Chapter eleven
They climbed out of the undergrounds and ended up in a stoned courtyard.
The group sat on the concrete benches.
The group was particularly quiet.
Scully watched them. Shannon was talking quietly with Kenny. Stan was just staring at the ground, not acknowledging anyone.
She and Mulder were just trying to avoid conversation.
Scully didn't want to think about what was going to happen to Mulder or of what would need to be done in case they failed. She was still worrying over the fact that she still hadn't read anything about an accomplished antidote. That was what these tests were supposed to do, to refine the Mortifilia.
She sighed and Mulder looked at her. She didn't elaborate.
"So Shannon, you didn't tell us how you ended up here," Stan said suddenly.
Shannon looked over at him, "Oh, right, well, I knew that Agent's Mulder and Scully were coming to talk to Friedman. I wasn't sure of how that was going to go. So I decided to just finally face my fears about coming here at night; I needed to find Kenny," she said, "So I came to the school around nine. I broke the front door window to open the door and came in, and I was about to start looking around when the ground began to shake. I heard something yelling, then the entire second floor caved in and I was knocked out, by a rock or something."
"Friedman brought her back to the cell, and injected her with that stuff," Kenny said angrily, "I'm going to kill him!"
"No, first he's going to cure us, then we'll kill him," Mulder said seriously.
"So did you find anything, Agent Scully?" Stan asked her.
"Um, yeah, sort of," Scully said, "Leonard is alive and is a tree."
"The dead brother is a tree?" Stan said incredulously.
"I know how it sounds, believe me, but I found a file about Leonard as he mutated. Herbert was watching him, now Herbert continues with the research to possibly cure his brother," Scully said.
"So Herbert, Wickson, and Walden are in on it," Stan said.
"Walden can't be," Kenny said, "Friedman's been avoiding him for a while now."
"Yeah, I still can't quite figure him out," Mulder said looking at Scully, "Is he helping us, or hindering us?"
"You mean did he know that Herbert would infect you since he did give us the key that would lead us to the basement?" Scully said.
"Yeah," Mulder said then became thoughtful, "Scully, I think…I think Walden might actually be infected too."
She looked at him curiously, "What makes you say that?"
"When we first met him he was rubbing his arm, but I can't recall him actually hurting himself after he broke that window," Mulder said, "But does that make him another test subject?"
"It's possible. Maybe that's why he's so dogged to find Herbert; he wants to be cured," Scully said, "But what did he do to get infected?"
Mulder shrugged, "Well we can't know until we find him or Herbert."
"Maybe Wickson knows. We have to go talk to her," Kenny said, "We have to get out of here first. Where exactly are we?"
"I have no idea," Shannon said as she started walking toward a large gate to their right, "But this way is electronically locked; we need a numbered password."
Scully touched Mulder's arm, "Mulder, isn't that the door that Herbert was coming out of on the video?" she said looking at the gate.
"It is. So he must be hiding back there," Mulder said getting up and walking over to the gate.
He shook it, trying to get it to move, "Where is that password?" he muttered.
"There's a gate over here locked with a chain and padlock, it leads into the main courtyard," Kenny called from the far left, "Hey Agent Mulder, let me use those bolt cutters."
"Sure," Mulder said handing them Shannon.
She took the cutters over to Kenny.
Stan walked over to Scully.
"Are you all right Agent Scully…I mean did Friedman get you too?" Stan asked awkwardly.
"No. I found you four. I'm all right," Scully said feeling sorry for him.
"I'm glad. Ones enough," Stan said firmly.
He sighed and headed over to Kenny and Shannon.
"What do you think he meant by that?" Scully asked intrigued.
"Because if something happens, we need one person to survive this and make sure that Herbert Friedman pays for this," Mulder said grimly.
Scully looked at him sharply, "We're all going to survive this, Mulder," she stated firmly.
"No. You don't know that, and if it does come to that, you have to make sure that you get him," Mulder said seriously, "You're the only one not infected, you won't turn into one of those things or be killed by morning light."
Scully looked at him, "Mulder, we'll find a way to fix this, it'll be all right."
"And if it isn't, if I turn into one of those things…Scully I want you to promise me that you will do what's necessary," Mulder said looking into her eyes searchingly.
"I…I can't," she said her voice wavering.
"You have to," Mulder stated, "Herbert needs to be stopped and it has to be us, or you that does it."
She sighed and turned away from him, "Let's keep moving, we're wasting time," she said flatly, walking over to the others.
Mulder nodded resignedly. She didn't need to verbally agree, for him to know that she did. He knew that she would do the right thing. He followed her.
Kenny had opened the gate.
The five walked into the main courtyard and headed for the Infirmary.
"Hey, Kenny," Mulder said.
"Yeah?" Kenny said.
"How is it that you haven't mutated or changed?" Mulder asked.
"Herbert didn't mess with me often. He was busy with another test subject," Kenny said, "He acted happy, so I think he was nearing a success of something."
"A cure?" Stan asked.
"I don't know. Maybe," Kenny shrugged, "I don't know what he was really working on."
"He wants to cure Leonard, so it has to be an antidote," Mulder said.
"Does it?" Scully said.
Mulder looked at her, "What else could he want?"
"I think he just wants to reverse the side affects. I think he wants a more stable version of the Mortifilia," Scully explained, "At least that's what I gathered from his notes and of the testing of Leonard."
"So he's still striving for immortality?" Mulder said disbelieving, "I don't want to be immortal, I just want this stuff out of my body." he finished angrily.
Scully nodded.
They made it to the infirmary. They didn't see the nurse.
"Did she leave?" Shannon asked looking around the beds.
Scully walked behind the nurse's desk and was startled.
"Oh my god. She's over here," Scully said and she knelt down to the bloodied nurse.
Ms. Wickson was barely conscious. The group came around to Scully and the nurse.
"Ms. Wickson," Scully said trying to rouse the nurse.
She looked at Scully, and then looked at the rest of the group.
"You've been infected," she said remorsefully.
"How do you know that? Who did this to you?" Mulder asked as he knelt closer to the nurse.
"She's lost too much blood," Scully said and got up to find some bandages and other items to help Ms. Wickson.
Ms. Wickson shook her head, "Herbert, you gone to far," she spoke softly to herself, then looked at Mulder, "You must find the antidote," she said firmly.
"An antidote? What are you talking about?" Stan demanded.
Scully came back and tried to attend to the nurse's wounds.
The nurse coughed harshly and winced in pain, "In the basement…the lab…the big door."
"We just came from the basement, there wasn't a big door," Scully said.
"The other entrance," Ms. Wickson said.
"What other entrance?" Mulder asked.
The nurse grabbed Mulder's arm, "Leonard…don't let him go," she said and started to close her eyes.
"Ms. Wickson," Mulder called, trying to keep her awake.
"Forgive us," she uttered and then closed her eyes, her body becoming limp.
"Her injuries were too severe," Scully said sadly, "Who did this to her?"
"Herbert. It had to be him, otherwise how could she know that we were infected," Mulder said getting up and walking away from the nurse.
"But why?" Scully inquired.
"Because he knew that she would tell us about the antidote. She wants this to stop and he wants to complete his research," Mulder said angrily, "Too many are dying for his cause!" he exclaimed.
Scully nodded and stood up, "Well, then we should continue."
"What entrance was she talking about?" Shannon asked.
"I'm assuming the one we saw Herbert exit from in a surveillance video," Stan said to Mulder and Scully, then turned towards Shannon and Kenny at their looks of confusion, "The one that needs a password."
Shannon and Kenny nodded.
"Yes, well, now we need to find a password, but where do we look," Mulder said.
"The dorms," Stan said, "We have the cutters now, so we can access that area."
"All right, let's go," Mulder said and led the group out of the Infirmary.
Scully took one last look at the nurse, Ms. Wickson. Leonard's wife. Herbert's partner in crime. It didn't matter; everyone was expendable to his finding a cure for his brother. She wondered for a moment of what Leonard would think of Herbert after all this. Was immortality really worth it?
Scully sighed heavily and then followed the rest of the group.