Nosferatu: Plague of Terror is a four part comic series.
Plot[]
Chapter One: The Order of the Sepulchre[]
In New York City, Doctor Bronwyn Callan is called to a crime scene that remind her of one she examined at a shooting gallery in Brooklyn the previous month. He colleague, Lieutenant Nykorf, speculates that the victims all died of a drug overdose, but Callan, who has treated junkies in the city for years, sees evidence that they died of the plague. She orders the paramedics to remove the corpses with care and the officers to search nearby rooms and hold anyone they find. Nykorg asks if she will report it to the mayor and she confirms that she will, to which he asks how she will explain it, comparing it to something out of the Dark Ages. A paramedic hands Callan a book, The Tragedy of Sir William Longsword, which he found in the hands of a corpse. Knowing Sir William Longsword to have been an 11th Century Crusader, she leaves with the book.
Returning to her office at the New York Department of Health and Welfare, Callan calls the mayor and tells him what she found at the crime scene, but he does not believe her. She advises him on vaccines and isolation treatments, but he rejects her advice, deeming the quarantine of 10 million people to be impractical. Frustrated, she begins to read the book, which begins with an account from 1250. Returning from fighting in the Eighth Crusade, Longsword and his squire Otrano arrived in the tiny Balkan province of Carpathia. Speaking to a local, they discovered that the local estate once belonged to Baron Orlock, who died 200 years ago, and was now a convent that is home to an order of nuns called the Order of the Sepulchre.
Entering the castle in search of a mount for Otrano, they found the nuns dead from the plague. They discovered one was still alive, though near death, and she begged them to take her inside, stating that she had much she must tell them. Once they carried her inside, she told them that the castle had once been unholy ground and that the Order of the Seulchre had tried to sanctify it, but failed. She spoke of an untold horror locked in a vault which caused the plague and called it "Nosferatu" before dying. Otrano told Longsword that he had found the vault deep in the castle and that it seemed designed to keep something in, not keep interlopers out.
Otrano attempted to open the vault and Longsword found scrolls nearby which warned of the terror of Nosferatu and how it may rise again. Otrano got the vault open and Longsword warned him not to disturb it, but the squire was only interested in the riches he believed lay within, seeing them as a fitting reward for all of slaughter and strife he witness in the war. Longsword left as Otrano entered the vault and when Longsword later returned, he discovered several coins from the time of Constantine the Great. Running through the castle calling out for his squire, he tripped over his corpse. He then found a room where a hideous creature sat upon a thrown, with the skeletons of several nuns sat in chairs on either side of him.
The creature revealed himself to be Orlock, having been locked in the vault long ago. He revealed that he unleashed the plague in the hope that it would restore him to his rightful place. He then attacked Longsword and they engaged in a bloody and nightmarish struggle that only ended when Longsword grabbed a nearby torch and set fire to Orlock's robe, causing the vampire to flee. Longsword then set fire to the castle, but as he watched it burn Orlock snuck up on him, declaring him to be the man prophesied since before the days of Abraham, whose fate would be bound to his forever. Embracing this destiny after haing fought it for so long, Orlock bit Longsword on the neck.
Callan is interupted by her colleague Savini, who gives her the pathology report, which confirms that her suspiscion of the plague was accurate. As he leaves, he tells her to expect a call from Nykorf. Callan reads the report and calls the mayor's number again, telling him that she was right about the plague and refuses to be part of a cover-up. However, an unfamiliar voice replies that she already is. The speaker then states that she has his property and he wants it returned.
Chapter Two: The Hand of Kali[]
Callan meets with the caller in an alleyway. He asks if she has his property and she replies that she has the book and is also armed with her finger on the trigger. He tells her it will be useless against him. He asks how he obtained the book and how it ended up in a shooting gallery, to which he replies that he is its author, William Longsword. She attempts to arrest him, but he overpowers her and takes the gun, using it to shoot some armed things who are closing in on them. He speaks to their corpses and a mysterious presence speaks back to him through the. Callan stikes him for killing them and he overpowers her, telling her the the situation she has found herself in is difficult if not impossible to explain. She tells him she is open-minded and he agrees to tell her the rest of his story. She notices that he is not bleeding where she struck him and he tells her that only the living bleed.
They sit in a bar and he tells her that after being bitten by Orlock, he was pleased that his neck was not marked and he could survive in daylight. However, once he reached a nearby village, the villagers attacked him. He was shot by an arrow and while it caused him blinding, sickening pain, it healed almost immediately. Knowing tha Orlock had damned him, he fled, unable to even cry tears of self-pity. Over a century passed and he continued to fight in war as the Black Death plagued Europe.
In the summer of 1859, he found himself in India during the close of the Sepoy Rebellion. He became a member of the Second Bengal Grenadiers, serving as sergeant to Major Moran as they hunted rebel bands in the hinterlands. During a search of a village, they found several dead Thuggees, disciples of the dark goddess Kali. Longsword examined their corpses and concluded that they had not died of the plague. They discoved a survivor, a woman named Rahne. They question her for several hours, during which she reveals that she was chosen to be sacrificed to Kali to prevent a terrible curse from afflicting her people. She escaped and the servants of the high priest spread the Black Death through the village, causing the villagers to flee before killing the soldiers.
Several thuggees broke in and attacked, stabbing Longsword and Moran. Longsword killed some of the, but Moran was fatally wounded and others took Rahne and escaped. Before he died, Moran ordered Longsword to go after them. The other grenadiers arrived and discovered that one of the thuggees still lived. Longsword questioned him befor he died and he revealed where Rahne was beong taken and that the high priest Orlathi had spoken of him. The grenadiers travelled to a temple of Kali, where the high priest was revealed to be none other than Orlock, who was about to sacrifice Rahne. The grenadiers attacked and Longsword ordered them to rescue Rahne while he chased after Orlock.
Longsword demanded to know why Orlock had turned him into an undying abomination, to which Orlock replied that he must find his own answers. Orlock vanished as Longsword attempted to shoot him, leaving a horde of rats behind. Longsword then ordered his men to burn the temple to prevent the plague from spreading further. He and Rahne became lovers, but the villagers refused to return while she was there, believing her to be cursed. The soldiers died, their bodies drained of fluid. Rahne blamed herself, believing it to be the curse of Kali. Longsword assured her that Kali had nothing to do with it and set out to hunt and destroy Orlock. Failing to find him, he returned and discovered that an Orlock-possessed Rahne had murdered the corporal. He fatally stabbed her and as she returned to herself she asked him why, dying before he could tell her.
Callan and Longsword leave the bat and he tells her to forget having ever met him or read his book. He hails her a taxi and bids her farewell. She is driven away by the cabbie, who is Orlock in disguise.
Chapter Three: Garden of Darkness[]
Callan awakes in a cathedral, unsure of how she got there. Her hand is bitten by a rat and she falls to the floor. She is pulled to her feet and finds herself surrounded by Orlock, the many New Yorkers who have become his followers and a horde of rats. Refusing to believe that he is real, she attempts to leave but is restrained. Orlock explains that the flotsam and jetsam of society make the best armies, as they have nothing to lose and everything to fight for. He recalls leading such forces during World War I and World War II.
Orlock begins telling a tale of how Longsword established himself as a legendary figure during the Vietnam War. He was given a mission by Major Benson to seek out a non-partisan P.O.W. camp in Cambodia and find out who was running it and for what purpose. He set out with his comrades Wojozki and Coontz, though on the tenth day Wojozki stepped onto a Punji stick. Knowing that the poison had entered his bloodstream and he could not be saved, he took his own life.
Longsword and Coontz soon found an area full of burned, dismembered and eaten corpses. They discovered that the thumbs had been cut from the severed hands, which longsword recognised as a pracetice from the days of Attila the Hun. Overcome with paranoia, Coontz attempted to kill Longsword, but his thumb was cut off during the struggle. They found themselves surrounded by a group led by former Soviet Army corporal Sergei Mihalik, who revealed that he knew who Longsword was. They were taken to the camp, where Coontz was hung upside down by a rope as he begged Longsword to help him.
The leader of the camp emerged, revealing himself to be Orlock. He asked Longsword what price he was willing to pay to kill him, to which Longsword replied that he was willing to pay any price, even his own life. Orlock agreed to allow Longsword to kill him if he first killed Coontz. Longsword did so, only for Orlock to reveal that he had lied.
Orlock laughs as he finishes the tale, but Callan refuses to believe him. Orlock tells her that Longsword is not the hero she believes him to be and has used her as bait. She replies that he warned her away from all of it, but Orlock replies that it was only after she was too deep into it to escape. He reveals that Longsword is present and ask him to confirm this. Longsword replies that Orlock is telling the truth and apologizes to Callan, affirming that there is far more than her life at stake. He declares that he is now prepared to face his destiny and destroy Orlock once and for all.
Chapter Four: Cathedral Sinister[]
As Orlock taunts him, Longsword declares his refusal to let him claim Callan. Orlock's followers lock the doors and he Longsword tells her to run up the stairs. As she does, one of them grabs her and she is forced to kill him to escape. Longsword helps her up into the tower and she chastises him for using her as bait and forcing her into a position where she had to kill someone. He does not deny setting her as bait, but says that he does not regret it either, as it was what he had to do.
Orlock orders his followers to retrieve Callan, but calls one of them, Ralph, to his embrace. He then bites him in order to strengthen himself. Callan and Longsword reach the top of the tower and he tells her that Orlock must be destroyed to save countless lives from the Black Death. She refuses to be used as bait again, but as Orlock's followers break in, she falls through the floor. Longsword is impaled with a harpoon as he attempts to pull her up and he falls down, hitting several rafters as she goes. She is attacked by two of Orlock's followers, but send them falling to their deaths.
As the cathedral collapses around him, Orlock's rats turn on him and attack him and his followers. Callan finds Longsword and pulls the harpoon out of his body. As she drags him to safety, she sets fire to the cathedral. She finds a way out, but is ambushed by Orlock as she attempts to escape. She grabs a shard of glass and stabs him in the eye. He throws her across the room and moves in for the kill, but Longsword arrives and confronts him. He attacks Orlock, determined to finally bring their centuries-long conflict to an end. He declares that if they must die, they will die together, and his sword falls from the tower above and impales them both.
As the flames consume Longsword and Orlock, Callan escapes from the cathedral. She stands watching it burn, silently begging God to burn it until the bones of the two ancient adversaries are utterly consumed and forever hidden from the sight of men. She then wonders how a mortal man may kill ones already dead. Orlock's rats surround her as she becomes the new Nosferatu.
Reprints[]
Background Information and Note[]
- The new kindle cover illustration has been altered to show Orlok's iconic rat teeth, on the original cover his fangs looked like a traditional vampire.