| “Well, what if the government knew that something like this was going to happen?” Mulder questioned. “It’s possible.” Piper agreed. “But, what would make even more sense would be that the tests that the government is running on these animals caused them to behave this way. Caused them to think someone was trying to take away their home. Therefore, they acted in the only plausible manor.” “To kill anyone who tried to destroy them.” Max finished. “Right. It’s Darwin’s theory of evolution. Only the strongest survive. What if the government was trying to test that somehow?” Piper suggested. “But in order for that to be true the government would have to have that kind of technology and they just don’t.” Scully commented. “Yeah, that’s what they want you to think but I think they’re hiding something. Something important.” Piper said. “Well, let’s try to get your sister’s car out of here and let’s go home and get cleaned up while we get some people to drag the lake. We’ll talk about government secrets later.” Scully commanded. They walked into the camp. Jeff had already started taking down his tent and the canopy that rested above their heads. He didn’t’ say anything to anyone as they approached. Mulder helped him roll up the canopy while Scully helped Piper and Max gather the few things that they had brought. When they finished cleaning up everything, Jeff just walked off, not bothering to say good-bye to any of them. “Looks like he was in a hurry.” Max observed. Piper nodded. “I think it’s time for us to get out of here, too.” She picked up her backpack of stuff and walked off towards the car. Max, Mulder, and Scully followed. As they approached the car, they realized how hard it would really be to get it out of the mud. “Suzanne is going to kill me.” Piper said. “You should have thought about that before you decided to save the world.” Max reminded her. “Don’t worry about it, Piper. We might be able to file it under some FBI insurance. We’ll say we took it for emergency use and it got totaled.” Mulder explained. “Really? You can do that?” Piper questioned. “We can try. For now, let’s not worry about that, though. Let’s just try to get it out of here.” Mulder said. “Don’t you think it would be easier to call a toe truck?” Max suggested. “I don’t think it’s stuck to bad. We can manage.” Mulder responded. “I’ll steer!” Max volunteered. “No!” Piper, Mulder, and Scully answered together. “I’ll steer.” Scully said. “But all of you be careful.” Scully maneuvered her way around the broken glass. With some difficulty, she managed to get the driver’s side door open. She slipped inside and noticed that the keys were still in the ignition. “I’m going to try and start it up.” She announced. She turned the keys and the engine started with a loud rumble. “Well, at least it’s not totally gone.” Mulder commented. He positioned himself behind the car with his hands on the back fender. Piper walked around the car and came up on the other side of the back of the car. The guard rail prevented anyone from being in the center so Max just stayed on the side with Mulder. “Ready?” Mulder called out. “Ready.” Piper and Max answered. “Go ahead!” Scully called. She lightly put her foot on the gas as Piper, Mulder, and Max began to push. The wheels were sliding in the mud. Drops of mud began to spatter Mulder, Piper, and Max. They tried to ignore it as best they could as they tried to push the car out of the large hole that they had made. “I think I got some in my mouth!” Max said with closed eyes, trying to prevent the mud from entering them. “Keep pushing!” Piper commanded. “We’re almost out.” She too was trying to stop the mud from spattering her but it was no use. There was no way of getting out of the mud storm. They kept pushing. The wheels got stuck now and again, just spinning in the thick mud but that didn’t stop any of them from pushing. They were determined to get the car un-stuck. “Stop!” Scully finally screamed when the car was official out of the mud. Now she could just drive it out. Max, Piper, and Mulder gratefully stopped. Scully took the keys out of the ignition and exited the car. She looked at Mulder, Piper, and Max, trying not to laugh. “It’s not funny.” Mulder said, attempting to wipe some of the mud from his face. In actuality it was just making it worse. “Talk about a mud bath.” Max said. “Hey, Hannah and I always said we wanted one.” Piper added in. “Yeah, well Hannah’s not here.” Max responded. “You look like swamp thing.” Piper said to Max. “Yeah, well you look like mud man.” Max retorted. “Who’s mud man?” Piper questioned. “I dunno.” Max answered, shrugging. The two girls laughed hysterically at the sight of each other. “I’m glad you guys find this funny.” Mulder said. “I wish I had my camera now.” Piper added in. “You must admit, the three of you do look pretty hilarious.” Scully commented. Mulder looked from Piper to Max. The three of them nodded. They all quickly grabbed Scully’s arm and knocked her down into the mud. Piper and Max fell down with her. Although Mulder thought Scully would be mad, she was laughing along with Max and Piper. Mulder extended his hair to Scully to help her up. She took it and yanked on his arm. He fell into the mud, as well. The four of them began to laugh hysterically. They began to throw small glops of mud at each other, just having a good time. A dark, clean, and expensive looking car drove down the road. It stopped a few yards in front of Suzanne’s car. Two men stepped out of the car. They were both tall with brown hair. They wore matching suits and matching trench coats. Although it wasn’t extremely sunny, the men each wore matching sunglasses. They looked at each other and then grimaced as they saw the four people playing in the mud. The two men walked by the car, keeping their distance from the mud. “Excuse me.” One of the men said. No one responded. They were all too busy throwing mud and having fun. The second man felt a small bit of mud land on his cheek. He wiped it off, annoyed. “Excuse me!” The man repeated more loudly. This time the others stopped laughing and throwing mud. The four of them just sat in the mud looking up at the two strange men. “Yes?” Max said. “Who are you?” The man asked. “No, the question is who are you?” Piper responded. Mulder and Scully scrambled to their feet. The mud slid beneath them and they struggled to keep their balance. Mulder outstretched his hand to shake that of the men’s but then thought against it when he saw the amount of mud that he had all over him. “I’m Special Agent Fox Mulder with the FBI. This is my partner, Dana Scully.” Mulder said. “What are you doing here?” The second man asked. “First off…” Piper said, standing. “Why don’t you tell us who you are.” “Carlson Hanes.” The second man answered with some hesitation. “Raymond Fog.” The other said. “We’re with the CDC.” “The CDC?” Mulder questioned. “Why would the centers for disease control send you guys out here?” “That’s classified information, sir.” The second man said. “Now we’ll have to ask you and…your children to leave.” “Here we go.” Piper murmured. This wasn’t the first time that someone had mistaken Piper for Mulder and Scully’s child. “We know about the secret building and the testing.” Scully said simply. “You must leave now.” The first man said. His voice was monotone and his emotions remained unchanged. “We can use force if we have to.” He warned when he realized that no one was going to move. “Alright.” Mulder said. “We’ll go but you haven’t heard the last of us. We know what’s going on out there. The men turned and got back into the car. They waited, watching Mulder and Scully through their tinted windows. “Scully, think the car is drivable?” “I think it will make it to Piper’s house.” Scully responded. “Why don’t you and Piper go back to her house and I’ll drive Max back to the hospital where she belongs. We’ll all get cleaned up and meet back at the hospital in a few hours.” Mulder commanded. Piper and Max waved a good-bye to each other before Mulder led Max down the road to where his car was parked. Piper took one last look at the strange men who were still sitting and waiting before getting into the car. Scully did the same. She slowly turned on the engine and put her foot on the gas. “At least it isn’t totally totaled.” Scully commented. “Yeah, now Suzanne won’t kill me. She’ll just banish me to the basement for the rest of my life.” “Piper, you’d like to spend the rest of your life in your basement.” |