Having done a lot of research into wartime experiences, I don't find bleak off-putting. Teanna does a good job of capturing the numbness and dissociation people go through when dealing with long periods when conditions are tough and it seems there's no progress to be made. I especially liked her treatment of the very end of the story, because it rings true to experiences I've read about, people suddenly "coming to themselves" as the end approaches, and the choices made/actions taken by Mulder and Scully at this point seemed appropriate for the characters as we've come to know them.

However, I have to say that my suspension of disbelief was severely jolted right at the outset by the corpse on the roadside. Having just done some research into this topic for something I'm writing, there seems to be a serious lack of plausibility here. Four weeks later, the corpse is still lying there, almost as if it were a mannequin--no really notable decomposition, no bloating, none of the smells or the processes dead bodies inevitably go through. Children using the corpse as their gathering place? I really can't see it. Plus there's a reason people get rid of corpses as soon as possible; the associated health hazards are something people in this situation wouldn't likely want to add to the burdens they're already facing.