Kid 1: Stevie, you ok?
Stevie: I got... I got... [Coughs] I got the wind knocked out of me.
[Stevie looks around and then wanders deeper into the cavern.]
Kid 1: Stevie?
[Stevie reappears clutching something.]
Stevie: It's a human skull!
Kid 2: Toss it up here, dude!
Stevie: No way butt-wipe, this is mine. [pauses] Anyway, there’s bones all over the place.
[Stevie looks at the skull, then, looking down, he sees that there is a puddle of black oil under his right shoe.]
Stevie: What the...?
[Stevie drops the skull and clutches stomach, nauseous.]
Kid 1: Stevie?
[Stevie looks up, his eyes turning black.]
Kid 2: Hey man, let's get out of here.
[The boys run away from the hole. The camera pans back to show that the scene is happening in a suburban area outside a large town. Caption: “North Texas – Present Day” Fade to later the same day. Fire trucks pull up to the scene. The fire chief walks up to the edge of the hole and crouches down.]
Fire chief (looking down hole): We're going to need a fourteen footer.
[A ladder slams down onto the bottom of the hole.]
Fire chief: This is Captain Miles Cooles, I’ll be acting as the old town HC. Ok, in the hole, two down.
[Two men climb down into the hole and crouch by Stevie, who is lying down in the dirt in the cavern.]
Fire chief (talking to radio): JC, you see the boy? Talk to me. [static on radio] … [static] Jerry, check JC’s radio. [more static] ____, ____, in the hole.
[A black helicopter flies in and lands at the scene. A man, Bronschweig, exits the chopper.]
Bronschweig (to fire chief): Get these people out of here. [Points at crowd nearby.]
[Four men in biohazard suits exit the helicopter, and carry a person-sized container towards the hole.]
Firechief: Initial reports said that the boy's eyes had turned black, then I lost contact with my men.
[The men in suits carry the container, which now has the boy in it, to the helicopter]
Firechief: What about my men?
[The helicopter takes off.]
Firechief: What about my men??
[Several tanker trucks and semi-trucks pull up to the scene.]
Firechief: What the...?
[Bronschweig watches, and then walks behind one of the trucks where no one else can hear. He dials a number on his cell phone.]
Bronschweig (to phone): It's Bronschweig. Sir, the impossible situation that we never planned for? Well, we better come up with a plan.
[Cut to a view of a helicopter flying through a city. A view of a roof shows a group of FBI agents. The helicopter lands on the top of the building and Darius Michaud exits. Caption: “Federal Building -- Dallas, Texas”]
Michaud: We’ve evacuated the building and searched it from bottom to top. There’s been no trace of an explosive device, or anything resembling one.
FBI Agent: No sir.
Michaud: Did you send the dogs through yet?
FBI Agent: Yes, sir.
Michaud: Then send them through again.
FBI Agent (to other FBI agents): All right everyone, we're doing it again.
[Michaud stares across the street at the building there. A lone person is walking on the roof... Cut to the other building where we see Scully on her cell phone...]
Scully: Mulder it's me.
Mulder: Where are you Scully?
Scully: I'm on the roof.
Mulder: Did you find anything?
Scully (somewhat irritated): No I haven't.
Mulder: What's wrong?
Scully: Well, I just climbed up twelve floors, I'm hot, I'm thirsty and to be honest, I'm wondering what I'm doing up here.
Mulder: You're looking for a bomb.
Scully: Yes, I know that, but the threat was called in to the Federal building across the street.
Mulder: I think they have that covered.
Scully: Mulder, when a terrorist bomb threat is called in, the rational purpose of providing that information is to allow us to find the bomb. The rational object of terrorism is to promote terror. If you study the statistics, you'd find the model behavioral pattern for virtually every case where a threat has turned up an explosive device; and if we don't act in accordance with that data, if you ignore it as we have done, the chances are great that if there actually is a bomb, we might not find it. Lives could be lost... Mulder? Mulder??
Mulder: Boom. [Mulder appears behind her, emerging from behind a corner.]
Scully (startled): Jesus, Mulder!
Mulder: Whatever happened to playing a hunch, Scully? ? The element of surprise? Random acts of unpredictability? If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen, or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anything that cannot be programmed, categorized, or easily referenced. [pauses] What are we doing up here Scully? It's hotter than hell.
[Cut to walking towards entrance to stairwell]
Scully: I know you're bored in this assignment Mulder, but unconventional thinking is only going to get you in trouble now.
Mulder: What makes you think I'm bored?
Scully: You have to quit looking for what isn't there. They’ve closed the X-files. There's procedure to be followed now... protocol.
Mulder: Maybe we should call in a bomb threat to Houston. I think it's free beer night at the Astrodome.
[Scully tries to open door, but it is apparently locked]
Scully: Now what?
Mulder: It's locked?
Scully: So much for anticipating the unforeseen.
[Mulder tries to open the door and it opens...]
Scully (smiling): I had you.
Mulder: No you didn't.
Scully: Oh, yeah. I had you big time.
[Scully and Mulder enter through the door.]
Mulder: You had nothing.
[Exiting stairwell/elevator at bottom floor]
Mulder: Come on, I saw you jiggle the handle.
Scully: I saw your face Mulder. There was a definite moment of panic.
Mulder: You've never seen me panic. When I panic I make this face...
[Mulder makes an emotionless expression.]
Scully: That's the face I saw.
Mulder: You never saw that face.
Scully: Yes I did, that was the face. You're buyin'.
Mulder: Coke, Pepsi, Saline IV?
Scully: Something sweet.
[Mulder heads down to the vending machines. He enters the room just as another man, a repairman, is exiting. The door shuts behind Mulder as he enters. He puts money in the machine and nothing comes out. He shakes the machine, then looks behind it and notices that the machine is unplugged. He calls Scully on her cell phone (555-1013). Cut to the lobby, where Scully is standing.]
Scully (answering phone): Scully.
Mulder: Scully, I found the bomb.
Scully (slightly amused): You're funny Mulder. Where are you?
[Cut back to Vending room.]
Mulder: I'm locked in the vending room.
[Mulder pounds on the door.]
Scully: Is that you pounding?
Mulder: Yes you need to get someone in here.
[Scully reaches for the doorknob, but it doesn't turn. It's locked.]
Scully: All right Mulder.
[The camera pans to show that the machine is now open and filled with explosives.]
Mulder: Look, you've got about fourteen minutes to evacuate this building.
[Cut back to Scully outside of the vending room. Scully looks down at her watch.]
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: Thirteen fifty-four. Thirteen fifty-two. Thirteen fifty. You see a pattern emerging here Scully?
[Scully looks down and realizes that the key hole has been welded shut.]
Scully: Hang on Mulder, I'm going to get you out of there.
[Scully runs back into lobby.]
Scully (to Security guards): I need this building evacuated and cleared out in 10 minutes. I need you to get on the phone and tell the fire department to block off the city center in a one-mile radius around the building.
Security Guard: Ten minutes?
Scully: DON'T THINK! JUST PICK UP THE PHONE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!!
[Walks outside of building.]
Scully (on the phone): This is Special Agent Dana Scully. I need to speak to SAC Michaud, he's got the wrong building!
[Vehicles of all assortments pull up to the building. Michaud exits a car and begins to hastily walk with Scully into the building.]
Michaud: Where is it?
Scully: In the vending room. Agent Mulder is locked in with it.
[Cut to Mulder staring at the bomb, making an emotionless expression. Mulder’s cell phone rings, and it startles him. He answers the phone.]
Mulder: You know that face I showed you... I'm making it again.
Scully: Mulder, get away from the door. We're coming in.
[Scully and bomb team cut through the door with a torch.]
Mulder (to Michaud): Tell me that that’s just soda pop in those canisters.
Michaud (looking at bomb): It’s just what it looks like… A big I.E.D. Ten gallons of Astrolite... [pauses] Okay, everyone clear the building.
Mulder: Someone has to stay here with you.
Michaud (still looking at bomb): I gave you an order, now get out of here.
[Everyone leaves the room except Michaud, Mulder, and Scully.]
Mulder: Can you disarm it?
Michaud: Yes I can.
Mulder: We’ve got less than four minutes to see if you’re right.
Michaud (irritated): Did you hear me? I gave you a direct order. [Mulder nods] Now get out of here!
Scully: Come on Mulder.
[Cut to Mulder and Scully running out of the building. Mulder slows and looks back.]
Mulder: Something's wrong.
[Scully grabs Mulder.]
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: Something's not right.
Scully: There's no time!!
[They get into the waiting police car. Shot of inside the building with Michaud sitting waiting for the bomb to go off, not attempting to stop it. The bomb explodes, taking half of the building down with it. The back of the car Mulder and Scully are riding in jumps up and the back window shattered. It runs into a parked car, and then Mulder and Scully get out of the car and look at the damaged building.]
Mulder: Next time you're buying.
[Cut to the FBI building. Caption: “Washington DC, Office of Professional Review” Scully is in a hearing about the bombing, listening to Assistant Director Jana Cassidy, who is one of the main people on the board which includes A.D. Skinner.]
Cassidy: Due to the recent events at Waco and Ruby Ridge, there is a heightened need at the Attorney General’s office to place responsibility as early as possible for the catastrophic destruction of public property and loss of life due to terrorist activities. Many details are still unclear, but we’re under some pressure from the Attorney General to give an accurate picture of what happened so that she can issue a public statement. We know now that five people died, in the explosion. Special…
[Mulder enters the room, and A.D. Cassidy pauses briefly.]
Cassidy: …Special Agent in charge Michaud, who was trying to diffuse the bomb, three firemen, and one young boy…
Mulder: Excuse me, those people, you said they were found inside in the building?
Cassidy: Agent Mulder, since you failed to show up to this hearing on time, I'm going to ask you to step outside so Agent Scully can give an accurate description of the events that happened, so she won't be paid the same disrespect.
Mulder: We were told the building was clear.
Cassidy: You'll get your turn, Agent Mulder. Now, please step outside.
[Mulder leaves the room. Cut to Mulder sitting on a bench in the hallway. Skinner enters the hallway and Mulder starts to get up.]
Skinner: Sit down, they're still talking to Scully.
Mulder: About what?
Skinner: They want to know what she was doing in the wrong building.
Mulder: She was with me.
Skinner: You don't see what's going on here do you? There's forty million dollars in damage to the city of Dallas. Lives have been lost. No suspects have been named. So the story being shaped is that this could have been prevented.
Mulder: They want to blame us?
Skinner: Agent Mulder, you and I both know that if it looks bad, it's bad for the FBI. Blame has to be assigned somewhere.
Mulder: If they want to blame somebody they can blame me, Agent Scully doesn't deserve this.
Skinner: She's in there right now saying the same thing about you.
Mulder: I breached protocol. I broke contact with the SAC. I ignored a primary tactical rule and left him alone with the device.
Skinner: Agent Scully says that it was she who ordered you out of the building, that you wanted to go back...
[Scully enters, having been excused from her hearing.]
Scully: They're asking for you sir.
Skinner: Thank you.
[Skinner leaves.]
Mulder: Whatever you told them in there Scully, you don't have to protect me.
Scully: All I told them was the truth
Mulder: They're trying to divide us on this and we can't let them.
Scully: Mulder, they have divided us. They're splitting us up.
Mulder: But they're the ones who put us together.
Scully: Because they wanted me to invalidate your work into the paranormal. But I think this goes deeper than that...
Mulder: This isn't about you, Scully. They're doing this to me.
Scully: They're not doing this, Mulder. I left behind a career in medicine because I thought I could make a difference at the FBI. But it hasn't turned out that way. And now if I were transferred to Omaha or Wichita, or some other field office, it just doesn't hold the interest for me that it once did. Not after what I've seen and done.
Mulder (in disbelief): You're quitting?
Scully: Maybe you should ask yourself if your heart's still in it too.
[Skinner comes back into the hallway.]
Skinner: Agent Mulder, you're up.
[Mulder begins to walk back to the boardroom.]
Scully: Mulder…
[Scully hands Mulder his coat, which he nearly forgot on the chair.]
Scully: Good luck.
[Mulder enters the room, and the camera shows Scully walk out of the FBI building. Cut to an internal scene of a bar. Mulder is sitting at a bar, drinking. Caption: “Casey's Bar, Southeast Washington, DC”]
Bartender (filling a glass): I'd say this just about exceeds your minimum daily requirement.
[Mulder drinks the entire glassful, and upon setting it down he nearly knocks over glasses but tries to catch them]
Bartender: Whoa, easy there. Gotta train for this kind of heavy lifting. Rough day?
[Mulder puts his finger to the bar as a sign that he wants another. Mulder looks over his shoulder and notices a man at the bar watching him]
Bartender: So what is it that you do?
Mulder: What do I do?
Bartender: Mmm Hmm.
[Mulder drinks half of the glass then sets it down on the counter.]
Mulder: I'm the key figure in an on-going government charade, the plot to conceal the truth about the existence of extra-terrestrials. It's a global conspiracy, actually, with key players from the highest levels of power and it reaches down to the lives of every man, woman, and child on this planet. … [laughs] So of course no one believes me. I'm an annoyance to my superiors, a joke to my peers. They call me Spooky. Spooky Mulder whose sister was abducted by aliens when he was just a kid and who now chases after little green men with a badge and a gun shouting to the heavens or to anyone who will listen that the fix is in that the sky is falling and when it hits it's gonna be the shit-storm of aaaaaall time.
Bartender: Well. I would say that about does it, Spooky [takes drinks away from Mulder]
Mulder: Does what?
Bartender: Looks like eighty-six is your lucky number.
[Mulder takes money out of his wallet.]
Mulder: You know, one is the loneliest number.
[Mulder looks over his shoulder again and sees the man is no longer at the bar. He then gets up, wavers a bit, then walks to the men's room which he finds is out of order. He knocks on the women's door and it's occupied. He goes out the exit into the alley and relieves himself (on a poster of Independence Day). The man from the bar, Dr. Kurtzweil, walks outside.]
Kurtzweil: That official FBI business?
Mulder: What?
Kurtzweil: Bet the Bureau's accusing you of doing the same thing in Dallas.
Mulder: How's that?
Kurtzweil: Standing around holding your yank while bombs are exploding.
Mulder (annoyed): Do I know you?
Kurtzweil: No, but I’ve been watching your career for a long time, ever since you were just a promising young agent. Before then…
Mulder: You come out here for a reason?
Kurtzweil: Yeah.
[Kurtzweil steps up to the wall and unzips pants. Mulder begins to walk inside.]
Kurtzweil: The name’s Kurtzweil. I’m a doctor, an old friend of your fathers…
[Mulder turns back around to look at Kurtzweil.]
Kurtzweil: Back at the Department of State, we were what you might call fellow travelers, but his disenchantment outlasted mine…
[Mulder goes back inside the building. Kurtzweil soon follows.]
Mulder: How’d you find me?
Kurtzweil: I heard you come here now and again. I figured you’d need a little drinky tonight…
Mulder: You a reporter?
Kurtzweil: I’m a doctor, but I think I mentioned that. O.B.G.Y.N.
Mulder: If you have something to tell me, you’ve got as much time to talk to me as it takes to hail a cab.
[Mulder and Kurtzweil are outside now, Mulder is raising his hand to hail a cab.]
Kurtzweil: SAC Michaud never tried or attempted to diffuse that bomb.
Mulder (in disbelief): So what, he let it explode in his face?
Kurtzweil: What's the question nobody's asking? Why that building? Why not the federal building?
Mulder: The federal building was too well guarded.
Kurtzweil: No. They put the bomb in the building across the street because it did have federal offices. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had a provisional medical quarantine office there, which is where the bodies where found. But that's the thing... the thing you didn't know. The thing you'd never think to check. [pause] Those people were already dead.
Mulder: Before the bomb went off?
Kurtzweil: That’s what I'm saying.
Mulder: Michaud was a twenty-two year veteran of the Bureau…
Kurtzweil: Michaud was a patriot. The men he’s loyal to know they’re way around Dallas. They blew that building to hide something, something maybe even they couldn’t predict.
Mulder: You’re saying that blew up that entire building just to hide the bodies of those firemen?
Kurtzweil: And one little boy.
[A cab pulls up.]
Mulder: I think you're full of shit.
[Kurtzweil laughs slightly.]
Kurtzweil: Do you now?
[Mulder enters the cab and closes the door.]
Mulder: Arlington, please.
[A shot is shown of the cab driving away and Kurtzweil standing on the curb. Cut to a shot in the cab. Mulder sits silently for a minute or so.]
Mulder: On second thought, lets go to Georgetown. Let’s go to Georgetown...
[Cut to an internal shot of Scully’s Apartment. Scully is in bed, not asleep. Suddenly there is a pounding on the door. Scully gets up and answers it. Mulder is at the door.]
Mulder: Sorry I woke you... Did I wake you?
[Mulder enters the apartment.]
Scully: No.
Mulder: Why not? It's three o'clock in the morning...
Scully: Are you drunk Mulder?
Mulder: I was until about half an hour ago, why?
Scully: Was that before or after you decided to come here.
Mulder: Just what are you implying?
Scully: Go home Mulder.
Mulder: No, get dressed.
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: I'll explain on the way. Just get dressed.
[Cut to the area of North Texas (Blackwood). The camera shows a large tent over the area of the hole, and guards patrol the area. A helicopter flies in and Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM) exits the helicopter after it lands. Cut to the actual entrance of the cave. A man in a white biohazard suit climbs up the ladder and another scientist helps him remove his headgear, revealing that it is Bronschweig. Bronschweig looks over and sees that CSM is in the tent. CSM approaches.]
CSM: You got something to show me…
[Cut to in the cavern. CSM is now in a bio-hazard suit and is following Bronschweig.]
Bronschweig: We’ve cooled the temperature back down to sub-zero, in order to slow the development, which is like nothing we’ve ever seen.
CSM: Brought on by?
Bronschweig: Heat, I think. The subincurrent invasion of a host, the fireman, in a climate that raised his temperature above ninety-eight point six.
[Bronschweig pulls back a curtain in the temperature regulated room, showing a man who is covered in goo and is barely alive. Something else is moving and growing inside him.]
CSM: This man is still alive.
Bronschweig: Physically, and biologically. [pauses] …but he’ll never recover.
CSM: How can this be?
Bronschweig: The developing organism is using his life energy, digesting bone and tissue. We’ve just slowed the process. [pauses] Should we destroy it like the others?
CSM: No, no. We have to try our vaccine on it.
Bronschweig: And if it’s unsuccessful?
CSM: Burn it, like the others.
[Cut to an aerial shot of cars driving down a road. Caption: “Montgomery County, Maryland” Cut to a shot of Mulder and Scully walking down a hallway inside of a building. A Soldier is standing guard for security. Caption: “Bethesda Naval Hospital, MD”]
Soldier: ID and floor you're visiting?
[Mulder pulls out his FBI ID and shows it to the soldier.]
Mulder: We're going down to the morgue.
Soldier: That area is currently off limits to anyone other than authorized medical personnel.
Mulder: On whose orders?
Soldier: General McAddie's.
Mulder: General McAddie is the one who requested our coming here. We were awakened at three AM and told to get down here immediately.
Soldier: I don't know anything about that.
Mulder: Well, call General McAddie.
Soldier: I don't have his number.
Mulder: Then call the switchboard, they'll patch you through.
[The soldier begins to fumble through his papers.]
Mulder: Jesus! You don't know the switchboard number?
Soldier: I'm calling my C.O.
[As the soldier picks up the phone, Mulder puts his hand on the hang-up button.]
Mulder: Listen son. We don't have time to dick around here, watching you demonstrate your ignorance of the chain of command. The order came directly from General McAddie. Call him. We'll conduct our business while you confirm authorization.
[Mulder and Scully start walking down the hall.]
Clerk: Um, why don't you go ahead down and I'll confirm authorization.
Mulder: Thank you.
Mulder (quietly to Scully): Why is a morgue suddenly off limits on orders of the general.
[They arrive at the morgue and find one of the bodies.]
Scully: This is one of the firemen who died in Dallas?
Mulder: According to the toe tag.
Scully: And you're looking for...?
Mulder: Cause of death.
Scully: I can tell you without even looking at him. [picks up autopsy report] Conclusive organ failure due to proximal exposure to source and flying debris. This body has already been autopsied, Mulder. You can tell from the way it's been wrapped and dressed.
[Mulder unwraps the body and the body is covered by a thick, sticky substance.]
Mulder:Does this fit the description you just read me, Scully?
[Scully walks around to the other side to view the body.]
Scully: Oh my God. This man's tissue...
Mulder: It's like jelly.
[Scully puts a rubber glove on her right hand and begins to touch the corpse.]
Scully: There's been some kind of cellular breakdown. It's completely edematous. Mulder, there's been no autopsy performed. There's no Y incision, no internal exam.
Mulder: So you’re telling me that the information on that autopsy report is false? That this man didn’t die from an exposure, or from flying debris?
Scully: I can’t tell you what killed this man, and I’m not sure anyone else could either.
[Mulder and Scully wheel the body into the lab.]
Scully: You knew this man didn't die at the bombsite before we got here.
Mulder: I'd been told as much.
Scully: So they’re covering up something, what?
Mulder: I don’t know, but I have a hunch that what you're going to find here isn't anything that can be categorized or easily referenced.
Scully: Mulder, this is going to take some time. Sooner or later, they're going to realize that we're not even supposed to be here.
Mulder: We are being blamed for this man’s death, I would like to know what he died of, wouldn't you?
[Mulder exits. Cut to a shot of Mulder in a cab driving up to an apartment complex. Two police cars with their lights on sit outside the apartment complex. Caption: “Dupont Circle Washington, DC”]
Mulder (to cab driver): Here. I think this is it.
[Cut to a shot of Mulder entering Kurtzweil's apartment. Mulder begins to look around, flipping through some magazines on a table. A detective enters the room.]
Detective (annoyed): Excuse me. May I help you?
Mulder: I was looking for Dr. Kurtzweil.
Detective: You have some sort of business with him?
[Mulder pulls out his FBI badge.]
Detective (to another officer): The feds are after him too.
Detective: Nice business he has, eh?
Mulder: What’s that?
Detective: Selling naked pictures of little kids on his computer. [pauses] That is what you're looking for him for?
[Mulder picks some books from the bookshelf. Their titles are “The Four Horsemen of the Global Dominion Conspiracy” and “Countdown to the Apocalypse”, both written by Kurtzweil.]
Mulder: No... [pause] I had an appointment for a pelvic exam...
[Mulder shrugs humorously and the Detective laughs. Mulder begins to exit the room]
Detective: Hey, you want we should give you a call if he turns up?
Mulder: No, don't bother.
[Mulder exits the building, and sees Kurtzweil in the alley. He motions to Mulder to come closer. Mulder enters the alley.]
Kurtzweil: See this crap? Someone knows I'm talking to you.
Mulder (sarcastically): Not according to the Men in Blue.
Kurtzweil: What is it this time? Kiddy porn again? Sexual battery of a patient?
Mulder: They want to discredit you, why?
Kurtzweil: Because I'm a dangerous man, because I know too much.
Mulder: What, that end-of-the-world apocalyptic garbage you write?
Kurtzweil: You know my work?
[Mulder begins to walk away.]
Kurtzweil: I was right about Dallas, wasn't I?
[Mulder turns back around.]
Mulder: How? How were you right?
Kurtzweil: Are you familiar with the Hanta virus, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: Yeah, It was a deadly virus spread by field mice in the southwestern United States several years ago.
Kurtzweil: According to the newspaper, FEMA was called out to manage an outbreak of the Hanta virus. Are you aware of what the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s real power is? FEMA allows the White House to suspend constitutional government on the grounds of a federal emergency. Think about that. [pause] Why would an agency with such broad sweeping powers be called out to manage a small outbreak?
Mulder: So you’re saying it wasn’t such a small outbreak?
Kurtzweil: No, I’m saying it wasn’t the Hanta virus.
[Another police car pulls up to the front of the building. Mulder and Kurtzweil walk farther into the alleyway.]
Kurtzweil: When we were young men in the military, your father and I were recruited for a project. They said it was biological warfare.
Mulder: What killed those men?
Kurtzweil: What killed those men I won't even write about. We have no context for what killed those men, and no appreciation for how it will be unleashed in the future.
Mulder: A plague?
Kurtzweil: A plague to end all plagues, Agent Mulder. A silent weapon for a quiet war. The systematic release of an indiscriminate organism for which the men who bring it on still have no cure. They've been working on this for fifty years... while the rest of the world was fighting gooks and commies, these men have been secretly negotiating a planned Armageddon.
Mulder: Negotiating with whom?
Kurtzweil: I think you know. The timetable has been set. It will happen on a holiday, when people are away from their homes. The president will declare a state of emergency, at which time all federal agencies, all government, will come under the power of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA… the secret government.
Mulder: And they tell me I'm paranoid.
Kurtzweil: Go back to Dallas, Agent Mulder, and dig. Or we'll find out with the rest of the country, when it's too late.
[Cut to shot of Scully. She is performing the autopsy in the morgue. She pulls a piece of a rib bone from the body and looks at it. It is porous and clear. Suddenly, she looks over at the tinted windows on the wall. The soldier and two police officers are about to enter the room. The soldier opens the door and looks around, but sees no sign of Scully. Cut to a shot of inside a refrigerating unit where the bodies are kept. Scully quietly closes the door and takes off her gloves and mask. Her cell phone rings, and she quickly grabs it and hits the button to answer it in order to keep it quiet.]
Mulder (over phone): Scully, it's me...
Scully (whispering): Yeah.
Mulder: Why are you whispering?
Scully (whispering): I can't really talk right now, Mulder.
Mulder: Scully, listen to me. I'm going home, then I'm booking a flight to Dallas. I'm getting you a ticket too.
Scully (whispering): Mulder...
Mulder: I need you there with me. I need your expertise on this.
Scully (whispering): I have a hearing tomorrow.
Mulder: And I can get you back for that hearing, maybe with evidence that will blow it away.
Scully (whispering): Mulder, I'm way past the point of common sense here.
Mulder: This has nothing to do with common sense. Scully?
[Scully hangs up on him as someone is about to enter. The soldier enters the room. He looks around, but does not see anything. Scully is under one of the tables with the body above her dripping something onto the floor.Cut to a shot of Mulder walking into a room filled with debris with a field agent. Caption: “Dallas, Texas 11:21 AM FBI Field Office”]
Field Agent: You're looking for what amounts to a needle in a haystack. I'm afraid the explosion was so devastating that there hasn't been a whole lot we've been able to put together just yet.
Mulder: I'm looking for anything out of the ordinary. Maybe something from the FEMA offices where the bodies where found.
Field Agent: We weren't expecting to find those remains of course. They went right off to Washington.
Mulder: Was there anything in those offices that didn't go to D.C.?
Field Agent: Some bone fragments came up in the sift this morning. We thought we had another casulty but it turns out FEMA got them from an archeological site.
Mulder: Have you examined them?
Field Agent: No. Just fossils, as far as we know.
[Scully enters the room and Mulder notices her. Without motioning to her, he turns to the field agent and indicates Scully...]
Mulder: I'd like to have this person take a look, if you don't mind.
Field Agent: Let me see if I can lay my hands on what you are looking for.
[Scully walks up to where Mulder is standing.]
Mulder (to Scully): I thought you said you weren't coming.
Scully: I wasn't planning on it. Particularly after spending a half an hour in cold storage this morning. But I got a better look at the blood and tissue samples I took from the fireman.
Mulder: What did you find?
Scully: Something I couldn't show to anyone else, not without attracting the kind of attention I'd just as soon avoid right now.
[The field agent returns with the fossils.]
Field Agent: Here you are. They're just fossils, and they weren't near the blast site so they won't tell you much.
Mulder (handing Scully a container of bone fragments): Here, why don't you take a look at this.
[Scully puts one of the bone fragments under the microscope and looks through it. She almost immediately turns to Mulder, who takes in her expression.]
Mulder: You said these came from an archeological site?
Field Agent: I can show it to you right on the map.
[Cut to the base in North Texas. Parts and equipment are being packed up. A temperature-regulated transportation container is being moved to by the hole. Bronschweig is directing people.]
Bronschweig: I want this container checked and recalibrated. I want a steady, negative two degrees throughout the transport after I administer the vaccine.
[Bronschweig, donned in a bio-hazard suit, climbs down the ladder and prepares to administer the vaccine. He pulls back the curtain and finds that the body of the fireman has a large hole in it and the alien being is gone. He pulls away his headgear to look around and goes back to the ladder.]
Bronschweig: It’s gone! It’s left the body, I think it’s gestated…
[Bronschweig stops climbing.]
Bronschweig: Wait, I can see it.
[Bronschweig climbs back down and pulls out a syringe and a small bottle of liquid.]
Bronschweig: So much for little green men. I’m going to try to administer the vaccine. ____, I need you down here.
[One of the men still above ground exits the camera view to go don a bio-hazard suit. Bronschweig puts the needle into the small bottle, and draws back some of the vaccine. He looks back up, and cannot see the alien. He looks around, and the alien appears behind him, and draws its claws. It attacks him, slicing at his face. Bronschweig stabs the syringe into it, and it momentarily goes away from him. Bronschweig staggers to the ladder and clutches it.]
Bronschweig: Help… I need help…
[Bronschweig begins to climb the ladder, but the men above put the lid over the hole and seal it.]
Bronschweig: What are you doing?
[The men above cover the clear lid with dirt.]
Bronschweig: What are you doing?! Oh god…
[The alien grabs Bronschweig’s face and pulls him away from the camera. Cut to a shot of children playing in a large yard. A large house sits in the background. At the house’s porch, Well Manicured Man (WMM) sits watching his grandchildren. Caption: “Somerset England”]
[A servant approaches.]
Servant: Phone for you sir.
[WMM enters his house, walks into the den, and picks up a phone]
WMM: Yes?
CSM: We have a situation. The members are assembling.
WMM: Is it an emergency?
CSM: Yes. A meeting is set, tonight in London. We must determine a course.
WMM: Who called this meeting?
CSM: Strughold. He's just gotten on a plane in Tunis.
[After disconnecting the line, WMM looks out the window and sees that his grandson has fallen down and his family members are gathering around... Cut to a shot of a urban area in England. Caption: “London, England” A car pulls up beside a building. WMM exits the vehicle. A man greets him.]
WMM: Has Strughold arrived?
Man: Yes, they're waiting for you in the library, sir.
[In a small room, people are gathered around a small monitor. WMM enters.]
Strughold: We began to worry. Some of us have traveled so far and you were the last to arrive.
WMM: I'm sorry. My grandson fell and broke his leg.
Strughold: While we have been made to wait, we've watched surveillance tapes which have raised more concerns.
WMM: More concerns about what?
Strughold: We've been forced to reassess our role in Colonization.
First Elder: The virus has mutated.
WMM: Into what?
Strughold: A new extraterrestrial biological entity.
WMM: My God! If this is true… All our work… They’ve been using us all along.
Strughold: We're going to tell them what we've found, what we've learned by turning over a body infected by the gestating organism.
WMM: In hope of what? Learning that it's true? That we are nothing but digestives for the creation of a new race of alien life forms. By cooperating now, we are but beggars to our own demise.
Strughold: Cooperation is the only chance of saving ourselves.
Cigarette Smoking Man: They still need us to carry out their preparations.
Strughold: We'll continue to use them as they use us. If only to play for more time, to continue work on our vaccine.
WMM: My lateness might have been my absence. A course has already been decided.
CSM: There are complications… [looking at surveillance video] Mulder saw one of the infected bodies that we've destroyed in Dallas. He's gone back there again. Someone has tipped him.
WMM: Who?
CSM: Kurtzweil, we think.
WMM: No one believes Kurtzweil... or his books. He’s a toiler, a crank.
First Elder: Mulder believes him.
CSM: Then Kurtzweil must be removed.
Strughold: As must Mulder.
WMM: Kill Mulder, we take the risk of turning one man's quest into a crusade.
Strughold: Then you must take away what he holds most valuable… That with which he can't live without.
[Cut to a shot of Scully in the North Texas area of Blackwood. The camera pans back to show that Mulder is there, also.]
Mulder: This is where the agent indicated on the map.
Scully: There’s no evidence of any archeological site or dig here…
Mulder: And you're sure that those fossils had the same virus that the firemen had.
Scully: Yes, the bones were both porous, as if the virus were disgesting it.
Mulder: And you’ve never seen that virus before.
Scully: No.
[Mulder notices something, and the camera plans to show an area of grass in the middle of the dry soil with a playground on it....]
Mulder: Look at this.
[Mulder and Scully walk up to the playground.]
Mulder: This look like fresh grass to you?
Scully: It looks pretty green for this climate.
[Mulder bends down and examines the ground, and pulls the grass layer up and looks below.]
Mulder: Ground's dry about an inch down. This was laid recently.
Scully: The equipment looks brand new too.
Mulder: No irrigation system. Somebody's covering their tracks.
[Mulder and Scully spot 3 children on bikes and approach them.]
Mulder (to children): Hey...
Scully: Do you boys live around here?
Kid 1: Yeah.
Mulder: You see anybody diggin' over there?
Kid 1: We're not supposed to talk about it.
Scully: You're not supposed to talk about it? Who told you that?
Kid 2: Nobody.
Mulder: Nobody? The same nobody who built that playground, nobody buy you those new bikes, too?
Scully: I think you better tell us.
Kid 1: We don't even know you.
Scully: Well, we're FBI Agents.
Kid 1: You're not FBI Agents.
Mulder: How do you know?
Kid 1: Cause ya'll look like door to door salesmen.
[Mulder pulls out his badge]
Mulder: Anybody wanna buy a badge?
[After looking at Mulder's badge the kids point, in unison]
Kid 2: They left about an hour ago, that a'way.
[Cut to a aerial shot of Mulder and Scully in a car driving down a road. The scene then shows an internal car view. Mulder is driving and Scully is reading a map.]
Mulder: Unmarked tanker trucks. What are archeologists hauling out in tanker trucks?
Scully: I don't know Mulder.
Mulder: And where are they going with it?
Scully: That's the first question to answer if we're ever going to find them.
[They reach a fork in the road and stop.]
Mulder (referring to directions): What are my choices?
Scully (looking at the map): About a hundred miles of nothing in each direction. We've got two choices. One of them is wrong.
Mulder: I think they went left.
Scully: I don't know why but I think they went right.
[Mulder debates for a moment, then hits the gas and goes... straight... onto a dirt road.]
Mulder: Five years together, Scully… How many times have I been wrong? NEVER... [pause] Not driving anyway.
[After a long while of driving Mulder and Scully stop at train crossing. Scully gets out of the car annoyed. Mulder gets out too, and begins to look at the map.]
Scully: This is great, this is fitting.
Mulder: I was right about the bomb wasn't I?
Scully: I have to be in Washington in eleven hours for a hearing that may effect one of the greatest decisions in my life, and I'm in the middle of nowhere Texas chasing phantom tanker trucks!
Mulder: We're not chasing trucks. We're chasing evidence.
Scully: Evidence of what?
Mulder: That bomb in Dallas was allowed to go off, to hide bodies infected with a virus. A virus you yourself detected.
Scully: They haul gas in tanker trucks, they haul oil in tanker trucks, they don't haul viruses in tanker trucks.
Mulder: Well maybe they do in these tanker trucks.
[Mulder begins to fold the map.]
Scully: What aren't you telling me here? Mulder?
[Mulder hesitates, almost afraid to tell Scully what he is about to…]
Mulder: The virus may be extraterrestrial.
Scully: I don't believe this... I don't...
[On a train track crossing nearby, the warnings start to sound. A train passes by and at the end of the train the tankers are being carried. Mulder and Scully jump in the car and follow the train via a nearby road. They exit the car on a hill. The camera pans up to show a cornfield with two white domes near the middle. Mulder and Scully walk down the hill towards the domes.]
[Mulder and Scully begin to walk through the cornfield surrounding the domes.]
Scully: This is weird.
Mulder: Very weird.
Scully: Any thoughts on why anybody be growing corn in the middle of the desert?
Mulder: Well, they could be giant Jiffy Pop Poppers.
[Mulder and Scully reach the domes. They enter and fans above the internal entrance whirl sharply startling both.]
Scully: It's cool in here. Temperature's being regulated.
Mulder: For the purpose of what?
Scully: I think we're on top of a larger structure here...
Mulder: You hear that?
Scully: I hear a humming... Like electricity, high voltage maybe...
[Mulder bends down, puts his head against the ground and listens]
Mulder: Maybe... [pause] Maybe not.
[Mulder continues to listen]
Mulder: Scully?
Scully: Yeah?
Mulder: Run!!
[At that moment the vents on both the floor and ceiling open, as bees pour out, Mulder and Scully head for the entrance, with Mulder a sizable distance ahead of Scully.]
Mulder: Scully!
Scully: I can’t see!
[Mulder turns back for Scully]
Mulder: Grab my hand.
[Grabbing her arm, Mulder leads her to the door and the fans blow off all the remaining clinging bees. They both run outside of the building.]
Mulder: Did you get stung.
Scully: I don't think so.
[A light is seen over the corn crops. Two black helicopters appear and Mulder and Scully begin to run through the crops to escape. The helicopters chase them at a very low altitude, and Mulder and Scully become separated between the rows of corn.]
Mulder (shouting): Scully! Talk to me Scully! Damnit!
[Mulder runs out past the edge of the corn crops. He does not see Scully anywhere.]
Mulder: Scully!
[Scully runs out of the corn crops, behind Mulder.]
Scully: Mulder!
[They begin to run away from the crops, towards the car. The helicopters disappear.]
Scully: Where'd they go?
[Cut to the following day. AD Cassidy is looking at her watch waiting in the Office of Professional Review. Cut to in the hallway. Skinner is waiting and looking around. Scully comes through the door and begins to dust herself off and fix her hair. Skinner goes inside the office.]
Skinner: She’s coming inside now.
[Scully enters and sits down.]
Scully: I apologize for making you wait. I have new evidence. These are bone fragments recovered from the bomb site…
Cassidy: You went back to Dallas?
[Scully pauses for a second, then answers.]
Scully: Yes…
[Cut to Casey’s Bar. Kurtzweil is sitting in a booth eating a meal. Mulder walks up and sits down in the opposite seat of the booth.]
Kurtzweil: Did you find anything?
Mulder: Yeah.
Kurtzweil: What did it look like?
Mulder: Bees, corn crops…
[Cut back to the Office of Professional Review.]
Cassidy: …and you have conclusive evidence of this?
Scully: Well, not exactly conclusive… We’re working on gathering conclusive evidence…
[A view behind Scully shows a bee crawl out from under her collar and then crawl back out of sight.]
Cassidy: Working with who?
Scully (hesitating): …with Agent Mulder.
[Cut back to Casey’s Bar.]
Mulder: What do you think they’re for?
Kurtzweil: What do you think?
Mulder: A transportation system. The crops polygenically altered, to carry a virus.
Kurtzweil: That would be my guess.
[Kurtzweil then looks around and gets up.]
Mulder: Your guess?!
[Mulder gets up and follows Kurtzweil and begins to talk to him in front of the door to the restroom.]
Mulder: I thought you said you had answers?
Kurtzweil: Yeah, well… [pauses] I don’t them all…
Mulder (disgusted): You didn’t know my father…
Kurtzweil: Look, like I said, your father and I were old friends…
Mulder (angrily): You’ve been using me to get information for your god-damned books!
Kurtzweil: Hold you voice!
[A man exits the restroom, startling Kurtzweil. Kurtzweil leaves through the back exit. Mulder follows him into the alley.]
Mulder: Kurtzweil? Kurtzweil!
Kurtzweil: Listen, you’d be shit out of luck if it wasn’t for me. I’m putting my ass on the line…
Mulder: Your ass? I just got chased through Texas by two unmarked helicopters!
Kurtzweil: And why do you think you’re here talking to me today? These people don’t make mistakes!
[Kurtzweil walks away down the alley. Mulder looks up and sees the First Elder walk back into the building on an upper floor. Mulder re-enters the bar. Cut to Mulder’s Apartment. Mulder enters, takes off his jacket and sits down at his desk. Mulder opens his desk drawer and pulls out a scrapbook and starts to flip through it. He finds a picture of when he was younger, and sees that Kurtzweil is in the background of the picture. There is a knock on the door, and Scully opens the door and enters.]
Mulder: What's wrong?
Scully: Salt Lake City, Utah. Transfer effective immediately. I already gave Skinner my letter of resignation.
Mulder: You can't quit now Scully.
Scully: I can, Mulder. I debated whether or not to even tell you in person...
Mulder: We are close to something here. We are on the verge...
Scully: You're on the verge Mulder. Please don't do this to me.
[Mulder gets up from his chair at his desk.]
Mulder: After what you saw last night, after all you've seen, you can just walk away?
Scully: I have, I did, it's done.
Mulder: I need you on this.
Scully: You don't need me Mulder. You never have. I've just held you back. [pauses] I've got to go.
[Scully exits into the hallway. Mulder soon follows.]
Mulder: If you wanna tell yourself that so you can quit with a clear conscience, you can. But you're wrong.
Scully: Why did they assign me to you in the first place, Mulder? To debunk your work, to rein you in, to shut you down…
Mulder: But you saved me. As difficult and frustrating as it's been sometimes, your Goddamned strict rationalism and science have saved me a thousand times over. You kept me honest. You made me a whole person. I owe you everything, Scully, and you owe me nothing. I don't know if I want to do this alone... I don't even know if I can. [pauses] And if I quit now, they win.
[Scully looks at Mulder. She walks into his embrace and they hug, as they are letting go Scully pulls Mulder's head down to her and kisses his forehead. Their foreheads rest against each other. Mulder then cups Scully's face with both hands, and leans in to kiss her. As their lips are about to touch...]
Scully: Ow!
Mulder (softly): I'm sorry.
Scully: Something bit me.
[Scully reaches back into her shirt and pulls out a bee.]
Mulder: It must have gotten into your shirt.
Scully: Mulder... Something's wrong. I’m having pains … There’s a funny taste in the back of my mouth.
[Scully starts to collapse, and Mulder helps her lie down on the floor.]
Mulder: You're going into anaphylactic shock.
Scully (quietly and somewhat slowly): That's impossible. I have no allergies.
[Mulder runs into his apartment and grabs the phone. He dials 911 with the emergency button.]
Mulder (on phone): This is Special Agent Fox Mulder, I have an agent down…
[Cut to ambulance crew loading Scully onto a stretcher.]
Ambulance Crewman (to Scully): Can you hear me? Can you say your name? [pauses] She’s got constriction in the throat and larynx. Passages are open. Let’s get her in the van.
[Cut to outside the apartment complex. An ambulance is sitting there.]
Mulder: She said she had a taste in the back of her throat, but there was no pre-existing allergy to bee stings. Now, the bee that stung her may have been carrying a virus…
[The ambulance crew proceeds to load Scully in the ambulance, ignoring Mulder.]
Ambulance Crewman: Get on the radio, tell them we have a cytogenic reaction, we need to advise and administer…
[The doors of the ambulance are pulled shut.]
Mulder: What hospital are you taking her to?
[The ambulance crew shuts the door. Mulder walks around to the drivers door.]
Mulder: What hospital?!
[The ambulance driver just looks back at him. He pulls a gun and fires at Mulder's head. Mulder falls. Seconds later, another ambulance pulls up. Cut to a scene of a runway. An unmarked cargo plane sits on the runway. The ambulance pulls up, and soldiers move Scully, who is now in a temperature-controlled container into the plane. The soldiers leave, as CSM stands in the plane, watching. As the door closes, all light is diminished in the camera’s view and the screen fades out.]
[Scene begins with no visual. The Lone Gunmen can be heard in the background.]
Frohike: What are you looking at?
Langly: His charts.
Frohike: Put it down.
Langly: I'll put it down when I'm ready to put it down.
Byers: He's waking up!
[Screen fades in. The three Lone Gunmen are standing in view.]
Frohike: Mulder?
[Mulder is lying in a hospital bed, dressed in a hospital gown. A bandage is wrapped around his head.]
Mulder: Oh god. [pauses] Scarecrow, Cowardly lion… Toto.
[Mulder grimaces.]
Mulder: What happened?
Byers: You were shot at point blank range, the bullet glanced of the temporal plate.
Langly: A few centimeters to the left and we’d all be playing harps right now.
Mulder: What happened to Scully?
Frohike: Scully had a reaction to an Africanized honeybee that we found in your hallway.
[Frohike holds up a vial containing the dead bee.]
Frohike: Now, you made a 911 call. That call was intercepted.
Mulder (referring to vial): I’ve got to get that to Scully.
[Mulder starts to get up, just as Skinner enters.]
Skinner: Easy now, Mulder. Easy…
[Skinner tries to get Mulder to lie back down and rest.]
Mulder: I’ve got to find Scully.
Skinner: How far do you think you can make it out there, how far do you think they’ll let you make it, because they’ll know the second you walk out that door.
Langly: What can we do to help?
Mulder: You can strip Byers naked…
Byers: What?
Mulder: I need your clothes.
[Langly, Frohike, and Mulder, who is disguised as Byers, exit the room. The guard outside the room looks in and sees Byers lying on the hospital bed, but does not realize that it is not really Mulder. The three walk down through the hospital as Mulder makes a call on his cell phone.]
Mulder (into phone): It’s Mulder…
[Cut to Mulder running across the street. He removes his jacket. Cut to Kurtzweil going to enter Casey’s bar to meet Mulder. He opens the rear exit door and is startled to see WMM standing there.]
WMM: Dr. Kurtzweil, Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil…
[Kurtzweil turns and runs back down the alley, but a car pulls up and a man gets out. Kurtzweil stops. Cut to Mulder entering Casey’s bar. He looks for Kurtzweil, but does not see him. Mulder exits the bar through the back, and looks to the left just in time to see WMM and his driver closing the trunk of the car. WMM turns to face Mulder.]
WMM: Agent Mulder.
Mulder: Where's Kurtzweil?
WMM: He's come and gone.
Mulder: Tell me where Scully is.
[WMM holds up a small object, a pouch.]
WMM: The location of Agent Scully and the means to save her life. Please...
[The driver opens the door. Cut to show the car driving and Mulder and WMM talking inside the car. Mulder looks down at a vial of liquid and a piece of paper with coordinates.]
WMM: The vaccine must be administered within ninety-six hours, which gives you little time to reach those coordinates.
Mulder: You’re lying.
WMM: No. [pauses] But I have no means of proving otherwise. The virus is extraterrestrial. We know very little about it except that is was the original inhabitant of this planet.
Mulder (in disbelief): A virus...
WMM: What is a virus, but a colonizing force that cannot be defeated? Living in a cave, underground, until it mutates, and attacks.
Mulder: This is what you've been conspiring to conceal? A disease?
WMM: No, for God’s sake. You’ve got it all backwards. The Ebola virus, AIDS, these are just newborns on the evolutionary scale. This virus walked the planet millions of years ago.
Mulder (slightly laughing in disbelief): What do you mean walked?
WMM: Your aliens, Agent Mulder, your little green men. They arrived here millions of years ago. Those that didn't leave have been lying dormant underground since the last Ice Age, in the form of an evolved pathogen. Just waiting to be reconstituted when the alien race returns to colonize the planet. And using us as hosts. Against this we have no defense. Nothing but a weak vaccine...Do you see why it was kept a secret, Agent Mulder? Why even the best men, men like you father, could not let the truth be known? Until Dallas, we believed the virus would simply control us. That mass infection would make us a slave race. Imagine our surprise when they began to gestate.
Mulder: Why are you telling me this?
WMM: For the sake of my children. When it is known what I have told you, my life will be over.
[WMM looks at the driver.]
Mulder: Where’s Kurtzweil? [pauses and gets no response] I’d like to get out of the car now. Stop the car!
WMM: Driver…
[The car pulls into an alley. The car stops and the headlights go out. Inside, Mulder fumbles with the door but it will not open.]
WMM: The men I work for will stop at nothing to preserve their stake in the inevitable future.
[Mulder looks over at WMM and sees that he is holding a small handgun.]
WMM: I was ordered to kill Kurtzweil, and I was ordered to kill you…
[WMM suddenly shoots the driver in the back of the head. A small amount of blood lands on Mulder. Mulder is startled by the shooting.]
WMM: Trust no one, Mr. Mulder.
[WMM then opens his door and gets out of the car.]
WMM: Get out of the car.
Mulder: Why? The upholstry is already ruined…
WMM: Get out of the car!
[Mulder gets out of the car.]
WMM: You have precious little time, Mr. Mulder.
[Mulder slams the door shut angrily.]
WMM: What I've given you the alien colonists don't yet know exists. The vaccine you hold is the only defense against the virus. Its introduction into an alien environment may have the power to destroy the delicate plans we have so insidiously protected for the last 50 years.
Mulder: What do you mean, may have?
WMM: Find Agent Scully. Only then will you realize the scope and grandeur of the project. Go… [Points gun at Mulder] Go Now!
[Mulder begins to run down the alley, WMM start gets back into his car, a door slam is heard, and the car explodes, knocking Mulder to his feet. He looks down at the paper with the coordinates. Cut to a scene of a snow covered land. Caption :“Wilkes Land Anarctica – 48 hours later.” A tractor drives through the snow, driven by Mulder. Mulder drives up to the correct coordinates, as shown by his GPS tracker, but finds that the vehicle has run out of gas. He gets out and climbs up a large rock outcrop and sees domes in the snow ahead of him. He gets out his binoculars and sees vehicles pulling up to the entrance. CSM boards one of the vehicles and it drives off. Cut to Mulder running across the snow to the domes. He suddenly falls down a hole in the snow and realizes that there is an underground structure. He climbs in and gets out his flashlight. He begins to search the strange structure and realizes that it is some kind of alien ship. In many of the corridors, Mulder sees humans in pods filled with a green liquid. He comes to the end of a corridor and looks out over a large expanse. Mulder takes out his binoculars and looks below at a container that looks new and out of place. Mulder puts his flashlight away, and begins to climb down a stairwell of sorts. After a few steps, he slips and begins to lose his grip.]
Mulder: Oh shit!
[Mulder slides down the stairwell, hits the bottom of it and nearly falls off of a ledge. He climbs back up onto a nearby ledge and then walks towards the container. Upon finding this, Mulder sees that it containes Scully's clothes and her necklace. Mulder picks up the necklace and begins to search for Scully. He finds her in one of the pods and taps at the glass.]
Mulder: Scully?
[Cut to inside the base, top level. CSM enters.]
CSM: Everybody down below. We may have a security breach. If you’re not armed, arm yourselves.
[Cut back to Mulder, he runs out and takes one of the oxygen canisters off of the transport container. He uses this to partially break the glass around Scully. He then administers the vaccine that WMM had given him. A cord connected to Scully via her mouth shows that something is exiting her body. Mulder tries to remove it but the entire complex begins to shake, causing Mulder to fall backwards. Cut to the upper part of the base.]
Man: Sir, there’s a contaminant in the system.
CSM: Mulder’s got the vaccine.
[Cut to below, where Mulder is. Mulder pulls the cord out of Scully’s mouth.]
Mulder: Breathe! Can you breathe?
[Scully coughs several times. Spitting up a mucus or slimy substance.]
Scully: Cold.
Mulder: I'm going to get you out of here.
[Mulder smashes the rest of the remaining glass, and removes Scully from the pod. He dresses her in his external snow jacket and snow pants. They run, and begin to climb up the stairwell. Cut to upper level.]
Man: What’s wrong?
CSM: It’s all gone to hell. Evacuate.
Man: What about Mulder?
CSM: He’ll never make it.
[Cut to Mulder and Scully, they have just reached the top of the stairwell and are in the original hallway that Mulder entered in. Scully collapses out of exhaustion.]
Mulder: We've got to keep moving
Scully: I can't
Mulder: Yes. You can.
[Mulder picks up and carries Scully over his shoulders. He walks towards the vent that he entered the ship from.]
Mulder: Reach up and grab that vent.
[Mulder looks in front of him and sees that the gestating aliens in the pods are now awakened and are starting to try to break out of the pods.]
Mulder: Scully, grab the vent! [pauses and looks back at Scully’s face] Scully?
[Scully doesn't answer. Mulder sets her down on the floor. Realizing she has become unable to breathe, he begins CPR.]
Mulder: Breathe Scully. Breathe. BREATHE!
[Scully begins to breathe, coughs, then motions for Mulder to come closer.]
Scully (softly): I had you big time.
[Mulder lifts her up.]
Mulder: Grab the vent.
[Scully grabs the vent and pulls herself up. Mulder starts to climb up. One of the aliens breaks the pod and reaches out with its hand for Mulder. It grabs Mulder’s leg.]
Scully: Mulder!
Mulder: Keep moving, Scully!
[Mulder kicks it away and pulls himself up. They both climb through the tunnel and pull themselves up from where Mulder originally fell through the snow/ice. Mulder looks back and sees that the ice is cracking. He picks Scully up and they begin to run away. The cracking ice overtakes them, and they fall back down, but slide off of the surface of the rising ship and land on the edge of the newly formed crater. Mulder watches the spaceship as it flies overhead.]
Mulder: Scully, you have to see this.
[Scully is unable to look up and misses the spacecraft. After the spaceship leaves, Mulder passes out and Scully wakes up, rolls Mulder over onto her lap and holds him....]
[Cut to the Office of Professional Review.]
Cassidy: In light of this new narrative I am now hearing, my official report is incomplete, pending these new facts I am being asked to reconcile. Agent Scully, though there is now direct evidence that a federal agent MAY have been involved in the bombing. The other events you've laid down here are too incredible on their own, and quite frankly implausible in their connections.
Scully: What is it you find incredible?
Cassidy: Well, where would you like me to start? [pauses] So many of the events described in your report defy belief. Antarctica is a long way from Dallas, Texas, Agent Scully. I can’t possibly make the connections here. [pauses] Bees and corn crops do not fit in the rubric of Domestic Terrorism.
Scully: No, they don’t.
Cassidy: Most of what I find in here is lacking a coherent picture of ANY organization with an attributable motive. I realize that the ordeal you've endured has clearly affected you. But the holes in your account leave this panel no choice but to delete these references to our final report to the Justice Department--until which time hard evidence becomes available that would give us cause to pursue such and investigation.
[Scully gets up and places a vial containing a small honeybee on the table before A.D. Cassidy.]
Scully: I do not believe you currently have a department in the FBI qualified enough to research the evidence at hand.
[Scully leaves. Both A.D. Cassidy and A.D. Skinner look at each other, wondering a course of action. Cut to an outside shot. Mulder is sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper. He spots an article talking about how a "fatal Hanta Virus outbreak" in Dallas was contained. Seeing Scully walking towards him, he folds the paper up.]
Mulder: There's an interesting work of fiction on page 28. Mysteriously, our names were omitted. [pauses] They’re burying it, Scully. They’re just going to dig a new hole and cover it up.
Scully: I told OPR everything I know. About the virus, how it’s spread by bees and polligenic crops.
Mulder: You’re wasting your time. They’ll never believe you, not unless your story can be programmed, categorized, or easily referenced.
Scully: Then we’ll go over their heads.
Mulder (shaking his head): No. How many times have we been here, Scully? Right here, and now, after all the work that we’ve done, to be right back where we’ve started.
Scully: Mulder, this is different.
Mulder: No it isn’t. You were right to want to leave me. I’m not going to see you die for some hollow personal quest of mine. Go be a doctor. Go be a doctor while you still can.
Scully: I can’t. I won’t. Mulder, I’ll be a doctor, but my work is here with you now. That virus I was infected with, it had a cure. You held it in your hand. How many other lives can we save? [pauses] Hey…
[Scully grabs Mulder’s hand and holds it]
Scully: If I quit now, they win…
[The two begin to walk away from the camera, into the background. Cut to a shot of helicopters flying over sand dunes in the middle of a desert. Caption: “Foum Tatouine, Tunisa.” The camera pans, showing a large cornfield in the middle of the desert. On the ground, CSM walks across the sand. A worker signals that he has arrived. Strughold appears.]
Strughold: You look hot and miserable, what brings you all the way out here?
CSM: We have business to discuss.
Strughold: There are regular channels.
CSM: This concerns Mulder.
Strughold: Ah, that name. Again and again.
CSM: He's seen things he shouldn't.
Strughold: He has seen but pieces of the whole.
CSM: He is determined now, reinvested
Strughold: He is but one man. One man alone can not fight the future.
CSM: Yesterday, I received this.
[CSM hands Strughold a telegram. Strughold looks at it and drops it. He walks away. The camera pans down. The telegram reads: "X-FILES RE-OPENED. STOP. PLEASE ADVISE. STOP." The camera pans to show the entire cornfield and then fades out.]
[ROLL CREDITS]
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