He woke to a feeling of lightness, a happiness the likes of which he could not remember. Then it hit him, he’d slept with Scully. Hell, he’d made love with Scully not once, but nearly all night. He’d never get enough of her; he knew that with certainty now. He felt something stir beside him and realized she was still asleep as her arm came to rest on his chest. A new surge of joy suffused him.
Then he recognized their surroundings; the cabin at Quonochontaug. The end of the world. How could it be the end of the world when it was just beginning?
He eased out of the bed to fix some coffee. She’d appreciate that. He opened the cabinet and looked over their stores. She had organized what they had brought yesterday, going over everything and making lists. The freezer still had plenty of room, so did the refrigerator, but the pantry looked well stocked. The problem was in a couple of weeks, they’d be down to beans. As for other supplies -
He jumped slightly when her hand caressed his back. He turned with a shy smile on his face. She didn’t speak, just rested her head against his chest. He took a deep breath and pulled her closer to him, she never needed to think about Diana Fowley again. He’d make sure she understood that. God it felt good to be able to hold this woman, to know she was his.
She pressed her lips against his chest, then looked up at him. “There’s a lot we need to do.”
He couldn’t help his glance toward the bedroom. Her eyebrow went up and he had to laugh. “Oh, other things.”
“Yes, Mulder, ‘other things’.” Her face became serious then. “We’ve got to get more supplies, see who else is here. You and I can’t do this alone.”
He tucked her against him, resting his chin on her head. “Great minds, Scully. I was just checking out the pantry.”
“Is there a grocery near here, and a pharmacy?”
He nodded. “I sure hope they enlarged the place since I was a kid.”
She looked at him for a moment. “Me too.” She looked toward the door. “Have you seen anyone else?”
“I haven’t seen anyone, but they’re here. Someone’s in the house nearest the mansion. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I wouldn’t be surprised. We’re all laying low. Anyone else might not realize the virus isn’t contagious.”
She nodded. “We need to get going.”
“Should we invite our neighbor to go along?”
She thought about it for a moment. “I don’t want anyone to get shot for trespassing.”
“Agreed. You gotta remember, some of these houses weren’t built when I was coming up here. Only a couple of them are year round homes.”
“How do you want to do this?” she asked quietly.
“Head on. I don’t want us to look like looters or dangerous.”
She nodded and turned toward the bedroom. He stopped her, taking her hand. She looked up, questioning him. “What?”
“I love you.”
Without warning her eyes filled.
“Scully?” There was the slightest tremor to his voice.
“Are we going to have time to love each other?”
“Yes. Scully, I promise.” He pulled her close. “Let me get dressed. Let’s get this show on the road.”
*****
He drove the short distance to the other house; they would drive on to the store from there. Mulder pulled into the gravel driveway and looked over at Scully. She reached over and squeezed his hand, then they exited on opposite sides of the car.
She saw the curtain twitch next to the front door, and glanced over at him. She saw his arms go out slightly from his sides, showing he was unarmed. Whoever was in there didn’t need to know they both had guns tucked into their waistbands.
Scully stood to the side, Mulder took his place front and center at the door. She wasn’t comfortable about that, but he had been adamant.
He knocked and after a moment looked over at Scully. She shrugged and he knocked a second time. The door opened, but no one stood in front of them. Scully’s hand moved but he motioned for her to remain still.
“Hello? I’m Special Agent Fox Mulder of the FBI. This is my partner, Agent Scully. May we speak to you?”
A short woman with blond hair styled in a man’s cut stepped into view. She was heavy set, though not fat, shaped like a brick. The shotgun in her hand was aimed at Mulder’s heart. Scully’s gasp was audible but Mulder didn’t move.
“You have some ID?”
He nodded and with two fingers carefully drew his shield from his back pocket. He didn’t know how much validity it still held considering what was happening on the planet currently, but obviously he’d been right to bring it along.
She read it, then motioned toward Scully, not moving her eyes from him. “What about her?”
Scully did the same, taking only one step forward to hand it to the woman.
“Why are you here?”
“I own the house over there.”
“Mulder, yeah. No one’s been there for a long time.”
Mulder nodded. “Too long, but with the trouble, we thought it would be a good idea to get away for awhile.”
She just looked at both of them for a long moment. “Yeah? So what do you want?”
“We’re going to be neighbors for the short term at least. We thought we should introduce ourselves; see if we could help each other out.”
“How?”
Scully spoke then. “We’re going to get supplies. We’re going to need to stock up. Everything is going to get scarce.”
The woman nodded. “I’m Brittany Forbes.” She didn’t bother to shake hands, but the shotgun was now pointing slightly away.
“Do you live here full time?”
“Yeah, for the last few years; since I retired.”
“Retired?” Mulder looked her over, no way was she old enough to retire.
“Navy. I had in my twenty years. You’re planning to stay?”
Mulder nodded. Scully moved beside him. “Is there anyone else here?”
Brittany looked them both over once more. “Come inside,” she finally said. She pointed toward the living room. They took seats on the couch. Brittany took the easy chair and laid the shotgun over her lap. “Jerry, Jerry Parsons. He has a cabin less than a mile to the west, up Lake Road. He’s lived here for a long time. I know he hunts; I’m not sure what he does for a living. There was an elderly couple, the Carruthers. They lived in that house across the road from my driveway, but she got the virus and he took her into town. They haven’t come back and at their age, I doubt they do. The rest of the houses are summer homes.”
“Even the mansion next door?” Scully asked.
“That’s a corporate toy.” Brittany’s tone was scornful. “It’s huge, suites upstairs, a gourmet kitchen with walk-in pantry and wine cellar. It’s for entertaining, but no one has ever lived in it. You’re planning to stay?”
Mulder nodded. “We need to get in all of the supplies we can.”
Brittany huffed. “Have you seen the news?”
“Uh, no, not since we got up here.”
“I have a dish, not that it matters much now. The smaller cable stations are all gone. The networks come on occasionally to give terse updates. The reception is lousy. The death toll is uncountable now. People in biohazard suits are burning what corpses there are. For some reason a lot of bodies are just . . . missing, but that was a live broadcast that ended in gunfire.”
Mulder closed his eyes until he felt Scully’s hand take hold of his. Brittany noted it and nodded to herself. “You’re not contagious.”
“The virus came from bees.”
“Bees?” she obviously didn’t believe that, but looked over at Scully who nodded. “Killer bees killed most of the world’s population?”
“Hybrid bees, carrying a virus.”
Brittany just looked at her.
“Carrying an alien virus,” Mulder expanded.
Her head swiveled back toward him and for the first time she smiled. “Now that’s a good one.”
He didn’t return the smile. “I wish I was kidding. This is the beginning of an alien invasion. It’s not going the way I thought it would, but . . .”
Brittany’s face went solemn again. “You’re serious.”
“The end of the world. We need to get moving on stocking up.”
“You need to get a garden in right away. I can help you with that. It’s already a little late, but your harvest will be later than mine and that could come in handy with just the three of us to handle everything. Have you ever done any canning?”
“No. Can you teach us?” Scully asked quietly.
Brittany nodded. “We better get going. If we’re going to loot the grocery - “
“And the pharmacy,” Scully interrupted.
Brittany nodded. “Let’s move it. That car of yours won’t hold much. I have a truck. I’ll follow you.”
“Should we invite Jerry?” Mulder asked.
“Not a bad idea. He’s on the way, and he knows my truck by sight,” Brittany agreed.
“I’d say we could use all the hands we could get.” Mulder looked over at Scully. She nodded and rose from the couch.
The stop at Jerry’s house didn’t take long. Fortunately he knew Brittany and agreed this was a good idea. At Brittany’s suggestion he brought his own truck and the caravan headed toward the small retail area. They parked in the rear and Mulder jimmied the lock to get into the storage room.
Jerry had a couple of comments about the ease of that entrance, but they were more amused than anything else.
The men each took a dolly and began loading the trucks. The women loaded the meat into carts and packed it into the trunk of the car. Paper products filled the back seat. It was obvious that they would be making several more trips. This certainly wasn’t a super market, but there was quite a bit of food on the shelves and in the store room.
Scully stood at the car, her hands on her hips. “I haven’t even started on the pharmaceuticals and in the long run, they may be more important than food,” she complained to Mulder.
Brittany moved closer. “We can put some stuff in the front seat of the truck. I suggest that we store this stuff at the mansion. It’s got the room, we can keep some at each of our homes, but my house can’t hold what we need. I’m sure yours can’t either.”
Scully nodded. “I agree.”
“Scully does it bother you that there’s no one else here?” Mulder looked around at the deserted street.
She blinked; she’d been so intent on getting adequate supplies the absence of others hadn’t registered. “Everyone’s not dead,” she said quickly.
“No. But I think the people in the cities that are still alive are leaving and the people in the country are headed in. I had to take more than one detour to get here.”
“They’ll be here soon.”
Jerry nodded. “We need to keep the cars filled with gas, for storage as much as anything else. You know when we finish here, there’s not going to be another delivery.”
Mulder looked over at Scully. Whatever it took, he had to keep her safe. “Let’s get going.”
All three vehicles returned to the mansion and the women began unloading the stuff that needed refrigeration while the men stacked the boxes on the work porch off the kitchen. When they were through, they took no time for a break, returning to the retail area.
“Where are you going?” he asked quickly as she reached for the door handle when he pulled into the gas station.
“We need everything, Mulder,” she said as she slipped from the car. She headed into the convenience store and found a box. She began filling it with all of the first aid supplies and over the counter drugs.
Brittany joined her while Mulder filled her truck as well. “Mostly junk food here.”
“Let’s take it anyway, whatever we can pack up. I want to take the pharmacy while the men continue at the grocery.”
“I’ll come with you if you like.”
Scully nodded. “I’d appreciate it. Let me tell Mulder, then I’ll ride with you.”
The look on his face when he realized they were separating pulled at her. “I’ll just be across the street.”
“Keep your gun handy, Scully. I’ll hear you if you call.”
She rose up on her toes and kissed the side of his mouth. “Who else would I call? Come on, we have a lot to do.”
The two women drove the short distance and let themselves in the back. There was an appreciative comment regarding Scully’s skills in this area as well, then they headed into the storeroom.
Scully reacted first to the noise coming from the other side of the counter. Her gun was in her hands before Brittany processed the sound. She motioned for Brittany to stay quiet and moved cautiously forward.
“Hands up where I can see them.” The young man froze, straightening up slowly, his hands in plain view.
“I’m not armed,” he said.
“Good, what are you doing here?”
“I cut my leg. I came in here to get some stuff for it.” He pointed to his torn jeans and the blood plainly visible on them.
“Where did you come from?”
“Originally or just now?”
Scully relaxed slightly from that. He sounded more than
willing to cooperate and she’d questioned enough people to know. “Recently.”
“A couple of guys I know and I came up to Adam’s family’s beach house. We heard about the trouble and started back. I laid my bike down a few miles back and it turns out they weren’t really good friends after all. The bike’s wrecked, I was lucky.”
Scully hesitated, then handed her gun to Brittany. “Can you cover me?”
“Happy to,” the other woman said, setting her feet more firmly and bringing the gun up.
“Let me check out your leg.” He pulled back slightly. “I’m a doctor.”
“An armed doctor?”
She shrugged. “What’s your name?”
“Todd, Todd Cooke.”
“Well, Todd Cooke, put your hands on your head and keep them there.” She knelt beside him and took hold of his jeans. She ripped them quickly, exposing his wound. “You’re going to need stitches.”
“Can, can you do that?”
“Yes. Just stay here, I’ll get the supplies.” She rose, dusting off her knees.
She was only mildly surprised when Mulder burst in from the storeroom. “What’s going on?”
“We’re fine, Mulder. Meet Todd Cooke.” She pointed to the young man seated on the floor with his hands resting on his head.
“Is anyone else with him?”
“No, sir,” Todd spoke quickly. “They left me when I wrecked.”
“Where were they headed?”
“New York, the city.”
“When did they leave you?”
Todd looked between the three people holding him prisoner. “Last night. When I realized they’d really left me, I made a crutch and limped here. I saw the pharmacy and thought I’d better try to patch myself up.”
“Mulder, relax. I’m going to stitch him up, then we can finish packing up here. It’ll go faster if you two pack while I work on him.” Mulder opened his mouth to protest, but she interrupted. “You have your cuffs, right? Use that pole. He’s not going far like this, and as Skinner liked to say, daylight’s burning.”
He couldn’t exactly argue with that, so he secured the man and began helping Brittany with the over the counter drugs.
Todd waited until Mulder had left them alone again, then looked up at Scully. “You carry cuffs?”
She met his look straight on. “We’re FBI agents.”
“You’re an armed doctor and an FBI agent. I’ve fallen into a cult, haven’t I?”
Scully couldn’t help the chuckle and saw Mulder’s head come up at the sound. “We’re fine.” She turned back to her patient. “That might be easier to explain.”
*****
Once Todd was patched up and given a shot of penicillin, she put him to work bagging things for Brittany and her to put in the car. She sent Mulder back to the grocery for the heavier stuff. When they had loaded Brittany’s truck, they headed back to the mansion and unloaded the medicines into one of the rooms downstairs.
“You know we don’t have a grocery store’s worth of freezer space,” Scully stood in the large great room, looking around and figuring the angles.
“We have more than one location,” Brittany reminded her.
“The freezer at Mulder’s house is just a regular little refrigerator freezer.”
“Okay, but I have a deep freeze and so do the Carruthers’. Hey, I have keys to their truck too. That gives us a third truck to get things back here.”
“There’re going to be refugees heading this way. How do we - “
Brittany interrupted Scully immediately. “We can’t think about that now. We have to do everything we can to prepare. Besides we don’t know how many people have survived, it may not be a problem.”
“If we’re all that’s left of humanity it won’t matter any way,” Scully met her eyes.
“I think we should concentrate on one thing now, survival. Besides, that man of yours in going to wonder where you are. We need to get the other truck and head back.”
Scully nodded, Mulder would be concerned.
“I’ll take Todd; I don’t think your Mulder would like you to be alone with him.”
Scully cut her eyes at the woman, but she couldn’t really dispute it, and Brittany certainly looked like she could take care of herself.
*****
They gathered around the table at Brittany’s house. They were tired, but hungry as well. Brittany had used fresh foods for their dinner and they wolfed it down. Though the food was gone they still didn’t move from the table.
Mulder looked over at Todd. “Tell us about yourself.”
Todd looked up, at attention suddenly. “Well, I’m from New York City. I go to, went to Brown.”
“What’s your major?” Scully asked.
“Fraternity life so far,” he admitted ruefully.
“Family?”
“Yeah, lots of them if you count the steps. Mom’s been married three times, Dad five or six. I don’t see him very often. I’m the only one they have together. It’s not exactly a Rockwell family.” He grinned slightly.
“Have you been able to get in touch with them?”
Todd’s grin faded. “No. Mom left for France the day before I headed up to the beach house. Couldn’t say where Dad is. Like I said . . . “ He shrugged. “I’ve tried to call, but none of the numbers are working.”
“The guys you were with, would they get in touch with your family for you?”
“I doubt it. They don’t know how. They were just guys, not friends, obviously. They kind of knew the guy whose beach house we were visiting.”
Scully felt sympathy well up. The boy obviously came from money but it didn’t sound like anyone was looking for him. If his mother was out of the country, chances were he’d never see her again, if she was even alive. As for his father . . . well, the same thing applied. She kept quiet, nothing she could say would help right now.
“Think we can finish up the grocery tomorrow?” Jerry asked.
Scully nodded grateful for the change in subject. “The things that are left aren’t going to spoil, but we do need them all. I want to check out the antique store. When the electricity goes off, we’re going to need backup.”
“Electricity?” Todd asked. “You think it’s going off?”
Scully nodded, feeling Mulder’s eyes on her. “I’m not saying someone’s going to come by and turn it off, but the first storm that knocks down a pole . . . “
“But, but we just stuffed the freezers with food.”
“I know. Once everything is frozen solid, maybe we can find another way to preserve things. It buys us some time.” Scully turned toward Mulder. “If you guys could finish up, Brittany can show me how to can the vegetables we’ve gotten.”
“Some of the meats too,” Brittany added.
“There are still canning supplies there, and I know that Mrs. Carruthers did a lot of home canning. We need to get all of her supplies. That’ll give us two pressure cookers. We should do this over at the mansion. That stove can hold both of them and we can spread out in the kitchen. We can get a jump on it before the power does go out.”
Scully nodded. “Good idea. Guys, we need everything out of the grocery store and the pharmacy.”
“Even the coloring books?” Todd grinned.
Mulder grinned. “Yeah; which reminds me, we need to empty out that little library too.”
“The library?” Jerry stretched rotating his neck.
“Yeah. Since the TV reception isn’t too good anymore, we might want them.”
Todd looked between the two men and leaned back in his chair. “Can we go ahead and clean up so I can go to bed?”
Mulder sighed. “Good idea.” He rose from the table and took his and Scully’s plates. Scully and Brittany put away the leftovers while Mulder filled the dishwasher.
There was a lot to do.
Links to other sites on the Web
