Agts. Mulder and Scully traveled to a migrant labor camp in the San Joaquin Valley of California to investigate the death under mysterious circumstances of Maria Dorantes, 19. Eyewitnesses had reported a blinding white light, high winds, and yellow rain preceding DorantesÆs death. At the site of DorantesÆs death, Agts. Mulder and Scully examined the body of a goat, which had died at the same time as Dorantes. The goatÆs body had quickly become covered with an unidentified form of rot. Agt. Mulder explained the unusual weather phenomena to Agt. Scully as a Fortean event. Such events are often linked to reported alien encounters and exsanguinated animal carcasses. According to Agt. Mulder, the body of Maria Dorantes had not yet been examined by local police because she was an illegal alien.

Agts. Mulder and Scully proceeded to the shanty of a woman identified as Flakita. Flakita blamed the death of Dorantes on a folkloric creature known as el chupacabra. A man identified as Soledad Buente disagreed, saying his brother Eladio Buente had killed Dorantes because she had loved Soledad Buente and not Eladio Buente. Soledad Buente described the yellow-rain phenomenon as a trick. Agt. Scully agreed that the most likely explanation of DorantesÆs death was a crime of passion. However, since local law enforcement seemed uninterested in the case, Agts. Mulder and Scully agreed that it would be appropriate for them to determine the cause of Maria DorantesÆs death.

Seeking Eladio Buente, Agt. Mulder met with Immigration and Naturalization Services Special Agent Conrad Lozano at the INS office in Fresno, California. Agts. Mulder and Lozano located Eladio Buente in an isolated cell under the name Erik Estrada; other prisoners, fearing el chupacabra, had not wanted to be near Buente. Agt. Lozano translated Eladio BuenteÆs statement for Agt. Mulder. Buente denied killing Maria Dorantes. He added that before DorantesÆs death he had heard a noise that sounded like nearby thunder and had seen bright lightning. He had fallen and felt a hot rain; then he had seen the dead goat and Dorantes. He described the rain as having been yellow, and DorantesÆs face as having been eaten away. Dorantes had then died in his arms, he claimed.

Meanwhile, in preparation for an autopsy, Agt. Scully and the Fresno County Coroner opened Maria DorantesÆs body bag and discovered a green fungal growth on the body.

Outside the Fresno INS office, Eladio Buente and other illegal immigrants were loaded on a bus to be arraigned and deported. Agt. Scully picked up Agt. Mulder there; while driving, she reported the cause of DorantesÆs death as being an infection of aspergillis mold, which, while usually harmless, can be lethal to victims of immunodeficiency. Agt. Scully suggested that toxic pesticide had made Maria Dorantes vulnerable to the mold. Agt. Mulder pointed out that fungal infection did not explain the unusual weather phenomena. The agents then encountered the deportation bus into which Eladio Buente and others had been loaded. The bus had crashed; the illegal immigrants it held were escaping. Agts. Mulder and Scully discovered that the bus driver had died in his seat. The driverÆs face was eaten away. That night, at the crash site, Agt. Scully took a sample from the driverÆs face and identified it as having a fungal infection unlike that of Dorantes. Agt. Lozano arrived at the scene and reported having failed to capture Eladio Buente. Agt. Scully pointed out that a pathogen, not Eladio Buente, had killed the driver. Agt. Mulder argued that Eladio Buente provided the only connection between two mysterious deaths and must be located. Agt. Scully was concerned to have a mycologist analyze the fungus sample immediately. Agt. Mulder announced that he and Agt. Lozano would search for Eladio Buente.

In the El Nino Family Cuts barber shop, Eladio Buente asked the barber, who had transported Eladio Buente and others from Mexico, to send him back to Mexico. The barber asked for money. Eladio Buente asked for credit. The barber abusively denied him credit. He told Eladio Buente to be at a certain truck stop at dusk, but that without money, he would not provide a ride.

Eladio Buente then proceeded to a paint store outside which migrant workers gathered to be hired. He got in the truck belonging to Rick Culver, who was hiring migrants to work on a construction site. Seeing Eladio Buente in the truck, the other migrants fled. Culver took Eladio Buente to the construction site.

In the mycology lab at California State University at Fresno, Agt. Scully and mycologist Dr. Larry Steen examined the skin sample from the bus driver. Dr. Steen identified the fungus as Dermatophytosis, commonly known as athleteÆs foot. Steen suggested that an enzyme carried in the bodies of both victims had allowed normally benign fungi to grow rapidly. He performed a demonstration combining the fungus Puccina graminis, or black stem rust, with a small amount of the enzyme. The fungus grew instantly. Dr. Steen pointed out that if the enzyme entered the general population, fungi would kill on a massive scale.

Outside the paint store, Agts. Mulder and Lozano interviewed migrants who had seen Eladio Buente with Rick Culver. Agt. Lozano suggested that Eladio BuenteÆs brother Soledad Buente would kill Eladio Buente and that the agents should not interfere. Agt. Mulder disagreed, saying that the agents must find Eladio Buente before he was killed.

At Rick CulverÆs construction site, Eladio Buente became exhausted and thirsty and began to secrete yellow sweat. He proceeded toward an outhouse, calling for Culver. Soledad Buente arrived at the construction site. He too proceeded to the outhouse, calling for Eladio Buente, demanding Eladio Buente fight him. Soledad Buente found Culver dead in the outhouse, covered with fungal growth. Eladio Buente escaped in CulverÆs pickup truck. He proceeded to the workplace of his cousin Gabrielle Buente, a housekeeper. He begged Gabrielle Buente for cash. She told him that she would be paid that night at her job at the La Ranchera food store. Eladio Buente then fled.

At Rick CulverÆs construction site, Agt. Mulder received a call from Agt. Scully at the mycology lab. She explained to him that Eladio Buente was a Typhoid Mary-type carrier of the deadly enzyme. She warned Agt. Mulder to avoid making physical contact with Eladio Buente. Agt. Mulder explained to her a phenomenon called the bolide effect, in which unusual weather patterns are produced by the entry of extraplanetary material into the atmosphere. He theorized that the enzyme could therefore be of extraterrestrial origin. Agt. Scully suggested that Agt. Mulder focus his efforts on locating Eladio Buente. The barber arrived at the construction site and offered to lead Agts. Mulder and Lozano to Eladio Buente.

At dusk, Agts. Mulder and Lozano proceeded to a truck stop on Highway 99. Approached by the agents, Eladio Buente escaped in the back of a tandem truck transporting goats. That night, the goats were discovered dead and eaten by fungus. Flakita arrived while the agents were examining the dead goats. She revealed that Eladio Buente had spoken to Gabrielle Buente. Agts. Mulder, Scully, and Lozano proceeded to Gabrielle BuenteÆs apartment. Under interrogation, Gabrielle Buente denied having seen either of the Buente brothers. Outside the apartment building, the agents waited. Later, they saw Soledad Buente exit the building. They followed him.

Meanwhile, Eladio Buente arrived at La Ranchera food store. Not finding Gabrielle Buente, and appearing exhausted and ravenous, Eladio Buente ate some nuts. When the grocery clerk interrupted him, Eladio fled, knocking over a stand which held containers of nuts and other items. The clerk picked up a spilled nut and observed that it was covered with fungal fuzz. Outside the store, Eladio Buente answered a ringing pay phone. Gabrielle Buente warned him that Soledad Buente was on his way to the store. Eladio Buente fled. His face had begun to form pustules. Soon after, Soledad Buente entered the store. As Agts. Lozano, Mulder, and Scully immediately arrested him, Soledad cried for vengeance. Agt. Scully noted the utterly decayed body of the grocery clerk.

Eladio Buente arrived at Gabrielle BuenteÆs apartment. His face was gray and large. When Agts Mulder, Scully, and Lozano arrived at Gabrielle BuenteÆs apartment soon afterward, they found Eladio Buente had gone. Gabrielle Buente stated that Eladio Buente had taken her money and departed for Mexico. Agt. Lozano left the search to Agts. Mulder and Scully. In the car outside Gabrielle BuenteÆs apartment, Agt. Scully speculated as to the devastating consequences of Eladio BuenteÆs entering a metropolitan area. Agt. Mulder stated his belief that Eladio Buente had gone to confront Soledad Buente. He instructed Agt. Scully to call for a hazmat team.

According to Flakita, Agt. Lozano then arrived at the migrant camp with Soledad Buente, calling for Eladio Buente to come out and fight Soledad Buente. Eladio Buente ran from FlakitaÆs house. Flakita followed him. She observed the body of Agt. Lozano, his face eaten away. She then observed a white light, and large-headed creatures, which she described as other chupacabra. According to Flakita, Soledad Buente was taken by el chupacabra and made to become a chupacabra himself.

Gabrielle Buente, however, reported that Flakita had lied to the agents, and that Agt. Lozano and Soledad Buente had chased Eladio Buente from FlakitaÆs house. Soledad Buente had pointed Agt. LozanoÆs gun at Eladio Buente but could not shoot. Agt. Lozano and Soledad Buente struggled over the gun, and Agt. Lozano had been shot and killed. At that point, Gabrielle Buente claimed, Soledad Buente became a chupacabra, and Eladio and Soledad Buente then fled together for Mexico.

In his office at Bureau Headquarters, Assistant Director Walter Skinner told Agts. Mulder and Scully that the story confused him. Agts. Mulder and Scully reported to A. D. Skinner that they had arrived at the migrant camp with a suited and helmeted hazmat team and bright work lights; the fungal infection had been contained. The Buente brothers had paid the barber for a ride to Mexico; the barber had also been found dead and eaten by fungus. Agt. Scully suggested that the Buente brothers had an unusual tolerance for the enzyme. Agt. Mulder speculated that the enzyme originated from outer space. A. D. Skinner expressed his dissatisfaction with the BureauÆs inability to find the Buente brothers. Agt. Scully commented that poor Mexicans can become strangely invisible.

The case remains open.