(VERY realistic looking FOX 11 Newsbreak/Special Report screen.)

ANNOUNCER: We interrupt this program for a breaking news bulletin.

(Helicopter camera view of an old 70's blue sports car driving on a desert highway. Several police cars are in pusuit. Caption on screen reads KRXI - POLICE PURSUIT.)

NEWS ANCHOR: 90 miles and counting-- that's how far officers of the Nevada highway patrol have pursued the blue car on your screen in a wild chase right through the heart of Elko at speeds approaching 100 miles an hour.

(CUT TO: TV station. BENJAMIN is the NEWS ANCHOR.)

NEWS ANCHOR: Live on the scene in Carlin is Chuck Pickering in the Fox 11 news chopper. Chuck, what can you tell us?

(CUT TO: View of pursuit and of map showing route travelling west from Wells to Elko.)

CHOPPER REPORTER: (fuzzy radio voice) Benjamin, we're heading west following route 766, where it feeds off the I-80. Now, just under an hour ago, troopers attempted to pull over the blue car which we understand is stolen. That occurred on the 80, east of Wells. Since then, this driver has stopped for nothing and nobody.

NEWS ANCHOR: Any word yet on who the driver is?

CHOPPER REPORTER: None at this time. What we do think, though and what we've passed on to the Highway Patrol is that from our vantage point we've seen another person in that car. See, right there. A hand. (Camera gets close enough to show a hand on the back seat which then pulls out of view.) It just moved. See, in the back seat? Now, we could possibly have a hostage situation here. And, obviously, the sooner they bring this vehicle to a stop ….

(Camera begins to lose frame, then ...

CUT TO: interior of blue car. PATRICK CRUMP, blue collar, about 40, is driving. VICKY CRUMP, his wife, is lying in the back seat holding her head which is obviously in great pain. Her nose is bleeding. He keeps looking back at her. High pitched sound is heard from her perspective.)

(CUT TO: PATROLMAN stretching a length of barbed chain across the road.)

PATROLMAN: (into radio) Unit six, ready at milepost 13.

PATROLMAN 2: (voice on radio) Coming your way, six.

(Around bend of road we see the news helicopter then CRUMP's car followed by the patrol cars. CRUMP drives over the chain blowing out all four tires. The PATROLMAN quickly jerks the chain out of the way for the patrol cars which quickly converge on the slowing blue car.)

CHOPPER REPORTER: Well, that did the trick. The automobile seems to be coming to a stop.

NEWS ANCHOR: Chuck, what did they just use there?

(CRUMP has stopped and troopers are surrounding the car, rifles out. They pull CRUMP out of the car onto the pavement.)

CHOPPER REPORTER: It looked to be a special tire-puncturing chain. And now the officers are approaching the car. One of them has opened the door, and he has hold of the suspect. He's pulling him out. He doesn't seem to have a weapon.

NEWS ANCHOR: He may not be armed but from our vantage point, it looks like he doesn't want to get out of that car.

(Troopers get VICKY CRUMP out of the car. She is in great pain. CRUMP struggles and screams from where he is held on the pavement.)

CRUMP: Vicky! Vicky!

VICKY CRUMP: (weakly) Please get it out of my head.

CRUMP: Vicky! Vicky! No! Let me go! Let me go! Vicky! No! Let me go! I got to go! Vicky! No!

(Troopers place VICKY CRUMP in back of patrol car and close the door.)

NEWS ANCHOR: ...Hostage appears to be okay. The Highway Patrol has her now. But Chuck, it looks like that driver is still fighting.

CHOPPER REPORTER: Yes. He's definitely putting up a bit of a fight. He seems to be a man with a few choice words on the subject as you can see. They're trying to restrain him. I tell you what. We're going to move back and try to get a wider angle. See, there's the woman …. (VICKY CRUMP is banging her head against the window.) What the heck? She's ….

CRUMP: Vicky! Vicky!

(VICKY CRUMP and CRUMP look at each other through the window.)

CHOPPER REPORTER: There, see? She's banging her head against the window.

(Chopper camera shows explosion of blood against the patrol car window.)

CHOPPER REPORTER: What the hell just happened?

STUDIO DIRECTOR: CUT! CUT! CUT!

(SCULLY knocks at a farmhouse door. FARMER, 40's, answers the door.)

FARMER: Yeah?

SCULLY: Uh, Virgil Nokes? I'm Agent Scully. This is Agent Mulder. We're with the FBI.

(MULDER, in dark sunglasses, leans against one of the porch supports very bored and petulant, eating sunflower seeds.)

FARMER: Jehovah's Witness?

SCULLY: No, sir. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

MULDER: But we do have a free copy of the Watchtower for you if you'd like.

SCULLY: Uh, sir, this is just a routine check but, uh, we understand that you recently placed an order for 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

FARMER: Oh, you people. Come on in.

(SCULLY and MULDER follow the FARMER into the house. TV is on news channel.)

REPORTER: (on TV) ...with the President. She's said to have admitted to an 18-month affair...

FARMER: Sugar beets.

SCULLY: Excuse me?

FARMER: I grow sugar beets.

REPORTER: (on TV) ... authorities in Riverside County, California …

FARMER: I figure I got better things to do with my fertilizer than going around blowing government buildings sky high.

SCULLY: Yeah. Well, as we said, sir this is just routine.

MULDER: (quietly to SCULLY) So routine, it numbs the mind.

REPORTER: (on TV) ... Experts credit a healthy economy …

FARMER: (looking through papers on his desk) I got my AG card and my papers 'round here somewhere.

REPORTER: (on TV) ... a strange death on a Nevada highway.

FARMER: Help me look for them, will you?

(MULDER watches the scene on the TV.)

REPORTER: (on TV) ... As we reported earlier a wild police pursuit ended in tragedy this morning with the death of a 36-year-old female hostage. This was the scene west of Elko, Nevada, one hour ago...

MULDER: Hey, Scully, take a look at this.

REPORTER: (on TV) ... ...died mysteriously while in custody. We once again want to warn our viewers this footage is extremely graphic.

(SCULLY joins MULDER at the TV.)

CHOPPER REPORTER: (taped) Now the hostage is still inside the car. It appears that she is banging her head against the window …

NEWS ANCHOR: (taped) At this time, highway patrol officials are refusing to identify the woman or to speculate on how she died. …. Though they do stress it was not the result of a gunshot. ….. Coroner's report is not expected for a day or more. Meanwhile residents of Northern Nevada who first witnessed….

(Later, outside the farmer's house, MULDER is on his cell phone next to the car. Mid-conversation, SCULLY comes out of the house to join him.)

MULDER: (on phone) Thank you, Captain. That's no problem. We'd be happy to help. Mm-hmm.

SCULLY: (knowing exactly what MULDER is doing) We'll be happy to help what?

MULDER: (on phone) See you soon. (hangs up)

(They face off over the top of the car.)

SCULLY: (definite) Mulder, we're not going to Nevada.

MULDER: Come on, Scully. Just one quick side trip.

SCULLY: No. Sorry, Mulder. We have a whole new assignment.

MULDER: Running down people that buy fertilizer? This is scut work, bozo work-- the FBI equivalent of being made to wear an orange jumpsuit and pick up trash by the side of the highway-- they mean to humiliate us.

SCULLY: Look, Mulder, like it or not, humiliated or not, we're on domestic terrorism now and, yes, this is... This is a punishment but if we want to get back to where we want to be we have to follow orders. We can't freelance.

MULDER: You saw that news report. What did you make of that?

SCULLY: I think that the obvious assumption is that the woman was shot, regardless of what the police say. Maybe it was a sniper.

MULDER: In the words of their captain "she just sort of popped." And what about this guy who supposedly tried to take her hostage, her husband? Looked to me like he was trying to warn the cops before she died. Now, the sun will rise in America tomorrow regardless of whether or not we're at yet another farm investigating yet another enormous pile of doo-doo. We can be in and out in a day. Nobody has to know.

(SCULLY wavers. MULDER waggles his eyebrows at her.)

(Interior jail cell. CRUMP is lying on cot. He reaches up and realizes his nose is bleeding. High pitched buzzing is heard. He begins to panic.)

CRUMP: S-s-somebody! Please! It's starting! Somebody!

(Later, in another part of the police station, MULDER and SCULLY speak with a CAPTAIN.)

MULDER: Why can't we see him?

CAPTAIN: Well, hopefully later. He pitched quite a fit in his cell-- screaming a bunch of nonsense that we were going to kill him the way we killed his wife. You know, he's not a particularly stable individual.

SCULLY: Captain, he may need medical attention.

CAPTAIN: He's getting it. Our doctor's with him now. I mean, after whatever happened to his wife-- which I'd like to stress was not our fault-- we're not going to take any chances, you know?

SCULLY: (reading) Patrick Garland Crump of Montello, Nevada.

MULDER: 40-year-old roofer. No history of mental illness. No prior record.

CAPTAIN: He's got one now. That Barracuda he jacked on the Utah state line? He yanked some teenager out of the window threw his wife in back and took off. Excuse me. (steps away)

MULDER: What do you think?

SCULLY: I'm thinking while we're here I might take a look at Mr. Crump's wife.

MULDER: I'm going to stay here and see if I can see Crump.

(SCULLY goes off in search of the morgue. MULDER crosses over to a wall map of the area.)

MULDER: Captain, where's Montello?

CAPTAIN: Little town right here.

MULDER: So that's where it started. That's Crump's home. Then he headed east in this direction on the 5 about ten miles to the Utah border where he stole the car.

CAPTAIN: You got it.

MULDER: Yeah, but you caught up with him in Wells. Where's that?

CAPTAIN: That's here.

MULDER: So that means that he started off in this direction. Then all of a sudden, he turned around and he headed west... To Wells. Why?

(CAPTAIN shrugs. Mulder nods.)

(Later. Autopsy bay. CORONER and SCULLY enter dressed in scrubs, but no eye protection. Body of VICKY CRUMP lies on one of the tables.)

CORONER: The former Vicky Jenkins Crump. I'm hoping you can tell me what I'm looking at 'cause this is a new one on me.

(SCULLY looks at the head which is blown out on one side.)

SCULLY: There's no gunpowder residue... No carbon stippling. There seems to be no evidence of an entry wound whatsoever.

CORONER: There is none. It's all exit, but how that could be...?

SCULLY: I'm finding what look like fragments of petrous bone embedded in the remaining portion of the auditory canal. In fact, I seem to be looking straight through to the osseous labyrinth or what's left of it.

CORONER: It's almost like a little bomb went off in her ear.

SCULLY: May I?

CORONER: Please.

(SCULLY begins probing inside the ear.)

SCULLY: There seems to be some kind of tumefaction within the lateral sinus.

(Suddenly, an explosion of blood bursts out of the ear onto SCULLY's scrubs. The two women look at each other apprehensively.)

(Outside the prison, CRUMP is being loaded into an ambulance. He is beginning to convulse badly. MULDER follows the stretcher.)

EMT: Patient is a white male, age 40, no known history...

EMT 2: No, he just went rammy on me. Accucheck is normal. We did a narcan push but he keeps getting worse. Okay. IV beta blocker and topical nitro.

CAPTAIN: I don't know if you're going to get to talk to this fella after all.

(MULDER tries to get into the ambulance with them. EMT stops him and shuts the door.)

EMT: Five's a crowd, buddy.

(MULDER gets in his car and follows the ambulance as it pulls away.)

(Inside the ambulance as the speedometer approaches 75, CRUMP relaxes.)

EMT: Whoa. Something must have worked. Heart rate's dropping.

EMT 2: BP's headed south. I don't understand; what'd you just do?

EMT: Hell if I know but I'll take it.

(CRUMP eyes the guard and his gun.)

(MULDER notices the ambulance swerving, then stopping by the side of the road. He pulls up right behind it. CRUMP jumps out of the back of the ambulance and points gun at MULDER. MULDER looks resigned.)

(Back in autopsy bay, SCULLY dials MULDER on a BRAND NEW cell phone. Cool flip thing.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Oh, God. Come on, Mulder.

(Lab technician enters and SCULLY quickly pushes him back out the door.)

SCULLY: Hey, you, out! This lab is quarantined. Go! (locks doors) Mulder?

MULDER: (on phone, voice) Yeah.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it's me. You know how to pick them, I'll tell you that. Look, I have no idea what killed this woman but I have to assume it's communicable.

MULDER: (on phone, voice) Yeah.

SCULLY: (on phone) Another body has been found just outside of Montello --- same apparent cause of death - some kind of massive aneurysm or rupture.

MULDER: (on phone, voice) Uh-huh.

SCULLY: (on phone) And Mulder, I've called the CDC. They're on their way but Patrick Crump may be infected. So you need to quarantine his cell and make sure that anybody who's had any close contact with him whatsoever has been quarantined as well, and that means you, Mulder. You're to have no contact with him whatsoever.

MULDER: (on phone, voice) (sighs)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder?

MULDER: (on phone) Well, that's going to be a little tough, Scully.

(In the car's back seat, CRUMP takes the phone from MULDER's ear looks back at the patrol cars following them, and continues pointing the gun at MULDER.)

CRUMP: Drive.

(SCULLY, still in the lab, crumples up a paper with a phone number - 202-555-1066 - on it that she has been holding up to an observation window. The CAPTAIN on the other side of the window begins talking to her through their respective cell phones. They can see each other, but all audio is through the phones.)

SCULLY: Where are they?

CAPTAIN: Route 789, heading west. We're keeping them in visual plus we're in phone contact not to mention the strings we pulled to keep this off local TV.

SCULLY: Where are they going?

CAPTAIN: Crump won't say. Wherever it is, though, he ain't getting there.

SCULLY: Roadblock?

CAPTAIN: We'll shut him down east of Tuscarora-- nice, clean, remote space we can own.

SCULLY: All right. I want the CDC on-site. I want the officers making the arrest to be wearing level two or better anti-contamination suits. I want the car decontaminated. I want Agent Mulder and Crump decontaminated. I want them quarantined separately.

CAPTAIN: You got it.

(An officer comes up to the CAPTAIN and says something that SCULLY can't hear through the glass. Bad news. The CAPTAIN pauses, then speaks again into the cell phone.)

CAPTAIN: Crump says that if we don't pull back our escort he's going to shoot your partner.

(Inside MULDER's car. They are being closely pursued by several patrol cars. CRUMP is very agitated, still holding gun on MULDER.)

CRUMP: (into phone, looking back at cars) You just leave me the hell alone! Now!

(Poilce cars drop back.)

MULDER: How about if we just pull over and let me out, too, huh? I must be cramping your style.

CRUMP: Just... Shut up. (looks at MULDER's badge) It's you people. Figures.

MULDER: What figures?

CRUMP: Shut up.

( Phone rings. CRUMP looks at it in frustration then throws it out the window. It bounces down the highway behind them. )

MULDER: Hey! No! (furious) That is... so stupid, Crump.

CRUMP: Shut up.

MULDER: That is so stupid.

CRUMP: You shut up and drive, you understand?

(MULDER slows the car as they approach a stoplight. They idle behind a U-Haul. CRUMP begins screaming in pain.)

CRUMP: What are you doing?

MULDER: What? What am I doing?

CRUMP: What the hell are you doing?

MULDER: (sarcastically) I'm composing a sonnet. I'm slowing down for a light.

CRUMP: Go! Go!

(MULDER looks at CRUMP almost passed out. He makes the decision, then floors the gas pedal, weaving through the busy intersection. When the speed of the car builds back up, CRUMP begins to relax.)

MULDER: Crump? Is this what happened to your wife? This same thing? If you stop moving, you die? I think I saw this movie. Why didn't you tell anybody? Why didn't you tell the police?

CRUMP: (breathless) Oh, geez.

MULDER: I don't know how well you recall the last 30 seconds but your life is in my hands regardless of whether or not you hold that gun.

CRUMP: (brandishing gun) It's right here, boy.

MULDER: Just tell me everything you know. That may be the only way I can help you.

CRUMP: You people put me here!

MULDER: Shut up. I'm guessing we got two or three miles before the roadblock.

CRUMP: What roadblock? I got rid of the cops.

MULDER: Check your window.

(CRUMP looks out window and sees chopper flying overhead.)

CRUMP: Oh, God. Man, if we get stopped...

(3 miles down the road, road block is set up. Full decontamination team is present.)

CHOPPER PILOT: (voice) Subject's turning off 789 about a mile east of your position and is heading north on a fire road. Looks like he's going to miss you.

(DECON MAN and troopers look at each other.)

DECON MAN: Say what?

(CUT TO: The station. SCULLY and the CAPTAIN talking on phones.)

SCULLY: What's the report, Captain?

CAPTAIN: They lost them. They were last seen on a forestry service road. Trees were too thick. Our helicopter lost sight of them.

SCULLY: How did Crump know to avoid the roadblock?

CAPTAIN: That's the question. I was hoping your Agent Mulder would manage to steer him toward it, but...

SCULLY: Maybe Agent Mulder steered him away from it.

CAPTAIN: Why would he do that?

SCULLY: Maybe he knew something that we don't.

(They hang up. In the lab with SCULLY and the CORONER is the prison DOCTOR in a decontamination outfit looking in a microscope.)

DOCTOR: Agent Scully, I've got the cell cultures from the second victim.

SCULLY: Anything?

DOCTOR: So far, I'm seeing no evidence of infection in either victim.

CORONER: So then, we're in the clear?

SCULLY: No, no. Not necessarily. I mean, something killed these people.

( SCULLY's cell phone rings. )

SCULLY: Sorry. Excuse me. (on phone) Scully.

KERSH'S ASSISTANT: (on phone, voice) Please hold for Assistant Director Kersh.

(SCULLY sighs, not wanting to deal with this.)

AD KERSH: (on phone, voice) Agent Scully.

SCULLY: (on phone) Yes, sir.

AD KERSH: (on phone, very condescending) How is Southern Idaho? Agent Scully? Southern Idaho? Think carefully.

SCULLY: (on phone) Sir, I am not currently in the state of Idaho.

AD KERSH: (on phone) No, you're not.

SCULLY: (on phone) In the course of prosecuting our assignment in Idaho, Agent Mulder and I came across a situation in Nevada which we both strongly felt needed our immediate attention.

AD KERSH: (on phone) I eagerly await your report. In the meantime, agents of our Las Vegas field office will be available to assist you in tracking down Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: (on phone) Thank you, sir.

AD KERSH: (on phone) Oh, Agent Scully... I think, at this point I want to see him alive even more than you do.

(SCULLY hangs up.)

SCULLY: (taking latest victim's chart) Can I see that for a minute? (reading) This man worked at Silver State Power reading meters.

CORONER: Yes.

SCULLY: What if he read the meter at Vicky Crump's place?

(MULDER's car on small two dirt lane road.)

MULDER: Crump? Crump, what else can you tell me about what's happening to you?

CRUMP: Mr. Crump. You call me by my last name, you say "mister" in front of it.

MULDER: "Mister." I got you.

CRUMP: Not Crump. Mr. Crump.

MULDER: I can think of something else I'd like to call you. I could put "mister" in front of that, too if you'd like.

CRUMP: You know, what kind of name is Mulder, anyway? What is that, like... like, Jewish?

MULDER: (disbelieving) Excuse me?

CRUMP: Jewish... It is, right?

MULDER: (mad) It's Mr. Mulder to you, you peanut-picking bastard. Now, Mr. Crump what can you tell me about what's happening to you?

(CRUMP screams in agony.)

MULDER: What?

CRUMP: You're going... The wrong way.

MULDER: What do you mean?

CRUMP: Go this... Go this way!

MULDER: I can't... I can't go... I can't go left. There's only trees there. Crump.

(CRUMP is in increasing pain, banging his head on the window. MULDER turns off onto a side road, barely missing another car. CRUMP begins to relax again.)

MULDER: Crump... It's west. Huh, west? You got to head west. It's just like you did with your wife. You took her and you headed west. It's not just motion; it has to be in one direction. Is that right? What the hell happened to you?

(Night. Creepy. Outside the CRUMP's mobile home. SCULLY and others, all dressed in decontamination outfits and carrying LARGE flashlights get out of a van and approach the house.)

SCULLY: Okay, I want a thorough search with an eye to the usual disease vectors.

DOCTOR: You got it.

(They hear barking and find a dog running in circles, very agitated.)

SCULLY: I think we're witnessing the same pathology here.

DOCTOR: We need to get a blood sample.

SCULLY: Let's go.

(The team restrains the dog.)

DOCTOR: Try to hold him still!

SCULLY: Hang on. Let me sedate him.

(Dog gives final series of yelps, then blood explodes onto one of the men holding the dog down. The team looks at each other in shock. The dog is dead.)

(Night. Inside MULDER's car.)

MULDER: One more time. You woke up this morning… then what?

CRUMP: (exhausted) We have been through this.

MULDER: You woke up this morning but you didn't go to work. Why?

CRUMP: It was raining. You don't shingle in the rain. I was up at 6:00, reading the paper.

MULDER: What was your wife doing?

CRUMP: (long pause) Cooking, man. Breakfast. She was just putting breakfast on the table when the...

MULDER: You looked up.

CRUMP: I looked up, and I saw that she had this nosebleed she didn't even know she had.

MULDER: What caused it?

CRUMP: What do I... I'm... I'm, like, Quincy? How the hell should I know what caused it? It just happened. Ten, 15 minutes later, she just... Starts getting sick. Said she got a headache that just... keeps getting worse and worse. (pause) Then she starts... screaming. I didn't know what the hell to do. I just, uh... I got her in the truck and... Taking her to the hospital but then it seemed like the faster we went the better she'd do but just as soon as I try to slow down or stop...

MULDER: I'm sorry about your wife.

CRUMP: Sure, you are... You and the rest of your Jew FBI.

MULDER: Crump...

CRUMP: Oh, yeah. You think I don't know, huh? You think I'm just some ignorant pudknocker, don't you? But I get it, man! I see what this is! I am not sick and I do not have the flu. Vicky and me were just some kind of... Government guinea pigs.

MULDER: You think the government did this to you?

CRUMP: Hell, yeah. Who else? You see it all the time on the TV: they're dropping Agent Orange, they're putting radiation in little retarded kids' gonads... Oh, yeah. You sons of bitches sneaking around my woods at night-- I seen you. You think I don't know?

(Gas gauge is on E.)

MULDER: Well, on behalf of the international Jewish conspiracy I just need to inform you that we're... almost out of gas.

(At the CRUMP's house, SCULLY and the decon team is still looking around. The dog is loaded into the van.)

DOCTOR: The trailer looks clean-- no readily apparent vectors.

SCULLY: Dogs, housewives... Whatever this thing is, it doesn't discriminate.

DOCTOR: There are zoonotic pathogens which spread among species.

(They see a light close by.)

SCULLY: Look at that.

DOCTOR: The Crumps have a neighbor.

(The team enters the other house. All is dark.)

SCULLY: Hello! Hello?

(SCULLY shines her light into a birdcage with two dead birds, their heads exploded.)

SCULLY: Doctor? (he joins her) Hello? Hello?

(SCULLY sees a person sitting in front of a TV. ELDERLY WOMAN jumps up when SCULLY's flashlight shines toward her and begins screaming. SCULLY tries to calm her down.)

SCULLY: Oh, no. It's okay, ma'am.

ELDERLY WOMAN: Who are you?

(From her voice pattern and the closed captioning on the TV we see that she is deaf.)

SCULLY: It's all right. I'm sorry.

ELDERLY WOMAN: Go away! Go away!

SCULLY: It's okay. It's okay.

(The woman is still terrified, but calms down a little.)

(Night. Mulder's car. CRUMP is lying in backseat, very tired.)

MULDER: Okay, Crump, we got about one more mile. I'll make it fast. You ready? Here goes nothing.

(MULDER whips into a gas station, leaps out of the car and grabs a pump, realizes it won't reach the tank which is, of course, on the far side of the car, then grabs another pump with a really long hose. He runs around and sticks it in the tank and squeezes. Nothing happens. CRUMP's nose is bleeding. MULDER yells into the station where some good ol' boys are standing around the register.)

MULDER: Hey, turn on the pump! Number four! Three! Number three! Turn it on!

ATTENDANT: (over intercom) You got to pay before you pump, buddy!

(MULDER drops the pump, opens the back door and pulls CRUMP out. He drags him over to an old station wagon also at the pumps and pushes him into the backseat. Leaping into the driver's seat of the wagon, he drives away. Fortunately, the pump that was in the wagon falls out and MULDER doesn't drag the whole pump assembly with him. The OWNER of the station wagon comes running out of the gas station.)

OWNER OF THE CAR: Hey, dammit, that's my car! Where the hell do you think you're going?

(Camera pans into the car Mulder just deserted showing an envelope on the front seat marked as "Agent Dana Scully FBI".)

(Night. CRUMP house. ELDERLY LADY now in decon suit, is helped into the van.)

SCULLY: (to DOCTOR) One deaf woman survives unscathed while everything else around her dies. Why?

(Pause. SCULLY removes the hood of her decon suit.)

DOCTOR: What... What are you doing?

SCULLY: The pathology of this thing... It affects the inner ear and this area right here is ground zero. What if what we're looking for is some kind of a sound?

DOCTOR: Seriously?

(Inside her suit, SCULLY's phone rings. Takes SCULLY a moment to realize what it is.)

SCULLY: Oh. Excuse me. (on phone) Scully.

CAPTAIN: (on phone, the signal crackling) It's Van Gelder. Agent, I don't know what the hell your partner's thinking but not only is he actively evading my officers, now he's stolen a car.

SCULLY: (on phone) Come again?

CAPTAIN: (on phone) You heard right. He left behind a crazy note addressed to you. (no response) You there?

SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Read it to me.

CAPTAIN: (on phone) "Crump sick; will die if stopped same as wife. Must head west to keep alive. No roadblocks!" Exclamation point. This make any sense to you?

SCULLY: (on phone) Take him at his word. Let him through.

CAPTAIN: (on phone) Let him through? Look, uh... No offense, Agent Scully but how 'bout you run that by your superiors 'cause frankly, I think they'll say different.

SCULLY: (on phone) I'll take that under advisement.

CAPTAIN: (on phone, signal breaking up) Agent Scully, again, I got to say I feel like we got a situation here that...

(Sound of high voltage humming. SCULLY walks over to see a metal plate reading US GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. No phone signal now at all.)

(Inside the station wagon. CRUMP is in pain.)

CRUMP: Faster.

MULDER: I'm doing 70.

CRUMP: You got to go faster. It's getting worse.

MULDER: Okay.

(MULDER speeds up to 80.)

CRUMP: Yeah, yeah. That's good. Okay. Hey, uh... The Jew stuff? No offense. I mean, uh... A man can't help who he's born to.

MULDER: (sarcastic) That was an apology, right? Gee, I don't know if I can see to drive my eyes are tearing up so bad.

CRUMP: Whatever, man. Why are you doing this?

MULDER: Why am I doing what?

CRUMP: This.

MULDER: It's not in your best interest to make me question that right now.

CRUMP: How do I know you ain't doing exactly what they want you to? Hmm? Driving me all around creation, experimenting on me... How do I know it ain't that?

MULDER: I guess you don't.

CRUMP: I ain't saying you are. I'm just saying... That's no way to treat a man take away his dignity like that. It ain't right. Better just to kill him. That's all I'm saying.

MULDER: Hey, you got to stay alive if you want to stick it to the government. If you die, you let them off the hook. Am I right? Huh?

CRUMP: (trying to be positive) You're right. You're damn straight.

MULDER: We'll figure this out.

CRUMP: You'd better figure quick. We're running out of west.

(They pass a billboard welcoming them to California - Gateway to the Pacific.)

(Navy base. SCULLY approaches LIEUTENANT BRIEL. There is a poster on the wall with the word "Project Seafarer.")

SCULLY: Lieutenant Breil? My name is Dana Scully. I called in regard to the electrical equipment the Navy is maintaining in the town of Montello.

LIEUTENANT BREIL: Right. I don't know if there's been some miscommunication between you and your Washington office, but, uh...

SCULLY: My Washington office?

LIEUTENANT BREIL: Yeah. I was under the impression that I'd explained this to the FCC's satisfaction.

SCULLY: Oh, I'm... I'm so sorry to make you run through it again, uh... For my official report to the, uh... To the FCC.

LIEUTENANT BREIL: OKAY. AT 6:17 yesterday morning during a test of our ground conduction radio system a situation arose in which our equipment experienced a brief power surge. That's what interrupted television reception in the four-state area. However, steps have already been taken to insure this won't happen again.

SCULLY: The ground conduction radio-- th-that would be Project Seafarer?

LIEUTENANT BREIL: The specifics of what we do here are classified, ma'am.

SCULLY: Sure, sure. Um... Would you happen to know what effect such a surge might have on, uh... On an organism... Say, a... Say, a human being? (pause) Theoretically speaking.

LIEUTENANT BREIL: Theoretically speaking? Well, that's classified as well, ma'am.

(They look at each other suspiciously.)

(Next morning. Inside station wagon. CRUMP is lying down in back seat.)

MULDER: Crump?

CRUMP: Mr. Crump.

MULDER: Mr. Crump...

CRUMP: What is it, Mr. Mulder?

(MULDER points out the back window through which can be seen two California Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles following them. MULDER looks in rearview mirror. One of the Officers is holding something up. It's a cell phone.)

(SCULLY is getting on a small jet.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, are you okay?

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, aside from terminal cell phone withdrawal... That, and I got to pee. Where are you?

SCULLY: (on phone) I'm just about to board a justice department jet... Hopefully, I'll overshoot you.

MULDER: (on phone) Headed where?

SCULLY: (on phone) I don't know, Mulder. You tell me.

MULDER: (on phone) I'm guessing wherever the hell route 36 ends but we can't stop, Scully. I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do next.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I think I have a loose theory as to what caused this.

MULDER: (on phone) Well, lay it on me.

SCULLY: (on phone) Okay. Mulder, you know what ELF waves are? Extremely low radio transmissions?

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah. It uses an antenna, like, 50 miles long. The military uses it to communicate with the trident submarines, Project Seafarer, Project Haarp.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, Seafarer has an antenna array stretching beneath the edge of Patrick Crump's property. Now, ELF fields have been shown to... To produce biological effects in human tissue inducing electrical currents, altering chemical reactions.

MULDER: (on phone) Not to mention that as a potential weapons application it's been referred to as "electrical nerve gas" or may be behind the so-called "Taos Hum."

SCULLY: (on phone) What if some overload some... Some hum from this system could somehow match the resonant frequency of the human skull? I mean, what if it could induce a like hum that could... That could somehow exert a rising pressure on the labyrinth of the inner ear in a sense shattering it?

MULDER: (on phone) But with constant movement somehow ameliorating that pressure making it bearable. But why only westward movement?

SCULLY: (on phone) I don't know, Mulder, I don't know. I mean... I mean, maybe it has to follow certain lines of force electrical or magnetic. I mean, maybe...

MULDER: (on phone) The big question, Scully, is what do we do about it?

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I think I know, Mulder, but it's nothing that Mr. Crump is going to like.

(Long pause as MULDER listens to SCULLY. He cringes.)

MULDER: (on phone) We'll be there.

(MULDER hangs up.)

CRUMP: What?

MULDER: Well, whether they did this to you intentionally or not, you were right. They did it to you.

CRUMP: So, what do we... what do we do?

MULDER: Your one chance is that we meet my partner at the end of the highway. There, she will insert a long, large-bore needle into your inner ear hopefully relieving the pressure. Now, when we get there she's going to have to work fast. She's only going to have one chance. She's not going to be able to use any anesthetic and it will probably leave you deaf.

CRUMP: (hopefully) But I'll live, right? Well, that's what it's all about. All right, man. (pats MULDER on the shoulder) Let's do it. Mr. Mulder, could you go a little faster, please? Just a little more is all I need.

MULDER: Sure.

(MULDER goes up to 90.)

CRUMP: (very weak) Go a little faster, please? Just a little bit faster.

(End of the highway. It dead ends into the rocky Pacific coast. SCULLY stands next to an ambulance holding a VERY evil looking enormous needle in her hand. Escorted by the CHP motorcycles, the station wagon approaches.)

SCULLY: Get ready!

(The wagon passes the ambulance and stops at the very end of the road. SCULLY runs up to it, but slows when she sees the blood splattered on the back window. MULDER gets out of the car and walks to the edge of the beach taking off his tie. SCULLY watches him as he crumples the tie in his hand and stares out over the water. [He might be peeing. Hands are in the right place.])

(AD KERSH's office. MULDER and SCULLY stand in front of his desk as he reads the expense report out loud to them.)

AD KERSH: "Justice department jet: 2.6 turbine hours round trip at $1,400 an hour. Car rental - over-mileage, out-of-state use penalties: $346. Compensation to one Walter R. Duncan for unauthorized use of his 1968 Caprice station wagon: $500."

MULDER: Why don't you bill me?

AD KERSH: I'll bill your partner instead. You two obviously relish the role of martyr.

MULDER: Okay. So are we done here? Back to the bozo work investigating huge piles of manure?

AD KERSH: (needling MULDER) You can always quit.

(MULDER looks at SCULLY, then walks out of the office, slamming the door behind him.)

SCULLY: Sir, Agent Mulder has been through a lot.

AD KERSH: And you apologize for him a lot. I've noticed that about you.

SCULLY: I'm not apologizing for this. Because of his work, the DOD is shutting down their antenna array in northeastern Nevada. Our participation in this case has saved lives.

AD KERSH: I don't see you proving that. The Department of Defense admits no culpability whatsoever. Furthermore, they say the closing of the facility was coincidental.

SCULLY: ("yeah, right" tone) Right.

AD KERSH: Don't misunderstand me, Agent. I don't care if you and your partner saved a school bus full of doe-eyed urchins on their way to Sunday bible camp. You no longer investigate X-Files. You are done and the sooner you and Mulder come to recognize that, the better for both of you.

(SCULLY turns to leave the office.)

SCULLY: (under her breath, but loudly enough to be heard) Big piles of manure.

[THE END]