Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories
Page 34
MYRA
Does Dr Craig agree with you?
RORY
I’ve not run my findings past her. Alison has… concerns.
MYRA
You’ve had practical results?
RORY
I want authorisation for tests… we can use the dogs as subjects. Dogs are cheap. They die easily.
The light around RORY shrinks. He senses something.
RORY (turning)
Who’s there? Alison?
MYRA
Dr Viner?
RORY
Sorry, it was nothing. Now, I propose we start with two subjects… [turns again] Hello, come out and…
Blackout. FX: neck breaking. RORY’s strangled scream. Body falls.
MYRA
Dr Viner, are you there?
Lights up. RORY lies dead, head kinked. The goo is spilled on his face.
MYRA
I see. Product Twelve…
GALA comes on.
MYRA
Assess Dr Viner’s status?
GALA picks up RORY as if he were a lightweight. RORY’s neck unkinks and GALA lets him go. RORY stands, face dripping red, zombie-like. GALA stands back.
MYRA
Ah, Dr Viner, you have had your test. Very successful, too. If not with the subject of your choice. Can you report on your status?
RORY opens his mouth and tries to speak. He gargles red goo and lurches.
MYRA
Evidently not. Pity.
ALISON comes on. She stands behind RORY.
ALISON
Rory, I’ve an idea about the goo…
RORY turns. ALISON gasps. RORY lunges for her. ALISON backs off, screams… CARL and VALERIE come on – alerted by the scream. MONSTER, in chair, wheels on after them.
RORY, clutching hand outstretched, stalks ALISON, drooling and gargling goo – completely demented.
CARL (to MYRA)
Dr Viner seems to have contracted some sort of infection…
ALISON
Get him away from me!
RORY is focused on ALISON. CARL looks up, doesn’t make a move to help. MONSTER wheels in the way.
MONSTER
Man… bad!
RORY snarls and shoves the MONSTER’s chair off. It falls over. He spills out. VALERIE rights the chair and helps him back into it, concerned.
RORY is now a complete monster.
RORY
Kill! Kill!
MYRA
Product Twelve… Tidy up, severely. Head…
GALA does a rapid punch to RORY’s head. He froths more goo but is stricken.
MYRA
Heart.
GALA shoves her palm against RORY’s chest. He drops – shattered. ALISON, recovering quickly, bends over the body and assesses the damage.
ALISON
His ribcage is shattered. And his skull. Bone knives through the heart and brain. Your girl’s got quite a kick.
CARL
She’s built for strength.
VALERIE
We should have helped him.
ALISON
I’m not complaining. If she hadn’t gone Hai Karate on him, he’d have strangled me.
VALERIE
What got into him?
ALISON holds up her hand. There is goo on it.
ALISON (horrible realisation)
I can guess… [raises voice] Dr Lark, I believe I’m contaminated with what overcame Rory. It’s possible we all are.
CARL, VALERIE and ALISON look at each other.
ALISON
Dr Lark…
MYRA
I’m taking the situation under advisement. You might want to wash your hands. And await further instruction. Dr Lark, out.
CARL
Lark… what? You’re leaving it at that? Come back.
ALISON has been rubbing her hands on her coat.
ALISON
It was inert. We determined that first thing.
MONSTER wheels over RORY.
MONSTER
Man… broken. Man… bad?
ALISON
Man sick. We might all be.
MONSTER (worried)
All… bad?
VALERIE
It’s not your fault. It’s something from the ice.
MONSTER holds up hands. They’re red-gooed.
VALERIE
Is he immune? Will he…? [does clutching hand and nods at RORY]
ALISON
He was swimming in the stuff when we found him. It’s impossible to tell whether it’s affected him at all. He’s not like us. Rory thought it was the elixir vitae Frankenstein used to bring him to life.
CARL
Like in Re-Animator?
ALISON
Yes, only a different flavour of Opal Fruit.
VALERIE
Have you tried using the goo to reanimate anything?
ALISON (realising what RORY was up to)
I think that’s what Rory was planning. Only it was tried on him first.
VALERIE
By whom?
ALISON and VALERIE look at CARL.
CARL
Don’t be absurd…
ALISON
Well, I don’t think Mr Boots is up to the lab work. He’s stuck in the chair, for a start. Look at those hands. Not exactly made for juggling test tubes.
MONSTER (smiles)
Boots.
CARL
They could do a pretty good job of the first part of the process. Killing the test subject…
VALERIE (protective)
He wouldn’t hurt anyone.
CARL (venomous)
That’s not what the book says. The one you’re an expert on.
MONSTER
Man… angry. Angry… bad. Angry men… hurt.
CARL
We should at least put him in a coma. To be on the safe side.
CARL takes out hypodermic syringe.
VALERIE/ALISON (both protective)
No.
CARL
Please yourself. But I want my proposal on record. At the enquiry, I don’t want anyone saying I was negligent.
Blackout.
Lights up. The table/gurney is back. RORY lies on it, coat open over a bloody incision, held apart by surgical clamps.
ALISON on a stool, attaching sensors to her forehead and chest. Her hands are shaking and she’s blotchy-red with goo. She is recording her findings.
ALISON
…the biomatter is no longer inert… it is bonding on a cellular level with… with Subject Alison Craig. It does not function like a fungal or viral infection. It does not appear to be parasitic, but is mutagenic… It does… change the subject. There is cell growth, metamorphosis, internal rearrangement. Subject’s vital signs are strong. Heart rate slightly up. Temperature stable. I observe…
She takes up a metal beaker and crushes it in her hand.
ALISON
…unusual strength. I couldn’t have done that yesterday. I see more than I did.
She takes off her glasses and puts them in her top pocket.
ALISON
I don’t need specs. For the first time since I was twelve.
She feels in her mouth.
ALISON
I’ve another row of teeth coming through. [looks at RORY’s mouth] In examining the previous subject, I find he was starting a new dentition also. It’s hard to tell, because of the damage done in subduing him, but I believe his neck was broken before his changes accelerated. I can’t believe he did that to himself. Memo: was Gala instructed to make a test subject of him?
MYRA
Of course not. That would have overridden Professor Court’s order that she save you.
ALISON (jumps)
You were listening. I’m not surprised. Do you know what’s happening to me?
MYRA
It’s beyond my field… but I’d say that you’re becoming something else. Something not human.
ALISON
You mean a monster?
MYRA
That’s a very loaded term.
ALISON is agitated and shuddering – great changes inside her. She is leaking goo.
ALISON (agitated)
I know what the elixir does now. I have unusual insights because it’s rearranged my brain. My heart rate’s up. My vitals are off the charts. I could tear through the wall. Leap a tall building at a single bound.
She detaches the sensors. She is frothing goo. She looks at her hands. They are clutching claws.
ALISON
But I can’t take this. I’m not designed for this. I’m so alive it’s killing me!
ALISON’s eyes bulge… her brain explodes inside her skull. She drops, spasming.
MYRA
Gala, tidy up.
GALA steps out of shadows, looks down at twitching ALISON, kneels, arm drawn back as if ready to slam the heel of her hand into ALISON’s head.
ALISON
Yes.
Blackout. FX: Horrible squelch.
Lights up.
RORY on table/gurney. ALISON on floor, with bloody towel covering her (smashed) head. CARL is going over notes.
MYRA
Do you support Dr Craig’s hypothesis?
CARL
She had useful insights. A unique perspective, you might say.
MYRA
The elixir… the goo. Its effects are not uniformly beneficial.
CARL
Not for real people. Though it kickstarts all sorts of processes which are highly desirable. It’s what Victor used to bring his creation to life.
MYRA
The goo raises the dead?
CARL
Temporarily. But that’s not what it’s for. As the case of Dr Viner shows. Just raising the dead is of questionable use… they’re still broken. The case of Dr Craig shows that even the living can have too much life. Putting goo in her was like pouring rocket fuel in a 2CV – it blew her apart.
MYRA
What are you saying it does?
CARL
It animates what was not animate and makes it extraordinarily resilient. I was wrong about Frankenstein – he didn’t make his creation the way he did because he lacked tools for microsurgery. It had to have a cast-iron constitution to survive the elixir.
Lights up on MONSTER, in chair, and VALERIE – they can hear MYRA and CARL talking. GALA stands nearby – spatters of blood on her hands and face, which doesn’t bother her.
MYRA
So, commercial applications are limited?
CARL
Not at all. It wasn’t good for baseline bods like Viner and Craig, but it’d be a tonic for Gala. Gala plus goo is Product Thirteen. And many Products to come.
MYRA
You still want to look inside Product One?
MONSTER’s ears prick up.
CARL
Yes. Coma, then dissection. Now, more than ever – we need to see how Frankenstein put it together. So we can make our own.
MYRA
Approval is granted.
MONSTER gasps. VALERIE is appalled.
CARL (surprised but not unhappy)
Really? I can cut it up? You know this means it’ll be nonfunctional… dead.
MYRA
That has been considered.
CARL
Ah. That’s what Unwin want to know, isn’t it? Whether it can be killed?
Lights down on MYRA. CARL notices that MONSTER and VALERIE are listening.
CARL
Ah. You heard that.
VALERIE
I won’t let you hurt him.
MONSTER
Angry man… bad. Angry man… terrible.
CARL has his syringe out again. VALERIE gets between him and the cringing MONSTER.
CARL
You’re not qualified to have an opinion on this part of the process.
VALERIE
Gala, keep Dr Cleaver away from us.
GALA advances.
CARL
Gala, stay! Override code Gepetto Six.
GALA halts.
CARL (raising syringe)
This won’t hurt.
MONSTER whimpers, shrinks in chair. CARL eases VALERIE aside and rolls up MONSTER’s sleeve.
CARL (soothing)
All over soon.
VALERIE snatches the needle and jabs CARL in the neck with it. He stands up stiff, face contorting.
CARL
Judas cunt!
CARL falls forward. Dead.
VALERIE is horrified at what she’s done.
MYRA
Would somebody check Dr Cleaver for deadness.
VALERIE does.
VALERIE
I find Dr Cleaver… uh, life negative.
MYRA
Well, that settles something. As you were… Continue the assessment of Product One.
VALERIE (appalled)
As you were! Dr Lark, Dr Lark…
No response.
MONSTER
Angry man gone?
VALERIE
Yes. Angry man can’t hurt you ever again. Do you understand?
MONSTER nods. VALERIE hugs MONSTER maternally. Holds back tears.
VALERIE
Everything’s going to be all right. I promise. No one’s going to hurt you again… or frighten you… or try to exploit you in any way.
As VALERIE speaks, MONSTER stands up, arms going around her. VALERIE’s instinct is to embrace him. Then she realises he’s out of the chair and has a spasm of worry.
She tries to pull away, but he still holds her. She smiles at him and he smiles back, nastily. He doesn’t look stupid any more.
VALERIE
You can walk? You’re…?
MONSTER
Have you even read that fucking book?
Starting to panic, VALERIE twists around. GALA holds up her copy of Frankenstein.
VALERIE
What? I don’t understand?
MONSTER
Not understand good? Not surprised here. Not fucking surprised at all. Really, Professor Court, I’m astonished that thou’rt such a cretin… How a university could bestow degree and title upon one of such limited understanding is beyond even my considerable comprehension. Then again, you’re just human. All of you… you’re so tiny, so eager. Has mankind advanced so little in two and a half centuries? You’re children prodding cats to see what they’ll do and putting things in your mouths you shouldn’t. All in all, you’ve had your chance and it’s for the best that you quietly die in the corner and let a grown-up species take over. A successor species.
VALERIE
Your back was broken.
MONSTER
It comes apart and goes back together. All of me does. [he snaps his wrist, and then puts his hand back properly] You know, I didn’t think you’d fall for it. You’re supposed to be scientists. Brighter than the average homo idioticus… but no. Still, you shouldn’t be too surprised. ‘This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.’
VALERIE
That’s Milton. Paradise Lost.
MONSTER lets her go. She shrinks away, tripping over CARL.
MONSTER (declaiming)
‘Into this wild Abyss, the womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave… of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, but all these in their pregnant causes mixed confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds… Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith he had to cross.’
VALERIE
I hate Milton.
MONSTER
Call yourself a Professor of Literature!
VALERIE
Media studies.
MONSTER laughs. He clomps around on his boots.
VALERIE
Gala… kill!
GALA marches towards MONSTER. MONSTER laughs extravagantly. MONSTER opens his mouth and CARL’s voice comes out.
FX: CARL’s voice
Gala, override code Gepetto Six.
GALA stops.
MONSTER
Didn’t know I could do that, did you? There’s no end to my talents.