I stood blinking in the hot white light of the sun welcoming the warm air that ran down my back and across the goose bumps which lined my arm, the door behind me still spilling its stagnant air out to mix with the fragrant beginnings of fall. The old-bodied vampire ground the door to a shut behind me as I inhaled deeply. My brother stepped out from the shade his eyes suspicious even over his easy grin and walked over me. When I told him, what Abdul had said about the General’s forces his face soured.
“I’ve heard all about those vamps, they’re nothing more than the scabs left on the wound to our world. We’ll pluck them off and cast them aside. They’ll break against a disciplined force. They ‘re little more than thralls, corrupt, lazy souls during their human life they continue in the same manner as vampires.”
I kept my voice calm and slow. “No, I’ve seen them. Once stirred they would become a tide of madness that will sweep over all of this.”
“Bullshit,” he said staring into the air back in the direction of the camp.
“They would, they’d devour it and spit out nothing but a dried husk. The General won’t even need to use his loyal and well-armed troops.”
“We’ll see, we’ll see. The General may have a lot of vamps but how loyal are they really. Are they ready to face the final death?”
“But what kind of arms do you have?” My voice rose against my will. “A few guns? He’s got machine guns, jeeps, maybe even tanks. How many vamps do you have? Fifty? One hundred? How many men? Two hundred?”
“Our force is smaller than his there can be no doubt about that and there’s no helping it either, but our cause is righteous. Their empire is little more than a house of cards, the vampires say it and the men say it.” He turned away from me and spat.
I felt absurd standing there in the dank shadows trying to reason with him. We ‘d been born in the south; we’d lived in the south. He should have already known. He shouldn’t have had to be told, but instead he was looking at me as if I spoke heresy. Back of the trail just out of sight through the thick edging of trees the river gurgled calling to me, trying to circumvent my brain and convince my feet directly with its whispers of secluded groves and far off places. Here in the north, where vampires were rarer perhaps, I could find some kind of peace, but winter was coming, and the scraps of man’s fallen civilization had been picked over.
My voice dropped to a confidential whisper. “He also told me that there’s a vampire here named Jose. He said that he’s not to be trusted that he is a spy, that he came here in May two years ago.”
“That little shit lies,” he said his face filled with disbelief. “Either you’re gullible and stupid or else you’re in on it with him. Either way you’re useless.” But he stepped away from me muttering to himself and waved to the two brothers who followed him everywhere. They powwowed for a moment and then the two brothers went trotting off their rifles cradled loosely in their arms as Peter and Robert looked on with their two opposite faces. Peter’s face was as rigid as if it were cut from stone, all angles and shadows, his lips pulled back into a perpetual scowl, and his eyes grimacing. He watched the brother’s go with a measure of suspicion and loathing. Robert had a loose droopy face with cloudy vacant eyes and as the two brothers turned a corner on the trail and disappeared his vapid gaze turned to me with a smug expression that was laced with a hunger, barely contained.
When the two brothers had left, I approached my brother again. “Why fight anyways? Why not go further north and leave these vampires behind?”
“You don’t understand,” he said. “These people barely survive as it is. Oh, we had a good year this year, but what about next year? Any little thing could kill us off. Going north would just make all that harder. Not running is the only thing that keeps this group together and if we’re not going to run, we have to fight. We’ve waited long enough if we wait any longer then we’ll prove you right.” He looked off as if he could see to the horizon through the trees. “I’ve got things to do and this went nowhere.” He crooked his finger at the two vampires who lingered outside the shut and locked door of the cell and they loped off towards the camp.
I slowly followed them walking down the dirt path without really paying attention as I wound my way back to the camp. My stomach growled and cramped. Ryan and his men were back in the field harvesting the corn having had a filling lunch. I made my way back towards the farmhouse, walking through the trees that lined the river and then through the fields and finally the shacks that made up the village. I could smell roasting corn and meat and it drew me onward, until I heard a curt voice and I stopped stepping between the rough boards of two huts. I peered out into the alley and I saw Dottie shaking her head as she maneuvered the narrow spaces between the buildings. Not a single silver hair had strayed from her tight bun. Her disapproving glare seemed to take in each hut’s deficiency though she moved with focus. I slid away across several alleys and decided that I could wait to eat. After all I’d often gone days without eating. I tried to tell myself that the overabundance of food had made me soft and that missing lunch would help me to maintain the ability
