 
# City of Whispers

Katherine Sorin

Copyright 2011 by Katherine Sorin

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

The characters and events portrayed in this work are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
1

I never liked Manhattan to begin with. After the outbreak, on days when I felt particularly snarky, I sometimes told the other survivors that I liked Manhattan better than before. It was less crowded, less noisy, and, I liked to claim, friendlier. We had to joke about it or we all would have gone crazy. Some people went crazy anyway.

One thing that never improved about Manhattan was the smell. There was nothing to get my day started out right like turning the corner and inhaling a big breath full of rotting flesh.

When it was no longer safe to be in the streets, I holed up in my apartment with my best friend, Beth. Before joining me in my apartment, she had lived on the 23rd floor of a high-rise a few blocks away.

We chose my apartment because it had a fire escape, which provided an extra way out in case we needed it. I wasn't about to stay with Beth and find myself in a situation where the two of us had to fight our way out of the building through dark hallways and down twenty-plus flights of dark stairs.

We didn't have time to plan. Our government can be incredibly quick and efficient when it wants to be. The military blew the bridges and tunnels before we even knew what was happening. Then, the public parks became infernos.

The vampire bodies burned in the sunlight, so those were not a problem. The human bodies were either doused in gasoline and burned in the streets, or taken en masse to whatever designated park was closest and thrown into shallow fire pits. The sky was dark with smoke and the whole city smelled of burning flesh.

The night after we lost our only means of escaping Manhattan, the power went out and we lost cell phone service. That's when shit really hit the fan.

Helicopters dropped pamphlets about staying indoors, staying calm until the situation was under control, and by the way if you try to take a boat or swim across either river you will be shot, no questions asked. That day—the day of the pamphlet drop—we stopped going outside, and began avoiding the windows.

In the early days, it was hard to look away. The action in the streets was constant. During the day people looted, and when they found vampires, the people dragged them out into the streets and watched the vampires scream in agony as they burned.

But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst was what the people did to each other. They did it right there in the street. I don't like to think about it.

Early in the evenings it got interesting. People began to head indoors as the sun started to set. Only the real bad-asses stayed out. Or at least they must have thought they were bad-asses. I theorized that many of these people were the same people that did the terrible things to other humans during the day, so I found myself rooting for the vampires when they went after those wannabes—and those guys were always the first among the humans to be picked off.

There were about thirty to forty minutes between the time most people went indoors and the actual sunset. During that time, the looters continued their looting and generally ran amok in the streets. Many of them openly mocked vampires and the rest of the city. They taunted anyone who was afraid to come out. They even called on the vampires to come out of hiding...and the vampires didn't disappoint.

The vampires never came out one at a time, either. At first they came out by the dozen, later the numbers seemed to dwindle along with the human population. It was as if they woke up just before sunset and waited in the safety of whatever dark tombs they had created for themselves. They waited for that moment as if they all somehow internally felt the sun go down, then flooded onto the streets. They came out in packs.

In those days, the vampires were newly turned and made no effort to stay hidden or quiet on the hunt, and they didn't have to. There were so many of them that their sheer numbers could overwhelm a group of humans. The vampires were careless back then. If a looter was lucky and skilled, he could pick off a good number of vampires before he was inevitably torn apart.

Before we lost power, I heard on the news that the virus was transferred via vampire bite. I assumed that most vampires were created by being attacked by one or two vampires, because when the packs attacked people in the streets, there was nothing left to transform. The vampires didn't actually eat the person, but with so many fighting for body space to get a drink of blood—it just wasn't pretty. The strongest vampires would attack the neck and more often than not, the head would become completely severed.

Then the sad part of the evening came, when the partially transformed vampires came out.

Often they were very old or very young. They looked awful. Instead of bright yellow or green eyes, they had dull, bloodshot eyes that looked orange in color. Their hair was grungy and their skin an old yellow.

They clearly had the virus, but instead of making them killing machines, it made them weaker and more pathetic than they had been in their human lives. These half-vampires feebly tried to lap up the remaining blood of the corpses left behind by the first round of vampires.

Often, the looters who were left picked off the half-vampires, though it was hardly necessary. Sometimes, the weak, pseudo-vampires just lay down and died next to a body as they tried to drink. Closing the curtains was easy then.
2

One week into the epidemic I killed someone for the first time. Although I lived on the fifth floor of my building, we weren't safe. When things got bad on the street, we used my coffee table to try to board up the window by the fire escape.

A few months earlier, I had made one of the best purchases of my life, a hatchet. Living in New York, I had always kept a knife and pepper spray by my bed, but a co-worker had once suggested a hatchet. I thought it was a great idea, so I bought one for myself, having no idea at the time how useful it would become.

We had only half finished boarding up the window when someone tried to break in. He was a young, scrawny guy, maybe twenty-one or twenty-two years old.

I was terrified. He was invading my space. My safe space. I would have been scared at any time, but knowing I couldn't call the police amplified my fright and my resolve to kill the intruder.

While he was still on the fire escape, Beth dashed to the front door where she grabbed my pepper spray. She ran back to the window and pepper-sprayed him while I grabbed a knife from the kitchen.

I discovered then that stabbing someone isn't as easy as it looks in the movies. You don't just stab someone and bam, he's dead, unless you do it right. I knew if I didn't act fast the man would climb into the apartment. I knew he might kill us, but a part of me still hesitated as I brought the knife down into his chest. As a result, the knife didn't go in very deep.

The man screamed. I pulled the knife out of his chest and raised it again for a second go. The man grabbed my arm, but I managed to break free. I stabbed him in the neck with all my strength. I vowed I would never hesitate again.

I felt a pang of guilt standing there, watching the blood leak through the bars of the fire escape. I didn't know for sure why he had been trying to get in. Maybe he was scared himself. Maybe he was running from something, or just trying to find somewhere to stay. But this was about my own survival.

We pushed the skinny man off the fire escape, for the vampires to do with as they saw fit.

The second, much larger intruder came the next afternoon. He made it halfway inside before getting caught on some of the boards we had used in an attempt to secure the windows.

I had already learned my lesson with the first man and I didn't hesitate. I stabbed him in the throat with the biggest knife I had. He died almost immediately.

And then there he was, disgusting and soaked in blood, lying across our window, half inside and half out, and the sun was setting.

"Oh God, what do we do?" Beth asked. "He weighs more than both of us combined."

"I have a baseball bat under my bed," I replied, "maybe we could use it to prod him the rest of the way out and off the fire escape."

Beth went to go look for the baseball bat while I watched the window.

It was too late.

As I leaned over in a fruitless attempt to roll the man off our windowsill, I saw it through the bars, climbing up the fire escape.

Slinking, crawling—I don't know how to describe the way it moved. It was a female, maybe middle-aged. Like all the other freshly infected vampires in the street, she wasn't very stealthy. It was obvious what she was. Her skin was pale, hair matted, eyes narrowed, fangs out for everyone to see.

As if all this weren't a dead giveaway, her neck was torn open on the right side. The skin had been ripped away and there was still some dark, old blood in the gash. These weren't two little polite puncture wounds—someone had really gone at her.

I almost felt pity, thinking about the poor woman who had been attacked...how she must have felt the terror I was feeling right now. I wondered if she remembered it, or if the human in her was gone, replaced by some other creature that had taken hold of her body.

I thought I had mentally prepared myself for that moment, but I had not. I'm not sure one can. I felt as if my stomach were full of dry ice.

I backed away from the window. "Beth." I thought I screamed it, but it may have only come out as a hoarse whisper. "Beth! Please Beth come in here now."

Then the vampire-woman looked at me, casting away any and all pity I might have felt a moment earlier. I had never looked one in the eye before. It was horrible. The vampire's bloodshot eyes looked at me as if she wanted nothing more than to tear my throat open.

I felt a hand grip my elbow and my head spun for a moment, but it was Beth. She held two of our homemade stakes in one hand and the baseball bat in the other. I took a stake. I took a deep breath, inhaling the metallic smell of fresh blood and the disgusting smell of death that had come to characterize the streets of Manhattan.

I took half a step forward and couldn't go any farther.

"He's still fresh," Beth whispered. "Maybe she'll just have some of him and move on."

As if understanding Beth's words, the vampire looked away from us and began to lick up a little of the blood. At any other time in my life I would have found the scene revolting, but at the time I felt relief—better his blood than mine.

"What if she doesn't finish him fast enough?" I said. "What if the body attracts more of them? You've seen them from the window, they're like sharks. A fresh body draws them like a magnet."

"Let's not risk it," Beth said.

With the knot still tight in my stomach, I began to inch my way toward the window. Beth followed.

After getting a taste, the vampire went for the corpse's neck, which happened to be hanging into the living room. As soon as her head was in I hissed, "Hit her."

"What?"

"Hit her with the bat, right in her head. I'll stake her in the back, through the heart."

And Beth did. She gave the vampire a good hard bash on the head. Beth couldn't have held back a thing. She almost caught me off guard with the ferocity of her blow. As the thing screamed and tried to turn around I plunged my stake into her back—going for the heart.

Turns out that staking someone is even more difficult than stabbing. We had made sharp points out of the legs of my end table using my hatchet and this helped, but I still didn't kill the vampire on the first try.

To be honest, I didn't even know if a wooden stake was necessary at the time. I had seen it in movies and I saw people using them in the street, so I figured I'd better be safe than sorry.

I also decided that cutting the head off was necessary. So I did. Though my staking wasn't perfectly executed, it helped get the vampire incapacitated enough to chop her head off with the hatchet.

They don't bleed like we do, but they do bleed. It's just slower, and darker. It's more like oozing—disgusting.

"Let's get her out of here," Beth said.

"Wait," I said. "maybe we should keep her."

"You're sick."

"No, she might be the best protection we can get. Think about it. Who's going to mess with us if we have a rotting vampire body on the fire escape?"

Beth was silent for a moment and then nodded.

We prodded the bloody mass that was the second intruder off the fire escape, and let it fall onto the street. He fell with a thud and I saw three vampires rush toward him before I turned away. We kept the vampire and her head facing down through the fire escape grate so that everyone below could see her when they looked up. We covered her with the lining of my shower curtain so that she wouldn't burn too quickly in the sunlight.

Thank God we still had running water because I must have showered for an hour.

Before I stabbed the two intruders and staked my first vampire, I was the nice quiet girl at the office. Some of my coworkers liked to joke that I must have a hidden vicious side that no one knew about. It was funny at the time, but it turned out to be true.
3

It was mid-April when I killed the intruders. Most days were still a little chilly. Having a broken window and a vampire corpse didn't help with the comfort level in the apartment.

Beth and I finished boarding up the windows by the fire-escape as best we could. We weren't able to board the windows all the way so we pulled my blackout curtains closed so no one could see there were two 20-something girls alone in the apartment. Vampire corpse or not, we probably still would have presented a too-tempting target. Let them think the residents were dead, or a team of bad-ass vampire slayers.

The stench got really bad really fast. When they were unfortunate enough to find themselves dragged outside during the day, the living vampires burned fairly quickly in the sun. It usually took a little under five minutes. This probably didn't seem very quick to the vampire who was burning, but compared to a vampire corpse, it was quick. For some reason, the corpses tended to take longer.

My building was in the shade, and covering our vampire scarecrow with my shower curtain lining helped preserve her, but she still smoldered. Though covered from the top, her body still had the desired effect because anyone below could look up and see a dead vampire body and her head looking down at them through the grating of the fire escape.

Protection though she may have been, the smell of singed flesh was nauseating. Before the outbreak, I had stocked up on snack foods for book club. Beth and I considered ourselves fortunate that we had plenty of food, but unfortunate that the food was mostly stale crackers and old cheese. Our meals weren't terribly appetizing in the first place, but eating them with the smell of twice-dead, smoldering, decapitated vampire corpse permeating the living room made the experience infinitely worse.

Beth and I began to call her "Stella."

At first we were angry.

"What a crazy old hag. Who goes out that early anyway?" Beth would say.

"She's so ugly you'd think she'd wait to go out when everyone was drunk. What sober man would want to pick her up with that hideous dress and that nasty gash in her neck?"

"That's why she had to go for fatty out there."

Then, after a few days, when our plan appeared to be working and Stella was indeed keeping marauders and other vampires away, we started to take to her more kindly.

"Poor Stella. She probably just got a divorce. It was probably her asshole husband that tore her neck up like that."

"Can't blame her for getting out of there and wanting to move on."

"And then two younger ladies come along and ruin all her fun."

Beth and I always slept in shifts, but it was difficult. As scared as I was, lying down and purposefully going to sleep wasn't easy. Even knowing that Beth was up keeping watch barely helped.

Every single noise brought me wide awake. Sometimes I'd whisper to Beth, "Did you hear that? Are you sure it wasn't at the window? Are you sure there wasn't just a scratching sound at the door?" She'd whisper back that I was being paranoid...as if she didn't do the same thing when it was her turn to sleep.

By the time it was my turn to sit up, I was exhausted from the effort spent trying to sleep. There was nothing to do but sit up in the dark, clutching my hatchet and a stake.

There was no T.V., no radio, and despite the blackout curtains, I didn't feel very comfortable lighting candles to read by. So mostly I just sat there, trying to remember song lyrics, my favorite stories, or just counting the different noises I heard.

I'm not from New York. I'm from Virginia. It actually gets dark in Virginia and thus, I always found darkness to be necessary precedent to falling asleep.

When I moved to New York, I complained to no end about the noise and the bright lights—hence the blackout curtains in my apartment.

After we lost power, I longed for the bright lights to come in through the little crack above the stress bar in my window. But the city was pitch dark except for the occasional fires in the street and some fools who ran around with flashlights. I don't know if they thought they would save the city from the vampires or they were being sneaky by looting at night, when no sensible people would dare leave whatever safe haven they had found for themselves.

Sometimes, despite my terror, I would start to drift off, and then a scream or something breaking in the street would wake me. Sometimes, Beth imagined she heard something and woke me asking if I was still awake, and if I had heard something at the door.

"Of course I'm awake and I didn't hear anything, and if I did that was just the building settling. Go back to sleep."

I heard noises inside my building too. I heard people yelling, running, and loud crashing sounds.

One night, while I was up sitting watch, I heard a woman's blood-curdling scream come from the apartment next door. I had almost gotten used to screams, but this being right next door made me bolt upright out of my exhausted stupor.

Beth was beside me in about half a second with a handful of stakes. I couldn't move.

"Tell me I just had a nightmare," Beth whispered.

"Shhhh, no, it was next door."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure, be quiet."

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, the screaming came again. This time it was more drawn out. Whoever, or whatever was in the apartment must have caught her.

There was a big racket, so maybe the woman was fighting it off, but I couldn't tell if she was winning or losing.

"Do you know her?" Beth whispered.

"No," I hissed back. "Now shut up."

Neither one of us suggested going over to help. Neither one of us made a move toward the door. The only plan I was hatching was how to keep Beth from doing something stupid in case she felt inclined to go help. I didn't have to worry. She was probably having the same thoughts I was, though we never spoke about it.

I just kept praying that whatever it was would go ahead and finish the woman off and put her out of her misery. As I had told Beth, I didn't know the woman next door. In fact, I didn't know a single person in my building except the super. I suspected he was long dead anyway since the heat was off. He was a nice old man and he kept the boiler lit well into the warmer spring months when it was completely unnecessary. I was sure he would have done so even in the middle of a vampire epidemic, unless he had been killed.

The commotion next door didn't last very long, for which I was grateful. But, it didn't bring any feeling of relief. The silence afterward was worse than the screams.

Not only was the woman's door next to mine in the hallway, but her window shared the fire escape with my busted living room window. If whatever it was came out onto the fire escape instead of taking the door, we would have nothing between us but the blackout curtains, some flimsy boards, and Stella. Even though Stella was smelling quite putrid at that point, I preferred the solid door with the three deadbolts as my first line of defense.

Beth and I crouched in my living room, not moving, barely breathing. I felt that if I moved the smallest bit, the floor would creak and give us away.

We still didn't know what was in the apartment next door: human or vampire. Neither of us had a watch so I don't know how long we sat there. It felt like a million years.

I started to wonder why the sun hadn't come up. My back was aching and my hands were starting to cramp from clutching my stake so tightly.

Finally, I thought I heard a shuffling noise next door. Then I heard some floorboards creak as whatever it was started moving. It sounded like it was moving toward the door.

I heard the door open and almost sighed with relief, but kept quiet. Then I thought I heard it sniffing around. The door closed, but instead of hearing footsteps go down the hall to the stairwell, I heard steps go back into the living room.

I felt tears in my eyes, not out of sadness for the woman next door, but out of complete terror. I tried to calm myself. It was the middle of the night so it was probably a vampire, and it sounded like a loner.

We had dealt with a vampire before, Stella could attest to that. As far as I knew vampires didn't have guns or other weapons and that gave us a fair chance.

That was an odd moment that still stands out in my mind. That was when I realized I felt more comfortable believing there was a vampire next door rather than a person.

The thing walked over toward the window and I heard the fire escape creak. Why hadn't I heard the window open, or glass break? Had the window already been broken? Surely my neighbor hadn't been stupid enough to leave the window open. Or maybe she hadn't been my neighbor at all, maybe she crawled in from the escape. None of that mattered now. All that mattered was the creaking fire escape.

I knew that whatever was lurking out there, it had to go past our window to get to the ladder and climb down. I held my breath and waited. I felt like I would explode. Part of me wanted it to climb in so we could jump it and let out all the tension and fear that had been churning inside of us as we sat there listening to it tear into the woman next door.

The fire escape creaked, then was still. It sounded like it stopped. Again, I heard the sniffing noise. I didn't know if it was investigating Stella or trying to figure out whether fresh blood was waiting inside. After a few minutes it sounded as if it was climbing down the ladder.

I can't describe how I felt: relieved it had moved past us and yet slightly disappointed it hadn't come inside so we could kill it. Then at least we would know it was gone for good. What if I had been mistaken about the noises I heard? Maybe it was still out there. Maybe it knew we were inside and would come back with more of its kind.

Neither Beth nor I slept for the rest of the night. We stayed in the foyer where we could watch both the fire escape and the door. We could also see the hallway that led to the bedroom and kitchen.

I had visions of those things scaling five stories of brick wall and climbing in through the kitchen or bedroom windows. It seems a little silly now, but back then I had no idea what they were capable of. I was going off what I had seen in movies.

I even got the crazy idea to sprinkle some old Papa John's garlic sauce from the now defunct fridge, onto the windowsill where Stella was...just in case the rotting flesh didn't reek enough.

The one myth we had clearly busted by then was that of the invitation. Stella and the creature next door, if it had indeed been a vampire, had proven that those things weren't going to wait for an invitation. They would come in and help themselves to a late night snack in someone's living room whether or not they were invited.
4

Beth and I didn't say a word for the rest of the night. As the sun began to rise, I began to relax.

"It was a vampire I think," I said.

Beth looked concerned, "What do you mean?"

"I just mean I think a person would have at least tried some door handles or tried to poke through the boards on the window. If he's going to go to all the trouble to climb up five floors, a vampire corpse might not completely protect against his curiosity. A vampire might have eaten his fill and not cared so much."

"Okay, sure, I guess." Beth looked unconvinced, but we didn't talk about it again.

After the incident next door, we didn't hear any more noises in our building. The outside was much quieter as well. After three days of silence, Beth and I decided we had to leave the apartment and search for food and water.

We still had running water, but if the water lines broke or our water source was contaminated, we wouldn't last more than a few days. With that in mind, I wanted to stay prepared. It also wouldn't hurt to find some supplies to board up the smashed window.

We watched the sky all morning to make sure it was sunny with little chance of rain. I had never seen any vampires out during the day, but I was a little worried that they might come out if it was cloudy enough. We also kept an eye on the street below in case we saw any unsavory New Yorkers looking for trouble.

We didn't see anyone, so we left the apartment in the late morning. I felt more comfortable using the fire escape because I didn't know what might be lurking in the hallways and stairwell of my building. We hadn't been able to completely board up the window in the first place, and the boards that were on the window were easy to remove. I cringed when I thought about how easy it would be for an intruder to get through our flimsy defense system. We used the window next to Stella and I almost vomited from the stench when I crawled by her.

"Maybe we should shop for a new vampire corpse while we're out...something fresher," I suggested.

Beth didn't laugh.

We each wore a backpack with a bottle of water and some stakes, just in case. We still couldn't be one hundred percent sure there were no vampires out in the day. In addition, Beth carried the pepper spray and I carried a knife in case we encountered any people.

It was strange being out on the street after being locked up for so long. Midtown was always hustle and bustle, and once the panic happened, everything got even worse. Now I could hear the birds. For a moment I thought I heard a helicopter in the distance, but I couldn't see very far north or south because of the buildings.

The first place we went was the Duane Reade down the street. Fortunately, this one had windows that allowed in a decent amount of sunlight. The place had already been looted, but we managed to score a few bottles of water and some pretzels. I could foresee our biggest problems would be finding fresh food and weapons. We needed hardware to reinforce the apartment, and wood and tools to make sharp stakes. After our first adventure staking a vampire, I knew it wasn't as easy as it looked in the movies, and a sharper stake would be better.

There was a Home Depot a little over thirty blocks north and all the way on the East Side, but I also knew that two of its levels were underground. That meant it would probably be pitch dark inside, and it could be full of vampires, looters, or who knew what else. Even if we were able to get in and out safely, how then would we bring everything back thirty-plus blocks? Maybe our best bet was to raid nearby construction areas.

There was a bank that had been under construction two blocks away from my apartment. So we took our pretzels and water home and then headed to the bank. The bank's windows were covered in paper—maybe so the people outside couldn't see the unsightly mess inside.

The door was open a crack. "People have probably already been inside," I said.

"It could have been vampires," Beth said. "They could still be in there...in the dark."

Beth and I stood in silence for a few moments watching the building.

"Is it worth the risk?" I asked.

"Why don't we just break the window?" Beth suggested. "That should let in a lot of sunlight. If there are vampires in there they'll burn or at least have to run into a darker part of the building."

I nodded. "Not a bad idea."

We went back to the apartment again and got the baseball bat. Beth used to play softball in Central Park during the summer so I decided to let her have the first go, while I stood back holding a stake.

She took her stance, swung, and...not much happened. A spider web of cracks spread from the point of impact, but from the pained look on Beth's face, I thought she likely hurt her shoulders more than the window.

"Any point trying again?" I asked.

"I don't think it'll break with a baseball bat."

"No shit," a male voice said.

I spun around, stake ready, and saw three men in their late twenties or early thirties standing in the middle of the street. They all looked like they could use a hair-cut and a shave...not that I could pass judgment. With no hairdryer or straightener, I didn't know what to do with my hair besides put it back in a pony tail.

One was about my height with dark skin. He looked Latino. The other two were taller. One was light-skinned with reddish hair and wore a spiky dog collar. Seriously. A dog collar. The other was tan with dark hair. I thought he could be my type if he would clean himself up a little.

"Don't you see the Wells Fargo sign? You think you can just break a bank window with a baseball bat?" the guy in the dog collar scoffed.

"Sorry, I've never tried to break into a bank before," Beth replied.

"Well no need to get angry, but I mean common sense—"

"Are you looters?" I interrupted. I didn't know these guys and I didn't trust them. I wanted to get away.

Dog-collar man raised his eyebrows. "You're the ones trying to break into the bank."

I felt my face grow warm. I tried to think of something to say about how this was different than looting, but I decided not to let the conversation go any further.

"Look I don't know what you guys want, but you aren't getting it from us. So please just move along."

"Relax." The Latino man stepped forward, and Beth and I both stiffened. He put both hands up. "I'm Paulo, this guy is my roommate James. He has a big mouth, but he's a good guy." Dog-collar man, a/k/a James, rolled his eyes. Paulo continued, "This quiet guy is Scott. We just met him yesterday looting—or shopping rather—at Trader Joe's."

Scott, the one with the dark hair and the tan, gave us a little wave. Then there was an awkward silence. Scott finally spoke, "If you want us to go away we'll go away, but a group of five is better than three, and it's certainly better than two."

Beth bristled. "We've handled ourselves fine so far."

"So do you want us to go?" Paulo asked.

"What did you do in the real world for work?" I asked instead of answering.

James responded, "Paulo was in school for journalism and I was an actor and—"

"James was a waiter," Paulo interrupted.

"Screw you Paulo, I was on Law and Order."

"Everyone in New York has been on Law and Order," Paulo retorted. I could tell at least they were honest about being roommates. They bickered like a married couple, and I was beginning to like them despite my initial misgivings.

"He may have a point," I said. "But it's still pretty cool."

"Thanks," James said.

"And you?" I turned to Scott. "What's your deal?"

"I was in banking," he said it with enough chagrin that I believed him.

"Well now we know we can't trust you," I said in mock-horror.

"Sorry."

"Oh stop," Beth interrupted, "I'm Beth and this is Ailis. We were both lawyers, we can't talk down about anyone's career choices."

"Ailis?" Scott asked.

"My great-grandmother was Irish. It gets a little butchered sometimes with the way it's written."

"I'll try to get it right." He smiled. "But what are you doing trying to break into a bank?"

James jumped in. "You know Saks is having a sale and everything is free!"

"Very clever," Beth said. "We wanted construction supplies to reinforce our...Ailis's apartment."

"Well if you trust us, we can help," Paulo offered. "I don't think you're going to break that window, so we'll have to take the door. James can go first since he has his ingenious dog collar."

"Bite me," James said.

"You're going to have to start being civilized now that there are ladies around," Paulo shot back.

"Can we just get on with it?" Scott started walking toward the door. "I'd rather deal with the vampires than you two and I've only known you guys a day."

Paulo and James became serious as we gathered around the door. "Now," Scott began, "I think the best thing to do is to go in as a group facing all directions so we can head anything off. We'll head straight for the window and one of the girls..."

"Girls?" I asked.

"Sorry, one of the ladies can pull the paper off the window while the rest of us watch her back. Once the place has some sunlight we'll be okay as long as we watch out for looters—the bad kind I mean."

"Now listen," I said, "Beth and I killed a man and then the vampire that came to drink his blood and then we left the vampire on our fire escape for a week. We don't need coddling."

Silence.

"You left it there?" James finally asked.

"I'll pull the paper off the window," Beth volunteered.

"Okay well that's settled," Scott continued. "James, it'll be just like the police on Law and Order."

Scott set the plan and organized us in only a few minutes. My stomach churned at the thought of going into the dark bank, but I had to admit I felt better having the three men there.

Scott pulled open the door and went right, stake in one hand, flashlight in the other. James was right behind him and headed left toward the window. Paulo followed and moved straight ahead. They formed a triangle and Beth moved into the center. I followed so that we made a circle around her.

The place looked eerie with the flashlights scanning the walls and darting into corners, but I didn't see anything.

I noticed a large paint can sitting near the door. "Watch my back," I told Beth. I bent down and moved the paint can to prop the door open as wide as it would go. That gave us a streak of dim sunlight.

We all moved quickly toward the window where we surrounded Beth while she began tearing the paper down, filling the room with more and more sunlight, but I noticed it wasn't as bright as when we had gone out. It must have been very late in the afternoon by that time.

When Beth was finished, the place was fairly well lit. There was an abundance of tools, but unfortunately some of the best ones were power tools, which were now worthless.

Most importantly, however, there were nails and boards that were perfect for fortifying our windows, and pieces of scrap wood and furniture that would make great stakes. What I really would have liked was to find something to sharpen my hatchet, but I had no such luck.

We found a wheelbarrow and a couple of rolling plastic trash bins and filled them with anything that we thought we could use that night. We could come back the next day.

The last thing I grabbed on my way out was a large plastic sheet as I reminded everyone we still had a rotting vampire corpse on our fire escape.

"Where do you live?" Paulo asked.

"We're only a few blocks from here," Beth said.

"We live in Union Square," Paulo said. "Why don't we all go back to your apartment and we can at least help you get started boarding up your place before nightfall?"

We left the bank and rolled our supplies back to my building.

"Jesus H. Christ, you weren't kidding," James muttered when he saw Stella peering down at him from the fire escape.

I had had time to get used to her, and I still found her pretty disgusting.

"Yeah that's why I brought the sheet," I said. "She's been smoldering for days and just pushing her off the fire escape probably won't be easy...but that's what you guys are here for!"

"Huh uh." Paulo shook his head.

"Not for that," Scott said. "That's your own mess."

I had to hand it to them. Despite their obvious disgust, they helped us move Stella off the fire escape. She was in rough shape and I assumed that once she lay out in the street uncovered the next day the sunlight would finish her off.

James, of course, had to offer to give us back the shower curtain liner.

Beth declined for the both of us as I considered staking him. Besides that, I was feeling more and more comfortable around the guys. If they were the types who were planning to catch us off our guard and torture us, I doubted they would have been so genial about moving a vampire corpse from in front of our window.

"Is there anyone else in your building?" Scott asked.

"Not that I know of," I replied. "Someone was killed in that apartment just a couple of nights ago." I gestured toward the open window next door. "We haven't been in there so I don't know what you might find. There are other apartments you guys could stay in tonight though if you can get in."

"Why don't you guys just stay with us?" Beth suggested.

What was wrong with her? She was certainly nicer than I was and, I thought, a little too quick to trust these guys. Although I was feeling more comfortable around them, I wasn't ready to invite them to stay with us.

I turned to Beth and raised my eyebrows. "Can we talk about this for a minute?"

"Look," Paulo said, "it would be easier and much safer for all of us."

"We don't bite," Scott quipped.

"Well maybe we do," I said slowly looking him in the eye. "I don't know why you trust us yet. We may have gone crazy living up here with Stella."

"Christ, you named it?" James looked horrified.

I think my face must have turned bright red and I was genuinely embarrassed. Maybe I really had gone crazy. I tried to recover. "And who the hell wears a dog collar? Seriously?"

"Someone who's smart and thinks ahead that's who. Any vampire that bites me is going to get a spike through the roof of his mouth."

"That is kind of genius," Beth chimed in.

Whose side was she on? I was starting to feel like she was flirting with these guys.

"Please, enough," Paulo, the voice of reason interrupted. I could see why he and James made a good team. "The sun is setting and we need to make a decision."

Scott was sitting on the couch twirling a stake in his hand like he didn't care either way, which annoyed me more than all the arguing. I felt the need to bring him into the conversation. "Well..."

"Well what?" he said nonchalantly.

This irritated me further. "What do you think?"

"I think it's your apartment and while property laws don't really apply anymore we'll leave if you want us to. But, if we wanted to do something to you we could have done it by now and I think you know that too."

I glared at him.

"That's not a threat, it's just the truth. I think you also know that it makes zero sense for the two of you to stay in this apartment with a busted window by yourselves now that you've lost your vampire security blanket. I think you'll have a hard time boarding up the window while Beth fights off the vampires trying to get in."

Apparently I was out-numbered and even worse, Scott was right. There was no way I was going to stay in that apartment with a busted window and only Beth to help protect it.

"Fine," I agreed, "but I'm not sleeping unless Beth is awake and vice versa.

"Deal," Paulo agreed. "Now let's please get to work on that window, they're going to start coming out any minute now."

I had to admit I was no genius with tools, so we were lucky we had the guys. James was especially handy. Beth made herself busy putting together a plate of old cheese and crackers and our new bag of pretzels. I began to feel bad for having been so ornery.

"Did you pick up your construction skills building theater sets?" I asked James.

"Yep, unfortunately I ended up doing a lot more set work than acting."

"Well I really appreciate it. You should have seen the job we did before, it wasn't very good. I don't even know what these walls are made of. There's a reason I don't have any pictures hanging up."

"Glad to help."

"You know that dog collar really does look crazy, James," Scott said. "I was a little worried when I first ran into you two yesterday. If it hadn't been for Paulo I don't know if I would have stuck around."

I was starting to feel better. "But it really isn't a terrible idea," I said. "I don't know that I'm interested in trying it though, I think it would restrict my movement."

"You'll all change your tune one of these days," James assured us.

Beth brought the food in, bringing my mood down a bit. I felt like I was about to eat a plateful of cardboard. But the guys didn't say anything except, "Thank you very much," as they dug in.

"I have some wine," I volunteered. "It isn't cold and maybe these aren't the times to be getting drunk, but if whoever is on the second or third shift wants to have a glass you're welcome to it."

"Not a bad idea," James said. "I volunteer for one of those shifts."

"Me too," Beth said...a little too quickly, I thought.

"I'm happy to do whatever," Paulo said.

"Do you still feel more comfortable with one of you girls—or ladies rather—on every shift?" Scott asked.

"Yes, I do. Beth and I usually take turns doing three hour shifts. We do it even after the sun comes up because of the looters."

"That's more work for you, but I get it." Scott looked at his watch. "It's 10 now, so it'll be about 10:30 or so when the first shift starts. The sun comes up a little after 6, but since you're still worried about looters let's keep the shifts going until 8:30 so we all get enough sleep. I'm exhausted so I need to sleep now if Paulo doesn't mind taking the first shift."

Paulo nodded.

"Since we're all tired we'll make the first shift the shortest," Scott said. "Can you stay awake until 1:30 or so? Then wake me up and I'll join Ailis for however long she plans to stay awake before waking Beth. James, you're on at 5."

"I want to talk to Beth alone about our shifts," I said.

Scott shrugged his shoulders and Beth and I went into the bedroom. Our three hour sleep shift didn't make a lot of sense with this setup, so I suggested splitting the night 50/50.

Beth begged for the last shift. I was exhausted, but I agreed.

I secretly wondered whether she was just trying to be on the same shift with James. I thought she had been flirting with him earlier, even though we had only just met him. Was this some kind of modern day, damsel-in-distress scenario?

"One more thing," I told her. "You're sleeping on the sofa. The guys can have the bed. We have to keep an eye on each other, at least for this first night."

The guys looked shocked when I told them they could share the bed and Beth and I would sleep shifts on the sofa. They protested at first, saying they couldn't kick us out of our own bed. They were so nice about it that it made me feel awkward after telling them so many times that I didn't trust them.

Scott must have known where I was coming from because he rescued me. "It makes more sense anyway to have two of us in the bed. Otherwise it would be a girl in the bed, a guy on the couch, and someone would get the floor. If one of you wants to volunteer to sleep on the floor, be my guest." The conversation ended there.

Everyone but Paulo and I had a glass of wine and went to bed. Then, Paulo and I dragged two chairs out into the foyer so we could see both the door and the window to the fire escape. Even though the sofa was far from the boarded-up window, Beth insisted that she would never be able to sleep there. The hallway was too narrow for the sofa so I told her it was either the living room or the floor in the hallway. I was tired and grumpy already so I gave her another half glass of wine and she went to sleep on the sofa in only a few minutes.

Although we had the window boarded up, I didn't want to light a candle or a flashlight that might keep Beth awake on the couch.

Paulo and I sat in silence for a while, listening to the building settle and Beth breathe.

Finally he began to whisper, "Where are you from?"

"Virginia."

"How'd you end up in New York?"

"It was the only place I could get a job that would pay my loans after law school. I regretted it from the beginning, but that was nothing compared to now. What about you?"

"I'm from Colombia. My father made the mistake of joining a teachers' union and was killed by the one of the paramilitaries when I was a kid. My mom emptied their bank account and bribed her way and mine to the United States."

"Wow, is she still here?"

"No. She barely spoke English when we got to New York, but she worked hard all her life to make sure I had everything. When I graduated high school she kept pestering me to go to college. I messed around for three of four years then finally gave in. She was ecstatic. She had already set up a college savings account so I could go to school at NYU. After I started my freshman year she told me 'Paulo, I am Colombian, I'm going back to help Colombia.' So she went back."

"That's pretty amazing, but sucks for us. She sounds like a tough lady. I'd like to have her with us here in New York."

Paulo continued. "After she had been there two and a half months, my aunt called me frantic, saying Mamma hadn't come home. I threw a few things into a bag and got in a cab to LaGuardia where I booked the first flight to Bogotá. I called my aunt to tell her when to pick me up, but as soon as I heard her voice I knew what she was going to tell me. She said they had found my Mamma shot six times at close range. They dumped her on the side of a road like garbage."

What does one say to something like that? "My God, I'm so sorry."

"That was right after Thanksgiving last year. They show all these commercials now about how Colombia is safe and the politicians like to say the FARC and the paramilitaries are gone. It's not true. That's when I decided to be a journalist. There are too many dishonest people out there, we don't need a dishonest media too."

"I hear you there," I said lamely. I was never good with moments like that, probably because I myself had lived such a sheltered life up until then.

It made me realize how much I still had. After all, I had no family in New York and I worked so much I didn't even have that many friends. As far as I knew, my family was still safe in the outside world.

"Thank you for telling me about yourself." I still felt uncomfortable and wished I knew the correct response. I thought Beth would know. She was more of a people-person than I was.

Paulo shrugged. "I understand your distrust of people. When there's nothing to stop them, people do horrible things to each other. I appreciate that you gave us a chance."

Here he was telling me he appreciated me.

"I know this sounds lame and I'm awkward when it comes to this kind of thing, but if there's ever anything I can do for you, I've got your back." I told him.

He smiled. "Thanks. We're in this together. We've all got each others' backs."

He looked at his watch. "After 1:30 already, time to wake Scott."

He went into the bedroom and Scott came out rubbing his eyes. "Do you have any gum? Otherwise you're not going to want to talk to me tonight." Charming.

"No, but there's some toothpaste in the bathroom. Brush with your finger or something."

"Thanks." He gave me a sleepy smile. Why was I being so rude? Maybe I just needed some sleep.

After using the toothpaste, Scott came in and sat down. "Sure you don't want to take a break? You look exhausted."

"I'm fine."

We exchanged niceties. Scott was from California. His dad was an entertainment lawyer in L.A. His parents divorced when he was in middle school and his mom moved him to San Diego where she regularly dated naval officers. He surfed, a fact that made me jealous.

I had tried surfing once, and while I loved the feeling of standing on the board and catching a wave, I had also gained a new appreciation for the energy and stamina it took just to paddle out to where the waves broke.

Finding that he was versed in a topic that interested me, I asked him to tell me more about surfing. Scott obliged, and told me about learning to surf and some of the crazy surfers he knew who would go out in the worst weather to catch the most dangerous waves. He swore he had never been that stupid.

I felt my eyes getting heavy, but I vowed to stay awake until Beth's shift.

The last thing I remembered, Scott was telling me about bonfires on the beach as I drifted off to sleep.
5

I woke up the next morning on the sofa with sunlight streaming through the window. The guys had removed some of the boards they had put up the night before and were holding them at different angles and talking quietly. James turned and looked at me. "Looks like you survived the night with us after all."

"Ugh, I'm really sorry, Scott and I didn't both fall asleep did we?"

"Nope," Scott replied. "I guess my conversation really is that boring. That's what happens in finance."

"No, no I was just so tired...how did I get to the sofa?"

"I waited until James's shift and then woke Beth and we helped you stumble to the couch. I guess you don't remember."

I felt a little childish. "Thanks for letting me sleep."

"No worries." Scott turned back to his work. They were working out a way to create a protective door over the window so that we could use the fire escape during the day or in case of an emergency, but could still board it up securely at night. I felt it was something I should have learned from Little House on the Prairie.

The guys decided they had the makeshift door fixed enough that we could go out for the day, but made us promise to keep an eye out for large hinges they could use to make the door even more practical.

We started to head down to the Village where Paulo and James lived. I felt that everyone had reached a silent understanding that we were all going to stick together and we needed to decide which building we were going to stay in and who was going to have to move.

We were walking and talking and keeping an eye out for anything useful when Paulo stopped. "Listen."

I heard the distant humming. It sounded like a rapidly approaching helicopter. At first it was a shock to remember that there was an outside world. It had only been a couple of weeks since we were quarantined, but it felt like a lifetime.

My next thought was of rescue. I thought they had probably waited for everything to calm down so it would be safe for a rescue team to come in and evacuate the survivors.

We moved toward the sound, craning our necks and trying to find the helicopter among the silent skyscrapers. We found it, flying low over the city, and it seemed like the people in the helicopter spotted us as well because the helicopter moved toward us and dropped several leaflets over our heads.

Surely they weren't here to remind us not to cross the river again.

James reached a leaflet first. "It's news from the outside." Thank you Captain Obvious. "It says the virus has been quarantined in Manhattan and all survivors are to meet in Bryant Park today at noon for more information."

"More information?" Beth asked. "What does that even mean? Are they going to evacuate us or what?"

"It doesn't say." James frowned. "Do you think they can have any idea what we're going through down here? How can that be all the information they give us?"

"I guess the only thing to do is to go," Beth said.

Paulo furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't like it. Why would they ask us to meet in Bryant Park without even telling us why?"

"You think they would hurt us?" Scott asked.

"Maybe it's my background, but I don't trust them." Paulo shook his head. "They'll do what's best and easiest for them politically. End of story."

"And you think it might be easiest just to sweep us all under the rug and start fresh with New York?" I asked.

"Probably not likely," Paulo sighed. "But you can understand my paranoia, and you never know. People like to think it can never happen to them, not in their country. But it can and it does. We have to go though."

He was right. There was really no question of us not going. Any chance of rescue or news from the outside world was worth the risk. As it was already close to noon we put off going to the Village and headed back toward Midtown and Bryant Park.

Unlike some of the other parks in the city, Bryant Park had not been used to burn bodies. Bryant Park remained relatively clean with only some litter and a few mangled bodies around the edges.

When we arrived, I saw small groups of people huddled in different corners of the park. It was surreal. I had already become used to being isolated and I'd forgotten there were probably more people like me, hiding in their apartments for the past two weeks.

By the time the helicopter came to Bryant Park there were about three dozen people there. I saw only two children: a little boy who looked about four, and a little girl who looked about six or seven. They were standing with a man who I assumed was their father.

The helicopter circled a few times as if it might land. I thought it would land, but instead it dropped a large package strapped to a parachute. The package landed neatly near the center of the park. Then another package strapped to a parachute was dropped and landed near the first. After the packages landed, the helicopter flew away.

At first no one stepped forward.

Scott finally started to move toward the packages, but then another man came striding confidently across the grass from the south side of the park. He walked right up to the first package. Scott paused and then he, James, and Paulo walked over. Slowly, the rest of us followed.

The first package contained water bottles and packages of dried fruit and nuts. People began snatching at them and arguing.

I ignored them because I saw Scott and the new guy had opened something even more wonderful: two radios. The new guy began fidgeting with one of them and it made a hissing noise, then squealed loudly. Everyone who had been fighting over the food grew quiet.

The new guy kept fidgeting with the radio but couldn't get it to work. "Can I help?" Paulo asked. "I think I can make it work."

"I know how to do this," the man snapped.

We all looked at each other. Just the kind of person we wanted to be stuck on an island with.

The man appeared to be in his late 30s and had dirty blond hair. It appeared he had even been taking the time to shave lately. I didn't have time for his ego.

"What's your name?" I asked the man.

He looked startled that I had spoken to him so nicely. "Seth."

"I'm Ailis, this is Paulo." I picked up the second radio and handed it to Paulo. "Whoever makes contact first wins a bag of trail mix." I had stopped smiling.

Paulo had the radio working immediately.

"Must be something wrong with mine," Seth mumbled.

We heard a male voice over the radio, breaking through static. "Manhattan, Manhattan, do you read?" He sounded very serious. "Manhattan, Manhattan, come in."

Paulo answered, "Yes, this is Manhattan. We're the plague survivors, can you hear me?"

"Manhattan is that you?"

Everyone was craning to hear. "Yes, yes!" Paulo said excitedly. "We're in Bryant Park in Manhattan, is someone coming for us?"

"Manhattan, how many survivors do you have?"

Paulo looked around. "Looks like about forty or so."

There was a long silence.

"Only forty?"

Paulo surveyed the area again. "Yeah, more or less."

Another long silence. "Is anyone infected?"

"No, no. If you've been infected you can't come out in the sun. The vampires are all underground or inside right now. It's safe to land in the daylight, there's no danger at all to the rescuers."

Another man came on the radio. His voice carried more authority. "Manhattan, what supplies do you need? Over."

I felt my heart drop. I hoped against hope, but I suspected I knew where this was going. I could tell by the look on his face that Paulo did too, but most of the people looked puzzled.

Paulo played dumb. "What do you mean what supplies do we need? We need to get out of here. There are only forty people, so it won't take more than a few helicopter trips."

I thought I heard the man sigh. "Manhattan, we are unable to send a rescue operation at this time."

"What do you mean? Did the infection spread? Are people outside New York sick?"

"No, thank God."

There were sighs of relief and even some smiles amongst the group.

But Paulo wasn't smiling. "Well then what the hell do you mean? Say it straight why don't you?"

"Look buddy, what's your name?"

"Paulo."

"Look Paulo." The man pronounced it more like "Pal-O." "Look Pal-O, I know this is tough to hear, but we are going to have to keep you guys quarantined a little longer."

A collective wail rose up.

The man with the two kids snatched the radio from Paulo, "What the hell do you mean quarantined? Quarantined for what? We aren't sick."

"I'm sorry." The man sounded genuinely sorry. "We don't understand this disease yet and we can't risk infecting the rest of the country."

"Holy shit." The man with the kids practically dropped the radio. "Holy shit, I can't believe this."

"Listen," the radio man said. "We're going to take everyone's name and contact information for their families so we can notify next of kin you're alive."

I assumed my parents thought I was dead at that point. They probably had no hope.

"My family is here!" the man with the two children yelled. "I have two kids here goddamnit, the only two kids that survived this thing. And their mother..." he held the radio up as if to whisper, but the kids were already starting to cry, "...their mother is probably down in the subway somewhere drinking rat blood." He started to choke up and Paulo took the radio back from him as the man grabbed both his children and hugged them close to him.

Paulo continued. "Why don't you evacuate us and keep us quarantined somewhere else? Anywhere else. There's no need to keep us here."

"Can't be done," the man said.

"Why not?"

"We don't have the facilities, the resources. Besides, how would we get you to another location without infecting your rescuers? We don't even know whether this is airborne."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," I shouted. "You can blow up bridges and block tunnels and build a bloody wall along two rivers in just a couple of days, and you can't find a place to put forty people who aren't even sick? If this were airborne we'd all be sick by now. You can send us to an old leper colony if you want to."

The man on the radio seemed unsure what to say next. "Look, it will only be for a short time. Like I said, we just don't know enough about the virus. Maybe you all are just lucky enough to be immune. You could still be carriers."

"Every vampire I've seen has bite marks," I said slowly as if talking to a very slow child. "This isn't airborne."

"How many vampires have you been that close to...to see the bite marks I mean?" the man asked. He sounded truly interested.

"Plenty," I lied. "I've seen enough to know it isn't airborne."

"Well that's very interesting," the man said, "we'll take it under advisement. For now, you must stay the course. This will take just a little longer."

"How long?" Paulo snapped. He looked as if he had no patience left.

"We don't know, our medical teams are working on it."

"How long?"

"Maybe a week or so."

Part of what made me a good lawyer in the real world is the fact that I can detect even very low quantities of bullshit in people's voices, even in their writing. I could detect large quantities of bullshit in this guy's voice. I knew we were going to be in this for the long haul.

"You're a liar and a sonofabitch," shouted James. I was surprised he hadn't spoken before that point.

"Look, Pal-O, there's nothing we can do right now and there's certainly nothing you can do about your situation, you understand?" The authority was back in the man's voice. "So you can either give us a list of supplies you would like us to drop off—and let me tell you, we'll drop supplies for you every day if you need them—or you can bitch and moan and call me names and we'll just turn this radio off until tomorrow when you've had time to think about it." James looked as if he might spit at the radio.

"Thanks dad," I mumbled, but then just thinking about my dad made me want to cry. I turned away from the radio and saw that Scott was looking at me. I was embarrassed, and looked down at the ground.

"Fine," Paulo said through gritted teeth. "Give us a few minutes, buddy."

We came up with a list of items, and the man promised they would be dropped off that very day. We asked for food, water bottles, flashlights, batteries and the like. I also put in a special request for a knife sharpener or whatever would best sharpen a hatchet. The strangers gave me some funny looks for that one, but my little group nodded in approval.

We also asked for a lot of sharp stakes, and the man on the radio did not seem surprised. "Of course," he said. "We know how essential those are to your safety. We have already had special stakes made that will be dropped off today. They were machine-made, you couldn't get tips this sharp making them by hand. We even dipped them in holy water, just in case. We'll also be sending you fresh garlic cloves daily."

So they weren't as clueless about the virus as they pretended to be. I was pretty sure the holy water would be worthless however, as I had seen vampires coming and going to and from the Greek Orthodox church across the street. But, I didn't want to burst the man's bubble like he had just burst ours, he sounded very proud of the stakes.

Just before signing off with promises of dropping off our delivery in two hours, Scott crossed over to the radio. "Hey, could you add a new hatchet to the list?"

"Oh me too!" James shouted, like a kid at Christmas. Soon Paulo and a few others had added hatchets to their wish lists.

The man on the radio sounded like he was in great spirits now and promised our packages would arrive shortly, and that we would not be disappointed in the quality of the stakes they were sending.

There was an awkward pause, and everyone fidgeted. Then, Beth walked up to the radio. "Thank you," she said.

"You're more than welcome," the man replied. "We're all rooting for you and we'll have you out soon! Imagine how happy your families will be to hear you've all practically come back from the dead."

And it was true. We had been living in a sort of limbo for the past couple of weeks, wondering whether we would be rescued or dragged down to hell by the vampires. We weren't saved yet, but maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
6

The supplies were delivered to us as promised, and it did feel like an odd sort of Christmas. We finally had some fresh food, including fruits and vegetables. I had never thought I could crave salad, but I did, and greens never tasted so good. The military also sent a large case of fresh garlic, which I was thankful they packed separately from everything else.

Although I had tried my Papa John's sauce, I wasn't sure at that point if garlic would do anything, so I asked around. One guy, Lee, said he'd put fresh garlic around his window when the virus started and he thought it kept the vampires away. It couldn't hurt to try.

Everyone was happy with their new hatchets, but the stakes were the most impressive part of the care package. The man on the radio hadn't been exaggerating, those things were awesome.

The wood on the handles of the stakes was curved and smooth with no sign of splintering and had little indentations that made for easier gripping. The tips were needle-sharp, and I imagined they would go in quickly and easily. The wood hadn't been treated with any kind of sealant. It was left rough so that stakes would leave splinters as they went in. The stakes came in different sizes, numbered so that we could select a comfortable size and then know what size to ask for if we needed more. The makers must have thought long and hard about the design of our stakes.

As angry as I was that we weren't being rescued, I was grateful to whoever made those stakes. I thought about the stake-makers putting their time and effort and maybe even some late nights into the design of our stakes, our defense against the vampires.

There were plenty of stakes to go around and we divided them up like the rest of the loot. I was excited about them and was surprised at myself for wanting to try them out...for looking forward to trying to them out.

"I'm ready to give this a test run on Seth right now," Scott said as he walked up to stand beside me.

I looked toward the park fountain. Seth was there, surrounded by the father with the kids and two or three other people. He was leaping and jabbing and making faces and I couldn't tell if he was trying to recreate some epic vampire battle he had fought or if he had a bee buzzing wildly around in his pants. He looked foolish and I doubted he would be so cavalier if he actually met a group of vampires, or even just one for that matter.

"I was just thinking something like that," I replied.

We were quiet for a few minutes as we watched Seth act out his drama.

"Is it wrong," I continued, "that I'm suddenly excited for the sunset? That I actually want to go try these out?"

Scott raised his eyebrows, and I felt my face flush. I thought he must be thinking of a quick way to get away from me, but after a moment he shook his head. "No, to be honest I was thinking the same thing. I just didn't know if it was a guy thing."

I felt slightly relieved. "I just don't think of them as human anymore, not really."

Scott was still watching Seth. "Let's get a small group together and go out, but not tonight, that's too dangerous. We'll take these new stakes tomorrow morning and see if we can find any vampires hiding in your building. I'm sure you'd like to get rid of those first. And let's take some old stakes just in case these new ones aren't as good as they appear to be."

"I guess we should talk to the others first?"

"Agreed. We should also make sure those kids are in a safe place tonight. I assume they are since they made it this far, but I'll go talk to them and see if they need anything and you can talk to James and the crew."

Scott went to talk to the father and I walked over to Paulo and Beth who were talking to a girl I hadn't seen before. Beth introduced her as Leila.

"This might sound crazy," I said, "but Scott and I want to go try out these new stakes in the morning. Would you guys care to join?"

Beth looked horrified, but nodded slowly.

"Oh no." Leila shook her head. "I'd be too scared."

Paulo looked thoughtful for a moment as I waited for him to respond. "Yes," he finally said, "I was thinking we should clear out your building and maybe move some more people in. It would be a good base so close to the park, but I don't want to make it a regular thing." He paused. "They were people once."

I felt awkward. "Of course, that's what I meant," I said quickly. "I'll go find James." I walked away.

James had wandered down to Seth and was casually taunting him. As I walked up, he was asking Seth exactly how many vampires he had killed and what they had looked like.

"James, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked.

"Sure," James replied, "but I was just learning about how Seth not only survived the past two weeks, but took out a shit-ton of vampires in the process."

Seth beamed.

"Okay yeah, but I need to ask you something, it might sound kind of nutty."

"I'm in!"

"Seriously..." I started.

"Yeah seriously." He looked excited. "You're going out tonight to kill vampires aren't you?"

"Not tonight, tomorrow morning. And how did you know?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"I'm in too," Seth said.

"I don't think so." I turned to him. "We don't want the whole group going...it would just be too cumbersome."

"Oh let him come," James said, winking at me. "He claims he has all this vampire-killing experience, he'd be a great asset."

"Not just claim, I'm serious," Seth said, "You should have seen the first night, there were half a dozen breaking down my door..."

I grabbed James by the arm and led him a short distance away. "This isn't a game," I whispered. "It's not some funny trick you play on someone. He's clearly lying."

"Well yeah, obviously."

"And even though he seems like a bit of a tool we're not trying to get him killed...or us for that matter. Who knows what he might do to try to prove his supposed vampire-slaying skills?"

"Oh come on," James said seriously. "It'll be fun and he'll probably just hide in the middle of the group and let us do the dirty work. Once he gets around real vampires he'll be too scared to try anything stupid."

Scott walked up to James and me. "The man's name is Tony and the two kids are John and Rebecca. Tony said they're fine for now, but I think we should go over tomorrow and make sure they're all set."

"Well we're all set here," I said, crossing my arms. "We have a group of six for vampire-hunting tomorrow morning."

"Six?" Scott asked. "Our whole group and who else?"

"Seth," I said, glaring at James.

"You're kidding."

"C'mon Scotty it'll be fine," James said, rolling his eyes.

Scott shrugged his shoulders. "He's a grown man, and can do what he likes with his own life, but if he puts us in any danger I'll leave him in the middle of a pack of vampires."

"Geez man." James held his hands up. "I'm not asking you to babysit him."

"Whatever," Scott replied. "It's getting late and we need to get inside soon."

That was something we could all agree on. The guys wanted to go back to their respective apartments and get some things, but agreed to come back to our building before sunset. Having five people to take turns sitting up was much easier than two.

As my apartment building was closest, we took most of Paulo's, Scott's, and James's rations and promised to keep them until they could take them to their apartments.

We also agreed that Paulo would keep one of the radios and Tony and his kids would take the second. Paulo showed Tony how to use the radio both to communicate with the outside and to communicate with us.

Paulo tried, but was unable to communicate with anyone else. We promised the rest of the group we would ask for more radios with the next helicopter drop. Maybe we could find other radios in the city that could reach the outside world. I suspected, however, that the government would try to prevent independent communications.

About thirty minutes before sunset the guys came over to my apartment, re-checked the boards on my window and the locks on my door, and settled in for the night.

That night was uneventful and the most restful I'd had since the outbreak.
7

The next morning, we met Seth outside my building as planned. Leila showed up too, even though she insisted she didn't want to participate. She said that she was too afraid to go in the building, but wanted to help. I appreciated this and I think the others did as well. I didn't want to risk my life clearing the building out for people who didn't care to help out.

Leila had brought fruit and water from our supply drop the previous day. She said she would have everything ready for us when we needed a break. She was bubbly and smiled a lot, which I thought was a strange attitude to have considering the circumstances. I wondered whether the events of the past couple of weeks had affected her mind. I also thought she might be flirting with the guys a little, maybe looking for male protection. I couldn't blame her. These were times for making friends with as many strong, smart people as one could find.

We were also joined by a tall man in his late thirties named Dwayne who said he could help us clear out the apartments. Dwayne had been in construction and also did handyman work. He told us that he could get us into any locked apartment in the building, which, if true, would make him a valuable asset. I made a mental note to ask him to check the boards on my windows before sunset that day after we finished breaking into apartments and boarding up the apartments we cleared out.

Neither Beth nor Paulo talked much. Beth seemed nervous, but that was natural considering we were about to break into apartments that likely contained vampires and dead bodies. Scott was being his usual serious, business-like self. James was acting excited until he saw that Beth wasn't, and then he started acting more subdued. I saw through the act: he was anxious to try out his new toys.

I was excited myself. I felt like I was finally taking control. After hiding out like a hunted animal for over two weeks, I was becoming the hunter. I was taking charge.

Excited as I was, I was nervous at the same time. It was like that feeling I usually got right before getting on a big roller coaster that's supposed to be bigger and faster than all the rest...eager, but scared too. Unfortunately, I feared my chances of being killed by a vampire that day were far greater than the chance of dying on a roller coaster.

Seth was practically bouncing off the walls, and he made no effort to hide it. He couldn't stop talking about the vampires he planned to kill and how he would do it. He even tried to give us instructions on how best to go after them. He reminded me of one of those yappy dogs New Yorkers used to love. "Yap yap yap," was all I could hear Seth say. I was glad we were outdoors, because I thought he might wet himself.

"Is he seriously this excited?" Scott whispered.

"That's what I thought at first too," I whispered back, "but I think he's just nervous and trying to cover it up. Look, when he holds the stake he can't even keep his hand from shaking."

"He could be on drugs."

"Being a banker, you would know all about that," I teased.

In between his yaps, I could make out that Seth was asking for a plan. I really hadn't thought of one, I just assumed we'd walk in the front door and work our way up. Scott suggested that we do the opposite and work our way down from the sixth floor—the top floor. My apartment was on the fifth floor and Scott suggested that we should make sure we got to it as soon as possible after securing the floor above me.

We all agreed working from the top down made sense. I thought it made even more sense to save the basement for last. I figured that would be the most likely place vampires were hiding, and we should have our skills honed by the time we got down there.

Another group of about eight or ten people had gathered outside my building while we were planning. They didn't want any part of our mission, but like Leila, they wanted to contribute in some way. Some volunteered to take away bodies if we found any, and others volunteered to help board up the building after we cleared it, in exchange for a secure apartment.

The six of us who would do the dirty work climbed the fire escape to the sixth floor and found that one of the windows was already busted.

"Do you want to be first?" James asked Seth.

Seth didn't say a word but shook his head.

"You're the one with the dog collar, James," Paulo said. "Show us what you've got."

"You all need to get collars," James said, grimacing. "I guess since Scott went into the bank first, I'll go in first this time. But next it's going to be Seth."

"We'll all take turns," I said.

James knocked away some of the broken glass with his hatchet, and, clutching a stake, put his head and his right arm through the window. "Hello? Anyone in here? We aren't here to loot or hurt you, we're just looking for vampires." The last thing we needed was to get killed by some scared resident still holed up in his apartment.

There was no answer, so James climbed in and the rest of us followed. The place was a mess and it smelled terrible. I suspected we might find a body, and we did. She was in the bedroom lying on her bed, on top of the covers as if she had been extremely hot. Her windows were covered with blackout curtains.

The dead woman looked old and her nightstand held a plethora of painkillers, including throat spray. When we still had power, the television had informed us that the vampire virus started with flu-like symptoms. I didn't need the painkillers or throat spray to make me suspicious though. The woman had a bandage on her neck, and dried blood on her arms and lips.

Although I had almost gotten used to coming across dead bodies in random locations throughout Midtown, this one made me particularly sick. The smell was beyond terrible. Maybe it was worse because she had been cooped up in the apartment, rotting.

"I don't want this apartment," James said.

"Me neither," Seth quickly agreed.

I rolled my eyes. "No one has to take this apartment, but let's at least get the body out of here. Those people on the street can make themselves useful and burn it.

Scott walked out of the room and came back with Lee—the man who said he put garlic around his windows. They had a long plywood board, perhaps from the bank where we had gotten our reinforcement supplies two days earlier.

We started to wrap the dead woman up in the blanket and roll her over onto the board when I noticed something. Her mouth was slightly open and her incisors looked pointed, like fangs. I tapped James on the shoulder. "Look at that, she was a vampire."

Everyone took a step back and stopped what they were doing. James went into the kitchen and came back with some rubber dish-washing gloves. Very disrespectfully, he pried one of her eyes open. It was bloodshot. Then he pulled her mouth open farther. Her fangs weren't like the fangs I had seen on Stella. They looked like they had barely begun to come in, but they were definitely fangs.

Up until that moment, I had never thought much about that part of the process. People had to lose their teeth in order for fangs to come in. It must have been a painful process. Who knew what else happened? This poor woman had painkillers all over the place. Did people actually go through the process of death and then come back as vampires? I had heard them screaming when they burned or when they were staked, but other than that, they appeared to communicate in whispers. My eyes went to the throat spray. Did the transformation cause so much pain that they could only speak in hoarse whispers?

I felt sorry for the old woman. I had seen many of the too-old and too-young drop like flies in the beginning. It must have been that their bodies couldn't handle the trauma. The ones I saw die were picked off by looters and other vampires, but I supposed it made sense that many died in their beds and were never able to come back as vampires.

"Maybe this will save us the trouble of taking her away and burning her," James said.

"Very nice." Beth turned away.

"Let's please just get on with it," I said.

James, Dwayne, and Scott carried the woman out in her blanket. They all wore gloves because some kind of liquid was oozing through the blanket. It looked like thick dark blood. There was some rope on the fire escape. Dwayne and Lee planned to tie her up and lower her into the street. The people below could find out if she had turned enough for the sun to burn her, or if they would have to cart her away and burn her elsewhere.

I didn't have time to stand around and watch. We still had a lot of work to do if we hoped to clear even one floor of the building. Besides, the stench was making me sick and I needed to get out of that apartment.

After lowering the old woman's body, Dwayne and Lee stayed in the apartment and began boarding up the windows with some supplies we had taken from the bank and some bits and pieces of wood they found around the apartment. The rest of us moved on to the apartment next door.

The door was unlocked so we didn't need to call for Dwayne's help. The apartment was in total disarray, but there was no one there and no sign of death or illness at all. The windows were still locked and intact.

The inhabitants must have escaped before the government blew the bridges and blocked the tunnels, or maybe they had died trying. This would make a good apartment for some survivors to live in. By the time we were finished looking around, Dwayne and Lee had finished next door and came over to help secure the windows in the new apartment.

We tried another apartment, but the door was locked. Dwayne came over with some tools and had both of the door's locks picked in less than ten minutes. I thought that once I got back into the real world I'd probably never feel quite as secure behind a locked door again. At least Dwayne seemed like a nice guy.

"Does this mean it doesn't have vampires?" Beth asked.

"Do any of us know whether vampires keep their doors locked?" Scott asked.

"Good point," Beth said.

"I don't mind going first," Dwayne volunteered.

"No way," I said. "You didn't really sign up for this in the first place, and your construction skills are way too valuable for you to risk getting hurt. I want to go first."

"It really ought to be my turn to go first," Paulo said.

"No, please let me go now before I lose my nerve."

"Okay, okay, let's go," Paulo replied.

I really was afraid I might lose my nerve if I hesitated a moment longer, so I grabbed the doorknob and pushed my way in.

I immediately disliked the look of the apartment. It was far too dark. I could see into the living room where a wardrobe had been haphazardly pushed up against the window. Was it to keep vampires out, or to keep light out?

Everyone behind me was silent while I stood completely still. I could feel my heart beating in my chest and thought I might panic and freeze up. A few fingers of sunlight streamed in around the wardrobe and after a few moments my eyes began to adjust. I took a deep breath and started to creep in as quietly as possible.

I could feel Scott behind me. I was glad to see the hall closet was standing open because I wasn't sure I would have had the guts to open it otherwise. Scott clicked on his flashlight and shone it in amongst the coats. There was nothing there. He turned the flashlight off again. We didn't know whether vampires could be woken in the day or not, so we didn't want to use a flashlight unless absolutely necessary. The next stop was the living room. There was nowhere for anyone to hide except the wardrobe. Surely a vampire wouldn't hide there, right by the window.

"If you stay behind the door while you pull it open I can be ready to stake anything that's in there," Scott whispered.

"No," I whispered back. "You open it and stay behind the door and I'll be ready. Open the right side so I can come from the left."

I appreciated Scott's offer to do the dirty work, but I also knew I had to face these tasks from the beginning or I would never be able to do them. Scott and I walked to the wardrobe while James and the others moved in behind to make sure nothing could creep up on us.

"Are you sure?" Scott asked.

"Yes, just do it."

He stepped up to the wardrobe.

He took hold of the handle and looked at me. I felt my heart might explode out of my chest.

I raised my stake in my left hand.

I nodded to Scott.

He stepped back, flinging the door open.

Empty. Just a bunch of shelves with some clothes.

I found myself relieved and disappointed at the same time. The adrenaline had been running so high that I was almost hoping to get a chance to face my fear and destroy it in the process.

But it wasn't the time to let my guard down. I still didn't like the feel of the place. It was just too dark, and someone, or something, had blocked the light on purpose.

We peeked into the bathroom, nothing.

Kitchen, nothing.

There was one door that was closed. I assumed it was the bedroom. If someone had abandoned this apartment, would he have taken the trouble to close the bedroom door?

I felt the adrenaline rushing back. I didn't stop to discuss what I was about to do with anyone.

I walked up to the door and flung it open.

There he was, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. The box spring and some closet doors had been pushed up against the window. Even with the door now open, letting in some light, the room remained extremely dark.

I heard his raspy breathing from the doorway. It was shallow and hoarse, as if he was struggling to breathe.

I was transfixed by the sight of him, and by the unnerving sound of his breathing. I couldn't tear my eyes away. I had my stake in my left hand and reached behind me with my right and touched Scott.

I whispered as softly as I could, "Watch the closets." He didn't respond, but he squeezed my hand and I knew that he'd heard.

I walked purposefully over to the vampire. I put one foot on the mattress so that I stood over him and raised my stake with both hands. He looked so peaceful lying there with his rattling breathing—like a dying man at peace with his own death. He reminded me of a surfer with his tousled blond hair.

I hesitated. Was he definitely a vampire? I couldn't see any bite marks on him.

Suddenly, his eyes popped open. They were yellow, and shone by the light coming through the doorway. All of my doubts fled. He was definitely a vampire.

We stared at each other for a moment, neither of us moving. I heard someone take a step toward me, then I plunged the stake into the vampire's chest.

It only took an instant. It went in smoothly. I felt it go all the way through and pierce the mattress.

The vampire let out a hoarse scream and tried to raise his arms, but I was already kneeling on his chest. Then it was over.

The light went out of his eyes and his head rolled to the side. I felt his body go limp underneath me. A dark spot began to form around the stake.

Scott turned on his flashlight and went straight for the two closets. They were empty except for an assortment of clothing and shoes. Then he turned the flashlight on me.

"Jesus H. Christ," I heard James say from the doorway.

I didn't say anything. I stood up, pulled my hatchet out of my tool belt, and set to work cutting the vampire's head off. Compared to the mess I'd made cutting Stella's head off, my freshly sharpened hatchet made for much cleaner chopping. When I finished, I set the vampire's head on the mattress next to his right arm. Only when I was done did I walk to the doorway where I saw that everyone was staring at me.

Everyone by the doorway moved aside.

Because vampire blood is thicker and slower to flow, it doesn't splatter like human blood, but I still got some on my shirt and right thigh. At least I was wearing all black.

Bloody hatchet still in hand, I walked through the crowd at the doorway and said quietly, "Someone else please get rid of him." Then, I walked out of the apartment.
8

Clearing out the apartments took longer than anticipated. Dwayne had to pick the locks and then we had to move in, slowly checking every corner of every closet, under and behind furniture, inside cabinets, and anywhere else a vampire might hide. Once we were satisfied, we collected anything that looked useful and some of our group stayed behind to board up the apartment while the others moved on to the next apartment.

We were only able to get through about five or six apartments per day, but fortunately my building was small, having a total of about forty apartments. Besides the surfer vampire that I killed on the first day, we only found two more. Scott killed one and James the other.

We tried to get through the apartments quickly. Almost every time we showed up at Bryant Park, one or two more people were missing. We wanted to clear out my building and board it up so we would have a safe place to watch out for each other.

When we came to the apartment next door to mine, where Beth and I had heard my neighbor's fatal struggle with the vampire, we found pretty much what I had expected. There was evidence of a violent fight. The entire place was torn apart. Lamps, picture frames, even furniture and the television had been broken. The woman must have been a fighter. Maybe if Beth and I had come over to help her out...

But I couldn't start thinking about that now.

Scott found the woman's body in the kitchen. She was middle-aged with auburn hair. There was dried blood everywhere, but that wasn't the worst part. Her head had been crudely cut off, probably with the giant kitchen knife lying next to her. This was the first time I had seen anything like it.

"Why in God's name..." James began.

"It can't be," Scott said. I suspected he was thinking the same thing I was.

"Can't be what?" James asked.

"Vampire birth control," I whispered.

"Excuse me," James squeaked. "Vampire what?"

"Vampire birth control...population control." I couldn't take my eyes off the decapitated body and the head with the tangled hair matted with dried blood. "We heard the whole thing." I looked at Beth. Her eyes were downcast. "We heard the fight, but we didn't come over. It was bad. She fought back, but we didn't know how many there were at the time. I think there was only one. It walked right by our broken window."

"Do you know when she was killed?" Scott asked.

"She wasn't killed until things started getting quiet, about a week ago. Food would have been scarce by then."

"I'm sorry, food would have been scarce?" Beth finally spoke.

Scott shook his head. "So they're that smart? They have the presence of mind to keep their population under control so they don't have to share resources?"

I nodded. James looked like he was starting to understand. He looked horrified. "Let me get this straight. Are you saying a vampire chased this woman down in her own apartment, killed her, drank her blood, and then cut her head off so she couldn't come back as another mouth to feed?"

I nodded.

Beth looked from the woman, to her head, to the knife in disbelief. "Maybe someone else came in and she was starting to turn so they cut her head off. The knife doesn't even have blood on it."

"There's some blood on the handle," I pointed out. "He probably licked the blade clean afterward. Didn't you ever lick the spoon after your mom made cake batter?"

"Nice, really nice, Ailis, compare this woman to cake batter," James said. For once, he wasn't cracking the jokes. This new discovery must have really gotten to him.

I felt a little guilty until I saw Scott was trying not to smile at my tasteless joke. "Seriously," he said, straightening his features, "this changes the situation a bit. Assuming vampires did this, then they're smarter than we, or at least I, thought, and that makes them more dangerous."

I nodded. "It was so strange though. After he finished, he walked out into the hallway, then back into the apartment to take the fire escape. He walked right by our open window. He was sniffing around so much I thought for sure he knew we were there, but he didn't come after us."

"So I guess that makes them a little less human," Scott smiled wryly. "They only kill when they're hungry and not just for the hell of it."

"That's exactly what I thought at the time," I said. "That's what made me think it was a vampire and not a looter. A looter would have come right in."

James sighed. "Let's just get her out of here and see if there's anything worth salvaging. Then we can board this place up, I don't think anyone is going to want this apartment." And we did just that.

During the week and a half it took us to clear out the apartments, we all settled into a routine. We took care of three apartments in the morning, gathered for lunch at Bryant Park, where we waited for news and supply drops from the outside world, and spent the afternoon taking care of one more apartment. At least the days were getting longer.

We even had time for some fun. In the span of just a few blocks, Park Avenue housed Ferrari, Maserati, Audi, and Mercedes showrooms. We took our pick.

At first, some of us raced each other up and down the Avenues, but after trying it once or twice I decided it wasn't worth the risk. I had survived a vampire plague that had killed over a million people. I wasn't keen on getting myself killed in a car accident.

We communicated daily with the outside world during our lunches at Bryant Park. Paulo was usually in charge of the radio. A few times someone hacked the frequency and we were able to talk to people outside of the government. These conversations only lasted a few minutes. A few days after our initial contact with the outside, while we were still clearing out the apartment building, the man on the radio informed us that he had a surprise for us.

There was a pause and then a woman's voice came on. My heart jumped into my throat when I heard it.

"Ailis?" It was my mother.

"Ailis Laurent?"

In an instant I was clutching the radio. "Yes Mom, I'm here."

"Oh my God." I heard her crying. "How can it be you? I thought you were dead. This whole time. Are you okay? Are you sick? Are you hurt? Are you eating? Are you safe?" She bombarded me with questions.

"Yes, I'm okay, nothing's wrong with me." I couldn't hold back the tears. "They drop off food and equipment for us every day. How are you and Daddy? The virus never spread outside the city?"

"No, no, everyone out here is fine, but we've been so upset for the past three weeks, we even planned a memorial..." She sounded as if she was breaking down and I could hear another voice comforting her.

"Daddy is that you? Are you both okay?"

"We're fine, we're fine. It's good to hear from you," he said gruffly. I knew my dad, he was trying his best not to get emotional.

"How's Nina?" My younger sister was studying abroad in London. I wondered if she had come home during the crisis.

"She's fine," my dad said. "She's volunteering at a hospital a few days every week. She thinks she might want to be a nurse or a doctor now. She's coming home for a visit soon. They haven't been letting people travel in or out of the country since this thing started. They're going to lift the travel ban soon, though."

There was silence and then my mother seemed to collect herself. "You don't know how we felt when we got the phone call. You've come back to life and you aren't even hurt. Of all the people in Manhattan only a handful of survivors and you're one of them? I've prayed so hard, but I never thought it could be. I can't wait until you come home."

"Me neither, Mom, they say they'll get us out of here soon..."

"Now excuse me," the radio man came on again. "I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt, but we have other anxious family members here who want to speak to their loved ones."

The others around me started to crowd toward the radio, murmuring, "Who? Who?"

I could still hear my mother in the background, "When is she coming home? When are you getting her out of there?"

"As soon as it's safe," the radio man answered. "They'll all be out soon."

"Listen asshole," I was crying by now, but trying to pretend as if I weren't. "You know it's safe to come get us and no one has the virus. You get us out of here right now!" Hearing my mother's voice had made me desperate. "I don't want any of this 'one week' or 'two weeks' or 'whenever it's safe.' People have families."

"Yes, yes," he responded, sounding anxious. "Of course we are going to get you out of there as soon as possible, but right now we have a Ms. Angela Dawson here who wants to speak to her son so please say your goodbyes and you'll be able to talk again soon."

Dwayne leapt toward the radio, but I wouldn't hand it over. "Damnit, what the hell is wrong with you people? Put us in quarantine, I don't care just get us out of here!"

"Dwayne? Dwayne are you there?"

Dwayne's mother was on the radio and Dwayne was pulling it away from me. I knew there was no sense in shouting any more. "I love you Mom and Daddy!" I said into the radio as Dwayne pulled it out of my hands. I thought I heard them say they loved me too, but Dwayne and his mother were already starting to talk.

I turned away from the crowd around the radio and started to walk away. Scott looked at me. He looked torn between following me and waiting by the radio, but I waved him away. I didn't want him to miss whoever was on the other end waiting to speak to him, and mostly I wanted to be alone.

"Don't go too far," he called out.

What I really wanted to do was walk over to the docks on the Hudson, find myself a boat, and head over to New Jersey. I would dare them to shoot me. Then again, they just might, and after hearing my parents' voices I couldn't do that to them. I'd just risen from the dead in their minds. I couldn't make them bury me all over again.

To prevent myself from doing anything irrational or wandering carelessly about the city on my own, I walked to a corner of the park that had been cleared of dead bodies, sat under a tree, and cried. Of course I had missed my family and wondered how they were. Of course I had wanted to go home before that moment, but hearing my parents' voices made me so homesick I thought I would become physically ill. Up until that point it hadn't even occurred to me to ask where the radio broadcasts had been coming from. Were they in Washington, D.C., or were they right across the river in New Jersey?

I don't know how long I sat there collecting myself, but after some time Beth came over and sat next to me. Her eyes were red and her face was splotchy. She had spoken to her parents too. I wasn't sure what to say.

"Is your family okay?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Just like your parents, they'd given me up for dead." Beth paused. "The man on the radio said our families would be allowed to send us things."

"What are they going to send you?"

"I couldn't think of anything to ask for." Beth smiled weakly. "I wanted everything and nothing all at once. I just want to go home." She looked like she was about to cry again. I wanted to change the subject, but couldn't think of another topic, so we sat in silence.

After a few minutes the guys came over, followed by Leila. For once she didn't seem like her usual optimistic self. Scott and James looked somber. Scott had talked with his brother and James had talked with his parents. Paulo had no family on the outside to talk to, but had stayed to operate the radio until everyone had finished talking.

"Dwayne could have given me another five seconds to say goodbye," I grumbled.

"I know, but he's a good guy, he was just overwhelmed at the chance to talk to his mom again," Scott said. "Weren't you?"

"Yeah I know, of course I was," I sighed. "I wish I could have told her I wanted one of those French chocolate pies she makes and maybe a picture of the whole family. I can't believe I don't even have one with me here. I guess most of my pictures are on my laptop and the battery is dead now."

Scott smiled. "Well one, why don't you ask for a new laptop battery, and two, I'm sure you'll get a chance to talk to your mom again, or at least send her messages."

I knew he was probably right so I let it go and decided I wouldn't hold it against Dwayne.

Two days later, before I could even send my mother a message, I received a package with the supply drop. Inside, packed with cold packs to keep it cool, was a homemade chocolate pie and a picture of my family at the beach.

She included a card with a picture of a sad cat, saying that she missed me very much and that my grandmothers were preparing gifts of homemade fudge and sugar cookies. It turned out I hadn't needed to tell my family what I wanted. They already knew.

The same delivery also included several newspapers, all of which bore similar headlines such as, "New Yorkers Survive Plague of the Century," and, "Can the Last New Yorkers Be Saved?" and my personal favorite, "Manhattanites Fight for Their Lives Against City of 8 Million Vampires."

The last one was an obvious exaggeration. First, eight million was the population of New York City including all the boroughs, not just Manhattan. Second, if there had been eight million vampires in Manhattan, there certainly wouldn't be any survivors. Unrealistic though the headline was, I liked the idea of a small group of survivors fighting a city of vampires against all odds.

The papers included pictures of some of us, from snapshots donated by our families. The articles also included some background about us and described the conversations we'd had with our families over the radio. That made me uncomfortable. Had reporters sat in while we spoke to our families for the first time? Was the government feeding the stories to the papers?

It seemed to me like the plague was something the government would want to keep hushed up, but they'd probably figured we had plenty of resources in Manhattan, and it was only a matter of time before we found a way to contact the outside world. The government might as well make the first move. I assumed they knew about the hackers who had already been able to contact us via radio. We hoped that the hackers would prevent the government from putting too much of a spin on our situation.

Either way, we were celebrities. As much as it annoyed me that we were being exploited by the media and possibly the government, I felt better knowing that the outside world knew we were still alive and stuck in Manhattan. If nothing else, maybe public sympathy could get us out of New York.
9

As planned, we saved the basement of my apartment building for last. It seemed like the most logical place for vampires to hide, if they were going to hide in my building at all.

After we finished going through and clearing out the apartments, we waited another day before going into the basement so that we were fresh and well rested. I had almost become used to breaking into apartments and looking for vampires and bodies, careless even, but I knew that the basement would not be routine. I had never been in the basement, but I shuddered when I imagined the dark corners, hot water heater, the furnace, and other basement items behind which vampires could hide.

It might sound silly, but I was also worried about the cats. I'm a cat person, and before the plague, my building's super kept cats in the basement to kill bugs and rodents. Were the cats still down there? Were their corpses down there? It made me uncomfortable to consider what had happened to them. I didn't know if vampires only drank human blood, or if they drank the blood of other animals too.

If pre-vampire New York hadn't already made me desensitized to human life, the events of the past month certainly had. Still, the thought of coming across mangled cat bodies bothered me. For that reason, even though I wanted to play tough again and volunteer to go first, I let Scott be the first one in. I didn't bring it up, but I was concerned that seeing the body of a cat might distract me and put the whole group in danger. With that in mind, I did, however, volunteer to go second.

Beth was gray in the face. I asked her if she wanted to sit this one out. She didn't say anything, but shook her head. James started insisting she stay upstairs, but Beth kept shaking her head, she didn't want to let us down.

Paulo came up with the solution. "We really need someone to stay upstairs. We don't want the basement door to slam on us and God forbid we get locked downstairs." Beth blanched and Paulo continued. "Please stay up here and watch the door so it doesn't close. Anyway, if we get into trouble we can shout and you'll be close to the outside door so you can get help." Beth agreed, looking relieved.

The door to the basement was in the building foyer so Beth would stay upstairs between the basement and the outside door. The door to the basement was locked.

Maybe there wouldn't be any vampires at all down there. The lock on the basement door took Dwayne a little more time than usual. When he was finished he patted Scott on the back, as he usually did when one of us was about to lead the way into the unknown, and said, "Good luck, man."

"Thanks," Scott replied. He held his stake up and I gave him plenty of space, not wanting to be elbowed in the face.

I felt as I had the first day we started clearing out my building. In one sense, I hoped the locked door had kept out the vampires, in another, I wanted to kill a few more.

It was mid-May by that time and the building was very warm, but not yet hot. Scott's skin was shiny, but not quite sweaty. I wondered whether his sheen was on account of the warm weather or nerves.

Scott took a deep breath, let it out, and opened the door. Three pairs of glowing eyes bounded up the stairs. Scott jumped back and three skinny cats dashed out the door, through the foyer, and out into the street.

Scott gasped. "Shit."

I started to giggle. "Sorry, I should have warned you, but I thought every building kept cats in the basement."

"Yeah I know, I know, but don't act like you weren't a little scared," Scott replied.

"Whatever, let's try that again." I was happy to see that there were at least three survivors from the basement.

The door was open now and sunlight was shining down the staircase. The air coming up from the basement felt much cooler than the air already circulating through the foyer. Fortunately, the staircase ran along the wall so we only had to worry about things coming at us from one side and the bottom of the stairs.

I handed Scott a flashlight. "You keep an eye on what's in front of you and I'll watch the side," I said.

We slowly made our way down the stairs. James was behind me. When we were about halfway down I caught a body in my flashlight beam. I stopped, nudged Scott, and pointed my light at the body.

It appeared to be female, and it appeared to be breathing. I kept my flashlight on her as we continued to move down the stairs while James, Paulo, and Seth followed, sweeping the basement with their own lights.

The woman didn't budge.

We made it to the bottom of the stairs without incident.

"Let me do it," Seth whispered. I groaned inwardly. Of course he wanted to kill a vampire, but he wanted this chance because it was easy.

"You're a fucking creeper," James hissed. "You know that right?"

"Shut up both of you," Paulo whispered. "If he wants to do it let him do it."

James rolled his eyes. I shrugged. What did I care? "Just make it quick," Scott grumbled.

Seth grinned and walked from the back of the line to the front. "Watch my back," he said, in a very official tone.

I hoped this woman would wake up and grab him. He'd probably piss himself.

Seth walked up to the woman lying on the concrete floor. I could see her better now. Her skin was pale, with dark blue, almost black veins in stark contrast to her paper-white skin. Her nails were long, and her breathing was slow and raspy.

Seth stuck his flashlight in his belt without turning it off. The idiot stuck it so that the light shined upward casting an eerie glow on his face. It reminded me of sitting with Mom and Daddy and Nina in a dark room, passing the flashlight around telling ghost stories. It was a ridiculous comparison. Back then, vampire stories were just stories, now they were reality.

"Keep the light on her," Seth said. His voice was beginning to tremble.

"Fucking twit," James hissed back at him while shining his light directly at the woman's chest. "Just get on with it."

Seth raised his stake, and plunged it downward with a grunt.

I don't know exactly what happened. Maybe he hesitated for a moment just before the stake hit the woman, or maybe his grunt woke her up. Either way, he didn't make a clean kill.

The stake seemed to stop halfway in, and the woman woke up shrieking.

"Jesus Christ!" James yelled.

Seth fell to his knees on top of the woman. She grabbed his shoulders, still shrieking. Her eyes shone a bright yellow and the blue black veins in her face stood out even more now that she was moving. Blood, so dark it was nearly black, began to ooze from around the stake sticking in her.

Seth was yelling bloody murder, his hands on the stake, as the vampire struggled to lift her head, to bite at Seth's hands or wrists or any part of him that she could get her fangs on.

Scott was closest. He slammed his boot onto her throat just before she got at Seth. Her shrieking turned into a gurgle, black blood drooling from her mouth.

"Kill her if you're going to kill her," Scott shouted.

Seth grunted again and shoved the stake deeper into the vampire. In a few seconds, the gurgling stopped.

Seth looked relieved. Scott looked like he was about to stake Seth. I was worried about what other creatures might have been woken up by the screaming and shrieking. I quickly regained my composure and shone my flashlight around the basement.

I was too late. I had already been caught off guard.

My light caught the reflection of two yellow-green eyes coming toward me from around a large cylinder: the building's hot water heater. It was another female with blond hair so light it looked white. She was too quick and too close.

I dropped my flashlight and didn't even have time to raise my stake before she grabbed my left wrist in a grip so tight I expected to hear it snap. I could feel her fingernails—if they could be called fingernails, they were more like claws—digging into my skin. Then she grabbed my hair with her other hand and jerked my head backward.

I stared into the blackness of the ceiling, angry at Seth for being a stupid asshole and angry at myself for being so easily distracted, so careless. What would my parents think when they found out I had been killed after coming back to life for them again? It would have been better if they never found out I had survived. God I was stupid. I could feel the vampire's cool breath on my neck, smelling like iron and death. When was she going to end it already?

I braced myself for the bite, but it didn't come.

All of a sudden I heard the vampire scream and felt her death grip release me. I jerked my head forward and raised my arm for whatever was to come next. I was still holding my stake. I saw the vampire with a stake through her heart, and James behind her. The vampire crumpled to the ground.

"Thank you." The words felt inadequate. James had just saved my life.

"Don't mention it." I thought he was looking at me strangely, but I had learned my lesson about allowing myself to become distracted. I quickly knelt down and grabbed my flashlight. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Scott dart into a dark corner. I heard a groan as I shone my flashlight in his direction. Scott had staked another vampire so quickly it hadn't even had time to scream or fight back.

James and I moved around the hot water heater where I found a male vampire wearing khakis and a plaid shirt scrunched up in a corner. He looked like he might have been a nice nerdy guy in real life. Maybe he was frightened of us and trying to hide, but I couldn't feel pity after one of his friends just tried to take my head off.

There was no time anyway. Once he realized he was cornered he jumped up and lunged for me, but I was ready. Pushing him backward as I struck, I felt the stake go clean through him and out the other side. The stake hit the wall behind the vampire and the tip broke off.

I swung my backpack around and grabbed another stake, thinking that we needed a better way to carry stakes for quicker access.

The basement was silent. I looked around.

James was standing to my right, ready to assist with the vampire I had just killed. Paulo was over by the furnace with a dead vampire. He must have killed it around the same time I had my scuffle with the nerdy vampire behind the water heater. Scott was still in the corner with his dead vampire, and Seth was standing at the bottom of the stairs with his back against the wall.

"Looks like we each got one," Scott said.

"Have we checked everywhere?" Paulo asked.

I shone my light around the basement and saw a utility closet. I put my flashlight in my belt. "Keep your light on that closet," I said to James as I walked over.

He complied without comment, which I found a little surprising. I had expected him to offer to go in my place. Not that it mattered. I had almost been killed by one vampire and killed another vampire in the span of about 5 minutes. In the state I was in, I wasn't nervous or afraid.

The door was slightly ajar so I figured I might as well do this right. I took a second stake out of my backpack so that I held one in each hand. I kicked the door in and heard a yelp; the door must have hit one of the vampires in the face. There were two males standing in the deep, narrow closet, one behind the other.

The first was moving backward, clutching his face. The second was staring at me, livid.

I staked the first and ripped my stake out. As he crumpled to the ground the second reached for me with his nasty orange claws, but I was faster, staking him right through the chest.

James rushed up behind me and shone the light in the closet. There were no other vampires, just some mops and other cleaning supplies.

"Did you see that?" I asked James. "One and then the other, I didn't even need the second stake."

"Um, yeah." James finally turned to look at me. He looked more than a little freaked out.

After the two in the closet, we gave the basement another thorough check and decided that we had gotten every vampire down there.

"Are you guys okay?" Beth shouted from the top of the stairs. She sounded upset. I had completely forgotten about her. Surely she had heard the screaming and shouting.

"We're fine," Paulo called up. "Could you toss down some sheets or tarp or something so we can haul these guys up?"

"Feel free to invite everyone else to help," James shouted.

"Yeah, I don't see why we have to do all the work," Seth grumbled.

We all ignored him. I felt it was his fault I had almost been killed. I turned to the two bodies in front of me. I took out my hatchet and began hacking their heads off...just in case. The others followed suit.

After a few minutes, Dwayne, Lee, Tony, and a woman named Kim came down the stairs with old sheets we had taken from other apartments.

"We could just put them in the furnace and light it," suggested Seth.

I rolled my eyes at him. "That's a great idea Seth, that way my entire apartment building can smell like burning vampire corpse."

"Oh, yeah." He looked kind of sad and I almost felt sorry for him.

"Whatever," I mumbled. "Look that wasn't a terrible idea let's just get them out on the street."

"My grip slipped you know," Seth said. "Otherwise I would have killed her instantly, no noise. That's usually how I do it."

"Oh yeah, hundreds of vampires, right?" James rounded on him. "You're lucky no one got killed down here because of you. You're lucky that woman didn't kill you. You ought to be thanking Scott."

"Look I had it under control okay..."

"Oh yeah under control, that was under control. I'll tell you what..." James's face was turning bright red and so was Seth's.

Paulo looked exasperated. "Can we please just let this go?"

"Ailis was almost killed," James yelled.

"Clearly not," Seth shot back.

"Look I'm fine except for a few scratches," I said. "The first one is always hard, don't worry about it." As annoyed as I was with Seth I knew that deep down he had to be feeling embarrassed, and there was no sense making him feel worse. But then again, what did he mean by saying I hadn't almost been killed? I couldn't think about it then. I just wanted to clear my head.
10

The others insisted I go upstairs, and said they would bring the bodies up. I climbed the stairs, and joined Beth outside with John and Rebecca. All three of them looked agitated.

"Hey guys," I said, "your dad is fine you know." I tried to sound cheerful for the kids. "In fact, he's pretty awesome. He's doing some serious vampire cleanup work down there."

They looked at me wide-eyed and I wondered whether I'd said the right thing. I remembered Tony's comment about their mother living in the subway tunnels drinking rat blood, and tried to change the subject. "Did you guys see the three kitties run out of here?" Rebecca nodded and we fell into an awkward silence. I had never been good with kids.

Tony and Scott came up the stairs a few minutes later. They were carrying a bloody sheet between them.

"Hey, why don't we go look for those kitties?" Beth suggested quickly. "I bet they'd like something to eat." Rebecca and John nodded enthusiastically. It appeared they took to Beth better than to me.

Beth took their hands. "You want to come too Ailis?"

I shook my head. "No thanks. I'm kind of tired. You guys go ahead. Let me know what you find!" I smiled at the kids. I wondered how this would affect them in the years to come. Even if we were rescued today, how traumatized would they be, especially if their own mother had turned into a vampire?

I found a clean-looking spot in the sun and sat down on the curb. At least it was warm out. It would have been worse if the virus had come during the winter. The nights would have been longer and it would have been unbearably cold, especially without the heat on.

Leila was outside as usual, wielding orange wedges. I thought she really was meant to be a soccer mom. As soon as Beth and the kids left she asked me about what happened in the basement. I told her we found some vampires and killed them. I didn't feel like talking about it. I was still trying to absorb what had happened and how I had almost been killed.

Tony and Scott dumped the body they had brought up from the basement into the street where it started to smolder and then burn. It didn't smell wonderful, but my block had always smelled like garbage, so I wasn't fazed by it.

I saw Tony looking around. Then he spotted Beth with the kids just up the street.

"Beth took John and Rebecca to look for the cats," I told him. "Don't worry, they'll probably just head to Bryant Park and wait for the rest of us to walk over and join them."

Tony looked nervous.

"Look Tony," Scott said, "we really appreciate your help, but you've got kids and they come first. Go take care of them if you need to. We've got this under control."

Tony looked grateful. "Thanks...are you sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, we're fine."

Tony was about to move off, when he seemed to notice my left wrist. "What happened to you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh." I looked down and saw I had several deep scratches. I was so busy thinking about how close I had come to being bitten that I had forgotten about the scratches. Now that I thought about it, my wrist was starting to hurt. At the same time, I felt oddly comforted by the bright red blood. It was living blood. Remembering the black vampire blood oozing from the woman in the basement made me shudder.

"They're just scratches," I said nonchalantly, but I didn't feel so confident that they weren't dangerous. How sure was I that the virus was only transmitted through bites? What if a scratch could be just as lethal?

"From a vampire?" Tony was very direct.

"Yes, she caught me off guard, grabbed my arm and almost bit me, but James jumped in and saved me."

"You sure they're just scratches?" Tony turned to Scott. Leila had stopped smiling and started to move away from me.

"Yeah I saw the whole thing," Scott said. "I just wasn't as quick as James. Trust me. They're definitely just scratches. She didn't even come close to being bitten."

I thought that was a pretty big lie. I had come damn close to being bitten and he knew it. Still, could the virus be transferred through a scratch? I was beginning to feel nervous. I thought the sun was starting to feel extra warm on my skin. I wasn't burning was I?

Tony sighed and turned back to me as if reading my mind. "You'll be fine," he said. "I've been scratched. My wife..." He trailed off.

"Thank you," I said. "You've put my mind at ease."

Tony nodded and thanked Scott again and half-walked, half-jogged down the street toward Beth and the kids.

"Do you need any help?" I asked Scott.

"No seriously, we're fine. We'll be done in a few minutes and we can all go get some lunch." I wasn't sure I had much of an appetite for lunch, yet. Scott paused. "You did good down there."

"Thanks." I smiled, and Scott headed back into the basement.

"Well, maybe I'd better help get lunch ready in the Park," Leila said. She had been staring at me wide-eyed ever since Tony pointed out the scratches.

"Do you need any help?"

"No, no, not at all." She shied away from me. "Just let Scott and the boys know."

"Yeah, sure."

Leila practically ran away toward the Park, shooting quick glances back the whole time. Maybe she thought I was going to chase her down in broad daylight and bite her.

The guys, even Seth, hauled the bodies up and Kim brought some of the heads up wrapped in a sheet. James and Dwayne carried the last body. The head had been cut off but was still kept in the tarp with the body.

It was the female with the white-blond hair who had almost killed me. Her eyes and mouth were still open. I could see her fangs. They were white as ivory with perfect points. I shuddered to think how close those points had been to my jugular. I was glad she had been decapitated. Otherwise, she would have looked as if she could get back up.

As soon as she was out on the street in the sun, her skin began to smoke and burn. It was disgusting, but I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Dwayne started back for the basement.

"Do you need any help or any supplies?" James asked.

"Nope don't worry about it. That super kept plenty down in the basement," Dwayne replied. "I just wish I had something to weld with, but if we use some of those heavy shelves down there we'll be fine. Nothing's coming through that hole ever again."

"What hole?" I turned to James who was lighting a cigarette. "And since when do you smoke?"

"Since I was fifteen," he replied. "I quit two years ago, but ever since I talked to my parents on the radio I've picked it back up. Maybe when we get out of here I'll quit again."

I nodded. I couldn't fault him. I was impressed he had made it so long under the circumstances. "So what hole was Dwayne talking about and why is everyone still in the basement?"

"In the utility closet, where you killed those last two vampires, there was a manhole in the floor."

"Wow, I totally missed that."

"Well it was pretty dark, but Dwayne spotted it. We pried it up, and there was a ladder that went down about eight or nine feet into a good-sized concrete room. It looked like there was a tunnel connected to the room."

"Oh my God, no one went down there did they?" I started to get up.

James put his hand on my arm and eased me back down. "No, of course not. I did ask Seth if he'd like to volunteer, though." He grinned, and so did I.

"I thought he was a veteran killer now?"

"Apparently not quite. Anyway, no one went down there and we have no idea where that tunnel might lead. It could lead to a sewer or it could lead to the subway. It looked like it was headed west, so maybe it goes to the B, D, F, M. Who knows? It must go somewhere. We figured that's how they were getting in. One thing's for sure, no one cares enough to go find out."

I nodded. "I don't know why there would be a tunnel to the subways, but it might explain why there were so many vampires in the basement. The subway tunnels would be the perfect place for them to hide during the day. Thank you again, you saved my life."

"Well you were pretty bad ass down there, killing three vampires, two of them practically at the same time."

"By the way, how are you that speedy?" I asked. "I mean if you hadn't been there like lightning that blonde would have bitten me for sure. I'd be dead right now."

James took a long pull on his cigarette. "I wasn't that speedy."

"Yeah you were. She was fast. She caught me totally off guard."

"No." James frowned. "I wasn't. If she hadn't hesitated I wouldn't have made it in time. She caught us all off guard."

I felt goosebumps rise up on my arms despite the warmth of the day. "What do you mean she hesitated?"

"I mean she hesitated," James insisted, frowning more deeply. "She had your head pulled back, your neck was exposed...the only thing I could think was that I should have made you all get dog collars or you should have at least been wearing a turtleneck. Stupid, I know." He paused and took a few drags on his cigarette while I waited for him to continue.

"She had your head pulled back, and there I was frozen, thinking about how you should be wearing a turtleneck, and she went right for your neck and right when she was there, I mean she was right there..." James held his fingers up about two inches apart. I knew what he meant. I could still feel her cool breath on my neck.

"She was right there Ailis, and she stopped. She got this funny look in her eyes like she was confused or stunned or something. I don't even know what it was. She even pulled back the slightest bit and made this sniffing noise like she was smelling something and that's when I finally reacted. I grabbed her shoulder to pull her away from you enough that I could stake her, and I just put it right through her back. I can't even believe it took me, or any of us for that matter, that long to do anything."

I didn't know what to think. Up until now I had pictured these things as killing machines. Why would this one hesitate before biting me any more than I would hesitate before taking a bite of chicken?

"And then there were the guys who moved back when you opened the closet door." James shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Well now you're going overboard," I said quickly. "Only the one stepped back and I think I hit him in the face when I kicked the door in."

James grinned. "You hit him in the face? That's a good one, but you still can't explain the blonde."

He was right, I couldn't explain the blonde. Could it somehow be connected with the vampire that had killed my neighbor and then moved right past my own apartment? Was I some kind of vampire repellant?

"Well, even if she hesitated, you still saved my life and moved quicker than any of those other guys, and I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome," James replied. By now the others were coming out of the basement. Dwayne declared the manhole had been sealed by moving a heavy shelf over it. He had with him the useful supplies from the closet which he said he had taken before sealing the door.

After lunch we planned to bring the rest of the supplies up from the basement. Dwayne would seal the basement door so that nothing could get in from the basement, but we could still get in if we needed to turn the furnace on in the winter.

"Jesus," James said when he learned the plan. "Let's not plan on being here that long."

I suddenly remembered the cats. I hadn't seen any bodies in the basement. "There weren't any cats in the closet when you sealed it were there? Or down in the basement?"

Dwayne laughed at me. "No, definitely not. I'm in construction, remember? I know I gotta watch out for cats and everything else when I'm sealing something up. One time tearing up a floor I just laid down was enough to learn that lesson."

"Well so that's something else we've learned today," Scott chimed in. "Ailis is vampire-resistant, and vampires don't care for cat blood."

Everyone laughed lightly, but looked at me like I was a bit of a circus freak. I tried to laugh as well, but felt strange. Was it true? Was I vampire-resistant? It sounded silly, but I couldn't understand why the blond vampire had hesitated. Maybe I hadn't hit the male vampire with the closet door, maybe there was something different about me. It wasn't a theory I cared to test.

"Come on let's go to the park," I said. "After almost becoming someone else's meal I'm ready to eat."

James put out his cigarette and we walked to Bryant Park. When we got there, we found Beth, Tony, the kids, and some of the others, but Leila was missing.

"That's odd," I said. "She told me she was coming to the Park to help get lunch ready. She specifically told me to tell you guys she was going."

"Did she say she was going anywhere else first?" James asked.

"No, I even saw her walking this way."

We asked around, but no one had seen Leila. None of us knew where she lived, so we didn't know where to look for her. I hoped that maybe she had stopped back at her place or a store to get some supplies, and that whatever store she stopped in had been well-lit. We waited all day, until close to sunset, but Leila never showed up.
11

By the time we had my apartment building and the basement cleared out it was mid-May. Scott, James, and Paulo had started to move their stuff into three apartments on my floor. Scott and James moved into apartments across the hall, and Paulo moved into the apartment next door to mine on the opposite side of the apartment where we had found my decapitated neighbor.

Despite Beth's help in the early days of the virus, helping me kill two men and a vampire, she seemed more vulnerable than I felt. Facing my fear, going into dark apartments and killing vampires, had helped me to feel more secure in my own apartment. I became confident in my ability to protect myself.

As our little group cleared out the apartments in my building, Beth and I began to grow apart. While I became eager to kill vampires, Beth looked sick each time we prepared to enter a new apartment. I began to feel like she was judging me, like she thought I was a cold-blooded killer. Maybe she was right.

The incident in the basement finally ended our days as roommates. After she found out I was scratched by a vampire, Beth refused to be alone with me. I told her that Tony had been scratched at the onset of the plague and nothing had come of it. Nevertheless, she insisted that one of the guys sit watch with her the first night. I think part of her fear may have stemmed from James's recounting of the ferocity with which I went after the vampires in the basement.

After enduring a night of her hand-wringing and whispering to Paulo about me while I tried to sleep, I told her my feelings wouldn't be hurt if she moved in with Kim. Kim had helped us move bodies out of the basement, and wanted to move into our building, but didn't want to live on her own. Beth and Kim moved into a two bedroom next to Scott, leaving me to myself.

We usually gathered in one person's apartment in the evenings to share whatever food we had and to talk. We also took some walkie talkies from the local Radio Shack "in case of an emergency," but I can't say I kept mine on all the time. As for the scratches, I put some Neosporin on them and cleaned them every night until the red gashes began to heal.

Dwayne and some of the others were making plans to move into the building as well. We accepted that with so many people living there, the vampires would find out sooner or later, so we boarded the place up tightly and made a habit of putting fresh garlic around the building every afternoon.

I don't think garlic would have kept a truly hungry vampire at bay, but when I looked out my window at night I saw that the vampires seemed to avoid our garlic barrier. We took turns sitting watch in the building foyer, having someone in the building awake at all times.

To top it all off, we had a new crossbow in case we had to shoot vampires from a distance. The general consensus was that bullets didn't do much. I had seen people in the streets try to kill vampires with guns. It never worked out well for the humans.

Scott found a regular compound bow in one of the abandoned apartments in my building. He tried using it on a makeshift target in Bryant Park, but it was made for carbon arrows. The stress on the arrow was too great when we used wooden arrows, and they broke, splintering dangerously every time. After Scott almost ended up with a piece of a split arrow in his arm, he stopped experimenting and asked for professional help.

The military granted us one crossbow that could shoot one stake at a time and promised that more crossbows would be forthcoming. It wouldn't be helpful against multiple vampires at close range, but it would be useful if we wanted to pick something off at a distance. Seth volunteered to shoot vampires from the window, but the rest of us refused. I personally didn't think it was a good idea to antagonize the vampires unnecessarily and others agreed.

Seth had talked about moving in, but after the incident in the basement he began telling us how fortified his apartment and his building were. A few people may have moved into his building, but I wasn't sure. I wasn't very concerned, so I didn't pay much attention.

We were all, however, concerned about Tony and his children. Tony had talked about moving into my building, but hadn't taken any action yet. We had picked out a large three bedroom, two bath on the fourth floor with plenty of room for him and his children. There had been no bodies in the apartment when we cleared it. I wondered who used to live there, if it had been a family and if they had escaped safely. Maybe they had even been on vacation when the plague started and never came back.

We told Tony about the apartment several times, and he would nod and say something like, "Yeah sounds great, sounds perfect," but he never took any action.

One morning, while John and Rebecca were playing with Beth, Scott told Tony, "We really don't have anything better to do today and the weather is perfect. Why don't we get some guys together and help you move your stuff into 4A?"

Tony tried his usual evasion tactics, "No, no, don't worry about it. We still need to get our stuff packed. It'll take a few days. Thanks for the offer though."

"What's really going on?" Scott asked outright. "I don't want to tell you how to raise your kids, but if something happened to you and they were all alone in that building..."

"I know, I know, don't you think I've thought about that? I've thought about asking Beth and Kim if the kids could stay with them for a while, but they're my kids and they need me."

"What are you talking about?" Scott asked. "Why don't all three of you just move in? Why would they move in with Beth and Kim?"

"Look, it's complicated, okay?" Tony shook his head. "Just give me some time."

"Is it your wife?" I asked.

Tony didn't answer, but I could see his eyes grow moist as he looked at the ground. That was enough for me.

"Your wife?" Scott asked. "She's not...I mean you know, she isn't..."

"Yes, she's like them...a vampire," Tony said, staring at the ground.

"Yeah I mean, but she's not..." I saw where Scott was going and I shook my head, trying to signal him to stop, but he wasn't looking at me. "You don't keep her in your..."

Tony's head shot up, his face bright red. "In my apartment? With my kids? What kind of person do you think I am?"

"I didn't mean that." Now Scott's face was red as well. "It's just she is your wife and you're not moving. I can't figure out why," he said.

"No, of course I don't keep her there. Maybe if I didn't have the kids..." Tony looked at the ground again. "It happened in the beginning, when it was all just starting. My wife, Sophie, she's from New York, most of her family lived in Queens. Her aunt lived in Manhattan though, just a few blocks away in a rent-controlled apartment. She was old and lonely and was always calling Sophie and asking her to come over for one reason or another."

Tony paused, then went on. "Do you remember when they first shut down the bridges and tunnels?"

Of course I remembered. I had woken up to the news that the FBI had received a credible tip that there would be a terrorist attack on a New York City bridge or tunnel. Everyone was freaked out, but we believed what we were told. I assumed the bridges and tunnels would be closed for a day, someone would catch the terrorists, and everything would go back to normal. I even went to work that day.

Tony continued, "That night, Aunt Caroline called us and told Sophie that a crazy woman had bitten her. I was inclined to think Aunt Caroline had gone a little crazy herself, and I told Sophie so. I got on the phone with Aunt Caroline and told her to call the police and we could come and see her in the morning. She started crying and saying that she had already called the police but they never came over. I was a little surprised, but I thought it might have something to do with the terrorist threat.

"Then, Sophie got back on the phone and Caroline begged and pleaded until Sophie promised to come over. I told her it was out of the question. It was already late and Aunt Caroline could wait until morning, but Sophie insisted and went over anyway. When she came back she said Aunt Caroline had actually been bitten, right on the neck. Sophie said she cleaned up the bite and tried to get Caroline to go to the hospital, but she refused, saying it would cost too much. She promised to call her doctor in the morning to set up an appointment. When Sophie came back to the house, she said she had seen a lot of strange, sickly looking people on the street, coughing and giving her strange looks. It made her very uncomfortable. She thought something must be going around."

I nodded. I remembered those people too. They sounded like they had bad colds or the flu. They had dark bags under their eyes and were oddly quiet. The New Yorkers I was used to loved to talk, and talk loudly, whether to someone at the other end of their cell phones, to their companions, or to anyone who happened to get in their way.

But the sick people were quiet except for rasping coughs and the occasional whisper. They spoke as if they had a bad case of strep throat. Some of them huddled together in the streets whispering. One even came up to me that first evening the bridges and tunnels were closed. "Excuse me please," he asked, barely audible, "can you point me to the nearest drugstore?" I leaned back as far as I could to avoid being breathed on. I didn't want the swine flu or whatever it was he had. If only it had been the swine flu...

Tony went on, "Sophie told me she had tried calling the police, but only spoke briefly to an operator who said the police would be there as soon as possible. They never came. I saw on the news the next day that a bad case of the flu was going around and everyone was advised to stay indoors. I felt bad that we hadn't gotten the kids vaccinated when they offered it for free at their school the week before. I also started to get suspicious and wondered if this virus was the reason they had closed the bridges and tunnels. I thought maybe it was biological warfare or something. I stayed home with the kids while Sophie went to see Aunt Caroline. She came back in a couple of hours, visibly shaken. She said Aunt Caroline was so lethargic she didn't even come to the door. Sophie had to use her own key to get in.

"Sophie said Aunt Caroline lay in bed with her curtains closed, moaning. She could barely speak, but managed to beg Sophie for some pain-killers. Sophie went to Duane Reade, but they were sold out of every kind of cold remedy and pain-killer. Sophie bought some soup instead, but Aunt Caroline only sipped it and spit it out. As Sophie tried to wipe the soup from Aunt Caroline's face, Aunt Caroline suddenly grabbed Sophie's arm and bit her on the wrist. Sophie was so shocked that she hit Aunt Caroline in the face and the old woman backed off. Sophie dialed 911 to ask for an ambulance for Aunt Caroline, but no one even answered. She was terrified and didn't know what to do so she ran all the way home.

"I told Sophie she was not going out again. People were sick and it was obvious that something serious was going on if we couldn't even call the police or the hospital any more. She cried, but I told her to think about the kids, so she cleaned up her bite and went to lie down. That evening, she started coughing and complaining about a sore throat. We had some lozenges in the apartment and that seemed to help for a while. She coughed all night, and the next morning she could barely get out of bed. I told her to stay put and I would make her breakfast and take care of Rebecca and John. She seemed happy enough as long as I kept giving her throat lozenges.

"She held out for that first night, but by the next day, we were starting to figure out something was really wrong. I wanted to leave, but the bridges and tunnels were still closed. I heard rumors from one of my neighbors whose son worked security at City Hall that some special people, like the mayor and some of the VIPs were able to leave, but they had to take a blood test. I knew it had to do with the virus that was going around, and I knew in my gut that Sophie had it. Even if they had let me and my kids leave, I couldn't leave Sophie alone.

"The night after she got bitten, I woke up and saw Sophie sitting up in bed, staring at me. Her eyes were awful, yellow, I thought she was jaundiced or something. The worst part was the way she was looking at me, like she was some kind of animal. 'Tony,' she whispered...Jesus, I can still hear that awful whisper. 'Tony, you have to kill me.' I sat straight up, 'Honey you're delirious, you're so sick. Let me get you something,' I said. 'No,' she said, and then she hissed at me, I swear to God. 'Maybe I am delirious, but I'm dangerous. You have to kill me or I'm going to hurt you and the kids.' I told her I knew she would never do that, but I was scared.

"What scared me most was the way she said those things, with no emotion. She just stared at me without blinking with those yellow eyes. 'I'm telling you now Tony, I want blood, I want your blood. Soon I'm not going to care whose blood. Kill me now.' I was scared, I was crying. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't kill her. So I took some rope we used for camping and tied her to the bed. She just stared at me. She didn't fight at all until just before I tied up her right hand. I was just about to tie it when she suddenly snatched her hand away, scratching my arm. She got a little of my blood on her fingernail. She looked at it as if it fascinated her, then she licked it. I took her hand back and she didn't fight any more, but she couldn't take her eyes off the scratch on my arm.

"The coughing had stopped by then. Before I walked out of the room she whispered again, 'Tony, you're going to wish you had killed me.' I told her I loved her and shut the door. I sat outside our bedroom the whole night. I knew I had to take the kids and leave the next day even if it meant leaving Sophie behind. I knew I had to find a way to get out. I hoped maybe my neighbor's son who worked at City Hall could help me.

"The next morning there was rioting and we saw on the news that the military had blown the bridges and tunnels. I knew there was no escape. I tried to shelter John and Rebecca, but they were terrified by what was going on outside and terrified when I yelled at them for trying to go into our room and see their mother. I spent the day watching the news, hoping for any kind of rescue plan for those of us who weren't sick, or any kind of advice besides, 'Stay put,' but none came. I knew I was supposed to put an "X" on the door, but I was afraid they'd come and take Sophie away. I saw some people in hazmat suits taking people from their homes, but I don't know where they took the sick. I wouldn't put it past them to just take them right to the fires. I didn't want that for Sophie. I peeked in on her every once in a while, and she was always sound asleep.

"That night was the worst night of our lives. I didn't want the kids to see anything, but I had to keep them close to me. I could see the street from the living room window. I saw the looters, the vampires, and the horrible things they did to one another. We already had the lights off because we didn't want to attract attention to ourselves, but I remember the moment the power went out. The lights went out all around us and I thought, 'This is it, it's all over and I didn't save my family when I had the chance.' I had seen people killing the vampires with stakes, so I broke a leg off one of our end tables and told the kids to wait in the kitchen. I went over to our bedroom and slowly opened the door. Sophie was still tied up, but she was sitting up in bed staring at me with those yellow eyes. She looked horrible, like a monster.

"'Tony,' she whispered, 'Tony, please help me. Everything hurts, my throat, my teeth, my mouth, my skin hurts, Tony.' I didn't know what to do. I wanted to put her out of her misery, but I couldn't do it. She still knew me. She begged me to come closer, to help her. She told me she would feel better if she could just have a little blood, she promised she wouldn't hurt me. I even thought about cutting my finger and putting a little in a glass for her, but I couldn't bring myself to get close enough. I finally just shut the door and went back to the kids. The whole night I swear she sat in there calling to me in that raspy voice, like a snake hissing. I thought for sure she would break free and kill us all, but the ropes and the bed frame held.

"God only knows what that night did to my kids. The next morning they were exhausted and I put them in their beds. I crept into our bedroom where Sophie was sound asleep. She looked so bad I could barely bring myself to get near her. I tied one of her scarves over her mouth, then tied her feet together. I untied her hands from the bed and then tied them together too. I wrapped her in the sheet from the bed and carried her to the door. I checked that the coast was clear. I wasn't sure where to take her, but I knew she couldn't stay in the apartment with the kids.

"I didn't want to wander too far off and leave John and Rebecca alone, so I finally decided to set her under a table by the elevators in the hallway. I untied her hands and figured she could untie her feet when she woke up at night...assuming she did wake up. I thought about killing her right there, but I still couldn't do it. I covered her with the sheet again and went back in the apartment and shut the door. I think she may have tried to get in that first night. I heard scratching at the door, but I didn't go check. The next morning she was gone and never came back. Sometimes I hope she'll come back and I can put her out of her misery, but she hasn't yet."

Tony stopped. He had tears in his eyes and wouldn't look at us.

"Tony." I put my hand on his arm. "God forbid she comes back while you and your kids are there."

Scott looked horrified. "Tony, if she comes back, you'll what, open the door and stake her just like that?" Tony looked daggers at him, but that didn't stop Scott. "She's still your wife and you love her, I understand that, but that's all the more reason to get out of there. You open the door and you see your wife, vampire or not, you might hesitate, she won't. And then what? Your kids will be in there all alone? Are you crazy?"

I thought it was a bit harsh, but Tony needed to hear it. If people wanted to put themselves at risk it wasn't my concern and I didn't feel the need to go out on a limb when people made their own dumb decisions, but Tony had kids to think about.

"Fine," Tony said after a few moments, "we'll get our things together today and move in tomorrow."

"No, we'll bring what we can today and you'll move in today and if we need to get more of your stuff tomorrow we'll get it tomorrow," Scott said forcefully. "You can't put this off any more."

"I said we'll move in tomorrow," Tony snapped. "We've been fine for this long, we'll be fine for one more night."

I tried to reason with him, "At least let the kids stay with Beth. She would love to have them. It would be like a sleepover."

"They're my kids and I can take care of them better than anyone. They aren't leaving my sight. In fact, we'll go pack now." Tony walked off toward John and Rebecca.

Scott's eyes followed Tony. "I don't like it," he said. "I don't like it at all, something's weird about this whole thing."

"What, you mean about the wife turning into a vampire, our own government turning its back on us, and the whole world going crazy?" I asked. "I don't see anything weird there."

Scott glared. "This isn't a joke. I don't like the idea of those kids staying in that apartment one night longer. If I'd known all of this I would've gotten them out of there a long time ago."

"Well what do you want to do?" I was exasperated. I understood his point, but were we going to just kidnap John and Rebecca and lock them in Beth's apartment?

Scott strolled over toward Tony and the kids as they were leaving the park. "Hey guys," he shouted, smiling. The kids turned around. "You don't remember how to use that radio Paulo gave you do you?"

"Oh yes we do!" shouted Rebecca, pouting. "Well I don't know if John does, but I sure do."

"I do so remember too," John shouted eagerly.

Scott crossed his arms and pretended to be skeptical. "I don't know, Paulo showed you a long time ago and kids can be forgetful."

"I remember, I do!" Rebecca exclaimed.

"Well then prove it to me tonight okay? We're going to play a game. We're going to pretend we're in World War II and you're in a submarine and I'm on land and you have to give me updates as to your whereabouts so I can make sure you're still on course."

"Or we can play Paulo and the radio man!" John shouted gleefully.

I raised my eyebrows. So the kids' lives were already being shaped by this one source of outside contact. I thought maybe we should get them some school books or something with the next supply drop.

Tony knew what Scott was up to and he just nodded. "I appreciate your concern, I really do. We'll be fine."

"We'll be over first thing in the morning," Scott said.

"I know, and that's fine." Tony held each child by the hand and they walked away. It sounded like John was already practicing his imitation Colombian accent.
12

That evening, after a dinner of granola bars and a banana, I wanted some peace and quiet, so I decided to stay by myself in my apartment and read a book. Reading by the candle light, however, was not ideal, and I decided to add "book lamp" to my list of requests for the next supply drop. I was just trying to decide whether I should give up and go visit Beth and Kim or one of the guys when I heard an urgent knocking on my door.

I assumed it was someone I knew, but one could never be too careful, so I picked up a stake and went over to the peephole. Before I even opened it, I heard James's voice. "Ailis, open up, it's James." I looked out the peephole just in case, and saw it was indeed James, wearing his ridiculous dog collar.

I opened the door, and saw that he looked frantic.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "What's happened?"

"Goddamn Tony and those poor kids, Ailis. Rebecca just called Paulo on the radio. She's terrified. She said Tony left them to look for their mom. Jesus, can you believe it? How could he just leave them there alone like that?"

"Why wouldn't he look for her during the day, like a sane person?" I asked, rushing back into my apartment to get properly dressed and grab my stakes.

"How the hell should I know? He clearly isn't a sane person."

I rushed into my room to find my black pants and a black shirt hoping they would help me stay hidden in the dark. I didn't have any sensible black shoes so I made a mental note to raid one of the shoe stores first thing in the morning. I also grabbed my new "stake-pack," as I called it.

The same day that we cleaned out my basement and Leila disappeared, I had asked the man on the radio for a more convenient way to carry our stakes. Something must have already been in the works because only two days later we received our stake-packs. We could strap them to our backs like backpacks, but the stakes were lined up and held in place by springs. When I reached around to pull one out, another would immediately move over and take its place. This also kept the stakes' tips from breaking, which tended to happen when they got jumbled together in regular backpacks.

James waited for me as I locked my door—even with the building secure I felt I could never be too careful—and we rushed to Paulo's apartment where he was showing Beth how to operate the radio so she could talk to the kids while we were on our way to their apartment. Scott was ready to go. He was dressed in all black down to his shoes. He not only had a stake-pack, but also the new crossbow. I made a mental note to ask for the extra crossbows we had been promised the next time we spoke to the outside world.

Paulo turned the radio over to Beth and handed her a walkie talkie. "We're going to keep ours off to avoid making any noise. We'll turn it on only if we absolutely need to."

Beth nodded. "How could he just leave them there like that? And now you have to go out there..." Her voice broke.

I tried to cheer her up a little. "Hey, I'm vampire-resistant, remember? I didn't even shower today. They'll get one whiff of me and go running."

Beth smiled, but it looked forced. "Just be careful okay?"

"Of course we will," Scott said. "If we're all ready let's get moving."

It had been over a month since I had been outside at night. I had gotten used to the emptiness and the quiet during the day, but the night held a whole new eeriness. With the electricity out, the city was nearly pitch dark. We had a little light from the sliver of moon above us, and for the first time in my life I saw stars above Manhattan. I wondered how long it had been since anyone had seen stars over Manhattan.

There was light in the distance in both the east and west. It brought home how close we were to the outside world. It seemed that just across the rivers, life was going on as usual...or at least more or less as usual.

People had electricity and plenty of food. People were safe. That was the United States of America, and yet here we were, on an island surrounded by civilization, going out in the middle of the night to rescue a couple of kids and their dad from vampires. It made no sense. I wondered how the people of Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island got to the mainland these days. They probably had a nice ferry to bring them around the untouchables on Manhattan.

Scott, James, and Paulo had been to Tony's apartment when we first met him and the kids. The guys had gone to check out the fortifications, so they knew where we were going. Fortunately, it was on the East Side. Unfortunately, it was about twenty blocks north.

As soon as we got outside I realized we didn't have a plan. Should we take one of the cars and risk causing a racket and draw attention to ourselves? I didn't really know anything about the vampires' hunting capabilities. How vulnerable would we be walking in a pack for an entire mile?

We decided to risk taking a car, but agreed we would turn the lights off. Walking would take too long, and besides, it would be difficult to watch the kids and our own backs on the return trip, especially if someone got injured.

We had an assortment of cars to choose from. We had taken some more practical cars where we were able to find them for hauling supplies and bodies. We also had the cars we took from the showrooms on Park Avenue. We kept the cars in the streets all around Midtown and we always left the keys in them. Who was going to steal them?

On this occasion we chose a black Escalade we had found in the street. It looked like it used to belong to a car service company. Scott drove quickly through the streets and the rest of us rode in silence.

I couldn't be sure, but as I looked out the window, I thought I occasionally glimpsed pairs of eyes in the shadows, reflecting the moonlight. I hadn't thought about the scratches on my wrist in a couple of days even though they were still only a week old, but I was suddenly aware of them again, as if prompted by the eyes glowing out at me from the shadows. I thought about the cold breath and the fangs and shivered.

It only took us a few minutes to arrive at Tony's building. There were several cars parked along the street near the entrance, but we were still able to get close. Before getting out of the car, Paulo turned on the walkie talkie and contacted Beth.

"Beth, are you there?"

"Yes, is everything okay?" She sounded anxious.

"Yeah, we're fine, are you still talking to the kids?"

"Yes, they're terrified. Tony still hasn't come back. Are you guys there?"

"Yeah, we're right outside their building. Can you ask them if they can hear anything outside their door? Tell them not to get too close."

There was a pause and we listened to static while Beth must have been talking to John and Rebecca. Then she came back on, sounding even more upset than before. "Rebecca said they heard their mother outside before Tony went out. Tony told them to lock the door behind him and not to let anyone in but him until the sun came up. She said they think they can still hear people in the hallway."

"I'm going to kill him," James said through gritted teeth. "I'm really going to kill him. He's crazy, he's putting everyone in danger. If it weren't for the kids I'd say he could get himself killed tonight if that's what he wants."

"Look, you can tell him all that if he isn't already dead," I said. I was ready to get moving. "Let's come up with a plan. You guys have been here before. What are we dealing with? I don't see any fire escape, are we going to have to go through the building?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Scott said. "They're only on the fourth floor, but of course it's not like we can take the elevator. We'll have to take the stairwell. There are windows that let light in during the day, but that won't help us now. It's going to be very dark. We may have to use flashlights."

I groaned. "Let's get moving then. I don't want to get up there and find out we're three minutes too late because we sat here bitching about Tony."

Paulo told Beth we were heading in and turned off the walkie talkie. I peered out the back window and thought I could see shapes standing at the end of the block. Apparently, our car had attracted attention. The longer we sat there, the more there would be.

I pointed the shapes out to Scott, who just nodded. We collected our things and climbed out of the car, locking it behind us. The building door was smashed in so we didn't need to worry about locks even though Dwayne had been teaching James some lock-picking skills. The entry was empty, but I dreaded the stairwell.

Scott led the way into the building. The door was propped open with a heavy looking trashcan, as if someone had left everything open for us, to lead us right into a trap. I looked at Scott and raised my eyebrows questioningly. He shrugged and whispered, "We propped it open when we were here before, maybe they just left it that way."

The stairwell was dark and James insisted on going first. Paulo went second, I was third, and Scott was last. I reminded Scott to keep his eye out for those shapes I had seen at the end of the block. I was sure that they would follow us into the building.

We each held stakes as we inched our way up the stairs. We didn't want to warn anything we were coming so we didn't turn our flashlights on at first. But Scott was right, the windows in the stairwell were no help at night. The stairwell was too dark. Even without vampires I was afraid I would trip and break my neck.

We made it to the second floor without incident, but there James paused. "I just can't see anything," he whispered. We stood there for a few minutes, trying to will our eyes to adjust, but it was useless.

"I'll turn my flashlight on and try to dim it with my hand," Paulo said. "You just be ready to stake whatever you see."

Paulo covered his flashlight with his hand and turned it on. An eerie light came out from between his fingers. He uncovered the flashlight a little more, creating a narrow beam of light that he could shine directly in front of James or sweep quickly from side to side. If anything was above us in the stairwell it would see us for sure, but at least we could hope not to attract anything through the doors on each floor.

We resumed our ascent and made it to just below the fourth floor landing without encountering anything. Then, James held up his hand and we stopped. The door to the fourth floor was slightly ajar and a sliver of dim light penetrated the darkness on the fourth floor landing and the stairs just below it. I could hear the unmistakable raspy breathing. I thought I could even catch them whispering to each other, but I couldn't understand what they said.

Paulo quickly shone the flashlight up the stairs and then clicked it off. I didn't see anything, and Scott whispered that we hadn't been followed, so it had to be coming from the fourth floor. James held his finger to his lips and then got down on his hands and knees and began crawling up the last two stairs before the landing. Paulo clutched a stake and stayed right behind him.

James kept low to the ground and peered through the door. At the angle it was open, he must only have been able to see the left side of the hallway, because he shook his head and whispered, "Their apartment is to the right."

Even in the dim light coming through the door I could see beads of sweat forming on his face. Paulo moved up to the door with his stake ready, and Scott and I moved in a little closer. James poked his head around the door and jerked it back, wide-eyed. I pointed to my eyes and pointed to James to ask whether they had seen him. He shook his head and then held up four fingers.

He inched back down the stairs and stood up, taking out a stake. Four vampires wasn't so bad. I had killed three single-handed in our basement. I took out another stake so that I held one in each hand.

Suddenly, I heard a distant scraping sound and the door downstairs slammed.

"Shit," James cursed under his breath.

I pictured the shapes at the end of block and that was enough for me. "Go now!" I hissed. I darted in front of James and Paulo and out into the hallway where three females and one male turned on me, their fangs bared.

Two of the females were closest, but the male was the biggest, so I gave the first female a solid kick in the gut. She screeched as she fell backward, slamming her head against the wall.

I immediately staked the second female with the stake in my left hand and the male with the stake in my right. They were both perfect kills. I felt the satisfying pops as my stakes went through their hearts simultaneously. The vampires only had time to scream for a split second before the light went out of their yellow eyes and they crumpled against the wall.

James was right behind me and took out the third female who was closest to what I assumed was Tony's apartment door. I turned around so quickly I narrowly missed stabbing Paulo as he finished off the woman I had kicked against the wall.

Scott was leaning against the stairwell door with his feet braced. All of a sudden the door swung open so hard that Scott was pushed against the opposite wall, but he turned around and threw his body against the door slamming it closed again. I heard a blood-curdling scream and saw four brown fingers curved around the door. Dark red-black blood began to ooze out of them.

Scott pulled the door open a few inches, the brown fingers disappeared and he slammed it shut again. We rushed over to help him, but he yelled at us. "Get inside, get to the kids, I'll follow as soon as you're in."

Paulo ran to the door and started knocking. I could tell he was trying not to scare the kids too badly, but he still sounded very panicked. "John, Rebecca, it's Paulo, please let us in."

A sobbing little boy's voice answered, "The vampires...where's Daddy?"

"We killed the vampires, buddy, and we'll find your Daddy, but please let us in now okay?"

I heard two separate locks click. The door opened and a little face peered around.

"Watch out guys, we're coming in!" Paulo scooped Rebecca and John off the ground and rushed into the apartment with James close behind him.

James turned around. "Ailis, Scott, come on now!"

"Go!" Scott waved me toward the apartment.

"I want to kill them," I said evenly as I stared at the door.

"Now is not the time, get your ass inside!"

"I'll go in when you move away from the door."

"Fine, now go!" Scott jumped away from the door and ran toward me. The door flew open behind him. As much as I felt like killing some more vampires, I rushed toward James and the apartment.

As I reached the doorway I turned around to make sure Scott was behind me and stopped dead. One of the vampires...it couldn't be...it was dark and my eyes were playing tricks on me...

Before I had time to think about it or get a good look, Scott shoved me into the apartment and James slammed the door and locked it. I slumped against the wall and sank to the floor.

Scott pointed his stake at me. "You're crazy you know that?"

"What because I want to kill something that's trying to kill me...that's trying to come after little kids?" I shot back.

"That's fine, but maybe try to have a little common sense about it, okay?"

"Whatever, I killed two vampires at once while you kept a door shut." I felt bad as soon as I said it. Scott had been the last one left in that dark stairwell and he had planted himself against the door in a vulnerable position so that we wouldn't be attacked from behind. If three or four vampires had come through the door he wouldn't have had a chance.

Scott just sighed and took his pack off his back.

"I'm sorry," I said. "That was a stupid thing to say. You saved our butts."

"Yeah, I know." He tried to smile. "Anyway, you're turning into quite the vampire slayer. Common sense or not I'm glad to have you on my team."

"Did you kill Mommy?" John suddenly asked. I had almost forgotten about the kids.

"Umm, no, of course not," Paulo said.

"She's a vampire, you know," Rebecca said. "She was here before...right before Daddy left."

"Well let me see a picture of her," Paulo said.

Rebecca pointed over to a bookshelf with a picture of the whole family. Paulo walked over. "Well she's very pretty, but she definitely wasn't one of the vampires outside."

I got up and walked over. They were a cute family, and Sophie looked so human. How could someone like that turn into something that would kill its own family?

"Did you find Daddy?" John asked.

"No, sorry, pal." Paulo picked him up and sat down on the sofa. "But I bet we didn't see him because he's hiding somewhere—somewhere the vampires can't find him."

John seemed skeptical, but didn't say anything else.

"You know what," Paulo said, trying to sound cheerful. "Let's call Beth on the radio. I want to tell her we're all safe and what a great job you guys did helping us into the apartment."

This seemed to distract the kids. While they worked on the radio I went over to the door and listened. I could hear whispering just outside. I considered opening the peephole, but then I heard a scraping sound, as if someone was running fingernails down the door.

"We know you're there." The voice was so low I couldn't tell whether it was male or female. "We know you won't come out. You're so frightened...so very, very frightened."

I stepped back. Had I really seen what I thought I saw in that split second in the hallway?

Scott came up and put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm guessing they're still out there?"

"Yes, one of them was taunting me."

"That door is strong, I don't think we have to worry. There's absolutely no reason to risk going back tonight, we can stay locked up in here until morning."

"And Tony?"

"He got himself into this mess. I only came over here for the kids. I'm not putting my neck on the line for a guy that doesn't have the sense to keep himself or his kids safe."

I felt bad for Rebecca and John, but I agreed with Scott. I wasn't going on a suicide mission for a crazy person, especially when it meant leaving the kids alone again.

We returned to the living room where Paulo and the kids were saying good night to Beth. Paulo volunteered to put the kids to bed and James declared that he was exhausted. The kids still looked scared so James told them he would sleep by their bedroom door. They showed him to a closet with some sleeping bags and he stationed himself by their door. Paulo said he would join him with another sleeping bag as soon as the kids were asleep.

Scott and I blew out the candles in the living room and let our eyes adjust. We could still hear faint whispering in the hallway. We walked over to the window and peered out, lifting the curtains. There were three vampires milling around our Escalade. We shut the curtains again.

"Looks like we attracted some attention on the way over," I whispered.

Scott nodded. "How many do you think there are?"

"Well there were three out by the car, I'd bet at least three or four in the hallway..."

Scott shook his head. "No, in Manhattan."

"I have no idea. There were a lot just in my building, but that could have been from that creepy tunnel in the basement. Leave it to me to live in vampire-central."

"I agree. The more I think about it, the more I think that tunnel led to the subway, and I think that's where most of them are hiding."

"We just drove twenty blocks and brought a lot of attention to ourselves and there still aren't that many out there. Think of how many people died from the virus, or were just straight up killed. No wonder they won't let us out. Sometimes I still wonder how the government kept it quarantined so well."

We sat in silence for a while. After about half an hour, we could hear movement on the street. Scott got up and went to the window again. I joined him. There were now four vampires huddled by our Escalade.

"I've had enough of this," Scott said. He picked up the crossbow and loaded it.

"You don't think that will attract more attention?" I asked.

"They already know we're here. I'm sure they know we're in your building every night, they just can't get to us. They need to know that we're dangerous too."

I wasn't sure this was a wise idea, but the apartment was well fortified and we certainly couldn't attract any more attention than we already had. Besides, Scott appeared determined.

He walked over to the living room window and opened it. The window made a loud squealing noise and all four vampires on the street looked up. When they saw us, their eyes grew wide with hunger and they began to make soft hissing noises, or maybe it was just their breathing speeding up at the sight of fresh prey.

Scott steadied the crossbow against the windowsill. The vampires watched, looking puzzled. Not one of them moved.

Suddenly, Scott released the stake and the largest male vampire fell to the ground. The other three vampires, two males and one female, shrieked when they saw their companion fall, but made no move to help him.

Scott quickly loaded a new stake and dropped another male. The other two finally had the sense to take cover behind the car. We stayed by the window and waited.

"What the hell are you doing?" James asked.

I jumped. "What does it look like we're doing?" I whispered. "Scott wanted to have a little target practice. Did we wake the kids?"

"Now you think of the kids." James scowled and shuffled off to check on them.

I turned back to the window just as a female burst out of the front door of the building. She screamed when she saw the bodies, but before she had a chance to fully turn around and look up at us, Scott had shot her through the back. The two vampires behind the Escalade shrieked again, but stayed put.

Then there was a loud commotion outside the apartment door. The vampires in the hallway must have looked out another window, or heard what was going on outside. They began to beat on the apartment door, shrieking like banshees.

I grabbed a stake and rushed the door, my heart pumping out of my chest. I swear if there hadn't been children in that apartment I would have flung the door open and fought everything that was in that hallway.

Instead, I beat on the door from my side and yelled, "That's right, you want some of this too? Who's scared now? You really want to come in here?"

Suddenly James was behind me and grabbed my elbow. "Jesus Christ, Ailis, what is wrong with you? You want to get us killed?"

"I'm not getting anybody killed," I snapped defensively. "Obviously I wasn't going to open the door."

"No, that wasn't obvious to me. You've already woken the kids and they're terrified, now will you both settle down?"

I pulled my arm away. "Fine, I'm sorry. We got a little carried away."

Scott looked sheepish. "They were gathering outside the apartment," he tried to explain. "I wanted to get rid of them."

James rolled his eyes, but the noise outside the apartment door had stopped, and when we looked out the window again the two vampires behind the Escalade had gone.

After a few minutes, Paulo came in and said the kids had gone back to sleep. Apparently, they were used to noisy nights.

I walked over to Scott as he was closing the window. "You were right," I said. "I think they need to learn that we aren't just prey. I don't intend to live at the bottom of anyone's food chain."
13

The next morning, as soon as the sun came up, we moved the dead vampires out of the hallway and took the kids back to my building to stay with Beth and Kim. They kept asking about their dad, and we promised to turn right around and go find him. I don't think any of us had high hopes of finding him alive. I felt bad for the guy, he'd been through a lot, but I was also pissed that he would go off and leave his kids alone after they had already lost their mother.

After grabbing a bite to eat and making sure the kids were settled in, James, Paulo, Scott, and I headed back over to Tony's apartment building. The day was cloudy and I could smell the rain in the air. The most obvious place to start was Tony's apartment. If he had made it through the night unhurt, we assumed he would return to check on his children.

He wasn't there, so we began to walk through each of the floors, calling Tony's name. We started with the floor above Tony's apartment, and I had only called his name twice when I heard a soft whimpering noise from an unnumbered door. We cautiously walked down the hallway toward the door, which looked like it led into a utility closet or to the building's garbage chute.

As we approached the door it started to open slowly. "Tony?" I called out. "If that's you please say something."

Tony poked his head around the door. He looked like he had been crying. "Are Rebecca and John alright?" he asked weakly.

James looked furious. "No they're not alright, they probably think they're orphans by now you sonofabitch. What the hell were you thinking? What kind of—"

Paulo interrupted. "They're fine Tony, just a little shaken up. Are you hurt?"

Tony shook his head. "I know it was stupid, but she was out here and I had to put her out of her misery. I couldn't stand leaving this building, and leaving her like this."

"Really?" James raised his voice. "You couldn't leave her, but you could leave your kids alone with a pack of vampires at the door?"

Tony started crying. "Sophie..."

"Yeah, I got that. I'm saying—"

"Okay James," I cut him off. "I'm mad too, but let's just get him back to his apartment and let the kids know he's okay." As Tony opened the door farther, I saw that it was indeed a utility closet in which he was hiding. The body of a female vampire lay on the floor. I assumed it was Sophie.

Everyone looked tense, but Tony shook his head. "She's dead," he said quietly. "I killed her last night."

"You told us you never saw her again," Scott said. "But she's been here the whole time hasn't she...in your building?"

Tony nodded. "She came to the apartment every night. She whispered to me through the door. She begged me to come out, to let her see the kids, but I was too afraid."

"But you wouldn't move, or even let us take your kids away." James looked like he was getting angry again. "Instead you let them stay here with their vampire mother coming to the goddamn door every night and then everyone risks their necks—"

Paulo cut him off again. "Please James. Let's just take care of Sophie and get Tony to his apartment."

Paulo and I agreed to take Tony downstairs while James and Scott dealt with the body.

"I didn't want to leave her in that condition," Tony told us as we walked down the stairwell. "But I didn't want to kill her. What if they find a cure?"

"You did what you had to do to protect your kids," I tried to reassure him. At the same time I was focused on shining my flashlight around the stairwell to make sure nothing snuck up on us. Enough light came through the windows so that I doubted any vampires could be there, but I wanted to be sure. "You couldn't let her follow them to the next place. You couldn't let them see her like that, or risk one of your kids opening the door when you turned your back."

Tony shuddered. "I know, I know, but maybe I could have helped her. She knew who I was. She even went upstairs so I could open the door. I would never have opened it if she had kept standing right outside the door...with the kids in there and all. But when I was out, I couldn't talk to her, she attacked me. I didn't really want to hurt her."

"Of course not," Paulo said as we walked onto Tony's floor.

I heard a rumble of thunder in the distance and cringed. The light outside was dim and the hallway was even darker. The place was looking spookier by the minute, especially with the door down the hall standing partially open. I could have sworn every door was closed when we went upstairs. Paulo didn't seem to notice as he walked with Tony to his apartment and tried to comfort him.

I followed Tony and Paulo into Tony's apartment and poked around just to make sure nothing had gotten in while we were gone. Before calling Beth, Paulo told Tony that we had to check him. It was an awkward moment. If Tony had been bitten, we weren't going to tell his kids he was fine and bring him back to our building.

Tony shrugged. "I wasn't bitten, and I wouldn't put my kids in danger if I was. Feel free to check me all over."

Tony's neck was clean and then he stripped down just to show us he hadn't been bitten anywhere else. I stood a respectful distance away while Paulo checked him out. Tony hadn't lied. He had not been bitten. Paulo got on his walkie talkie and called Beth to tell her we had found Tony, and Tony asked to talk to his kids before he started packing some things up.

"I'm going to go see if the guys need help," I lied.

"Why don't we just call them?" Paulo gestured toward the walkie talkie.

"No, no, let him talk to his kids," I said. "Besides, I need some fresh air." I was already walking out of the apartment. I shut the door behind me and stared at the partially open door down the hallway. Why didn't I tell Paulo about the door? Why didn't I tell him what I had seen last night? Because I knew he would react just as we had all reacted to Tony. He would have told me I was crazy and he would have tried to stop me.

I told myself I wasn't like Tony, but this was something I had to do on my own. I took out a stake and walked toward the open door. The closer I got, the more certain I was about who and what I had seen the night before and the more certain I was that he was inside, waiting for me. I could almost hear his breathing.

The apartment was completely dark. I pushed open the door, but it had become so dark outside that it barely helped.

Rain began beating against the window. There was a flash of lightning, and I thought I saw him just ahead in what looked like the living room. A few seconds later a clap of thunder rumbled through the room. The storm was moving closer.

Suddenly, I heard a scratch and then a hiss. I tensed and was ready to strike at anything until I realized the room had become a little brighter, it was only a match.

He leaned over, lit a candle, and smiled at me. It was him—Desmond—and when he smiled I could see his pearly fangs glistening in the candlelight.
14

I can't say I was attached to Desmond the way Tony was attached to his wife. I had only been on a couple of dates with him, but it was incredibly strange to be standing there, looking into his glowing, yellow-green eyes.

He was British. He'd been a friend of a friend of my sister's, or something like that, and my sister had given him my email address when he was transferred to New York in February.

Aside from the fangs, he didn't look very different from the way he had looked the last time I saw him when he had taken me out to dinner. He had dark skin with pale undertones that didn't look quite right. I assumed he worked too much and never saw enough sunlight. Despite that, he was still good-looking. His eyes flickered as they reflected the dancing candlelight.

"Desmond," I whispered. What does one say to an ex-boyfriend who has become a vampire?

"I knew you'd recognize me, Ailis," he whispered back. He sounded human, his breathing barely carried the tell-tale rasp. What had I been thinking, walking into that apartment all by myself? Catching vampires by surprise was one thing, but this one was just standing there waiting for me. He had set a trap and I had walked right into it. I wondered if we were alone in the apartment or if there were more of his kind. Maybe I could still slowly back out the door and run down the hall. Maybe I could just call for Paulo.

As if reading my mind, Desmond whispered, "Don't worry Ailis, we're alone, I don't like to share, and if I decide to kill you there won't be much you can do about it."

That infuriated me. "Screw you Desmond. You were here last night, didn't you see my handiwork outside the apartment? If I believed you were alone in here I'd kill you right now."

Desmond's smile grew broader. "No need to get all excited, Ailis, although I suppose you should consider yourself fortunate to be standing here speaking with me as an equal."

"An equal?" I repeated incredulously. "I mean I thought you had a bit of an ego, but that's a little over the top don't you think?"

"Maybe, but I have eternal life. I'm a superior being. You've seen some of the other vampires. They're just as stupid as they were when they were human. They need a leader, and I naturally fit the role. These creatures are wild and unruly, they don't even know how to hunt properly. They beat on doors and stalk cars, hoping their prey will just walk out and allow itself to be killed. Those tactics may have worked fine in the beginning, but not any more. Instead, the prey sits inside safe and secure and shoots the vampires through the window like so many sitting ducks. Those of you remaining are obviously the special ones. And yet," he paused, "I've lured one of the smartest right into this dark apartment, during a very cliché thunderstorm no less, and she's mine for the taking."

I could hear the downpour outside. The thunder was coming closer.

I thought that surely the guys would come looking for me soon. I didn't want to challenge Desmond by myself if I didn't have to, especially if he was lying and there were other vampires in the apartment.

"I think you've been watching too many movies," I snapped. "You sound ridiculous."

Desmond never stopped smiling. "You know you'd make a good vampire, Ailis. You're strong, you're smart...don't you know your place is at the top of the food chain?"

"Like I said, you saw my work last night, I'm already at the top of the food chain. You've got just a handful of people left in New York and then what? You'll eat subway rats? You'll starve?"

Desmond's smile wavered for a moment. "We don't need to eat rats, Ailis. We have people underground, saved up for a rainy day such as this one." He smiled again at his own joke. I shuddered. Was he telling the truth? Were there still people alive underground, in the subway tunnels?

"Besides," Desmond continued, "blood is just something to enjoy. We don't need it to survive, we don't need anything to survive. We'll live forever, stay young forever..."

"Says the two month old vampire." I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but I was becoming nervous. Someone should have come looking for me by now. I was afraid to make a move, afraid to scream. I knew either action would cause Desmond to try to silence me. Maybe I could take him, and maybe I couldn't.

Desmond moved toward me. "You know we don't let just anyone become one of us these days, Ailis." I thought of my neighbor, lying on her kitchen floor with her head cut off, the knife licked clean.

"Christ, Desmond, were you in my building? Were you next door?"

Desmond took another step toward me, the way you would if you were trying to gain the trust of a feral cat or some other wild animal. "Yes, Ailis, those were the early days, but I was ahead of the times. I assume you saw my work? Gruesome, yes, but would you prefer the alternative? You cut our heads off when you find us. We've made it standard practice now. We don't want the city overrun, and neither do you."

I felt weak. "Did you know I was there?"

"I knew someone was there, but I didn't know it was you. I'm not a killing machine. I had just fed. I planned to return later. By the time I was ready to go back you had boarded your place up too well. When I caught a glimpse of you one night I couldn't believe how close I had come..." Desmond shook his head. "I kept an eye on you. I knew I would have you sooner or later. Besides, I had to be sure..."

"Desmond, I swear if you come any closer I'm going to kill you."

"But I'm not going to kill you, Ailis. It's a little sting, then the sickness is a bit unpleasant, I must admit, but that's a small price to pay for eternity, isn't it?"

I had stood there too long listening to Desmond. Vampires can't hypnotize people like they do in the movies or in books, but he had certainly done a good job of keeping me spellbound. I told myself he didn't know anything about eternity.

Desmond and I moved at the same time and with the same speed, but he was stronger. I lunged at him as he lunged at me, his fangs bared. He grabbed my left arm as I tried to stake him and pinned it over my head as he slammed me against the half-open door, which banged shut behind me. Paulo must have heard it down the hall, but maybe he mistook it for a thunderclap. It didn't matter if he heard or not, because he could never have gotten to me in time.

Desmond didn't hesitate. He was at my throat in an instant.

I felt a sharp pain as his fangs pierced my flesh. Tears sprang into my eyes. No matter how this ends, I thought to myself, I'm dead. I'm stupid and I'm dead and I deserve it for being so fucking stupid.

I saw my headless neighbor, sprawled on her kitchen floor, I felt the smooth pop as my stake went through a vampire, saw the slow ooze of the blood as I cut their heads off, I heard my mom's voice on the radio, "We thought you were dead..."

Almost as quickly as he had pinned me against the door, Desmond let go. The fangs stung more coming out than going in. He lurched back, and blood—my blood—dripped out of his mouth, as he glared at me.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he hissed. His eyes were bulging and red.

What the fuck is wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong with you motherfucker, you just bit me! But the words wouldn't come out. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. I couldn't breathe.

Desmond kept moving away from me. Then suddenly he bent over and vomited. The room was still lit only by candlelight, but I could see that the vomit looked red and dark, and the room began to smell of blood. I should have staked him right then, but I couldn't. I was in shock.

I couldn't understand what was happening. Why was he staring at me? Why was he sick? Why did biting me make him sick? What was wrong with me and why the hell did I care? Was my pride hurt because biting me made a vampire—a guy I used to have feelings for—sick?

I was terrified of everything I was seeing. I felt sick at what had just happened. I had been bitten and I was going to die.

I reached behind me, feeling for the doorknob. I found it, flung the door open, and dashed into the hall, slamming the door behind me. The hall was empty.

I knew I couldn't run to Tony's apartment. As soon as they saw the bite on my neck they would have to kill me. Even if they wanted to quarantine me, it would just be a matter of time before I became sick and they would have to draw straws. I would be noble and lie in bed and let one of them stake me. Then they would cut my head off and put me out in the sun to burn.

I dashed into the stairwell. I reached for my flashlight, but then saw two flashlights headed up the stairs. I moved as quickly and quietly as I could up one flight and onto the fifth floor. I kept the door to the stairwell open a crack so I could hear. It was Scott and James. They had probably taken so long because they had moved Sophie's body away from the building so that Tony wouldn't have to see his wife burning from his living room window or when he went outside.

As soon as Scott and James went into the fourth floor door I raced down the stairs and out into the pouring rain. I thought about taking the car, but that would have been selfish. I ran west down the block and saw Sophie, starting to smoke even in the rain. I looked at her body, her head lying near her feet, and could see my own decapitated corpse lying outside smoldering.

I walked west through the rain. I didn't know where I was going, so I decided to start heading back south, toward my apartment. What was I thinking? I couldn't go there.

Maybe I could join Desmond after all. Maybe that was the only option left now. I would have to find somewhere secure to hide, to wait out the sickness so nothing could pick me off while I turned.

Maybe I could keep my sanity about me. I would never kill my friends, would I? Wouldn't my parents rather know I was living as a vampire than dead? Wasn't anything better than death?

I was terribly confused. I thought I could feel the venom moving from my neck, to my heart, to my brain, to my fingertips, all the way down to my toes. What was I going to do? I thought of Tony and Sophie and Rebecca and John. Poor Sophie, she had known she was losing it. She had known she was going to try to kill her whole family. She had even kept her awareness that they were her family. She knew their names and where they lived. Yet, she had lured Tony out of their apartment, allowing him to leave their two children unattended, and then tried to kill him. Anything was better than that.

I knew I couldn't allow myself to become like Sophie, or God forbid, like Desmond. I thought about killing myself, but I wasn't sure how I would go about it. Then I found myself in Times Square. Three months ago I wouldn't have been caught dead there with all the tourists. Now it was empty and the lights were off. I was cold and soaking wet.

Years ago, before I moved to New York, Times Square was full of seedy sex shops and peep shows. Most of it had been cleaned up, much to the chagrin of one of the old-school partners at my law firm, who occasionally grumbled that Times Square had become "Disney-fied." I never understood what was wrong with that, but then I never understood why anyone would want to become a partner at a big New York law firm either.

A few of the sex shops remained, and I spotted one nearby. That gave me an idea. I can't say it was the most well thought-out idea I've ever had, but at the time it was the best I could come up with.

I took out a stake and ducked into the store. I pulled the curtain down from the window so the place would have some light—dark though the street was in the pouring rain, it was better than nothing. I took a quick look around to make sure I was alone. I didn't need any more vampires to finish the job Desmond had started.

The store was small and I easily found what I needed—a black leather collar. I was going to take a page straight out of James's book. I stepped back outside and looked at my reflection in the glass. I had two puncture marks on the right side of my neck. Bright red blood diluted with rain ran down from the wound. Fortunately, I was wearing black. I tried the collar on and smiled despite the situation. I looked like a soaking wet S&M mistress.

Next, I headed to H&M to find a raincoat, but they didn't have what I needed. I knew the Burberry store would have one if it hadn't been completely looted, but I had to go dangerously close to my apartment to get it. I needed to be careful. If anyone saw me like this it would be over.

I kept close to the buildings, praying the rain wouldn't let up. I made my way to Burberry unseen. People had already broken into the store and taken some things, but in the back room I found what I needed.

I thought if I showed up at my apartment building, the leather collar would invite uncomfortable questions so I took it off. I chose a rain coat that was my size, buttoned it all the way up, and popped the collar. Then I grabbed some galoshes for good measure.

Back outside, the rain was beginning to let up. I knew I had to go now if this was going to be believable.

I took a deep breath, stepped outside, and ran to my apartment. Halfway down my block, I slowed to a quick walk. When I got to my building, I burst through the front door.

Dwayne was lounging on the loveseat we had stationed in the lobby. "Some guard you make, Dwayne," I tried to say casually. "What if I had been a vampire?"

"It's the middle of the day," he said defensively, as he swung his feet off the arm of the loveseat and onto the floor. "Besides, what are you doing back without the others?"

I sighed, knowing that I had to make my story work so that when Dwayne compared it with the others it would be believable from all sides. "Listen," I said, looking around. "I don't really want to talk too much about it right now in case John and Rebecca come down here."

"You found Tony right? Beth told me."

"Yeah, but we also found his wife, Sophie. Apparently she's been hanging around their apartment every night. Tony went out to either reason with her or put her out of her misery. He said she tried to attack him and he had to kill her."

Dwayne whistled and shook his head "Poor guy, is he okay?"

"He's fine," I said. "I mean physically she didn't get him, Paulo checked. But of course he's pretty shaken up and I don't want to be the one to tell John and Rebecca about their mom."

Dwayne nodded. "That's terrible."

"I mean it really shook me up too. I just couldn't handle it. Maybe because of the kids. I had to get out of there and get some fresh air. So I just walked home. I got rained on so I had to borrow a few things." I hoped that Dwayne wasn't a fashion aficionado, and wouldn't recognize my Burberry gear, and then ask why I waited until I was so close to home to get a raincoat and galoshes. If he did ask maybe I'd just tell him I couldn't find anything closer, or I could lie and say there was another Burberry store on the Upper East Side. Fortunately, he didn't ask.

"I'm actually freezing so I'm going to go change and dry off now." I forced a smile. "Keep up the good work down here, will you? And when the others get back tell them I'm sorry. I made kind of a quick exit."

"Will do," Dwayne said. "Get up there and warm up before you catch a cold."

Ha! In a day or two he might think I'd caught a cold, but I'd be hacking up vampire germs. I quickly trotted up the stairs, praying that I wouldn't run into Beth or anyone else. I was fortunate and made it all the way to my apartment without seeing a soul. I unlocked the door and went in.

I didn't have time to sit around and cry about my fate. I had to keep my plan moving. I didn't want to be killed, but I wanted to give myself a chance...if there was a chance. Desmond had bitten me and I was probably going to die, but what was it about me, about my blood that made him sick? What was it about me that made the vampire in the basement hesitate before she bit me? Could I really be vampire-resistant like we joked?

If there was any chance at all I wanted to take it, but I also didn't want to risk hurting anyone else. I would have to keep myself locked in my apartment and ask someone to watch me, but who?

Beth and Kim would be afraid of me and would probably tell someone. I couldn't blame them for that. Paulo would probably keep my secret and carry out the plan without a hitch. But Paulo had lost a lot in life and had been through plenty of hard times already. I didn't want to ask him to sit with me and watch me die, and then deliver the final blow.

James and Scott would both likely help as well, but did I want to enlist them both? I liked and trusted each of them. I certainly wished I had followed James's advice and bought a collar a long time ago. At the same time, James was a bit of a loose cannon. I didn't want him to get overly emotional about it and go raid Tony's apartment building looking for Desmond. Scott was smart and calm, and I thought I could trust him to keep his emotions in check. He seemed like the best choice.

I began to clean the bite with a first aid kit my mom had given me. It looked exactly like the bite of a vampire in the movies—two perfect little puncture marks rising out of my neck with bright spots of blood in the center. They barely even stung any more. I put some Neosporin on them, just in case. Then I covered them with a Band-Aid to keep the blood from oozing out again.

There was a knock on my door. "Who is it?" I shouted as I rushed to my sweater drawer. I found a bulky brown turtleneck and threw it on over some sweat pants.

"Beth."

"Just a second." I adjusted the sweater in the mirror and pulled the collar down to make sure no blood was coming out from under the Band-Aid. I pulled the collar back up and tried to look nonchalant as I opened the door. "What's up?" I asked.

"Dwayne said you were back, why didn't you come by?"

I stood in the doorway, not wanting Beth to come in and make herself comfortable. "I walked back through the rain. I was soaking wet and freezing cold. I wanted to change."

"Oh. Well Dwayne said you were pretty upset. Are you feeling better? Do you want to come over?"

"Yes...no...I'm fine." I was worried the bite would start bleeding through my sweater any minute despite the Band-Aid. "I just want a little time alone. I think the kids might start asking me questions and they should hear it from their dad...about their mother I mean."

"Okay."

I thought Beth's eyes seemed to dart past me, into my apartment. Was she looking for something? Did I leave the first aid kit out for her to see? Was she going to start asking me questions?

"I talked to Paulo on the radio," Beth said. "He was surprised you were back here. They were worried about you."

"Oh yeah." I felt my face turn bright red. "I told them I was going out, but I didn't really plan on walking all the way home. I guess that was stupid of me."

"Well, I think they're just glad you're okay. They're heading back now." Should I tell her to ask Scott to come by when he got back? I couldn't think up an excuse quickly enough so I didn't say anything.

"Okay, well sounds good. I might take a nap or something."

"Maybe you can come over for dinner later," Beth suggested.

"Yeah, sounds good. I might do that." I stifled a yawn to look extra convincing.

"Okay, well I hope you feel better." Beth finally walked back over to her apartment and I shut my door behind her.

I was feeling tired all of a sudden. I wondered if it had something to do with the bite. Maybe I was already becoming nocturnal. I tried to shake the thought off. I had been bitten less than two hours ago, and I wasn't feeling sick yet. I had to figure out how to get Scott to my apartment without alerting the others.

The best idea I could come up with was to ask him to come fix the boards over my fire escape window. But if he was with other people, they would likely volunteer to come along and help. I'd just have to wait for an opportunity to catch Scott alone, but I didn't want to wait too long.

The rain stopped and soon I could hear the guys lumbering up the stairs. They weren't talking much. I heard them go straight to Beth's apartment. They knocked on the door and called out. I heard the door open, then excited squeals as Rebecca and John were reunited with their father. I wondered if I would ever see my dad again.

I heard Beth's door open again and people coming into the hall. I assumed they were taking Tony and the kids to their new apartment downstairs. I looked out through my peephole and hoped to see Scott go into his apartment, but I couldn't see his door. It sounded as if everyone was headed downstairs anyway. Tony had probably brought things from his old apartment and Scott and the others were helping him bring them in.

Suddenly, James appeared in front of my peephole and knocked loudly. I jumped back. I tried to think. Would it be more suspicious if I didn't answer? Then I heard a "Shhhh," come from down the hallway and Beth's voice, "She's tired, James, let her sleep." I sighed and mentally thanked Beth. I had already forgotten I told her I wanted to take a nap.

I peered out of my window and saw the guys removing suitcases from the Escalade. They looked tired and wet—both the guys and the suitcases. I knew the guys would come up to their apartments soon to change. I went back to my door and listened. After what seemed like an eternity I heard footsteps in the hallway. I heard two doors close. I looked out through my peephole and couldn't see anyone nearby. I didn't want to risk calling Scott on his walkie talkie, because someone else might hear, and he might not even have his turned on.

I opened my door. The hall was empty. I tried not to make any noise as I walked over to Scott's apartment. I knocked quietly on his door, hoping he was alone. There was no answer. I knocked again, more frantically. A few seconds later, the door opened.

Scott was standing there in his boxers with a towel in his hand. His wet clothes were lying on the floor. He must have looked through the peephole first and seen how upset I was. That or we had turned my floor into a college dorm.

"What is it Ailis? Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, Scott. It's not an emergency..."

"You sure look like it's an emergency."

"I know, I'm sorry. Can you just come over after you change?"

"Of course, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's not a big deal, but please just come over and don't bring anyone or even tell anyone else." I must have sounded very sketchy, but I didn't know what else to say.

"Ailis, please tell me what's wrong."

"It's not a big deal, I'll tell you when you come over. Please just don't tell anyone."

"Fine," he agreed. "I'll be over in a minute. Do you need me to bring anything?"

"No." I went back into the hallway. "Just you. And thank you, Scott."

"Yeah, sure." Scott shut the door behind me and I practically dashed back into my apartment.

It was late in the afternoon and my apartment felt hot and stuffy after the storm. I wanted to take off my turtleneck, but I wasn't sure that I should just open the door and see how Scott would react to the bite on my neck. I still didn't have a sore throat or a cough. I tried to remember what Tony had said about Sophie. How long had it taken...a few hours, or a day?

I heard a knock, it was Scott. I opened the door and tried to smile and act normal. "Come on in."

Suddenly, James popped out of his apartment. "Hey Ailis, what was that all about, going crazy and leaving us?"

"Sorry," I said lamely. "I just had to get out of there. Something about seeing Sophie and Tony just got to me. I should have said something."

"Yeah you should have. You had us really worried."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it was stupid." I didn't know what else to say.

"Well what are you two up to?" James asked.

"I'm just going to help Ailis fix some of the boards on her window," Scott lied for me.

"Oh, I can come help," James volunteered, just as I knew he would.

"No," Scott said quickly, too quickly I thought, or maybe I was just being paranoid. "I've got it. They just need a few extra nails."

"Oh yeah?" James said. "Where are your tools?"

My heart sank. He was suspicious. I knew he was wondering why Scott would turn down his help and wondering why I was bundled up in a turtleneck when the whole building was warm and muggy.

"I have my own tool kit, silly." I wasn't lying. I did have some tools in my apartment. My dad had insisted I always have a well-stocked tool kit ever since I left home. It had come in particularly handy when Beth and I were trapped in my apartment.

"Thanks man, I really don't need any help." Scott sounded irritated. I hoped he wasn't making James more suspicious.

James grinned, "Yeah, okay, you're right. I'm sure you don't need any help. You two have fun."

"Oh fuck off," Scott said and walked into my apartment and shut the door. I thought I heard James giggling in the hallway. I had been too paranoid. James's first suspicion had been that Scott was trying to make a move on me. I blushed at the thought. I had gotten into enough trouble with men for one day.

Scott's face was red. "So what is it?"

I didn't know where to start or how to say it, so I just blurted it out. "I'm bitten."

Scott's face went from red to white. "You're what?"

"I was bitten by a vampire back in Tony's building. That's why I ran away. That's why I'm wearing this stupid turtleneck even though I feel like I'm about to suffocate." I waited for a reaction, but Scott seemed to be processing this information. "I'll give you a few minutes to absorb this while I go change."

I went into my room and exchanged the turtleneck for an orange and white tank top. I trusted Scott wouldn't dash out into the hall and tell everyone. When I came back into the living room he was still standing in the same place. His eyes went straight to the Band-Aid on my neck. "Are you being serious, Ailis?"

I nodded. "This isn't something I would joke about." I pulled the Band-Aid off and Scott winced. "It isn't bleeding again is it?" I asked, putting my hand up to the bite.

"No, it's just that it's a vampire bite, Ailis, right there on your neck."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry, I couldn't think of a good way to tell you. Do you want some water or something? Why don't you sit down? I have some wine, but it's warm."

"No," he replied, walking over to me. "Just let me think for a minute. Do you mind if I take a closer look?"

"Go ahead."

Scott brought his face close to my neck and placed his thumb and index finger on either side of the bite. "How did this happen? And why didn't it kill you?"

I told him how I had thought I recognized Desmond the night before. It now seemed like ages ago. I told him about the open door and how I had decided to go exploring. I was embarrassed at how dumb I had been. Scott didn't say a word until I came to the part where Desmond bit me.

Scott put his hand to his head. "If only we hadn't taken so long with that body. If we had come upstairs and seen the open door and heard you, we could have done something."

"Look, Scott." I squeezed his arm. "This is in no way your fault. I was an idiot to go in there by myself. I'm really amazed at my own stupidity."

"Okay, well why aren't you still back there? Why didn't he drain you dry? Did you kill him?"

I shook my head. "I don't think he got much blood. After only a second or two he pulled back, like he was disgusted by me. Then he threw up."

"He threw up?" Scott looked puzzled. "Why?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea, but he didn't want anything to do with me after that. I was in shock so I just ran out the door. Maybe it has something to do with why that vampire in the basement hesitated before she bit me. Have you ever seen one do that before?"

Scott shook his head. "Never. I've never even heard of it. What are we going to do, Ailis?" He looked so sad when he looked at me. I instantly felt guilty for putting him in this position. We had all grown close to each other over the past month and a half. I would have felt terrible if anything had happened to one of the others. I felt I should have thrown myself off a bridge before putting Scott in this position.

"I'm sorry, Scott, I shouldn't have done this to you."

"No, Ailis, you did the right thing. I want to do anything I can to help you. How do you feel?"

"Honestly, I feel fine."

Scott nodded. "I don't think we should tell anyone else. We don't know for sure what effect this will have on you. There's always a chance..."

"I don't know." I was starting to have doubts about my plan. "Maybe I should just disappear somewhere. I don't want to put anyone in danger. It was wrong of me to come back here in the first place."

Scott was pacing now. "No. It's been at least a few hours and you're feeling fine. The vampire threw up after biting you, that vampire in the basement didn't like you, maybe there is something special about you."

"And maybe not. I've never heard of anyone being immune to this."

"There are always people who are immune. There are people who are immune to HIV, people who were immune to the black plague. We're going to wait this out. I'm not letting you leave this apartment and I'm not letting anyone in."

A few hours ago I had accepted that my life was over. Now, someone who had known me for a little over a month was insisting on risking his life to give me a chance. What could I even say to him? What if at the end of all this I killed him?

"I don't want you to get hurt, and I certainly don't want to be the one to hurt you."

"I won't get hurt. I'll keep an eye on you. When I need to sleep or go out I'll board your room up from the outside. At the first sign...I mean if you start to change..."

"You'll end it," I finished for him. "I know, it's okay, you have to. I can't tell you how much this means to me, how grateful my family would be. What are you going to tell everyone?"

Scott thought for a moment. "Maybe you should play sick, but make an appearance every once in a while in your turtleneck so people won't ask too many questions. If I get caught staying here overnight, they'll just think what James did."

My face grew hot again, but I shook my head. "No way am I going around those kids like this. It's not worth the risk."

"You're right. That'll be your reasoning though. You play sick, you don't want to get anyone else sick. If someone insists on coming to visit you, you can wear the turtleneck and lie under the covers for good measure."

That was the most reasonable plan we could come up with, so we decided to go with it. We wouldn't have to carry on the act long anyway. We would know in a day or two what my fate would be.

I had a few things in my apartment that we could use to board up my door and Scott had some more supplies at his place. We also kept some supplies on the floor above mine. Scott moved quickly, gathering supplies and explaining to anyone who asked that some of the boards on my windows needed to be reinforced.

My bedroom door locked from the inside. I took the knob off and turned it around so that it locked from the outside. I hoped anyone who came to visit wouldn't notice this. In fact, I hoped I wouldn't have any visitors at all. Scott had a large piece of plywood that would cover nearly the entire door. Even if I did manage to get it off I would have to make a lot of racket doing it so if Scott was asleep he would wake up in time to stop me.

When everything was set up, Scott went over to Beth's and told them I seemed to be coming down with a stomach virus. He explained that his mother was a nurse and he knew these things were extremely contagious, and that even he did not feel comfortable being around the children after spending time with me. He told me what he had said to Beth and the others. and said that no one protested or made any comments when he left.

I stayed in my apartment for three days. Scott and I talked, played cards, played board games, did anything to pass the time. I also wrote my family a letter telling them about the past two months, how I had been bitten and how Scott had volunteered to make my last few days easier. I didn't say that it was Desmond who had bitten me. I didn't want my sister to feel guilty for setting us up. I asked Scott to give the letter to my family only if I took a turn for the worse.

Several times over those three days Scott promised me he would hunt Desmond down and kill him, but I made him swear not to. Desmond was clearly dangerous and I didn't want anyone to get killed because of my stupidity, especially Scott.

After three days, I still felt no symptoms. The bite marks were starting to heal and I was starting to relax. Scott and I decided I was in the clear and I could go out. I still didn't want anyone to know what had happened. Someone might overreact. I showed Scott the leather collar I had picked up in Times Square and he couldn't stop laughing.

"I'll have to tell James I finally bought into his idea," I giggled.

The next time Scott went out he returned with a leather collar of his own. "Just to make it a little more credible," he said, "we'll both give in."

We tried on our collars together and I laughed until I cried. We looked like we ought to own a dungeon somewhere. I also asked Scott to go out and pick up a few scarves that might cover up my bite. People had accepted that James was a little nutty wearing his collar almost all day, every day, but I thought it might be nice to try something else out every once in a while.

I was amazed at my own body. My immune system had fought off a virus that as far as I knew had killed millions of people. No one that I knew of had survived as a human, yet I never developed so much as a stuffy nose or sore throat. Although I had made Scott promise not to hunt down Desmond, I secretly hoped to run into him again.
15

People accepted my new scarf and collar habit without much question. I explained that after seeing Sophie and how close Tony had come to being killed I wanted to take more precautions. They had heard how shaken I was by the whole experience so wearing a collar or a scarf to protect myself must have seemed to them the next logical step.

James gloated about it for a while, especially when Scott said that he too had decided to wear a collar whenever we might be going into a dangerous situation. Then, Paulo followed suit, and soon a few others were wearing collars as well.

Seth had never moved into our building, and we started to think it was because it gave him an opportunity to make up stories about his supposed vampire hunting adventures. If he lived in our building, we would know his comings and goings and could call him on his bullshit. As it was, we could only speculate as to how much he actually made up, which we theorized was a lot.

We continued to receive assistance from the outside world and the man on the radio continued to evade our questions about rescue. We also continued to read about ourselves in the newspapers and magazines our families sent us.

Our families started a publicity campaign to put pressure on the government to set us free, and the news networks ate it up. It seemed as if the entire world was fascinated by the "Manhattan 27"—that was the number we were down to at that point. The networks ran stories about our past lives, and wrote up as much information as it seemed they could gather from our families, the sound bites the government gave them, and the bits and pieces they gathered from those who occasionally hacked into our radio frequency.

Some of the tabloids ran fantastic exaggerations about our vampire slaying adventures. Several of us had told our families about clearing out my building and the basement. One magazine ran an eight-page story with illustrations that made it seem as if we had barreled through the rooms, slaying vampires everywhere we went.

The basement scene was written as if I had slain all the vampires at once. There was a wonderful illustration of me staking two vampires while side-kicking a third. It was like a comic book. At the very end, the story included a single paragraph demanding we be set free.

There were also reports that some companies were going to try to get the rights to make a television show about us. I found this inappropriate and irritating. As entertaining as the stories in the tabloids were, they were still exploiting misery, and profiting from death. A television show would make life in vampire-infested Manhattan seem glamorous. No doubt we would be depicted driving around in Ferraris, ridding the city of vampires and then hooking up with each other and causing drama in every scene. Still, maybe that would be better than the world forgetting us.

One thing that continued to bother me was what Desmond had told me about other humans. Had he been telling the truth when he said the vampires kept people underground to feed on when they became hungry? Could that explain why the vampires never put forth a group effort to invade our building?

I discussed the issue with Scott and he didn't have an answer. We didn't even know how many vampires were in Manhattan or whether they had the capability to storm our building. Enough vampires came around our building and Seth's so that we knew they knew we were there, but both buildings were well-fortified.

Sometimes, when three or four vampires gathered outside, Scott, James, or Dwayne would shoot one or two with one of the crossbows—we had received more after our first was a success. The other vampires would scatter into the night and they would stay away for a while. But after a few nights, we would see one or two come back to stare at the building from the end of the block.

After I was bitten, I started noticing that I had a heightened sense of awareness for vampires. Somehow, I always knew when they came back. I didn't know exactly how many or precisely where they were, but I could feel that they were close by. I tested this with Scott. I told him when I felt the vampires had returned and he would look out the window. I was always right. At first I worried this was a sign I was turning, but I had no other symptoms so Scott and I decided it was a lone side effect of my attack.

Several times, I had nightmares about vampires in the subway tunnels. There would be about fifty or sixty of them gathered there. Then they would go through a small door and follow a tunnel into a square room with a ladder to one side, leading to a door in the ceiling. The strongest vampire in the room would climb up the ladder and push at the door with a crowbar. Eventually, the door would open and vampires would begin to climb up. Then, suddenly, they were in my basement, streaming up the stairs into the lobby...and then I would wake up, covered in sweat.

Each time I woke up from this dream I felt that I could actually sense the vampires far below me in that concrete room that I had never seen. The next morning, I would insist that we go down into the basement to check that the door in the utility closet floor was still covered and secure. I even began taking longer walks through the city to scope out buildings. The hole in my basement was making me uneasy.

In early June, not long after I was bitten, we gathered in Bryant Park for a supply drop. Beth and Paulo were playing with the kids, which meant James was trying to be involved as well. I thought both James and Paulo had become very attached to Beth. It was only natural. Everyone was young, Beth was blond and pretty, and we all relied on each other to survive. In the beginning, she seemed to flirt with James, but later she seemed more drawn to Paulo.

Most people already assumed Scott and I were together. We neither admitted nor denied it. We thought it was better that way, and would keep people from asking questions about the three days Scott and I had spent locked in my apartment, and the nights he still spent there sometimes.

The weather was beautiful that day and I was feeling rather cheerful. Two helicopters arrived on schedule. The first dropped boxes with little parachutes. That was normal. The second dropped much lower to the ground than usual, making me nervous. I thought they would have forewarned us if they planned to land and rescue us.

A long line dropped out of the helicopter and a figure wearing a helmet appeared at the open door. It leaned backward and rappelled down. I could hardly believe my eyes. First, it was hard to believe that after all this time someone was brave enough to join us, and second, the helicopter didn't even land to let him out. No one moved toward the figure, now standing in the middle of the park.

The figure backed away and waved its arms. The helicopter rose and dropped another package attached to a parachute. The figure waved again and both helicopters flew away.

I decided I had nothing to lose so I walked toward the figure. It took its helmet off and waved to me. He was a young man with dark skin. He appeared to be Indian. I walked right up to him and he smiled and put his hand out. "Dr. Naveen Patel, at your service," he said with a British accent.

I put my hand out tentatively. "Um, I'm Ailis, nice to meet you, Dr. Patel." I wondered if they had sent a doctor to check us out before agreeing we could leave the island. The thought made me both hopeful and nervous. If he checked me out he would find the bite marks, and then what? Maybe they would let everyone else go and leave me there alone.

"Ailis, lovely to meet you, I've read so much about you. Please call me Naveen."

"So, what exactly are you doing here?" Scott asked as he strolled up from behind me.

"Scott, this is Naveen, and he's a doctor."

"Wonderful to meet you," Naveen said. "I've read all about you as well." Naveen shook Scott's hand. "I have a dual role actually. I'm British, but of course I've read all about the events here. I've been mad to study this virus, but your government wouldn't allow anyone anywhere near Manhattan. I had to pull a lot of strings and in the end I think public opinion got me here. I've also agreed to provide medical care to any survivors who need it. You lot have quite a following you know."

"Yeah, we've heard." Scott looked suspicious. "So what are you going to do? Catch a couple of vampires and get blood samples?"

"Well, not exactly." Naveen walked over to the box that had been dropped from his helicopter. I was hoping to start out by talking to your group. Until now I've had to rely on reports from my government, which gets them from your government, which really doesn't seem to know anything you lot haven't told them."

"I suspect they know a lot more than what they've told us," I said, crossing my arms.

"That may be true," Naveen admitted, "but they don't share much and I'd like to get the information firsthand. Maybe I could even run some blood samples on a few volunteers and figure out why the twenty-seven of you survived."

"That's a waste of time," Scott snapped. "We're normal people who just happened to be smart enough to survive. The virus isn't airborne and no one here has been bitten."

Naveen seemed a bit taken aback. "Well yes, then that makes sense. See I didn't even know whether anyone had been bitten and survived. That's important information right there."

I didn't see any point in alienating this doctor. "We'll be happy to answer any questions, but we hope that in return you'll report back that we aren't contagious to anyone. We just want to go home."

Naveen looked sympathetic. "Of course, it's only a matter of time. If any of you are a danger, I'm now a danger as well and I certainly don't want to stay here for the rest of my life."

Naveen started to unpack his box. I told him he could stay in our building. There were some open apartments. They had some broken furniture and were messy, either from attacks or because the owners left so hastily, but they were safe. Naveen looked happy to accept. Scott looked annoyed, but offered to help Naveen with his things.

The three of us turned toward the group. Everyone was watching us. The kids had gone back to hang onto Tony's legs, and Paulo and James were standing protectively by Beth.

"He's a doctor from England," I called out, as if that explained everything.

Naveen went around introducing himself to everyone. He seemed very excited to be in a place we all wanted to escape. Some people, obviously suspicious, didn't hang around for long.

As soon as he heard the good doctor was collecting information on the vampires, Seth became excited and volunteered to share all of his knowledge, especially accounts of his own courageous encounters with the creatures.

Naveen fed the flames, "Yes, yes, I've read about all the vampires you've killed in the papers, I'm so very excited to hear the stories firsthand." I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to warn Naveen to take everything Seth said with a grain of salt. I had heard Seth telling some of his stories over the radio, and doubted any of them were true.

Naveen wanted to get started right away, but he only succeeded in making things awkward. "Has anyone here seen the virus from the beginning to the end?"

Tony cringed and held his kids closer.

"Look," Scott said angrily, "I know they like to glamorize our situation in the newspapers, but this place is hell. Everyone here has lost friends or family members to this virus or to the creatures created by it. You can't just burst in here out of your ivory tower and expect people to get excited about telling you their horror stories."

Naveen's face fell. "You're right of course. I completely understand. That was very insensitive of me, and I apologize. It's just there's very little time..."

"How could you understand?" Tony snapped.

"Little time for what?" I asked.

Naveen hesitated for a moment, then said, "I just mean it spread so quickly, no one has ever seen anything like it. I want to learn as much as I can as fast as I can so that I can send a report and get everyone out of here."

I nodded. I wanted to cooperate, but at the same time I wondered what the doctor would do if he found out that I was immune. He might report back and have me turned into a science experiment. I decided to be extra nice to him in case I needed him in my corner later. I offered to take him back to the apartment building so he could set up and then people could talk to him when they were ready. He seemed only too glad to escape the situation in the park.

As we were walking away Scott took me aside and growled in my ear, "Don't tell him anything about your condition, I don't trust him at all. He's lying about something and if he finds out you're immune he'll drain you faster than a vampire would."

"Don't worry!" I hissed back. "You think I haven't learned my lesson about trust?"

He looked offended. "You can trust me."

"Yeah, I know that, but you know what I mean."

I looked over at Naveen. Seth was talking his ear off and Naveen had taken out a pad and paper in an attempt to jot down notes.

"C'mon," I said to Scott, "let's at least make sure he gets the stories right."

We convinced Seth to give Naveen a break. Seth promised to set up an apartment in his building for the doctor and trotted away to get to work. Most of the people from our building followed us back. I had a feeling they wanted to talk to the doctor, to tell him their horror stories, in spite of how offended many of them had acted. It would be therapeutic in a way. I thought Naveen's coming to Manhattan could be a good thing. It was a brave move on his part, and maybe he could convince the world that we posed no threat.

We helped Naveen get settled in and then I had a talk with him about being sensitive. I told him about Sophie and Tony and their children. I told him Tony's description of Sophie's symptoms as best as I could remember. He kept asking me questions I couldn't answer. I told him that Tony would talk to him when he was good and ready.

I explained almost everything we had learned about the vampires. We didn't know how many there were. We suspected most kept to the subway tunnels. I explained their appearance and the noises they made. I noted that some sounded more human than others, but didn't say anything about meeting Desmond or about being bitten.

I told Naveen that the vampires seemed to dislike garlic and that they had to be killed with stakes. I didn't have an explanation—that was his job. I didn't think religion was any kind of deterrent. They didn't seem to have any interest in cat blood. The virus wasn't airborne, but everyone who had been bitten was either killed in the attack, died from the virus, or turned into a vampire.

Naveen seemed most interested in how quickly the virus had spread and what efforts had been made to contain it. He had dropped his cheerful demeanor by that point in our conversation. He asked what had been done for people at the hospitals. I didn't know anything except that according to the early news reports, the hospitals had been the first places to be overrun.

By the time I finished telling Naveen what I knew, the sun was setting. I invited him to come to Beth and Kim's, where many of us usually gathered for dinner. I reminded him not to expect anything fancy.

Naveen became his cheerful self again at dinner. He told everyone about our following in England. The stories he had read about us—most of them wildly exaggerated—made everyone laugh.

After dinner, Naveen quietly asked if he could look out the window. Beth was uncomfortable drawing attention to her apartment, which faced the courtyard, so we went across the hall to Paulo's apartment, which was next door to mine and faced the street. We went into Paulo's bedroom and turned our flashlights off. Paulo took Naveen over to the window. There was no fire escape at the window but it had several boards nailed across it.

Paulo pulled his curtains back a few inches and peered out through one of the large cracks between the boards. I knew there would be one or two vampires out there before Paulo even said anything—I could feel them. He scanned the street and after a moment leaned back and pointed through the crack. "Look there to the left, across the street and about halfway up the block."

Naveen looked through the crack and leapt backward. I smiled. I had forgotten how shocking they looked. Maybe the moonlight had caught one's eyes and Naveen had been unnerved by the reflection.

Naveen looked around and smiled weakly. "Sorry," he whispered. Then, he leaned back over to the window and watched for a few minutes. When he was finished looking he stepped back, and Paulo closed the curtains. We all went into Paulo's living room where Paulo lit a battery powered lantern.

"What did you think?" Paulo asked.

Naveen shuddered, and his eyes looked moist. "I'd seen pictures, you know. People sent pictures to the outside with mobiles and computers, before you lost power and mobile service, but they were nothing like the real thing. I can't believe you actually hunt them."

Paulo shrugged. "We do what we have to do to survive. We try not to go looking for trouble."

I'd had enough for one evening so I said goodnight and headed for the door. The others came with me, but Naveen hesitated. "I don't mean to be rude," he said, looking sheepish, "but that was quite a shock..."

Scott raised his eyebrows and James grinned. Paulo just smiled and offered, "Would you like to sleep on my sofa tonight?"

Naveen looked up and smiled back. "I'd love to, mate!"

That night I dreamed I was in a hospital. In the hospital was a locked ward where no one was allowed to go. All the doctors had British accents.
16

I once watched a documentary about lions in Tanzania. One of the biologists was amazed to have the opportunity to observe a lioness adopt a baby impala. Usually, impalas are a primary food source for lions, but for whatever reason, this lioness watched over the baby impala as if it were her own offspring. Occasionally, she even let the mother impala come close enough to feed the baby for a short time before running her off. This odd relationship lasted for several days. Then, one of the male lions attacked and ate the baby impala while the lioness wasn't watching.

One muggy morning in late June, about a week and a half after Dr. Patel's arrival, we gathered as usual in Bryant Park to talk and wait for news and supply drops from the outside. It was already getting hot so we were sitting on some blankets under the trees, eating our rations.

Seth strolled up with a ridiculous smirk on his face, and I thought he was about to launch into some exaggerated story about being surrounded by vampires and fighting them off by himself, bare-handed and so forth. He had become downright intolerable since he had found a captive audience in Dr. Patel.

I sighed and moved closer to Scott, turning my back to Seth and whatever story he was about to tell. Scott was reminiscing about surfing—one of my favorite topics. Nothing seemed to take me further away from the ugly, steamy, hot concrete of Manhattan than talking about the beach, and Scott was talking about surfing in Maui—heaven on earth.

Scott was laughing about how after working for a couple of years his body had deteriorated to the point where he could barely keep himself afloat in the water. I thought he was exaggerating just a bit.

"You guys will not believe what happened last night!" Seth said excitedly.

I wasn't the only one who sighed then. Scott mumbled something about a "fat head," and continued to snack on his sunflower seeds and talk about surfboard rashes and sunburns. I yearned for a hammock and a nice sea breeze.

"I'm in with the vampires." Seth said it softly, intentionally I thought, so that we couldn't be completely sure he had said it and someone would have to ask him to repeat it. He got my attention.

"Come again," Naveen finally said.

Seth started grinning again and then came over and made himself at home in the middle of the group. He brushed away some grass from the blanket Beth was sitting on and took his time arranging himself next to her.

"Well if you schmucks weren't always about to piss yourselves every time you saw them we might not have anything to be afraid of in the first place," he said. He sounded like he was addressing a classroom of six-year-old children.

"Look," Scott said, "do you want to tell us what the hell you're talking about or not?"

"Simmer down, I'm getting to it. So while you guys were holed up, hiding from your own shadows last night..."

I rolled my eyes and wanted more than anything to tell him I didn't give a shit, but I was too curious.

"...I decided to clear my head and take a stroll down Second Ave."

Here he paused for dramatic effect until Beth obliged by saying, "By yourself?"

"Not by myself. Just after sunset every night this really gorgeous brunette—she might be Latina—has been coming around my building. I talked to her through the window a couple of times so I knew she was okay. You wouldn't believe how clear her voice is. I wasn't sure at first whether she was vampire or human.

"When I first started talking to her she told me, 'I've been watching you, and I feel like I can trust you more than any of your friends.'"

"Bullshit," somebody coughed.

"She'd been stalking you?" Beth asked.

Seth looked irritated. "Not stalking me. Watching me. You know they watch our buildings. They know when we come and go." He was right. I knew this was true. I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that Seth had actually gone out by himself to meet up with a vampire at night. Had he lost his mind? Were all the stories he had told us true? Perhaps all the publicity and attention were getting to him and he had begun to feel invincible, like a real super hero or something. He looked proud of himself, so I was inclined to believe his story.

Seth went on, "She and some of her friends had been watching me and my friends. She just wanted to communicate that not all vampires are like the ones from the movies or the ones we saw in the streets at the beginning of the outbreak. So after talking to her through the window for a few nights I decided to go out and join her. It's not like I couldn't handle myself if some of the bad ones showed up."

"Jesus," Scott interjected, "these things are evolving to become more deceptive than we'd thought."

"Deceptive? Who said anything about deceptive? She never even tried to touch me, except once to try to take my hand, but I wasn't going to let my guard down that easily. No, she just said 'We aren't cold-blooded killers, and we'd like to live at peace with you.' And I promised I would bring the group to meet her tonight."

"Like hell you did." James stood up. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?"

Beth inched away from Seth, as if he had been infected and she was worried he might suddenly turn on her.

"Now listen James," Seth said defensively, "a week ago I would have reacted the same way, but you didn't meet her. She isn't threatening at all. It's crazy to assume they all just want to kill us. It's basically racism is what it is."

I groaned. "Seth, there's a difference between being prejudiced against someone simply because of her skin color and being prejudiced against someone because you happen to be her primary food source. If a chicken wants to be distrustful of me I can't say I blame it."

James snorted, and Seth's face turned red. "I'm not stupid Ailis, I can read people, and Rosario didn't want to kill me. She really wanted to make peace."

"Rosario isn't a person, she's a vampire. She's a hunter and you're the hunted. She's a shark, you're a fish."

"You're a bitch. You don't know shit and you're just pissed because you never—"

"Watch it!" Scott stood up. "You are stupid Seth. If you want to go be a pet cow to this vampire chick you go ahead, and take anyone else who is stupid enough to join you. I know what vampires are and I've seen enough of what they do to people to know I don't want to risk my neck trying to be buddy-buddy with something that just wants to rip out my jugular in the end."

Seth stood up, his face red. "I will go back and anyone who wants to stop living in the dark ages can come with me." He paused, perhaps searching for something else to say that might make people care. "And we'll still expect to come back for our full share of the rations."

Scott and James were on him in an instant. James had Seth's arms pinned by his side and Scott had him in a choke-hold. Seth's eyes looked like they were about to pop out.

"Now listen here you piece of shit egomaniac." Scott was speaking in a low whisper but every word he said was crystal clear. "Like I said, you can go hang out with your vampire buddies and get yourself killed or not killed, I don't really care. But I have two things to say to you. One, don't expect me or anyone else to come rescue you when shit goes wrong. Two, if you bring a single one of those rotten, half-dead, diseased vampires back here to where any humans live I will kill every vampire friend you bring back, and I will kill you."

"Three," James growled, "if you start a campaign to bring anyone else on your suicide mission I will cut your fucking head off and throw your body in the East River and your head in the Hudson."

Both men released Seth at the same time and stalked off. Seth tried to scream after them but only managed a hoarse rasp, rather vampire-like, "You're both sons of bitches. You're the cold-blooded killers. I'd rather be with the vampires. They're more civilized."

We all stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. Even Naveen, who I expected to be fascinated by the subject of a friendly vampire, seemed at a loss for words.

After James appeared to be out of earshot, Seth tried to collect himself and said, "Anyone who wants to stop living in fear of vampires and humans, come with me tonight. I promise you they are not what they seem." He seemed to gather what little dignity he imagined he had left, and walked away toward his apartment by the East River. No one followed.

Beth was agitated the rest of the day. I think she may have gone with Naveen to visit Seth to try to talk him out of his plan. I'm sure Naveen asked him a million questions and "oohed" and "ahhed." That would have sealed the deal. Any doubts Seth may have had in whatever reasonable part of his brain was remaining were surely erased by the attention he received from Beth and Naveen. He was probably writing his own headlines to send to the papers.

Scott, James, Paulo, Naveen, and I gathered at Beth and Kim's that evening as usual. Beth kept sighing and wondering whether someone should have stayed with Seth to insist he stay indoors. Naveen, on the other hand, suggested we gather a group and follow Seth. To our surprise, Beth agreed. "We could follow in a car, that way no one would be in danger and we can help him out if he gets in trouble."

"You're joking," James replied. "I'm not stretching my neck out for that little twit. I'm not even sure I'd do it for one of you if you decided to go and do something that stupid."

"Thanks James," I grumbled.

"Well," Scott said, "it's not a bad idea. I was thinking of doing it myself, but I wasn't going to tell you all."

"Wow, you really are that stupid," James said.

"I'm not talking about rescuing the bastard, but I'd like to follow along quietly and just see how much of what he says really is bullshit."

"I'm in," I volunteered.

Scott turned to me. "Now look, we don't need a whole crew. Like I said, we're not running a rescue operation."

"Two people isn't a crew," I shot back. "You know it's not smart to go out by yourself, someone needs to watch your back."

"James can come," Scott said.

"Like hell I can."

"I'm coming and that's the end of it," I insisted. "Stop being ridiculous, you know you'd rather have me than James."

"Unfortunately, that's true," Scott sighed. I felt funny about the way he looked at me. I was proud that he recognized I was a better fighter, but at the same time I somewhat envied the protective stance everyone always took toward Beth.

"I hate both of you," James said. "I'm going too. Just to see that douche-bag get what's coming to him."

"Nice, lovely," Beth said. "Maybe he had a point when he called you the cold-blooded killers." I couldn't tell whether she was serious or not. "It was my idea in the first place so I'm going too."

I was shocked. Beth never went looking for trouble. I remembered the first two weeks of the plague and how we killed our first human and our first vampire, how we stayed perfectly quiet, perfectly still, while we listened to a vampire tear my neighbor apart. Beth had done those things to survive, she wasn't a killer like I was, or some of the others for that matter. For a moment, I wondered if in some freakish way she had some feelings for Seth.

I didn't like the idea of Beth going one bit, and neither did the others. Paulo hadn't spoken up until that point, but when Beth volunteered, he put his foot down. She tried to insist, but then Paulo said he would go as well and Beth blanched. My previous suspicions about her having feelings for Seth vanished. She was just being her caring self. She couldn't stand to see anyone in danger, even someone as loathsome as Seth.

Beth agreed to stay in the apartment if Paulo would stay as well. It was an awkward moment, especially for James, but then we had to focus on forcing Naveen to stay as well. I tried to be nice about it, but James told him flat out we didn't want any amateurs along. Naveen didn't seem terribly upset. I wasn't sure he had spent a single night in his own apartment since he had arrived. I suspected he was couch-surfing through the guys' apartments.

We dressed in black. We wore black boots, leather collars, and stake packs. Scott carried a crossbow. We must have been quite a sight. Naveen insisted on taking our picture with his digital camera before we left, and we let him.

We made our way toward Seth's building on the East River, but before we got there, we spotted him walking north on Second Avenue. We didn't want to be seen, and the night was dark enough that it wasn't difficult to stay hidden. I was glad for the company. There were too many dark abandoned buildings with broken windows. Something could have easily reached out and snatched one of us if we hadn't been careful.

Seth ended up near a wine bar I had liked back in the pre-vampire days. There were backhoes and other construction equipment there from New York's now-abandoned attempt at a Second Avenue subway line. First it was money, now vampires—what excuse would City Hall come up with next? I once watched a PBS documentary that said the original New York subway system had been a private endeavor, and was built in just four years. How could one subway line with all our modern technology be such a catastrophe?

It looked as if the city had been building a stop on the corner opposite the wine bar. There was a gaping hole in the ground. Had it been completed, I could have taken the subway right from work to the wine bar even in the coldest winter months. Maybe I would have gone with Desmond... I shook the thought off and tried to focus on the task at hand.

We hid ourselves among the construction equipment, but I felt uncomfortable being so close to the hole. I didn't need my sixth sense to know with one hundred percent certainty that the subway tunnel was teeming with vampires. We moved back into the corner of two buildings where something was less likely to sneak up on us.

We weren't there five minutes when a female vampire showed up. I assumed she was Rosario. She was pretty and looked very human. Her skin was tan, but had the same pale undertones that reminded me of Desmond. Her eyes literally lit up for a moment when Seth shone his light in her direction. They were brown with gold, like yellow reflectors, like the eyes of a cat, or a wolf. To top it all off she smiled at Seth, flashing a serious set of fangs.

"Hey honey," she called out. She spoke in a low, hoarse voice. "I'm so glad you came back. Who else did you bring?"

Seth looked sheepish. "No one, they're just a little afraid."

Rosario pouted. "I thought you said people listened to you. I even brought someone new to meet you." Although her voice carried the signature vampire rasp, she sounded almost human.

Another vampire stepped out of the shadows. I swear to God I don't even know where she came from. I had never seen a vampire appear out of thin air before and have never seen it happen since, so she must have come from somewhere, possibly that nasty hole in the ground. She wasn't as pretty as Rosario, but she wasn't bad either. She had red hair and eyes that were a little too green. She looked wilder.

She reached out to Seth and he moved away from her. She grinned, her teeth glistening in the moonlight. "I won't hurt you," she whispered. "You're just too bloody cute." I thought I detected a trace of a British accent.

Seth turned pale and Rosario grinned wider and touched the redhead on the shoulder. "Not the most appropriate word-choice Keira." She turned to Seth. "Now you just come on in when you feel comfortable."

"I'd rather stay outside if you don't mind." At least Seth had enough sense not to follow two vampires into a dark building.

"Whatever you want, honey," Rosario said. She sat Seth down at a little table outside and she and Keira walked into the wine bar and lit some candles. They brought out the candles and an open bottle of wine to Seth and sat down with him. Several windows in the building were busted and I wondered how the wine had escaped the looting. Maybe everything happened too fast, and there were still hidden gems in the city waiting to be found.

Seth began to drink a glass of wine. The more comfortable he became, the more comfortable the vampires became. They began to stroke his arms and pet his hair, but drunk though he clearly was, he never got too close to their mouths.

At one point he appeared to be engrossed in a conversation with Rosario. Keira slid her hand up his thigh and I started to worry things were going to get a little too kinky. Keira put her tongue out to lick Seth's neck. I felt a nasty feeling in my gut, but the moment her tongue touched him, Seth jumped out of his chair and spilled his wine all over himself, staining his beige shirt a deep red.

Keira and Rosario both smiled. I think Rosario tried to force a laugh, but it came out as more of a cough. Seth seemed suddenly sober and got up to leave. The two vampires tried to persuade him to stay, but he had clearly had enough, and they let him go.

He walked quickly back to his building, always looking around him to make sure he wasn't being followed and nothing was waiting for him in the shadows. He only lived a few blocks away so we followed him. He arrived safely and we turned around to head home. By the time we arrived at my apartment I was exhausted and crashed into bed. I dreamed of camping in the woods and laughing wolves with green eyes.
17

The next day, we debated whether or not to tell Seth that we had followed him. I didn't want to say anything because I thought it would just make him more determined to prove he could be the great ambassador to the vampires. James didn't want to say anything because he thought Seth was a prick. Scott and Beth waffled. We asked Naveen to give it a rest for a day. In the end, we didn't see Seth that day so we were spared the decision.

I didn't care for Seth, but as the evening approached I began to feel more and more uncomfortable with what I had seen the night before. Those she-vampires reminded me of the way my cat had liked to play with lizards, batting them around and finally biting their tails off before growing tired and letting them go. Except that my cat was well-fed; she had no need to eat the whole lizard.

I decided to head to the wine bar early and stake out a spot to watch Seth and his vampires. As much as I loved Beth, I didn't want to tell her. I didn't want her to try to come along again and I didn't want her to worry. I told her I wasn't feeling well and wanted to turn in early. Then I told James to make Beth dinner and make sure she didn't see me leave. He seemed eager to help her out. He asked if I wanted company, but I told him no. He knew I could take care of myself.

Before I made it to Park Avenue, I knew someone was following me. It was too early for vampires, so it had to be human. But then again, sometimes I doubted my vampire knowledge. Becoming too complacent about them had gotten me in trouble in the past and I didn't want to start making mistakes again. I walked another block, then ducked behind a corner. Whoever was following me wasn't being very stealthy. I soon heard footsteps and then my name, "Ailis." It was Scott.

"Jesus you want to scare me to death?" I was both relieved and annoyed.

"No, but I didn't know you had left. As soon as I realized you were gone I knew where you were going so here I am."

"I should have known you'd follow me. I didn't want to put anyone else in danger. James should have kept you at home."

"You know he couldn't and he wouldn't, and be honest, you're glad I'm here."

It was true. I smiled, and then turned away.

"Let's go before it gets dark," I said, already walking away.

Scott bounded after me. I was very glad he was there.

We couldn't find a good spot on the ground. I wasn't going anywhere near the unfinished subway stop and I didn't like the spot from the night before. It was too easy for vampires to detect us and there would only be the two of us with our backs against a wall.

We climbed the fire escape onto the roof of a low-rise apartment building nearby. Our view wouldn't be great if Seth went inside the wine bar, but it was better than exposing ourselves to everything on the ground. We crouched low on the roof and watched the sunset in the distance over New Jersey...over civilization. I smiled when I caught myself thinking of New Jersey as civilization.

The sunset was still so beautiful, despite the new and terrifying creatures I now associated with it. Scott reached over and put his hand over mine. I wasn't sure what to do. I knew my face was redder than the sun that had just set, but just then we spotted Seth. Scott squeezed my hand and then reached for his crossbow.

Seth looked more confident than the previous night. Maybe he'd had a few drinks before coming out this time. Rosario and Keira appeared almost immediately. They seemed more confident too. They had a nice table set up outside the wine bar with candles and another bottle of wine.

"You still didn't bring us anyone else?" Rosario seemed genuinely sad.

"Hush, we don't need anyone else, isn't he sweet enough for both of us?" replied Keira, pouring Seth a generous glass of wine.

They cooed and petted him for nearly half an hour while he drank his wine and began to loosen up. I couldn't hear everything they said from my spot on the roof and I started to wish I hadn't come for this re-run. Then I started wondering how we were going to get down from the building. I realized it hadn't been such a smart choice after all. Our only way down was past dark abandoned apartments and I felt we were in a vampire hotspot. There could be any number of them just waking up for their breakfast.

I didn't want to speak, so I started gesturing to Scott and making faces so that he would understand my concern at our foolishness. He frowned and suddenly I was flat on my stomach and Scott was completely on top of me with his hand over my mouth. What the hell? I remember thinking. These bloody vampires have made him lose his damn mind too...

But then I saw that three male vampires had appeared, probably from the gaping hole in the ground that was the unfinished subway stop. I felt like my heart stopped for an instant. One of them was Desmond.

There was no need for Scott to pin me down or put his hand over my mouth, I wouldn't have moved or made a sound for a million dollars...not that a million dollars meant that much anymore. Still, I felt a little more secure with Scott holding me like that. I could feel his warmth, feel his heart racing, smell the little beads of sweat I knew were starting to form all over him, and hear his shallow breathing as we both tried not to make any noise. Life was comforting at that moment. Scott was very much alive, and the three newcomers were very, very dead.

Desmond and the other two males were serious from the get-go. They weren't there to play around with Seth and that was incredibly obvious from their purposeful strides and the hunger in their eyes. They were practically salivating. It was probably obvious to Seth as well because he seemed to shrink back toward the wall, as if he thought he could become a chameleon and blend in. The three male vampires walked up to Rosario, Keira, and Seth.

"Sweet of you to make me breakfast, ladies," Desmond growled. The other two males hovered a few feet behind him like hungry sharks.

"Don't ruin our fun, he's not for eating." Rosario playfully pushed Desmond back, but he grabbed her wrist.

"You shouldn't play with your food, sweetheart."

"I said he isn't food, let us have a little fun, Desmond," Rosario said defiantly.

And then God help us there were more. They were coming out of that hole in the ground that the city workers hadn't secured before running away...or becoming vampires themselves. I heard the fire escape below us creak, and I looked down to see vampires coming out of the building. I could feel them moving around beneath me, their hungry, bloodshot eyes focused on Seth. Some were creeping down the fire escape and others were coming out of the building's front entrance.

None were as human-like as Rosario, Keira and Desmond. These other creatures were reminders of what vampires really were. They had yellow eyes and deathly pale skin. Even from my perch on the roof, I could see that many had long dirty fingernails, like claws. I could hear their ragged breathing, I could smell their foul breath. How long had it been since they had had fresh human blood?

I remembered what Desmond had told me about the people in the subway tunnels, and shuddered. I still didn't know if he had been telling the truth. I couldn't know what they kept in the tunnels and the abandoned buildings, but even if they did keep a supply of blood, that was factory farm flesh by now. Seth was fresh free range blood, fortified with expensive red wine and fear.

Seth stood up, keeping his back against the wall. "Please, I don't want trouble," he stammered. "I just thought we could bridge the gap between humans and vampires, we can all stop this senseless killing. Don't be mad."

Desmond grinned. "Bridge the gap between humans and vampires? Tell me fool, did you ever bridge the gap between yourself and the pigs? Or yourself and the chickens, or the beef cattle? Are you a vegetarian, sir?" His British accent made him even creepier.

"No, no," Seth stammered as he reached for something in his back pocket—a knife—Christ, just a plain old switchblade. "But that's different, we can talk, we have things in common, you used to be human—"

"Used to be human!" I couldn't see Desmond's fangs from the roof, but I didn't need to. I could picture them, pearly white in the moonlight, ready to tear Seth's neck open. "And now we've evolved, we're superior beings, and you're a food source, nothing more." He stepped toward Seth and Seth brought his knife around. Desmond ignored it. "Tell me friend," he practically spat the word, "did you ever know a woman called Ailis?"

I swallowed hard and felt Scott's grip tighten over my mouth. "Yes, yes I know her, what do you want with her?" Seth seemed eager to please.

"What do you mean you know her? She's dead. Or did she turn?" Desmond seemed irritated.

Seth looked confused. "I must be thinking of a different Ailis, the one I know isn't dead or a vampire. I saw her yesterday."

Desmond was furious. "You clearly know a different Ailis. I knew an Ailis and I turned her into a vampire—or else she's dead."

Keira was grinning as if she found this amusing. Rosario made one last effort to stop what I knew was inevitable. I wondered if Seth knew, or if he thought he would somehow get out of this one.

I've always wondered if it's possible to feel with one hundred percent certainty that one is about to die. When Desmond bit me I was terrified, I told myself I was going to die, but I never gave up. Deep down, a part of me wouldn't let me throw myself in the river. I had gone to Scott and gotten help. I had lived. It must be evolution—we keep that hope alive until the very end so that we're ready for any small window of opportunity to avoid that which seems unavoidable.

Rosario stepped in front of Desmond, but he brushed her aside and was on Seth in an instant. He grabbed Seth's arm that held the knife and crushed it against the wall, ripping into Seth's throat simultaneously. It made me ill to think that I must have looked the same way when he attacked me, so vulnerable and so mortal.

Seth cried out and then his cry became a gurgle. I didn't want to look but I couldn't turn away. I was afraid that if I closed my eyes the vampires would be on me. Scott's hand was still over my mouth and he was holding me so hard I thought he might break my neck.

Desmond offered Seth to Rosario but she refused and slunk away to a corner, crossed her arms, and glared at Desmond. He allowed Keira to drink for a moment and then jerked Seth away. "He's not dead yet. Let's share a little before we cut his head off. I don't want a sniveling prat like him to become one of us." He began to drag Seth back to that God-forsaken hole in the ground, toward the other waiting vampires.

Scott pushed my head down and slid over so that we both lay flat on the roof. The hell-hole's entrance was facing in the direction of the building we were on and we couldn't risk peering over the edge of the roof and being seen while the vampires turned in our direction. But I could hear them, and I felt as if I could see right through the building onto the street. I could envision them tearing into Seth's body, staining their horrible pale skin with his bright, dying blood.

After a few minutes, the city became quiet, but we didn't dare lift our heads to see whether the vampires had followed Seth's body into the hole or left to look for other prospects. My body was beginning to ache from lying in one position for so long. I felt drops of water landing on me—it was starting to drizzle.

Despite the possible danger, I became impatient after half an hour. I poked Scott and pointed up. He shook his head and gestured for me to stay down, then peered over the edge himself. He gave me a thumbs-up and we silently crawled to the other edges of the roof to peer over and evaluate our surroundings. There was not a vampire in sight, so we moved back to the fire escape.

I started to move toward the edge and Scott grabbed my shoulder, shaking his head violently. I ducked. "What is it?"

"I'm going first," he whispered. "We don't know if there are still vampires in the building."

"I think there are, but not many." I could feel them, just as I had felt them when they were coming out to watch Seth, but I didn't think there could be many left.

Scott scowled. "Maybe we shouldn't risk it at all, but if we do I should go first."

I heard thunder in the distance. The rain was growing stronger. It reminded me of the last time I had encountered Desmond. "Look, I don't want to stay up here all night. If they do find us up here we'll be trapped. Anyway, you know as well as I do it's better for me to go first. You have my back. I can't climb over the ledge onto the fire escape with two stakes, I need a free hand."

Scott looked frustrated, but he didn't argue. He climbed up onto the ledge with a stake in each hand. I climbed up as well. My plan was to hold onto the ledge with one hand and quietly ease myself down so that I could check the window and see if anything was inside. Once we were on top of the fire escape we would each be able to hold two stakes and walk down the stairs.

Scott nodded at me and I swung my left leg over. I began to ease my way over the ledge, when, bam! Goddamnit. My mouth collided with the metal railing and then I was face down on the fire escape. I hoped I hadn't lost any teeth. Had I slipped? No, something had definitely grabbed my leg. I felt a sharp pain in my left ankle.

Then the fire escape shook as Scott jumped down, narrowly missing my right arm.

"Sonofabitch!" he said under his breath. At least he still had his wits about him enough to know better than to yell and cause any more of a racket than we had already caused. I tasted blood in my mouth. I thought of poor Stella coming to her end on my fire escape. It would be poetic justice if I was now killed for invading a vampire's fire escape.

What the hell was I doing reminiscing about long-ago vampires? I pushed myself up, thinking about how only a few months ago I could barely do a push-up. I turned around in time to see Scott stake two vampires inside the apartment at the same time, and I felt my heart skip a beat. Another vampire, gangly and freckled, was coming through the apartment door.

I had dropped my stake when I fell so I grabbed another one from my pack. I leaped through the window and stabbed the freckled vampire hard. He let out a scream as I forced him back against the wall and the stake went clean through him. I felt a nice pop as it went through his heart. Perfect.

Scott grabbed my wrist. I knew there were more coming. The last one had made a good bit of noise. Panting, Scott pushed me out the window onto the fire escape. "Are you okay? Can I please go down first now?" he said.

"Yes, just go!"

It was tempting to run down the stairs, but we both knew it wasn't smart to dash into the unknown, even in the best conditions. The rain only made matters worse. One slip and we could be done. Scott already had two more stakes in his hands and I took out mine and inspected the tips to make sure they were still sharp and had not been broken in my fall.

Scott began steadily moving down the stairs, peering into windows as soon as he was low enough to see in. I followed sideways behind him so that I could watch our backs. We made it to the third floor before a vampire stuck her head out of the upstairs window where we had just killed the three vampires. Shit.

"One saw us....upstairs," I whispered to Scott. We had to move faster. We made it down to the next floor, the second story, and suddenly a huge, muscular vampire popped out right above us. From the looks of him, he could have been a linebacker in his previous life.

"Go! Now!" I hissed, and vaulted over the rail onto the pavement below. Scott followed. The linebacker shrieked and began racing down the stairs after us but slipped and fell onto the second floor of the fire escape. When he stood up, Scott already had his crossbow out. Scott was good with the crossbow anyway, but at this range it was just too easy. The linebacker took the close range bolt, keeled over, and sprawled across the fire escape. Then the vampire I had seen on the top floor came rushing around the corner with another female in tow.

"I've got them both!" I was still trying not to shout, but I didn't want Scott to drop his crossbow trying to help me.

I gave the first one a solid kick in the gut, knocking her onto the pavement, then staked her friend. By the time I'd turned back to the first one, Scott had a stake in hand. He grabbed the remaining vampire by the hair and staked her through the back.

By now it was pouring and I didn't know whether we had made enough commotion to attract more vampires. We figured our best option was to go right down the middle of the street so that we'd have a moment's warning if something tried to come after us. The lightning lit our way home as we ran down the middles of the streets and avenues.

We were panting by the time we reached the building. Paulo let us in the front door. "Where in the name of God have you been?"

"Out," Scott said.

I didn't say a word. Paulo knew exactly where we had been.

"We should go straight to your place," Scott said. "You took a nasty fall back there."

I had forgotten the fall and hadn't felt any pain until that moment, but I realized then that my ankle was throbbing, my lower lip felt twice its normal size, and I was all kinds of sore in all kinds of places. It reminded me of the first time I went snowboarding, and spent the entire day trying out muscles I didn't even know I had and falling in unnatural positions.

Scott must have noticed my puzzled look. "Your lip is still bleeding a little and you could have sprained your wrist when you fell." Now that he mentioned it, my wrist hurt too.

"I'm fine," I said. "We can stop at your place first." After what I had just seen I felt paranoid. I insisted on checking Scott's entire apartment for vampires while he changed into some dry clothes. I felt bad for dripping all over the place and offered to come around with a towel when I had changed.

When we got to my apartment, we searched the closets, the cabinets, under the bed, and ridiculous places like behind the sofa even though it was only a few inches from the wall. I had to know there weren't any vampires there waiting for me. Then we checked the reinforcements on the windows and the doors.

I took off my collar—the bite marks had faded to faint white dots by then. I inspected my face in the mirror. I did indeed have a puffy lip, but all my teeth were intact. I changed into some comfy pajamas and caught sight of my left ankle where the vampire had grabbed me. I looked at it. It wasn't pretty, but didn't look awful either. I took an old towel out of the closet. "I can come help you dry your place now," I offered.

He shrugged. "That's okay, there's no need." I could tell Scott didn't want to leave, but didn't want to intrude either. So I asked him to stay. He seemed relieved. "I don't think it would be good for either of us to stay alone tonight."

I went to the bathroom and started to rinse off my wound under the bathtub faucet. It stung. Scott tapped on the partially open door. "Are you okay? Did it bite you?"

"No, I'm fine, it's just a scratch. The vampire's fingernails were probably disgusting though. Would you mind grabbing the Neosporin out of the bottom shelf?" I gestured to my mirror cabinet.

Scott handed me the Neosporin and I directed him to the gauze and tape. I had two scratches and they weren't very deep. Although I had been scratched before, the scratch made me wonder what kind of hygiene vampires had. Did they wash their hands after eating or being in the subway? I hoped so, but doubted it as the wound was already red and puffy.

"I would have preferred to get bitten, at least maybe they keep their teeth cleaner than their fingernails." It was a lame attempt to lighten the mood and Scott didn't laugh. "Sorry that was stupid," I said, looking away.

"You aren't in any danger from a scratch," Scott offered.

I sighed. "I know."

"So that was Desmond?"

"Yes. Can't you see how I was so charmed by him?" I asked.

"Well he was good looking, for a vampire," Scott teased. "Why do you think he was asking about you?"

"I have no idea. Ego maybe. Before he bit me he told me I would make a good vampire. Even though I made him sick, he probably thought I'd either died or transformed by now. Maybe he was just curious."

"So, he's a vampire with feelings for you? He wants you to join him in eternity or something?" Though it seemed he was trying to be funny, Scott looked irritated. I wondered if he was a little jealous.

"Scott, I don't think Desmond actually cares about me. I think he's a vampire who was hungry and wanted to get a drink of blood. If tricking his prey with false promises about eternity was the best way to do that, then that's what he was going to do."

Scott frowned. "And you said he has an ego."

"Yeah. Did you hear the way he talked to the others? He thinks he's lead vampire or something. I swear he wasn't at all like that in real life. Not that I knew him that well."

"Well now he knows you're alive and not a vampire and he seemed pretty pissed about it. You made him sick and he has a huge ego. I don't like this Ailis. I think he's going to come after you."

I shuddered. "I've been thinking about moving closer to the water, maybe all the way west. That way if there's an emergency we could get in a boat and get out into the water. I wonder if they'd still shoot us on sight from New Jersey."

"I wouldn't want to risk it unless we had to." Scott shook his head. "Still, I think you're right, I feel vulnerable here. I want a better escape route."

"Let's talk about it in the morning." I was suddenly exhausted.

"He was so angry, Ailis..."

"Please, I know. Let's just get some sleep."

I brought a lantern into the bedroom and checked under the bed and in the closet one more time for vampires.

"Would you feel more comfortable with the light on?" Scott asked.

"No, no, I'm fine now. Don't worry about it."

"You know there was nothing we could do, there were too many of them, even with the crossbow."

I was startled. I hadn't expected him to talk about Seth. We had seen so much death, it seemed pointless to evaluate what had just happened and whether we could have saved someone's life. Still, it had been a long time since one of our own had been killed. Maybe I'd become complacent. We were the Manhattan 27—now 26—we were the survivors.

I wanted to say something hard about how I had never liked Seth, and how he'd always been a stupid jerk. I wanted to say it was Darwinism, but I couldn't, not to Scott, he knew me too well. So I just whispered, "I know," and reached over him and turned out the light.

That night, I had trouble sleeping. I dreamed about Desmond and his anger. He was speaking in low harsh tones to someone, then he turned, looked me right in the eye and screamed. Blood dripped from his fangs and streamed from his mouth. I knew it was my blood. I woke up. Scott was sitting up in bed watching me.

"Go back to sleep, it's okay," he said.

I went back to sleep and dreamed again. This time I dreamed of the hospital ward with the British doctors. They seemed frightened. Suddenly, one grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around. "You have to leave," he said. I tried to speak, but no words came out. "You have to leave!" He shouted at me. I woke up again, and saw that Scott was still sitting up.

"I'm sorry, am I keeping you awake?" I asked.

"No, I can't sleep."

After that I couldn't sleep either so Scott and I sat up in the dark together. We never spoke, but I knew we were both thinking about how to tell the others about Seth and Desmond.
18

The next day Scott and I gathered the group in our building and told them about the previous night. After debating it that morning, we decided to leave out the part about Desmond claiming he had killed me. On the one hand, we thought people deserved to know if this psycho vampire decided to wage a vendetta against me. On the other hand, I still didn't want to reveal to anyone else that I had been bitten and was immune to the virus.

We decided to let everyone know that I recognized the vampire that killed Seth as Desmond, someone I had known as a human. We even told them that Seth had mentioned my name and Desmond knew I was alive and in the city. I thought this information was enough to allow everyone to make an educated decision as to whether they wanted to continue living near me.

We knew the handful of people in Seth's building would soon realize he was missing, so we called them on the radio and repeated the story. I suspected many of them would move over to our building now.

Beth was upset at Seth's death, which didn't surprise me. I felt guilty that we hadn't done anything to help him. James, as much as he had hated Seth, was angry. He wanted to burn down the building where Scott and I had encountered the vampires and throw Molotov cocktails down into the subway tunnels. I had half a mind to do the same thing.

I had begun to feel invincible after I survived Desmond's attack, but the previous night had reminded me that I was still human. I might be immune to the vampire virus, but not to being bled to death, or stabbed, or having my head cut off.

I knew Desmond was angry. I was a weakness for him. He had tried to kill me and instead I had made him sick and survived with just two small fading puncture wounds. Deep down it probably scared him, and that would make him even more furious. I knew I had to watch my back more than ever, and if I ever saw an opportunity, I had to kill Desmond.

We repeated the story to the man on the radio so that the government could notify Seth's family. This time, we completely left out the part about Desmond and the way he had mocked Seth at the end.

After we told the story to the man on the radio, Naveen wanted us to repeat the story yet again in more detail, so he could report to his university partners or whoever it was he reported to. Scott and I were both sick of telling the story, but we went to Naveen's apartment anyway. Naveen kept pressing us to tell him every detail about how the vampires looked, sounded, and behaved. He was fascinated by their cunning and the differences between vampires like Desmond and the two women, and the other vampires who appeared to be less evolved.

"Why do some seem almost human and others are zombie-like?" he asked.

"How should we know?" Scott replied. "You're the scientist, you tell us."

"I think some people handle the transformation better than others," I said. "Like that old woman upstairs, some people simply died from the virus. It makes sense that some people handled it better than others. That's why you don't see child or elderly vampires running around."

Naveen nodded and continued to scribble in his notebook.

"I have heard that they are more human-like after they have been infected for some time," Naveen said after a few minutes.

"Heard from where?" Scott asked.

"Oh, you know...Tony told me his wife seemed more human right before, you know..." Naveen squirmed in his chair.

Scott looked irritated. "Before he killed her?"

I racked my brain, but couldn't remember Tony telling me that Sophie had seemed more human before he killed her. I brushed the thought away. Maybe he had told Naveen some things he hadn't told the rest of us.

"I wish I could take some blood samples," Naveen mumbled.

Scott looked like he had had enough of this interview. He stood up and headed for the door. "Well I'll just go and catch a few and bring them back for you Doc, okay?"

Scott looked at me as he reached for the door handle but I shook my head. "I'll stick around a little longer and answer any more questions Naveen has," I said.

Scott shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, I'll stay too." He leaned against the door, crossed his arms, and glared at Naveen.

I sighed. "Naveen, you're giving me nightmares, you know?"

Naveen looked up from his notes. "Excuse me?"

"I think it's your creepy obsession with these vampires, I keep having dreams about a hospital ward and vampires and doctors with British accents."

Naveen turned pale. "That's absolutely horrid."

"Yeah I know right? You're the one giving me the spooks though. You volunteered to come to this hell-hole for the sheer pleasure of satisfying your own curiosity."

"Yes, yes, well, it's all very interesting you know, and I just want to help." Naveen bent back over his notes and appeared to concentrate very hard.

"Yeah I know." I shrugged. "Still it's pretty brave. I can't say I'd volunteer for your job no matter how many people I thought I was helping."

Naveen looked back up. "Really? You wouldn't do it?"

"Nope, no way. But I guess that's why I went to law school and you went to med school. My sister is a student in London, you know. She came to visit my parents right after they started letting people into the States again, but she's gone back now. She's even volunteering at a hospital. She was always a lot nicer than I was."

"Yes, well, I think you're very nice Ailis." Naveen smiled at me. "And I think one never knows what one would do until faced with a desperate situation."

"Okay, okay," Scott grumbled. "Have you finished asking us about last night? I'm tired of talking about it."

"Yes, yes," Naveen replied. "I think I have enough detail. I thank you both very much. My colleagues will be very interested in these developments. I'll have to give you both credit in my papers you know."

"Sure thing," I said.

"A lot of good that will do us," Scott said, and we both left Naveen to his report.

"You're very grouchy today," I said to Scott. "You could use some sleep I think."

"I don't like him. He's not telling us the truth about something."

"I agree with you there. I don't believe for a moment that he's telling us the whole story. I'm sure the government sent him to check us out and see if we're safe, but I think that's all the more reason to be nice to him. Anyway, it's still pretty ballsy of him to come down here whether or not the government sent him."

"There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity." Scott started walking faster. I had to trot to keep up.

"Yes, and we've never crossed that line have we?"

Scott stopped. I noticed that we were by the Second Avenue subway stop. Why had he come here?

"Do you think he's down there?" Scott asked.

"I don't know. I have a hard time picturing Desmond sleeping in a subway car or on a bench. Anyway, does it really matter? We're not going down there."

Scott nodded.

"Scott..." I took his arm and made him look at me. "We're not going down there. You are not going down there."

"Don't worry I'm not going to do anything stupid, but we have to get you out of here Ailis. He was so angry and he seems smart. He's going to find a way to kill you."

I nodded. I didn't have anything to say. I couldn't argue with Scott. We stood there for a minute more and then I took Scott's arm and guided him home.

After Seth was killed, everyone became more jumpy. The building was quieter than usual at night. People became more anxious to speak to their families. I also felt that there were more vampires outside, watching us from nearby buildings.

My parents had heard an account of Seth's murder that exaggerated my proximity to the event. They thought I had been attacked as well. They made me swear I would never leave my apartment at night again.

Even the man on the radio seemed less cheerful than usual. He admonished us for not being more careful and told us to keep our wits about us. He said to ask for anything we needed and that it would only be a matter of time before we could leave Manhattan. I had heard that lie enough to know better and I suspect most of the others felt the same way.

Instead of focusing on escape, we spent our time reinforcing the building. Dwayne found some concrete and poured it over the hole in the basement to seal it once and for all. I was waiting for something to happen. There was a palpable tension in the air, and it made me uneasy.

Less than a week later, something did happen.

Leila came back.
19

Leila came back, but she wasn't the same Leila we had known a month and a half earlier. She crept up to us in Bryant Park one afternoon. At first I didn't recognize her. I thought she was a vampire that had evolved to come out in the daylight.

I had no idea what she had been through in the time that she was gone, but whatever it was had taken a toll on her. Her skin was devoid of color, and she had dark bags under her eyes.

She didn't seem interested in discussing where she had been for the past month and a half, though we pressed her for information. She said she had reinforced her own apartment in the Village and hidden out, but that she had come back because she missed human contact and needed supplies. James declared she had gone "bat shit crazy."

I didn't believe her story, and I'm not sure the others did either. Why would she stay holed up by herself with no one but the roaches to talk to? Why would she stay hidden by herself, night after night, waiting for the vampires to find her, when a group of people lived just a few miles away in a safe, boarded-up building?

I wanted to check Leila out. Beth said that she didn't like the idea, but the others accepted it as a matter of course, so Beth was outnumbered. Deep down, I think she knew it was necessary. I was especially suspicious of Leila because she was wearing a long sleeved shirt and pants even though it was late June and over 80 degrees outside.

With the group at my back, I told Leila that I had to check her for bites. She backed away, and swore up and down that she had never been bitten. I told her it was our way or the highway, and she gave in.

Beth and Kim checked Leila while I stayed a few yards away. I've never been good at making people feel better in awkward situations, and I was sure that if I checked Leila I would make her even more uncomfortable than she already was. I thought it strange that Leila saved her shirt for last. When she took it off, I understood at once. She had a large bandage wrapped around her right wrist.

"What's that?" I asked, walking closer.

She looked away. "I tried to kill myself."

"I'm sorry, but you need to take it off. If you like, why don't you put everything else back on and we can bring our doctor in here to check you out."

Leila nodded.

Beth helped Leila with her clothes and told her that after she saw Naveen and ate something, we could all go shopping and find some more suitable clothes. Leila shook her head violently and said that she had brought a few extra tank tops in a bag.

After Naveen checked her and put a clean bandage on her arm, Leila wanted to take a nap—outside. She insisted on taking a nap on a blanket out in Bryant Park. She said that she had been in hiding so long that she missed the sun. We let her sleep and sat in the grass some distance away, trying to figure out what to do with her.

I still didn't trust her and told Scott so.

"You have to know what my first thought is," I said.

"She can't be telling the truth, it doesn't make any sense."

I shook my head.

"I thought about that too," Scott said, "but she doesn't have any bite marks does she?"

"No, but I truly believe they have people down in the subway tunnels. She has a gash on her wrist. Maybe the vampires have gotten smart enough to bleed people without biting them. That way the food supply can regenerate itself while keeping the vampire population down."

Scott cringed. "That's horrible, but not out of the question. Desmond and the two women seemed pretty smart. You do have to wonder what she's been doing for the past month. But then, why would they let her go?"

I shrugged. "Maybe she escaped. She doesn't want to tell us either because it was such a terrible experience, or she knows we'll be afraid of her and keep her out of our building. She's clearly not all there mentally. I'm not blaming her, God only knows what she's been through, but what if we let her into our building tonight and she decides to open a window and get a breath of fresh air out on the fire escape?"

I brought the issue up with James and Paulo as well. They agreed that Leila had to be watched. I didn't want her staying in my apartment. We agreed that at night, we would let her sleep in one of the uninhabited apartments and two people would keep watch over her.

Leila woke up in the late afternoon and immediately wanted to go inside. I watched as Beth explained to her that it wouldn't be dark for another couple of hours, but Leila insisted she did not want to be outside at sunset. Beth and I took her back to my building.

Leila told us she didn't want to stay alone. She asked me several times if I had a roommate. She kept saying things like, "You're good at killing vampires aren't you, Ailis? You killed lots of vampires in the basement, didn't you?" I told her that I didn't have a roommate, but that I didn't have room for anyone else. I think I appeased her by promising I would stay with her that night.

"You're so brave. You stay by yourself. It's because you've killed so many vampires isn't it? I bet they won't come near you."

I felt very uncomfortable and looked to Scott for help, but he wasn't any use. Finally, James offered Leila a cigarette and she seemed to calm down for a while. She insisted on staying on the top floor. We had an empty apartment directly above mine, so it was easy enough to accommodate her.

At dinner, she scarfed down her food as if she hadn't eaten in ages.

While we ate, I tried to question her about the past month and a half, but she wouldn't discuss it. Beth tried to talk to her about happier times. That almost made Leila seem like her old bubbly self. She talked about all the vacations she had taken and the places she had been.

It was like babysitting a child. We tried to get Leila to go to sleep, but she kept avoiding it. She didn't want to go into the bedroom by herself. When we sat and talked to her she was fine, but when we tried to leave she would join us in the living room. No one wanted to be left alone with her, so Scott and I took the first shift and Beth and Paulo agreed to switch off with us later. James and Dwayne said they would take the last shift.

I was exasperated with Leila, but I could empathize with her. It reminded me of the day we first met the guys. I had been suspicious and afraid of anything and everything that moved. I had refused to sleep unless Beth was awake, and then I had fallen asleep talking to Scott.

Now, Scott had become closer to me than Beth. She had saved my life in the beginning, when it had been necessary, but Scott had put himself in danger to help me out. He was still the only one who knew about the two tiny white dots on my neck, which I still kept covered with a scarf or shirt collar during the day and my black leather collar at night. I trusted him. Poor Leila had no one.

In just a few months we had changed so that although we weren't at all comfortable in our situation, we had adapted to it. Our numbers were no longer dwindling. Except for Seth, we hadn't lost anyone in a month. Although we remained vigilant, we didn't live in constant fear any more. We were even able to relax and tell jokes about our situation. Leila was still one of those poor, terrified creatures we had once been. We had evolved, and she had been left behind.

During our watch, Leila sometimes began to doze on the couch, then, she would wake up with a jolt and a wild look in her eyes. Sometimes she whimpered and we would try to comfort her. When she realized she was with Scott and me, she would smile weakly and say something like, "I'm safe with you two, you've killed lots of vampires haven't you?" We reassured her that we had indeed killed lots of vampires and would kill them again if they so much as set foot on our sidewalk.

I was glad when Beth and Paulo came in and took over. I went back down to my apartment, but I couldn't sleep. Besides the apartment being stuffy and hot, I had become used to the silence in Manhattan, but now I could hear Leila pacing back and forth over my head all night.

The next day was hot and sunny. Leila acted as if she couldn't get enough sunlight. She looked exhausted from her night of pacing and I was as well, having barely slept at all. I told Scott about this and informed him we would have to give Leila sleeping pills or I would be spending the night at his place. James overheard and said that he would find all the sleeping pills in Manhattan and throw them in the river. He liked to make things awkward.

That night, James and Dwayne took first watch and Scott and I had second watch. Again I was unable to sleep before my shift. We went to Leila's apartment around midnight and told James and Dwayne good night. Leila seemed more antsy than ever. She asked several times whether anyone was looking for her.

Each time she asked this I asked who would be looking for her, and she would look toward the window and say, "I don't know...people."

She also tended to cling to Scott's arm and question him about the apartment's fortifications. Then she questioned him about the building's fortifications. Having barely slept the previous night I was exhausted and getting more and more irritated with her. Scott must have been able to see this because he asked me if I wanted to use the walkie talkie to call down to Paulo or Lee or someone else who could take my place.

"No, no," Leila said, "Ailis doesn't need to go, she's killed lots of vampires."

I was getting tired of this. "Yeah, so what? There aren't any vampires in here, why can't you get over it and go to sleep?"

Leila became more excited. "I'm safe with you here aren't I? You've killed lots of vampires, Ailis. You killed those vampires in the basement, I remember. You even got bitten and you didn't die. That doesn't happen to anybody."

I froze. "Excuse me?"

"You killed all those vampires in the basement, Ailis and you didn't die."

Scott was looking at her hard. "Leila, what did you say about Ailis being bitten? Do you mean that time she was scratched in the basement?"

Leila looked from me to Scott and then at the ground. "Yes, yes, you were scratched in the basement."

"She's full of shit," I said to Scott without taking my eyes off Leila. "You heard what she said. She wasn't talking about any scratch."

The room was quiet. Leila looked like a guilty child. I was convinced she was lying.

"Leila," I said, "how did you know I was bitten?"

"You weren't bitten, you were scratched."

"Maybe we should let this go until the morning," Scott said. "You're tired, she's tired, I'm tired...let's talk about this tomorrow after we've gotten some sleep."

"You think I'm going to sleep tonight after she said that?"

"Yes, yes," Leila said, "I want to go to sleep now."

"Leila, I'm going to ask you one more time. How did you know I was bitten?"

"You weren't bitten, you were scratched. I'm going to bed now." Leila began shuffling toward the bedroom, but I grabbed her arm. I accidentally grabbed her wrist with the bandage and she howled. I felt a moment of pity, but fear for my own life took precedence.

"Leila, I swear to God you better tell me how you knew that."

"Ailis let her go." Scott grabbed my arm, but I pulled it away.

Leila felt like a china doll, but I grabbed her other shoulder. I jerked her toward me until her face was inches from mine. I was a good two inches taller than her, and the last few months had made me more athletic. I must have seemed more than a little imposing. "Leila, did someone send you?" She looked puzzled. "Did Desmond send you?" Then she became hysterical and started to scream.

I heard Scott shout something into the walkie talkie and then he rushed over to me and tried to pull me off Leila. I continued to shake her and scream at her. I asked her over and over if Desmond had sent her and she just kept screaming that she wouldn't go back. I'm ashamed to admit it, but as Scott pulled me away I threatened her. "You better tell me or I swear I'll take you back to the tunnels myself."

At that she started beating her fists and her head against the wall and tearing at the bandage on her wrist. Blood from her bandage began dotting the wall.

I regretted my behavior at once. I knew from her reaction that she must have been one of the people the vampires kept in the tunnels. I didn't know whether they had bled her or had been saving her for a full meal. I didn't know whether Desmond had sent her or she had escaped, but it didn't really matter. Her terror was obvious. She had been through hell and I had just threatened to send her back.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Ailis?" I had never seen Scott so angry. He was trying to calm Leila when Paulo burst in.

"Leila, it's okay." I tried to move toward her, but that only upset her more. I felt like a heinous bitch. "I'll go get Beth," I said lamely, but there was no need. Beth was already in the hallway, as were several others. Leila's screaming must have woken half the building. I wondered how much attention we had attracted on the outside.

I went back to my apartment and peered out the window. Several vampires had gathered across the street. I had half a mind to walk right out the front door with a couple of stakes and kill them where they stood. I was exhausted and wide awake at the same time. I hated every vampire in the city so much I felt my blood would boil.

After a short time, the commotion upstairs stopped. I wondered if Scott would tell the others what I had said to Leila. I wondered if he would come downstairs and chew me out for how I had acted. A part of me hoped that he would.

I didn't want to be alone. I had already suspected Leila had been imprisoned by the vampires, but now that it seemed confirmed by her knowledge that I had been bitten, the idea of people in the subway tunnels was even more terrifying. Desmond had been telling me the truth. I tried to wrap my mind around the idea that there were humans down there living like cattle. There might even be people I knew. I was appalled.

I waited for Scott to come knock on my door, but he never did. I debated whether I should go to his apartment. I thought I had heard someone come downstairs, but I didn't know whether it was him. Several times I went to my door to open it, then changed my mind.

Finally, I accepted that I was going to go another night without sleep. I could only think of one way to pass the time. My apartment must have been 100 degrees. I opened my bedroom window about halfway. It didn't help much with the heat, but there was a slight breeze. It wasn't a nice fresh breeze like you find outside of the city. It brought with it the smell of rot and decay. It suited my mood perfectly.

I took out my crossbow, which I rarely used. Frankly, I was better at fighting hand-to-hand and that's how I preferred it. The vampires on the street looked up at me in anticipation. I rested the crossbow on the windowsill and aimed. Several of the vampires scattered. They weren't stupid, they knew what the crossbow was.

I found myself slightly disappointed. At least there were three left that didn't seem to understand. I aimed at the first one, a pudgy man. It was difficult to tell his age because his skin was so mangled. He could have been 50, or he could have been 15. He must have struggled when he was attacked. Maybe in the end he had even killed the vampire that had attacked him, but he couldn't save himself from the virus. I shot him through the chest. There was only a soft thud when his body hit the ground.

I loaded the crossbow again. This time I hit a tall, blond man. The third vampire, also a man, seemed to finally realize the purpose of my weapon and scurried away.

I waited at my window for a long time, sorely tempted to go outside and look for trouble, but I didn't. If I went out my window and down the fire escape I would leave the entire building vulnerable, and I knew if I went out the front door, whoever was sitting watch would alert the others and people would come after me. I couldn't imagine how I would feel if someone came after me and was killed.

It must have been 3:30 AM by that point. I didn't hear anything going on upstairs, not even pacing. I started to worry Leila had seriously hurt herself. Finally I couldn't stand it and went over to Scott's door and knocked. He must have had difficulty sleeping as well, because he answered right away. He looked worn out.

"Ailis, is anything wrong?"

"No, I wanted to ask you the same thing. How's Leila?"

Scott motioned for me to come inside and I did. "You saw how upset she was, but it seems Beth has the magic touch. She and Paulo were able to calm Leila down. Beth also had the genius idea to bring some wine. We made Leila drink some and she started to relax. I left soon after that, but I bet she's asleep right now."

I nodded. "I can't hear anything going on up there from my apartment any more. I feel so terrible about those things I said. It was so stupid and I can't believe—"

Scott interrupted, "I know Ailis. You were scared and with good reason. Jesus, look at you, you haven't slept in two nights, have you?"

I shook my head. "That's no excuse. I acted like a crazy..."

Scott put his hand on my shoulder and led me to the sofa where we both sat down. He reached up to my neck and gently tapped my collar. I hadn't taken it off after I left Leila's apartment. "You don't need this here, Ailis. We're all afraid. We're afraid of what's outside, we're afraid of each other sometimes. But you should know that you're safe in here. I'll always watch out for you no matter what. Nothing will hurt you here."

I hardly knew what to say. It wasn't like Scott to talk like that. "Scott you know I've got your back too."

"Okay then." He seemed to remember himself and started to turn red. "You know, I think Beth had the right idea giving Leila wine. I was a beer guy back in the day, but I had to throw it all out after we lost power."

I perked up a bit. "I still have wine. It'll be warm of course..."

"Excellent, I'll take what I can get."

I walked across the hall to my apartment. I grabbed a bottle of vinho verde, a wine I had always enjoyed on hot summer nights. It was supposed to be chilled, but like Scott, I would take what I could get. Although I had offered it to others, I hadn't had a drop of alcohol since the vampire epidemic began. I never wanted to let my guard down or make myself vulnerable.

I took the wine back to Scott's. I made a point of removing my collar as soon as I walked in the door. I realized I had forgotten wine glasses, but instead of going back to my apartment, we drank out of juice glasses. Beth had the right idea. After one glass of wine I fell asleep on Scott's couch.
20

The next morning, I debated whether I should go to Leila's apartment. Scott advised me to go ahead and go see her. If she was going to make a scene we didn't want it to happen in Bryant Park in front of everyone else.

Scott came with me as I went upstairs to Leila's apartment. I knocked on the door and Beth answered. She and Paulo had ended up staying the rest of the night. Naveen had also stopped by and re-bandaged Leila's arm.

Leila was sitting in a chair by the window. She looked like an old woman warming herself in the sun. It was plenty hot in the apartment without sitting in the sun, but Leila didn't seem to mind. When she saw me she drew back and Beth went to her side.

"Are you okay, Leila?" Beth asked. "You aren't afraid of Ailis, are you?" Apparently Scott hadn't told anyone else about the things I had said. I was grateful for that.

"Last night I asked her too many questions about where she had been for the past two months. That's what upset her," I said to Beth. Leila didn't contradict me. "Leila, I'm very sorry about the things I said last night, none of them were true." I didn't want to say too much in front of Beth. "You know you're safe here with us. No vampires have ever gotten into this building since we cleared it out and we...I will never let them get in to hurt you. Do you understand?"

Leila looked at me for a long time, as if she was evaluating me, and then she nodded her head. "You kill lots of vampires, Ailis."

"That's right, Leila, and so do Scott and James and Paulo and some of the others around here. If any try to set foot near our building we kill them. I killed two last night that were hanging around. The rest ran away they were so scared."

Leila shuddered. "You were only scratched, Ailis."

That made me feel very uncomfortable. "That's right. I was only scratched." I looked at Beth. "I think she was afraid of me because I was scratched before she disappeared. I think she thought I might be sick or something."

Leila looked from me to Beth and back at me. She seemed to understand that my bite was a secret. Then she smiled at me and said to Beth, "It's okay, I understand now. I'm not afraid of Ailis." Beth appeared to accept this. Then Leila got up and came over and hugged me. She was so child-like. I was glad she seemed ready to keep my secret, but part of me still worried she would blurt it out in one of her more unstable moments.

"Can we go outside now?" Leila asked.

"Of course," Scott said. "Let's all get some fresh air. This building is too damn hot."

We gathered some snacks and drinks and headed to Bryant Park. Leila took my arm on the walk. I was happy we had smoothed things over, but I was still worried. I knew now that she had encountered Desmond. What if he had made a deal with Leila to give me up in exchange for freedom? I tried to push those thoughts from my head. There was no sense worrying about it in the middle of the day.

Beth asked Leila again if she wanted to go to one of the stores on the way and pick out some new clothes. Leila shook her head and Beth didn't bring the subject up again. The day was hot and sunny, so we spent most of our time in the shade. Leila didn't talk much, but I was able to persuade her to join a game of gin rummy in the afternoon.

We asked her if she wanted to talk to her family on the radio, but she declined. She didn't even want to tell the man on the radio that she was alive. This seemed strange, but we let her have her way. I don't think anyone wanted to upset her again. She had been through enough.

That night we took turns sitting up with Leila again, but she stopped pacing so much and even slept for a few hours on the couch. Over the next couple of days, she seemed almost happy. I hoped she would come around once she became comfortable with the idea of being safe again.

Five days after Leila returned to us, she sat with me in Bryant Park. The others were several yards away, engrossed in a game of bocce ball. "Ailis, please don't be upset," she said.

"Why would I be upset?" I asked, wondering what she was about to tell me.

"I knew you were bitten because I heard them talking about it."

"The vampires?"

She nodded, staring at the ground.

"I was walking to the park that day you were scratched. I was practically here when I heard someone crying. It was coming from the subway. I thought it was one of the kids, maybe they had fallen down the stairs. I was so stupid..."

"Leila, it's okay, you don't have to talk about it." Although I desperately wanted to hear her story, I didn't want to force her to relive her trauma or risk another outburst.

She shook her head. "By the time I even saw the girl—a human—it was too late. They had me. It was...I can't even describe it. They moved us around through the tunnels so that I had no idea where I ended up. They kept us locked up anywhere they could. They kept us in the ticket booths, snack stands, closets..." She paused. "If any of the vampires got greedy and tried to eat out of turn, Desmond killed them."

I was stunned. I didn't know what to say.

Leila continued, "Desmond came in one night, really sick. He had been gone all day, so I thought maybe he had been out in the sun. I hoped he would die, then maybe the others would finish us off. I heard him tell one of the women he'd found what he'd been looking for and that they'd soon have a new friend named Ailis. When I heard your name I started screaming at him and calling him names and I told him that you would find him and kill him whether or not you were a vampire. I hoped he would get angry and kill me or that maybe you really would come and find him and kill him before you turned."

I felt guilty. I had never made any effort to find out whether Desmond's story about the people in the subway tunnels was true. I was too concerned for my own safety to go searching for anyone else.

"He told me that he would save me just for you, to show me that there's no going back once someone becomes a vampire."

I shivered thinking what my fate would have been if I had actually turned. My best hope would have been for Scott to kill me before I could join the other vampires.

"Desmond kept waiting for you to show up, but you never did. Then, just a little while ago—it was impossible to keep track of the time down there—Desmond came in raging mad, but he wouldn't tell anyone why. He was covered in blood and screaming at anyone who came near him. He jerked one of the people out of a makeshift cage and bit her. He said he wanted to see her turn into a vampire. I didn't understand. He usually tried not to turn people into vampires. He kept her apart from the rest of us and after what seemed like a couple of days, she started to turn. As soon as she did, Desmond killed her.

"That night, after he killed the woman, he came over to my ticket booth, and told me that he was going to set me free in the morning. He had control over what went on in the tunnels, but he knew if he let me out to wander around the city at night all bets were off. Toward the morning, Desmond pulled me out of the ticket booth by my hair. He threw me to the ground and told me to leave and go back to my people.

"I didn't understand, I thought it was a trick, but he started screaming at me and kicking me so I jumped up and ran up the stairs. I kept falling because I hadn't been able to run or walk for so long. Even though it was early morning, the sunlight at the top was so blinding, I wondered whether I had somehow turned into a vampire. I went straight to my apartment and hid.

"As it started to get dark, I knew the vampires would be coming out. I didn't know why Desmond had released me, but I knew I could never go back there. I took out a kitchen knife and cut my wrist. I was so weak and dehydrated that I fainted. When I woke up, it was daylight. I thought I might as well see who was still alive, so I wrapped up my wrist and came to the park."

"So Desmond just let you go?" I asked.

She nodded. "Honestly, I don't know why, Ailis. It must have had something to do with you. He must have found out you were alive that night. He was so angry. But he didn't tell me anything."

I accepted Leila's story, but didn't know what to do about it. "I really appreciate that you told me this Leila," I said. "I want you to know that you're never going back there."

She shook her head. "You can't promise that."

She was right, but I lied anyway, "I can promise you that Leila. You've been so brave, braver than I could have been. We should have come looking for you..."

"No." She shook her head harder. "Never go down there Ailis, no matter what, and don't ever let anyone else go, promise."

I nodded and we sat in silence until James came over to brag about his bocce ball skills. Leila seemed tired after telling her story, so we let her alone to take one of her sunshine naps.

That night, Leila said she didn't need anyone to stay with her. She said she was finally feeling safe in our building. Although she had seemed more lucid than ever that afternoon I didn't like the idea. I was suspicious. I told Scott what she had told me about the subway tunnels and Desmond and he said he felt uncomfortable as well. Everyone else acted as if they were relieved and proud of Leila. I kept trying to convince her to let us stay up with her, but she insisted on staying by herself. I promised her that I would keep my walkie talkie on in case she needed anything.

I couldn't sleep that night. I kept listening to the noises upstairs, wondering what Leila was up to. At around 11, I thought I heard a noise from Leila's apartment. Was it a window opening? Surely not, she was terrified of vampires. But, although she had seemed lucid that afternoon, she still seemed unstable and based on her story I thought her capable of anything.

Suddenly, my walkie talkie crackled to life. "Ailis?" I heard Leila say through the static.

I picked up my walkie talked and responded. "What is it Leila? Do you need anything?"

"I'm sorry, Ailis, I need you to do something."

"Of course. Do you want me to come up?"

"Ailis, I need you to come up and bolt my window closed." Leila sounded calm, but I thought I heard something off in her tone.

"You need reinforcements, right?"

"I need you to close the window behind me Ailis, I don't want to leave the building vulnerable."

"Leila don't you dare go out there, I know you're not serious." But I knew she was serious. I dropped the walkie talkie and grabbed my collar.

"I'm sorry, Ailis, but you need to come up now."

I didn't respond but rushed to my bedroom window and peered out. There were two vampires outside. They were both looking up toward the floor above me. I hurried over to my fire escape, but by the time I opened the wooden reinforcement I kept over it, Leila was already out on the fourth level of the fire escape. I put on my boots and collar and grabbed my pack of stakes.

I didn't want to leave the building more vulnerable than it already was. I knew Leila's fire escape window could only be fastened from the inside. I secured my window again, ran across the hall, and pounded on Scott's door. Before he could open it all the way I shouted, "Leila's outside! Go upstairs and close her window," and then I was racing down the stairs to the front door.

James was sitting watch downstairs. "What the hell is going on?" he shouted at me as I reached for the door.

"Leila's outside and I'm going out there, lock the door behind me."

"Are you as crazy as she is?"

"Yes," I shouted over my shoulder as I dashed out the door.

There had only been two vampires when I looked out my window, an easy enough number to handle, but by the time I got outside there were half a dozen. They must have been watching from nearby buildings, waiting for us to do something stupid like this. Maybe they had been waiting for me ever since Desmond found out I was still alive. I saw that Leila had only two stakes.

"Leila," I screamed at her, "go to the front door, James will let you in, I'll watch your back."

She ignored me and I couldn't reach her as I was being charged by a tall female vampire. The vampire had long gangly arms and she scratched at my face as she tried to grab me. I ducked out of her grasp and spun around behind her to stake her in the back. She shrieked and fell to the ground. I killed a male right behind her.

I turned just in time to see Leila stake a vampire. "Good one!" I shouted, "Now get your ass back inside." I rushed toward her, but it was too late.

A female with long black hair grabbed Leila's stake wielding arm and sunk her teeth into Leila's throat. Leila gasped and tried to beat the vampire away with her other hand. I rushed over to her and staked the vampire in the back. Leila sank to her knees. I couldn't help her because there were more vampires coming. Several dropped as if by magic. I looked up and saw Dwayne and Paulo on Leila's fire escape shooting at the vampires with crossbows. Then I realized Scott and James were outside with us.

"Help her!" I shouted. James and Scott ran over to us. James grabbed Leila and half-carried, half-dragged her to the door while Paulo and Dwayne covered them from the air and Scott and I covered them from the ground. I was full of rage at the vampires and wanted to keep killing, but Scott grabbed my arm and asked me whether one death wasn't enough for that night.

Beth let us in the door and covered her mouth with her hand when she saw Leila. Leila was still alive, but she looked bad. She had already been weak and pale, and now she looked like she might not make it. Her eyelids fluttered from time to time, but she didn't make a sound. Scott suggested it might only hurt her to carry her all the way up to the sixth floor so James carried her up to an open second floor apartment and lay her on the bed.

Beth went to get Naveen. When he saw Leila's bite he stepped away from her. "Is she dangerous?"

"She's barely conscious, you prick," James said through clinched teeth. "How can she be dangerous?"

Naveen inched up to Leila and began cleaning her bite wound.

"Why would she go out there?" James asked.

"I think she hated vampires so much she wanted to kill them. She didn't care if she died in the process." I gave them an abbreviated version of the story Leila had told me that day. I left out the parts about Desmond. I lied and said she had escaped when the vampires had taken her out to kill her.

Naveen stepped back from cleaning Leila's wounds. "Now what?" he asked angrily, "I've cleaned her up just so we can kill her?"

"We're not going to kill her," James retorted.

"What, we're going to keep a vampire in here?" Naveen asked.

James started to stammer something, but seemed unable to find the right words.

"Or perhaps you want to wait until she's conscious?" Naveen asked.

"Screw you," James said.

Soon, Paulo and Dwayne had joined us. Scott had told Dwayne about Leila's open window and Dwayne had woken Paulo. They had shot vampires from the fire escape even after we had made it inside. They told us that the vampires had begun to scatter after they realized the food was gone and Dwayne and Paulo had closed Leila's window and the wooden covering.

"He's right," Paulo said, "we have to kill her. We can't let her turn into a vampire."

"What if she doesn't?" I blurted out.

"What do you mean what if she doesn't?" James asked.

"Let's just watch her for a few days and see if she turns," I said. I still wasn't sure I wanted to reveal my secret. Even though a month had gone by, they might still want to kill me, or at the very least kick me out of my own building.

"Oh that worked out really well for Tony," James said. Whose side was he on?

"Do you know anyone who's been bitten and hasn't turned into a vampire?" Naveen asked.

"I don't," Scott said. He gave me a warning look.

"Just because we don't know anyone who has survived doesn't mean it isn't possible," I argued.

"Do you remember that half-vampire woman we found upstairs?" Beth asked quietly. Of course I did. "She had all those painkillers by her bed. She was in so much pain, and then she died anyway. I think Leila has been through enough already."

I was shocked. I didn't expect Beth to be on the "kill her" side. Maybe she just wanted to spare Leila the suffering, but still...I was glad I had never told anyone but Scott about my bite.

"But what if there's a chance?" I asked.

Naveen shook his head. "There is no chance. No one survives. You either die or you turn into a vampire. Maybe someday we'll have a cure, but not in time for Leila."

"What the hell do you know?" I snapped. "Have you ever actually seen someone turn?"

Naveen looked distressed. "I'm a doctor that's all, and my colleagues and I have done a lot of research on vampires."

"You weren't even here when this whole thing started. How many vampires have you even seen up close anyway? You just hide out in the damn building all night."

"Okay, okay." Scott put his hand on my arm. "Maybe we should talk to Tony, ask him about the details of his wife's transformation. Didn't he say she was bitten in the day and started showing symptoms that night? We have a little time at least."

"I'm not leaving Leila," I said stubbornly. "The rest of you will kill her if I leave."

Leila's eyes fluttered open. She looked around at us. "I didn't die did I?"

Beth shook her head. "No honey, you didn't die."

Leila put her hand up to her bandage and cringed. "Was I bitten?"

Beth nodded.

Leila turned to me. "I can't go back to the tunnels. You promised me I would never go back there."

"That's right," I said. "That's why we pulled you out of the street and brought you back here. You know you killed a lot of vampires first though," I lied.

"I only killed one."

"Well okay, but that's pretty good."

"Why did you do it?" James asked.

"They wanted to kill me, and I wanted to kill them first," Leila said matter-of-factly. She turned back to me. She seemed as sane as she had been that afternoon in the park. "Ailis, you promised me I wouldn't go back. I don't want to become a vampire either."

"We're going to watch you okay?" I tried to comfort her. "Why don't you rest now?"

"I don't want to be a vampire," she repeated. "I don't want them to ever find me."

"You won't and they won't," Beth said, patting Leila on the head. "Now please rest and I'll sit with you for now."

Paulo, James, and Naveen insisted on sitting with Beth and Leila. In the meantime, Scott and I went upstairs and knocked on Tony's door. It was the middle of the night and he looked frantic when he answered. "What is it?"

I told him what had happened, and that we needed details about his wife's transformation.

He agreed. "Give me a few minutes to get dressed okay? I'd like to take a look at her."

We went back to the second floor apartment where Leila was. I took Scott's arm before we went in the door. "I should tell them I was bitten."

Scott shook his head. "You saw them in there. I don't think it would matter that it's been over a month. They're going to kill Leila tonight and they'll kill you too if you tell them."

"Maybe they'd just make me leave."

"That still wouldn't save Leila and then we'd be out on our own." I noticed that he used the term "we" instead of "you."

"We have to give her a chance," I argued.

"We'll try, but there's only so much we can do. Ailis, don't tell them."

We heard Tony walking down the stairs. We knocked on Leila's door. Naveen opened it and asked, "Where's Tony?"

"Right here," Tony said as he came down the stairs. He was wearing jeans and a bulky sweatshirt even though it must have been 90 degrees in the building.

We all went into the apartment. Paulo was sitting on the sofa. I assumed Beth and James were in the bedroom. "I'd like to see her right away," Tony said. "My wife started showing symptoms almost immediately."

"I thought it took some time," I said.

"Look I was there okay?" Tony said irritably. I didn't want to argue with him.

Naveen led Tony to the bedroom while asking him about his wife's symptoms. Tony seemed agitated. It must have brought back terrible memories for him.

I walked over to the sofa and began to sit by Paulo. Suddenly I understood the bulky clothing. I leaped up and dashed for the bedroom. "Scott, stop him!" I yelled.

Scott looked puzzled, but as I dashed into the bedroom I saw I was too late. Tony had already pulled a small stake out from under his sweatshirt and raised it halfway in the air. Leila had her eyes open and was just staring at him. She had no expression on her face, it was completely blank. Tony plunged the stake through her heart. Leila whimpered, and then was still.

Beth screamed.

"Holy hell!" James shouted.

Everyone else looked too shocked to react.

Tony turned toward the rest of us. "I'm sorry, but there was no hope for her," he said. He looked miserable or I might have hit him. "The pain and suffering Sophie went through...and I have kids upstairs to think of."

He looked around. Everyone looked sympathetic except perhaps me. "You understand right?"

Almost everyone nodded. "All the same, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't tell my children." No one tried to stop Tony as he walked out the door.

"What time is it?" Naveen asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know, probably 1 or 2 in the morning. What does it matter?" James replied.

"So 6 or 7 back home." Naveen nodded. "I'd better start making my report."

"Who gives a damn about your report?" I snapped at him. "I thought you came here to help us, to prove to everyone that we were safe and we could leave. You haven't done anything so far except mooch off our resources and make us retell our worst nightmares. Are you and your doctor friends going to come up with a cure for Leila now?"

Naveen looked embarrassed, "My reports are quite important, Ailis. We need to know as much as possible about the behavior of this virus. Perhaps, if it wouldn't be too offensive, I might conduct an autopsy?"

"Sure, go ahead, cut her open while she's still warm. She's dead now, what does it matter?" I stormed out of the apartment and Scott followed.

"Thank God I never told them," I said as we reached my apartment. "They're all a bunch of butchers. You were right, they'd kill me now if they knew about my bite and then let Naveen cut me open. Maybe he could send me to his doctor friends and they could run experiments on me like a lab rat."

Scott came inside and locked the door behind him. "You can never tell them, Ailis."

"Yeah, I know, that's what I just said."

"And I will never tell them."

"I know you won't. You really saved my life, Scott. Why didn't you tell anyone? Why did you sit up with me? You're different from the others."

He looked at me. "I'm not saying I would have done it for anyone, but I thought you deserved a chance. You and I could have stayed with Leila, but the others would have thrown her out of the building. I can't say I blame them all that much either. They're just scared and trying to survive."

I tried to sleep that night but couldn't. I kept thinking of Naveen cutting Leila open and writing his report for the people in London. I drank some wine to help me sleep. I wondered if it would become a habit now that I had started.

I dreamed about the hospital ward again with the doctors with British accents. There was a locked ward and people whispered about it, but I couldn't hear what they said. Suddenly, I was outside and I realized I was in London. There were vampires everywhere. I saw one climb up a fire escape through a window and I heard a woman screaming. I realized I was the one screaming and woke up covered in a cold sweat. Scott was shaking me.

"Maybe we should just sit up," Scott said.

I couldn't believe I had taken this long to realize what was going on. "You were right about Naveen," I said. "He's been hiding something from us."

"What?"

I looked Scott right in the eye. "The virus is in London, and Naveen better pray to God my sister isn't still there."
21

"What are you talking about?"

I began dressing hastily. "I keep having dreams about a hospital and doctors with British accents. I thought it was just Naveen giving me the creeps with his vampire obsession. But seriously, why do you think he cares so much? Why do you think our government let him in? Why don't we have an American doctor?" I put my collar on.

"You aren't going to go find him right now are you?"

"Yes I am."

Scott began to dress as well. "Don't do anything stupid, Ailis. Have you heard from your parents? Wouldn't we have heard something if the virus was in London?"

"I haven't spoken to them since right after Seth died. Besides, the government could have been keeping it under wraps. I want my sister out of there now."

"Well what are you psychic? You can sense vampires across the street, but can you do it from across the Atlantic?"

"I don't think so, but I don't know. Maybe it's my sister, sometimes when something bad happens to her I just know. Maybe it's Naveen's crazy reports and I figured it out subconsciously, but does it really matter?"

"It matters if you're going to go kick the shit out of someone over it."

I burst out the door and dashed down the stairs to the second floor apartment where Leila had died. It was quiet. Naveen must have gone back to his apartment already.

I rushed to Naveen's apartment with Scott on my heels and pounded on the door. Naveen answered wearing a pair of shorts. "What is it?"

I punched him on the chin.

"Bloody hell, what's wrong with you?" Naveen staggered back, clutching his face.

"How could you not tell anyone about the vampires in London?" I shouted back. "Even after I told you my sister was there?"

Scott tried to take my arm but I dodged him and tackled Naveen, catching him off guard while he nursed his face. I started punching him all over. Scott pulled me off and I tried to kick Naveen in the side, but he rolled away groaning.

"What is wrong with you and how did you know about the vampires?" My heart sank. It was true. I had been hoping that maybe I had lost my mind and gone after someone over a silly dream.

"I'm just that smart I guess." I gave Scott a look that said "I told you so."

"We've been keeping them quarantined," Naveen said. "It happened right after New York, but we were able to catch the infected people and keep them isolated."

"What? You don't think people tried that here? Let me go, Scott," I snarled.

Naveen moved back. "Don't let her go."

"I'll let you go when you calm down," Scott said, still holding my arms.

"When is the last time you talked to London?" I asked Naveen.

"Day before yesterday, and everything was fine."

"Well everything's not fine." I was still trying to struggle against Scott, but I considered giving up. I wasn't going to kill Naveen...probably not, anyway.

"How would you even know?" he shot back. "I think I'd know if something went wrong."

"Did you give your report this morning that you were so excited to give?"

Naveen suddenly looked concerned. "No, I wasn't able to reach them."

"Let me go I'm fine," I said to Scott.

"You sure?"

"Yes," I said. Naveen looked suspicious, but Scott let me go. I didn't attack Naveen again. "Call them now."

Naveen took out his radio and tried to reach London. There was no response. "This isn't terribly unusual," Naveen said. "I often have trouble reaching them." He didn't seem convinced by his own words, and neither did I.

"Keep trying," I said, and left Naveen with his radio.

"Now what?" asked Scott. It was close to daylight. I went to Paulo's apartment and knocked on the door. Scott followed me. Paulo answered in his pajamas.

"We need to talk to the outside," I said.

"Right now?" Paulo asked.

"Yes, the vampires are in London. Naveen knew the whole time and didn't tell us. Now he can't reach anyone there."

Paulo's eyes grew wide. "Jesus, I'll call them right now."

We got on the radio and were able to reach a different man than the one we usually spoke to. It had never occurred to me that the same person didn't work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week operating that radio.

"Manhattan, is everything okay?" the man asked. He sounded sleepy.

"Are there vampires in London?" Paulo blurted out.

The man sounded wide awake at once, "How did you know about that?"

Paulo groaned.

"That goddamn doctor told you, didn't he?" the radio man asked.

"Yes," I said, "and now he's scared because he can't get in touch with his people," I said. "So how bad is it?"

The man sighed. "I suppose it doesn't matter if you know now. They've been trying to keep it quarantined in a hospital there. Seemed like they were doing a fine job of it too, that's why we let Dr. Patel come over. He had made himself an immediate expert on the disease. We truly thought he could learn a lot, maybe find a cure, or at least tell us whether it was safe to let the rest of you out."

"That's bullshit," I said. "It's obviously safe to let us out. If he thought it was airborne he wouldn't have come here in the first place."

"The way I understand it," the man on the radio said, "he has some family affected."

"Oh," I responded. "Well now I have some family affected, and I want to speak to my parents."

"In London? You can't talk to London. Even I can't talk to London. They've just quarantined the city."

My heart sank. "Well I need to speak to my parents, and they aren't in London. I know you have their contact information on file. Call them up and put them on the radio."

"I'm not sure I'm authorized to do that..."

"For Christ's sake man," Scott shouted, "we go weeks without speaking to our families and she finds out her sister is in the only other vampire-infested city in the world...don't you have a family?"

"Well um, yes, but I need to check with a supervisor..."

"Do you have kids? What if you had one in Manhattan and one in London right now?"

The man on the radio was silent for a moment, then said, "I wasn't able to reach them. Radio back at 5:00 this evening okay?"

"Five o'clock?" I shouted. "Go find them! How long does it take to—"

"Yes, five o'clock," the man sounded like he was becoming angry. "We'll find them, but we have procedures for these things. It's more complicated than it sounds. We don't want this to leak out yet so please just do as I say."

I wasn't sure I trusted him, or that he had even tried to contact my parents, but what choice did I have? I agreed we would radio back that evening. It was already early morning.

Paulo reminded us we had one of our own to bury. We thought it would be nice to bury her in the middle of Bryant Park where she could have plenty of sunlight.

Paulo said he would organize a few men to dig the grave. I went back to Naveen's apartment. "Any luck?" I asked when he opened the door.

The look on his face said it all. "You were right, Ailis, I don't know how you knew, but it's spread. London is quarantined now."

I nodded. "We just talked to our people and they told us the same thing. Why didn't they at least move vampires out to the middle of nowhere if they insisted on keeping them alive?"

Naveen shrugged. "The best doctors in the world are in London and they wanted the best doctors in the world on the case."

"And now nobody can get in or out of the city?"

"Right."

"I bet all the right people made it out just fine, just like they did here," Scott said.

"Apparently not everyone," said Naveen, staring at the wall behind me. He smiled. "Apparently they made a big gaffe there. They left everyone else to rot and got the politicians and their families out, but someone got left behind."

"Good, maybe then they'll actually do something about it," I said.

"That's the funny thing, Ailis," Naveen replied. "They do want to do something about it. Have you ever heard of Richard Ashdown?"

"Of course," Scott replied, "he owns half of London and a series of luxury resorts in the Virgin Islands."

Naveen nodded. "Well, his son, his only son, was not one of the privileged few given the opportunity to evacuate the city in time. Apparently he has a swanky flat in Chelsea with a panic room and everything. Mr. Ashdown wants to hire a team of mercenaries to go in and rescue his son, but so far, no one wants the job."

"So?" I said. "Money can buy anything, I'm sure he'll find someone. London's only been quarantined what, for a few hours? A day?"

"Yes, just under twenty-four hours," Naveen said.

"Anyway," I said, "I don't know what this has to do with anything. I have a hard time caring about this guy's son getting looked over when no one even considered my sister."

"I understand, Ailis, my father was one of the first infected. He was a doctor as well, one of the first to research this virus. He was the true expert. I just hope they killed him before he was given an opportunity to run around the streets of London."

So that was the family connection. "I'm sorry to hear that," I told him. "But when you first saw a vampire here, you seemed so shocked, so frightened. You had so many questions. The guy on the radio said you were an expert on vampires, and now you say your own father was infected."

"Well, I faked that a bit," Naveen said sheepishly. "After my father was infected, I studied his papers day and night, but my father had made his colleagues swear that they wouldn't let me see him or any of the other vampires. I contacted your government to see if they would let me come over here to study vampires 'in the wild,' as it were. I submitted some of my father's research on the virus under my name. I'm not proud of it, but it was the only way I could come over here and find a cure or a vaccine or anything to help stop this."

"You didn't have to lie to us," I said. "Did you really think we needed more people lying to us? I could have gotten my sister out of there before London was quarantined."

"I know and I'm so sorry, Ailis," Naveen said. "But listen, you have an opportunity here."

"What?"

"After Mr. Ashdown was turned down by his ordinary band of mercenaries, he thought of you. He's been following Manhattan in the papers like everyone else, and as soon as he found out about the virus in London, he set his people to doing research, and of course your name came up a lot."

I had read a lot of sensationalized stories about myself in the papers we'd received. Ashdown must have pictured me as queen of the vampire-slayers. "You can't be about to tell me what I think you are," I said.

Naveen smiled. "His people contacted my people. Ailis, he wants to hire you to go to London and find his son, Richard Junior. He has a lot of important friends. If your sister is still alive—"

"I want to talk to this guy," I interrupted. "I'll go, but on my terms."

"Ailis, maybe you should think about this," Scott interjected. "You don't know London, you don't know what kind of condition it's in."

"I know Nina's there."

"You know what it was like the first two weeks," Scott said gently. "The chances that she's even survived the first day..."

"So what, I stick around this charming city and go on with the lovely life I've made for myself and assume she's dead?"

"Ailis," Naveen interrupted, "I'm sure you can name any terms you want. Mr. Ashdown has the means to grant them."

"When can I talk to him?"

"Whenever you like. He's waiting to hear from you."

Scott held up his hand. "Naveen, will you please give us a minute?"

"Sure," Naveen said.

Scott and I walked out of Naveen's apartment and out of the building. We started walking toward Bryant Park out of habit. "Ailis, I think you should think about this. You might be immune, but you aren't bullet proof. You're still human, you can still be killed. Think of your parents. You're stuck in this hell-hole, but you're relatively safe here."

"For how long? One of these days they'll run out of people in the tunnels, and then they won't hold back. We don't know how many vampires there are, but I'll bet there are enough to break down our defenses if they were all determined, or if Desmond decided it was a good idea. Weren't you the one that said I had to get out of here?"

"They'll have to let us out someday, Ailis, you've seen the write-ups, public opinion is in our favor."

"When, Scott?" I shook my head. "Anyway, this is all irrelevant, I'm going to get my sister out of there and that's that."

"By yourself?"

"You wanna come?"

"Yes, I do."

"Okay what about your family? You're not bullet proof either, you may not even be immune. You probably aren't immune."

Scott sighed. "I might never see my family again, Ailis, but you're here right now. I miss them, but I've accepted that. You and everyone else here...you've all become my family. I'm coming with you or I won't let you go." He smiled. "I'll bet you twenty worthless bucks James wants in too."

"Why not make it $1,000? We're about to be millionaires anyway."

We waited until after Leila's burial to speak to the others about London. I insisted we burn Leila's body in her grave, just in case the vampires tried to dig her up. We didn't need to seek them out, James, Paulo, and Beth—the people we needed to tell—came to us.

"I told them about London," Paulo said.

"Is there anything you need?" Beth asked.

I explained Naveen's, or rather Richard Ashdown's, interest in me. I told them Scott and I were going to take him up on it. Beth sighed and nodded, and Paulo put an arm around her. Just as Scott had predicted James volunteered, "I'm going too."

I smiled. "Scott said you would say that."

"Well I was the one who had the bright idea of wearing the dog collar wasn't I? Now you and Scott are doing it. I have to share my wisdom with the world. Quite frankly, I've had enough of this dump."

"I think we all have," I said. "If you really want to go, you're welcome to join."

"I'm in. When do we leave?"

"We have to talk to Mr. Ashdown about that."

Beth shook her head. "You all can't be serious, it must be chaos over there right now."

"I have to go Beth," I said. "You know that."

"I know, I know." She sounded like she might be choking up. "And of course these two fools can't let you go by yourself."

"Who are you calling a fool?" James asked. "There's nothing to keep me here anyway. You in, Paulo?"

"No, I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I have to stay."

"You're too important here, Paulo," I said. "Keep fighting. I think they'll have to let you out someday."

We went back with Naveen to his apartment. "Naveen, do you still have family in London?"

He shook his head. "After my father was infected, I told everyone else in my family to leave London and move to one of the smaller villages. You know I feel responsible too, I should have alerted others."

"Let's not go there," I said. "Let's just call Mr. Ashdown."

Naveen used his radio to connect with his people in Oxford. He told them I was ready to speak to Mr. Ashdown and a gruff voice came on the radio. "Is this Ailis? Ailis Laurent? The Ailis Laurent?"

"Yes," I said, "I'm the only Ailis in New York." I felt awkward.

"Have they explained to you about my son?"

"Yes, Mr. Ashdown."

"Please call me Richard."

"Yes, they've explained everything to me. Have they told you I have a sister there?"

"No, they haven't. How horrid."

"Yeah, well that's what I think too, and that's going to be part of my terms. Non-negotiable you understand."

"You want to get your sister out."

"Of course."

"The powers that be won't allow you to rejoin society as of now, but I can arrange for you to stay in an estate I have in Scotland for as long as our governments see fit."

"Scotland is lovely, and I would certainly be happy to spend my summers there. But in the winter, I was thinking more along the lines of somewhere in the Virgin Islands."

Ashdown was silent for a moment, then said, "That can be arranged. What else?"

"I have two friends, both men, both as experienced at killing vampires as I am."

"That must be Scott and who else?"

"James!" shouted James, sounding offended. "Don't tell me you haven't read about James in the papers!"

"Oh yes, of course, James, of course." said Mr. Ashdown.

"We want fifty million U.S. Dollars each," I said. "Twenty-five will immediately be deposited into back accounts for our families. The other twenty-five will be deposited into accounts in each of our names if and when we succeed in finding your son and getting him out alive. Our families will be named beneficiaries in case we don't make it out with him."

"Fifty million each?"

"Yes."

"Done."

"I will speak to my parents when I arrive in London," I continued, "and if they don't have that money, Mr. Ashdown..."

"Of course, of course. It will be there before you even leave New York."

"We'll need a good supply of stakes of course, and our people can help you with that. We'll need dark-colored comfortable clothing. It cannot reflect any light. I hear it rains a lot in London so water-resistant might not be a bad idea. We'll also need athletic boots. They need to be tough, but not too heavy. We have to be able to run and maneuver quickly. At least every other day we will need a supply drop of food, stakes, and anything else we ask for. We can figure out the arrangements when we get there. London is going to be crazy when we arrive, not just with vampires, but with looters and all kinds of scum. We will need guns as well." I continued to list other supplies such as extra collars and walkie talkies.

Ashdown agreed to all of our requests. After we had listed everything we could think of that we might need, we discussed travel arrangements.

"Unfortunately your transportation will not arrive in the United States until this evening," Ashdown said. "As you cannot take off during the night, we will pick you up first thing in the morning. The time change will cause you to arrive at Heathrow after dark. Although the government has closed Heathrow in an abundance of caution, the virus did not make it that far out so you will be able to land there.

"Accommodations will be arranged for you tomorrow night. In the morning, if you feel well enough, you will go by helicopter to a location near my son's flat. He should be in his panic room, but we have been unable to contact him there. You will be able to communicate with me and my staff twenty-four hours a day by radio. If and when you find Richard Junior, you will notify us by radio immediately and a helicopter will be sent for him. At that point you will each receive your additional twenty-five million U.S. Dollars.

"If you wish to leave then, you may so long as you have not been infected. If you wish to stay and search for your sister we will remove you, your sister, and your team when you are ready. If this is acceptable, I will have my solicitors draw up the paperwork tonight. Do you agree?"

I looked at Scott and James who nodded. "Agreed," I said.

"Very good. I've read a lot about you, Miss Ailis, and I have no doubt you and your team will be successful. Despite anything you may have read about my eccentricities, my son is a good man. We will provide you with photographs, his address, and all the information on London that you will need. As I mentioned, you will also have my support staff on call at all times."

"Thanks. How are you going to get us out of here anyway?"

"I have a Gulfstream that will take on fuel at Newark and then pick you up on one of the Avenues. I will trust your advice regarding which one has the least debris."

I had to laugh at this. I could just picture a Gulfstream landing and taking off in the middle of Manhattan. "I think Sixth might be your best bet, Richard. Most of the cars are on the East and the West Sides where people tried to escape. Are my people just going to let you fly your jet in here?"

"Yes, that will not be a problem."

"Okay, well I wish I had that kind of influence. Any chance you could get any of my other friends out of Manhattan?"

"I'm pushing it as it is."

"Well then I guess that's it."

"Indeed. Thank you, all three of you, for your help. I look forward to your success."

"Sure, no problem." It sounded rather silly, but I didn't know what else to say.

I couldn't believe we'd be leaving in the morning. We had so much to do before we left. It was already time to call the radio man back and speak to my parents. James and Scott now wanted to speak to their families as well so we went over to Paulo's apartment.

We were able to reach the man on the radio. He told me that he had contacted my parents and placed the speakerphone by the radio.

My mother was on and she sounded horrible. "Ailis, they said you know about London. You know Nina's still there?"

"Yes, Mom. She's definitely still in the city?"

"She was the last time I spoke to her and she wasn't planning any vacations. We haven't heard from her in four days." I could hear my mom crying. "How could this happen to both of you?"

"Mom, listen to me. Nina is a survivor, like I am. She worked in a hospital where maybe some people knew about this. Maybe she had a warning and got out or was at least able to lock herself in somewhere safe."

"God I hope so, but even then, she'll be stuck there, just like you. I've begged them to let us join one of you, so you aren't all alone..."

"Mom I'm not all alone. There are wonderful people here. But, listen, I'm going to London to get Nina."

Silence.

"Mom? I'm going tomorrow morning and listen, Richard Ashdown, I'm not even joking, is going to get us out of there when I find her."

"What are you talking about? You're going to London?"

"It's a long story, but apparently our government has agreed to let us go—"

"Now hold on," the radio man interrupted, "I'm not sure you should be talking about all this." He didn't seem the least bit surprised at what I was saying. Mr. Ashdown must have made his deal with the government before he even spoke to me.

"Okay, okay," I said, "I have to get ready to go Mom, but I have two guys going with me, Scott and James, and we're going to go get Nina and get out of there and live in Scotland or the Virgin Islands or somewhere else without vampires."

My dad came on. "Ailis, are you sure this is a good idea? You seem like you've made yourself a safe place there in Manhattan. I don't want you going to London and getting killed. Can you trust this Ashdown? I didn't even know he had a son."

"Yes, his son is there and just like you would, he'll pay any price to get him back."

"What if you're bitten, Ailis?"

"Dad do you remember that time everyone got the stomach flu at Grandma's at Thanksgiving? Everyone except me?" Scott gave me a warning look. I wanted to tell my parents about my immunity, but I didn't want the man on the radio, or anyone else listening to know.

"Yes, that was amazing. Why do you..." he stopped. Either he or my mom had understood me.

"I was just remembering that's all," I said. "Besides, you know I kick serious vampire ass and we're being provided with weapons so that we can take care of any of the shady people as well."

"We just want you to be safe, Ailis."

"We'll be in touch with Ashdown's people twenty-four seven. I'll make sure they let me talk to you and send you updates so you know we're okay."

"If you have to, you have to," my dad said. "You sound like you've made up your mind. I just hope you'll stay safe and find your sister. You're mother and I love you very much."

"Listen Dad, Ashdown is going to deposit twenty-five million dollars in an account in your and Mom's name in the next twenty-four hours. His people will contact you about it. I'm going to talk to you before I go into London and I want to know it's there okay?"

"Twenty-five million dollars?" My dad sounded dumbfounded.

"Yeah, make sure you get it."

"We'd rather have you back," my mom broke in.

"I know Mom. I will be back, with Nina. I bet it will only take a couple of weeks." I tried to stay upbeat and optimistic. I could tell Scott and James were becoming impatient so I knew I had to go.

"I have to go, but I love you both, and I'm going to find Nina and we're going to get out of there okay? I've made it this far, I bet she has too....I know she has."

My parents both told me they loved me. I could hear my mother crying and I felt a pang of homesickness. I tried to stay optimistic, but I knew this would be dangerous. We would have to spend the next twenty-four hours coming up with a serious plan of action. We couldn't just waltz into London and start killing vampires and looters and then just waltz back out with Nina and Richard Junior.

I went up to my apartment and began getting my things together while Scott and James contacted their families. The radio man didn't complain about procedure this time. I looked around my little one bedroom apartment that I had paid an arm and a leg for up until my landlord disappeared. It had kept me safe for three months now. So many people had failed and somehow I had survived.

Yes, my parents were unfortunate in that both their daughters were in two different vampire-ridden cities, but they were also fortunate that out of millions, I had made it so far. I was confident that my sister was still alive. She was tough like I was and I knew she could take care of herself.

Scott and James joined me a while later and I got out my map of London from the one time I had visited Nina. James had been twice. Scott had never been. I even allowed James to smoke in my apartment. What did it matter now?

Just after sunset, Beth came over and knocked on my door. "Would you like to have one last dinner at my place?" she asked.

"Why not?" I responded.

We walked over to Beth's apartment and when she opened the door, her apartment was packed with people and her table looked as if it was loaded with two week's worth of food supplies. Everyone wished us well, and shook our hands and patted us on our backs and jokingly—or not so jokingly—asked when we were going to get them out of New York. I could tell many of them thought we were crazy. We didn't stay long, we needed our rest. I hate goodbyes anyway.

As I lay in my bed trying to sleep, I tried to mentally reach out to Nina, to let her know I was coming and to sit tight. I didn't think it worked, but I wanted to try. That night it stormed. I hoped Mr. Ashdown's plane had made it to the States and wouldn't be delayed by the weather. I was ready to get to London, the sooner the better. I finally fell asleep to the sound of the rain.

The next morning I woke with the sunrise. I ate a little breakfast and got my things together. Then Scott knocked on my door. He had his bags together. I took one last look at my little apartment and locked the door. I planned on leaving the keys with Beth so she could send some of my things to my parents. We went to James's apartment, but he was already outside smoking on the sidewalk.

"Looks like we'll be arriving in London on the Fourth of July," Scott said.

"Yeah, well this time we're getting independence from the bloody Americans," James said with a grin. I was glad he was coming with us, he would keep my spirits up.

Beth, Paulo, Dwayne, and Kim started to walk with us toward Sixth Avenue.

Suddenly, I heard Tony call out from behind us, "Ailis, I want you to know I'm sorry, about Leila."

I turned around. "I know you had to protect your kids Tony. I would do anything to protect my family, that's why I'm going to London."

"I wish you the best, Ailis. Stay safe."

"Thanks." I walked over and gave him a hug.

"You guys too," he said to Scott and James. "Don't do anything stupid." He gave them both bear hugs and stood on the sidewalk as we walked away.

I was surprised to see the Gulfstream was already on Sixth Avenue. We walked up to the plane. There was a pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit. Then the door opened and a flight attendant wearing a gas mask and looking furtively in all directions gestured for us to come in. I burst out laughing.

"It's not airborne," I shouted.

She gestured more violently, so we all exchanged hugs and Scott, James and I climbed onto the plane.

"Wait!" Beth shouted, and ran up to me. "I almost forgot. I went through Leila's things to see if there was anything we should save for her family. I found a note with your name on it. Maybe she knew she was going to die and wanted to tell you something." Beth handed me an envelope with my name written on it in beautiful cursive.

I was puzzled. What could Leila have wanted to tell me? I wondered if she had just written down her experience in the tunnels, and then later decided to tell me about it in person in Bryant Park before she went on her suicide mission. I tucked the letter in my bag and forgot about it as I boarded the plane. The flight attendant acted as if she couldn't shut the door fast enough.

"Are you going to wear that the whole time?" I asked the attendant, pointing to her mask.

She nodded.

"I promise we're fine," I insisted.

She ignored me and tapped on the cockpit door. I shrugged. I spread myself out in a seat and looked out the window. There wasn't room for us to turn around and we were pointed north. We wouldn't have room to take off before running into Central Park, so we had to back down twenty or so blocks before we could leave.

James was across from me and Scott was beside me trying to look over me and out the window. I wondered whether Desmond would find out I'd escaped the city. That would probably make him even more furious. I hoped he wouldn't take it out on the people still in my building. I wished I had been able to bargain for their freedom as well. I didn't want to think about that. I had to focus on London, on Nina.

I told myself over and over that my sister was fine, that she was locked away in a safe place somewhere, hopefully with a friend as good as Beth, or Scott, or James, or any of the others I had come to know. I tried to send my thoughts to her as I had the night before: "I'm coming Nina, hold on. Everything is going to be okay."

I shook my head. This wasn't the time for emotion. Ashdown or his people had filled the jet with a supply of London maps of varying detail as well as pictures of Richard Junior, his flat and other buildings around it. It didn't look like his flat was anywhere near my sister's. I began studying the pictures and maps, trying to memorize every detail I could. I was so engrossed in the material that I didn't even take a last look at Manhattan as we took off over Sixth Avenue.

