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 indebted to Stephenie 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 21 – Manners Training debacle continued – part 2

(Bella's POV)

This chapter continues Bella's memory of the doomed Manners Training in Boston, when she is almost attacked by another vampire.

It was true: the Manners Training class had been a disaster. I had all fourteen sets of red eyes glued to my heel.

Which had been really something, considering the other girls in the class.

When the other humans first starting filing in, I had turned to Crazy and asked, "Did the couples bring their human?"

"Baby, that girl is human. Look at her eyes. My god, this looks like the latest graduating class from Belial's. We may have to get out of here…"Crazy replied.

I took another look. Those elegant women were human? Sure enough, their graceful movements appeared choreographed, but were all being executed at the male vampires' subtle directions, if I watched closely. And their eyes were far away.

Belial's** was the premier auction house for human girls. We found out later that the starting bids for girls that season had been $100,000, and very few had been sold for a mere $100K. The bidding process had put most at $350K and up. I was now very interested in Belial's and my eventual destruction of that hell hole would become the crowning achievement of my liberation efforts for the resistance.

But in this room, with my injured heel, all eyes were on me, the pound puppy.

We moved through the normal Manners Training without incident, although the atmosphere was growing increasingly tense. We then went on to the Bonus Round, as I called it. This is where the recently purchased humans were to show off their talents.

The first girl was brought to everyone's attention when her vampire owner reached down, and with one quick movement pulled the Grecian goddess style dress she was wearing off of her over her head. Crazy started to grab me and leave, but the girl was wearing a ballet leotard underneath it. Her vampire owner put out one hand, and she lifted her leg in a straight motion at a 90 degree angle, and set it in his hand. He put a toe shoe on her foot, laced it quickly, and put her leg back down. This was repeated with the other leg.

Someone started some music, and at a nod from Mademoiselle, she began a ballet routine. Her eyes remained dead and fixed while her body moved fluidly. She used the male vampire as part partner, part support. He lifted her, and swung her through moves that not even Balanchine would have approved of, due to their erotic nature.

They finished, and she remained standing, feet flat, toe shoes pointing out.

The next girl was urged forward by a smug looking vampire, whom I decided to call Mr. Pompous. She was clearly supposed to sing, but she had lost her voice. He was not pleased, and she began to struggle to sing, but could only put out some choked sounds.

I was having trouble watching this, so I stepped in. I started singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"***, including the verse "if I get there [to heaven] before you do… I'll cut a hole and pull you through…"

After I finished, the circle's eyes were back on me. The girls' eyes were actually focused, looking at me. All it took was one song to break the years of training?

The girl who had lost her voice looked over at me and whispered, "That was beautiful. What was it about?"

I told her that it was written by Wallis Willis some time before 1862 and was thought to have been used by slaves while escaping the south using the Underground Railroad. Some said that the call-refrain type of song were used to signify when it was safe for an escaping slave to cross the Ohio River, one of the natural boundaries between slave states and free states. If someone was waiting on the other side of the river, they would sing the refrain. In this way the song was used to help guide the runaway slaves to freedom in the north.

There was silence in the room after I finished.

Then the pompous looking vampire said, "What are you trying to do here? What are you saying about me, that I'm some kind of a southern massa, one you're teaching her how to escape?"

Well, maybe I am. I 'Three Ducked' him, yep I did it. That is my litmus test for pompous asses, and he passed with flying colors. "If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck…it's a duck," I said.

He took that like a true vampire, sinking into a crouch, wiggling his form a little to show everyone in the room 'this is how you take out a smart aleck human.'

But, he wasn't prepared for Crazy. While he was settling into his position, she had already sprung at him.

She took a chunk out of his chest and was spitting it out when one of the other vampires rolled his eyes and walked over to pull her off of Mr. Pompous. I had never encountered a vampire who didn't know how to fight. I just thought it was a package deal, that the ability to fight came with the growl. But this guy was just looking at Crazy, with his hands at his sides, and an expression that seemed to say, someone is attacking the magnificence of Moi?

As the other vampire started to pull Crazy off, she pin wheeled around, and grabbed Pompous' foot. She took a big bite out of one of his preppy loafer with the leather tassels, which apparently included the big toe. Just as she was spitting it out, I pulled the fire alarm.

I had noticed the fire alarm the moment we entered the room. I always check out fire alarms, wherever I go, and I saw that this one was a model that had a secondary foam system that needed to be manually activated. If just the alarm was pulled, the water sprinkler system came on. But if a fire department code was entered, the foam system would be activated. That there was a foam component on this model was not surprising. The Manners Training class was being held in a hospital, for the convenience of some of the vampire doctor staff.

One thing vampires had not bothered to get when they wiped out most of the human race in 2020 was the various codes to our technologies. Many of those middle aged men that the vampires thought were good for nothing, as their blood was past its prime, frequently had skills or technological training and know-how that they took to their graves. They had been experts in such things as how to run and maintain a city, operate a train, keep the electrical power grids running, all of the things critical to a functioning civic life.

But these men had managed to pass on certain codes to the resistance. These included override codes to various locks, including the manufacturer's master override key codes to most cars, as well as override codes to various security locks on doors. The vampires could just open these doors using their superhuman strength, if they needed to, but it was useful for humans to know how to get a door open quietly.

As for the fire department codes, activating most of the codes needed to set off the foam sprinkler systems had eventually become a simple matter of knowing the last digit. The coded systems were never intended to be too complicated to be able to use in an emergency, but you did have to know the code to activate them. Most of these were set up by cities. All the alarms for Boston were pre-programmed to be activated by entering the same digit, "8". Chances were, that if you knew the last digit for the city you were in, you could activate any foam system still working.

So, that day in Boston, I prayed to the fathers, the fire fighters, the hospital administrators, that the code was correct and pulled the alarm.

And it began raining foam.

Although vampires knew about foam fire suppressant systems, most had not seen it, and so didn't know what it did to them in their vampire state. It temporarily blinds everyone, human or vampire, because the opaque foam settles everywhere, so when it covers your eyes you can't see. That can be brushed off, but more importantly: all those little particles interfere with a vampire's ability to smell. Yep, their sniffers wouldn't work.

So when I pulled that alarm, it put a crashing halt to the attack in the room and settled down the vampires. The first common response was that everyone froze. For a few seconds, you couldn't tell the vampires from the human, as everyone was covered in white foam. We all looked like the Michelin man.

Then the vampires started trying to move quickly, to make the foam fly off. But that didn't work, and they started sliding around. Soon the vampires were slipping and falling on their butts.

After I pulled the alarm, I had slid under a table. So I had a great view of the show. Instead of trying to get to somewhere safe, I started laughing. How did it feel, I wanted to yell to them, falling on your butt? Bet you guys haven't done that since you were human!

I felt cold strong arms lifting me, and I thought, well here I go, and I'm going to die laughing, because I can't stop. But the chest I was pulled against was shaking with laughter too. I looked up, and looked into the eyes of the biggest vampire I had ever seen, a black man with dreadlocks. "Quiet little one," he said softly, "I must move quickly. You only said what we've all been thinking for years. But now that guy wants to eat you slow."

I nodded and lay still in his arms as he raced outside. He ran across the street and then quickly climbed up the side of a building, holding me in one arm. He stopped in a bell tower.

Crazy came running out of the main doorway of the hospital a few minutes later, foam sticking to her hair and dress. I said her name softly, and she came bounding up the side of the building.

The Rastafarian dude set me down gently along the top of the wall, and quickly backed away, head bowed, showing his hands. He may have been a lot bigger that Crazy, but she was in full fight mode. He had the experience to know that a fight with her would lead to some bodily injury for him, whatever the size difference might be. She grabbed me and ran back down the side of the building.

We stole a Ferrari that was parked along the main street and headed out of town. She pulled out her phone and speed dialed one of the charter pilots she knew. She asked how quickly he could get his plane to Boston, as she and I needed a trip to Disneyland, NOW!

The pilot told her he was in New York City, so he said he could be there soon. We drove to the airport and waited for him, then we boarded the plane after it arrived and had refueled. She had worked with this pilot before, so he knew the drill. When I was going to be on a plane, the pilot and any other vampire flying with us took a deep breath before I got on the plane, and didn't breathe until after I got off at our destination. My scent in an enclosed space, such as an airplane, was just too much for some of these boys.

Once we got on the plane, she was on the phone to the guys who ran Disneyland. They had liked the theme park as humans, and so they maintained it as vampires after the Event. She had a standing arrangement with them to reserve the park for us, so she could bring her human without needing to worry about attacks. They would bring in a cook who would be on standby to make pancakes, lots of pancakes, and they would stock water for me.

We got to Disneyland and went on enough rollercoaster rides so that I had thrown up twice. According to Crazy, we weren't having fun until the human upchucked at least twice. As there were plenty of pancakes to be had, no problem – I just ate again and went on the next ride. We were now back in the hotel and had started the traditional playing of music, waiting for the song "Slow Ride" to come on. When "Slow Ride" started, Crazy would do cannonballs between the beds until at least one bed broke. Then she would call the front desk, complain about the cheap beds, and get us another room. Traditions are traditions, after all.

But just as "Slow Ride" came on, a knock came at the door. Crazy changed her dive mid-air, twisting to land on her feet on the floor. She flashed to the door and opened it, leaving the chain still connected. It always looked kind of funny to me when she did that, since any vampire could bust a door chain, but it was a way of staking territory and showing boundaries. Everybody knew what a door opened with the chain connected meant.

One of my trackers was at the door. Good guys, my regular trackers. I'd known them for several years from the wild. These would be the ones I hadn't had to kill at our first meeting because they wanted to chow down on me.

"Let him in, let him in," I yelled. After all, "Slow Ride" was still playing, but it was going to end soon. And still no bed breaking cannonball dive from Crazy! A tradition was being broken here.

He came in and took in the scene. This time, I was wearing the "Thing 1" t-shirt, and Crazy was wearing the "Thing 2" t-shirt. We always wore these, every trip. There was an on-going negotiation as to who got to be Thing 1. It was clear that for this trip, I had the honor, no question. Being nearly attacked during Manners Training and pulling that fire alarm? Yep, I was the top dog, or Thing 1, today.

After the song ended, we turned off the music, just for a few moments. We knew how to be good hostesses if we had to.

"I'm wondering if either of you might be able to point me in the direction of the human known as Madeleine? Seems there is a $100,000 reward being offered out of Boston for her acquisition," began the tracker.

Crazy and I looked at one another for a moment, and then started a dance. "$100K? You're in the big time now, girl!" she said, to which I replied "I'm important, I'm valuable," and we both went into giggling fits while doing high five hand slaps and bouncing on the beds.

"So it was you two. I guessed as much, things just seem to happen when you two are together," observed the tracker.

"Things? Whatever do you mean?" I demanded.

"Oh, planes falling out of the sky, that kind of thing," he continued, sounding almost bored.

"That plane did NOT fall out of the sky. It was landed on a freeway on purpose. We had a human pilot, so he couldn't land in a traditional airport, the air traffic controller would have realized he wasn't a vampire," I retorted.

"Wasn't that a trans-Pacific flight?" he asked.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" I answered.

"You just proved my point," he drawled.

So we sat down, and he gave is the details on this whole reward thing. It did seem like a lot for a pound puppy like me.

"That's because it's not just for you," replied the tracker. "A key point in this contract is the word 'acquisition', as opposed to 're-acquisition.' Reacquisition means locating a run-away. All of your other contracts have been for re-acquisition, after you left a Human Containment Facility, or wherever you were that time."

"In this type of award set-up, the tracker will generally find it financially simpler to kill the current owner rather than try to negotiate a buying price, which would reduce the amount of the reward. The guy wants one of us to find you two, kill Crazy, and then bring you to him," finished the tracker.

"That bastard," interjected Crazy.

"My thoughts exactly. You ladies need to be careful. Can you tell me what happened in Boston?" he asked.

So we covered the whole manners training debacle with him. Just as we are finishing up, there was another knock at the door. Crazy flashed over to the door, doing the same routine with the chain. And it's another one of my trackers. He walked in and started to greet the first tracker, when his eyes went black. "I need to get some air," he says. My scent in that small room was just too much for him. He had only met me in the wild.

Crazy shoved him out on the balcony and quickly closed the door. We started throwing pillows at the sliding glass door, singing the old Beatles song "It's All Too Much". Crazy actually managed to find that song it on the radio, and so we sang and threw pillows at the balcony door until the tracker got himself together and came back into the room.

He got the same low down as the first tracker. They began to confer, as they thought this reward was too high. It's going to bring out the amateurs, the weekend warriors, and they worry I might get hurt.

Meanwhile, we're trying to figure out why the reward is so high. Most rewards for me have been the standard $5,000 – 10,000. Why so high?

The trackers have an answer for the too. It involves a young lady from Florida.

TO BE CONTINUED…

PLEASE REVIEW, ALL REVIEWERS WILL GET PREVIEWS FROM THE NEXT CHAPTER. You want to know about the young lady from Florida, right? And the fate of the Pompous guy offering the $100K?

**Belial – one of the personifications of Satan, or one of four crown princes of hell, or a demon. Sounds like an all-around fun guy.

***"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot": I'm sure everyone knows this song, but if you don't, there is an amazing rendition by Kathleen Battle on the Internet. Just do a search on Swing Low Sweet Chariot Kathleen Battle and it will come up.