The first snowfall of the season arrived in the dead of night with scarcely a wind to bend the paths of the small dense flakes off a straight line to the ground. I was pacing the empty paths of the village as it slept, craving sleep myself but now possessed of a body which did not need it and resisted it. The snow settled on my shoulders as I stared up into the dark sky and quickly drove me back to the moderate shelter of my frigid cabin. By morning, the thin white powder lay scantily scattered across the ground and roofs. Children met the sight with excitement dashing out to run their hands through the snow and attempt to roll snowballs. Its appearance lit a fire under the adults of the camp. Old men shook their heads and shivered, and old women looked worried while younger men chopped and stacked wood ferociously and women stored wares and repaired clothing. The vampires lined wagons up at the ammunition barn and began to load them. I was standing in the doorway to my hut with my blanket draped over my shoulders looking across the village when Robert came shuffling down the path sniffing the air and frowning. He’d walked almost right up to me before he seemed to notice me. “Your brother needs to see you.” I stared at him standing hunched over; his eyes roaming over everything waiting for him to do something besides stand there ticking nervously. Finally, I walked out of the hut without saying a word and turned towards the farmhouse with him following behind me.
As I approached the thick wooden door of my brother’s room a horrible grinding sound brought me to a halt. I listened at the door as it came in distinct sets of three gritting spurts like a stone being dragged across another stone. The tooth wrenching sound went on for a few minutes then paused. I raised my fist to knock and then it began again with the same rhythm. If not for the roughness of the sound I would have assumed my brother was sharpening a knife, but this sound was too uneven. I knocked and he said, “Come in,” in a muffled, groggy voice. He was standing at the front of his desk when I came in, he went behind his desk then turned and motioned for me to sit down. A thin trickle of blood was running down his cheek. A rasp wet with a touch of blood sat on the edge of the desk where he’d been standing. “Can I get a smoke?” I asked. He stopped, looking as if he’d just stepped in a pile then shrugged and handed me a pouch and papers from his desk. I rolled myself a fat cigarette and lit it.
“We’re going south day after tomorrow and you’re coming with us.” His expression allowed no resistance and I didn’t care to muster any. Despite the lack of danger from vampires hunting me any longer I felt the need to be moving, to be gone. “As long as the weather doesn’t turn the General’s vamps will be off their guard and more concerned about staying warm than us. You’ve been there; you’ve been inside their camps. I’m relying on you for information.” He took a long drag from his cigarette and I followed suit. It was good tobacco. I wondered if my brother knew that it came from a vampire not unlike the General, just to the east. He rocked back and forth in his seat a little bit and I felt a touch of pity wash over me. A distant memory of him as a dirty child holding a tooth up in front of my tear-stained face saying my name repeatedly as I cried. His face had been so expectant then. He couldn’t wait for me to see that he’d found the tooth I’d knocked out when I’d fallen from a log. I felt a desire to provide the answers for him again to show him the way, but I didn’t have the answers.
His face was haunted. What did he get out of ruling the camp and of planning this war? The preacher had claimed it was solely a lust for power, but it seemed more complex than that alone. Perhaps he did want to atone in some way.
“You ever get the feeling you don’t know what’s going on?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I get that feeling so often that I don’t even notice it anymore.” He snickered.
“Keep your eyes peeled when we go south, I don’t trust all these vamps.” He ran his hand along a cheek that looked slightly swollen. “Any of them could be spies for the General like Juan was.” We sat in silence for a moment then he said, “Got get yourself a rifle and a pistol. You’ll need them.”
The next two days warmed slightly and a constant drizzle kept the camp in a nasty mood including my brother, but when we set out on the third evening
