The Vail (Episode Eleven: The Visitors)

We are slowly nearing the end of this season of the Vail. Not too many episodes left. This one was a personal favorite of mine though because I feel it is more about the characters than any of the others plus it totally flowed from my fingertips. You might have another point of view, though, and that's awesome. Please comment and tell me what you think. Otherwise, enjoy.

The Vail

By Joey Pettine

Episode Eleven: The Visitors

(A white room. In the center of the room, someone lies unconscious in a hospital bed, their face hidden under a white sheet. The steady rhythm of the heart monitor counts away. Two chairs sit against the wall. ANDY VAIL enters. He is calm and a curious, approaching the figure in the bed as if he isn't sure what he's looking at. STEVEN TILLHOUSE enters and takes one of the seats.)

ANDY

I know you.

(Steven pays him no mind, patiently waiting beside the bed. HENRY enters, looking surprised for the first time in his life.)

STEVEN

They had to move him. I didn't want to wake you. You looked like you needed the sleep.

HENRY

I had not realized my exhaustion.

STEVEN

Yeah. You sorta nodded off.

HENRY

If you require sleep I can watch over him.

STEVEN

I don't think zombies sleep. Laying down makes me anxious now.

ANDY

What's going on here?

(NANCY VAIL enters. She looks better than she has in decades, rested and at peace.)

NANCY

Hello, Andrew.

ANDY

Nancy.

NANCY

You remembered me.

ANDY

I could never forget you.

NANCY

People say that, but it's not always the truth.

HENRY

How is he?

STEVEN

The doctor said he was stable but not entirely out of the woods.

ANDY

What's happening here? Who's in the bed?

NANCY

Don't you know?

(Andy's hand instinctively slides to his stomach.)

ANDY

I was shot. Am I dead?

NANCY

I don't think so. Unless I'm dead.

ANDY

No. No, you're just... Where are we?

NANCY

I'm not sure but it's not bad. It might be Purgatory.

ANDY

I don't think so. You're not dead, Nan. Not even close. Have you ever heard of astro projection? It's an out of body experience. We're not dead, we're just not all there.

NANCY

How do you know?

ANDY

A lot's happened lately. I've learned some things about myself. I think I might be ubermensch. How did you get here? What do you remember?

NANCY

That doesn't work. It's hard to remember here.

ANDY

You remembered me.

NANCY

And you remembered me.

(Andy smiles and kisses her.)

NANCY

You're always so impulsive.

ANDY

I love you, Nan. I always have.

NANCY

I know. I love you too.

(ALINA WAITTS flanked by ZED and ZOD, dressed in dirty scrubs, enter. Henry and Steven put themselves in between them and the hospital bed.)

ALINA

Relax, gentlemen, I came to talk.

ANDY

She shot me. I could rip her throat out. Although, I don't feel like doing that.

NANCY

It's hard to get angry here. Things make too much sense.

HENRY

We have nothing to discuss.

STEVEN

I suggest you leave.

ALINA

Or what? You wanna fight in a hospital? Right next to helpless ol' Andy? No telling what could happen but I'm sure my boys would be more than happy to oblige. Stop being dramatic and listen. I've got a message from the boss.

STEVEN

Dr. North.

ALINA

No, the real boss.

ANDY

What is she talking about?

NANCY

Listen.

HENRY

The Insects.

ALINA

Bingo.

(Alina reaches pulls out a cigar. She smiles as she clips the end and prepares her smoke.)

STEVEN

You can't smoke in here.

(She ignores him and lights up.)

ALINA

It's harder to kill you guys than we thought. Andy was real close to taking you out, though.

ANDY

I'm sorry, Henry.

HENRY

It is alright. Andrew was manipulated.

ALINA

But we don't need to kill you guys. No one has to die at all.

STEVEN

Tell that to Andy.

ANDY

She is.

ALINA

He'll be fine. It's a gut shot. Those beefed up instincts of his will heal him up nice and fast. He'll be out of here before fart. A dandy Andy. And we mean him no harm. We just want him out of our business.

HENRY

Destroying humanity.

ALINA

Boo hoo hoo. So you were born in a sucky time. Deal. You think those who lived through the Black Plague had fun? What about the Holocaust? Horrible things always happen. You're just pissed because they're happening to you.

HENRY

Both the Holocaust and the Bubonic Plague were preventable. So is this.

STEVEN

Why help them? What do you get when alien insects destroy humanity?

ALINA

Secrets, secrets.

HENRY

I cannot allow you to terminate the future.

ALINA

You can't stop me. Only one person can.

NANCY

The Vail.

HENRY

Andrew.

ALINA

The Vail. An ancient prophecy believed to be the one thing that can stop the Insects and save humanity. Yet the Vail was lost in the Early Years. So your kind, humanity evolved, theorizing time travel was possible, developed Project Leaper. Whose sole purpose is to travel into the past and locate the Vail. You project your minds into different time periods, moving from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and, finish it up for me.

STEVEN

Hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home?

HENRY

Hoping against hope that we can save our future. How do you know this?

ALINA

You aren't the first Leaper we've met, Henry. They're easy to spot, jumping throughout history like grasshoppers, and most of them break easily after a few hours of torture. Told us everything. The historical documents. You guys crack me up.

HENRY

Is it not enough that you destroy us in my time? Must you plague us in your own as well?

ALINA

I think I struck a chord.

STEVEN

Historical documents?

HENRY

The only information my time has about yours. Records left behind by your people.

ALINA

He means movies and TV shows. We were confused at first, thought maybe we weren't torturing them right, but these nincompoops actually think movies are historical documents. Project Leaper is based off of Quantum Leap. Isn't that ridiculous?

ANDY

It worked.

STEVEN

You've made your point but you wasted your time coming here. Andy will not let the world go to Hell.

ALINA

We have Nancy Vail.

ANDY

No.

STEVEN

You lie?

NANCY

Yes, it's true.

ANDY

How do you know?

NANCY

I can feel it.

ALINA

Check for yourself. Andy admitted her to this hospital.

HENRY

Do as she says, Steven. I will wait with Andrew.

(Steven exits.)

ANDY

I'm gonna kill you.

ALINA

Would you like a cigar, Henry? I find smoking to be one of the better things about this world. Enjoy what you can. Screw home. You don't really need to go back. You've got a healthy body, you can have anything you want. Live in the here and now, I say.

HENRY

I will not abandon my people and this body does not belong to me.

ALINA

So what? There may be fairies and little elves but God helps those who help themselves.

HENRY

I doubt it was the workings of any God that made you what you currently are.

ALINA

You wouldn't be wrong. Have you known? You future types are pretty good at figuring things out.

HENRY

No, I must admit that you had me fooled until just now. I only had suspicions.

ALINA

Don't feel too bad. I use a lot of seduction spells. Gets people to trust me.

ANDY

That's why I kissed her.

NANCY

You kissed her?

ANDY

I was magically seduced.

HENRY

It must have been hard to trick Andrew. His mind was keen even before his instincts.

ALINA

It took a lot to keep him in line. So much he'd actually black out. He doesn't even remember the sex.

ANDY

We had sex?

HENRY

Another blessing. Andrew will be quite disgusted when he learns you are a man.

ANDY

She's a man. Oh, jeez, I'd barf if I could.

NANCY

It's alright.

ALINA

Men, women, young, old, you people and your labels. We're all humans. Every one just as good as the next. But I won't hold it against you. I also have a problem telling the difference between people and new suits.

HENRY

How could you do this to your own family?

ALINA

Who do you think I am?

HENRY

Dr. Thomas Waitts. An aging physician who understood the ramifications of his own mortality and was driven to steal the identity and body of his poor granddaughter.

ALINA

You think too small, my friend. Tom hadn't been himself for a long time. Neither had his father or his father's father or even his great grandfather.

ANDY

What are you?

ALINA

The name's E. Zephyrm Waitts. Born 1867. Dabbler in science, master in the occults.

HENRY

You have been stealing your family's youth for quite some time.

ALINA

It's easiest that way. You need a physical connection to attain the transfer of consciousness. Family genes are the best. An exchange of bodily fluids works just as well, though. Couple more days and Andy's gorgeously adept body could have been mine.

ANDY

She/he wanted my body?

NANCY

Good thing you were shot.

HENRY

Over a hundred years of body swapping must cause extreme identity issues. I have only been in three bodies and have trouble.

ALINA

You stop thinking of yourself in physical terms. I'm not a man or a woman. I'm not gay or straight. I just am and whatever physical urges arise I either accept and enjoy or I get a new suit. I will admit, my scientific side has found this very interesting, I am inclined to masculine actions. Even as a woman I find myself scratching down there or peeking down blouses.

(Steven reenters.)

STEVEN

She's gone.

ALINA

Told you.

ANDY

No.

NANCY

It'll be alright, Andrew.

ALINA

Here's the deal. If Andy leaves us alone, Nancy will be fine. Better than fine because Dr. North's formula doesn't just resurrect dead flesh. Mrs. Vail is brain dead now but if Andy stays away, she'll be better than ever. Might not even remember all the horrible things that have happened these recent months. Andrew can go back to his normal life. As for you, Henry, and Zombie Steve over there. We could care less, go on your merry way and that'll be that.

STEVEN

But Henry's world.

ALINA

Is hundreds of years in the future. We can all live out our lives to the fullest and never have to deal with a single Insect. Let the problems of the future remain the problems of the future. If Andy Vail does come after us, though. We'll kill the catatonic bitch.

(Alina puts out her cigar against Zed's cheek. He flinches a little and grunts.)

ALINA

Such dead beats.

(Alina exits with Zed and Zod.)

STEVEN

What do we do?

ANDY

What do I do?

HENRY

We have to tell Andrew.

(Henry and Steven sit back in the chairs, anxiously waiting.)

NANCY

You know what you have to do.

ANDY

Nancy, did you know this was happening? Is that why you came to see me?

NANCY

No, I came because I missed you.

(They hug.)

ANDY

This could be our chance, Nancy. If I let it go.

NANCY

You won't.

(This time she kisses him.)

ANDY

If you ever wake up, will you remember this?

NANCY

I'll try.

ANDY

I love you, Nan.

NANCY

You have to go now.

ANDY

I'm gonna save you.

(Andy climbs into the bed, underneath the sheets. The heart monitor skips a beat and the body rustles and groans. Henry and Steven get up and wait by his side. Andy kicks the sheet off him and tries to sit up. Steven helps him. Andy has bloody bandages around his abs.)

STEVEN

Take it easy.

ANDY

No time. I have to save Nancy.

STEVEN

How did you know?

HENRY

Because he is the Vail.

ANDY

Don't be so ominous.

(Henry and Steven help Andy hobble out of the room. Nancy watches them go, still smiling. Then she turns and exits. Blackout.)