| Chapter 4 10:51 A.M. July 17, 1998 County morgue “So, what are you going to do this time while I’m stuck in a stuffy room with sharp objects?” Scully joked. “I’m thinking of talking to the camp leaders.” Mulder responded. “Yea right, Mulder, get real. The camp leaders won’t talk to us because they won’t want the news to spread around camp.” Scully said. “They never told us that.” Mulder asked rather conspicuous. They had hardly talked to anyone who was in charge. “Yea, but that’s what I’m figuring. Why else wouldn’t they just come out and close the camp?” Scully wondered. Mulder knew he was faced. He watched Scully disappear from the small room. The body was already laid out on the table. A male assistant was beginning to take pictures. Scully returned ten minutes later in her usual scrubs. She had the hair net, the latex gloves, the paper mouth guard, and the blue outfit. Mulder always found the attire totally bizarre but he never would tell that to Scully. The man stopped taking pictures and Scully took the sheet off of the body. At the sight of the body, Mulder turned away. The body was covered with blood that oozed from small cuts that covered her from head to toe. “Do you plan on sticking around for this one?” Scully asked, picking up a small tool. Mulder shook his head. “I’m going to go back to the camp and see if I can interview Tiffany.” He quickly left the room and Scully smiled, knowing autopsies made him feel queasy. Scully turned back to the body and began the autopsy with the Y-incision. Nothing seemed to be able to touch her besides the fact that she couldn’t find out who was killing innocent girls. Scully wanted more than ever to be able to help Pam and Katie before they became the next victims. As she cut she knew what she was going to find but she wasn’t sure where to go with the results. * * * * Meanwhile, Mulder was sitting on a small, plastic chair. Tiffany was sitting on the top of a bunk bead. The color had returned to her cheeks and she looked a lot better than the last time Mulder had seen her. The curtain to the small clinic was closed so no one would be able to see Mulder interview the poor girl. “Tiffany, I need to ask you some questions about Heidi.” Mulder said trying to sound friendly. He wanted to get as much information from the girl as he could. When Tiffany didn’t respond, Mulder continued. “What were you doing in the woods?” “Heidi and I were sent to go bring the milk slips down to the lodge.” Tiffany responded. Her expression was blank and her words seemed to have no meaning. “What exactly are milk slips?” Mulder asked. “Every morning the leader takes a count of how many girls want milk. As a part of the camp, we get as many milks as we want per day. We bring the slips down and put them in a bucket on the lodge porch so the directors can count how many milks each unit has.” She explained. She remained motionless, not caring what she was talking about. “What were you doing in the woods?” Mulder decided to rephrase the sentence. “Why wonder off the main path into the woods?” “Heidi said she heard a noise so we wanted to go explore.” A tear rolled down Tiffany’s cheek. “What happened?” “We walked deeper into the woods and then something grabbed Heidi. She fell and she began to slide backwards. I fell, too, and hit my head. I think I lost consciousness because when I woke up, she was gone. I heard you on the path so I ran to the road and then I collapsed.” “Did you see what grabbed Heidi?” “All I saw was flashing colors. It was like someone was blinking but every time they did, their eyes changed colors. It was so weird and I looked for her when I came to but I couldn’t find her.” “Do you know who might have wanted to hurt Heidi?” Mulder asked. “I don’t think her murderer was a someone, I think it was a something.” Tiffany said. By this time she had become completely hysterical. She was crying uncontrollably and she tried to fling herself off the bed but Mulder stopped her from falling. The nurse, who was standing right outside the curtain, came in and gave Tiffany a pill. It calmed her down quickly and Mulder was ordered to leave. * * * * Another three hours passed before Mulder returned to the morgue. Scully was beginning to stitch the body back up. Mulder lingered outside the door, not wanting to look. He spotted bloody utensils on a nearby tray. Mulder took a seat on a couch that was next to the door. He definitely did not want to enter the morgue. He could already smell “death” outside the room and entering it would just make it stronger. Scully snapped off her latex gloves, throwing into a trash can. She walked out of the room and sat down on the couch, next to Mulder. She kicked off her white sneakers and put her feet up onto a small, end table. Scully opened her eyes and saw Mulder was holding something in his hands. She looked at it and saw it was a tub of fried chicken. Having not eaten since early in the morning, Scully grabbed a piece of the chicken. She sat up and began gnawing on it. “How can you eat after you just performed an autopsy?” Mulder asked disgusted. “I have a stomach.” She said. “Would you like to know what I found?” “As always.” Mulder said smiling. “It appears Heidi Kornal died of loss of blood. But that’s what I suspected, Mulder.” “So you still believe an animal is responsible for this?” “That seems to be the most scientific reason.” “Yea, but what kind of animal would kill two girls by scratching them to death.” Mulder wondered out loud. “Like I said before Mulder, a rabid one. We both know the side affects of rabies. I think we should study one of these girls’ brains for rabies.” “Can you do that right now?” “No. We need special permission from the parents to have her brain autopsied. I’m also probably not your best choice to be performing an autopsy like that. It’s been a long time since I watched anyone dissect a brain let alone performed it myself. We should send the body down to DC where a proper doctor can examine the body.” Scully paused to take another bite of the chicken. “What did Tiffany tell you?” “Not much. She’s not going to be much help. She claims that Heidi was being dragged away by something but she can’t identify it. She fell and hit her head of course causing her to have amnesia so she doesn’t remember anything else.” Mulder explained. He paused. “Well, if we don’t get a lead on this case, I’m afraid more people will die.” “How can you be so sure more victims will be found?” Scully wondered throwing the chicken bones into a nearby garbage. “If this is a witch, then she most likely has to feed on human blood. That’s why I’m guessing the victim died of bleeding. As you could see, the crime scene didn’t have too much blood surrounding it.” “Wouldn’t that be vampirism, Mulder.” Scully asked taking another chicken from the tub. “No, vampires usually only drain blood from two puncture wounds on the neck. You should know that by now, Scully.” “Anyway Mulder, I don’t think we should sit here and argue about it. We have to get to the camp before it closes.” Mulder nodded in agreement and they both walked out together. They drove to the camp in silence. In the meadow, the entire camp was walking out of a large circle around the flagpole. A group of seven girls held the flag on the sidelines. It was obvious that they had just taken it down. Scully spotted Piper and Trinity walking to their bags. Scully went over to them and tapped Piper on the shoulder. She was startled and both she and Trinity turned around. As Piper saw Mulder and Scully, relief spread through her entire body. “What did Heidi die of?” Trinity asked. Scully looked into her eyes and noticed she wasn’t as upset as before. She seemed to be free of tears and she seemed to be able to talk about it more freely. Scully hoped that wasn’t because she told the entire unit. “Same as Sandy. They both died of blood loss.” Scully answered. “What do you expect it is?” Piper asked. “I believe its rabies.” Scully said. “Agent Mulder believes it has to do with witchcraft. What were you girls doing?” Scully asked, wanting to change the subject. “At the end of each day we have a flag ceremony.” Trinity explained. “Everyday a new unit puts up and then later takes down the flag. So, after the flag is taken down, we crown the latrine queen and we have announcements.” Piper said. Mulder looked away from the two girls and towards the woods. He noticed a strange woman walking towards the woods. He thought she was a leader or part of the camp directors. The only thing was, the woman neither blinked nor did anything, but walk. Mulder ignored the woman thinking nothing more of it. |