(Waterfront house. Sky is dark. Early evening? Hard to tell since a hurricane is wreaking havoc on the shore. Inside the SHIPLEY's house, SARA SHIPLEY is frantically hammering boards over the doors and windows. Rain is pouring into the house. She has to yell to be heard over the storm as she calls to her son.)

SARA: Evan! Evan! Where are you?! Evan! Evan! Evan! Evan, hurry! Please!

(EVAN SHIPLEY, teenage boy, is trying to get water to come out of the kitchen tap. He is wearing a blue football jersey with his last name on it.)

EVAN: Nothing's coming out!

RADIO ANNOUNCER: ...with winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Currently, the storm system is stalled 25 miles off the Florida coast. Again, the hour's lead story Tropical Storm Leroy has been upgraded to Hurricane Leroy. The entire Gulf Coast is bracing for its arrival.

(SARA runs over to help EVAN. Still, no water will come out of the tap.)

SARA: Damn it!

(SARA turns and sees water bubbling up out of the floor drain. The water looks thick and slimy.)

EVAN: Mom, is Dad going to be all right? Mom? What about Dad? Mom, what about Dad?!

SARA: We need water. Right now!

(She opens washing machine. It is full of water and clothes.)

EVAN: Mom!

SARA: (on verge of panic) Just do as I say, Evan! Come help me! Help me pull the washer out,.please, Evan just help me.

(EVAN looks behind the washer and sees a very wet miserable looking cat.)

EVAN: Mom, Reggie's back here!

SARA: Evan, let the cat alone! All right, unplug the machine, Honey. Unplug the machine. Pull that hose out of the wall. I'm going to pull. I need you to get behind the machine and push. I'm going to pull, you push. (EVAN squeezes himself behind the machine and braces his feet on the wall.) We're going to tip the washing machine over. We need to dump the water out. All right, honey, push! Push! Push, Evan!

(The back feet of the machine come off the floor, but they are not strong enough and it falls back to the floor.)

SARA: (desperate) Push, Evan! Are you pushing?

(More slimy water bubbles out of the drain.)

SARA: Evan! Evan, answer me! (worried, looking over the washer) Evan...

(EVAN is gripping the edge of the washer. Suddenly, his hand is jerked out of view.)

EVAN: Mom!

SARA: Evan! Evan!

(SARA climbs on top of the washer and looks down behind the machine. Several long, white squid-like tentacles are wrapped around EVAN's neck.)

SARA: (screaming and tugging at the tentacles) Let him go! Let go of him! Let go of him! Let him go!

(More slime and another tentacle come out of the drain.)

SARA: Let him g...

(Her words turn into bloodcurdling screams as she is jerked off the machine to the floor.)

(MULDER's apartment. Camera pans around the apartment as the phone rings and the answering machine comes on. No one is home. We see the guitar player sculpture on his desk for the first time. Mulder might also want to consider purchasing a new answering machine.)

MULDER'S ANSWERING MACHINE: Hi, this is Fox Mulder. You can leave me a message after the beep.

(Closed captioning also had this added: "If this is you, Scully, call me on my cell phone. I think you know the number."

ARTHUR DALES: (voice on machine) Agent Mulder, this is Arthur Dales calling from Florida. [Closed captioning also had: Took me three operators to get this crappy connection.] I don't know if you're watching the news but we're in for a hell of a blow in the next 12 to 24. I been through hurricanes, Mulder, been through the alphabet. But I just got a distress call from my neighbor down the road to set my teeth on edge. You don't have much time to get to the airport but if you're the X-Files man you say you are you better get your butt in gear.

(ARTHUR DALES house. Trailer home. He fills a glass with water from a leaky faucet and goes to sit in front of his shortwave radio/scanner. Heavy rain outside.)

RADIO ANNOUNCER: ... a spokesman for the Collier County Emergency Response Team is advising residents to stay off the roads and either wait out the storm in a secure location or proceed to a county emergency shelter. Hurricane Leroy remains some 20 miles off the Gulf Coast sending high winds and up to six inches of rain onto coastal communities. As of yet, it has unleashed none of its potential heavy destruction on a very nervous populace from Naples to Fort Myers. The National Weather Service predicts Hurricane Leroy will make landfall in the next three to four hours, and we'll be coming back to you in a few minutes...

(ARTHUR DALES, early seventies, picks up the glass, then sets it down again, this time with ice and bourbon added. He scans to another channel.)

MAN 1: (on radio) We got no sign of anything amiss here at that residence out on the spit. Place is all boarded up tight, over.

MAN 2: (on radio) Roger that. Maybe the occupants have evacuated, over.

MAN 1: (on radio) Well, that would be the Shipleys, but a neighbor called and says they couldn't have gone too far without their only vehicle which is still in the carport out here, over.

MAN 2: (on radio) Well. That sounds like a real mystery, don't it?

ARTHUR DALES: (gruffly) It sure does, you dumb fathead.

(ARTHUR DALES hears a knock at the door. He is wearing a bathrobe and walks with a cane. He goes over to the door and opens it. open. The wind grabs it and slams it all the way open. MULDER and SCULLY are standing at the door wearing black raincoats.)

ARTHUR DALES: (yelling over the storm) Well, it couldn't be that all the planes out were fully loaded, huh?

MULDER: Mr. Dales, there's a reason that people don't head out into hurricanes.

ARTHUR DALES: (dismissively) Yeah. The hurricane's 20 miles offshore.

(MULDER glances back at SCULLY.)

MULDER: Mr. Dales, can we come in?

ARTHUR DALES: Come in.

(MULDER and SCULLY enter. They are drenched.)

ARTHUR DALES: Who's this?

SCULLY: Special Agent Dana Scully.

ARTHUR DALES: Scully?

MULDER: She's my partner.

(MULDER and SCULLY reach to take off their wet raincoats.)

ARTHUR DALES: Uh-huh. Well, don't get too comfortable. You're going to want to get right back out there.

SCULLY: Out where?

ARTHUR DALES: (to MULDER) Did you tell her what I told you?

MULDER: (crossing to stand beside DALES) Yes, but she's... she's not the type that's easily persuaded.

ARTHUR DALES: (smiles) Is that so?

SCULLY: (drying her hands on a paper towel) What he means is I don't hear a story about a sea monster and automatically assume it's the Lord's gospel truth.

ARTHUR DALES: (to MULDER) Why did you bring her here?

MULDER: Well, she knows your reputation your early work on the X-Files and she has a knack for getting to the bottom of things.

(SCULLY sees several empty liquor bottle in the garbage can.)

SCULLY: Apparently, so does Mr. Dales.

ARTHUR DALES: It's a good thing I have a reputation. Otherwise, how could it be impugned?

SCULLY: Look, Mr. Dales, I'm sure that there is good reason for your alarm. I listened to the message that you left for Agent Mulder about your friends.

ARTHUR DALES: The Shipleys-- a young couple with a son. Yeah, he lives out on the end of the sandspit. Sara called me in a panic. She said that something in the house had grabbed Jack, her husband.

SCULLY: In the bathroom, you said?

ARTHUR DALES: Yeah... of all places.

MULDER: It was your description that caused Agent Scully's... (smiles) … dubiousness.

ARTHUR DALES: No. Not my description. No. That was … that was …. Sara's. She said... that it had tentacles wrapped around her husband's neck and choking him.

SCULLY: (skeptical) And you have no reason to doubt Ms. Shipley's report?

ARTHUR DALES: No. Both she and Jack are marine biologists. Or at least they were. I fear the worst.

MULDER: She's missing, too?

ARTHUR DALES: Uh-huh. Yeah. I got on the horn to the local constabulary but they're about as... helpful as a fart in a windstorm.

(MULDER is amused by the joke. He looks at SCULLY who is NOT amused by the joke.)

ARTHUR DALES: I would have gone out there myself but for my bad hip.

MULDER: It's not a night that anybody should be out in.

ARTHUR DALES: Well, I don't see that there's a choice.

(MULDER crosses to the door pulling up his hood.)

ARTHUR DALES: If anyone wants to get to the bottom of all this...

(SCULLY looks at him for a moment then also crosses to the door.)

SCULLY: What is it that brought you out here in the first place, Mr. Dales?

ARTHUR DALES: I came down for the weather. Don't sneer at the mysteries of the deep, young lady. The bottom of the ocean is as deep and dark as the imagination.

(MULDER places his hand on SCULLY's shoulder and shares a look with her, then leads her to the door. He opens the door and they go back out into the storm. MULDER closes the door behind them.)

(Camera pans around deserted room showing crooked pictures of SARA SHIPLEY and her son and husband. MULDER breaks open the boarded up door. He and SCULLY enter carrying big flashlights.)

MULDER: Hello! Mrs. Shipley!

SCULLY: At least it looks like they had the time and the presence of mind to prepare for the hurricane.

MULDER: Got the place all boarded up. It's from the inside. It makes you wonder how they got out.

SCULLY: Hello! Mrs. Shipley!

(MULDER walks into the laundry room area having switched to a much smaller flashlight for some reason. He sees clothes on the floor and sees slime on a pipe. Of course, he sticks his fingers in it and gets some stuck to his hand. SCULLY enters as he tries to shake the slime off his hand.

SCULLY: Mulder... No sign of life.

MULDER: There's …something on the drainpipe. I can't get it off.

(They look up quickly as the washing machine lid rises then falls again. They slowly walk toward it. SCULLY holds big flashlight as MULDER picks up a mop.)

MULDER: I don't know if I'm going to need my gun or a harpoon here.

(MULDER cautiously approaches the washing machine and uses the stick to barely lift the lid. They both yelp as REGGIE THE CAT, very wet, leaps out of the machine and runs outside into the rain.)

SCULLY: How the hell did the cat get in the washing machine?

MULDER: Maybe he was taking a dip... After he finished boarding up the windows.

(They walk farther into the house and find a picture of the family and an interior door completely boarded up.)

SCULLY: Where do you think this leads to?

MULDER: Must be the bathroom. Dales told me the wife told him that the... the husband was grabbed from the bathroom.

(MULDER puts his flashlight in his mouth and begins pulling boards off the door.)

SCULLY: (calling into the bathroom) Mr. Shipley!

MULDER: (flashlight in his mouth) Can you give me a hand with this?

(SCULLY puts her small flashlight in her mouth and begins helping MULDER. They are startled by DEPUTY GREER, a heavyset small town sheriff's deputy, who enters holding a gun on them. MULDER and SCULLY turn, hands in the air, flashlights still in their mouths. Very funny.)

DEPUTY GREER: Well, howdy do! Yeah. Right like that. Keep your hands up there where I can see them. Now who are you and what the hell do you think you're doing?

(MULDER mumbles around the flashlight in his mouth.)

DEPUTY GREER: Yeah. Nice and slow.

(MULDER and SCULLY both slowly remove the flashlights from their mouths, keeping their hands in the air.)

MULDER: You can put the gun down. We're FBI.

DEPUTY GREER: Don't all the nuts roll downhill to Florida.

SCULLY: Sir, we're Agents Scully and Mulder. I can show you my ba - ...

DEPUTY GREER: (into his radio) This is Deputy Greer. I'm out at the Sandspit Road. I've got two suspects over at the Shipley residence. B and E, possible foul play, over.

MULDER: We're out here like you. We're...

DISPATCHER: (voice on radio) Copy that, 54. Be advised we have no backup units available.

DEPUTY GREER: (into radio) Roger that. (to MULDER and SCULLY) I'm putting you under arrest.

MULDER: We're out here looking for the Shipleys, too.

DEPUTY GREER: You have the right to remain silent.

MULDER: Arthur Dales called us.

DEPUTY GREER: Anything you say can and will be used against you. You have a right to a lawyer. If you don't have one...

MULDER: Does that name mean anything to you? Arthur Dales?

DEPUTY GREER: (smiling) I know Dales.

MULDER: All right.

DEPUTY GREER: (laughing) I got a call from him, too. Drunk as a skunk. What's new?

SCULLY: Well, what else would we be doing out here on a night like this?

DEPUTY GREER: You could be looters. For all I know, you could be part of the Manson family.

(MULDER and SCULLY look at each other. With a meow, REGGIE THE WET CAT runs through the house and crawls back out a window. Surprised, DEPUTY GREER looks away from MULDER and SCULLY. MULDER reaches out and grabs DEPUTY GREER's gun and holds it on him. DEPUTY GREER slowly raises his hands.)

DEPUTY GREER: Oh, no. You're going to kill me.

MULDER: No, I'm not, but I'd like to.

SCULLY: (holding up her badge) Deputy...

DEPUTY GREER: The FBI? For real?

(SCULLY smiles tightly and nods.)

SCULLY: I'll be in the car.

(With a look at MULDER, she leaves the house.)

DEPUTY GREER: I got to at least make out a report.

MULDER: No, no, no. Not before you help me finish what you interrupted.

DEPUTY GREER: Yes, sir. May I have my gun, please?

(MULDER pauses, then smiles and hands the gun back.)

DEPUTY GREER: Thank you.

MULDER: Come on.

(DEPUTY GREER and MULDER begin taking boards off the door.).

(Later, SCULLY is outside in the car on her cell phone. She is speaking loudly to be heard over the storm.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah. No... Thank you. (hangs up)

(MULDER enters the car and gets into the driver's seat.)

MULDER: No one in the bathroom. The deputy helped me pull off the plywood. There's no sign of anything except more of that slime in the bathtub and maybe three inches of water on the floor. It's weird. It's like somebody left the taps running before they boarded up the door.

SCULLY: Great. Mulder, they're threatening to close the airport. I think we better get out of here.

MULDER: Aren't you even curious what happened to these people?

SCULLY: Yes, I'm curious, Mulder but I'm also suspicious. I mean, I... I think that Mr. Dales' story is fueled by more than his imagination and not much deeper than the bottom of a highball.

MULDER: Don't dismiss him so easily. He discovered the X-Files 40 years ago. He's seen things that I've only read about.

SCULLY: Because sea monsters can only be read about, Mulder, because they don't exist.

MULDER: (in nature documentary narrator voice) If the sea is where life began-- where our ancestors first walked ashore-- then who's to say what new life may be developing in its uncharted depths.

SCULLY: You know what? Maybe you are a member of the Manson family. (MULDER smiles at her.) Mulder, look-- there is nothing more for us to do here. There's nothing that local law enforcement can't do for us. I mean, these people are missing. There's nowhere else to look. I've done my duty for-for Mr. Dales for my conscience... I mean, haven't you?

MULDER: (slight pout) Well, we should at least tell him that we're giving up... shouldn't we?

(Helpless, SCULLY gives him a look.)

(Inside the house, DEPUTY GREER continues to look around alone.)

DEPUTY GREER: (to himself) Sea monsters... FBI agents... I'm the one who could use a drink.

(He notices slimy water bubbling out of the floor drain. He kneels down and uses his Leatherman multitool to pry off the drain cover. He reaches his arm [all the way to the elbow!] into the drain. He grabs hold of something and pulls it out. It is EVAN SHIPLEY's football jersey. He holds it up and looks at it.)

(MULDER and SCULLY pull up to a road block on a debris strewn road.)

ROAD BLOCK DEPUTY: How do you do, folks? You're going to have to turn around and find yourself someplace dry to spend the night.

MULDER: What's the problem, officer?

ROAD BLOCK DEPUTY: The road's washed out up ahead.

SCULLY: This is an emergency.

ROAD BLOCK DEPUTY: I understand, ma'am but unless your car has wings there's no getting through on this road.

SCULLY: Well, what about the airport? Is there an alternate route?

ROAD BLOCK DEPUTY: Airport? No, not tonight. This hurricane's really bearing down on us. We got trees, power lines down all over the place. You folks really shouldn't be out here. I want you to drive to the first safe place you can find. You understand?

SCULLY: Sir, it's important that we evacuate the area. We're FBI agents and we need to get to where we're going.

ROAD BLOCK DEPUTY: Don't all the nuts roll downhill to Florida.

SCULLY: I'd be happy to show you my I.D…

MULDER: (talking over her and rolling up the window) Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate the concern.

(MULDER, pissed off, whips the car around and peels out quickly.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: I was just one howdy do over the line.

(They go back the way they came.)

(DEPUTY GREER pulls up in front of a three story low rent condominium complex. He leaves his blue lights on.)

DISPATCHER: (voice on radio) Car 54, please report back to base.

DEPUTY GREER: (into radio) Yeah, this is car 54. I'm over at Nance Road, over.

DISPATCHER: (voice on radio) We're asking all mobile units to stay off the roads due to extreme weather conditions forecast for the next three to four hours including a flash flood warning now in effect for Collier County. Over.

DEPUTY GREER: (into radio) 10-4. I'm going to make a quick stop in at the Breakers condo complex. Looks like some folks are stranded without power, over.

DISPATCHER: (voice on radio) 10-4, Deputy Greer. Please be advised that we won't be able to give you backup or assistance.

(DEPUTY GREER gets out of his car and enters the complex. REGGIE THE WET CAT jumps out from under the deputy's car and heads outside. Inside the complex DEPUTY GREER begins walking down the hall knocking at each door, then quickly moving on.)

DEPUTY GREER: (loudly) It's Deputy Greer, County Sheriff. If you're home, please answer the door. If you can hear me, but you can't answer the door call 911, tell them you need help. Hello? It's Deputy Greer, County Sheriff. If you're home, answer the door. If you can hear me, but can't answer the door call 911, tell them you need help.

(DEPUTY GREER knocks at the manager's door and it swings open.)

DEPUTY GREER: Hello? Hello? Somebody here?

(He walks through the apartment cautiously and approaches the bathroom.)

DEPUTY GREER: Sir? Ma'am? Oh, my god.

(Opening the bathroom door, he sees a figure sitting on the toilet. The figure is completely covered by a thick, slimy transparent substance. DEPUTY GREER leans in closer and sees a wormlike shape moving around in the slime. Suddenly a tentacle shoots out and wraps around his throat. DEPUTY GREER screams and struggles.)

(MULDER and SCULLY still driving. The rain is worse. SCULLY is trying to get through to someone on her phone.)

SCULLY: (speaking loudly into her cell phone) Hello?

MULDER: The good thing about zero visibility, Scully? Can't get any worse.

SCULLY: (on phone) Is this the Collier County Sheriff? Yes. Oh, hi. We're driving on, uh...

MULDER: Nance Road... N-A-N-C-E Road.

SCULLY: (on phone) Nance Road. (listens for a moment and looks pointedly at MULDER) No, it isn't very smart, is it? (MULDER squinches his faces and sarcastically imitates her nagging) No... Yes, that would be much appreciated. (to MULDER) He's going to guide us to the nearest emergency shelter.

MULDER: (ready to be out of the car) Not a moment too soon.

SCULLY: (on phone) Hello? Hello... (hangs up in disgust) No service.

MULDER: You know, Scully, someday we're going to look back on this and we're going to laugh. We'll just think of it as, uh... you know man pitted against the forces of nature. Think of it as a test of our mettle.

SCULLY: I don't need my mettle tested.

(There is a loud thump as something hits the roof of their car.)

SCULLY: What was that?

MULDER: I think that was a-a tree branch. Debris is starting to fly.

SCULLY: Mulder, we have to pull over. We have to wait out this storm somewhere away from the trees.

MULDER: We're not going to dodge any trees in a parked car. At least if we're driving, we're a moving target.

SCULLY: We don't know where we are and we don't know where we're going.

MULDER: (looking out the window) There's somebody, I think who's about to give us directions. Who says there's never a cop when you need one?

(MULDER pulls into the Breakers Condominium's parking lot beside DEPUTY GREER's flashing vehicle. They get out the car and enter the garage area.) : SCULLY: Mulder, isn't that...

MULDER: Forrest Gump. [Closed captioning said: Yup. Sherlock's patrol car.]

(They enter the complex and find the manager's open door.)

SCULLY: Deputy? Hello? Anybody... Mulder, he's in here.

(DEPUTY GREER is lying on the floor gasping for air. His neck is covered in red welts.)

SCULLY: Can you talk to me?

(DEPUTY GREER begins choking.)

SCULLY: You're having trouble breathing? This man needs a trach or he's going to die real soon.

(SCULLY goes to get whatever it is she's going to need for the trach. MULDER goes into the bathroom and looks in the slimy toilet. He pulls out a man's watch.)

MULDER: (to himself) I've heard of passing the time... Ouch.

(SCULLY returns to her patient. She has his Leatherman and a ball point pen cap in her mouth.)

SCULLY: Mulder, I need you to hold his head real steady. (MULDER is not thrilled.) Deputy, if you can hear me, just try and relax. Okay. Here we go.

(MULDER holds DEPUTY GREER's head while SCULLY uses the blade on the Leatherman to cut his throat. MULDER looks away quickly.

MULDER: Looks like he was attacked or stung. (looking at marks) What are those?

SCULLY: I don't know but he's having a reaction which is affecting his autonomic response.

MULDER: Whatever it was, I think it came through the plumbing, through the toilet.

SCULLY: All I know is we have to get a medivac unit out here as soon as possible.

MULDER: If it's in the plumbing I got to make sure nobody else is in this building.

(MULDER goes back out into the hall.)

SCULLY: (into DEPUTY GREER's radio) This is Special Agent Dana Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I need a medivac unit out here ASAP.

CUT TO: (ARTHUR DALES house. Same time. He is listening to SCULLY's conversation on his scanner.)

SCULLY: (voice, on radio) I have an officer in need of emergency medical assistance.

OPERATOR: (voice on radio) Please state your name again, ma'am.

SCULLY: (voice on radio) My name is Dana... Scully.

ARTHUR DALES: (chuckling): Scully! Oh, god.

SCULLY: (voice on radio) I'm a medical doctor requesting a medivac unit for a sheriff's deputy who is injured.

OPERATOR: (voice on radio) You have a deputy down?

SCULLY: (voice on radio) I have a deputy who's been attacked by something as yet unidentified.

ARTHUR DALES: (laugh) Unidentified? My ass!

OPERATOR: (voice on radio) What's his condition, ma'am?

SCULLY: (voice on radio) His vitals are weak and he's in shock. Now, I need him taken to a hospital right away.

CUT TO: (On an upper level of the condominium complex, MULDER sees a young man come out of an apartment carrying a television set.)

MULDER: Excuse me, sir. Is everything okay in your apartment?

DOUGIE THE LOOTER: Uh, yeah, yeah. It's all good.

MULDER: Do you need some help... with your television?

(A few doors down the hall, WALTER SUAREZ comes out into the hall.)

WALTER: I thought I heard voices. Thank god! We didn't think anybody was coming. Are you doctors?

MULDER: No. Do you need medical help?

WALTER: Yeah. We called 911, but no one came and everyone else is already evacuated. We don't have a car and then the phone died.

MULDER: Who's we? Who are you talking about?

WALTER: My wife and I. She's pregnant-- a week past her due date. God, I hope one of you has a car.

(MULDER looks at DOUGIE THE LOOTER then back to WALTER.)

MULDER: You don't know this man, mister...?

WALTER: Uh, Suarez. Walter Suarez. (shines light at DOUGIE THE LOOTER's face) Uh, no. He's not with you?

DOUGIE THE LOOTER: (looking at MULDER) I'll put it back.

MULDER: Yeah. Everything in your pockets, too.

(DOUGIE THE LOOTER carries the television back into the apartment.)

WALTER: (leading MULDER to his apartment) She's right over here. Right this way. Angela this is, uh, Mister...

MULDER: Mulder.

(MULDER enter the apartment and sees a VERY pregnant ANGELA VILLAREAL sitting on the couch. Lots of candles are on the table.)

MULDER: Stay there, Mrs. Suarez. We're going to make sure your baby makes it safely into the world.

ANGELA: (sarcastic and bad tempered) Well, thank you, but I'm not in labor. And my name is not "Suarez." It's Villareal. He tells people I'm his wife. Like he's so macho.

MULDER: Walter, Angela... I'm going to have to ask you to leave your apartment and come downstairs with me.

ANGELA: Why? You got a car? (shrewish) Oh, Walter, here, doesn't have a car. Not to mention a job.

MULDER: Right now, I just want to get you someplace where I know you'll be safe.

ANGELA: From what?

MULDER: I don't know but it may have seriously injured a sheriff's deputy.

WALTER: Who? Where?

MULDER: In the manager's apartment. It could be in the complex's plumbing now.

WALTER: In the plumbing?

ANGELA: That's great. I have to go to the bathroom about every ten seconds.

(She pushes past the men in disgust and leaves the apartment.)

MULDER: (to WALTER) Kid's going to be a fighter. (WALTER laughs nervously) Anybody else in the complex that you know of?

WALTER: No, no one... Oh, there's George.

MULDER: George?

WALTER: Yeah, George Vincent. He lives on the first floor. I went and asked him for help but he just yelled "go away." He never listens to no one.

MULDER: He's going to want to listen to me.

ANGELA: (calling sharply from down the hall) Walter!

WALTER: (already heading to her) Better go.

MULDER: It's for you.

(Later, MULDER knocks at another door.)

MULDER: Mr. Vincent! George Vincent!

GEORGE VINCENT: (opening a small window in the door then slamming it shut) Quit banging on the damn door!

MULDER: I'm a federal agent, Mr. Vincent. I'm asking you to open the door.

GEORGE: (opening and closing the small window again) You ask away. Then go away.

(Inside the apartment, GEORGE looks through the peephole at MULDER. MULDER leans down and talks to the peephole.)

MULDER: Mr. Vincent, your life may be in danger if you refuse to leave your apartment.

GEORGE: You may be in danger if you refuse to quit harassing me. Now, I'm armed in here and I'm within my rights.

MULDER: Well, that's great. But you may not be armed for what it is I'm talking about.

GEORGE: (opens window) What the hell are you talking about? Hmm? It don't matter. I'm armed against it. The Junta, Cuba and Castro. I'm not going to cede my home to no revolutionaries without a fight. You got anything else you want to throw at me-- you bring it on. (slams window shut)

MULDER: All the nuts roll down to Florida.

(Inside manager's apartment. WALTER and ANGELA have joined SCULLY. SCULLY covers DEPUTY GREER with a blanket.)

SCULLY: He's had some kind of foreign organism released into his body. His condition's worsening.

ANGELA: I can see that. What the hell was chewing on his neck?

SCULLY: I don't know. It may have been some kind of a water-borne parasite.

ANGELA: (to WALTER who is holding flashlight for SCULLY) Uh huh. You see that? You see what happens when you live in a dump?

WALTER: Where's Harry?

SCULLY: I'm sorry. I don't know who Harry is.

ANGELA: The slumlord who owns this place.

SCULLY: He may have evacuated.

ANGELA: Harry? Right. And I'm giving birth to the Christ child.

WALTER: Harry's legs hardly work. He's got to use those crutches. (points to crutches against the wall)

ANGELA: He don't have no car. Nobody likes him 'cause he never lifts a finger on this rat trap.

(MULDER enters with DOUGIE THE LOOTER.)

MULDER: Scully, can I talk to you for a second?

SCULLY: Yeah.

(MULDER and SCULLY go out into the hall.)

ANGELA: Now, who are you?

DOUGIE THE LOOTER: Nobody.

ANGELA: Nobody? Oh, well, it is so nice to be surrounded by so many great men.

(MULDER and SCULLY are alone in the hall.)

MULDER: We got to out of here as soon as possible.

SCULLY: We can't.

MULDER: We can put the deputy in his car and take him to the hospital.

SCULLY: Mulder, I just got off the radio. They won't even chance sending a rescue vehicle at this time. The roads are impassable, and I don't even know if the deputy is movable in this condition.

MULDER: You mean we're stuck here?

SCULLY: It looks that way. At least until the weather breaks.

(GEORGE is listening to them from his apartment door. He checks to make sure his gun is loaded. He is very agitated, talking to himself, pacing around the room which is decorated in Late 20th Century Disgruntled American Soldier. Lots of guns and flags.)

GEORGE: Federal agents-- jack-booted fascists bent on trampling the rights of the common man. Don't need their damn help defending my home. Violence in the pursuit of freedom is no vice. Because all that's needed for tyranny to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

(Closed captioning continues: This is a time for action-- to protect my country against those that would spit at the constitution and take a leak on the bill of rights. My cause is just, my will is strong and my heart is that of a warrior. Anyone who wants a piece of me, let 'em bring it on.

(Overhead we see that the glass light fixture is filling with water. Then a tentacle appears in the fixture.)

(Inside the manager's apartment. SCULLY is examining the conscious DEPUTY GREER. She is wearing an apron with something? on it, a red bandanna around her mouth, a pair of thick reading glasses, and yellow rubber kitchen gloves. There is a thermometer in DEPUTY GREER's mouth. The wounds on his neck look like octopus sucker wounds with a big hole in the middle.)

SCULLY: I don't think these wounds are bites or stings. There's something in here, Mulder, right under the skin. Tongs. (ANGELA passes some kitchen tongs to her.) Mulder, what's his temperature?

(MULDER takes the thermometer out of DEPUTY GREER's mouth and looks at it.)

MULDER: Well, either he's got no temperature or he's about to spontaneously combust.

SCULLY: (also looking at the thermometer) You're not far off. It's 106. Okay, somebody fill the tub with cold water and find as much ice as they can in the freezer.

DOUGIE THE LOOTER: B-but that thing is in the... plumbing.

SCULLY: Yeah, well, it may be but unless we get his temperature down he's not going to survive this. Now get moving.

(DOUGIE THE LOOTER reluctantly goes into the bathroom.)

SCULLY: We need to put this man in ice water as soon as possible.

(Using the tongs, SCULLY pulls a worm like organism out of DEPUTY GREER's neck.)

SCULLY: I need a container. Mulder, lift him up. We have to get him into the tub.

(MULDER goes to lift up DEPUTY GREER. In the bathroom, ice is poured into the tub, then the faucet is turned on. The water sputters, then flows out. DOUGIE THE LOOTER holds the flashlight as MULDER and WALTER lower DEPUTY GREER into the tub. As they are getting him settled, DOUGIE THE LOOTER sees the watch that MULDER found earlier in the toilet. He makes sure that no one is watching, then smoothly pockets it. They all look up sharply at sounds of yelling and gunfire coming from down the hall. MULDER runs down the hall to GEORGE's apartment. SCULLY and the others stand in the doorway and watch. Inside GEORGE's apartment, GEORGE is yelling and shooting at the ceiling. We catch glimpses of tentacles.)

MULDER: Mr. Vincent?

(MULDER, gun drawn, stands outside the door and waits for a lull in the gunshots. He opens the door.)

MULDER: Drop your weapon! Put it down!'

GEORGE: It's gonna take a whole lot more than this to kill whatever it is I just saw.

(They enter the apartment.)

GEORGE: I don't know what the hell it was but it came down out of there.

(GEORGE points up at the ceiling where an exposed pipe has a large hole in it.)

MULDER: You didn't see it?

GEORGE: I caught it out of the corner of my eye but it swooped down at me. I...

SCULLY: All that happened here is a sewage pipe burst.

GEORGE: No, no, this thing came at me.

MULDER: That looks like the four- inch tie-in to the second floor. Whatever it is didn't just rip through the ceiling. Looks like it ripped right through the pipe.

WALTER: Where did it go?

MULDER: I don't know. It must still be in the building. It's probably in the outflow system.

WALTER: Well, maybe it'll just flow back out.

GEORGE: Or maybe it'll come up through the can and grab you by the nugs.

MULDER: Someone's already got him by the nugs.

SCULLY: Look, you guys, whatever this thing is there's no evidence yet that it's going to kill anybody.

WALTER: Well, what about the man in the bathtub?

SCULLY: The man in the bathtub may very well be saved if he can just last out this storm. In fact, we may all be safe if we just remain calm.

ANGELA: "Remain calm?" I got to pee so bad my back teeth are swimming.

(Back in the bathroom of the other apartment, DOUGIE THE LOOTER checks to make sure no on else is around, then soaps DEPUTY GREER's finger and works his wedding ring off. He falls back with the force of the pull.)

DOUGIE THE LOOTER: Victory.

(He quickly pulls the shower curtain closed and steps way from the tub. As he does, he accidentally knocks a box of Epsom salts into the tub. He goes out of the bathroom just as MULDER and SCULLY enter the apartment again.)

SCULLY: How is he?

DOUGIE THE LOOTER: (nervously) H-he's good.

ANGELA: (pushing her way to the bathroom) Supertanker coming through.

WALTER: Here, Angela, you can't go in there.

ANGELA: My bladder is pressing against your unborn child, Walter. He's going to have a head like a tortilla.

WALTER: This thing is in the plumbing!

ANGELA: The volume alone could push it right back out to sea.

MULDER: Scully, that's how this thing is here. The hurricane is sitting offshore dredging up god knows what and this thing must have been driven into the city's reclamation system through some offshore outfall pipe. From there it gained access to the sewer pipes in this building.

SCULLY: (handing ANGELA a bucket) We'll be waiting for you out here.

ANGELA: Thank you.

(ANGELA goes into the bathroom with the bucket. MULDER and SCULLY begin quietly arguing.)

SCULLY: Mulder, nothing I've seen convinces me there's a monster …

[Close captioning continues: ...lurking in the sewage system. I certainly don't think we can assume George Vincent gave us a factual account of what took place in his apartment. ]

(ANGELA is in the bathroom. The shower curtain is between her and DEPUTY GREER. She pulls up her skirt and sits on the bucket.)

ANGELA: I know you probably can't hear me but no listening anyway, okay?

(In the tub beside ANGELA, tentacles begin covering DEPUTY GREER. In the main room, conversation continues.)

MULDER: Scully, something welled up out of the uncharted depths of the ocean-- something that had been lying there undiscovered for ages, probably.

SCULLY: Mulder, there is no evidence of any creature here. Those organisms might just simply be waterborne parasites, but something from Jules Verne they are not.

(They are startled as a screaming ANGELA comes running out of the bathroom.)

ANGELA: I saw it! I saw it! It's in the tub with the deputy. It has giant arms like an octopus.

(MULDER goes quickly into the bathroom and kneels down next to the tub. Everyone else follows.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

GEORGE: What the hell is it?

(All that is left in the tub is DEPUTY GREER's uniform. And some slime and the empty box of Epsom salts.)

MULDER: He's gone.

SCULLY: It's gone?

(MULDER holds up the empty wet uniform.)

MULDER: No. He's gone. The deputy.

SCULLY: Where'd he go?

MULDER: I think the deputy went out with the bathwater.

GEORGE: And he was... he was in there with it?

MULDER: No, I don't think he was.

WALTER: Well, she said she saw it.

MULDER: I'm sure she did. Look, Scully, I think I know why nobody's ever seen this thing before. It, it just doesn't live in water. It is water, taking shape only when it attacks, like it did when the hurricane backed seawater into the plumbing. Virtually unseeable until then.

SCULLY: Mulder, if that were true then this wouldn't be visible, would it? (She holds up a glass jar with the worm thing from the deputy's neck floating in water.) I mean, what this is showing us is that water actually attempts to kill it.

MULDER: Maybe you just impeded its reproductive process. Maybe it needs time to complete its cycle like it had with the Shipleys.

SCULLY: Mulder, the Shipleys weren't even in their house.

MULDER: No, they were when they were attacked just like the deputy was here-- using their bodies to lay its own spawn-- using the body's water content to reproduce itself-- to make itself anew.

WALTER: You mean, he turned into one of those things?

ANGELA: There are more of them?

MULDER: We got to get out of here.

SCULLY: We're in the middle of a hurricane.

MULDER: We got to get to another building.

SCULLY: Mulder, we cant. There's no way we can transport everybody.

MULDER: We can use the deputy's Prowler. How many people? We got two, four... (realizes DOUGIE THE LOOTER is missing and runs out of the room) … son of a bitch.

WALTER: The looter?

(MULDER runs down the hall and into the garage area. DEPUTY GREER's car is gone. So is DOUGIE THE LOOTER. MULDER returns to the hall where SCULLY is waiting for him.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah?

SCULLY: Mulder, if we're going to leave we should leave now.

[CLOSED CAPTIONING: MULDER: He took the Prowler, Scully.]

(MULDER looks up at the light fixture in the hall and sees it filling with water, then sees one of the worm/tentacle things through the glass of the fixture. It falls out of the ceiling and onto MULDER.)

(Hall, short time later. SCULLY comes out of the apartment and sees MULDER at the far end of the hall. He stumbles toward her.)

SCULLY: Mulder?! Hey, Mulder, are you okay?

(MULDER is in pain, gasping for breath. He tries to speak, then comes up to her and shows her the red marks on his throat. Before SCULLY can react, GEORGE grabs her and pushes her back into the apartment and slams the door in MULDER's face.)

SCULLY: Hey... wait a second. What are you doing?!

GEORGE: (aiming his gun at her) I am saving our lives.

SCULLY: That's my partner out there!

GEORGE: If he's your partner he should have listened to you.

SCULLY: You can't just leave him there!

GEORGE: I'm not letting him in.

SCULLY: He'll die!

WALTER: What are you going to do for him?

SCULLY: Well, I can at least keep him breathing!

WALTER: You couldn't save the deputy.

SCULLY: Look, at least let me try. I'm a medical doctor.

ANGELA: That's good... because my water just broke.

(Out in the hall alone, MULDER leans against the wall just trying to breathe. He looks up and sees another tentacle writhing around in another light fixture. Frightened, he stumbles to the open door at the end of the hall.)

(Inside the apartment, WALTER is sitting behind ANGELA supporting her. GEORGE holds a gun on SCULLY who is kneeling between ANGELA's legs.)

WALTER: You're going to be okay.

ANGELA: Yeah, that's easy for you to say.

GEORGE: Isn't much of a choice, really, is it?

(Long pause while he and SCULLY stare at each other.)

SCULLY: (heading to kitchen) We're going to need water. If I'm going to deliver this baby you can put that gun down. (she puts on another pair of gloves)

GEORGE: How do we know you're really a doctor?

SCULLY: You don't. The truth is I've never delivered a baby before. So stand back or make yourself useful but stay out of my way.

(Out in the hall, MULDER runs down the hall to the outside door and falls and lies gasping just inches from the pouring rain outside. He can barely breathe.)

(In the apartment, ANGELA is in full labor, yelling and breathing hard.)

WALTER: Long, even breath!

SCULLY: You got it. Breathe... Breathe. Okay, Angela, I'm going to need you to push, okay? I need you to help me help you. Okay. So let's push.

(ANGELA yells in pain. GEORGE glances up to the light fixture which is filling with water.)

SCULLY: You got it. You got it. You're on the right track. (to GEORGE) I'm going to need some towels, please.

(GEORGE does not move.)

SCULLY: (demanding) I need some towels, damn it!

(GEORGE goes to get towels. Angela is breathing hard SCULLY looks up at the fixture.)

SCULLY: You're doing good. You're doing good. Okay. You're doing good. Okay. Let's go. Okay, push.

(Out in the hall, MULDER lies gasping beside the open outside door. He hears a meow, then turns and sees REGGIE the VERY WET CAT sitting in the rain a few feet from him. He and MULDER stare at each other. One shot he looks a bit … fake, but then he's real and washes his face. )

(In apartment, ANGELA is in final stages of labor. SCULLY keep looking up to the light fixture still filling with water.)

SCULLY: I can feel it up there!

WALTER: She can feel it up there!

SCULLY: Okay, come on. Puuush! Good! You got it. Okay. Here it comes.

WALTER: Here it comes.

SCULLY: Here it comes. It's coming. Okay.

(SCULLY rinses her gloved hands in a bucket of water, then pauses and stares at her hands, then looks up at the light fixture.)

GEORGE: Hey, lady, what are you doing?

SCULLY: It's the water.

WALTER: What? What?

SCULLY: It's the water!

ANGELA: I'm having it! I'm having it! I'm having it!

SCULLY: Okay!

ANGELA: I'm having it!

(SCULLY keeps looking up at the light fixture then back to ANGELA.)

SCULLY: Push!

ANGELA: I'm having it!

(ANGELA begins yelling again. SCULLY sees a tentacle appear in the light fixture. The tentacle in the light fixture suddenly bursts out and grabs GEORGE by the neck and lifts him off the floor.. He drops his gun and begins yelling.)

SCULLY: It's coming! Push! Push!

(ANGELA yells.)

SCULLY: Okay!

(SCULLY takes the baby in her arms as it is born.)

GEORGE: Help!

SCULLY: (to WALTER) Okay, now pick up the gun.

GEORGE: Help! Aah!

SCULLY: (holding the baby) Pick up the gun!

(WALTER picks up the gun. GEORGE is yelling.)

WALTER: Where?

SCULLY: Shoot out the sprinklers! Just point and shoot! Shoot out the sprinklers!

(WALTER aims at the sprinkler head, but GEORGE, still under attack by the tentacles and yelling, keeps swinging into view and blocking the shot. Finally, WALTER shoots the sprinkler head.)

(Dawn. ARTHUR DALES' house. The storm is over. Outside the trailer, SCULLY is talking on her cell phone. Inside, ARTHUR DALES is looking at the wounds on MULDER's neck.)

ARTHUR DALES: Yes, yes. Eww, god.

(MULDER chuckles, almost as if he is proud of his cool wounds.)

ARTHUR DALES: That's terrible.

(SCULLY enters the trailer.)

SCULLY: Well, it's official. Ten pounds, ten ounces of piss and vinegar. El nino grande-- Leroy Walter Villareal Suarez, Jr.

MULDER: (laughing) Oh, no.

SCULLY: Oh, yes.

ARTHUR DALES: Oh, it's amazing. It's truly amazing.

SCULLY: What's that?

ARTHUR DALES: That you could come here in the face of a hurricane chasing a sea monster, yet, and end up bringing a new... life into the world. And then slaying the monster and save this one's life as he was quite literally circling down the drain.

MULDER: She didn't save my life, really...

ARTHUR DALES: Oh, yes, she did. Yes, with a gun to her head, no less.

SCULLY: (rationalizing) Well, you wouldn't have known to go out in the rain if I hadn't pointed it out that to you that it was the fresh water that killed the organism...

MULDER: No. No no no no … I-I saw the Shipley's cat.

ARTHUR DALES: Uh, well, I-I can't swallow that... No, no, no.

MULDER: I saw the cat, which had been saved which had been in the washing machine. And the Shipleys had boarded up their house which means that the only way they could have vanished was if the creature came up through the plumbing in a backwash of seawater … seawater. And then the deputy who vanished from a bathtub full of Epsom salts.

ARTHUR DALES: If Agent Scully had not been there with you I shudder to think what would have happened to you. I'd say you owe her your life. It takes a big man to admit this, but... if I had had someone as savvy as her by my side all those years ago in the X-Files I might not have retired. (MULDER and SCULLY both look down a little embarrassed.) I suggest that we have a toast to your good fortune. And I insist that we have it. So... what'll it be?

(ARTHUR DALES crosses to the "bar" on the kitchen counter mumbling to himself.):

ARTHUR DALES: A little of the... oh, uh... anyone for water?

(MULDER and SCULLY both look up quickly from where they are sitting on the couch.)

MULDER AND SCULLY: (together) No.

[THE END]