. "Whatzit called?"
"It's a crab." Mulder informs her.
Puzzlement fills her face. "Don't look like Nanna," she mumbles.
"What?"
"Mommy says Nanna a crab," she explains while raking the sand next to her with a seashell.
In spite of himself, he laughs. "She told you that, huh? And after I've had nothing but nice things to say about your Grandma."
Page nods sagely. "You has different mommies."
"That's an understatement."
By this point Sammy has regained his courage and peers into the pool on hands and knees. "My birthdee, Daddy?"
Smiling down at him, Mulder ruffles his son's coppery hair. "That's right, Big guy. Today you're two."
Sammy looks somber for a moment. "Where cake?"
"I think it's time to go home," Mulder announces. "I'm pretty sure that there will be cake when we get there."
"Yay!"
When they get back to the house Mulder finds Scully nursing the baby in their bedroom. She gives him a sleepy smile. "How was the beach?"
Standing there he remembers the sound of ocean waves as Sammy's boat floated on them, the squeal of both children as they chased after the bouncing beach ball and away from him as the three of them pretended that he was a wetsuit-clad monster...
"Great. They really seemed to enjoy it. And I brought you something." He holds a Polaroid picture out to her. "I conned a kind soul into taking it."
"You're right, it's clear that they had a good time. But why are you wearing a wetsuit in the picture?"
He just smiles broadly. "I think there's a little boy downstairs who'll give you that information if you deluge the location of his cake."
"This ought to be good." She hands him the now fed baby to burp, and goes to find her answer.
Mulder looks down at his youngest. "You know, what Mommy doesn't know is that your brother didn't tell me why he wanted me to wear it, so I couldn't answer her even if I wanted to."
April, for one, seems bored of the idea and closes her dark eyes before they get downstairs to sing Happy Birthday to Sammy.
Route 43 Leon County
North Florida
October 1997
Mulder stares out the window as they drive down the lonely road, wondering what he'd done to make God angry enough to subject him to this for the second time. Maybe he ought to have learned his lesson this time around and not have blown off the opportunities to do other seminars, but he really thought that diaper rash on three kids was a real good excuse to sway Skinner. Apparently the AD has never considered the heartbreak that uncomfortable children suffer when parted from their loving parents. Or maybe someone narc'd on them, mentioning Scully's pride at Page being dry over night now.
Never one to waste a captive audience, Agent Kinsley blathers on and on about past seminars. "Last year was something of a personal revelation. We were doing an exercise called team builders? Where we were given two minutes to build a tower out of ordinary office furniture."
Not to be outdone, Agent Stonecypher concludes, "When I stood on Mike's shoulders and I put that electric pencil sharpener on top of the pile, we both knew, we could never have done it alone."
Mulder leans over and whispers in his wife's ear. "Kill me now." He can tell that she's trying not to smile, so he pouts.
"You ever been to one of these team seminars, Agent Scully?" Kinsley asks.
"Ummm....I think I went to a constructive problem solving course when I first joined the Bureau."
This seems to excite Stonecypher for reasons Mulder can't fathom. "Oh, did you play that game where, um, you can't use any negative words?"
"I couldn't believe how hard it was not to use the word 'but,'" Kinsley confesses.
"I'm having that same problem right now," Mulder says, causing Scully to turn red from the effort of not cracking a smile.
"Have you ever been to a team seminar, Agent Mulder?" Stonecypher now wants to know.
"No, you know unfortunately around this time of year I always develop a severe hemorrhoidal condition." He replies, ducking out of Scully's reach.
"Well, it builds muscles you didn't even know you had," Kinsley tells him.
"Communication. That's the key," Stonecypher adds.
Mulder nods gamely, but says, "I find that communication doesn't take that much effort when you're engaged in a carnal relationship with your partner." Scully's eyes widen at his daring, so he quickly adds. "Once you're married, I mean. What about you two, you're both single aren't you? Maybe you ought to give a relationship a shot."
Interestingly enough, both agents turn red and can't seem to get any words out, so he wonders if he's hit on something he hadn't suspected about the seemingly straight-laced pair. Before either of them can think of a way to respond, the car rolls up to a familiar looking road block.
The officer who approaches the car gives them a mild look. "Sorry, folks, it'll be a few minutes."
Kinsley looks desperately pleased at the change of topic. "What's going on, officer?"
"Got a little situation is all."
Before anyone can stop him, Mulder opens car door and gets out quickly. "Free at last, free at last." The others watch him from the car, but no one makes a move to get out.
As Mulder's stretching his cramped legs, he's approached by Mrs. Asekoff. "Oh, excuse me. Are you from search and rescue?"
"No, I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm just stretching my legs."
"They said they'd have word for us about what happened to my husband. I need somebody to tell me what's going on." The woman looks like she's about to cry.
"Just slow down," Mulder says soothingly. "I - I don't know what you're talking about."
"My husband, Michael, he was teaching our son to shoot, and he said the dog got spooked and then he heard gunshots and now he's said they've found a jacket with blood on it, but they won't tell me anything about my husband..."
"I'll try to find out who's in charge, all right?"
"Oh, thank you." She looks so grateful he almost tears up himself.
Scully scrambles out of the car when she spots Mulder heading for the woods. The other agents get out too, but get distracted by a tree, so she leaves them behind. He's in the middle of explaining to officer Michele Fazekas that he's with the FBI when Scully catches up to him.
"FBI? Who called you guys out?"
Mulder puts his badge back into his pocket. "Nobody. We just got stopped at your roadblock. It sounds like you had a shooting."
"Shots were reported, but we have no evidence of anyone being shot."
"Well, what do you have evidence of?" Mulder asks, trying not to catch his impatient wife's eye, so he can ignore the "we've got to go" signal she's trying to send him.
"A survey team working these woods didn't report in last night We found one man's bloody jacket pretty torn up. And this morning, a boy got separated from his father."
"Separated by what?"
"It looks, maybe, like some kind of animal attack."
"What kind of animal?"
"I'm not sure yet. I followed good tracks for the two surveyors but the trails became confused as they moved into the brush. There was a third set of tracks leading away. I....I couldn't identify." Michelle says reluctantly.
"Couldn't identify as the surveyors'?"
"As man or animal."
"Mulder?" Scully asks.
"Oh, just, uh..." She gives him 'come on' look." "Hold on a second…What about the boy's father?"
"I tracked him all the way down to where he fired the shots. The ground's rocky, but from the depressions in the underlying soil, I can tell you that he entered the bushes from over there where I pick up another set of tracks - two distinctly different sets of tracks that from the way the ground's upset that is probably where the man was attacked."
"But no other sign of him? Do you have panther in these woods?"
"There's panther. Bear, too."
"But these tracks look like neither of those."
"No, sir."
"You know of a good motel in the area?" She's about to protest when he smoothly continues. "My partner and I have worked on several wild animal cases in the past, so if you could use a couple extra sets of eyes..."
To his surprise, Michelle doesn't bristle this time. "You're not the agents who dealt with that thing they called the 'Flukeman' are you? Even the news stations out her covered that. And the tabloids of course."
Scully shudders. "This better not be another flukeman, one was enough."
"So it was you!" Michelle gives them an admiring look. "If you could spare the time, I'd love to have your help."
"I think-" Mulder begins.
His reply is interrupted when Scully pulls him out of earshot. "What gives, Mulder? We've got this conference. They're waiting."
"Yeah. How do I say this without using any negative words, Scully?"
"You want me to tell them that we're not going to make it to this year's teamwork seminar."
"Yeah, you see that?" He puts his hands on her arms. "We don't need that conference. We have communication like that, unspoken. You know what I'm thinking."
She shakes her head and starts to walk off, but he calls to her. "Besides, I think that Kinsley and Stonecypher would be happier if they had the rest of the trip to be alone."
"You don't know that," Scully protests.
He taps the side of his head. "Call it ESP."
Hotel
Mulder is looking at websites about predators when Scully returns to their room carrying a tray of cheese and mini bottle of wine. "You're the one who cut the cheese?" he asks with an immature grin.
"Since we won't be making it to the conference for the wine and cheese reception..."
"Partaaayyy!" He crows, making her laugh. "And unlike our esteemed traveling companions we don't even have to worry about that Tailhook crap. See? There are some advantages to being married to your partner."
"Sure are…" Scully says, climbing onto the bed next to him.
"Pop quiz. What animal will attack the strongest leaving the weakest to escape? The answer is none. Not one of the over 4,000 species native to North America will attack the strongest when the weak is vulnerable."
"Well, what does that have to do with anything?"
"It makes me think that what we're dealing with here is no ordinary predator."
"I thought this was just a ploy to get out of the conference."
"I think what we stumbled upon here is something more than what local authorities realize. The scenario described by that boy sounds to me like a primitive culling technique."
"Mulder, we're in Western Florida. The closest thing to primitive down here is living in a beachfront retirement condo."
"Funny, I thought you'd be more sympathetic to a child in anguish," He chides, and she doesn't look contrite. "Those woods are as old as anything in the south and there's 800 square miles of them. There's no telling what's alive out there." He stands up.
"Where are you going?"
"I've got to check something out."
"You know, Mulder, sometimes I think some work on your communication skills wouldn't be such a bad idea," Scully says with a smirk.
"I'll be back soon, and we can build a tower of furniture. 'Kay?" He smiles at her.
"Nope." She slides of the bed too. "I'm coming too."
He shrugs. "That works, too."
Asekoff house
Early Morning
Scully takes the tape of the classic Invisible Man film out of the VCR in Louis' room.
"How's the boy?" she asks as she rejoins him in the living room.
"He's still freaked out."
"I think I might have some insight into this invisible creature he said was chasing him." She hands him the video tape.
"The Invisible Man was invisible," he protests.
"Right."
"Yeah, he said he was chased by a creature with glowing red eyes." Scully rolls her own eyes. "Let me show you something." They go to the door. "Mrs. Asekoff said she went outside with the dog, right?"
"Mm hmm."
"But when she came back, the door was locked from the inside."
"And?"
"Look at this. We got some tracks here."
"Where?"
"Here, and here..." He points at the floor. "Dried mud against the tile, tracked in from the outside."
"That could have been brought in by the dog."
"No, no. You see, uh, the ball of the foot here? A large foot and I count five toes."
"Wait a minute. I thought you said it wasn't human."
"Well, I'm not saying it is. The weight distribution is all wrong. People walk heel to toe. Whatever this thing is it walks on the ball of its foot."
"You're putting me on."
"No. My dad and I were Indian Guides. I know these things."
"So, if it's not man and it's not animal, what the hell is it?"
Michelle enters just as he shrugs. "Guess I'm a little late to this dance." She remarks.
"I found some tracks - right here."
"Same as I saw before," Michelle confirms.
"Where was that?" Scully asks.
"In the woods. Weight distribution's strange. They appear to be human, but whoever left these uses the balls of his feet more like an animal." Scully glares at his triumphant look.
"Well, whatever it is, it's attacked three grown men, presumably in broad daylight disposing of its prey without detection. And it wasn't shy last night about coming out of the woods to try again. What we've got here is a predator with low visibility and a high degree of motivation. And it's got one advantage we don't have - the entire Apilachacola National Forest," Mulder says.
"Then how do you stop it?" Michelle asks.
"By identifying it. Finding it before it finds somebody else."
Mulder balks when the women indicate that they'd like to get going quickly. "These things are dangerous. There's a possibility that we could end up here overnight like the missing men - assuming they're still alive. We need to bring warm clothes and sleeping bags if we're to have a chance of survival in that case."
"Agent Mulder, we don't want to be carrying that sort of extra weight with us," Michelle protests, and Scully nods her agreement.
"We won't carry it then, but better safe than sorry. Look, I saw a documentary recently in which having the proper equipment might have allowed the three missing people to survive -"Realizing that he's beginning to describe the plot to the Blair Witch Project, which won't be out for another two years, he opts for vagueness. "I just don't want it to be us, okay?"
They grumble, but do spare the twenty minutes at a sporting goods store to buy what he wants before they go and meet the other member of the team in the woods.
On The Edge Of The Woods
Jeff Glaser the tech expert Michelle called in shows them how the heat sensor's camera and monitor reveals the presence of warm bodies. "It's called FLIR for Forward Looking InfraRed. It was developed for chopper pilots in Vietnam. Detects body heat at 300 yards."
"That's pretty sophisticated for government issue," Mulder remarks.
"Some people prefer searching with dogs, I prefer an extra pair of hands if I get in trouble," Michelle explains. "Are we ready to go, here? Once we start in, you can put away your cel phones. The only communication in these woods is with short-wave radios. So stay close, maintain visual contact. If you get lost, initiate oral contact. That means holler. If nobody responds, sit down - don't move. I will find you. Don't go looking for me. I know it sounds obvious, but folks still get lost."
Scully hangs up her phone, which is just as well, because the signal is fading out. "Local PD has all their resources looking out for a transient, a drifter who's wanted for a double homicide in Gasden, Alabama. They were amused when I told them what we were doing."
"I don't think it's a drifter, Scully, and we may be looking for two individuals."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, that thing lured that woman out of the house last night to separate her from her son."
"But for what purpose?"
"Divide and conquer. If your enemy has greater numbers than you, you divide and conquer it to diminish those numbers."
"What enemy would that be?"
"Humans invading their niche. Encroaching development. That's what I suspected when I went to check on Louis and his mother."
"You think this is about a housing tract?"
"That survey team was staking out a new 100,000 acre plot. Civilization is pushing very hard into these woods. Maybe something in these woods is pushing back."
"Anything?" Scully asks, looking over Jeff's shoulder at the blank monitor.
"No. No, nothing at all. Not even wildlife."
"Isn't that a little strange?"
"Yeah. This forest is usually alive with sound. I'm not like an expert, but I've never seen it like this before."
"Well, it sure is beautiful, though."
"That's what happens. People get to looking around, next thing they know, something eats 'em."
"What do you think killed those men?"
"Nature is populated by creatures either trying to kill something they need to survive, or trying to avoid being killed by something that needs them to survive. If we become blinded by the beauty of nature, we may fail to see its cruelty and violence."
"Walt Whitman?" Scully guesses.
"No. When Animals Attack on the Fox Network."
Despite Michelle's caution, two hours later they're again minus one police officer. Once she disappears Jeff becomes semi-hysterical, and Mulder gives in to his demands that he lead the way only to keep him from cracking up.
Jeff walks ahead, holding the device like it's their salvation.
Hanging back a bit, Scully speaks to her husband. "I don't have much faith that this device will do us any good."
"So far all it's done is split us up."
"Whatever it is that we were chasing did show up on the screen at first."
"What does that tell you?"
"Nothing," Scully concedes.
"Mm hmm."
"Except that we're going in the right direction."
"Maybe it can regulate its temperature. Do you know of any animal that can?"
"Ticks. I've heard that they can halt their metabolism for up to 18 years, essentially going into suspended animation until something warm-blooded comes along."
"That's interesting."
"Why is that interesting?"
"30 years ago, the, uh, the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia was terrorized for over a year by something - killing livestock and terrorizing the people. Witnesses described them as primitive looking men with red piercing eyes. Became known as the 'moth men.' I've got an X-File dating back to 1952 on it."
"What would that be filed next to…'The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati?'"
"No, 'The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati' is in the C's. 'Moth Men's over in the M's."
Jeff interrupts their conversation to inform them that they must have gotten off the trail.
Scully sees movement in the trees. "Everybody stand still. There's something out there."
She and Mulder pull their guns out. "Where?"
"About 40 or 50 yards out."
They give chase for a while and Scully fires at it, hitting nothing.
"Don't fire again unless you're sure you're gonna hit it. It may be trying to spend our advantage." Mulder warns her after she admits she only has one clip.
She's shaken. "What the hell is it, Mulder?"
"I don't know. But what ever it is, it's smarter than us - at least out here." No sooner have the woods left his mouth is he pulled out of Scully's view.
Running towards where he was, she screams his name until she hears his pain-filled voice. As she nears she sees him wresting with a creature that keeps wandering in and out of her sight. She fires several shots at it, missing each time but driving it off. Mulder is bleeding from a deep shoulder laceration when she finally reaches him.
"You okay?" she asks breathlessly.
Mulder winces and nods weakly. "Jeff's gone now too."
Whirling on her heel she sees that he's right. They're alone in the quiet woods.
The Forest
After Dark
Since Michelle isn't around to scold them, they wander in the woods a bit trying to locate where they dropped the sleeping bags. Unfortunately, they don't stumble across them.
When they eventually give up, Mulder huddles up against a log while Scully tries to start a fire with rocks.
"You were an Indian Guide. Help me out here."
"Indian Guide says maybe you should run to the store and get some matches."
"I would, but I left my wallet in the car. Wherever we left that…" She sits next to him and picks up her gun.
"What are you doing."
"Trying to open my gun. If I can separate the shell from the casing maybe I can get the powder to ignite."
"Oh. And maybe it'll start raining weenies and marshmallows."
"Do I detect a hint of negativity?"
"No. Yes...actually. Yeah. And I'm more concerned about being able to shoot at that thing if necessary, than about an unlikely fire."
"Mulder, you need to keep warm," she protests. "Your body's still in shock."
He looks over his shoulder at something she can't see before saying, "I was told once that the best way to regenerate body heat was to crawl naked into a sleeping bag with somebody else who's already naked."
"Well, maybe if it rains sleeping bags, you'll get lucky."
He flips one of the sleeping bags that she hadn't noticed until then up in the air, making her laugh. "Do I get lucky now?"
"It's worse than I thought. Not only are you in shock, you're delirious." He snorts. "Have you thought seriously about dying?"
"Yeah, once, when I was at the Ice Capades."
"When my dad died unexpectedly like that, I was angry at the injustice of it and its meaninglessness. And then I realized that that was the struggle - to give it meaning. To make sense of it. It's like life."
"I think Nature is supremely indifferent to whether we live or die. I mean, if you're lucky you get 75 years. If you're really lucky you get 80 years. And if you're extraordinarily lucky, you get to have 50 of those years with a decent head of hair."
"I guess it's like Las Vegas. The house always wins."
"Hey, who did you identify with when you were a kid? Wilma or Betty?"
"I identified with Betty's bustline," Scully tells him as she unzips the sleeping bag.
"Yes! I did, too." He stares at her chest. "At least one of us outgrew the likeness."
"Could never have been married to Barney, though. The kids were cute."
"But where are they today?" Mulder asks. "And our kids are way cuter."
"Moth Men? Really?"
He nods. "Yeah. But there seem to be only two of them." Scully tries to pull him onto her lap. "I don't wanna wrestle."
"Get over here. I'm going to try and keep you warm." Mulder complies but she accidentally rubs his wounded shoulder. It makes him hiss in pain. "Sorry."
"One of us has got to stay awake, Scully," he protests as she wraps the sleeping bag around them both.
"You sleep, Mulder."
"If you get tired, you wake me."
"I'm not going to get tired."
"Why don't you sing .. something."
"No...Mulder."
"You sing to the kids." He pouts. "I've heard you. Well, if you sing something, I'll know you're awake."
"Mulder, you don't want me to sing. I can't carry a tune."
"It doesn't matter. Just sing anything."
Scully looks around, making sure there are no other witnesses, and then begins to sing slightly off key and without enthusiasm. "Jeremiah was a bull frog…"Her voice wavers when his eyes pop open "...was a good friend of mine. Never understood a single word he said.. but I helped him drink his wine." She pauses.
"Chorus," he demands
"Joy....to the world. All the boys and girls. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me." She looks down at him. "I…I can't sing any more. Were you serious about wanting to get lucky?" After a moment of investigation under the sleeping bag her eyes widen. "Ah, you were."
"I was."
"Well, that'll keep me awake for a while…"
"And you're better at *that* than singing," he agrees, knowing that she hasn't the heart to hit him. For now. Instead of smacking him she laughs and pulls the sleeping bag over their heads, figuring the noise will scare away any less than voyeuristic animal.
Morning
Mulder wakes up slightly panicked when he realizes he's alone. "Scully?!"
"Mmmm....over here." She's about 20 yards away, apparently eating something.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for food. I found some wild berries."
"That sounds like a good way to get the wild runs," he tells her. "Please don't go far."
"Mulder, you never left my sight," She reassures him, right before disappearing from sight.
"Scully?" He gets up painfully and goes to where she was. "Scully? Scully! Scully!?"
A voice near his feet says, "I'm down here".
"Where?"
"I fell down a hole."
He looks and sees her getting to her feet at the bottom of a hole ten feet deep. "You all right?"
"Yeah, I landed on soft dirt .. kind of."
"What's down there?"
"I don't know. It's pretty dark." Scully steps out of view. "Oh!"
"Scully, what's going on? Are you okay?"
"I found Michelle."
"Is she alive?"
"Not for much longer. Mulder, we have to get her out of here."
"Is there a way out?"
"I don't know. I... I'm in some kind of a chamber. There's...there's like some kind of network. Mulder..."
"Yeah?"
"I'm not alone. I don't have my weapon. Mulder!?"
"Hold on, I'm going to drop my gun down."
He drops gun, then hears rustling behind him. As Scully bends to pick up his gun, Mulder dives into the hole too. "Jeez!! Mulder, are you okay?"
Groaning, he holds his shoulder, and ground in pain. "Don't mind me."
The creature begins to move towards them, and he shouts a warning. "Scully!"
Scully fires three or four shots and it drops to the ground, seemingly dead. They look at creature's body. It looks like a person carved out of wood.
"Mulder, look. There has to be a scientific explanation for this."
Mulder looks up at Scully as they work to stack bodies of long-dead victims up under the hole. "Too bad we don't have any office furniture."
"If they could see us now."
"Go, team. 20 more bodies and we'll win the Honey-Baked Ham."
A familiar voice calls out, "Agent Mulder?"
"We're down here!"
Agent Kinsley peers down at them. "What're you doing down there?"
To Mulder's surprise, it's Scully who has the smart remark. "Seemed like a good place for our second honeymoon."
"We've got injured people down here," Mulder tells Kinsley.
"We need a ladder," Scully adds, waving with her hand to indicate they're too deep under ground to climb out.
"Right away."
**
Ambulances load Michelle, Jeff and Mr. Asekoff, while another EMT bandages Mulder's injured shoulder.
As soon as Mulder is released, Kinsley comes over to him. "Well, we just got all the thanks when you did all the work."
"No, on the contrary, Agent Kinsley, we would never have gotten involved in this if not for you."
"Really?"
Mulder points at a tab on the crosscut - 1521 Ponce De Leon Lands Looking for Fountain of Youth. "Yeah, you see this?"
"Oh, yeah. I pointed that out to Agent Stonecypher on the drive down."
"There was something in the cave that Scully fell into, an inscription - Ad Noctum."
"That's, uh -"
"It means 'into darkness'. The Spanish Conquistadors used to carve it on the posts that they would lash the natives to as a warning," Mulder explains.
"So who're you saying wrote this?"
"Ponce De Leon came here 450 years ago looking for the Fountain of Youth."
"You mean you think that these...that - that - that- that body the one that Agent Scully shot? No-"
"After 400 years in the woods don't you think they might have adapted perfectly to their environment?"
"You're just making this up."
"Why do you say that?"
The other agent laughs uncomfortably. "'Cause, you work on the X-Files, and you just want to write off your motel." He looks over his shoulder quickly before adding. "And earlier? You were right."
"About what?" Mulder asks blankly.
"About us giving the couple thing a shot." Kinsley blushes when they see Stonecypher approaching.
"Search and Rescue are still unable to find one of the surveyors or the second predator that you reported," she tells them.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't find either one of them," Mulder replies.
"Agent Mulder, I'm confused about one thing. Why would they come after the boy in the house that night?"
"These predators have been in these woods for a long, long time. They would have perceived any encroachment on their territory as an enemy, even a little kid like that."
"But that would mean that they'd come after any one of us that had gone into the woods, wouldn't it?"
He nods, then looks around. "Where's Scully?"
"Oh, she got a lift back to the motel to pack up both your things." Stonecypher says.
"She did? Excuse me." Before either agent can protest, he hops into their car and drives off.
Motel
"Scully!? Scully!!!??"
Scully leans out of the bathroom. "Mulder, what's going on?"
"Let's get out of here," he says, picking up his suitcase and bumping gently against her until she gets moving.
"'Kay," she says, picking up the other suitcase.
"You pack everything?"
"Yeah."
As he closes the door he catches a glimpse of red eyes under the bed. Scully thinks he's shivering from pain, and wraps her arm around his waist, having no idea that he's praying that the manager doesn't rent out the room in the next few hours.
