Chapter Nine: Justice

 

Lara and I were crushed by the loss of our dear friends. Jasmine’s death was particularly devastating for me. My granddaughter and I were silent and emotionless as we drove over the back roads of eastern Ohio after leaving the farm. We had been so traumatized by recent events that we both shut down. Guilt and pain washed over me in waves. Had I not had Lara to look after, I am sure that I would have succumbed to the darkness. Keeping her safe gave me a reason to live. After a few days, when time managed to heal the smallest sliver of my emotional wounds, I focused on the other reason that I needed to stay alive. There were still survivors in the world who were suffering. It was up to us to save them.

Our hardships did not end after we finally found a vehicle. What should have been an eight hour car ride to Starside, Illinois took us a month. I knew that the zombies were capable of migrating, but I still believed that the urban centers were saturated with the undead. I did not want to risk us getting overwhelmed by a large group, so I plotted a course that kept us far away from the cities and large towns. The roads we traveled on were frequently obstructed by abandoned vehicles. We had to stop occasionally to scavenge supplies. It was always a harrowing ordeal as there was inevitably at least one zombie hiding in whatever store or house we entered. However, the biggest obstacle we faced was the winter weather. A series of snow and ice storms made the roads impassible. The worst storm forced us to hole up in a home just outside of Veedersburg, Indiana for a week and a half. Humans had mastered the art of clearing streets of winter’s precipitation, but there were no snowplow drivers left to pull double shifts. It only took a thin layer of ice or a few inches of snow to make driving impossible. The only thing we could do was wait for the temperature to warm up and free us from our isolation.

I had anticipated another problem during our journey, and I was surprised when it never materialized. The living are often portrayed in movies as being just as big a threat to the survivors of the apocalypse as the undead. Aside from the group of soldiers who we ran into in Ohio, Lara and I did not see any marauders on our trip. No robbers ever attempted to ambush us, and no wretched scoundrels ever tried to kidnap my beautiful granddaughter. In fact, we did not see another living person on our journey after we left the farmhouse. The lack of survivors was disconcerting. The zombies had decimated humanity, but our species was resilient. Some of the most cunning, resourceful and lucky members of society should have survived. I thought back to what the vampire who attacked us said about Hitler targeting the survivors. The motivations of the most evil man who had ever lived were unclear, but it was obvious that his efforts were not half-hearted. The survivors of the zombie nightmare were being systematically killed.

Lara and I were relieved at the end of our month-long journey when we saw the sign next to the road that told us Starside was just three miles away. The sun was rising in the sky behind us as we approached the city. We were thrilled to have finally reached our objective, but we were not foolish enough to let our guard down. Starside was a large city, and we knew that there would be a lot of zombies between us and the Vampire Research Institute. Our plan was to drive as close to the VRI building as possible before bailing out of the car and making a break for it. We prayed that the research facility would be easy to secure and that there were not too many undead roaming its halls. It was, undeniably, a terrible plan. We knew that time was running out for the survivors though, and neither of us could think of a better option. As it turned out, we did not get a chance to try to execute our foolish idea.

I was driving without the assistance of the car’s automation system in order to more quickly maneuver around the abandoned vehicles that littered the road. I was eager to get to Starside, and I got the car up to about forty miles per hour after seeing a stretch of open road ahead of us. That was enough speed to send the deer that we hit over the hood of our car and into the windshield. I had seen it darting across the road as I drove, but I slammed on the brakes too late. It had been close to three months since I last fed, and the lack of nutrition had greatly reduced my reflexes, which were usually second to none. It was an unfortunate turn of events for us although, looking back on it now, I have to say that it was even worse for the deer. While tragic for humanity, the zombie apocalypse had been advantageous for many other species. The deer that we ran into was truly unlucky. It had been killed by one of the last operating vehicles in North America.

My vision was blurry for a moment, and my field of view was blocked by the airbag and the animal’s carcass. “Are you okay?” I asked my granddaughter.

“Yeah,” she responded. “I’m fine.”

I leaned back against the headrest and closed my eyes for a moment as I recovered from the accident. I heard a long groan to my right and frowned in frustration.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I demanded. “You can tell me if you’re hurt. You don’t have to play the tough girl and—”

“I’m not the one that’s groaning,” my granddaughter hissed at me.

My eyes shot open and I jerked my head to the right. Two hands and a hideous face were pressed up against Lara’s window. She started breathing heavily as the zombie scratched at the glass. I glanced up at the rearview mirror and discovered at least seventy more of the creatures stumbling towards our vehicle. The undead were hungry, and they were not in the mood for venison.

I jumped out of the car but had to stop for a second as I felt light-headed. I would have liked to take a few more minutes to recover from the crash, but there was no time to waste. I moved from the other side of the car and staked the zombie I found there. The gaggle of undead who were approaching from behind picked up their speed and groaned excitedly as I helped Lara out of the car.

“Run!” I ordered as I stared back at the herd of zombies.

Lara took a few steps down the road, stumbled and had to put her hands out for balance. She was dazed from the crash, and she shook her head in a desperate attempt to regain control. She gradually increased her speed until she was finally running. I slammed my stake through the heart of the first zombie that reached my position. I retracted it quickly and repeated the action several times, but I was only able to kill four of the creatures before the herd moved past me. The lack of food had weakened me greatly, and the collision had certainly not helped any either. I was no longer the impressive killing machine that I had been. By that point my strength and speed were only slightly better than that of a normal human being’s.

I ran to catch up with the herd of zombies and managed to kill a few more. I saw my granddaughter about a hundred feet farther up the road. She glanced back, swore and increased her speed. She was healthy and in good shape, so she was able to set a quick pace. The zombies who were chasing after her were not able to close the distance, but I knew that it was only a matter of time. The undead did not need to stop to catch their breath or worry about getting dehydrated. They would pursue her for as long as it took, and Lara would not be able to maintain her speed for long.

Like Lara, I was also affected by fatigue thanks to the starvation. It did not take too much force to stab a zombie through the heart with a stake, but the exertion added up quickly. Every monster I killed sapped a little of my energy, and it was a constant struggle to maintain my speed. I was in a race against time to kill all of the attackers before my granddaughter ran out of steam.

Lara was highly motivated, but eventually her body just could not handle the demands. She tripped and fell to the ground, but she did not have the energy to pick herself up again. I had whittled the herd down to two, but the final zombies were still moving at full speed. I threw my hand back, grunted and slammed my stake through the back of one of the zombies. I struggled to free the weapon from its body, which cost me a few seconds. I was exhausted, and I knew I did not have the energy to run anymore. As the final zombie shuffled away, I put everything I had into one final blow. I dove forward with the stake extended in my hand, but I just did not have the strength. The weapon grazed the zombie’s back, but the creature gave no indication that it even noticed the attack. I fell to the ground face-first, breathing heavily and powerless to save my granddaughter. The thought of watching yet another of my friends meet their brutal demise filled me with dread. Luckily, I was not subjected to the terrible image. As it had several times in the past, my salvation came in the form of a blur of fur.

Reginald leapt over Lara from behind and landed on the road between her and the zombie. Saliva made his pearly canine teeth glisten as he snarled at the creature that was threatening the woman he loved. Being a mindless monster, the zombie showed no signs that he was intimidated by the werewolf’s display. Reginald shifted into human form and pulled a stake out of his loose-fitting pants. He roared in anger, stabbed the creature through the chest and threw it to the side of the road. He shifted back into wolf form immediately afterwards, glanced at me briefly but then pounced over to Lara. His tail wagged furiously as he nuzzled my granddaughter with his nose.

“Stop... it,” Lara said with a smile as she struggled to breath. She winced playfully as the wolf began to lick her face. “That’s... even worse. I know... I missed... you too... Reggie.”

Reginald kept a paw on Lara’s shoulder and looked back towards me. “Jasmine? Anthony?” the wolf asked in a distinctly human voice.

I stayed on the ground and struggled to shake my head. “No,” I responded.

The werewolf’s pointy ears perked up and his head shot to the left. Ten zombies were staggering towards us from an open field. Reginald’s tail drooped and he whined at me unhappily.

“Lara... safety,” I struggled to say as I sucked down oxygen. “I’ll... catch... up.”

Reginald crouched down next to Lara and pushed his nose into his lover’s armpit. She grabbed onto the fur of his bare back and struggled to throw her legs over him. She managed to wrap her arms around his neck after a moment, and the werewolf dashed away with her on his back. Several of the zombies blinked in confusion as their meal disappeared in a blur. They ignored me and staggered up the road in pursuit, albeit at a fraction of Reginald’s speed.

I stayed on the ground for ten minutes with my eyes closed and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Reginald had saved Lara’s life and momentarily freed me of my obligations. I had been focused on keeping her safe for every minute of the last three months. It felt great not to have that burden. Reginald was brave, intelligent and, thanks to my starvation, now more powerful than I was. I trusted him to keep my granddaughter safe. Eventually I stood up and slowly made my way back towards our car. The vehicle was totaled, but I wanted to retrieve our supplies. I had no idea what my two friends and I would face in Starside, but I had a feeling that we would not have much time to spend scrounging for food and weapons. We could survive for a while with the contents of the duffel bags I retrieved, although I had run out of one vital resource. I had used the last of my stockpile of SPF 1000 at a rest stop a few hours earlier.

I was exhausted, and I knew that it was the last day that I would be able to walk around in the sun for the foreseeable future. I enjoyed my stroll towards Starside, and I spent most of the time with my head towards the sky. It was a cold January morning, but the sunlight still felt nice on my face. Low-pitched groans shattered the peaceful walk and brought me back to reality. I sighed when I lowered my head and found three of the creatures shuffling by me. I discovered a peculiar sight when I looked in the direction that the undead were heading. Ahead of me, the road into Starside was blocked by two yellow school buses. A double layer of chain-link fences connected with the barricade and stretched as far as I could see in both directions. With my superhuman senses failing, I had to squint to see the figures who were kneeling on top of the buses.

There were a handful of zombie corpses in the area, and it quickly became clear why. I heard the arrows slicing through the air before I saw them. Two of the projectiles slammed into the grass, but another five hit their targets. The three zombies who had shuffled by me fell to the ground. I froze in place and threw my hands in the air for fear that another volley might soon be launched in my direction.

“All clear!” I heard Reginald shout from on top of one of the buses. “My friend is coming in. Hold your fire!”

I moved cautiously towards the barricade at first but, after worrying that the slow movement made me look like a zombie, I soon decided to pick up my pace. I was able to get a better look at the impressive defenses when I got closer. The buses were packed together tightly, and the bottoms of the vehicles had been boarded up to prevent zombies from crawling underneath them. The chain-link fences were secure in the ground and topped with barbed wire. The dozen men and women who were standing watch on top of the vehicles smiled and waved at me once I was within range. They were wearing civilian clothes, and they were armed with crossbows and modern recurve bows. Reginald, who was in human form, waved me over to a gate in the fence. It took a moment for him to unlock it and remove the chains and ropes that were keeping it firmly shut. Once I was inside, he threw his hands out and embraced me in a hug. I noticed Lara sitting in a chair on the other side of the bus near a dozen or so other people. She waved at me half-heartedly as she raised a bottle of water to her lips. I leaned to the side and looked down the street at the city that had been my home for a long time. The buildings were intact, the traffic lights were working and I could see people in the distance who were strolling around like they did not have a care in the world.

“My God,” I whispered in amazement. “Is the whole city secure?”

“The northern half,” Reginald explained. “Starside’s layout made fencing off the entire city difficult, and the constant zombie attacks didn’t help. Given the situation, and what happened everywhere else in the world, I’d say saving half of a city is plenty impressive. A quarter of a million people are still alive and well inside here. Welcome to the last bastion of humanity.”

“This is amazing,” I said in disbelief. “Did you and the other werewolves do all this?”

“No,” Reginald said sadly. “Our efforts... weren’t successful. I met up with the werewolves in New York shortly after I left the group. We formed a strategy and got the word out to the rest of the werewolf community all over the world. Since the zombies aren’t interested in eating us, it was actually fairly simple to find good defensive locations, clear them of undead and stock them with supplies. Werewolves scoured the land for survivors and helped them get back to the locations that we secured. I ordered small groups of the werewolves from New York to different locations all over the region. I set off to the west on my own since, as an A-list werewolf, I’m faster and more powerful than most of the others. I would round up the small number of survivors who I could find in an area, which was never more than 100, and help get them settled somewhere safe. Things were going fine for a while, but then one night a blizzard started up shortly after I had left one of the settlements. My car got stuck in the snow, and it was terribly cold, so I decided to run back to the camp in order to wait out the storm. When I got there though, the thirty survivors were all dead. It wasn’t hard to determine that they had not been killed by zombies. Those people died of gunshot wounds, not infected bites. I backtracked after the storm lifted to check on a couple of the other settlements I had helped to form. It wasn’t an isolated incident. All the survivors who I rescued were murdered,” Reginald concluded.

Hitler’s forces had been busy. My elation at finding out that Starside survived the end of the world diminished as I listened to Reginald’s story. Well-trained, well-organized iNazi assassins were slaughtering the survivors. Their weapon of choice proved that they were humans instead of vampires, but that was of little comfort. Lara had explained some of what we had learned about Hitler’s role in the zombie outbreak, but she had been too exhausted for a lengthy conversation. I spent the next few minutes catching my friend up on everything we knew. Lara walked over and joined her lover after finishing the bottle of water. The other people in the area were just as interested in the story as Reginald was. A small crowd formed around us, and the residents of Starside gasped and whispered as I spoke.

“Fascinating!” a deep, male voice boomed from the back of the small crowd. An attractive man walked towards me as the citizens of Starside parted before him like the Red Sea before Moses. “Your arrival is serendipitous. It is good that we all finally know who is responsible for the madness... and it is good that we can stop wasting so much time speculating about the source of this epidemic,” he continued with a smile. “Speaking of lapses in productivity, I believe most of you have more important activities in which to engage,” the man said. He smirked as the people quickly departed or returned to their nearby defensive positions. “I’d say I should make an official announcement pertaining to this new development, but the velocity at which information spreads in this community would make the declaration pointless.”

He was tall, well-built and handsome. The man looked much different than he had the last time we met, but I recognized him immediately. He looked much younger now and more alive. To say his odor had improved would be an understatement. I would not have noticed him standing in a crowd, but his voice and his odd speaking style were unmistakable. I extended my hand towards the man and shook my head in disbelief.

“I ignored you the first time we met, and I didn’t recognize you the second,” I admitted. “I won’t make the mistake of insulting you a third time. It’s good to see you, my friend.”

The man chuckled, batted my hand away and leaned in for a hug. “My appearance has changed greatly since last we met. I was not sure that you would recognize me. The narcotics and the vile alcohol addictions are long behind me now. I was finally able to let go of the guilt that had consumed me after my son’s death. I got back in shape, turned my life around and became a respected business owner here in Starside. I was so elated to learn of your arrival... and so saddened to hear of your losses. You have my deepest sympathies,” he said with a curt nod. “Jasmine’s shuffling off of this mortal coil weighs particularly heavy on my heart. I saw many police officers abuse and accost vagrants like me back in the days when I walked the streets. Your partner was a good woman though, and she treated society’s outcasts with dignity and respect. Well, except for that time that she threw me into the side of a convenience store and threatened to use pepper spray on me,” he finished with a smile.

I laughed as I thought about the past. “In her defense, she thought you were attacking me. That just shows you how dedicated she was. I was still in the closet at the time, but she had figured out by then that I was a vampire. She knew what kind of power I had, but she still felt obligated to jump in and save me from a scrawny homeless man. She didn’t know that the crazy gibberish you were saying was actually your attempt to warn me about Lance Flowers and his trio of sluts.”

Lara leaned closer and inspected the man’s face. “You’re the disgusting homeless man who tried to save him? Damn, you clean up good,” she said. She rolled her eyes and tapped Reginald on the butt reassuringly after he shot her a pained look. “I remember you from Nick’s murder trial. I couldn’t believe they let you testify. You were speaking in gibberish and you didn’t even have a name. They just called you ‘The Wino’.”

The Wino nodded. “Back in those dark days that moniker was fitting. Even after I clawed my way out of that hole I did not want to start using the name that my parents gave me. The old name seems like it belongs to a different person now... one who was naive and innocent. That young man no longer exists. Like my good friend, and Nick’s former boss, The Chief, I have adopted a new title. Though there was never a democratic election, the people of Starside have taken to calling me ‘The Mayor’. I enjoy that term of endearment far more than any traditional identifier.”

“The Mayor is being too humble,” Reginald started to explain. “It wasn’t a cute nickname that the survivors gave him, it was a title of the utmost respect. The Mayor is responsible for saving this city and its inhabitants. He was the one who organized the militia after the zombie outbreak started. He made the hard decisions and led his forces to victory against seemingly insurmountable odds.”

The Mayor seemed uncomfortable with the praise. “A leader is only as good as the people who serve under him. The true credit should go to the brave residents of Starside. We lost many friends during those first days, but we persevered and secured our home from the monsters. And we were in a position to fight back against the horde because of you,” he said to me. “Your capture and subsequent murder trial put Starside on the map. After people learned that vampires were real, this city became a mecca for supernatural enthusiasts. Starside’s citizens were used to crazy creatures, and they adapted quickly once the zombies appeared. Hundreds of little tourist shops popped up after your arrest, and they all sold souvenir crossbows and wooden stakes. We were the only city in the world that had the resources available to take on the zombies.”

“You’ve done amazing work here,” Lara declared. “With your help, we might be able to permanently protect your people against the zombies.”

My granddaughter and I took a few minutes to explain our plan to The Mayor. He listened intently and did not interrupt as we told him everything we had discovered about the zombie and vampire viruses. Reginald was excited about our plan, and he gasped when Lara mentioned that we would be able to use the new information to cure me of vampirism. He slapped me on the back and tried to congratulate me, but I politely declined the chance to celebrate. I would be lying if I said I did not desperately want to be a normal human again, but I could not afford to be selfish. My cure had to take a backseat to the survival of humanity.

“The vaccine sounds promising,” The Mayor said after we finished. “We need to move quickly now that we know that the zombies are not our only concern. Hitler’s forces have been picking off small groups of survivors, but it may only be a matter of time before he mounts an assault on our city. Unfortunately, the Vampire Research Institute was overrun during the outbreak. It is, however, just outside the safe zone. The fence runs between it and the hospital where you two used to work, McClane County General. The skywalk between the two buildings was sealed off, and the VRI no longer has power. My people can expand our defenses to absorb the building and restore electricity, but it would likely take the better part of a day. We would, of course, be able to clear out the zombies in the area faster if a vampire were to join our ranks,” he finished with a smile.

“I’d be happy to help. Our first priority has to be...” I trailed off and grimaced as a sharp, stabbing pain shot through my stomach. I doubled over and wrapped my arm around my abdomen. Lara, Reginald and The Mayor all stepped in to offer assistance, but I waved them off. “I’m fine,” I said dismissively.

“The hell you are,” Lara countered. “These hunger pains have been hitting him more and more frequently over the last few weeks. This happens several times a day now,” she explained to our friends. “Reggie and I can work on getting to the VRI building. Stop trying to be a hero. You need to feed,” she commanded.

I straightened out as the pain subsided and reluctantly nodded my head in agreement. “Doctors always make the worst patients,” I said with a smile to Lara before addressing The Mayor. “My granddaughter’s diagnosis is right though. The hunger is getting pretty bad. If I don’t drain someone soon there’s a risk that I’ll lose control. Eventually I’ll snap and attack whoever is near me, even if it’s one of my close friends. I know it’s a lot to ask you to let me eat one of your citizens, but I’m desperate. Are there any terrible people you can think of?”

The Mayor thought for a moment before shaking his head sadly. “I would have no qualms about you eating a bad person. Your strength and power are enough to justify the sacrifice. Unfortunately, I can think of none who survived. The bad people were the ones who fled at the first sign of trouble. They thought only of themselves, and their selfishness cost them their lives. Those who stayed and fought for the city were the brave and noble members of society. They risked their personal safety for the greater good.”

“What about a terminally ill patient?” Reginald suggested. “Or an old person who doesn’t mind shaving a few months off the end of their life?”

“The elderly and infirm did not survive the outbreak. They were trapped in their homes or on the streets or were too slow to fall back and rally with the young, healthy residents,” The Mayor answered.

Reginald opened his mouth to speak again but paused briefly before saying, “I hate to suggest it, but Nick is just too valuable for our cause. Your citizens have proven that they are the most dedicated and brave people on the planet. If we explained the situation and asked for a volunteer, I’m sure that one of them would—”

“No!” I interrupted angrily. “Absolutely not! I will not trade the life of a good person for my own!”

“Yo!” a woman yelled from on top of one of the nearby school buses. She slung her bow over her shoulder, climbed down the ladder that was leaning up against the side of the bus and walked towards us. “I couldn’t hear all of the conversation from over there. Did you say you need a bad guy to eat? If so, I know of someone who deserves to die.”

I squinted at the woman as she approached. “Alexandra?” I asked needlessly after recognizing her. “I’m glad you’re still alive. How’s my favorite assistant district attorney?”

“Good. I had a bit of a career change after the zombie apocalypse. Luckily my transition from prosecutor to bowman was pretty easy,” she joked as she rubbed a hand over her weapon. “You know, it’s funny. For years I had a recurring fantasy about killing you if I was ever lucky enough to see you again. I hadn’t told my parents I was gay when your first book was published. You let the cat out of the bag for me, and I was pissed.”

“He has a knack for revealing secrets to the world,” Lara snorted. “Your family wasn’t the only one that had to deal with the consequence of his big mouth.”

I sucked air through my teeth and winced at Alexandra. “I’m so sorry. I never even thought about it when I was writing...” I trailed off when she raised her hand to stop me.

“It’s fine,” Alexandra assured me. “My parents were very supportive, and it’s hardly like a little embarrassment matters much compared to what’s happening now. I always hated you back when you lived here, even before I knew you were a vampire. You were one of the best defense attorneys in Starside, and it never ceased to amaze me when you convinced a jury to let someone who was clearly guilty walk.”

“I had a very strong sense of duty when it came to that job,” I admitted. “I saved a lot of clients from serving jail time for crimes that they did not commit. I knew that some of the people who I represented were guilty of heinous acts though. If it makes you feel any better, I hunted down and killed most of those assholes.”

“And you covered those murders up while working as a cop. Yeah, the district attorney and I pieced it all together after you were captured,” Alexandra smiled. “I don’t still hate you. You’ve proven what kind of man you are over the last few years. I know your approval rating plummeted and you got impeached, but I was still a strong supporter of yours. You only cared about helping people, and you saved us all from the Buttchins. Telling you where to find someone to eat is the least I can do. Besides, it’s someone who we both know deserves to die. I failed to get the conviction, and you’re responsible for getting him off with your ridiculous triple D defense. They let him out of the loony bin a few years ago, but I’ve been keeping an eye on him. He didn’t flee Starside when the shit went down. Samuel Norton currently lives a few blocks away in the Elm Club apartment building, number 4A.”

My eyes bulged at the good news. There was no doubt in my mind that Samuel Norton deserved to die. He had killed his father in cold blood for the life insurance money, and there had been plenty of evidence that implicated him in the crime. I had taken him on as a client and developed a defensive strategy that allowed him to get away with the murder. He had been the one to first pretend that he had multiple personality disorder, but I coached him so that he could convince the jury that he really suffered from the affliction. The mental disease or defect defense, which I nicknamed the ‘triple D’, was successful, and Norton had been sent to a mental hospital for a few years instead of prison for the rest of his life. I had planned on killing him upon his release, but my happy routine in Starside ended long before then. With my life being so hectic over the last few years, I never found the time to return and tie up that loose end.

I thanked Alexandra profusely before she returned to her defensive position. Lara, Reginald and The Mayor assured me that they would take care of the VRI situation without my help. I ran towards the apartment building at full speed, but I had to slow down after a few hundred yards when I felt winded. Normally I would have spent days stalking my victim and savoring the hunt and then hours tormenting him before he died. The theatrics were all part of the thrill of the kill, but I was too desperate to worry about enjoying the meal. I needed to kill someone as soon as possible both for the nourishment and to satisfy my predatory instincts.

I entered the apartment building and climbed the stairs as quickly as I could. My blood was pumping from exertion and excitement, and my fangs were already extended in anticipation. I stopped in front of the door labeled ‘4A’ and put my index finger over the keyhole. I took a deep breath in order to try to calm down, but I knew it was no use. I pounded my fist against the door several times.

“Go a-a-away,” Norton stuttered his response from inside the apartment with a thick Southern accent. “I k-k-keep telling you that I’m in no c-c-condition to fight with y’all. If I get to a-a-angry then Richard will come out, and that alternate personality is violent and—”

I kicked the door with all the strength I could muster and sent it flying back inside the apartment. Splintered wood rained down on the carpet as I stood in the doorway. My face was white, my chest was heaving and my fangs were extended. Norton was sitting in a recliner in the middle of his apartment with a DVD remote control in his hand. He was wearing boxer shorts and a white t-shirt that had several ketchup stains. His mouth dropped as he stared up at the angry vampire who had just broken down his door.

“Oh, shit,” Norton said without his fake accent.

“You’re a murderer! You killed your own father just for the money, and then you slandered his memory by lying and saying that he molested you as a child. You’re a despicable, self-absorbed human being who does not deserve to live. I should have come back to kill you a long time ago, and I’m here now to correct that mistake!” is what I should have said.

What I actually said was not words so much as it was a series of incoherent, primitive vocalizations. There were some groans of excitement in there, but it was mostly snarls and growling. I was far too hungry to deliver the righteous speech.

Norton recovered from his fright and quickly decided on a smart course of action. He chucked the remote control at me and bolted towards the window. I ignored the harmless projectile as it grazed my thigh and chased after him. He had a head start, but I managed to grab a hold of his leg as he scurried out the window. Norton yelped in terror and kicked frantically with his free leg. I released my grip after his foot caught me in the nose. I cursed as I saw him scramble down the fire escape, and I dove out the window in pursuit.

I have described several chases throughout these five books that involved fantastic creatures running at incredible speeds. This was not one of those. I was still exhausted from the morning’s excitement, and I had not fed in so long that I could not muster any supernatural speed. On the other hand, Norton’s body had suffered from his sedentary lifestyle and fatty American diet. We were both huffing and puffing after only running a few blocks. The murderer looked back several times in a panic and pushed his body to the limit. He knew he was a dead man if he stopped. The heads of the other people on the street turned in our direction as Starside’s residents pondered the odd pursuit. My excitement grew as I noticed the two school buses ahead of us. Norton had been so panicky that he made a grave mistake. He had led me back to the barricade, and he was about to find himself cornered.

Norton realized his mistake too late, but he did not slow down. After one last terrified look back at me, he did the unthinkable. He climbed up the ladder onto one of the buses as the militiamen who were present exchanged confused looks. I followed him and got to the top just in time to see him leap off the other side. I cried out in anger as my meal landed outside the safe zone with a thud. Knowing that he was definitely going to be eaten by a vampire if he stayed, he had opted to leave Starside and risk getting eaten by zombies instead. He did not make it far. There were a half dozen undead pressed up against the side of the bus and the nearby fence. Two sank their teeth into what should have been my meal before he had a chance to get to his feet. He screamed in pain as the other zombies moved in and pinned him to the ground.

“God dammit!” I shouted as I watched the zombies drink his blood. I closed my eyes and tried desperately to calm down for fear that I would attack one of the innocent people who were defending the barricade. The militiamen wisely remained silent until my fangs retracted. “Why didn’t you guys kill those zombies?”

“They trickle in all the time and press themselves up against our defenses,” Alexandra explained. “We have special teams that go around the fence every few hours and kill them with stakes so we can conserve arrows. Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” I grumbled. “Maybe there’s someone else from my past who I can kill. What about your former boss, Michael Kelley? That guy was a real asshole, and I know for a fact that he took bribes.”

Alexandra shook her head. “He got disbarred after he tried to strangle Norton during the trial. Last I heard he had moved down to Fort Lauderdale.”

“I could eat Yoest and not feel bad about it. The bitch helped to railroad me at Christina’s murder trial,” I thought out loud.

Alexandra pointed down towards the zombies below us. I followed her finger towards a woman who was wearing a black robe. Judge Yoest stared back at me from the ground with lifeless eyes.

“I think Benjamin Furcht survived,” the former assistant district attorney suggested, referring to one of the senior partners at the law firm where I used to work.

“He was a prick, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as Caleb Hass or Franklin Ruine,” I explained. “Furcht certainly never did anything that would justify me killing him... at least nothing I know about,” I sighed. The top of the barricade served as a nice vantage point. I turned around and looked at the people on the streets of Starside. “It’s like there are no terrible people in this city. Given how few human beings are left alive in the world, maybe I don’t deserve to eat any of them even if I do find a bad one.”

Alexandra was a practical person, so she ignored my moral quandary. “Drive around town. Maybe you’ll get lucky. Here,” she said as she dug her keys out of her pocket and handed them to me. “You can borrow my car. It’s the red sedan that’s parked around the corner.”

“Thanks,” I said as I took the keys. “What kind of car is it?”

She furrowed her brow at me. “Like I said, it’s the red one.”

I smiled and shook my head. “Sorry, I’m just used to people being more excited to tell me about their cars. I expected you to talk about the manufacturer and the safety rating and all the cool features.”

“What am I, a commercial?” Alexandra asked. “It’s just a stupid car. It gets me from point A to point B without breaking down, so I could really care less about anything else.”

I thanked her once again before climbing down the ladder and heading for the car. I did not share her optimism about the chances of randomly finding a terrible person to eat, but I was still happy for the vehicle. It would be hours before my friends and the local militia opened up access to the Vampire Research Institute, so I had some time to kill. I had one more loose end in the city, and it unfortunately did not involve brutally murdering someone and drinking their blood. It was a task that I was not looking forward to, but I knew that it had to be done.