Chapter 18
At the helicopter's explosion, Invictus, Mulder, Cass and John stood in
the
corridor crammed in a small doorway. A moment or two after the
incredible
noise, about five troops ran from the doorway still strapping on
LBE's and
slinging their M-16's over their shoulders.
After another moment without any movement from the room, Mulder
and
Invictus decided to move forward toward the chamber that Frohike
had
described to them. John and Cass followed, each holding their weapon
a
little awkwardly.
As they approached the doorway, Mulder turned to the two
companions
following and gave them a smile of reassurance. John tried his
best to
return it, and Cass simply glared at him, breathing quickly and
nervously
through flared nostrils.
As they reached the doorway, Invictus edged his way along the side
and
pointed his index and middle finger at his eyes, indicating Mulder to
move
into the room and cover him as soon as he was inside. Mulder nodded
and
brought his weapon up at the ready.
Invictus took a deep breath and mouthed the count of three so that
everyone
would be in sync. On three, he grabbed the door handle and threw
it open,
throwing himself through it at the same time, his gun held
ready
chest-level.
Mulder flew in behind him, but nearly barreled into him, having to
raise
his gun with one hand and skid his feet to halt no more than a few
feet
into the room.
Mulder nearly panicked and brought his gun back up, scanning the
room
quickly, and then he too stopped where he was.
The room was empty. Save for a few stools, one that had been knocked
over,
no doubt in the rush of the soldiers to leave the room, the rest of
it was
bare.
Mulder opened his mouth to say something, but Invictus quickly brought
his
finger to lips, then pointed in the direction of the one door on
the
opposite end of the room. Mulder nodded and then turned to the
doorway,
motioning for John and Cass to follow him, but quietly.
They moved toward the door silently, and Invictus moved up to the
small
window that was about eye level and quickly peeked in. He turned to
the
rest of the group and held up two fingers, then smiled.
With that, he swung open the door quickly.
Inside the room, the two figures, one, what looked to be a scientist in
the
perfunctory white jacket, the other a soldier. Neither turned to the
heavy
industrial door as it opened.
The soldier had both arms out, that the scientist was loading up
with
several small silver boxes.
"What was it?" The scientist threw over his shoulder at the open
doorway,
not turning from his task.
"I think it was the sound of the shit hitting the fan," Mulder said wryly.
At the sound of a voice that neither recognized, the two men both
turned
slowly to the four intimidating and armed figures in the doorway.
The
soldier flinched as if about to drop the cargo he held in his arms,
but
then stopped and thought better of it. The scientist simply
straightened
himself and took a step toward the doorway.
"What do we have here?" Invictus asked.
"Something you can't have," he said to the group, his voice not
betraying
any kind of fear.
Mulder was immediately on his guard, having in his experience found
the
scientific kind to have neither the bravery nor the machismo to
be
intimidating to a federal agent, much less four armed rebels.
Invictus looked around the metal plated room, directing his stare at
the
sinking and drifting telltale smoke of frozen nitrogen pouring from one
of
the open cabinets.
"You don't seem to be in the position to argue, Dr. Joel," Invictus
said,
taking a step forward himself.
With that, Mulder flicked his eyes from the scientist to the soldier
and
back again.
The man was indeed the same Dr. Joel from the underwater fortress in
which
he'd been held, he realized. But the soldier's reaction was odd.
He'd
previously been looking down at the boxes in his arms, likely trying
to
figure out a way to get rid of them and get to his sidearm that
was
holstered at his side. But, as soon as Invictus had mentioned the
doctor's
name, he'd looked up at the scientist as a look of confusion
washed over
his face for a moment.
The doctor, on the other hand, had no reaction at all, save for
taking
another step toward Mulder and the others in the doorway.
"Stop it right there," Invictus said, his voice low, as he raised his
gun
up a little higher, his finger poised read at the trigger.
Immediately, Mulder lowered his own gun and put his hand on
Invictus'
shoulder.
"Wait," he said, and reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out
the
small metal cylinder that Scully had placed there with a quick kiss and
a
just-in-case before they'd headed off down the corridor. It was
the
stiletto that he'd found in the sub, and had forgotten about until
Scully
had found it in his backpack.
They'd decided to keep its existence to themselves for the time being,
but
at that moment, as he looked into the eyes of 'Dr. Joel' and
Invictus'
itchy trigger finger, the point was moot.
He raised it up so that the doctor could see it and pushed the small
button
on its side, the long awl shooting up with a hiss of air.
It was then that the doctor looked at them with any real kind of fear
and
took a step back.
Mulder had been right, then. The man was probably an alien bounty hunter.
Mulder stepped inside the chamber, past Invictus and stood menacingly
in
front of the scientist, the soldier simply standing with his arms
full
watching the scene play out before him.
"You know, it looks to me," Mulder said, shifting the stiletto to his
right
hand, and his gun to left quickly, "that you're in a position you'd
never
really planned on."
The bounty hunter took another slow step backward and cocked his
head
warily at Mulder.
"I'd say," Mulder said in a near ponderous tone, "somewhere east of
the
rock, and west of the hard place. Or would you rather have the
coordinates
in galactic terms?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the bounty hunter lunged at him.
There was a quick scuffle, and a crash, as the bounty hunter and
Mulder
tussled and the soldier seized the opportunity and distraction to
drop the
load in his arms and grab for his sidearm.
However, in the next second, Mulder had the bounty hunter, who'd
morphed
back into his imposing and apathetic countenance, much to the shock
of John
and Cass, shoved against the side of the chamber with the business
end of
the stiletto making a small indention at the base of the hunter's
skull.
Invictus, who never seemed to be shocked by anything, had swung his
weapon
to the soldier.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Invictus said jovially to the soldier, who paused his hand
at
his holster, "not a good idea, sport."
The soldier took a step back from the mess he'd just made on the floor
and
raised his hands above his head.
"There you go," Invictus said, moving to him and bending down to
inspect
what lay at his feet.
Most of the small metal containers had broken open, spilling
frozen
nitrogen and vials, which lay scattered and broken, but two had
been
spared. Invictus opened one and removed the intact vial with the
bottom of
his shirt, holding it up for the rest to see.
"Jackpot," he said.
They'd found the vaccine.
XxXxXxXxXxX
Richter stood, his weary knees creaking and popping as he rose. He
lay
Elspeth down gently.
He hefted her body up and over his bad arm's shoulder, wincing a bit, and
made off toward the
building, keeping as low to the ground as he could.
He heard the hum of motors approaching in the distance, and paused at the
door of his
destination, looking back at the wreckage of the helicopter,
and then kicking the door in.
Smoke immediately poured from the open
doorway, but he ignored it, intent upon finding its
source.
He began to weave through the scattered items that littered the floor,
hoking and sputtering
from the smoke, his eyes tearing so that he could
hardly see. Through his tears though, he saw
the faint glow of what he was
looking for through one of the doorways directly in front of him.
He made
his way through the entrance to the room and turned his face as waves of
intense heat
seared at him from the room.
The entirety of the room before him was ablaze, and he paused for a moment,
closing his eyes
and already regretting what he was about to do. He
touched her face briefly and was flooded
with images of what could have
been, but he blocked them out quickly.
The lack of oxygen was getting to him, and his knees nearly buckled. He
moved forward before
they did, throwing Elspeth's body into the inferno,
tears streaming down his face that had
nothing to do with the acrid smoke
that clawed at his eyes.
XxXxXxXxXxX
"That's it?" Cass tripped forward several steps and then stopped
again,
"that's the vaccine?"
Her tone was reluctantly hopeful, and Invictus glanced up to Mulder,
the
vial still in his hands.
Mulder nodded, pushing the bounty hunter further into the wall
for
emphasis. He recognized the dark amber
substance that had saved
Scully from the affects of the black oil so many
years before, and his
stomach
flopped at the memory.
"Yeah," he said, "that's it."
"Well let's go!" Cass said, grabbing at one of the surviving boxes,
and
Invictus picked up the other and
stood.
"Not so fast," John piped up from the doorway. "What are we going to
do
with them?" He pointed at the
soldier and the bounty hunter and
looked at them warily.
"Take him outside," Mulder motioned to the soldier with his head,
"I'll
take care of this guy."
Invictus looked at him a moment, then gave Mulder a brief nod. He
then
turned to the soldier and motioned his gun in the direction of the
doorway.
"You heard the man," he said, the soldier moving slowly, eyeing the
scene
before him with trepidation. He seemed to want to be where he was
even less
than everyone else in the room.
When Invictus, Cass, John, and their prisoner were safely out of
the
chamber, Mulder put his mouth to the ear of the bounty hunter and
whispered
harshly.
"You aren't the first of your kind that I've killed, and I promise
you
won't be the last."
With that, he sunk the stiletto deep into the creatures neck, shoving
it's
body to the ground, and leapt out of the room, slamming the door shut
on
the toxic blood oozing out of the creature.
He then moved to the doorway, where John, Cass and Invictus were
waiting
for him.
"What do we do with him?" Mulder asked Invictus, who's gun was
still
trained steadily on the soldier.
"Well . . ." Invictus began, turning all of the way to the prisoner
and
taking a step closer to him.
The soldier took a step back as well, and finally opened his
mouth,
speaking for the first time.
"Look," he said, "just go. I won't
go after you. In fact, I almost hope you
make it."
Invictus regarded the man for a moment and then stepped toward
him,
removing the man's weapon from his
holster and taking another step
back. "Good to know," Invictus said, "now
get on the ground, face
down."
The soldier winced, likely convinced they were going to kill him, but
did
as he was told anyway.
Invictus stepped up to him and bent down. "You can either tell them
we
cold cocked you," he said,
"or we can do it for real."
"I'll tell 'em," the man said, his voice muffled by the floor.
"Okay," Invictus said, but then knocked the man in the back of the
head
with the butt of this gun anyway.
He then stood up and shrugged to the trio in the doorway that was
looking
at him rather oddly.
"Never did trust the military," he said, then moved quickly out of
the
door, the metal box tucked safely
under his arm, and the rest of
the group following quickly behind him.
XxXxXxXxXxX
As soon as they emerged back into the room of rubble, they glanced
around,
found the room otherwise empty, and ran to the fallen pile of
ceiling where
Scully and Frohike were waiting for them.
Frohike scrambled up to meet them, and bent to offer Scully a hand,
but
Mulder already had his arm under hers and was half hauling her to her
feet,
and half hugging her.
He swept the hair back from her forehead, and then swung his head
round,
searching for something.
"Hey," he said, "where's Richter?"
"Gone," Scully said, "when Elspeth. We couldn't stop him."
Mulder made an almost disgusted face and nodded, accepting the situation.
"We'll have to leave without him" he said.
Cass spoke up. "We can't just-"
"We'll have to leave without him," Mulder snapped, clearly unhappy with
the
situation
Cass recoiled and took a step backward, closer to John.
"Mulder," Scully said quietly, squeezing the hand that she was holding.
He
looked down at her and
closed his eyes, apologizing silently.
"We'll figure it out," Invictus said, "but right now we need to get
the
hell out here like we stole something."
"We did," Cass said, still a bit miffed, and shifted the box under
her
other arm.
John reached out and relieved her of its burden, giving her a quick smile.
"Yeah," he said, "let's just go."
They all headed over to a doorway that led to a fire escape, but
paused
when Frohike stopped and turned to them.
"You all head down and get away from the building," he said. "I'll
catch
up, there's something I have to do."
There was silence for a moment, but then the group all nodded and
proceeded
out the emergency doorway. Frohike's tone had, for once, barred
any
argument.
"I'll stay with him," Invictus said to Mulder and Scully, the last to
leave
through the door. "We'll catch up
with you."
They both nodded at him, as Mulder helped Scully down the ladder
below
them.
"Thanks," Mulder said, clapping Invictus on the arm and taking the
vaccine
from him, before he headed down himself.
Invictus then turned to Frohike.
"Well?" He said to the shorter man. "You want me to wait here or do
you
want company?"
"I'll be right back," Frohike replied, and then sprinted as best his
legs
could carry him down the corridor
they'd emerged from not minutes
before.
Invictus waited for a few minutes, wondering what exactly the hacker
was
doing, and then jumped, as Frohike catapulted himself out of the
corridor,
and up to where Invictus was standing.
"Go!" The running man shouted, waving his hands toward the
emergency
doorway frantically. "Go! Run!"
Invictus' mind flitted to a vaguely remembered Audi commercial from
just
before Colonization of a man in the woods standing while his friend
hurtled
from a thicket yelling at him to run. When they finally got to the
car and
gunned it down the road, the man's friend produced a candid shot of
him and
bear.
Invictus threw open the door and took the steps down two at a
time,
ruminating in the back of his head that if Frohike had done the same
to the
soldier down in the lab, he was going to kill him himself.
As he jumped down the ladder onto the solid ground below, Frohike
landed
quickly behind him, surprisingly spry for his age and height.
He cast about for a second before quickly spotting Mulder waving them
over
to a crumbled bit of building about 500 yards from the Capitol. They
took
off toward the waiting group and slid behind the rubble next to John
and
Cass, panting.
"What the hell was *that* all about?" Mulder shot at Frohike, as the
man
struggled to regain his breath.
"What?" He panted. "You didn't think Langly and I came here to only
*hack*
did you?"
An enormous explosion punctuated his question, and they all threw
their
hands over their ears as the Wisconsin State Capitol building was
blown to
high hell.
As bits of paper and mortar fell around them, they all shot Frohike
a
questioning glare in synchronous head turns.
The man shrugged, on the verge of saying something when the screeching
of
tires ground to halt just behind the rubble in the parking lot Invictus
and
Frohike had just run across.
Mulder, Scully and Invictus all grabbed for their weapons and peered
around
rubble warily. When they straightened and stood, the others did the
same,
curiously following their stare.
Richter, his arm a bloody mess hanging at his side, and the rest of
him
covered nearly head to toe in soot, stood outside the open driver's
side
door of a large military Humvee, squinting first at the smoldering
remains
of the Capitol building and then to the ragtag band of rebels
hiding on the
other side of him. Elspeth was noticeably missing, and Scully
knew without
much more than a look that she was never going to see her
friend again. And
she knew that the Richter she had come to know was also
gone, and in his place
was this man, tired and withdrawn. Who he was
now,probably only he would know
She simply hoped that whoever he was, he
would find a way one day to find
peace with himself.
They stared at him as though he had come from nowhere. "Jesus," he
said
grimly, "you all need a ride?"
XxXxXxXxXxX
Mulder pretended to be asleep as her heard Scully jiggle the door handle
to
their room. He heard her pause in the doorway, and then move across
the
room. Only then did he dare open his eyes.
She seemed to glide across the room, her back straight, her stride
liquid,
as her ankle had healed quite nicely, and a small omni-present
smile on her
face. She walked to the open window, the shimmery white
curtains fanning
her face, as the sunlight streamed in around her, a stark
contrast as the
photons of light that couldn't penetrate the strength of
her body, much
less her spirit, shone around her curves.
She breathed in the hot Arizona breeze and sighed, content.
It was a sight Mulder couldn't help but relish.
"How is your mother?" he asked quietly, finally speaking up. There
were
times lately, when he'd wanted to want to wake her up if she was
sleeping
because he couldn't wait to hear what she would say next. He
couldn't seem
to get enough of her. Luckily, she seemed to feel the
same.
Scully turned to him then, the sun now a back light, shining through
her
hair and infusing them with titian flame.
She smiled at him, taking the sight of him in as well, the copper
tones
that the Phoenix sun had melted into his skin contrasting sharply
with the
white of the sheets tucked under his arms.
"She's good," she answered contentedly. "Reveling in the order
and
organization required to keep this
going."
She took a step towards him, smiling, but paused when there was a
sharp
knock on the door.
Cass opened it then, hesitantly, and popped her head in giving them both
a
quick, apologizing smile.
"I'm heading out to the HQ," she said. "We've got a big group from
Oregon
and Idaho that just got here. Almost two hundred."
"We'll be up in a few, Cass," Mulder said from the bed. "Thanks."
She smiled at them once more, and closed the door behind her.
They'd arrived in Phoenix, Arizona nearly three days after leaving
Madison.
Taking back roads where they could, expressways where they
couldn't.
When they arrived at the location that Frohike had gotten from Byers
before
they'd separated, they were nearly bowled over.
Suzanne Modeski, Byers, and a contingent of resistance forces the
Gunmen
had been in contact with, had built up an impressive complex,
complete with
housing for thousands of people, supplies to feed and clothe
them all, and
a lab just waiting to break down the vaccine and reproduce it
for the
masses.
As Mulder laid in the bed of the room he and Scully shared, he ruminated
on
how far they'd come. There were people coming in every day now,
sometimes
in the hundreds, sometimes in the tens, to receive the vaccine,
stocking up
and then leaving a few days later to spread the word to the
world that
there was indeed a vaccine, and they could indeed get it.
They even had an impressive defense system, and arsenal of
weapons
protecting them and the precious vaccine they were
continually
manufacturing.
Phoenix had truly been as good a place as any to house the rebuilding
of
the modern world. As they knew it, anyway. Like the phoenix, from
the
ashes, they too, were rising again.
Scully drifted to the bedside and sat down, the weight shift causing
Mulder
to list a bit toward her. He let gravity roll him the rest of the
way until
he hip was pressed to her back.
She smiled at him and then looked back at the window, squinting a bit
as
the sun streamed into the room.
Mulder caught a hint of something amiss, and stroked her shoulder.
"What is it?" He asked without pretense.
She swallowed once and then turned to him, looking him squarely in the eye.
"Invictus is gone," she said matter-of-factly.
"What? What do you mean gone?" He asked, sitting up a bit, and propping
his
head up onto his hand.
Scully shrugged. "He left."
"Where did he go?"
"I don't know, Mulder," she said softly, "maybe the same place he
came
from."
Mulder reached up and fingered the small cross Scully still
miraculously
wore around her neck.
"Maybe he did just that," he answered.
Scully grabbed his hand and held it, smiling down at him. She stood
and
pulled on it to heave him up, but he easily pulled her back down and
onto
the bed with him.
"Come on Mulder," she said, finally relenting and leaning back against
him,
"you told Cass we'd be right there."
He tilted her chin up toward him and stole a long, smoky kiss.
"So, they'll understand," he said, kissing his way down her neck,
"we're
doing this for the good of mankind."
"Hmm?" Scully inquired absently, enjoying the sensation too much at
that
point to put up much of an argument. "How's that?"
"We're procreating," he mumbled into her shoulder.
She chuckled into the hair that had fallen into her face and reveled in
the
feel of his cleanly shaven face running along her skin.
He lifted his head then and leaned into her, nose to nose, talking in
a
pillow whisper.
"I've seen too many miracles to discount them altogether, Scully."
With that, she couldn't disagree.
END CHAPTER