TITLE: Falling Snow, Chapter 8/10
AUTHOR: Snark
E-MAIL: snark_911@yahoo.com
CLASSIFICATION: SA (Story, Angst) plus some UST
KEYWORDS: NONE
RATING: PG-13 
SPOILERS: This story is set before the Two Fathers/
One Son episodes. While there are no true pre-requisites 
for this story, allusions are made to at least the 
following episodes: Sleepless, Red Museum, Detour, 
Triangle, Shapes, Alpha, Bad Blood, Clyde Bruckman's 
Final Repose, and Tithonus. 
DISTRIBUTION: OK to forward to ATXC newsgroup and to
Gossamer. Please ask permission before archiving anywhere
else, please. Or at least let me know that you have 
archived it, so that I can keep track of where it's listed.
DISCLAIMER: The characters of The X-Files universe belong
to Chris Carter, the FOX network and 1013 Productions.
No infringement is intended and no money is being made by
the existence of this story. (Unfortunately.) However, 
the characters of Khi Shaolin and Mobaje are my own creation. 
These characters are not for use by any other fanfic author 
without my express, written consent.
FEEDBACK: Mail comments to snark_911@yahoo.com.
AUTHOR HOMEPAGE: http://www.smartania.com/snark/index.html
SUMMARY: Mulder, Scully and a mysterious woman from Mulder's
past crash in the snowy landscape of the Colorado winter. 








------------
Chapter 8
------------


The hours blended together, mindlessly, endlessly, each melding 
with the next to form a perpetual state of monotony. The second 
day become the second night became the third day until Scully 
no longer bothered to keep track. They had tried to keep a 
conversation going when more than one person was awake, but 
that had stopped somewhere during the second night. There just 
wasn't anything to say. Conversation become limited, brief 
status-report statements clipped short by the weariness that 
pervaded the shelter. 

Khi foraged for wood every few hours, managing to find a few 
branches every time, thereby keeping a lid on her companions' 
rising fears that she would return empty handed. But she couldn't 
keep a lid on her own--she knew, all too well, that each time she 
went out that door, it was one trip closer to that inevitable 
outcome. The snow continued to fall, making each successive 
trip harder to cover even the same distance, not to mention 
needing to get further out to find new sources of wood. She was 
pushing herself to the limit of her reserves of strength and 
endurance, forging ahead on sheer determination. 

That alone, though, wouldn't be enough--determination would 
not create a flame to keep them alive, no matter how hard she 
might try. As she wrestled a dead birch branch out of a drift, she 
reminded herself to deal with what *was,* not what *could be.* 
The future wasn't written until it became the past, and she was 
going to make sure there continued to *be* a future--for her, for 
Mulder, for Scully. The intensity of her resolve helped to keep 
her warm while she was away from the fire.

Somewhere near the end of the third day, Mulder began sleeping 
more deeply, becoming harder and harder to rouse--Scully knew 
he was weakening from lack of food and the extreme blood loss 
he'd suffered. When conscious, he tried to reassure her he was 
fine, but she could tell that even he knew the true state of his 
condition. It wouldn't be long until he would slip into a coma-
like state, with death most likely following closely behind. His 
injured body simply could not recuperate under the extreme 
conditions.

"I'll be fine, Scully, I'll be fine," Mulder whispered to her late 
that night, his hands wrapped around hers as he lay in her lap. 
She had rarely left his side for the last day or so, holding him 
close and gently massaging his arms and chest to keep the blood 
flowing. 

"I know, Mulder," Scully said, smiling down at him as his eyes 
opened briefly. "They'll find us any time now. They'll find us and 
get us to a hospital, you'll recover splendidly, and we'll be back 
filing background checks and giving speeches before you know 
it." 

"Oh, joy," Mulder said, rolling his eyes. "On second thought..."

"What, you mean you don't relish the thought of investigating the 
private, darkened life of Mr. Heinrich Q. Podenyacker, city clerk 
for the past 27 years for the fine town of Ironhead, South Dakota, 
population a staggering 312, who now wants to be employed as a 
federal officer?" Scully laughed. 

"Not so much," Mulder replied softly, a short laugh escaping him 
as she reeled off the all-too-real depiction of their days now. 

"Where's your sense of adventure?" she asked, reaching out to 
ruffle his hair as she teased him.

"I think it got hung up in that tree back there," he said, a smile 
making fun of the seriousness of his situation. "We'll have to go 
back and find it at some point."

"We'll just buy you a new one, Mulder," Scully said as though 
they were talking about a pair of jeans. "One that specifically 
states 'No Parachuting' in the usage instructions."

"You're on, flygirl," he whispered, his eyes slowly closing. She 
noticed that the vision was taking shape again, the two of them 
together in the snow as Mulder lay motionless. Some far corner 
of her brain noted there was no blood soaking the white snow 
this time. 

As she watched his breathing slow, as she watched his 
movements become less and less, Scully knew this might be the 
last time that Mulder was awake. That she might never have the 
chance to tell him everything she wanted to say. She willed her 
mouth to open, her throat to form the words she so desperately 
wanted, needed to say. 

But here, on the edge of forever, she found herself completely 
lost. She tried to speak, but her body would not cooperate. She 
could do nothing but stare down at him, at his face, his body, his 
hands wrapped around hers. 

"Hey, Scully," he whispered, struggling to stay awake for a few 
more seconds. 

"Yeah, Mulder," she said, struggling to fight off the wave of fear 
overtaking her.

"I know." 

This time, the snow became soaked with tears.

     *    *    *    *    *    *

The wood ran out shortly before dawn on the fourth day. Not that 
there was any sort of dawn they could see. The storm was still 
howling outside, the snow filling the air completely--they had 
marked time only through Khi's watch.

Khi had made an extended search the last trip out, pushing 
herself beyond exhaustion, beyond fear. But she had found 
nothing. So now Scully and Khi both watched as the last scrap 
burned down, the flames growing smaller and smaller as the 
seconds passed. 

With a silent whisper, the last flame flickered into nothingness. 
Complete darkness fell inside the shelter for the first time in 
days. Scully had gotten used to the flickering firelight, finding 
herself somewhat disoriented by the total blackness that 
surrounded her now. She wasn't normally claustrophobic, but the 
darkness felt alive somehow, silently closing around her with an 
ever-tightening pressure. She closed her eyes, then quickly re-
opened them when she realized that closing them only increased 
the sensation. She shifted nervously, breathing deeply as she 
tried to think rationally.

"You all right over there?"

Hearing Khi's voice was a shock, startling Scully so much she 
actually felt her heart jump. But she immediately felt a flush of 
relief as well, Khi's words providing a solid anchor against the 
crushing weight of the darkness.

"Um, yeah, pretty much," Scully managed to say, her voice 
choking a bit as she spoke. She coughed to clear her throat, one 
hand pounding lightly on her chest.

"Don't let it get to you," Khi said. "Instead of concentrating on 
your lack of sight, concentrate on building your other senses. 
Listen to the darkness, don't just watch it."

Scully followed the advice, trying to focus on what she could 
hear instead of what she couldn't see. As the minutes passed, she 
slowly became aware that the darkness was anything but silent--
she could hear both Khi and Mulder breathing, she could hear the 
wind, she could hear the shelter rustling. 

"Thanks, that's helping a bit," Scully said, giving herself a small 
shake to restore her control. 

"No problem. The darkness can be a weird thing, sending the 
mind down paths you couldn't imagine while in the light," Khi 
said. "Just didn't want to see you go freaking out on me, not that 
you would ever do such a thing."

"No, of course not, never," Scully said, smiling slightly. While 
she hadn't been too close to losing control, she knew it hadn't 
been as far off as she'd like to think.

"Anyway, the temperature is already dropping in here. We need 
to do what we can to retain as much heat as possible," Khi said. 
"Do you already have the chute wrapped around Mulder?"

"Yeah, I covered him quite a while ago, when you started using 
the wood more sparingly," Scully replied. Even as she spoke, she 
tucked the chute in around Mulder just a bit tighter, a bit closer. 

"Good. Take pine boughs from the edges and cover him with 
those as well," Khi instructed. "They'll trap at least a little heat. 
Do the same for yourself--you'll want to cover yourself as best 
you can as well."

The next several minutes were spent gathering and arranging the 
boughs, their efforts hampered by the dark. They each had to 
move a bit slower, feeling around them as they moved to avoid 
cracking into the shelter walls or each other. Scully found that 
she was more efficient with her eyes closed, picturing the interior 
of the shelter in her mind, keeping track of Mulder, Khi and the 
center fire pit mentally. 

Finally, Scully scooted down next to Mulder, curling up against 
his side and pulling the remaining boughs over herself. The 
needles draped down across her like a blanket--while she wasn't 
assured yet of their heat retention properties, they did make her 
feel a little more secure. 

The temperature dropped as the minutes wore on, becoming 
hours. As time wore on, Scully could feel her body shutting 
down, a little bit at a time. She managed to keep one hand warm 
by holding it inside her suit against her chest--she wanted to be 
able to feel for Mulder's pulse every so often. But the rest of her 
was slowly slipping away into oblivion. 

She fought it at first, trying to keep her limbs moving, her 
muscles flexing, her mind active. Soon, though, it became too 
difficult, too hard to remain focused. She knew she should stay 
awake, but the cold was becoming increasingly hard to dismiss--
she found herself drifting towards sleep, the mind wanting to 
follow the body.

"Hey, Scully, you still with me over there?" Khi asked, breaking 
into Scully's thoughts and waking her up a bit. 

"Yeah, still here," Scully said, her throat a little hoarse from the 
cold. As she tried to turn her mind away from the thoughts of 
slumber invading it, she realized Khi had done it again--she had 
somehow known exactly what was going on, taking the action 
necessary to fix the problem. Scully decided to figure out 
something once and for all.

"Khi, considering the situation we're in and the extreme 
possibility we're ever going to get out of it, can I ask you 
something you might normally take offense to?" Scully asked. 
Khi laughed a bit, as if relieved to hear Scully revived enough to 
be forming complex sentences.

"Sure, you can ask," she said. "I make no promises as to the 
possibility of an answer, but you can ask anything you want."

Scully paused for a second, trying to think of the best way to ask 
her question, finally opting for the completely simple and 
straightforward approach.

"Khi Shaolin, who the hell *are* you?"

     *    *    *    *    *    *

For the first time in days, the shelter shook with the sound of 
raucous laughter. Although she couldn't see her, Scully knew that 
Khi was rolling from side to side as she howled--Scully could 
hear the boughs rustling as Khi moved. At first, Scully tried to 
resist, but was soon laughing just as hard. 

"C'mon, Scully... don't be... shy or anything," Khi managed to 
choke out between laughs. "Ask me... what's really... on your 
mind." They both continued to laugh for a while, finally gaining 
control only after several failed efforts.

"Well, I mean it," Scully said as they calmed down. "Who in the 
hell are you? Let's me count this off... you show up out of 
nowhere, you get Mulder drunk on Kamikazes but not hungover, 
you convince him to go parachuting, you build a shelter out of 
nothing, you show medical training, you're stronger than most 
men, I'd swear you're telepathic... I mean, hell! You build a wood 
bowl that doesn't burn!"

They laughed a bit more at that one, Khi tossing off a comment 
about parting the waters if necessary. "Seriously," Scully said 
after gaining control again. "I'm genuinely curious. Tell me only 
what you want, if necessary, but knowing *anything* about you 
would be more than I know now."

Even though Khi made no sound, Scully could picture her 
turning over the various options in her mind, deciding what to 
tell and what to leave hidden. Scully didn't think for a moment 
that Khi would outright lie to her, but she had no doubt there 
were certain facts about Khi Shaolin the world would never 
know.

"Do you remember that day in the hotel, when you and Mulder 
stopped at my table while I was eating breakfast?" Khi asked at 
last. "Do you remember what he asked me and what I told him?"

"Um, he asked you what your regular life was," Scully said 
slowly, playing the conversation through her mind. "You told 
him that you could tell him, but then you'd have to kill him."

"Well, that comment was pretty much true," Khi said. Scully 
started to laugh, assuming Khi was joking again, but she realized 
that Khi was perfectly serious. "If I tell you, or anyone, about 
myself or my life, I risk serious consequences, including death. 
The knowledge of who I am puts the recipient at risk too. It's a 
risk I don't take. Ever."

"Who am I going to tell?" Scully asked, gesturing around her 
even though she knew Khi couldn't see her. "As much as I am 
avoiding thinking about it, this is probably going to be my last 
day upon this earth--whatever you tell me isn't going anywhere."

 "Yeah, I suppose you're right, in an extremely morbid and 
depressing way," Khi said. She remained quiet for a bit longer--
Scully became even more curious as the seconds passed. 

"You asked me who the hell I was, right?" she said finally. 
"Well, there's really only one true answer to that question--I'm 
nobody."

"What do you mean, you're nobody? You're sitting right in front 
of me. Well, at least, I think you are," Scully amended, glancing 
around the darkness.

"I'm alive, yes. I'm real, people can see and hear me, they can 
shake my hand. But as far as the world can prove, Khi Shaolin 
does not exist," Khi said. 

"I don't understand," Scully admitted. "Are you on the run, are 
you eluding the law somehow?"

"No, actually. I enforce the law in a lot of ways. The laws of 
survival guide me and shape both my path and those that follow 
me," Khi said.

"Which means... what, exactly?" Scully asked, still not 
understanding.

"I exist in no recorded fashion and am beyond rank in the US 
Marine Corps," she said, pausing to take a breath. "And I am the 
survivalist trainer for an elite ground-strike force called the Black 
Angels."

     *    *    *    *    *    *

Whatever Scully was expecting, it wasn't that. Not even close. 
She had suspected a connection to the military, but would not 
have guessed in a million years that Khi was beyond rank. Scully 
knew that an extremely limited number of individuals, probably 
no more than 5 at any given time, existed at that level of rank. 
They were, in essence, accountable to no one.

"OK... you're going to have to tell me more than that," Scully 
said.

"What, you mean that's not enough to satisfy you? Pushy, pushy, 
pushy..." Khi said, the smile perfectly audible. "Nearly all of 
what I could tell you is highly classified. I'll give you the rather 
shortened version, but I still need your assurance that what you're 
about hear goes no further than your ears, assuming we were to 
get out of this. Tell no one, Scully--not even Mulder."

"Start at the beginning," Scully said, knowing Khi would take her 
words as the affirmation they were. "Go."

Khi took a moment to gather her thoughts, deciding where to 
start and how much to say. Soon, she launched into her story 
with gusto, Scully listening as closely to her as she had to 
Mobaje previously. Khi's story was fascinating, and Scully didn't 
want to miss any of it.

"Well, to start at the beginning, I grew up as a normal kid, 4 
brothers, no sisters. We lived on a 15,000-acre cattle ranch in 
Wyoming, so there was always work to be done outdoors. I 
suppose that's where I first got hooked on nature, so to speak. I 
was always riding the land, driving stock out of the highlands 
and so on. Lots of stuff could happen to a person out there--your 
horse could take a fall or throw you if it got spooked, you could 
get caught in storms, you could get gored by an angry steer. 

"So I learned to take care of myself and survive, no matter what 
happened. When I decided to leave the ranch to join the Marine 
Corps, that knowledge served me very, very well. At the end of 
my first year, I was recruited to join the Black Angels. I was the 
youngest person to ever be accepted, and believe me, I took a lot 
of crap for it. Not a day went by when someone didn't test me, 
challenge me, try to beat me down. But I thrived on it--it served 
only to make me stronger, smarter, faster than everyone else.

"The training program for the Angels is beyond intense. For a 
solid year, you do nothing but survive in every extreme condition 
known to mankind. No contact with family or friends, sometimes 
not even other Angels. The jungle, the desert, the arctic, the 
mountains, the swamps--I can survive in them all, be it with 
every supply possible or nothing at all, not even clothing. Not 
everyone fares so well. The voluntary fall-out rate is something 
above 80%, with a death rate so large only a handful of people 
even know it.

"After the year of physical training, there was a year of intense 
mental conditioning and knowledge acquisition. This was the 
year that I hooked up with Mulder--the Angels used the Quantico 
facility, though no one knew their true purpose. We blended with 
the rest of the students at the facility, but maintained our own 
course and training regimen. Since I had already proved to be the 
most valuable Angel they'd seen in years, I was given more 
leeway in my personal life. I had slightly more free time and I 
was allowed to live where I wanted. 

"I met Mulder late one night, on an outdoor basketball court. We 
were each just shooting hoops, running a few light layups and so 
on, mostly just wasting time. After sticking to our own ends of 
the court for a half-hour or so, Mulder challenged me to a game 
of one-on-one."

Scully chuckled at that thought, picturing Mulder sidling up to 
his new 'friend' and casually offering to play a game. She knew 
Mulder prided himself on his basketball abilities, a ball never far 
from his hands whether he was at home or at the office.

"So what happened? Who won?" Scully asked.

"I whipped his ass, 21 to 4, in less than ten minutes," Khi said, 
breaking out into laughter as she remembered. "You should have 
seen his expression after the first three minutes--he had 
absolutely no idea what was happening to him. When I sunk that 
last shot, he just turned to me and said, 'I know I only just met 
you, and that I really know nothing about you, but I feel I must 
say two things to you--one, I hate you. And two, could you teach 
me how to do that?'

"I knew right then I'd found a new friend--anyone that could be 
so straightforward was all right by me. We spent the next three 
hours on that court, leaving only when a thunderstorm drove us 
out. We went for breakfast at some sleazy 24-hour diner a couple 
miles away, and by the end of the meal, Mulder was inviting me 
to move in with him.

"We did everything together for that next year, separated only by 
the demands of classes and studies. Mulder had absolutely no 
idea who I was, what I was becoming--he soon gave up asking 
me what I did at the base, since I never told him anything."

Scully broke in, wanting to know exactly what that was. "What 
*were* you becoming? What do the Black Angels actually do?" 
she asked, trying to picture what would exist at that level of 
secrecy.

"Official description would be something like 'Elite first-wave 
ground strike unit, specially trained to survive under extreme 
conditions to assist the completion of their objectives,'" Khi said. 
"A true definition would be 'Specially-trained soldiers who do 
whatever they're told, wherever they're told to do it, when no one 
else is capable of doing it.' 

"No two missions are exactly the same. One might be a rescue 
operation, the next an assassination, the next a kidnapping. The 
objective, the terrain and the conditions change each time, but 
one thing does remain constant--we succeed. In the ten years I've 
been associated with the Black Angels, they have had a failure 
rate of less than one percent."

Scully was impressed. She and Mulder had a resolution rate of 
nearly 80% on the X-Files, but that was considered 
extraordinary. She couldn't imagine tacking on another 20% to 
that figure, plus doing it under the extreme conditions Khi was 
describing.

"Anyway, whatever. I tagged up with Mulder for that year and 
I'll never forget it. I'm not a person that usually warms up to 
people very quickly, but within a month, we were well beyond 
friendship. I'm not sure what it was, but there was a connection 
between us that I've never felt before or since with anyone else.

"And when the time came for me to ship out for operations, I 
didn't know what to do. I knew that Mulder deserved a good-bye, 
that he deserved to at least know I was leaving, but I couldn't do 
it. I've faced death a thousand times--insane killers threatening to 
tear my heart from my chest with their teeth... bombs, gunfire 
and chemical warfare... I've faced them all. 

"But I couldn't face that look I knew Mulder would give me 
when I told him I was leaving. I didn't want to see that jaw 
clench, those eyes close--I didn't want to see him flex every 
muscle he had to restrain himself from throwing a fist through a 
wall."

Scully nodded in silent agreement, though she knew Khi couldn't 
see it. She had seen that happen once before as well, and knew 
she never wanted to see it again. Without thought, she wrapped 
her arm around Mulder a bit tighter.

"So... I just left," Khi continued with a sigh. "It was one of the 
hardest things I've ever had to do, but I packed up my bags and I 
left. I soon had little time to feel regret, but it did manage to 
creep in every now and again.

"I spent nearly all of the next five years as commander for the 
Angels while still climbing the chain of command in the Corps, 
leading every mission we undertook with a 100% success rate. 
But as those years passed, I came to realize that I could better 
serve my country not as an active Angel, but as the survivalist 
trainer. Throughout my active career, I had often taught the 
commanders or trainers tricks or techniques that they hadn't 
known--so why not *be* the trainer? 

"One thing led to another, and over the years I was promoted to 
the status of beyond rank and erased from the public record. As 
the world political situation has evolved over the past 5 years, so 
has the training necessary to contain that situation. I needed to 
have complete and utter control over everyone and everything in 
my command--I couldn't afford, and thereby the country couldn't 
afford, to have my actions restricted by a hierarchy of 
command."

"But, there must be someone or some entity that has control over 
you, even if it's never exercised," Scully said. "They wouldn't 
just let you run rampant if you turned psychotic or something... 
would they?"

"That's why I told you that I risk serious consequences by telling 
you any of this. While limitless by most people's standards, there 
are boundaries to my status," Khi explained. "If I ever willfully 
and maliciously endangered my command, if I ever get out of 
control, I could face outright execution.

"Everything has its price... and that's the one I pay."

     *    *    *    *    *    *

"So that's it. That's everything. That's my life story condensed 
into a single 30-minute monologue," Khi said, laughing a bit. 
"Was it everything you'd dreamt of?"

"I'm not sure *anyone* could have dreamt that one, not even 
Mulder," Scully said, chuckling a bit.

"Don't tell me you find it unusual that the government could 
harbor a secret special forces unit for decades without letting the 
public know about it," Khi chided jokingly.

"Oh, never," Scully said. "They'd never do something like that. 
They're completely honest and forthright in every regard." Khi 
just snorted, sending them both laughing again. They both settled 
into their own thoughts then, a silence descending across the 
shelter.

"So I know you want to ask me, so why don't you just get it over 
with?" Khi said after a while.

"What do you mean?" Scully said, trying to coax her voice into 
its best innocent tones.

"You know what I mean, Scully. You've been dying to find out 
since you first saw me sitting on Mulder's couch that night," Khi 
answered. Scully didn't need any light to see the quirked eyebrow 
and teasing smile she knew was present on Khi's face.

"So...?" Scully finally said. 

"Oh, you're not even going to ask it, you're just going to leave it 
up to me to answer it?" Khi said, chuckling. "Wimp. Fine, I'll just 
tell you.

"No, Mulder and I were never romantically involved. We slept 
together every night, but that was the literal truth--we *slept* 
together, like bear cubs in a den. Our relationship never was, is 
not, and never will be physical," Khi said succinctly.

"But you said that you were 'beyond friendship' with him nearly 
right away, that you shared a bond unlike any other," Scully said.

"Isn't that what you have with him, right here, right now?" Khi 
said quietly. "Aren't you bonded to him in ways you don't even 
comprehend, feeling a connection to him no matter how far apart 
you might be?"

Scully didn't respond, but she didn't have to--Khi had seen the 
two of them together and knew the truth. "I love Mulder with all 
my heart, Scully. I would give my life for him without hesitation. 
I felt that way 10 years ago and I still feel that way today. And I 
know that Mulder used to feel the same way about me.

"But a person only has room in their heart for one person like 
that. Someone to whom they are devoted as family, someone for 
whom they would sacrifice themselves without regret. For 
Mulder, that person used to be me, but not anymore. His soul is 
bound with yours now, entwined so completely that the two have 
become indistinguishable from each other. 

"You are one."

Lying next to Mulder in the shelter, no longer able to feel 
anything but the gentle pressure of Mulder's chest rising and 
falling against her cheek, Scully closed her eyes. Over the course 
of the last several days, she had finally understood how much she 
loved Mulder, how much he was a part of her life, a part of her. 
But the realization had come slowly, building gradually, piece by 
piece over the years.

But hearing the same the same words, the same thoughts from 
someone who had only known her for a few days--it shook her a 
bit. If it was that obvious to Khi, whom she'd never met until a 
week ago, Scully wondered how she had missed it all these 
years. Why did I never let myself see it, she asked herself. Why 
did I wait until we were about to die to tell him I love him? As 
she questioned why she'd never told him how she felt, she 
opened her eyes to stare out into the darkness...

...and realized she could see the shelter wall across from her.

     *    *    *    *    *    *

With a start, Scully jerked her head up from Mulder's chest. She 
propped herself up on one elbow, rubbing her eyes with her other 
hand to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Just as she started to 
call out to Khi, she heard Khi calling out to her.

"Hey, Scully, am I seeing what I'm thinking I'm seeing?" Khi 
asked. She scrambled out from beneath her boughs, standing to 
stare across the fire pit at Scully doing the same.

"It doesn't even matter what you think you're seeing, as long as 
you're seeing something," Scully said, the jubilation clear in her 
voice. "What's happening, what's going on?"

"It's just after dawn, and if we can see it, then the storm must be 
over. The clouds are breaking and letting the sun through," Khi 
said as she scrambled to her knees and began opening the 
doorway. "Now I should tell you not to get too excited. This 
doesn't necessarily mean we're any better off than we were 10 
minutes ago."

"Yes, I know... but it sure feels better, doesn't it?" Scully asked 
with a laugh. Khi paused for a second, appearing to think about 
the question for a bit.

"Damn straight, sister," she called out as she removed the door 
completely and crawled outside. Scully dropped down and 
followed her into the open air for the first time in half a day.

The open sky greeted her as she stood up outside the shelter, 
stepping out of the way so Khi could prop the door back in place. 
A light breeze was blowing, a welcome change from the gale 
forces that had swept over the mountain for the last five days. 
The snow had stopped completely, replaced by a spectacular 
vista of colors as the sun crept into the sky--the tops of the trees 
were silhouetted against vivid oranges, yellows and reds. Scully 
had never seen a more beautiful sight in her entire life.

"I'm going to track over to the clearing, to check the signal strips 
and make sure they are still clear," Khi said, waving an arm 
towards the rising sun. "With the clear conditions now, they 
might actually be a realistic avenue of rescue. Wood is still our 
biggest concern--even though it is slightly warmer now, we won't 
survive for very long without a fire."

Khi ducked back inside the shelter to retrieve the knife, tucking it 
into a suit pocket as she came back out. "You should try to keep 
moving now, take this opportunity to use your adrenaline to 
restore some body heat."

"Should I try to search for wood?" Scully asked, glancing around 
at the nearby woods. It's funny, she thought--the trees don't look 
nearly as forbidding as they did before. 

"As long as you stay within sight of the shelter, you should be 
OK. Don't over-exert yourself, though, no matter how excited 
you feel right now," Khi warned as she set off. "We are both 
extremely fatigued, and there's little to be gained by driving 
ourselves to unconsciousness. I'll be back within the hour." 
Scully watched her go, tracking her progress through the tree 
trunks until she finally disappeared into the forest. 

Glancing around her, Scully deciding to go out to the furthest 
point where she could still easily see the shelter, then start a slow 
circle around it. Her progress was extremely slow, considering 
that several of the drifts were nearly as tall as she was. Even 
though she wasn't finding any dead wood, it felt good to be 
moving again, to be doing something. 

As she circled around to the back of the shelter, perhaps 75 yards 
from it, she came upon the edge of a drop-off. The hillside fell 
away from her, sloping down to another level perhaps a hundred 
feet below her, a small clearing surrounded by the thick forest. 
Just as she was about to turn away to continue her circle, 
something caught her attention.

A fresh set of tracks wound across the clearing beneath her.

      *    *    *    *     *    *     *    *

She knew she should wait for Khi's return and investigate the 
tracks together, but Scully just couldn't restrain herself--she had 
to know what had made those tracks. Half sliding, half rolling, 
she made her way down the hillside and then crossed over to 
where the tracks were. Drawing close, she saw the tracks had 
been made by an animal, something the size of a wolf or a 
cougar, not a human. Despite knowing that there was virtually no 
chance that a person had made it this far into the mountains on 
foot, she felt disappointed anyway.

Turning, she surveyed the hill she'd have to scale up to get back 
to her starting position--she swore the hill hadn't seemed that 
large five minutes ago as she had looked down. Now, though, as 
she looked up, it was its own tiny mountain. Son of a bitch...

She looked around her, searching for another way up the hillside. 
Glancing to her right and peering through the tree trunks, she saw 
that it did look like the slope was a little gentler a bit further 
down. Figuring a longer distance in exchange for a lesser slope 
was a good trade, Scully started walking, noticing that the tracks 
went the same way. After ten minutes or so, she reached another, 
slightly larger clearing. At the edge, the hill began sloping 
upwards at a decidedly more leisurely angle--she would be able 
to ascend back to the shelter far more easily. 

She didn't notice it until she was already past it and nearly to the 
hill's beginning. Something 'clicked' in her brain, though, and 
made her turn back. Her eyes roved across the small clearing, 
searching. She finally saw it, a small exhale of surprise escaping 
her.

The tracks ended in the center of the clearing. They didn't fade 
out of sight, they weren't covered by snow--they simply ended, 
as if whatever creature made them had blinked out of existence 
between one step and the next.

What the hell, Scully thought as she retraced her path and veered 
towards the end of the tracks. Leaning over to inspect them more 
closely, she confirmed that they simply stopped. There were no 
trees close enough for a cougar to have leapt to, if the tracks had 
even been made by a cougar. Whatever it was, the animal was 
much too large for an eagle to have carried off and there was no 
sign of it having buried itself into the snow. So where in the 
world did it go, she wondered as she glanced around the clearing.

Whatever answers the forest might have held, they didn't reveal 
themselves. Scully knew she should get back to the shelter, both 
to check Mulder and to make sure she was there when Khi 
returned. She turned and headed back for the hillside, slowly 
making her way back up to the top. Once there, she wasn't 
surprised to see that she could no longer make out the location of 
the shelter. 

But she knew she would eventually intercept her original tracks 
if she simply headed in that general direction, so she once again 
set off through the snow. When she finally did reach her original 
path, she acknowledged she was nearing exhaustion--the detour 
to inspect the tracks had taken its toll. She decided to simply cut 
straight to the shelter, which could see through the tree trunks 
now, and leave the wood gathering to Khi.

She reached the shelter just as her strength was giving out--she 
wasn't sure she could have made it even another 20 yards. She 
rested for a minute, leaning up against a tree to take a breather. 
The sun was now fully in the sky, streaming through the 
branches and turning the snow into a sparkling wonder. 

A hawk's cry split through the air, startling Scully with its 
intensity. She had always found the sound haunting, in a way, 
and the closeness of this one made it seem even more so. 
Glancing up at the sky, she thought she caught a brief glimpse of 
it as it arced over her, and then it was gone. She watched the 
forest a while longer, enjoying the brightness of the morning 
after so many days inside the shelter--the hawk, and the tracks, 
had been the first signs of life since the storm began, and she 
hoped to see a few others. Nothing showed itself, though, and she 
soon turned to go back inside the shelter.

Crossing over the fire pit, Scully knelt down beside Mulder to 
check on him. Having worked up a considerable amount of body 
heat while struggling through the snow, the icy cold of Mulder's 
face came as a shock against her fingertips. Her breath caught in 
her throat for an instant as she felt for a pulse, but she soon found 
it, extremely weak but there. Knowing Khi wouldn't mind, she 
gathered up the boughs Khi had been using and brought them to 
Mulder's side to insulate another layer over him.

As Scully rearranged the boughs over Mulder, she slowly 
became aware of a growing sound outside the shelter. She wasn't 
able to place it at first, but as it drew nearer, she recognized it as 
Khi's voice. She couldn't make out the words, but she realized 
Khi was yelling at the top of her lungs.

Scully raced outside the shelter, turning in a circle as she 
searched for Khi. She finally saw her approaching, a small figure 
coming in from the north--Khi must have started a search for 
wood after leaving the signal clearing, then decided to cut to the 
shelter. Although her words strung together almost as a single 
phrase, Scully was finally able to make out what Khi was saying.

"We're saved he found us we're going to be all right Scully did 
you hear me whoo hoo we're going to be OK we're saved..."

While Scully didn't understand specifically what Khi meant by 
'he found us,' she had no trouble whatsoever understanding the 
rest of it. Scully closed her eyes, tears of relief beginning to track 
their way across her face as she realized Mulder would be all 
right now. 

She soon added her own cries to Khi's, their voices tumbling 
together into a single stream of jubilation.


      *** 30 *********  Section End  *********** 30 ***
 

Continued in Section Nine, Chapter 9/10...

http://members.tripod.com/~koosn/falling_snow-9.txt