Hodan Ahmed: Somali Vampire

"This is it, the apocalypse," Hodan Ahmed said, and the six-foot-tall, curvy Somali-born vampire hugged her arms as she gazed at the remnants of metropolitan Toronto, Ontario. Decked out in a black leather jacket over a red tank top, black jeans and boots, Hodan looked tough and sexy all at once. Seventy two hours earlier, the zombie plague began in North America, and soon major cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, Montreal and Calgary fell. Law enforcement and the military were woefully unprepared to deal with the ravenous Undead...

"We should return home," said Hodan's companion Valentin Lucien, and he gently laid his hand on her shoulder. The two of them had been friends for a long time. Valentin and Hodan met centuries ago during the slave uprising on the island of Saint Domingue. The two monsters sided with the African rebels against the European colonial powers, and thus helped bring about the end of slavery and the birth of the Haitian republic. They'd been close friends and allies ever since...

Hodan and Valentin were two of a kind, a pair of vampires who used their supernatural powers and wealth to help oppressed people around the world. Valentin, who'd been born on the island of Saint Domingue to a European colonist father and an enslaved African mother, despised slavery and oppression in all of their forms. After becoming a vampire, Valentin swore to use his powers to fight the forces of oppression around the world, and he found a kindred spirit in Hodan Ahmed, formerly of Somalia.

Hodan and Valentin cut a bloody swath around the world, but for a good cause. They supported rebels, and freedom fighters all over the place. The colonial system which kept people of color subjugated around the world never went away, evolving over the course of the centuries and insuring that Latin American, Caribbean and African-American peoples never reached their full potential. Hodan and Valentin found themselves facing something that was completely out of their depth, the zombie apocalypse...

"No, Val, I refuse to believe that human civilization will fall to this, this plague," Hodan said angrily, and Valentin sighed. Scanning the landscape around them, Valentin detected the sounds of battle. Humans were clashing with the zombies, fighting a desperate battle in which friend, family member and lover fell, only to rise again as flesh-eating monsters. The humans didn't stand a chance, as it only takes a bitten person a mere ten minutes before they come back as one of the Undead...

"Hodan, they got Arik," Valentin said, and Hodan closed her eyes, hard. Arik, a tall, handsome young vampire, originally from Yemen, had been one of the newest members of the Vampire community prior to the zombie apocalypse. Arik had been a rebel in Sana'a, Yemen, opposing European and American forces when he was turned into a vampire by Raz, an ancient vampire of eastern European lore.

"What? How did it happen?" Hodan demanded, and Valentin bit his lip, unsure how to proceed. When a person is turned into a vampire, they gain numerous abilities including superhuman strength, enhanced speed and stamina, accelerated healing and sharp senses, along with immunity to illness and aging. To become a vampire is to gain the potential to live forever. Arik, whose brash confidence won over many among the vampire community, should have been around for a long time. What could have brought him down?

"Arik and I were in Mississauga when there was an outbreak, and hundreds of zombies came at us, I barely got away, but they got him, tore him to pieces," Valentin said, and Hodan hissed in anger, flashing her fangs. Anyone looking at Hodan would have seen a tall, attractive black woman in her early thirties with long hair and sharp features. Like any vampire, whenever Hodan got angry or upset, she vamped out, and her eyes turned bright red while her teeth elongated into sharp fangs. Valentin found this transformation beautiful and grotesque, all at once...

"I should have been there," Hodan said, shaking her head, and Valentin nodded in sympathy, remembering that Arik and Hodan had been lovers for a time. Valentin and Hodan left the roof shortly after, taking to the air effortlessly. Vampires cannot fly but can glide, there is a big difference between the two. Gliding effortlessly in the skies of Toronto, Hodan and Valentin and the destruction they saw on the streets below stunned even their non-beating hearts...

"This is horrible," Valentin said to Hodan, as they watched a family of three, a man, and a woman and their son, surrounded on all sides by zombies at a gas station. The man brandished a baseball bat while his lady held a knife. There were at least thirty zombies converging on their position, with many more on the way. Hodan saw this, and looked at Valentin. Before Valentin could say anything, Hodan swept down, and in doing so, betrayed the vampire code by exposing herself to humans...

"Away with you vile things," Hodan screamed as she dropped out of the sky and, moving at preternatural speed, waded through the zombies. Valentin watched as Hodan tore into the zombies, using her superior strength to tear them to pieces. Still, the difference between vampires and zombies is that vampires eventually tire, while the zombies keep going and going until they are fatally stopped. Hodan destroyed the thirty or so zombies that were going after the humans, but in doing so, attracted dozens more...

"Lady, how did you do that?" asked the man with the bat, a portly black fellow who reminded Hodan of Carl from Family Matters. Hodan looked at the man and his wife and son, and from the horrified looks on their faces, she realized that she was still vamped out. Hodan willed her features to resume their human aspect, and this seemed to calm the human trio down somewhat.

"Don't worry about me, you should get out of here," Hodan said, and the human trio made a beeline for their van, which sputtered twice before pulling out of the gas station lot. Hodan stared down the zombies, dozens of whom were coming her way. The centuries-old vampire got ready to take to the air, but three zombies grabbed her and pulled her down. Hodan fought back ferociously, but the zombies began to overwhelm her through sheer numbers...

"Hodan," Valentin screamed, and the Haitian vampire came down from the skies, and extended his claws, promptly decapitating the zombies pulling down Hodan. Even though Hodan no longer breathed, she sighed in relief as Valentin pulled her to her feet. The two vampires took to the skies, fleeing the City of Toronto, which not even their superhuman might could save from the zombie hordes. On that very night, taxing their abilities, they fled the continent of North America itself...

On a tiny island, one that is privately owned, the vampires prepared to wait out the zombie apocalypse. Vampires of every sort, from places like Nigeria, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Romania, Greece, Brazil, Cuba, Vietnam and Mexico came to the Sanctuary. In a top secret underground lair, with all the comforts that money can buy, the blood drinkers came to hide as humanity died out. They figured that once the humans were gone, the zombies would eventually rot away, and they would inherit the world.

"I can't hide while humanity dies," Hodan said to Valentin as they waited their turn. They were among hundreds of vampires in line to gain admittance to the Sanctuary. There were about a dozen Vampire clerics processing the new admittees. For this race of immortals, patience is definitely a virtue. Valentin looked at Hodan, wondering why his favorite immortal Somali lady couldn't, or perhaps wouldn't, frigging see reason.

"Hodan, the humans created the zombie virus, what happens to them is their own fault," Valentin said angrily, and Hodan sighed, pondering his words. Valentin looked at Hodan, this tall, beautiful Somali female vampire whom he loved and cherished more than life itself. They had a whirlwind romance a long time ago and remained friends with benefits throughout the centuries that followed. With Arik gone, Valentin thought he could finally have Hodan to himself. Why else would he have abandoned the rookie vampire to the zombie horde?

"You're right," Hodan said, with tears brimming in her eyes, and Valentin smiled and pulled her into his arms. Hodan hugged Valentin fiercely, and when he kissed her, she kissed him back passionately. When their turn came, Hodan and Valentin faced the gathered vampire clerics, who took their information, collected payment in the form of gold, and then admitted them into the Sanctuary. The two rogue vampires were home at last, and not a moment too soon, since the world was ending.

As Hodan Ahmed and Valentin Lucien went into the underground metropolis filled with their peers, the Haitian vampire allowed himself a smile. When it comes to grand scheming, he was a true master of the game. For decades, Valentin secretly financed mad scientists and renegades, one of whom unleashed the zombie apocalypse upon the world. The humans that Valentin detested so much were gone, and so was his rival Arik the Yemeni bastard, and now, he had his beloved lady Hodan and their immortal brethren to enjoy, forever. Who says a villain can't win?