“St. Louis has over sixty thousand vampires and countless thralls that are at the General’s disposal and that is only the base of the General’s operations. He controls the entire center swatch of the country from the cold northlands down to New Orleans and over to Dallas. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of vampires in his domain. If the General whispered the existence of such an accessible little den of fresh blood, they’d begin moving this way almost instantaneously. More importantly the General has all the arms and ammunition he needs and most importantly he has fresh gasoline. He can put jeeps and trucks laden down with machine guns and vampires into the field.”
“Your brother’s vampires will fade away at the first loss. They know what the General is capable of and they know what the General will do to them if he gets his hands on them. They won’t die nearly as nicely as an ax blow to the neck. Prometheus will look like he’s on vacation to what the General will put them through.”
“And even if your brother were to defeat the General how will his pathetic little kingdom retain its conquests. The General has traded weapons for tobacco and men to the vampires that lie to the east, he has fought with vampires who came west along the coast from Florida. There is nowhere you can go but to the frozen north to escape us and even who knows to what measures the thirst will drive us. These vampires do not flee the cold. It will not be long before vampires creep northward looking for fresh blood.” He paused and looked at me with bright eyes, somehow fervent and sad. His thin chest rose slowly and slightly as he breathed. “Humans and vampires cannot share a niche. Would humans leave cattle untended to wander the earth contentedly munching on grass? Livestock is all that you are to most vampires, especially these naturals who have forgotten how the world was before.”
A silence settled on the room and Abdul’s breathing slowed. There was nothing to see in the room but damp and dark. The walls were growing slimy from the muddy dirt floor up and a pervasive chill filled the air even though it was the warmest part of the day. I wanted to be back at the farmhouse waiting for dinner with a fire in the fireplace and beer circulating. Abdul’s eyes engorged by his shrunken flesh and enlarged by the dim light of the candle looked at me even while his chin rested on his chest. Tufts of his hair had fallen out and clung to his shirt or the wet floor around him. His matchstick arms were raised by the chains as if in supplication and his legs were tucked underneath him in a squat. Though olive tinted his skin had always been pale but now it had faded to a pasty sick yellow color in the candlelight. I wondered if I could kill him without a weapon. I could pluck out his eyes and rip his ears off, but I couldn’t think of a way to kill him. I couldn’t strangle him and even in his debilitated state he was probably capable of fighting it off. How sweet it would have been to kill him; kill him and start fresh in the camp as if I’d just walked in like the rest of the people. Except of course for my brother who wouldn’t forget, leaving me as the next best source of knowledge of the General.
“Take my advice my friend,” his voice cracked as he spoke until he coughed. “Leave this place if you can it isn’t right.”
“What do you mean it isn’t right? You mean it isn’t right that the humans aren’t imprisoned in cages and drained of their blood weekly. You mean it isn’t right that they don’t live in fear of vamp’s fangs, don’t constantly scuttle from place to place, and starve. A place where men can live and talk as they should?”
His eyes almost seemed sad; such a dim light encircled in the center of dark hollow rings. “You are naïve. The General was right when he said your brother had set up a nice kingdom here, but who has he paid for that kingdom. I will tell you this and you can tell your brother. Jose is the General’s through and through. If he doesn’t believe me then just tell him that Jose arrived in May two years ago.”
“So, what, what if he defected.”
Abdul shrugged. “Possibly, but I don’t think so. If I die in this shithole, I would pin the blame on him.”
I stood then, my legs stiff and Abdul stood the chains as well on his arms and legs clinking as he rose. I didn’t know what to say or do. Abdul was a vampire, but he’d saved my life and there were other vampires right outside the door with my brother free to move about as they pleased. It would have been better to kill Abdul right away then to leave him to rot in such filth. I knocked on the thick wooden door, dull thuds that felt puny. Hot wax ran onto my hand and I cursed and almost dropped the candle. I wrapped my sleeve around its base and waited. A few moments later the door slid outward and ground its way through the dirt admitting a thin slice of warm bright sun. I looked back as I slid out before the door had even opened fully and Abdul was looking at me like a starving animal digging in
