Forever Dreaming
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8x14 - This is not happening
https://foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=174&t=10856		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  bunniefuu [ 04/06/14 09:55 ]
Post subject:  8x14 - This is not happening
"This Is Not Happening" ~8x14~

SCENE 1

HELENA, MONTANA

12:58 PM

(Night. Rural area. Fog and dust suddenly blow along the highway. There is a bright white circular light in the sky moving rapidly. A young man, RICHIE SZALAY, who we last saw in 7X22 Requiem, is driving an older model car very quickly after the light. He has a cheap disposable camera that he holds up with one hand through the sunroof. He is very excited as he snaps a picture.)

RICHIE SZALAY: Bogey at 12 o'clock. Whoo! Gotcha.

(He speaks into a handheld tape recorder. He is very excited.)

RICHIE SZALAY: I have engagement of unidentified flying object on Fanning Ranch Road westbound moving like a bat out of hell.

(He looks out the window as the light swerves and turns.)

RICHIE SZALAY: 90-degree, low altitude, max-g redirect. Absolutely impossible.

(The light slows down over a field, and RICHIE SZALAY stops the car and gets out. He looks up at the spaceship in awe, speechless at the sight of the light.)

RICHIE SZALAY: Uh... I'm...

(He fumbles for his camera and tries to take a picture, but the camera doesn't work. He realizes why.)

RICHIE SZALAY: Oh, you idiot.

(Frantically, he advances the film, but in that time the ship sinks below the hill a few yards away.)

RICHIE SZALAY: Oh, this is not happening.

(Light coming from behind the hill is eerily similar to what MULDER and SCULLY saw in the Pilot episode. Camera ready, RICHIE SZALAY runs to the top of the hill, but as he gets there, the ship nears the ground and then disappears.)

RICHIE SZALAY: This is not happening! (kicks the ground) Shoot!

(He sees a WHITE-HAIRED MAN standing in the field below the hill.)

RICHIE SZALAY: (yelling) Hey! Hey!

(The WHITE-HAIRED MAN begins running. RICHIE SZALAY runs after him.)

RICHIE SZALAY: I come in peace.

(RICHIE SZALAY trips and falls. He looks back in horror at what tripped him.)

RICHIE SZALAY: (weakly) This is not happening.

(We see that he tripped over a human body. We can't see the face, but dark hair curls against the person's face. The person is not moving.)

SCENE 2

(X-Files office. DOGGETT is alone. He opens MULDER's desk drawer and takes out the "Fox Mulder" nameplate and contemplates it. He quickly puts it away again when he hears someone coming down the hall. SCULLY enters. She seems a little breathless.)

SCULLY: Hi.

DOGGETT: Hi.

SCULLY: You said on the phone you'd received something urgent.

DOGGETT: You're right, I did. And I think it's really important you got right down here, Agent Scully. Thanks.

(SCULLY looks at him, nervous.)

SCULLY: You going to tell me what it is?

DOGGETT: I passed it on to A.D. Skinner. I'd like for him to tell you.

(Upstairs, we see SKINNER peering out of the blinds in his ASSISTANT's office. He sees SCULLY and DOGGETT coming down the hall.)

SKINNER: Here they are.

SKINNER'S ASSISTANT: Do you need me to ask Agent Scully about her travel plans?

SKINNER: No. She'll be flying with us.

(SCULLY and DOGGETT enter the office. SCULLY steps toward him. SKINNER is dreading the coming conversation and case.)

SCULLY: What? What is it?

SKINNER: Let's go into my office.

(SCULLY leads the three of them into SKINNER's office and he closes the door. This is all torture for SCULLY.)

SCULLY: All right, what's going on here?

SKINNER: A report came in last night from Montana. About a UFO encounter.

SCULLY: What kind of encounter?

SKINNER: A young man chased a bright object flying low across the sky. Tracked it all the way to a big field where the UFO disappeared … but where he claimed he saw an alien.

(DOGGETT looks away.)

SCULLY: Assistant Director, I've got drawers full of reports that begin just like that. Are you going to tell me what's so important about this case?

SKINNER: Young man's named Richie Szalay. UFO nut from Bellefleur, Oregon. You and Agent Mulder met him out there last spring.

(Pause. SCULLY looks at DOGGETT.)

SCULLY: (voice breaking) Are you trying to tell me this has something to do with Mulder?

DOGGETT: He's trying to tell you that it might.

SKINNER: Richie Szalay didn't find an alien last night. He found a woman. A woman whose name you will remember-- Teresa Hoese.

SCULLY: Teresa Hoese was the young mother who was abducted the night before Agent Mulder was.

SKINNER: And who was returned last night.

SCULLY: Returned?

(SKINNER and DOGGETT glance at each other.)

SKINNER: Hanging onto life by a thread.

(SCULLY stares at him.)

SCENE 3

ST. JEAN HOSPITAL

HELENA, MONTANA

(SKINNER, SCULLY and DOGGETT enter a hospital. A young man, DR. DESAI comes to meet them.)

DR. DESAI: Who, who is Mr. Skinner?

SKINNER: I'm Skinner. You Dr. Desai?

DR. DESAI: I was just told you were on your way. That you flew out here all the way here from Washington, DC.

SKINNER: Yeah, we're here to see Teresa Hoese.

DR. DESAI: I know. I just wish someone would tell me these things because this woman is in no condition...

SCULLY: What is her condition?

DR. DESAI: She's circling the drain. 12 years, I have never seen anything near this level of mistreatment.

DOGGETT: Doctor, it's important we see the victim and talk to her if we can about what happened.

DR. DESAI: Just promise me, whoever did this, you guys will do everything in your power to catch them.

(DR. DESAI leads them into an intensive care room.)

DR. DESAI: By rights, this young woman shouldn't even be alive.

(TERESA HOESE is lying unconscious on the bed hooked up to various wires and tubes. There are three bruised scars on each of her cheeks. SCULLY is controlled but pale and upset throughout the scene.)

DR. DESAI: The medics said she asked for her baby last night but she hasn't said a word otherwise. I suspect it's all she's holding on to. What's upsetting is... it's almost like someone was experimenting on her.

SKINNER: What exactly did they do to her?

DR. DESAI: Inside her cheeks there's tissue damage in a linear pattern. Her chest was cut into and organ tissue in her abdomen's scooped away. In the x-rays I see damage to the soft palate.

SCULLY: (avoiding his eyes, hand over her mouth) In the x-rays, did you see, um... anything else? Foreign objects.

DR. DESAI: I'm not sure what you mean.

SCULLY: Little pieces of metal. Implants.

DR. DESAI: No, I didn't.

(The door opens again and a UNIFORMED COP and his partner enter.)

UNIFORMED COP: There was an Agent Doggett requesting a police report.

(DOGGETT takes a file from the COP and glances through it. He looks back up at SCULLY and SKINNER.)

DOGGETT: You're welcome to stay here and discuss foreign objects but... looks like we got a suspect.

SCENE 4

(RICHIE SZALAY's motel room. He is watching a documentary on UFO sightings. On the screen is an article form the Stars and Stripes, the US Army newspaper. There is a knock at the door.)

TV DOCUMENTARY: U.S. pilots patrolling German airspace...

DOGGETT: (outside) Richie Szalay?

RICHIE SZALAY: Yeah?

TV DOCUMENTARY: ...Describing highly manoeuvrable balls of light, which they referred to as "foo fighters..."

(RICHIE SZALAY turns down the volume and looks through the peephole on the side of the doorknob. He is startled as DOGGETT opens the door and enters the room, followed by SCULLY and SKINNER.)

DOGGETT: Richie?

RICHIE SZALAY: Yeah.

DOGGETT: John Doggett. I'm an FBI Agent. This is Agent Scully, Assistant Director Skinner, our boss. You mind if we come in?

(DOGGETT steps into the room.)

RICHIE SZALAY: Dude, you're, you're already in.

(He sees SCULLY pass him.)

RICHIE SZALAY: But, I, I know you. Do I know you?

SCULLY: You do... Richie. From Oregon. We met late last spring, you remember?

(They look at each other for a moment, sharing something.)

SKINNER: Richie, if you live in Oregon... what are you doing in Montana?

RICHIE SZALAY: My buddy, Gary, right? He was abducted. (looks at SCULLY) Right before your partner. I, I came looking for him.

(DOGGETT is looking at lots of pictures of UFOs taped to the wall.)

DOGGETT: So, you just came out here on a lark?

RICHIE SZALAY: No. I was following the news.

DOGGETT: The news?

RICHIE SZALAY: (pointing at the pictures on the wall) All, all that's in the last two weeks. Yeah, I go on these Internet chat rooms to talk about sightings and junk. After Oregon there wasn't a whole lot but then all of a sudden in Montana... (his voice cracks) I, I never... I, I never thought I'd find Mrs. Hoese like that. Not in a million years.

DOGGETT: Richie, when you found that woman's body you said you saw somebody with her. You told the police it was an alien. You know what a moulage casting is, Richie?

(RICHIE SZALAY shakes his head.)

DOGGETT: (harshly) It's what the cops take when they find shoe prints. They do these plaster castings and the ones they got from the field that night were from 9½ Nikes. You ever hear of an alien in Nikes?

RICHIE SZALAY: Doesn't mean it wasn't.

DOGGETT: Did it ever occur to you that it wasn't an alien but a man?

RICHIE SZALAY: Then what about his spaceship?

(DOGGETT looks at SCULLY who is looking at RICHIE SZALAY. DOGGETT leaves the room. SCULLY follows him.)

SCULLY: Agent Doggett? What was that in there?

DOGGETT: That was pressing a witness to get to the truth.

SCULLY: You refuse to believe that anything other than a man could have done this. Could have done what we saw to that woman in the hospital.

DOGGETT: It's not worth arguing about. The point here is to find Mulder.

SCULLY: And for months, we have been looking for a break, which is what we've got here.

DOGGETT: What we've got is hope. But let's be honest, Agent Scully, about what no one wants to say.

(She looks at him questioningly.)

DOGGETT: Bad as you want to find Mulder, you're afraid to find him, too.

(He walks away from her. She looks as if a knife has been twisted in her gut.)

SCENE 5

(Unknown location. Lights come on in a nasty, dark room. MULDER is lying on the same chair/table thing we saw in Within/Without. Blood drips from his impaled wrists and feet. Each side of his face is held in three clamps. He is unconscious and very pale. In her hotel room, SCULLY wakes up, gasping.)

(Short time later. Knock at a door. SKINNER, in a white t-shirt answers. SCULLY, dressed all in black, stands shivering in the doorway.)

SCULLY: (weakly) What if he's dead?

(SKINNER doesn't know what to say. SCULLY is embarrassed.)

SCULLY: I'm sorry. I just had a bad dream.

SKINNER: Let me get some clothes on.

(SCULLY nods as he closes the door. He joins her out in the chilly parking lot. The stars are bright overhead. Musical score is a sad version of Scully's theme.)

SCULLY: I once had a talk with Mulder about starlight. How it's billions of years old.

(They look up at the stars.)

SCULLY: Stars that are now long dead whose light is still traveling through time. It won't die, that light.

(SKINNER watches SCULLY watch the stars.)

SCULLY: Maybe that's the only thing that never does. He said that's where souls reside. I hope he's right.

(Long pause. He puts his arm around her shoulders.)

SKINNER: If you're trying to prepare yourself I want you to stop. Nothing says that we're going to stumble over him in some field. Nothing says he won't be fine.

(SCULLY nods. Then her face falls and she turns into his chest and sobs quietly. He holds her and stokes her hair gently.)

SCENE 6

ST. JEANS HOSPITAL

11:48 PM

(A MAN, JEREMIAH SMITH, enters the intensive care ward. The NIGHT NURSE looks up from her station.)

NIGHT NURSE: May I help you, sir?

(The MAN now looks like DR. DESAI. His speech is unsure, his expression hesitant.)

DR. DESAI: Yes, I want to have a patient transferred. Teresa Hoese.

NIGHT NURSE: To be transferred?

DR. DESAI: To another facility. I'd like to get her ready as soon as we can.

NIGHT NURSE: Okay.

(The NURSE thinks this is an odd request, but goes off to comply with his order. Camera pans down to show that DR. DESAI is wearing what look like size 9 ½ Nike athletic shoes.)

SCENE 7

(Next morning. SCULLY, still fully clothed, wakes up lying sideways on her hotel mattress. She answers the ringing phone.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah? … Hold on. … Who took her? … Well, has anybody talked to the doctor and asked him why? Or where? … Well, where's Agent Doggett now?

SCENE 8

(SKINNER and SCULLY arrive at the field location in a silver Montana Taurus rental car, 2P-312LT. SCULLY gets out of the passenger side and goes to DOGGETT who has been waiting for them.)

SCULLY: Did you find her?

DOGGETT: No.

SCULLY: No? I don't understand. You called us all the way out here.

DOGGETT: To get another point of view.

SCULLY: Another point of view? We have a patient missing, Agent Doggett.

DOGGETT: You should just hear her out.

SCULLY: Hear who out?

(They all look up at a tall, dark-haired woman standing on top of the hill that we saw in the teaser. Her back is to us.)

DOGGETT: Her name's Monica Reyes. I worked a case with her once.

(The three begin walk up the hill toward the new woman who is dressed all in black. SCULLY is sceptical.)

SKINNER: She's FBI?

DOGGETT: Yeah. She's got some expertise I thought we might take advantage of.

SCULLY: Expertise in what?

DOGGETT: She's got her master's in religious studies. Her specialization is ritualistic crime.

SCULLY: Ritualistic crime? Are we working the same case here?

(DOGGETT smiles and laughs briefly at her. They join REYES. DOGGETT is pleased to see her.)

DOGGETT: Agent Reyes.

(REYES tosses something small to the ground and turns to face them. She is a couple of inches shorter than DOGGETT, and has an open inviting smile. She's a little nervous.)

DOGGETT: Assistant Director Skinner, Agent Scully... Monica Reyes.

(Smoke comes out of her mouth. It isn't that cold. She gives a small wave and a grin.)

REYES: Hi.

(SKINNER and SCULLY stare silently at her. Their reaction does not help her nervousness. She keeps smiling.)

REYES: Beautiful country out here.

(She turns and walks over to the object that she tossed to the ground and steps on it. It is a smouldering cigarette. Embarrassed. She turns back to SCULLY and SKINNER. She keeps her arms crossed on her chest.)

REYES: I know it's not very FBI of me, but I'm really trying to quit.

(SCULLY and SKINNER both nod, still not smiling.)

REYES: So, Agent Doggett's been taking me through the case. Interesting.

SCULLY: Interesting?

REYES: What do you think happened?

(SKINNER looks at SCULLY.)

SCULLY: Isn't that what you're here to tell us?

REYES: Oh, I have my own thoughts. It's just, what we think happened and what actually happened aren't always the same thing but not altogether insignificant, either.

SCULLY: I'm sorry, this feels like therapy.

REYES: What happened being different from what we want to have happened.

SCULLY: What "who" wants to have happened?

REYES: Well, I'm told this case involves you.

(SCULLY is very defensive.)

SCULLY: It may involve someone close to me. Can we stick to the facts, please?

REYES: Well, it's pretty clear that the woman who was found out here did not inflict her own injuries. That she was dropped here by someone and whoever it was cared about her enough not to kill her.

SCULLY: Did you happen to know the peculiar nature of her injuries?

REYES: Yes. They were peculiar, but not altogether different from your typical cult ritualistic abuse.

SKINNER: Agent Reyes, we're dealing with abductions here... not by any cult.

REYES: Okay. Good. I mean, if it's not.

SCULLY: But you think that it is.

REYES: Well, I go on what I know, of course but I try to stay, you know, open.

SCULLY: So, what do you think happened?

REYES: Well, I'm told that Agent Mulder and the other people who were taken were true believers. People 100% convinced in the abduction phenomenon.

SKINNER: If this is about these people staging their own abductions...

REYES: No, it's about people coming together. Like minds as a group.

SCULLY: So you're basically saying that Agent Mulder has joined some sort of UFO cult.

REYES: Call it a group.

SKINNER: For what?

REYES: Well, we've all heard the news stories about transport to a mothership, the idea of a giant motherwheel. The whole Heaven's Gate thing.

(SCULLY is not convinced.)

SCULLY: I see.

DOGGETT: It'd make sense. The leader of the cult leaves this woman out here to die. Learning she's still alive he comes back to kidnap her again for fear of exposure. It'd make sense, too that if we find this guy, maybe we find Mulder.

SCULLY: Are you asking me to believe this?

REYES: No. That's not what I said. I don't think he left her to die. I don't think she's dead.

SCULLY: Based on what?

REYES: Nothing, really. It's just a feeling.

(SCULLY walks away from the others. DOGGETT follows her. REYES smiles at SKINNER.)

DOGGETT: What are you walking away for? It makes some kind of sense.

SCULLY: I'm glad you agree with her, Agent Doggett, because I'm not even sure that she agrees with you. Nor has she made any sense for me of how the doctor who removed Teresa Hoese from the hospital last night seems, by all accounts to have been in two places at once.

DOGGETT: I know where you're going with this, Agent Scully but if you're going to tell me this is another alien bounty hunter this is where we part company.

(SCULLY considers.)

SCULLY: Enjoy your new company.

(She walks away from him.)

SCENE 9

(Ranch compound of buildings. A sensitive looking blonde man, 30s, ABSALOM, enters a building with some others..)

ABSALOM: How is she?

(The gentle-looking WHITE-HAIRED MAN from the teaser is wiping the brow of the bed-ridden TERESA HOESE. We see that it is JEREMIAH SMITH, the alien healer from the Season 3-4 series.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: We were almost too late.

(JEREMIAH SMITH has a look of concentration on his face. As ABSALOM looks on in awe, JEREMIAH SMITH places his hand on TERESA HOESE's forehead. His expression is one of love and devotion. He then removes his hand. The scars on her cheeks and eyes, and we can assume, the rest of her body, fade. She now looks like a normal healthy sleeping woman. JEREMIAH SMITH looks at ABSALOM who smiles through his tears..)

SCENE 10

(Hospital. SCULLY is walking down the hall, but pauses near the door of a room where REYES is looking at x-ray images.)

REYES: Oh, hi.

SCULLY: I thought you'd be out combing the hills with Agent Doggett.

REYES: I'm on my way out to see him. I just wanted to see film on this woman's injuries-- Teresa Hoese.

(SCULLY closes the door. She is sceptical.)

SCULLY: Is there something you're looking for, Agent Reyes in particular?

REYES: Implants, or signs of them.

SCULLY: Implants? I don't understand.

REYES: Metallic implants. Placed in the body, oftentimes in the nasal cavity. Sometimes made of bone or cartilage making detection a little more difficult.

SCULLY: Yeah, I'm well aware of how they work.

REYES: You said you didn't understand.

SCULLY: I don't understand your interest in what is commonly considered evidence of alien abduction as a disbeliever in that phenomena.

REYES: I'm not a disbeliever.

SCULLY: Excuse me. I, I, uh, I'm very confused. I know what I heard and I heard you say that what we're dealing with here is nothing more than a UFO cult.

REYES: There's the confusion. I still believe that but it doesn't mean I don't believe in the phenomena.

SCULLY: You believe in extraterrestrials?

REYES: (small laugh) Let's just say I don't not believe. As I said, I try to stay open.

(As REYES crosses to another part of the room to look at a photo, SCULLY considers what has been said.)

SCULLY: What is it you specialize in again? Ritualistic crime?

REYES: Right. Satanic ritual abuse. Or, I should say claims of it. We never found any hard evidence.

SCULLY: We should talk sometime.

REYES: Not that I don't believe in it. I was something of a black sheep in the field office in New Orleans … because of my beliefs.

SCULLY: And what beliefs are those?

REYES: I just have certain spiritual notions. I believe there are energies in the universe. It might sound kind of cosmic but I think I'm sensitive to them. I mean, I get these feelings.

SCULLY: And do you have any feelings about Agent Mulder?

REYES: I don't know Agent Mulder. And I don't have any feelings about him. But I am feeling your fear. And fear's not going to help you find him or anyone else. Maybe you can try and stay open, too.

(SCULLY nods softly. As REYES walks away from her, we do see SCULLY's fear.)

SCENE 11

(Night along a highway. REYES is alone in her car. She looks jittery. She looks at the pack of Morley Light cigarettes on the notepad on the seat beside her. She looks away, then picks up the pack and puts a cigarette in her mouth. Suddenly all of the dashboard lights go out and the car engine dies at 7:36PM. Then it comes back on. 7:36PM. She looks up and sees a bright light traveling quickly through the night sky. Awed, she takes the cigarette out of her mouth.)

REYES: No frickin' way.

(She turns the car around and follows the light. Some distance away, the light nears the ground, then vanishes. A pickup truck arrives. ABSALOM and JEREMIAH SMITH get out. A MAN's body is lying on the ground. ABSALOM and JEREMIAH SMITH go to pick it up.)

ABSALOM: One, two, three, up.

(As they cover the MAN's body with a blanket and load him into the bed of the truck, REYES pulls up and gets out of her car, gun drawn.)

REYES: Stop there! I'm a Federal Agent!

(ABSALOM and JEREMIAH SMITH quickly get into the truck and drive away. REYES has lost them. She turns and starts walking back to her car, but stops when she sees another body lying in the field.)

SCENE 12

(SCULLY is preparing to autopsy the body that REYES found in the field. It is a young male. SKINNER and DOGGETT observe.)

SCULLY: (speaking with difficulty into recorder) Examination of victim, Gary Edward Cory, reveals cuts and abrasions from ligature or binding devices accompanied by distal and proximal bruising radiating in a symmetrical pattern around the ankles, the wrists... and the face.

(The door to the examination. room enters and RICHIE SZALAY enters with a POLICEMAN. He stares at the body in shock.)

RICHIE SZALAY: Oh, my god, Gary.

SCULLY: You can go now, Richie. They just need you to sign a form.

(RICHIE SZALAY looks sadly at his friend, and stumbles out of the room. He has lost his best friend. SCULLY begins to cry silently.)

SKINNER: Dana...

SCULLY: I'm okay. There's work to do here.

(SKINNER and DOGGETT leave the room. Later, DOGGETT is sitting on a chair in the waiting room. REYES joins him.)

REYES: You're hurting for her, I know.

(DOGGETT looks up at her.)

REYES: Agent Scully.

DOGGETT: I don't know how she's doing it in there. With everything she's feeling. What she's afraid of.

REYES: You know all too well.

DOGGETT: Let's leave the past in the past.

REYES: (gently) It was your fear, too. Those three days we looked for your son. The fear of finding what we did.

(DOGGETT is uncomfortable.)

REYES: I understand. That's why you're so determined to find Mulder alive.

DOGGETT: It's why I can't stand here and listen to all this mumbo jumbo about spaceships.

REYES: I saw what I saw, John. I'm not going to lie to you. But whatever it was, it led to this. It's the man I saw in the field.

(She shows him a colour photo of the man, ABSALOM. The sheet contains statistics about him.)

REYES: He goes by the name Absalom. A religious zealot who escaped a shoot-out in Idaho. Where he was the nominal leader of a doomsday cult who believed aliens would take over the world at the millennium. Disgraced when they didn't, he fled and tried a more ecumenical scam: credit card fraud. I ran the plate on the pickup truck. It's registered to a farm about an hour from here.

SCENE 13

(Outside the farm compound. JEREMIAH SMITH arrives in the truck and comes up to a group of people getting soup from a common pot over an outdoor fire.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: Get everyone inside.

ABSALOM: What? What is it?

JEREMIAH SMITH: They're coming.

ABSALOM: Who? Who's coming?

JEREMIAH SMITH: You can't let them find him.

(Flashlights are seen as the Federal Agents move in.)

MALE VOICE: Federal Agents! Nobody move!

(The members of the compound begin running, yelling and screaming.)

MALE VOICE: Hands on your heads!

(SCULLY and SKINNER follow DOGGETT into the compound.)

DOGGETT: (on megaphone) FBI! Please remain calm! We have a warrant to search the premises. You are surrounded by law officers who are armed, and prepared to shoot, if necessary.

(SKINNER follows and stops ABSALOM.)

SKINNER: Stop there! Hands on your head. Turn around so I can see you.

(ABSALOM surrenders. The other agents raid the rest of the compound. Much screaming and confusion.)

MALE VOICES: Move! Move! Go on! Move! Move! On the ground now! FBI! Don't move!

REYES: Please don't panic. You are in no danger if you stay calm and where we can see you.

(She looks up at a rafter and sees a video camera.)

(SCULLY enters an area that is draped in plastic sheets. Very medical looking. She stops moving when she sees TERESA HOESE, completely healed, blinking in the bright search lights.)

SCULLY: Teresa.

(REYES arrives in the room and sees SCULLY.)

REYES: Agent Scully...

(REYES goes silent when she sees TERESA HOESE.)

SCULLY: You better get AD Skinner in to see this. And Agent Doggett.

(Later. SCULLY and DOGGETT are interviewing ABSALOM.)

ABSALOM: I said I can't explain why it happens. Or how. Only where.

DOGGETT: I got 46... of your followers rounded up out there at your compound. You make me go to them for a straight answer it's only going to make it worse for you.

ABSALOM: How many times can I tell you?

DOGGETT: Night's early. Coffee's hot.

ABSALOM: The ships come in, drop the abductees all messed up. I go and get them so I can help them.

DOGGETT: Just like you helped Teresa Hoese when you left her for dead?

SCULLY: (gently) Agent Doggett.

(DOGGETT backs off. SCULLY crosses to ABSALOM.)

SCULLY: You, uh... you say that these abductees are returned with severe injuries. But that doesn't fit the pattern of any alien abduction model.

ABSALOM: That's what I'm trying to explain. I predicted there would be an alien invasion at the Millennium. I was right, it turns out. 'Cause that's when this all started.

(SKINNER and REYES are watching them from another room.)

SCULLY: Sir... given the criminal charges against you, you couldn't be a less credible witness so stop trying to validate your theories and just give us the truth.

ABSALOM: I'm telling you the truth. I only want to help these people.

SCULLY: So these video cameras that you have around your compound-- how do they help?

(We see a stack of videos.)

ABSALOM: Abductees... live in fear of being taken again. The cameras give them a sense of security.

DOGGETT: Or makes them afraid to leave.

(ABSALOM looks away from DOGGETT.)

SCULLY: Do you have videotape of how you happened to heal Teresa Hoese?

ABSALOM: No.

SCULLY: (whisper) I asked you to give me the truth.

(SCULLY walks slowly toward him taking a folded piece of paper form her pocket.)

SCULLY: (weakly) Do you have videotape of this man?

(She hands him a copy of MULDER's new ID photo. ABSALOM looks at it for a long moment, then shakes his head. SCULLY has tears in her eyes. DOGGETT looks at her, then back at SKINNER and REYES.)

SKINNER: He's hiding something.

REYES: Yeah, that's for sure.

SCENE 14

(SCULLY enters her dark motel room and flicks the light switch. No light. Frustrated, she flicks it up and down a few times and looks into the room. She freezes. MULDER is standing in front of the window. There is a blue-light ethereal quality to him. He says nothing, just looks at her. She stares back at him.)

REYES: Agent Scully?

(SCULLY turns and sees REYES in the doorway. When she turns back to the window, there is no one there,)

REYES: What?

(SCULLY runs to the closed window. Nothing.)

REYES: What is it?

SCULLY: (wistfully) I saw him.

(SCULLY's wall comes up. She turns to REYES, calm and collected.)

SCULLY: I saw something.

(Not understanding completely, REYES looks at her in confusion.)

SCENE 15

(Video room. REYES is showing SKINNER, SCULLY, and DOGGETT footage from the compound.)

REYES: I reviewed these tapes from the compound. There are some things here I want you all to see.

(Part of the video shows JEREMIAH SMITH and ABSALOM loading a body into the back of a pickup.)

SKINNER: They've got a body in there.

SCULLY: Who is it?

REYES: You can't tell from this angle.

SCULLY: Well, then where's another angle?

REYES: This is the only angle I could find.

SCULLY: Wait a minute. Stop it.

(SCULLY looks closely at a frame that shows JEREMIAH SMITH walking around the truck.)

SCULLY: That man. I know that man.

REYES: Good, because here he is again.

(REYES advances the film showing us JEREMIAH SMITH entering one of the buildings in the compound.)

SKINNER: Who is he?

SCULLY: His name is Jeremiah Smith. Agent Mulder knew him. He believed that he had the ability to heal people.

DOGGETT: What do you mean, "heal people"?

SCULLY: Like he did Teresa Hoese.

REYES: Well, whoever he is take a look at this.

(On the tape, JEREMIAH SMITH enters a building. He passes through a shadow, and when he comes out he looks like AGENT DOGGETT.)

DOGGETT: What the hell just happened?

REYES: That's what I'd like to know.

SCULLY: Wow. That's still Jeremiah Smith.

DOGGETT: The hell it was. That's me, and I never even went in that building.

SCULLY: Exactly. We have to get back out there.

(SCULLY leaves the room.)

SCENE 16

(SKINNER, SCULLY, DOGGETT, and REYES enter the compound. A GUARD stops them.)

GUARD: Halt. Identify yourself.

SCULLY: (getting out of the car) We're looking for someone. A man who may be one of the detainees.

SKINNER: We need some bodies out here to help search the woods.

(They enter one of the buildings. A group of people are standing near the door.)

SCULLY: FBI. Where is he? Jeremiah Smith.

(No one answers.)

SCULLY: Look, I know he's here. Jeremiah Smith. I need to speak with him.

(She sees a young man standing in the back of the group.)

SCULLY: You-- in the back. Step out.

(The YOUNG MAN hesitantly steps forward.)

SCULLY: Come with me.

(He follows her into a room. REYES is watching.)

SCULLY: Take a seat.

(He does.)

SCULLY: Are you Jeremiah Smith?

YOUNG MAN: No, I...

SCULLY: Did you heal these people?

YOUNG MAN: No.

SCULLY: Did you heal Teresa Hoese?

(He starts to get up, but SCULLY stops him.)

SCULLY: Look, I know who you are.

(Someone knocks at the door.)

REYES: Agent Scully.

(The door opens. REYES looks in.)

REYES: I'll be right outside.

(She exits and closes the door. SCULLY turns back and gasps when she sees that the YOUNG MAN has become JEREMIAH SMITH.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: You're going to expose me. You're putting people in danger-- Abductees all over the country. I save them. I'm the only one.

SCULLY: Where's Mulder?

JEREMIAH SMITH: You came crashing in here. I was trying to help him, too.

SCULLY: Where is Mulder?

(She gasps again as the door opens.)

SKINNER: You'd better come with us.

(SKINNER is sad. Breathing heavily, SCULLY looks back at JEREMIAH SMITH. He is now ABSALOM and looking very frightened.)

ABSALOM: You must protect me.

(SCULLY goes to SKINNER and REYES.)

SCULLY: What is it?

SKINNER: It's Mulder.

(Field. There is a group of AGENTS standing around a body. SCULLY, accompanied by SKINNER come running up. DOGGETT intercepts SCULLY and physically restrains her from going to the body.)

SCULLY: Where is he?

(She is breathing rapidly.)

DOGGETT: Agent Scully, he's over there.

SCULLY: How bad is he?

(She struggles in DOGGETT's arms.)

SCULLY: How bad is he?

(DOGGETT still restrains her.)

SCULLY: How bad is he hurt?

(She breaks free and runs to MULDER's side. She kneels down beside him. He is covered in a blanket. His cheeks are horribly scarred and bruised. She gently touches his face.) SCULLY: (hysterical) No. No. No. No. He needs help.

(DOGGETT pulls her away form MULDER's body. SCULLY is hysterical.)

DOGGETT: It's too late.

SCULLY: He needs help!

(She breaks away from him.)

DOGGETT: Agent Scully.

(SCULLY runs as fast as she can through the woods back to the compound. As she gets there, she pauses in shock at the sight of a brightly lit object over the compound. SCULLY sees a UFO. She runs toward the building. Too late. As she and the other members of the compound watch, glass shatters and the light disappears. JEREMIAH SMITH is gone. His room is empty.)

SCULLY: Jeremiah.

(SCULLY falls to her knees.)

SCULLY: No... no. This is not happening!

(She screams to anyone who will listen.)

SCULLY: No!

[TO BE CONTINUED ...]
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