PART FIVE

The western rim of the former Fowler Estate sped by underneath Mulder as he and Skinner searched the area for Agent Dana Scully. The military copter was carrying them at a height of 100 to 200 feet over the environs below and then within view of the old Fowler Estate, now a deserted and largely abandoned reputed haunted house since the details of the supposed heart attack of Nancy Archer in 1958. Mulder was sure he knew the truth. She possibly was living proof of a long history of extra-terrestrial visits happening on for over five hundred years on the planet. After all, there was no earthly way for an attractive thirty-eight year old woman such as Nancy Archer to grow to fifty feet tall. Even if her gigantic existence could be covered up by the government to protect a seemingly unprepared general public, there were the word of mouth stories and tales passed from father to son and mother to daughter. These tales could be exaggerated over several years, but the original version of the tale was certainly there.

"A few more minutes," Skinner studied a local map on the seat. "And we'll be getting closer to Fairvale. There's a swamp out there where a large body could submerge to conceal itself."

"Submerging a large body would displace a tremendous amount of water." Mulder spoke as loud as he could under the loud reverberation of the helicopter engine and blades. "Force a lot of overflow into creeks, streams and sewer systems along with a fair amount of flooding." He looked back out the small window as trees raced by under him. Light reflected skyward from a creek down under him. "Maybe if we circle round to…"

"Sir…" The pilot spoke though the intercom. "What do you think would do that?"

Skinner and Mulder looked out the starboard side of the craft together. Down below them was a neat and orderly row of electrical lines crossing alongside the highway below, but then they came across a break in the line and two adjoining wood posts snapped off close to the ground. Down below them, the snapped power line was cracking and snapping against the asphalt road. The pole tips with their support beams and transformers were laying haphazardly on the ground as so much trash. It looked as if a massive presence had broken through a simple fence.

"Judging from the direction from the motel," Mulder checked the map of Hitchcock. "I think we should hang east toward the San Bernardino Mountains. There are a lot of large ravines and gullies and even mountain lakes for someone to hide for a long time."

"Follow the creek below us…" Skinner told the pilot. "It has a clearing through the tress for a large presence to maneuver through. We could make the…" The craft around them suddenly jarred forward and back hard as if it had snagged on one of the coniferous trees dotting below their line of sight. The pilot grabbed the stick hard to try and stay level while Mulder and Skinner thrashed from side to side. Skinner's glasses flung from his head, but his ears heard the copter blades scraping mountainside and earth and then bending and snapping off the wing mast. Everything tilted back and left for them and shook furiously from the storm of vibrations tearing through the helicopter. The engines coughed out from the stress to it. Mulder grabbed a hand brace and pulled himself up to look out and see what they had hit. He saw the ground deep below them, open air and then darkness after a flash of almost white surroundings. The repercussions caused the pilot to fly out through the front windows by sheer force. It was almost as if they were being shaken like a kid's toy.

"Stop…. Looking for me!!" Scully's voice emanated from somewhere as if it was coming through a vast loudspeaker. Skinner lifted himself up to look up over the seats of the cockpit forward through the front of the copter. First he thought he was seeing a billboard with a six to seven foot wide face on it, but upon replacing his glasses, it became more dimensional and even more incredibly detail and sculpted. He didn't know what to say. As a normal woman, Scully was a beautiful woman, but increased twenty to thirty more times, she appeared godly, almost immortal, practically worthy of worship.

"Scully…" Mulder tried to stand in the confined passenger compartment and called out to her. "We can help you! Return you to normal!"

"I'm not going back!" Steam from her mighty lungs filled the ravaged craft and turned it into a sweatbox. "I'm STAYING this way! I like it!!" Her eyes flared a bit. Her irises contacted noticeably toward them.

"Agent Scully!" Skinner cried out himself. "You are not thinking rationally! Whatever has happened has affected your mind! You can't possibly…" Her face vanished as the disabled craft tilted backward and dumped the two agents on their backs into the back wall. From one window was complete darkness while sunlight came from the other window. The helicopter was being held upright by its tail. Mulder and Skinner together slammed against one wall hard atop each other and then flung back against the other side hard again. Hitting the starboard side once more, Skinner knocked the side hatch open and struck what first seemed to be the side of the cliff before plummeting thirty feet to the ground. Mulder lifted his gaze up and realized it was his partner's bare abdomen, now more than twenty feet wide and filling the complete opening with a three foot wide hole in the middle of her abdominal region that was her navel. It was his complete view of the extremity of her new size for a brief few seconds before he saw open sky whirling over him and the crash of the helicopter hitting water. He had been hurled into a lake! Water rushed up through the cockpit fast and unmercilessly while he hastened to escape his metal tomb. The side of the copter rolled under the surface of the water and began sinking with him in it.

Mulder's head flung himself awake again. Blinking his eyes several times, he turned his head scowling toward Skinner studying the map of rural Hitchcock and rubbed his head. Skinner looked to him with a parental look and looked him over.

"Mulder," He spoke calmly. "When was the last time you had a full seven hours of sleep?"

"Seven straight hours?"

"I guess that answers my question." Skinner glanced the map over again. "We'll be getting closer to Fairvale. Sheriff Spooner called the local state police and told them to keep an eye out for our agent."

"I think I saw something." Mulder had noticed trees moving and shaking. Several tree tips were shaking from the wind in the helicopter down thrust, but the thrashing he saw had been from something closer to the ground. It was almost as if something down below was forcing itself through the trees.

"Pilot, turn left ten degrees…" He requested. The craft turned and started heading toward the massive activity. A tree had toppled over in the turn and Mulder was struggling to see well. Skinner secured his safety line to keep from falling out and pulled the side-boarding hatch open to look down. As they cocked their eyes earthward, they looked the fifty feet down upon a massive orange earth-borer. It was clearing a plot of land. Construction men and a contractor reared their heads up to the helicopter above them. Sheriff Charlie Spooner even waved from the road as he stood watching the construction. Skinner's cell phone rang as he waved back with a friendly grin.

"There's a ravine over here." Mulder picked up the map. "I think that if we just…"

"Mulder," Skinner held up his phone. "It's for you."

"Who'd be calling me on your phone?" Mulder took his cell phone and pressed it to his ear. "Mulder, here…"

"Mulder, where the heck are you this time?!" The voice of Agent Dana Scully asked him point blank.