1X-Files: Joseph's Rewrite: Pilot
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Files. I only own my OC.
SCENE 5
COASTAL NORTHWEST OREGON; MARCH 7, 1992
(After driving through town, the agents arrive at the cemetery. Getting out, they see a number of men standing around, along with a crane. John Truitt and his assistant walk over to Joseph and Scully.)
JOHN TRUITT: Joseph, John Truitt, County Coroner's Office.
JOSEPH: Yeah, hi.
(They shake hands.)
This is Agent Scully.
SCULLY: Hi.
(She and Truitt shake hands.)
JOSEPH: How soon can we get started?
(Scully and the assistant shake hands as well.)
SCULLY: Hello.
JOHN TRUITT: We're ready to go.
JOSEPH: Oh great.
JOHN TRUITT: Okay, Vinnie!
(The crane starts up as the four walk up the hill.)
JOSEPH: Were you able to arrange for a, uh... an examination facility?
JOHN TRUITT: I think we got something for you...
(A man and his teenage daughter pull up to the site.)
JAY NEMMAN: Excuse me!
JOSEPH: Ah...
(They turn around and look at the man.)
JAY NEMMAN: Excuse me!
(He starts towards them angrily but turns around and moves his daughter back to the passenger's side.)
No. Please stay in the car... let me handle this. I just want to talk to them.
(The girl gets into the car. The man walks over to the four officials.)
I just don't know who you people think you are. You just think you can come up here, and do whatever you damn well please, don't you?
JOSEPH: I'm sorry, you are...
JAY NEMMAN: I'm Doctor Jay Nemman. I'm county medical examiner.
JOSEPH: Surely, you must have been informed of our intentions to come up here.
JAY NEMMAN: No, uh, no. We've been away.
JOSEPH: Oh, oh. Well, that answers the question that we had. Why you hadn't done the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson. You're aware of the tissue sample that was taken from the girl's body.
JAY NEMMAN: Wha... wha... what is the insinuation here? Are you saying that I missed something in those other kids' exams?
SCULLY: We're not insinuating anything, sir.
JAY NEMMAN: Wait a minute.
(The group turns back, but Nemman grabs Joseph's arm and spins him around.)
Wait a minute, see, well I think you are. And if you're making an accusation, then you'd better have something to back it up.
(His daughter gets out of the car.)
THERESA NEMMAN: Daddy, please, let's just go home.
(Jay motions for Theresa to wait.)
Let's go home, please.
(Nemman glares at Joseph, then gets back in the car and drives off.)
JOSEPH: Guy obviously needed a longer vacation.
(They start back up the hill. They reach the gravesite and the crane starts scooping out the dirt above the coffin. Scully is reading from the file loudly because the crane's whirring is very loud.)
SCULLY: Ray Soames was the third victim. After graduating high school, he spent time in a state mental hospital treated for post-adolescent schizophrenia.
JOSEPH: Soames actually confessed to the first two murders. He pleaded to be locked up but he couldn't produce any evidence that he committed the crimes. Did you happen to read the cause of death?
SCULLY: Exposure. His body was found in the woods after escaping the hospital.
JOSEPH: Missing for only seven hours in July. How does a twenty-year-old boy die of exposure on a warm summers night in Oregon, Doctor Scully?
WORKER: I got it.
(Two men help pull out the coffin as it is being lifted out by a harness. Suddenly, one of the straps breaks and the coffin starts rolling down the hill.)
Look out!
(As it hits the ground, the people jump, startled. They run down to the coffin as it crashes up against a tombstone, stopping it. The coffin has been broken open. Joseph goes to open it but Truitt grabs his arm.)
JOHN TRUITT: This isn't official procedure.
JOSEPH: Really?
(Joseph opens it anyway and sees a desecrated, mummified grayish body lying in the coffin. While it is unclear exactly what this was, it is definitely not human. The arms are very long and the body is thin as well. The agents and workers gasp and cover their mouths, nauseous. Mulder stands and looks at Scully, who is kneeling.)
It's probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the varsity basketball team.
(He turns to Truitt.)
Seal this up, right now! Nobody sees or touches this. Nobody!
(Truitt slams the lid shut.)