"Scully reach up and grab that vent!" Mulder hollered as he saw the creatures trying to break free. "Scully grab the vent!" He shouted again. She didn’t move." Scully?" He tried to see her. She was unconscious. He gently lowered her to the ground and checked her vitals. She didn’t have any. Oh God he thought. He started CPR; everything else didn’t matter to him, not even the fact that the creatures were getting closer and closer to breaking free. Come-on Scully please don’t do this to me now! Not after everything that’s happened. Please Scully! Breathe! In God’s name breathe! He looked up; the creatures were starting to break out, Oh God were both going to die Scully jerked her head and started coughing.
Mulder helped her up and boosted her into the vent," Come-on Scully." One of the aliens burst through the ice. "Wow, come-on Scully." They all kept breaking out of their cryopods. Scully started crawling through the vent .Now it’s my turn Mulder hoisted himself up. Just as he was pulling himself in one of the aliens grabbed his ankle.
He gasped, as he was being pulled down. He felt another hand grab his other leg." Keep going Scully. Get out of here!" He yelled while struggling to break the creature’s grip.
"What about you?" Scully whispered. Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Don’t worry about me!" Mulder shouted while feeling the grip of other hands pull him down harder.
"Just get out of here!" He struggled to pull himself up higher. Scully slowly crawled out of the vent to safety.
Mulder could hear the others breaking free, there was no way he would make it out of this one. He felt them pull harder, his grip on the side of the vent was weakening. He was being pulled down. Slowly but surely down into his probable death. Heaven only knew what would happen once those creatures got hold of him. He dropped down another inch, there was no way he could hold on any longer. His grip was getting weaker and the aliens’ stronger and more forceful. His fingers began to pull away, finally with nothing else to lose he cried out to someone he never thought was real." Oh God, if you do exist please! Don’t let me die like this, please!" He squeezed his eyes shut pleading over and over again in his mind; what were destined to be his last words.
Just as his fingers were about to let go a strange thing happened, that for the rest of his life would make him pause. He could never explain it; truth was he didn’t want to. Out of everything he’d ever seen or done nothing shook him as much as this.
He felt a hand clasp his thigh and pull him down even more. "Oh God!" He screamed, This was it this was the end, in one more second he’d be on the ground and totally helpless, to his horrid fate.
Then suddenly he felt those hands being ripped off of him. As if someone or something were pulling the aliens off. And if that weren’t enough he felt something take hold of his ankle again. But not to pull him down, this time it helped to push him up into the vent. He got into the vent and paused. He turned to see who or what had helped him. But all he saw was the aliens being held back by some unknown source. He froze just watching them for a second. Than the same thing that had boosted him up the vent, pushed him towards the exit of the ship. Not gently like last time though, this time it was hard as if showing some kind of urgency.
With one last parting glance he turned and crawled through the vent. There he found Scully semi-conscious. The ground began vibrating again and smoke came up the vent. They had to get out of there. "Come’on Scully we’ve got to get out of here now."
"Mulder?" she asked hazily, blinking her eyes trying desperately to focus them." Mulder?" she asked again.
"It’s ok Scully let’s just get out of here. Grab that jagged piece over there." She grabbed it as firmly as she could. " Okay now start hoisting yourself up!" Mulder insisted.
Slowly they climbed their way out. Both of them found themselves collapsing on the cold hard ice. Suddenly, the ground began to shake, Mulder grabbed Scully. He ran a few paces. Then he realized he had a lot more running to do. The next few minutes went by in an odd blur. They were running and than the earth fell beneath them. Then they were rising and falling again.
Mulder landed on his stomach a few feet away from Scully. He crawled up to her and looked at the sky. What he saw was the one thing he had always wanted to see. He stared for a few timeless moments than he started shaking Scully. She just had to see this. He saw her open her eyes. As to whether or not she saw it he never knew but he had to see it again.
He stared at it for another moment as it got farther out of sight. He glanced back at Scully. Only than did he realize how tired he was. It hit him like a title wave. The adrenaline of finding Scully and getting out of that ship alive was slowly wearing off. He realized how cold and weak he felt. How much his head hurt from his gunshot wound. His eyes slowly began to droop. He gave a parting look at the ship, gazed at Scully for a second and then let the darkness consume him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first thing Mulder was aware of was a slight numbing throughout his whole body. Slowly things began to come back to him. He wasn’t cold anymore; he felt like his body was thawing out. He remembered the ship and collapsing on the ice after rescuing Scully. Scully! Where was she, was she ok? He tried to open his eyes. No luck. He felt so weak and so tired it seemed like an impossible request to ask. But he had to know that Scully was ok.
He used all his strength and slowly forced his lids open. The little slits finally opened all the way. Unfortunately he had to snap them shut due to the brightness of the room. Slowly he tried it again, but this time he let his eyes adjust to the light. It was all a total blur at first but after a little bit everything began to come into focus.
He was in another hospital Great he thought. Then again after a gunshot wound to the head and being in Antarctic with barely any protective gear for who knows how long, what did you expect? To be back in your apartment?
He slowly turned his head and saw Scully staring out the window. She had a hospital robe on and an IV in her arm. Than he noticed he unfortunately had one also. He wasn’t sure whether his voice worked or not but he tried to talk anyway. "Scully?" That actually wasn’t that bad he thought.
Scully turned around and faced him." Mulder, it’s about time you woke up. " She sat down next to him.
"How long have I been out?" Mulder asked trying to sit up.
"Stay down you’ve been out for two days. I was starting to get worried. But the doctor said with a gunshot wound to the head and the hypothermia that was why. Plus I figured with lack of food and sleep which I know you’ve gone without for several days, no wonder you were out cold… So how are you feeling?" She asked.
He paused uncertain of the right word to use. "Um, I guess confused. How did we get off the ice and above all how are you feeling?"
"Because of the strong seismic activity. Scientists flew out a team to see the damage. That’s how they found us. As for me, I woke up yesterday afternoon. I had been unconscious for about fifteen hours. The doctor said aside from a small case of hypothermia and minor frostbite I’m fine. Whatever illness I had is gone. Although I think the doctors’ think I have some sort of psychological problem. Probably because I don’t have any explanation for why the two of us were out in the middle of Antarctica." She gave a smirk.
"Yeah, well if we told them the truth they’d think us more than crazy." Mulder lay his head back on the pillow. He felt okay, but his body was so tired. He felt so weak." So when do we get out of here?"
‘"Well I might get out a bit before you. You gave me your warm clothes, remember? Which means you were exposed more than I was. Either way we’re both here for awhile… Mulder can I ask you a question?"
"Do you even have to ask Scully?" He sat a bit more upright.
"Well it’s still pretty hazy. But when you rescued me; I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I know something grabbed you and pulled you down. I got out of there but last I saw you were slipping down… how did you get out of there?"
Mulder paused. How did he get out of there? He really wasn’t sure. It was so difficult to explain. Was it an answer to a last minute prayer? Or was it just a random act of unpredictability. An unexplained happening, an X-File all of it’s own. He didn’t really know. He really didn’t want to. Because he had the oddest feeling it would change everything he’s ever known.