The Lambs: Part 2 (21/21)     
by Lamia (AKA so kiss me goodbye) 
                                        
Rating: PG-13 (violence, strong language)
Category: S                             
Spoilers: Seasons 1-9, Fight the Future           
Keywords: William; Colonization              
Summary: Liam van de Kamp's life changes the day two 
FBI agents kidnap him and his parents.
                                   
Author's Note: The Lambs is a three-part story (with prologue).


Chapter 31 

December 16, 2012 
New Mexico 

Liam thrust his hands into the dirt and scooped up the 
delicate body. 

"Please be alive." He cradled Jerry, willing him to 
twitch, to move, to jump a thousand feet in the air. 
"Please live." 

Sal pressed her nose in under his arm. 

"Let me see?" His mother pried away his fingers to 
reveal the tiny sorrow. "Oh, sweetheart." 

There was no hope in her voice. 

*It's not real. I would have known. I can't let this 
happen.* 

He could make Jerry's blood pure energy - could make it 
flow - he knew he could. That's what he was supposed to 
know how to do. Like Stan. A microscope on his ability 
- it would see him delve between molecules, swoop into 
atoms, sink under a breathless universe of subatomic 
particles - he could see them all, order them all; 
conduct them to dance. 

He squeezed his eyes shut and imagined Jerry's heart 
beating. 

The insides of a frog were not all that different to 
the insides of a human. Brain, lungs, organs, veins - 
but everything was still, no matter how hard he pushed 
his will into Jerry. 

The frog lay lifeless in his hands. 

"Liam, he's gone - there's nothing you can do." 

Marie took his hands and made him rest Jerry on a bed 
of earth in his little container. 

"What happened here?" Liam's dad poked at the strewn 
clothes with a stick as if he expected to find a snake 
under them. 

Gibson ignored the bag and clothes. He was looking 
across the desert with clenched fists when he hissed. 
"Supersoldiers." 

"What?" Harry raised the stick defensively. "Where?" 

"We need cover. Not the shelter." Gibson scanned the 
slope behind them. "Up there - those boulders." 

It would be a scramble, but the red slab protruding 
from the hillside had to be as large as a house. If 
they could get behind it, they would be impossible to 
see. 

Marie rose. "Do they know we're here?" 

"No. But they're in the area." Gibson pivoted, dragging 
Liam to his feet by his pack. "We have to move." 

Liam hugged Jerry's container to his chest as they 
stumbled along. "Lemme go." 

Marie and Harry hurried to keep up. 

"Can you tell how many there are, Gibson?" Harry asked. 

"They don't think individually - I'd say more than 
four, but I'd be guessing." 

Sal ran ahead to the shoulder of a small gully. She 
didn't bark but there was insistence in the wag of her 
tail. 

"Can you ... can you read them?" 

"They're hunting." 

"Hunting what?" 

"They don't know," Gibson said. "The camp probably." 

Liam's father was aghast. "What?" 

"They found a juvenile out here alone. Juveniles don't 
just go wandering in the desert." 

"Elaine and Michael Paskowitz should have made it out 
this morning. What happened to them?" 

"I don't know." Gibson stopped in concentration - and 
then he gasped. "Bounty hunters - a group of them. That 
can't be right!" 

For a man with such an ungainly gait, Gibson could move 
quickly when pressed. He wend through a stand of 
creosote trees butting up against a low rock wall. 

"Gibson?" Harry said. 

"They - they stepped out of nowhere. Keep going." 
Gibson hauled himself up to a ledge and reached back to 
help Liam's mother up. 

The climb was child's play for Liam, who managed it 
with one hand while still holding Jerry's container, 
but Harry paused at the bottom to wipe his forehead. 
"Where are they?" 

"They're still some way from here ... over that way." 
Gibson pointed beyond the hut. "I should have sensed 
them much sooner ..." 

Shading his eyes, Harry studied the land. "Should we go 
back? If this area's crawling with them, maybe it's too 
late." 

"No way." Marie shook her head. "We can not go back to 
that place, Harry. What are you doing?" 

Color slipped from her cheeks when Liam's father 
shrugged off his pack and sweater. 

"Someone's got to warn them." Harry looked up at 
Gibson. "How much of a head start do I have?" 

"Start running and don't look back." 

"Harry! No -" 

Liam's father grazed his wife's outstretched fingers 
with the lightest of touches. "Back soon, hon - I'll 
make sure of it." 

"Dad?" 

Resettling his pack and tossing Liam his discarded 
sweater, Harry gave him no time to object. "Stay with 
Gibson. Do what he says." 

Harry slipped over the hill and out of sight, heading 
back the way they had come. It seemed like a good idea. 

"Shouldn't we go back too, Mom?" 

Gibson waved Liam and his mother onto the narrow trail 
up leading around the boulders. "You're safer here. We 
just need to stick it out. We'll wait as long as it 
takes." 

"But -" 

"Harry can make it. There are vehicles at the camp if 
they have to evacuate. There's a safe house they can 
get to." 

There was little point in arguing. They dug their feet 
into the scree and gripped whatever handholds seemed 
secure until they were able to squeeze behind the large 
boulder jutting out from the escarpment and Gibson was 
satisfied. He plucked water bottles out of his pack and 
threw them to Liam and his mother, who drank deeply 
from hers. 

Marie wiped her mouth with distaste. "Plastic water." 

They all rested with their backs against the boulder. 

Liam balanced Jerry's container on his knees. Emptiness 
dulled him. Something had been severed - his mental 
connection, his ability to understand what was going on 
in Jerry's mind. He stared until staring made him sick. 

When he couldn't stand the hollowness anymore he put 
the container aside. It felt like betrayal. His 
mother's eyes were heavy as she gave him a sad smile. 

Liam turned away. Better she didn't see his pain. He 
couldn't bear her sympathy. 

Blackness crept in around the edges of his vision. It 
became impossible to keep his eyelids open. Gibson had 
planted himself on lookout at the side of the rock. He 
seemed alert. 

A quick nap wouldn't hurt, would it? 

*When his eyes snap open, he's not behind the rock - 
it's all around him. He has to warn Dana. Shapeshifters 
are coming.* 

*To think he never used to believe in them.* 

*How to get out of here?* 

*He could use the boy to alert her. She might not 
forgive him, but he'd rather give her that opportunity 
than have her wind up dead.* 

*Like Monica.* 

*But when he searches for the boy, his panic swells. He 
can't use the boy.* 

*Must get out now.* 

*He draws his bloodied hand from the rock clutching a 
sharp slice of schist. He presses the rock's sharpest 
edge to his leg and begins to saw.* 

Liam came to with a yelp. He looked around wildly until 
he remembered the supersoldier was only in his dream. 

His mother was curled on her side about her bag, an 
open water bottle still in her hands. Her eyes were 
closed and her shoulder rose and fell with each breath. 
His violent awakening hadn't disturbed her. 

Gibson was looking at him. "Bad dream?" 

"It was nothing." Liam sat up and scraped dirt from 
under his fingernails. "Dr. Scully lied to me. Why 
didn't she give me the vaccine?" 

A gust of dry desert wind snuck around the rock and 
blew hair into Gibson's face. "Believe me - harming you 
is the last thing she wants to do." 

"Why should I believe you? Why should I believe anyone 
anymore." 

"Good point," Gibson said, stretching. 

"You must know why she didn't. You can read her mind. 
You know other things about me, but you won't tell me." 

Gibson flicked a strand of hair caught under his 
glasses. "I can't just go rifling through people's 
memories. I can only read their thoughts as they think 
them." 

"So you don't know anything?" When Gibson didn't reply, 
Liam sneered. "Thought not." 

Gibson shrugged. "I don't need to tell you. You could 
work it out for yourself if you really wanted." 

"She said she was helping me. Am I the commander? 
Because I don't want to be - and she knows that. That's 
why we're leaving, isn't it? Mom knows." 

He leaned over to remove the water bottle from her 
clasp to stop water spilling. She didn't move. "I guess 
we sort of thought maybe Dad -" 

Gibson made a face. "You were encouraged to think 
that." 

"All this time it was me." Tears stung Liam's eyes. "I 
don't want to be a supersoldier." 

"That's really worrying you, isn't it?" 

"She lied to me." 

"If it's worrying you so much, why don't I just give 
you the shot?" 

"Huh?" 

Gibson rooted around in his pack. "I've got a dose 
right here." 

He pulled out a metal vial and a needle. 

"How -" 

"All those people turning up at the staging point," 
Gibson reminded him. 

Liam hesitated. Maybe he shouldn't rush into a 
decision. He glanced at his mother for her approval. 
Surely, if she was awake she would give it. But maybe 
there was a real reason Dr. Scully hadn't given him the 
shot. 

No. There wasn't. For whatever reasons she had, she 
wanted him to be a supersoldier. There was no way he'd 
let that happen. He'd show her. 

Liam pushed his sleeve up to his elbow. 

Gibson shook his head. "It's better in your upper arm - 
or under your ribs ... that'd be easier. Liam flinched 
as the needle sank into his skin. He was still rubbing 
his throbbing ribcage five minutes later. "No one said 
it hurt so much." 

"I'd have been a crap doctor," Gibson said. 

As Liam rested beside his mother and Jerry, he supposed 
he should be feeling relief, but the pain was like a 
knife in his ribs. 

Hoping for distraction, he wriggled around the rock as 
far as he dared. It gave him a view of the slope. 

The red of Ellie's bag below was a beacon taunting him. 
The sight of Jerry had physically hurt; he hated to 
think what had happened to his friend. 

"What have they done with Ellie?" 

Gibson joined him. "They must have taken her - I don't 
know where. I have no sense of her at all. She may be 
long gone by now - or behind some sort of force field." 

"Why?" 

Gibson's laugh was devoid of mirth. "Why anything?" 

"What happened to her family - and the other people who 
left with them?" 

"That's a good question. I've got no answers for you." 

Sweat trickled down Liam's scalp. His fingers went to 
his chest to scratch. "What about the curfew? That must 
have started now." 

"Too bad about the curfew." Gibson yawned. "It wouldn't 
be the first time you've broken it." 

"That was different." 

"Yeah." Gibson pinched the bridge of his nose. "There's 
almost probably no need to worry about the curfew now. 
The base has emptied out. Doesn't matter if they find 
it now." 

"Except for the people there." 

Sharp pebbles dug into his stomach and elbows. Worst 
yet was the pain on his inside - like blood grazing his 
veins. A bell rang in his head reminding him of the 
nightmares he'd had of the female supersoldier months 
ago. He willed himself to ignore the sensations. 

He kept up his watch on the desert but as the minutes 
ticked by nothing stirred. 

The air was chilly, but the winter sun still had 
surprising strength in it. It moved around and the 
ground began to heat up. He crawled back to his mother 
and brushed grit off his jeans. His head was clearing 
although his insides still felt like they'd been 
sandpapered. *I am not turning into a supersoldier.* 

"Are they still out there?" 

Sunlight glinted off Gibson's glasses. "Passed by 
fifteen minutes ago, probably about half a mile away. 
We got a wide berth." 

"Dad?" 

"Your dad's running blazes. He's going so fast his 
lungs are burning. He thinks they're going to explode." 

"Rudi said they took little kids. Did experiments on 
them." 

Gibson kept his gaze straight ahead. "They don't really 
make much age distinction beyond adults and juveniles. 
They don't classify things the same way we do." 

The sky overhead was clear, but in the east bruised 
clouds tumbled in. Thunder clouds. This weather is 
strange. 

Gibson wasn't looking up; he fixed on the distant hills 
and flat in front of them. 

"Do you see anything?" Liam asked. 

"Nothing." Gibson's thick brows drew together. "They've 
got to be out there." 

Liam wanted to agree - but the landscape was noiseless. 
There was no familiar hum of life. Even the birds had 
abandoned the area. Ellie was somewhere out there. She 
had to be. 

"We have to rescue her!" 

Gibson regarded him with hooded eyes. "How do you 
propose to do that?" 

"You said it yourself. Those shapeshifters came out of 
nowhere. There's a ship out there! Close by." 

Removing his glasses and rubbing them on his shirt, 
Gibson took his time answering. "The thought had 
crossed my mind." 

"There has to be! At least let me go look. The area's 
clear - you said!" 

The need to get up, to move, to do something was 
overwhelming. Anything to chase the swirling thoughts 
in his mind. Dr. Scully's lies, the fake vaccine, his 
mother's worried face as she ordered them to flee the 
camp, his dad tearing up the hill with the devil on his 
tail; the red backpack; Ellie. Jerry. He muffled a sob; 
pain grew behind his eyes. At least it numbed his ribs. 

Gibson looked at him oddly. "What about your mother?" 

Liam didn't like to wake her. He just wanted to have a 
look. He'd be back soon. "I won't be long." 

There was a sly upturn in Gibson's mouth. The 
superiority of an opponent watching the game play out 
as he had known it would. 

"Why don't I come with you? If your mom knew I'd let 
you go off on your own" - he knelt beside her and 
nestled Jerry close by her cheek -"she should be okay 
here." 

Curiously, his last act was to empty her water bottle 
and set another in its place. He didn't answer Liam's 
quizzical look. "Be stealthy, stick with me and don't 
do anything rash." 

Sal was on her feet. She knew what he was planning. A 
moment of indecision stopped Liam; she would be useful 
for a search ... he shook his head. "Sal, you stay and 
protect Mom." 

It was hard to say if Sal questioned or approved his 
plan. She dropped by Marie and Jerry, tail swishing in 
the dust. 

They circled the area around the pack. Every few steps 
Gibson would stop and freeze. But he wasn't looking in 
the undergrowth; he appeared to be examining the air. 

Walking and watching Gibson cleared Liam's head. But 
after minutes of finding nothing but dirt, rocks and 
more desert bush he started to lose himself again. 

*If Dr. Scully had given me the vaccine, we wouldn't be 
here.* 

He refused to acknowledge the irrationality of his 
thoughts. It was her fault. Everything was her fault: 
the vaccine, their escape. Ellie. Jerry. 

It was torture the way all his thoughts seemed to come 
back to his frog. His head was feeling kind of fuzzy, 
wasn't it? He clutched at a sudden and futile hope that 
this was all one elaborate hallucination; that he would 
wake - back at camp - and find Ellie laughing at him 
and Jerry doing his frog thing at the bottom of his 
tank. 

"Watch it!" 

Liam rubbed his banged nose. "Sorry." 

"If you're not going to help look, you're really no 
good to me," Gibson said. "Do you want to find your 
friend?" 

"Yes." 

For once he cursed that Gibson couldn't read his mind. 
Then he might understand. "Have you found anything?" 

Gibson shook his head. "There's not much out here." 

Liam agreed. "'Cept for Sal I don't really feel any 
animals. Normally they make a place feel alive. Even in 
empty places there's usually lots of insects. Here, 
there's nothing." 

They wandered along some more, Liam trailing Gibson, 
who seemed to be selecting their path randomly all the 
while testing the air instead of the ground. They 
steered clear of the shelter although it was always 
within sight. 

A satisfied grunt from Gibson made Liam's heart race. 

"What is it?" 

"Not what - who." Gibson was striding now - cutting 
across a shallow ridge and disappearing down the other 
side. 

"Shouldn't we be -" 

Curiosity compelled him to chase after Gibson. 

He stopped in his tracks when he saw them together: 
stooped Gibson and the lanky accountant. What was *he* 
doing here? Liam hadn't seen him in months. He had 
assumed the man had left like all the others. 

Liam slowed as he neared them. 

When the accountant caught sight of him, his face 
brightened, unsettling Liam further. They had never 
been close - never had a proper conversation. Why is he 
smiling to see me? 

"You're here. Good," the man said, turning back to 
Gibson. "Is everything in place?" 

"Were you listening to me? Something's wrong. A group 
of bounty hunters set off toward the camp ... wait -" 
Gibson stared at the man. "None of this is a surprise 
to you." 

"You knew there could be a price. The Little Gods would 
have been suspicious if I didn't pay it." Gibson's jaw 
dropped. "You told them about the camp?" 

Liam watched, transfixed, as the accountant's features 
lengthened and sharpened and a familiar face emerged. 
Jeremiah. 

"What you ask me to do will be no easy feat. If there 
is any doubt over my loyalty, it will be impossible." 

Liam had never seen Gibson blindsided. The mind reader 
gawped at the shapeshifter. 

"But - but that puts everything at risk." 

"Sacrifice the Queen to save the King, yes? You 
understand the metaphors of strategy games." 

"But -" 

"If we - if you and I - do not succeed as we planned, 
everything fails." 

Emotions rippled over Gibson's face. The experience of 
shock must have been so new to him the muscles in his 
cheeks weren't used to their unusual flexing. 

"There is one other thing - they will examine you too 
closely. They will not trust you. Liam must carry it in 
parts." 

"Fine." 

Liam peered at the object Gibson pulled from his bag. 

"That's the extractor ..." In horror Liam clutched his 
aching side as Gibson dismantled the device. "What did 
you put in me?" 

"It won't kill you." 

Months of simmering anger erupted in him. "You're both 
liars! You and Dr. Scully! I hate you!" "Of course you 
do - put this in your bag." 

Several pieces of nanobot extractor were shoved into 
Liam's chest. "What? No! I'm sick of -" 

"And I'm sick of your whining." The mean Gibson of 
months ago had returned, and he was furious. "You are 
such a little ... Scully -" 

"Shut up! I hate her! This is all her fault!" 

Gibson snarled. "You ungrateful shitty little scab. You 
have no idea what she's -" 

"I don't care -" 

Jeremiah cut him off. "We need to go now." 

"I'm not going anywhere with you." 

Arms went around Liam as he turned to flee. Jeremiah 
had him imprisoned. Liam kicked and fought to free 
himself, but Jeremiah had him in a tight lock. 

"Be still." 

Liam's legs went hard as stone. "What are you doing?" 

Gibson replied. "What no one else had the guts to do." 

"We must move swiftly," Jeremiah said. 

Dust rose over the slope in the distance. Liam 
struggled - he tried ramming his head into the 
shapeshifter's throat, but Jeremiah's grip never 
loosened. As they tussled, a vehicle crested the hill 
driving straight at them. Before it got close enough 
for Liam to tell if it was from the camp, Jeremiah 
twisted about. 

The desert in front of them shimmered like a mirage. 
Liam shrieked and shut his eyes as Jeremiah carried him 
into undulating air. A shiver went through Liam, but 
when he opened his eyes to murky blue on the other 
side, he discovered he could use his legs again. 

Gibson, who must have come through just after them, 
grabbed his wrist. 

Liam looked back just as the blurry shape of the 
vehicle slammed on the brakes and a figure leapt out. 

She didn't hesitate. 

"Liam? Gibson?" The doctor ran headlong at the rippling 
glass. "Liam!" 

When she hit, her body went rigid. It rose into the air 
and pulsated - as though thousands of volts of 
electricity were coursing through it. As quickly as she 
was pulled up, she was spat out. She landed in a 
sickening heap. 

"Scully?" Beyond the force field Mulder dropped to her 
side. 

But she wasn't ready to give up. She fought his hold, 
hauling herself to her feet. She screamed, firing rock 
after rock after rock straight over Liam's head. 

As blazing light descended on him, as the air churned 
in a violent swirl, as he felt a terrible, terrible 
chill strike his heart, her broken cry was the last 
thing he heard. 

And recognized. 

"William!" 

------------------------------------------------------- 

To be completed in Part 3