Vampire Civilization Ch. 12

"I hate vampires," shouted Alan Whyte, and the relentless U.S. Army soldier blasted the undead freaks with his flamethrower, reducing them to a shrieking mess within minutes. The other five soldiers moved about the basement of the Saint Don Bosco Church in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, slaughtering the undead at will. When it comes right down to it, as far as Alan could tell, the vampires were quite stupid. Sure, they're stronger than humans, faster and more aggressive, but take away all that and they're easy to kill.

Tall and lean, with dark hair, green eyes and alabaster skin, Alan was born in Marietta, Georgia, and considers himself a proud son of the South. Alan's father taught him how to use every type of weapon, from guns to crossbows and knives, and this prepared him a great deal when the whole world lost its shit over the whole vampire apocalypse thing. America was built on willpower and gunpowder, and Alan figures that if the country is to be saved from the undead, real Americans must get back to basics. The strong survives and the weak perishes, it is the most universal law of them all...

"Nicely done," said Alan's colleague, a young African American woman named Monica Jones. Monica was tall and curvy, with smooth dark skin and short hair. The gal was easy on the eyes and reminded Alan of Eve the Rapper, from back in the day. Alan grinned and high-fived Monica, and they continued their tour of the house, torching anything that moved. Alan and Monica are part of the cleanup crew, in charge of taking out the undead in this part of Atlanta before humans could take back the city.

One house at a time, one neighborhood at a time and one city or town at a time, humans were taking their land back, and they showed the undead no mercy. As Monica and Alan exited the house, they emerged onto the dark streets of Atlanta, and the eerie quietness of it all spooked even these seasoned soldiers. Clutching their weapons, which consisted of guns, bayonets and flamethrowers, they braced themselves for anything.

"Where is everyone? Sergeant Ballantine and ten of his troops were supposed to be here," Monica said, alarmed, and Alan nodded in agreement. The streets were deserted, and dead silent. The two soldiers looked around, searching for their comrades. As they walked around, they didn't sense cool, calculating and downright inhuman eyes quietly assessing them. In the darkness, just beyond their reach, three feminine figures congregated in silence. The three were none other than Amore, Lilac and Rama, a trio of eons-old vampires, and the unholy sisterhood that rules the vampire underworld.

Moving silently, they made short work of the eleven soldiers they'd found in this neighborhood. The well-armed and well-trained men and women didn't even have a chance to squeeze off a single shot, the three vampire sisters were that quick. Rama licked blood from her lips and smiled at her sisters. Lilac nodded in approval while Amore maintained tactful silence. Rama likes to make a grand entrance when slaughtering wayward humans, and the dark queen simply cannot be denied, not even by her immortal sisters...

"Looking for me?" Rama said as she stepped out of the dark. The curvy, dark-skinned female vampire, born in India eons ago, stood there, smiling balefully at her enemies. Alan blinked in surprise while Monica actually crossed herself. Rama went after her prey, fangs bared and claws extended. Before Alan and Monica could squeeze off a single shot, Rama ripped out their throats and stood over their twitching corpses. Lilac and Amore seemingly materialized next to their sister, and watched her handiwork.

Rama likes to show off from time to time. For a vampire who's been around since before the Pyramids of Egypt were built, life can be a bit monotonous so Rama likes to make her own fun. Rama has already fed on the blood of American soldiers, and the ancient vampire feels even more energized than usual. Nothing like the thrill of the hunt to chase away the boredom of eternity. Rama was still patting herself on the back, figuratively speaking, when Lilac and Amore, in true sisterly fashion, began to rain on her parade, of course...

"Alright, Rama, you've had your fun, now let's find the others," Lilac said, and Amore nodded in agreement while Rama rolled her eyes. The three female vampires scanned their surroundings, trying to spot their wayward brethren. When the Makers began their unsanctioned war against the human species, they went around infecting humans en masse, transforming them and then leaving them on their own. Vampires are a powerful breed, but the game of survival requires intelligence and wisdom, not just the purely physical attributes of sharp senses, superhuman strength, enhanced speed and accelerated healing.

That's where the Makers erred. Newbie vampires prove to be no match for experienced combat soldiers once the soldiers learned their weaknesses and began to destroy them left and right. As the oldest and most powerful members of the vampire species, the three female Elders had their work cut out for them. That's why they left their ancient sanctuary in the City of Accra, Ghana, and came to the City of Atlanta, Georgia, to defend their wayward descendants. Having detected a sizeable number of undead nearby, the three vampire Elders called out to them...

"Come out of the shadows, sons and daughters of the night, we are your mothers, and we call out to you," Lilac said, and the ancient African female vampire reached out to her fellow undead. One by one they came, emerging from basements, overturned cars, collapsed buildings, and sometimes, even holes dug up on the plain old ground of Georgia, USA. Amore and Rama stood beside their sister Lilac as she summoned their fellow undead, and they came, in large numbers. Three hundred vampires heeded the call of the immortal sisters, and gathered before them. They were an extraordinarily diverse lot. Men and women, black, white, and brown. Undead who were once truck drivers, athletes, teachers, police officers, nurses, college students and gas station attendants and waiters and all that Jazz. All of them had been made recently, forcibly transformed from mundane human beings with mundane human lives and turned into blood drinking, night-dwelling, inhuman monsters that fear the light of day. They were abandoned by their Makers, and left on their own as human armies gathered around them to hunt them down and destroy them.

"Welcome, my brood, we are your mothers, and we are here for you," Amore said, and the tall, curvy African vampire went among the wayward undead, who looked at her and touched her reverently. Rama and Lilac watched as Amore did her thing. The three dark-skinned, world-weary female vampires had been together for untold thousands of years. They'd seen empires rise and fall. Each one of the immortal sisters has her unique gifts, though. Rama is the consummate warrior and huntress, living for the thrill of the hunt. She faces her enemies head on and destroys them without mercy.

Lilac is the cool, level-headed and deeply analytical tactician, the one who plans things and comes up with lethally efficient strategies. Amore, the talkative, at times sarcastic sister, is the most caring and motherly of them all. Rama and Lilac look at the three hundred or so newbie vampires gathered before them and see an unruly mob of potential liabilities. Amore looks at them and sees a wayward flock in need of a good shepherd, lost ones in need of a strong mother figure. Amore welcomes these nascent vampires with open arms, and they responded in kind, coming to her with arms extended, seeking her embrace, her love, and silently pledging themselves to her. Wayward offspring need a mother, and for the race of the undead, Amore the magnificent is the oldest and most powerful mother of them all...

"Lilac, my dear, I think we've found our new army," Rama said, marveling as Amore did her thing. Lilac nodded in agreement, and she and Rama actually exchanged a high-five, in the heat of the moment. Amore led the wayward undead into a nearby high-tech lab located next to a blood bank. Thus, the immortal sisters fed their growing army. The refrigerated blood which they found at the blood bank wasn't as nutritious as that of living humans, but for these hundreds of starving vampires, forced to hide while armies of merciless humans slaughtered them willy-nilly, the blood was life saving.

The immortal sisters urged their new flock to pick up the guns, knives, bayonets and other weapons left by fallen humans, and arm themselves. Vampires are perfectly capable of using guns and knives, but most of the time, they are overconfident and don't bother with such things. As it turns out, a lot of these recent undead were proficient in using firearms in their former lives, this being the American south and all. Amore, Lilac and Rama began to train their growing army, to prepare for a showdown with the human forces, led by U.S. Army Colonel Amelia McGrath, her lover Captain Lucius Crowley, and their acolytes. If the humans want a war, then the undead will give them one. With the immortal sisters leading them, the race of the vampires finally stands a chance against their mortal enemies...