For the last time, Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"This way, it's... it's this way." The sun was slowly beginning to illuminate the streets of Los Angeles, as the two FBI agents pushed through the rubble of yet another crumbling wall. The place had looked bad in the past, that much showed, but the new damage stood out clearly.

"Would you please just use a flashlight, Mulder?" said the agent falling deliberately behind. Her partner turned to her with a mix of surprise and childlike grin on his face. "Where's your sense of adventure, Dana?" he uttered, raising his arms for added drama. The woman gave him a stern frown. "Where is your sense of batteries, I might ask back?" she said, dryly. The man, Mulder, gave out a muffled chuckle as he went back past her, going for their rental car and his tools.

"You know, if we had stopped a bit less and risked a bit more, maybe we would have been on this thing's heels already," he argued, clearly trying to provoke her obvious frustrations. They had stopped more than once on their way there, his partner, Dana Scully, insisting that they verified the path of destruction. His argument that it was L.A., destruction was everywhere and would take ages to sort through, had done nothing to change her mind. In the end, of course, whatever they were tracking down was fairly novel about its destructive tendencies.

"Mulder, did you even pay attention to the witness statements? This is not a thing, it's a man. A big man on some kind of drugs or anger-induced rampage. It's not a big mystery, there's even blood to prove it. Human blood." She pulled her trenchcoat a bit closer around her, annoyed by the morning chill. L.A. was supposed to be warm and sunny. Why couldn't they be dealing what that L.A. instead of cold industrial districts.

Mulder passed her by again, this time carrying a somewhat oversized flashlight. Turning it on with an audible click, he instantly lit up a sizable area of the place. Although the destruction was very localized, it made up for that with its obvious efficiency.

"You may say drugs or crazy, Scully," he said just loud enough for her to hear him, "but what kind of insane junkie never strays from the direction he's heading?" Mulder stood for a moment, looking from spot to spot in the factory they had followed this person to. It was perfectly true that there seemed to be no sense to his actions as such, and that a crazy person fit the profile quite well. But the determination with which he had made his way through the streets of Los Angeles, and the brutality with which he had thrown people aside and damaged cars and property was beyond normal dopeheads, no matter what they were high on.

"Scully, what's east-northeast of Los Angeles?" He looked back at his partner, who seemed outright startled at this simple, down-to-earth question. Thinking for a few seconds, she shrugged a bit. "Only thing that comes to mind is Las Vegas," she answered. Her voice was still trying to be critical of his assumptions, but she had to admit, there was something odd to how clear their prey was about the direction he was taking, even if about nothing else.

Mulder grumbled a bit, thrown off by the lack of a clear destination. "What do you say, Scully, think maybe we're just dealing with the world's most desperately compulsive gambler?" She did not answer him.

-

Back at the police line, the five or so police officers currently present were enjoying their morning coffee, fresh from the nearby overpriced coffee shop. One of the officers, a young man who was clearly a bit nervous about looking professional enough, handed Scully hers. "One cream, no sugar, right?" She nodded with a smile. "You ever see something like this?" he asked, trying to seem like it was just out of interest. It clearly wasn't, though. Like most others there, he was startled by the raw violence of the event. The windshield of the minivan was still in the street, bits of it strewn around, blood on most of them. The car itself had been moved to let paramedics get access to the wounded, two of which were now covered with plastic, the third having been rushed off to the hospital. Across the street, a family sedan was sticking out of a local pastry shop, cake and blood smeared together all over the sidewalk. Not far back the way Mulder and Scully had just returned from, a classic Mustang convertible was neatly wrapped around a lamppost, both its ends folded like accordions from being mercilessly forced into the astoundingly tough lamppost! The driver had been luckier than most, jumping out in time and only breaking his shin in the fall.

"They should make a law against those damn macho cars," the young officer muttered, his face contorted in discomfort. Something told them he had just come back from throwing up, or that he was going to in the near future. Mulder nodded silently, while Scully merely shrugged. Whoever had been going through L.A. like a bullet through butter had chosen the proper vehicle for the task, ripping some poor guy right out of his Hummer and just plowing through everyone. The owner was in the hospital now, some other agents hopefully getting a clear statement. He had been yanked so hard out of the car that his spine had dislocated, possibly putting him in a wheelchair for the nearest future.

"You know, I don't think they were meant to be driven exactly like..." Mulders voice trailed off as he spotted the agents that had been on the scene before him and Scully. Apparently, some locals had been dealing with a case of a completely different nature, and the agents on it had simply been moved to this one. Mulder had caught a scent of the case through channels of his own, and made sure they would get a chance to look at it before these people filed it away under some random act of violence.

"Agent Payne, agent Styles," he said shaking hands with the two young agents. He stopped, looking around for a third agent. "Where is your expert, agent Malik, was it?" The short one, who seemed to be chewing something, pointed over his shoulder at the last of the three, who was standing near the cake shop, just looking at it. Apparently, he was a profiler of sorts, although it seemed to Mulder that the profile for this case was not that complicated.

"Uhm, I'm guessing you'd like to talk statements, agent... Mulder?" said the taller one of the agents, a fairly big guy with slightly long hair. Of the two, he seemed vastly more likable, at least to Mulder. "Well, if you have anything good to add, that'd be nice," Mulder said, trying his best not to sound too old and stuffy. The tall agent, Styles, picked through some notes on his notepad. Very by the numbers, Scully would like him, too. Mulder looked over his shoulder to see what she was doing. For the moment, she seemed to be chatting with the young officer that brought her coffee, probably trying to make him either calm down, or, just as likely, make him buckle up and act his age.

"The victim, that would be the driver of the Hummer, described the perp as over six feet tall, extremely muscular, and... uhm..." The agent looked a bit awkward before continuing, "... well, nude." Stopping for a moment, he looked at Mulder, clearly expecting some kind of reaction. Mulder just noted down "naked" on his own notepad. "He also said that the perp had a kind of sickly look to him, almost a bit zombie-like. And that he had a faint red glow in his eyes."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, as agent Styles waited for Mulder to somehow respond. It seemed there was no more to add, and the guy just looked like a quiet question mark.

"I assume that seems a bit weird, right?" he asked, looking at Mulder. He chuckled a bit, continuing, "I mean what are we dealing with here, agent Mulder, a... some kind of zombie bodybuilder." He let out a nervous laugh. Mulder looked at the agent's partner, who was apparently done chewing on whatever he had been chewing on, and now just stood there, looking a bit... bitter, really. Maybe that was the one Scully could identify with more. He clearly did not seem amused by agent Styles' nervous jokings.

-

"What did they say?" Scully asked as Mulder returned. "Zombie bodybuilders," Mulder said with a grumpy tone. "Scully, did my reputation follow me here? I mean, that big one practically laughed in my face when he made that remark." Scully shook her head. "No, Mulder, I just think everybody is a bit on edge. I mean, according to officer Persson here," she nodded in the direction of the young police officer, "all of this came out of the blue. Whoever we're chasing covered several blocks in record time after apparently breaking through a concrete basement wall. I mean, even with drugs, this just..." She seemed very annoyed at what she was about to say. "This seems like one of your old supersoldier deals, but so much more violent."

Popping a sunflower seed in his mouth, Mulder did his absolute best not to smile.