The Vail
B y Joey Pettine
Episode Nine: New Life
(A dark stage. Spotlight on ANDY VAIL and ALINA WAITTS, embracing each other, sweet kisses pass between their lips, oblivious of the dark that threatens to swallow them whole.)\
ANDY
I never once thought, through all of this, that I’d ever be able to feel good again. But you… You know me. I was losing it, Alina. My life was nothing, and... It’s over now. Henry’s left, that thing that killed my brother is dead, and I have you.
ALINA
We have each other.
(They kiss again, not seeing the two shambling ZOMBIES emerge from the darkness, tearing the lovers apart, kicking and screaming. The spotlight goes out and the screams die in the dark. Llights slowly come up on a small mortician’s basement. Andy and Alina are strapped to two gurneys in a standing position, facing each other. In between them are two more gurneys covered in white sheets. The two zombies stand at either end of the room, guarding the entrance and exit, and along the back wall is a massive chemistry set of pipes and tubes. A green liquid flows through the beakers and burners, percolating and churning. DR. NORTH, enters the room, the zombies stand aside to let him in. He is a mousy man with oversized, black rimmed glasses. He talks with his hands, either swinging them to and fro or keeping them clasped and fumbling close to his chest. He frequently pauses as well, as if some words are more difficult to spit out than others. He cracks smelling salts and rouses Andy who wakes with a gasp.)
ANDY
Where are we? Why can’t I move my arms?
DR. NORTH
You’re in my… laboratory… perfectly safe. I’m Dr. North.
(Dr. North heads for Alina. Andy violently tears at the straps. There is a snap as Andy breaks the strap on his left wrist, reaching for the doctor, already out of reach.)
ANDY
GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER! LEAVE HER ALONE!!
DR. NORTH
My, my… you’ve become quite strong. I’d advise you to calm down, though, Mr. Vail or… no I guess you can’t calm down can you. It’s not really your fault. But I’m going to advise you anyway. I’d hate to have to sedate you. I want you alert for this. I’m not going to hurt Ms. Waitts, I’m just going to wake her.
(Dr. North does the same to Alina. She wakes with a gasp.)
ALINA
Where am I? Andy?
DR. NORTH
See… I mean no harm.
ANDY
Let us go.
DR. NORTH
I have you restrained because I find most… individuals… react… badly… to my work.
(Dr. North whips the sheet off one of the gurneys, throwing it to one of the zombies who fumbles with it stupidly then throws it to the ground. On the gurney is the corpse of STEVEN TILLHOUSE. He is pale and obviously deceased yet he doesn’t look too bad, except for the fact that his entire abdominal area has been devoured and most of his internal organs hang out in a sloppy mess. One long intestine snakes from the table almost touching the ground. Steven has also been strapped to the gurney. Alina gasps, Andy looks stunned.)
DR. NORTH
The late Mr. Steven Tillhouse, brother of the even later Dr. Ainsley Tillhouse. Would you both agree that Steve here looks quite… dead?
ANDY
What the fuck are you doing?
DR. NORTH
Please save all questions until after the… show. Zed, the hydraulic hypodermic please. Zed and Zod are my labor force. Mindless zombies are great for tedious work.
(One of the zombies sloughs over, hands Dr. North something that looks like a gun, then slumps back to it’s sentry. A vial of the strange green liquid has been inserted into the handle of the gun. Dr. North holds the gun up to the witnesses like a magician showing the audience there is nothing up his sleeve.)
DR. NORTH
A simple vial of Agent North…
(He aims the gun directly between Steven’s dead eyes.)
DR. NORTH
…injected directly into the forebrain of the deceased. This will save his life.
(There is q quick hydraulic sound, Steven’s head twitches a little. Dr. North steps back with a smile. There is a sharp intake of breath as Steven’s body springs to life, still pale and damaged, but alive.)
STEVEN
ANNIE! NO!
(Steven hushes, looking at his surroundings.)
STEVEN
Where am I? The hospital?
DR. NORTH
Far from it… Steven. You’re dead.
(Dr. North makes a show of holding up the long, dangling intestine from Steven’s stomach and snipping it off. Steven yelps in pain.)
DR. NORTH
Dead but feeling. Dead but not. That is the beauty of Agent North, a resurrectional formula cultivated from epinephrine, formaldehyde, glucose, sucrose, lactose, sodium, an alien fungus that I grow in the old fruit cellar below this one, and cocoa. Agent North revitalizes and empowers the brain. It works on the same level as a placebo. An uber placebo… if you will, the same way certain people believe raw honeycomb can cure cancer or that Advil can work as well as oxycontin. Agent North tricks your brain into believing it is alive, it uses that… forgotten piece of the mind… your willpower in itself keeps your limbs moving, your eyes seeing… your dead, cold, rubbery flesh… feeling… it does not, as you may believe, stimulate the body at all. No, no, no. You, Steven, are dead and… so is you’re body. If you are cut, the skin will never heal. Bones will not mend, organs will not beat or churn, but you will still have to clip your nails and style your hair… The serum will preserve your body, in an immaculate fashion might I add, compacting the muscles and bone marrow making you stronger and more resilient to both pain and damage, simultaneously delivering oxygen to that most important of organs, the brain. Your heart may not be beating and your blood might have run dry but… your brain is alive and throbbing with thought. There is only one thing Agent North cannot do but… don’t feel bad it happens to all men. And I hear they make pills for it now. You won’t even miss… those things. You are unfettered by the aches and pains, wants and needs of the living body… New life, from me to you, and I have but one simple scientific question. Did you see anything? Bright lights, men with pitchforks, possibly a few dozen virgins?
STEVEN
No. Can I get up from the table now?
ANDY
You’re taking this quite well.
DR. NORTH
My doing…. I lace Agent North with a heavy tranquilizer. It will wear off in a few days. Keeps the… unliving… calm, from hurting themselves, makes the rebirthing experience go smoother. We already enter this world kicking and screaming once. Now, my living participants… You have witnessed the defiance of death, peer into the face of a man made God, and seen the redefinition of life itself?
ALINA
You like to talk, don’t you?
ANDY
Untie us!
DR. NORTH
I need you to listen first… I’ve been… watching you, Mr. Vail. I’ve had… my eye on you since my cameras caught you in Mynot’s lab. I apologize for everything that has happened to you... I would have… I am in grave danger, we all are… Except you, Mr. Tillhouse, you’re dead. But this concerns you… because… you’ve lost someone you love. All of us have. And the fault lies… no further than with me… and my colleagues.
STEVEN
What are you talking about?
DR. NORTH
As you may have… noted, I am a brilliant man… one of a group of six… friends. We met in college. Your brother, Dr. Vail. Your brother, Dr. Tillhouse. Dr. Randolf, Dr. Mynot, and, your grandfather, Dr. Waitts. Together we were… monumental… and arrogant. Dr. Waitts had these books--
ALINA
Oh, my God!
ANDY
What?
ALINA
My family… They… no.
DR. NORTH
The Waitts family is rooted deep… in the occult… going back centuries. Dr. Waitts had these book…
But you don’t understand… what we could do… Gateways into other worlds, alien beings… their bodies coursing with cures to diseases… chemicals, even potions capable of resurrecting the dead. The conjunction of old world magic and new age technology. But all sciences… For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
ANDY
You guys brought this on yourselves?
DR. NORTH
One of the… experiments went wrong. None of us even knew. It took your brother first, then it got Mynot, your grandfather, and it would have gotten Dr. Tillhouse… as well.
STEVEN
If he hadn’t died by his own experiments, you mean.
DR. NORTH
Yes.
ANDY
But that thing is dead. Steven died getting rid of it. Which by the way, how the hell did you get his body? Why have you just been watching us all die? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT? AND GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF THIS YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!
DR. NORTH
You get angry… a lot lately… don’t you? Yes, Steven did succeed in avenging… my colleagues. My… Zed and Zod, retrieved the body of… you, Steven, as well as Mr. Skinner. I needed to be sure. Yes. The parasite is dead. One of them. And the machine was turned off. Let us… all hope we never truly understand what happened to your brother Ainsley, Mr. Tillhouse.
ALINA
One of them.
DR. NORTH
Something else was conjured. There was the… parasite… which incubated inside Dr. Vail, dead now, but there was something else. It took Dr. Randolf first. Then Randolf’s wife, finally, his neighbor. I was able to bind it… trapped it in it’s current body. You’ve been… with him for… a few weeks.
ANDY
Henry?!
DR. NORTH
Henry. His real name is Mischa… Bratton. Although… I think it… safe to assume Mr. Bratton is no longer there.
ANDY
What are you talking about?
DR. NORTH
Henry… needs me dead… to break the binding… But you can stop him, only you are immune. He’s bound in that body and if that body dies… I think he tried to use you to find me. I’m going to untie your friends now.
(Dr. North unstraps Alina, who stands there dumbfounded, and Steven, who goes to untie Andy.)
DR. NORTH
Leave him.
(Steven does but seems confused.)
STEVEN
Why did I listen to you?
DR. NORTH
I haven’t run… tests yet but I believe it is a subconscious mechanism for dealing with being brought back to life… You have to listen to me because I brought you into this world.
ANDY
Why won’t you let me down? I don’t even know where Henry went.
DR. NORTH
You’ve felt confused… recently. Like your body… brain is trying to pull itself in two. You’ve been fighting it.
ANDY
Fighting what!?
DR. NORTH
Dr. Mynot had a theory. He did some experiments with… animals. Like with earthquakes and disasters, animals seem to sense things… especially mammals. He theorized humans must have this innate ability as well… his plan was to create a serum that would enhance these natural instincts. A sample of this… serum was injected into the base of your neck over a month ago. The anger, enhanced strength, I think it is a direct result. Your body is trying to adjust to these new… feelings. No one can be sure what this… will do to you. But I’ve been watching… I have a theory that you can sense… things… I think you could use this to find Henry.
ANDY
You’re crazy.
DR. NORTH
How else can you explain what’s been happening? How Henry can… influence everyone but you. You are the only one who can do this. And if you do…
(Dr. North removes the sheet from the last body, revealing the oddly preserved corpse of MIKE VAIL.)
DR. NORTH
If you do this for me… I will bring your brother back to life… and your grandfather… all of them. But not until this is done and I’m safe. I’m going to untie you now…
(All of them stand there, stunned. Dr. North approaches Andy. Fade to black.)
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