X-Files: Secret Agendas is out tomorrow, and I’m very excited to be a part of it. The anthology is edited by Jonathan Maberry and also contains stories by Andy Mangels, George Ivanoff, Jade Shames, Jeff Mariotte & Marsheila Mariotte, Jim Beard, Joe Harris, JT Gilstrap, Lauren A. Forry, Lois Gesh, Nancy Holder, Ryan Cady, Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro.
I’ve been a fan of The X-Files since the series premiered 23 years ago, and back then I would have been over the moon to know that someday I’d be writing tie-in fiction featuring Mulder and Scully. In fact, my story “Along the Scenic Route” is an expansion of a script pitch I wrote in college. I did my best to make sure that the story captures the feel of some of the standalone episodes of the early seasons of the show.
“Along the Scenic Route” fits into the third season between the episodes “The List”, which takes place in a Florida penitentiary, and “2Shy”, which is set in Cleveland. Since the end of “The List” shows Mulder and Scully driving to their next assignment, I figured that they were bound to encounter something strange during their road trip north.
In my story, Mulder and Scully stop for lunch at a diner in the fictional town of Tilton, North Carolina, where they witness the aftermath of a fatal traffic incident: a panicked driver ran over a pedestrian he swears was turning into snakes. The agents quickly realize that he and the horrified bystanders were suffering from a disturbing mass hallucination. Scully suspects the townspeople might have been drugged or poisoned … but is something supernatural afoot? Fans of the X-Files know that nothing is ever quite what it seems.