I set the king of spades on the fourth stack of cards, finishing my 159th game of solitaire of the past twenty four hours. My old body would not have been able to sit in this same position for as long as I had, paying more attention to the distant sounds and smells around me than to the cellulose acetate plastic playing cards, spread out again, in front of me.
I wish I could have stopped by Riley's house one last time to grab some of the books Bree had given me, but who knew what Riley was really up to? I didn't want to leave behind any clues of which direction I'd gone in if he decided to search for me after the battle was finished. Not that he'd be able to follow me too closely anyway, but still.
I wondered idly what the outcome of that attack against the yellow-eyed clan had been. I didn't want to admit it, but if Bree hadn't found me yet, chances were it didn't end well for her or the rest of Riley's "army." I hoped for her sake she had at least found Diego before the battle. Maybe he had convinced her to run off without me.
But Diego had always been loyal to Riley, and I couldn't see him abandoning her. I was surprised at how deeply I could feel emotion in this body; the waves of grief and sorrow tore through me like a rogue wave. I had never been good with connection and interaction, solitude being my preferred state. Bree had been one of the few companions I ever had, and I would really miss her. I made an oath to myself to find out what happened to her when it was safe to investigate.
If it weren't for Bree, I'd be immensely pleased with the knowledge that Riley and his gang of idiotic, sadistic vampires had likely failed. Because while I was brand new and very much still naïve to this life, I had gathered enough information to know that little of what Riley had said was true. It was obvious that he had told us lies to help him use us as pawns.
For starters, I had been in direct sunlight multiple times over the past 24 hours with no repercussions. Years and years of gained scientific knowledge told me that there were few substances which would burn up as a result of direct sunlight. I knew it took a lot to destroy a vampire. It had always seemed impossible that something that could withstand almost every force imaginable could be annihilated by a little sunlight. Riley had clearly made that one up because he didn't want us out during the day, and I thought I knew why. If we never had to hide, what would be our reason for going back to his house at all? The group had been volatile and nearly impossible to control; so many of us in that one house had been a nightmare.
It couldn't be a coincidence that the smartest vampires – like Shelley and Steve – were the ones that Riley said we "lost" to the sun. It also couldn't be a coincidence that they were always replaced with younger and less intelligent people every time. Hopefully I could track down Shelley and Steve and find out what else they knew. But they could be anywhere in the world, and with not even a single clue it was probably wiser to get as far away from the Pacific Northwest as possible – for now.
With a heavy sigh, I packed up the playing cards and set off into the cover of the forest to hunt. I wished I could hunt gang members or some other dregs - because they were people who were a drain on society and caused harm, and also because they were less likely to be missed. But with the sun hours away from setting, pickings were slim. It didn't take long to catch the scent of a outdoorsmen, who had the misfortune to choose day to adventure, and my throat flared agonizingly in response. I let my hunting instincts take over. I ran the 78 yard distance to him and sunk my teeth into the bearded flesh of his neck before he had time to even realize he was in danger. The burn in my throat now a dull ache, I took in the campsite before me. It looked like he had been here for some time, camping alone just like I had been when Riley found me. There was no cell phone, so even if there were someone that would look for him, which seemed unlikely, they wouldn't be able to find him. I dug a 13 ft deep trench to put his drained body and camping gear in, and set a massive boulder over the area. I decided to keep the book he had with him, Walden not surprisingly, though I had already read in it my human life.
I tried to lose myself in the Transcendentalist idealism of Thoreau while I waited for nightfall. I was just to the part where the lake is beginning to thaw when the sun was finally fully hidden behind the mountains.
I was going to need a few things before embarking on my adventure. Literature, notebooks, pens, testing supplies… I decided my best bet was a laboratory supply company. Knowing the area well, I found my destination with ease and broke in through the roof access hatch. I gathered as many beakers, vials, syringes and other supplies as I could hold, and packed them carefully in bubble wrap. I rummaged through the supervisors office, finding plenty of books and science journals. I packed those along with a couple Moleskin journals and some pens into a waterproof plastic bag, and arranged everything into my backpack.
I changed into new clothes at an outdoors outfitters on the outskirts of town.
As I headed for the shoreline, I said my goodbyes to the city I grew up in, and made my way into the unknown.