AFTERMATH

CHAPTER FIVE

Krycek was proud of what they had accomplished and set about making immediate plans for two more buildings – another exactly like the one they just finished so they could eventually have one for the women and children and one for the men. And he wanted to have the third one for a dining room/kitchen/dispensary combination. He broached the subject the next morning at breakfast and everyone let out a big howl of approval. A few groaned but agreed that if more people were coming in they would need it.

They decided to work on both buildings at the same time. They figured out where they were going to build and started hauling the material in. It was so much easier now that they were able to drive their loads right into the valley through the tunnel and didn't have to worry about having to haul everything over the pass. Their river crossing was enlarged with trees that were cut down and pulled to the location by the horses and secured together and filled in with rocks and sod. Everyone knew what they were doing now so the work went much easier. They still made daily trips to the lumber yard and the bike riders still went along carrying back more and more goods for use in the community.

Three weeks later they were on their way back when their scout riding out ahead, let out a whistle signaling the group to stop. One whistle was just for them to stop. Two was to hide. They heard just one whistle and stopped. It had been the first time they had ever used their pre-arranged system.

Four bike riders came up to them, the three strangers singing the song, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Krycek rode out to meet them.

"We were told to sing that stupid song and to tell you greetings from Special Ops team two." One of the men said.

"Hi, where are you from?" Krycek asked.

"Reno. We'd been doing some logging. We had a whole team up there but the three of us went into town for supplies and when we got back they were all gone. We headed back to town but got caught up in a traffic jam on the road. We got out to see what was going on and we saw these men … or aliens or whatever the hell they are, walking along side the cars and shooting these little flame thrower things off and burning all the cars and everyone in them." We took off for the hills and have been hiding out every since. Your team caught us sleeping and told us about you and this valley that's supposed to be hidden where those bastards can't find it. He said we should come join your group. Is that Ok with you?"

"Absolutely. Welcome." Krycek reached out his hand and shook with them.


By the first snowfall, they had four buildings built and three filled with bunks. Each barracks could sleep forty eight. One was totally for the women; two were for the men and one held the dispensary, kitchen, and cafeteria. More generators had been brought in but were used mainly in the kitchen building. This building had been designed a bit different from the others. The first thirty feet were set aside for the cafeteria, then there was a partition all the way across and the next ten feet were for the actual kitchen area. The last ten feet were divided crossways into two sections, one for the dispensary the other for storage. Across the back of this building, a porch had been added and a shower room built. Some washers and dryers had been brought in along with a couple of hot water heaters so hot showers were now available.

Once the winter wore on and the snow became a daily occurrence they no longer made the trips into town. It wasn't necessary and there was no need to take the risk.

They had blown the pass before the first heavy snow and before long it had filled with snow and they could no longer see it. It was a frightening prospect but things were going very well in camp with very few arguments. Plans were made for the spring and they settled in for the long cold winter.

Harry had done his share and more and had built up a mountain of firewood. On clear days some would hike out into the woods and see what they could see. One morning at breakfast they heard shots being fired. The farmers, Randy and his brother had gone hunting and got a nice elk. Other times they brought in rabbits and showed Bobby how to make a nice hearty rabbit stew. The winter passed uneventfully with no more visitors showing up singing for them. It was nearing spring but still the snow fell.

One morning Parks came hurrying back into the dining room and said that he had found a note by the outside of the mine doorway. It had been put in a plastic bag and tied with a red rag to a big bush just outside the doorway. Krycek opened the bag quickly and read the letter.

"It's from special ops team two. They whistled and yelled and sang the song and no one heard them. They went back to the nearest town and will wait there until they hear from us." Krycek stopped and gasped, "He says there are twenty two of them!"
He went back to reading again. He says they have several children and that two of them are pretty sick. We'll need to take the wagons. Rick, Randy, can you get them ready."

"You're going now? It's snowing. You might get stuck out there." Harry warned.

"Today is Tuesday. That town will be patrolled tomorrow. We have to go now or risk losing them all."

"It's no skin off my nose if you want to risk your lives, go ahead. I'm staying right here where it's nice and warm." Harry said as he pulled his warm jacket closer around him.

"You have any idea how long this might have been stuck out there?" Krycek asked Parks.

"No, sorry old boy, but I don't. I haven't been out that front doorway in weeks."

"They're probably all cozy up there in one of those nice houses." Harry said. "I wouldn't worry about them."

"And what about the sick children? You wouldn't worry about them either?" Maddie asked angrily."

"That note could have been hanging out there since we blew the pass. That was a months ago. If those kids were that sick they are probably already dead and buried."

"You're all heart, Harry!" Someone said.

Krycek turned away with a disgusted shrug. "Peterson, get some blankets together, Bobby, get us some food. Some broth, soup, crackers and some of those canned vegetables. We stripped that town of food. They've got to be starving."

Thirty minutes later they left, just the four of them – Rick and Randy, each one to drive a wagon, and Peterson and Krycek. It was freezing cold and snowing heavily. The trip took two hours in the snow, instead of the usual one hour. They still remembered to follow procedure and went in on foot first and looked around. They saw nothing. If they were still there, they were well hidden.

They drove the wagons slowly down the main street while Krycek and Peterson took opposite sides and looked into each building. They found nothing. They started through the residential areas. Instead of going through each house they started singing at the top of their lungs, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

Krycek didn't know the words and could hardly pronounce the word but he bellowed along just the same. When they came down the second block they caught sight of someone running towards them waving his arms and shouting the word back at them.

They had found them! They had been there for ten days. The two little girls aged three and five were both critically ill. One was unconscious and the other had a severe cough and was running a high temperature. They had found a house where there was a cellar full of items that had been home canned they were living on. There was very little left. A few of the men were out scavenging through the town to see if they could find anything else to eat when they head the singing.

At first they wanted to stay where they were and asked Krycek to just bring food out to them but when he explained that the aliens would be patrolling that town in the morning they decided to go ahead and leave. They wanted nothing more to do with aliens. They had all been brought out of camps and had horror stories to tell. Krycek said to save them till they got back to the valley and got them all wrapped in blankets and in the back of the two wagons.

The snow was worse and it was colder than Krycek could ever remember being. The farmers kept the horses at a steady pace though it was barely a fast walk. Everyone huddled together and a few of the children were crying. By the time they got into the rocks they could see the lamp light that Parks had set out for them. Once inside the tunnel they felt the relief of no more snow but they still had to push on and back out into it again at the other side.

Parks had secured the door again behind them and followed them on his bike back out into the snow covered valley.

The bridge over the stream had long since been widened to carry the wagons so they were able to drive directly to the dispensary. Marcia and Maddie were waiting as well as Holly and Amber. The pot bellied stove in the center of the room had it reasonably warm and the parents of the sick girls went inside, each carrying a precious child. The rest of the group went into the cafeteria where most everyone else was waiting to meet them.

Bobby had made a large pot of stew using canned meat and vegetables and worked up several dozen biscuits that he had popped in the oven when the signal came in from Parks that they had arrived.

The newcomers first gathered around the stoves to warm up then eventually took seats when the stew and biscuits were brought out. They ate hungrily and between bites of food and sips of steaming hot coffee they told their story.

Special Ops team two leader had three brothers in and around San Francisco that he went looking for. The town was empty and so was every hiding place he could think of to try.
They had passed by a military base on their way into town and found it had been turned into an internment camp so decided to go back and try there. It was easily enough to break into. Once inside he found two of his brothers, their wives and five children. The third brother was somewhere on the east coast when everything happened and they had no way of knowing what happened to him.

He walked them a few at a time to a corner by a window and explained what was happening and they were eager to go along with it. One of the brothers and his son, went out first and the second member of the team, took them outside the fence, hid them and went back for more. Next went the wife and two children. They were hurried to safety. No one inside the barracks building seemed to notice that people were missing. There were so many jammed in there that no one either noticed or cared. Everyone was milling around trying to find a place to get comfortable. There were four left. They all went at once, slipping out the window into the darkness and following the tracks in the snow. They hoped it would snow again to cover their tracks. Before it was light again their tracks were long covered.

They walked for hours before they found an empty house far enough away from the camp for them to feel safe. The women had pushed the bikes while the oldest boy about fourteen and the four men walked and carried the smaller children. It was bitterly cold but no one complained. They were too happy to be out of that place.

They found blankets to bundle up in, food to eat and they slept until morning. They found warm clothes to put on, more food to add to their nearly depleted stash and one bicycle in the garage that had a child's seat on the back. The next morning they left with the two women riding the bikes that were loaded with food, the oldest boy got the other bike with the four year old in the child's seat and the men and the other three children, aged eight, ten, and twelve all ran. They stopped often for rests and the men took turns piggy-backing the two youngest when they got too tired to run. They stayed off the roads and spent the night in another abandoned house where they picked up two more bikes. The two dads got those bikes and managed to ride the eight and ten year olds on the handle bars. Now just the twelve year old and the two Special Ops men were running. By the time they stopped for lunch in another house, they found two more bikes. They needed one more and they found that about an hour's ride after lunch. Now they were all riding. The farther south they went the warmer it got. It took five days to make it to LA. They found a place on the outskirts of town and stayed there while the Special Ops men searched for the other team member's parents.

He knew exactly where his parents would be if they hadn't been taken. During the fifties his grandparents had built a bomb shelter out in their back yard like so many other families had and now his parents were living in that house. The last time he was home on leave they had talked about filling it in but the grandchildren had enjoyed playing in it too much so they never had.

They waited until after dark and slipped down the back alley and into the yard. Not a sound could be heard, not a light was seen in any direction. He hurried over to the spot hidden in the bushes behind the garage and knocked sharply on the cover. There was no answer. No sound of any kind. He knocked again and called this time, "Momma, Dad? It's me, Frankie. Are you in there?"

He heard the handle turning on the inside of the door and lifted it open for them. His dad popped out first and grabbed him in a bear hug. Then his weeping mother came out, babbling and holding on to him. "It's all right, it's all right. I'm going to get you out of here. We've got a safe place for you." Before he could say any more he saw another head pop out and then another, man and a woman in their late twenties. He recognized them immediately. They were his parent's next door neighbors, the Kims – a young Vietnamese couple with two little girls. "Oh my God! You're safe too! He embraced them both. "Where are the girls? Come on. We've got to get out of here. I've got a safe place for you all to stay. Do you still have those bikes with the kid seats on the back?" He asked the young couple. They said they did and the young man went next door with the SO leader and they brought them back while the children were brought up along with a couple carry-all bags that the men slung over their shoulders.

His mom and dad were put on the bikes that they had ridden in on while the neighbors had strapped their girls into the child seats on their bikes and the SO team was afoot again. Three blocks over the parents signaled for them all to stop. They stopped under some trees and the parents told the SO team that they knew the family that lived in the house they had stopped in front of and that their five kids all had bikes. The two men snuck off into the garage and came out with two more bikes. Once outside of town they were joined by the rest of the group. They were now sixteen and they headed north east, towards the valley and safety.

They spent their fifth night out from LA in the forest in the northern tip of Arizona. The children were tired and scared and one of the girls had a bad cough. It was hard to keep them quiet. Just before dawn they were awakened by a sound in the trees. The SO men pulled out their knives and waited. They saw it then, a figure creeping into their campsite and placed something on the ground next to where the girls slept and started to back quietly away. He was met by an SO man with his knife at the ready. "What do you want?" he asked the intruder.

The man stood up and the rest of the camp started to rouse as well. "I brought something for the child. It will soothe her cough."

"I heard you in the woods. How many more of you are there?"

"Four more." The voice behind him said as more young men stepped into the small clearing. "We heard the child coughing. She needs medicine. This is good medicine. I made it myself."

They were all awake now and staring at the strangers – five young men. They were Hopi and all that was left of their village.

The little girl started coughing again and her mother held her close.

"Give her some. It will help." The one who had brought the medicine in said.

"What is it?" The SO leader asked.

"Herbs, and the juice from bark and roots. It will ease her discomfort. Just squeeze it."

It appeared to be a small pouch of some sort. The SO leader picked it up and squeezed some into his hand and tasted it. "It's sweet."

"We added some honey so the child would take it. Please give it to her."

The child's father tasted it first. The child's cough was getting much worse, they needed to do something. "Maybe try just a few drops" the girl's father said, "a few drops couldn't hurt." They squeezed a few drops into the girl's mouth and her cough eased. She coughed a little more and her mother gave her more. She quieted down then and dozed off in her mother's arms.

They all sat down then and talked. The Indians said they had been rodeoing in Flagstaff and were headed home when everything happened. When they got to their village, everyone was gone, many had been killed. They stayed in the woods and waited. They said they knew someone would come and show them the way to safety. The group was now twenty two. The next morning the bikers and the Indians on horseback started out. The younger children that had been riding on handlebars were now riding on horseback behind the Indians.

The Indians having ridden all over the area on horseback, lead the way north up and around the canyon country. It was straight up and across Utah at an angle heading northeast. The farther north they got, the colder it got and the sicker the girl got. Soon her sister was coughing too. By the time they crossed into Colorado, both girls were running temperatures. It was snowing hard when they arrived at the entrance to the valley so they left the note and headed back, half frozen, to find shelter in town.

Krycek listened to their amazing story. Their settlement was growing by leaps and bounds. He was glad he had insisted on them completing the second male barracks building even though they worked in the bitter cold. He somehow suspected it would be needed and they were. They had come a long way in the eleven months they had been there.

Long after everyone else had gone to bed; Krycek sat alone at the long dining table, working on plans in his notebook. Satisfied that he had things well in control, he closed his notebook and leaned back in his chair.

Parks came in after fixing himself a sandwich from the kitchen and joined him.

"So we'll be starting our runs into town again soon I suppose? What will it be, search for more food or materials for further construction?" He asked as he sat across from Krycek.

"Both. The need for food is never ending, as is the need for more barracks. No telling what Spring will bring. We must devise a way for anyone who shows up to contact us on the inside. Either post guards or leave some way for them to leave us a note and we check the outer door frequently. If that child dies it will be because we failed to do this."

"Oh, my dear boy," Parks heaved a great sigh. "You take on the entire responsibility for this community when it's not solely your place. We all bear the burden equally."

"Perhaps. But some of us are more capable of bearing it than others." Krycek rubbed the back of his neck.

"You're tired. You should try and get more sleep. You're the last one up every night and the first one up every morning."

"I don't need much sleep. I'm not used to it." Krycek answered.

"You know what Dr. Kim would say about that!"

"I do. So don't you tell him." Krycek said with a tired smile.

"Tell me about yourself, Alexander. What was your life like before all this nonsense? You said you were with the F.B.I. Was that an exciting life? Do you miss it?"

"Actually, it sucked but it was just starting to get better. I had quit my job and was going to try and see what it was like to live a normal life."

"Ha!" Parks boomed. "A normal life! I don't think life will ever be normal again; do you?"

"I have no idea." Krycek stared into his coffee cup and swirled the dregs.

"Did you lose someone? Leave someone special behind?"

"No. There was no one."

"Ahhh, but you wish there had been."

"I do, at least I did. But I never really had a chance in hell with either one of them."

"And why not? You're a charming young man; rather rough around the edges maybe but of good heart."

Krycek chuckled at that. "There are … or were a few people who wouldn't agree with that."

"And these two were?"

"Past associates of mine. We worked together at the Bureau for a time and then on opposite sides for several years."

"Ah, I see. Co workers, friends, rivals, enemies; all in one package."

"That's about it."

"Are they who you're thinking about when you stand and stare off towards the old pass? Are you hoping they will show up?"

"Before … there always was just that little bit of hope. Now I don't even have that any more."

"And why not? They could well be in camps somewhere waiting for you to ride to their rescue."

Another chuckle from Alex. "Believe me, I'm the last person either one of them would want to see."

"Tell me about them. Women, men, or perhaps one of each, you old rascal?"

"Both male."

"Ah. Into threesomes. Kinky."

"No!" Alex couldn't help but chuckle at that one coming from the oh-so-proper Englishman. "At different times. First there was Mulder. We were partners for a while. It was the best time of my life; the absolute best. I was crazy about him. He hardly knew that I existed. Then something happened and he grew to hate me. He thought I had killed his father. I didn't. But nothing I said could convince him otherwise." He grimaced at the painful memory.

"I see. Then you turned to the other one?"

"Not exactly. My life was a real mess, I grew to hate everyone and just about everyone hated me in return. And Skinner, he hated me most of all. I was the most brutal to him."

"Oh. So you were into that pain nonsense. I never did really understand the appeal of that sort of thing."

"No, it wasn't that way at all. He was an Assistant Director at the Bureau, an ex-Marine, big, bald and absolutely the sexiest thing on two feet. He was married though so I thought I didn't stand a chance. I used to follow him around and I found he used to frequent this place that handled rent boys. For some reason, that made me furious. I wanted to get back at him for going to them when I was just down the hall and would have done anything for an hour alone with him."

"He sounds pretty special."

"He is … or he was. I doubt if either of them made it. Neither one of them could take orders or even suggestions from anyone else. I'm sure they are both long gone."

"At least you have your memories of being with them."

"No, it never got that far with either of them. I wanted to, I wanted to badly but Mulder was too busy out there searching for his truths and Skinner, with him it was lust at first sight and the knowledge that he'd sooner break me in half as touch me kept me at a distance. He'd walk right passed me in the hall and not even see me; not until I got in his face, that is."

"How very sad. You've carried a torch for two men and neither of them responded in kind. What a sad tale indeed. It sounds like a Victorian novel. Only in that, some rich relative would have whisked you away to his family's estate and married you off to his ugly daughter."

"Oh God! Spare me." Alex laughed as he got up, took his coffee cup into the kitchen and rinsed it out, then said good night and left for his bunk. He always waited until everyone was asleep as he couldn't bear their chatter and he didn't have any answers to their un-ending questions.

He lay in his bunk and thought about Mulder and Skinner. He knew they were gone, he just knew it. But some tiny spark of hope wouldn't die and he found himself wondering what it would be like to find them, to free them and bring them to this valley where they would be safe. Would they think of him differently after seeing what he had accomplished? He thought they probably wouldn't. Mulder would whine constantly about finding Scully and Skinner would glare at him and start giving orders.

The tears started slipping down his face and he turned on his side and wiped at them with his blanket and let them fall. Alex Krycek wept.

xxx

It was into their second year in the valley and Alex was reading the latest list brought in by a SO team. He read it – re-read it – then took off for his bunk and started packing. Skinner was alive! Walter Skinner, carpenter – he knew it was him! Within an hour he was on his way.