Aftermath: The Man-Eater of Surrey Green

. Emma Peel opened her eyes and stared upwards uncomprehendingly. She was lying flat on her back on a marble floor...in a small, dark alcove... looking at a ceiling. It was a high ceiling with something...strange....about it. Something....moving. It was covered, choked, with large vines and even as she watched, the tendrils shivered, shuddered, and died. Memory came flooding back. More quickly than it takes to tell. She and Steed had been investigating the disappearance of several of the nation’s top horticulturalists - including a friend of hers, Dr. Laura Burford. They had discovered that a collision between a British space probe and an alien organism had resulted in a man-eating Plant crashing to Earth...in Surrey Green. It had power, this sentient Plant, mental power, the power to take over the minds of human beings. Their search had led them to the estate of Sir Lyle Peterson , where the Maneater had taken over the house, the people who inhabited it...and was about to germinate and thereby take over the entire world. She and Steed, along with the redoubtable Dr. Sheldon, had come to Surrey Green to prevent that from happening. They’d come armed with weedkiller, and deaf aids, which would prevent the monster from being able to exert any mental power over them. And she’d picked up a shotgun on the way into the house, which had come in quite handy. Things had been going quite well....then her deaf aid had become dislodged...and the Plant had indeed taken over her mind. It had been a horrifying experience, because she had been aware throughout the ordeal. She’d known what she was being forced to do...but she couldn’t prevent herself from doing it. She, so proud of her mind and mental abilities, her discipline and her willpower...and a disgusting space vegetable had been able to render her mind helpless. It had forced her to pour out the weedkiller, and while she’d been doing so, Steed had come on the scene. They’d fought. She’d tried desperately not to fight back, not to keep kicking over the can of weedkiller as the alien was forcing her to do, and perhaps she had succeeded a little because Steed, whom she could tell was holding himself back as well, was eventually able to knock her out. Now she had regained consciousness and her mind was free from that overwhelming power. Judging by the evidence of dead vines lying everywhere the house and thus the world was free of the voracious space alien. Steed must have been able to get the Plant to ingest the weedkiller. She started to sit up, and a shrieking pain hit her right between the eyes and caused her to lay back down. When next she opened them Steed, Dr. Sheldon and Sir Lyle Peterson were there, helping her to her feet. Her head ached, her body ached...and she reeked of weedkiller. Emma looked down at herself. Her leather blazer was missing, but her leather slacks and vest were soaking wet. Wet with weedkiller. How had it gotten all over her clothing? Had she spilled it on herself while she’d been fighting with Steed? Not possible. Her memories of that fight were quite clear. She’d doubtless gotten a little on her, when she’d hit the floor occasionally and skidded through the puddles where she’d been pouring it out, but nowhere near the amount that was on her clothing now. More than that...how had she gotten from the central ballroom,where their fight had taken place, to this little alcove simply infested with vines? ‘’We’ve won, my dear,’’ exhorted Dr Sheldon. They exchanged congratulatory back slaps..feeling the euphoria that comes with dicing with death and emerging victorious. Then Emma took a deep breath as she remembered her friend...and the other horticulturists....and the landsmen who’d been forced to build the construction which had housed the creature...all those people and none of them had been around during their climactic battle. ‘’We’ve got to search the house,’’ Emma said. ‘’We’ve got to find Laura.’’ ‘’I don’t think we will find them,’’ said Lyle Peterson very slowly. ‘’I’m afraid...’’ he glanced at Steed. ‘’I’m afraid, we won’t find them.’’ ‘’We’ve got to look,’’ Emma said. ‘’We don’t need to do that,’’ Steed said. ‘’I’ll call Wing Commander Davies. He’ll send a crew here. Let them search.’’ Emma stood still for some seconds. She knew what Peterson hadn’t wanted to say. They were all dead. Worse than that....they’d all been...devoured....by the alien. ‘’Right,’’ she said. ‘’Let’s get out of this. We’ve done our job.’’ She turned to give a last look at the alcove, and in the far corner, where she knew the heart...and mouth...of the creature to be...was her leather jacket. She went over and picked it up. It was soaking wet with weedkiller. Emma blinked several times as realization dawned. Peterson and Sheldon exchanged glances, and then they exited the alcove leaving Steed and Mrs. Peel alone. ‘’Why am I covered in weedkiller, Steed?’’ she asked quietly. ‘’We knew weedkiller would kill the creature, Mrs. Peel.’’ he said, just as quietly. ‘’You were unconscious and it knew you were....easy pickings.’’ ‘’So you poured the weedkiller over me and let it drag me away.’’ ‘’Yes.’’ Emma Peel stared into John Steed’s eyes for several seconds. The she slapped him across the face - hard. She spun on her heel and walked away. Steed stood there, eyes wide, cheek stinging. Mrs. Peel had slapped him. Mrs. Peel had slapped him. They bouted all the time...and got physical then, of course. They couldn’t take it easy with each other when they were training to defeat the enemy. But, in their private life, they rarely argued...and never got violent with each other. It would not have occurred to either of them. It was not something a gentleman did, and it was not something of which a lady would take advantage. Steed swallowed hard. He felt cold. He felt sick. Sicker than he had when he’d watched that tentacled monstrosity drag away the unconscious Mrs. Peel. He knew she’d be safe, but there was always that cold kernel of agonizing doubt.... But he’d had to do it. It had been the only way to defeat the thing. The only way. And now...Mrs. Peel had walked away from him. It was the fact that she’d walked away that had him frightened now. He settled his bowler securely on his head, as if preparing for battle, and left the alcove. Dr. Sheldon was too enamored of the alien’s remains to want to leave without examining it, and there wasn't room for Sir Lyle in any case. Emma stood by her Lotus, arms crossed over her chest., eyes narrowed in thought. ‘’Mrs. Peel,’’ Steed said, ‘’Are you ready to leave?’’ She looked at him. ‘’No, Steed, I need some time alone. I’ll find my own way home.’’ She handed him the keys to the Lotus. ‘’Mrs. Peel, I will give you time alone while you drive me home, and then we’ll talk.’’ Emma looked at him. ‘’Very well.’’ She hugged Dr. Sheldon, shook Lyle Peterson's and then clambered into the Lotus. Steed squeezed in beside her. Mrs. Peel didn’t speak to him for the entire journey...and he didn’t speak to her. She wasn’t engaged in childish sulking, he knew. Nor giving him the cold shoulder to ‘punish’ him. He knew her well enough to know that she was deep in thought and the outcome of her thinking would affect their future together. He let her think. He wasn’t going to let her get out of the car until he’d had his say. Emma Peel was thinking of all of her days with John Steed. She’d met him first seven or eight months ago, when she’d driven into the back of his car - which he had arranged. He’d suspected her of being some kind of criminal. A spy. It had been just a few months after the death of her husband, test pilot Peter Peel He’d been missing for some time, lost over the Amazon, and somehow she’d known he was dead, and had started her mourning. But she’d gotten confirmation...that day. She’d left the building - the Knight Industries building which she had inherited from her father and which she had taken onward and upward, and in so doing had walked into a situation. A man had ran past her with a knife. She’d grabbed him and spun him into the wall...and then she’d left the scene because she hadn’t wanted to be bothered with the aftermath. But that man had been a double agent, running away from Steed’s cohorts, with super sensitive microfilm in his possession. John Steed had witnessed it, and followed her into the country, where he’d arranged to meet her...by causing her to run into the back of his car. They’d talked for a few minutes, exchanging insurance information, and in those few minutes Steed had decided that she was merely an innocent bystander with quick reflexes. Then, when the double agent’s body had been searched at Department S’s headquarters and the microfilm had not been found, he’d had second thoughts. He’d come to her flat and confronted her, but she’d made short work of his suspicions, and indeed it turned out their had been a double agent at Department S itself who had made off with the microfilm. Then she’d gone to West Berlin, as a final pilgrimage to remember her husband, and there she had met Max Prendergast, a charming, unique individual with a bizarre sense of humor. She’d liked him, enjoyed his company...though she’d suspected there was something distorted underneath his charm...and indeed, then Steed had arrived, to reveal that Prendergast was a vicious psychopath who’d been taking the money of refugees desperate to get into the West and then leaving them for dead. Steed had enlisted her help, and she’d delayed Prendergast, giving the police time to arrive and arrest him. That event in Berlin had given her a taste of the excitement and danger of working with Steed and Department S. She’d missed that, after Peter’s disappearance, the feeling one got of being totally alive while one was staring death in the face. She’d decided she wanted more of it. And Steed had agreed. They became partners. Her first ‘official’ adventure had been one that the files called ‘The Master Minds.’ She and Steed had infiltrated an organization called Ransack, which had mass hypnotized people of genius level and used them to perform crimes against the people, and the state. Next had come the case of the businessmen on the stock exchange...the prime movers of companies who had unexpected, and fatal, heart attacks. They’d found their suspects, Ben Jago and Co., and worked to infiltrate the organization. Steed had had his fun with her on that assignment, giving her a cover story as a wealthy widow from Barbados, but then casting doubt on it when they were introduced to each other at the Jago’s home. He did like his fun, Steed. Then he’d put her to work in a department store, Pinters, after an agent’s body had been found dumped in an alley - the only clue a store receipt dated Sunday. They ended up foiling a madman’s plan to explode a nuclear bomb in theheart of London. Three adventures, in which he’d trained her in the fine points of being a secret agent for her majesty’s government. Breaking codes, encyphering codes, how to interrogate suspects, how to enter buildings filled with suspects, how to subdue suspects. He hadn’t had to teach her any martial arts...she’d been training in them for over seven years - but he’d honed the fine points, taught her some moves, subjected her to ‘role playing’ attackers of all kinds. She’d made mistakes, of course, walked into danger a couple of times needlessly, and though Steed had arrived in time to rescue her, it had hurt her pride, those mistakes, and she’d learned from them. Not only that Steed would always be there for her but that she’d better be there for herself - so that she could be there for him as well. He’d also exerted all of his charm on her - the typical lady’s man, Emma remembered with a smile. Though she found him attractive, she had not responded to his overtures. In part because she was still mourning for her husband, in part because she did not want what he wanted - a casual relationship. A relationship of convenience. Then had come Christmas, and Steed had been under attack by some demonic psychics attetmpting to turn his brain to mush so that they could pluck his secrets out of it, like plums out of pudding. She’d saved his life on that occasion, and afterwards...they had made love for the first time. Her feelings for him had changed after that case. He’d been vulnerable, and he’d allowed her to see that vulnerability. But with all the pressure he’d been under he still managed to maintain his charm and insouciance. And while he’d not told her all the details of the attack - he’d been afraid she might be under the psychic’s mind control as well - he had trusted her enough to put his life in her hands. And she’d repaid that trust by saving his life. Then had come “The Cybernauts,’ as the file called it, and then ‘The Gravediggers,’ and then he’d put her to work at the Chessman Hotel. Weeks later she’d come close to being squeezed to death in a wine press. And finally, they had tackled the case of Psev, the great Russian secret agent. Steed had played the role of his own double, Webster, and she’d had to pretend that he fooled her into thinking that ‘Webster’ was Steed. That had been rather entertaining. In all these cases, she had put her life on the line, as had Steed. He’d rescued her on occasion, she’d rescued him. The point was, she had walked into each case with eyes wide open, and with the belief that Steed would always be there for her. But this was different. She’d been unconscious. Unable to protect herself. And Steed had not only not ‘rescued’ her, he’d wrapped her up like a Christmas package and let the monster drag her away. When the Lotus slid to a gentle halt in front of Steed's apartment block, he turned to face her. She turned to face him. ‘’Mrs. Peel...’’ ‘’Let me speak, Steed.’’ He stopped, waiting for her. He wanted to reach out and hold her, hug her...but he didn’t. Emma took a deep breath. ‘’Steed, intellectually I know you had to do what you did. But emotionally....emotionally I am so hurt...feeling so betrayed....I...’’ she gestured. ‘’If I continue to speak I’m going to say something I’ll regret. Goodbye, Steed.’’ Hurt? Betrayed? ‘’No, Mrs. Peel.’’ Steed seized her arm. ‘’You’re not being fair,’’ he snapped. ‘’You said it yourself. Intellectually, you know I was right to do what I did.’’ Emma gazed at him. Why was she so angry? Why was she feeling hurt and betrayed? As her partner Steed had done what he’d had to do...but as her...lover...she hadn’t expected that he could do such a thing. She’d thought...he loved her. That was it. That was the problem. He had been willing to sacrifice her, even though he’d loved her. Emma pulled back. How petty of her to feel like that, but.... Emma shook her head. Her emotions were running too turbulently - she had to have more time to think, analyze her behavior. Steed gripped her arms angrily. ‘’Yes, Mrs. Peel! If it’s necessary I would sacrifice you to protect this country. But only if I couldn’t sacrifice myself first.’’ Emma blinked. ‘’You know how I feel about you.’’ Steed continued. ‘’ You know I will always be there for you. And I know you will always be there for me. I practically pickled you in that weedkiller. You were swimming in it. I knew that there was no way that abomination could get through your leather outfit to you. I knew it.’’ Emma gazed at him for long seconds. She knew he spoke the truth. She looked down ruefully at her sodden outfit. ‘’I don’t think I’m going to be able to wear leather ever again.’’ Steed felt a surge of hope and relief. He'd known she'd see sense. ‘’Certainly not that outfit, at any rate,’’ he agreed. Emma reached up and caressed the cheek she’d slapped. ‘’I’m sorry about that, Steed.’’ He smiled. He seized her hand and held the back of her fingers to his lips. Then his nose wrinkled. ‘’I say, Mrs. Peel...’’ ‘’Don’t blame me, Steed.’’ she said with mock coldness. ‘’Oh, it’s entirely my fault, Mrs. Peel. You must let me correct the matter. Come upstairs and let me give you a bath.’’ Emma nodded. ‘’It’s only fair,’’ she agreed. They exited the Lotus. Steed tapped his bowler back on his head in a jaunty fashion and followed Mrs. Peel upstairs.

Please support this site Be the Best You Can Be $13.56 Order Now Portable DVD Player $154.79 Order Now Emma Peel Megaset $154.79 Order Now Best of the Original Avengers $17.96 Order Now

Return Home