by Joe Fowler
“How many are on this council?” Rosalyn sounded calmer, but I knew she just wanted information.
“Me and four others. We started this idea two years ago. It has worked almost perfectly so far.” He leaned forward in his chair getting into his story. “You see we have found ways to unite and work toward a common goal. We work with each other here to keep this distribution center going. We pay good wages and help each vampire find a good home. We have a skeleton crew of humans that come in during the day. Most of the work here is done at night though.”
“How many vampires live in Jackson?” Rosalyn asked.
“One hundred forty-three. We live peacefully with each other and we don’t kill the humans. There are other groups in Memphis and in Chattanooga that are even bigger.” He seemed overly proud.
“Is there an end goal or is this just an experiment to see if you can live together?” Rosalyn was still pissed, I could tell.
“We hope to come out to the humans one day.” He waited a moment to let that sink in. “We think that if we prove that we can coexist peacefully and be productive members of society, that they will accept us. Look at how today’s culture has embraced vampires on tv and in the movies. We are more than just monsters to them now.”
I was not prepared for what happened next. Rosalyn ripped the guy’s head off before I even registered that she had moved. There was a scary look on her face, which I realized was from fear.
“These idiots will be the death of us all. I am sorry about this Austin. You are very tough for a newborn, but we are about to face pretty stiff odds. I know I will survive, I hope you do too.” She started walking.
We checked the other offices first and killed the only vampire we saw. She reached back and squeezed my hand briefly before we went back out to the main floor of the warehouse. It took less than a second for the smell of blood from the two dead vampires to alert every vampire worker in the place. They came running. My knife was flashing and I was fighting with everything that I had. For every one I killed there were five more coming. I had lost sight of Rosalyn. I only had time to watch the ones I fought. There was a bunch of dead bodies of the vampires I killed surrounding me and I began to believe that I might actually survive. As I was facing off with three vampires I caught a flash of a fourth coming from the left. He crashed into me breaking several ribs and knocking the knife from my hand. I had my hands free and was ripping away at his head before my knife had hit the floor. The three I faced off with started kicking and stomping me. I blacked out.
My eyes opened to decaying bodies and not much else. I listened and heard the occasional noise from the front offices where we first entered the building. I could see that I had healed from the worst of the beating. I got to my feet a little shakily. I seemed to be the only one moving in the main room of the warehouse. I started walking toward the front when Rosalyn came out heading my way. She threw her arms around me and hugged me tight for a few moments.
“I almost lost you. I was so sure of your strength that I was killing away without keeping my eye on you. Then I see three of them kicking you while a fourth had your knife and was moving in for the kill. I’m just glad I got there in time.” Rosalyn was more upset than I would have thought. I liked knowing that she cared about me.
“I thought I was dead for good when I blacked out. They had me. Thank you for saving me.” I smiled down at her. She kissed me before laying her head against my chest and hugging herself to me again. “What do we do with all these bodies?”
“We burn them. We burn this whole building to the ground. Go look for some gas or something we can use as accelerant. We may have to siphon gas from the cars in the lot.” We split up then. I found two large gas cans, one full the other mostly empty. I knew we would need both cans full so I found a hose that would work and siphoned the rest. When I returned with the gas, she described what she wanted done. I began spreading out boxes and bodies so that the flames would travel and catch the way we needed them to. The flames were climbing the walls as we left.
We went back to the hotel and watched a local channel’s news team interrupt their programming to show the huge fire. We watched the firefighters work to get the flames under control. We had not really spoken since we started the fire. I could tell she was still pissed from what the vampires were attempting.
“These idiots think they are the first to try this? There have always been vamps trying to live openly with humans. It never works. Even if you can manage to convince the humans to believe there is no danger, sooner or later a bloodless corpse shows up and all is lost. It renews the hatred that humans have for us. It reminds them of what they had forgotten.” She was shaking her head and watching the tv. “Plus there is more hatred each time, since a new batch of humans would have begged to be turned. Usually the young are the ones who want this the most and that just makes the older humans outrage even worse when it all goes sour.”
“Does this mean we are headed to Memphis now? He said they had groups in Memphis and Chattanooga. I would think we need to stop them too.” I sat back on the bed after saying this.
“Yes. We stop them before they can mess things up. With all the cameras and technology, it’s a miracle we have stayed out of the news this long. Even a feeding caught on camera isn’t nearly as bad as when we try to fit in openly. They hunt until they destroy a few vampires, then they sleep better at night thinking it is all over. When we announce how many of us there really is, they can’t just kill a few and get over it anymore. It would become a global phenomenon now. Our race might not survive it. I wouldn’t cry over all the vampires dying except that I want us to keep living.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “We will need to do another drive around Jackson before we move on to Memphis. We need to make sure the rest won’t be gathering in numbers again. We killed around one hundred tonight. According to what that guy said, there should still be around forty or so vampires left in Jackson. They will most likely scatter but I would feel better if we made sure.”
“Sounds good to me.” This was all I could think to say. We fell asleep soon after as the sun found its way into the sky.
Chapter 5
We woke as the sun set. I spent the next hour worshipping her body as best I could. We then took our showers and set our minds to what we had to do that night. We got into the truck with a kill the dumbasses mentality.
We had driven for over an hour with the windows down and our senses alert. I had started out in the part of town near the warehouse we had burned down and branched out from there. We were starting to think we weren’t going to find another cluster of vampires when we found them. They had gathered at a local park. We parked the truck and approached on foot.
“…bad for us. We can take our town back and make it like it was, or we can try to rebuild.” Rosalyn and I heard this as we neared the gathering of vampires. They were bunched around the first base side of a softball field. The speaker was well dressed and seemed to be well spoken. “We had a great dream within our reach. Let’s not give up on making it work. Humans are more open to accepting us now than they have ever been. This was just a setback.”
“We still don’t know what happened to the others. Did the fire kill them? Was it something else?” We need answers before we decide.” This sentiment was echoed by more than a dozen of the vampires in the crowd. We were almost to them now. I counted thirty-eight vamps that I could see.
“I am waiting on a call from my source with the police. It looks like the fire caught them by surprise somehow.” This was the original speaker again. His words were met with disbelief.
“How could a fire kill that many of us? Something is wrong, Steve. Think about what you are saying for a minute. As soon as that fire started, every vampire in the building would have known about it. It wasn’t an explosion. They were dead and the fire was used to cover their deaths so the humans wouldn’t see the rotting corpses.” All of this was said by a large man sitting on the bleachers. There were many who shouted their agre
ement of his assessment that it couldn’t have been an accident.
“It wasn’t an accident. They were killed because of the plan to go public. Vampires have tried to tell humans throughout history and it always ended with the humans wiping out all of the vampires they could find.” Rosalyn said this loud enough for all of them to hear. There were many unfriendly stares at us. “This time would be no different. If they learn of us, they will kill us. It is that simple.”
“Who are you? You don’t know what we have been working toward.” Steve took a few steps to confront Rosalyn.
“I am Rosalyn. I am twenty-four hundred years old.” There were many oohs and aahs at this announcement. “I have seen this play out in numerous cities, throughout the centuries. I spoke to the one in charge at the warehouse last night. He told me what you have been trying to do. That’s why I killed him.”
“You killed him! Why? We want to live openly and he gave us a way to do it.” Steve was shaking with fury.
“I want to live. To go public means death. There is no being accepted by humans no matter what you have been led to believe.” Rosalyn was momentarily interrupted when Steve tried to attack her. I killed him before he got near her. I stood with my knife dripping blood, silently challenging any others to try anything. “Are there any others who believe that humans would accept us?”
“Times have changed. In today’s world, people are looking for the supernatural. They want to embrace the kind of change that we can bring to them. Look at the culture and how they make movies about us. The humans are crying out for us. You are stuck in the old ways and need to see that the world is different now.” This little speech came from a dark haired woman who was standing on a middle step of the bleachers.
“The times are always different. I have heard all of this a hundred times. I hoped that you would listen and learn from what I have experienced but you are only hearing what you want to hear.” Rosalyn took a moment and looked around at the gathered vampires sadly. “If you won’t listen, I will stop you from ruining it for the rest of us.”
There was no more talking. Rosalyn was death to them. I took out more than a dozen and looked up to see that it was almost over. It took less than two minutes. The large man who spoke earlier and the woman who had been so sure the humans would accept us were the only two left. I didn’t have to be told that these two were still alive only for feeding purposes. The girl tried to run but I caught her and fed. The large vampire was smart enough to just let Rosalyn feed without a fuss. We killed them when we were done.
It was impressive watching Rosalyn carry a full size dumpster in one hand. She decided it would be easier than carrying them piece by piece to where the dumpster had been. We emptied their pockets as we disposed of the body parts. I carried the dumpster back to its original location when we were finished.
“It is a three hour drive to Memphis. You want to leave tonight, or wait until tomorrow?” I asked.
“Let’s go tonight. We already have our stuff from the hotel. We can get there and get set up for tomorrow night.” Rosalyn sounded a little sad. While she didn’t mind killing other vampires, I think it was just the fact of so much killing over the last few days that had her down.
We made good time on the mostly empty I-55. We didn’t talk much, choosing to listen to the radio instead. We chose a hotel just across the Tennessee state line. After getting checked in we sun proofed the room and watched tv until the sun came up.
Chapter 6
We had a somewhat modest start to our night. She rode me to a quick finish before we took our showers and headed out to find the Memphis group of vampires. We checked the southern areas first without any luck. We had the idea of following the truck traffic to see if Memphis had a vamp warehouse like Jackson. We ended up well down Lamar Avenue when we saw truck stops and believed we were on the right path. Unfortunately, we had found the mother lode of warehouse districts. We rode through street after street passing warehouses of all shapes and sizes without catching a scent of a vampire.
We decided to try a different approach. We headed back toward town and found a bar. Sure enough, there was a vampire looking pissed as we ordered our drinks. We headed over to sit next to the vampire.
“This is my bar! You two should not be here.” He sounded angry enough.
“How can you claim a bar for yourself? We can be here if we want.” Rosalyn was playing the cute dumb girl act.
“The council is assigning the areas. You have to go see them.” This was too easy.
“Where are they? We will go tonight.” Rosalyn was almost laughing.
“The Kenderkin Toy Company. Take the 240 loop north to Tanis Street and go east. It will be on the right about a mile down, you can’t miss it. Now get out of my bar before I throw you out.” He growled the last part. I looked to Rosalyn to see if she wanted to kill this one or let him live. She smiled and started to get up.
“Thank you for the directions.” She said it with a smile and we walked away.
We left the bar and followed the grumpy vampire’s directions. We found Kenderkin Toys easy enough, but what we found left us with some doubts. The building was three stories tall and took up a city block’s worth of area. The parking lot was huge and full to overflowing. There must be at least one hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred vampires in there. This was bad. We sat in the truck for a few moments just watching the place. This would not be as easy as the warehouse in Jackson.
“We can’t just walk in and start killing here. How would we keep them from running out another door or jumping out a window?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We need more than just the two of us.” Rosalyn hung her head. “Let’s go back to the hotel for now. I need to think about this.”
I pulled out of the toy company parking lot and headed back to the hotel. I stopped for beer on the way. Rosalyn spent the night going through strategies and I spent the night going through the case of beer. By the time the sun started to rise, we were both tired with a headache.
When the sunset she was in a much better mood. We spent some time enjoying each other before she let me in on her decision. We were going to go on to Chattanooga and take out the vampires there. Then we would head to Mobile to see if Seth, the giant werewolf, would help with the Memphis problem.
We were on the road within an hour headed across Tennessee. It took about 6 hours to make the drive to Chattanooga. We listened to the radio on the way. It turns out, Rosalyn has a very nice singing voice. I can sing in tune but my voice isn’t great. We enjoyed the trip a whole lot more than we thought we would.
I must admit that my first attraction to Rosalyn was her phenomenal beauty. Now that I had gotten to know her better, it was turning into love. When I watched those stupid vampire movies, I had always thought love would not really be possible between soulless creatures. It seemed that either soulless creatures could love or maybe we did still have souls. That was a deeper question that I didn’t know how to answer.
We found a hotel on the outskirts of Chattanooga. After sun proofing the room we cuddled in front of the tv. Neither of us wanted to talk. We were just happy to have a quiet night with no fighting for a change. We fell asleep sometime before the sun came up.
Rosalyn was a little more into the waking sex we had become accustomed to. Who was I to deny her? We spent the first few hours after sunset in bed. We finally decided to take our showers and go hunting. As it turned out, we should have stayed in bed.
After driving around for an hour or so with no luck, we decided to try a bar. It had worked for us before. We stopped at a bar that looked promising, but there wasn’t any vampires present. We tried two other bars and still no vampires. We decided to buy some beer and call it a night.
“What did you do for a living? Where is your family? I haven’t really asked about your past.” We were well into a case of Sam Adams when she shut the tv off and turned to me with these questions.
“I worked construction. I started right out of high sch
ool with the company my father worked for. It suited me just fine. Hard work without having to think too hard.” She laughed a little when I said that. I really loved to see her smile. “My parents died about a year after I graduated. They were hit by a drunk driver. My uncle had died a few months before then leaving me the little piece of land my trailer was sitting on. I don’t have any other family.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that kind of loss. At least there isn’t anyone there to suffer from missing you. Although I guess that is a mean thing to say.”
“Not really. I am glad that there won’t be anyone missing me too much. I hate to admit it, but I had become cynical and was on my way to a long lonely life. I hate being around fake people. The ones who swear they care about you then stab you in the back the first time they get the chance.” I had too much experience with that kind. It seemed a little funny to me that I had found such a deep connection to a vampire when I couldn’t connect with humans. Maybe funny wasn’t the right word, sad might fit better.
“People have always been like that. The selfish streak runs deep. They try to justify it but they know how wrong it is to be that way.” She would know, I guessed. Anyone who had been around for twenty-four hundred years had probably seen it all.
“What about you? What was life like before you became a vampire?” I had wanted to ask since she turned me.
“Very simple. My dad was a fisherman. He was gone all day every day. My mom would weave baskets and do laundry for extra money. She didn’t need to but she hated to sit around and do nothing all day. When I was little she taught me how to help her and she would share some of her pay with me. We were a happy family.” She smiled remembering.
“What happened? How did you get turned?”