Teaser

Originally broadcasted 1/17/06

Fade In:

Ext.

Graveyard – Night

A zombie, eyes sunken inside the sockets and flesh dripping from his face, walked through a graveyard. Suddenly an axe swung and he toppled to the ground, his feet lifting up as he fell.

Vi stood over him, holding the axe tight in her grip. Quickly, she pointed to her right and shouted, “Three more!”

In the distance, three zombies made their way from the graveyard. Three junior slayers raced over to catch up.

“Where are they all coming from?” Shannon shouted to Vi as she ran over.

Breathing hard, Dawn finally caught up to her slayer.

 

“Over there, maybe?” Dawn suggested to the pair. She pointed to a crypt while hunching over, grabbing her side in pain from running.

Vi and Shannon took off into a run and Dawn rose up with a look of exhaustion on her face. She rolled her eyes and tried to keep up with them.

“God, I’m so outta shape,” she muttered, as she tried to run and hold her side at the same time.

Jeff walked through the horde of slayers attacking the sea of zombies. Some zombies were just starting to clear their graves when the slayers took them out, while others were already on the move. He looked around the crowd and spotted Skye swinging a sword along with the slayers, taking out a few of her own and laughing all the while.

Jeff raised an eyebrow and simply shrugged. Looking past a battling slayer and zombie, he noticed Dawn making her way over to the crypt and he casually moved around the fighting pair.

“Batter up!” Skye yelled. Then she decapitated another zombie and started laughing like mad.

“Cheer down,” Marie said to her, as she killed a zombie of her own.

“Are you kidding? This is great,” she said. She smacked another one with her sword, severing its head from its neck. “It’s like pee-wee T-ball.”

As Skye smiled and went in search of another zombie victim, the slayer just shook her head in disbelief.

Cut To:

Int.

Crypt – Same Time

Vi and Shannon carefully entered the crypt, then slunk along one of the walls. They made their way toward an area that seemed to be draped in. candlelight, where they could hear a man chanting.

“Necromancer?” Shannon whispered. Vi nodded.

They peeked around a corner and saw the man at some kind of ritual shrine on top of an iron coffin. In front of him sat a glowing idol of some sort that he seemed to be praying to. He sprinkled the idol with water as he continued to chant.

At a nod from Vi, she and Shannon rounded the corner. “Don’t move. Watchers Council,” the red-headed slayer announced.

The necromancer raised his hand and sent an energy beam toward them. Vi stepped in front of Shannon to take the full force of the blow, but they both toppled to the ground. The man picked up his ceremonial dagger and raced toward them.

“Go get back up,” Vi told Shannon, who immediately fled toward the door.

Vi tried to stand up but was hit with another magical blast from the necromancer, who still stalked toward her. She appeared paralyzed by the second blast, unable to move from her position on the floor, despite her desperate efforts.

He raised the knife above his head to strike, but held fast when he heard a woman yell, “Halt!”

He turned to see Dawn and Jeff standing there. Dawn appeared the most menacing, with a loaded crossbow aimed at him. He ignored her order and started to bring the knife down on Vi, who closed her eyes and waited for the worst.

Dawn pulled the trigger in her crossbow, but Jeff reached out at the same time and knocked it upwards, sending the bolt off course. Using his other hand, he sent his own beam of energy toward the man. The necromancer screamed in pain and dropped the knife. Still unable to move, Vi saw the knife falling toward her, but could do nothing. It sliced her arm as it landed and she howled in pain. Xander, who had just entered the crypt, raced toward Vi.

The necromancer began to convulse, then dropped to the ground next to Vi. A few seconds later, he was still, and Vi was able to move again.

Jeff and Dawn raced over, arriving at Vi’s side at the same time as Xander. She sat up with a groan. Xander inspected her wound, making her flinch as he touched the area. Meanwhile, Jeff walked over to inspect the necromancer’s shrine.

“What the hell?” Dawn exclaimed. “Why’d you…bolt block me?” she asked Jeff. “I had him.”

“One wayward arrow and the shrine is toast,” he replied.

“I’m a pretty good shot I’ll have you know.”

“Miss Kitty Fantastico would say otherwise,” he replied.

“Shh. I told you that in confidence,” Dawn whispered hotly. She turned to Vi. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Just a scratch,” Vi told her, “A very painful, burning type of scratch – owww.”

“Let’s get you back to the Council,” Xander said, helping her to her feet.

“Looks like we’ve stopped him. The idol isn’t glowing anymore,” Jeff said.

“Something tells me that’s bad. Well, good, well…you know what I mean,” Dawn rambled.

“Yeah,” Jeff said, “but that might not stop someone else. What I can’t figure out is why anyone would need this many zombies. It’s not like they blend with the locals. You can tell a zombie from a human.”

“What about him? Maybe we can ask?” Dawn said, pointing to the necromancer.

Jeff walked over and felt the man’s neck and then his wrist. “He’s not gonna tell us anything. He’s dead.”

“You killed him with that spell?” Vi asked, surprise in her voice.

“No, at least…I didn’t mean to,” he replied. “It was just supposed to entrap him, but it looks like he might have had a heart attack or something. Either way, he ain’t talkin’.”

Cut To:

Ext.

Crypt – Moments Later

Outside, the slayers busied themselves picking off stray zombies. The clean-up crew had begun to arrive, tossing bodies back into graves and covering them over again.

As Vi, Xander, Dawn and Jeff came out from the crypt, Jeff turned to Dawn.

“Round up all the girls once they’re done. I want to perform a simple inoculation spell on anyone who took a cut, to prevent zombie infection.”

“Will do,” she said, and walked over to Shannon to relay the instructions.

Cut To:

Int.

Crypt – Same Time

The dead necromancer’s hand lay on top of his ceremonial dagger, his fingertips just touching a couple of drops of Vi’s blood that were on the blade. No one saw a tiny flicker of magic extend from his fingers to touch the blood, then fade away.

Black Out