The X-Files - 2.

3.22 Quagmire

German title: Der See
translation: The Lake

Striker's Cove Heuvelmans Lake Blue Ridge Mountains, Georgia

FARRADAY: (Picks up a frog) When I began our field research here, these frogs were thriving. Since then, the adult population's dropped to fewer than 200. If you don't take protective measures, in a few years, the perenhis cenesaphelo will be extinct here.

BAILEY: Frog populations are declining all over the globe, Dr. Farraday. No one knows why. You can't possibly place them all on the endangered species list.

FARRADAY: You'd find a way for the cute, furry little mammals we were talking about.

BAILEY: Regardless, your study remains inconclusive. Speculative at best. You've provided no concrete evidence that frog depopulation is the exclusive result of human impeachment.

FARRADAY: A frog holocaust is currently being executed, Dr. Bailey, and man is the executioner.

BAILEY: You're the biologist, Dr. Farraday. You've never heard of survival of the fittest? (He walks off, annoyed with Farraday).

FARRADAY: Don't forget that rule also applies to mankind. You can't turn your back on nature, or nature will turn her back on you!

BAILEY: (He walks back to his car, moves to open the door, but finds that his pager holder is empty.) Damn it, where could it be.... (He wanders off into the woods, looking amongst the bushes for his pager. A noise from the water is heard, and then there is silence. He bends down to retrieve the pager, and wipes it off. He is attacked from behind, by an unseen creature).

County Rd 33 Rigdon, Georgia.

(The car drives past a sign, 'What's Older Than the Hills?' Queequeg, Scully's pet Pomeranian is restless in the backseat).

SCULLY: Nature's calling. I think we should pull over soon.

MULDER: Did you really have to bring that thing?

SCULLY: You wake me up on a Saturday morning, tell me to be ready in five minutes, my mother is out of town, all of the dog sitters are booked, and you know how I feel about kennels. So unless you want to lose your security deposit on the car, I suggest you pull over.

MULDER: I think I'm lost anyway. I've got to stop and ask for directions.

SCULLY: I know I'm lost as to why you're so interested in this missing persons case.

MULDER: Dr. Bailey works for the US Forestry Service. That makes his disappearance a federal case.

SCULLY: It's not jurisdiction that I'm questioning, Mulder.

MULDER: Dr. Bailey's not the first person to go missing from Heuvelman's Lake recently. Two weeks ago, a Boy Scout Troop was out here, fox hunting, their troop leader wandered off to relieve himself, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

SCULLY: So you think that there's a serial killer at large?

MULDER: The operative word being "large".

SCULLY: (Sees a sign, 'What's Bigger Than the Sky?') What are you leaving out?

MULDER: What makes you think I'm leaving anything out?

SCULLY: Most missing persons cases are not that uncommon, Mulder. Why this one warrants us flying halfway across the country and driving for two hours is a total mystery. (Sees another sign). Oh, tell me you're not serious? (Car drives past a sign, 'Big Blue. The Southern Serpent. Spot Him at Heuvelmans Lake.')

Ecology Sciences Lab Heuvelmans Lake

SCULLY: According to the Sheriff's report, you were the last person to see Dr. Bailey alive.

FARRADAY: That's what they tell me.

SCULLY: I understand you argued over an endangered species petition.

FARRADAY: Bailey was the worst kind of hypocrite. Closest he ever came to commuting with nature was subscribing to National Geographic.

SCULLY: You sound bitter, Dr. Farraday.

FARRADAY: Of course I'm bitter. The man wrote off three years of carefully collected data in a two hour inspection, which doesn't mean I plotted his demise. Well, that is what you are suggesting, isn't it?

SCULLY: Well, aside from having a motive, you don't seem too upset by any of this.

FARRADAY: You expect me to cry for one man when an entire species is perched on the brink of extinction?

MULDER: Dr. Farraday, you know the wildlife living around this lake just as well as anybody, don't you?

FARRADAY: I'd say that's accurate.

MULDER: Are you aware of any indigenous species that's capable of attacking a human being?

FARRADAY: Yes. Another human being.

MULDER: Aside from that, is there a creature that comes to mind...

FARRADAY: Has anyone ever told you two you have a great problem coming to the point?

MULDER: Okay then. In your work have you come across any evidence that lends support to the existance of this creature they call Big Blue?

FARRADAY: See, this is what always happens. This is how it starts.

MULDER: What?

FARRADAY: The deflection, sleight of hand. See, whenever an issue requires any real thought, any serious mental effort, people turn to UFO's, and sea serpents and sasquatch. Afternoon talk shows and tabloid TV. They've reduced our attention span to the length of a sound byte. So that soon our ability to think will be as extinct as a ranas sanasephela frog.

MULDER: I'll take that rambling diatribe to mean that you don't believe in the existance of such a creature.

FARRADAY: I'm not even going to grace that statement with a reply.

MULDER: A prehistoric animal living in a lake is not without precedence. Last August they pulled a Bull shark from Lake Onaga in Massachusets.

FARRADAY: An anomaly. Which proves nothing. It only serves as fodder for psuedo-scientists with nothing better to do than chase fairy tales. Excuse me.

(Mulder and Scully walk across a muddy lot in the rain, and tie Queequeg up outside a souvenier shop. A giant inflatable Big Blue character is tied to the roof, above a sign 'Bait and Tackle').

MULDER: It's been reported for centuries in dozens of countries. From the monsters in Loch Ness, Nessie, to the Ogopogo in Lake Okonagan.

SCULLY: And Lake Champagne, Lalavack Iceland...

MULDER: Sounds like you know a little something about the subject.

SCULLY: I did as a kid. But, then I grew up, and became a scientist.

MULDER: Well some very grown up crypto-zoologist believed it could be an evolutionary throwback, quite possibly prehistoric.

SCULLY: An aquatic dinosaur.

MULDER: A pleosaur, actually. Though admittedly, there's not a lot of hard evidence to back that up.

SCULLY: You know why? Because those creatures don't exist, Mulder. They're folk tales born out of some collective fear of the unknown.

MULDER: Well how many folk tales do you know that could eat a boy scout leader and a biologist?

(Mulder and Scully go into the shop. Mulder looks at a framed object, with a note: Scale From Big Blue Found February 10 1965)

MULDER: Check this out, Scully.

SCULLY: It looks like an insect casing or scarab or something from a beetle.

TED: Can I help you people?

MULDER: We're looking for the Lake View Cabins. Flipper Road?

TED: You passed the turnoff a few miles back. It's uh, pretty tough to find. Uh, a map might help. (Ted pulls out a map. Mulder reaches out for it, but Ted holds it away.) Uh, they're two-fifty each, plus Uncle Sam.

MULDER: Fine. (He grabs it.)

TED: If you don't mind my saying, you folks don't look like you're here for the trout.

SCULLY: No, we're with the FBI. We're investigating a pair of missing persons reports.

TED: Oh, yeah. It's big news around here. Everyone's been talking about it.

MULDER: What are they saying?

TED: The same thing they've been saying for years. Now I'm not one for spreading rumours, but the truth is, I've heard the story since I was a kid.

MULDER: About Big Blue? What kind of stories?

TED: Well, I was ten years old. Fishing with my daddy, when I heard a... big commotion. Clear across the lake. A wailing sound, the likes of which I had never heard before, never heard since. My daddy told me later that a cow had escaped from the Rockdale ranch and was drinking by the lake. When, old Big Blue came right up and snatched her from the bank.

SCULLY: That's quite a story.

TED: That's just one.

SCULLY: Those stories must sell a lot of t-shirts.

TED: Well, a man's gotta survive.

MULDER: What about you? Do you believe those stories?

TED: Well, a man's got to look at the evidence, decide for himself. (Ansel Bray enters the shop.) But if you want to ask a real expert, should probably talk to Ansel here. He's out there practically every day. (Leans in and whispers to Mulder and Scully). It was his daddy's cow that got eaten.

ANSEL: Can you get these developed by tomorrow, Ted? And another five rolls while I'm in town? (He puts a pile of camera films on the table.)

TED: These folks are with the FBI, they've been looking into that unsolved mystery about how those two people disappeared.

ANSEL: Unsolved mystery? Since when is there a mystery?

MULDER: So you think Big Blue's responsible for what's been happening?

ANSEL: Don't you?

MULDER: Have you ever actually seen it?

ANSEL: Not directly, no. But I aim to. Someday, I'll be in the right place at the right time, and I will snap a shot of that monster.

(Ansel leaves, and we see him fishing, when he catces something large. He struggles to reel it in, but is shocked by what he catches, a body.)

TED: (Indicates to Mulder and Scully on the map.) Now if you hit Striker's Cove, you've gone too far.

ANSEL: (comes running back into the store) Call the Sheriff. We've got a floater.

(All of them walk out to the pier. The bottom half of a body is drifting in the water. Mulder pulls a wallet out of the back pocket, then Scully uses a pen to turn him over.)

MULDER: It's Scout Woolsley. The boy scout troop leader.

SCULLY: Well, his fly's undone.

MULDER: Are you insinuating something?

SCULLY: No, most drowning victims are found with high levels of alcohol in their blood and their flies unzipped. While urinating over the sides of boats, docks or whatever, they lose their balance, fall in and drown.

MULDER: Still doesn't explain why half of him is still missing. Looks to me like something took a big bite.

SCULLY: Maybe not so big.

MULDER: What do you mean?

SCULLY: Well, fish eat decomposing matter, any body that's been suspended in this environment for a period of time is going to become a food source. We eat fish, and fish eat us.

MULDER: But are fish also known for eating half and saving half for later?

(That night, Ted is making prints in the mud with boots that have a monster-like shape. His foot is caught in some reeds. While he tries to pull it free, something comes up behind him, and attacks him.)

TED: Someone help me! No, no! Someone help me!

(At the crime scene, the next day.)

ANSEL: Like I said, I recognize his hat.

MULDER: (Picks it up. It says: 'Show Us Your Bobbers') How could you not?

ANSEL: So Ted's Ford is parked about a half a mile back. Here's his hat, and here's these tracks. Know what I'm saying? I mean, look at the size of these tracks.

SCULLY: Mulder? This is Sheriff Lance Heads.

MULDER: Careful, watch out where you're walking. Watch out... watch out for those tracks.

SCULLY: (Her dog tugs at the leash.) Queequeg.

SHERIFF: Ansel, why don't you go check the woods?

ANSEL: Today's the day. I'm going to get him.

MULDER: Any sign of Ted Bertram?

SHERIFF: No. And I'm not jumping to any conclusions either. Speaking of which, what's this I hear about you wanting to close the lake?

MULDER: Just until we figure out what's going on here.

SHERIFF: I think I can tell you what's going on. Same thing that goes on every year. Fishermen get drunk, they drown, men get run over by power boats. Hell, on a lake this size, you're going to have eight, nine deaths in a season. That's just statistical fact.

MULDER: But you've got two or three in as many weeks, I'd say you're a little outside your bell curve, Sheriff.

SHERIFF: Agent Mulder? Mulder, this lake has 48 miles of shoreline. I got four deputies full time. To close down a lake this size, hell, you'd have to call out the National Guard something like that...

SCULLY: We'd need irrefutable proof.

MULDER: What about these tracks?

SCULLY: Mulder, a creature as large as the one you're looking for would have left considerably deeper impressions. (The dog yanks so hard on the leash, Scully is pulled with it, and Queeqeg runs through the woods, right to Ted's boot.) Queeqeg! Queequeg come back here! Queequeg! Mulder? Sherrif, come take a look at this.

SHERIFF: What you got?

SCULLY: There's your lake monster, Mulder.

MULDER: That's what it looks like.

SCULLY: It's all a hoax.

SHERIFF: I'll be dammed.

MULDER: Yeah, but what happened to the hoaxer? (He swipes a finger around the boot, then holds it up to reveal blood.)

DUDE: (Out on the pier.) Saw this, you know on the Discovery Channel? They got like this, you know, cult built up around these toads. The skin's got these, hallucionogenic properties. Let's you see all these visions. It's really spiritual.

CHICK: Yeah? I don't know.

DUDE: It's 'sposed to take the doors of perception, and swing them so wide open, you know, plus you get to see all these cool streaks and trails and crap. (Dude licks the toad, and shudders.)

CHICK: Well? Are you sure that's even a toad?

(A diver pops out of the water, Dude drops the toad in fright.)

DUDE: Dude, what's wrong with you? You made me drop my toad.

DIVER: It's okay, man. I'll get you another one.

DUDE: (Chick looks at the map.) How long till we get down to Lauderdale? (The diver is suddenly attacked, then he surfaces, his head bobbing on the water without the body.) Oh, no.. Dude?

MULDER: Well, if this is a hoax, it's quite elaborate.

(He looks at the head, encased in a plastic bag.)

SHERIFF: I got zip out of Freebird and Moon Unit over there, there's no telling what they're been smoking. What's it looking like?

SCULLY: Well, it's hard to tell without an autopsy, but it looks like propeller damage from a motor boat.

SHERIFF: Well, this is a designated boating area.

MULDER: Twenty feet from shore, and twice in one day?

SCULLY: Mulder, look at it out there. It's like rush hour.

MULDER: What about Ted Bertram?

SCULLY: For all we know, he stepped in something and bled into those funny shoes of his. He's probably so embarrased right now, he doesn't want to show his face.

MULDER: Oh, is that the psychological approach to crime solving? He's too embarrased?

SCULLY: Regardless of what I believe, there's no hard evidence to what you believe.

(Ansel is singing "True Colors" as he sets up his camera. He focuses it on a rubber ring, with meat tied to it. As he sets up another camera, the ring starts to move, and something appears to be moving through the water towards the shore. Ansel picks up a camera, starts shooting frantically, but forgets to remove the lens cap.)

ANSEL: Crap! (He is attacked by the unseen monster.)

MULDER: This roll's been exposed, can you get that developed? (Hands a camera to a deputy.) That's three in one day, Sheriff. All this driving from crime scene to crime scene's giving me highway hypnosis. Close down the lake.

SHERIFF: I tell you, it ain't that simple. I just ain't got the manpower. Further more, I'm not at all convinced we're dealing with an acquatic menace.

SCULLY: He's right, Mulder. Those two sets of remains we found so far are inconclusive. We really need to find this body.

SHERIFF: My thoughts exactly, ma'am. If you just give us a couple more minutes... whoa! (The Sheriff is pulled into the water, then quickly swims back to shore.)

SCULLY: Are you okay, Sheriff?

SHERIFF: Something brushed up against me out there. Close the lake! Close it down! I want you to call the state police, and the Wildlife, Fish and Game! You tell them we got an emergency situation!

(In the motel room that night, Mulder is looking through piles of photographs.)

SCULLY: I agree with you, I just wish that he gave us something more.

MULDER: Look at this, could this be a tooth?

SCULLY: Yeah, it could be a lot of things, Mulder. Fifteen years of fruitless hunting and the only thing the guy comes up with is a blurry picture of the monster's tooth?

MULDER: There's thousands of pictures here, Scully. There's got to be some evidence here somewhere. Take a look at these.

SCULLY: Mulder, they're just a bunch of poorly composed tory shots.

MULDER: That could be something.

SCULLY: A tooth? I'm taking Queequeg for a walk.

MULDER: Want me to come with you?

SCULLY: I'm fine. (Revealing her gun.) Goodnight, Mulder.

MULDER: Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning.

(Tugs at the leash while Queequeg is barking frantically.)

SCULLY: Come on, Queequeg. Queequeg, we're not going to go into the woods. Come on, do your business. I thought you had to go. Queequeg! What is it? Queequeg! Where are you going? (The dog breaks free and runs into the woods, Scully follows the leash with a torch.) Queequeg! Come back here! Queequeg! Queequeg? Queequeg! Quee... (The leash returns, and to Scully's horror, Queequeg is gone.)

(Back at the motel, Scully looks distressed.)

MULDER: I'm sorry about Queequeg. You know, I think I've learned something from these photos.

SCULLY: Mulder...

MULDER: (Goes over to her, and points out sighting locations on a map.) They're not pictures of the lake monster, they're pictures of the lake. Locations where the fish has been sighted over the past several years. Look, five years ago, all the sightings occured in the center of the lake. But progressively the sightings have moved closer and closer to shore, until this year, they're practically on the shore.

SCULLY: Could you repeat that last part again? I kind of faded out.

MULDER: Which part?

SCULLY: After you said "I'm sorry"?

MULDER: Can you drive a boat?

SCULLY: (On the boat.) It's too bad we're not out here fishing. (Looking at a fish radar, showing many fish near the boat.)

MULDER: We are fishing.

SCULLY: You really expect to find this thing, don't you, Mulder?

MULDER: You want to head right...here. (Points at the map.)

SCULLY: I'll take that as a yes.

MULDER: I know the difference between expectation and hope. Seek and ye shall find, Scully.

SCULLY: You know, on the old mariner's maps, the cartographers would designate uncharted territories by writing 'Here Be Monsters'.

MULDER: I got a map of New York City just like that.

SCULLY: What was that? (A huge blob appears on the radar screen.)

MULDER: It ain't low gas.

SCULLY: What is that? What is that, Mulder?

MULDER: Here be monsters, Scully.

SCULLY: It looks like it's coming straight at us.

MULDER: Yep, that's what it looks like. (A huge crash is heard, then water pours in through a hole in the boat's stern.)

SCULLY: (Talking on the radio.) Mayday! Mayday! Can anybody hear me? This is the Patricia Rae. CA78327. Mayday! Mayday!

(They pull on life jackets, then swim out from the boat. As the boat sinks, they stand on a nearby rock, watching.)

SCULLY: There goes our five hundred dollar deposit.

MULDER: I say we swim to shore.

SCULLY: Swim?

MULDER: Yeah, the shore can't be too far from here.

SCULLY: In which direction? (Swings her lantern around)

MULDER: When you're living in the city you forget that night is actually so...dark.

SCULLY: Living in the city you forget a lot of things. You know what I was just thinking about, being mugged or hit by a car, it's not until you get back to nature that you realize that everything is out to get you. So my father always told me to respect nature, because it has no respect for you. (A ripple moves through the water.)

MULDER: That was him, Scully, that was Big Blue.

SCULLY: So what if it was. Mulder, what are we doing here?

MULDER: What do you mean, what are we doing here?

SCULLY: What are you hoping to accomplish?

MULDER: Scully, some of the things that we investigate are so intangible but this creature it exists within the specific earthly confines of this lake, and I want to find it.

SCULLY: What for?

MULDER: You're a scientist, why do you ask that question? I mean, it would be a marvelous discovery, it could revolutionize our evolutionary biological thinking.

SCULLY: Is that really the reason why? You know when you showed me those pictures the photographer took, you want to know what I really saw in them?

MULDER: A tooth?

SCULLY: No, you. That man is your future. Listening only to himself, hoping to catch a glimpse of the truth, for who knows what reason.

MULDER: I heard him joke that he was hoping to live off the copyrights fees of a genuine Big Blue photo.

SCULLY: Well, as dumb as it sounds, at least it's a legitimate reason.

MULDER: You don't think my reasons are legitimate?

SCULLY: Mulder, sometimes I just can't figure them out.

(A noise is heard, they jump up, their guns aimed, but it is only a duck. Scully lets out a sob.)

MULDER: I'm still tempted to fire. Hey, Scully, you think you could ever cannibalize someone? I mean if you really had to.

SCULLY: Well as much as the very idea is abhorrent to me, I suppose under certain conditions a living entity is practically conditioned to perform whatever extreme measures are necessary to ensure its survival. I suppose I'm no different.

MULDER: You've lost some weight recently haven't you?

SCULLY: Well, actually I have, thanks for...(she glares at him.)

MULDER: Though it is amazing what some animals will do to guarantee the continuation of a species isn't it? A creature of this size must have adapted its behavior over the years to minimize its chances of being seen by its only predator, us. Its coming closer to shore must have been an act of desperation on its part.

SCULLY: Poor Queequeg.

MULDER: Why did you name your dog Queequeg?

SCULLY: It was the name of the harpoonist in Moby Dick. My father used to read to me from Moby Dick when I was a little girl, I called him Ahab and he called me Starbuck. So I named my dog Queequeg. It's funny, I just realized something.

MULDER: It's a bizarre name for a dog, huh?

SCULLY: No, how much you're like Ahab. You're so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or mysteries, everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology.

MULDER: Scully, are you coming on to me?

SCULLY: It's the truth or a white whale. What difference does it make? I mean, both obsessions are impossible to capture, and trying to do so will only leave you dead along with everyone else you bring with you. You know Mulder, you are Ahab.

MULDER: You know, it's interesting you should say that, because I've always wanted a peg leg. It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of. I'm not being flippant, I've given this a lot of thought. I mean, if you have a peg leg or hooks for hands then maybe it's enough to simply keep on living. You know, bravely facing life with your disability. But without these things you're actually meant to make something of your life, achieve something earn a raise, wear a necktie. So if anything, I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab, because if I did have a peg leg, I'd quite possibly be more happy and more content not to be chasing after these creatures of the unknown.

SCULLY: And that's not flippant?

MULDER: No, flippant is my favourite line from Moby Dick.

MULDER & SCULLY: 'Hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple dumpling'.

MULDER: Huh?

SCULLY: What was that? (A ripple in the water is heard)

MULDER: I don't know, but it ain't no duck. (The lamp goes out.)

FARRADAY: I thought I heard voices. what are you two doing out here?

SCULLY: Dr. Farraday?

FARRADAY: Hope I'm not interrupting anything.

SCULLY: No, no, we had a little trouble with our boat.

MULDER: Actually it sank.

FARRADAY: How'd that happen?

SCULLY: It was my fault. We would have been out here all night if you hadn't answered our distress call.

FARRADAY: Oh, I didn't. I was walking by, I heard you talking.

SCULLY: Walking by?

FARRADAY: Yeah, the shore is just a stone's throw from here. Come on, I'll take you back. It's just out of fuel. The sherrif will be around in a couple of minutes. I'd do it myself, but I've got work to do.

SCULLY: What exactly is it that you're doing out here, Dr. Farraday? It's well after midnight.

FARRADAY: Night is the ranas panasephalas's most active period, and this is its primary breeding ground. Or at least it used to be. Thousands of eggs used to cling to these reeds, beautiful jelly clusters. Now one must turn over many a leaf in order to find potential offspring.

MULDER: What's in the sack?

FARRADAY: Adult frogs, I've been breeding them in captivity, and releasing them into the wild.

SCULLY: This is Striker's Cove?

MULDER: The frogs.

FARRADAY: I beg your pardon?

MULDER: The unexplained depletion of frogs originates from this cove. It's the food chain.

FARRADAY: What about it?

MULDER: Food chain. If you alter one life form in an ecosystem, the rest is necessarily affected, either by an increase or decrease. So if an aquatic dinosaur's diet consisted primarily of frogs, then if those frogs suddenly became scarce, it would have to search for an alternative food source.

SCULLY: A human?

FARRADAY: Agent Mulder, you are taking my legitimate research and basic biological principle, and stretching them both way out of proportion, in an effort to give some kind of validity to an entirely ludicrous theory. There is no prehistoric lake monster.

MULDER: This creature lives here in this cove. That explains the disappearance of these frogs, for which you have no explanation, ludicrous or not. As well as the recent human attacks.

FARRADAY: That's crazy. If something was living in these waters, you don't think I would have seen it? I've been conducting research here for three years.

MULDER: I'm talking about a prehistoric creature that's gone unnoticed for virtually thousands of years. If it knows how to do anything, it knows how to hide. They say that the Loch Ness monster doesn't even live in the water, that it lives in the surrounding cliffs. Maybe Big Blue has an inland habitat, somewhere in the rocks, or in this dense forest here.

FARRADAY: I have no time for these absurdities. If you'll exuse me, I have some amphibians to release.

SCULLY: Well captain, what now?

SHERIFF: Agent Scully! Agent Mulder! There's been another death, and this time it does appear to be some kind of animal. Bit a fisherman's arm clear off.

MULDER: Where'd this happen?

SHERIFF: On the other side of the lake, a couple of hours ago. My department has the cooperation of the state police, plus the full use of all the Wildlife, Fish and Game's department vessels, and I've got a full scale search already under way.

MULDER: No, we need those men here, searching this cove and these woods.

SHERIFF: But I got thirty boats on the water already, now if we're going to capture this thing...

MULDER: Sweep this cove. It's here in Striker's cove.

SHERIFF: The boats are searching the area of the latest attack, and I'm not going to move them. Now if you're going to waste your time conducting a search of these woods, you go right ahead. I got me a lake monster to catch.

SCULLY: Sheriff, Agent Mulder and I would appreciate it if you could spare two or three of your men to assist us here.

SHERIFF: Alright, I'll send them on down. (He wanders off through the woods.)

MULDER: (Turns to Scully.) Thanks.

SCULLY: What was that?

MULDER: Dr. Farraday. (They run through the woods, and spot Farraday lying on the ground.) What happened?

FARRADAY: Something grabbed my leg.

MULDER: Did you see it?

FARRADAY: It came from behind me. Before I knew it it had me. Moved me back and forth. Then it just let go.

SCULLY: I think you nipped an artery. We've got to get him to a hospital, he's losing blood. Give me your belt.

MULDER: Where'd it go?

FARRADAY: I didn't see it, I didn't see it. It went through those reeds there.

SCULLY: Mulder, help is coming. Mulder!

SHERIFF: (Tapping on the ambulance doors) All right, go ahead.

MULDER: How's Dr. Farraday?

SCULLY: He'll be fine. How are you?

MULDER: I'm fine.

SCULLY: Well, you slew the big white whale, Ahab.

MULDER: Yeah, but I still don't have that peg leg.

SCULLY: How can you be disappointed? That alligator would have gone through half the local population if you hadn't killed it.

MULDER: I know. I guess I just wanted Big Blue to be real. I guess I see hope in such a possibility.

SCULLY: Well, there's still hope. That's why these missing stories have endured. People want to believe. (As they turn away, they miss a creature moving through the water - Big Blue)

The End