In the year 2020, Vampires took control of society and ordered all humans placed in vampire custody. The people who were not captured formed a Resistance movement, headed by the Human Council, who began to plan the Insurgence.
I am, of course, indebted to Stephanie Meyer for this world we all play in, and these characters we all adore. Additionally, I am indebted to hitntr01, who has graciously allowed me to use certain concepts from her wonderful story "In Need of Rescue", which constitute much of the background of my own story. These include: the language Vampiri, the Rules, the machines used to draw blood from humans, Manners Training, and the plot theme of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.
Chapter 15 – the Blood Sickness (continued); and Travels with Crazy Chick Nomad
(Bella's POV) – Continuation of Bella's memory of her attack in a Cleveland garage
They were both dead – or rather, double dead, since they had to die to become vampires, right? I got out my lighter and set fire to both bodies to be sure they stayed "dead", then jumped into my car and took off. This was weird, and something to report to the Human Council.
I contacted the Human Council about the vampires who died after drinking my blood. They called me in for a full report and decided to run a verifying test. They wanted to give my blood to a vampire to observe the reaction. Eventually, my blood was drawn and passed to an ally to give to a human drinker in a glass. The vampire who drank it died within a minute as well.
It seemed the old stories were true. There were humans whose blood was toxic to vampires. But how had I lived on the living death camp for so long? Wouldn't any vampires in the area who bought and drank the bottled blood have died? Why hadn't anyone noticed?
The Council did some research, and that's when they discovered that since the collapse of the human populations in Europe, Africa and Asia due to the lack of young human females, blood was being exported from the U.S. For this purpose, all the blood from all the Human Containment Facilities was pooled before being bottled, as a single export. Therefore little amounts of my blood were in many bottles. The only question was how to use this information.
The humans asked the allies about sick vampires and learned that there were vampires who were starting to die, a slow process taking several years. The Council was able to get a few sick vampires to come to them with the promise that perhaps they could find an antidote. They studied them and took histories. What they found was that the afflicted vampires slowly became lethargic and eventually went blind and stopped moving. But when the mind readers scanned their thoughts, they found that the blood thirst was still raging inside. Days after their sight went, a mind reader could poke the vampire or whisper their name, and the vampire's mind would respond, but the blood thirst had become their all-consuming thought and torture, as there was no longer a way to physically satisfy their need. The internal organs of their former human body used to process and circulate the foreign blood had now broken down. The vampire was doomed to exist for an unknown length of time, suffering from an insatiable thirst, as the hardness of the former body was now serving as an impermeable shell, a prison.
I noticed that I saw certain things differently than others. Ever since I had been free and been able to view vampires in true light, I had been able to see a vampire's original, human eye color behind the red (or black) hue they took on after their change. I had noticed that most of their eyes also had a sparkling blue tint, starting at the bottom of their irises and encircling the pupil. The amount of blue in their eyes varied.
Then one day I saw bottled blood. The bottled blood also had the same blue glint in small amounts. We came to realize that what I was seeing was MY blood, whether it appeared in the bottles or in the vampires' eyes. This was unsettling, but there was a war going on for survival, so I pushed down my squeamishness. My blood apparently "broke up" like crystals and glinted in a vampire's eyes after being consumed, though I was the only one who could see it. Eventually it was determined that what was happening was that once my blood entered a vampire's body, it would break down into crystals and begin destroying the organs that processed the blood. In effect, the vampire "starved" to death. If the blood was taken in little at a time, by drinking bottled blood, the process was slow. The vampress Alice was an example of this. If the vampire took a few big gulps, the death occurred within a minute, like the tracker in the Cincinnati garage.
One of my assignments for the Human Council became to travel and see how widely dispersed my blood was, both within the vampire population and within the stores carrying the bottled blood. Crazy Chick Nomad heard I was traveling and decided she would come along, bringing Future Mate. And travel we did! Whenever we hooked up she wanted to show me historic sights, to show me the creations of us "humans", who were supposed to be below vampires. She liked taking me to historic sites, or to modern cities, to point out the skyscrapers, statues, or any other human creation.
Crazy always said, "This is your stuff Baby, people stuff. We vampires should be moldering in the grave, with worms crawling in an out our ears and eye sockets. Instead, we're up here, taking your cars and technology, your beautiful clothes, your houses, and worst, taking you. We've locked you up and turned you into slaves, yet we as vampires create nothing. We only take, we're parasites, Baby. And we've got a big Karma kick in the a** coming for this!"
Wherever we traveled in the U.S., she always stopped at historic sites. At Monticello, she found the guidebooks, and we toured the property, taking pictures of one other in front of the various features described in the guidebooks, acting like traditional tourists. We did this wherever we went when we were together.
So when it came time for me to go to travel overseas for the Council, she wanted to travel with me on my research trip to Europe, Africa, and Asia. As always, she had the papers on me she had ordered.
"You're a people, not a pet," she always said.
The papers were made out in her favorite cat's name, Madeleine. "The cat was about the same age as you are now, Baby, 14 years old". Whenever the cops wanted something, she gave them information based on the cat. "Take that, a**hole", she always quipped after they let us pass.
The "best" part of going to Europe was, of course, the plane ride. Crazy got some friends to act as muscle. They entered the airline terminal with us then stared down the rest of the passengers, and "suggested" they get on different flight. After they tore the hands off of the first vampire who tried to show he had a valid ticket on our flight, the other passengers decided switching flights didn't sound so bad.
So we all got on the plane, Crazy, myself, and Crazy's friends. And, the pilot. The pilot hadn't been part of her plan, so sure enough, my scent got to him. Suddenly Crazy and I were alone in the passenger compartment.
"What's going on," I asked. "And please don't say 'it's nothing'".
"Well…the pilot wanted to come back for an 'introduction' to you. Seems he put the plane on autopilot now that we've taken off and assumed our course. So the others in the cockpit with him, making promises to him that would make the devil blush, if he'll just stay in his seat and fly the plane", she replied.
I took this calmly, of course. "What! I knew it, we're gonna crash at sea. You guys will survive, but I won't. So just do it, just kill me!"
"No, no, baby, it's going to be alright. Look, I brought a bottle of champagne for your first flight! I was going to open it as we landed, but now seems like a really good time." She opened the bottle with a loud pop, then poured me a glass into one of those plastic cups that airlines keep in their pantry. The champagne foamed up and ran over the side of the glass, soaking her hand, and making Crazy giggle. "Have a taste!"
I drained the glass quickly and held it out for a refill, sneezing from the bubbles.
One of Crazy's vampire friends chose this moment to come out of the cockpit and ask if I can please stop saying, 'I'm gonna die so just kill me', as that is not helping their situation with the captain and his thirst. Crazy held up the champagne bottle, he nodded in understanding and returned to the cockpit.
Hours passed, I finished the bottle of champagne, and soon Crazy was saying "Look, Baby, there's the west coast of England. There's land!"
We landed, and I swore I was never getting on a plane again. I'm explained in great detail to Crazy that from now on , I was going to live on THIS side of the Pacific.
Crazy advised, "No, Baby, you don't want to live here. The Italian influence is everywhere, so you just don't want to do that."
"If you mean the Volturi, of course they're everywhere," I snapped back.
"No Baby, I mean the Italian male influence. The Volturi brothers are Etruscan. Italians are dominating, possessive, just a real hassle to have around. You don't want that." Crazy explained.
"I thought all male vampires were dominating and possessive," I retorted, puzzled.
"Well, they are, but Italians are the worst. And their influence has spread all over Europe, so now even the Swedish vampires are acting like jerks. If only for that reason, we don't want to live here. These boys are great to date but not to keep around for any length of time. Let's just do your survey for your human friends and head home," she said, settling back into her seat in the car.
I looked to Future Mate, he just shrugged. She isn't ending up with any Italian, she'll be with him. His shrug said it all. As for where they lived, he didn't care, as long as they were together.
Outside of Bath, England, we were joined by a British vampire named Alistair. Alistair was way too interested in me. So Crazy picked me up and carried me, and made carrying the maps my job. Every time Alistair got a little too close to me, Future Mate would give his "back away from my mate" growl, and Alistair would step back.
And so we began our travel across Europe, with Alistair acting as our inescapable shadow. Crazy periodically updated me as to how much Alistair had offered for me, and she also wanted to order me a "Tua Cantante" (singer) t-shirt. Future Mate wouldn't hear of the t-shirt.
As far as Future Mate was concerned, Alistair's presence, while a problem, did simplify security issues for him. We could now go into the major cities, as Alistair, who appeared to be a skilled fighter, handled all the stranger vampires who got too close, so Future Mate only had to watch Alistair. And Alistair was very effective in this security detail – I had to admit, his snarl and lunge were truly impressive.
Occasionally, Alistair would get his venom and thirst for me under control, and offered his own stories about the history of some of the cities we visited. He obviously found it odd that Crazy and Future Mate talked to me and treated me with care and affection, but he adjusted so that he could stay with us. He told great stories about the construction of St. Paul's in London and also about any number of the cathedrals and other sites we pass through England, France, and Germany. It's just too bad all he wanted was to suck me dry. Them's the breaks in this world, I guess.
In Paris, they managed to sneak me into the Louvre. The three vampires went running through at vampire speed, Crazy carrying me, only pausing only to show me their favorite works. A few works by Tintoretto, Rembrandt, and some Assyrian and Egyptian pieces. The Volturi brothers had taken all the Italian pieces back to Volterra, and while they ordered the rest of the collection left intact, there had been quite a few vampire "mine" stunts, when a vampire decided he wanted something and just took it. If he could manage to bribe the guards, he might get away with it. If they didn't accept his bribe, he was turned over to the Paris cops. Or, if the vampire took a piece a guard wanted, the guard might kill him and take the piece home for himself. The laws of the vampire world didn't really have much to say about vampires killing other vampires. It was the vampire way. Death, death, and more death. The most serious penalties of the vampire legal coded involved the handling of humans humanely, as in treating us as something other than disposable property.
When we got to Italy, Future Mate insisted we should see the Sistine Chapel. Getting into the Vatican proved a challenge, but they managed.
Crazy, of course, grumbled about how, "Stupid and short-sighted vampires are, keeping you guys out of religious places. Surely they could put some humans in here, maybe get them to pray for us?"
Since my friends couldn't turn the lights without attracting attention, they rigged some scaffolds, and got me close to the Michelangelo's mural on the ceiling. "Look Baby, there's God!" squealed Crazy enthusiastically, holding me as we dangled from the scaffolding.
I could only see God's eye, and it was really huge, and then I saw the floor below. And to me it appeared to be a long, long way below us. Alistair was determined that I wouldn't fall. He couldn't bear the thought of my blood being wasted on marble, so he is swinging directly below us on some cable lines.
This was not a pleasant experience, and Future Mate promised he would bring me back after the Insurgence.
By the time we reach Florence, Italy, Alistair was getting a little too impatient. I was getting tired of being carried, so I declared that I would walk up any and all staircases we encountered, and Alistair decided to capitalize on this little act of rebellion on my part. Future Mate, who is a mindreader, picked up Alistair's plan to grab me at the top of one of these staircases, wrap me in a curtain, and jump out a window during a trip to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
So we ditched him through a series of human-needs-bathroom moments and lost him in a decorative garden.
We didn't go for the obvious airport knowing Alistair might be waiting there, so Crazy and Future Mate chartered a plane to get us out of Florence and down to Casablanca. The next few days were spent trying to outmaneuver Alistair. He had a lot more resources to use to track us down. They have a pretty good idea of his net worth. "Baby, he offered us $1.5MM in cash and his ancestral home for you. His offer was simple. We would go to his house in the English countryside where he would sign over the property to us in front of witnesses. All we had to do was let him walk out with you at the conclusion of the deal," Crazy told me. So we knew that Alistair had money.
Future Mate, on the other hand, had taken a vow of poverty as a human when he was a monk, and the habit of living without material things had stuck to him in afterlife. Crazy, on the other hand, knew exactly what money was for: she spent it every time she got it. So while we could not match Alistair's resources in tracking our progress, we managed to stay ahead of him by running on foot between airports and getting friends to buy tickets in their names that we could use.
Eventually we completed our tour of Africa and went into India. There things got less pleasant for me. Naturally, I was coated in both sunblock and mosquito repellent. Crazy had heard of some parasite that would enter the human body through the soles of the feet, so she was determined to carry me everywhere. As she was still worried about mosquitoes, she tore down some mosquito netting from a bed, wrapped me in it, and tied it into a knot at the bottom. I looked like I had just been "bagged" on a hunt.
As a result, when Future Mate started picking out our next destination, Sri Lanka, I put my foot down. I told them I wanted to go back to the U.S.. Disneyland would be enough for me. Future Mate did feel sorry for my sunblock soaked, mosquito net draped condition, so he chartered a flight home.
Crazy was very excited about the flight home and told me she had a secret she would only tell on board the plane. It would involve why this upcoming trans-Pacific flight would be different from the terrifying trans-Atlantic flight, when the pilot decided he wanted to snack out on me.
Once on board, we met the pilot. The human pilot, a former air force pilot who had been sheltered by his vampire Commanding Officer since the Event in 2020. Hooray!
Hooray until the West Coast of the United States was in sight. Then they told me that, being human, the pilot couldn't land at a standard airport with vampire air traffic control. They would know he wasn't a vampire. So the pilot was going to fly south and land on a freeway that had bedrock underneath.
"Won't this be exciting!" squealed Crazy.
"We're all going to die," was all I could choke out. Crazy started pouring the champagne again. We did land safely on a freeway somewhere in Oklahoma, and once I got off the plane, I rolled onto the ground, grabbed a piece of grass, and swore I would never get up again.
"You're right next to a cow pie," remarked Crazy, watching me with interest.
"That's ok with me, cow pies are on the ground, they are of the earth, earth to earth, dust to dust…" I had lost it, and was babbling. The champagne didn't help.
But eventually I got up, and went and prepared my report for the Human Council. We had been traveling primarily in heavily populated areas of Europe, Africa, and India. All the vampires I saw on the street had traces of the tainted blood, and all the bottles on the store shelves also appeared tainted. It seemed the U.S. distribution system had spread the tainted blood worldwide. I had not gone into Russia or China, so samples were bought from stores in cities large and small and brought to me for visual examination. The same blue tint appeared in all. Although there were undoubtedly small pockets of vampires who hadn't been exposed in remote areas, it appeared my blood had been distributed worldwide during the thirteen years I was on the living death camp. Aro's perfect blood delivery system was going to doom his vampire world.
The human council estimated that even if a vampire had only had a single dose, their death would occur in 15-20 years, which was short in the lifetime of an immortal. Vampires who used the bottled blood as their sole food source appeared to be already dying. Those vampires who had kept blood slaves, and so only used the bottled blood as a supplemental food source, probably had an estimated 7-10 years left.
It also appeared that I could accelerate the process, to cause a vampire who had ingested the blood to die within a minute, just as if they had just drank two full gulps of my blood. The Council wanted me to do further work on this aspect of what they now considered my "gift". My raids as freedom fighter, liberating the brothel girls, gave me ample opportunity to explore this aspect of my gift. It was discovered I could accelerate the process over a given geographic area by concentrating. I started with a single location, such as the brothel building we were liberating, and then enlarged it to cover the area around a colony. Soon I was protecting several colonies at all times, which took concentration, but allowed me to build up my endurance. In this way I began to test and push the limits on my gift.
The Human Council began to work out a plan to free all the humans, with the goal of training them to live independently. They wanted to replant crops, which would take several seasons, and get livestock back to levels that would support a healthy human population. There was already housing in place, as vampires were living in houses, but the Council believed that initially, they would place the humans who had grown up in captivity in apartment buildings, so they could relearn life skills in a group setting.
These were heady times for the Resistance.
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