The characters belong to CLAMP, but the story is mine and I don't allow copying or sharing them.
I love vampire stories... but the real ones, in which vampires are bloodthirsty and have to hide in the dark to avoid daylight. I wrote this in Spanish last year and I want to translate it now.
Everything happens in an apocalyptic future.
You can also read this story on Ao3.
*Warning: this story contains violence and sexual content*
Chapter One
The new world
Life is not easy.
Fortunately, after almost 400 years, humans have become accustomed to the new world they now live in.
The incident occurred around the year 2100, although no one can say exactly when it all went to shit.
Humans still thought they were the kings of the world, despite the fact that, due to air and sea pollution, they could only live in the northern countries of the planet.
In the southern countries it was so hot and there was so little oxygen due to deforestation that it was impossible to survive.
Many perished because of this, the poorest people were also the most affected.
Still, they all acted the same. All they cared about was money and power.
The pharmaceutical companies liked to swim in dangerous waters, creating new viruses that they then released in the cities to make the population sick so that they would have to buy their drugs.
Through this illegal tactic, they made even more money.
But one such company went too far. It created a very powerful virus and, without having finished the tests to find out how it affected humans, decided to release it into the environment.
The chosen location was an European city, Berlin.
The managers rubbed their hands together as the virus spread to other countries, waiting for the money to start pouring in.
Big mistake.
That powerful virus spread as fast as fire. In less than a month, Europe and Russia were fully infected.
But that was not the worst of it.
A small part of the population turned out to be immune to the virus, but most were not so lucky.
When infected, humans suffered high fevers and terrible pain that forced them to stay in bed for weeks, and not all survived.
But when they seemed to have finally recovered, they realised that they no longer felt the same as they did before they became ill.
Now they had an uncontrollable thirst for blood.
Their fangs grew long when they were near other humans and they could not help biting them until all the blood was drained from their bodies, licking their lips with pleasure when they ended their lives.
Within weeks, war broke out amidst the chaos. Humans against the fearsome bloodsuckers.
They used all their weaponry and armies from all over the planet joined the fight, but the vampires were stronger and managed to control some of the weapons so neither side seemed to be the winner.
The virus continued on its way and did not stop until it was present on all five continents.
Entire cities were destroyed by bombs. As the weeks passed, industries ceased to function and armies began to run out of supplies. They had no way to replenish their ammunition.
The world's population was reduced to less than a quarter. Most of the people died fighting in the war or at the hands of the vampires, but many others perished from the virus.
The vampires also lost many of their own kind and eventually decided to retreat and try to live in hiding, coming out only to seek blood when necessary.
The humans who survived the virus and the war, the so-called immune ones, also tried to return to normality... but nothing was normal anymore.
From time to time, they were attacked by vampires. They took advantage of the darkness of the night to invade their homes and kidnap the weakest or smallest humans.
Once the vampires took them away, they were never seen again.
The only good thing was that they did not have to fear the virus. All those who were still alive were immune to its effect. Because of this, they knew they would not be turned into the very thing they hated so much.
In the end, the remaining humans gathered in communities and built shelters far away from the cities, where they took turns to keep watch and could feel a little safer and try to get on with their lives.
During the day they gathered fruit and food, worked their fields, built... but at dusk, it was time for the vampires.
At that time, they posted sentries along the entire perimeter of their shelters, keeping watch to raise the alarm for any suspicious shadows.
All the inhabitants were trained to fight and defend themselves from a very young age. They were also taught engineering, agriculture and medicine, among other things.
And so time went by, until the year 2500.
Where this story begins.
A high-pitched beep echoed throughout the community too early in the morning, as it did every day except Sunday, which was the only day of rest.
Sakura opened her eyes slowly in annoyance. No matter how many years passed, she couldn't get used to that unpleasant sound that signalled the start of her classes.
She got up and went downstairs. Her father and brother, who were already awake, were in the kitchen.
Touya had finished his years of study and military academy, so now he was busy with tasks such as reinforcing the large fence that protected their shelter, building new tools and guarding the perimeter.
He also occasionally raided the surrounding area with his companions, looking for something to hunt and tracking down any vampires living nearby to eliminate them.
Sakura was eager to join these raids. She was the best in her class at archery and she was looking forward to killing her first vampire.
She hadn't seen one yet, at least not directly... but she remembered seeing shadows in the distance, dragging her mother away when she was nine years old.
Although they went out looking for her, no one had ever seen her again. Most likely, the vampires had devoured her that very day.
Almost all the weapons in the shelter were made from silver. Two hundred years earlier, members of her community had discovered that this material wounded and weakened vampires.
But the only way to kill them was with a stake through the heart or by cutting off their heads, which was almost impossible because you had to be very close to them and have a very powerful weapon, such as a sword or an axe.
Sakura stepped out of her two-storey prefabricated house and sighed. At least this was the last year of classes she had left. By the time summer came, she would be twenty-five years old and all her studies would finally be over.
She went to the end of the street, jumping a little, and knocked on the door of a house that looked almost exactly like her own. It opened and out came Tomoyo, yawning.
"Come on, we're going to be late," said Sakura, tugging on her arm.
They walked through the streets of their shelter, greeting all the families that lived there.
Their community was bigger than ever. There were about 1200 people living there, although, because of the vampires, it was rare for a family not to be missing a single member.
The shelter consisted of streets full of houses where families lived, several barns and land where they grew all kinds of food.
They also had four large buildings, which were already there when they started building it.
One of them was used for medical purposes.
Another one was used to manufacture their weapons and all the material they needed, as well as to generate electricity with solar panels and small windmills they had made themselves.
The largest one was part warehouse and part kitchen and carpentry.
The last one was called the main building, and was where Sakura and Tomoyo were headed.
All of this was surrounded by a huge metal fence, very tall and quite thick, in which they were adding a silver alloy so that the vampires would find it almost impossible to climb it... but that material was in short supply and they preferred to save it for their weapons.
The two girls ran to the backyard of the building they used as a school, among other things. There the other twenty-four boys and girls from their class were already there, starting their training.
They were separated into groups depending on age. Sakura's group consisted of people from twenty-two to twenty-five years old.
"Kinomoto, Daidouji... you're late again," growled Coach Terada.
The two apologised and began their warm-up.
Fifteen minutes of stretching, forty push-ups and an obstacle course later it was time to start with the weapons.
Sakura took a bow from the table full of weapons and aimed at the targets that were placed at the end of the courtyard. They were human-shaped and moved randomly, making it difficult to hit.
She drew the bow in her right hand, placing an arrow with a wooden tip and aiming at one of them.
She fired, very sure of herself, and her arrow hit right where the figure's heart would be.
"You're the best," Fay commented next to her.
He was using a wooden slug gun and was hitting the target, but he almost never hit the heart.
"Focus and save the flirting for later," muttered Eriol, who was on her other side throwing knives.
He was Sakura and Tomoyo's best friend. The three of them were always together whenever they weren't studying or training, daydreaming about what they would do when they finished the academy.
Sakura rolled her eyes and snorted. Ever since she had her crazy little night with Fay, he kept fawning over her, trying to get some more.
But she wasn't interested in a relationship, or love, or anything like that. At that moment she'd been in the mood for a little sex and it had happened with him.
Besides, she doubted she'd ever feel that need again... especially not with this stupid boy.
She had to concentrate on her last few months at the academy. She needed to be the best she could be for what she was planning to do next.
Four hours later, everyone was enjoying a short lunch break.
They had taken a one-minute shower after all that exercise. They had to ration the water they had stored up, in case it didn't rain as much as they hoped it would that summer.
"When we're done with all this, I want to go to Tokyo," Eriol murmured, still chewing.
It was the tenth time he'd said it that month.
"You know it's a lot more dangerous in the cities than it is out here in the open," Tomoyo replied, rolling her eyes.
"I don't care, I want to see what a city is like. Aren't you curious?" he asked, glancing at Sakura.
She nodded, biting her lower lip anxiously.
They had never left their shelter, and the adults who went out hunting or patrolling didn't stray too far.
Occasionally, they kept in touch with two other shelters about sixty kilometres away, but they hardly knew anything further. It had been quite a few years since anyone had dared to go to Tokyo... since Touya returned from there.
Sakura also couldn't wait to get out of the shelter and see a city, even though she knew all the dangers that big cities hid... especially those dangers with red eyes, sharp fangs and superior strength.
They knew that Tokyo was a place full of huge skyscrapers where the streets were lined with abandoned cars. They had several books in the library of the main building with photographs of that city and many others.
"The most interesting thing would be to see if we can find a car with petrol in the tank," whispered Eriol with sparkling eyes.
"There hasn't been any petrol anywhere for ages, that's impossible," said Sakura, holding back her laughter at her friend's enthusiasm.
The only means of transport they used were the horses they had. They looked after them as if they were made of gold, along with a couple of cars that they had managed to run on electricity, but they weren't good for going very far.
"Sometimes I wish we could run away for a night. I want to see the world now," Eriol confessed quietly, his eyes dreamy.
His two friends stared at him with serious expressions.
"Don't even say that as a joke, Eriol. At night and walking alone in the forest... we'd be doomed," Tomoyo replied, getting up to enter the building.
That afternoon they had engineering, cooking, agriculture and survival classes before heading home for dinner.
Sakura sighed and stood up, still thinking about the cars.
"I'll never understand why our ancestors didn't take the batteries from hybrid and electric vehicles, disassemble them and save the parts. If they had done that, we could replicate them now and everything would be simpler," she grumbled, knowing how far Tokyo was from where they were.
"That's easy to say now, but the war lasted more than ten years. Then, all they could think about was surviving and defeating the vampires... and by the time it was over, most of the batteries had burst and were useless," Eriol replied thoughtfully.
"After that, no one was interested in moving by car. Even if they were silent, vampires could hear you. And besides... the war never really ended, we're still in it," Tomoyo added in a deep voice.
"You're right. The war won't end until there's not a damn bloodsucker left on the planet," Sakura muttered angrily.
She was eager to avenge her mother's death, and all the murders they had suffered in their community at the hands of those monsters.