Chapter three
Mulder and Scully walked a little bit further into the main hall.
"You would think Herbert would have left the lights on, it's a bit dark," Mulder commented.
"Well, there is some light, and we have a couple of hours until complete darkness," Scully said looking at her watch.
They came to the middle and saw two halls, one to the left and one to the right.
"So which way should we start?" Mulder asked.
"You mean you really want to search the whole school?" Scully asked, trying to keep the whine out of her voice.
"Well, yeah, no one has gotten to, so I thought why not make the best of it," Mulder said, looking up and down the halls.
"Well, if we were going to be here after dark, I should have brought the flashlights," Scully said.
"Why didn't you anyway," Mulder asked.
"I thought we were just going for a quick run through," she admitted.
"Well, we can go back to the car," Mulder said heading back to the front doors.
He pushed on the doors, but they wouldn't budge.
"They're locked," he said.
"Well, try one of the millions of keys Vick just gave you," she said.
Mulder looked at them, then frowned, "Well I would, if these were real keys," he said frustrated.
"What do you mean?" Scully asked taking the keys from him.
She looked at them and saw that the keys were all cut the same.
"I mean a lot of keys for the same door, probably one that doesn't exist," Mulder said annoyed, "So I guess Herb didn't really want to help us," he groaned.
"Well what do we do, we need to find Vick to open the door," Scully said.
"Vick locked the doors, how much do you want to bet he was in on it," Mulder said, "Or we could still try to look around, Herbert had to have forgotten to tell Vick to lock some of the rooms, and then well go on from there." Mulder said walking back to the middle of the hall.
Scully reluctantly followed, "Mulder, I really think we should just go and find Vick, whether he's involved or not."
"Later, I'm pretty sure we'll run into to him while we search," Mulder said, "So again, which way?"
Scully only looked at him.
"Come on Scully where's your sense of adventure?" he coaxed.
"I have one, I just like the adventure when I've come prepared," she said then rolled her eyes at his frown, "Fine, Mulder, we can look around, but if we find something that tries to kill us, I will kill you," she relented.
"Oh, like…Shannon's monsters?" Mulder lightly teased.
"Shut up, I don't believe that," she said irritated, then became a bit nervous, "But I also don't believe that she didn't see something either," Scully said the unease back in her voice.
"Don't worry, Scully, you have your gun, I have mine, we should be fine," Mulder said.
She only nodded and then he and she jumped about a foot in the air when a piercing scream permeated the air.
They both looked around for the source but the halls echoed so badly it was difficult to pinpoint.
"What the hell was that?!" Scully said nearly hysterical.
"I have no idea, but you know that sense of adventure I was having, I think it left," Mulder said nervously, trying to keep calm for the both of them.
"Was it even human?" Scully asked calming a bit.
"I don't know, but they sounded like they were in a lot of pain," Mulder said.
"I really want to leave," Scully said.
"I know, but we need to find out who that was, they might need our help, and it might be Kenny," Mulder said finally calm.
Mentioning Kenny seemed to make Scully more determined.
"You're right, we have to, so should we start down the left corridor," she asked.
"Yeah, come on," Mulder said and led the way.
There was a bunch of lockers and a few rooms and a main door at the end of the hall. They tried the main door first, but it was locked.
"Should we keep the keys?" Mulder said grumpily.
"No, so I guess we should try one of the other doors," Scully said.
Scully and Mulder walked back down the hallway. The first door to the right was locked, and then the third, finally the next door was opened.
They walked into a room that appeared to be just a lounge. They looked through it and saw that some kids had left their book bags and other things, but found nothing important.
"Okay that room was a dud and Kenny wasn't in there, I really don't think we're going to find anything interesting," Scully said when they were back in the main hall.
"This is getting frustrating, most of the rooms seem locked, and nothing seems useful," Mulder said looking around the hall, "But I'm bothered by the fact of how did Vick get out then?"
Scully looked around the hall, "Well I assume Vick does have the real keys, so I'm guessing that's how he's getting around, but why keep us locked in the main building," she said.
"I have no idea, but we're not done looking," Mulder said moving on to the next door. It opened.
It was a girl's bathroom. It looked a bit worn and unkempt for a school.
"I don't think Vick has been doing his job," Mulder said looking around.
Scully looked in the stalls, but found nothing of interest or use.
Mulder however was looking at a flier on the wall.
"Hey Scully," he said.
She came over to him. He pointed at the poster.
"THEY ARE AMONG US!" it said and had a picture of a UFO above a house with a tractor beam aimed on it. It was advertising a meeting for students that believed in the existence of aliens and wanted to discuss it more.
Scully also noted all the vulgar comments written on it calling the idea 'insane' or making fun of it and the people 'stupid' enough to even consider it.
"Yeah, well, be lucky we don't put up posters like this at the F.B.I., I think we'd get the same reaction." Scully remarked.
"Yeah, but most of the comments would be aimed at me," Mulder said, "High school and the F.B.I. have too much in common these days," he said incredulously.
Scully shook her head, amused, "Come on Spooky, let's keep looking around," Scully said.
He glared at her, "And the pretty girl picks on me too, I feel like I am back in high school," he said but smiled.
She rolled her eyes and continued her search. She came to stand under a vent. She noticed that something seemed strange about it.
"It looks like someone has removed it and then put it back on," Scully said pointing at the vent cover.
Mulder examined it, "It has, but why, I doubt students are allowed to go through there," he said then frowned, "But it's screwed in place and I just happened to leave my tool kit in the car," Mulder said looking around for another way to open it.
"Maybe we should keep moving then," Scully said.
They went back into the hall and walked into the next room. It was the boy's bathroom.
The bathroom's lights were dimmed and some were broken. Mulder and Scully entered and looked around.
"Well at least we know the vent doesn't lead here," Scully said, pointing to another vent that was opposite the wall.
Mulder pushed open a stall and then covered his nose
"Good god, what died in here?" Mulder said through his hand.
It took a moment, but then Scully got a whiff of it too. She covered her nose, but had looked at the walls and saw that it seemed to have become darker, but she couldn't really tell.
She motioned for Mulder to look. He did, but couldn't stand the smell.
They both rushed out.
They stood in the hall, thankful the smell didn't travel.
"Vick really doesn't do much around here, I wonder what he gets paid for," Scully said irritated.
"To screw with F.B.I. agents," Mulder said dryly.
Scully looked at Mulder with a bit of unease, "I don't know if I was imagining things, but you saw the wall right, did it look like the room had suddenly got a lot darker then it really should have been?" Scully said hesitantly.
"It did, but I think it's just our eyes, still adjusting to the dark and the school is a bit dim," he offered but his voice held the same tone of doubt as Scully's voice did.
They looked at the door, and decided it was best to stay out of the boy's bathroom altogether.
Mulder and Scully walked down to the other side of the hall. All they found were some more lockers and locked doors, and a student lounge.
They ended back in the middle of the main hall, contemplating their next move.
All the while, they still heard screams and moans, but the sounds seemed to be coming from a far distance. They weren't too worried for the moment.
"I don't know Mulder, everything is locked on this floor, and we can't get out, so what are we supposed to do?" Scully said now sounding fearful.
"I guess we should try upstairs," Mulder said indicating the stairwell before them.
They started up the stairs, but stopped when they heard someone running around the floor above them. They both looked at each other.
"Do you think it's Vick?" Mulder asked.
She shrugged, "I don't know, but really I don't think I want to find out,"
"Well, we don't have much of a choice, we need to go upstairs," he said, but didn't sound too thrilled about the idea anymore.
"Well, you go first, you wanted to explore," she said.
"Yeah, but you brought the x-file, so really you are the lead investigator," Mulder tried.
"Get going," Scully said and pushed Mulder to continue upwards.
He nodded grimly and headed up to the second floor.
On the second floor landing there were rooms to the left and the right and another stairwell going up another floor.
"You pick this time," Scully said.
"Well, we went left first, let's see what's to the right," Mulder said and led Scully.
Again, more locked doors.
"This door has glass, maybe I can break it," Mulder said.
"That's vandalism," Scully said appalled, "How will you explain that to Skinner,"
"Don't worry, he and I have an understanding now," Mulder said still studying the door.
She looked at him surprised, "Oh? And what's that?"
"He understands that I tend to break things, and he has to pay for them," Mulder said taking off his jacket to wrap around his hand, "Scully stand back."
Scully moved to the side and Mulder broke through the glass and opened the door.
They walked in and it was a classroom. They looked through the room and saw that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Scully was looking through the teacher's desk when Mulder called to her from where he was looking at the bookshelves.
"Yeah," she said.
"I found a screwdriver, you remember that vent?" Mulder said holding up the tool.
"Well, let's finish up this floor then go and check it out," Scully said and they headed out of the room.
As soon as they were outside the door, the floor began to shake violently and loud banging noises could be heard.
"Mulder, what is that?" Scully said alarmed and clung to his arm.
"I have no idea, but it does not sound like a good thing, come on let's just keep moving," he said trying to keep calm, for her and his sake.
On the right side were just locked doors, so decided to head back down the girl's bathroom.
"Okay, so should I lift you, or do you want to lift me," Mulder quipped.
"I don't think this is the right time to be making jokes," she said dryly and took the screwdriver from him.
He clasped his hands to give her footing and she reached up and undid the screws. The vent came off.
"Mulder, I can see through and I think it goes into another room," Scully said.
"Well, you have to go it alone, I can't hoist myself up there, it's too small," Mulder said.
She looked at him alarmed, "Me, alone, with all the weird things happening," she said stepping down.
"Well, either that or we stay in this locked part of the school all night," Mulder said.
"Let's just call someone," she said.
"We don't get reception out here, I don't know why," he said, "I checked as soon as we came, the reception just died, and I think it's affecting your phone too," Mulder said.
Scully took out her cell phone and saw that he was right.
"But why, we got reception in town?" she asked bewildered.
"Yeah, I know, it only happened when we came on campus, something must be knocking out the signal," he said.
"I don't know Mulder, I don't think we should get separated, I don't know where the other side might lead, what if I don't get back to you," she said, "Or…"
"Shannon's monsters might be real and get you," he finished but concern in his voice this time.
She looked at him pained. She didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to become fearful of the idea.
"Don't worry, remember you have your gun, you'll be fine," he said.
She nodded. He clasped his hands again and she climbed up and went through the vent.