Chapter 3
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"Cody! I'm glad that you could make it, sorry I had to make you fly red-eyed over here." Mulder said as the two men shook hands. "It's no problem, the nearer I got, the more excited I got about the possibility of finding something like this, then we can finally thumb it in their faces, eh?" He said as he clapped Mulder heartily on the back, Scully merely shook her head at them.
"This is… extraordinary! The snake that shed this must be in excess of fifty feet!" Cody said excitedly as he looked over the skin. "Okay, based on your professional opinion, would a snake this size be capable of swallowing a human?" "Little lady, a snake this size is capable of swallowing a fully grown bull. They will also eat monkeys that are unfortunate enough to slip from the trees above, so I don't understand why a human would be a huge step; especially if the snake has learned how to compress the width of the shoulders with its constricting strength." Cody said. "So you're saying that snakes can exhibit learning ability?" Scully asked. "How do you think they learn to survive in the first place, there isn't a mother to teach them the ropes like most mammals have." He replied. "You studied Herpetology somewhere, didn't you?" Scully asked abruptly. "Yeah, why does it show?" He said with a sheepish laugh. "Come, agents' daylight is burning!" Jaci called to them. "Well, lets get it on." Cody said eagerly as they trotted to join her.
"Mulder, you really owe me big time for this." Scully said over her shoulder as she mopped her face with a sodden handkerchief. "Why, you're telling me that this isn't one of the most exhilarating things you've ever been involved in? We might be on the verge of discovering an evolutionary anomaly!" He said excitedly. "Don't waste your energy, Cody. Scully's idea of exhilaration is taking a nice long bath with a bottle of wine within arms' reach." Mulder said as he gave Scully one of his heart-melting boyish grins, she playfully cocked him with her handkerchief. "Shut up, Mulder." She said.
Suddenly, the caravan of people came to a sudden stop at Cody's request. "It must have rained last night, this bog is pretty swollen." "What do you mean 'must have' rained? Didn't you hear it? The wind was loud enough to wake the dead!" Scully interjected. "Naw, I don't hear much of anythingafter I crap out." Cody said sheepishly. As he turned his gaze back to the bog, his expression became serious once more. "I think that our best bet would be to tackle this as a group." He said. "Why?" Mulder asked reluctantly. "Because, then we'll be one entity & it'll be less likely we'll be attacked." He replied. "So you're saying that this snake could be in there?" Scully said as she eyed the bog. "Is there any way we could get around it?" Mulder asked. "Taking to the river is the only way, but that's worse then just wading through this." Jaci interjected."Okay all together now, let's go." Cody said.