Victorian Undead (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 2010. It was published on March 23, 2010.
Synopsis for "Part Five: The Earth Shall Give Up Its Dead"
London is completely overrun by the undead while Professor Moriarty takes his residence in Buckingham Palace.
Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are relocated to Windsor Castle, where it is being used as a command center by the British government. They are then granted an audience with Lord Bellinger, the Prime Minister. Lord Bellinger already knows from Mycroft about his brother's leads on Moriarty's machination of the undead and wants to know more from Sherlock about the mad professor. Holmes explains everything he knows about Moriarty by summing him up as a complete vile madman who shows no mercy or remorse. Thus there is no chance of reasoning with him. Sherlock in turn questions Lord Bellinger on what is happening right now.
Bellinger grimly explains that they are losing London to the undead. Military lines are being outflanked and overrun by Moriarty's undead army. Furthermore, Bellinger reveals that since the first zombie outbreak from forty years ago, Britain had anticipated another outbreak but for a different reason: despite the cover-up of the 1854 outbreak, the government had previously discovered foreign agents attempting to steal the undead remains of the first outbreak for their respective nations in an apparent attempt to cultivate the undead virus as a weapon. As of now Moriarty holds the ultimate and deadliest biological weapon in the world.
Holmes then implores the Secretary of State Trelawney Hope about the current undead expansion in London, which he explains is growing exponentially as containment is thinning out. Upon hearing this, Holmes determines that Moriarty is controlling the undead and the reason why the undead horde are breaking through the containment with unnatural precision. Therefore, he proposes to assassinate Moriarty and without their master the undead will revert into a "rapacious rabble." But Holmes acknowledges that this still leaves London infested with thousands of undead, which he then lays out another plan: using incendiary weapons in completely wiping out the undead block by block at the cost of burning London to the ground. Everyone is left shocked by his proposal, but Holmes analytically states that it is the only choice in permanently destroying the undead from gaining hold of Britain and spreading their contagion to the entire world.
As forewarned by Holmes, he is proven right. At London's Westminster Bridge, the undead had breached through the defense perimeter after allowing their numbers to slip through by walking under the Thames River.
That night, Holmes and Watson are informed by Mycroft that the Prime Minister has authorised his brother's plan in having warships to bombard London in response to the undead that breached Westminster Bridge. But Sherlock is aghast to learn that the government intends to let Moriarty be burned along with London rather than having him dealt with directly. However, Mycroft already expects his brother's determination and has a fast carriage waiting and a launch at a dock that will take him into London to face Moriarty. But Watson then admits to Sherlock that he refuses to go with him as he is too frightened to go into the undead-filled city. Though Holmes understands Watson's refusal and will not drag him into this unwillingly.
But at the last second Watson goes with him as he had sworn not to leave his best friend ever since he left Sherlock alone to face Moriarty. While on the way to the launch Sherlock questions his brother as to why Trelawney Hope, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, is now tasked in tactical deployments. Mycroft explains that it is a part of a covert contingency plan should London ever be gripped in civil unrest. If a vital ministry is compromised, its powers are devolved to another. The Home Secretary and his staff were devoured by the undead, and his powers were automatically transferred to Hope. Mycroft then questions Sherlock of how he will find Moriarty. Sherlock simply replies by retracing Colonel Moran's footsteps.
Holmes has deduced from the distinctive yellow clay soil found on Moran's footwear, which comes with traces of animal blood, smelted iron, carbon and sawdust, which traces to Whitechapel's only dockside slaughterhouse. He and Watson enter the slaughterhouse and indeed find traces of Moriarty's presence. Also peculiar is the amount of decapitated heads found in Moriarty's laboratory. Suddenly, Moriarty appears before Holmes and Watson, but more apparently alive than undead.
Appearing in "Part Five: The Earth Shall Give Up Its Dead"
Featured Characters:
- Sherlock Holmes
- Doctor John Watson
Supporting Characters:
- Mycroft Holmes
- Prime Minister Lord Bellinger
Antagonists:
- Professor James Moriarty
- Zombies
Other Characters:
- Trelawney Hope
Locations:
- England
- London
- Westminster Bridge
- Whitechapel
- Berkshire
- Windsor Castle
- London
Items:
- None
Vehicles:
- None
Notes
- Lord Bellinger and Trelawney Hope, who was mentioned earlier in issue one, appeared in the 56th Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Second Stain which sets in 1888, 10 years before the events of Victorian Undead. As shown in this issue, Lord Bellinger, Holmes and Watson are well acquainted with each other.
Trivia
- The zombies that literally walk under the Thames River to the other side of Westminster Bridge is similar to a scene in Land of the Dead, in which zombies cross under a river to reach a human city.
See Also