......................................................................................................

High-school student Tony Reed drives into a wooded area of Pittsfield, Virginia passing "No Trespassing" signs along the way. It is late at night and he is spooked by the eerie quietness of the woods. He meets up with two other teenagers, Max Harden and girlfriend, Chastity Raines. Chastity is hesitant about letting Tony in on their secret, but Max makes Tony swear never to reveal anything about what he sees in the forest. Lights glaring from a police car interrupt the conversation, but when Max turns around, both Max and Chastity have vanished. Deputy Foster questions Tony about being on private property and goes to his car radio. Suddenly, Tony hears a sickening thud. The officer's flashlight falls to the ground and Tony picks it up. It is covered with blood. Tony looks in the police car: Foster has been brutally murdered.

The next morning Scully meets Mulder in the hospital where he shows her the body of the deputy. One blow of the flashlight was enough to drive the deputy's eyeglasses through the back of his skull. They meet with Sheriff Harden, who is convinced that the fingerprints on the flashlight link Tony to the crime. Mulder and Scully try to get answers from Tony, but he denies any knowledge of the murder. The partners suspect that Tony is innocent, but while Mulder thinks that a spiritual force caused the violent act, Scully is more inclined to believe that Tony is covering for some friends.

Back at the high school, Max strolls into science class with one minute left to take an exam. The teacher, Mr. Babbitt, is surprised when Max instantly finishes the exam with all correct answers. Mulder and Scully approach Chastity after class and ask her what she knows about Tony. They remind her that Tony could spend the rest of his life in jail. Before she can speak, Max intercedes -- Mulder notes that Max is Sheriff Harden's son. Scully's cell phone rings with news that the murder weapon has disappeared. The agents review the security tape at the sheriff's office and Mulder notices a blurred image over the evidence room's locker in one video frame. They consult with paranormal expert Chuck Burks and determine that the image is a solid object and that the color of the blur matches the high school colors: purple and gold.

Tony is released from jail and his mother scolds him for hanging out with the wrong crowd. He sneaks out of his house with Max for a joyride in a stolen car. Max commends him for keeping his mouth shut, then crashes the car into a tree. Tony is shocked to discover not only is he unharmed, but has somehow been plucked from the car before the wreck. Max stands next to him on the road, also untouched. Max tells Tony that he too will become "one of us."

The next day, Mr. Babbitt flunks Max for "cheating" on his science exam. Max storms out of the classroom. Tony tells Chastity that he wants out, but she reluctantly says that it's too late. At lunch, Mr. Babbitt gets pinned to the school cafeteria wall by a table that has apparently moved on its own. Tony, horrified, suspects something when he notices Max quickly disappear from the room. Then a chair flies into Babbitt, crushing him. Although eyewitnesses saw no one near Babbitt, Mulder's theory is that Max used some paranormal ability to exert force without touching the victim. Max, however, was brought to the hospital when he collapsed from exhaustion. They question Max, whose defiant attitude sparks doubt in Sheriff Harden's mind about his son's innocence. Mulder thinks that Max feels a rush from causing these murders. Scully reviews Max's medical charts and sees that he is suffering from some kind of withdrawal, but also exhibits signs of physical damage that might be found in a football player or race car driver.

Tony secretly follows Chastity into the woods, watching as she sneaks through a seam in a boulder. As he steps inside, he sees a cave, but no Chastity. Suddenly his body starts to spasm and he discovers the "rush" that allows Max and Chastity to move faster than the eye can see. Meanwhile, Chastity uses her speed to help Max escape from the hospital unseen. She takes him back to the cave to get another dose of the "rush" and is surprised to find Tony there. He too has become addicted to the rush, but wants to warn the police about Max's crime spree. Chastity warily tells him that Max is out of the hospital.

Sheriff Harden searches his son's room, finding the missing flashlight taken from the sheriff's evidence room. Max instantly appears and admits to killing Deputy Foster. Moving inhumanly fast, he begins to pummel his father and is about to kill him with the same flashlight, when Tony, using the "rush" himself, suddenly arrives to intervene. The sheriff is brought to the hospital, and Mulder and Scully deduce that someone else prevented Max from murdering again. Chastity and Tony, fearing Max will kill them, try to beat him back to the cave. But he is already there when they arrive. Tony and Max struggle, and Chastity kills Max by shooting him in the back. As the bullet exits Max's body, Chastity tells Tony that she can't go on living without the rush and walks around Max to stand in front of him -- allowing the bullet to hit her in the chest. Mulder and Scully arrive at the cave to find Tony holding Chastity's body and Max lying nearby.

Back at the hospital, Mulder reports that nothing was found in the cave to produce a physiological effect, and that the cave was sealed with concrete. He suggests to Scully that perhaps the cave only affected teenagers because of their physical and chemical difference from adults. The agents look in at a recovering Tony. He stares at the clock advancing slowly, knowing he will forever be trapped in a world at normal, slow speed.


................... CREDITS .....................

"RUSH"
#7ABX06
Original Air Date: 12/05/99

Written by David Amann
Directed by Robert Lieberman

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Rodney Scott as Tony Reed
Scott Cooper as Max Harden
Nicki Aycox as Chastity Raines
Ann Dowd as Mrs. Reed
Tom Bower as Sheriff Harden
David Wells as Mr. Babbitt
Les Lannom as Deputy Foster
Christopher Wynne as Deputy
Rachel Winfree as Nurse
Bill Dow as Chuck Burks