PART FIVE
Please pardon me as this part is extraordinarily
cheesy.
Check part one for disclaimer
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Part five-Evacuation, or Welcome to the land of the
late, great, plot device
The normal childlike raucousness of the playground
was now replaced with the noise of ambulances, police
cars, assorted members of the police force, and two
F.B.I. agents.
Scully rushed up to an EMT and gave him an order
to take to the hospital. "Tell Dr. DeLuca as soon as
the bloodwork for this kid comes in to get us a copy of
it down at the police station."
"Yes, ma'am," the EMT said, and pushed the gurney
holding the small child into the waiting ambulance.
The sound of the siren starting up was hardly heard
over the already loud din made by the assortment of
kids beginning to gather at the now barred off entrance
to the playground. Scully noticed that Molly and Alec
were in this crowd.
Scully's eyes followed the ambulance for a few
seconds, then they went on to where Mulder was once
again talking with Captain Avery. Her feet followed
and soon she found herself face to face with the two
men. "How's the boy?" Mulder asked.
"Same as the others. Did you find out who he is?"
she asked, looking between the two men.
Avery nodded. "Yeah, but I don't want to go into
it here. Let's wait till we're back at the station,"
he said, motioning with his head at the throng of
students milling around, shouting questions at whatever
officers were in hearing distance.
"Are all of the students out of the schools yet?"
Mulder questioned, looking at the students.
"I'll find out," Avery said and called to one of
his officers. "How many students have been sent home
so far?"
"Well, the high school has been let out, but the
academy is still in session," the officer said, looking
almost too eager to finally be out working on a case.
"Thank you," Avery said, and the young officer
walked off.
"Well, there's not much else we can do here
until the forensic team arrives, we might as well
let the school know they can go home. It would
probably make the team's job easier," Scully
suggested. Mulder shrugged his concurrence.
"Sounds good to me," Avery stated. The three
began to make their way through the throng of students
that seemed to have multiplied in a matter of seconds.
They walked up the large front steps of the school
and entered the building. The walked to the principal's
office in the front hallway and knocked on the door.
The principal, another nun, pulled it opened and looked
at Avery, the only familiar face out of the three. "Yes?"
"There are going to be more people coming to
investigate here so it would be best if you dismissed
the rest of the students for the rest of the day,"
Avery said.
The principal nodded. "That's fine, but we're
going to have to go around and tell the classes
ourselves. The P.A. system is down today."
Avery and the principal went off into the back
wing of the school, past the cafeteria, and Scully
and Mulder took the two classes in front of the building.
Mulder knocked on the door to the kindergarten
room and waited for the answering call from inside.
When it came he pulled open the door to see a bunch
of small, uniform clad kids crowding around the windows
to find the source of the sirens. Watching over them
was a matronly, grey haired woman dressed in a simple
blouse and skirt. The light glinted off her reading
glasses, efficiently hiding her eyes. "Yes?" she asked him.
"The students are being dismissed for the day to
make the police's job easier," Mulder said, still
standing in the doorway. "The buses should be here
in about twenty minutes."
"Thank you," the grey haired woman smiled at him.
Mulder nodded, feeling slightly awkward, and closed
the door.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The grey haired woman, Helen Calvert, stared at
the door a few moments after the young man closed it.
When she first saw his face her mind jumped years back
into the past, to the face of a little boy she'd only
had for one year in one of her earliest preschool
classes before he mysteriously disappeared. Even
after all these years she was still friends with the
little boy's mother, Catriona Ramsay.
That man seemed like he could have been the little
boy, Fox, all grown up. Could it be after all these
years, by pure chance...that it could be him? In a
split second Helen made the decision to tell Catriona
about this man, maybe to alleive some of the pain she'd
carried for thirty-five years. 'But right now,' she
thought as she turned to the kids scrambling for their
bags and jackets, 'I've got these children to worry about.'
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Is our bus coming any time soon?" Molly whined
as she scanned the bustling parking lot with her hand
over her eyes to block the sun.
"We're not taking the bus," Alec said decisively
as he walked up the Academy stairs to get a better
look at the school grounds. Molly's eyes followed
him up the stairs with a look on her face.
"We're not?" she repeated snidely.
He looked down at her apologetically. "I called
Gramma when you were getting your stuff. She said to
go to the bakery, along with Robynne, Brian, and
Juliette. Which means..." he trailed off.
Molly's face grew sour. "Damned mass transit,"
she muttered.
At that moment two kids came rushing down the
stairs, the smaller crashing into Alec's legs.
"Where's the bus?" Juliette Parker asked as she
untangled herself from his legs.
Alec glanced down at his eight-year-old cousin,
and then to her ten year old brother Brian. They both
had classic Ramsay looks, taller than most with hazel
eyes, but hair darker than his inherited from their
father's side. "We got to take the public bus today.
Gramma wants us to go to her bakery because no one's
going to be home to take care of you."
"Can't we go to Mom's bookstore instead,"
Brian whined.
"And miss out on free food?" Molly grinned, trying
to get him to come without argument.
"Good point," Brian conceded. "So why aren't we
walking to the bus stop?"
Alec grimaced himself and began to look around
the school grounds once more over various statues of
saints, grass, and parking lots. "We're waiting
for Robynne."
Juliette giggled. "There're people and cops
going around saying we can go home because the P.A.
died again. I don't think they figured out yet that
there's classes in the cottage."
Molly looked up at Alec. They both sighed and
simultaneously sat down on the steps, resigning
themselves to a long wait due to the incompetence
of the N.Y.P.D.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mulder walked over to where Avery and Scully
were standing in the front part of the principal's
office. "I think that's it," he said.
"Okay, let's get back to the station then,"
Scully said. "I'd like to take a look at the blood
work on the latest victim."
The principal walked into the room. "Did you
remember the kids in the cottage?" she asked.
Mulder glanced at Scully, who gave the unspoken
equivalent of an 'Uh-oh.'
"Cottage?" Avery said, voicing all their concerns.
The principal nodded. "That little building to
the right of us. There are a few classes in there.
Can I assume you didn't tell them yet?" she asked as
she crossed her arms over her chest.
Mulder, Scully, and Avery looked at each other
and reached a mutual decision. "I'll got tell them,"
Mulder said, and walked towards the big double doors.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Robynne Ramsay was bored. Make that really
bored. One of the most bored eighth graders on
the planet. She stared out the top floor windows
at the school grounds-slash-parking lots, and twirled
a strand of golden brown hair around her index finger.
The grounds were bustling full of most of the population
of N.D.A., yet Sister Anne Marie still persisted to
teach. Her hazel eyes glinted in the light from the
sun. Something was happening down there, and she
wanted to be a part of it. She was smart enough to
figure out the commotion was probably because all the
cops and feds that had been crawling around the place
since this morning, and randomly over the past few weeks,
at least according to what Alec, her older brother,
had told her.
Sister Anne Marie began to drone on once more.
"Okay class, can anyone tell me--" she was cut off by
the sound of a sharp rap on the door. Robynne glanced
up at the sky, as she often did, and mouthed 'thank you'.
Like every other student in the class, Robynne
turned to see who was at the door. The door was pulled
open by Sister Anne Marie to reveal a tall, dark haired,
hazel eyed man. "How can I help you?" she asked.
Robynne's jaw dropped and she stared at the man.
He could have been Alec's twin brother, except about
fifteen years older. 'Okay,' she thought, 'there are
coincidences, and there are coincidences, and then
there's this. It's just too damn spooky.'
She didn't hear any words that were spoken
between the man and Sister; she was too busy lost
in thought and staring off into space. By the time
she came back to herself she realized the room was
empty and Sister was standing over her.
"Day dreaming?" Sister asked in an icy cold voice.
Before Robynne could respond she spoke again "Class has
been dismissed for the day. Get out of here." Robynne
grabbed her bag and vaulted out of her seat for the door.
Her first step would be to find Alec. He was going to
have to hear about this one.
She took the cottage stairs three at a time in
her haste, and then burst out the door to the warm,
early fall day. "Where are they?" she muttered,
standing amidst students bustling around her trying
to find their parents, buses, siblings, and the like.
Robynne quickly spotted Molly's flaming hair that stood
out sharply, and where one was, the other usually wasn't
far off. She ran over to them, arriving breathless
and panting.
"Calm down, Robbie," Alec said, standing up.
"You are not gonna believe what I just saw,"
Robynne gasped out. "One of the FBI agents--"
"Let me guess," Alec said, looking over at Molly,
"tall, dark haired, looks a hell of a lot like me?" he
asked wryly. Alec and Molly began walking off the steps
to leave the school property. "We know," they chorused.
Robynne looked at Brian and Juliette, then up at the
sky. "Can't we just marry them off already?" she pleaded
to the sky. Brian and Juliette giggled, and then they all
ran to catch the public bus.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Back at the 121st precinct the people working on the
case were gathered in a conference room to discuss the
latest developments.
Avery stood at the head of the room and opened
the file he was holding. "Latest victim is Jason
Ericson, age ten. Preliminary exam says he exhibits
the same symptoms as the others."
Mulder broke into Avery's speech. "Whoever this
is broke his pattern." He looked at Scully and she
nodded slightly, she'd seen the differences too.
Mulder continued. "This latest victim is only ten
years old and in the fifth grade class. That's a far
cry from the other victims. It's also been less than
a week between attacks. The other attacks had at least
seven days between them."
Avery's second in command, Lewis Fishman, a tall,
African American man with thinning hair, spoke up.
"So whoever is poisoning these kids is becoming less
selective with his victims."
"He's escalating," Scully said. "Meaning we
better find this guy before he speeds up even more
and gets more random with his victim selection."
There was a knock on the conference room door.
"Yeah," Avery said gruffly. A small woman in a flowery
dress opened the door with a wary expression on her face.
"Sir," she began, wringing her hands together
nervously, "there's a reporter from the Advance
outside. She wants to ask you some questions about
the boy who was found behind N.D.A. today."
"Shit!" Avery exploded and slammed his fist
down on the table. "I thought I had called for a
media blackout on this whole situation." So far
no one who wasn't involved with the case or the
victims hadn't heard about the first four attacks,
but now it suddenly changed.
"You did," Fishman reassured. "But we can't
control who the high school kids talk to. One of
them probably mentioned it to someone, and somehow
it got to the press."
Avery took a deep breath and unclenched his
fist. He turned back to the group. "All right.
The media blackout is still on. Anyone asks any
questions-no comment!" Hearing this the woman in
the flowered dress shut the door to go deal with
the reporter. Avery sighed and ran a hand through
his hair. "Now how are we supposed to catch this
bastard?"
"I think," Mulder started "we're going to have
to catch this guy in the act. The only things that
indicate the kids were attacked are that they're left
in relatively the same spot. As gruesome as it sounds
we're going to have to catch this guy mid attack."
"It's going to be a bit hard to stake out a
forest though?" another voice spoke up.
"A forest that size? It's going to be very hard
to surveille that inconspicuously," Avery said,
biting his lip. "The thing is we've got to get
people out there as soon as possible."
Mulder felt a strange buzzing, whirling
feeling inside his head. Discretely he leaned
back against the conference room wall and shut
his eyes. An idea, from somewhere unknown,
began to form in his head. But this wasn't a
normal idea, though, it was more of a feeling.
A feeling that something was going to happen.
Eventually, or in the space of a few seconds,
he found his lips were forming a word. 'Tomorrow,'
he kept mouthing, and then suddenly his eyes popped
open and his head cleared.
Whatever or whoever it was was going to attack
again tomorrow. He straightened up and looked over
at Scully, poring over the latest tox screen that
was just delivered. Avery was staring at a map of
Grimes Hill frustrated, trying to find exactly where
would be the best place to position his men.
"Dammit, we're not going to be able to get
this many people out until Sunday," Avery muttered,
mentally calculating how many men it would take to
provide a good watch over the forest.
"Scully and I can go out there tomorrow," Mulder
piped up. Both Scully and Avery looked at him, the
former with a 'what the hell are you talking about'
look on her face, the latter with a 'you have two
heads' expression. "Hear me out," he said. "Scully
and I haven't gotten a good look at where the other
four kids were found yet. We'll go out to look at
those, and it we run into anything, we're armed and
we have our cell phones."
Scully bit back a comment about how many times
he'd lost his gun and his cell phone.
Avery shrugged. "What the hell. It can't hurt.
Just be careful and carry extra bullets. I've got
enough problems with this case already."
"Okay," Mulder said. Scully walked over to him
with a stern look on her face. He just knew that she
was going to say something about it.
"Can I speak to you for a sec, Mulder?" Scully
asked, jerking her thumb to the door to the conference
room.
"Sure," Mulder said, and they walked out of the
room. Scully led them down the hall to one of
interrogation rooms. Once in there she turned to
face him with fire in her eyes.
"What the hell is going on Mulder?" she asked
with an edge to her voice.
"We've got to be out there tomorrow. This
thing is going to attack again tomorrow and we've
got to be out there to stop it," Mulder insisted.
"But how do you know?" Scully asked, pushing
her face close to his.
"I've got a feeling," Mulder said, looking
down at her.
"A feeling?"
"Yeah. I know it sounds like a weak idea,
but I've got such a strong feeling that this thing
is going to be out there again tomorrow, and we can
catch this creature," he pleaded.
"Why don't you just ask Avery for some men to
come with us then for an informal stakeout?" Scully
asked, trying to urge him to think rationally.
Mulder sighed and propped himself up on the
table in the small, dark room. "I would ask them
but I honestly don't think they'll be able to help
us catch this creature."
"It's a creature now?" Scully asked, puzzled.
"Call it Fox Mulder's spooky sense," he grinned.
"And it's telling me that we have to be out in the
forest behind the school tomorrow, early tomorrow
morning, in order to stop the creature."
Scully was still wary, but Mulder's deep
conviction in his feeling was something she
knew to trust. "Okay," she conceded. "But
if this feeling of yours lands you in the hospital
again, I won't be responsible for my actions," she
finished sternly.
Mulder hopped off the table, grasped her by
the upper arms and placed a light kiss on her forehead.
"Don't worry," he said softly. "Everything will be fine."
"I hope so," she said, but even that couldn't
allay the sense of foreboding building in her stomach.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
END PART FIVE- Evacuation or Welcome to the land of the
late, great plot device
I apologize for my comments about the NYPD. They are
actually my own gripes about the cops in my area, who
are basically a bunch of schmucks.
(
geocities.com/rhiaramsay)