By: Gladiator

Mulder came too.  He was sprawled out on a table, and he could barely see, his vision cut down by the bright lights above him.  The smell of blood, guts and other nameless sludge was caked onto his suit and it gave off an altogether most rancid odor.  So intense were the beams directed down at him that he could not gather the size of the room or see any walls.  He strained to sit up…he couldn’t move.  He lay still trying to gather what he could from his strange surroundings.  The glittering which caught his eyes above him was unmistakable - a large assortment of automated surgical instruments.  Knifes, rods, syringes, needles…probes.  The knowledge gained from watching and believing in too many science fiction movies raced his pulse, and he knew things weren’t lookin good…………….

  Lying on her back in a brightly lit room, Dana strained with all her might…she wasn’t about to see what something the size of a 6 cell D flashlight felt like.  Pushing, kicking, writhing all did nothing.  She couldn’t move, all the while the automated instruments continued to prod and inject her with nameless fluids. 

  Then she concentrated using just the force of her mind…The instruments backed away and crushed into a mangled heap.  The lights dimmed, and she could now see.  Did I do that?  Scully thought to herself while leaping off the hard table. 

  Running about the room, her clothes were no where to be found.  She hastily rummaged through a discarded pile of clothing finally landing on a black pair of slacks and a maroon tunic belonging to some kind of uniform.

  An alarm began ringing in the distance.

  I need to get out of here fast… as she ran along the walls she could see no impression of a door…  She thought with her mind again, and a massive section of a wall in the direction of her stare buckled and gave way to another room. 

  As she neared the dark opening a cool breeze wafted in…. As far as the eye could see up down and across, there was row, upon row, upon row of coolant chambers.  She walked out onto the narrow rampart separating the cases, and brushed away the misty ice crystals on one of the transparent face shields.

  It was a human being...the eyes were closed...and at first glance she thought the person dead, as respirations were nearly absent, but soon she could discern rapid eye movement common with deep sleep cycles.  Hmmmmm, she thought, not dead, but dreaming...

  The frigid air made her shiver and she rubbed her hands together in and effort to generate heat.  Pressing them to the next chamber, she cleared away the mist and peered inside.  It was not human.

  She tore away from the awful site and rushed down the narrow passageway screaming in the midst of vomiting again. Up came a glowing green substance…. What the hell was this? 

  In her peril she lost balance and fell…. Hitting the curved lower surface and sliding down and an incredible rate of speed.  After what seemed several minutes of rolling and tumbling uncontrollably she abruptly stopped; her head swirling.  With her clothes tattered, and skin full of abrasions and burns she brought herself up and stumbled onward.

  Breathing heavily, Dana could see her rapid exhalation into the cool air and tried to calm down.  She came to a window and threw her arms up, palms against it, her breath fogging her vision.  She wiped the condensation away and peered inside again.  The room was dark, but displayed a sight even more horrid than the last.  A fleshless body seemed to be decomposing - much like the one she saw on the bed in the old farmhouse…The skin seemed to be shedding, and the being mutating into some other…thing...right before her eyes.  The creature had its back to her, but as it whirled impossibly swift even the unbelieving skeptic Scully couldn’t mistake the face - It was a Grey.

  Kirk looked rapidly from Q, to Hyuj and then to Gandalf.  Somehow they all seemed to know what was really going on and he still pretty much hadn’t a clue.

  “Alright….” Kirk waved both his hands in front of him… “I’m still trying to place and make sense of certain events here…. Gandalf, why were we transposed to the Inner Sphere around Twycross, whatever happened to the Regula II station, and for that matter, how in entire realm of space/time did you escape great Cthulhu’s lair?”

  “Hhhmmmmm,” Gandalf stroked his beard and looked to Kirk as if he hadn’t the foggiest notion of what he was talking about…

  Wading waist deep at times though the quagmire the party of adventurers plunged on toward Amon Sul.  The bog reeked of dead fish and other decaying carcasses…its smell so hostile so as to make even a little hobbit's stomach queasy and unbelievably uninterested in food.

  As the hobbits followed in the footsteps of their friend Frodo, Sam continually glanced from side to side and brought up the Rear Guard….  

  “Did you see that Mr. Frodo!” yelled out Sam with a loud whisper.  ”It looked like that nasty ‘ol filth Gollum I say…. Between the trees over there…” Sam pointed and the fellowship looked but saw nothing but Shadows, and wicked branches waving in the wind. 

  But as the clouds moved away from blocking the moons rays, dark sinister shapes could clearly be seen.  Nameless things were groping and plodding along the treetops.  Their bulging eyes and flabby lips forming a mockery of any sane, rational universe.  Some odd shapes were clinging to the trunks of trees, while others almost seemed to slither across the leafy forest floor.  And, they seemed to emit croaking noises now and then. 

  “What shall we do?” asked Pippin.  Are we to try and make a brake for it or hunker down here and let them pass?”

  Frodo spoke up.  “I’ve never seen anything like them in all my travels, but sssssshhhh.  Listen.  Our decision may be made for us.”  Everyone slowed their breathing and listened intently.  DOOM BOOM DOOM BOOM  It was drums!  And no doubt the sounds of a large army on the run…And Orcs always run… 

  “It’s getting nearer,” whispered Merry.

  A dark shaped seemed to momentarily pass in front of the moon casting a winged silhouette upon them all, and the hallow fear each small hobbit felt inside grew deeper. 

  Merry’s gaze caught the hopping of an awkwardly large rabbit in his peripheral vision and turned quickly to watch it disappear into a hole which might have been mistaken for a hobbit home. 

  “We may be able to squeeze into their Frodo…” Merry pointed towards the hole.  Frodo got up.  “Come on everyone…let us let this evil pass…”  They all made their way towards the entrance.

  The thunderous hoofs, a sign that of horsed soldiers clambered across their small sanctuary.  Snarling and bickering that were no doubt the voices of Orcs could clearly be heard, however the language was completely incomprehensible. 

  A lot of yelling, yelping and screaming now… battlecries and in addition the clashing of weapons….

  “What are Orcs doing this far across the river Anduin Frodo?” asked Sam.  “Mordor is a long way home for them….”  Merry piped up, trying to still sound quiet in the midst of the hollering, agonizing cries and clattering of weapons heard now almost on top of them and dirt began to rain from makeshift earth roof. 

   “I know not their tongue, but I spent enough time among them to know their war cries.  These Orcs are the fighting Uruk-Hai out of Isengard” “Yes Yes,” added Pippin.  “You don’t think someone’s began rebuilding Isengard do you?”

  “You may be onto something,” said Frodo.  “The Ents guarding the deserted stronghold were away during the Gargantuanmegafuckhugeomni battle for the continuum.  Their numbers have dwindled….  Indeed...All of this has the mark of Saruman.”

  Suddenly…. horrible shrilling, tittering, and half moans began echoing in through the rounded entrance.  The moaning, groaning and gibbering chantings made all the hobbits cover their ears with fright.  Nothing had ever stricken such terror into them, not even the Nazgul.  There was something worse, much worse, out there, and Frodo knew for some reason it wanted him…He closed his eyes in an attempt to block out the hideous sounds, and as he did so he heard the familiar voice of Gandalfs in his head almost as if he was daydreaming…“The Dwarves will be with you… always….”