Second Genesis

by Eric Williams

  “Yes. I was learning to meditate, and work on becoming a reiki practitioner. I was working on my spirituality before any of this... Happened to me.”

  Xairin gave the man more of his attention. Reiki was something Xairin was familiar with. He had learned the basics in one of his last CEU courses he had participated in that incorporated an element of it. It helped him let his guard down a little. “I’m a massage therapist. I used to be a sensitive, well still am I guess. I wanted peace and quiet, so I gave up my nursing career for it. Also, i have studied reiki, had a few sessions before too.”

  Calvin smiled. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about me? Some are true. I was in prison, three times actually. This is my last chance. I turned to meditation and learning reiki to help change my way of thinking. I have a wife waiting on me and two kids. Everything was finally coming together for me. Until. This whole vampire thing. It's given me a lot to think about. What about you?”

  Xairin shrugged. “I guess I’m still hoping to do massage when I get out of quarantine. But, I’m afraid I may have no place to go. After that class we had yesterday, I’m afraid my landlord might be the type evicting Immortium.” He sighed, guess it's easier to hide in plain sight if you were an Aeonian. My landlord hasn't returned any of my calls. I know the government sent everyone’s landlord a stipend but, she’s not answering. Aside from that, I guess, I’m just glad I’m alive.”

  “That’s right, you’re one of the ones, that came back?”

  Nodding, “Yeah. It's weird. I was actually declared dead for two months while they had my body in cryo. I have a droid. He’s the only family I have.” Xairin felt safe around the man suddenly. He felt a calmness. The man had reached out, and Xairin could tell the man was wanting friends. He could also sense the man being sincere. Xairin decided to become a talker and began telling Calvin more about himself. “My family all died when I was a teenager. The family droid was left to me, anyhow, i haven’t been able to reach him either. I just hope he’s not been dismantled or something.”

  “That sucks bro. I hope you find him. Even if it is artificial, family comes in many forms.”

  Calvin wasn’t the mean badass Mexican everyone rumored him to be. Xairin could tell he missed his family, and truly was trying to change his former ways. Xairin smiled. After the laps in the pool, both men’s stomachs growled. Xairin giggled the words, “Wanna go grab some blood?”

  Calvin really hadn’t made many friends yet and smiled as he fixed his long hair into a bun. This reminded Xairin a little bit of the man who abducted him. He had to look away really quick. Xairin had a flash of the man again. It lasted but a second, but enough to change his giggling tone to a weak whimper. Calvin asked quickly. “You ok bro?”

  Nodding, he mumbled. “Yeah, I’m fine. So, what’s your favorite flavor so far?” Xairin managed to shrug it off.

  “Me? I love the B- amigo. I tried the other types, but B- is my fav.”

  Xairin smiled. “I have to admit I’m kind of partial to B+ and O- when it comes to the cloned human stuff... I hear they’re bringing in some cloned pigs blood for us to try tomorrow. We tried some of the samples yesterday. The pigs blood was far better than the cow, for me anyhow.”

  ”

  Calvin dried his body off while informing Xairin. “We had some lady take some of us Alphas under her wing yesterday too bro. Tried pigs blood also. I honestly liked the cow.” Calvin finished drying his body. “She was pretty scary to be honest bro. Some super Alpha or something.”

  Xairin remembered the video segment on Grand Alphas. “You mean a grand Alpha is here?”

  Calvin nodded eagerly. “A lot of them are here bro. Alphas, the big dogs over them. Trying to make sure we are all ready to be released I suppose. They made us learn how to properly feed and went over turning mechanics. I didn’t care for it.”

  Xairin could relate. “Yeah, me neither.”

  Xairin and Calvin walked side by side while making it into the locker room and changed into their scrubs. Xairin again did his best to avoid any glances at Calvin while he dressed. He did have a thing for good looking Hispanic and Latino looking men. Once they were dressed they made it down the hallway. When they walk past the gym, Calvin laughed. “IT does sound like a gay porn man.” Xairin simply looked back with a cocked eyebrow. “I can read minds too amigo.”

  Calvin stopped him for a moment. “I get that your gay man. But why you act so shy about it Dogg? It's natural right? Genetic...”

  Xairin sighed. “Something happened to me the night I died. I... I suppose it's dredged up some self-hate issues I guess. So, are you a sensitive too?”

  “Nah Amigo, Doctor Battle says it's the alien gene, something about the biosonar we get from the bats integrating with the alien stuff. It makes us telepathic to some degree.” At that moment Calvin got a glimpse of Xairin’s experience in the sewer, while Xairin felt a pressure behind his eyes when Calvin accidently peered into his thoughts. Xairin knew what he saw, he felt it, knew it. He watched as it left Calvin speechless for a moment. Xairin frowned and lowered his head. He walked down the hall. It took Calvin a moment to get that vision out of his head and walked quickly to catch up the pace. He didn’t want to ask anything. Seeing it was enough for him. “So… Uh… B+ right?”

  Xairin nodded. “Yeah. if it's in stock.”

  Everyone seemed a little surprised with Xairin hanging out with the scary Mexican vamp. The two were laughing about something. Calvin tried to tell him a joke, that didn’t come out right due to him not knowing the right English word to deliver the punchline. The two entered the walk-in cooler. From outside the glass, Ernie and Ramira both watched them grab two bags of B+ each. Xairin grew a black talon like claw to slit the end of the first one and was sipping it on the way out. “God, I hate it when it's cold.”

  “Me too Amigo, me too. I wish they had warmer that didn’t over heat it.” Calvin said while doing the same.

  Ramira was a bit braver in comparison to Ernie and walked up to Xairin and Calvin. “Making a new friend?” She said cautiously.

  Xairin smiled. “Ramira, Ernie, this is Calvin.” Xairin grinned as he looked at Calvin, seemingly looking for approval. Calvin nodded. “He’s not a bad guy. He’s ok.”

  Calvin smiled. “I know some vamps read my mind when I got here. I get it. I just want to make some friends, some non-criminal types. Really trying to be a better man I guess.”

  Ernie was surprised when Calvin reached out to shake his hand. He did so, slowly, and with a weak grip, Calvin however’ didn’t have a weak grip, his almost brought Ernie to tear up. “That’s some grip.”

  “Sorry my friend. I’m still getting used to this being an Alpha vampire thing that I forget my strength sometimes.”

  Xairin turned around. “You're an Alpha?”

  “sí” Calvin said before sipping his second bag of blood.

  Xairin’s eye lenses dropped, everyone could see his eyes appear solid red. It was different from all the others except one, Parker Roark. Calvin was surprised. “You have those red eyes too? por qué son ellos diferente?|

  Xairin knew a little Spanish and replied in English. “I have no idea. I’ve heard that there was an albino bat that escaped from the Zoo near Bastion City. I remember something big and white, feeding on my wrist. Anyhow, Albinos have red eyes, so…”

  Ramira didn’t have an accent like one would expect. She was from Bastion City also, born and raised there. She nodded. “Parker said an albino bit him too.” They all looked at Parker as he walked in beside Thomas.

  Calvin crossed his arms. “Those two act like they run the joint and Thomas thinks he’s jefe.”

  Xairin smirked. “Well he is an Alpha.”

  Calvin continued crossing his arms. “He’s not the only one.”

  The only other Alpha in this room was Georgina Smith. Smith was a native American Indian, specifically the Navajo tribe. She was an enforcer, a law officer for her tribe’s reservation in Mexico. A fragment had fallen nearby
, infecting a wild population of hairy legged vampire bats native to the region. Georgina and two other enforcers were attached while trying to get their people off the streets and to safety when the swarm arrived. Due to nearly three hundred being infected, she was split from her group and ended up here. Georgina was in her late fifties when she was bitten, now she looked like she could pass for late twenties. Like others that had emerged as an Alpha, she managed to kill the bat that had attacked her by vaporizing its head with her blaster rifle. Georgina had high cheekbones, the common athletic build from the alien perfection, and was on her way over to meet up with Ramira, given they knew each other from before the comet. “Ramira?”

  She turned around to greet the long-haired woman. “Georgina?”

  Georgina had already met Xairin and Ernie, she had kept her distance from Calvin given his reputation. “Can I speak with you a moment?”

  The two women walked off while Ernie, Xairin and Calvin each, finished drinking a couple more pints.

  “Any idea when we get to leave?” Xairin asked.

  Ernie shrugged. “I keep hearing the end of the week, but who knows. Supposedly that’s why some chick from The Society of Night is here. Once you sign up, you get to go on the list for release.”

  Xairin rolled his eyes. “I was afraid of that. I mean, don't you all feel it's like, I don’t know, too much like what happened to sensitives? My dad was a sensitive, I remember him telling me about what it was like living in those camps until they were allowed to rejoin society and he said it sucked. Not to mention the hate crimes that followed. I myself got dinged just the other day when I…” Xairin became coy before continuing. He looked at the floor as his thoughts drifted to the bouncer outside that scanned his I.D. that night. He shook his head, snapping out of it. “Sorry. Um... It was two months ago. It still feels like a few days ago. I went to a gay bar the night of my attack. The... Door man... He saw my citizen file where it has it listed that I’m a sensitive. He asked me if i had taken my meds before the asshole would let me in.” Xairin looked up. “Guys, I’m afraid this is going to be just like that. Once you register, they know what you are, where you are, and it's going to show up every time they scan our I.D.”

  The two women returned. They could hear Xairin talking. Georgina agreed. “They did the same thing to the Jews if you know your history, you know, world war 2. They made them register before Hitler put them into camps. I don’t think that will happen, but i would fully anticipate some racial tension for a while.”

  Xairin smirked. “I forgot about that.” he looked at Georgina. “What kind of racial tension do you think will happen?”

  The woman scoffed. “Well for starters, you see those two vampires over there in the far-left corner?” Xairin looked to see two women, sitting on a bunk bed. Both were blonde, short, around 5’6, clearly sisters. “Yeah why?”

  The Indian woman sighed. “They were evicted this morning from their apartments in Bastion City. They hid the fact they had been bitten. Apparently, they lived in the same building. I overheard them talking to a few others about an hour ago. Nine from their complex were attacked and each one that became like us, were evicted the moment the landlord found out. Not to mention being reported to Interpol. That’s why they’re here. It's going to be a civil rights battle, watch and see.”

  Ramira chimed in. “That's why Georgina asked me to come over, she wanted to know if I had registered with the Society yet.”

  Xairin was curious. “Have you?”

  “Xair I have three kids waiting on me. I’m a single mom, I had no choice but to go ahead and sign up. My mom has the kids for now until they let me out of here. I want to go home. If I get evicted, I guess I'll move back in with my mother until this gets sorted.”

  Calvin nodded. “I signed up, I’m in the same boat. I have a family waiting. If it gets me out of here, so be it.”

  Ernie shrugged. “I don’t want too. It's like Xairin said. I had a friend that was a sensitive. I saw how she got treated. But I don’t think we’re going to have much of a choice in the matter.”

  Xairin sighed. “Being gay, I’ve heard the stories about gay rights, how marriage equality was a big deal, then adoption and so forth. Then my dad, being a sensitive, this registry scares the heck out of me.”

  Xairin scoffed. “Also, that class I had to go to yesterday has me having some doubts.”

  Marcus Davis heard them talking. Marcus was black, five feet nine, and had a shaven head. He had a friendly smile, and two expressive brown eyes that one could get lost in. He was a college student, bitten recently at the same dorm that Ernie was from. He couldn’t help but hear them talking about it and walked over, chiming right in. “Don’t forget my people too Dogg. Slavery and shit. Hell, interracial marriage was illegal once too bruh.”

  Georgina begged to differ. “At least your people weren’t forced to live on reservations, and had their very culture stripped from them, far before your people set foot on north American soil.”

  Xairin knew where this was going to go and stepped in between the two before things could escalate given the Indian’s body posture. “Hey, let's not compare dicks right now. Right now, we’re all in this.”

  A mutually agreed nod commenced.

  “So, what’s next?” Ramira asked.

  Xairin could only shrug and spoke sarcastically. “I guess, sign up, and hope for the best. I wish there was another option, but I don’t get the feeling we have one.”

  Calvin looked at his new-found friends then looked at the floor. “I’ve heard that there’s other groups out there. Supposedly bad ones. It's apparently why this Society is requesting enrollment.”

  “Other groups?” Xairin asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Ramira chimed in. “They told me about it when I was signing up. Apparently, there are some other factions that hate humans. Reason the society is recruiting, and apparently working alongside the Global Alliance.”

  Xairin frowned. “Great, bad immortals, good to know.”

  Ramira lowered her head. She seemed a bit ashamed over something. Finally, she fessed up. “They’re also requesting that we drink another Alpha of our species blood. Apparently that whole blood pact thing is a real deal. Gives them the ability to control lesser caste members. I agreed to drink it.”

  Xairin seemed put off by the idea. It was hard enough coming to terms with being forced to register, but now, learning of something that seemed to him like slavery, he bulked up. “WHAT? Why would you do that?”

  Calvin looked over at his new friend. “These bad immortals could force us Xairin. If they did, we become slaves to them. At least this Society seems to want to work with humans. Besides, I wanted to do it”

  The others standing there that had registered also nodded. “I felt it was the right thing to do.” Ramira said. While Georgina chimed in. “I honestly felt a peace about pledging.”

  Xairin’s left eyebrow rose up. He tried to process what Calvin and the others had just said. The bad immortals. But what's to say these were not all they claimed to be? He thought. “This blood pact? It makes you susceptible to an Alpha’s will?”

  Ramira nodded. “A grand Alpha can control Alphas. There is a pamphlet they give you to download.”

  -----

  It had been a few more days since Xairin and his new friends were talking about those bad immortals. Xairin was sitting in another mandated class with the same group he had been pulled too before he met Calvin. Ethan was governing his group, wearing a white polo and jeans. He was going around the room talking about evolving. He noticed Xairin daydreaming and announced. “Is there something wrong Mr. Thunder?”

  Xairin looked up and shook his head. “No sir.”

  “Are you sure? Am I boring you?”

  Xairin shook his head. “I didn’t sleep well. Sorry.”

  Ethan continued. “Very well.”

  Ethan returned to the front of the class while continuing his lesson. “When you evolve into the next caste, you will enter a
comatose state. As I was saying, when you awaken, you will find two bumps behind your canines, these glands are your assimilation glands. Much like when you feed, you will feel them have pressure. However, they will not release your assimilating cells unless you will it. It takes a little bit of conscious effort to get them to release. Right before they do, you will feel your mind vibrate a little. During that time, you will feel the choice in what you wish to imprint your cells with in producing either an Omega, a Delta, or a Beta.”

  He continued. “Remember, a Beta can help you control your other spawn. An immortal capable of creating other immortals typically can only control within a hundred miles. That expansion can reach further, depending on the location of your Betas. Reason Betas are created. To increase your control of your nest and have stronger nest mates to defend the nests, prides, houses, and packs should an attack transpire.”

  Xairin raised his hand. “When the animal that bit us dies, I get it, we will evolve, but how does this happen naturally?”