05x04 - Detour

[bunniefuu]

All right, let's sh**t this, Marty.

Hold it still.

Hold it still, Sloan.

I'd like to see you hold it still. The sooner they pave over this swamp, the better.

It's not a swamp. You're standing in a forest with indigenous plant and animal species you're obviously too ignorant to appreciate.

Mark it. Gimme another position.

sh**t this one real carefully, Many. This is where they're gonna put the Blockbuster.

You're a real moron, Sloan, you know that?

Tree-hugger.

You should be sad to see the demise of an ecosystem that's lasted 1,000 years.

We all should be. Gimme four feet to your left.

I can't. What do you mean, you can't?

I mean I can't because it's stuck.

Then unstick it.

This is weird.

Argh!

Sloan! Sloan!

Argh!

Louis, let Bo do the work.

How's he know how to find a possum? Sh.

Animals sense things that we can't. That's how they survive.

So... is that how Bo knows how to hunt?

Yep. Our ancestors were hunters, too. But most of us have lost those instincts.

That's why we need a little help.

Dad, what's that?

Surveyor's equipment. Someone left his stuff out here.

Stay close, Louis.

What is it, Dad?

Dad? Bo. Come here, Bo.

What... Quiet!

Listen to me. I want you to take Bo, and I want you to run straight home.

What's the matter?

Run straight home. Don't stop for anything.

Louis. You understand? I just...

Go.

Come on, Bo. Come on.

Bo, no! No! Come on, Bo. Come on!

Come on! Come on!

Last year was something of a personal revelation.

We were doing an exercise called Team Builders, where we were given two minutes to build a tower out of ordinary office furniture.

When I stood on Mike's shoulders and I put that electric pencil sharpener on top of the pile...

We both knew... we could never have done it alone.

k*ll me now.

You ever been to one of these team seminars, Agent Scully?

Um... I think I went to a constructive problem-solving course when I first joined the Bureau.

Did you play that game where you can't use any negative words?

I couldn't believe how hard it was not to use the word "but".

I'm having that same problem right now.

Have you ever been to a team seminar? No.

Around this time of year I always develop a severe haemorrhoidal condition.

Well, it builds muscles you didn't even know you had.

Communication. That's the key.

Sorry, folks. It'll be a few minutes. What's goin' on, Officer?

Got a little situation is all.

Thank you, Jesus.

Where's he going?

Oh! Excuse me.

Are you from Search and Rescue? No, I'm just stretching my legs.

They said they'd have word for us about what happened to my husband.

Slow down. I don't know what you're talking about.

My husband Michael, he was teaching our son to sh**t.

He said the dog got spooked, then he heard g*nshots.

They've found a jacket with blood on it, but they won't tell me about my husband.

I'll try to find out who's in charge, all right? Oh, thank you.

Now where's he going?

Hey, Stonecypher! Take a look at this.

This tree was here 20 years before Ponce de Leon landed.

We're gonna be late for the wine-and-cheese reception.

Officer Fazekas? Yes?

Can I help you? My name is Fox Mulder.

I'm an agent with the FBI. FBI? Who called you guys out?

Nobody. We got stopped at your roadblock. Sounds like you had a sh**ting.

sh*ts were reported, but we have no evidence of anyone being sh*t.

Well, what do you have evidence of? A survey team didn't report in last night.

We found one man's bloody jacket, pretty torn up.

And this morning, a boy got separated from his father.

Separated by what?

It looks maybe like some kind of animal att*ck.

What kind of animal? I'm not sure yet.

I followed good tracks for the two surveyors, but the trails became confused.

There was a third set of tracks leading away I... I couldn't identify.

Couldn't identify as the surveyors'? As man or animal, Mulder?

Oh, just, uh... Hold on a second.

What about the boy's father? I tracked him to where he fired the sh*ts.

The ground's rocky but from the depressions in the underlying soil I can tell that he entered the bushes over there, where I pick up another set of tracks, two different sets, that, from the way the ground's upset, is probably where the man was att*cked.

But no other sign of him?

Do you have panther in these woods? Panther. Bear.

But these tracks look like neither of those. No, sir.

You know of a good motel in the area?

Excuse me. I think we can handle this very well on our own. Thanks.

Mulder, we've got this conference.

They're waiting. Yeah.

How do I say this without using any negative words, Scully?

You want me to tell them you're not going to the seminar.

You see? We don't need that conference.

We have communication like that - unspoken.

Look! He's all eaten away.

How d’you like that, eh?

He's not coming back, is he?

Why would you say that? Dad's a good sh*t.

If he hit what he was aiming at, he'd be home by now.

You gotta be brave, Louis.

We both gotta be brave.

We'll find out more about it in the morning.

You get some sleep now.

It's open.

Who cut the cheese?

Since we won't be making it to the conference...

Mm... Par-lay.

However, I must remind you this goes against the Bureau's policy of male and female agents consorting in the same motel room.

Try any of that Tallhook crap on me, Scully, I'll kick your ass.

Pop quiz. What animal will att*ck the strongest, leaving the weakest to escape?

The answer is none. Not one of the over 4,000 species native to North America will att*ck the strongest when the weak is vulnerable.

What does that have to do with anything? We're dealing with no ordinary predator.

I thought this was just a ploy. I think what we've stumbled upon here is more than local authorities realize. The scenario described by that boy?

It sounds like a primitive culling technique. Mulder, we're in western Florida.

The closest to primitive here is living in a beach front retirement condo.

Those woods are as old as anything in the South.

There's no telling what's alive out there.

Where are you going? I gotta check something out.

Some work on your communication skills wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I'll be back soon, and we can build a tower of furniture. OK?

What is it, Bo?

Morn? It's all right, Louis. You go back to sleep.

Bo?

Bo?

Bo, where'd you get to?

Bo, is that you?

Come on, boy. Let's go back in.

All right, all right. You... stay there the night.

Louis. Louis!

Louis! Louis!

Louis!

Louis! Mom!

Louis!

Argh!

What is it, Louis? It's in the house.

How's the boy? Still freaked out.

I might have some insight into this invisible creature he said was chasing him.

The Invisible Man was invisible.

Right. He said the creature had glowing red eyes.

Let me show you something. Mrs Asekoff said she went outside with the dog, but when she came back, the door was locked from the inside.

And? Look at this. We got some tracks here.

Where? Here. And here. Dried mud against the tile.

Tracked in from the outside.

That could have been brought in by the dog.

No. See the ball of a foot here?

A large foot. And I count five toes. I thought you said it wasn't human.

I'm not saying it is. The weight distribution's all wrong.

People walk heel to toe.

Whatever this thing is, it walks on the ball of its foot.

You're putting me on.

No. My dad and I were Indian Guides. I know these things.

So if it's not man and it's not animal, what the hell is it?

Guess I'm a little late to this dance. I found some tracks. Right here.

Same as I saw before. Where was that?

In the woods. The weight distribution's strange.

They appear to be human, but whoever left these uses the balls of his feet, like an animal.

Whatever it is, it's att*cked three grown men, presumably in broad daylight, disposing of its prey without detection.

And it wasn't shy about coming out of the woods to try again.

What we've got is a predator with low visibility and a high degree of motivation.

And it's got one advantage we don't have: the entire Apalachicola National Forest.

Then how do you stop it? By identifying it. finding it before it finds somebody else.

It's called a FLIR, for Forward Looking Infra-Red.

It was developed for chopper pilots in Vietnam. Detects body heat at 300 yards.

That's pretty sophisticated for government issue.

I see you've met Jeff, our local tech-head. Some people prefer searching with dogs, I prefer an extra pair of hands if I get in trouble. Are we ready to go?

You can put away your cellphones. Communication is with short-wave radios.

So stay close, maintain visual contact.

If you get lost, initiate aural contact. That means holler.

If nobody responds, sit down. I'll find you. Don't go looking for me.

I know it sounds obvious, but folks still get lost.

OK.

I got you. Thank you. All right.

The local PD has all their resources looking out for a transient, a drifter who's wanted for a double homicide in Gadsden, Alabama.

They're amused by what we're doing. I don't think it's a drifter.

We may be looking for two individuals. Why do you say that?

That thing lured that woman out of the house to separate her from her son.

But for what purpose? Divide and conquer.

If your enemy is greater in numbers, you divide and conquer to diminish them.

What enemy would that be?

Encroaching development. That's what I suspected when I went to check on Louis.

This is about a housing tract?

That survey team was staking out a new 100,000-acre plot.

Civilization is pushing very hard into these woods.

Maybe something in these woods is pushing back.

Anything? No. Nothing at all. Not even wildlife.

Isn't that a little strange? Yeah.

This forest is usually alive with sound. I'm not an expert, but I've never seen it like this before.

It sure is beautiful, though. That's what happens.

People get to looking around, something eats 'em.

What k*lled those men?

Nature is full of creatures trying to k*ll something they need to survive, or trying to avoid being k*lled by something that needs them to survive.

If we become blinded by the beauty of it, we may fail to see its cruelty and v*olence.

Walt Whitman? No.

When Animals att*ck on the Fox network.

Wait. I've got something.

It's about 20 yards ahead.

Where? I don't see it. It's just sitting there.

It's on the move!

It's moving fast! It's going to the right!

Wait! There's two of them now. They're moving in opposite directions.

There, and there.

Where is it?

About 40 yards ahead of you.

I don't see it.

Now it's gone. I don't know where it went.

What is it? I don't know.

They're trying to separate us, pull us away from the others.

Let's go back.

Michele?

Michele?

Mulder, I need help!

Mulder!

Scully! Over here!

Scully! Over here!

What happened? I don't know.

Where's Fazekas? She was walking ahead of me, right here, and then she was just gone. I'm getting no reading.

What the hell's happening here? They separated us.

That was on purpose, so they could go after her.

She was in the lead, presumably the strongest. They take them first.

Take them where? You can't just disappear out here.

You're right. We gotta find her. How do we do that?

I don't know. We'll form a line and b*at the bushes. Maybe you'll pick up a signal.

No, we need help. We need manpower.

That's not gonna work out here!

We need to get outta here. Listen to me!

The longer we wait, the less chance we have of finding her.

This is nuts! This is looney tune, man.

We gotta get out of these woods before it gets dark.

OK, you're right. You go back.

You leave me the FLIR, and you go back.

We gotta go together. We have to find her.

Yeah, but if we stay here, they may not find any of us.

Mulder, he's right. We weren't prepared for this.

We have no way of telling them where we are, we have no food, Michele had our only water.

I'd like to find her too, but I think the risks of that are way too foolish.

All right. We all go, then.

You lead the way.

I don't have that much faith that this device will do us any good.

So far, all it's done is split us up.

Whatever it was we were chasing did show up on the screen.

What does that tell you? Nothing.

Except that we're going in the right direction.

Maybe it can regulate its temperature. You don't know of any animal that can?

Ticks. They can halt their metabolism for up to 18 years, going into suspended animation until something warm-blooded comes along.

That's interesting.

Why is that interesting?

30 years ago, the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was terrorized for over a year by something, k*lling livestock, terrorizing the people.

They were described as primitive-looking men with red, piercing eyes.

Became known as the "moth men". I got an X-file dating back to 1952 on it.

What would that be filed next to? "The cockroach that ate Cincinnati"?

No, "the cockroach" is in the C's. "Moth men" is over in the M's.

This isn't the way. What do you mean?

Michele always marks her route with white stones.

This is the same path. This is the way we came.

I haven't seen a stone for 20 minutes.

You've had your nose glued to that screen. I'm telling you, we're on the wrong trail!

Somehow we got off-track. Oh man! This is not happening.

This is not happening.

Everybody stand still.

There's something out there.

Where? About 40 or 50 yards out.

Jeff?

Nothing. I saw it,

The woods have gone silent again.

I got it! I got it on my screen. Where?

About 30 yards ahead. It's just sitting there.

What is he doing? Talk to him.

This is not a good idea. Talk to him, Jeff!

Go to your right.

It just disappeared. Mulder, it's not on the screen.

Scully, I lost it!

I got it.

Did you hit it? I don't know.

It just stopped. Where's Glaser?

How many sh*ts did you fire? Six, maybe seven.

Is that your only clip? Yep.

Don't fire unless you're sure you're gonna hit it.

It may be trying to spend our advantage.

What the hell is it, Mulder? I don't know.

But whatever it is, it's smarter than us.

At least out here.

Mulder? Mulder!

Scully!

Mulder!

Scully!

You OK?

You were an Indian Guide. Help me out here.

Indian Guide says maybe you should run to the store and get some matches.

I would, but I left my wallet in the car.

What are you doing? Trying to open my g*n.

If I can separate the shell from the casing, maybe I can get the powder to ignite.

And maybe it'll start raining weenies and marshmallows.

Do I detect a hint of negativity? No!

Yes, actually. Yeah.

Mulder, you need to keep warm. Your body's still in shock.

I was told the best way to regenerate body heat is to crawl naked into a sleeping bag with somebody else who's already naked.

Maybe if it rains sleeping bags, you'll get lucky.

Have you ever thought seriously about dying?

Yeah, once, when I was at the Ice Capades.

When I was fighting my cancer, I was angry at the injustice of it.

Its meaninglessness.

And then I realized that that was the struggle.

To give it meaning.

To make sense of it.

It's like life.

I think nature is supremely indifferent to whether we live or die.

If you're lucky you get 75 years. If you're really lucky, you get 80 years.

If you're extraordinarily lucky, you have 50 of those years with a decent head of hair.

I guess it's like Las Vegas. The house always wins.

Oh!

Ta-da.

Go, girl.

Hey, who did you identify with when you were a kid, Wilma or Betty?

I identified with Betty's bust-line. Yes, I did, too.

Could never have been married to Barney, though.

Their kids were cute.

Yeah. But where are they today?

Moth men? Really?

Yeah. But there seem to be only two of them.

I don't wanna wrestle.

Get over here. I'm going to try and keep you warm.

Ow. Sorry.

One of us has got to stay awake, Scully.

You sleep, Mulder.

If you get tired, you wake me.

I'm not gonna get tired.

Why don't you sing something? No, Mulder.

If you sing something, I'll know you're awake.

Mulder, I can't carry a tune. It doesn't matter. Just sing anything.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog Was a good friend of mine Never understood a single word he said But I helped him drink his wine

Chorus.

Joy to the world All the boys and girls Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea Joy to you and me

Scully?

Over here.

What are you doing?

Looking for food. I found some wild berries.

I wouldn't go far.

Mulder, you never left my sight.

Scully?

Scully?

Scully!

Scully!

Down here. Where?

I fell down a hole.

You all right?

Yeah. I landed on soft earth... kinda.

What's down there?

I don't know. It's pretty dark.

Oh!

Scully, what's going on? Are you OK?

I found Michele. Is she alive?

Not for much longer.

Mulder, we have to get her out of here. Is there a way out?

I don't know. I...

I'm in some kind of a chamber. There's...

It's like... some kind of network.

Mulder... Yeah?

I'm not alone.

I don't have my w*apon.

Mulder! Hold on. I'm gonna drop my g*n down.

Jeez! Mulder, are you OK?

Don't mind me.

Scully!

Mulder, look.

There has to be a scientific explanation for this.

Too bad we don't have any office furniture.

If they could see us now.

Go, team.

20 more bodies and we'll win the honey-baked ham.

Agent Mulder!

We're down here! We're down here!

What are you doing down there?

We've got injured people down here. We need a ladder.

Right away.

Hey! Over here!

Dad's gonna be OK.

He's gonna be OK.

He's gonna be fine.

I'm just going to say goodbye.

Well! We just got all the thanks, when you did all the work.

0n the contrary, Agent Kinsley. We'd never have got involved if not for you.

Really? Yeah. You see this?

Oh, yeah. I pointed that out to Agent Stonecypher.

There was something in the cave that Scully fell into, an inscription.

Ad noctum. That's Latin.

It means "into darkness".

The Spanish conquistadors used to carve it on the posts that they would lash the natives to, as a warning.

So who are you saying wrote this?

Ponce de Leén came here 450 years ago, looking for the Fountain of Youth.

You mean you think that these... that that... body, the one that Agent Scully sh*t...? No!

After 400 years, don't you think they'd have adapted to their environment?

You're just making this up. Why do you say that?

Cos... you work on the X-files, and you just want to write off your motel.

Search and Rescue are still unable to find Jeff Glaser, or the second predator you reported.

I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't find them.

Agent Mulder, I'm confused.

Why would they come after the boy in the house that night?

These predators have been in these woods a long time.

They would perceive any encroachment on their territory as an enemy, even a little kid.

But... that would mean that they'd come after any one of us that had gone into the woods, wouldn't it?

Where's Agent Scully? She got a lift back to the motel to pack up both your things. She did? Excuse me.

My jacket's in that car.

Scully!

Scully!

Mulder, what's going on?

Let's get outta here. OK.

Pack everything? Yeah.