IMAGES FROM "ROADRUNNERS"


TEASER
SEVIER DESERT
JUAB COUNTY, UTAH
12:36 AM
A traveler waves for a bus to stop to pick him up. It goes past him and he starts to get angry, but it pulls to a stop. When he gets on the bus he tells the driver that she must have road hypnosis or something if she did not see him.

Everyone is quiet and looks at him really weird. When the bus stops everyone gets off, even the driver, leaving him confused.

The man follows them outside. A man with crutches is being helped off the bus. The man starts to ask everyone what is going on, but no one will answer him.

Suddenly, one woman strikes the sick man in the head. She continues to beat him as the traveler yells.

As the man is killed, a small group of people head over to the traveler as he trips on the ground while trying to run away. They close in on him as he screams.

ACT ONE
SEVIER DESERT
JUAB COUNTY, UTAH
11:17 AM
Scully is in the desert in Utah, trying to find clues on the murder of the man who was stoned to death. On a rock she finds some slimy stuff that she takes a sample of.

Her cell phone not working, she goes to a nearby phone booth and calls Doggett. He asks where she is and she tells him. He seems surprised. She tells him about the murder. She was called because the man’s body was anomalous. The twenty-two year old backpacker was last seen six months ago in perfect health. However, his body shows signs of advanced osteoporosis, arthritis, and chaephosis of the vertebrae. In other words, he had the spine of a ninety-year-old woman. He asks her why she didn’t need him to tag along. She tells him that it was just a simple consultation she was called for over the weekend.

Scully asks him a favor. She knows that he recently read through the X-Files, and wants to know if he remembers on which unsolved murder case glycoproteins -- mucus had been found at the scene, which is what she just found. He tells her that he doesn’t remember that, but he’ll look. 

Scully sees a bus go by.

She tells him to call the Juab County sheriff’s office there if he needs to reach her.

Driving down the road, Scully stops at a small, rundown gas station. She looks at her map confused. She talks to the attendant that comes out and tells him that she saw a bus go by and wondered where it was going. He says that he didn’t see it because he was around back. She asks him if he knows what is up the road, and he tells her that it eventually goes to Salt Lake.

Scully notices his bandaged hand and asks to look at it. He cut himself accidentally while changing a blade on a bow saw. 

She asks him if he heard about the murder that took place about fifteen to twenty miles off the state road. He says that he has and that it sounds scary.

She tells him that he needs to put iodine on his wound so it doesn’t get infected. He says that she sounds like his mother. She adds that she sounds like a doctor.

She tells him that she needs gas. He says that he doesn’t have any. The tanker that was supposed to come the day before never did, and he’s hoping that it comes that afternoon. Scully tells him that she has a quarter tank left and should be all right.  He tells her to wait.

The attendant comes back from the station with a can of gas. He starts to put it into her car, but jokingly tells her not to tell anyone that he’s giving away free gas there. She asks him where they exactly are. She can’t find the town on the map. He tells her that they aren’t really a town, but just a few like-minded people keeping the modern world at bay. She thanks him and drives away.

The attendant watches Scully drive away and then walks into a room and tells the woman (the bus driver) and the sick man, the traveler from before, on the bed that help is coming.

A little way down the road, Scully’s car stops.

Scully walks back to the station and tells him angrily that whatever he put in her car killed the engine. She picks up the gas can, pours some on her hand, and smells it. She says that she doesn’t smell any gas; it’s almost all water. He says that he’s really sorry and that he did not know. He left it outside and maybe it rained in it. Scully questions this because they are in the desert, and does not believe him. She angrily asks for the phone, but he tells her that he doesn’t have any, but that his neighbor, Mr. Milsap, does.

Scully walks over to Milsap’s house and goes inside the unlocked door when no one answers. An older man comes out and she asks him to use his phone. He seems kind of odd, but he tells her that she can, and he leads her to the phone.

Scully picks up the rotary phone to dial, but the line is dead. Milsap tells her that that happens a lot because they are always working on the lines. It could be hours before it comes back on. She checks to make sure that the phone is plugged in. He tells her that he can offer her a room for the night. It used to be a boarding house. The nearest town is eighteen miles away and too far to walk. She says that she won’t be staying long. She asks him what is going on, but he acts like he doesn’t know what she is talking about. She tells him that she gets the distinct impression that someone does not want her to leave. He still tells her he doesn’t know what she is talking about. She says that a bus passed through there and asks where it went. He starts to question her and she tells him not to tell her that he didn’t see it. He says that he thinks he would know if a big bus came through. He asks her again about a room, but she just turns around and exits. As she walks out she puts her hand on her stomach.

When she exits she sees a woman outside going into her house. She calls after her but the woman ignores her and goes inside.  Scully tries the door but it’s locked. She peers through the window and sees a group of people inside. She knocks and they turn and see her, but ignore her. She looks back to Milsap who is still watching her.

Scully cocks her gun as she sits in bed at Milsap’s place. She is on guard.

The camera pans to show outside the window. The people of the town are all walking down the road carrying lanterns.

ACT TWO
The next morning, Scully hears a knock on her door. She grabs her gun. Milsap calls to her and says that he’s sorry to bother her, but someone is hurt and needs medical help. She finally agrees to go down.

When she reaches the man, he is having seizures. The woman is there with Milsap. They tell her that they don’t know his name. He is only a stranger that needed help. Scully holds him down and asks how long he has been seizing. The woman says about three or four minutes and asks what’s wrong with him. Scully says that she thinks that he’s in statis, a continuous seizure state. She says that she doesn’t smell like acetone, which would indicate that he is hypoglycemic. He doesn’t appear to have any head injuries; he could be epileptic and forgot to take his medicine. He has stopped shaking.

Scully starts to turn him over to look at him when she notices blood on the back of his shirt. She pulls up his shirt to find a large, bleeding hole in his lower back. She asks them how it happened, obviously thinking that they did it. They tell her that they don’t know. She says that either way he needs to get to a hospital immediately. After a pause she says to Milsap that she assumes his phone still isn’t working.

They tell her that they don’t have any cars, but they could send someone out on foot to get help. She agrees but knows that they are lying. The woman tells her that in the mean time whatever she can do will help. She thinks and then asks if they have any corn syrup. The woman goes to get some.

Meanwhile, back in D.C., Doggett calls the sheriff’s office to ask them for a fax number to send over some material that Scully requested. The man on the other end asks him when Scully is supposed to be there. She was supposed to be there the previous day but never showed up. The murder victim’s family is waiting for them to hand over the body. Doggett asks them to send a car out for her. She called him before and is somewhere north of Sugarville. He tells him that he’ll keep in touch.

Doggett picks the phone back up and dials. He tells Danny that he needs him to trace a call for him. It came to the office about 1:30 in the afternoon the previous day.

Scully rips a electric cord off from around the door and wall and puts it up to her cell phone to extend her antenna, but it still says no service.

From the other side of the room, the woman asks if she is doing what she is supposed to be doing right (feeding him corn syrup). Scully tells her yes, but she can hold off now. She tells Scully that nothing is happening. Scully says to her that she’s sorry but she’s only winging it. Raising his blood sugar will only work if his condition is brought on by hypoglycemia, but his condition could be the result of any number of things. The woman asks what they can do. Scully tells her that she has done all she can do unless she knows where to find Diazepam or Phenobarbital other than the nearest hospital, which is where they should be.

Suddenly the man wakes up. Scully sits on the bed and talks to him. She asks him if he can hear her. He nods. She asks him how he is feeling, and he tells her that he is okay.

To Scully’s amazement the woman starts thanking God and saying how scared they were. She asks him what she can do. He tells her that he thinks he just needs to rest. She tells Scully that they should leave him alone, but he asks Scully to stay. Scully looks at the woman and she says that she will go tell everyone.

He asks her if she’s a doctor. When she confirms that he thanks her for helping him. She tells him that she’s not sure if she actually did anything, and in fact she doesn’t know what’s going on with him. 

She asks him his name, but he doesn’t remember it. He also doesn’t remember where he is or how he got there. The only thing that he knows is that they are taking good care of him. She sarcastically says that they are, and the sun seems to rise and set on him as far as their concerned. They seem to have stranded her there to nurse him back to help. He asks her why they would do that. She tells him about the murder that took place twenty miles away. The man’s head was so badly crushed, that they couldn’t even identify him from his teeth. It looks like upward of a dozen people may have participated, due to the footprints that they found. She tells him that it is a very tight group of people who would murder together -- a cult. She says that the people there qualify.

He asks her who she is, and if she’s a detective. She tells him that she’s FBI. She says that she needs to get him out of there, but doesn’t know how. She asks him if he can walk. He’s not sure, because he’s weak.

He starts to sit up and she tells him to wait a second. She looks at his back again and starts probing his wound, and he tells her that that is starting to hurt. Stuff oozes from his wound. She keeps probing until suddenly something under his skin starts to move. The man starts to yell in pain. What ever is under his skin keeps wiggling up his spine. She follows it with her fingers as he starts shaking again.

Scully pulls out a set of tweezers and inserts them into his wound. She grabs ahold of whatever it is and starts tugging, but she can’t seem to pull it out. Finally a piece of it tears off. She holds it up and stares at it. It is still moving and appears to be the tail of some sort of slug.

ACT THREE
Doggett receives a fax of a missing person. The phone rings. It’s from the sheriff’s office. The man tells him that the call came from a pay phone about a half-mile from the crime scene. Doggett says that Scully must have just come from there when she called him. He tells Doggett that there is still no sign of her. Doggett asks if they are canvassing and talking to neighbors. He says that they would but there are no neighbors to canvas, they are in a pretty desolate area. Doggett tells him that help is on the way from the Salt Lake City office, and he’s heading out there too. There’s a new angle they need to be looking at. The last call dialed from the phone booth prior to Scully’s, was made four days ago -- the day of the murder. It was made to a man, Hank Gulatarski’s, family in Fort Collins, Colorado, that he was going to visit, telling them that he was stuck in the desert but would be there in two days. He never showed up.

The woman and Milsap are with Scully and Hank. The woman says that something is wrong. Scully says that he is coming to.  She asks him how he’s feeling. He simply says that he’s alive, and that’s a start. Milsap and the woman start saying “Praise God” and the like.

Hank asks her what is wrong with him. She looks at him and moves her eyes back, indicating that she can’t say in front of them. He tells them that he just needs some rest, and she can stay and take care of him.

The two walk out. Scully shuts the door and locks it. She walks back over to Hank. She tells him that he’s lucky they are still listening to him for the time being. She tells him that the wound seems to be an entry point for some kind of parasitic organism that has taken up residence on his spine. She has no experience with that and doesn’t know how far it extends or how to get it out without harming him. They need to get him to a hospital so he can be properly treated or he will die. She says that the people don’t seem to want to let him go, and she thinks that they put the thing inside of him. They killed the last person who was in his condition and she’s afraid they are going to kill him too.

She needs to go look for a way out, but he doesn’t want her to leave him. She asks him if he knows how to use a gun. He tells her that he does, so she gives hers to him.

Scully climbs out the window.

Milsap walks back into the room. Hank tells him that she said that he is dying. They need another swap.

Doggett arrives and meets with the sheriff. He shows him a picture of an identical entry wound to that of Hank Gulatarski. He asks him if he’s seen anything like it. He tells him that it’s the victim in their morgue and asks how he got it. He tells him that it is not their murder victim, but a John Doe that was found off of a west Texas highway in 1991. He tells Doggett that their guy has the same wound. He replies that he thought he was going to say that.

Doggett shows him some more pictures of victims with identical wounds. There is one from Arizona in 1993, one from New Mexico in 1997, and one from Nevada in 1999. All four victims had their brains beaten out and were dumped in remote areas. All four cases are unsolved. The sheriff asks him how he ran them down. He tells him that Agent Scully had him track down the first one because it noted glycoproteins had been found at the crime scene, which is what she found. The same wound kept showing up. The murders range throughout the southwest, zigzagging all over the desert, the more remote, the better. Doggett looks close at the map and points to a place near where there is a pushpin.

Scully finds the bus from before in what appears to be a barn. Suddenly Hank walks up on crutches. She is confused until she sees the other townspeople behind him. She tells him that had her convinced. 

Scully starts to back away, but the people grab her and hold her back. She yells at them that she is a federal agent and the FBI is searching for her. The woman tells her that they won’t find her. 

Hank tells her that her life is about to take a wonderful turn. She is going to take part in something much greater than herself.  She’s going to be so loved.

They all start chanting “Amen.”

Seemingly welcoming it, Hank kneels and the woman strikes him on the head and proceeds to beat him with a hammer. Scully cries out that they are murdering him. The woman pulls the slug from the man’s body. It is huge, disgusting, and bloody.  Covered in blood, the woman holds it up.

She knows what they are about to do to her and yells to them over and over that she is pregnant. They ignore her.

ACT FOUR
Scully is tied down to the bed, on her stomach. There is a large gaping hole in her lower back. She is screaming, trying to get away.

Scully yells to Milsap that she’s going to get everyone of them. He tells her that she won’t. She will love them, protect them, and teach them, making them better than they are. He tells her that he envies that she will soon be one with “him.” She yells, questioning that the thing in her spine is a him. 

The thing moves and she cries out in pain.

Milsap tells her that it is such a wonderful thing for her and her unborn child. He says that the last man just wasn’t a suitable tabernacle. There is always the chance that her body won’t fail him and he will be in her forever.

Suddenly car lights shine through the window. Scully starts to yell for help and she is gagged. Milsap and the woman go to see who it is. It’s Doggett. He talks to them, showing them a picture of Scully and asking them if they saw her. They tell him that they didn’t. They don’t get many visitors, and they remember those they do.

Scully, knowing that the man in the room, the gas station attendant, has his back turned, starts to kick at a lamp near her feet.  It falls down and breaks, a fire spreading across the room. Unfortunately the man stops it and Doggett never knows.

While in the car, Doggett calls the sheriff’s office and tells them where he is. 

DOGGETT: Just talked to a guy who had a gun in his pocket and I don’t mean he was happy to see me.

The man on the phone tells him that he is sending everyone he has. Doggett tells him to hurry, and that he can’t wait for them.

Doggett comes into the room to find Scully, alone, tied to the bed. He unties her and asks if she can walk. She’s not sure. He picks her up and carries her. She tells him that she knows a closer place than the car.

Doggett sets Scully down in a seat on the bus as he starts to hotwire it.

Scully starts to scream in pain as the slug moves up her back. She yells at him, saying that it is going towards her brain and he needs to cut it out.

The town people see them and are getting close to the bus. Doggett ignores them and looks at Scully’s back.

Doggett pulls out his knife and starts to cut open Scully’s upper back as the people start banging on the bus. The slug is on the surface and he finally pulls it out. He flings it on the floor and proceeds to shoot it until it is dead.

The people have gotten into the bus, but just stare at the dead slug. Milsap drops the gun and asks him why he had to do that.  Doggett ignores them and carries Scully out. On their way out, the police arrive.

BYU MEDICAL CENTER
PROVO, UTAH
ONE WEEK LATER
Scully is packing when Doggett comes in to ask her if she is ready to go. She tells him that she is. He says that the grand jury convenes that day and that all forty-seven of the cult members are sticking together. They don’t have much of a defense other than that they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Scully tells him that they believed they worshipped Christ and that the thing was a Second Coming.

Scully apologizes to Doggett, telling him that she left him out of the case and it was a mistake, an almost fatal one. He says that it was and she screwed up, however he does not seem angry. She tells him that she won’t do it again. He responds, telling her that he appreciates it.

Scully turns away from him and picks up her bag, but he takes it from her and they start to walk out.

IMAGES FROM "ROADRUNNER"


Overall Rating : 8
*Shippy Rating: 1 (because of her touching her belly)
*Note: Shippiness will ALWAYS be based on MULDER and SCULLY. The scale is based on the Redux II scale (1-10, as Redux II being a 10 [now with Triangle being an 11, All Things being an 11.5, and Millennium being a 12, all above the scale])*


If you have any more information, spoilers, or questions for me, feel free to email me. If you give me a tip, I don't have to reveal my source, unless you want me too.