Details taken care of, Vala sat before the visual-radio and began working out the new world she had awoken in. No dials to change the station. The radio appeared to only show current events. Nothing cultural. No succession of programming, merely more of the same hour after hour.
Gradually the confusing picture of affairs began to show form. If Germany United States
There was much that needed more investigation. New jargon. A ubiquitous term, “internet,” that was either a universal encyclopaedia or a massive telephone system; something similar called “the web” which may have had something to do with a world wide postage system called “the ‘E’ Mail” which in turn may have been related to “’I’ Phoning” which appeared to be separate from the internet… probably. And apparently the Earth had moved closer to the sun (which could not be good for her) as evidenced by the resulting global warming. Seven billion people… how could that have happened? Clearly vampires weren’t culling the herd. Though it helped explain how this little name on the map, “Vancouver
So very much more to understand, it will take some time to sort it all out.
The big news was vampires. Here. In a hospital in the city. Clearly they were nothing like her, but superficially there were similarities. They feasted on blood, but propagated by their bite, not by siring. They appeared to be new – or at least the world had been unaware of them before now.
Her imagination tumbled end over end as she considered the possibilities.
How fortunate for me to wake here, now. Have other nosferatu known about this new breed? Or has it sprung up in the knowledge of man and vampire simultaneously? Are there even other nosferatu here? Most likely, but have they the wit to capitalize on this? Or what if this is part of someone’s larger plan? Doubtlessly they couldn’t have planned for me. Who am I to turn my back on a little chaos?
#
Getting herself back into the city was a simple affair. Finding the hospital was somewhat more difficult, though the goodness of human nature worked in her favour as the night’s drunken revellers were friendly and keen to give a lost stranger directions.
As she had seen on the visual radio, the entrances were all blocked and well guarded my modern foot soldiers that didn’t in fact look terribly different from their predecessors from the mid 20th century. Rifles and helmets remained the vogue.
Another thing that had not changed was the expectation that someone might scale an outside wall without aid or deliberation. A dark corner was all she required for the first forty feet, beyond that – people rarely look up.
Inside, practically the entire population of the hospital remained in quarantine. Vala could hide in plain sight among the staff and patients, and virtually none looked askance at her apparel. Most were sleeping, but many still roamed the halls discussing their predicament, forming uninformed opinions of how long they might remain, or quietly wandering, losing sleep over the same questions. From snatches of conversation, it didn’t take long to zero in on where the truly infected were being kept.
Stealthily she crept into the ward and with judicious application of broken necks and, where possible, the luxurious strength-building draining of an unwary attendant, the immediate guards and caretakers of the half-dozen or so freshly born vampires were dispatched.
Vala knew she wouldn’t have long before her invasion would be discovered, but it would not take long for her to recruit.
She lost several precious minutes working out the procedure for opening the sealed doors – an overly complicated system in her mind, when lock and key would have worked just as well… or as poorly as the case would be.
The door opened with a hiss.
Inside the room a man sat awake, strapped to his bed.
As she crossed the floor to him, he examined her face with appalled curiosity.
She found the clasp holding down his arm and whispered a promise to him.
“Free….”
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