Gildan's Note: I told you guys I would not be abandoning this story! I have just been very busy and admittedly distracted, but now I hope to continue writing this and finish it quicker.
Chapter Two: Area Fifty Done
Krycek woke up to the sunlight fighting its way into the room through closed blinds. He looked around the room and yawned, falling back into the pillows. He hadn't slept in what felt like days, and he had no idea what time it was, but he felt well rested. He closed his eyes again, if Mulder wanted to wake up naturally, he wasn't going to complain.
He buried his face under the pillows, the cologne had worn off hours earlier, and now Krycek was just seeking an escape from the rising sun. He drifted off to sleep again, falling into a nightmare in which some supposed stranger began to suffocate him with his pillow.
"KRYCEK!" yelled Mulder, shaking him awake.
Krycek woke up with a start, breathing rapidly. "W-what?" He looked around confusedly, grabbing Mulder's wrist with his hand. His arm was shaking.
"Get off me." Mulder said. "You were freaking out – you having bad dreams, Krycek?"
Krycek let go of Mulder's wrist, coming back to reality. "Are there any other kind?"
"Well, get up and get dressed, we're heading out."
"What I don't have time to shower?" asked Krycek bitterly.
Mulder grabbed the room key. "No – we literally have five minutes to get out of here or else they're going to charge me for today."
Krycek rolled his eyes and got up. He grabbed his jacket and slipped his shoes on, following Mulder out of the room. He stood by the car as Mulder went to return the key and pay. The snow had iced up overnight, leaving the parking lot a danger zone.
"Okay let's go." Said Mulder, unlocking the car.
"Just be careful because the parking lot is-
"If you end this with car statistics I'm going to leave you here." Mulder said, getting into the driver's seat.
Krycek didn't say anything, and as he got in the car he found his mind was stuck on the fact that Mulder had referenced a brief conversation that happened years ago. Mulder put the car into reverse and pushed on the gas and they sped out of the parking lot and into the street at what felt like warp speed. They both screamed.
Krycek looked around the street, "HOLY SHIT. You're lucky no one was coming…You almost just killed us! I TOLD YOU –
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?" Mulder yelled back. "We're fine, okay?" But his breathing was heavy and he took a moment to get back into drive. Krycek didn't say anything, but closed his eyes and tried not to think about how Mulder almost just killed them both with his stubbornness.
They drove for a few hours and stopped at a rest stop in North Carolina.
"I'm going to the bathroom." Said Mulder. "Do you have to go?"
"Yeah." Krycek replied.
The two walked into the rest stop bathroom, it was hot and humid in North Carolina that day.
"How is it hot today when there was literally snow in Virginia yesterday?" asked Krycek.
"That's this spring for ya." Said Mulder.
By the time Krycek had left his stall, Mulder was gone from the bathroom. Panic swept through him at the sudden idea that he might have been ditched. He exited the bathroom at a quick pace, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Mulder at a snack machine. He walked over.
"There you are." Said Mulder, giving the machine a punch. "I want my damn bugles."
"Here I'll just stick my arm up there for you."
Mulder looked at Krycek. "Really?"
Krycek raised an eyebrow.
"No I mean, we could totally put your fake arm up into this machine."
"We're not using my prosthetic to get you a bag of chips." Said Krycek, annoyed.
"They're not chips."
"NO."
Mulder crunched happily in the car, one hand on the wheel and one hand in the bag of bugles. Krycek stared angrily at Mulder.
"Do you want one?" asked Mulder, shoving a bugle into Krycek's face.
Krycek snatched it out of his hand. "Please focus on the road."
"Don't worry Alex, next time I'll buy a big bag in the rest stop convenient store." Said Mulder, smiling.
"I didn't know we were on a first name basis." Said Krycek.
"I'm just messing with you. Maybe you want me to buy something for you at the gift shop instead."
"Gift shop?"
"Yeah, our first stop is coming up."
Mulder took the next exit and they ended up on the back roads of North Carolina. Mulder opened the windows to let in the fresh air, and the sound of the dirt hitting the tires beneath them was clear as they slowed down. Mulder pulled into what looked like your average tourist trap, except it was, naturally, alien themed.
"What the hell is this?" asked Krycek as they parked.
"I'm on a personal mission, and this is my first stop. I'm going inside; feel free to stay in the car if you want. I'll crack the window and handcuff you to the steering wheel, like old times."
Krycek sighed and opened the car door. He gave Mulder an annoyed look and shut the door. Mulder gave a sly smile and walked up the steps into the roadside attraction. Krycek looked around for a sign, and found it. This place was called Area Fifty Done with a subtitle that read "Because we're DONE with the lies." Krycek put his hand to his face and laughed. This was ridiculous.
The air was warm outside, and inside it wasn't much cooler. There was a small fan by what looked to be the store's owner, an old woman and a slightly younger man, presumably her son. They looked like one would imagine two "believers" would look, with the son looking as though he gave up on himself once he reached 40. Or maybe he was too busy with his work finding the truth. Krycek wondered if Mulder would ever end up like that, in a place like this. But that was thinking too positive. No, Mulder was more likely to end up dead somewhere. And so was he.
The shack was small but cluttered, and Krycek had a hard time finding Mulder until he smacked right into him as he rounded a corner.
"Woah! You're gonna make me drop my snow globe." Mulder laughed.
"Ow…sorry. What?"
"This." Said Mulder, holding up an alien themed snow globe.
"You're buying that?"
"Nah – I think I'm just gonna get these lil figures, Scully would want one."
"What does this have to do with your mission?"
"Oh that, I already got what I needed for that." Mulder brushed by him and went up the register, where he paid for the little aliens.
"Yeah man – like I was saying, just keep your eyes in the sky tonight." Said the male clerk, whose name appeared to be Dale.
"Thanks." Said Mulder, and he and Krycek left the store.
"Where are we going now?" asked Krycek, the sun was starting to set at this point.
"To a hill." Mulder got in the car.
"A hill?"
"Yeah. There's going to be some activity in the skies tonight."
"What kind of activity?" asked Krycek, buckling himself in.
"Activity of the extraterrestrial persuasion."
"We're going UFO hunting?"
"I'm going, what about you? Are you ready to leave yet?" asked Mulder, driving out of the small parking lot.
"No. Not yet."
"Then we're going UFO hunting."
When they had reached the hill's summit, Mulder parked the car. He got out and surveyed the landscape before them. It was dark by now, and the moon was bright.
"When are the aliens supposed to show up?" Krycek asked, sitting on the hood of the car.
"I'm not sure. Soon?" Mulder joined him.
They sat in silence for a while and observed the skies. Krycek thought about the events that had led him here. The train…how he was almost captured…he wondered if they were still coming after him. He closed his eyes, he was still tired. He wondered how long Mulder would let him tag along. Maybe until the mission becomes too important. He was curious as to what Mulder's mission even was, it must be top secret. The places they had been and were had certainly been strange.
Krycek felt himself drifting off to sleep, there was a slight cool breeze and he was warm enough in his jacket. Suddenly, Mulder cried out.
"LOOK!"
Krycek jumped up, startled. He looked ahead where Mulder was pointing. Up in the sky were a bunch of bright lights.
"Couldn't that just be a plane?" asked Krycek.
"No way." Said Mulder. "It's them."
"Okay, please don't say 'It's them', that sounds really cryptic."
"Well, it's THEM."
The lights were followed by a blaring noise. Krycek's stomach dropped. What if it was aliens? What if this was truly it? The lights seemed to be drawing closer.
"WE HAVE TO GO." Shouted Krycek above the noise.
"WHAT?" cried Mulder.
"WE NEED TO GO." Krycek repeated.
"NO." Mulder replied, keeping his focus on the nearing lights.
The lights and noise had become incredibly overbearing, and whatever was in the sky was now directly above their car. Krycek could barely see from the brightness, and he grabbed onto Mulder's arm out of a sudden fear of being lifted into the sky. The wind had picked up because of the descending ship, and it almost blew them off the car. Even Mulder grabbed onto Krycek.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Krycek screamed.
"I DON'T KNOW."
The noise had become too much, and there was a sudden pain in their heads. They both let out screams of agony. After what felt like too long and not long at all, it stopped. And whatever it was in the sky had vanished. They fell off the car, too stunned and freaked out to move.
Mulder lifted his arm to look at his watch. He breathed heavily, they had lost 9 minutes. He had been close. Why didn't they take him?
"Holy shit." Krycek breathed. "Oh my God. Was that for real?"
"Yes." Said Mulder, getting up.
"How did that guy know they would be here?"
"Sometimes they follow patterns. He knows their patterns around here."
"This is…oh God. My head hurts." Krycek winced in agony.
"Well, get up. We'll go get a hotel room. It's late anyway." Said Mulder, still checking out his watch. "We lost 9 minutes."
"What does that mean?" asked Krycek, getting into the car.
"It means this was for real." Mulder replied, starting the car and making a U-turn down the hill.
They drove almost in silence. The only sound came from both the rapid, terrified breathing of both men. Although Mulder was more thrilled then terrified. Krycek could hardly think straight, he had known that there were a lot of conspiracies that were true, but he never fully believed in the actual existence of aliens, and even back when he was infected with…whatever that was. He wondered if this is how Scully felt. So close to the truth yet unwilling to accept it the next time it shows up.
At the motel, Mulder was able to get them a room with double beds. The interior was a typical motel room, comfortable enough, but also a little sketchy. Mulder pulled off his shirt, a white tank underneath, and began to undo his belt.
"I guess you don't have any other clothes." He said, looking over at Krycek.
"No, I don't."
"Well here, you can borrow some of mine, but you're on your own for underwear."
"I'll be fine on that front, thanks." Said Krycek, taking off his shirt in one swift motion.
"You're pretty good at doing that one handed."
"I have to be, don't I?" replied Krycek bitterly.
"Don't act like you didn't get yourself in that situation." Said Mulder casually, taking off his pants and hopping into his bed. He turned off the light.
Krycek stood in the dark for a moment. "I know what happened." He said, and then walked to the bathroom. Inside, he checked in the mirror to see what Mulder could see, the place where his prosthetic met his shoulder. He tried not to think about that night. He gave a deep breath and took off his pants to go to bed. He was definitely going to need some new clothes, but he didn't know how he felt about borrowing Mulder's.
He walked out of the bathroom, turning off the light. The room had that blue tint a lot of motel rooms have, from the neon sign or store across the way. Lights traveled across the room as cars sped by; there was peacefulness to this. Krycek stood there for a moment, trying to remember life in this strange moment…how quickly it could all change.
He climbed into his bed, but found getting comfortable difficult. He tossed and turned, until he heard an annoying groan from five feet away.
"Krycek what are you doing." Mulder muttered.
"I can't get comfortable."
"Again?"
"Sorry I just don't sleep well."
"You're safe here."
Krycek didn't respond right away, but when he did, he asked, "Am I?"
"Yes, for the love of God, yes, now go to sleep. Nothing's going to happen to you in the middle of the night." Mulder said, burying his head under a pillow.
Krycek sighed, closed his eyes, and found it was easier to sleep. It was his second night with Mulder, and he imagined it would be his second best night of sleep.