The X-Files characters belong to FOX Corporation and 1013, Chris Carter, et al
PROLOGUE
In the woods of Northern Idaho a man in faded army fatigues stands cradling a semi automatic weapon in his arms. He guards a gate and chain link fence where razor wire coils along the top like a mechanical snake. He opens the gate, waves a windowless van through and it proceeds down a narrow road with overhanging trees and tangled vegetation.
The van stops in front of a weathered barn and a small farmhouse, yellowed grass pokes up around the foundation and paint peels from the siding. Five tattered and haggard men stumble out, they are the faceless ghosts of society, hungry, homeless and invisible, they squint against the mid-day sun are are stunned when the driver uses a gun to motion them into the barn.
Inside, shovels, rakes, and other gardening tools lean and hang in a haphazard fashion along one wall, a workbench rests against another and a winch hangs from the rafters. In the center of the barn is a small tractor and a full size pick up truck, it smells like mechanics oil, damp concrete and dirt. The driver herds them to the back, enters a code in a hidden panel and the workbench swings out revealing a set of stairs, they descend into an underground bunker where they are prodded into an empty room at the end of a dimly lit corridor. The walls and door are metal, the seams held together with rivets, resembling buttons on the front of a man's dress shirt. Air blows in from the vents that are dotted along the ceiling.
The door shuts abruptly with a loud clank.
In an adjacent room, Henry Aldrich watches the imprisoned men on a video monitor. His long bushy hair and disheveled attire add to his eccentric appearance, he resembles a character from a Charles Dickens novel, gaunt and pasty white. His eyes dart about the screen and his chuckle turns into hideous laughter as he hops about like a small child.
"Anthony, come and see!" He beckons to the driver.
He presses a button on a remote control and within a few seconds, the prisoners cover their faces with their hands and clutch their throats. They gasp and gag as they drop to their knees and crumple to the ground and their prone bodies twitch involuntarily before becoming silent and still.
The crazed man grins, and like an actor on stage, he takes a bow, steps back, twirls around and vanishes into thin air.