| “Yeah, well there’s no denying the obvious, Mulder. This man had snakebites on him. And that…’scratch’ on Max’s leg was no scratch. That was a snakebite, as well. Fortunately it wasn’t poisonous. I called a snake expert. He’s meeting me in the morgue in about five minutes. I’m assuming you want to be there.” Mulder eyed Max’s room. “What about Piper?” “She can stay here until we get through. We’ll bring her home after we’re done.” The man walked around the table that held the dead body. He was amazed by what he was seeing. Mulder tried to look away from the body but his eyes always drew him back to the badly bitten corpse. Scully stood nearby the man, eyeing Mulder every once in a while. His faced looked a bit greenish, as if he might puke but she knew he wouldn’t. He wasn’t too keen on autopsies but he kept a strong front anyway. “Where did you find the body?” The man asked. “In the Warren Park here in Warwick.” Scully answered. “Here in Warwick?” He questioned. Scully nodded. “Well, that is amazing.” “Why’s that?” Mulder interrogated as he walked closer to the body. “Well from the looks of it, there are over fifty snakebites over this man’s body. By just a visual examine of the different bites, I can tell that none of those snakes could be found in Rhode Island, no matter in a city like Warwick.” He explained. “I mean, I’ve lived in Warwick all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this.” “Well, where would you find them?” Scully wondered. “I’d say some of them could come from Mexico, Texas, Florida. Some from Cali, others from such places as Alaska.” He answered. “Alaska?” Mulder questioned “Yeah, they’re from all over. They’re from places that if they were here they wouldn’t be able to survive. Snakes that live in Alaska can only survive in freezing temperatures and snakes in Mexico couldn’t deal with the amount of rain that we get up here.” The man responded. “So how do you think they got here?” Mulder asked. “I dunno. Imported maybe. But I don’t see how they would have gotten out if they were imported. It’s a mystery if you ask me.” He admitted. “Did you know that the entire place was canvassed within a four mile radius and they didn’t find any snakes nor any traces from any snakes?” Mulder asked. “Well snakes are very intelligent creatures and can crawl kinda fast. How long after the body was found was the area searched?” The man questioned. “The search began less than an hour after.” Mulder answered. “Sir…” Scully began. “Please call me Jeff.” The man responded. “Jeff, excuse me for saying but snakes may be smart but I don’t think any animal is smart enough to diverge police officers.” Scully said. “I agree.” Jeff said. “So how do you explain the absence of the snakes?” Scully wondered. “I couldn’t tell you. What about the girl?” Jeff questioned. “What girl?” Mulder asked. “The girl that was bitten. Agent Scully said something about a girl who was bitten by one of the snakes.” Jeff said. “Yes. Maxine Keil.” Scully said. “Did she see snakes?” Jeff asked. “No, but a girl, Piper Alexander, who was out there with her saw them. She said they were all on top of each other over the body.” Scully explained. “She’s got to be mistaken.” Jeff said, shaking his head. “What do you mean?” Mulder wondered. “First of all, poisonous snakes of different climates and origins like those that gave this man his bites will not just crawl on top of each other. They’ll fight each other for prey and they’d kill each other if they crossed each other’s paths.” Jeff explained. “So what do you think happened? That the snakes each came, bit him, and then left. Like it was a constant flow of snakes?” Mulder guessed. “I don’t know what happened. Maybe somehow they all came and then killed each other off or something and that’s why you can’t find any.” Jeff responded. “Well, if they did die, we’d be able to find their bodies.” Scully suggested. “True. Was the snake that bit the girl venomous?” Jeff wondered. “We did find some venom in her system but it wasn’t amount to seriously harm her and it was extracted before it entered her blood stream.” Scully answered. “I’d like to get out there as soon as we can with the two girls who found the snakes. I have a nature friend, Roger Lambert, who I’d like to invite, as well as the two of you. I want to see if we can find anything and I want to collect some samples of the woods.” Jeff suggested. “Why do you want the girls out there?” Scully questioned. “They know what happened. Maybe they can help identify the exact kind of snake it was so I can better figure out how they got here.” Jeff replied. “We’ll have to wait for Max to get better.” Scully said. “Am I to take it that you know these girls personally?” Jeff asked. “We do.” Scully answered. Mulder realized that she wasn’t going to say any more. “We’ve worked with them on previous cases.” “Oh.” Jeff responded. “So, do you think this murder has anything to do with the others?” “How did you know about the others?” Mulder asked. “The news.” Jeff replied simply. “The bodies were found in the same woods but besides that there seem to be no similarities.” “What about what the girl, Piper said happened to her friend originally? Did it happen again? That trance that she went into?” Jeff asked. “How did you know about that?” Scully questioned. “That information wasn’t supposed to be released to the press.” “Yeah, well if you don’t want the press to find out about it, don’t let it happen.” Jeff recommended. Mulder looked over at Scully. “Well, I’ll be contacting you folks later.” Jeff nodded to both Mulder and Scully and the left. Scully covered the body, and though hesitant, Mulder helped her put him in the freezer. Piper sat on the floor, next to Max’s bed. She held a blue wire in her right hand, a red wire in her left, and a black wire was strung around her neck. Other wires were on the floor in front of her, some connected to the wall while others connected to the laptop that was next to Max on the bed. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing? I don’t want any of these machines malfunctioning or anything.” Max said cautiously. “I may never have wired a laptop through a hospital room so I guess, no, I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m asking you to trust me like last night.” Piper said, connecting wires. “Yeah and look where that ended up. With me in the hospital.” Piper looked up at her sharply. “Do you want me to do this or not?” Max nodded. Piper took a few more minutes, trying to connect things without causing a major power outage. She already had to search through her dad’s basement for hours in order to even find some of the supplies she needed. Others she took directly from her own computer. She knew putting her computer back together wouldn’t be hard but getting this one to work would. She hadn’t used her dad’s laptop too often so it was all knew to her. But she was extremely intelligent as far as computers went and she thanked her dad for that gift. “It turned on.” Max informed Piper as she heard the laptop start up. A small green light turned on and the black screen soon turned to a light blue, showing that it was loading. “Told you I could do it.” Piper said, standing up. “Now let’s see if I can get the Internet.” Max said. Piper pulled over a chair and sat next to Max’s bed. Max turned the screen in such a way that they could both see it. They both watched in silence as it loaded up. As soon as it finished, Max found the Internet icon and she double clicked on it. Piper held her breath as she waited to see if it would work. She sighed as she saw the message ‘unable to connect’ come up on the screen. |