Chapter five
Mulder and Scully recovered as much as they could and walked out of the attic. They were back in the main hall.
They stood in the hall for a moment.
Mulder looked at his partner. He was worried that she was possibly going into shock. Scully hadn't said anything much. She didn't seem to be connected to reality right now.
He knew that like himself, she was trying to make sense of what they just saw and of the possibility that there might be more and worse things then what they had just seen.
Mulder had seen some weird things while working in the X-files, but nothing this dark and horrifying. Nothing that he couldn't explain or at least to try to.
After realizing that they had been standing still quite awhile, Scully looked at Mulder curiously.
"What are we going to do?" she asked softly.
"Um…I guess head to the courtyard, and look for Herbert," Mulder said.
She only nodded.
"So when are you going to kill me?" he asked suddenly.
Scully looked at him confused.
"You said you would kill me if something tried to kill you, so I'm waiting," he said with a small smile.
Finally, she smiled, laughed a little, "Mulder, don't worry, I'm fine, I just don't know what to make of what's going on, it's hard to grasp for me," she said and sight, "I couldn't explain what I saw back there," she said honestly.
"Don't worry, I can't either, I just know that we need to get out of here," Mulder said.
"What about Kenny, and those other students, it's obvious that Friedman and that Denny Walden are up to something, Denny did seem to imply that Friedman had something to do with Kenny's disappearance," Scully said.
"You still want to keep looking?" he asked surprised.
"No, and yes, we need to find those students, if they are here, and if something is going on here, I want to find out," Scully said.
"All right, well, let's find Herbert, and hope we don't find anymore monsters, or the worse one's Denny talked about," Mulder said.
Scully nodded and they headed toward the door that led to the Courtyard.
The courtyard had many benches and light posts.
Mulder and Scully sat near the fountain in the middle. They said nothing for a moment.
"It's almost dark, Mulder," Scully said looking at the fading light from the ground.
"I know, but at least when the timers go off, I'm pretty sure that the lights will come on," Mulder said indicating the light posts.
"Glad for that, we'll have some safety," Scully said and took out her gun and checked her clip, "I don't know how much we'll need, I only have this full clip and one extra,"
"Yeah, me too, and still I can't get any reception; no one will be expecting us tonight," Mulder said checking his phone again, and taking out his gun.
"Well, we need to find Herbert, or Vick, so that they could open this school and we can get out of here, and then we could question them," Scully said.
"I think Herb was expecting this, I don't think he plans for us to make it through the night," Mulder said.
"Well, I refuse to just wait here for him to take us out," Scully said and stood up.
Mulder nodded, "Well where should we start, this school is pretty big,"
"Well let's start with…the classrooms maybe, make sure that there really is no one locked in with us," Scully suggested.
Mulder looked around the courtyard. It had many doors and branched out in four sections.
"It's really big, it's going to take a while to figure things out," he said.
"Yeah, well, let's just start, maybe the doors that are part of the main school will house the classrooms," Scully suggested.
They found the door to the classrooms in the south part of the school.
Mulder cautiously walked in with his gun in stance.
They crept quietly in.
Near a locker, a group of the monsters they had seen upstairs had gathered and seemed to be eating something.
The biters hadn't noticed them yet. They both just looked at each other, unsure of what to do, afraid of what they needed to do.
Mulder raised his gun and aimed. Scully followed suit. They killed the four biters.
"I really don't want to deal with this," Scully said walking over to the bodies.
Studying them, trying to figure out what there were, or once where, but she didn't let her mind wander there yet. She had no proof.
"I don't either, maybe we should just try and find a way out of here," Mulder said following her.
Scully looked closer at the things, "God, Mulder what were they, and how were they created?"
"I have no idea, but we need to keep moving; from the way Denny was talking, I'm sure there are more, and worse roaming the school," Mulder said looking around the hall.
"Yeah," she said.
They heard a loud bang and then a growl coming from down the hall.
"Let's deal with that later, I think I hear a noise coming from inside this classroom and it sounds a lot smaller then what's down the hall," Mulder said indicating the room next to them.
Scully nodded.
Mulder opened the door, readying for what ever may attack, but instead he saw a student working on the computer.
"Hey," Mulder said, but the boy didn't respond.
The student was wearing headphones; tuning out the world.
Scully and Mulder walked into the room.
Scully tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped.
"Whoa, sorry…," he started, but saw their guns.
Mulder and Scully holstered them for the moment.
"Sorry, we're F.B.I. agents, we're locked in," Mulder explained.
"Okay," he said slowly, still confused, "I'm Stan Jones," he said and stood.
"Agents, Mulder and Scully," Mulder said pointing out who was who.
"So what are you still doing here, your principal said that students left by five-thirty?" Scully said.
"Oh, crap," Stan said looking at his watch, "I was working on a project, I totally forgot,"
"No matter, the school has been locked down, like I said we're locked in," Mulder said.
Stan sighed, and then looked at them curiously, "So why did you have your guns out?"
"I'm supposing you haven't seen anything weird going on then?" Mulder asked.
"Nah, I've been here since three, never left," Stan said, and then looked at them suspiciously, "Why?" he asked.
"Well, you're coming with us now, so unfortunately, you'll see soon enough," Scully said, "Get your things lets go, we have to find Friedman so we can get out of here,"
Stan looked at her, still confused, but didn't argue or question anymore. He turned off the computer and got his bag.
They walked back into the hall. The banging noise came again with a louder growl.
"What the hell is that?" Stan asked.
"We don't know, but we're about to see," Mulder said taking out his gun.
Scully did the same.
They walked down the hall. They heard a rumbling from behind a wall. Mulder stopped Scully and Stan.
"Hey, Stan you got something useless I can throw," Mulder asked quietly.
"How about my Calculus book," Stan offered looking through his book bag.
Mulder smiled at Scully, "Ah, to be young again,"
She slightly smiled, "What are you thinking?"
"Just get ready to shoot; don't freeze on me, Scully," Mulder said and aimed the book towards the wall that the thing seemed to be behind.
Mulder threw it as hard as he could and was correct in his assumption.
Another monster burst through the wall. This one was much bigger then the little things they had dealt with. It looked like whatever body it had, became just one big arm with teeth.
Scully had already started shooting when it entered. It fell to the ground dead.
"Okay, so I wasn't expecting that," Mulder said stunned.
"I think I miss those little things," Scully said.
"Yeah, me too….hey where's Stan?" Mulder said looking around the hall.
Scully tore her gaze from the thing's body, looking around, "I don't know."
Mulder and Scully walked back to the room they had found Stan. Stan was standing near the back of the room, looking completely fearful.
"What was that?" he asked.
"We don't know, but we think that Herbert Friedman and Denny Walden might," Scully said.
"I just want to go home," Stan whined.
"Us too, but we can't get out. We need to find your principal. Where might his office be?" Mulder said.
"I know the school well enough, but actually I've never seen Principal Friedman's office," Stan said, "I've only been here a few weeks."
"Yeah, he wouldn't meet us there either," Mulder said, "Guess we have to search for it, and sorry, we should have warned you, but I didn't think they got that big," he apologized.
"I hope that is only how big they get," Stan said.
"Well, let's get back out there," Scully said.
"You wouldn't happen to have another gun on you, would you?" Stan asked.
"No, but just stick with us," Scully said kindly, "We can protect you,"
All three walked back into the hall and back towards the monster's body.
"These things are everywhere. I think we've been set up, because I'm pretty sure someone would have noticed these things before," Mulder said.
"I've never seen these things ever," Stan said.
"I wouldn't have thought you had," Scully said, "But I think you're right Mulder, Herbert knew that we were coming and now these things are running loose; he means to kill us," Scully said.
"We've gotten too close," Mulder said simply.
The three looked at the monster's body.
"Once we run out of ammo, we're done for," Scully said solemnly.
Mulder looked at his watch, "In about half an hour it will be dark, then from there we have about nine hours until daylight,"
"By then this school should be infested," Scully said.
"Yeah, but maybe these things will go underground by daylight; they don't like light remember," Mulder said.
"Nine hours is a long time for them to come up and wander," Stan said.
"We need portable light and ammunition," Scully said.
"Vick might have some flashlights," Stan said.
"Yeah, we need to find him, if those things haven't yet," Mulder said.
"Well, then let's be the first to find him," Scully said.
"Sure, but let's just check out this building first, make sure there are no more students, I would hate to leave someone else to find these things," Mulder suggested.
Stan and Scully nodded.
They looked through most of the downstairs classrooms, but no one seemed to be there, and luckily neither were there any more monsters.
"So what is the F.B.I. doing here?" Stan asked.
"We are looking into the disappearance of Kenny Matthews," Mulder answered.
"Finally the school's being searched. No one has looked here because of Mr. Friedman," Stan said.
"Yeah, we know, and now I don't know if was to protect people or his secret," Scully said looking into one of the rooms, "Hey, I found a Chemistry lab,"
"Come on Scully, you can play with the labs back at the bureau," Mulder said lightly looking through another room.
She glared at him, "I was thinking more like weaponry," she said.
"And what can you make, a bomb? Won't that kill us too?" Stan said.
"Ugh, if you're both gonna fight me, then you keep moving, I want to look in here," Scully said and walked into the room.
Stan and Mulder watched after her.
"Should we stay?" Stan said uncertainly.
"I haven't heard anything roaming around, let's just go and check out what's upstairs. She'll be fine," Mulder said.
They walked upstairs and found that the door to the hall had been locked with a heavy chain and padlock.
"Can you pick it?" Stan asked.
"No, I don't have the equipment. What about you," Mulder asked examining the lock.
"Nope, I can pick other kinds of locks, but this is heavy duty," Stan said.
"Yeah, well, let's get back to Scully, make sure she's all right, and maybe she found something," Mulder said.
They both walked back to the Chemistry lab.
They found Scully sitting at the teacher's desk reading a document.
"Hey. Anything?" Mulder asked her.
"Yeah, actually," she said and placed an old pistol with ammunition and flashlight on the desk.
"All right Scully," Mulder said, "But what would that be doing in a class room?" he asked confounded.
"Someone knows something, anyway, the flashlight is cheap," Scully said.
"Can I get a gun?" Stan asked.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
"Yes; you know how to use this one," Scully said handing Stan the old pistol.
"Yeah, my granddad shows me his old collection all the time," Stan said examining the gun.
"Just make sure you kill those things and not some person," Scully said.
"So what are you reading?" Mulder asked looking at the file in her hand.
"I really don't know, I found it in this teacher's desk," Scully said.
"Do you know whose class room this is?" Mulder asked to Stan.
"I don't know, I don't take Chem.," Stan said, "Although Mr. Walden does substitute it sometimes."
"Might be his, either way, it's weird, it's talking about some weird plant, here, listen; The Mortifilia comes in the form of ciphers. Classification appears difficult. This endemic plant allows microscopic buds to appear, which do not appear destined to form a new plant but to possibly generate other leaves (for closer examination). The parasites and spider-like appearance explain its capacity to propagate in an excessive manner. Hypothesis verified by the presence of an oversized sucker ensuring proliferation. Detailed examination of the buds: the bud shows a stupefying germinative power. Hundreds of lines at the neck confirm that the species has phenomenal longevity. Cutting the xylems: the ducts are completely dry, no trace of humidity. How are these chlorophyll cells irrigated?
The black substance released comes from glands located on the root; it is poisonous to its biological environment.
During a darkness - light - darkness sequence, variations in dioxygen concentration are observed, whether DCPIP is present or not. The plant is particularly sensitive to exposure: it fears the light! This plant transgresses the rules of phytology.
Molecular analyses show genetic associations that enable the Mortifilia to be defined as a non-recombinant isolate at the genetic level; this means that it does not have a sexual process for exchanging genetic material, but a parasexual one. I attempted to experiment during which a transient diploid node was formed. In this node, mitotic crossover was produced at low frequency. The diploid node then self-haploided through the loss of chromosomes using this system, two distinct species could exchange genetic material.
Conclusion:
It is certain that the Mortifilia possesses abnormal properties. Notwithstanding its incredible longevity, the plant is particularly receptive to crossbreeding. Research must be continued and the genotype of these cells must be examined in detail; and there are theses pictures, I really don't know what to make of it, I've never seen it or heard of it, this plant, that seems to fear light," Scully said baffled.
"Well, it exists, and someone is researching it, maybe it can explain what's going on with these things that are running loose, someone is crossbreeding it," Mulder said.
"Yes, but with what?" she asked.
"I don't really want to guess; we need to focus on our search, just keep the file," Mulder said looking through the file.
"All right, Stan can you keep it in your bag?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, sure," he said and emptied out his bag and put the file in it, "I guess I really won't be needing these notes now, what a waste," he said looking at the class notes.
"So what did you guys find?" Scully asked.
"Well nothing really, just a door that leads upstairs, but it's locked with a heavy duty padlock and chain," Mulder said.
"Well, in the corner over there, there is sulfuric acid, it should do the trick," Scully said.
"Oh," was all Mulder said.
He walked over and filled a beaker with the acid.
All three walked back up to the door. Mulder carefully poured it over the chain and they watched it burn through the metal.
"Well, I guess we continue," Mulder said.