“Yeah, how did you manage that?” Rhona asked wide-eyed.
“Do you have any special medical conditions, Kate?” Harry asked.
“No, not that I’m aware of. I’m not allergic to anything as far as I know, and I haven’t got any disease,” I said.
“Okay, tell me everything that’s happened to you since your first encounter with a sucker. It must be something that’s happened to you in the last few days.”
I told him everything. How Caleb had pierced my skin but not my jugular. How I had an aversion to light from then on but didn’t have any seizures. How the magnesium had sent me into this white place. I ended with my recent exposure to sunlight with no ill effects.
“Hmmm, I think I understand.”
We were all hanging off his lips as Harry explained his theory.
“When you were first bitten by Caleb, his saliva must have entered your bloodstream, but it wasn’t enough to infect you, turn you properly. It must have done something to your immune system though. It prepared your body for a proper infection by making antibodies that prevent you going into a full response to light.”
“Like a vaccine?” I said.
“Yes, exactly, like a vaccine, but the vaccination only affected your light sensitivity, not your need for blood.” He looked at Charlie with a knowing smile.
“No need to tell me,” Charlie huffed. “But then how do you explain about Kate’s white light experience from the magnesium? And her not liking the light from the army tank after she was bitten by Caleb?”
“Yes, that…” Harry nodded, thinking hard. “The magnesium light exposure happened before she was bitten. It probably was so intense and close-up that it must have caused the effect. Not being like a normal seizure but an overall reduction of being able to move, and, for some unknown reason, not being able to see colors.”
“But what about my aversion to the tank light?” I said. “I’d been bitten when that happened.”
“Yes, but it happened very shortly after Caleb’s bite, so my guess is that your system hadn’t had time to adapt yet,” he said.
“Wow.” I sat back, deep in my own thoughts.
No-one spoke. Charlie had been right. I was different. I was a sucker that could walk in daylight. A daywalker.
Holy shit, this is scary.
The possibilities and implications hit me.
What if there are more like me? Humans wouldn’t even be safe during the day.
I was hoping nobody would ever find out about this medical glitch of mine. If anyone found out, they would be able to create a daywalking sucker army. Duncan for one would love that. I bet there were more and worse like him as well.
“Could I get vaccinated so I can walk in sunlight?” Rhona said all of a sudden.
The three of us stared at her.
Oh no, here we go.
Harry’s face turned into delight. “Oh Rhona, if it worked we could live in daylight together.”
I could understand his point of view. For Harry to live with Rhona as she currently was would mean to live in eternal darkness. I could understand they wanted to have a normal life like we all used to have, before the outbreak. However, Rhona was still feeding on humans. I could see the future horror of gatherings in daylight. Suckers roaming free, attacking anybody, anywhere, anytime.
Would they cause their own extinction at some point?
“Would you be willing to try, Kate?” Harry asked me.
Hearing my name brought me back from my time warp.
“Sorry, Harry. What would I be willing?”
“Well, biting Rhona like Caleb bit you the first time,” he said.
“Wouldn’t that be too late?”
“Not necessarily. Chickenpox vaccinations given after exposure work. It’s worth a try.”
Both Rhona and Harry were staring at me full of hope, sitting on the edge of their seat. How could I refuse them their happiness?
Suddenly I felt drained of all energy, unable to struggle anymore.
“Alright,” I said.
Besides, it may not work at all.
Vaccination
My fangs dropped that night. It hurt like hell, much more than when I had braces. I had thought that had hurt, but this was the super-sized version of it.
After having a shower, I admired my new slicers in the mirror. They looked so much better than the fake ones, so much more deadly. For a moment, I even pretended to bite into a neck with them but stopped when the images of dead bodies floated back into my mind. My mouth closed with a snap. I felt disgusted as I looked at my mirror image. I quickly finished brushing my teeth and got out of the bathroom.
The others took their turn to freshen up after me. When everyone was ready, Rhona stood in the middle of the room, ready to be vaccinated.
“Let's do this,” she said.
“I’m not biting you in your neck if you don’t mind, Rhona,” I said when she presented her jugular to me. “I’d hate to accidentally bleed you to death.”
“Oh, okay, where do you want to bite me then?” She let go of her collar.
“How about her triceps,” Harry said, “there’s muscle enough to sink your teeth in without slicing a vein or artery.”
Rhona rolled up her sleeve as high as she could and offered me her arm.
“Her glutes are the safest location though,” Harry suggested.
Both Rhona and I stared at Harry for a second, both realizing he had just implied I should bite Rhona’s butt. We decided to ignore his last remark.
“Just a thought,” he said.
Not in a million years, Harry.
“Okay, here we go,” I said and held Rhona’s arm in front of my mouth. “Let me know if I hurt you.”
She didn’t say anything. I guessed she was as nervous as I was. Her arm was tiny but relatively muscular. Like Harry had said, I wouldn’t have a problem biting it without causing fatal damage. For a moment I was staring at her arm. I felt awkward as I’d never bitten a person before in my life.
Let alone somebody asking me to bite them.
“Here goes,” I warned her again, maybe more for my sake than hers, and I sank my teeth into her flesh.
As I tried to make my bite as big as possible, getting as much flesh in between, I caught my lip in my bite. The sharp pain made me make a little noise. At the same time, I heard Rhona’s sharp intake of breath. Her muscles tensed as her blood spread into my mouth. She hadn’t noticed my cry, but Charlie had.
“You okay?” he asked, obviously more worried about me than about Rhona. Harry was fussing over her already though, holding her free hand.
I nodded minutely as I didn’t want to cause any more discomfort to Rhona than necessary. I kept my bite. Rhona’s blood tasted delicious. It made my mouth water. Charlie had fed me a little more of his blood not long before, and it had convinced me I wasn’t going to get carried away. I had indeed no problem withdrawing my fangs from her flesh a little to let my saliva get into the two piercings. After about ten seconds, I let go of her arm.
Harry began bandaging the two marks immediately. I wiped my mouth clean, but the blood kept coming.
“Let me have a look,” Charlie said.
“I think I bit my own lip,” I said before he pressed a tissue on the corner of my mouth. When he pulled it away there was blood on it, and I felt new blood well up from the little wound.
“Don’t worry,” I said, “I’ll live.”
“I’ll grab an ice cube anyway,” Charlie said and went into the kitchen. I kept licking my lip until he returned.
I don’t taste too bad either if I may say so myself.
I asked Rhona if she was okay, to which she nodded.
Is she still in too much pain to talk?
I watched on as Harry did what he was trained to do.
I hope those scars will be nicer looking than a pox vaccination.
“How long until it works?” Rhona asked Harry.
Can’t be that painful then.
“I don�
�t know,” he said, taping the bandage. “How long ago was it when you were first bitten by Caleb, Kate?”
“Oh, um, let me think. That was Tuesday morning, about five days ago,” I answered.
“We better make sure we don’t expose you to sunlight for five days then, just to be on the safe side,” Harry warned Rhona.
Out for Blood
Harry and Charlie prepared a meal from the meager food supply I still had in my kitchen. I became hungrier seeing them eat. Now that there was no urgent matter to attend to or any emotions welling up, my need for a feed was making itself heard. My stomach grumbled terribly. All eyes focused on me.
“I’m sorry. I’m still hungry,” I said, looking apologetically at Charlie, who couldn’t possibly give me any more of his blood. I glanced at Rhona, who must have been starving as well. We both needed blood, but where to get it?
We all tried to think where we might find human blood without killing anybody. I suggested trying to get some last drops from the people that were already dead, but Harry said this wasn’t a healthy option. It took some time before Charlie came up with the answer.
“Bullsbrook Medical Center. They should have a supply of blood in case of emergencies, shouldn’t they?”
We all thought this was very likely. It was a temporary measure, but it would have to do for now.
“Great idea,” Rhona said. “I classify the situation as an emergency. Where is it?” She first looked at Charlie then at me for the answer.
I turned to Charlie, and he raised his eyebrows at me.
“Don’t look at me,” he said, “I’ve no idea where to find it.”
“Neither do I. I haven’t been sick either. My hand went to my back pocket but found no cell. I had put it in my bag in the cabin when the batteries had died. “Anybody got a cell, so we can look it up?”
“No network, remember,” Charlie said, grimacing.
“Oh yeah, duh, I forgot.” I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. Since buying my first cell, I’d become addicted to it and used it to look up everything I wanted to know. I missed it so much.
“We’ll just have to drive around until we find one,” Harry said and stood up to get going. The others followed suit. I was the only one who didn't move.
“Um, is that a good idea?” I said, looking up at them.
“How else are we going to find it?” Harry said, tilting his head slightly.
“No, I mean, driving around in a hearse. It would look suspicious, wouldn’t it? Charlie said the army’s in town. Surely they’ll suspect suckers in a darkened car.” My attention turned to nobody in particular. “As a matter of fact, driving around in any car would be suspicious at night. Nobody but the army would do such a thing at the moment. They’d certainly stop and interrogate us,” I said.
They all sat back down. Nobody said anything. There was no point, they all knew I was right.
“We’ll just have to walk then and try to keep out of sight,” Harry said, getting up again. He seemed determined to provide Rhona with blood, no matter what.
We discussed where to look for the medical center and thought it best to start in the center of town.
Walking in single-file, we stuck close to the houses. We didn’t know what the army would do with Rhona and me if they picked us up. We didn’t want to find out either.
The town looked eerie. It was as if all the color had drained out of it.
I don’t think I could ever be happy living in a world without color.
There were no signs of residents, but there were plenty of army cars driving through the streets now. We had to hide several times. It took us forever to get to the town center with the constant ducking and hiding into shadows even though it wasn’t that far from my place. Once we got there, it was busier than we expected. We hid in the shadow of the bakery building. We saw army vehicles arriving and civilians getting out. They were getting onto a bus. I assumed it would bring them to a safer location. When it left the bus stop, the soldiers returned from wherever they had come from.
When all was quiet again, we looked for some sign of a medical practice. I didn’t dare study the map at the bus stop like Julie had done days before. Memories of that night came floating up. I was too hungry to linger on them and willed them back to the dark depths they came from.
We couldn’t find anything remotely looking like a general practice, apart from a plaque next to a door stating the person inside offered pedicures, so we agreed to move on. Not too much ducking and hiding from army vehicles now, but no medical practice either.
I almost suggested we head back when we finally found it on the outskirts of town, in a nice street with lots of trees. The practice was a stand-alone, one-story building, surrounded by manicured lawns and bushes. There was no moon, but the streetlights cast black shadows of the trees across the gray grass. We moved from the shade of one tree to the next, and at last made it to the back of the building.
Harry was preparing to smash a window when Charlie stopped him.
“Wait,” he whispered to Harry.
“What is it?” Harry asked surprised.
“There’s an alarm,” Charlie said and pointed at the wired, little piece of foil stuck on the inside of the window.
“Didn’t Tom teach you to open locks?” I asked Harry, pointing at the door.
“He did, but I’m not that good at it.” He studied the door. “Even if I could manage, I don’t know if the alarm would still go off, and I don’t know how to shut off an alarm.” He rubbed his chin.
“Motherfucking shit pile,” Rhona said. “Now what?”
My ears turned red hearing those words coming from Rhona’s mouth. Everybody turned to her. I saw no sign of shame on her face whatsoever, just extreme annoyance, and could only assume it was common for her to swear like that. I could only imagine how hungry she was by now. It couldn’t be much worse than what I was experiencing myself, but my vocabulary wasn’t as good as hers in expressing it, apparently. Only the prospect of finding blood in the center kept me from going for Charlie’s or Harry’s throat. I looked at the stars for help.
“What about the roof?” I said, pointing upward. “Do you think we could get in unnoticed through there?”
They all looked up.
“I can’t get up there,” Charlie said.
“Yes, you can,” Rhona said. She looked at me, at Charlie, then at the rooftop while moving her head in a bit of an arc and at me again. I got her drift and together we giggled.
“Okay, I suppose I can get up there then,” Charlie said, looking confused, but Rhona and I didn’t tell him what we thought of doing.
We told Harry to get up onto the roof. He had no problem climbing up the drainpipe. I followed him like a monkey scooting up a tree.
Not bad for a person who not so long ago couldn’t do push-ups if her life depended on it.
Rhona stayed below. When I was up and indicated to her I was ready, she took Charlie by surprise as she grabbed him under his arms and threw him high in the air. As soon as he cleared the roofline, I caught his hands and pulled him toward me. It was an awkward move, and we both fell. Charlie landed on top of me.
“Rhona’s pretty good at dwarf tossing, don’t you think?” I grinned at Charlie, his face close to mine.
“Yeah, you’re not so good at dwarf catching though,” he said as he rolled off me and got up. I felt a bit bad about not catching him properly until I noticed his wicked grin when he offered me his hand to help me up. “Not that I’m complaining,” he said, and he made an effort to wipe the dirt off my backside while standing very close in front of me. I laughed.
As soon as Rhona had climbed up, she created an opening in the roof with her hands as if it was butter. The boys were extremely impressed until she winced when she broke a nail.
Shut up. I would wince too if I had nails like that.
One after the other, we dropped down into the building.
An Unfortunate Meeting
The signage in the medical c
enter was pretty good, and at the nurses’ station, we found the refrigerator with the so-desired blood bags. It was like finding a bar in the desert.
There weren’t a lot, five half-liter bags in total, but they would have to do for the night. For a split second, I thought about blood types and wondered if it mattered which one I drank. My hunger, however, didn’t care about this. It urged me to drink what was available.
Rhona and I each gulped down the blood like two alcoholics in a drinking contest. It tasted so good. We sat down, and after we’d had two bags each, we were quenched. There was only one bag left, and I told Rhona to have it.
“No, you take the last one. You need it more than I do.” She shoved it back in my direction.
“You better take it with you because we need to get back asap,” Charlie said, standing at the window, peeking through the blinds. “The sun’s about to rise.”
At that moment, we heard two thuds in the hall. Somebody had entered the building the same way we had. Rhona and I got up, and we all were about to leave the room when the door flew open. Caleb and Sasha stood in the doorway.
“You,” Sasha said under her breath when she recognized me. The hatred in her eyes and voice was unmistakable. I hoped to find a friendlier vibe in Caleb’s eyes, but he was scanning the room, taking in the situation. I noticed his lingering glances on the refrigerator and the empty blood bags on the floor.
They, too, must have been in hiding without an opportunity to feed.
“Charlie, Harry, stay behind us,” I said.
Sasha spotted the blood bag I held in my hand. She made a dive for it. I turned and lifted the blood bag out of Sasha’s reach. She crashed into me. The shock made me let go of the bag. It flew into the air in a wide arc while we fell hard onto the floor. Caleb leaped to catch the flying blood bag, but Rhona threw her body against his, knocking him off course. Both of them also crashed to the floor. Charlie caught the bag.
“Get out!” Rhona screamed at Charlie and Harry, knowing they were no match for Caleb and Sasha.
The way out for them was through the door, which was blocked by us four suckers clambering around on the floor, trying to get up. Their only available exit was the floor-to-ceiling window behind them. Harry picked up a desk chair and flung it full force into the window. It shattered with a piercing noise and set off the building’s alarm. Charlie ran out after Harry. They both turned and yelled for us to get out as well.
Living Like A Vampire Page 18