-1CHAPTER 3: A Spiral Into Insanity

Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy again. But I've finally managed to get chapter three written and posted for your reading pleasure. I want to thank everyone who has sent me reviews for this fic so far. Your input is valuable, and I appreciate it. I'm glad to see my work is well liked among the readers. Well, without further ado, on with the chapter…

Office of "Bill"

Feb 12, 11:35am

Mulder and Scully sat in a fairly large, dimly lit office. The walls were plastered with photographs, drawings and sketches of various types of spacecraft, alien beings, crop circles, and what appeared to be cereal mascots. Across from the two federal agents sat a slim, dark haired man dressed in a grey shirt, black tie, dark green trench coat, and black sunglasses. Sitting silently behind a large metal desk with a stern look on his face, the man finally addressed the agents.

"It was only a matter of time." The man said coldly. "I knew that one day the government would send you to silence me…that I would get to close to the truth and the corporations would send you to suppress the truth…" He shook a fist in the air. "But I'm not alone, you know. You may silence me, but ten more will take my place!" He said defiantly. Scully looked at Mulder with a smug grin.

"We're not here to…silence you." Mulder stated.

"You're…you're not?" The man asked.

"No." Scully replied. "We're just here to ask a few questions, Mr…."

"Call me Bill." The man said quickly.

"Okay…Bill," Mulder said. "I can see that you're up on all the conspiracies in the world."

"I make it my business to know these things." Bill answered.

"And you probably know quite a bit about nearly all of the UFO activity in the area, am I correct?"

"Of course." Bill said. "What is it you want to know?"

"What do you know about Dib Membrane?" Scully asked, sliding a photograph of Dib across the desk. Bill studied it for a moment.

"Not much." Bill said. "He was paired with me on career day a year ago. He's a smart kid, but he'll never make it in paranormal science."

"Why is that?" Mulder asked.

"He's far too narrow-minded. I tried repeatedly to get him to see the truth about Count Cocoafang…"

"The vampire cereal mascot?" Mulder asked.

"Exactly. He wouldn't believe that Cocoafang was an actual vampire, even when we saw him in person, luring children to him like flies to a spider…" Scully again looked at Mulder and shook her head, signifying that the question of Bill's credibility was already decided on her part. Bill continued, "…he even refuted my evidence that an alien forces control cattle to create crop circles. He kept talking crazy talk about an alien named Zim who…"

"Excuse me," Mulder interrupted. "Did you say 'Zim'?"

"Yes I did, but…"

"What did he say about this alien?" Mulder wasn't about to let him go off on another tangent.

"He kept saying that this 'alien' was living on Earth and trying to take over the planet. He kept trying to get me to drive him to MacMeatie's to prove it." Mulder penciled something onto a notepad.

"And you didn't believe this claim of Dib's, Bill?" Scully asked.

"Of course not." Bill answered. "I knew his claims couldn't possibly be true, because aliens aren't here for our planet at all." Mulder raised an eyebrow.

"What are they here for then, Bill?" Mulder queried.

"In a word," Bill replied, "Corn." Mulder brought a hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh and pretended to cough.

"Extraterrestrials are here for our…corn?" Mulder asked. "And why exactly is that?"

"Because corn is the only substance in the universe that can be used for food, shelter, clothing and fuel." Bill said. "The aliens visiting our planet are intelligent enough to know this, and for the past sixty years, have been periodically collecting different varieties of corn to take back to their home planet to begin massive corn cultivation operations. My guess is that they operate most of their machinery on corn based ethanol, and have a diet composed almost entirely off of corn based foods."

"And your evidence of this…" Mulder began, himself feeling the sanity in the room slowly slipping away.

"Crop circles most often appear in corn fields." Bill stated. "Crop circles are their way of marking what crops have already been harvested. Not to mention the numerous large scale, government owned corn growing operations throughout the country. Why do you think the government would grow so much corn if not for use in the extraterrestrial/corn conspiracy. Now the…"

"Sorry to interrupt," Scully said. "But we really have to be going." She looked at Mulder and widened her eyes as if to say 'Now'. Mulder looked at his watch.

"You know what, you're right Scully." He said. The FBI agents stood. "Thank you for your assistance, Bill."

"Don't mention it." Bill replied cordially. "Say, this conversation wasn't recorded…wasn't it?"

"It wasn't" Mulder said. "You have my word."

"Alright." Bill said. "I'm glad I could help. If you have any more problems involving aliens, contact me at once."

"Will do, Bill." Mulder said. "Take care of yourself."

"And you too." Bill said. "And remember: whatever you do, never use hairspray. It's teeming with nanobots."

Thealiencornconspiracyisarealthreat

"Mulder, I hope you didn't believe any of what that man said." Scully said condescendingly as the pair walked toward their car. Mulder smiled a little.

"I think we got all the information we needed." He said. "And there may have been a little merit to what he said." Scully stopped in her tracks, and turned to Mulder.

"Mulder, Bill is obviously suffering from paranoia, and displays schizophrenic behavior. His deep seated neuroses no doubt has him living in a world of his own creation. He believes whatever twisted truth he can conjure up in his own mind."

"Meaning he is far detached from reality." Mulder added. Scully looked back toward the office where she could see Bill cautiously peering out of a blind before closing it quickly.

"Far detached." Scully said.

"Then his refusal to believe Dib's claims may be based on his refusal to accept reality."

"You can't use the fact he debunks truth for fiction to prove that Dib is telling the truth." Scully said matter-of-factly. "Honestly, I don't think this interview proved anything."

"It may have proved one thing, Scully." Mulder said with a smile.

"And that is…" Mulder held up his notepad.

"That on career day one year ago, this Zim, if he exists, may have been working at MacMeaties."

I hope you enjoyed this little chapter. There really isn't enough Bill in the fan fiction world, and I try to write him in wherever possible. Also, from the first time I saw Bill in "Career Day" I thought it would be comical to have Mulder and Bill in the same room. For once, there would be a gauge for sanity that would work in Mulder's favor. I hope I pulled it off agreeably well in this chapter. Well, more to write, so as usual, send me your thoughts and I'll send you more chapters. Till then, cheerio.