"The Cause"- Episode 10: "Haunting Me"/ "Welcome To Valleyfield"
" Why are you haunting me,
Why can’t I let you go?"
Stabbing Westward, Haunting Me
<Translated from the Russian>
" How is Subject 30 doing today, Professor?"
" Very well, sir. She’s showing remarkable progress in the telekinetic angle."
Aliciana looks up. Her cell is littered with stray toys, most missing limbs or heads. She can see a large mirror high up on the blue wall. She is only five. If she stretches her mind, she can hear the two men talking.
" I’ve got some bad news. The new democratic government has cut your funding. All Subjects are to be terminated at once. I’ll leave that to you, and a battalion of troops that should be here any minute."
" The government does not need us anymore?"
" They have decided to abandon your endeavor. The newly instated government is to focus on rebuilding, and not on KGB projects. Mother Russia does not need psychic soldiers. We’re not fighting the Americans any more."
" Yes sir, but, they’re only children."
" ‘They’ aren’t even human. If you cannot handle this, I’m sure your assistant, what was his name, Yuri, he could handle this job, and your post too."
Aliciana does not like the new man. He wants to hurt her. Well, she would like to hurt him back. She stretches further into his mind, and tells his heart to stop. He falls to the floor in an instant.
" Sir!"
The young scientist falls to his knees, and checks the older man’s pulse. None. He reaches towards the microphone.
" Aliciana! What did you do to him?"
" He wanted to hurt me. I couldn’t let that happen." The scientist hears this in his head.
" How long have you been able to do this?"
" You never asked."
The soldiers begin to break the door down.
<End translation>
This is when Aliciana usually wakes up.
November 2nd 2001, 23:14.
Aliciana woke up. It was the same dream she had dreamt every night for eleven years. It still made her wake up in a cold sweat. She left the Institute eleven years ago, and yet they would not let her go. And now the new group, the "Project 30", they wanted to put her in another Institute. Aliciana was not about to let that happen any time soon. She would never be their lab rat again. Aliciana got out of the bed.
She had gone to a furniture store after Ash and Ed left her. She hoped that they were okay. It had been a whole day, and she had the dreadful feeling that at least one of them had died. The zombies had moved on after the elevator fell. She was so caked with mud after falling out of the elevator that she probably looked like one of them. She had brought the luggage and the cat to the furniture store across from the university to stay the night.
Aliciana looked out the plate glass window. A battalion size group of zombies stared back at her.
" Brains?"
She screamed. The window imploded on itself, Akira style, and the large shards of glass took down a few of the living dead. Aliciana reached towards a nearby coffee table. It lifted into the air, and fell upon another unhappy zombie. The rest stood around looking stunned as she darted into a backroom.
Aliciana barricaded the door with a desk. The zombies started to break it down, and the room shuddered with every blow. Aliciana hid in the corner. The door erupted with a loud CRACK! Two zombies piled into the room, falling over each other, when suddenly, a hissing noise pierced the air. The lead zombie’s skull cavity ceased to exist. A large wooden arrow pinned the side of its head to the nearby wall. Aliciana looked towards the small window. A figure darkened by the moonlight stood reloading what seemed to be a crossbow.
" Hurry, milady. Those rotting sacks of flesh shan’t stay stunned for long."
The figure thrust a hand through the window frame. Aliciana grabbed it, and was pulled out of the room.
" Come with me, I’ve a place where you’ll be safe."
Aliciana and her newly appointed guardian angel ran down the street.
" Here we are, you’ll be safe, I reckon."
A door was opened, and Aliciana and the man, she could tell from his hand, went into a bare hotel room, high above the zombie-patrolled streets.
" Who are you?"
The tall man bowed in the doorway.
" My name, milady? My name is Nicholas T. Lupinmeyer, Knight of the Black Rose Order, and Vampire Hunter Extraordinaire. I was searching for my quarry, when I heard your scream."
" Thank you Mr. Lupinmeyer, I never could have made it out without you."
" Please, dear lady, call me Nicholas. It was no problem at all, miss. The laws of chivalry dictate that fair maidens such as yourself must be saved at all costs. Now if you will permit me, my lady has forgotten her luggage at the furniture store, and I must take my leave. Adieu. I shall return shortly."
The brave knight left the room and locked the door, taking his crossbow with him. Aliciana was impressed. It wasn’t every day you met a knight/vampire hunter of some order somewhere. She sat on the bed, eagerly awaiting his return.
Ash woke up around the same time as Aliciana did, albeit to happier circumstances. The inside of the station wagon was roomy and warm, with adequate ventilation so that Ash didn’t have to smell Ed all night. He immediately began driving towards downtown Valleyfield, scanning the streets for Aliciana.
He didn’t see the large mass behind him.
The National Guard hadn’t stood still after the dead rose. They immediately sent out a regiment of soldiers and a tank to all major cities. Valleyfield’s arrived today, and it was right behind Ash.
" This is T-57 to base, we have a survivor in a vehicle. Orders?"
" Please investigate further. New Valleyfield needs all the citizens it can get."
" Roger."
The tank commander opened the top hatch, and looked through his binoculars. He saw two dirty bodies moving about. They appeared to be dead…
" Dear god! The zombies have learned to drive cars!"
Ash saw movement in front of the car. A black clothed figure ran into an adjacent building.
" Aliciana!"
This woke up Ed.
" Whaa?"
Ash stopped the car, and got out.
" If they can learn to drive cars, then what next? Bicycles? I must not let that happen. This ends here. Load main gun! By God, let’s give them whatfore!"
Ash dragged the groggy zombie from the car, and threw him on the ground.
" Stay here, Ed. I’ll go get Aliciana, and we’ll get out of here. Capeesh?"
" Whaa?"
" Never mind. Just stay here.’
Ash ran towards what he saw.
" That one’s trying to escape! Fire!"
With a resounding BOOOOM!, the tank’s main gun unleashed it’s charge. It hit the car’s gas tank, and exploded profusely. Ed barely made it clear of the blast, and came to rest in a pile of rubble. Ash turned around after the blast blew him to the ground.
" What the hell is going on tonight? Ed?"
" Yeah?"
" You all right?"
" I lost a leg. Wait, there it is."
" Wait here. Umm… pretend you’re dead, yeah, that’ll work!"
" That’s not that hard. I am dead."
" Right. Be right back."
Ash ran into the building. It was a bar. A familiar figure sat at the aforementioned bar.
" Phil? What are you doing here?"
Phil replied with a gravelly voice. "Ash, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you."
November 3rd 2001, 04:15
Aliciana woke with a start. She was back in Nicholas’s room. He was sitting on the end of her bed, watching the window.
" Good morning milady. You slept well, I trust?"
Aliciana looked towards him. It was the best look at his face she’d seen yet. He had whitish-blond hair, and eyes like a falcon. His crossbow lay cradled in his lap, facing the door. A sword and scabbard were attached to the back of his long, brown trenchcoat.
" I, I fell asleep?"
" You were resting peacefully when I returned with your luggage. That was four hours ago."
" That long?"
" Yes. Now, milady, what is your destination. Please tell me.’
" My friend Ash said we were going to meet someone named Fate, and then the elevator fell into the ground and the zombies attacked me, and then…"
" Slowest down milady. Excuse me, I forgot to take milady’s name."
" Aliciana. Aliciana Underwood."
" A beautiful name for a beautiful flower." Nicholas kissed her hand.
" Thank you."
" Now. Where goest thou?"
" I’m not sure. I think I’ll go find Ash and Ed. Hopefully they got out of that hole alive."
" My code of chivalry demands that no lady travel alone. I shall follow thee to the ends of the earth, Lady Aliciana."
" Um… well… if you don’t mind me asking, why is a knight in Valleyfield? Especially at this time?"
" My cause dictates it."
" Did you just say "cause"?"
" Yes. Did I offend thee in some fashion?"
" No, it just reminded me of something Ash said earlier. Continue, please.’
" Most certainly. The Black Rose Order of Knights is one of the few remaining hunters of the most evil of beings. The Vampire."
" Vampires? I thought the zombies were weird."
" The living dead are nothing compared to the Nightwalkers. The zombies you speak of are not undead by choice. The Vampire, however, made a conscious decision to join the dark forces. We, as humanity, should find this unforgivable. The earth should not be stained by the blight that is vampirism."
" And that’s what your order’s about, is it?"
" Yes. The Order of the Black Rose was formed to eradicate the earth of these insects."
" So if I get what you’re saying, there’s a vampire in Valleyfield?"
" One of the worst of them all. Lithpicis Von Carfiels. The One Who Walks In Days."
