Disclaimer: I do not own "24" or any of the related characters.
Someone had let something slip, and now the incident as all over the news. Twelve Secret Service men, all of whom had been guarding the President the night of their untimely demise, were dead. Their mutilated bodies were found outside the hotel that the President and his staff had been occupying during his stay in Los Angeles. Injuries ranged from broken bones to missing limbs, many of which were found, but it was nearly impossible to place them with their respective owners.
The President was moved to a secure location, of course, but there was no way to tell if he was really safe. What had happened to those victims? Who managed to break through security in such a secretive manner that the corpses weren't discovered until the following morning? And, most importantly, why hadn't the perpetrators dispatched the President when they obviously had the chance? Was this a warning? A threat? A joke?
The media wasn't nearly as concerned with the motives so much as the deeds. Every station was reporting on the gory scene. Descriptions of the mutilations spewed from every screen, speaker, and page the reporting industry had to offer. Speculations followed, the suspects ranging from specially trained terrorists to aliens bent on the destruction of the United States, and then the rest of the civilized world.
Things did not improve with a second wave of mystery and frustration. While inspecting the bodies, three forensic experts were blown sky high as a minute bomb, hardly bigger than a thumb tack and hidden in the shredded stomach of one of the victims, went off. A specialist was brought in from the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit, and once it was determined that the bodies posed no more threat, they were moved to the CTU underground for further inspection.
Several hours after the bodies were taken care of, rumor mill started up again. One of the most prominent tidbits was the theory that the bodies had been drained of all their blood. This was possible, as the majority of their blood seemed to be spread across the parking lot they were found in. However, the populace decided to ignore this little detail, preferring to spread the notion of the emergence of another enemy of the United States of America, much more deadly than any other: Vampires.
Of course, everyone but the loonies laughed at this possibility. Those that believed it were all ranting about the end of the world, but they were ignored for the most part. Vampires were a myth. They didn't exist.
Right?