The Vampires of South Sudan

"Politics find common thread everywhere," Mustafa Machar said to himself, as he languished in his little cell, awaiting his execution. In a few hours, the sun would rise, and for the first time in centuries, he would be there to greet it. It would be the very last thing he ever saw, for the light was lethal to his kind. Can't escape genetics, Mustafa thought as he raked his tongue over his fangs.

The caged Vampire cut a striking figure, to say the least. Mustafa stood six feet six inches tall, with skin of a rich mahogany hue, a lean and muscular body, and a ruggedly handsome face with golden brown eyes that could see right through one's soul. Clad in a dark gray business suit, blue silk shirt, burgundy tie, dark gray dress pants and his trademark black Timberland boots, he looked distinctly out of place in this setting.

The bars of the cage which held Mustafa prisoner were pure silver, designed to sap the strength that was his to command. As a centuries-old Vampire, Mustafa possesses the strength of ten men, and if push came to shove, he might outrun a cheetah in matters of speed and stamina. His captors knew this, so they spared no expense to prevent his escape. They were determined to make him pay once and for all...

With precious little to do in what seemed like the last hours of his existence, the Vampire Mustafa found himself thinking about how he got into this predicament in the first place. Betrayal never comes from one's enemies, or so the old adage goes, Mustafa silently reminded himself. Bitterly he remembered learning that lesson fairly recently...

"Mustafa, for violation of our treaties, you are hereby condemned to death by exposure to the sun," stated Councilwoman Gladys Onochie, speaking for the eleven-member council that ruled the Vampires of the African motherland. Mustafa, standing in the middle of the court, with silver bindings sapping his preternatural strength, could do little more than watch.

"I just did what any of you should have done, I fought for love and for honor," Mustafa protested vehemently, and the other Vampires in the antechamber shook their heads. They rejected his ideology, and he couldn't stand to look at them, this parade of sycophants and losers. To Mustafa, humanity was little more than food, and he wished his fellow Vampires would stop being "restrained" and embrace their natural urges.

"Silence, Mustafa," stated a councilman seated at the right hand of Gladys, speaking for the first time. Mustafa bristled as he looked up to see Fiore, formerly his acolyte, speaking against him. They'd known each other for some time, and while Mustafa and Fiore had their disagreements, the prisoner was stunned to see his friend palling around with his tormentors...

When the sun next bathed the City of Accra, Ghana, in its light, Mustafa would cease to exist. Solar light plus Vampire equals dead Vampire, so it has been since the beginning of the Undead race. The sun would burn him to a crisp, the very worst fate for a Vampire. Mustafa could imagine the smug faces of the council members watching him on close-circuit television from the safety of their sun-proof homes.

For untold centuries, the Vampires had existed in the shadows, subtly influencing human society through their wealth and power. Vampires hoarded gold and jewels, due to their inborn fascination with shiny metals and precious stones. They wielded great power in the human world, and through their many agents and networks, they influenced the course of human destiny far more than they were given credit for.

What Mustafa had dared to do was interfere in the affairs of man. He'd fallen in love with a mortal woman named Anne-Marie Tsegah, the daughter of Robert Tsegah, a wealthy political figure in Ghana at the time. When the young woman found herself on the run from her father's enemies following his death, she called upon the tall, handsome and mysterious man who'd been her lover for ages.

Mustafa, who, throughout his centuries among the Undead lived by a code, found himself in a sticky situation. He'd drunk from Anne-Marie's blood, welcomed her into his bed, and told her the truth about himself. Unlike most mortals, Anne-Marie hadn't been disgusted or horrified. In Mustafa's eyes, this made her something akin to a rare jewel...

"Mustafa, I know there is more to this world than most people think, what you are doesn't scare me, you may not be human but you're gentle and kind, the real beasts are the men in this land who slaughter their own people for pleasure," Anne-Marie told him, as they lay together. They had a heart-to-heart following Mustafa's revelation of his Undead status, and Anne-Marie's candor surprised the ancient Vampire.

"You're a unique woman," Mustafa told Anne-Marie, and he looked at her, this tall, dark-skinned, voluptuous daughter of West Africa, and kissed her passionately. They rolled around on his bed, and made passionate love for many hours. Mustafa had shared his bed with a seemingly endless list of women, and more than a few men. Still, Anne-Marie's passion surprised him...

"I want more of you, beloved," Anne-Marie said to a stunned Mustafa, as she rolled on top of him, straddling him. Mustafa looked up at her and smiled, then caressed her lovely face, then her breasts. Anne-Marie sighed happily as he caressed her erect nipples, then gave her thick derriere a firm slap. Mustafa returned Anne-Marie's fearless smile, then rubbed his hardness against her woman's portal...

"And more you shall have," Mustafa replied as he thrust his long, hard member into her. Anne-Marie rode him, her vaginal muscles gripping his member like a vise. She gave as good as she got, resting her hands on Mustafa's broad shoulders as he thrust into her. They went at it like this for many hours, then rested in each other's arms. As was his custom, Mustafa remained with Anne-Marie until dawn rose and the sun's rays threatened him, forcing him to retire to the safety of the darkness...

What Mustafa didn't know was that dark times were ahead for mankind, for the Vampire species, and for himself. He'd broken countless rules by interfering in the affairs of men. When the assassins came for his beloved Anne-Marie, Mustafa slaughtered them all. Vampires were supposed to lead lives of discretion, sticking to the shadows, feeding on those the world didn't care about. Mustafa acted out of passion, rather than reason, and became a marked being...

To protect his beloved Anne-Marie, Mustafa would move heaven and earth. With his prodigious wealth, he was able to arrange safe passage for her from Accra, Capital of Ghana, to the City of Juba, Southern Sudan, the distant and mysterious land of his birth. Mustafa still had a lot of friends in Juba, and tasked them with Anne-Marie's safety. He was supposed to meet her there, but instead he got captured...

The Trackers represented the law enforcement arm of the Vampire nation, and the Undead men and Undead women within their ranks were the elite. They were equipped with the latest technology, from high-powered rifles firing silver bullets to body armor, computer systems that tracked every Vampire on the planet, and the like. For them, finding any Vampire, even a wily one like Mustafa, proved to be no challenge at all. Mustafa was tracked down, captured and put on trial, just as the council wished it.

Mustafa mused on the future, which was funny since he didn't have one. For centuries he'd played by the rules. He kept to the shadows, and drank the blood of animals. When he had to feed on humans, Mustafa drank the blood of evil men and evil women, whose who did fiendish things to their own kind. A Vampire is essentially responsible for culling evil from the human herd, it's why they exist...

Mustafa thought of his long existence, and realized that he was going to lose a bet he'd made with himself centuries ago. Mustafa, like most Immortals, wondered what the future had in stock for mankind. Would humans go to space and colonize other planets like in Star Wars or Star Trek? Or would mankind destroy itself due to wars or plagues? Too bad he wouldn't be around to see it...

Mustafa thought of a news broadcast he'd seen on the Discovery Channel a few weeks ago. There was an asteroid headed for earth, one that was bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaur. The scientists were sure the rock would miss earth. Mundane folk were going to go about their day, business as usual, as the celestial event occurred. Too bad Mustafa wouldn't be around to see it. He'd long been an astronomy buff...

Mustafa anxiously awaited dawn, which was understandable under the circumstances. Fortunately, dawn didn't come. Mustafa was quite surprised when there was a huge booming sound, like a thousand thunderbolts going off into the sky at once. Next thing he knew the earth was shaking, and the cage was rattling, as was the rest of the antechamber.

"What the hell?" Mustafa wondered aloud, as the chaos continued, and the very walls of the antechamber started crumbling down. The other Vampires screamed in fright, and took off. A huge rock fell from the ceiling, and crushed part of the cage. Mustafa, who'd flattened himself against the bars on the other side, was much relieved to find his way cleared. There is opportunity in disaster, Mustafa thought as he made his escape.

The asteroid, called the Devil's Spike by the scientific community, was supposed to bypass the planet Earth and hit Mars instead. Due to encountering some space debris while entering the solar system, the asteroid hit the planet Earth's European continent, and due to its sheer size, it had a devastating impact on the entire planet.

First, the Devil's Spike blotted out the sun, indefinitely, and it was just getting started. It caused massive earthquakes, tidal waves, and resulted in massive losses for the fauna, flora, and for mankind, of course. Everywhere one looked, chaos reigned, as thousands of years of human civilization came to an end. For humanity, this was an extinction-level event, but for mankind's cousin species, the night-dwelling, blood-drinking Undead, it was a rebirth...

In the early, panic-filled hours of the cataclysm, chaos reigned. The City of Accra, Ghana, was basically flattened by a piece of the asteroid while in Europe and North America, entire populations vanished as the asteroid basically vaporized them. As the death rose and humanity found itself on the brink of extinction, the Undead rose out of their crypts, amid the sudden darkness and the earthquakes, floods and the rain of fire. They stalked their prey, and feasted. One Vampire had other plans, though.

Mustafa raced across the remnants of Accra, and the sturdiness of the people warmed his non-beating heart. Ordinary men and women banded together to help their neighbors, digging through the rubble to help the fallen, all the while dodging flecks of fire from the sky. The great African metropolis was laid waste, but her people survived, just like he knew they would...

Mustafa made his way to the ruins of the airport, and searched for his beloved. With a super-predator's augmented senses, he searched for her. He inhaled a myriad scents, those of the wounded and dying, the bereaved and the stricken, and prowled the burning darkness, to find his dear Anne-Marie. He found her in a most unexpected place...

When the sky fell and everything turned to hell, Anne-Marie had been in the swimming pool of the hotel, unable to sleep ahead of her flight from the City of Accra, Ghana, to the City of Juba, South Sudan. It turned out to be a rather fortunate decision on her part, for the hotel was destroyed by a rock from the sky, and if she'd been inside, she would have perished along with hundreds of guests and dozens of staff.

"What's happening?" Anne-Marie wondered, rising out of the pool water, as everything around her seemingly burned or crumbled. The sky was dark, unnaturally dark, and the only light came from tiny flames which were falling this way and that. She went to hide in the only nearby structure which hadn't fallen, a mosque which the local Muslims had dedicated to the legendary Islamic ruler Sal Al Din, defender of Muslims during the time of the Crusades.

Upon entering the mosque, Anne-Marie realized that she wasn't alone. Dozens of men and women had taken refuge there. In the darkness, they congregated together, Ghanaians of all faiths and walks of life, gathered in the Muslim house of prayer, as the world around them turned to hell. Huddling together, they cried, and comforted one another, and prayed. A knock at the door caused the survivors to gasp in shock, and a brave soul, a tall young man named Abdi went to open the door.

"Close the door, don't let them inside," Anne-Marie shouted to Abdi, just as the young man opened the door, revealing who had been knocking. Two young African men and a young African woman in blood-stained clothes. A trio with something unnatural about themselves. One look at them and Anne-Marie knew that they were Vampires, members of the blood-drinking, night-dwelling Undead, her lover Mustafa's species.

"Let's feast on the sheep," said the female vampire, grabbing Abdi and sinking her fangs into his neck. The female vampire's acolytes snickered, then stepped into the mosque. True vampires don't commit violence or predation in places of worship, it's against our code, Mustafa once told Anne-Marie, and she hoped her lover had been telling the truth. Looking upward, Anne-Marie silently prayed for deliverance, for in this dark hour, the Undead were about to toss aside the rules and slaughter the innocent...

"Traitors, I will end you for this," came a booming voice, and Anne-Marie's heart leapt in her chest as she recognized the voice. Mustafa surged into the mosque, moving with the power and speed of a vampire of his years. He caught the female vampire by the neck, and ripped out her heart. She had time to gasp before turning to dust. Growling, Mustafa turned on the remaining two vampires, and beheaded one, then ripped out the other one's heart. In seconds, all three newbie vampires were dust.

"Beloved," Anne-Marie cried out, and, shoving aside the terrified men and women hiding out inside the mosque, she made her way to the door. Mustafa stood there, his eyes bright red, his fangs bared. He'd shed his mortal disguise and looked monstrous, like a predator, which is what a vampire is, at the end of the day. Anne-Marie threw herself into his arms without fear or shame.

"Anne-Marie, I thought I'd lost you," Mustafa said, and he took her face into his hands and kissed her. Anne-Marie kissed him back, not caring that he wore his vampire visage, for he was her lover, her savior and her protector. Anne-Marie smiled at him, tears of relief flooding her lovely face. Mustafa held her tight, and promised her she'd be alright. Hand in hand, they turned to face the survivors, who were even now huddling at the center of the mosque.

"Don't fear him, my friends, he is Mustafa, my lover, and I am Anne-Marie, his beloved, he will keep us safe," the young woman said, and then she looked at Mustafa, who smiled and nodded. The others exchanged worried, unsure looks. They'd seen the three vampires slaughter Abdi, one of their fellow wayfarers, and they'd seen this new vampire slaughter the others, supposedly in their defense.

"I am Mustafa, and although I am not human, I do follow certain rules, my kind are supposed to respect the Most High and are forbidden to prey in holy places," the vampire said, as he and Anne-Marie closed the mosque door, and greeted the remaining survivors. I don't like the look of this, Anne-Marie thought, seeing looks of fright on the faces of many a survivor.

"We must be careful with these ones," Anne-Marie cautioned her lover, and Mustafa nodded firmly in agreement. The couple looked at the survivors as they slowly surrounded them, and then, one survivor, an old African man in priestly garb, held out his hand, and Mustafa shook it. Nods and smiles went up among the crowd. Just like that, the survivors banded together to survive the end of the world.