THE X-FILES: ARICONTOUS

CHAPTER THREE-ENCOUNTER

SCULLY.

Around nine AM the next morning, I was awoken by the phone ringing.

I groggily reached onto the nightstand and picked up the receiver.

"Agent Scully," I said, as I sat up.

"Agent Scully? It's Sheriff Anderson. There's been another attack," Sheriff Anderson's voice came on the line.

"Where?"

"About a half an hour from here," Sheriff Anderson said. "1093 Endlit Road. The old Harris residence."

"Okay. We'll be there," I said and hung up the phone.

I tossed off the covers. Lizzie was slowly stirring.

"Morning," I said, brightly to her.

"Morning," Lizzie said.

I helped her get dressed and then showered and changed into a navy suit. I rang Mulder's room and told him what happened. He quickly got dressed and we headed out to the car.

Lizzie was sitting in the backseat again.

"Hey, you like music?" Mulder asked as he glanced into the rear view mirror at Lizzie and then leaned forward to turn on the radio.

"Yaaay!" Lizzie cried happily.

A song came on the radio by Haley Duff, Hilary Duff's sister. The song was called "Girl in the Band".

I called Detective Brown and told her about Lizzie. She agreed that it might be best for Liz to stay with us for a while. She'd be safe until relatives could be called.

We arrived at the scene. Sheriff Anderson was waiting for us in front of the house. This time, we took Lizzie with us because Mulder was starting to feel guilty for leaving her in the car all the time like a dog. So, Lizzie took Mulder's hand and we walked over to Sheriff Anderson.

"Who's this cutie?" Sheriff Anderson asked, grinning at Lizzie.

Lizzie buried her face into Mulder's side. Lizzie seemed to be taken with us only. She didn't like meeting anyone else and was shy.

"Lizzie Walters. Her mother and brother were killed by this thing as well," I replied.

"Poor kid," Sheriff Anderson said sadly.

"Okay. Mary and George Harris were found in two spots. Mary was found in the bedroom while George was found near the dinning room," Sheriff Anderson explained.

"I'll stay with Lizzie while you go check the bodies out," I offered to Mulder.

Mulder handed me Lizzie's hand. Lizzie took my hand, but watched Mulder as he walked away. I crouched down in front of Lizzie.

She was dressed in denim overalls over a white tee shirt. Her hair was fluffed around her shoulders.

"Would you like to go for a walk?" I asked.

Lizzie nodded.

We began taking a walk. There was a large wooded area beside the Harris' home. Suddenly, I spied something on the ground. I crouched down beside it. Lizzie was next to me.

It was a large paw print. But it was the size that was incredible. It looked like the size of a bear's paw, but yet it looked like a cat's paw.

My God. The animal that made this would have to be over 200 pounds. I thought shocked.

I decided to go back and see if Mulder found anything unusual. I took Lizzie's hand and we walked back.

Mulder was walking toward us as we approached him. He looked pale.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"The damage done to Mary Harris was greater than what happened to George," Mulder said.

"In what way?" I asked.

Immediately, Lizzie rushed over to Mulder and took his hand.

"She was practically mauled and eaten," Mulder replied, swallowing.

My eyes widened.

"My God," I whispered. "Still no clues?"

Mulder shook his head.

"I found something," I said.

Mulder looked at me. "Where?"

"Follow me," I said.

He followed me out to the spot where I found the paw print.

I easily found it again and we crouched down beside it.

"Crap," Mulder muttered. "Whatever made this print had to be at least 200 pounds."

"That's exactly what I thought," I said. "Mulder, we've got to search for this thing. It's killed four people now."

"I agree," Mulder said.

We stood up and walked back to where the Sheriff was standing.

"Sheriff? We're going to have to search for this thing. Scully found a paw print near the wooded area. Judging from the size of it, it has to be over two hundred pounds," Mulder said.

Sheriff Anderson's eyes widened. "Oh my God. I can get a bunch of my officers. We can check this wooded area since that's where it seems to be attacking people by," Sheriff Anderson replied.

"That would be good," I said.

A few hours later, we had about 10 officers carrying large rifles. Mulder and I had our guns out. Poor Lizzie had to stay in the car with another female officer to keep an eye on her.

There were 10 flashlight beams cutting through the wooded area. It was about 9:00 PM.

Mulder and I kept together.

About ten minutes into the search, one of the officers yelled, "I found something!"

We jogged toward the sound of his voice. He was leaning over something dark lying on its side.

Mulder and I reached the officer and shone our flashlights onto the object. It was black and brown with tags around its neck.

"It's the Walters' dog," I breathed rapidly.

The dog had been attacked by something and was partially eaten. Mulder turned his face away, looking pale.

Just then, I heard Sheriff Anderson's radio crackle.

"Sheriff? I think you'd better get back to the car," the female officer's voice came over the radio terrified.

Sheriff Anderson put the radio close to his face.

"Mags? What's going on?" Sheriff Anderson demanded.

"Just get back here!"

We turned and hurried back to the car. Just as we hit the edge of the wooded area, Mulder threw his arm out across my chest to stop me from going any further. The officers stopped in their tracks as well.

The animal we were looking for was pouncing on the windshield of Mulder's Crown Victoria. It was huge and it was a orange/tan color. It was the cross between a tiger and a Sabre-toothed cat. It had black stripes along its body. The rest of it resembled a Sabretooth. The canines were 2 and ½ inches long and over lapped the bottom jaw. Its jaundice colored eyes were locked on the female officer and Lizzie huddled in the backseat of the car. Lizzie was crying hysterically. Mulder went to aim his gun onto the creature, but I put a hand on his arm.

"You could hit Lizzie and the officer," I said, slowly.

Just then, there was barking. We looked and saw a black and white Jack Russell terrier barking at the creature. It was jumping around wildly and barking. The creature jumped down off the car and turned its eyes onto the Jack Russell. It snarled. The Jack Russell began galloping away. The creature took off after it, chasing it into the wooded area.

Mulder and I lunged forward. We opened the back door. The female officer climbed out and was shaky.

"You okay, Maggie?" Sheriff Anderson asked, alarmed as he came over and put his arms around the officer.

Mulder reached into the car and picked Lizzie up in his arms. She was sobbing.

"It's okay," Mulder said, soothingly as he rubbed her back.

"What the hell was that?" Sheriff Anderson asked.

"The test animal," I said, dryly as I too, rubbed Lizzie's back trying to calm her down.

"I think we should go have a talk with Ollavan Zoo," Mulder replied sternly.

"I agree," Sheriff Anderson said.

We all climbed back into the Crown Vic and returned to the motel room. Lizzie would not let go of Mulder, so I had to drive. Lizzie was sitting across Mulder's lap with her head resting against his chest.

I shook my head and smiled.

"She certainly likes you," I said, grinning.

"I know," Mulder said, looking down at Lizzie. "Maybe I remind her of her father?"

"Could be," I said, as I stopped for a red light. "Or maybe you're just so irresistible to women."

Mulder grinned at my last words.

"Right. I have them hanging onto every part of my body,"

I glanced at him sideways and laughed.

"Not every part," I replied deadpan.

Mulder burst out laughing too.

The light turned green and I pressed the accelerator. We reached the motel and I shut off the engine. I pushed open my door and climbed out. Mulder did the same. We entered my room. Mulder sat Lizzie down on the bed. I plopped down on the chair and stretched.

Mulder sat down on the other chair.

"Some test animal," Mulder commented looking at me.

"I know! Was it me or did it resemble a Sabretooth cat?" I asked, shocked.

Mulder nodded. "It did. In fact, it looked like one, except the tiger markings,"

"But that's impossible! Sabretooth's existed over 80 million years ago!" I cried.

"I know. I don't know what else to think," Mulder replied.

"Tomorrow, we pay a visit to the Ollavan Zoo," I said, gravely.

Mulder nodded.

THE NEXT MORNING.

MULDER.

The next morning we tracked down the Ollavan Zoo's location. It was about an hour from the town. It looked well kept. Cages of lions, tigers, panthers and a leopard were in one section. In another, was a Reptile Hut where tons of reptiles, snakes and alligators were. They had a section called "Ocean Heaven" where crustaceans, sharks and other sea life were.

And another section marked "PRIVATE: NEW EXHIBITION COMING IN FOUR MONTHS".

Scully and I exchanged looks.

We managed to find the managers area and knocked on the door. It was a white trailer.

About 3 minutes later, a man answered it. It was dressed in jeans and a red shirt. He had blond hair and blue eyes.

"Can I help you?" he asked, looking from Scully to me and to Lizzie.

"My name is Fox Mulder and this is Dana Scully. We're with the FBI. Can we ask you some questions?" I asked as Scully and I showed our FBI ID and badges.

"Sure. What about?" the man asked, as he held the door open so we could enter the trailer.

We sat down. Lizzie was sitting on a chair. The man sat down on a stool.

"Your new exhibition," Scully replied.

"It's not due to open in four months," the man replied.

"We read. What type of animal are you planning to show?" I asked.

"A tiger. Why?" the man asked. "I'm Kevin Moss. Manager and Owner of Ollavan Zoo."

We nodded.

"Because apparently something escaped this zoo the other day," I replied, raising an eyebrow at Kevin.

"Oh right," Kevin replied, starting to look a little worried. "It's not dangerous."

"Not dangerous? It's killed four people plus a pet. And we got a glimpse of it," I replied.

Kevin was looking even paler.

"Are you testing animal DNA?" Scully asked. "Because it looked strangely like a cross between a tiger and a Saber-toothed cat."

Kevin swallowed.

"How'd you find out?" Kevin asked.

"One of your employees squealed that it was a test subject," I replied.

"What's going on?" Scully demanded.

Kevin sighed. "We were hoping to create an animal that no one has ever created,"

Scully and I looked at each other.

"Meaning?" Scully said, slowly.

"Meaning that we experimented using tiger DNA and Sabretooth DNA," Kevin said.

"But where would you get Sabretooth DNA? It's extinct," I said, shocked.

"We have a special person that deals with that," Kevin said, quietly.

"So you combined tiger DNA with Sabretooth? Do you realize how dangerous that is? It's killed four people and a pet! How'd it get out?" I asked.

"Five actually. The maintenance guy was cleaning near the cage and accidentally hit the lock. It opened up and it killed him before escaping," Kevin replied.

"How do we stop it?" Scully demanded.

"There's one more thing…it had impenetrable skin," Kevin continued.

"Why?"

"Because we also added the DNA of an alligator. The bite pressure is that 100 times greater than a Pit Bull," Kevin said.

Once again, Scully and I looked at each other.

Shaking my head angrily, I stood up and took Lizzie's hand.

"We'll be back," Scully said, angrily.

We left the trailer and headed back to the car.

"He's in big trouble," Scully said, angrily.

"What's more, he's subjecting people to danger! That thing got out! Why didn't he have a more secure lock on that cage?" I demanded angrily as Scully and I faced each other. Lizzie was looking from me to Scully.

"The point is he was doing something illegal," Scully continued. "And he wasn't very clear on the so called 'help' he got the Sabretooth DNA from."

"Scully, he was messing with Mother Nature! That thing should've never been created!" I argued back.

"Stop fighting!" Lizzie cried suddenly.

Scully and I fell silent.

"We're sorry," Scully apologized.

"Yeah," I said, smiling at Lizzie.

"Let's head back to the Sheriff's to tell him what we found out and we've got to come up with a plan to stop that animal from killing again," Scully said.

I nodded.

We climbed back into the car and headed back to the Sheriff's office.

We told Sheriff Anderson what we found out. He agreed too that we've got to find a way to destroy that animal and a way to penatrate the skin.

We thought about darts, but then realized the darts wouldn't be able to go through the tough skin if it also had alligator DNA mixed with the tiger and Sabretooth DNA. Scully and I also decided to go to the museum to find out more about Sabretooth behavior. There was a museum about an hour away. We took Lizzie with us and headed to the museum. We pulled up in front of it and pushed open our doors. We climbed out and then closed them.