CH5
Lanie suddenly stopped about half way across the bridge on their way back to their shuttle.
"Kate, if they are selling this stuff then it stands to reason that they have more of this white powder somewhere, along with these green pieces of paper. This is likely the money we need." Lanie waves some of the bills she is holding.
"And that location would be either on this driver's license or on these little cards. But we don't know where this place is." Kate points out a flaw in her theory.
"No but we can ask." Lanie started smiling.
One of the guys behind a counter in a place that a number of cars that stopped at and put something into the side of their car, turned out to be very helpful.
Kate and Lanie learned that the green pieces of paper was money, something they were going to need.
They spent some of it buying a map of the city and he helped them pinpoint the address shown on the driver's license. It was back on the other side of the bridge.
He suggested that they not want to go there when it was dark, it was too dangerous for two lovely young ladies like them.
Kate and Lanie thanked him and went back outside and promptly ran to the address using the map as their guide. It only took them a few minutes and told each other that the cars on the bridge who saw them wouldn't believe what they saw, so they were safe.
"Here we are." Kate offers looking a door that had countless doors just like it on both sides of the street.
Kate took in a deep breath. "There are at least 3 more inside. I can also smell the white powder that is inside. There are likely more of these weapons." Kate holds up one of the guns they got from the first four.
Lanie took in her own deep breath. "They are awake and in the room just inside the door." Lanie adds. "The spaces on each side are empty."
"We force the door open and do this quickly, taking what we want and then run." Kate tells her.
Kate and Lanie step up to the door and each takes in another deep breath to help them determine what is inside. Kate twists the door knob, breaking it and then shoulders open the door.
The dead bolt was locked in place into the door jam, problem was the door no longer had a door jam after Kate pushed.
The three guys inside looked up and saw Kate quickly step into the room and grab the guy closest to her and spins in place and throws him through the wall and into the kitchen on the other side of the wall.
Lanie quickly steps inside and grabs one of the guys arms and bites him and starts drinking.
Kate quickly steps over to the other guy who was reaching for the weapon on the coffee table only to have Kate take his arm and bite him and start drinking.
Lanie stopped since she didn't really need his blood, watching Kate do the same.
Kate went in search of the guy she threw into the kitchen and bit him too.
"Interesting place." Kate comments as she comes back into the room, watching Lanie stuff money into a duffle bag she found in the room.
Kate picked up something that looked like technology and flipped it open. It had a screen on one panel and a set of numbers on the other. It also said Motorola on the outside. Kate dropped it and the other three just like it into the bag Lanie was using.
"Do we want the white powder?" Kate asks.
"We don't even know what it is. If they are selling it on the street and not to established companies, I'd say no. Though we could take it and throw it out later if we don't want it." Lanie adds.
"We need another one of those bags, I'll see if I can find one." And Kate leaves the front room to search the row house.
Lanie has finished picking up all of the money and stuffed it into the bag when Kate returned with another bag. "I also found these." Kate pulls out two somewhat thin items and flips open one of them, showing Lanie that one side had a screen and the other had a keyboard.
Lanie takes them and puts them into the bag with the money and helps Kate pick up all the bags with the white powder and stuff them into the second bag.
"Anything else?" Lanie asks.
"Have you searched these three?" Kate asks not knowing is she had while Kate was gone. Watching Lanie shake her head.
They both take a couple of minutes to search them. Finding two more wallets and a set of keys. "What are these?" Lanie asks holding up the keys.
"Open the lock on the door?" Kate offers, since it looked like at least one of the keys would fit in the door. "Take them and we can work it out later." Kate offers.
"What was upstairs?" Lanie was curious.
"Sleeping quarters. From the look of it, these guys are pigs." Kate was not impressed.
"No clothes for women?" Lanie would like to fit in, by changing clothes.
Kate shook her head. "All guys." Getting Lanie to curse internally.
"We should run before the sun comes up and this city wakes up." Lanie wanted to hide while they worked out where they were and tried to solve some of their questions.
It only took minutes to run back to the building their shuttle was sitting on. Stepping over to the same location they fell from, the jumped up onto the roof and walked into their shuttle.
Lanie took the bag with the white powder. "I'm not going to be able to tell us much about this stuff unless we go back to the ship and use its medical equipment, as limited as it may be." Lanie informs Kate.
Kate nodded her head and pulled out one of the smaller technology items they had found. It had a screen that lite up when she turned it on. The other panel had numbers 1 through 9 along with a star and another character. Pressing one of the numbers caused the device to beep lightly, along with noticing that the number she pressed was displayed on the screen.
Kate decided to experiment and inserted a set of numbers, then chose to press the green colored button.
Then a voice came from the device. "I'm sorry, the number you have entered could not be completed as dialed." Kate closed it. "It's a communication device of some type. A portable one." Kate comments.
Kate switches to the much bigger device that has a keyboard built-in. Finally finding the power button. 'Starting Windows'
It had a skull and cross bones on the screen with a number of mini-pictures on the left side. Kate could see an arrow like symbol move around when she dragged her finger across a small panel that had what looked like two buttons on the bottom.
The tags on the device said it was an IBM Thinkpad TP760XL, not that, that meant anything to Kate.
XGA screen and received the more recently developed 166 MHz Intel Pentium I MMX Processor. This model featured 48 MB RAM standard and a CD-ROM standard. Offered a 2.1 GB and 3.0GB hard drive option and came pre-installed with Windows 95.
It didn't take long to figure out what Norton and McAfee was. However some of the other things she found where going to take a little work.
Then Kate noticed it was presently working off of a battery that was already down to 76% power left. A battery meant it could be re-charged or needed to be replaced with a fresh one. However Kate didn't remember seeing any cables, so she turned it back off to save the battery for when she wanted to try again.
"Shall we start counting?" Kate offered after putting the computer off to one side.
A lot of the bills were badly crinkled making it difficult to place them in a pile after having been counted. There were 1's, 5's, 10's, 20's, 50's and 100's. Each number had a different picture in the middle.
It took some time to count it all out and then put it back into the duffel bag. $120,000
"I wonder if that is a lot or just a little." Lanie didn't know. The map they had bought hadn't cost but a fraction of this number, however it was just a simple map. They had a lot to learn.
However it had been a long day and it was time to get some sleep. They decided to sleep during the day and go out searching at night again. The darkness gave them some cover.
It was uncomfortable and since the two seats didn't fold flat, it made sleeping in the shuttle a little weird. The two duffle bags were behind the two seats since the shuttle didn't have any storage space to speak of.
The shuttle did however have something that the ship didn't have. It had a viewing port on each side. Though the piloting of the shuttle was the same as the ship. The screens in front of Kate were smaller, but not much else changed.
"The sun is still up." Lanie points out. "Though it should be down soon."
"Shall we take a look at our home with the benefit of the sun still being up?" Kate asks since she was interested, and started to open the door.
"Are your contacts in?" Lanie cautions since she knows her's aren't.
Kate cursed silently and jerked her head. They had been on a ship in the darkness of space for so long. Plus that little adventure at the hospital had been at night. Kate had gotten complacent about wearing them.
Being a vampire had a few negatives. They needed blood to live. And while they could survive in direct sun light, anything more than a minute or two and the sun would burn their eyes out, leaving them blind for the rest of their life.
However being a vampire meant they had greater strength, better eye sight, better smell, better hearing and lived a little longer than the average human.
Except it also meant the Universe wanted them all dead, hence the Hunters.
With contacts in place Kate opened the door and squinted since it had been a while since she had been in sun light. The building around them were more vivid and the noise around them was greater.
It was mostly noise from all the cars. Road noise and car horns. Surprisingly there was very little talking from the people on the street. "We need to bring some of the money with us. We need to understand how much or little we have." Kate comments and heads back to the shuttle.
After giving some of it to Lanie they step over the side and drop to the ground below. Bending their knees just a little as they land, not seeing anyone near them or looking this way.
"We need information." Kate comments, just not entirely sure how to get it.
This time they went the other direction from last night. They walked past countless places to eat at. Most had seating inside, however a few had seating outside. They also went passed a number of stores. One of them caught Kate's eye so she talked Lanie into going inside.
It was an electronics store. It was filled with TV's of countless sizes, most of which were on showing any number of different shows. Though several were showing the same thing.
"Can I help you ladies?" A guy inside the store approached them.
"Not really no, we just want to look." Kate answers.
"Of course, look around all you please. The TV's with a perfect size for a dorm room or sharing an apartment with are over there." And he points. "If you have questions just let me know." And he backs off a little.
Kate and Lanie didn't understand but went where he pointed. The TV's over here were a lot smaller than the ones that had gotten their attention. Still they were bigger than the screens on the side on the ship.
"These are mostly around $100, the bigger they get the more they cost." Kate points out.
"And we have $120,000, except we need a place to live, clothes and countless other things." Lanie adds.
It got Kate to nod her head. They needed a lot of things and it would all add up. Maybe $120,000 was a lot and maybe it wasn't.
"You ladies have any questions?" The guy was back.
"We don't know how much space we have yet." Kate offered, thinking if she got him talking it might give them something.
It got him to smile. "A lot of college students are only just arriving. I'm sure you can see a lot of advertising on campus. I don't think there is anyone on campus that can help you find something. You two are likely on your own." If their parents weren't here to help them it was going to be hard on them.
"We're still a little lost around here. Where is the college from here?" Lanie asks.
"Sure, follow me." And he leads them outside. "Go up this street and turn right at the first light. Then go straight for about a mile, maybe less, and you'll be on the edge of the campus. There are a lot of student apartments all around it. First come first serve, so I suggest you start there. Then come back and I'll help you pick a TV for your size and price."
"Thanks." Lanie offers and Kate and her start walking.
"Good luck ladies." He offers and goes back inside.
It was going to be dark soon so the two of them started walking a little faster. It took some searching before they found an advertising area about apartments. There were also a lot of other kids walking around all over.
Then a pair of guys walked over. "The better apartment offers are on the board just inside the library. These are the cheap ones with questionable owners who might not fix the hot water or the leak in the sink." Kate and Lanie sized these two up. They were obviously older than them.
"First year freshman, right?" One of they guys asks. Getting Kate to nod her head.
"We're juniors and roommates. You really should go to the library and look first. If you can afford it, it is a better option. Come on, we can walk you there. The campus is mostly safe, but it's getting dark.
Honest, no funny business." Him and his friend hold up their hands.
"The college has staff and offices to help you find housing, it's just that they are closed now, so the library can give you an idea on what to expect. …. What are you majoring in?" One of them asks as they walk.
"Medical." Lanie answers since that was what she had been studying earlier.
"Electronics or maybe criminal justice, I haven't decided." Kate had always been interested in trying to prove that her kind wasn't to be feared. But she was also good at fixing things, like space ships.
"The university has a good criminal justice course, or so I'm told. Don't know much about the others." One answers getting the other guy to shake his head.
"This is the library, the board is just inside." As he opens the door and holds it open for all of them. "Looks like most of them are still up. Still it would be best to go see the staff and get their help. They're good at it." The guy offers.
"I'm Alan and this is Eric, we'll let you look in peace. We can meet up for drinks later if you like. There are a lot of local places to go." Alan offers.
"I'm Kate and this is Lanie, and we don't, … Thanks but no." Kate tells him, they had helped enough.
"Freshmen!" Alan rolls his head, not old enough to drink. He kicks himself for being so stupid.
"Fake ID's?" Eric asks. Most good looking women had fake ID's didn't they. Watching Kate and Lanie shake their heads.
Kate and Lanie watch Erik pull Alan off to one side and start talking in whispers. Kate and Lanie can however still hear them.
They are soon back and tell Kate and Lanie what they had already heard. "If you've got $250 we know a guy who can get you a fake ID so you can get in. It'll only take him a day. They're not great, but it will fool most everyone." Alan offers.
"That'll be great, thanks." Kate responds and yanks down one of the advertisements for an apartment that she thought sounded interesting.
Alan took it and went over to a desk and picked up one of those mini pencils and wrote down a name and address. "Here, say around lunch tomorrow. He should have both of them ready about the same time the next day. … Below that is a place we can meet for drinks if you like." It was a neutral site. They didn't have to ask for their phone numbers or where they were staying.
Kate takes it. "Thanks, maybe if they are ready we'll meet you there." Kate offers.
Once outside they both go their separate ways. "Are we really?" Lanie asks, because she wasn't really interested in either of them, not that they weren't nice, because they both were.
"NO, but we did get some help from them so I do kinda feel bad about using them. … A little." Kate didn't have any interest in them either.
Kate and Lanie wandered around the campus getting used to it. Reading the names of each of the buildings and memorizing the layout of the campus. "We still need more information, a simple fake ID might not be enough. We may need to take some classes here." Kate points out.
"Or how much it costs." Lanie points out.
It got Kate to sigh. They didn't have jobs, they needed proper ID's to get them most likely. They needed to get established like they were at the last planet. For now they needed to bite and steal to survive and that just wasn't how Kate wanted to live.
They may be vampires, but they weren't mean and didn't want to have to steal to live. She wanted a life, one that didn't include being on the run.
"We may need to go back to the same place as last night again. I'm betting that was the bad area of this city. We need more money, classes, provided that we can get in, are not likely to be cheap." Lanie points out knowing that knowledge is gold.
Kate let out another heavy sigh. The early days, or even weeks on a new planet were always the hardest.
They did at least know what to smell for to lead them to those locations like the last house. So long as they were careful and fast.
Franklin St, Apt. 2b
New York, NY 10013
This 2 bedroom 2 bath oasis boasts 1,123 square feet of space, clear finished oak plank flooring, travertine marble baths, chic crown moldings and bright floor to ceiling windows throughout. The large open kitchen features an eat-in bar area with pendant lighting illuminating the space, Bosch and Sub-Zero appliances, and a 24 bottle wine refrigerator.
It came furnished, pet friendly, which was something that interested Kate, it had a doorman, so it had at least some security, a large deck, club house and a large outdoor common area on the roof.
It would be a long drop if they decided to step over the side, but they both thought they could handle it. Jumping back up however was out. They may both be strong, but they weren't that strong.
And it was only $6795 a month, plus paying 6 months in advance with cash got them in easy.
It was this process that they found out they needed social security cards. It was part of the paperwork they had to fill out, but since they didn't know right then they were allowed to move in and provide the numbers later.
It was also really close to their shuttle that they left on the roof they had landed on. And since it came with a TV, they didn't need to go back to that store. Actually this TV was even better than the ones they had been looking at.
$40,770 out of their $120,000 down leaving $79,230 left to work with. Even after this they decided to go back out and look for another house like that last one.
Power, water, cable, all had to be worked out, that turned out to be easy enough. It did however give them a monthly bill that they had to keep track of.
Next came shopping for clothes to fit into their surroundings better with, contacts for their eyes, since they only had just so many of them, and of course blood. Fresh blood was always better tasting, and satisfying, but they wanted to fit in. This was home now and going around biting people could easily lead to trouble.
Classes at NYU would be starting in a few weeks. If they wanted in they needed to get their hands on a social security number, soon!
Kate and Lanie were relaxing on their white sofa in front of the TV watching the late night news, since they had a lot to learn. "I hope your parents are alright, I don't want to be the last of my kind." Lanie started blinking back tears. They had come far in only 3 or 4 days, but it was still just them.
"Dad is resourceful, they'll think of something. They'll be here, I just don't know when. … Just keep smelling when we are outside. We have to keep alert or the Hunters will sneak up on us again." Kate had learned her lesson from last time.
Her parents had to find them. They had to! Nineteen was just too young to be this alone.