Chapter 5
Blinding Light
The zapping of lightning stayed behind them as they ran as fast as their feet could take them. The rain had gotten so strong that they could hardly see each other.
Scully heard Phoebe trip behind her and screamed for Mulder to stop.
"Come on!" Mulder urged as he pulled Phoebe up.
"Wait! Listen…" Scully said. The lightning had stopped.
Their chests were heaving from the run. Scully leaned against a tree. She could feel her heartbeat in her head.
"It stopped." Phoebe said, panting.
"What about Mark?" Scully asked. It hadn't quite registered what had just happened.
"They took him!" Phoebe exclaimed, panic in her voice.
"We have to keep moving… there is nothing we can do for him right now." Mulder said, and Scully knew that sadly, he was right.
They walked in silence, the rain pouring on their heads. The sound of Mark's ascending scream was scared in her mind. Her head was pounding.
It was Them. Aliens. She couldn't deny it to herself anymore. And though she didn't want to admit it to herself, she was afraid. Afraid that they would die here. Or worse, they would be taken and be experimented on. Scully realized, it had become a big phobia for her.
They walked for many hours. Phoebe ahead, Scully behind her, and Mulder keeping watch from the back. The anticipation she experienced earlier about telling him about the baby seemed childish compared to the danger they were now in. But now he knew. She wished more then anything that the situation would have been different and they were back home, out of this endless forest. And minus Phoebe Green, of course.
"God, it's freezing… Let's stop." Phoebe proposed.
"We'll freeze worse if we stop." Scully said, despite the tiredness she felt. They wouldn't be able to light a fire in this rain, so they had to keep moving to keep warm.
"Let's walk for another couple of hours. Then we'll stop to eat." Mulder said, and a silent agreement was made.
Some while later, Scully felt Mulder's arm around her shoulder. She looked at him, and he leaned down to give her a soft kiss on the cheek.
"I'm so happy for you." He said, and he was smiling, in spite of the shitty situation they were in.
He was cold and soaking wet, but just thinking about the fact that Scully, his Scully, would finally have what she's always wanted, made him warm inside, like after a strong alcoholic drink.
For a moment he forgot that we was walking in a forest in northern Russia, running away from perhaps one of the biggest dangers they have ever been in. Instead, he couldn't stop thinking of this unbelievable turn of events in Scully's life.
But it wasn't just her life. It was his too that was going to change… He would be a father.
At the back of his mind, he had the nagging realization that it was impossible that she was pregnant, and that the reason to why it happened might be frightening. But for an odd reason, it didn't bother him. He watched her walk in front of him, wet from head to toe… beautiful. The love he felt for her at that moment was overwhelming. He new they loved each other, and even though the reason wasn't necessarily romantic, he knew it was very real. It was more than love. Or at least he felt that the word was just not enough to describe what he felt at that moment.
He looked around. The lightning bolts that took away Mark haven't been heard in a while. The sun was setting, and it would soon be dark, and the rain had just stopped.
"Let's find a place to stop." He said, and the women stopped.
They set up the tent and started a fire.
"Do you think they know where we are?" Phoebe asked, eating beans from a can.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think they do. I don't see a reason to let us run away unless they actually lost us." Mulder said, but he was just guessing.
"What do you think they do with them?" She continued.
"Tests. Just more tests. What doesn't add up here though, is that no one here, in Russia, is doing anything about it. People have been disappearing, and if you didn't insist that we come, nothing would have been done."
"Are you suggesting that the government here might know about this?" Scully asked.
"I guess I am."
"Oh Fox, you and your conspiracy theories… you never give up on them." Phoebe said playfully, gently touching his arm.
Before, her flirtatious behavior didn't bother him. On the contrary, he saw it as kind of a way to get at Scully for being cold to him in the past while. Now, however, it came off as annoying.
He looked at Scully. She was sitting with a fork and a can of corn, eating. She looked so tired.
"I'll stay up first. You two get some sleep." Mulder said.
"But wake us up… don't stay up all night. You need your sleep too." Scully said. He smiled at her.
For the first few hours, everything was quiet. It wasn't raining and the fire was keeping him warm.
He wished that he'd been able to get a good look of the ship. There must have been a ship… something that was producing this high voltage electricity and zapping at them like lightning. That must have been what melted the metal on the car.
But the way that Mark had disappeared brought some chills to his spine. He was sucked upwards, in unbelievable speed. Mulder saw it from the corner of his eye. Why wasn't anyone looking for them?
And then he heard it. It was probably miles away, but the sound of the lightning was the same as they heard earlier that day. He could see the clouds lighten around the area where it was coming from.
Where there more people trapped in this forest? Or were they simply 'dropping' someone off?
He jumped to his feet, and started throwing sand at the fire. It would give them away.
Phoebe and Scully jumped out of the tent.
"Is it them again?" Phoebe asked frantically.
"Yes. Pack up the tent and lets start moving away from it." Mulder said.
"But we'd be going in the direction opposite to where we're headed. Derevo is that way." Scully said, pointing exactly towards where the lightning was coming down.
She was right.
"What should we do?" Phoebe asked.
"Shit. I don't know. Let's move away a little bit in case they can detect the smoke from the fire… and then we'll just wait it out." He said.
None of them were able to really fall asleep after that. They sat, leaning against a big rock, looking to the sky.
The clouds have moved away, and the stars where brighter then he'd ever seen them before.
He looked over at his partner and his old friend. Phoebe had fallen asleep. Scully ran a hand through her hair, staring at the stars.
"Hey." Mulder said quietly, getting her attention.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
"I'm fine."
"So… how far along are you."
He saw her smile in the darkness.
"About seven weeks.
He smiled too.
"Did you tell your mom?"
"Yeah. She was elated. I don't know why I waited to tell you about this." She said.
"It doesn't matter." He rubbed her shoulder, and she looked away.
"I'm scared, Mulder."
"Why?"
"Because, I don't understand this. My mom tells me to thank god for this and accept this as a miracle, but I can't do that. You know I can't. It's just so impossible…"
"I'm scared of the same things as you Scully." He admitted, and saw tears glistening in her eyes.
He knows that she hoped for him to tell her words of comfort. To say that there was nothing to be afraid of, and that they didn't have to worry about it.
But the truth was that he was scared just as she was. She was right, it was impossible. A barren woman can't be pregnant.
But Scully is.
"Hey, listen… it stopped." Scully said.
The lightning had stopped, very abruptly.
The silence proved to be more frightening than when they could hear it and know exactly where the ship was.
Scully and Mulder looked at each other. He had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Slowly, they started looking upwards. It was completely dark. Not one star could be seen.
In an instant, a blinding light shone right at them.
And silence.
"Oh my god…"
AN: There are 20 of you on the alert list for this story… so no reason for you guys not to leave me a word. Thank you!