The Thing: Episode 3

Well, here's Episode 3. Don't know what else to say other than that.

"Auto Pilot"

Teaser:

Nauls, Norris, Mac, Childs and Bennings stand outside the main building as they look to the growing spec in the distance as the sound of the helicopter’s rotor blades grows. Nauls asks who it could be to Childs who stares through a pair of binoculars. Childs says he can’t make out the writing from this angle. As he watches, Lars leans out the side and begins firing at something below. He pulls the binoculars down and says the crazy SOB is shooting at something. Nauls takes a step back, asking what he’s shooting at. Childs shakes his head saying he can’t see. Nauls starts to speak up, making an excuse to go tell Garry but Norris chimes in first. Nauls watches in silence as his excuse heads back inside with Norris. He crosses his arms, clearly fear taking hold of him.
In the chopper, Lars curses as he fires at the dog and reloads. He complains that he’s running out of ammo. Matias watches the dog out the front window, rather than paying attention to the controls. Lars turns to Matias and asks if he can swing low and directly over the dog. Matias looks unsure but nods. Lars pulls the crate of grenades forward and grabs one out. He leans out the side, getting ready as he urges Matias on. Matias takes the chopper down.
Below the dog runs through the snow, bounding and leaping as it moves through the thick, loose layer. This doesn’t even seem to slow it down. Forward, forward, forward it moves. Outpost 31 grows in the distance. The snow is kicked about and the fur on the dogs back bristles as the chopper flies directly over the dog’s head. The dog doesn’t flinch at all. It just keeps running. The thermite grenade explodes, but it’s far too far away to even slow the dog down.
Lars curses at Matias and tells him to pass over head slower. Matias grits his teeth and tries to make another pass, complaining that he’s having trouble. Lars readies a second grenade.
The helicopter passes over the dog again. The thermite grenade explodes. The dog flinches and pauses as this one was too close. After a moment it continues forward.
Lars screams how he almost got him! He yells for Matias to get right overhead, hover, keep right on top of him. Matias grumbles in frustration as he fights to get the chopper to do what he wants. Lars grabs a third grenade.
The dog runs. Forward. Forward. Almost there now. Another few minutes and they’ll be at Outpost 31. The specks of the Outpost 31 crew can be seen in front of the building. The snow swirls and the dogs hair moves as the helicopter lowers overhead, fighting to keep pace with the dog. It’s a testament to Matias’ skill that he can manage. Slowly it matches up with the dog. The dog keeps running.
Lars yells for Matias to keep it steady. Just a little more! Matias focuses all his attentions on his readings, gritting his teeth as he tries to keep it working. Lars continues yelling, almost there! Matias complains that he’s having trouble. He looks over the readouts, complaining that something is wrong. Lars just urges him on. Matias shakes his head, this isn’t right. Lars yells for Matias to hold its stead. Matias begins to get a worried look, complaining that Lars doesn’t understand. Lars tells him he’s doing fine, he can do this, they’ve almost got the dog. Matias shakes his head as his look of worry turns to a look of fear. Matias tells him it hasn’t been right since they took off. Lars gets the grenade ready, the dog is nearly directly below them. Matias complains to Lars, he doesn’t understand. Lars tells him to just do it. Matias says he doesn’t understand. Then he says it. They’re too heavy by over 100 pounds. Lars pauses and looks at him. Matias is almost shaking as he he stares in fear at Lars. Lars slowly turns. There’s someone else with them.
Lars yells a frightened curse and pulls the pin from the thermite.
Bennings yells at the others, wondering what the hell those explosions are. Clark and Garry join the others outside. Almost all of them jump as the helicopter explodes in a fireball. The curse and yell and panic as the chopper goes down in a ball of fire, crashing into the snow below. Bennings yells about helping survivors. Childs runs to get the Snowcat. Garry wonders loudly about what the hell is going on. Mac and Clark are silent. Nauls looks at the fire and smoke in the distance with an expression of terror.

Act 1:

Nauls looks ahead in fear from the rear of the snowcat. Garry, Mac, Bennings and Clark sit in the various seats while Childs drives. Childs snarls, saying “First Palmer, now this shit.” Clark insists they should just leave it alone, it’s none of their business. They can’t be American, or they would have heard. Nauls nods slightly at this but doesn’t speak. Childs tells Clark to shut up, that they can’t just leave them out there. Garry points out they are require to aid in any rescue operations, regardless of nation. Bennings wonders aloud just what the hell the guy was shooting at, and all the explosions. He wonders if it’s particularly safe. Nauls again nods in silent agreement. Garry says that just to make sure, he brought protection. He pulls the gun from his coat and holds it up. The color instantly drains from Nauls face as he sees it. Bennings asks where the hell he got that, that the Antarctic treaty expressly prohibits guns on the continent. Garry says that if he’s going to be stuck in a remote area with eleven plus other people, he’s going to make sure he has some protection. Clark says that’s the first sane thing he’s heard in days. Nauls continues to stare in fear at the gun as Garry puts it away. Childs says “Good lord” as they pull up to the burning wreckage of the helicopter. The cockpit is mostly intact, but an inferno. The rotors and tail have been torn off in the crash, and there’s a long trail of debris and melted snow where it came in. Nauls quietly asks how anyone could survive that. Mac says they better find out if anyone could and climbs out.
The Past. New York. A movie theater. A group of friends walk out of the theater talking loudly about the movie they just saw. They pass the movie poster at the end for “Changeling”. The two others discuss the movie with a younger Nauls, but only just. It is easy to tell this is the same person. They refer to him as Carter. The one friend complains loudly of Nauls’ choice of going to see Changeling. Nauls defends his choice stating that as a J. Michael Straczynski written film, it was worth it for that alone. He goes on to state that it was also critically acclaimed at Cannes. But states that beyond those it was a fascination exploration of a true story from the 1920s. His friend points out that as yet another of Clit Eastwoods directing efforts, it left something to be desired. Nauls complains that his friend just wont open his mind to Eastwood being anything other than the gruff hero of those silly old westerns and that when he produces something truly worth while, people just can’t accept it. His friend shrugs and states that at least Eastwood didn’t unplug her at the end of this one. Nauls’ other friend points out that he enjoyed the story and it’s focus on corruption in government in the 1920s, rather than taking the more popular romanticized notion of it being a simpler, more innocent time. They point out they enjoyed the parallels of law enforcement willing to kill criminals rather bring them in, compared to vigilantism in the likes of the Ku Kux Klan of the era. Nauls’ less enthusiastic friend scoffs at the notion calling it another trite effort by Eastwood to bring issues of child endangerment to the fore. That using the trope of a child in trouble allows the story to wrack up the drama and pathos without earning it, simply hold a gun to a kids head metaphorically speaking and the critics will line up to give you a blowjob. Nauls tells him he’s being a stupid cynic. That the entire point of the movie wasn’t that the child was in danger, nor the political corruption, that it was in fact a tale condemning the efforts of the era to disempower women. That it’s a portrait of how a woman’s independence is seen as an outright threat to male dominace in a patriarchal society.  Nauls goes on to say that JMS tapped into the continuing sexism inherent in our society, that attitudes towards women haven’t really changed. He points out that it’s Similar to Ingrid Bergman’s Gaslight, in that men in power use their position to question a womans sanity only in an effort to keep her in her “place.” His friend takes an affront to this challenging Nauls tired efforts at phony feminism as just an attempt to get laid. He complains about this silly notion that if you make a female character strong you are a bastion of good and right and that to cast them in a harsh light is to become all that is wrong in this world. He states that if men would stop white knighting for people they never knew and stopped trying to elevate people like Joss Whedon to godhood status just because his idolization of super women is more shiney than casting them as human characters, an easy, lazy way out, That maybe just maybe we’ll stop getting such ridiculous cinema tripe. Nauls clearly takes exception to this and points out that’s exactly what’s wrong with this world, a chauvinistic mindset where the only use of women is the women in refrigerators trope used to enhance a male character rather than allow her to be the strong courageous woman unfettered by male egotistic notion. His friend questions if Nauls is just outright gay and calls him a pussy, pointing out that he wouldn’t know courage if it bit him in the ass. That it’s one thing to bitch about it on the internet, it’s another thing entirely to grow a pair and do something about it. Nauls shuts up instantly. They walk in silence for a bit. His friend sighs and apologizes. Nauls shakes his head, saying it’s okay, but it’s clearly not. His friend says he knows that Nauls has always had trouble with… And then the man with the gun is upon them. He screams for them to hand over their wallets. Nauls friends react in fear, Nauls reacts like a deer in the headlights. The man with the gun points it at each of them in turn, demanding they hurry up. They fumble in an effort to get the wallets out, he snatches them from them. Nauls is frozen in place. The man with the gun takes exception to this, he demands that Nauls give up his wallet. Nauls just kind of gapes like a fish and slightly shakes his head, too frightened to move. The man with the gun rushes forward and presses the gun to Nauls face. Nauls jumps and closes his eyes, beginning to whimper. The man forcefully demands the wallet. There’s a scream from across the street as a woman goes running off. The gunman curses. Nauls just shakes his head begging. The gunman grabs Nauls by the collar and pushes the gun against Nauls’ eye. He again demands the wallet. Nauls whimpers and begs, his friends tell him to just give up the wallet. The gunman yells in Nauls’ face for him to give it up NOW. Nauls jumps and tries to reach for his pocket, tears stream down his face. The gunman looks around, hearing a siren in the distance. He is tired of this. He slams the gun into the side of Nauls head, knocking him to the ground. He reaches into Nauls pockets fishing. Finding the wallet, he grabs it and runs off. His friends rush to help him up, but Nauls is out of it, there’s a ringing in his ears and his head swims. They help sit him up. Nauls looks around stupidly as the situation comes back to him. The fear, his freezing, and his realization at the large wet spot on the front of his pants. Nauls looks to be on the verge of sobbing.

Act 2:

The group from Outpost 31 piles out of the snowcat. Childs, Bennings and Mac rush over to the wreckage and begin spraying it with fire extinguishers. Garry looks at the marking on what remains of the tail, “NORGE”. He points out that they must be from the Norwegian camp North of there. Nauls just stares as the fire is extinguished. Childs pulls on one of the doors, burning his hand even through his glove and flinching. Mac points out that it’s hot. Childs curtly thanks him. Childs scoops up some snow and tosses it on the handle a few times. After a moment, he cautiously tries the handle again. The door opens and falls from the hinge, causing Childs to jump back. Mac just stares at him a moment, then looks inside. He says they’ve got two bodies, he thinks. A pilot and a passenger in the back. Nauls gives an exclamation, covering his mouth as he does so. As the others look at him, they realize he’s not talking about the chopper. They turn to see the blackened form limping towards them. It’s skin is burnt, it’s coat melted, and its gait that of pain and it drags a gun behind. It’s Lars.
Lars limps towards them, asking them for help in norwegian. They just stare at this burnt man speaking gibberish. He stumbles forward in great effort. Garry slowly pulls the gun from his coat, wary of the fact that he’s armed. Nauls gapes at him. Childs tells him to take it easy but doesn’t close the gap. Lars looks around at them each in turn, asking for help. His breathing is ragged and forced. He looks like the only thing keeping him on his feet is his force of will. Bennings glances away as he sees something out of the corner of his eye, asking if that’s a dog. They all look to see the huskie running towards them. Lars turns to see the dog. He begins yelling about it not being a dog, how it’s going to kill them all and it needs to be stopped, but of course, it’s just gibberish to them. He raises the gun and opens fire, almost falling off his feet with the pain. The shots go wide. The dog runs past him. He turns firing as he does so. Mac and Childs dive out of the way but one of the shots goes through Bennings’ leg. He screams in pain and drops. The dog runs up to Clark, jumping on him and licking at him as if asking for help. Lars turns and approaches them, gun raised. Garry points his own gun at Lars and orders him to drop his weapon. Clark yells that it’s just a dog as he tries to comfort the seemingly scared animal. Lars pleads with them, begs them to get away from the dog. They don’t know what it really is. He begs them to get out of the way, to kill it. The dog looks back at him and darts off towards camp. Seeing his chance, Lars raises the gun. Garry orders him to put it down once again. Lars opens fire at the dog. Clark screams “No!” and grabs the gun from Garry. He fires two shots at Lars, hitting him in the chest, causing him to stagger, the third shot hits Lars between the eyes. The body slumps to the snow. Nauls covers his mouth in horror and looks away. Garry just stares for a moment then growls and grabs the gun back from Clark, asking what the hell he’s doing. Clark demands that he couldn’t just let him hurt the dog. Garry nods in frustration, saying how just great that is. Mac walks over to the body and looks down at it. He pushes it with his boot, saying he thinks he’s dead. Childs tells him no shit. Bennings yells about how they could PLEASE help the not so dead guy. Childs helps him up. Garry tells him to get him back to Copper, then bring the snowcat back so they can deal with the bodies. He then tells Clark to head back and find his damn dog. Childs, Clark and Bennings return to the snowcat. Garry and Mac look at the wreckage. Mac points out how big a pain in the ass it will be to get the other two bodies out. Garry points out that they can’t just leave them in there. Nauls just stares at the gun in Garry’s hand. Garry tells him to give Mac a hand. Nauls just continues to stare at the gun. Garry calls his name. Nauls just stares. Garry calls his name again, more forcefully. Nauls just stares.
The Past. Nauls sits at a desk in front of a computer. He wears office attire as normal office events happen all around him. His head is patched and he just staring at the monitor. His boss calls his name. Twice. Nauls jumps as he calls his name from right behind him. He turns and looks at his boss. His boss asks what the hell is wrong with him. Nauls shakes his head, looking away sheepishly, claiming nothing is wrong with him. His boss takes him at his word saying that’s good. He tells Nauls that since he is going to be having a golf game with his own boss, he’ll be cutting out early, he intends to have lunch with his family first but that Nauls needs to stay a little later to make up for all the work he missed coming in late. Nauls looks like he wants to argue, but lets it go, telling him okay. His boss says that’s great and starts to walk away. He stops and come back, adding that because of their backlog of work, he wants Nauls to come in tomorrow on his day off. Nauls turns and looks at him in surprise. He shakes his head and says he can’t, that he has class tomorrow. He has a test that counts for a third of his grade. His boss seems to ponder this. He asks Nauls what time his class is. Nauls confirms that it’s in the morning. His boss perks at this news, telling Nauls that he just needs to get as much as he can in tonight, then come on in after class. Nauls again looks like he wants to argue, but instead he relents. His boss says that’s great and slaps Nauls on the shoulder, calling him a team player. As he walks away, Nauls sighs. He glances back to make sure his boss is gone, then opens back up his blog page. He continues checking his post decrying the use of guns in the country. He goes on a long rant about how just because some idiot thinks he has the right to carry around murder weapons, that doesn’t mean that the rest of them just have to shut up and get killed like a bunch of animals. He goes on and on about statistics from other countries linking the lower death rate with the fact that guns are banned. He checks the comments sections. Multiple people agree with him, giving their own reasons for their support of banning guns. One mentions how they need to stage a protest or something to show the government that they need to take action. Nauls quickly times a reply agreeing. He continues. Another argues with his opinion, point out that even without guns that people would still kill one another. Nauls replies that it doesn’t mean that we have to give people extra incentive to do so. That there is literally no other point to guns other than to kill things. Anther reply calls him and idiot and tells him that if he hates guns so much that he should get the fuck out of this country and go someplace they don’t allow them. It them calls him a libtard fag. Nauls chuckles and replies, simply stating that maybe he will, but he’ll be sure to send him a thesaurus as a going away present. Having had his minor victory, he returns to his work.
Later, Nauls, bleary eyed checks the time on his phone. He curses at the lateness of the hour. He shuts down his computer, packs up his stuff and heads home. Nauls unlocks the door and stumbles inside. He heads through to his room. Tosses his bag down, shuts the door and flops into bed fully dressed. He stares at the clock, mumbling about just getting a few hours. He closes his eyes.
Nauls phone rings. He fumbles through his pockets as he tries to find it. He slowly opens his eyes and looks at the caller. It’s his boss. Nauls curses and tells the phone to give it a rest. He tosses it down and looks at the clock. It takes his sleep addled mind a moment to process. Noon. His eyes go wide and he jumps up, screaming a curse.

Act 3:

Outpost 31. Dr. Copper stitches up the hole in Bennings’ leg as he flinches in pain. Copper smiles at him and tells him it’ll be just a bit more then he can go rest and dope himself up on painkillers. Childs and Nauls heft a black body bag into the room, asking Copper where he wants it. Copper points to one of the specimen carts and tells them to set it up on there. Nauls and Childs comply. Childs warns Copper that they’re pretty messed up from the crash. Childs taps Nauls on the chest and tells him two more to go. Copper finishes stitching Bennings and wraps his leg in gauze. He tells him to just stay off of it for a few days. Blair stares at the black body bag. He asks Bennings if he’s sure that they were shooting at the dog. Bennings says he is, and that they were bombing too. He asks the two of them if they were whacked out on something. Copper shrugs and says they’d have to check, but it could take days, and with the test from Fuchs’ blood already going on, it could take even longer. Blair says that he can have it done by tomorrow. Copper looks at him in surprise. Blair shrugs and rattles of an explanation about how it’s a simple process. Copper nods in agreement, impressed. Childs and Nauls bring the next body in. Blair points to the table and tells them to set it over there. He then asks if they’ve found the dog yet. Nauls tells him that Clark is searching the camp for him, but that it was pretty scared. Blair just nods. Childs looks at him curiously, asking him why all the sudden interest. Blair says that when a group of norwegians declare war on a dog, he gets a bit curious. Besides, he’s finished his reports for the season and he needs a new project before heading home for the rotation. Childs just shakes his head. Nauls asks if maybe they came down with something, brain parasites or something. “Kahn Worms.” Bennings says. “Or those ones from X-Files” Copper interjects. “I hate that episode.” Bennings replies. Nauls says he was kinda thinking about those ants with the fungus. Blair chuckles and calls it “Ophiocordyceps unilateralis” and says he doubts that something like it could survive out here, besides there’s quarantine rules. Plus he points out that such things in humans are rare. There’s mad cow, but that’s a disease rather than a parasite and an outbreak of mad cow here would be absurd. Copper says that whatever the issue, with Blair’s help they should have the answer in no time. Blair says that in the meantime, they should help Clark find the dog. Blair would like a sample from it too. Nauls looks at him in doubt, asking him why. Blair smiles and says that if it’s worth shooting at, isn’t he curious to find out what makes it so special?
Outside. Clark wanders around camp, calling out to the dog. He looks behind boxes and equipment, but still has no luck. He continues calling out, telling the dog that he’s not going to hurt it. Nothing. As he makes his way around camp, he finds the kennel door open. He looks at it curiously for a second, then heads inside. He glances around as he makes his way down the corridor. He grumbles at how poorly lit the kennels are, grabbing a flashlight off the shelf. He walks forward and glances inside the dog kennels. The dogs lays about, and generally do dog like things. All of them taking notice of him to some capacity. One of them wags it’s tail and barks at him. He shushes the dog, calling it Charnauk, and telling him to calm down. Charnauk whines but does as he’s told. Clark continues on, glancing over at the cattle. He elicits a series of Moos from them as he disturbs them with the flashlight. He pats one on the side as he goes past, apologizing for disturbing her. He continues back into the darkest areas of the kennels. He glances around at the crates of feed and other necessities. He calls out again to the dog and whistles. Charnauk begins barking again. He turns back and shushes the dog. As he does so, something briefly passes by the light. Clark turns back but it’s already gone before he even catches a glimpse. He continues on, calling for the dog. He turns a corner and stops as the dog appears in his light. He startles slightly but calms down as he see the dog is just standing there, staring at him. He smiles at the dog, and tells him it’s okay. The dog just stands there, staring. He asks the dog if he’s the one who opened the door. The dog says nothing. Clark says he’s a pretty smart boy if he did. The dog just stares. Clark says that he just wants to be friends, that the dog is safe now. The dog just stares. Clark steps forward and kneels down, holding out his hand. The dog just stares. He tells the dog it’s okay, he’s not going to hurt him. The dog just stares. He tells the dog to come on, holding his hand out. The dog just stares. He repeats, telling the dog it will be alright. The dog stares… and takes a step forward. Clark encourages him, again telling him its okay. The dog takes another step… and another. Always does it keep it’s eyes on Clark’s. It slowly makes its way forward to his hand. Clark keeps his arm extended and perfectly still. The dog reaches Clark’s hand and slowly begins sniffing it. Clark smiles and says he smells like the other dogs, that it’s okay. The dog sniffs Clark’s hand, but always keeps his eyes on Clark’s eyes. Clark says he’s a pretty smart fella. The dog stops sniffing Clark’s hand and… begins licking it. Clark pats him on the head and tells him that he’s a good boy. The dog keeps staring at Clark as he licks his hand.
Nauls walks down the corridor, calling out for Clark. He walks down the stairs and into the kennel looking around. He calls out to Clark, asking if he found the damn dog. The dogs in the kennel all jump up and begin barking and carrying on at Nauls. Nauls glares at them and tells them to shut up. He shakes his head and grumbles at the stupid dogs. He calls out to Clark again. Clark calls him over. Nauls walks to the back of the kennel, past the cows and sees Clark sitting on the floor with the dog. Clark smiles as he strokes the dog’s fur. The dog stares at Nauls. Nauls points and asks if that’s the one. Clark confirms that it is. Nauls tells him that Blair wants a sample from it later. Clark looks up at him suspiciously and asks him why. Nauls shrugs and says that Blair just wants to be sure there’s nothing wrong with it. Clark pauses for a minute, then tells him he guesses that it should be okay. Nauls acknowledges and starts to walk away, but pauses. He looks at the dog just staring at him. Nauls stares at the dog. The dog stares at Nauls. Nauls shudders and walks away, shaking his head and calling it god damned creepy.
The Past. Nauls sits at his cubicle, his head in his hands. The phone on his desk rings, Nauls sighs and picks it up. His boss asks him if he couldn’t come into his office for a second. Nauls tells him sure. As Nauls enters his office, his boss doesn’t even look up from his paperwork. Nauls stands there for a moment, in silence, being ignored. After a moment, he clears his throat. His boss still doesn’t look up, and tells him that he needs Nauls to go clock out. Nauls sighs in relief and tells him he doesn’t know how glad he is to hear that, he needs a day off after the morning he’s having. His boss tells him no, he doesn’t want him to go home, he wants him to work off the clock. They’ve been having issues with the accounting and they need to cut a few corners. He’d like him to go clock out, then stick around for a while finishing up some of their backlog of work. Nauls shakes his head hesitantly, saying he doesn’t know if that’s such a good idea. His boss looks up at him at last and smiles. He tells him he understands, but that he wants to continue to be a team player doesn’t he? Nauls looks away telling him he guesses so. His boss interlocks his fingers and tells Nauls he’s going to confide in him. That the accounting problem is too much expenditure. That if they can’t real it in, they’ll have to start letting people go. He asks Nauls if he doesn’t want that on his conscience. Nauls looks at him sadly for a moment, then hangs his head and agrees. His boss tells him that that’s a team mindset. As he returns to his work, he adds that plus, it could always be Nauls to end up unemployed, so it’s really for the best. He laughs at his own apparent joke. Nauls just walks back to his desk.
Nauls bitches and complains as he sits in the bar. He rants about his asshole of a boss taking advantage of him. He says that one of these days he’s just going to march into his office and tell him to shove it. His sister laughs at him. She tells him that he’s always been like this. Never once stood up for himself. She points out that he spent all of elementary getting pantsed by the bully up the street. She asks his name and Nauls says it was T.K. His sister laughs, remembering it now. She says that every day Nauls would either come home breathless from the run or humiliated and pantsless. Nauls says nothing. She goes on, telling him that even when he got lucky and T.K. Moved away, there was the coach in middle school. About how every day he would make Nauls run laps because he wasn’t a team player. Nauls grumbles and says he remembers. She adds that in high school… Nauls interrupts her and tells her he gets it. He asks her what she wants from him. He points out that today he already had to beg his professor to let him take a makeup exam. That the only way he consented was if Nauls agreed to be his aid the next semester. That even then if he gets his bachelors in sociology, he still needs a BSW or else there’s no chance of getting into social work. And even then that’s not even getting started on the problems nation wide like the god damn rednecks and their gun racks and pickups beating their chest and crying about their right to deadly weapons! She stares at him, eyebrow raised. He glances over at the bar and sees the two men staring angrily at him. One wears an NRA shirt, the other a NASCAR cap. Nauls smiles sheepishly. He apologizes and says he’s been having a bad day, next round is on him. The two men turn away. Nauls lays his head down on the table and tells his sister it’s been a long week. He asks her why it’s always him. All he ever wanted to do was get into social work and help people’s lives. She laughs and tells him it’s because he’s a doormat. Until he stands up for himself, people are just going to smell it on him. He laughs and asks her what she expects him to do, go start a barroom brawl with his new friends over there. He points out he has just enough upper body strength to curl up into a ball and defend his major organs. She says that just because he knows he stood up to somebody, it doesn’t mean THEY have to know. He looks at her, totally lost. She tells him that maybe he can find a way to get his boss into a little hot water and in the process get a little confidence for himself. She smiles at him.

Act 4:

Outpost 31. Blair unzips the first body bag and takes a blood sample from Lars’ body. He checks it and begins putting it into a test tube.
The rest of the crew, save Clark, sits around the rec room discussing what to do next. Childs says they can’t find Fuchs anywhere and Palmer isn’t talking, now they have this new mess to deal with. Garry asks about Clark, wondering where he is. Nauls chimes in and tells him that he’s taking care of the new dog. Garry nods.
Blair unzips the second body bag and takes a sample from Matias. Again he checks it before injecting it into a test tube and putting it aide.
Garry continues stating that if they’re from the Norwegian camp, they better figure out why three of their men went of chasing a dog and blew themselves up. Norris asks why they don’t just radio them. Windows says that he can’t get through, they’re not responding. Connant admits he can’t even get a ping off their system that not only is the radio down, their dish is likely down too. Mac says “Great.”
Blair unzips the third body bag and pauses, something is amiss. He leans in closer, trying to get a better look at it.
Garry says they are going to need to take a trip up there in person. Bennings asks what if they’re all hostile like the ones in the helicopter. Nauls says that he didn’t think they were hostile. Bennings says he disagrees, pointing to his leg. Garry says, just in case, they’ll go armed and set the gun down on the table next to him. Nauls stares at it, wide eyed. Garry goes on, stating that with Palmer out as co-pilot, he’ll head out there with Mac and Dr. Copper, just in case they need medical attention. He then adds the Connant will be coming too just in case they need to check out their computers. Connant grumbles in frustration. Bennings tells them to hurry because the weather station reports a storm will be blowing through that area soon. Garry asks Copper about the bodies. Copper tells him that Blair is taking samples right this minute. Blair appears in the doorway. He tells them that in fact there’s something he thinks they should see. They all look around at one another, and begin to follow Blair out. Nauls looks back at the table where Garry has left the gun.
The past. Nauls glances over from his cubicle at his Boss’ office. His boss sits inside. A man in a suit enters the area, a security guard following him. Nauls smiles to himself. The man in the suit enters Nauls’ Boss’ office. He asks him if he’s been doing anything unauthorized on his computer. The boos looks puzzled and shakes his head no, he hasn’t. The boss points out he’s just gotten a report from IT that this very terminal has been used for… other purposes than business related ones. Nauls can barely contain his glee.  He stifles a laugh as the rest of the room begins to take notice of the situation. As they do, another employee enters and looks around. He then heads for the man in the suit. The boss stares up and the man in the suit saying he doesn’t understand what this is all about. The employee comes up and whispers something in his ear. The man in the suit gets a horrified look on his face and glances at the boss. The boss looks away. The man in the suit motions for the security guard to come over and then whispers something to him. He nods and leaves the room and pics up one of the phones at the desk. He begins speaking into the phone, glancing back over his shoulder at the office. At this point Nauls gets a confused look on his face. He doesn’t quite understand the turn this has taken, shouldn’t they be escorting him out? After several minutes the curiosity is still circulating the room slowly. That’s when a group of police enter the area and head for the office. By this point everyone stands up and begins looking. They enter and the man in the suit points at the computer and begins explaining something to them. Nauls’ boss just sits there, staring down in shame. Nauls can’t figure what the hell’s going on. The police check the computer with the aid of the IT guy. He gets a look of disgust. The cop nods to the others. They help the boss up and handcuff him, reading him his rights. They unplug the computer and pack up the harddrive. As they lead him past Nauls desk, he hears his boss pleading with the police not to do it this way, that his wife and daughter are going to be meeting him for lunch.
Everyone gathers around the windows to look at the street below. Nauls slowly joins them and looks down at the sight. He watches as the police march his boss from the building and lead him to one of the cop cars. Sure enough, there’s a woman and a little girl who seem distraught over the whole thing. Nauls frown in sadness. A group of officers and a detective approach the already distraught woman and seem to be telling her something. She clutches her daughter close. The detective motions to the officers. The woman appears to be screaming at this point. They forcibly seperate the woman and the little girl. As the mother screams the officers restrain her as another carries the screaming little girl to another waiting cop car. Nauls looks on in horror, his hand over his mouth.
Nauls sits in the bar, his head down on the table. He tells his sister that he doesn’t want to live on this planet anymore. She comforts him by telling him that he had no idea what was already on the computer. He points out that’s the reason he doesn’t want to live on this planet anymore. She points out he probably did some good. He replies that it certainly doesn’t feel like it. His sister sighs and tells him he just needs to get away for a while. Nauls laughs and tells her that there’s not a far enough away from this. She shrugs and says maybe there is. He doubts this. She tells him about one of her ex boyfriends, how he dropped out and headed out to antarctica for a while, got away from it all. Nauls laughs loudly. She tells him to wait and hear her out. She tells him that this guy spent a year or two up there, said it was the most grueling time he’d ever had. But at the same time, he said it was soul clensing. He came back a different guy. He was damn near a misanthrope but when he came back, he couldn’t get enough of people. Nauls sarcastically says he wonders why. She tells her little brother that she thinks the experience could do him a bit of good, maybe help him find the good in people again. Nauls sighs. She points out they don’t allow guns on the continent and they have zero murders. He glances at her and asks if she’s sure of her information. She shrugs and says it can’t be worse than her last idea. What’s the worst that could happen? Nauls stares at her for a long minute.
Outpost 31. Nauls enters the room after the others. They gather around the body bag. Blair looks at Nauls, Garry, Mac, Childs and Bennings. He asks them if they’re sure the chopper exploded and crashed, they put out the fires, took the bodies out, brought them back here and that was it. They all agree to this. Blair again reiterates that they saw nothing else, that the bodies were not tampered with. Childs asks in an annoyed tone what Blair is getting at. Blair looks at them all for a long minute. He then tells them that he checked the first two bodies and found that they were burned and damaged by the explosion and crash. The burns and injuries were consistent with this. Garry crosses his arms and asks “and?” Blair looks at him, then continues. As he went to check the third body, he found something unusual.  Copper looks at him and asks “Unusual, how?” Blair points at the body bag, telling him that as he knows, the human body reacts a certain way to stimulus. Bones break, skin burns, fat melts. Injuries are consistent with the stimulus they have received. This is how forensics works, an understanding of how things react. What causes something. He points at the bag and says that this body does not. None of them seem to be understanding him. Seeing this, he opens the bag. They all stare at the sight within with a variety of reactions. From within, the body stares out. There is an expression of horror, or anger or… something on its face, that is plain. The problem being that half of its face sits six inches lower and separate from the other side, the two halves connected with a stretched mass of tissues and skin between. Mac asks Blair what the problem is, he shrugs and says the head was split by some shrapnel and the fire fused some of the tissue together. Blair stares at him for a long moment. He then puts a pair of gloves on and picks up a scalpel. The others watch as he cuts a slit down the stretched middle section between the halves. He then pushes them apart and taps at the exposed section, producing a solid sound. Blair points out that there is bone between the sections. He looks up and asks Mac how many times he’s seen bone liquify. Mac has no answer to this. The room gets very silent as no one knows what to say. Blair adds that whatever happened to this body, it happened before the crash. They all stare at the split face thing in various states of emotion as it stares up at the ceiling with eyeless sockets.