The Phantom Phone-Booth. (Chpt.1)
Mulder took another bite of his cruller as turned off onto the old dirt road leading into the woods outside the northern-most end of Ellingsford, Virginia, a tiny, out-of-the-way suburb of Quantico. The kind of little town that no-one would ever even think about except when something outrageous happens, like a triple-homicide, or...an alien abduction.
Over the phone, it had sounded like a interesting case. But, after driving past a boarding-house-turned-Arby's, and a total of three,-count them, three-mechanic shops, this assignment was beginning to feel more and more like another of those, what he called "Bubba"-cases, wherein a drunken redneck frantically calls in a UFO sighting just to get attention, or mistakes a cell-tower for a soviet satellite. The kind of case he still reluctantly accepted, just for the paycheck. The story Scully had related to him involved the evidence of a crash-sight in the unnamed woods, but no actual craft being found. A deep-impact crater, drag-marks made by an object with a squared edge, with a large swath of trees splintered in a 30-ft. radius. The area of the crater had been thoroughly searched, but nothing could be definitively determined until he'd had his chance to evaluate.
Pulling up to the first major clearing on the path, he noticed Scully standing alongside the path, which was a change up from the norm. Usually, he was enthusiastic one, meeting Scully at the sight as she drove up in her black sedan. She waited patiently for him park, and as he stepped out, finishing breakfast. "What'th up," he asked through a mouthful of pastry. "Call came in at 8:00 this morning from a rancher doing rounds. Said he saw smoke coming from the trees, went to check it out, found the wreckage." "Anyone else had a chance to see this yet?" he continued. "Just the rancher, and the regulars, of course. It's about a half-mile into the trees, completely out of sight of the road." "Typical," replied Mulder.
Upon Approach, Mulder began observing the peculiar details of this particular scene; Aside from the obvious lack of a craft, the drag-marks ran deep and narrow, almost like a shipping container dropped out of the sky and skidded along until smashing into something. Also, somehow they'd forgotten to mention the somewhat steep drop-off mere yards from the sight of impact. "Has anyone bothered to look down there yet?" he asked, pointing to the drop-off. "I don't know," Scully responded, "Their not exactly concerned. No reports of missing containers, no suspicious individuals, nothing the federal government would consider a priority."
"What about the smoke?" Mulder continued to question as he wandered over to the edge of the small cliff-side, kneeling down to peer over the slope into the clearing below. "There were reports of a...sulfurous smell, like burning metal and jet fuel...At least that are how the rancher reports it, but it's blown away by now," Scully answered. Mulder carefully stepped down onto the muddy, shadowed slope, and made his way toward what appeared to be nothing more than a pile of rocks and old slag. Nothing out of the ordinary for the kind of spot used to dump construction runoff and old tires. But, as he approached the tall slag pile, he stared closely at something, and after a moment, turned quickly and called to Scully to follow; "Hey! Come look at this! I think I've found something!"
Scully, surprised at Mulder's quick discovery, hurried down as fast as she dared on this hazardous drop, sidling up to his side. "Look at this," Mulder pointed to some charred markings surrounding the base of the pile. "There're scorch-marks up here, and all along there," he stated, trailing his finger over the pile, and up to the top of the drop-off. "Clearly, there was burn-off of some kind...and it ends right here, at this heap..." He murmured, reaching out his hand slowly to climb up the pile. "Wait!" Scully spoke up, "Mulder! Over here!" He quickly scrambled his over to where she stood, a look of total shock on her face as she knelt down to show him; The two of them stared off into the woods in dumbfounded silence, their eyes following the trail of footprints staggering into the misty darkness.