“Roadrunners” is episode four of season eight of The X-Files.
A man is waiting near a bus stop in the Sevier Desert, Utah. When a bus comes, it at first goes past, then stops. He gets on, but moments later the bus comes to a halt again. Everyone gets off. One person, walking with crutches, is led into the desert. Then the driver hits him in the head with a rock. The others join in, then surround the man who had just got on the wrong bus.
Scully is at the scene, taking photos and samples. There’s no mobile service, so she calls Doggett from the payphone next to the bus stop. She explains she’s in Utah; a man was beaten to death, a 22-year-old backpacker, and the coroner asked for help due to anomalies. He was lasty seen by his family 6 months ago, in perfect health, but now has advanced arthritis and the spine of a 90-year-old woman. Somewhere in the files is an unsolved murder case; Scully remembers mucous being found at the scene, like she’s just found at this one. Scully can’t remember anything else about the case, but Doggett said he recently read all the files. Scully wants him to fax details to the sheriff’s. A bus passes and turns off the road.
Scully stops at a small petrol station and gets out, checking her map. A man approaches and she asks him about the bus. He didn’t see it. The road eventually goes to Salt Lake City. The man has an injured hand and she asks him about it and if he heard about the murder. Scully gives him advice on caring for the hand – she’s a doctor – and asks about fuel. He’s out; the tanker is late. But he gets a jerrycan to top her car up. Once Scully leaves, the man heads to where the person from the bus is lying in bed, ill, being cared for by someone. He says help is coming.
Scully’s car conks out and she heads back, accusing the attendant of killing her engine. The jerrycan mostly contains water. The man blames rain. Scully points out they are in a desert. He doesn’t have a phone, but Mr Milsap up the street does. Milsap was on the bus too. The phone doesn’t work; he says the phone company is doing work and he doesn’t know when it will be on again. Milsap offers Scully a room; this used to be a boarding house. She declines. He didn’t see the bus either. They’re miles from anywhere without a car and Scully tries to speak to a woman heading to a prayer group. She’s ignored and gets a room after all. Though she keeps her gun handy. People gather outside during the night.
Scully is jolted awake in the morning when Milsap. He says it’s an emergency; they need a doctor. The man from the bus is seizing; Scully thinks he could be epileptic and ceased taking his meds. Before the bus came, he did take some pills. There’s also an open wound at the base of his spine. The locals claim to have no idea how that happened, or who the man is. They’re just caring for him. Scully wants to take him to a hospital. But there’s no phone and no cars.
The locals are evidently conspiring to keep Mulder in their community, described as like-minded individuals seeking to get away from the modern world. A cult, essentially. Doggett, who Scully hadn’t bothered to keep properly in the loop before heading to Utah, realises there’s a problem when Scully doesn’t arrive at the sheriff’s. Scully is in a lot of trouble.