Chapter seven
They avoided stepping in the torn up body as they looked around it.
"It looks like whatever it was came from the bottom vent, and then went up the air duct," Mulder said.
"I'm not too interested in how he died," Stan said, his back to the body, and sounding beyond freaked out.
Scully had started to search the room, as had Mulder.
"He carried heavy weaponry, he has a pump-action shotgun, fully loaded too," Mulder said looking through Vick's locker, "And various ammunition and a few flashlights."
"What would a janitor be doing with a fully loaded shotgun on school property?" Scully asked from a backroom.
"Who knows? Maybe he knew what was going on. Maybe that was why he was killed, but we should keep it anyway, and I found this key to the dining hall, ground floor," Mulder called.
"Well we can look at that tape, Mulder, I found a surveillance room," Scully said coming back into the main room.
She covered Vick's body with a sheet so that they wouldn't have to see it.
"Keep your guns out, whatever was here may come back," Mulder said handing her some ammunition from Vick's locker, and grabbing a couple of working flashlights.
"Putting them away was never an option," Scully said reloading her gun.
Stan did the same.
The three moved to the back room.
"They have most of the school covered," Stan said awed and annoyed, "Who permitted this, I didn't even know they had surveillance on the students,"
"Well, it's a good thing. It gives us evidence if those monsters show up in the monitored areas, anyway, let me see the tape, Scully," Mulder said.
"There's another tape here," Stan said picking it up.
"What's it labeled?" Mulder asked.
"It's just labeled Surveillance," Stan said handing it to Mulder.
"Well, let's check it out first, see what Vick has been watching," Mulder said turning on the VCR and TV.
There was already a tape in it. Mulder pushed play.
It showed the infirmary.
"That's Ms. Wickson, the nurse," Stan said.
Ms. Wickson was signaling to the camera, apparently asking for help. Behind her, a couple of mutated students left the room.
"Yeah, and there goes a couple of those students before they transformed," Mulder said and looked at the time, "It was recorded around the same times as the messages," he said.
"We need to get to her," Scully said.
"Yeah, but everything is still locked," Stan said.
"We need her alive. She is in on the experiments and everything that is happening tonight," Scully said.
"I found this key in the locker, it's the dining hall," Mulder said.
"We can go through the dining hall next door to the Infirmary," Stan said.
"All right, well, let's go get her and then come back here," Mulder said leading the other two.
They walked next door to the ground hall dining room.
They opened the dining hall. It was completely dark.
"Dark is not a good thing," Scully said.
"Yeah, I know; breeding ground," Mulder said considering the situation.
"Well, let's just keep the flashlights on and our guns out," Scully said turning on her flashlight.
"Really wish it was morning," Stan complained.
The three entered the dining hall.
"So, where is the Infirmary?" Mulder whispered to Stan.
"Upstairs," he said.
Mulder nodded and made his way into the main dining room.
Stan led them up to the Infirmary. It was locked.
Scully knocked.
"Hello, Ms. Wickson!" Scully called.
"I'm not opening the door until all the lights are on," the nurse called.
"So there might be monsters out here, and she is going to leave us out here with them," Stan muttered to Mulder.
The three moved away from the door, knowing they couldn't fight her on it.
"Well, we could blast the door knob off," Stan suggested.
"No, she's scared, and that also means that there must be something in here that she's scared of," Scully said looking around the dinning room.
"Well, let's not wait for it to come back. Let's find a way to get these lights on," Mulder said, "Where's the fuse box?" he asked Stan.
"Downstairs," Stan said.
"Let's go," Mulder said.
"I'll stay up here, see if I can get Ms. Wickson to open the door in case the lights can't be turned back on," Scully said, "And make sure that whatever frightened her doesn't get her,"
"Are you sure?" Mulder asked not liking the idea of them separating.
"Yeah, its fine. You two will only be downstairs," Scully assured.
Mulder nodded and he and Stan walked downstairs.
They found the fuse box and saw that some of the fuses had been torn out.
"Great," Mulder muttered.
"We can try to connect the wires together and see if that works," Stan suggested.
"Maybe, but it seems that the missing fuses are needed," Mulder said, "Where could there be some?"
"Upstairs; Utility cupboard," Stan said simply.
Mulder looked at him annoyed, "Well, let's go back up," he said, but then they heard shots fired.
Stan and Mulder looked at each other alarmed.
"Scully!" Mulder said and both ran back upstairs.
When they reached the top, they saw Scully firing at one of the monsters that was all arm and many teeth.
Mulder and Stan aimed and started firing at it.
Finally it died. They heard the nurse screaming from the infirmary.
"She's fine, just scared," Scully said breathing heavily.
"Are you all right?" Mulder asked walking over to her.
"Yeah, just surprised, and she says that nothing is in there with her, and that's how she wants it to stay until the lights are on," Scully said.
"Well, we need some fuses to fix the fuse box; something tore at it," Mulder said.
Stan walked over to a utility cupboard.
"I've got the fuses," he said holding a box.
"Coming with us?" Mulder asked Scully.
"Yeah, this time; she's fine behind that door," Scully said.
Downstairs, Mulder had fixed the fuse box and the lights had turned back on.
"Good, that will keep the monsters at bay, and now Ms. Wickson can open the door," Mulder said.
They headed back upstairs to the Infirmary door.
Scully knocked softly. They heard the lock click and someone walk away from the door.
Mulder, Scully, and Stan entered the Infirmary.
Ms. Wickson had moved over to sit in a chair and was babbling to herself.
"Ms. Wickson, we're here searching for Kenny Matthews," Scully said looking worried at the nurse.
"Kenny?" the nurse said looking at them.
"Yes," Stan said.
"Kenny. Oh, another one," Ms. Wickson said nonchalantly.
"Another one? You mean test subject don't you?" Mulder said.
"Kenny?" she said, looking at them as if questioning them.
"Yes, Kenny Matthews, Ms Wickson, he went missing a while ago," Scully answered her.
"Herbert," Ms. Wickson said speaking softly to herself now.
"So it is Herbert doing all this. Why?" Mulder asked.
"Herbert, he never let them out before," she said to herself, "Its Leonard," the nurse said.
"No, it can't be he's dead, Ms. Wickson. He's been dead for a long time," Scully said looking at her concerned, "She's not hearing us, she's going into shock," she said looking at Mulder.
"He wants to get out. There's no way to stop him, he's just too strong," Ms. Wickson said speaking directly to Mulder.
Mulder looked at her confused, "Who are you talking about; Herbert?" Mulder asked.
"He want's to get out, there's no way to stop him, he's just too strong." Ms. Wickson repeated.
Mulder knelt next to her, looking into the nurse's face sadly, "Oh, she's just not going to be any help to us."
The nurse kept repeating her last sentence, giving no acknowledgement that she even realized that he was there anymore.