X-Files: Case One

Pilot [2]

As Mulder tried to adjust it, the clock started changing as well. The radio became a high-pitched screeching, and Scully covered her ears.

Mulder looked up to the sky while bringing his arm back to reassure Star.

"What's going on?" Scully voiced as Mulder pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned it off.

Mulder and Scully both got out.

Mulder went to the trunk, moved a briefcase, pulled out a can of pink spray paint, and walked over to where the occurrence began.

As Scully watched in wonder, Mulder marked a giant 'X' on the ground, then tossed the spray paint can back into his trunk.

Mulder moved the briefcase back on top of the can and closed the trunk.

"What the hell was that about?" Scully questioned.

"Oh, you know...probably nothing," Mulder returned to the car and looked back at Star. "Are you okay?"

Star merely nodded meekly.

***

After driving through town, the agents and Star arrived at the cemetery. Getting out, they saw several men standing around, along with a crane.

John Truitt and his assistant walked over to Mulder, Scully, and Star. "Mister Mulder, John Trutt, County Coroner's Officer," John Truitt introduced.

"Yeah, hi," Mulder greeted as they shook hands. "This is Agent Scully,"

"Hi," Scully and Truitt shook hands.

"How soon can we get started?" Mulder asked.

"We're ready to go," John Truitt admitted.

"Oh great,"

"Okay, Vinnie!"

The crane started up as the five walked up the hill.

"Were you able to arrange for a, uh...an examination facility?" Mulder questioned.

"I think we got something for you..." John Truitt said.

A man and his teenage daughter pulled up to the site. "Excuse me!"

The group turned around to look at the man.

"Excuse me!" The man started towards them angrily but turned around and moved his daughter back to the passenger's side. "No. Please stay in the car...let me handle this. I want to talk to them,"

The girl got into the car.

The man walked over to the four officials. "I just don't know who you people think you are. You just think you can come up here and do whatever you damn well please, don't you?"

"I'm sorry, you are..." Mulder said.

"I'm Doctor Jay Nemman. I'm county medical examiner,"

"Surely, you must have been informed of our intentions to come up here,"

"No, uh, no. We've been away,"

"Oh, oh. Well, that answers the question that we had. Why you hadn't done the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson? You're aware of the tissue sample that was taken from the girl's body,"

"Wha...wha...what is the insinuation here?" Are you saying I missed something in those other kids' exams?"

"We're not insinuating anything, sir," Scully reasoned.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, see, well, I think you are. And if you're making an accusation, then you'd better have something to back it up,"

Dr. Newman's daughter got out of the car. "Daddy, please, let's just go home,"

Dr. Newman motioned for his daughter to wait.

"Let's go home, please,"

Dr. Newman glared at Mulder, then returned to the car and drove off.

"Guy needed a longer vacation,"

The group started back up the hill. They reached the gravesite, and the crane started scooping out the dirt above the coffin.

Scully read from the file loudly because the crane's whirring was loud. "Ray Soames was the third victim. After graduating high school, he spent time in a state mental hospital treated for post-adolescent schizophrenia"

"Soames confessed to the first two murders," Mulder noted. "He pleaded to be locked up, but he couldn't produce any evidence that he committed the crimes. Did you happen to read the cause of death?"

"Exposure. His body was found in the woods after escaping the hospital,"

"Missing for only seven hours in July." Mulder added, "How does a twenty-year-old boy die of exposure on a warm summer night in Oregon, Doctor Scully?"

Their conversation is put to a stop as the workers finally uncover the coffin.

"I got it," Two men helped pull out the coffin as it was being lifted by a harness.

Suddenly, one of the straps broke, and the coffin started rolling down the hill.

"Look out!"

Star hid behind a tombstone away from the chaos as the coffin hit the ground.

The coffin had been broken open.

Mulder went to open it, but Truitt grabbed his arm.

"This isn't official procedure," Truitt reasoned.

"Really?" Mulder opened the coffin anyway and saw a desiccated, mummified grayish body lying in the coffin.

The body was most certainly not human. The arms were very long, and the body was thin as well.

Everyone around the coffin gasped and covered their mouths, nauseous.

Mulder stood and looked around and noticed Star away from the scene. "It's probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the varsity basketball team." He turned to Truitt. "Seal it up, right now! Nobody sees or touches this. Nobody!"

***

Scully was dressed in her doctor's garb as Soames was laid on the table.

Mulder was taking pictures with a flashbulb, leaving Star in the waiting area. "This is amazing, Scully." he marveled. "You know what this could mean? It's almost too big even to comprehend,"

Scully ignored his comments as she went on with the procedure. "Subject is a hundred and fifty-six centimeters in length, weight fifty-two pounds in extremis. The corpse is in advanced stages of decay and desiccation. Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities, oblate cranium...indicates the subject is not human." she glared at Mulder. "Could you point that flash away from me, please?"

Mulder put the camera away. "If it's not human, what is it?"

"It's mammalian. My guess is it's a chimpanzee or something from the ape family, possibly an orangutan,"

"Buried in the city cemetery in Ray Soames' grave? Try telling that to the good townsfolk or Ray Soames' family. I want tissue samples and x-rays. I'd like blood type and toxicology and a full genetic work-up,"

"You're serious?"

"What we can't do here, we'll order to go,'

"You don't honestly believe this is some extraterrestrial? This is somebody's sick joke,"

"We can do those x-rays here, can't we? Is there any reason we can't do them right now?" Mulder looked Scully in the eye "I'm not crazy, Scully. I have the same doubts you do,"