[Oneshot] Out of Africa {The X-Files/Lost}
TITLE: Out of Africa
FANDOM: The X-Files/Lost - crossover
AUTHOR: nicis_anatomy
CHARACTER: Mulder, Scully, Juliet, Mr. Friendly
GENRE: gen, humor
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 3,224
SUMMARY: Mulder and Scully are stranded in the middle of nowhere but things aren't as they seem ... Written for the crossover challenge at lost_land.
WARNING: English still isn't my native language (although I wish) and the story is not beta'd.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. I just borrow them from time to time to have some fun with them.
~*~*~*~*
The air was hot and sticky as Scully opened the door of their rental jeep.
They had driven for hours and hours and as far as Scully could tell they might as well have reached the end of the world; stranded in the middle of nowhere and still miles from where Jesus had once lost his sandals.
Scully mumbled a silent prayer, apologizing for her slander thoughts. She was tired and in a bad mood and everything was only Mulder's fault. He was the reason why she was grumpy and not her usual self. Because of him she had to cancel all her weekend plans (not that these had including anything other than a long hot bubble bath and some alone time in front of the TV, but that wasn't something Mulder needed to know), forcing her first on that plan to Tunisia in Africa and than into that jeep without any air conditioning. She had all the rights to be in a bad mood and she didn't even try to hide it from him.
"What are we doing here, Mulder?" Scully asked not for the first time, "And where the hell is 'here'?" She shot him a look that might have killed him - if looks could actually kill, that was, but Mulder didn't notice. He just smiled at her and pointed towards a spot in the near distance, and Scully wondered how he even knew if that was the spot he was looking for. For all she could tell, one sand corn looked pretty much the same as his millions and millions of brothers and sisters surrounding them. But Mulder seemed determined and sure that this was the right spot.
Well, at least we've reached our destination, Scully thought, as she started to follow Mulder to that spot he'd pointed at.
He still hadn't said a word so Scully repeated her question.
"We are where we are supposed to be," he answered mysteriously and bend down to examine the ground. "This is the place were strange things happened and no one can explain why."
"Like, that two people from America come here for no obvious reason?" Scully asked sarcastically. "Why are we here, Mulder?"
"I just told you, Scully. We are here because this place is special. People appeared for no reason and most of the times they have no explanation whatsoever. Sometimes, they come back years later far away from where they once disappeared; sometimes they don't have any history at all."
"Are we talking about abduction?" Scully asked. She was sensing one of his alien abduction stories coming up and if this was the reason why they were here, she would make sure to kill Mulder, making sure it would look like an accident.
"I don't know, Scully," Mulder said, walking around in circles. He stopped right in front of her and looked her in the eyes. "But I'd like to know why someone put up that security camera and who that someone is."
"What ..." Scully started, but Mulder's finger on her lips silenced her. Scully stiffened, trying to make sense of all that - and also of the tickling feeling on her lips where he'd touched her -, but before she could find any answered, she felt something else. Suddenly, the world around her was spinning, faster and faster. Scully felt dizzy and she was sure she would faint any second. She grabbed Mulder's arm, trying to steady herself, and he did the same by putting both hands on her shoulder. His eyes searching for hers and using them as a fixed point they just stood there, hoping and praying that whatever was happening to them would end soon and that they would come out of it alive.
Then it was over.
Scully found herself on top of Mulder, who was lying on the ground, green leaves and weird looking flowers surrounding him. The light was bright, too bright for Scully's eyes. She blinked a few times and tried to make out more of their surroundings, totally ignoring the fact that she was still on top of Mulder and why this was so wrong in so many ways.
"Scully?" Mulder groaned, carefully rolling to one side, taking her with him until her hip and shoulder made contact with the grass. "Where are we?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Dorothy" Scully mumbled, killing a mosquito on her bare forearm. "What the hell happened and why aren't we in Tunisia anymore?"
"I don't know, Scully. We definitely aren't in Africa any more. Whatever happened it sure is something we should investigate."
"I was afraid you'd say that, Mulder." Scully sighed but she knew that he was right. They had to do something, anything; other than killing mosquitoes and lying around on the ground.
She waited until Mulder was back on his feed and let him help her up. Together they walked for what felt like an eternity. The jungle just didn't seem to end and the weather changed every hour. One minute it was hot, the next it started raining cats on dogs. One time, Scully was sure she heard a strange bird calling out for her but she didn't say anything. Mulder mentioned it neither and since she wasn't sure he had noticed anything out of the ordinary, she kept quiet.
There were no talking birds. And there were no things such as aliens or teleportation either, she thought, wondering if this was just a dream or a hallucination, caused by an overdose of 'Mulder' mixed with lack of sleep and the jetlag. Maybe she was still lying in the sand, unconscious and delusional.
The farther they went the more she hoped she was right. If not, how the hell were they supposed to get back home?
About an hour later they reached a deserted beach. It was beautiful under the circumstances - except for what looked like the rest of a crashed plane washed ashore. Scully wondered if whoever had been on that plane was still alive and somewhere near. They needed a telephone to call for rescue. Someone had to be here ...
But Mulder, as usual, crashed all her hopes. "I think we are on an island. A deserted one," he said.
"Why's that?"
"Just a feeling."
"I hate your feelings, Mulder," Scully said. "Come on, let's walk on the beach until we find someone who could help us."
"I don't know, Scully." Mulder hesitated. "Something feels wrong."
"You mean, beside us being here instead of that freaking place in the desert? How's that?"
Mulder didn't answer. He just looked at her as if trying to find the right words to explain their situation, and after a moment he gave up and just shrugged. "Come on, let's keep walking."
They followed the endless beach for another half hour, but went back into the jungle once the beach ended at a cliff of high stones none of them were in the mood for to climb.
Another hour later, Scully stopped without warning and Mulder, whose eyes had been fixed on the sky above them, crashed into her.
"Ouch!" Scully exclaimed, rubbing her back. "Look where you're going, Mul-"
Again, Mulder silenced her by pressing his hand over her mouth. He sent her an apologizing look but Scully only noticed the alarm in his eyes. She stood still, listening intensely. The jungle around them feel silence, except for a distance hammering.
Civilization, Scully thought excitedly and she wondered why Mulder wasn't excited as well. Then a branch cracked on their left and the next second a blonde woman walked out of the bush. She was good-looking; intense blue eyes, long legs and her tainted skin fit her long, light hair. She was actually really beautiful - except for that taser in her hand that was pointed right at them.
Mulder saw it too and he instinctively pushed Scully behind him, trying to shield her from any danger. Under normal circumstances, Scully would've protested but now she was just glad to have a gentleman at her side.
Unfortunately, it didn't help her at all, since two men walked out of the bush right behind her and before Scully could react they had grabbed her and Mulder.
"What the -," Mulder started but before he could finish the blonde woman had used her taser on him and all Scully could do was watch him fall on the ground, wincing in pain.
"Anything you want to add?" One of the men holding her asked. Scully just shook her head no. She knew better than to protest on how they were treated and she didn't even react when one of the man put a blind over her head and lead her away.
They walked for a couple of minutes, then stopped. Scully heard someone opening a rusty door, then the blinds were removed from her eyes and she was pushed inside of what looked like a huge cage.
"Stay here," the woman ordered. Scully turned around and watched the man closing the door behind her. Then the group walked away.
When they were out of sight, Scully kneed down beside Mulder. "Are you okay, Mulder?" she asked, carefully examining him. His shirt was tattered and there were two red marks on his skin from where the taser had hit his chest. But except for that, he seemed to be okay.
She sat down beside him, pulling him close so that his head was resting on her legs. Absent-mindedly , she started stroking his hair, remembering the last time they'd spend a night together like that. Back then he'd been injured, too, and they were running away from a monster in the woods. Now they were stuck in a cage. No monster in sight - but Scully noticed the security camera up in a tree opposite to their new home. Someone was watching them, and she wondered who that was and what this someone might have planned for them. Maybe the monster wasn't so far away this time after all ...
With that thought Scully feel asleep.
In the morning, a loud alarming noise woke her up. She opened her eyes, and instinctively reached for her hip where she normally kept her gun. It wasn't there. Instead she felt hard and dusty ground below her, and suddenly, she remembered. She looked around, searching for Mulder and when she found him standing at some kind of machine on the other side of the cage, Scully felt both relieved and confused. He was holding what looked like a huge cookie in his hand and beamed at her like a child on Christmas morning.
"Look what I've found, Scully," he said as he walked back to her.
"Good morning to you, too, Mulder," Scully replied, reaching for the cookie he was offering her. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until the held that cookie in her hand but when she took a bite, her hunger vanished immediately. Nauseated by the fish taste, she spit the cookie out again.
"Disgusting," she mumbled. "Where did you get this?"
"You won't believe it, Scully."
"Try me," Scully said. After working with Mulder for such a long time there was hardly anything that could surprise her anymore, and everything he said was some kind of stuff she would've called 'unbelievable' in the past.
"Do you see this machine?" he asked. "It's some kind of Skinner box. Not named after our old friend Skinner ... It's a device that delivers positive reinforcements and punishments to the test subject in response to -"
"I know what a Skinner box is, Mulder," Scully interrupted him, annoyed.
"Right ... Well, you have to push these three button at the same time to get a reward." He held up the fish biscuit. "If you don't do it and if you push just one button, you will be hit by an electric shock. It took me some time to figure it out and I still don't know why it's here but ..."
"Some time?" Scully asked. "How long are you up and why didn't you wake me?"
"A few hours," Mulder replied. "I didn't want to wake you. You looked so exhausted and ... well, there isn't much to do here anyway, so I figured I should let you sleep."
"Well, I could've helped you finding a way to get out of here."
"The only way out of here is through that door, Agent Scully," a female voice interrupted her and when Scully turned around she saw the blonde woman from last night walking over to them. She was accompanied by the same two men again.
"How do you know who I am?" Scully asked. "And why are you holding us?"
"We know a lot of things," one of the man said, and ignoring her second question, he pulled a key out of his pocket and put it in the lock on the cage door. "We will open the door now. I except you to behave, Agent Mulder. Otherwise, Juliet here might have to use her little gadget again." He grinned.
"Don't worry, Mr. ..."
"Friendly," the man said. "My friends call me Tom. But you can call me Mr. Friendly. Take care of Scully, Juliet. I'll take care of him."
"I don't like this, Mulder," Scully whispered, but she didn't try to resist as the woman - Juliet - took her arm and led her out of the cage. She was blindfolded again and, just like the night before, she and Mulder were escorted through the jungle for about ten minutes. When they finally reached their destination, Scully noticed that they were at some kind of building site surrounded by trees and bushes. There were already a few people working and they looked up curiously at the newcomers.
"What is this place?" Mulder asked.
"This is where you are supposed to be," Friendly answered, handing him a pickaxe. "Try to hit me with that thing and you're dead," he warned Mulder. "Work on that stones over there. And you, Scully, can help him loading the barrow."
"And if we don't?" Scully, who wasn't in the mood to a) follow his orders, and b) didn't see why she had do this kind of work, asked, giving Friendly a challenging look.
"Because I say so. Now, go off to work."
"Come on, Scully. Do as he says." Mulder put his hand on her back and led her to the huge pile of stones.
"But why, Mulder?" Scully asked. "This is ... this is not right. They can't tread us this way. We are federal agents and whoever these people are ... they can't hold us against our will. I will ..."
"You will do what?" Mulder asked. "You don't have a weapon. They have. There is no escape. Look around. There are people with guns everywhere around us. If we run, they will shoot us."
"But we have to do something, Mulder. This is not right."
"We will, Scully. Trust me. Whatever is happening, it's happening for a reason. We just have to find out what it is."
"I hope you are right." Scully sighed and started to pick up some of the smaller rocks. She wasn't happy but she trusted Mulder enough to don't do anything right now, except for what they'd been told to do. There was a rational explanation and sooner or later they would learn what it was. And then they would find a way out of here. They had to.
If not, there was still her other theory that this was all just a dream she would wake up from eventually. And then they would laugh about the strange ways her imagination worked sometimes ...
They worked in silence until noon, when they were allowed to take a short break, drink some water and rest.
Scully found a spot in the shadow of a tree. She sat down and leaned back against the tree. Every muscle in her body ached and she was sure she would never be able to move again. Closing her eyes, she drifted off and only woke up when Mulder sat down next to her, offering her a bottle of water. Scully opened her eyes, looked at the strange label on the bottle (the same one that had been imprinted on both, the pickax and the fish biscuit) and took a sip of water.
"I asked around a bit," Mulder informed her as she handed him the bottle. "It looks as if we are indeed on an island. These people live here and they work here."
"But why? And why did they capture us? We haven't done anything wrong."
"This is their island. They don't like strangers, intruders."
"But we ... it's not our fault that we are here."
"I know, Scully. But that doesn't seem to make a difference to them; other than that we are cheap manpower."
"For what?"
"For this construction site, of course. Looks like they need to finish it soon."
"It?"
"The runway. For the aliens."
Scully turned her head, looking at him shocked. "For the aliens? You're kidding me, right?"
"Nope." Mulder shook his head.
"Mulder, you ... I can't believe it. As soon as we are out of here, I quit. For good, this time." Her voice grew louder, she was almost screaming now. "A runway for aliens ..."
"What did you say? Scully? Wake up. Scully?!?" The hands on her shoulders were shaking her and Scully slowly opened her eyes. Everything was dark around her and her eyes needed a moment to adjust. Mulder gave her a concerned look that worried her more than anything else.
"What happened?" she asked, slowly sitting up. Mulder helped her over to the couch - to her couch in her apartment. "Why are we here? This doesn't make any sense. We were ..."
"I don't know what exactly happened," Mulder said, sitting down next to her. "We were on the phone together and suddenly the line went dead. I tried to call you again, but you didn't answer. So I came here and found you lying on the floor. You must have slipped our something. Does your head hurt?"
"No. I'm ... I'm fine." She forced a smile, although she was still confused and anything but fine. Her back and her arms hurt like she'd worked for hours doing some heavy lifting. But this couldn't be. She was here, at home. There was no island, no fish biscuits, nothing ...
"You don't look fine," Mulder said. He lifted his hand and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Are you sure you're not hurt?"
"I'm fine. It was just ... I guess I just had a strange dream."
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
Scully shook her head. There was no way she would tell him about that runway for aliens or anything else that had happened in her dream. "Not tonight," she said. "Maybe another time."
"Okay," Mulder said. "Do you think you are fine enough for our trip tomorrow?" He leaned back and as he did his shirt opened up a bit, revealing his bare chest.
"Trip?" Scully asked confused, her eyes fixed on the two red spots on Mulder's chest.
"To Tunisia. That's what I was calling you about. To make sure you didn't forget."
- The End -
FANDOM: The X-Files/Lost - crossover
AUTHOR: nicis_anatomy
CHARACTER: Mulder, Scully, Juliet, Mr. Friendly
GENRE: gen, humor
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 3,224
SUMMARY: Mulder and Scully are stranded in the middle of nowhere but things aren't as they seem ... Written for the crossover challenge at lost_land.
WARNING: English still isn't my native language (although I wish) and the story is not beta'd.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. I just borrow them from time to time to have some fun with them.
~*~*~*~*
The air was hot and sticky as Scully opened the door of their rental jeep.
They had driven for hours and hours and as far as Scully could tell they might as well have reached the end of the world; stranded in the middle of nowhere and still miles from where Jesus had once lost his sandals.
Scully mumbled a silent prayer, apologizing for her slander thoughts. She was tired and in a bad mood and everything was only Mulder's fault. He was the reason why she was grumpy and not her usual self. Because of him she had to cancel all her weekend plans (not that these had including anything other than a long hot bubble bath and some alone time in front of the TV, but that wasn't something Mulder needed to know), forcing her first on that plan to Tunisia in Africa and than into that jeep without any air conditioning. She had all the rights to be in a bad mood and she didn't even try to hide it from him.
"What are we doing here, Mulder?" Scully asked not for the first time, "And where the hell is 'here'?" She shot him a look that might have killed him - if looks could actually kill, that was, but Mulder didn't notice. He just smiled at her and pointed towards a spot in the near distance, and Scully wondered how he even knew if that was the spot he was looking for. For all she could tell, one sand corn looked pretty much the same as his millions and millions of brothers and sisters surrounding them. But Mulder seemed determined and sure that this was the right spot.
Well, at least we've reached our destination, Scully thought, as she started to follow Mulder to that spot he'd pointed at.
He still hadn't said a word so Scully repeated her question.
"We are where we are supposed to be," he answered mysteriously and bend down to examine the ground. "This is the place were strange things happened and no one can explain why."
"Like, that two people from America come here for no obvious reason?" Scully asked sarcastically. "Why are we here, Mulder?"
"I just told you, Scully. We are here because this place is special. People appeared for no reason and most of the times they have no explanation whatsoever. Sometimes, they come back years later far away from where they once disappeared; sometimes they don't have any history at all."
"Are we talking about abduction?" Scully asked. She was sensing one of his alien abduction stories coming up and if this was the reason why they were here, she would make sure to kill Mulder, making sure it would look like an accident.
"I don't know, Scully," Mulder said, walking around in circles. He stopped right in front of her and looked her in the eyes. "But I'd like to know why someone put up that security camera and who that someone is."
"What ..." Scully started, but Mulder's finger on her lips silenced her. Scully stiffened, trying to make sense of all that - and also of the tickling feeling on her lips where he'd touched her -, but before she could find any answered, she felt something else. Suddenly, the world around her was spinning, faster and faster. Scully felt dizzy and she was sure she would faint any second. She grabbed Mulder's arm, trying to steady herself, and he did the same by putting both hands on her shoulder. His eyes searching for hers and using them as a fixed point they just stood there, hoping and praying that whatever was happening to them would end soon and that they would come out of it alive.
Then it was over.
Scully found herself on top of Mulder, who was lying on the ground, green leaves and weird looking flowers surrounding him. The light was bright, too bright for Scully's eyes. She blinked a few times and tried to make out more of their surroundings, totally ignoring the fact that she was still on top of Mulder and why this was so wrong in so many ways.
"Scully?" Mulder groaned, carefully rolling to one side, taking her with him until her hip and shoulder made contact with the grass. "Where are we?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Dorothy" Scully mumbled, killing a mosquito on her bare forearm. "What the hell happened and why aren't we in Tunisia anymore?"
"I don't know, Scully. We definitely aren't in Africa any more. Whatever happened it sure is something we should investigate."
"I was afraid you'd say that, Mulder." Scully sighed but she knew that he was right. They had to do something, anything; other than killing mosquitoes and lying around on the ground.
She waited until Mulder was back on his feed and let him help her up. Together they walked for what felt like an eternity. The jungle just didn't seem to end and the weather changed every hour. One minute it was hot, the next it started raining cats on dogs. One time, Scully was sure she heard a strange bird calling out for her but she didn't say anything. Mulder mentioned it neither and since she wasn't sure he had noticed anything out of the ordinary, she kept quiet.
There were no talking birds. And there were no things such as aliens or teleportation either, she thought, wondering if this was just a dream or a hallucination, caused by an overdose of 'Mulder' mixed with lack of sleep and the jetlag. Maybe she was still lying in the sand, unconscious and delusional.
The farther they went the more she hoped she was right. If not, how the hell were they supposed to get back home?
About an hour later they reached a deserted beach. It was beautiful under the circumstances - except for what looked like the rest of a crashed plane washed ashore. Scully wondered if whoever had been on that plane was still alive and somewhere near. They needed a telephone to call for rescue. Someone had to be here ...
But Mulder, as usual, crashed all her hopes. "I think we are on an island. A deserted one," he said.
"Why's that?"
"Just a feeling."
"I hate your feelings, Mulder," Scully said. "Come on, let's walk on the beach until we find someone who could help us."
"I don't know, Scully." Mulder hesitated. "Something feels wrong."
"You mean, beside us being here instead of that freaking place in the desert? How's that?"
Mulder didn't answer. He just looked at her as if trying to find the right words to explain their situation, and after a moment he gave up and just shrugged. "Come on, let's keep walking."
They followed the endless beach for another half hour, but went back into the jungle once the beach ended at a cliff of high stones none of them were in the mood for to climb.
Another hour later, Scully stopped without warning and Mulder, whose eyes had been fixed on the sky above them, crashed into her.
"Ouch!" Scully exclaimed, rubbing her back. "Look where you're going, Mul-"
Again, Mulder silenced her by pressing his hand over her mouth. He sent her an apologizing look but Scully only noticed the alarm in his eyes. She stood still, listening intensely. The jungle around them feel silence, except for a distance hammering.
Civilization, Scully thought excitedly and she wondered why Mulder wasn't excited as well. Then a branch cracked on their left and the next second a blonde woman walked out of the bush. She was good-looking; intense blue eyes, long legs and her tainted skin fit her long, light hair. She was actually really beautiful - except for that taser in her hand that was pointed right at them.
Mulder saw it too and he instinctively pushed Scully behind him, trying to shield her from any danger. Under normal circumstances, Scully would've protested but now she was just glad to have a gentleman at her side.
Unfortunately, it didn't help her at all, since two men walked out of the bush right behind her and before Scully could react they had grabbed her and Mulder.
"What the -," Mulder started but before he could finish the blonde woman had used her taser on him and all Scully could do was watch him fall on the ground, wincing in pain.
"Anything you want to add?" One of the men holding her asked. Scully just shook her head no. She knew better than to protest on how they were treated and she didn't even react when one of the man put a blind over her head and lead her away.
They walked for a couple of minutes, then stopped. Scully heard someone opening a rusty door, then the blinds were removed from her eyes and she was pushed inside of what looked like a huge cage.
"Stay here," the woman ordered. Scully turned around and watched the man closing the door behind her. Then the group walked away.
When they were out of sight, Scully kneed down beside Mulder. "Are you okay, Mulder?" she asked, carefully examining him. His shirt was tattered and there were two red marks on his skin from where the taser had hit his chest. But except for that, he seemed to be okay.
She sat down beside him, pulling him close so that his head was resting on her legs. Absent-mindedly , she started stroking his hair, remembering the last time they'd spend a night together like that. Back then he'd been injured, too, and they were running away from a monster in the woods. Now they were stuck in a cage. No monster in sight - but Scully noticed the security camera up in a tree opposite to their new home. Someone was watching them, and she wondered who that was and what this someone might have planned for them. Maybe the monster wasn't so far away this time after all ...
With that thought Scully feel asleep.
In the morning, a loud alarming noise woke her up. She opened her eyes, and instinctively reached for her hip where she normally kept her gun. It wasn't there. Instead she felt hard and dusty ground below her, and suddenly, she remembered. She looked around, searching for Mulder and when she found him standing at some kind of machine on the other side of the cage, Scully felt both relieved and confused. He was holding what looked like a huge cookie in his hand and beamed at her like a child on Christmas morning.
"Look what I've found, Scully," he said as he walked back to her.
"Good morning to you, too, Mulder," Scully replied, reaching for the cookie he was offering her. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until the held that cookie in her hand but when she took a bite, her hunger vanished immediately. Nauseated by the fish taste, she spit the cookie out again.
"Disgusting," she mumbled. "Where did you get this?"
"You won't believe it, Scully."
"Try me," Scully said. After working with Mulder for such a long time there was hardly anything that could surprise her anymore, and everything he said was some kind of stuff she would've called 'unbelievable' in the past.
"Do you see this machine?" he asked. "It's some kind of Skinner box. Not named after our old friend Skinner ... It's a device that delivers positive reinforcements and punishments to the test subject in response to -"
"I know what a Skinner box is, Mulder," Scully interrupted him, annoyed.
"Right ... Well, you have to push these three button at the same time to get a reward." He held up the fish biscuit. "If you don't do it and if you push just one button, you will be hit by an electric shock. It took me some time to figure it out and I still don't know why it's here but ..."
"Some time?" Scully asked. "How long are you up and why didn't you wake me?"
"A few hours," Mulder replied. "I didn't want to wake you. You looked so exhausted and ... well, there isn't much to do here anyway, so I figured I should let you sleep."
"Well, I could've helped you finding a way to get out of here."
"The only way out of here is through that door, Agent Scully," a female voice interrupted her and when Scully turned around she saw the blonde woman from last night walking over to them. She was accompanied by the same two men again.
"How do you know who I am?" Scully asked. "And why are you holding us?"
"We know a lot of things," one of the man said, and ignoring her second question, he pulled a key out of his pocket and put it in the lock on the cage door. "We will open the door now. I except you to behave, Agent Mulder. Otherwise, Juliet here might have to use her little gadget again." He grinned.
"Don't worry, Mr. ..."
"Friendly," the man said. "My friends call me Tom. But you can call me Mr. Friendly. Take care of Scully, Juliet. I'll take care of him."
"I don't like this, Mulder," Scully whispered, but she didn't try to resist as the woman - Juliet - took her arm and led her out of the cage. She was blindfolded again and, just like the night before, she and Mulder were escorted through the jungle for about ten minutes. When they finally reached their destination, Scully noticed that they were at some kind of building site surrounded by trees and bushes. There were already a few people working and they looked up curiously at the newcomers.
"What is this place?" Mulder asked.
"This is where you are supposed to be," Friendly answered, handing him a pickaxe. "Try to hit me with that thing and you're dead," he warned Mulder. "Work on that stones over there. And you, Scully, can help him loading the barrow."
"And if we don't?" Scully, who wasn't in the mood to a) follow his orders, and b) didn't see why she had do this kind of work, asked, giving Friendly a challenging look.
"Because I say so. Now, go off to work."
"Come on, Scully. Do as he says." Mulder put his hand on her back and led her to the huge pile of stones.
"But why, Mulder?" Scully asked. "This is ... this is not right. They can't tread us this way. We are federal agents and whoever these people are ... they can't hold us against our will. I will ..."
"You will do what?" Mulder asked. "You don't have a weapon. They have. There is no escape. Look around. There are people with guns everywhere around us. If we run, they will shoot us."
"But we have to do something, Mulder. This is not right."
"We will, Scully. Trust me. Whatever is happening, it's happening for a reason. We just have to find out what it is."
"I hope you are right." Scully sighed and started to pick up some of the smaller rocks. She wasn't happy but she trusted Mulder enough to don't do anything right now, except for what they'd been told to do. There was a rational explanation and sooner or later they would learn what it was. And then they would find a way out of here. They had to.
If not, there was still her other theory that this was all just a dream she would wake up from eventually. And then they would laugh about the strange ways her imagination worked sometimes ...
They worked in silence until noon, when they were allowed to take a short break, drink some water and rest.
Scully found a spot in the shadow of a tree. She sat down and leaned back against the tree. Every muscle in her body ached and she was sure she would never be able to move again. Closing her eyes, she drifted off and only woke up when Mulder sat down next to her, offering her a bottle of water. Scully opened her eyes, looked at the strange label on the bottle (the same one that had been imprinted on both, the pickax and the fish biscuit) and took a sip of water.
"I asked around a bit," Mulder informed her as she handed him the bottle. "It looks as if we are indeed on an island. These people live here and they work here."
"But why? And why did they capture us? We haven't done anything wrong."
"This is their island. They don't like strangers, intruders."
"But we ... it's not our fault that we are here."
"I know, Scully. But that doesn't seem to make a difference to them; other than that we are cheap manpower."
"For what?"
"For this construction site, of course. Looks like they need to finish it soon."
"It?"
"The runway. For the aliens."
Scully turned her head, looking at him shocked. "For the aliens? You're kidding me, right?"
"Nope." Mulder shook his head.
"Mulder, you ... I can't believe it. As soon as we are out of here, I quit. For good, this time." Her voice grew louder, she was almost screaming now. "A runway for aliens ..."
"What did you say? Scully? Wake up. Scully?!?" The hands on her shoulders were shaking her and Scully slowly opened her eyes. Everything was dark around her and her eyes needed a moment to adjust. Mulder gave her a concerned look that worried her more than anything else.
"What happened?" she asked, slowly sitting up. Mulder helped her over to the couch - to her couch in her apartment. "Why are we here? This doesn't make any sense. We were ..."
"I don't know what exactly happened," Mulder said, sitting down next to her. "We were on the phone together and suddenly the line went dead. I tried to call you again, but you didn't answer. So I came here and found you lying on the floor. You must have slipped our something. Does your head hurt?"
"No. I'm ... I'm fine." She forced a smile, although she was still confused and anything but fine. Her back and her arms hurt like she'd worked for hours doing some heavy lifting. But this couldn't be. She was here, at home. There was no island, no fish biscuits, nothing ...
"You don't look fine," Mulder said. He lifted his hand and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Are you sure you're not hurt?"
"I'm fine. It was just ... I guess I just had a strange dream."
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
Scully shook her head. There was no way she would tell him about that runway for aliens or anything else that had happened in her dream. "Not tonight," she said. "Maybe another time."
"Okay," Mulder said. "Do you think you are fine enough for our trip tomorrow?" He leaned back and as he did his shirt opened up a bit, revealing his bare chest.
"Trip?" Scully asked confused, her eyes fixed on the two red spots on Mulder's chest.
"To Tunisia. That's what I was calling you about. To make sure you didn't forget."
- The End -