John Murphy getting sent to Earth for selling his rations to get new boots topped the latest diarrhea in the steaming pile of shit that made up his life. Everyone knew that Earth had been overtaken by vampires, so survival was unlikely. But at he'd get to see the world before biting it.
On the ground, every resident within the eye line watched the ship come down. Clarke, along with everyone else, knew that there were some humans left in space, and they'd been waiting a long time for them to return. Curiosity peaked, she ran through the lush forest to see the humans as soon as they got there. She was one of the few remaining that remembered what things were like before the war. The rest left or don't think about it. Clarke thought about it all the time. Her life before the war had been difficult just like all the others, but the devastation from the war still made her sad even though the land had recovered.
But humans didn't exist here anymore. If one asked they'd get as many answers as people they asked. Take a single look at any of them, and one would notice all the homages to humans. Even a century later they tried to appear as human as they could.
The landing sent idiots that got out of their seats to their death, and Murphy just shrugged it off and got to the door before anyone else. He wanted to see the world first. Would it look like the pictures he'd seen? The machine hum dispersed as the drop ship powered down. He was amazed as anyone that this bucket of bolts made it.
Not giving a damn about the reunion in front of him, he scratched at the bracelet on his wrist and waited for the door to come down. When it did, he had to blink away the light. Things were never this bright on the Ark. Not even when they were sun side. All the windows were tinted. While this hurt his eyes, he didn't give a damn. When he saw the trees covered in moss and smelled the crisp clean air, nothing mattered. Not even his imminent death bothered him.
Unlike everyone else, he kept looking up. Everyone else couldn't stop looking down at the flowers, the grass, the dirt. Murphy couldn't stop looking at how tall the trees were, and that there wasn't a ceiling to be seen. While he absently stepped over a fallen tree, he caught his first glimpse of a vampire. Long blonde hair, a white dress, and pale humanoid limbs jumped from limb to limb and tree to tree, following him. "Hey! I see you!"
What looked like a girl his age, but he knew wasn't a person at all, dropped in front of him. Her smile glinted in the shafts of light. "You speak English! I haven't spoken English in just under seventy five years. Hi! Welcome Home! I'm Clarke. What's your name?"
"Why?"
"And here I thought it was polite to make introductions." She held out her hand for a handshake. "I'll watch my strength, I promise. Are you going to stare at me all day or introduce yourself?"
"I'm John Murphy. Everyone calls me Murphy." He shook her hand and found her grip solid but as promised not crushing.
"Murphy. I like it. I don't know a single Murphy or even a John. It's so human. What made humans change their mind and want to come home?" She sat on the fallen tree with her hand under her chin, gazing up at him like a child waiting for their parent to tell them a story.
"You don't want to kill me then?"
"Why would I? Humans have such short life spans already. You'll mature, spawn, mature more, and die. There's nothing for me to do. And I wouldn't want to even if you lived as long as we do." Clarke smiled at the wrinkled face he made. "What do they tell you about why you've been space locked?"
"There was a war between humans and vampires, and we lost."
"Mm, that's an interesting take, I suppose." Clarke stood up, grabbing Murphy's arm. "You're hungry. We need to feed you."
As she dragged him through the woods, he said, "But I'm not hungry."
She stopped and looked at him as if he'd just flown. "Your stomach growled. I heard it."
"It growls all the time. We're genetically engineered to not need that much food."
"That explains why everyone on the ship was so skinny."
"I expected vampires to be skinny. Never thought a diet of sucking life out of things would put that much weight on." He eyed her curves.
"I'm curious about something. How many supernatural things do you think exist?"
"Never gave it much thought. You going to tell me?"
"I'd rather hear your guesses." She smirked in this mysterious way that drew him to her.
"I'll get back to you on that."
"Do that. But right now we should work on getting you food. Even if you aren't hungry now, you will be soon. And so will your friends. I have my own friends that'll help." She tilted her head in the direction they were already heading. Then she stopped. "It'd be quicker if I carried you."
He held up his hands. "I'd rather walk."
"At a human pace it'll take a day to get there if we don't stop, longer if you need to rest."
"I didn't exactly sit still in space. I'm up for it."
"Then I can tell you what your species has missed in the last century while we walk." This time she didn't smile, and he wondered why.
He found out why she hadn't smiled the more he listened to her talk about the species that had been revived, the cities that they destroyed to let nature breathe again, and how peaceful things were now. Capitalism didn't exist and everything was shared. All of this confused him. "Aren't vampires blood sucking soulless murderers?"
"Mythologically speaking. Welcome to the new Earth. We call it Ides since we've ruled it since March 15th a century ago. Though I'm not sure ruled is the right word." A roar echoed through the forest.
"What the hell was that?" Murphy asked with instincts ducking his head.
"One of the gorillas. They didn't want to leave when we offered, so we let them out of their cages along with the rest of the animals that didn't want to leave. We've got many primates, large cats, birds. There's a herd of elephants, some giraffe, and antelope too. Though the elephants stick to the less dense areas. When they come this way, they topple trees." Clarke shrugged like this was no big deal.
"But aren't we near Washington DC?" Murphy looked around and determined they must have landed far from their target.
"I never been to old DC. So I don't know what it's like there. Nor do I want to know. a lot of horrors happened there. Most of us avoid it as if it would poison us. It wouldn't but still even those that have forgotten don't go there. We're on the other coast of what used to be the States." She looked up. "It's going to rain. A storm will make it dark soon. You're susceptible to cold, we should find shelter. Rain here is frigid this time of year."
He followed her up a hill until the rain slipped the ground out from under him, hitting his head off a rock at the bottom of the ravine. There was shooting pain and then nothing.