The X-Files

Ugh! I got mosquito bites. I got blisters. I hate those new boots.

Honey, why are you so PO'd? I thought we had a good time.

You had a good time.

You had a fine time tromping around and leaving me a half a mile behind.

For future reference, me running through the woods after you for a day

is not my idea of a good time.

I'm sorry.

I've got longer legs.

I was excited, you know?

The great outdoors, communing with nature.

- Your head hurt? - Yeah.

You can hit me in the head with a rock if it'll make you feel better.

Fine. Go get one.

I'm taking a shower.

Argh!

- You still mad at me? - No. I'm not mad.

Come here.

So I guess we're never going hiking again. It's indoors for ever from now on.

Angie, honey, what's up?

Just hold me.

Oh. Whoo.

I don't know what they did with the screen for this thing.

This is Angela and Wallace Schiff,

a young married couple last seen hiking near Brown Mountain, North Carolina.

That's Angie on the right. This is the condition in which their bodies were found

after being missing for only three days in temperatures below 70 degrees.

Which rules out decomposition. I'd say predation, but the bones would be scattered.

Not to mention that these skeletons are not wearing any clothes.

Right. I'd say it looks like a double murder, possibly one with ritualistic overtones.

The bodies may have been stripped, then skeletonised,

possibly by boiling or by the use of some kind of acid solution.

Maybe the arrangement of the bodies has some meaning for the killer or killers.

- At any rate, I'd term it ritualistic. - That's a big operation.

There was no evidence at the scene. No tyre tracks, no footprints, nothing.

- What do you think this is? - Brown Mountain doesn't ring a bell?

Brown Mountain lights?

It's a famous atmospheric phenomenon dating back 700 years,

witnessed by thousands of people, back to the Cherokee Indians.

Strange coloured lights are seen to dance above the mountain.

There's been no geological or scientific credible explanation at all.

What does that have to do with this?

There's been no scientific credible explanation,

but there are those of us who believe these lights are...

UFOs?

Extraterrestrial visitors from beyond who have nothing better to do

than buzz one mountain over and over again for 700 years.

Sounds like crap when you say it. I'm just wondering if there's a connection, Scully.

The conditions of these bodies are reminiscent of cattle mutilations.

Those cases have no physical evidence. They've been associated with UFO activity.

Can't you just for once, just for the novelty of it, come up with the simplest explanation,

the most logical one, instead of automatically jumping to UFOs or Big Foot?

Scully, in six years, how often have I been wrong?

No, seriously. Every time I bring you a new case, we go through this dance.

You tell me I'm not scientifically rigorous and that I'm off my nut.

And then, in the end, who turns out to be right 98.9 per cent of the time?

I just think I've earned the benefit of the doubt here.

We gave 'em adjoining suites. I was ready to send them on to Chapel Hill.

The state medical examiner should have a look.

We appreciate you holding off.

The connective tissue is intact.

Unlike everything else. I'm not sure what to make of it considering the time frame.

If you'll pardon an obvious question, are you sure that these are the right two bodies

and not two others that have lain out for six months?

We triple-checked the dental records. Angela and Wallace Schiff.

No doubt about it.

And they were both found near Brown Mountain, right?

- Where exactly? - Well, I could write you some directions.

Would you... happen to know what this is?

The remains were found in a swampy area.

Some sort of organic material relating to that. It's bog sludge.

I'm gonna go check out where the bodies were found.

- You coming? - No. You go ahead.

Wallace Schiff?

Wallace Schiff?

We got your gas spectrometer results.

That stuff on the bones I said was bog sludge - it isn't.

"Water, hydrochloric acid, electrolytes, pepsins and trypsins."

- It's a digestive secretion. - Stomach juices, pretty much.

Pretty damn close to it, except for this.

Chitinase?

It's a digestive enzyme as well. But it's strictly plant, not animal.

Hello?

I told you I'd seen this before. These are the two I remember, anyway.

Both were discovered as skeletal remains.

Right. But we saw nothing odd in that.

Both were lost hikers found months or years later, whatever it says there.

The bodies were found not far from where Angela and Wallace Schiff turned up.

Mulder, answer your phone.

The customer you are trying...

Do me a favour. Forward a sample of that secretion over to the FBI lab at Quantico.

- I want them to run a complete analysis. - You got it.

And, in the meantime, can I borrow your truck?

Please... don't take me.

Hey, come out here. Step closer. I won't hurt you.

- You're not one of them? - One of who?

Are you Wallace Schiff?

I hate to tell you this, Wallace, but you're supposed to be dead.

They found your skeleton not 200 yards from here.

- It's fake. They put it there. - Who put it there?

- You know who. - The Brown Mountain lights.

They abducted us. Me and my wife Angela. They took us on board their... Oh, God...

Wallace? Wallace?

They found your wife Angela, too. Lying right alongside your skeleton.

No! Don't you get it?

They faked our deaths. They have that kind of technology.

Who the hell would be looking for us if they thought they'd already found our bodies?

They returned me, but Angela's still up there being experimented on and I can't...

I don't know what to...

What do I do?

Mulder?

First things first. We gotta find a way outta here.

Right behind you.

What the hell is going on?

That was solid rock. Now there's nothing there.

Oh, God. It's them. They're affecting your head.

Maybe mine, too. What if I can't even tell what's real?

Wallace, let's get outta here.

- Come on, Wallace! - They're out there, man.

It's them.

Wallace.

Mulder?

Mulder!

Don't let them see you.

- They're gone. - Yeah. For now.

- Thank God they didn't find us. - They should have.

Maybe they came for something else.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Angie.

They brought her back.

Angie, can you talk to me? Do you remember what happened? Can you tell me?

It's all fuzzy and...

You were with your husband. You were with Wallace.

There was a light. A bright light.

Where was that light coming from? From the mountain?

Over Brown Mountain. There were strange lights dancing over the peak.

And... they took me.

And Wallace, too.

- And then what happened? - It just... it all went black.

And when I woke up, I didn't know where I was.

And I couldn't see Wallace any more.

They returned me first.

This place that they took you to, can you describe it to me, tell me what it looked like?

It was white.

A white place. It was featureless.

I was lying on a table and I couldn't get up.

Nothing was holding me down, but I couldn't move.

Were there men there?

Yes.

There were men standing over me, but I couldn't see their faces.

Did they perform tests on you?

Yes, they did tests.

Terrible tests.

What?

You have a scar back here on the back of your neck.

- What? What scar? - It's fresh.

- What is that? - It's an implant. I've seen this before.

Yes, the drill. I remember the drill. I couldn't see it at first.

That was the worst part. But I could hear it spinning, and it was coming out of the light!

- What did they put in me? - Is there one in me?

Male abductions don't usually report this. Everything is textbook except for one detail.

What?

Two skeletons we found were identified as yours and Angie's. It doesn't make any sense.

Maybe they're like those cattle mutilations. Maybe they're related or part of their tests.

I had that thought, but there's no precedent for it. It's in none of the literature.

They didn't want anybody to find us. I guess they didn't want you to know the truth.

- We gotta get outta here right now. - No way.

They're out there. They're always watching.

If they find us, if we leave, they'll take us again.

We're leaving right now. Gather your things. Angie, I'll help you up.

They're coming. I can feel it.

- They're here! - Hide. They'll take you, too.

- We've got to hide! - No.

No!

- Scully. - Mulder...

Why did you leave North Carolina without telling me?

Long story.

You disappear and then I get a furtive call that you're in DC?

- I'm sorry. Does anyone know you're here? - No.

- Scully, this is... - Angela and Wallace Schiff.

- But, Mulder, it can't be. - This is my partner. Agent Scully.

- Mulder, I lD'd their remains myself. - Yeah, I think you were meant to.

Agent Scully, the aliens planted decoys so you would think we were dead.

The aliens?

Scully, I want you to put aside your scientific bias for a moment.

Because what I'm about to tell you is gonna change your life for ever.

Your life, my life, the life of everybody on this planet.

- Mulder? - It was out there.

And I found it.

- What? - The truth.

This couple... they were abducted by a UFO.

Brown Mountain lights.

They took me to a white place. There were men there. They put an implant in my neck.

Just like what happened to you.

From what very little I understand about this case, this is not what happened to me.

There's more.

He doesn't like the light.

Who?

I abducted him.

[f5 a QTGY.

It speaks to me.