SCENE 1

(Night. FLAKITA’S shack. FLAKITA, a middle-aged migrant worker is telling a story to the other women of the camp. Lot’s of voices speaking Spanish.)

FLAKITA: Quiet! Quiet, listen to me. It was a terrible thing. You’re not going to believe me, even when I tell you. Some say it is a story, a fairy tale. But I saw it. I saw it with my own eyes.

CUT TO:

SCENE 1

(FLAKITA’S story. Day.)

MIGRANT WORKERS CAMP

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CA

(Children and chickens running around small collection of rundown shacks. Large open bed truck pulls into the camp. ANGLO MAN is in back. Men begin to follow truck.)

ANGLO MAN: Quiero hombres fuertes. Rapido. Let’s go. Vamos.

(Men begin getting in the truck. A young man, ELADIO BUENTES watches. FLAKITA watches ELADIO watch. Another young man, SOLEDAD BUENTES kisses a pretty young woman, MARIA DORANTES on the cheek as she herds animals into a pen. SOLEDAD greets her in Spanish. They affectionately say something along the lines of "Take care, see you later," then SOLEDAD goes to the truck. We now see that it was MARIA that ELADIO was watching. ELADIO goes to MARIA.)

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I missed you last night, my love.

MARIA: (in Spanish, smiling) I’m not your love

SOLEDAD: (to another man in truck bed) Gracias. (He turns and sees ELADIO laughing with MARIA. SOLEDAD is jealous.)

MARIA: (in Spanish) Your brother will see us. He says I’m breaking his heart.

ELADIO: (in Spanish) Are you?

MARIA: No.

ELADIO: Si.

MARIA: No. (smiles)

(Truck drives away, SOLEDAD still jealously watching them from truck bed.

FLAKITA starts toward MARIA and ELADIO.)

MARIA: (in Spanish) No. Are you calling me a liar?

ELADIO: (flirting) Si.

FLAKITA: (in Spanish) Maria! What are you doing? The goats! The goats are escaping!

(MARIA runs after some escaped goats over a small hill. ELADIO gives FLAKITA a suspicious look, closes the gate, then follows MARIA. A VILLAGE WOMAN comes out of a shack to stand with FLAKITA.)

FLAKITA: (in Spanish) Two brothers. One woman. Trouble.

VILLAGE WOMAN: (something in Spanish)

FLAKITA: Mm hmm.

(LOUD explosion. FLAKITA screams. Bright flash of light then rain begins pouring down. FLAKITA steps inside doorway and watches. The ground and rain buckets show that the rain is yellow.)

FLAKITA: Look – the rain is strange.

(Rain stops abruptly. FLAKITA and VILLAGE WOMAN look at ground.)

FLAKITA: Look at the water - it’s yellow. (sees goats coming back over hill) Las cabras. Maria! Maria! (runs over the hill followed by the other women) Maria! Maria!

(FLAKITA finds MARIA lying dead beside a dead goat. Goat is covered in yellow fungus. MARIA’S mouth, nose, and eyes are covered also with fungus. No ELADIO.)

FLAKITA: Madre de Dios.

SCENE 2

(MULDER and SCULLY investigating area where MARIA’S body was found. Dead goat body still there, covered in flies. SCULLY holds cloth over her face as she examines it. MULDER is several paces away, his back to the goat. He is eating sunflower seeds.)

SCULLY: Mulder, this happened how long ago?

MULDER: Tres dias. Muy incredible, no?

SCULLY: Only the smell. Mulder, you brought me out here on the pretense of investigating an unexplained death. Can you tell me why we’re standing out here in the middle of a field looking at a dead goat?

MULDER: Well, according to eyewitnesses, the death we’re investigating was preceded by a Fortean event. That’s a highly unusual or infrequent meteorological phenomenon also known as a transient.

SCULLY: A transient.

MULDER: Yeah. Witnesses described a bright flash about 30 degrees off the horizon, then a hot yellow rain fell from a cloudless sky. Fortean researchers call these "liquid falls." Black and red rains are the most common, but there have also been reported cases of blue, purple and green rains.

SCULLY: Purple rain?

MULDER: Yeah. Great album. Deeply flawed movie, though.

(They begin walking toward the camp.)

SCULLY: Mulder, this "transient," as you call it, this bright flash in the sky - I assume you think it has some connection to -

MULDER: Fortean events have been linked to alien encounters, cattle mutilations, the kind of exsanguinated animal carcass you were just looking at.

SCULLY: And the victim, Maria Dorantes, did she die in a similar fashion?

MULDER: I would assume so.

SCULLY: You assume? Nobody’s examined the body?

MULDER: Nobody cares, Scully. The victim and many of the witnesses are illegal immigrants. Migrant farm workers.

MULDER: I thought it might be important to talk to them. Before they migrated.

(They walk into camp. SCULLY opens one of the shack’s doors. All the residents run, fearing that MULDER and SCULLY are the Immigration Police.)

FLAKITA: La Migra! La Migra!

MULDER: No La Migra! No La Migra!

(Pandemonium, people running. Mulder and Scully try to convince them they are not Immigration.)

SCULLY: No La Migra, no La Migra.

MULDER: No La Migra.

SCULLY: (showing badge) La FBI, no La Migra. (MULDER pushes her hand down to hide her badge.)

MULDER: It’s all right. We don’t want to take anybody away. Relax. No, it’s okay. Tranquile.

FLAKITA: What do you want?

MULDER: We want to know what happened to Maria Dorantes. (FLAKITA does not answer.) Does anybody know what happened to Maria Dorantes? Did anybody see anything?

FLAKITA: El Chupacabra. That’s what happened to Maria Dorantes.

SCULLY: El Chupacabra?

MULDER: (to SCULLY) Yeah, its a Mexican folktale. El Chupacabra, the goatsucker. It’s a small gray creature with a big head and a small body and big black bulging eyes.

FLAKITA: Si! Si! Si. Light. Then rain. Then La Chupacabra. He comes and eats away Maria’s eyes and face.

MULDER: (After a look to SCULLY) Did you see the Chupacabra?

FLAKITA: No. But everyone here knows that this is the truth.

(SCULLY looks skeptical.)

SOLEDAD: This woman’s a liar! There is no Chupacabra. The Chupacabra is nothing but a story told to children. I know the killer of Maria Dorantes.

SCULLY: Who would that be, sir?

SOLEDAD: It’s my brother, Eladio Buente. He killed Maria because she loved only me.

MULDER: Uh, how do you explain the uh, the yellow rain and the dead goat over the hill?

SOLEDAD: It’s a trick for fools who believe in fools’ superstitions.

SCULLY: (look to MULDER) Thank you, Mr. Buente. You’ve been very helpful.

(MULDER and SCULLY walk away from the camp.)

SCULLY: (softly, only MULDER can hear) Maria ... Maria ... I just met a girl named Maria.

MULDER: I doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, Scully.

SCULLY: It makes perfect sense, Mulder. Admit it. You fell for it. Your "Fortean Event" turned out to be nothing more than the oldest story in the world. Two men. One woman. Trouble.

MULDER: I admit, there’s a strong suspicion of motive and intent - but the amount of detail, the description of that Chupacabra ...

SCULLY: Mulder, what we’ve walked into here is a Mexican soap opera, and one for the local cops.

MULDER: Local cops don’t care, Scully. I don’t know who does.

(They look back at squalid camp.)

SCULLY: Okay, I care, but what are we supposed to do about it?

MULDER: Find out what killed Maria Dorantes. Take a look at her body.

SCULLY: While you do what?

MULDER: Try to find this man, Eladio Buente.

(SCULLY sighs as MULDER leaves.)

SCENE 3

INS SERVICE PROCESSING CENTER

FRESNO, CA

MULDER: (entering LOZANO’S office holding badge) Agent Lozano? I’m Special Agent Mulder. I’m with the FBI.

(LOZANO is American, but of Mexican descent.)

LOZANO: The FBI? Here?

MULDER: We’re investigating the death of a migrant worker.

LAZANO: Really?

MULDER: I’m looking for a man named Eladio Buente. He hasn’t been seen for three days and he’s not in police custody. I thought he might be in INS custody.

LOZANO: He might. (Offers seat to MULDER, takes down a file and opens it.) Let’s see. Okay! We have a Jose Feliciano. We have Juan Valdez, we have Cesar Chavez, we have Placido Domingo here. (MULDER smiles.) But I don’t see any Eladio Buente

MULDER: So you are telling me that no one here uses their real name.

LOZANO: What is this man wanted for?

MULDER: Possibly the murder of a woman named Maria Dorantes.

LOZANO: (disbelief and disgust) Oh, man. The Chupacabra?

MULDER: Yeah. You’ve heard of it. You don’t believe in it?

LOZANO: I believe these people. But their lives are small. So they have to make these fantasies just to keep on going - to feel alive. Because they are strangers here. They feel hated, unwanted. Whenever their passions become inflamed, they resort to violence. And then they cannot turn to the law, so they make up these fantastic tales. Call it anything you want, but this is an age old story.

MULDER: I’ve heard that.

LAZANO: Well, let’s see if we can find your Eladio Buente. (They get up.)

SCENE 4

FRESNO COUNTY MORGUE

(SCULLY enters. CORONER is working on a body.)

SCULLY: Excuse me? Excuse me?

CORONER: (not wanting to help) Can I help you?

SCULLY: I’m Agent Dana Scully with the FBI. (shows badge) I’m investigating the death of a migrant worker.

CORONER: Juan or Juanita?

SCULLY: I’m sorry?

CORONER: Doe. A man or a woman?

SCULLY: Uh, a woman named Maria Dorantes. I need to determine a cause of death in order to close out an investigation.

CORONER: Oh, it sounds vaguely familiar, but I don’t think I’ve been able to get to her, yet.

SCULLY: Well, I’m a medical doctor. If you show me the body I can examine it myself.

CORONER: It’s in the fridge. (nods her head to the side)

SCULLY: (referring to the body being autopsied) I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

(CORONER looks up.)

CUT TO:

(SCULLY unzipping white body bag.)

CORONER: That’s her.

(SCULLY opens bag. Body is completely covered in fungus.)

CORONER: Oh, my God.

(SCULLY surprised.)

SCENE 5

(INS holding cells area. MULDER and LOZANO approach a cell.)

LOZANO This must be him.

(ELADIO sits in cell looking very lonely.)

MULDER: Why is he segregated like this?

LOZANO: (to a guard) Por que lo tiene segregado?

GUARD: Los otros detenidos lo molesteban mucho. Ninguno se la aserga a el. La tienen un miedo terrible.

LOZANO: (to Mulder) He said that the other detainees were giving him a hard time. Causing trouble. They don’t want to go near him.

MULDER: They think he’s the Chupacabra.

LOZANO: That may be, but I will tell you with a tremendous degree of certainty this guy is not Erik Estrada.

(MULDER SMILES. THEY LOOK AT HIS FOLDER: ERIK ESTRADA, HISP, M, 6-0, 190, CALIF, USA)

LOZANO: (knock on door) Buente!

(ELADIO stands.)

LOZANO: El fbi. Quieren hacerte unas pregunttas.

MULDER: Ask him if he killed Maria Dorantes.

LOZANO: Quiere sabar si mataste a Maria Dorantes?

ELADIO: No! No lo hice! Soy innocente! (shouts) No soy asesino!

MULDER: What did he say?

LOZANO: "I didn’t do it."

MULDER: Ask him what happened.

LOZANO: Que fue lo que paso?

ELADIO: Huvo un ruido cumo un relampago muy cerca ...

LOZANO: "There was a noise like thunder, but very close .."

ELADIO: ...un rayo muy brilliante ..(continues in Spanish)

LOZANO: "...and then there was lightening, very bright. It blinded me. I fell to the ground, and then I felt the hot rain fall on me. And when I finally could open my eyes and see ..."

(ELADIO crying now, very passionately telling the story.)

LOZANO: (not passionately translating) "...I saw the dead goat. And then I saw Maria ... Maria. She called my name ... once. She was lying in a puddle of yellow rain. Something had eaten at her face. Then I held her in my arms. Then she died. And then I got up, and I ran, screaming.

ELADIO: (screams) Soy innocente!

LOZANO: This guy’s *better* than Erik Estrada.

MULDER: Hmm.

(Later, detainees are being loaded onto bus. When they try to put ELADIO on all the others start yelling "Chupacabra," terrified. MULDER watches.)

MULDER: What’s going to happen to him?

LOZANO: He’ll get his 45 seconds before the judge, and he’ll be placed on a south bound bus.

MULDER: There any way to delay that?

LOZANO: Why would you want to do that?

MULDER: Try to solve an unexplained death.

LOZANO: I would think the FBI’s got better things to do. (MULDER has no answer.) File your paperwork. By the time they process it, he’ll probably be back here, anyway.

(MULDER watches the guards put ELADIO up front with the driver. SCULLY drives up and beeps the horn.)

SCULLY: Did you find Eladio Buente?

MULDER: Yeah, I found him.

SCULLY: Did he confess to the murder of Maria Dorantes?

MULDER: Not exactly, no.

SCENE 6

(SCULLY and MULDER driving, short time later.)

SCULLY: Did he tell you what happened?

MULDER: Flash of light ... yellow rain .. Maria! (yells) Maria!

(SCULLY gives him the "Maybe you are really insane, Mulder" look. MULDER shrugs.)

SCULLY: He didn’t kill her, Mulder. I examined the body of Maria Dorantes, and I believe that her cause of death was natural, albeit strange. She seems to have succumb to a massive fungal infection.

MULDER: A fungus?

SCULLY: Aspergillis, according to the coroner. It’s a mold that's found in dead leaves, compost, even household dust.

MULDER: And it can kill?

SCULLY: Not normally. It’s actually very common and quite harmless.

MULDER: You don’t think that’s weird.

SCULLY: Well, aspergillis can be lethal to people with immunodeficiencies like AIDS patients and ah, transplant recipients. And I found high levels of methyl bromide in her blood workup. It’s a - a pesticide that’s used for soil sterilization. Highly toxic. Now I think that her body was so ravaged by pesticides that a normally benign fungus may have compromised her whole immune system.

MULDER: It still doesn’t explain the flash of light and the yellow rain. And El Chupacabra.

SCULLY: Mulder, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think the aliens in this story are not the villains. They’re the victims.

(MULDER starts to say something, then nods at her. They see the bus that the detainees had been placed on. It has run off the road, and the detainees a running away across an open field.)

SCULLY: Look at that.

(They stop and go to investigate. MULDER watches the detainees leave.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

(The driver is dead and covered in fungus.)

SCENE 7

CRIME SCENE

(INS bus is now a crime scene. Lots of officers around. Night. SCULLY, paper mask over her face, removes some of the fungus off the dead driver and places it in a specimen jar.)

MULDER: What does it look like?

SCULLY: It appears this man died of systemic shock. Brought on by what appears to be another massive fungal infection

MULDER: The same fungus that killed Maria Dorantes?

SCULLY: No. It looks dissimilar. I don’t know what this is. But its speed and its aggressiveness are frightening. The infection’s covered 90 percent of his body, Mulder, through both layers of skin.

MULDER: (to LOZANO, who is looking at the driver) Did you find him?

LOZANO: We were able to round up most of the people who escaped from this vehicle but Eladio Buente wasn’t among them.

SCULLY: No one knows where he ran?

(LOAZANO looks at MULDER.)

MULDER: Agent Lozano, this is my partner, Agent Scully.

LOZANO: (touches his hat to SCULLY) They all ran the other way, away from the Chupacabra. The man they say is responsible for this tragedy.

SCULLY: Eladio Buente didn’t kill this man. He didn’t kill anybody.

MULDER: I’m not so sure about that, Scully. (SCULLY gives him a "what?!" look.)

SCULLY: Mulder, this is the work of a pathogen of - of some kind of a highly virulent strain.

MULDER: I’m not questioning that, but right now Eladio Buente is the only connection we have to this death and to the death of Maria Dorantes, which is why I need you to spare any manpower you can to try to find him.

LOZANO: Manpower? We don’t have the resources to go chasing after one poor illegal.

SCULLY: Mulder, whatever you hope to learn by finding this man we have to first make a definitive classification of the fungi taken from the victims. I need to isolate it and I need to get a sample of it to a mycologist as quickly as possible.

MULDER: Good. You should do that. While Agent Lozano and I try to find El Chupacabra.

(LOZANO nods to SCULLY as he and MULDER leave. SCULLY rolls her eyes.)

SCENE 8

BARBER’S SHOP

(Television shows Mexican soap opera. Passionate argumentative scene between a man and woman. ELADIO enters. BARBER looks up.)

ELADIO: Senor?

BARBER: What do you want?

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I need to go back to Mexico.

BARBER: You want to go back? Estas loco?

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I know you have a truck – the one that brought me here.

BARBER: We haul mucho basura with that truck. What makes you think we haul it back?

ELADIO: (in Spanish) Your driver must go back to the border. I need him to take me. (beginning to cry) I’ll pay you.

BARBER: (in Spanish) Give me money.

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I have no money now, but I’ll give it to you when I return to Mexico.

BARBER: How long have you been in this country? Ni credito! Ni caridad. Equi es America, you dumb wet.

ELADIO: (in Spanish) Please, I’ll get the money. I must leave here.

(On television, the two actors kiss passionately.)

BARBER: Truck stop at dusk. No dinero, no ride. Comprende?

ELADIO: Si. Dinero.

BARBER: Dinero.

(ELADIO leaves.)

SCENE 9

STREET CORNER

(A pickup truck pulls up to a group of Mexican men all clamoring for attention. Three men get in the truck bed and it pulls away. ELADIO approaches. CULVER, a construction foreman pulls up in a pickup with a camper over the bed.)

CULVER: Construction. I need two construction workers. Dos! Okay, you two in the back.

Let’s go.

(CULVER gets out to let two men in to the back. ELADIO is sitting in truck bed.)

CULVER: I only need two, amigo. Dos. Hey, out of the truck. I got work to do. (Grabs ELADIO’S arm. ELADIO stays put. Other two men begin walking away.) Hey, where are you going?

(Shakes his head, and closes camper.)

CULVER: You’ll have to do.

SCENE 10

MYCOLOGY LAB

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO

(Science lab. STEEN, a mycologist looking at spores under a microscope with SCULLY.)

STEEN: What you’re looking at, Agent Scully, is the most ubiquitous fungal spore known to mankind - dermatophytosis.

SCULLY: Athlete’s foot?

STEEN: One of the survivors of countless extermination efforts. Historically underrated. And unfairly overshadowed by the ever-popular cockroach.

SCULLY: But our body has natural defenses against this kind of invasion. I mean, even in the absence of an immunoresponse a fungi like this one or like the aspergillis sample that I gave you, don’t they need the right environment to multiply?

STEEN: Yes, unless they have help. (Gets a vial of yellow fluid out of the refrigerator.)

SCULLY: What’s this?

STEEN: It’s an enzyme I isolated from both your specimens, but that’s about all I can tell you.

It’s unlike any enzyme I’ve ever seen.

SCULLY: So it’s not the fungi, but the enzyme that kills.

STEEN: Acting as a catalyst. As an accelerant. Let me show you. (gets petri dish) This is pucchinia graminis. Black stain rust. It’s been the cause of a fairly containable crop blight here in the Valley. Now---

(He places two drops of the enzyme in the dish causing the fungus to quickly expand and overflow.)

SCULLY: Oh, my God.

STEEN: I must say if this were to get out into the environment, dermatophytosis might give the cockroach a run for its money. Hmm?

SCENE 11

STREET CORNER

(LOZANO is questioning some men. MULDER looks at graffiti of a typical alien head with caption - EL CHUPACABRA VIVE!)

LOZANO: (finishing with men, getting CULVER’S name) Gracias. (to Mulder) He was here, all right. They say he got into the truck a foreman named Culver.

MULDER: (pointing to graffiti) The story’s out.

LOZANO: Oh, yeah. I told you. These people love their stories. It’s the one thing that keeps them from going mad when they’re out there standing on the street corner all day waiting for work.

MULDER: So they really don’t think he’s the Chupacabra?

LOZANO: No. They’re certain of it.

MULDER: Did you tell them about the fungal infection?

LOZANO: Yeah, they wouldn’t listen. They’re only interested in what will become of Eladio Buente.

MULDER: What will become of him?

LOZANO: When his brother finds him?

MULDER: He’ll kill him

LOZANO: Yes, probably. A man cannot live with vengeance in his heart.

MULDER: So we got to find him first.

LOZANO: (grabs MULDER’S arm) My mother used to say that blood should be left to cleanse itself. God curses the man who stands between two brothers.

MULDER: Well, in this case, he’ll curse the man who doesn’t.

SCENE 12

CONSTRUCTION SITE

(ELADIO working alone. He holds his stomach as if he doesn’t feel well.)

ELADIO: Senor? Senor? Jefe? Senor Culver?

(ELADIO wipes his face. His sweat is the same color as the enzyme back in the lab.)

ELDAIO: Jefe? Hey, Jefe?

(ELADIO goes to water cooler and washes his face.)

SOLEDAD: (voice) Eladio Buente! (SOLEDAD picks up a length of metal pipe) Eladio?

(Fungus is now growing on the spigot of the water cooler. No sign of ELADIO. Door to port-a-potty swings slightly open.)

SOLEDAD: Eladio Buente. (in Spanish) Come out of there! Come out like a man so I can split open your face, bastard.

(No response. SOLEDAD opens door of port-a-potty and sees dead CULVER, covered in fungus. Truck engine starts, and ELADIO after almost running into SOLEDAD, drives away. SOLEDAD is very upset.)

SOLEDAD: Assesino!

SCENE 13

MEADOWVIEW ESTATES

UPPER FRESNO COUNTY

(Upper-middle-class neighborhood. GABRIELLE BUENTE is cleaning a house. ELADIO calls to her.)

ELADIO: Gabrielle! Gabrielle!

(GABRIELLE nervously points for him to come to the back door.)

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish, whispering) What are you doing here, Eladio

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I’m going to Mexico. Come with me, Gabrielle.

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish) Have you lost your mind? Do you want me to lose my job?

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I’m very afraid. My brother wants to kill me for something I didn’t do.

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish) They say that you are the Chupacabra, and that you killed Maria Dorantes and many more.

ELADIO: (in Spanish, crying) Gabrielle, I’m not a killer.

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish) Quiet! The lady of the house will hear us.

ELADIO: (in Spanish) I need your help. I need money.

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish, resigned) My job at the market pays me tonight.

ELADIO: (in Spanish) Gabrielle, I can’t wait. (he runs away)

GABRIELLE: Eladio!

SCENE 14

MYCOLOGY LAB

(SCULLY on cell phone to MULDER.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it’s me.

MULDER: (voice) Hey, Scully. Where are you?

SCULLY: (on phone) I’m at the state university bio department. Mulder, listen to me. I think you’re right. I think Eladio Buente is responsible for those two deaths.

MULDER: (voice) Responsible, how?

SCULLY: (on phone) By spreading an enzyme produced by what appears to be a new strain of conidial fungi.

MULDER: (voice) How’s he spreading it?

SCULLY: (on phone) My guess is by touch.

MULDER: (voice) I saw this man, Scully. He was unaffected.

SCULLY: (on phone) He could be just a carrier, then – a kind of Typhoid Mary.

CUT TO: MULDER at construction site.

MULDER: (on phone) You’re saying it’s a new strain?

SCULLY: (voice) Yes. Mulder, it’s extremely important that you not come into direct contact with this fungus. You must not inhale it, you must not touch it ...

(LOZANO opens port-a-potty, MULDER stops him.)

MULDER: Lozano, careful. (on phone) Scully, I’ve been thinking. I know that’s dangerous, but just bear with me. These Fortean transients that the women described? They could have been caused by an object falling at a high rate of speed through the atmosphere creating a sonic boom and a flash of light. What astronomers call a bollide.

SCULLY: (on phone) A bollide?

MULDER: (on phone) Created by a meteorite or a piece of extraplanetary material - of which two thousand tons falls to the Earth every day. Now - now this yellow rain. Space debris could have fallen into a nearby lake superheating the water and sending it skyward. Which would mean this is

alien.

(LOZANO looks at him like he’s crazy.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I think this is beside the point, right now.

MULDER: (on phone) Oh, and the fungus ...

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, let me work on the fungus, okay? What you need to do is to find the man who might be spreading it.

MULDER: (on phone, reluctantly obeying) Kay. (hangs up)

LOZANO: So. You’ve got your own "stories" too, huh?

(MULDER smiles, nods, and laughs at himself. Large car pulls up)

LOZANO: Hey, it’s El Barbera.

BARBER: Hey, Lozano. I hear you’re looking for the Chupacabra. For a modest fee, I can tell you where he might be found.

(LOZANO and MULDER approach the car.)

SCENE 15

TRUCK STOP

(MULDER and LOZANO are tailing ELADIO among the tractor trailers. ELADIO is coughing, appears very sick.)

MULDER: Eladio! (ELADIO runs, followed by MULDER and LOZANO. To LOZANO)

Don’t touch him.

(ELADIO runs through a crowd of frightened immigrants, then rolls between the wheels of a moving truck. MULDER, for once, is not stupid enough to follow.)

MULDER: I lost him!

(As a convoy of trucks roll by, we see Eladio lying in the bed of a truck filled with goats. MULDER raises his hands in defeat.)

SCENE 16

HIGHWAY 99

FRESNO COUNTY

(Night. Crime scene. MULDER and SCULLY open the back of the truck that contained the goats. They are all dead and fungused.)

MULDER: (disgusted) Uh!

SCULLY: More goats.

(THEY walk back to the police cars.)

MULDER: Agent Lozano! How does this man keep eluding us?

LOZANO: These people are invisible. You look at them and you don’t see them. They’re just workers - cheap labor to pick crops and clean houses. To most people they are aliens in the true sense of the word.

(Gets FLAKITA out of a car.)

FLAKITA: Ay, Chupacabra! (Spanish, she is frightened as she sees the goats.)

LOZANO: It’s okay. Calm down, calm down.

FLAKITA: Can a man do this? Can Eladio Buente do this? Eladio, he went to his cousin, Gabrielle’s house asking for money.

LOZANO: When?

FLAKITA: Today! He say he kill nobody. But Soledad, he went to Gabrielle’s house trying to kill Eladio.

LOZANO: Calm down.

SCENE 17

GABRIELLE’S APARTMENT

(Knock at door)

GABRIELLE: Quien es?

LOZANO: (outside door) Gabrielle Buente. This is Agent Lozano, INS.

(GABRIELLE looks to the side. Closed Captioning has SOLEDAD say : Don’t tell him I’m here. She opens door. LOZANO enters and grabs her arm.)

LOZANO: Where is he?

GABRIELLE: Que?

(MULDER and SCULLY enter.)

LOZANO: Don’t give me your "que." You know who. Where is he? Eladio.

GABRIELLE: (crying) He is not here, please. I would not let Eladio Buente in here. Please, you must believe me.

SCULLY: Maybe you should check the back.

(LOZANO lets her go and goes to the back.)

MULDER: What about his brother, Soledad?

GABRIELLE: (not looking at MULDER) No. He is not here! No one is here! I am alone!

MULDER: Have you seen either of them?

GABRIELLE: Si. But I am afraid. Because of what they say about Eladio. About El Chupacabra.

SCULLY: There is no El Chupacabra, Gabrielle. Eladio is a very sick man. If he comes here, you must not let him in. If he comes to this door you must call the police. Do you understand?

LOZANO: (reentering) There’s nobody. I’m going to be watching you, Chiquita. Every move. Comprendes?

GABRIELLE: Si.

(They leave, GABRIELLE closes the door.)

(Outside, later, SCULLY gets into truck with LOZANO. MULDER closes passenger door.)

MULDER: I think we should hold up a moment.

SCULLY: For what?

MULDER: Something’s going on here.

SCENE 18

LA RANCHERA MARKET

DOWNTOWN FRESNO

(Supermarket where GABRIELLE works. ELADIO enters, very sick now, open sores on his forehead. Shoppers look at him with disgust. He goes to a self serve nut and candy display and begins hungrily devouring cashews. A CLERK sees him.)

STORE CLERK: Hey, Jose! This ain’t no restaurant! You know you have to pay for all that!

(ELADIO collapses, taking the display with him, then runs.)

STORE CLERK: Hey what are you doing? Come back here! Hey, you have to clean that up!

(ELADIO is gone. STORE CLERK picks up one of the fallen nuts, now covered with fungus.)

SCENE 19

OUTSIDE GABRIELLE’S APARTMENT BUILDING

(SOLEDAD exits building. MULDER is sitting in back seat of truck, LOZANO and SCULLY up front.)

MULDER: That’s our man.

SCULLY: Eladio Buente?

LOZANO: No. That’s his brother - Soledad.

(SOLEDAD get into his car and drives away. The agents follow.)

SCENE 20

OUTSIDE GROCERY STORE

(Pay phone rings. ELADIO enters and answers it.)

ELADIO: (on phone) Bueno.

GABRIELLE: (on phone) Eladio?

ELADIO: (on phone) Si, Gabrielle. (in Spanish) Where are you? (crying) Why didn’t you come to work?

GABRIELLE: (on phone, in Spanish) Listen to me, Eladio. Soledad - I could only lie to him so long. Eladio? (phone in booth dangles, ELADIO is gone) Eladio!?

(SOLEDAD drives up and enters store looking for Eladio. Agents enter the store.)

LOZANO: Soledad Buente! Stop, stop! (All draw guns, quickly.)

SCULLY: Drop your weapon!

MULDER: Drop the gun!

SCULLY: Drop it!

LOZANO: Fuetala!

SCULLY: Put it down! Now!

MULDER: Apurate! Drop it!

LOZANO: Fuetala!

SOLEDAD: (in Spanish) I only want vengeance. My own brother killed my Maria. (crying) I want the revenge of brother against brother. (drops gun to his side) I must avenge her death. (he falls to ground, Agents run to him. He holds his hands behind him to be cuffed. SCULLY picks up his gun.) Solo quiero vengarme, pues!

LOZANO: (Reads Miranda to SOLEDAD in Spanish.)

SOLEDAD: (yells) Eladio!

LOZANO: Quiet, loco!

SOLEDAD: (something Spanish, loud)

SCULLY: (seeing something) Mulder.

MULDER: He’s been here.

(LOZANO also looks. The nut and candy display has been completely covered with fungus as has the dead STORE CLERK lying beside it. Eeewww.)

SCENE 21

GABRIELLE’S APARTMENT BUILDING

(ELADIO staggers down hall to GABRIELLE’S door. Hall light flickers. He knocks.)

GABRIELLE: Quien es?

ELADIO: Eladio.

GABRIELLE: Eladio? (opens door) (in Spanish) What’s wrong? What happened to you?

(The shape of ELADIO’S head has changed.)

GABRIELLE: (as he tries to enter, she backs up) No.

ELADIO: What are you afraid of?

GABRIELLE: Look! Look at your face!

(ELADIO looks in mirror. His head is oddly shaped and he looks a bit fungal.)

GABRIELLE: You are what they say you are.

ELADIO: No.

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish) You killed Maria Dorantes!

ELADIO: (bringing hands to face in horror) No!

GABRIELLE: (in Spanish) You are the Chupacabra.

ELADIO: (Screams) Nooooo! Nooooooooooo!

SCENE 22

GABRIELLE’S APARTMENT

(Later. MULDER, SCULLY, and LOZANO bust in, guns drawn.)

MULDER: Eladio? Eladio Buente?

GABRIELLE: (crying) He’s not here. He’s gone.

SCULLY: Gone where?

GABRIELLE: To Mexico. Where he can hide his terrible face.

MULDER: How’s he going to get to Mexico?

GABRIELLE: I gave him all my money!

SCULLY: You gave him your money?

GABRIELLE: Yes! Because I was afraid. I was afraid that the Chupacabra would kill me, too!

(MULDER and SCULLY look exasperated.)

LOZANO: What can I say?

MULDER: How are we going to find this man?

LOZANO: Good luck. I’m gonna go process the brother. (He leaves.)

SCENE 23

OUTSIDE

(MULDER and SCULLY get in their car, MULDER drives.)

SCULLY: You know, what she said about Eladio Buente, about his face ...

MULDER: I don’t know what to believe anymore, Scully. These people sure love their stories.

SCULLY: Mulder, he could be anywhere right now. If - if he were to enter a metropolitan area with what he’s carrying ...

MULDER: He won’t.

SCULLY: If he’s going to Mexico ...

MULDER: (having a Mulder leap of logic moment) She’s lying. If this man really thinks he killed Maria Dorantes, he won’t be going to Mexico.

SCULLY: Then where is he going?

MULDER: The same place Agent Lozano and Eladio’s brother are going. He’s going to face his brother.

SCULLY: I don’t understand.

MULDER: God curses the man who stands between two brothers. Get on your cell phone and have a haz-mat team assembled. (Starts car.)

SCENE 24

MIGRANT CAMP

(FLAKITA, sitting before some candles in her shack rises at the sound of a car. She sees LOZANO standing and yelling in the middle of the camp.)

LOZANO: Eladio Buente! Come on out! Be a man and face your brother!

FLAKITA: Madre de Dios.

(ELADIO bursts out of shack and runs over the hill from the beginning.)

FLAKITA: Eladio, NOOOOOO!

(LOZANO and SOLEDAD pursue. We hear arguing, someone saying no no no no ! and then a gunshot. FLAKITA comes out to find LOZANO dead, fungus forming around his eyes and mouth.)

FLAKITA: Y me dicho la Chupacabra. (and some more Spanish)

(FLAKITA looks up to see a very bright light and sees very strange humanoid figures coming over the hill. FLAKITA runs back inside.)

FLAKITA: (voice, telling story from beginning) They came from the sky, more Chupacabras.

CUT TO:

(Present, telling story in her shack)

FLAKITA: Coming to save Eladio. I slammed the door and prayed that they would not come to kill me, too.

VILLAGE GIRL: What will happen to Soledad.

FLAKITA: He was taken up by a Chupacabra. He will suffer for his treachery. He is made to suck the blood of only the sick and dying goats when the Chupacabra comes to feed.

VILLAGE GIRL 2: That is not what Gabrille says.

FLAKITA: What does Gabrielle know?! I was there! I saw it with my own eyes.

VILLAGE GIRL: Gabrielle says she lied to La FBI, so that her cousin, Eladio, might live. But La Migra Lozano knew that Soledad could not live with vengeance in his heart.

CUT TO:

(GABRIELLE’S version.)

LOZANO: (fires gun over his head, ELADIO stops) Alto! Turn around and face the man whose love you killed!

SOLEDAD: You killed Maria! Because she wouldn’t love you! Because her heart belongs to only one man! (Grabs LOZANO’S gun and aims at ELADIO.) Don’t make me shoot you in the back, Eladio! Turn! See my tears! Turn around like a man!

ELADIO: No. (in Spanish) I am not a man! (he turns revealing his face which is worse) I am the Chupacabra!

CUT TO:

(Graffiti wall. GABRIELLE pucks up narrative, telling story to a group of men.)

GABRIELLE: "Shoot! Shoot!" La Migra shouted. But Soledad began to cry. "No! No!" cried Soledad. I cannot shoot my brother! He is my brother! My flesh, my blood."

CUT TO:

LOZANO: Shoot him! He’s El Chupacabra!

GABRIELLE: (voice)...shouted La Migra.

(SOLEDAD struggles to shoot.)

LOZANO: We cannot let him go!

CUT TO:

GABRIELLE: "He is the goat-sucker and he must be killed!" But Soledad, he could not kill Eladio because he knew I would never forgive him.

MEN: Que paso? Que paso? (What happened?)

CUT TO:

LOZANO: Cobarde! (grabs for his gun)

SOLEDAD: No! No!

CUT TO:

GABRIELLE: (passionately) La Migra Lozano tried to pull the gun from Soledad’s hand, calling him a coward. "No!" cried Soledad. "He is my brother!" And the gun went off. Bang! Bang! And La Migra Lozano fell dead.

MEN: Ah, esta buena! (That’s great!)

GABRIELLE: Pero, no! La Migra Lozano brought Soledad to kill Eladio so he would not be cursed. So God cursed Soledad for his treachery and turned him into El Chupacabra - like his brother.

MAN: (in Spanish) Have you seen him? Your cousin?

GABRIELLE: No. Together, they run. To Mexico.

(Camera pans to wall of graffiti. Bald alien head fades into ...Skinner!)

SKINNER: (voice) El Chupacabra?

SCENE 25

SKINNER’S OFFICE

SCULLY: Yes, sir.

SKINNER: Frankly, I’m confused by this story.

MULDER: I don’t blame you.

SCULLY: We can’t exactly explain it ourselves, sir.

MULDER: At any rate, we arrived just after the haz-mat team ...

CUT TO:

(MULDER’S version, haz-mat guys are in place of FLAKITA’S Chupacabras. FLAKITA runs away frightened.)

MULDER: (voice) They established a perimeter, then secured the area. An eyewitness was found, but her testimony was questionable.

(MULDER and SCULLY arrive at the site as team brings in a body container.)

SCULLY: (voice) The Haz-mat team were able to contain the fungal infection within the migrant camp. No other casualties were reported. And we found no other traces of the accelerating enzyme.

MULDER: (voice) Except on the body of Agent Lozano. We found him dead at the scene with a bullet wound to the chest.

CUT TO:

SCULLY: And the fungal infection already starting to eat away at him.

SKINNER: What happened to the brothers?

SCULLY: They were nowhere to be found. Lozano’s revolver turned up ten miles away near the car of a man known locally as El Barbera.

CUT TO:

(BARBER’S car, gun lying next to it, SCULLY shines flashlight in car. BARBER dead inside, covered in fungus.)

MULDER: (voice) Apparently, the brothers paid this man for a ride to Mexico, but they didn’t get very far.

CUT TO:

SKINNER: So these men are still at large, carrying a highly contagious ... fungus, that can kill a man in his tracks?

SCULLY: It’s not a fungus, sir. Actually, it’s an enzyme to which the brothers had an abnormal tolerance, and which came from what I believe to be an anti-enzyme gene.

SKINNER: And this enzyme came from where?

MULDER: Outer space, sir.

SKINNER: (Sighs) So this is the story you’re asking me to report? You would think that with the resources we have we’d be able to find these men. I’m not hearing a good explanation of why this hasn’t happened.

SCULLY: Well, sir, they, um...They have a way of being almost invisible.

SCENE 26

NIGHT

(Lonely road in Mexico. SOLEDAD and ELADIO BUENTE, the Chupacabras, are hitchhiking. No one stops.)

MULDER: (voice) The truth is, nobody cares.

[THE END]