CHAPTER 1

June 21, 2019
Los Angeles, California

The midday sun's rays rained down on Los Angeles like a volcano spewing out molten rock. The streets were filled with the same sight as they had been for years: living vampires. Living vampires and dead human carcasses.

William Logan peered out across the street from behind what was left of a stone wall. He was summing up how hard it would be to break through the line of vampires and get into Redman's General Store, the place where his group of Divine Ones got most of their supplies. One could tell that Logan was a leader. He wasn't very tall, but he sure was muscular. He always had his brown hair made into a brush cut and wore a green military outfit he found at an abandon army base. He also never went anywhere without Polly, his 12-gauge that he usually had strapped on his back. What ever weapon he found along his journey he considered a bonus.

As far as he could tell, there were at least five vampires hanging around the front of the store with maybe four or five more inside. No sense trying to make a break for the front door. If Logan was one thing, he was smart. He was a brilliant strategist who could sum up his foe in seconds. Maybe that's why he had lasted so long on this god forsaken world. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Logan considered his options: make a run for it, or try and sneak in the backdoor. Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a small concussion grenade that he had been saving. Removing the pin, he threw it across the street as far as he could. The explosion caught one vampire totally off-guard and blew its left arm clean off. All the vampires turned to find out what the commotion was all about, Logan jumped up and ran to the alley on the other side of the street. Once there, he found a couple of vampires sitting in the alleyway which he quickly disposed with Polly. All the gunfire had begun to draw out other vampires, but rather than waste his ammo, Logan reached out his foot and kicked open the door to the General Store. He dove inside and slammed the door behind him.

When he finally got inside, it seemed that Logan had made a grave error in judgement, possibly the first in his life. The five vampires he figured to be on the inside had now turned into about twenty. . . and they were coming straight for him with an animalistic look in their eyes. Logan had enough time to pull off a couple of shots with Polly, which took down two of the pursuing vampires. More and more vampires had begun to pour in all doors of the store and Logan realized how outnumbered he really was. Suddenly, just when things look dark, the front wall of the store exploded, sending flying debris in all directions. Logan had to duck to avoid being hit in the head by a piece of rock. Amongst all the dust, machine gun fire erupted and vampires began to drop everywhere. Logan knew he was saved. Not soon after, most of the vampires had been either killed, or fled the vicinity. Through the mist, a figure appeared.

"This is the last time I bail you out, Logan," a manly voice said. Logan poked his head up from behind one of the aisles to see the rest of the diviners came walking out of the dust cloud with machine guns in their hands. The one that spoke to Logan was Morgan. Morgan was the trouble maker of the bunch, and Logan always kept a close eye on him. He was the kind of person that was too smart for his own good. As a matter of fact, Logan always sensed a feeling of evil when he was around Morgan. Non-the-less, Morgan was a team player and Logan needed that. As long as Morgan didn't try anything stupid, Logan didn't give a shit. Morgan was dressed in his usual attire: black pants, black shirt, and a matching black trench coat. Sure the trench coat made him look all big and macho, but if Morgan stepped out of line for more than a second, Logan was willing to clock to son of a bitch right where he stood.

Morgan walked over to Logan, surveying all the dead vampires around him.

"So, once again I saved your ass, and what do I get?" Morgan asked.

"A place to stay and food to eat," Logan replied. "Now get the rest of the group to grab whatever supplies are left and head back to base."

* * *

At least Morgan did what he was ordered, and not soon after, the rest of the store had been stripped bare. The diviners loaded all the supplies into the three humvees that they had stolen from the same army base where Logan had got his clothes from. It always seemed to Logan that his group of diviners were somewhat divided between themselves. There were three separate gangs in his group: the ones that followed Logan, the ones that stood by Morgan, and the rest seemed to change from day-to-day.

The drive back to the base was the same as usual: long and boring. Although it did provide a good obstacle course for the driver. One had to drive around dead bodies and fallen debris from the surrounding buildings, since most of them lay in ruins. Logan's group of diviners had chosen a rather nice base for themselves. They had found a large sky-scraper in the downtown area that was mostly intact. When you were on the roof, you could see almost all of the surrounding area.

Logan looked at his watch as he drove down the road. It was about then he heard the screaming. Quickly pulling over to the side, the rest of the group hopped out, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Morgan came rushing up.

"It's coming from down that alley," he informed Logan as he pointed to it.

"Alright then, lets see what we've got."