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"And yet they were able to effectively disrupt much of the world. " the elder shot back with an amused critique. "So devastate our primary food stock that we're forced to take such drastic measures to preserve the species. "

"There were only so many hours in a day, Boris. " Jonathan interjected quickly as Susanna turned dark all at once, her temper heated by the rude reproach from the old man. He'd lived so much longer than the rest of them that sometimes experience spoke quicker than the tact which called for quiet. "And we're allotted so few of them, yes. " agreed Veldt with a complacent nod toward the girl.

The others were beasts who moved clumsily through the world, taking indiscriminately and wasting much of what they laid their hands on. They had existed for a very small amount of time, compared to the longevity of Jonathan's race. It took only a few year for these ravenous newcomers to usurp much of the natural world from it's previous owners, gnashing poisonous teeth which ripped at warm yielding flesh! Blunt fingers which nonetheless were effective in tearing apart limbs from the weak bodies of the food...

"So, the plans are set with the Captain of the Mary Celeste then? " Pavel's mouthpiece broke into the remembering with his disregard for etiquette, the business at hand too important for the time wasting politics of sociability.

"Captain Rainier will have the freighter ported at Pier 13, " Jonathan confirmed easily, knowing the leaderships' concerns. The operation, soon to be mirrored in other ports, east and west, was too important for last minute difficulties. "ready to take on cargo by midnight. "

"And I've come to understand that he knows of us, what we are... "

At this deceptively innocent remark from Boris, Susanna gave him a wide smile, showing her prominent canines behind seductive deep red lips. "What we are... is the Frying Pan Vs the Fire. " laughed the Undead woman, staring past the ancient one to the heavily shuttered windows which kept the burning sunlight at bay.

To find the night, to hunt as one pleased like in the old days, some eighty-seven years for the female preternatural predator. But those sweet times were vanquished by the unthinking intercession of a myth given form, cause still unknown, manifesting itself in a plague of walking dead which all too quickly decimated the human cattle.

"We'll be ready, " Jonathan told his superior, ignoring the childish sarcasm from the youngster. "Rainer believes that continued life under our guardianship to be preferable to a grisly death and empty resurrection at the hands of these abominations. "

"Then we'll sleep now, " Boris commanded. "and made final preparations at last light tomorrow... "

No one knew exactly when the Vampires awakened as a species, only that records of them could be found in the rotting papyrus of ancient Egypt, the chiseled pictoglyphs of much older Mesopotamia, in the simple cave art in remote areas of France...

Though they wore the guise of Homo sapiens in form, it would as comparing Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon as anything but separate branches of the same tree. As in putting the cart before the horse, this race of ruthless prideful predators considered themselves more as Homo-superior, if that.

With the mould broken, as with the sharks which glided though modern waters, the same as when they swam the primordial seas millions of years before, the undead found little need to change. They sought better ways to live among the food, mimic them much as a simpler animal might conceal itself to allow the prey within easy reach. But tooth and claw remained strong as did their lineage which contained many grand mysteries...

Vampires gathered reluctantly together, only for mutual protection and generally in covens no larger than twenty. As with the lesser hunters, most preferred the solitary road through an existence which bested such creatures as the tortoise for longevity. Their numbers remained modest as how many among them wanted more competition from such uncontrolled procreation. While the food could be initiated through a complex rite, into the vampire fold, the transformation was done with surprising infrequency, no more than a hundred or less world-wide each year.

But the Undead utopia, the Blood feast which promised to continue on through eternity, came to an unanticipated end when the zombies arrived!

Imagine awakening from your daylight slumber to find the world changed by this rapidly increasing population of lifeless but animate corpses whose simple directive, the gross consumption of warm flesh, threatened the food supply of their more intelligent rivals.

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