Vampire Civilization Ch. 06

"Shoot it," screamed the lead Hunter, even as he pumped out round after round, somehow missing the diminutive vampire with every shot. What good is a high-tech rifle if the shooter can't aim for shit? The other Hunters hesitated to obey their leader's commands, for fear of accidentally hitting him. This was all their quarry needed to make her escape. Theresa Yamamoto, the diminutive vampire in question ran as fast as she could, and raced toward the water. The waters of the San Francisco Bay awaited, and she wasn't shy about diving in.

With roughly an hour left before dawn, Theresa was running out of places to hide. The squad of Hunters that chose to come to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and happened to run into Theresa had the worst luck in the world. Theresa reached the water and went in without hesitation. The woods had been Theresa's refuge, and like any sensible vampire, she'd survived on the blood of wandering humans. She discretely disposed of the corpses of course. How did the Hunters find her? Hell only knows. Theresa swam as fast as she could, thankful that these amateur hunters had worse aim than the stormtroopers in Star Wars.

Theresa swam as far from the shore as she could, and then allowed herself to sink to the bottom. The cool waters were no source of discomfort for the undead gal. As a vampire, Theresa did not need to breathe, and could lie still beneath the waves until her enemies left the area. Theresa sank and sank, until she reached the bottom. Typically, sunlight can get to about a thousand meters into the ocean under ideal conditions, but it rarely reached beyond a couple hundred meters.

Theresa sank to about four hundred meters, just to be sure. Humans who sink beneath the waves have to worry about drowning, and if they go deep enough, the pressure from the depths is seriously detrimental to their health. Theresa doesn't breathe, doesn't have a heartbeat, and doesn't give a damn about things like oceanic depths or water pressure because vampire anatomy is resilient as fuck. Theresa closed her eyes as she lay on the ocean floor, and wondered how in hell her life, well, her existence, had gotten to this point...

A little while ago, Theresa Yamamoto had life on a string. The five-foot-seven, slim, dark-haired and brown-eyed young woman, originally from the City of Sendai, Japan, came to study at the University of San Francisco. Theresa has always been the daughter of two worlds, and yet she felt comfortable in neither. Theresa's father Anthony Yamamoto was a lieutenant in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, and her mother Elisabeth Winters was white, originally from Los Angeles, California.

Theresa had visited the U.S. many times and this influenced her desire to study there. Theresa moved into her dorm at the USF campus, and met a lovely young Nigerian woman named Helene Ajereh. The two young women became good friends, and eventually, that friendship turned into much more. By the time the nuclear war came and the vampires went on the offense, Theresa and Helene were living in a nice little apartment in the Parkwood area, not far from the USF campus. One night, Theresa was attacked by what would later be revealed to be a Maker, a powerful, experienced vampire on a quest to turn as many humans as possible.

"I don't want to go through this alone," Theresa told Helene, as she came home to her lover, three days after being bitten. A lot of vampires simply abandon everything to do with who they were after they're turned, but not Theresa. The young Japanese woman still had strong feelings for Helene, the tall, dark-skinned and curvaceous gal whom she referred to as her Nigerian Goddess. Helene was horrified to see Theresa in their living room when she came home that evening.

There was chaos everywhere, and it seemed like the end of times. The San Francisco police and the U.S. military were duking it out with the vampires on the streets of Los Angeles. Santa Barbara was rumored to be overrun. Jury seemed to still be out on the status of San Francisco itself. Helene looked at Theresa, and noticed that, other than her extreme paleness and the fact that her eyes were bloodshot, her girlfriend still looked human. Of course, when Theresa smiled, Helene recoiled upon seeing her pearly white fangs.

"Theresa, you are one of them, you are a monster, I want you to leave," Helene said, in an almost pleading tone, and Theresa appeared to be considering this. Becoming a vampire changes a person, and when a newbie vampire is made, he or she is driven by primal need. The need to drink blood. If a vampire lives long enough to evolve to the next stage, however, then they will become wiser, stronger and more capable. That's why it is relatively easy for experienced Hunters to put down newbie vampires. Even though the newbie vampire is much stronger and faster than a human, it lacks the experience and lethality of the Stage Two vampires.

Vampires that live long enough to reach Stage Three are essentially creatures of forever. They're strong, fast and smart, possessing the experience and wisdom of several lifetimes. Nobody knows what a State Four vampire looks, acts or sounds like, but it's not something that a Hunter would want to run into. Theresa looked at Helene, even as conflicting feelings warred within her. In mortal life, Theresa loved Helene, but as a vampire, Helene was essentially food to her and absolutely nothing else...

"I can't live without you," Theresa said as she flashed Helene a fanged smile, echoing the words that lovers and stalkers have shared with the object of their desire since time immemorial. Theresa pounced on Helene and, after a brief struggle, managed to overpower and bite her. Three nights later, Helene rose as a blood sucker, a super-strong, super-fast, night-dwelling imitation of humanity.

As fond of each other in the undead state as they were in life, Theresa and Helene remained together, and prowled the streets of San Francisco at night, preying on wayward humans. They had a great time hunting humans, and draining them of every last drop of their blood. Vampires had a great time in San Francisco in the early days. The sky was almost always dark due to the nuclear fallout, and the humans were easy to hunt down and catch. Of course, this was before the remnants of the U.S. military, led by Colonel Amelia McGrath, founded the Hunters. The Hunters are men and women armed with advanced technology and weaponry designed to take out the undead. They're a nightmare for creatures like Theresa.

In the darkness, far below the ocean, Theresa thought about the last time she saw her beloved Helene. They were among a pack of thirty or so vampires, gleefully hunting poor saps downtown when the Hunters came, and in the fight that ensued, the two lovers got separated. Theresa ran, and Helene fell behind. Theresa sincerely hoped that her lover Helene was still alive, or, well, still undead. Anger and hate gnawed at her non-beating heart. Vampires are for the most solitary hunters, though sometimes they form packs in order to take down hordes of human prey.

It is rumored that some of the older vampires organize younger vampires into covens which they rule, though Theresa found that hard to credit. She'd never met an ancient vampire, and would have told him or her to go to hell if they tried to recruit her for anything. Theresa wants to avenge her lover Helene, and in order to do that, she needs to avoid getting killed until she can get her hands on a certain paramilitary bitch. A lot of vampires despise U.S. Army Colonel Amelia McGrath, the bane of the undead. Theresa hates her more than all of them put together. Theresa intends to go to Detroit, Michigan, and end Colonel Amelia McGrath's life. Only then would Theresa rejoin her lover Helene in whatever afterlife awaited the undead.