THE X FILES
"Collective"
A man walks along a dark street to a bus stop in the city of Denver, Colorado. The man wears a crisp business suit, blue and pink striped tie, black slacks and jacket, with a light blue shirt. He sits on the bench in the small alcove that encloses the stop. On the walls of the alcove are pictures of missing people. Women, children, men. The walls are painted with posters all asking the same question. Have you seen this person? The man doesn't pay any attention to it. He probably would have, if he had known he was about to be on one of those posters. The bus arrives and stops next to the man. The doors open and the man looks up to the bus driver. The bus driver, who is currently pointing a Browning GP 35 at the man's head. He doesn't hesitate in pulling the trigger.
A crowd of police photographers gather around the the very same bus stop, snapping pictures of blood spatters. Some men in clearly marked Forensics uniforms grab hairs with tweezers and place them in small bags marked "Evidence". There is no body anywhere to be seen. Denver Police Officer Rob Grant scratches his head as he watches them work. Rob hears some commotion to his right and turns to see a man pushing through the crowd of coroners and photographers, a woman following close behind.
Rob walks to intercept the two as they begin to walk toward the crime scene.
"Excuse me, can I help you?"
The man and the woman whirl around to face him.
"Agent Fox Mulder, this is my partner, agent Scully." The man says as he and the woman both take out FBI badges.
"I'm Captain Rob Grant, Denver Police. I was unaware the FBI would be included in this investigation."
"No one is." Mulder jokes with a smile.
Rob doesn't smile.
Rob walks off, an expression of annoyance on his face.
"What's his problem?" Mulder asks.
"I don't know. Let's go see if some of the other officers will be more helpful." Scully begins to walk over to an officer near a squad car.
But something struck Mulder's eye. "Be right there," he says as he walks to the stop. He looks at the blood spatter, and the bullet hole in the back of the alcove. Then he walks right over to the bench and picks up a dead bug sitting on it. He inspects it, it looks like a cicada, but, not. It's far to small, and he'd never seen a cicada with forelegs like a mantis. His brow furrows. He calls out to his partner.
"Scully!"
"Yeah?"
" Come over here a minute."
Scully excuses herself from the conversation and stride over to where Mulder is intently looking at the bug.
"What is it?" she asks.
"You ever seen one of these before?" he holds out the bug for Scully to see.
"No. Where'd you find it?"
"It landed on my shoulder."
"Well, good thing you killed it, it looks bloodthirsty."
"It does, doesn't it."