EMXC 1st Year fanfic- October 1, 1994 thru October 1, 1995
Archived: 10/01/95
==============================================================

"Chrome-Magnon"  part two
(© 3/16/95)
Please send all comments to Brenan@AOL.com

(part 2)

     Inside were several cages, all containing some sort of animal.  He
immediately recognized the chimpanzees and the gorillas but the others were
shocking.  He stood in the middle of the room staring at four different
'big foots', all in different stages of 'development'.
     Scully was obviously just as shocked.  She stood next to Mulder with
her mouth open and her eyes wide, trying to take everything in at once.
     'Scully, look.'  Mulder said, pointing to the collars that were around
each animal's neck.  'Just like in the pictures we saw.'  
     'I don't believe it, I just don't believe it,'  Scully kept saying
over and over.  She looked at the fifth big foot in disbelief as he signed
something to her.  She hadn't taken sign language since college, and even
then she only had one semester, but she recognized the language
immediately.
     'My God Mulder.  Look,'  She said, pointing to the creature.  'What is
he saying?'  She asked.
     'I don't know sign language.'  Mulder replied.  Scully slowly walked
to the cage and carefully put out her hands to touch the animal, and he did
the same.  His hands were warm and strong, and he was obviously tame- or
was he intelligent.  Scully couldn't decide.  She felt the hair on his
body, touched his nose and ears.  When she looked into his eyes, she knew. 
He was intelligent.  The animal returned Scully's gesture by touching her
face and playing with her lips and ears.  
     Mulder was growing very anxious.  It was obvious these things were
intelligent and very strong, and he didn't think it would take much for it
to break Scully's neck.
     'Scully, step away from the cage, please, you are making me nervous.' 
Mulder pleaded.  Scully ignored him.  He tried to physically pull Scully
away, but the creature growled at Mulder, forcing him to leave Scully where
she was.
     'Scully, please,'  Mulder said, becoming very frightened.

***

     Dr.  Wells watched the exchange between the intruders and Specimen 5
from behind a cabinet.  He was amazed to see how Specimen 5 had reacted to
seeing the other humans.  Specimen 5 had never seen any other humans
before, except for Dr.  Wells, and he seemed especially interested in the
female.  Dr.  Wells eyed the petite redhead himself.  Well, at least S5 has
good taste, he thought.

***

     Scully turned around to see the rest of the lab.  It was much bigger
than it had looked outside, and she noticed that there was a door that
obviously led into a cellar, and walked over to it.  
     Scully opened the door and walked down the stairs into the cold
cellar.  She immediately found a light switch and turned it on.  Inside the
cellar were even more animals, but these were all female, and all seemed to
be pregnant.  She also noticed the incredible amount of medical equipment
that was down here.  She saw a large freezer in a corner and opened it. 
The freezer was filled with vials, all labeled by date and specimen number.
 Fertilized embryos, she thought in astonishment.
     'Mulder, get down here!'  She called up the stairs.  Mulder
immediately appeared by her side, obviously as confused and astonished as
she was.
     'Look Mulder, they are implanting those chimps and gorillas with these
embryos,' she said, holding one of the vials up for him to examine.
     'Embryos of what?'  Mulder asked.
     'That's what I'd like to know,' she answered.
     'I think our 'Big Foot' was one of these guys,'  Mulder said, pointing
to the vial Scully was holding, 'and he somehow escaped.'  Mulder finished.
 Scully nodded.
     'We need to get some help.  I want to know who is behind all of this,
and what is going on.'  Mulder said.
     'OK, you go ahead, I'll stay here.'  Scully said.
     'No way!  I am not leaving you here.  Let's go, before whoever works
here comes back,' Mulder said, tugging on Scully's sweatshirt.
     'I want to stay with the animals,'  Scully said.
     'They will be fine, Scully.  We'll be back in a few hours and
everything will be fine.  *I* can't leave *you*.'  Mulder insisted.
     'OK,'  Scully said, knowing Mulder's overprotective nature wouldn't
allow her to stay.  She put the vial she was holding in her back pack,
closed the freezer and followed Mulder out of the building and back to
their camp.

*** 

     As soon as the intruders left, Dr.  Wells called for help.
     'I need the truck here now!'  He yelled into the phone.  He hoped that
the intruders were just some stupid tourists that got lost, and not the FBI
agents that were snooping around.  He quickly began loading up the embryos
into the portable cold storage unit he had purchased 'just in case', and
started tranquilizing the animals.  When the truck came he loaded all of
the animals and embryos, all of his data, research and computers, and as
much of the medical equipment he could carry.  When he was satisfied that
he had left no evidence behind, he started a small fire in one corner of
the lab and drove away.

***

     It was late evening before Mulder and Scully made it back to their
camp.  Mulder went to the car to call for back up. 
     Scully sat holding her knees to her chest.  She was still in shock
over what they had discovered in the lab.  Well, she was right on one
account- science could explain most things.  It wasn't Big Foot they were
searching for, it was the result of someone's sick idea of a medical
experiment.
     Something moved in the bushes beside her.  
     'Mulder?'  She called, knowing perfectly well that he was still in the
car on the phone.  Oh God, please don't let it be a skunk, she thought.

***

     Specimen four watched it's prey for a long time before making his
move.  His prey's mate had finally left her alone, and she was sitting by
herself, very vulnerable.  Slowly he began inching towards her.

***

     Scully heard the noise again, only this time it was much closer.
     'Mulder?  If this is one of your stupid jokes, it isn't funny,' 
Scully called into the bushes.

***

     Mulder sat in the car with the door open.  He was trying to figure out
how to tell Scully the news he had just heard about little Mikey Lane when
he heard her calling him.  She didn't sound panicked or anything, just sort
of a 'Mulder, where are you' kind of call.  That was funny, she knew
exactly where he was.  Concerned, he got up and walked back toward the
campsite.

***

     His prey was on her feet now, walking around, confused.  That was
good.  When they were confused they were easiest to kill.  He made his
move.

***

     Scully got up and looked for Mulder.  She was getting worried about
whatever it was in the bushes.  The last thing she wanted was to get
sprayed by a skunk out in the middle of nowhere with no milk or tomato
juice to clean it off.  She instinctively reached for her gun only to find
an empty space on her waist where her gun usually sat.  Great, she thought.
 She headed for the tent when she heard the bushes shake again, only this
time it was directly behind her.  
     Scully turned just in time to see a huge, dark, figure lunge toward
her. She was lifted off of the ground by a strong fist clenched tightly
around her neck.  The animal was almost identical to the one she had seen
in the lab earlier, only this one was definately *not* tame.  Scully kicked
furiously and tried to scream, but she wasn't able to get any sound out. 
She could hear Mulder calling her name from somewhere in the darkness.  Oh
God, please don't let me die, she prayed as the animal began shaking her
weak and tired body.

***

     Mulder walked down the path back toward their campsite when he heard
the noise.  It sounded like an animal rushing through the bushes, which
worried him because he knew a small population of bears lived in this area.
 He quickened his pace and began calling to Scully.  No answer.  He began
to run, cursing himself for leaving her alone, for bringing her here when
she didn't want to come in the first place, and for never being around when
she needed him the most.  Please God, please let her be all right, he
prayed.
     When he reached the campsite he couldn't believe the sight before him.
 A large creature, well over six feet tall had Scully by the neck and was
shaking her.  Scully's tiny frame looked terribly small compared to the
huge animal.  Her limp body looked like a ragdoll as the creature squeezed
the life out of her.
     'Put her down you son of a bitch!'  Mulder yelled as he pulled out his
gun.  Specimen 4, noticing Mulder for the first time, began running back
into the woods with Scully still in his grip.
     'NO!'  Mulder yelled, firing several rounds into the animals back. 
Startled and in pain, the animal yelped, dropped Scully and retreated. 
Mulder immediately ran to her and checked to see if she was still alive. 
He found a weak pulse, but she wasn't breathing and her face was turning
blue.  He laid her flat on her back and began emergency breathing.
     'C'mon Scully, breathe,' he pleaded as he forced air into her.  After
several minutes she began gasping for air.
     'It's OK Scully, it's OK.  Breathe slowly, that's it,'  Mulder
encouraged, pulling her body to him.
     'Mulder...there was something in the bushes... I thought it was a
skunk ...it attacked me...'  Scully said between gasps for air.
     'I know, but it's gone now.  Don't be afraid, I am here,'  Mulder said
quietly, cradling Scully in his arms, 'I am right here.'

***

     Specimen 4 sat quietly in a dark cave.  His body hurt, and he was
feeling very tired.  He was angry at the human who had interrupted his
hunt.  Tomorrow he would return to eat. Tomorrow he would get them both. 
He curled up into a ball and fell asleep.  Specimen 4 never woke up.

***

     By the time the back up arrived, Scully was up and around.  She was
having some pain in her chest and had already developed some dark bruises
on her neck, but was determined to continue despite Mulder's insistence she
stay behind.  
     Mulder and Scully climbed into one of the jeeps and headed for the
facility, followed by several other vehicles containing various law
enforcement officers and Military personnel Mulder assumed were ordered to
handle the 'cover-up'.
     Despite Mulder's weak sense of direction, he was able to lead the
group to the site of the laboratory, or what was left of it.  The lab had
been completely destroyed, and only a few small, scattered fires remained. 
The entire area was black, and most of the vegetation around the facility
had been destroyed as well.  Fortunately there was enough precipitation to
prevent a major fire.  The air smelled bad, and the group had to cover
their noses and mouths with their sleeves to avoid inhaling the hot,
poisonous smoke still emanating from the rubble.  Mulder stepped out of the
jeep and stared at the charred remains of the facility in disbelief.  He
was furious that this had happened, but a small part of him was not at all
surprised.  Did you honestly think you would be able to give the world
proof that 'Big Foot' exists, a voice in his head mocked.
     'Shit!'  he yelled as he slammed his fist into the hood of the jeep. 
He walked through the rubble looking for something, anything to prove what
he had seen.  But whoever had done this had covered their tracks well.
     'I want a team out here looking for bodies, research, anything that
survived.'  Mulder called back to the group.  'Anything that is found is to
go through me, do you understand?  I don't care if all you find is a
pencil, it is to be given to me!'  He finished, getting back into the jeep
with Scully.  One of the police officers got out of his vehicle and began
giving orders to the others, while another called for help.  Mulder started
the jeep and headed back to the campsite.

***

     'What do you think, Mulder?'  Scully asked after several minutes of
silence.
     'I don't know, Scully.  I just don't know.  Obviously someone saw us
at the lab.  That's all I can think of.  Someone saw us and panicked.' 
Mulder said, more to himself than to his partner.
     'What do you think happened to all of the animals?'  Scully asked.
'I doubt they are going to find anything.  No bodies, no research, probably
not even a pencil.  Whoever was behind all of this had a lot of help.  What
we need to do now is find out who owned that land.'  Mulder answered.  'If
we can't find that out, then we don't have anything.'
     'Oh yes we do,' Scully said, pulling the vial out of her back pack.

***

     Dr.  Wells checked on his animals for the third time since arriving at
their 'new home'.  It was a lot smaller and not as well equipped, but he
had brought everything that he would be needing anyway.  The animals were
all starting to wake up, and Dr. Wells wanted to make sure they wouldn't
panic in their new surroundings.  They all seemed to be doing fine so Dr.
Wells sat down with a cup of coffee.  That had been a close call.  He would
have to add security gates or something to prevent another scene like that
from happening again.  The government had told him he would be safe out
there, in the middle of Idaho with miles of woods between the lab and
civilization.  He would demand that this time they offer more security than
trees.

***

     Mulder and Scully arrived at the university well after midnight. 
Scully would have preferred going to a lab in Bethesda, but Mulder was too
anxious to wait that long and had insisted on taking the vial and its
contents to a local university lab. 
     Dr.  Anthony Allerton had been called in and was waiting quietly for
the two Agents.  He hadn't been told what was going on, just that two
Federal Agents were headed his way with some kind of evidence, and that he
had better keep his mouth shut about the whole thing.  He wondered if it
had anything to do with that big foot case the news kept reporting on.  He
heard rumors that FBI Agents had come to investigate it, but hadn't
believed them.  What FBI Agent would want to waste his time investigating a
story about big foot?
     Mulder and Scully entered the quiet lab and handed the vial to Dr.
Allerton.
'I want a complete genetics work up on this,'  Mulder began.  'I want to
know what it is, and if it was genetically engineered.'
     Dr. Allerton took the vial, not quite believing what he was hearing.  
     'How long will it take?'  Mulder asked.
     'To do a karyotype, about three days.'  Dr. Allerton answered.
     'Good,'  Mulder said.  

***
Three days later

     Mulder and Scully sat in the lab waiting for Dr. Allerton to come in
and give them the results of the tests.  It had been a long three days, and
Scully was glad the waiting was over.  According to all of the reports they
had read the land the lab had been built on was a Federal Forest reserve,
which meant that whoever had been working in the lab was probably working
with the government, and that had frustrated Mulder to no end.
     'Agent Mulder and Agent Scully,'  Dr. Allerton said as he walked into
the lab, holding a folder full of papers.  Mulder and Scully stood up and
walked to where Dr. Allerton was standing.
     'We did a full work-up like you asked, and found something very
interesting.  We knew right away it was a primate, and assumed it was a
gorilla- until we found this,'  Dr. Allerton pointed to an image of a DNA
strand on a chart.
     'These three chromosomes here are human, not gorilla,'  Dr. Allerton
said.
     'How is that possible?'  Mulder asked.
     'Well, it is similar to the experiments that are done on transgenic
mice.   In order to create a perfect mouse we clone the genetic material of
the desired traits and inject them into the mouse.  These cloned sequences
are integrated into the mouse, and after several generations of doing this,
the undesirable traits are wiped out.  This is a fairly common procedure in
genetics research, but I have never heard of it being done on primates
before,'  Dr. Allerton said.
     'What are you saying, that someone is trying to prove Darwin right
throught genetic experimentation?'  Mulder asked.
     'That's what it looks like,'  Dr. Allerton said.  'See this?  There is
only about a three percent difference between humans and gorillas.  These
sequences here are what make gorillas gorillas and not humans.  But we
found that they have been replaced with human chromosomes.  I have no idea
whether this embryo would mature into a gorilla or a human, or if it would
even survive.'  Dr. Allerton explained.
     'What about something in between?'  Mulder asked.
     'What?'  Dr. Allerton asked.
     'You said you don't know if it would mature into a gorilla or a human.
 What about something in between?'  Mulder repeated.
     'You mean like a Neanderthal?'  Dr. Allerton asked.  Mulder nodded.
     'I can't even begin to answer that.'  Dr. Allerton said.

***

     They drove toward the motel, too tired and shocked to talk about the
possibilities the embryo held, when Mulder's cellular phone rang.
     'Mulder,'  he said.
     'What?  Yeah, of course...we'll be right there.'  He said before
hanging up.
     'They found the body, Scully.'  Mulder said, turning the car around
and heading back toward the university.
     'What?  What body?'  Scully asked.
     ''Big Foot's' body.  They had a team of dogs out and found his body in
a shallow cave.  He must have made it there after I shot him.'  Mulder
said.  'They want us to come back, and want you to do the autopsy.'

***

     The sight of the animal on the metal table was unbelievable.  It was
well over six feet tall, and although it was covered with hair, it looked
very human.  Several military men stood off to the side, unwilling to leave
the body alone with anyone.  Scully cleaned up and prepared to do the
autopsy.
     The animal's anatomy and physiology were identical to that of a
humans, except for the undersized brain, which is typical of gorillas,
chimpanzees, and other non-human primates.  She noted with extreme tenacity
every detail of the animals body, as well as her personal belief that
Mulder's weapon had killed it.  She also took many tissue and blood samples
and sent them to the lab for testing and research.  
     When she was done she cleaned up and met Mulder in the waiting room. 
He had refused to be present for the autopsy and had instead opted for a
snooze on the couch.  Scully lightly shook him until he woke up.  
     'C'mon Mulder, let's go.  I am exhausted.'

***
The next morning

     The agents arrived at the university early the next day, still tired. 
The bruises on Scully's neck had turned a bright purple, and the dark bags
under her eyes were a close match.
     'We're here to see Dr. Allerton,'  Mulder said to one of the students
in the lab.
     'I don't know of a Dr. Allerton,'  The student answered.
     'We just saw him last night!  He was doing some important work for us,
and we need to see him!'  Mulder said loudly.
     'I am sorry sir, but I have never heard of a Dr.  Allerton.  You might
want to check in the directory, but I have been here two years, and I know
all of the doctors that work here.'  The student said.  Mulder found the
university directory and just as the student had said, there was no Dr.
Allerton listed.  
     'C'mon,'  He motioned as he started toward the room Scully had done
the autopsy in.  It too, was empty.  
     'What the hell is going on, Mulder?'  Scully asked in confusion.
     'I guess the government didn't want this to get out,'  Mulder said.
     'You don't seem very surprised,'  Scully commented.
     'I'm not.  I had a feeling this might happen.'  Mulder answered.
     'And you didn't share this feeling with me because...'  Scully said.
     'Because I knew you would say I was paranoid or something.  It doesn't
matter anyway, there isn't anything we could have done.'  Mulder said,
turning to leave.
     'Wait, what do we do now?'  Scully asked.
     'Go back to DC and file our reports.  'Big Foot' is dead, there won't
be anymore sightings or attacks to investigate.'  Mulder said.
     'But we are going back with no evidence, *again*!'  Scully sighed.
     'Get used to it,'  Mulder said with a smile.  'most aliens and genetic
mutants hate being photographed.'  

***

     Specimen 5 watched Dr. Wells tending to the other animals.  He was
bored in this new place and wanted to leave.  He saw the doctor putting a
funny stick into the metal thing on the outside of the cages and open them.
 He had seen Dr. Wells do this to his cage, too.  He wondered what that
funny stick was.  He looked on the ground, got a piece of hay, and began
poking it at the metal thing.  It kept breaking.  He would need something
stronger.  He looked over at Dr. Wells' desk and saw many small things that
he thought might be strong enough to open the metal thing on his cage.  He
stuck his arm out but couldn't reach the desk.  Then he noticed that one of
the things had fallen onto the ground.  Slowly he reached out and with the
tip of his fingers was able to pull it to him.  When Dr. Wells left the
room, he began poking it at the metal thing on his cage.  He heard a click
and his door swung open.  For the first time in his life, Specimen 5 was
free.


The End.