TITLE: Fatality
AUTHORS: enigma (enigma17@earthlink.net) and Fleet
CLASSIFICATION: Post-Ep, MS/UST
RATING: Strong PG13
ORIGINAL EPISODE: Imperial Violet by Khyber
DISCLAIMER: The X-Files and all its subparts belong to
Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Twentieth Century
Fox. No copyright infringement is intended.
DISTRIBUTION: Two weeks exclusively on VS10, then ask
me.
Saturday, 9: 15 PM
Griffin Research Labs,
Monterey, CA
Professor Frederic Griffin peered through the
microscope at the tiny organisms swimming around on
the slide. He wished with all his heart that they
would stop. That they would go still and die.
When he’d found out about Imperial Aqua, he’d sworn to
put a stop to it. While as a scientist he understood
the importance of collecting the viruses to study them
and perhaps develop a cure, he could never imagine
using them to hurt others. He couldn’t understand how
anyone could justify using a deadly virus to
conveniently neutralize an enemy.
And besides, until they had a cure, there was nothing
to stop the enemy from sending the infected bodies
back in retaliation, and then what would they do?
And to make matters worse, he later found out that the
weapon was being developed by the same team that he’d
worked with in the past. He’d always thought they were
dedicated to finding a cure. He’d admired them. But
now it appeared that they were more dedicated to their
wallets than anything else.
Griffin sighed and stepped back from the microscope,
realizing that he’d been gazing into it without really
seeing anything. Maybe it really was too late to keep
working. Griffin’s feet were beginning to ache, and he
was hot inside the biocontainment suit.
Something crashed in the lab behind him and Griffin
jumped, suddenly alert.
“Who’s there?” he asked nervously. He’d thought his
escape had been clean; he knew the Pentagon’s defenses
well and had had no problem sneaking in and making off
with several vials of the materials being tested. That
had been surprising, considering the circumstances,
but now Griffin began to wonder if this had all been
planned.
A shadow darted across his field of vision. Griffin
whirled, but he could find no one.
Then suddenly, he felt a pair of hands grab him from
behind and then the sharp searing pain of an
injection. The hands released him, and he turned to
see a man, clad in solid black, grinning maliciously
at him. He was holding a syringe of the virus.
***
Monday, 8:15 AM
FBI Headquarters,
Washington, D.C.
Special Agent Fox Mulder leaned back in his desk chair
and propped his feet up on his desk, smiling at his
work. He’d just finished cleaning up his desk for the
first time in two years.
He turned the swivel chair in a slow circle and his
smile faded.
Just in front of the closed door, there lay a single
sheet of paper.
Mulder walked over to it and picked it up, gazing at
it curiously. He was accustomed to strange things; it
was his job to investigate the paranormal. But
sometimes it was things like this that bothered him
the most. He could handle aliens and ghosts just fine,
but unexplained pieces of paper shoved under the door
unnerved him.
He looked more closely at the paper and saw that it
was a newspaper article. He read it over quickly. It
spoke of a professor who appeared to have died from
the Ebola virus. At the bottom was scrawled a note:
Home is where the heart is. The fix lies within
something that is broken. Tell NO ONE!!
Mulder felt his blood run cold. There was definitely
something strange going on here.
The door knob turned and his partner, Dana Scully,
stepped in. Mulder quickly shoved the article into his
briefcase.
“Mulder, I’m going to California on a-what did you do
to this room?”
“I cleaned it.” Mulder said, grinning smugly. Scully
gave him an odd look.
“Mulder, are you feeling all right?”
“Fine. What were you saying?”
“Oh. I’ve been assigned a case. One Professor Frederic
Griffin was found dead of the Ebola virus in Monterey,
California. They called in the CDC, of course. When
the CDC conducted the autopsy, they found what looked
like a needle puncture.”
“So they think the man was murdered?”
“They’re not sure. They’ve requested that an agent
with a medical background look into it.”
“So naturally, Skinner thought of you.” Mulder said.
Scully nodded modestly.
“Mind if I go along?”
“Not a bit.”
***
Monday, 4:00 PM
Zeus Storage,
Monterey, CA
Lyle Redson was a man in black. He was invisible. He
was not a citizen of any country. He had no driver’s
license, no social security number, no permanent
address. There was no way to reach him or locate him.
Unless, of course, he came to you. And then he was
impossible to get rid of.
Currently, he was working for the government, for the
nameless men who controlled all of the most secret
projects. But that was only because they were willing
to pay him the most money. Lyle was faithful only to
himself. So, while he stood listening to his boss
discuss the latest events, he was really thinking of
the new yacht he was planning to buy with the money
from this operation.
“Now. I want all of you to be aware of a
potential…security risk.” The man took out a
cigarette and lit it, the smoke forming a long gray
trail in the air. Lyle crinkled his nose. He hated
that smell.
“Two FBI agents have been dispatched to look into
the…unfortunate events surrounding the death of Mr.
Fredric Griffin. Be forewarned, these two have caused
trouble in the past.” He paused, taking a long drag,
then exhaled slowly.
“Hageep. Redson. Follow them. I want you to keep a
close eye on them, but don’t do anything yet. My
sources have confirmed that all traces of the
substance have been removed, and it is entirely
possible that they will become frustrated and leave
without causing too much trouble. Consult me before
you take any action.”
Lyle sighed and turned to leave.
***
Monday, 5:00 PM
Monterey Airport,
Monterey, CA
The airport very closely resembled a madhouse. Groups
of tourist rushed around with cameras and loud,
unattractive clothing. It was as though they thought
that they could fit in by wearing clothes that looked
as if they might be stylish on another planet. Scully
smiled and shook her head in amusement.
“What?” Mulder asked curiously.
“Nothing.”
“No, seriously. The last time you laughed at something
it turned out that my pants had been unzipped all
through a meeting with Skinner, and you were too
irritated with me to bother saying anything until
afterward.”
They arrived at their rental car and got in. “I’m sure
that Skinner found it very amusing as well.”
Mulder snorted. “Yeah. Sure.”
They both sat in silence for the rest of the drive,
taking in the scenery and preparing themselves for the
upcoming case. Scully sat, secretly dreading the
meeting with the epidemiologist. She’d been on plenty
of disturbing cases before, but the ones having to do
with deadly viruses were unfailingly the most
unpleasant. Especially after what she’d been through a
year ago.
Normally, the threat of contagion wasn’t something
that she worried about much. She took the necessary
precautions, and tried to remind herself that it was
much more likely that they’d die in a plane crash than
contract some fatal illness. But after the events of a
year ago, she had to think twice before stepping into
an autopsy bay.
They pulled into the parking lot at the Marriott
Express, their rendezvous point and base of operations
for however long it took to close the case.
As soon as they entered the lobby, they were greeted
by an enthusiastic young woman with blonde hair and
blue eyes.
“Are you two the FBI agents they promised me?” she
asked brightly.
“Yes.” Scully answered. “I’m Dana Scully, and this is
my partner, Fox Mulder.”
“I’m Cindy Blake. I work for the CDC. I assume you
know why you’ve been sent here? You’re familiar with
the case?”
“Well,” Scully said thoughtfully, “we’ve been given
the case file, but a lot of the information is marked
as classified.”
“Oh.” Blake said. “I’d forgotten about that. Our
people can get pretty particular about how much
information is released to the public. They’ve wanted
to keep it quiet. Didn’t want to create a huge scare.”
“But there’s been a press release,” Mulder broke in.
“What?”
“An article in the Sunday paper.”
“But the body wasn’t found until Sunday night.” Blake
said in puzzlement. “There’s something strange going
on here.”
“Mulder, you knew about the case before I gave you the
file?” Scully asked incredulously.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to say anything though. I wasn’t
entirely sure it was the same case,” Mulder said
lamely.
“Well, anyway,” Blake interrupted. “It’s been a rather
alarming case. As you may know, there’s never been a
case of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever in the US before. At
least not in humans. Infected monkeys were found in
Virginia a few years ago, but that was something else
entirely.
“So anyway, when we found the body, it was the last
thing we expected to find.”
“How do you mean?” asked Scully.
“Well, it wasn’t like normal Ebola. We weren’t sure
what it was, until we got a good look at the organism
itself, and then we found something truly terrifying.”
“And what would that be?” Mulder asked.
“It was indeed the Ebola virus. But a different
strain, one that’s never been seen before. And as far
as we can tell, it has a 100% kill rate.”
“That’s incredible.” Scully murmured.
“Yes. And, until now, it was thought to be impossible.
But so far, all specimens infected with the virus have
died. And in a shockingly short period of time. Some
of the animals died in a matter of hours.”
“What’s the mode of transmission?”
“We’re not sure. But until we are, we’re keeping
everything associated with the virus under careful
quarantine. The last thing we need is for one of our
own people to goof up and start the next plague.”
Blake laughed nervously.
“Can we see the lab where the body was found?” Mulder
asked.
“Well…yes. But you’ll have to wear the appropriate
protection.”
“We’re perfectly willing.”
“Fine. I’ll take you there myself.”
***
Monday, 5:30 PM
Griffin Research Labs,
Monterey, CA
Mulder walked slowly around the room where the body
had been found. It took all his concentration to keep
from tripping over his own feet in the bulky
quarantine suit. It also gave him an unnerving feeling
of claustrophobia. It felt as though he were an
astronaut on a space walk. He could see and touch all
around him, but at the same time, he was separated
from it by a firm plastic barrier.
Behind him, Scully was puttering around at what had
once been the lab counter, looking at all the
instruments and checking all the beakers and test
tubes for a possible clue. Mulder smiled enviously.
She seemed to have no problem with the suit.
The lab had been completely trashed. There was
shattered glass and spilled liquid everywhere. It
looked as though a hurricane had come through
overnight.
“Mulder, come and look at this.” Scully’s voice came
through the suit sounding muffled and far away.
He shuffled his way over to where she stood, holding
several test tubes from the nearby counter.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure. There’s a residue of some kind.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Well, it appears that this lab has been trashed
deliberately, like someone was cleaning up.”
“So you think that Griffin discovered something he
shouldn’t have and someone else had to clean it up?”
“Yes.”
“But why the Ebola virus? That’s a bit of an attention
grabber, don’t you think?”
“I agree, it is odd. But still, what if he discovered
something that made him dangerous? I mean, how did the
Ebola virus get here in the first place?”
“I have no idea.”
“I want to give this to Dr. Blake to have it
analyzed.” She gestured to the tube. “And then what do
you say we get something to eat and call it a night?”
“Sounds good to me.”
***
Monday, 6:00 PM
Griffin Research Labs,
Monterey, CA
Great, Lyle thought angrily, so much for leaving
without finding anything. He pulled out his cell phone
and dialed.
It rang a few times, and Lyle was just about to hang
up when the voice came on.
“What have you got?” The voice was dry and cracked,
the product of too many cigarettes.
“Sir, they visited the lab and they may have found a
sample of the substance.”
“What are they going to do with it?”
“They’re having it analyzed. That is-unless you want
me to intervene.”
“No. Let them have it analyzed. It will do them no
good.”
“But sir-if they find out-”
“They already know that it’s Ebola. This won’t give
them any help as far as figuring out where it came
from. No, this is still no threat to us. Keep
watching. And keep me informed.”
There was a click and then a dial tone.
***
Monday, 7:00 PM
Redwing Inn,
Monterey, CA
“Oh, look, Scully! They have Roadkill.” Mulder said,
his eyes scanning the Redwing Inn’s bizarre menu, “I
wonder if they’ve got that raccoon we saw coming up
here.”
Scully looked up and shot him a withering look. Mulder
was completely unfazed by it.
“I’m getting the Roadkill,” he said gleefully,
grinning at the sick look on her face.
“Mulder, you’re crazy.”
“Isn’t that why they paired me with you?” he shot back
without missing a beat.
“I think I’ll have the chicken in lemon butter sauce.”
“Scully, you just ruined my opinion of you.”
“In what way?”
“I thought you appreciated unique tastes. I mean,
chicken? That’s too normal.”
“Mulder, unique is one thing. Sick is quite another.”
“Like I said. I’m getting the Roadkill squirrel.”
“Mulder, that’s disgusting!”
“Haven’t you gotten that point across quite clearly
enough yet?”
“Apparently not if you’re still going to order it.”
“I don’t know how you can be grossed out by that, but
not by the description of Ebola in the case report.”
“Speaking of the case,” Scully said, clearing her
throat, “we need to find out from Dr. Blake what she
found out about that sample I took. I’m hoping she’ll
call us in the morning. Mulder, doesn’t this case give
you a distinct feeling of déjà vu?”
“Yes. It definitely does. I’m just hoping I’m wrong.”
“Just be careful, Mulder. No ditching.”
“Of course not! Hey, look, the food’s here.” Mulder
said with a grin.
Scully ate her chicken in silence, eyeing Mulder, who
was eyeing the plate in front of him.
“What, Mulder, was it hit by the wrong kind of car?”
she teased, “Or did you just order it to gross me out,
and now you don’t really want to eat it?”
After they ate, they got back in the car. Ten minutes
later, they were back at the hotel.
“Mulder, if you ever do that again, I’m going to make
you Roadkill.” Scully said threateningly.
All through the ride home Mulder had pretended to try
and hit every animal they saw on the road.
“What? I was just trying to restock the restaurant
with Roadkill.”
***
Monday, 11:00 PM
Huntington Lab,
Monterey, CA
Blake slipped the slide into place and peered through
the microscope. Sure enough, there they were. The tiny
organisms that caused the disease known as Ebola.
They looked so harmless, contained on that slide.
But still, she knew they were responsible for causing
a disease that was so horrifying that most people
denied its existence. They simply thought that it was
something that never occurred in their country. It
only happened in “uncivilized” countries, like Africa.
There was no way it could touch them.
Well, Blake thought angrily, thanks to all these mad
scientists, Ebola is now a very real threat to the
whole world.
She turned and something dark darted across her
vision. She felt her heart skip a beat.
“Hello?” she called, hoping that it was just a lab
tech who had gotten a little too curious about the
classified work that was being done and decided to
take matters into his own hands.
“I don’t bite, you know,” she called encouragingly.
Blake turned again and walked a slow circle around the
room. Several times she thought she saw something move
out of the corner of her eye. But every time she
turned toward it, there was nothing there.
“This isn’t funny. Come out, I mean it!”
For a few moments, she was sure that it was just
someone trying to see what she was doing.
But then she thought of Griffin and ideas started
running through her head.
Was this what it had been like for him? What had he
thought of it? How had reacted? But most importantly,
what had he done wrong?
Blake put the samples away as quickly as she could and
turned to leave.
***
Monday, 12:00 AM
Marriott Express,
Monterey, CA
Blake parked her car in the hotel’s parking lot.
“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” she muttered, grabbing her bag
and getting out of the car.
“Dana! Fox!” she shouted as she ran toward their
rooms.
Scully emerged from the first room, wearing a pink
bathrobe.
“Dr. Blake?” she called, hurrying over.
“Scully? Cindy?” Mulder’s voice came from behind
Scully, “Are we having a pajama party?” He grinned.
But his smile darkened as he saw Blake’s face.
“They know that we know.”
***
Tuesday, 8:00 AM
Marriott Express,
Monterey, CA
“Mulder? Are you ready?” Scully asked, knocking on the
door connecting their hotel rooms. She heard a muffled
groan coming from the other side.
“Mulder?” she asked, opening the door. “Are you coming
to the lab with me?”
She walked into the room and looked around for Mulder.
She rolled her eyes seeing the comforter on the bed
pulled up over a big lump.
“Not funny, Mulder,” she said going over to the bed
and pulling the covers back. Mulder groaned again.
“No light.” he muttered, “You tryin’ to kill me,
Scully?” He rolled onto his stomach.
“Mulder, there isn’t any light. Are you feeling all
right?” She leaned over and touched his forehead,
“Maybe a slight fever. Serves you right, Mulder. I
told you that squirrel was a bad idea. You’d better
stay here.”
“But Scully-”
“Mulder! You can’t go working with deadly viruses,
even if you’re only a little bit off! I’ll be back at
twelve to wake you up.” she said firmly.
She went back into her room, grabbed her briefcase and
the directions to the lab.
She arrived at the lab without any problems. She got
out of her car and went inside.
***
Tuesday, 10:13 AM
Huntington Lab,
Monterey, CA
The lab smelled of formaldehyde and disinfectant. All
the equipment was sparkling clean, and someone had
washed the floor earlier that morning. Scully inhaled
deeply and smiled. That smell brought back memories.
She remembered being a student at Quantico Academy and
staying up all night to cram for exams, then falling
asleep in class the next day.
She remembered her first day in forensics, how she’d
been trying to lose weight. She’d gotten up early and
run four miles, then ended up skipping breakfast.
She’d fainted in class and everyone had thought it was
because she was squeamish.
Scully sighed and shook her head, banishing those
thoughts. She needed to concentrate.
She picked up the scan she’d been looking at a moment
ago and held it up to the light. It showed the image
of a virus, magnified to a hundred times its original
size.
There was something odd about it. It was definitely
Ebola, there was no question about that. But the shape
looked distorted, almost as if it had been altered
slightly.
Scully sighed again and pinched the bridge of her
nose. She was too tired to be thinking about things
like this. She’d been up all night the previous night,
and the night before she’d stayed up late looking over
the case file.
But still, she didn’t want to waste any time. This was
probably the biggest and most important case she’d
ever been assigned to. And for some strange reason,
she felt the need to prove herself. To find something
that no one else could.
She thought back through everything they knew about
the case so far, hoping to find something that didn’t
fit. A missing piece or a stray bit of information
that might lead her to the answer she’d been looking
for.
And then it came to her.
There. Griffin had been a government researcher
working on a cure for Ebola. Then he’d quit for some
unknown reason.
The distortion. She caught her breath.
Imperial Violet.
What if-
“My God. It’s still happening.” she whispered.
“Congratulations.” A voice said behind her.
Scully whirled. A man dressed entirely in black stood
behind her, holding a syringe of the virus.
Scully felt her knees go weak.
“You’ve just won a ticket to death row. Come with me.”
She had no choice but to follow.
***
Tuesday, 6:00 PM
Marriott Express,
Monterey, CA
Mulder woke with a start. His head was throbbing and
his mouth was dry. But he knew it was only the
aftereffects of his nightmare.
He’d been having the same dream sporadically since the
year he was twelve. Since Samantha had disappeared.
He’d dreamed that same dream over and over, so many
times he knew it by hear.
The dark room, then the blinding light, and his
sister’s screams as she was taken away from him. He
never knew what happened to her after that. And no
matter how many times he had that awful dream, the
terror and the grief never faded. And he always woke
feeling awful.
Mulder turned his head so that he could see the clock.
6:00?
Scully had promised to wake him at noon. He sighed,
sat up, and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
He went over and knocked on the door to her adjoining
room. No answer. Mulder gave her a moment to respond,
then pushed the door open and stepped into the room.
It was dark and empty.
Mulder sighed and went over to the phone, trying to
ignore the growing sense of unease.
He knew her number by heart. He could have dialed it
in the dark.
The phone rang and rang. With each tone, Mulder felt
his heart beat faster. Something was very wrong. She
always answered immediately. Images from the past came
floating back to haunt him. If anything happened to
Scully…
“Yes?” A gravelly voice answered at last.
Mulder recognized it immediately. As the realization
struck him, he felt his rapidly beating heart grind to
a sudden stop. He should have known.
“What did you do to Scully?” Mulder growled through
clenched teeth.
“Nothing…yet. She’s here with me, resting
comfortably. She seemed a little tired.”
“Let me see her.” he demanded.
To his surprise, the voice responded immediately.
“I think that can be arranged. Come tonight. Midnight.
The building called Zeus Storage. Come alone.”
***
Tuesday, 9:11 PM
Zeus Storage,
Monterey, CA
Consciousness was slow in returning. Scully lay there
for an undetermined amount of time, wondering if she
were dead.
She remembered all too vividly the events of the
previous afternoon, though she was not sure how much
time had elapsed since then.
She’d been ambushed at the lab, and forced to follow
the unidentified man into a car and back here. He
didn’t even have to restrain her. His only weapon was
the syringe of the virus.
Scully knew that at the moment, that was the deadliest
weapon he could possibly have laid his hands on. She
knew that if she were to become infected, she ran the
risk of starting a wide-scale viral outbreak. But
still, if she and Mulder failed, the consequences
would be even worse.
Even in the midst of danger, Scully was a scientist
first. She couldn’t help but notice that her captor
wore no protection and seemed totally unconcerned with
the threat of infection.
So, she mused, the weapon has a flaw. The virus must
have to be injected.
“Hello? Uh-are you awake?” A hand poked her.
Scully groaned and rolled over.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
It was a young man’s voice, and he seemed friendly in
sharp contrast to the men who’d thrown her in here
earlier. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her
gently.
“Stop,” she moaned, realizing she sounded like a whiny
teenager.
“Oh, come on, they haven’t infected you yet. Get up.
Enjoy what time you have left.”
At this, Scully opened her eyes and sat up.
A young man with sandy colored hair and green eyes was
sitting next to her, grinning like an idiot.
“I’m Nathan Greenway,” he said, “Innocent lab
assistant of Frederic Griffin. They just grabbed me
and threw me in here. And you are?”
“Dana Scully.”
“Wow. It spoke! So, what’s you tale of woe?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Well, we appear to have a very long time.”
***
Wednesday, 12:00 AM
Zeus Storage,
Monterey, CA
The night air was cold and crisp as Mulder walked
toward the big dark building. The Cigarette Smoking
Man was waiting for him at the door.
“Where is she?” Mulder asked, trying desperately to
keep the panic out of his voice. He wanted to be in
control here.
“Inside. Come with me.”
Mulder followed him down the hallway, his apprehension
growing with every step.
At the end of the hall, the Cigarette Smoking Man
opened a door and ushered Mulder through.
The room was large and empty. At the far end, Scully
sat in a single chair. Behind her stood a security
guard holding a syringe of what Mulder had to assume
was the virus.
“Scully-” he said, trying to keep his voice from
shaking.
“Mulder. I’m all right.” She looked terrified, despite
the fact that she was trying hard not to.
“Like I said,” the Cigarette Smoking Man said from
behind Mulder, “I haven’t done anything to her. Yet.”
He looked meaningfully at Scully and she glared back
at him.
“What do you want?” Mulder asked.
“Ah, well. Your partner here stuck her nose in
something she shouldn’t have. Again. I want to make
sure that she doesn’t share her knowledge.”
“Let her go.” Mulder demanded.
“Very well. On one condition.”
“And what’s that?”
“You come and work for me.”
“Mulder, don’t.” Scully broke in.
“I wouldn’t be talking if I were you.” The guard
sneered, gesturing to the syringe in his hand.
“So what do you say? It’s a good situation for you.
You get all the answers you want, and your partner
gets her life back.”
Mulder started to agree, more out of fear than
anything else, but Scully cut him off.
“Mulder, you can’t. If you agree, thousands will die.”
“One more word and you will be among them.”
Scully looked straight at Mulder, her jaw set, and
deliberately continued talking.
“They’ve continued the project. They’re still
manufacturing the virus. In the Pentagon this time.”
The Cigarette Smoking Man gave an almost imperceptible
nod. The guard uncapped the syringe and jabbed it into
Scully’s arm.
She didn’t even flinch. She just kept talking.
“Griffin was part of the original team. They were
working to develop a cure. Then someone got the idea
of using it as a weapon.”
Mulder stood, frozen, barely hearing her. He already
knew.
“When Griffin found out that they wanted to use it to
kill people, he quit.”
Now the effects of the injection were beginning to set
in. Her voice became strained and Mulder could tell
that she was struggling for consciousness.
“Then he got second thoughts. He broke into the
Pentagon and stole some of the virus. He continued
working on a cure. I don’t know whether he was
successful.”
She paused, struggling for breath.
“Mulder, if you fail, thousands will die. It would be
the end of the world as we know it.”
Mulder turned and ran as hard as he could.
The last thing he saw was a single tear rolling down
her cheek.
***
Wednesday, 3:00 PM
Zeus Storage,
Monterey, CA
Blood. There was blood everywhere. Scully looked at
herself and felt tears come to her eyes. She wasn’t
sure why. She’d never been one to cry easily, and
there was very little reason for her to do so now. It
wasn’t like it would do her any good. She didn’t
regret her decision.
And oddly enough, she wasn’t scared. It was almost a
relief to know, for once, exactly what was going to
happen. She’d chosen her fate and she’d accepted it.
She knew it was the right decision.
“Penny for your thoughts.” Greenway said from across
the cell. He too had been injected the previous day
and was as miserable as she was.
“I was just thinking… that I finally get to know
what it’s like.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I was in med. school, I always wondered what it
felt like, to be dying of Ebola. What about you?”
“I was just thinking how stupid they’re being. I mean,
to infect thousands of people with a virus that they
have no cure for. I mean, what do they think? That
they can control it so that only the people they want
will become infected? It just doesn’t work like that.”
“It’ll never work.” She paused for a moment, searching
for words. “Nathan? Do you believe in an afterlife?”
He looked at her blankly, as though he couldn’t find
anything to say to that.
Scully leaned back against the wall and closed her
eyes. It was too painful to talk. Hell, it was too
painful to even think. When he finally spoke, she
barely heard him.
“I don’t think so. I mean, I hope not. I’ve had such a
hard time in this one, I can’t bear the thought of
going through it again. Dana?”
She didn’t respond.
***
Wednesday, 9:00 PM
Griffin Residence,
Monterey, CA
Mulder rushed into the house, trying desperately to
catch his breath. He’d taken off after the disaster
with the Cigarette Smoking Man. He’d simply lost
control and run away. And for some reason, they’d let
him go.
For several minutes, he’d wandered around aimlessly,
one thought on his mind: this was his fault. Then he
remembered the note. On a hunch, he’d decided to go to
Griffin’s home and see if he could decrypt the riddle.
The fix lies within something that is broken.
He was now reasonably certain that the fix the note
spoke of was the cure for the virus.
Mulder paused for a moment in the doorway, letting his
eyes adjust to the darkness of the house.
He was surprised. Somehow, he’d expected the house to
look like the lab, completely trashed. But it wasn’t.
In fact, it was the most immaculate place Mulder had
ever seen.
It was even neater than Scully’s apartment. He smiled.
He hadn’t thought that was possible.
But then his smile faded. If they had trashed the lab,
why had the house been spared? Was it possible that
they didn’t know about it? That didn’t seem very
likely. In fact, he thought it was more likely that
they had set a trap for him.
He didn’t care. If there was any chance that he might
find a cure for Scully, it didn’t matter what price he
paid.
Mulder started searching the house. There wasn’t
exactly much to see. There were experimental data
sheets neatly filed away on the shelves. It seemed as
if Griffin owned an entire library on filoviruses.
There were stacks and stacks of books and reports on
outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg.
After giving the house a once-over, Mulder stood still
in the middle of the main room, uncertain what to do
next.
Then he realized he was missing the obvious.
The note.
The fix lies within something that is broken.
Mulder rushed into the room that served as an office
and stood staring for a moment, knowing that he’d
found what he’d come for.
In the center of the room, on a metal folding table,
there lay a smashed computer monitor. It was the only
thing in the house that was not in perfect condition.
Mulder walked over to it and carefully reached inside
the shattered screen.
He pulled out a small vial of pale yellow powder, and
for the first time, he felt a tiny thread of hope.
***
Wednesday, 10:00 PM
Huntington Lab,
Monterey, CA
Mulder burst into the lab, breathless, the precious
vial cradled safely in his hand.
Blake turned to face him.
“What? What is it?”
“Scully’s been infected.” Mulder said, his throat
tight.
“Oh, God, how?” Blake looked completely taken aback.
“We’ve been being watched. She found out that the
government has been manufacturing the Ebola virus and
using it as bio-warfare. A government spy kidnapped
her. I went to see her and she insisted on telling me
what she’d discovered, even though she knew she would
be injected if she did. I barely escaped. We’re going
to have to be careful now.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry. What’s that?” she asked,
gesturing to the vial in his hand.
“Griffin was working on a cure. I’m hoping this is
it.”
“Well, then, let’s test it.”
Blake took the vial from him. She pulled on one of the
bulky protective suits and went into the quarantine
area of the lab. She slipped a slide of the live virus
into the microscope, then carefully put some of the
powder onto the slide. She stared at it for a moment,
then repeated the process several times.
A few moments later, Blake stepped back out and walked
over to where Mulder was sitting. She held up the vial
of liquid and shook her head in astonishment.
“I don’t know what the hell this is, but it seems to
be killing the virus.”
“So you’re saying that this might work for Scully?”
“Well, it’s always possible that it could be toxic,
but if she *has* been infected with Ebola, then
there’s really nothing to lose…”
“How will we get in?” Mulder asked.
“Which building is it?”
“The one called Zeus Storage.”
“That’s a government building. I think I know a way
in.”
***
Wednesday, 11:21 PM
Zeus Storage,
Monterey, CA
Lyle Redson stood in front of his boss. He knew
immediately that something had gone disastrously
wrong.
“The project is over.”
“What?” Lyle asked in shock.
“It’s over. They know.”
“Are you going to do anything?”
“No. It’s over. Time for a new location.”
***
Wednesday, 11:45 PM
Zeus Storage,
Monterey, CA
Mulder watched as Blake dialed in the security code.
The building seemed oddly dark and deserted and Mulder
wondered what the Cigarette Smoking Man had in store
for them. He’d half expected armed guards at the door.
Mulder and Blake had talked for nearly an hour,
outlining a course of action. The plan was to simply
disguise themselves by wearing biocontainment suits.
Blake knew the entrance codes and they were hoping to
be able to simply slip in and give Scully the
antidote, then take her to a hospital quarantine
facility.
As they walked down the empty hallway, he felt a
growing fear that they were too late.
The building was deathly still.
Blake led Mulder down the hall to a small quarantine
cell.
Scully lay inside, unconscious, along with another
man. Both were covered in blood.
Mulder and Blake rushed in. Blake knelt down and
gently checked their pulses. She looked at Mulder
carefully before she spoke.
“The man’s dead.” Mulder stopped breathing. “Your
partner is alive. Barely. I’m going to try giving her
the antidote, but I don’t know how much good it’s
going to do.” She paused and uncapped the syringe.
“You’d better call an ambulance.”
***
30 Days Later
Mulder walked down the bright hospital corridor toward
Scully’s room. After a month of quarantine, she’d
finally been discharged from the hospital.
Mulder shuddered at the memory.
They’d taken Scully to the hospital as quickly as
possible. They’d put her on life support at Blake’s
insistence, but there was serious doubt that she would
even survive the night.
It had been the worst few hours of Mulder’s life.
Every moment he expected one of the quarantine nurses
to come out and shake her head.
But by morning, Blake told him that she appeared to be
out of danger and that he could go back to the hotel
and rest.
Mulder arrived at her door. He knocked softly.
“Come in.” she called.
Mulder opened the door and stepped in.
“Feeling better?” Mulder asked, smiling.
She sat on the bed at the far end of the room, fully
dressed. She was reading a report on an Ebola outbreak
in Africa. Mulder smiled, shook his head, and sat down
next to her. She gripped his hand tightly.
“God, it’s been awful.”
“I don’t know how you can be reading that after all
you’ve been through.” Mulder said softly.
“It passes the time. Have you heard anything on the
case?”
“It was closed this morning. It’s all over the media.
The CDC did a raid on the Pentagon, and they were
shocked by what they found. There’s evidence that
Ebola was being manufactured in both the Pentagon and
the DoD’s advanced research facility. Not really a
surprise, considering. All of the Ebola has been
destroyed. Roush pharmaceuticals filed for bankruptcy
this morning.”
“What about the antidote?”
“That’s still a mystery. They’re not sure how it was
made, what it was, or who made it. They haven’t found
any more. Blake ran some tests on what was left, and
the material was a substance that does not appear in
nature.”
“So then it’s over?”
“It’s over. Scully?”
“Yeah?”
“Since we’re in California, don’t you think we ought
to do some sightseeing before we leave?”
“Sure. Fine. Whatever.”
Mulder got up and turned to leave, but Scully stopped
him with a hand on his arm.
“Mulder?”
“Yes?”
He turned back. She stood and threw her arms around
his neck, pulling him close.
“Thank you.”
***
Epilogue
“Why did I let him bring me here?” Scully muttered,
laying out her beach towel, and opening the huge,
colorful umbrella that Mulder had insisted on buying
at a souvenir shop. Of course, she never would have
been able to talk Mulder out of it-he was determined
to try surfing.
“Look, Scully! I’m doin’ it!” Mulder yelled.
Scully looked over and snorted. Mulder had laid the
surf board on the beach and was pretending to surf.
“Mulder, you’re not even in the water!”
“You can’t rush these things, Scully.”
He bent back down and rocked the board again.
Scully got up and walked down the shoreline, splashing
her feet in the tide. She privately thought that it
was nice to relax after all that had happened. She
walked back towards Mulder, grabbing the tail of a
small lobster on her way.
“Look, Mulder! It’s a member of the nematode family,”
she called.
“No, Scully…it’s from the seafood family.”
Scully smiled, remembering their last beachside case.
“Oh, no. You’re smiling again, Scully. What is it this
time-is my draw-string untied?”
***
Fatal Misprints
These are all typos that were found in the unedited
drafts.
1. They had planned to disguise themselves by wearing
biocontainment suites.
2. The building was deathly ill.
3. “Mulder, I’m going to California on a-what did you
do to this room?”
“I clean it.”
4. It was as though they thought that they could fit
in by wearing clothes that looked as though they might
be stylish on another planed.
5. The virus must have to be indicted.
6. “Mulder! If you can’t go working with deadly
viruses, even if you’re working with deadly viruses,
even if you’re only a little bit off.”
7. The building seemed oddly dark and dessert.
Virtual Season X 