THE X-FILES "AROUND THE WORLD IN TWELVE MONTHS" PART FOUR 'A Surprise on the Serengeti' By Alien Girl comixgirl@juno.com Rating: PG Classification: Adventure, Mulder/Scully Romance Spoilers: None DISCLAIMER FROM PART ONE APPLIES TO PART FOUR AS WELL Song Disclaimer: This part's song is "Upendi", and it's from the "Lion King II: Simba's Pride" Soundtrack. Rafiki sings it, so I don't know who really sings it. But I definitely mean no disrespect to Rafiki for using his song. ;) I figured this one would go well with this story since it *is* in Africa. In case any of you haven't seen "Lion King II", 'Upendi' is Swahili for 'Love'. :) Summary: Delayed in South Africa, the group decides to spend some time at an African nature reserve, where they stumble across a problem involving murdered poachers. Special Thanks To...all my pals at CSSSA. Thanks for putting up with my ranting!! And thanks to Trish for sticking the lyrics to "See My Vest" in my head so I could use it for this story!! :) If any of you guys are reading this, look for nicknames...and I'm NOT talking about the one Ted kept calling me!!! ;) Author's Notes: You all know the drill...this is part four of twelve...please read parts one through three and the "Accumulation" series first...yada yada yada...I mean, honestly, why would anyone want to read part four *first*? Maybe some people are just weird. I mean weirder than me. Oh wait, is that humanly possible?... Hopefully things will get going more with this story and cool stuff that people like will happen. But then again, if you're reading part four of such a long series, you must like it in some way, so I must be doing *something* right.... Okay, enough of my blabbering. On with the show!! ------------------------------------------------------------------ **************"AROUND THE WORLD IN TWELVE MONTHS"***************** .................'A Surprise on the Serengeti'.................... *************************By Alien Girl**************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Upendi" There's a place where the crazy moon makes The monkey sing and the babboon swoon And the sultry scent of the lotus bloom Will carry you away Why the hippos swing from the jungle vines And the rhinos rhumba in the conga lines And the pink flamingos will intertwine While the stars come out to play! (Chorus) In Upendi, Where the passion fruit grow sweet, And it's so divine that you lose your mind As it sweeps you off your feet. In Upendi, Without a worry or a care, It just takes two to make it true Your heart will take you there! In Upendi, in Upendi... You better watch your step 'cause the path is steep, You better hold your breath 'cause the water's deep, It's a long way down off a lover's leap, But falling's half the fun! (Chorus) You can beat the bush like there's no tomorrow, >From Changanika to Kilamanjaro, You'll find Upendi wherever you are, oh Underneath the sun! (Chorus) In Upendi, In Upendi, In Upendi.... _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 7:43 P.M. Wednesday, November 3rd, 1999 Cape Town, South Africa "In the jun-gle, the mi-tee jun-gle, the li-on sleeps to-niiiiiiight...." Troi's somewhat wavering voice sounded out across the vast plain of the hotel resort. Scully gave Troi a surprised look. "*That* was sudden..." The sun was just beginning to set over the large sea port city, Cape Town, in South Africa. Troi was enjoying herself immensely in the enormous spa that rested on the roof of their four-star hotel, watching the sun sink beneath rose and violet-tinted whisps of cloud. Scully was stretched out on one of the lounge chairs on one side of the spa, and Mulder was reading something in a chair on the other side of the spa next to Samantha. "Couldn't help it," Troi grinned with a sigh. "This is heaven!" "Actually, it's the spa on the roof of a hotel in Cape Town, South Africa," Samantha corrected. "After spending two months in that freezing cold with hardly any food or warmth or whatever, this *is* heaven!" "I was surprised we got back so quickly," Scully commented. "Even if we did get the dent back in place, it was still damaged pretty badly, and we only had just enough fuel to get here. I was afraid we might end up stuck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with nothing to do." "Speaking of our boat, what about it?" Mulder asked. "We never did found out how much repair it needs or how long it'll take..." Right on cue, Tina walked up onto the deck where the spa was, breathing heavily because of the long climb from the stairs. "Maggie just talked to the people running the shipyard," She said. "They'll have to redo the inside of the ship and reshape the hull to make sure it's absolutely steady. Then they're also going to have to put in a new window, compass, radio, and upgrade something on our computers. Not to mention supplying us with more food, water and fuel." "Ouch," Mulder winced. "Well, the good news is that they've offered to do all that for half the normal price..." "That's great!" Scully said, clearly pleased that they didn't have to lose a large amount of their budget on repairs. "But why are they only demanding half the normal amount?" "I think you *know* why..." "What's the bad news?" Samantha remarked. "The bad news is that it may take a while. They're estimating somewhere around two weeks or so." Mulder let out a long sigh. "Oh well, might as well make ourselves comfortable here..." "No problem with that!" Troi said happily, laying down in the bubbling spa with content. "We've got two weeks to kill in a major port city in Africa," Samantha remarked with a smile. "So...where do we go from here?" "Actually, I wanted to go to that wildlife reserve that's somewhere north of here," Scully interrupted. "I saw it in some pamphlet. There's a big African animal reserve somewhere outside the city, and they have a safari tour you can do." "Scully, we're in Africa. Why would you need to go to a *reserve* to see African animals?" Mulder remarked. "We're not in the area where most of the animals' habitats are. Their wild habitat is up east near Kilimajaro, and we can't go that far. But we can go to this reserve; it's several thousand miles wide, and we can see all kinds of things." "I never knew you were such a nature lover, Scully..." "Oh, come on, Mulder. I've wanted to go to Africa and see the animals ever since I was a kid. The only things that ever interested me at the zoo were lions and giraffes and zebras and all those. And now we can go see them in their natural habitat, out in the open!" "It's not like we've got much else to do," Samantha added. "Cape Town is great, but it's too industrious for my tastes." "Funny, I was actually *happy* when we got out of the freezing Atlantic Ocean and found some civilization," Mulder replied. "Aren't *you* the one who usually wants to go off on some crazy excursion, Fox?" Samantha teased. "All right, I'm convinced! We'll go!" 11:36 A.M. Thursday, November 4th, 1999 National Serengeti Animal Reserve, South Africa A small mountain range rose in the distance behind the entrance lodge; a small, concrete building covered with posters and woven mats. The small safari jeep that contained Mulder, Scully, Troi, Samantha and a bunch of their things they had taken from 'The Believer' were piled inside. Margaret and Tina had decided that they would stay in Cape Town and keep an eye on things with the boat. Tina was never one for much adventure, anyway; and as usual, she was somewhat reluctant about letting Fox, Sam, Dana and Troi go off by themselves for a week. Mulder had assured her that they were fully grown people who could by all means take care of themselves for a week on the serengeti. There was no hotel for them to stay in, but instead they were going to camp out in the wild for the week-long excursion. The reserve offered week-long camp-out trips into the wild for those who were up to the challenge, provided, of course, that an experienced guide accompanied them. Mulder wiped sweat from his forehead as he walked up to the entrance of the concrete lodge. He was dressed in khaki shorts and a loose white shirt; even in November it was hot in South Africa. Scully, Samantha and Troi were dressed in similar attire. The door to the lodge was open, and they walked inside. An old, sunburnt man was sitting at the desk reading some trashy romance novel, and looked up as they entered. "What can I do for you?" He said in a thick African-Dutch accent. "We want a week-long safari excursion for four through the reserve," Mulder replied. "Do you have any good guides available who can go with us?" The man studied Mulder, and then Scully. "Say...aren't you the two...what you say...FBI agents who stopped the aliens from blowing up the world?!..." Mulder grimaced. "I guess you could put it that way...but we're actually here because we're on vacation and we're trying to *avoid* too much attention..." "Oh, yes, yes, I understand," The man was clearly having the time of his life talking to these superhero world-savers. "We get the best possible guide possible for you, and everything you want we'll get, or if you want the trip half-price-" "Don't worry about it, we just want a guide and some materials for a week," Mulder interrupted him. The man nodded as if bowing to some god and rushed off into the back room behind the desk. A moment later he returned towing a safari outfit-clad, and somewhat bewhildered African guide behind him. "This is Harrison Mowhali. He'll be absolutely thrilled to be your guide for your week trip!" Harrison gave the man a surprised look until the man whispered something in his ear, which caused Harrison's eyes to widen and then a smile to appear. He thrust a hand towards Mulder. Mulder put his hand forward, only to have it nearly ripped off his arm with Harrison's violent shaking. "I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Mulder!" He said in a big barritone voice. "We already brought along tents and sleeping bags and a few things with us," Mulder said, wincing and holding his hand. "We just need a vehicle, food and a few supplies, and your expertise." "Which we will be happy to provide!!" "Looks like we'll be getting a four-star vacation on the serengeti after all, what with all this generosity," Troi whispered to Samantha. "Come, come, we will gather your things and begin immediately," Harrison stuttered, gazing with fond eyes at Scully and Samantha. He practically pushed them out the door, and started towards their jeep. Mulder glanced around the concrete building they were at, and noticed a man standing against the far wall, smoking a cigarette, staring out into the serengeti beyond. He was middle-aged, and had a rough, mane-like crop of hair to match his his amber-colored eyes. "Who's that?" Mulder asked Harrison. "Another guide?" Harrison stared thoughtfully at the stranger, then shook his head, almost nervously. "No, no...that's just Mr. Travis Lyon. He just comes around here sometimes for the smokes." Mulder shrugged it off and started to help unpack their jeep. 4:16 P.M. Thursday, November 4th, 1999 National Serengeti Animal Reserve, South Africa Scully had never seen a week-long trip on the serengeti be put together so quickly before. They had rented a large safari vehicle for the five of them including Harrison, large enough to fit all of them and still have room enough in the trunk and under the seats for all of their tents, clothes, food and various supplies. They had only left the reserve headquarters about 15 minutes ago, but already the tiny building was completely gone from sight, and they were out in the middle of nowhere by themselves. The top was down on the safari vehicle, and Scully was glad for the dusty breeze that whipped through her red hair because of the afternoon heat. All around them were the sights, sounds and smells of the serengeti. There was mostly very long, tall, yellow grass and shrubbery, as well as a few tree groves scattered here and there. A small mountain range loomed off in the distance, its sides purple and gray from the waining sun. Heat shimmered off the golden grass, and the air was thick with the smell of animals somewhere off in the distance and dry vegitation. So far, they had not seen any animals except for birds and small lizards or mammals. They would have to make camp soon though, since night came early in South Africa. Scully was sitting next to Mulder, who was also gazing with wonder at their surroundings. Somehow, her attention was diverted from the wonderous scenery to him...the way he sat forward in the seat casually, the way the hot wind whipped through his dark hair, how his eyes scanned the horizon, the way he toyed with his hands...Scully found herself drinking it all in, taking in every detail with great care. She didn't know why she was doing so now. After all that had happened at Base 3, she had been so amazed, and so unbelievably saved when Mulder had come back that she had never seemed to grasp the concept. Unlike Mulder, Scully had not spent much time at all pondering over what had happened. She had concentrated only on the fact that it was over, and that she could for the first time in two months regain all of her lost joy and purpose. And now that she stopped to think about it, to really think about how much she had gained back, she began to feel a sense of slight depression....as if this trip were causing something to be delayed, something that should have been resolved the moment they had been reunited. But what she just couldn't figure out.... She wondered if Mulder felt the same way. "Oh, wow, look at that!!" Scully was jolted out of her momentary lapse by Troi's excited voice. She was pointing at something out in the distance. Scully followed Troi's motion out into the distance, putting her hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun and dust. Out to the right of the safari vehicle a cloud of dust appeared, and within the dust cloud, a multitude of black and white stripes could be seen. Through the dust, the sillouettes of many horse-like creatures were visible to the four tourists... "Hey, cool, a herd of zebras!" Sam exclaimed, grabbing up her infamous SamCam and aiming it at her herd of striped stars. "It's late afternoon in the middle of the African serengeti Thursday the 4th, 1999, as a legion of zebras pass us by on the right...magnificent creatures with unmatched grace and beauty..." "Don't you think you're kind of exaggerating on these striped horses, Sam?" Mulder quiered. "Of course I am!! But it adds to the effect of the video!" Harrison steered the safari vehicle in the direction of the passing herd. "Zebras are one of the most common animals in our reserve here, next to impalas and wildebeests. We have approximately five different major herds out here, and their numbers are growing every month." Mulder leaned over Scully to get a good look at the zebras, putting his hands on her shoulders and his chin over her head. She giggled with the feeling, and put her hands up to grasp his as they stared out into the thundering serengeti. The zebras moved as one mass, a twisting body of black and white and brown, kicking up the dust with their hooves. Samantha was practically leaning out of the vehicle with her video camera, shouting out her lengthy explanations over the din of the herd. "I wonder what they're running from?" Troi quiered. Then they saw it. A single leopard was sprinting behind the herd, moving at an incredible pace, its spotted fur rippling over the muscles. Samantha yelled out something about how the zebras were doomed and how the world was going to end. "That's an African leopard," Harrison explained, even though it was perfectly obvious. "The only reason why a herd would run anyway is because of a predator. But this leopard's too slow, and he attacked at the wrong time. He's going to go away empty-clawed." And indeed, after only a few minutes of chasing, the leopard slowed and then dropped off into the surrounding yellow brush, disappearing from view. The zebras continued to gallop, even as they began to slow their pace. "I think that'll be all we see of them," Harrison said, turning the vehicle back onto their intended path. "Wow, what a shot!" Samantha exclaimed, waving her camera. "This is almost as good as the one I got of Fox and Dana kissing behind the captain's quarters!!" Troi shot Mulder and Scully an inquiring smile, and Scully's face turned red. Mulder shot a look at Samantha. "Sam....." "No need to thank me!" She replied cheerfully. 1:55 A.M. Friday, November 5th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa Troi sat up suddenly, unsure of where she was or how she got there. And then she remembered. It was very hot, and dark outside. Thoughts put themselves together in a blur of connections...they were in South Africa, at the animal reserve. She was with Samantha, and Fox and Dana were in another tent...it was night. They had pitched camp around 6:00 that night, they had had dinner; she remembered because it had been particulary good. She remembered zebras and a leopard and the sunset and going to sleep.... ...But her head *ached*. It ached with a passion. A throbbing, pounding, endless sensation of pain in the base of her skull. She reached her hand up to the back of her neck to try and calm it. She winced from the pain imating from the back of her head. Why did it *hurt* so much? She could feel the pain begin to circulate down her spine, making her back ache with the same intensity her head did. She didn't understand this at all. She was waking up with these headaches more often than she was with dreams anymore. It made her worry, even though she always dismissed it as nothing. And then, the pain suddenly disappeared. BRAM! Troi shot up straight, her body tense, like a ferret ready to sprint into its hole. The sound of the gunshot echoed in her ears over and over, like a deadly gong. Troi brushed some hair strands out of her face and stuck her head out of the tent's entrance. Outside, it was dark, but illuminated by the stars above. The grass seemed to glow silver with the moon's glow, portraying a portrait of peacefulness and serenity. She watched as a flock of birds in the distance rose from the silver grass into the sky, screaming in fear at the sharp, blunt sound that still echoed across the plains. The shot came again, causing Troi to jump. Troi started to get out of the tent, but thought better of it. She remembered the last time she had woken up in the middle of the night and had snuck off by herself...Fox and Dana and Sam wouldn't be happy with her at all if she did it again. She sat, sweating, listening for a sound, any sound. But the only sound she heard was silence. Troi glanced back at Sam in her sleeping bag. She was still asleep. She should probably go back to sleep, the shots were probably nothing... But then another sound came out across the distant horizon. The sounds of growls, snarling, and then something like a creature screaming. The scream echoed all around the serengeti, sending the birds into the air again, chilling Troi right to the core with its paralyzing tone. The scream was cut short by another roar. And then it was silent again. Troi sat silent, visibly shaken by the sounds that still seemed to echo. What could that have been? The growls were definitely animal, but the scream had sounded dangerously close to human...and the gunshots.... Troi forced herself to get a grip. 'The leopard probably got a zebra after all', she thought. She crept back into the tent as the familiar sounds of crickets and night birds returned to their normal routine. She decided that she wasn't going to lose any sleep over whatever she had heard. But she did anyway. 11:12 A.M. Friday, November 5th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa The sun rose over the serengeti the next day as a burning globe of red, illuminating the yellow grass and changing it to gold. Birds called to greet the morning, as did the various other creatures of the animal reserve. The whisps of cloud hovering in the heavens were tinted pink and orange and red in the morning light, and the air smelled of fresh dew and soft grass. But Dana Scully was too busy putting disinfectant on her mosquito bites to really notice. "Glad to see you up, we have much to see and do today!" Harrison bellowed in her face as he scrambled into the other tents to awaken the others. Scully rolled her eyes and searched through her things to find a band so she could tie her hair back. In a matter of minutes, their guide had the other three people up and dressed, if not still half-asleep. As Troi stepped outside the tent, she stopped, and sniffed the air. She sniffed again, then wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ewww...what *is* that?" "What is it?" Samantha questioned. "Something smells...*gross*," Troi replied, waving the smell out of the air. Mulder tested the scent on the breeze. "Smells like something dead." "Some animal was probably killed last night," Scully shrugged absently. "But something doesn't feel right..." Troi persisted. "I want to see what it is." "Troi...." "It's alright," Harrison butted in. "It's not very often that visitors get to see an actual animal kill. But it's very interesting, in fact, because we get to observe the lions' or leopards' eating habits... very unique." "Not to mention disgusting," Samantha grumbled. "But we'd better hurry if we want to see it!" You need to get all our things and pack them into the jeep so we can get going..." Scully obeyed, and began throwing her things out of the tent so she could roll it up. As for herself, she was not all that interested in watching a pack of lions tear up a bloody gazelle. But if Troi wanted to see it, there would be little chance of stopping her. Within only 20 minutes all of the tents and equipment were packed back into the safari vehicle and they were seated back on the brown, sticky cushions and bouncing over uneven terrain towards the spot where black birds circled the sky slowly. As they traveled forwards, talk lessened and then diminished completely as a growing sense of uneasiness engulfed the golden grass. Mulder hoped that there wouldn't be lions or such there. After his experiences with dolphins, alligators and jaguars, he didn't fancy meeting up with any more Mulder-hungry creatures. Harrison slowed the vehicle as a black-covered mass came into view in a clearing amidst the yellow strands. The black mass was vultures, scrawny scavengers pecking away at whatever was beneath them. The stench of rotting flesh thickened the air like a poisonous gas, causing the visitors to pull their collars up to their noses. Scully put her shirt back down and covered her nose with her hands as she noticed her short shirt lifting, revealing her belly...and the fact that Mulder was staring at her. Samantha hopped out of the vehicle and motioned for the others to follow. She banged her first loudly against the car's side, creating a reverberating clang that caused the vultures to leap back from the rotting figure. Samantha covered her mouth with her hand as he stomach's contents threatened to explode out of her throat. The group stared in shocked silence at the body laying in the grass. It was a human body. It was a man, a large man, havily built, probably in his late 30's. He was dressed in safari-type clothes, and a bandana was tied around his neck. Now the clothes were torn and blood-stained, lumps of fat and tissue evident beneath the clothing. The body was in the early stages of decomposition, the skin hanging from the bones like old rags, slowly disentigrating into a mass of gray flesh. Flies buzzed around the corpse, crawling over his shoulders, his fingers, his lips, his clouded eyes. A cicada was somewhere nearby, and it's toneless, burring drone was like a flat EEG, adding to the gruesome portrait of the dead body. Mulder, always the curious one, crept up to the corpse and examined the person's remains. "Looks like he was mauled to death," He said, breaking the flat EEG. "By what?" Troi questioned. "Large cat, obviously," Harrison answered. "Lion, most probably, or a leopard. But something's wrong here...." "Why aren't there lions here at the kill?" Scully stated, confused. "Exactly. There should be predators here if they killed this man..." "What *I* would like to know," Troi interjected, "is what this guy is doing here in the *first* place." "*That* might explain it," Samantha pointed to a large object lying a few feet from the body. It was a gun. A large, heavy gun, apparently with elaborate carved decorations on the handle. What was the most evident was the fact that the gun's barrel was twisted upward, as if someone had taken the gun and bent it in two. Mulder saw Harrison's face tighten with contempt. "Big game hunters," He snarled between his teeth. "I'm sure of it." "I thought this was an animal reserve," Mulder questioned. "It is. We've had a large problem lately with illegal poachers sneaking through our reserve perimeter. The only people working at the reserve are the other four guides, the man who runs the shop, the manager, and myself. We don't have any way to protect the animals in the reserve other than the law." "What about that other guy we saw? Travis Lyon?" Harrison hesitated. "Oh...him. He just helps us with supplies management every now and then." Mulder nodded, running his tongue along his upper lip, face grim. He glanced back at the body, then at the anxious vultures waiting impatiently to return to their meal. "But what should we do with him?" Troi said upsettingly. "We can't just leave him here..." "We're going to have to. We can't take the body with us, the stench will attract predators. The only thing we can do is to leave it here. Those buzzards'll take care of the rest." There was a moment's hesitation, then the four people turned slowly from the corpse and climbed back into the safari vehicle. Their guide started the engine, and the jeep trudged back across the grass as the body once again became a shuddering black mass. Minutes passed as the vehicle bounced over the sand dunes, but all occupants were silent. Their guide concentrated only on the uneven terrain. Troi sat quietly and nervously, thinking over the gunshots and the screams she had heard the night before, the memories sending a shiver down her spine. Scully's thoughts drifted, and she found herself unable to focus on anything to make a conversation. Mulder's X-file instincts were kicking into gear as he thought over the dead body. Something just wasn't right...he could feel it. it was the same prickly sensation that he got whenever he got a new X-file. How could a large, well built man be killed by a lion if he had a gun? And why were there no predators, such as lions or hyenas or jackals eating such a fresh kill? Samantha was the only one who seemed to notice the grim silence, and was unhappy about it. She was also very disturbed and upset by the dead body, but at the same time she didn't want their excursion to be ruined because of something they couldn't change. Her need to speak overpowered her somberness. As she was thinking over what to say, a tune popped into her head out of nowhere....... "See my vest, see my vest, made from real gorilla chest..." All thoughts were suddenly brought to a screeching halt. "See my sweater, there's no better than authentic Irish Setter..." Everyone stared directly at Samantha. "See this hat, twas my cat, my evening wear a vampire bat..." Scully raised an eyebrow. "These white slippers are albino African endangered rhino..." Mulder stared at his younger sister as if she were the dead corpse. "Grizzly bear underwear, turtle's necks I've got my share, bray of poodle on my noodle it shall rest... Try my red robin suit, it comes one breast or two, see my vest, see my vest, see my vest!!" She paused for effect as Troi's jaw dropped open. "Like...my...loafers, former gophers, it was them or kill my schoufers, but a greyhound fur tuxedo would be best! So let's prepare these dogs...kill two for matching clogs...see my vest, see my vest, oh please won't you see my veesssssssttt!!!" Samantha finished her song with a flourish of her hand, face pressed into a grin. Her cheeks flushed red as she stared at the baffled faces of her three friends. "What? I saw it on a 'Simpsons' episode once." Troi let out a loud snort and exploded into uncontrolled laughter. She keeled forward in her seat, face scrunched up with hilarity, her laughter sounding like hiccuping as they bounced over the ground. Mulder and Scully exchanged glances, then Scully grinned, and Mulder snickered, and then they were both laughing together. The complete randomness and oddity of Samantha's outburst after what had just happened suddenly struck them as hilarious, and they couldn't help themselves. Samantha was laughing right along with them, while Harrison turned around with surprise, wanting to know what was so funny. After a while Scully was finally able to speak. "Where on earth did you come up with that, Sam?" She giggled. "I was just thinking about poachers, and that song popped into my head." "Kinda funny how that happens," Troi continued, glad that they finally had a pleasant conversation going. "I have this song running through my head now, it just came out of nowhere..." "What is it?" Troi thought for a moment, struggling to remember the lyrics. "In Upendi...where the passion fruit grow sweet...and it's so divine that you lose your mind as it sweeps you off your feet..." Scully cast a quizzical glance at Troi. "In Upendi...without a worry or a care...it just takes two to make it true, your heart will take you there!" "What's *that* from?" "I think it was from a Lion King movie. When I was back at the Home, there was this girl named Christina who was obsessed with The Lion King and was always singing the songs. Drove everyone else nuts." Before Troi could continue, the safari vehicle hopped over a giant bump, causing everyone to jump in their seats. The jeep suddenly came to a screeching halt. "Hey, what is it?!" Troi exclaimed at Harrison. "Shhhhh!!!" Their guide put a finger to his lips, face etched with excitement. "Look ahead of us...right behind that sagebrush!!!" The group fell quiet with concentration, staring into the grass beyond. The jeep was resting on a hill, so they had a pretty good view of what lay below. It was some rhinos...large, bulky beasts shuffling around in the yellow carpet. Mulder and Scully's faces lit up with pleasure as they watched the animals...there were three rhinos, one a male, the other a female...but with the female was a young infant rhino. They watched, spellbound, and the tiny, soft baby nuzzled next to it's mother, and then they noticed that the mother was nursing the infant. Samantha whipped out the SamCam and began recording, but remembered to speak in hushed tones. The father rhino appeared to be protecting it's mate and baby, scanning with watchful eyes over the serengeti. It twitched it's ears and whacked it's tail to try and ward off flies, looking very regal and confident as it did so. Scully stared hard at the baby rhino, sucking eagerly from it's mother's belly, as the mother looked on with pride at her infant. The baby grunted, and the mother grunted in response. Scully released a sigh of disappointment as she watched the rhino family. Even in watching wildlife at it's best, she couldn't help but be reminded that the rhino mother would have more of a chance of watching it's own infant grow then she would ever have of her own... Mulder, who was leaning over Scully, noticed her somberness as she watched the rhinos with mute fascination. (Only Scully would be reminded of her infertiltiy while watching a family of rhinos...) he thought to himself. Mulder put his arms around her waist, squeezing gently in hopes of providing comfort. Scully smiled at Mulder's touch, feeling him rest his chin on the top of her head. The rhino mother may have a baby, but there was one thing it could never have...a mate like Mulder. (Even though we're technically not "mates" yet...) Just then, the male rhino glanced towards the grassy knoll and espied the jeep watching them. Harrison turned the engine back on. "We'd better get out of here...don't think it'd be wise to disturb this guy's wife anymore." The jeep started up, and rolled back down the hill to continue it's journey. 11:52 P.M. November 5th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa "I'm worried about him, Ted." Ted Noims let out a low growl of annoyance at Simon Sickrint staring anxiously out at the dark serengeti. "That's the fourth time you've complained in the past 15 minutes, Simon! Can't you keep your big floppy mouth shut?! Trust me...Gary'll make it back...he's a big guy, he can take care of himself." Simon shrugged with contempt, and turned his attention back to the grass. "Well, I'm gonna watch for him. I still don't like it." Taylor Lylek ground his teeth together as he finished polishing his favorite gun. He blew a puff of tobacco smoke at the tent ceiling as he held the gun up to the light for inspection. "If we're lucky, a big cat ate 'im. Never did like the little bastard much." "Shut up, Taylor," Simon growled nervously at the bigger, bearded man. "He's right, y'know," Mike Bigg interjected. Unlike Taylor, he was completely bald, which was no problem considering he was African-American. "Been here two weeks and all we've got is a few zebra hides. And it's all because Gary, the "head" of our project, *insists* that a *reserve* is the best place to poach! There's just as many beasts out in the wild as there are here...and there ain't no law to protect 'em! We get caught, we ain't ever comin' back here to kill, y'know..." "We're short on money, that's why we're here," Ted scoffed at the African. "Don't have the dough for equipment in the wild...this place is so padded, they give tours here." "That's another thing," Simon piped up again. "What if some guide comes through here with a gang of tourists? Then we're just as dead as that zebra on your chair." Ted smiled, and ran his hand through the striped hide that blanketed his favorite chair. "Then we'll just have to add a few skins to our collection, won't we?" 3:15 P.M. Monday, November 8th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa The safari jeep bounced over the ground like a newborn gazelle, throwing dust and shards of grass out of it's path as it traveled forward. The last few days in the animal reserve had been quite a success for the group of tourists. Nearly every couple of hours a new group of animals had presented themselves for the foursome's enjoyment. Twice they had seen a herd of zebras all traveling together, including young zebras, and Samantha caught a zebra-fight on tape. They saw giraffes eating from the trees and cleaning their ears with their super-long tongues. While passing by a river they spotted some hippos bathing in the cool mud, right next to a herd of large, African elephants that were also putting the cool river to good use. Watching the magnificent creatures roll in the mud for cooling and trumpet out their content had sent shivers of excitement down everyone's spine. Once Troi had seen two cheetahs sleeping in the grass during the hottest part of the day. A flock of ostriches had traveled by, and they met up with some rhinos again. Inbetween the excitement they had also seen some wildebeests, gazelles and antelopes, meerkats, water buffaloes, and all manner of exotic birds and small mammals. Samantha had promised herself to film a lion pride before they left, but they were yet to find such a discovery. Mulder was scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars, looking for anything that would be of interest to them. He could see the shimmer of water on the horizon off in the distance. Harrison had said that they would be nearing the water hole soon, but Mulder couldn't tell if it was the water hole or just a mirrage from the heat. The heat was intense in the afternoon, and Mulder reached down to pour some more water over his head for relief. After living in cold-and-rainy Washington D.C. for so long, the heat was practically unbearable...almost as bad as the Amazon River. For the first time ever, he actually *missed* Antarctica. (At least I might get a nice tan to show off to Scully...) "Oh, hey!! What's that thing?!" He heard Scully shout from below. Mulder followed her gaze to where he saw a tiny group of small, zebra-like animals grazing on the flowers growing near a small stream. They looked like wild horses, except their legs had stripes and they had horns like a giraffe's on their heads and a short mane. Their bodies where mostly brownish-gold. They didn't look like any animals that Mulder recognized. "Oh, wow!!!" Harrison breathed in a gasp of delight. "You guys are in for an extreme treat...those are the okapis!!" "What's an *okapi*?!" Troi said quizzically. "An okapi is a horse-sized mammal," Harrison explained, clearly excited by the event. "They look like a cross between a zebra and a giraffe. They're one of the most rare and endangered animals in the world, very close to extinction. We were extremely lucky to get a male and female. They were able to breed and have a baby...a great achievement in modern zoology! There's only a few of these things left in the entire world, and most of them are in zoos. The okapi is actually more at home to the jungles of central and western Africa, so it's also extremely lucky that these things have been doing so well in this more dry habitat. Our okapi pair is the reserve's greatest accomplishment, we're very proud of those animals. I myself have never seen them out here...until now!" Samantha whipped out the SamCam and began giving her explanation of the three animals beyond, exaggerating to the point of telling the audience that it was an undiscovered species of giraffe. Scully pulled out a camera as well, eager to get a picture of the rare hoofed wonder. The okapis hadn't noticed the jeep, and continued to graze on the flowers and shrubs in the bushes... BRAM!!! The three animals suddenly broke cover of the bushes and bounded off with lightning speed into the grass, so fast that it seemed a police car chasing a suspect would be amazed. The sound of the extremely loud gunshot echoed over and over through the air, causing everyone to jump as if a bomb had exploded. Birds screeched with rage, and the retreating okapis set up a chorus of terrified screeches and howls. "What was THAT?!" Scully exclaimed with surprise and anger. "Oh no! One of the okapis got shot!!!" Troi's shout of anguish proved to be true. The female okapi stumbled forward through the grass until it could go no further. It stopped, breathing heavily and bleating out it's cry of distress. Thick blood stained the okapi's striped hind leg. The male doubled back and began licking the female's face, trying to coax it to rise to it's feet. The baby sat in the grass next to it's mother, crying with fright. Harrison leaped out of the jeep, his face a mask of rage and fury. "THOSE BASTARDS!!!" He bellowed as he slammed the door. "THOSE D**M MURDERERS!!! I'M GONNA KILL THOSE BASTARDS!!!!" "What the..." "IT'S THE POACHERS!! THEY SHOT THE MOTHER, D**M THEM!!!" Now Mulder could see what their enraged guide was referring to...two men, dressed in safari clothes, both carrying guns, were darting in and out of the brush, trying to get closer to where the okapis were now trapped in the brush. The female could not get up with it's wounded leg, and the male refused to leave the female. One of the poachers hid himself in the grass and aimed his twin barrels straight at the male's neck. RROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!! Mulder, Harrison, and the two poachers stopped dead in their tracks as an ear-splitting roar cut into the terrified cries of the okapis. From out of nowhere there appeared an enormous, fully-grown male lion. The lion was too huge to be real. It's face and neck was covered in a majestic, brown and gold mane, and it's fur seemed to shimmer on it's skin. Deep, amber, hunting eyes stared directly at the poacher aiming at the okapi. The lion roared again. Then it charged. The poacher let out a frightened cry, and aimed his gun at the approaching lion, and fired. BRAM. The lion DODGED. The large, gold cat leaped to one side, sending the bullet flying onwards into the grass, and continued to run. It was obvious that the lion was not interested in the wounded okapi...the easier meal...but more in the person who had shot it. The poacher, squirming with sheer panic, reloaded the gun and fired again at the lion. Again, the lion dodged, and he missed. It was as if the cat could anticipate the bullets and therefore avoid them. The halpless man let out a horrified scream as he bolted from his cover, seeing that one more shot would land the lion right on top of him. The lion pursued him, it's muscles rippling beneath the fur, as Mulder recognized with horror the similar way the jaguar had chased him in the Amazon jungle. It was no use. The man had only gone a few paces before the lion grabbed him by the coat. The poacher went down, rolling through the dust, scrambling to use the butt of his gun to beat the animal back. The onlookers watched, petrified, as the lion snarled and pounced on the man, raking it's claws against the man's side. The man screamed with pain and panic, and smacked the lion on the nose with his gun. The lion roared, swiping it's paw as the man struggled to get to his feet and run again. Mulder's face set, and he sprinted across the grass to where the lion and the poacher fought. "Mulder!!! Come back!!!" Samantha and Scully shouted together. But he ignored them both and continued to run towards the fight, as if we was going to tackle the lion with his bare hands. Even if the man was a poacher, he was not about to allow a human being to be killed in sight of him. Scully's jaw dropped with horror, but then pure instinct (or habit) pushed her into running after him. This time it was Troi and Sam's turns to begin yelling Scully. The lion had the man pinned to the ground with his massive paws, there was no way for him to get up. The man looked with fearful eyes into the twin pools of firey amber staring back at him, suddenly feeling a sensation he had never felt before...that he had been hunted, and caught, and was now going to be eaten alive. "HEY, YOU!!!" The lion looked up with a snarl. Mulder was standing ten feet away from them, waving his arms and shouting at the top of his lungs, trying to get the lion's attention. Unfortunately, he now had it. The lion stared at him with the burning eyes. Then slowly, slowly, it left the poacher...and started to trot towards him. Mulder stood rooted where he was, unable to run, as if he had suddenly forgotten how to use his legs. He was paralyzed, whether with fear or awe he didn't know. The lion opened it's mouth, showing it's glimmering white carnivourous teeth, and roared. Just as it started to pounce, Scully and Harrison caught up to Mulder, stopping in their tracks as they saw the lion looking at him. The lion's gaze turned suddenly from Mulder to Harrison, then stopped as if in recognition. The lion's eyes moved over the people, carefully inspecting them, from Scully to Mulder and then to Harrison. It backed away slowly, as if being ashamed of itself. It turned around to where the poacher had been laying... He was gone. The lion snarled, releasing a growl of anger from within it's throat. The three people left standing there remained as still as possible. With one last look of rage, the lion slunk off into the surrounding brush, and was suddenly gone. Mulder almost collapsed from relief, as he suddenly regained his heartbeat and let his body go limp after being so tense. Scully caught him, holding him by the shoulders to steady him. "Mulder!...Are you alright?!" "Yeah...I think so..." Scully frowned. "What do you think you were DOING?!!? That thing could've killed you!!" "Thanks for that valuable tip, great guru Scully..." "D**m!!!" Harrison snarled at the empty grass. "Those poachers got away!!" "Well, at least no one was killed," Mulder replied, breathing heavily and wiping sweat from his brow. "We can notify the authorities of the fact that there's poachers here and they'll take care of it..." "We can't give word of them until we get back to the base camp...and that'll still be a few days," Scully reminded him. Harrison stared down helplessly at the three animals left lying in the grass. "But the okapi is still wounded...she'll die if we don't give her medical attention." "I can be of service there." All faces turned to the sudden voice. From out of the bushes where the lion had disappeared stepped a man...Mulder recognized him as Travis Lyon. He had scrawny, brownish-gold hair that seemed to stick out all over his face, and his eyes were a deep amber-brown. "I have a vehicle here with me. I can take the okapis back to the base. We have a medical center there, and we'll be able to treat her wound." Harrison -and everyone else- were visibly surprised by Travis's sudden appearance. He looked as if he had run through half the reserve to get there...there were some leaves and sticks protruding from his clothes and hair. Harrison's jaw dropped, then he nodded in agreement. "Yes...good thing you showed up, Travis. We needed someone to take her back to the base...that'd be just wonderful of you." Travis nodded, and trotted over to the three okapis. The normally shy animals did not seem in the least disturbed by his appearance. Travis knelt down by the wounded female, and soothed her with his voice, whispering in hushed tones that everything would be alright. The okapi stopped squealing and relaxed under Travis's hand as he stroked her neck. Even the male, which was very protective of the female, allowed Travis to handle it's mate and simply licked the baby's face for reassurance. Travis disappeared into the brush, and returned driving a large flatbed truck that they apparently had not noticed before. He drove the truck right up to the three okapis and let down a ramp to the flatbed. Mulder and Harrison offered to help carry the mother okapi onto the truck, but for some reason the okapis would not allow anyone but Travis to get near. Since the okapi was too heavy to carry, Travis simply walked her carefully onto the truck and set her down. He led the male into the truck next, and carried the baby in and set it down beside his parents. He closed the truck and hopped in the driver's seat. "Don't you worry yourselves about these three anymore," He said assuredly. "They'll be taken good care of. In just a few days I'll make sure that they're back out here where they belong." He cast a glance at Harrison, almost menacingly. "*Your* job is to make sure those poachers stay away. If they don't, they're liable to get more than just a scratch in the side." Harrison nodded dully. Travis started the engine of the truck, and the vehicle took off along the grass into the sun. Within a matter of minutes they were alone again. Mulder cast a glance at Harrison. "Those okapis certainly didn't have any problem with Mr. Lyon hauling them away on the truck." Their guide sighed with something sounding like regret. "The man's a wonder with animals. Never been very social, but he knows exactly what any animal wants and how it feels. That's another thing...if an animal is sick or injured, he's the one who takes it back to the base and cares for it till it's better. So I wouldn't worry too much about those okapis...he'll baby them for weeks until they're too hyper for their own good. The only thing we have to worry about now is getting on with your tour." "What about those poachers?" Scully asked. "We don't know where they are. And Travis'll probably notify the authorities while he's at the base. If we find them again, we'll figure out what to do...but for now, we should just keep going." Mulder and Scully exchanged glances, then nodded in agreement. Scully helped Mulder back through the grass to the jeep, sighing with relief as she felt his weight leaning on hers. (He's safe...at least until the next lion springs out of nowhere...) 10:21 P.M. Monday, November 8th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa Ted Noims angrily snipped the bandage between his teeth, scowling with pain as he applied disinfectant and then the bandage to the four red lines etched into the skin of his ribs. Simon, Mike and Taylor watched him with silence. It was obvious that Gary wouldn't be coming back. "I'm gonna kill that cat," Ted snarled between his teeth, staring with rage at the gauze bandages applied to his ribs. "I'm gonna put a bullet through those big yellow eyes. I'm gonna string it up by it's tail, I'm gonna skin it, I'm gonna make that skin into a coat for myself, and then I'm gonna throw it's guts to the buzzards!!!" Taylor scratched his beard. "I think you should just lay off it, Ted...we're probably not gonna see that lion again, anyway. Lion hides don't sell good, we still need to get some chettah and leopard skins, and we're short on time..." "I don't care about stupid cheap leopard skins!!!" Ted barked back at Taylor. "We're not leaving this reserve until I have my bullet in that cat's brain! No animal puts a wound in Ted Noims and lives to tell about it!!" "Uh, Ted...animals don't talk," Mike reminded him nervously. "I KNOW that, you idiot!" Ted snarled, obviously in the foulest of moods. "I don't care if it speaks English or Swahili or neither...I'm gonna kill it if it's that last thing I do!" "Just as long as those tourists don't blab to the catlovers first..." "They're next on my list." "But that one guy saved your life!" Simon protested. "I don't care! If they're in the way of my gun...then they'll be the ones strung up by the tail!" Ted grumbled, gazing outside the hunter's tent at the grass and stars. "We don't have time to waste on avoiding stupid outsiders. And I think I have a plan on how to get rid of them..." 10:52 A.M. Tuesday, November 9th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa Since they had stopped early to camp for the night before, they did not reach the waterhole until that morning. The waterhole was basically the last large stop on the trip, and after that it would be two days through the serengeti until they got back to the camp. I *still* haven't gotten to film a lion pride yet!!" Samantha complained for the fourth time that day as they bounced over a dry riverbed. Scully sighed. "Don't worry, Sam...I'm *sure* we'll see a lion pride before we leave. Besides, you've already got two tapes' worth of things from Africa! You got that zebra fight, and the rhino family, and those hippos and elephants in the river, the giraffes...you even got the entire incident with the okapis on tape!! It won't be the end of the world if you don't get a lion pride." "Well...I hope we see one before we leave, anyway," Samantha sighed. "You just may get your chance, Sam...Harrison says that there's all kinds of animals at the waterhole, mostly because it's the source of drink for them. And it's also a popular spot for predators, so you just may get your lion pride." "Hey, I can see it now!" Troi exclaimed, pointing out ahead to where a thin line of blue streaked the horizon. They watched in eagerness at the waterhole drew closer, and it was now evident that there were also many different animals surrounding the expanse of water. As they drew closer, they were able to pick out individual herds...zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, elephants and gazelles. They stayed in bunches, and migled with the other herds only a little bit. Most of them were drinking and bathing in the water, others were resting on the shore or eating. Harrison stopped the jeep about a hundred yards from the animals in the water hole, so that they were close enough to get a good look but far enough away so that they wouldn't disturb the animals. There was a few moments of silence as they watched. Then Troi said, "How could any predator get in there to get something? It seems as if they ran in out of nowhere they would start a stampede, I've heard pack animals like those usually get scared pretty easily." "Glad you asked that," Harrison answered, eager to show off his animal knowledge. "Most predators attack from the outskirts, sneaking up on a group of animals, and then picking off a weak, sickly one from the outskirts. There's a bit of a struggle, but not enough to cause the entire animal company to go running. Only a stupid predator would run right into the middle of a waterhole gathering...it's too hard to catch prey if there's a stampede." Mulder, Scully, Samantha and Troi marveled at the giant beasts enjoying themselves in the sun, great herds moving as one, protecting each other from the outside while finding food at the same time. All the animals seemed to be very tolerant of each other; an elephant would let a wildebeest drink from the same area of water that it would. (If only some people could be like animals and not care if the other was different...) Scully mused to herself. One of the elephants began to walk into the water, as if going deeper...and then disappeared into the water completely! The only thing remaining was it's trunk, which stuck out of the water like a persicope on a submarine. The trunk moved beneath the water, as it was apparent that the elephant was *swimming* through the lake to the opposite shore. "Cool! I didn't know elephants could swim!" Troi exclaimed as they watched the submerged elephant swim athletically towards the shore. "Sure, elephants are great swimmers. They can submerge themselves completely, and yet still breathe through their trunks. They're actually very intelligent, gentle beasts...one of the greatest I know," Harrison responded. "Hey, is that some kind of babboon?" Mulder said, pointing to a much smaller figure, standing under a tree and gazing out at the animals. "That's no babboon..." Scully answered, looking through binoculars. "That's a *person*!!" "The poachers must be back!" Samantha cried with fright. "No, it's not a poacher..." Scully continued, focusing the binoculars. "It's...it's Mr. Travis Lyon!!!" The entire group stared in shocked silence at the scrawny-yellow man watching the animals beneath the tree with intensity. He was not moving. "What's he doing?!" "He must've brought back the okapis..." "Already?! He just took them back yesterday!" They fell silent again as Travis began to move. He started on a steady jog out from under the tree, moving swiftly and suredly. Then, as he neared the waterhole, he seemed to stumble...and he landed on his hands. But he didn't stop. He *continued* to run on both his feet and hands as if he hadn't noticed his fall. And instead of slowing down, he seemed to be running *faster*. Mulder snatched the binoculars out of Scully's hands and looked hard, despite Scully's protests. He watched, amazed, as Travis grew larger...and then something even stranger happened. His clothes shriveled into his skin as if becoming a part of him. The scruffy hair on his head sprouted and grew and grew until it snaked down his back and around his neck. His face grew longer, and a long appendage suddenly sprouted from his bottom. his skin turned thick and hairy, changing from normal flesh to golden-yellow, and his hands became thick and padded on the undersides. Where Travis Lyon had been before was now a large, full-grown lion. "What the--?!" "Mulder, what is it?" "Scully, look at *this*!!" "I *would* but you stole my binoculars..." However, she was able to see what was happening even without the binoculars. The Travis Lyon --or rather, Travis *Lion*-- was running at breakneck speed directly into the middle of a large herd of wildebeests. "Oh, no..." Too late. The lion pounced right into the middle of the herd, snarling, roaring and slashing it's claws left and right. It wasn't concentrating on any particular individual, it just growled and pounced at whatever was in it's path. And the wildebeests panicked. The entire herd erupted in a frightened chorus of snorting and mooing, and moved left, right, bumping into each other, trying to escape the lion which was caught in the chaotic mess. The elephants looked up from their river, the zebras stopped grazing, the giraffes raised their heads to see what the commotion was about. It set off a chain reaction. The lead wildebeests fled, running away from the waterhole and across the plains. Like sheep, the other wildebeests followed as instincts ruled over order. The zebras were the next to follow as they panicked at the sight of the lion and massed together, trying to form their traditional confusing blur of black and white. Instead they abandoned all hope and followed the wildebeests in hopes that at least they knew where they were going. The gazelles and antelopes did exactly the same thing. The smaller herds, such as the giraffes and elephants, were the last to go, but after seeing that the lion that had caused all the trouble was still around, they too panicked and took off after the herd. The wildebeests, zebras, antelopes, gazelles, giraffes and elephants all became one giant herd as confusion and fear caused the animals to become dioriented and therefore split up. A cloud of dust was sent up into the air as the great mass of animals trampled forward, with the lion right behind them. And they were all heading straight for the jeep. "I-I think we need to get out of here..." Troi said as she felt the ground tremble beneath her feet from the pounding of many hooves. Harrison agreed. Shaking, he leaped back into the driver's seat and gunned the engine of the jeep. The jeep sputtered, but then coughed out a refusal...a refusal to move. "Ohhhh.......shoot..." "What?!?!" He tried again, twisting the key violently in the keyhole. There was another cough from the engine, but still no response. And the stampede was getting closer. "What is it?!" Scully cried, eyes fixated on the snorting wildebeests with their twin horns and thick hooves. "Some dirt must've gotten stuck in the engine! She won't respond!!" "Well, get it FIXED!" Mulder exclaimed. "Those things aren't going to wait for us!" He tried again, and again, and again. Finally, on the last try, the engine decided to awaken and the motor churned, working again. Harrison slammed his foot on the gas, and the jeep swerved as it turned around fast and headed away from the charging stampede. They had not gone three feet before a zebra suddenly appeared out of nowhere running parallel to the jeep, striped legs pumping so that it appeared to be nothing more than a black and white blur. It's face was almost level with Samantha, as with great excitement she filmed the wild horse charging forward. "GO FASTER!!!" Scully shouted at the top of her lungs. The jeep kicked into 80 MPH, bouncing like crazy over the uneven ground, while everyone struggled to remain in their seats. The entire herd of animals was surrounding them, zebras, wildebeests, antelope, gazelles, giraffes and elephants rushed by them as if they were just another panicked animal. The lion was nowhere to be seen. However, as Samantha continued to film, an elephant suddenly bumped them from behind, causing the car to fly through the air like the birds above. As it landed, just barely steadily enough to keep from tipping over, the camera was knocked out of Samantha's hand. "MY CAMERA!!!!" Her anguished cry sounded out above the snorts and cries of the surrounding animals as they continued to charge forward. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK AND GET MY CAMERA!!!" No one really heard her, as the only thing that could be concentrated on how was whether or not they would get out of the stampede alive. Churning dust and dirt had completely blocked the window, so they had no idea where they were going, and Harrison simply drove wherever he could, hoping that he would not run head-on into anything...especially anything with large horns. An agonizing squeal from behind caused everyone to turn around as another bump rocked the jeep. An antelope had tripped over it's own feet and landed against the back of the jeep, scraping it's long horns over the glass and metal. It rolled down behind them, and let out one last terrifying squeal as it disappeared beneath the pounding of hundreds of hooves. Mulder gulped. "GO FASTER!!!" "CAN'T! THE DUST IS CLOGGING THE ENGINE AGAIN!!!" The vehicle began to slow down as the engine choked on the flying dust, and more and more animals were bumping into the jeep. The slowest animals were the ones that didn't survive, and the jeep was going slower and slower. "FASTER!!!" "WOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" The entire world suddenly flipped upside down. An elephant collided with them from behind, raising the tail end of the jeep with it's long trunk. The jeep lost balance, and tipped over so that it was laying on it's top. The occupants inside did not even bother to recover. They were lost in a tangle of broken glass and twisted metal, sprawled over the ceiling of the jeep. Mulder covered Scully with his body protectively as the sounds of chaos echoed around outside. Hooves pounded against the floor of the jeep as zebras and gazelles and wildebeests trampled over the overturned jeep as if it were nothing more than a strangely-shaped rock. The wheels of the jeep were still desperately spinning in midair, causing one unlucky wildebeest to trip over the jeep and become trampled by a giraffe. Mulder didn't know how long he lay there, covering Scully defiantly, listening to the pounding on all sides, his eyes squeezed shut. Dust clogged his throat and he couldn't breathe, he just stayed there, bruised and battered, ready any moment for a giant elephant foot to come crashing down through the jeep and crush them all. (Just let Scully be safe...) When he opened his eyes again, it was silent. It was deathly silent. Mulder slowly opened his eyes, but all he saw was a shattered window and Scully's hair. "Mulder..." Mulder pulled himself away from Scully, and she shook glass shards from her hair. From somewhere nearby, Troi coughed. "Is...everyone alright?" Mulder called out to the still forms also sprawled across the jeep. "WE GOTTA GO BACK AND FIND MY CAMERA!!!" "I'll take that as a yes," Mulder grumbled. Very, very carefully, Mulder crawled out on his hands and knees through the broken window until he was outside. Then he turned back and helped out Scully so that they were both outside. Scully stopped and stared in awe at all the surrounding countryside. The entire area was trampled flat, the grass had been pounded into the ground until there was none to be seen, and two trees had been completely uprooted and torn apart. Several animals that had been unable to keep up lay in grotesque positions across the ground. It looked like what was left of a serengeti war, with the casualties still left on the battlefield. Mulder stooped down to help out Samantha and Troi, and finally Harrison. All of them had large scratches and bruises, but nothing too bad, amazingly. Their guide stared sadly at the broken remains of the safari vehicle. "Well...wherever we're going, we're walking there now..." "Where did the animals go?" Troi asked nervously. "They're gone. They'll keep running till they're too tired, then they'll disperse and form their own herds again. Then they'll go back to the waterhole as if nothing happened." Harrison said with a sigh. Mulder turned and faced Harrison. "I think that you have some explaining to do." "What do you mean?" "Travis Lyon," Mulder said, almost threateningly. "Unless I'm mistaken, I just saw him *moprh* into a lion that caused a stampede that nearly killed us all." Scully raised her eyebrows, the familiar skepticism surfacing. "Mulder...you saw him *morph* into a *lion*?" Mulder groaned. "I know what I saw, Scully," He protested. "Whatever that man is...he's *not* human. And I want to know what he's been doing out here." Harrison's usually strong voice suddenly seemed very weak and unsure. "I...I, uh...." "Help me..." The entire group froze. Mulder and Scully instantly began scanning the destroyed serengeti for the source of the voice. It seemed weak, faint, barely audible...as if in pain. "I need help..." Scully spotted it. Something was moving, about 50 yards away from them, small compared to the dead bodies of the wildebeests and zebras. Mulder and Scully instantly broke into a trot towards the figure, with Harrison coming behind, and Samantha and Troi struggling to keep up as they were still dazzed from the overturned vehicle. Scully was the first one to reach the figure. It was a man, but not Travis Lyon...it was one of the poachers. Scully cast her eyes over his bent and twisted figure, feeling her medical instincts command her moves. His right arm and leg were twisted out of place; both were probably broken. A few of his ribs appeared to be smashed as well, and his left hand had one finger missing. His entire body was covered in bloodied hoofprints and scars...it looked as if he had just been caught in a backhoe. Mulder appeared behind her. "Mulder, we need to get this man to a hospital right away," She said, running her hand along the broken leg for inspection. Mulder stared grimly at the injured poacher, and couldn't help but feel a definite irnoy for his position. "Can you breathe alright? Can you say your name?" Scully commanded to him. "Mike Bigg," The poacher responded in a raspy voice. "I ca...can't feel my arm..." "You're going to be alright," Scully said reassuredly. "Are there any others here?" "Where's...Ted an'...Taylor...." "Uh, Fox, Dana..." Samantha's voice came from nearby. Mulder left and went to where Samantha was standing, then backed away at the sight. The remaining two poachers were trampled flat into the ground. Taylor was covered in bloodied footprints, even on his face. Ted, however...was missing his head, and one foot. Mulder took Samantha and left, thanking his lucky stars over and over that he and everyone else had come out alright...which was amazing considering how badly they could have been hurt even inside the jeep... "Is there anyone else?" Scully asked Mike as he struggled to breathe. "Simon's back at the...c-camp..." Samantha, Mulder and Troi made it back over to Scully and Mike, while Harrison looked around hopelessly at the landscape. Suddenly, Samantha's face brightened. "MY CAMERA!!!" Miraculously, the camcorder had managed to escape the stampde unscathed. It lay there innocently in the middle of the grass, as though waiting patiently for it's owner to retrive it. Samantha inspected her precious SamCam. Aside from a few scratches and dents, it was perfectly alright, and still filming. "We have to get him out of here," Scully said in a disturbed voice, indicating the mangled poacher. "He needs to get to a hospital right away..." "That's going to be somewhat hard considering our jeep is imitating an overturned turtle," Mulder sighed as he stared back at their crushed vehicle. "Well, then we'll just have to--" "Wait," Troi stopped Scully mid-sentence, waving her hand for silence. She cast her gaze around the suddenly still grass, a prickly feeling raising the hair on the back of her neck. "There's something...." RRRRRRRRRRR...... Something like a purr sounded from the grass just a few feet away from them! "RUN!!!" Troi exclaimed. Even as she spoke, a giant lion sprang from the yellow grass and faced Mulder, Scully, and the injured poacher. Samantha, Troi and their guide were already too far back for the lion to notice them. Mulder suddenly felt a horrible feeling of Deja Vu as he stared at the lion...and if there was one thing he didn't want to go through again, it was trying to beat a lion in a staring contest... (Scully!) "Scully, get out of here!" He whispered to her desperately. "I'll handle this..." "I don't *think* so, Mulder!" Scully hissed back. "I am *not* leaving you now!" The lion snarled at him, showing it's teeth, and then suddenly turned towards Mike Bigg laying injured in the grass. "Hey!!! Geawayfromee!!!" The poacher yelped with fright as the lion sniffed him with interest. "Hey!" Scully suddenly moved towards the lion, trying to distract it the way Mulder had done before. She picked up a rock nearby and threw it at the lion's head... ROOOOAARRRR!!! The lion spun around with fury as the rock struck the back of it's mane. It pounced, knocking Scully to the ground with one swipe of it's giant paw. "NO!!!" Mulder was suddenly jump-started into attack as he saw Scully hit the ground. He picked up *two* rocks and threw them both at the lion, one struck it's hind leg and the other it's side. "OVER HERE, TRAVIS!!!" He shouted at the furious cat. The lion abandoned both Scully and Mike and bounded towards Mulder, even as Mulder kept peltering rocks at it. "Get outta here, Scully!" He shouted, but she was still struggling to recover from the attack. The lion and Mulder began to circle each other like two boxers in a fighting match. Mulder had supplied himself with rocks and was throwing them one after the other at the giant beast, but it only seemed to be making the lion more agitated and angry instead of fearful. "You stay away from them, Travis!!" He taunted. The lion began to move forward, despite the rocks Mulder kept throwing, face pressed into a furious scowl. Mulder continued to talk to the cat as if he were talking to an armed criminal. "If you touch either one of them I'll---" He stopped mid-sentence as a man came up from behind the lion...and it took Mulder only an instant to realize that it was Travis Lyon. And that the creature threatening him was a *real* lion. "Uh, oh..." Mulder began to back away as he realized the error of his intentions. Scully struggled to her feet even as the lion advanced on Mulder. Travis did nothing, he just stood there, as if silently ordering the lion to attack Mulder. He backed away from the approaching animal carefully, his supply of rocks now gone. "Mulder!!" Scully cried out somewhere behind the lion. The lion snarled, then released a roar, freezing Mulder right in his tracks. Then it pounced. WHUMP. Mulder shut his eyes, anticipating the claws on his shoulders, then snapped them open again at the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. The lion had somehow fallen mid-pounce, and it now lay on the ground, barely able to support it's own weight. It managed one last growl at Mulder before it collapsed completely. Mulder remained frozen for an instant, then sank to the ground on his knees as he realized that he was safe from the giant beast. Protruding from the lion's neck was a feathered tranquilizer dart. Travis suddenly seemed to startle, and dropped to the ground beside the lion, then relaxed as he realized that it was only asleep. Scully, meanwhile, ran across the grass to where Mulder was and held him tightly. At first Mulder said nothing, then relaxed as he felt Scully hugging him close. "Scully...I-I'm alright...I think..." "Are you sure, Mulder?" Scully said in her very overly-doctorly voice, running her hand along his forehead as if to reassure herself. "I'm fine...you're the one who got hurt!" Mulder said in response, touching the large bump on the side of Scully's head. "How...what happened?" Then both he and Scully noticed their guide and Samantha and Troi, waving to them from the back of the grass... with Harrison holding the jeep's tranquilizer gun in his hand. 12:34 P.M. Tuesday, November 9th, 1999 NSAR, South Africa "So...what's your story?" Mulder cast his questioning glance at Travis Lyon as the flatbed truck glided slowly over the bouncy terrain, passing by some of the remaining zebras and giraffes and such that were left over from the stampede. Since Harrison's safari jeep had been destroyed, they had to take Travis's truck back to the reserve. The sleeping lion lay in the flatbed truck, although Travis had refused to have it be chained up. Mike and Simon, the two poachers left alive, were in the very back seat of the jeep that drove the truck...although Scully had wrapped up Mike's injuries and given him some quick anasthetic to soothe the pain, the poachers were still prisoners and their hands were tied. Harrison drove with Scully and Samantha in the front, while Mulder kept an eye on the poachers and Troi volunteered to squish into the small back trunk so that she could watch the lion. Travis seemed unbearably ashamed, and he kept his head low, trying to avoid the question. But seeing Mulder's impatient glare told him it wouldn't do him any good. "Why did you cause that stampede? And why did you kill those poachers?" "They're murderers," Travis said with a slight growl. "They come here and they murder the creatures here for profit. Such acts lower them below humanity...they are animals." Scully thought that she could hear Simon and Mike cringe with regret from the back seat. "Were you the lion..." "No...." Travis answered. "The lion was me." Scully turned her head slightly with surprise, wanting to interrupt with her instinctual skepticism, but she decided not to stop Mulder...it was hard to stop him when he was on a roll. "So you become the lion to kill the poachers." "Lions are not the limit. Many other creatures offer the same potential as the lion...the elephant, the giraffe...the okapi." "Where are the okapis? You said you were going to take them back to the base..." "They are there. They are alright. I would never let any one of these magnificent creatures come to harm." "So in order to save the animals you're willing to kill humans." Mulder challenged. Travis looked at him with equal challenge within his amber eyes. "Are not humans more the animal than these creatures are?" "But if you kill others just out of hatred, does that make you any more justified than these poachers?" Mulder countered back. Travis was silent. Scully let out a long, low sigh. "Mulder..." "How do you do it?" Mulder inquired, ever persistant. "How do you become an animal?" Travis shrugged. "Other parts of me...take control. Out of spite. I couldn't let these men murder the creatures here..." Mulder turned to Harrison in the driver's seat. "Did you know about this...Travis's ability?" Their big guide also let out a sigh. "Fischer and I...we suspected it. We witnessed it a few times...but we never did tell anyone." Mulder ran his fingers through his hair, bouncing in his seat from the terrain. "But why start a stampede? You say you want to protect the animals...but several animals got killed in that stampede." "They were here..." Travis said, motioning to the poachers. "To kill. Take several lives at that waterhole. Probably kill you as well," He raised his eyes in Mulder's direction. "I overheard them." "It was all Ted's idea!!!" Simon protested loudly from the back. Everyone ignored him. "So you started the stampede to kill them?" Samantha questioned, getting into Mulder's conversation with him. Travis nodded slowly. "Well," Samantha groaned, "I guess the real question is who to press criminal charges against." "I know where we're goin'..." Simon grumbled. "But I'd rather spend my time in a cell then out here with that...*man*!!" Mike said uneasily, rubbing his broken leg gently. "We'll see about all that when we get back into a real city," Harrison said. "Well, at least you got your camera back, Sam," Troi jutted in, trying to be cheerful. Samantha brightened at this fact. "I also got a really good shot of that lion about to jump Fox...and then Dana babying him!!!" Scully groaned. "So much for freedom for the rest of this trip..." 3:07 P.M. Sunday, November 21st, 1999 Somewhere in the Angola Basin "Finally...we're getting somewhere again!" Scully stared with slight pride at the map on the wall of the captain's quarters. The red marker line now traveled from Washington D.C. to Florida to Cuba to the Amazon and through the Amazon river...then to a simple squiggly line down to their approximate landing in Antarctica...and then back up to Cape Town and onward up the western coast of Africa. "We may even make it back on schedule after all the time we lost from Antarctica!" Mulder let out a long, low sigh. "Much as I've complained about it...I'm actually glad to be back on the ocean again." "Where's Samantha?" Scully questioned. "She's down talking to my mom..." Mulder answered. Ever since the trip had begun, Tina and Samantha had been spending odd moments together...for Tina had somehow taken it upon herself to regain as much of her daughter as she had lost over those past years. Therefore, they had often gone off just to spend some time talking. "You didn't actually think that that man Travis Lyon could change into a lion or an elephant or any other animal, do you?" She questioned suddenly with one raised eyebrow. "Of course I do!" Mulder said in a tone that was slightly teasing. "I know what I saw, Scully...and even if you are the skeptic, I'm still certain of what he did..." "Mulder, I'm more of a believer than ever now!" Scully interrupted. "After all that's happened...aliens, conspiracies, ghosts, you name it...I believe it! I've seen it all with my own eyes, I know that it's possible. *But*, there is absolutely *no* scientific basis or claims or even claims *that* paranormal to support your claim. We've heard of people shape-shifting into other people...but a person shape-shifiting into an animal isn't possible. No matter what their 'power' was, human beings simply don't have the capacity or the control over their own body to become something as large as a lion...or an elephant! No matter how scientific or paranormal you want to get, it just doesn't happen. Besides...how do you *explain* his special powers? A secret government experiment? A rare disease? An alien being come for some bizarre purpose to save the animals?" Mulder smiled ruefully. "Sounded just like old times then, Scully." "Huh?" "When's the last time we actually had a good arguement?" "Oh, so now you *miss* our arguments, Mulder?" She said teasingly. "Yeah," Mulder sighed nostalgically. "Scully, I need you to do another autopsy..." Scully actually found herself snickering at the comment. "Are you suggesting, *Agent* Mulder, that this man can change himself to an animal on a whim when he wants to stop some poachers?" "Do you have a better theory?" "Yes," Scully said, walking up to him and smiling. "I think Agent Mulder has been at sea too long." Mulder smiled back. "Well then, you have a problem...we're going to be at sea for another three or four weeks until we reach Paris for a long stay." "Paris sounds nice," Scully said, a broad grin spread all over her face. "Can't wait." ------------------------------------------------------------------ THE END OF PART FOUR ------------------------------------------------------------------ Author's Notes: Well, I finally got this part done! I know this isn't the shippiest one I've done so far for you desperate people, but in the *next* part things will *really* get going! I promise! :) Hope y'all liked this one! And once again, I repeat myself....FEEDBACK!!!! FEEDBACKFEEDBACKFEEDBACKFEEDBACK NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW..... (Sorry. 'Nother private joke for the CSSSA people! :)) Send all feedback...*constructive* flames are looked at and considered, all others will be used to burn fuel for 'The Believer'!!! Any complements are greatly appreciated, and I always write back!!! See ya next time!!!! -Alien Girl