The Strain: Another Season
Episode 10
Author's Note: The fight scene (i.e. most of Chapter One) was written by my husband.
All I did was edit it into my "Another Season" telly voice and tweak a couple of things.
The Dismembered
Chapter One
Eichhorst's Living Room, Stoneheart Building, Manhattan - Present
No longer on Sandra's screen, Thomas Eichhorst's agonised writhing finally ends in a single whole-body spasm and he lies face down and motionless on his living room carpet.
Fet's Place, Richards Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
The SUV comes to a juddering halt with air bags inflated and intrusion alarm blaring. By some freak accident with the wiring, the indicators and headlights are NOT flashing.
For the space of a breath, everyone, human and strigoi, is frozen – stunned by the impact. Then, as the dust and rubble settle, it becomes clear that someone has been caught in the wreckage. The still form of Dr Nora Martinez, is trapped between (and partly beneath) the vehicle and the collapsed stairway. There is no time for anyone to act as Kelly Goodweather and her host of vampires break out into the room.
Abraham Setrakian struggles back to his feet as a strigoi leaps at him. He has no time to draw his blade and is armed only with an impressively multicultural range of curse words as he braces for the fatal blow. Which doesn't come...
While the professor's attacker inexplicably hesitates, Angel Guzman Hurtado (known as The Silver Angel in a previous incarnation as a Mexican wrestler) rams into the creature, hitting it expertly with two punches to the head. Angel's silver, cross-shaped knuckle-dusters ensure that the strigoi doesn't get back up but lies extremely dead, his caved-in skull still steaming.
'Grey power, man!' grins Angel, rubbing his own silvery fuzz before turning away to face another attacker.
Setrakian gets to his feet in the calm behind Angel's broad back and swooshes the silver sword from his cane. His eyes never leave those of the next strigoi attacker. And the next. And the next. So focussed is he on the battle and the enjoyment of his returning strength that he fails to spot the fallen Nora.
The group on the other side of the crashed hummer are kept busy trying to repel assailants that have scuttled over the obstacle with ease.
Gus Elizalde has become separated from Angel by the sudden appearance of the car he borrowed from the New World Ancients. The loss of his comrade is of less concern to him than the state of his ride.
His guns drop from limp fingers as he stares in horror, hands reaching up to grip his ears, at the twisted corpse of tens of thousands of dollars-worth of shining beauty. Then he tilts his head upwards to howl a wordless lament at the hole through whence it came.
'They're gonna kill me!' he screams, after a breath. 'They're gonna fucking KILL me!'
Vasiliy Fet has been faithfully defending Dutch Velders' cabinet with his rebar and nailgun alongside Sandra Edwards and Reggie Fitzwilliam. The tall exterminator already has several dead strigoi around him, whereas Reggie is proficiently picking off enemies at a distance with a semiautomatic pistol. Sandra is armed and fiercely protective of the cabinet but is demonstrating why she tends to shag her way out of dangerous situations. Whatever she practised in those Krav Maga lessons, it certainly wasn't hand-to-hand combat.
Fet spots Gus mourning his hummer to the exclusion of all else and making himself vulnerable to any hungry vampire. He takes a couple of strides towards the Mexican and hooks the end of the rebar (bent by repeated striking of strigoi skulls over the past fortnight) into the neck of the work overalls that Gus borrowed from him.
He gives it a good hard yank, presumably intending to pull Gus out of danger, but the fabric rips around the waistband and Gus is suddenly topless, making Sandra an even less effective fighter for a dreamy second.
Fet pulls a silver machete from a sheath on his back and hands it to Gus, just in time for him to use it to parry an incoming stinger attack. The feisty Mexican ducks under a leaping strigoi but he skids on the long legs of Fet's boiler suit and has to keep yet another stinger at bay with the unfamiliar weapon.
'Fuck it,' he exclaims, slashing at the overalls high up on the thigh. While he's distracted, one of the creatures jumps him again.
'Just take it all off,' calls Sandra helpfully.
He sidesteps and lashes out with his blade, slicing cleanly through its lower jaw and decapitating it.
'People might think I'm a vamp standing on its head,' he retorts with a cheeky grin as he thrusts at the other foe. 'Don't want to lose nothing important in no friendly fire.'
'Friendly slash,' corrects Reggie sardonically, as Sandra acknowledges Gus' boastful logic with a shrug and a grin.
Gus' other opponent has retreated for a moment and waits out of range, hissing at him.
'Come on, pendejo. Don't I look tasty enough?' he screams, tensing his body so his torso ripples.
Sandra emits a tiny, moaned "Mmm" and the strigoi seems to agree. It charges and Gus, now looking like a gay Tarzan, slides beneath it as it pounces, stinger extended. The creature overshoots its moving target and the stinger slams into the floor above Gus' prone head, with a horrible squelch. Immediately, Gus lashes back up at it with his machete and splits the stinger in two. While it recoils in distress, cradling its wounded appendage, Gus springs back upright, desperate to avoid the worms, and finishes it off.
Reggie Fitzwilliam is all quiet efficiency beside a screaming Sandra, or, more often than not, protectively in front of her. The only opponent that elicits any emotion from him is an immature strigoi still sporting a shock of silver hair and a suit and tie. He grabs that one by its lapels with a primal scream and pulls it in close. He pulls his arm back and punches him hard enough to not only break his nose but also drive it a couple of inches into his skull. Then he twists the creature's head all the way around with an expression of grim relish and pushes the corpse away in disgust.
'Master race, my dimpled ass,' he mutters and turns into the next assault.
Zack Goodweather has become separated from his father and the rest of the group by the SUV demolishing the building, and has fallen over, slightly stunned by the impact. He gets to his feet, still a little dazed, and searches for the knife he was given for defence before the battle of Bolivar's.
'Found you!' he squeaks in triumph before trying to get back to his father.
He clambers onto the bonnet using some rubble as steps. Halfway across, he spots Eph, also downed by the crash, and yells, 'Dad!' as he scrambles across the slippery metal towards him. He doesn't notice his mother until she steps out of the SUV in front of him, adjusting her wig and trying to re-stick a recalcitrant eyebrow.
She stares longingly at her son for a moment and then, murmuring his name, she reaches out her arms.
Zack moves towards her embrace as if hypnotised, until Eph steps between them.
'You shouldn't have come here,' Eph threatens Kelly. He has a sword in his hand but it is held at his side, not aggressively.
'I want Zack,' she replies, desperation an audible undercurrent in her tone.
'You can't have him,' Eph screams, his desperation more overt, and he lashes out in rage. The attack is wild and easily dodged by Kelly who stoops down ready to counterattack at the next opportunity.
Gus and Fet are fighting side by side, finding a rhythm between the two of them. Fet's heavy hitting stuns the vampires as they come in and then the quick thrust and slash of Gus' machete finishes them off. A small pile of dead strigoi is building up on the floor around them but still they keep coming.
Setrakian and Angel are forming a less likely tag team on the other side of the workshop. The professor grunts as he lunges forward and thrusts his rapier through the throat of an approaching vampire just as it's on the point of flicking out his stinger. He looks across to see Angel put his silver knuckle-duster through the face of another, burning a crucifix shape through the skull.
'What are you?' he blurts.
'Luchador.'
'What?'
'Watch.'
Angel reaches out to a strigoi trying to get between him and Setrakian and picks it up by its torso. Before it has a chance to fight back, he slams it to the floor and elbows it in the face, stunning the creature. A sword swipe from Setrakian makes sure that it doesn't recover.
The Feeler-girl, Lucille, who accompanied Kelly from Manhattan, scampers across the ceiling to disperse, or at least hamper, the most efficient strigoi –dispatching unit of Fet and Gus.
'Come on then, you little shit!' Fet shouts as he spots her strategy and goes to meet her.
He jumps up, waving the rebar at her but she stays up there on all fours clacking at him as if mocking the big man's ponderous movements.
Sandra notices the gap in the defensive ring around Dutch's cabinet and fills it, screaming at Fet to stop mucking about and return to his post. Strigoi spot the weak link and swarm her. Stingers flash towards her but are withdrawn before they reach flesh. Perhaps the silver tattoos and earrings are repelling them.
Fet's Feeler opponent drops to the floor and keeps coming for him, easily dodging his rebar again and again.
'Dammit kid,' he yells in frustration. 'Hold still so I can give you a good banging, will ya?
He takes a breath and watches her for a moment, then he swipes at her again as if testing a theory. She never seems to get too far out of range, dodging mainly from side to side. The next time he swings with the steel rod, he anticipates her movement. A feint sends her left where his backswing is waiting for her.
'Hah,' he gloats. 'That didn't feel so good, did it?'
She wipes her white blood from her chin and tries a different tactic. She begins to sway from side to side like a snake trying to mesmerise its prey. He does his best to anticipate the next move but it comes at such speed that he is still a little surprised. He manages to hit the Feeler but it is only a glancing blow and the girl lands on him, her stinger going dangerously close to his face.
Try as he might, he can't seem to detach her from his chest as she clings on. At least he's distracting her from latching her stinger to his throat.
Suddenly he glimpses movement from his side as Gus comes in kicking at the girl's abdomen.
Fet feels the grip loosen and cries, 'Again!'
He pushes with all his strength as Gus kicks and they shove the Feeler a few feet away. Fet opens his mouth but Gus has one of Sandra's guns in his hand now and he fires at the vampire-child. Fet and the Feeler both jump with surprise and she lies dead on the floor.
'There're too many of them,' Reggie Fitzwilliam yells at Sandra. 'I'm nearly out of ammo.'
She throws her last weapon at him but she throws as ineptly as she fights and he needs to lunge for it…saving him from a stinger thrust.
On the other side of the ground floor, Zack watches as his parents square off against each other again.
'I'm your wife!' cries Kelly, on the defensive for the moment.
'No you're not!' Eph retorts. 'Nothing but infection there now.' He steps in and lunges at her chest with his sword. She evades easily and spits out her stinger at him. It only just misses its mark but Eph has been expecting the attack and presses on into Kelly, knocking her off her feet. He raises his sword to stab downwards through her chest.
'Mom! Dad! Stop!' Zack shouts, raising his weapon between them.
Kelly gets back to her feet and turns towards Zack, saying gently, 'My son.' She sounds human, like her old self.
'Our son,' Eph corrects her gently. She turns back to him.
He looks down at Kelly looking up at him and, as if in a trance, he offers her his hand.
She looks at his outstretched hand for a moment, then she smiles - just like she used to. Eph smiles in return and Zak sighs with relief.
'Our son,' she repeats with a nod. And she takes his hand.
Eph lifts her up in an embrace. 'I can cure you,' he says. 'Just stay with me and I can heal you. We can be a real family again.'
Kelly doesn't respond to that. She doesn't need to – she is right where she wants to be.
The sight of his parents re-united, hugging and laughing is too much for Zack. He runs into their embrace, eyes wet as if his craziest dreams have come true.
Some of the rubble coughs as Nora regains consciousness but no one notices. She dislodges some of the debris and muzzily surveys the scene around her. Strigoi are everywhere, Setrakian and Zack's Mexican babysitter in one corner and a group of four surrounding Dutch's cabinet opposite them. Eph is the closest but he and Zack seem to be tackling Kelly.
She slowly, painfully clears a path to get out but cries out when she moves her leg. It is bent, with a piece of fibula sticking out. She swears in Spanish but has to keep going because some strigoi have spotted her now and are advancing on her position.
'Eph,' she croaks. 'I need some help here.'
There's no reaction but she can't seem to shout any louder. She fumbles for a weapon and her hand wraps around a broken brick. She throws it at an approaching vampire. It glances off his head, taking some skin with it, which now flaps loosely at the side of his exposed skull. It looks at her curiously as if reassessing her as a threat. Another three strigoi mimic the first, as their pack instinct guides caution.
Nora takes the opportunity to throw another brick but this one bounces uselessly off the creature's chest.
At least this has bought her time to get her breath back. 'Eph!' she screams at him but there is no reaction from her ex-lover.
The strigoi have clearly decided that she is the easy meal she initially appeared to be and leap in to finish her off.
The leader lands on Setrakian's sword blade. He has slid across the bonnet of the hummer on his backside like a man half his age and timed his rescue move to perfection. You can almost hear the fanfare.
The other vampires turn and hiss at the new opponent. The professor yanks his sword out of the first strigoi and cleverly feints a chop to behead it. One of the others takes the bait and charges at Setrakian. With a flick of the wrist, he turns his chop into a backswing and cuts straight through the new attacker. The other two keep coming but with more caution.
Nora tries to get to her feet but her broken leg folds up underneath her.
Setrakian spots her difficulties and tries to bait one of the vampires to attack using the sword cane's sheath. The intended dupe ignores it but the other presumes the professor is distracted and spits her stinger out at him. However, it appears as if she begins to retract it as soon as it gets near him. He's already dodging to the side and he traps the appendage with his foot before severing it near the base. The vampire is left squealing and flailing hysterically, allowing Setrakian to concentrate on the final enemy.
The last strigoi tries a different tactic and dodges from side to side evading the precise thrusts from the professor. It edges closer and closer to its target. Until its head is blown off by Gus arriving to help them both.
'Can you help me lift her?' Setrakian asks him.
Nora now notices that her hero is bleeding profusely from a wound on his knee.
All thoughts for her own safety evaporate and she grabs his leg for a closer look. 'You're hurt,' she says, panic in her voice.
He kneels down and pats her reassuringly on the shoulder. 'Just a scratch from the rubble, my dear. No strigoi have got near me. You can patch me up when you are stronger.' He tries a smile but he is long out of practice.
He nods at Gus to lift her up. 'Why are you half-naked?' she asks blearily but she doesn't get an answer.
They fight their way back to the group around the cabinet and place Nora on the floor next to it. Despite the number of dead vampires around, more still pour through the hole in the wall. Wave upon wave surge towards them, with more ferocity and less caution than before.
And now, the cabinet starts to grumble and then bang and rock and shout and swear.
Sandra is now completely unarmed, having given her weapons to Gus and Reggie but that hardly makes a difference to her battle effectiveness. She looks back at Dutch's cabinet and then across at the curious strigoi tilting their heads at it. She straightens up, sets her jaw and steps forward to do something stupid. More than usually stupid.
Reggie tries to stop her and they struggle viciously for a moment while the others are more heroic.
'Let's not let them have it easy,' shouts Fet with grim finality.
'Yep,' Angel agrees from across the room, pulling on his Silver Angel mask for another Valiant Last Stand.
Everyone braces for the onslaught as a line of strigoi come at them over the rubble.
Eichhorst's Living Room, Stoneheart Building, Manhattan
Eichhorst lies on his face for nearly an hour but eventually he recovers sufficiently to drag himself, still covered in the musician's blood, to his bed. He chunters to himself in barely coherent German, with only occasional fragments of griping becoming intelligible.
'Grumble… grumble… Accursed louse… groan… mumble…'
He jerks his coffin out from under the bed, spilling some of the contents in the process, but hasn't the strength to put it on top of the bed as was his human-imitating custom.
He growls and slithers into the cool sanctuary of his home soil - tuxedo, makeup, prosthetics and all.
He sighs with relief and curls up inside like a hungover student snuggling under a duvet.
He mutters one final comment.
'So like Werner…'
And he dreams.
But strigoi can't dream as we do.
Just as they can't create life or truly learn anything new, their brains lack the ability to generate the fantastical imagery of human dreams.
Strigoi can, of course, change human life into their own kind and their Sires can grant them access to the memory of new knowledge or a new skill, provided the Ancient has at some time in the past absorbed another human with such an ability.
Similarly, vampire dreams are pale shadows of those they had in life.
So Eichhorst remembers the past as it happened. Exactly as it happened.
South East Flanders - November 1918
A handsome man in his late twenties with dark blond hair and a grey horse gallops up to an unpleasant scene, wearing the uniform of a leutnant in the Imperial German Hussars.
An even more handsome boy with jet-black hair is lying on his side behind his badly injured mount, with his arm disappearing under the stricken creature's tail. The boy has a nasty grin on his otherwise perfect face. He seems to be in his mid to late teens and he is in a husar's uniform.
