The following occurs in the year 3450

Chapter 7

December 14th, 3450. It was a day after my encounter with the perpetrator of the kidnapping and murder of Scottish native Heather Hume named Jacob Vidor. I felt that I have allowed myself to become a victim to Alexia Dakin's lie for Vidor could not lead me to Madeline Hudson's whereabouts. Instead all I got was a fucking riddle from him. Time was running out on Madeline and only God knew what would have transpired once twenty-four hours were up. I was getting desperate. My only option was to return to the Hudson household and listen to whatever feedback Madeline's kidnappers were giving to her parents. Once I arrived I placed myself on the roof of the house and used my heightened sense of hearing to listen to events that were taking place. I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Hudson had been trying desperately with the help of some relatives to collect the ransom money. They failed to collect the exact amount of $100,000; instead they only collected $30,000 via e-mail. It was now three hours to the end of the kidnappers' deadline. I listened as Mr. Hudson was alerted by an incoming e-mail on the family computer. I then hung from the roof and looked into the window. I saw Mr. Hudson going online as he was greeted by one who used the name The Fourth Horseman. It was obvious that whoever this person was he used the figure from the Book of Revelation to show that he represented death. I saw the conversation the brown haired Mr. Hudson had with the mysterious Fourth Horseman as if I was standing right next to him. This was made possible by my ability to see afar. The Fourth Horseman revealed that he was responsible for the kidnapping of Madeline and that he was very disappointed that Mr. Hudson and his wife had failed to come up the ransom money that he requested. Strangely The Fourth Horseman referred to himself in plural using "we" and "us". Mr. Hudson pleaded with The Fourth Horseman to release Madeline. The Fourth Horseman made it clear that the deadline was up, yet he decided to give Mr. and Mrs. Hudson an extra forty-eight hours to come up with enough money to pay the ransom. Soon The Fourth Horseman vanished from the screen. Though Madeline's parents were relieved that they were given extra time they were still distraught that she was still in the custody of the kidnappers. The F.B.I. who was present was suddenly able to trace the kidnappers' email address. It was revealed that the demand was made at 3rd Avenue Willard, Street, Brooklyn. I seized the moment to reach Madeline's kidnappers before the police and the F.B.I. could by running at high speed to Brooklyn, New York.

I jumped from house to house, building to building and on the roofs of many vehicles until I reached the Brooklyn Bridge. By that time it was 5:38 a.m. I looked to the east and I saw the sun slowly rising above the horizon. I did not have much time. Once day arrived I would lose all of my powers and become ill equipped to deal with Madeline's kidnappers. After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge I began jumping from apartment complex to apartment complex until I reached 3rd Avenue, Willard Street. By the time I reached the apartment complex where the owner of the email address was situated it was 5:45 a.m. The email was sent from room 234 in the ten storey apartment building. The sun began rising over the buildings when I stood in front of the building. Before the sun could hit me I jumped in a single bound to the ninth floor of the apartment building and crashed through the window. I quickly got up and found my self in the living room of the apartment. At that moment I felt my vampire powers slowly fading away. The adrenaline rush I had was now gone. I was now at a disadvantage for I could not pick up the scents of the occupants of this particular apartment. At the right hand corner of the living room I saw the hologram image of a touch screen computer. I walked over to the computer and realized that the computer was not turned off. I discovered that the computer contained the email address of the Hudsons. This assailant apparently hacked into personal information of the Hudson household. Whoever was the owner of this computer he probably had no time to delete precious information of their operations. As I slowly read the information I discovered information on Madeline's kidnapping! Madeline was described as "loot" that was originally held in three different apartments in The Bronx for two days. An online memo was issued to have her transferred to an abandoned port in Manhattan. However, the computer did not contain the names of who was holding Madeline captive. The perpetrators were using code names such as Black Widow, Iron Shield and The Chosen Ones. Who could the people behind these names be? I was certain that these people with the code names were in fact Madeline's kidnappers. But I needed to uncover their identities. The ones I suspected, however, were those among the vampire race. Just as I was about to turn around to leave the apartment I heard a faint creaking coming behind me. As I slowly turned around to see what it was I felt something pierce me in my back. It felt as if I was caught with claws. Suddenly I felt an electric shock literally go through my body. It was as if I was struck with about 50,000 volts of electricity. I could see the electric bolts pass in front of my face as they went up and down my body. I then began to black out. I dropped to my knees and tried my best to fight the massive electric shock but the lack of my powers made it impossible. Soon I faded out and collapsed to the floor.

After a while my ears picked up the muffled sounds of splashing and sloshing. My eyes were not opened yet I felt nothing below my feet and I felt the top of my head half covered with water. I then opened my eyes and saw darkness below me. I then realized that I was floating in water. In a single bound I jumped out of the water and landed on what turned out to be the edge of a reservoir. I soon discovered that it was nighttime and that I was thrown into the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Whoever had stunned me in that apartment had later thrown me into the reservoir named after the late First Lady. Rage seeped within me. I was particularly angry at myself for allowing a faceless coward to defeat me. I did not usually let my guard down that way. However, I was successful in finding out who had kidnapped Madeline. The place of interest was an abandoned shipping port in Manhattan. I was absolutely certain that Madeline was there. At hyper speed I ran all the way to Manhattan to reach my location.

It takes me no more than three minutes for me to arrive at the abandoned port that was once a place where foreign goods were off loaded centuries ago. I used my sense of hearing and smell to scan the area of possible occupants. I moved slowly between mazes of old rusting containers trying to spot any possible suspects. I stopped between two containers, sprang upwards and landed on one of the containers. I jumped from container to container until I spotted the main storehouse about thirty feet away from me. There I saw about twenty men who were all human. They were walking in and out of the storehouse acting very suspiciously. In a single bound I jumped from the containers all the way to the right side of the storehouse. I climbed towards one of the windows above me and entered the storehouse. As I entered I landed upon on of several boxes that were stacked against the walls of the storehouse. I knelt down and used my heightened sense of sight to examine the scene within the storehouse. I discovered that there were approximately thirty human males, twenty of them armed with laser rifles, rifles that were used in the United States military, banned from civilian use. There were about six cars hovering next to them. They seem as if they were waiting for someone. About five minutes later two cars hovered into the storehouse. The cars stopped and about ten individuals stepped out and approached the humans. I picked up their scent and realized that they were droids. The leader of the droids, one with blonde hair and green eyes asked the leader of the human group if he possessed what he had asked for. The human leader replied "Yes," and summoned one of the armed humans to bring out what the droids had asked for. My ear suddenly picked up the muffled cries of a child. The child was female and her arms and legs were bounded and she had a hood over her head. I picked up a scent from the child that was familiar. This child was none other than Madeline herself! I suddenly felt a strong feeling within me that made my body shake. I wanted to save her immediately but I could not risk being spotted by the droids or the human thugs. I watched rather helplessly as Madeline was transferred into the custody of the droids. She was thrown mercilessly into the trunk of one of the cars; soon all the droids stepped into their vehicles and hovered off.

I began running over the boxes and jumping off them one by one trying to catch up with the departing vehicles. I looked to my right and saw the last of the three cars exiting the storehouse and one the human guards closing the door. That guard suddenly spotted me and began firing from his laser rifle. I flipped out of the way as about thirty shots from the rifle exploded into the wooden boxes. The shots from the guard's rifle alerted the other armed humans and almost simultaneously they began firing from their weapons. I began running at high speed over the boxes as round after round slammed into the wall behind me. Soon I flipped off the boxes and ran towards them with The Final Dawn in hand. Every time the humans fired from their rifles I threw up the blade of my sword and the rounds ricocheted off of the blade. I approached the first human who fired rapid shots at me. In the blink of an eye I chopped off his head. Three humans dove behind one of the cars and continued to fire from their weapons. I rushed towards the car and lifted it up with one hand and found the armed gunmen. They fired shots at close range into my body. I then threw away the car and at high speed I slashed them all into several pieces. As the wounds in my body began to heal I rushed towards a crowd of twelve gunmen and with The Final Dawn they were all eliminated. My ear picked up one round firing from behind me; immediately I threw the blade of my sword on my back and the round ricocheted of the blade. I turned around to find ten more armed humans firing their weapons at me. I flipped over them and once I landed behind them they were destroyed by The Final Dawn. The last four humans jumped into a car and began hovering away. I sheathed my sword, rushed in front of the car and stopped it in its tracks. I dug my fingers into the front of the car, raised it upwards and threw the car down the far end of the storehouse. The car slammed against the wall and roll on its back.

I rushed towards the car and found the driver and two other occupants dead. The only survivor was the leader. I sensed that his injuries were a broken arm, a broken leg and three broken ribs and he was bleeding from the head. I grabbed him by his color and lifted him off the ground with one hand. I felt fear overcome him immediately. The terror he felt was stronger than the physical pain he was in. "Who the fuck are you?" he said.

"Who was that man?" I said. The leader did not answer for he was still overwhelmed by fear. "Who is he?!" I said.

"He's Adrian Thorpe." said the leader.

"Where is he taking that girl?" I said.

"He's taking her to 54th Street, Uptown Manhattan and she's supposed to be given to somebody else."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

"Don't lie to me!"

"I don't know! I swear to God. I don't know!"

"What business does a man like you have with a droid?"

"I didn't know he was a droid. I swear! All he told me was to send some guys to break into that girl's home and bring her to him. And he said that if we did he'd promise us that we'd get what was coming to us. I just assumed that he was another vampire like you."

His words suddenly struck me. How did he know that vampires exist? "What are you talking about?"

"There was some guys who looked like dead bitches who was promising us that we would rise through the ranks on the streets if we carried out some jobs for them. These can run really fast and jump walls and shit. Once we saw what these guys were capable of we thought they could help us run this city, ya know?"

"So once you carried out a crime such as kidnapping, these guys could turn you into one them and no one, not even the police, would be able to stand up to you. Is that what you had in mind?"

"Well…yeah."

"Is there some sort of alliance between humans and vampires?"

"Well, we're not totally in sync with them. The people who are closets to them are a couple of droids who call themselves The Chosen Brotherhood."

"And where can I find The Chosen Brotherhood?"

"In the same area where those guys are heading. W-What are you gonna do to me?"

"We have a serious problem. You were caught in the act of kidnapping. You are to be turned in as a common criminal."

"You can't pin that on me, bitch. Who's gonna believe a freak who wouldn't even show up for trail?"

"I can see that these weapons that you have in your possession has been stolen. The possession of weapons such as these is a federal offense that carries life in prison without parole. I hope can find a good lawyer, mate." With those words I had him tied up in chains in at hyper speed carried him down to the nearest police station. The police found him hanging upside down from a light pose near the station with one of his rifles strapped to his body. I then began making haste towards 54th Street, Uptown, Manhattan. As I made my way into the heart of the city I was suddenly overcome with guilt. I did not know why I couldn't save Madeline when I had the chance. If anything happened to her, her blood would be on my hands. I also thought about something that I had never dreamed would occur. It seemed that there were those among the human race who were forming an alliance with the undead. How could this have happened? This was unprecedented. How could the ignorance of the human race reach to this level after so many centuries? I did not want to indulge in those thoughts much longer. I had to remain focused, for Madeline's sake.