Chase

Mulder reached the Humm-Vee first.  He threw open the door.  Another Delta Green member was in the driver's seat.  Mulder helped the semi-conscious Scully into the back seat.  Then got in.

  Something loud deafened him from the right.  He clutched his ear and realized what it was.  A Delta Green guy in the back seat was firing his rifle right next to Mulder's head.  There was no time to be annoyed.  He could see why.

  The deep ones were still advancing.  The giant thing behind them was advancing as well, but more slowly, as it stopped to rend men and corpses limb from limb.  Mulder snapped his own weapon up and let fly with a semi-automatic burst.  The Hummer driver cranked the engine, and thankfully it growled to life.

  Mulder was picking his targets...sighting...whap! whap! whap!  Dropped another Deep One.  The bolt slid back and remained open.

  Mulder dropped the clip out and fumbled for the other one.  Just beyond the boundary of his night vision he could see more of them leaping horribly in the moonlight and what little light the crackling grenade fires projected.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw the first Humm-Vee pull away.  Pistol fire from his left distracted him.

  Scully was firing out her side, at the ten O'clock position.

  A vise tightened around Mulder's throat.  He dropped the M-16 on the floor and clutched at his neck.  His hands met a Deep Ones globulos chitin-covered claws.  He tried to call for help, flailing helplessly as the Deep One tried to pull him from the Humm-Vee, head first.  He slapped at the driver.  The driver hit the gas.  The Deep One didn't let go.  Mulder felt as if his throat was going to be ripped out as the full weight of the Deep One pulled on his neck.  The man behind Mulder swung from his target and shot the Mulder's Deep One point blank, coating the side of Mulder's head in a gooey mess.

  "Thanks," Mulder hoarsely croaked.  His larynx had nearly been crushed. 

"Quit blabbing and get some fire down over there!"

The man spun around and fired out the back of the Humm-Vee.  In the side view mirror Mulder could see four other Humm-Vees forming a small caravan behind them as they attempted to shoot and plow their way through the crowd of Deep Ones which was quickly flooding into the road.  Mulder turned around to get a better look as his own Humm-Vee roared away from the scene.  He saw a shadow loom up behind the last Hummer, and even without being able to see clearly what it was, he knew the last vehicle and the men within it were doomed.  Before the dust from the Hummers obscured everything Mulder had time to see a massive explosion.  It slammed him forward as the shockwave slammed into their Hummer.

"What the hell was that?" Mulder shouted over the roaring engine of the Hummer.  Apparently the designers hadn't cared if was quiet or a smooth ride.

"X-Com warhead.  Built in '78 for fighting the Greys.  Pretty effective.  TNT equivalent of 50 tons.  Each one of these Hummer has one built in.  We get into too much of a fix and BOOM." The driver keyed the radio, "DG Six this DG Twelve, Black Forest...I say again...Black Forest.  Numerous casualties...we are outbound." He talked to Mulder again, "I apologize for asking you to come.  If I'd have known it was going to be like this...Hang on."

He jerked the steering wheel 120 degrees to the left.  The Hummer swerved erratically as the wheels skittered and sought for traction on the narrow dirt road.  The wheels caught and the Hummer leapt forward.  All without slowing down below ninety Mulder thought.  He couldn't imagine how the driver was even seeing the road through the dust kicked up by the first Humm-Vee.  "I think I'm going to puke."

"Go ahead, I'll be really surprised if any of us get out of this." The driver glanced at the rear view mirror.  There were no headlights following him.  "Something's wrong."

The radio crackled, "Help us...DG Twelve help us!"

"What's going on?  This is DG Twelve, what's happening back there!" Static... then one word broke through the electronic snow...."Byakhee." "Oh shit.  We've got trouble." The driver glanced upwards his eyes scanning the sky above.

Scully piped up, "Umm, what is a byakhee?"

"Flying winged things, not altogether ants or moles, or buzzards or crows, or decomposing things...trust me...if you see one you won't want to remember it."

"Why do I have sinking feeling this is going to get worse..."

Something heavy landed on the roof.  The driver swerved trying to shake it loose.  Mulder reached down to grab his M-16, the jarring and bumping of the Hummer made it more difficult than it should have been, and Mulder stayed down a second longer than he could have.

And it saved his life.

Just as Mulder bent down something with steel hard talons punched through the roof and raked across the passenger compartment.  It moved through the Hummer like a spoon through pudding and left with the driver's head. 

Mulder sat up and was greeted by the headless corpse of the driver as it sagged against him.  Its dead hands still maintaining a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel.  Mulder pushed the corpse against the door, dropped his M-16, and straddled the stick shift.  He jammed his foot down on the dead man's and slammed the gas pedal to the floor.  He wrestled with the corpse and the steering wheel, struggling to keep the hummer on the road.

Scully and the other Delta Green member were shooting insanely at the roof, peppering the inside of the vehicle with hot brass and steel shards.  Then the thing swung down onto the driver's side door just as another one of them planted itself on the hood.  Mulder now knew what a Byakhee was...and he wished he didn't.  The thing wrenched at the driver's side door...each claw swipe rending metal to shreds.  Then the door popped open and the hinge began to give under the combined weight of the Byakhee and the dead driver.  Mulder pushed the corpse further toward the Byakhee, using it as a shield.  It lashed out grabbed the corpse expecting it to be anchored...it lost its purchase and fell bounding and rolling on the road. 

Mulder looked at the one on the hood...it was struggling to anchor itself into the hood with its rear talons.  He heard Scully scream and risked a glance in the rear view mirror.  Only to see the Delta Green member lying ripped open like a microwave popcorn bag, his innards on horrible display, and the Byakhee who had killed him already feasting.  Scully shot it in what passed for a temple.  Mulder looked back at the road.  Just in the nick of time!

He swerved, narrowly keeping the careening Humm-Vee on the skinny road.  The Byakhee on the hood momentarily lost its purchase and fell forward through the windshield -- what passed for its face mere inches from Mulder's.  It howled as it cut itself on the glass--black ichor oozed from its numerous lacerations.  

Mulder pulled his pistol and emptied the clip into the Byakhee.  Then he heard Scully scream again. 

"Mulder Look Out!"  

Mulder looked up and saw the first Humm-Vee overturned in the roadway...its tires languidly spinning in the moonlight--lending the vehicle an almost comical toy-like feel.  Then he saw the Byakee crawling out of it.  Mulder almost laughed as the full impact of how screwed he was really hit him.

  He swerved -- heard the engine RPMs rev up to an impossibly high tone as the vehicle lost contact with the road.

  A large tree loomed ahead...then Mulder knew only darkness. 

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