Mount Baker, National Park, August 25th 1:02pm
Scully signalled with one shaky hand for Mulder to back off, she was hunched over by the water's edge vomiting up the contents of her stomach. Mulder took a step back, his gun still clutched in one hand, he could hear Mears talking to Haskell a little way off, mumbled words from him weeping from her, Mulder's own stomach tightened and he thought he would be joining Scully at the water's edge to get re-acquainted with his breakfast.
Mulder's shot had blown wide that was his guess as the creature had not fallen or reacted to being shot instead it had let out a sickening roar at the two of them which seemed to wake Mears from his paralysis and he let a shot fly. 'Missed on purpose' Mulder said to himself, he could tell, somehow he knew that Mears had flinched at the moment of pulling the rifle's trigger. The creature fled quickly, one step took it into the tree line by the second step it had vanished. It was long gone Mulder knew it, Mears knew it but both men still kept their weapons ready as they approached the two women, both now looking disorientated and rather pale. "I'm going to be sick!" Scully said hiccupping as she scrambled to her feet grabbing her jeans and pulling them up as she half ran, half hopped to the water's edge.
Haskell clung to Mears sobbing uncontrollably as she pulled her clothes about her covering her exposed breasts with one hand. Mulder raced to Scully where she turned him away with one hand as he vomited into the water. Scully stood up straight, her hands shaking violently as she did the clasp on her jeans, she turned holding her shirt together with one hand, breasts now concealed but nipples poking at the material, "What happened?" Mulder asked, Scully looked awful, her eyes were rimmed in red and not just from being sick, she shook all over as if frozen, he got to her before she collapsed holding her up as her arms flopped to her side and she passed out.
"How is she?" Mears asked as Mulder moved away from the now sleeping Scully. Both men had scrambled to get sleeping bags unrolled, leaving the women on the shingle shore for the time being, though neither of the women complained or even stirred on the sharp stones that must have surely been digging into them.
"Bit of a temperature and exhausted but okay," He looked over at Haskell who was asleep too, "Haskell about the same?" Mears nodded his response, both men were at a loss of what to do, they had walked in on something that in another setting would have been erotic but had taken on a twisted and terrifying angle. They took a few steps away from the sleeping women though making sure they were close enough if anything untoward happened. "What happened back there?" Mulder asked. Mears looked at him a shrugged, "You know what I mean, why did you freeze?"
"I don't shoot bears for fun Agent Mulder!" Mears shot back quickly, a finger jabbing into Mulder's shoulder as he spoke.
"Bullshit!" Mulder retorted back, "That was no bear and you know it," Mears turned his head, lips turning bloodless as he clenched his teeth, "That was no bear and it certainly wasn't a guy drugged up on magic mushrooms, that was a bigfoot clear as day." Mears spun back round his face had gone red, hands clenched at his side as if he were ready to punch Mulder. "Why did you freeze?" Mulder asked quietly and calmly.
Only three people knew Ben's story, himself, his father and up until a few years back no one else until he had told Sarah one night in bed. He had gone fishing with his father as they always did during the school break. It was a yearly tradition it got them both out from under Ben's mother's feet and gave them some father, son time together. It was late September and already the forest was showing signs of Autumn, the leaves were not quite as vibrant on many of the tree's, the flowers that at the height of summer covered the forest floor like a carpet had finally wilted and the wind spoke of the chill that would soon be here.
They were three days in to their wilderness trek when they pulled up next to a fast running body of water, Ben's father had caught trout here previously and he had decided that the chances were high enough to try again. After about an hour he had stepped from the water in waders resigned to the fact that perhaps today was not going to be The Day. Ben asked if he could stay and his father had ruffled Ben's then dark hair, smiled at him and agreed, their camp was only a couple of meters away and if Ben did happen to land a catch, Costigan Mears was within shouting distance to come lend a hand.
At twelve Benjamin Mears had dreams of making his own Lewis and Clark expedition he saw these yearly trips as trial runs leading up to the main event. Ben found a lot of peace in fishing it let his mind wander to places far off as well as deal with events happening closer to home his mother always said he was older than his years. The splashing further upstream brought Ben out of his daydream, he tugged on his fishing rod out of habit feeling a little disappointed that the almost invisible fishing wire was loose and not taunt with a juicy catch.
The splashing made Ben turn his head and his breath caught, not much further up the stream on the opposite bank a figure sat hunched over the water, two long arms were submerged in the water up to the shaggy haired elbows. Ben's twelve year old mind tried to make sense of the shape, of the fur or hair it wanted to say bear it was almost instinctual for his mind to report back bear hadn't his father told him time and time again to be on the lookout for black bears. But those arms, impossibly long with thick light brown hair those were not part of a bear. The arms flicked in the water and were suddenly pulled up, long fingers closed round the body of a large fish that was chucked onto the ground before the arms went back into the water.
"Dad!" Ben called out his voice shaky and high pitched, the creature turned its head instantly even from that distance and over the sound of water it had heard Ben's call. It pulled its arms from the water and stood up slowly. Ben dropped his fishing rod, which caught in the flowing water and was washed away, he wanted to take a step back, to turn and run but the creature was watching him. It moved forward on the other bank moving cautiously, wet hair clung to its powerful looking arms and dripped water. It came to a halt almost opposite the stricken Ben, its features almost human behind a layer of downy hair, it lifted its large head sniffing the air, 'sniffing me' Ben realised.
"What's up Champ?" Costigan asked as he walked up to his son, he stopped cold as he caught sight of the creature across the way. The creature crouched down unsure of the new intruder it sniffed the air again taking in the new scent. It growled and clicked at the two humans, giving Costigan the oddest sensation that it was trying to talk to them. Costigan lifted his hand slowly, palm open "Hello there," he said in a voice that sounded strong but still wavered with nerves. The creature stood up abruptly, it gave two deep hoots then scampered back to its catch, without slowing it grabbed the fish and disappeared into the trees. "No one, we cannot tell anyone about this." Costigan said more to himself than to Ben, but Ben understood.
