"Man #1 :" "You're supposed to be in charge here, Perkins." "Man #2:" "I am in charge." "Man #1 :" "These men want answers." "They want to know what your plan is." "This thing could kill us all." "Man #2:" "We should have left two days ago." "No one would listen to me." "Man #1 :" "Nobody knew what it was two days ago." "Nobody knows now." "Somebody has to go for help." "What are the rest of us supposed to do?" "Wait for help?" "Someone has to chance it... and hike out." "That person might not make the road before nightfall." "Then what?" "I say we run for it." "Split up, take our chances." "It's suicide, Dyer." "Fine." "You stay here." "Tell us how it turns out." "(Panting)" "(Grunting)" "(Labored Breathing)" "I think it's broken." "You got to get up." "I can't make it." "(Groaning)" "We got to keep moving." "(Grunting)" "We're not going to make it." "(Distant Humming)" "(Humming Growing Louder)" "(Dyer Screaming)" "Take a good look, Scully." "What am I looking at?" "30 loggers working a clear-cutting contract... in Washington State-- rugged, manly men... in the full bloom of their manhood." "What am I looking for?" "Anything strange, unexplainable, unlikely, boyfriend" "I don't know." "I give up, Mulder." "Funny." "That's what the Federal Forest Service... has done as well." "Why?" "What happened to them?" "In a word, they vanished." "Or so it would appear." "This is Doug Spinney and Steven Teague." "They call themselves "monkey wrenchers."" "They drive spikes into trees... sabotage logging equipment, and make life miserable... for lumberjacks and lumber mills." "Ecoterrorists-- militant environmentalists." "Right." "Two weeks ago... the loggers radioed a message... that Spinney and Teague had gone on a spree... sabotaging equipment, causing general mischief." "One week later... all radio communication was cut off." "Do they know why?" "No." "The lumber company... asked the Federal Forest Service to look into it." "Two officials went in last week." "No one has heard from them." "It appears as if these monkey wrenchers... are doing more than mischief making." "That's what the lumber company and forest service are accusing." "They've asked the FBI to investigate." "I had to pull strings to get the case." "An ecoterrorism case?" "Do I dare ask why?" "In 1 934, long before anyone knew what an ecoterrorist was... a WPA crew... working that same area vanished without a trace." "None of those men was ever found or heard from again." "And you suspect what, Bigfoot?" "Not likely." "That's a lot of flannel to be choking down... even for Bigfoot." "Come on." "It will be a nice trip to the forest." "Hi." "Fox Mulder, Dana Scully." "We're with the FBI." "Larry Moore, Federal Forest Service." "You can put your gear in the truck." "Must be pretty rugged where we're going." "Yeah." "Is that a bullet hole in your windshield?" ".22 caliber." "Somebody shot at you?" "There's not much to hunt around here... with that ammo except Freddies." ""Freddies" ?" "Employees of the Federal Forest Service." "It's what ecoterrorists call us." "Is that who you think shot at you?" "Let me get this out of the way." "I have no quarrel with ecoterrorists in principle." "I'm as concerned for this forest... and the environment as anybody." "It's their methods I can't condone." "Do you think they'd kill a man?" "There's 30 men up there unaccounted for... each with survival experience." "Something happened to them." "Sorry I'm late." "I was down talking to Bob Perkins' wife." "He's one of our missing loggers." "Hey, Larry." "Steve Humphreys, head of security... for Schiff-Immergut Lumber." "Mulder." "Scully." "We've got a four-hour drive ahead of us" "Plenty of time to get acquainted." "Get the impression... we've walked into the middle of a war... that's already started?" "Why do these men... work so far up in the wilderness?" "That's where the trees are." "You're kidding, right?" "No." "Environmentalists have made sure... that all the land here is untouchable." "We take our timber where we can get it." "Even then, we plant saplings for every tree we take." "So why do ecoterrorists target you?" "Tree huggers are like the boys... who went up to Canada during the Vietnam War." "They're cowardly, and so are their tactics." "Damn it." "Homemade tire spike." "Clear through the sidewall." "It's unfixable." "You got a spare?" "Humphreys:" "Right tire's history too." "Monkey wrenchers call it a caltrop." "Roads back here are littered with them." "Indiscriminate terrorism." "Can you imagine somebody... spiking the roads of Washington, D.C.?" "How much sympathy would they get?" "So how are we going to get to the camp?" "We're going to have to hike." "Anybody here?" "Someone forgot to clean their plate." "Scully:" "Looks like they left in a hurry too." "They forgot to pack." "Find anything?" "Party favors." "Vehicles have all been monkey wrenched." "Power generator's busted." "Somebody really turned this place upside down." "Whoever did it didn't want the fact broadcast, either." "Radiators are all full of rice." "Looks like sugar or sand in all the crankcases." "They really did a number here." "The sun's going down in an hour and a half." "Better look around before it gets dark." "I'll see if I can get that generator working." "You were right about one thing." "What's that?" "Definitely wasn't Bigfoot." "Look at that." "Scully:" "What is it?" "Moore:" "It looks like a hive." "Maybe a cocoon of some kind." "Made by what?" "I don't know." "I've never seen anything like it." "Got it." "Can you cut it down?" "Yeah, I think so." "You all right, Scully?" "Scully:" "Oh, God." "It feels, uh... it feels desiccated, hard and dry... almost preserved." "Like it's been embalmed." "No, more like the fluids have been bled... from its body." "Almost like it's been cured." "I think... it's a male." "Barely." "I'd say it's some kind of spider's nest... or insect cocoon." "What kind of insect could have gotten a man... all the way up into that tree?" "Itsy-bitsy spider." "(Creaking)" "(Clanking)" "Don't move." "Who are you?" "Doug Spinney." "I ought to shoot you." "Might as well shoot yourself too." "You're in a spot to be testing me." "What happened to my men?" "What men?" "The men who were working this camp." "I don't know." "Probably the same thing... will happen to us when the sun goes down." "What are you doing?" "This animal's Doug Spinney." "He's responsible for all the monkey wrenching." "He's probably a murderer." "I'm no murderer." "You're a liar." "Let's hear him out." "If we stand around, there will be nothing left to say." "Think about getting that generator started." "Darkness is our enemy." "What's he talking about?" "Someone want to give me a hand?" "Now he's giving orders?" "I'm the one... who fixed the damn thing." "Mulder:" "It's all right." "Why did you say that darkness was our enemy?" "That's when they come." "When who comes?" "I don't know what it is." "They come from the sky, take a man right off his feet... and devour him alive." "I saw it happen." "Happen to who?" "(Engine Sputtering)" "(Idling Smoothly)" "I need to eat." "I haven't eaten in three days." "What kind of B.S. story is that, huh?" "You believe that?" "We found something in the forest." "What?" "A man caught in some kind... of insect cocoon." "What happened here?" "We camped two valleys over, four of us." "Three now." "More rats in the woodpile." "Our truck has a dead battery." "We drew straws to see who would make the hike... to steal one from the loggers." "Why not just hike out?" "It's over a day's hike." "No way we wanted to be caught in the forest after dark... not after what happened to Teague." "That's the man you said was devoured alive?" "Yeah." "Why are you out here?" "Camping." "The kind of camping you do is a federal offense." "Just hold off a second, okay?" "No, he's right." "This man is an admitted felon." "He could be arrested." "What about your offense, my friend, huh?" "What about your offense against nature?" "We operate within the law." "We pay for the right to take those trees." "Well, your logging crew is taking trees... that are marked and protected... so don't talk to me about breaking the law... sir." "They've taken marked trees?" "Yes, sir, marked in orange." "Old growth trees?" "You know anything about that, Steve?" "No." "You going to take this man's word... over mine?" "You don't want to go out in the night." "Take my word on that." "It's out there." "If I go out that door... something's going to eat me and spin me in its web?" "Yes." "It's too polite to come in here... and get me?" "For some reason, it's, uh, afraid of the light." "It's afraid of the light." "There may be something to what he's saying, Steve." "He's a murderer, clever enough to make up a story like that... even whip up that cocoon to save a few trees... and I'm going to prove I'm right." "This is ridiculous." "Where is it, Spinney?" "I thought it was going to come and devour me." "Humphreys:" "Here I am!" "(Zapping)" "Come out, come out, wherever you are." "Aw, don't be shy." "Come on." "Huh?" "It's just like I told you." "There's nothing out here but a bunch of trees... that this man values more than human life." "I'm going to see him tried on murder charges." "What do you think?" "I think I'm going to suggest... that we sleep with the lights on." "(Sighs)" "(Zapping)" "You see this Douglas fir?" "It's been standing here since before time... and your men cut it down." "Scully:" "Who marks these trees?" "Federal Forest Service." "You're only supposed to cut trees... with a blue X." "Mulder:" "It must be hundreds of years old." "Scully:" "Must get a lot of lumber from a tree like this." "Thousands of board feet." "Hell of a lot easier... than taking a lot of smaller, younger trees." "Monkey wrenchers like Spinney here... are not above marking trees... with their own paint." "This tree's 500 years old if it's a day." "Mulder:" "Look at this." "What would this represent?" "I don't know." "I've never seen a ring like that before." "Those center rings are older rings, right?" "Yeah." "Every ring represents a season of growth." "And you see these?" "These are 500, 600 years old." "They're a recorded history of rainfall and climate." "But this one, I don't know." "I should take a core sample." "We finished with this nature walk?" "What happened to those loggers?" "We're determining that." "Don't you think... you should be interrogating this man?" "I don't think he did it." "I want him arrested." "He's not leaving." "No, not with a gun on him." "What happens if his three buddies show up... and do to you what they did... to those two federal forest officials?" "I just want to take a core sample." "I got families who want some answers about loved ones... answers not found in that tree." "The only crime is the death of that tree." "Yeah, well, we'll see about that." "Where you going?" "I'm hiking down to your truck... and get some people up here... who will take action." "Steve!" "Let him go." "Let him find out for himself." "This is odd." "This yellow ring's got something living in it... some kind of... tiny bug." "It doesn't make sense." "Why not?" "Well, parasites attack a tree in a variety of ways... but they always attack the living parts:" "the leaves, the roots, the new growth rings." "Even if they're borers of some kind... they wouldn't be working so deep in the tree." "Maybe the wood in this ring is different." "They seem to be feeding on it." "Can you identify them?" "It's a wood mite of some kind." "Could they have been living in that tree for hundreds of years?" "No." "Inner rings are dead wood." "The tree's vascular system... is limited to the outer few rings." "They need water to survive." "They appear to be hatching out of the wood." "Maybe when you drew out this core... you tapped into a larger nest." "Spinney:" "Can they build a cocoon?" "Right after that tree was cut down is when Teague died." "It's about the same time that the loggers disappeared too." "You think these mites killed the men?" "Maybe they been dormant for hundreds of years." "Maybe they woke up hungry." "Damn it!" "(Sighs)" "(Humming)" "All right, you monkey wrenchers... come on out now." "I know what you're up to!" "(Humming)" "(Horn Honks)" "(Grunting)" "(Screaming)" "(Idling Smoothly)" "Humphreys should have been back by now." "These bugs aren't moving anymore." "They're either dead, or they're asleep." "It's the light." "They don't like the light." "Scully:" "Usually, bugs are attracted to light." "Spinney:" "These obviously are not your ordinary bugs... to say the least." "Do you know insects, Scully?" "Uh,just what I learned in my biology courses." "They're the foundation of our ecosystem." "There are lots of them, something like... 200 million per person." "They've been around a long time?" "Yeah, something like 600 million years-- before the dinosaurs." "Why?" "This tree is what, 600, 7 00 years old?" "Yeah." "These rings represent a history of climatic changes... which means that, in this year in the life of the tree... there was some strange event that produced an abnormal ring." "Like what, exactly?" "A volcanic eruption." "This whole chain of mountains... running from Washington to Oregon is active." "Remember Mount St. Helens?" "Yeah." "How does that explain the bugs?" "After Mount St. Helens erupted, there was radiation unleashed... from inside the Earth." "Strange things started to grow." "There's this lake where they discovered an amoeba... that sucks a man's brains out." "Oh, a brain-sucking amoeba." "It's true." "Spirit Lake." "There's documented cases... of infected swimmers." "But an amoeba is... a single-celled organism that can be mutated." "An insect is a complex animal." "A mutation would take years to evolve." "Maybe what we're dealing with isn't a mutation at all." "What if it's some kind of extinct insect larvae... in that ring-- deposited during volcanic activity... brought up through the tree's root system." "Ancient insect eggs... thousands, maybe millions of years old... lying dormant" "Until those loggers cut down that tree." "That would be rather poetic justice, don't you think... unleashing the very thing that would end up killing them... and your friend Humphreys?" "And who knows?" "Maybe us." "Sweet dreams." "Humphreys might have just hiked out of here." "We don't know that he didn't." "Maybe we're letting ourselves get carried away... with this bug story." "Yeah, maybe." "(Idling Smoothly)" "Mulder:" "Going somewhere?" "No, I was" "Doing auto repair?" "You're planning on cutting out." "My friends only had enough gas... to keep their generator running 20 hours." "They'll die if I don't get back." "Why sneak around?" "The forest service guy wouldn't go for it." "He'd never trust me." "He's got no reason to." "Neither do I." "I can save us all." "We've got a Jeep." "It's just two valleys over." "It needs a battery." "I can be back in the morning." "We can all drive out tomorrow." "You got to trust me, man." "Mulder:" "Radio's back up." "It's working?" "I'm not getting any reception... so the receiver could be trashed." "What about transmissions?" "Can you send a message?" "I could try." "This is a call for help." "Is there anyone at this frequency?" "This is Special Agent Mulder of the FBI." "We have an emergency and a possible quarantine." "Our position is" "(Generator Dies)" "What happened to the generator?" "I turned it off." "Turn it back on." "The radio's working." "Where's the gas can?" "Spinney took it." "He took it?" "You mean he's gone?" "He left earlier." "He took a battery and gas." "He's coming back." "He gave his personal guarantee?" "He gave me his word, yeah." "The man who gave you his word has made an art out of sabotage... and defying authority, and is probably the man... who put that bullet through my windshield." "What would you have done?" "We've got one chance, which is one more than we had." "Or one less." "What do you mean?" "He let Spinney take the last of the gas." "This generator's got about a quarter tank left." "What about the trucks?" "The tanks have been ruptured or filled with sugar." "By the man we are trusting to come back for us." "We got to get on the radio and send a Mayday." "Every drop of fuel... is going to keep this gennie powered tonight." "I don't want to wait... hoping somebody heard that transmission... when this thing quits running about 2:00 in the morning." "Do you?" "(Sighs)" "(Groans)" "Mulder" "It's done." "I shouldn't have let him go." "Let's just move past it, okay?" "Fine." "What do you suggest?" "I don't know." "We'll think of something." "I think we both have a good idea... of what happened to those loggers... and what happened to the group in 1 934." "They only found one cocoon." "It's a big forest." "What would you have done?" "Would I have made a decision myself that affected us all?" "Cut the sanctimonious crap." "What do you want me to say?" "We might die up here." "If we're lucky, they'll find our bodies spun up in a tree... or they may not find us at all!" "You're right, and we're wasting time arguing about it." "What are you going to do?" "Button this place up." "If we got to spend the night in here... we got to do everything we can... to make sure the bugs stay out there." "I'd be careful with that." "It's the only bulb that works." "(Idling Roughly)" "I can see them." "You guys, look at this." "Look." "They're coming through the wall... down where it's dark." "You see them?" "(Gasps Softly)" "They're on me!" "Mulder:" "It's all right." "Scully, Scully" "Get them off me!" "Whoa!" "Watch it!" "Stand still!" "Stop it!" "Can you see them?" "Get them off!" "They're not just on you." "They're everywhere." "That's what that residue is over everything." "I thought we were safe in the light!" "We are!" "I think the light keeps them from swarming." "We'll be safe as long as we stay in the light." "(Idling Smoothly)" "How you feeling?" "I'm okay." "They're oxidizing enzymes... just like fireflies." "Maybe that's why they cocoon their prey-- so that they can oxidize the proteins... taken from the fluids in the body." "What if the generator goes?" "Will they swarm in here and drain the life out of us?" "We got an hour and a half till sunrise." "Then what?" "It's over a day's hike out of here." "We won't make it on foot by nightfall." "Maybe somebody heard our transmission." "Help could be on the way." "You sent that call hours ago." "I mean, help would have been here by now." "Well, I'm not going to give up on Spinney." "He gave me his word he'd come back to get us." "And if he doesn't?" "We'll think of something." "(Idling Roughly)" "(Generator Sputtering)" "(Sputtering Increases)" "(Generator Dies)" "You got a patch kit in your truck?" "Yeah." "Maybe we can patch this or get it to hold air." "With the truck's spare, maybe we can limp down the mountain." "If not, we can get on the radio and warn them what's out here." "(Thunder Rumbling)" "Moore:" "See it?" "Mulder:" "Yeah." "(Low Humming)" "Listen." "You hear that?" "Moore:" "It's a car." "No." "It's a Jeep." "We got to move." "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Wait!" "What about the body-- Humphreys' body?" "Leave it." "I've radioed for help." "Where are your friends?" "They didn't make it." "We won't either... unless we haul ass." "Let's go." "Come on." "Spinney:" "Oh!" "Damn it!" "Moore:" "I don't believe it." "You talk about shooting yourself in the foot." "(Yelling)" "Get out of there!" "Get in the car!" "(Yelling)" "(Groaning)" "(Screaming)" "We have an emergency evacuation situation." "Requesting quarantine facility for two... possibly three victims... with undiagnosed infection or exposure... to unknown biological vectors." "Repeat, that's an emergency evacuation situation." "Two, possibly three victims" "How are you feeling?" "Better." "How did the tests come back?" "Your respiratory charts were good." "We were concerned... about the damage due to inhalation." "There were large concentrations... of the chemical we determined was luciferin." "Which is what?" "The same enzyme we find in fireflies... and other bioluminescent insects." "Our entomologists are still trying to determine... the specific epithet... of the insects you encountered." "Scully?" "How's she doing?" "She's still not out of the woods, so to speak." "She lost a lot of fluids." "Two or three more hours of exposure... she might not have made it." "I told her it was going to be a nice trip to the forest." "How you going to contain it to the forest?" "What if the swarm migrates?" "The government has initiated eradication procedures." "They're quite certain that, by using a combination of controlled burns and pesticides... they will be successful." "And if they're not?" "That is not an option, Mr. Mulder." "I made this!"