Just in case in this chapter he is kind of hunting humans so you might not want to read it, you've been warned

Chapter Three

The First Hunt and Black

As I ran towards humanity I was able to think about several things on the way. I could think about following the trail the bus mad to where it had last stopped to pickup supplies and gas, I could think about how I would eat my prey, whether I would eat the meat or what my instincts told me to go after. But what I thought about the most was what I had become. I was faster, stronger, and paler, everything was crystal clear to my eye, I could see much further, and my mind was quicker. Everything just seemed better stronger and faster about me.

Eventually I made it out to the nearest town it took me a lot less time to get there than it took the bus. I didn't just barge into the town like a maniac. I surveyed the landscape, I found the quickest route in and out, and I found the houses that were probably holding people.

I slowly entered from the south I didn't go in as fast as I could, my instincts told me to go slow with brute strength. I entered the first house there was a smell. I couldn't recognize it though but it didn't smell good. I imagined it was the poison still in the air. It was blocking whatever scent I could get of any humans. The scent was burning my nose. I quickly dismissed it as I continued my search of the home. Everything was quiet, as I expected since no one was going to do anything to go outside and expose themselves to whatever poison was in the air, as if they weren't affected already. I continued my search for whatever it was I needed to sate my thirst. I went upstairs where the foul stench continued to block my ability to smell my prey. I went down the hallway to the left opened the door to find two humans dead, killed by the toxins in the air, what a waste I thought. I then walked over the bodies to the window across the room. I was hoping I could smell something in the air. Only the stench, so I tried listening. I heard a heartbeat, but it was weak and I didn't want my prey's body weakened or compromised by the poison in the air. I heard something near the heartbeat though, it was a man. He was strong, and he was arguing with the dying man saying,

"It's all your fault, because of you we are stuck here, because of your stupid experiments we have less people and we are dying!" I was intrigued by the experiments of this man so I left to find out what I could and get my dinner. This time I sprinted to the other house to find the two men still arguing.

"It isn't his fault," I told the angry man,"There was an attack, we got bombed and the poison from the bomb is killing us."

"Oh what would you know, you're just a kid." The man replied.

"I witnessed it first hand, got a pretty bad shot of it too," I replied resisting the urge to rip the Carotid with one swipe and well that was how far my instincts had told me to go so far. "So what kind of experiments are you talking about?"

"I had developed a way for men to leave their bodies," the weak one replied. I asked him,

"So how is this bad, can they get back into their bodies?"

"Of course no matter where your spirit is it always is tied to your body," he answered getting weaker every second. Of course I was only half believing this but after what had happened me there was a little bit of belief in me about them.

"Aren't we forgetting something!" the other man exclaimed, "He just killed who knows how many, we hid from that truck because we knew what was on it and we weren't going to die but now I know it was him and the experiments he's been doing on everyone, and for what, a thrill and then you die and infect other people I don't think so, he won't kill anyone, any more!"

"Don't you think that's a little hypocritical I mean you were going to kill him," I told him calmly, slowly releasing what little grasp I had against the monster I knew was inside of me.

"Were, I am going to kill this son of a bitch!" he answered me.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I said quickly as I released my instincts and cut open his throat with my teeth, but it surprised me what I did next. I sucked his blood and it wasn't enough and though way back in the corner of my mind I knew I should stop but as the limp figure in my hands slowly died not able to talk because my jaws squeezed his neck together gathering more blood to quench my thirst. Eventually I was finished and my sane side took over and kept me, barely from taking the other human too. I needed more information from him because he was too interesting. I decided to do what I could to save him.

"Where are you from," I asked him now that I could think properly I could tell he had strange features from around these parts, Indian. He answered me

"A reservation west of here, you can't miss it, the only interesting in this dull town before it became a wasteland."

"Okay hold on," I said as I picked him up and ran to the reservation. I slowed down to a walk as I neared the reservation. "Hey I would appreciate it if you could keep this quiet about me,"

"Being a vampire hey interrupted,"

"Exactly," I replied.

"I trust in you that if we are going to make this work you will not threaten my people, and I will not threaten you and your secret to anyone." He said, I simply nodded and the truce was formed then and there between me and them. Eventually I would slip and they would tighten their security around me but now I'm jumping ahead. Any way when I got back everyone was drawn towards us because of the man in my arms, but eventually the crowd grew not because of him but because of me. Because I was different somehow, but I couldn't tell what it was they saw in me but it definitely wasn't thankfulness they looked scared and angry but I didn't understand why. A woman ran out from her house crying and saying

"No, please not my husband, please not him!" I followed her back to her house. She was sobbing the whole way making both of us wet. Finally we reached the house; I put him on the nearest sofa. I asked his wife

"Where is the doctor?" She replied to me,

"I can call him, you don't have to leave, I'm sure you could stay here for a while" she barely managed to say this through her sobbing.

I heard the doctor's footsteps as he came walking but I waited for him to knock on the door anyway to keep my secret safe as it was so new. When he knocked we both got up to get the door, I told her,

"Sit down I can get it for you." She sat and I went to the door. I opened the door and greeted him, "Hey doc, he's over here he's lost a lot of blood, so the sooner you could see him the better." I showed him then over to the wounded.

A few minutes he came out,

"You're right he's lost a lot of blood, the wound wasn't serious so I was able to take care of him, he's tired from the blood loss so just re-patch him when the bandage gets wet and keep him in bed," the doctor told us. I said,

"I think I need to have a word with him, alone." The doctor said,

"I don't know if that would be a good," but I cut him off,

"I won't throw him out the window doc, I just want to talk."

"As long as I don't have to patch him up again," he said.

I went into the room doc moved him to and shut the door quietly behind me.

"I see that we are enemies but we don't want to be," the man on the bed said (doc had moved him over). "So I suggest that we find a way to make a truce, currently since there is only one of you I will be lax on how I will protect my people, but if you attract more of your kind I will be forced to be more forceful."

"All I want is to stay secret from everyone, even you but you're too interesting for me to eat," I told him.

"So I'm assuming you didn't come to say how you're not going to eat me, I'm sure there's something else?" he asked me.

"Of course, tell me about these spirits, where you just goin' a little crazy for a sec or what is it really?"

"Well a few years back I decided to try my hand at chemistry."

"Of course who doesn't want to?" I interrupted.

"Just shut up and listen, okay? Anyway I was doing an experiment when I accidentally knocked over the vial I had been working on, we part of it fell on my lab coat, part of it dissolved into my skin. That night I was really pissed with my son for breaking my favorite glass but he started arguing back saying that if I hadn't left it there this wouldn't have happened. I said William don't you ever talk back to me again. But that night he went to bed crying, I felt bad and my wife was giving me a hard time so I had just I guess wished myself out of my body. That's all I know now though about it."

"Dad!" I heard a kid call out

"Hey kiddo."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah I think so."

"I presume that you are William," I asked the kid.

"No call me Billy, only my dad calls me that when he's mad," the kid told me.

"Okay time for bed Billy I'll see you tomorrow." The man said the kid then left to go back to bed.

"So I guess I should get your name then," I asked him.

"Of course, my name's Ephriam, Ephriam Black.