p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"stronguspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Chapter 7 /span/u/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Southern shore of the lake, parking lot/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"8/15/1999, 7.35pm/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"As Scully got out of the car, the evening heat hit her and she stopped for a second to acclimate. She quickly moved to the officers standing near their police cars and made them to pair up, handed each a copy of the phantom picture of the suspect and made them look for him and agent Mulder. The sheriff and she were the only ones left and so they paired up as well. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully was relieved to have him by her side, hoping that we would back her up and also calm her down in the upcoming situations. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After half an hour, they heard the radio beeping and deputy Gershwin announced that they spotted movements in front of them. Scully started running towards the coordinates, frantically praying that it would be Mulder alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Slowing down when she saw Gershwin and his colleague, she became very quiet following the pointed arm of the deputy with her eyes. There she spotted something red moving 60 yards in front of her. She silently went to the officer and whispered to him, that this might be UNSUB recognizing the axe. She told them, to approach the guy from three angles and circumvent him. The deputy also ordered back-up via radio. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"As Scully moved forward, the suspect was with her back to her and mumbled something under his breath, crouching over something. Then it hit her full force, that it was Mulder he was crouching over. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Her face turning chalk white of terror and realized that she needed to do something right now to distract the suspect before he could do more to Mulder. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She draw her weapon, held it in front of her and shouted "Get up and turn around. NOW!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The man seemed to heave heavy breaths, started grunting and yelled back, while he stood up and turned "What the hell do you want? Get outta here, or I come for you!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully knew that the only way to get him away from Mulder was to make him more angry, so she went on, knowing that the other officers must have heard her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""You are assaulting my partner, so you are in custody now, you son of a bitch. Move away from him, or I'll shoot you!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"With that he screamed in a deep and angry voice and ran towards her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She stood her ground, let him come nearer and nearer, while he was rising his shiny red axe above his head, ready to slam it into her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"At that very moment, she shot him into his chest three times, due to his upward movements. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The other officers came running, surrounding the scene, pushing Scully away and handcuffed the still raging man, who was bleeding heavily now. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Suddenly collapsing, they lay him onto the ground as he did his last gasps of breath. Scully crouched over him as he whispered under coughs "No host anymore". /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Closing his eyes he died in front of her, but started bleeding out of his nose./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully immediately jumped up, stretching her arms out to make the officers get away from the body, so that they moved far enough from the fungus. She quickly ordered them to call for the CSI and a decontamination team and ran to Mulder, who was still lying motionless on the ground. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She looked him up and down, fully in doctor-mode and checked if he was injured, only spotting a bruise on his forehead right above his right temple./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She gently stroked back his hair from the bulge. The touch made him stir and his eyes fluttered open. Mulder looked into her eyes and smiled at her. She smiled back, stating "Hey, you sweet idiot. Nice to have you back. What the hell were you thinking, running out of the precinct without backup and not even telling anybody where you went?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Oh, Dana. I really don't know how to answer that. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…Last thing I know, I was standing in front of the notepad wall, looking at the pictures./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…I grabbed for my profiling journal, reading the last things I wrote down. Then it suddenly hit me where we would find him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…I felt dizzy and had the innermost feeling to go to the Old Man in the Lake. I felt and thought what he felt and thought. I was so angry at everything and the only two things I wanted to do was finding a host and then go to the Old Man. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…I started running without feeling myself being in motion. That was really weird. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…Then I ran through the forest, when I was hit by something heavy on the head bathing me in blackness." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While he was talking, she gently helped him to sit up. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""We were following you. After my findings on the last victim and an interesting phone call with Darleen and Marcus, I knew where to look. Even if I can't really proof it, I knew that everything started and ended with the Old Man in the Lake. The fungus might be also found on it. I know now how the spores found its way into the human body, so we have some evidence to support our theory. But finding you in the hands of this mad man was overwhelming." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She swallowed hard and took a shuttered breath to go on. "I know it's unprofessional, but I only acted on instinct from that moment on. It was very dangerous to just go by my gut feeling. However, I am really, really happy to see you unharmed. If there weren't so many people around us, I would kiss you right now." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"With tears in her eyes she looked at him, giving him a full face grin. He took her hand then and draw lazy calming circles on the back of her hand. She helped him up then and they walked to the body, joining the police officers. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder took a long look at the dead body on the ground and he spoke to Scully, finalizing his theory. "You know, I think he wanted me as the new host. I remember the night, when I came back late from the precinct and nearly had an accident. There was something running across the road and now I realize that it must have been him. The flashes of the red axe are still in my memory. He must have followed me around, that's why we nearly caught him in the bushes behind us the other day." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Stopping for a short moment he looked at her with love shining from his eyes. "If it wasn't for you, I might have been a spores driven zombie by now, hunting for a new host. God, Scully. You saved my life. I was so stupid./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…See, that's exactly the reason why I stopped profiling. And it is exactly the reason why I need you around 24/7. I…" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She stopped him right then by a squeeze of her hand on his arm, reminding him that the officers could hear him. She knew what would follow if he went on. She looked at him with her later-Mulder-look. He accepted and went quiet./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The next two hours were cleaning up the forest with the decontamination team to save the last particles of the spores. Skinner also has been called by Mulder to relieve his nerves and agreeing on spending one last day there, before they had to go back to Washington and hand in their report./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully went back to the morgue and did the last autopsy to finish her report for Skinner. Another closed and solved X-File, she thought but for nearly what high costs. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She wrote: "Summing up the evidence, found after those 4 gruesome deaths, the cause of the deaths definitely was the fungus invading the human brain in two different ways. Either the host was killed immediately, if the body is not strong enough and so being finished with a stroke that mushes the brain tissue in the frontal lobe. Or it settles in the said tissue and altering the behavior of the host to only act on spreading the fungus by finding a new host./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"What we realized later is also that the host is constantly driven towards the Old Man in the Lake. Recent findings of the USGS, gathered by the scientists Marcus Fields and Darleene Smith, show that this fungus is a prehistoric one that got carried from the black smokers on the bottom of Crater Lake by the Mazama Newt. Spores of the fungus have been found on the skin of dead newts on the shore. Those newts also wander around the Old Man from time to time. However, the newt must have been stung by a tick and that tick stung the first human host. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"This lumberjack became the first killer than, because the fungus made him act only on those mentioned drives of action and blending out any other needs or emotions. If he didn't get what he wanted, the already dead victims got slaughtered by him with his axe. The professional mutilations only show that he knew how to use his axe as a professional lumberjack./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The second perpetrator was then the only host he could find to not being killed by the fungus right away. After the fungus left the brain of the first killer, he had to die as well. The x-rays of this brain showed that he must have had a stroke after he sneezed out the fungus onto the new host. Therefore, his brain couldn't handle it anymore and he died a painful dead. The second host then finished it by mutilating the body. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Agent Mulder was able to produce an exact MO-based profile of the killers and was also able to find the second drive of action, i.e. the following of the Old Man along the shores around the lake. Therefore, the different choices of killing scenes could be explained. With the help of the autopsy results, the profile of Agent Mulder and the evidence of the USGS, we were able to find the second killer. Agent Mulder was there first, because he followed his own profile immediately after finishing it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The police officers and me found the newest position of the Old Man through the aforementioned evidence and we found Agent Mulder right away. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He was not aware the killer wanted him to be the next host and so he was captured by the killer and was knocked out by a strong hit on the head. Because of the excellent team work and communication with the local police and the rangers we were able to save Agent Mulder before he could have been hurt more. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The killer got shot by myself twice but not fatally so. Because of the injury, the perpetrator collapsed and was hit by a stroke and died immediately. The fungus moved its way out of his nostril cavities, perhaps sensing the loss of its host, and we secured the area right away and ordered for a decontamination team to clean./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"We gave all our evidence and test results to the USGS for further research. However, why the Old Man influenced the killers in that way has to be left unsolved for now. According to the old legends of the local native tribes, similar circumstanzes must have had occurred throughout the history of the lake. Those legends speak about strange behaviors and mysterious deaths in direct relation to the movements of the Old Man. This is also mirrored in the X-File cases of the fifties. We hope that the USGS researchers might find answers to these questions. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The last question I tried to answer was, if that fungus might be related to the spores we found three years ago in the volcano case with the firewalker. I tested both stems and found no resemblance whatsoever. The only relation was the time period they came to be, about 70.000 years ago. Since the day the last host died, no other killings took place in Crater Lake. So the case could be closed and receives the status as such."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Southern shore of the lake, parking lot/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"8/15/1999, 7.35pm/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"As Scully got out of the car, the evening heat hit her and she stopped for a second to acclimate. She quickly moved to the officers standing near their police cars and made them to pair up, handed each a copy of the phantom picture of the suspect and made them look for him and agent Mulder. The sheriff and she were the only ones left and so they paired up as well. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully was relieved to have him by her side, hoping that we would back her up and also calm her down in the upcoming situations. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"After half an hour, they heard the radio beeping and deputy Gershwin announced that they spotted movements in front of them. Scully started running towards the coordinates, frantically praying that it would be Mulder alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Slowing down when she saw Gershwin and his colleague, she became very quiet following the pointed arm of the deputy with her eyes. There she spotted something red moving 60 yards in front of her. She silently went to the officer and whispered to him, that this might be UNSUB recognizing the axe. She told them, to approach the guy from three angles and circumvent him. The deputy also ordered back-up via radio. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"As Scully moved forward, the suspect was with her back to her and mumbled something under his breath, crouching over something. Then it hit her full force, that it was Mulder he was crouching over. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Her face turning chalk white of terror and realized that she needed to do something right now to distract the suspect before he could do more to Mulder. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She draw her weapon, held it in front of her and shouted "Get up and turn around. NOW!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The man seemed to heave heavy breaths, started grunting and yelled back, while he stood up and turned "What the hell do you want? Get outta here, or I come for you!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully knew that the only way to get him away from Mulder was to make him more angry, so she went on, knowing that the other officers must have heard her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""You are assaulting my partner, so you are in custody now, you son of a bitch. Move away from him, or I'll shoot you!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"With that he screamed in a deep and angry voice and ran towards her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She stood her ground, let him come nearer and nearer, while he was rising his shiny red axe above his head, ready to slam it into her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"At that very moment, she shot him into his chest three times, due to his upward movements. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The other officers came running, surrounding the scene, pushing Scully away and handcuffed the still raging man, who was bleeding heavily now. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Suddenly collapsing, they lay him onto the ground as he did his last gasps of breath. Scully crouched over him as he whispered under coughs "No host anymore". /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Closing his eyes he died in front of her, but started bleeding out of his nose./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully immediately jumped up, stretching her arms out to make the officers get away from the body, so that they moved far enough from the fungus. She quickly ordered them to call for the CSI and a decontamination team and ran to Mulder, who was still lying motionless on the ground. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She looked him up and down, fully in doctor-mode and checked if he was injured, only spotting a bruise on his forehead right above his right temple./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She gently stroked back his hair from the bulge. The touch made him stir and his eyes fluttered open. Mulder looked into her eyes and smiled at her. She smiled back, stating "Hey, you sweet idiot. Nice to have you back. What the hell were you thinking, running out of the precinct without backup and not even telling anybody where you went?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Oh, Dana. I really don't know how to answer that. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…Last thing I know, I was standing in front of the notepad wall, looking at the pictures./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…I grabbed for my profiling journal, reading the last things I wrote down. Then it suddenly hit me where we would find him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…I felt dizzy and had the innermost feeling to go to the Old Man in the Lake. I felt and thought what he felt and thought. I was so angry at everything and the only two things I wanted to do was finding a host and then go to the Old Man. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…I started running without feeling myself being in motion. That was really weird. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…Then I ran through the forest, when I was hit by something heavy on the head bathing me in blackness." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"While he was talking, she gently helped him to sit up. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""We were following you. After my findings on the last victim and an interesting phone call with Darleen and Marcus, I knew where to look. Even if I can't really proof it, I knew that everything started and ended with the Old Man in the Lake. The fungus might be also found on it. I know now how the spores found its way into the human body, so we have some evidence to support our theory. But finding you in the hands of this mad man was overwhelming." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She swallowed hard and took a shuttered breath to go on. "I know it's unprofessional, but I only acted on instinct from that moment on. It was very dangerous to just go by my gut feeling. However, I am really, really happy to see you unharmed. If there weren't so many people around us, I would kiss you right now." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"With tears in her eyes she looked at him, giving him a full face grin. He took her hand then and draw lazy calming circles on the back of her hand. She helped him up then and they walked to the body, joining the police officers. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Mulder took a long look at the dead body on the ground and he spoke to Scully, finalizing his theory. "You know, I think he wanted me as the new host. I remember the night, when I came back late from the precinct and nearly had an accident. There was something running across the road and now I realize that it must have been him. The flashes of the red axe are still in my memory. He must have followed me around, that's why we nearly caught him in the bushes behind us the other day." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Stopping for a short moment he looked at her with love shining from his eyes. "If it wasn't for you, I might have been a spores driven zombie by now, hunting for a new host. God, Scully. You saved my life. I was so stupid./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"…See, that's exactly the reason why I stopped profiling. And it is exactly the reason why I need you around 24/7. I…" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She stopped him right then by a squeeze of her hand on his arm, reminding him that the officers could hear him. She knew what would follow if he went on. She looked at him with her later-Mulder-look. He accepted and went quiet./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The next two hours were cleaning up the forest with the decontamination team to save the last particles of the spores. Skinner also has been called by Mulder to relieve his nerves and agreeing on spending one last day there, before they had to go back to Washington and hand in their report./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Scully went back to the morgue and did the last autopsy to finish her report for Skinner. Another closed and solved X-File, she thought but for nearly what high costs. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She wrote: "Summing up the evidence, found after those 4 gruesome deaths, the cause of the deaths definitely was the fungus invading the human brain in two different ways. Either the host was killed immediately, if the body is not strong enough and so being finished with a stroke that mushes the brain tissue in the frontal lobe. Or it settles in the said tissue and altering the behavior of the host to only act on spreading the fungus by finding a new host./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"What we realized later is also that the host is constantly driven towards the Old Man in the Lake. Recent findings of the USGS, gathered by the scientists Marcus Fields and Darleene Smith, show that this fungus is a prehistoric one that got carried from the black smokers on the bottom of Crater Lake by the Mazama Newt. Spores of the fungus have been found on the skin of dead newts on the shore. Those newts also wander around the Old Man from time to time. However, the newt must have been stung by a tick and that tick stung the first human host. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"This lumberjack became the first killer than, because the fungus made him act only on those mentioned drives of action and blending out any other needs or emotions. If he didn't get what he wanted, the already dead victims got slaughtered by him with his axe. The professional mutilations only show that he knew how to use his axe as a professional lumberjack./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The second perpetrator was then the only host he could find to not being killed by the fungus right away. After the fungus left the brain of the first killer, he had to die as well. The x-rays of this brain showed that he must have had a stroke after he sneezed out the fungus onto the new host. Therefore, his brain couldn't handle it anymore and he died a painful dead. The second host then finished it by mutilating the body. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Agent Mulder was able to produce an exact MO-based profile of the killers and was also able to find the second drive of action, i.e. the following of the Old Man along the shores around the lake. Therefore, the different choices of killing scenes could be explained. With the help of the autopsy results, the profile of Agent Mulder and the evidence of the USGS, we were able to find the second killer. Agent Mulder was there first, because he followed his own profile immediately after finishing it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The police officers and me found the newest position of the Old Man through the aforementioned evidence and we found Agent Mulder right away. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He was not aware the killer wanted him to be the next host and so he was captured by the killer and was knocked out by a strong hit on the head. Because of the excellent team work and communication with the local police and the rangers we were able to save Agent Mulder before he could have been hurt more. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The killer got shot by myself twice but not fatally so. Because of the injury, the perpetrator collapsed and was hit by a stroke and died immediately. The fungus moved its way out of his nostril cavities, perhaps sensing the loss of its host, and we secured the area right away and ordered for a decontamination team to clean./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"We gave all our evidence and test results to the USGS for further research. However, why the Old Man influenced the killers in that way has to be left unsolved for now. According to the old legends of the local native tribes, similar circumstanzes must have had occurred throughout the history of the lake. Those legends speak about strange behaviors and mysterious deaths in direct relation to the movements of the Old Man. This is also mirrored in the X-File cases of the fifties. We hope that the USGS researchers might find answers to these questions. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The last question I tried to answer was, if that fungus might be related to the spores we found three years ago in the volcano case with the firewalker. I tested both stems and found no resemblance whatsoever. The only relation was the time period they came to be, about 70.000 years ago. Since the day the last host died, no other killings took place in Crater Lake. So the case could be closed and receives the status as such."/span/p