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Esthar awoke the next day, with Tammy already up and moving about. He sat up in the bed and looked around, because it looked like something was different. There was a certain darkness to the scene that he wasn’t used to. It was like there were large purple lights pointing into his eyes without somewhere to come from. He got up and called for Tammy.
“Tammy is everything alright?” the scene around him was eerie almost unreal it seemed like things were leaning in at him but when he looked at them they were just as normal as any other day.
“Everything’s fine honey, why, what’s wrong?” she asked as she walked into the room. She sat next to him on the bed and looked into his face. He was pale in the eerie light but she didn’t seem to notice. When he looked back at her she was also pale and the odd color surprised him. It certainly was a good look for her but her eyes were just as grey as her skin and that was what perturbed him the most.
“I don’t know baby it just seems like everything is different. What time is it?” he asked looking for the watch that was normally on his wrist. It wasn’t there but he could see it on the cherry stand next to the bed. He reached for it and saw that it wasn’t working, it was just blacked out. Frustrated he set it down and looked back to Tammy.
“It’s midnight honey why what’s wrong? I thought you would have been going out today? Are you ok?” she asked a worried expression on her face.
“You slept in so long. I thought that the siren would have woke you up but you’re just sitting there like you can’t hear it.” She said and at that moment the sound of the blaring sirens from all thirty of the lights faded in slowly at first, and then rose to a deafening pitch. Tammy started to say something else but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the sirens. Esthar jumped up and grabbed his lance strapping it down and heading for the front door. At that moment the sound of broken glass rose above the sound of the siren and he stopped with his hand on the front door. There was a scream behind him and he whirled running back into the bedroom. Seeing the four Vampires standing over Tammy’s body as she soaked in a puddle of her own blood, he swung his lance and it passed right through one of the Vampires head. The Vampire dropped and he switched his attention to the other two that were standing there. Only two? Weren’t there three left? He thought as the missing Vampire grabbed him from behind. The other two Vampires advanced on him, and he struggled to get loose from the other Vampires grip. In the next moment they were on top of him clawing and slashing, tearing and biting at him. The pain was immense and he began to lose consciousness but just when he thought that he was dead they stopped ravaging him and took a couple of steps back. Behind them a young woman stepped into his vision and stooped down over him.
“I’m coming for you Esthar.” She said and she began to pick him up as easily as she might a child.
“I’ve been waiting to meet you for a long time.” She said cradling his body against her own. Esthar could feel her hands brushing his neck and the softness of her fingers. She bent his head back and sank her fangs into his neck. His world immediately went black and he woke up sweating from every part of his body.

He sat up quickly and Tammy shifted beside him still asleep. He felt himself over to make sure that he was still whole. Finding that he was, he looked down at Tammy and looked her over as well careful not to wake her. She looked just as whole as he was so he relaxed a little and accepted that it had all been a dream. He looked at his watch to see the time and found that it was dead. Swearing he moved back the covers and swung his legs out of the bed. He went to his dresser and put on some heavy denim jeans and his favorite white Under Armor shirt. It was tight enough to show off his muscles but not tight enough to let people see the scar on his chest. As attention getting as it was he did not like the kind of attention that it got him. When people noticed his scar they would stand and stare. It was a very gruesome testimony of his job but he enjoyed having it for occasions such as what happened the day before with TJ and Ronnie. Esthar moved to the bedside again and watched Tammy as she slept. Her bulging belly showed tell of their daughter Amelia as she slept in the womb. Tammy was peaceful and the realness of her features, when compared to the dream, satisfied him. He decided that he would go check on his son Stephen who was in the children’s room. Walking through the house he heard the sounds of the nocturnal owl and smiled at the thought that nature was watching over his home. It had been a while since the sound of the birds and other animals had been around because of all of the fighting and the UV lights. It seemed like the whole world knew about what was happening but would do nothing about it. Everyone knew that the other nearby cities were being attacked as well, because some of their residents would migrate to this city when they heard that it was withstanding the attacks. Truthfully it wasn’t doing that much better than the other cities but the UV lights and the skill and amount of training that they put in allowed them to beat the Vampires a little more than the others. It was nice to know that this city was doing that much better and the new people that came in were ready and willing to fight or help in other things however they could. Esthar went into the children’s room and moved to the crib that his year and a half old son was lying. The boy looked a lot like Esthar, his hair was dirty blonde and his eyes were hazel, and his cheekbones were slightly inset even through his baby fat. Stephen was a very large child with fair skin and wide shoulders telling anyone who looked that he was going to be a very powerful man. Esthar could only hope that he would live long enough to see his transformation into a man. Seeing that everything was in place there in the children’s room he went out into the hallway again and headed for the front door. He could see that the sun was up through the windows so he knew that it was about time for him to go out and round up his team. He unlocked the door and stepped out into the sun. Based on where the sun was positioned in the sky he guessed that it was about two o’ clock. Having slept in a little more than usual he shook his head and started heading towards the center of town.

Esthar’s walk consisted of his usual routine, checking his traps and meeting with the supply train as they came into the city. Normally he wouldn’t find anything in his traps but recently after the battles he would find sprung traps and squirming Vampires screaming loudly most of their limbs either missing or horribly mangled. He was glad to know that his traps were effective but when it came down to it more and more of them were being sprung and he was finding more Vampires inside the city than normal. It was not a good sign and the thought of the Vampires changing their tactics made him nervous. He killed another trapped Vampire and proceeded to the next trap. This one was sprung but there was no victim as far as he could tell. Grabbing the rope that held this trap together he began to string it up again and noticed that it had been cut. He swore quietly and picked up the pieces of the traps to show his men. If they were able to find the traps now then they would have to change their own tactics to make up for it. He swore again, this turn of events meant that life in the city was going to get much harder very quickly. That meant that his family and his men’s families were all in danger. It also meant that the fighting teams would have to be condensed to provide men to search the city for loose Vampires. It also meant that the Vampires had a much higher chance of breaking the lights since they no longer had to fight their way past them. With someone on the inside all they had to do was wait for them to take out the lights and they could run in easily. This fact frustrated Esthar and he began to move more quickly. Once he had all of the pieces of the trap he called into his radio signaling all of his men to meet him at the training grounds. From there he started running to the training field and signaling for the other teams to come as well. This was certainly a major find and it needed to be addressed quickly before anything could happen. The wind blew through his short hair and the breeze felt good on his skin but he was in too much of a hurry to stop and enjoy it. He ran through the city the pieces of the trap clanking together under his arm. People stared as they saw him running by and some moved out of his way not wanting to be run over. Esthar bumped into a couple of people and almost fell over but he caught himself and kept running. From where he had been on the outside of town it took him about four minutes to get there at an all out run. When he arrived at the training area he saw that most of his team and several of the other teams were already there. Throwing the pieces of the trap down, he bent over breathing heavily. Everyone stared at the trap unable to guess why it was significant. When Esthar had finally caught his breath he stood up straight and looked around at them.
“Has anyone else found any of their traps slashed like this one?” he asked kicking the pieces around. Several of the crowd yelled an affirmative and started explaining that they hadn’t had any problems until the last attack in which several of their traps had been slashed and almost forty Vampires had been caught in the ones that hadn’t been slashed. The significance of the slashed trap struck the crowd like a thunderclap and they began to murmur and talk amongst themselves.

“That’s right men. There are Vampires still free inside the city. We have to find them and kill them before they do any more damage. Now, I don’t know how they got through but when I find out we will have to work together to fix this problem. Forty Vampires inside the city for two days can do a lot of damage so we need to ask around with the civilians and see if there are any missing persons and find out how long and what area that they were last seen in. If we can’t find these fiends then the Vampires have a very large advantage against us and we won’t be able to hold them off for another attack. It’s a very different strategy than we are used to so be on your toes if you come across any of the surviving Vampires that are left.” He said instructing half of them to search the city and the other half of them to move the traps that have not been destroyed in case that they may have already been found. They couldn’t take any chances when it came to the safety of not only themselves but the civilians as well. Most of them were women and children but there were some disabled men that also fell into that category.
“Now go and find those fiends and kill them before they get the chance to hurt someone. We can only hope that they haven’t had enough time to do so already.” He said and they all started scrambling to the traps and to the buildings closer to the outskirts of town. All of the buildings out there were abandoned due to the proximity to the Vampires when they attacked, so they were good hiding places for stray Vampires that would try and stay in the city.

Esthar thought about Tammy and Stephen and the danger that they were in and started towards the house. The thought of leaving them unattended made him quicken his pace. Now running again he went back through the city and burst out of an alley behind his house. It looked as peaceful as it had when he left it, so he slowed his pace. Nothing seemed to be out of place and the garden was well taken care of as normal the freshly broken stems of tomatoes and corn told him that Tammy was up. He looked up into the sun and guessed that it was about seven o’ clock, because it was getting very close to the horizon. Looking back down again he went to the back door and jiggled the knob testing to see if it was unlocked. He smiled when he found that it was locked and moved around to the front of the house testing that door as well. It was also locked so he took out his key, unlocked it and stepped in.
“Tammy?” he called looking around.
“Yes?” she answered from the kitchen. He moved into the kitchen and went to her side. She was standing at the counter cutting the tomatoes from the garden. He wrapped his arm around her waist and turned her to him.
“I’m glad you’re ok. Have you noticed anything unusual?” he asked looking out of the window that was behind her. She gave him a puzzled look and placed her hand on his cheek.
“Of course I’m alright, why? What’s wrong?” she asked a worried expression crossing her face. He flinched knowing that he had worried her and lowered his head to rest it on hers. He sighed.
“Over the last two days the teams have been finding large numbers of slashed traps and even more Vampires inside the city….” He said.
“What?! How many?” She interrupted quickly. Esthar sighed again.
“We have found and killed forty since yesterday and we found some slashed traps as well, so we know that there are more in the city. I don’t know how they got through us or how they avoided the usual search party. But you need to be careful I won’t be able to protect you for much longer. With Vampires inside the city we have to make teams to search the old buildings on the outskirts.” He said with worry in his eyes. Her heart sank when he mentioned the outskirts. She knew as well as anyone that they were dangerous and the thought of him going out there scared her. But he had a job to do and if he didn’t go out there then the Vampires would be able to kill and to sabotage whenever they pleased. She sighed.
“I understand. Just be careful ok? We’ll be fine here.” She said and then she kissed him and walked him out of the front door.
“Just come back in one piece ok?” she said as Esthar began his trek to the outer city limits. He looked back to her and smiled.
“I will baby I promise.” He said and continued on. He met up with a few of his men as he got closer to the outskirts. They waved and approached him.
“How are we going to do this?” they asked almost simultaneously. Esthar shrugged unsure of what how to do it.
“I don’t know, but we need to meet up with the others before we go in. There‘s safety in numbers so the more men that we have the better off we are going to be.” He said in reply. Together they moved closer to the older parts of the city and found a place that looked like a good starting point for a search party to go in. Esthar looked at the spot it was a well covered area and it allowed some surprise when entering the buildings on either side of the walkway.
“We’ll wait here for any others that might show up. You might want to get comfortable until then.” He said gesturing to a bench a few feet away. As they waited for the others to show up they talked about their families and what they were going to do to the stray Vampires.

When a few more arrived at the spot Esthar asked about the civilians to see if there had been any missing person’s accounts. Finding that there were three he dropped to the bench and sighed heavily his job was to protect the civilians. Somehow the Vampires had gotten through unnoticed and made a fool of him and his team. The thought of someone’s loved ones being found in this search made him fearful. He didn’t know who was missing but he knew that he should certainly expect the worst. The only hope that he had was that they weren’t the family members of one of his men. If they were, then the anger would quickly take hold of whoever it was and they would make decisions that might put the entire team in jeopardy. That was the last thing that they needed right now. Someone getting hurt out here would spell disaster for those further into the city. The slightest rumor that there were Vampires inside the city would spark a panic like nothing else could and the chaos that followed would be the perfect opening for any Vampire attacks.