Chapter 5: Discovery

Now that it was clear that she wasn't going to die in the sunlight she set to march onward in the hopes of getting out of the woods and find a road with a car or two willing to pick up hitchhikers – while praying that the people that pick her up don't rob/rape/kill her. While Amanda seemed pleased that the sun wasn't an enemy of hers the strange tingling sensation was becoming irritating, though not painful. Though it seemed deeply absurd that the sun made her light up like a disco ball now, she could at least walk in the sun.

She smiled, for it was clear that God was looking on her favourably. Clearly he wanted her for a specific task, what that task is she couldn't be certain. Was it kill the vampires? They were monsters after all. Or was it to expose the drug companies? The reason for her infliction was simply that a drug company was taking amoral – and certainly illegal – shortcuts in the race of fighting the other companies for that vaccine or treatment.

It was hard. She figured, as any good Christian did, that God would tell her all through visions and divine intervention. In that she would soon figure out what he wants of her.

Whatever her place was, she first needed to get out of the woods and find shelter. Again, this was going to be hard. She knew immediately that she couldn't go home because of what happened to her: her husband wouldn't accept her, especially around her daughter; dear god that poor little girl would be raised without a mother. Lets not forget the reaction of the church: vampiric members get ostracized every day. After all, no one wants to be associated with undead monsters, for they are within the armies of the devil.

Course, is she a vampire? Is she something else? Is she the opposite of a vampire? It would explain her unique ability to walk in the daylight without dying.

Whatever it was, she needed to get out of the woods. Out of the woods and she can get to another town and out to other parts of the country. She knew that she couldn't go to Orillia: it was too small a town to hide in. The only thing working for her was the fact that it wasn't winter time in these woods where the cold would freeze her already shivering self. Alas she couldn't be sure of the vast terrain that she was walking in, and she knew that she needed to find her way to a road stat.

***

“So, what exactly are you finding Ms Mansion?” Dr. Green asked his lab tech in the testing room attached to block C.

“Well sir, observe,” she replied as she pointed a flashlight-like device at one of the unfortunate subjects that failed to escape that eventful evening. The device: a full-spectrum light imitator. The device was designed to emit the same type and amount of light as normal sunlight. It was usually used on vampires to see the rate of burning of the skin in testing treatment options. Dr. Green gave his lab tech a funny look, though it disappeared once he figured out that the tech was seeing if the experimental vaccine had any effects on the newly turned vampires.

She turned it on.

A look of amazement came over Dr. Green as he watched the poor soul sparkle under the light in place of the burning. The subject wriggled in annoyance but wasn't screaming in pain as was usually the case in given circumstance. Seeing this was some sort of marvel in lamiology^*, one that wasn't harmed by sunlight.

Course, this amazement gave to horror once it sunk in what this meant: there are vampires out in the woods that were daywalkers. Now the monsters didn't need cover of the night to hide anymore.

“I double-checked this with the other remaining subjects,” Mansion went on, “The results are the same: there seems to be a new strain of rotolamia.”

Dr. Green was quiet for a moment. In that moment he contemplated what this meant on so many levels, but for reasons of self-preservation he had to start at figuring out how to appease the soon to be angry corporate gods.

“What am I to tell VanCastrine?” Dr. Green asked rhetorically, “He'll have my head so Benton doesn't have his.”

***

While stumbling in the woods Amanda could make out a sound of sorts stumbling in the wood as well. Fear gripped her as she made an attempt to hide in the underbrush, fear coming over her that what was out there was a bear or a wolf, and such creatures would love themselves some human, infected or not.

She waited and hoped that whatever it was didn't notice her. It was hard to suppress her breathing, her panting for she wasn't use to walking like this for so long, and only dog blood running through her and little sleep on her behalf.

However, sitting on the brush she felt weak, and when she figured that the threat was gone she decided that she didn't want to get back up again. She was brought up in a small town and was not use to this sort of physical exertion, and she leaned back while hoping the threat was gone.

As she drifted into sleep though, hands came for her.

Yes reader! I'm leaving you on a cliff hanger!

*The study of vampires (vampiroloy sounds stupid, no?)

Chapter 4: The Changing

There was a meeting at the testing facility of Banisters Inc located north of Orillia as the panicked scientists and patrollmen gathered in the boardroom with a few of the big-wigs of the company – likely in charge of the PR department. Anxiety was high and no one in the facility was sure of even what had happened. The heads of the departments of the facility were quiet as they took a seat at the round table in the boardroom, and this ominous silence would be broken by Dwight Benton, head of Banisters Inc, Canadian branch.

“Let's start with the obvious,” he growled in a hostile, but polite, tone, “What happened here?”

“Sir,” Gavin Carmichael, head of the patrol, jumped in to give his synopsis:

“Two nights ago we had brought in a shipment of streetcrawlers... er, vampires found on the streets of various cities, intended on experimentation by Zuercher and her team in block B. As they were being brought in guardsman Noahland, godresthissoul, lifted the latch and took too long in getting the doors opened and closed and a subject jumped for him. At that point others followed. Sir, this group seemed exceptionally blood-crazy and... well... they ganged up on guardsman Hudson, Crosby, and Sanchez. They fired their weapons as is called for in standard procedure, and the gate guards were called in. At first we tried to just contain the group so they could be corralled into block B for testing. As I said, this group was exceptionally blood-crazy, and when they jumped and killed guardsman Hudson and Sanchez, we called for reinforcements and resorted to deadly force. We attempted a circular formation where we surrounded and fired bullets into the crowd, but we were getting jumped and the escaping vampires had scattered. They were fearless as they killed seven and wounded twelve: those twelve are in quarantine pending tests for rotolamia.”

Benton listened quietly with this attentiveness that wasn't past looking for something in particular in what Carmichael was saying. At point Benton then ask “So, this is an issue with block B and your inability to contain a few vampires?” “Sir, these vampires were insane,” Carmichael shot back quickly. “Vampires are insane,” Benton replied with little sympathy, “now, get to how block C got involved.”

Carmichael was sweating as not only Benton's eyes were on him expectingly, but also the others at that table: Dr. Elizabeth Zuercher, Dr. Ronald Green, Prestin VanCastrine, Vince Smith, and Fran Gallagher. Carmichael wiped his brow and continued onward with his tale:

“The vampires we had obtained were very, very, blood-crazied, and even with lethal force being employed they were still too much for the staffing at the time. Guards from the other blocks were called. Sir, it was zero hour, the other subjects would be asleep. Block A had lethargic individuals, block B was empty forobviousreasons, block C had uninfected individuals and block D had recently been cleared out after the 'riot' incident. With their help we were able to contain the situation.”

“Ok,” Benton responded simply as he sat back in his chair, “So at what point did you realize that the subjects in block C had escaped?”

“Once the vampires outside were dealt with, oh it was such a mess...”

“When did you realize the subjects in block C escaped?”

“As I said, there was a lot of chaos and...”

“When. Did. You. Realize. The. Subjects. In. Block. C. Escaped?”

“When we dealt with the vampires we went to check on the block to see if...”

“...Any of them escaped?” the agitation in Benton's voice was too thick to slice with a knife.

“Yes... sir.” Carmichael bowed his head.

“So, it was after your men took care of the vampires intended for block B that you discovered that the subjects in block C had pulled the bars out of their cells and, literally, walked out off the compound?” Benton's words were reserved but harsh in tone.

“Sir, I was unaware at the time that the subjects in block C had been inoculated with the rotolamia virus, and became vampires as a result,” Carmichael replied to the implied accusation in Benton's question, “if I did I would have...”

“Uh, Mister Carmichael,” Dr. Green interjected, “wasn't guardsman McFinny attacked by a subject in block C a day prior to this 'incident'?”

“Means nothing,” Carmichael kept going, “I mean, humans attack humans all the time and...”

“The other guards on duty felt it necessary to inflict deadly force on the subject,” Dr. Green cornered Carmichael with this thought, “those guards, like yourself I assume, would figure that being bitten by someone cold would mean vampire, and they figured it out before myself and my lab tech tested for it... the night prior.”

“Well, um,” Carmichael was in such a hole he was having a hard time digging himself out of it.

“Now, maybe you can tell Mr. Benton here how you took 'care' of the vampires that were suppose to be in block B?” Dr. Zuercher spat while pointing at Benton, who returned a disapproving glare in Dr. Zuercher's direction. She responded with dropping her finger and bowing her head.

“Yes, please, what of them?” Benton repeated.

“Well, they were nuts, and the only way we could deal with them was through deadly force so...” Carmichael started, to be finished with Dr. Zuercher saying “you killed them.”

“It was extreme circumstances,” Carmichael continued on, “I mean, those vampires, they were...”

“I've heard enough Mr. Carmichael,” Benton cut him off, then pointed to the door, “go wait in the hallway.”

“Yes sir,” and Carmichael was up and through the door.

Benton turned to VanCastrine as Carmichael closed the door behind him. “Mr. VanCastrine, you will see to that Mr. Carmichael is terminated after this meeting,” he simply said before turning his attention to Dr. Green. “Now, what can you tell me of the vampires from block C?” he asked.

Dr. Green bowed his head and spoke of his knowledge and findings:

“Sir, the vampires from block C were nightwalkers who were rounded up from the surrounding cities whom initially tested negative for rotolamia. They were given test-serum 751, an experimental vaccine that worked like the virus, only the body would absorb it like any weak pathogen. It was vaccination via active immunity. After injection the subjects were given two days for the formula to take effect before we tested the effectiveness of the vaccine by inoculating the subjects with the rotolamia virus. I doubt you need to look at the report sir to note that the vaccine was a failure, though the good guard did manage to round up a few of those subjects for long-term study.”

“Is there anything special about the test vaccine that failed?” Benton asked sternly. “Only that it modified the host body with DNA that is resilient to the RNA manipulation of the rotolamia virus.”

At around that point Dr. Green's Blackberry^* dinged. Everyone at the table eyed Dr. Green rudely as he went to pick up the device. Benton's disapproving glare made Dr. Green sweat in embarrassment as he scrolled through a few things. However, despite the break in meeting etiquette, no one's annoyed expressions could pierce the soon panicked look Dr. Green was giving to his blackberry screen.

Benton was the first to notice. “Dr. Green, is there a problem?” Benton asked, his voice moving from mild annoyance to indignant bitterness. “Sir...” Dr. Green was paler than a full-blooded vampire^**.

“Ron, spit it out already,” Dr. Zuercher spoke in an anxious tone, “what does it say?”

Dr. Green looked away from his blackberry screen and stared at the table. “There's been a mutation,” Dr. Green simply said in a frightened tone.

“What kind?” Dr. Zuercher asked quickly.

“That was from Mansion... the lab tech,” Dr. Green simply said, “She notes that the subjects we recaptured are responding differently to light-stimuli.”

***

The sun pierced the frail canopy of the wood and spread out its light as the morning sun was rising. As it did it touched everything with its holy light, including Amanda as she awaited her death. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow as when things got bright she stopped praying and let the light come to her. She felt her vampiric skin tingle as the light hit it, and the light's strength gradually became stronger. The day got warmer, and the sun rose higher into the sky.

There was no way of telling the time where she was, but she couldn't help but think that she should have burst into ash like they did on television when so much as a stray beam hit a vampire. Course, she started to think that maybe the light took longer to work than that, that she would develop a bad sun burn before she burned and turned to ash by the sun.

This tingling was more annoying than painful, but maybe it started like that, no? Still she lost her patients when she realized that the tingling didn't turn to burning. With that, she opened her eyes.

My god the sight she say. It was the damnest thing she ever laid eyes on.

Where there should have been burnt flesh upon her exposed skin there was still healthy tissue. The damnest still was the fact that the light that was hitting her skin was dancing along at various intervals, sparkling and twinkling along as the light hit it.

How could this be? This was not suppose to happen! She had seen half-dead vampires whom have ended up outside in broad daylight somehow and were fried like meat on the stove. What was going on?

Then it dawned on Amanda: God had intervened, and his will was that she was to live.

She looked up to the sun. She smiled as she felt the tingling in her face: the sign of his forgiveness. “Thank you God, most merciful God,” she announced as she bowed her head before getting up, “what is your will? What am I to do now?”

There was a pause – after all, when was the last time God simply spoke in a tangible voice to you? After the pause Amanda than screamed out “Am I to be your holy warrior? To slay the vampires? Have you granted me their powers so I can stand a chance against them? Does this make me an undead servant of yours?”

This makes a heck of a lot of sense to me too. Now, this is where the Undead Paladin was born!

*Research In Motion does not sponsor this site (though maybe they should, lol)

**Full-blooded vampires are ones that have been vampires for a long time and are noted to be paler than the average person.

Chapter 3: The Dawning

Yes, the poor farm house and the little family that rested so comfortably within it. Yes, the poor little dwelling overseeing several hectares of non-industrial farmland out in the middle of nowhere.

In that dead of night they would be sleeping, yes, sleeping, as the pigs were away in the barn and the grain that was part of their diet laid out there in the field soaking moonlight. The dogs employed to watch the farm at night were asleep in an open kennel by the barn, defending their charges while stray cats slept along the fawna nearby.

The poor farm during such a time of unrest as the night and the spread of the OPP can only cover so much.
Those dogs mentioned in the last paragraph were trained to gnaw on humans, yes, humans, for that many a vampire had been known to hide in the nearby wood, waiting to feed on their livestock. The family didn't have the heart to sell the family farm that they had be working with for a long time, and figured war measures would sooner or later be lifted.

Of course, in the dead of the night there was a heavy commotion, consisting of the barking of dogs. The dogs barked and the screams of a woman could be heard as out of the farm house emerged a big, burly man, with a hunting rifle. He walked out several feet to where his dogs where, only to find one of his dogs missing and a blood trail. A trail that lead him to a brown-haired Caucasian female in wrinkled clothing grabbing onto a piece of her side that was bleeding out.

The farmer held his gun up and pointed it at her.

“Where's my dog?” he asked in an angered tone. When the now shivering woman didn't reply he repeated himself loudly.

“What, what?” the woman replied, confused and scared.

“What the hell are you doing on my property?” he screamed at her. Before vampires he might have been more sympathetic, but in the era of diseased people who crave eating you it is sometimes better to just shoot them. “Don't make me shoot you,” he added, the words dropping in a mix of machismo and fear.

“Please, I...” the woman's words reverb with pure fear as she stared at the barrel of the rifle and she struggled to get up in the shadows of the darkness that was around them. After some quick wheezing she then continues between shallow breathing “I got lost in the woods, and I was in your field, and...”

“Really now,” the man replied as he slowly lowered his weapon, “you've seen my dog?”

“... no,” she replied quickly.

“Ok,” the man replied, “I want to know why you're on my farm.”

“I got lost... I was on a hike... I found your field... and your dogs...” the woman trailed on while breathing shallowly.

“Got lost eh?” he repeated before uttering under his breath “stupid city slicker.”

He looked back at the house and then looked in the direction of the woman. He noted that she seemed to be gaining some of her strength and was sitting upright, so maybe she wasn't fatally wounded. Still, he had a family and he wanted to be sure that she was just a lost dipshit and not a vamp on the prowl. He then asked “One of my dogs is missing, what happened to it?”

“How should I know?” the woman replied as she held onto herself and struggled to be in a seated position, “I... I get to your farm... thinking some nice country folk... like yourself... could help out a stranger.”  She wheezed, then continued, “then the dogs... dear god the dogs attack.”

At this point the farmer gave her his hand. “I'm sorry miss,” he replied while giving the young woman his hand to help her up, “You know the times: vampires, fangbangers, cults around vampirism, the damn cops and curfew bullshite. I had to be sure I could trust you.” The woman made a grab for the man before being lifted up to be taken to the farm house where his plan was to get emergency services out to help. About halfway to the farm house he spoke again, “Name's Riley by the way, and yourself?”

“Amanda kind sir,” the woman replied.

***

Riley placed Amanda on a couch of a small living room in the small farmhouse as a burly and round woman
came out from one of the rooms. “Riley, what's going on?” she asked in a low whisper. “Lost camper from the city, Lily,” he replied to the woman, “she found our yard and disturbed the dogs.” “You sure she ain't a vamp or something?” Lily quickly responded, “Them things lurk at night you know.”

“I believe her,” Riley replied, “she can't be no vampire, she's clearly not blood-crazy or anything, just a stupid city slicker... now, hit the light and get the first aid kit from the kitchen.”

Lily waltzed into the kitchen while turning on the living room light with a swift hand motion and a soft click of a switch. She could be heard rummaging for the metal box that contained things like bandages for the event of an accident on the farm. As Riley cooed to Amanda “Your going to be ok, miss.  We'll get you to town in the morning...” she returned from the kitchen with the kit, only to drop it on the floor and shriek.

“Riley! What did you do!?” she screamed in terror. “What?” Riley responded startled. “Riley, you dumb fuck! Look at her!” Lily returned in a concoction of fear and rage.

“Look at her!”

Riley did. Amanda's clothing was wrinkled and her hair was a mess, as expected, as well as blood on her shirt and pants. What else Riley was that the blood on her shirt seemed to be all over the front of her shirt despite the lack of injury that could have bled from. There was also blood on her face and in her hair – again with no corresponding injury. The wound she did have where bites to her arms and legs, which were consistent with being attacked by a dog. At a further look, her eyes where horribly dilated and something wasn't quite right about how her teeth sat on her mouth.

“Now, shoot her dead before she gains any strength,” Lily went in a panic.

“My god,” Riley took another look at Amanda, “I took pity on you... I thought you were lost. You were on the prowl, aren't you! You went for the livestock didn't you? Your going to kill us now, eh?”

“No... course not...” Amanda stammered with what strength she had, “I'm sorry... please don't...”

“Hurry up!” Lily screamed as she shoved the rifle onto Riley, “Hurry up and be a man.”

At this point two little kids were waiting from a stairwell that lead to the bedrooms of the farm house.

“Riley, I'm not here to hurt your family,” Amanda whimpered, “Please, just let me go.”

“Riley, that's a vamp!” Lily screamed out, “they eat humans! Think of the family!”

Amanda rustled from the couch and slumped herself onto the floor. “Please,” Amanda plead meekly, “Please, don't, I just want to go home.”

“Don't let the pity repose fool you Riley,” Lily interjected, “She's not human anymore: she's a monster now. Remember what happened to Kevin.”

“For God's sake...” Amanda whimpered as tears fell down her and she slowly inched for the door, attempting to pass Riley on the way out. “Don't blaspheme God's name you undead abomination!” Lily screamed, “shoot
Riley.”

Riley held the rifle up and pointed it at Amanda. “I'm sorry miss,” he quietly said, “I'm just thinking of my family. By God.”

Riley pulled the trigger, but missed as Amanda quickly got to her feet, while tripping Riley onto the floor and she bolted it for the door. She felt the door break before her more than open as she bolted out and ran for the fields, heading for the woods that concealed her so well. As she ran more gun shots where fired, all of them missing as she disappeared into the woods through the fields.

Riley stopped chasing her once she got past the barn and out near the trees, satisfied that he did defend his family that night. At that point he walked around the perimeter of the barn. As he did he found the carcass of that missing dog. It was obvious how the dog died: it was subdued and bitten by something, and it wasn't a mere coincidence that the dog's carcass was found nearby where Riley discovered Amanda.

At that point, Riley walked back to the farm house. He had a wife and children to comfort after all.

***

Amanda ran through the woods until the wounds she had sustained earlier came back to haunt her. She was
still amazed with herself of how little she was hurting at that moment despite the wound on her leg from fighting the dogs at the farm. The cuts of the barbed-wire from that prison of mad scientists she escaped from were still pronounced though they seemed to be healing.

After some time walking she found a small clearing in woods where she sat down. Much ran through her mind. The night she got in the prison was from the simple mistake of walking around at night. The prison was where they made her into a vampire. Finally, the farm was proof that she was no longer Amanda Sanders. She was something more sinister than that. She was a monster.

She licked her blood stained lips. The blood from the dog was still there. More disturbingly, it tasted good. It didn't have that taste one gets from licking a metal spoon for too long. It was more inline with one of the more tastier things she had ever tasted.

She looked to the sky. What was God trying to prove to her anyway? What did he want her to do now? What she was becoming she did not like. She was becoming the monster Lily accused her of being. She was inhuman now. Nothing more than a beast that stalked the nighttime looking for something to kill and feed on.

“Please God,” she screamed to the sky as though she had gone mad, “Please, take me while I'm still me. I will not sin by my own existence. Am I to die to serve you?”

She cried. Fear ran into her as she thought of her infant daughter and her husband back in Orillia. Her husband would have reported her missing by now. He and the church would be looking for her. They would have been calling the cops, asking if the OPP had picked her up that night as was custom if one was caught outside past curfew. They would be either looking for a body or a vampire by now. This made her cry harder.

So, this was how she ended up out in the woods awaiting with fear and excitement for dawn to break. She
looked up at the falling moon and the slow changing of the colours of the sky. While she had been waiting in the darkness she was praying the rosary.

“Our father, who art in heaven,” she went on as she thought of her God, and how she felt she was pleasing him by shedding of her new shell that was dipped in sin an wrapped in evil, “hallow be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,” this as she thought of the times she had sinned, and the fact that she couldn't get confession done for she couldn't find a church since being nabbed, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.

“Lead us not into temptation,” the last line of the prayer, being more important for this was what she wanted the most: “but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

Then, dawn broke. God would intact his will.

Chapter 2: The Escape

Amanda laid on the cot of her cell, eyes wide awake for she was too restless to succumb to sleep. All thoughts of violation, mutilation, and sully ran through her for the dawn of the fifth day was approaching. She didn't bother to move from her cot when the 8:00 meal was being served. Food didn't taste the same anymore and she was feeling weak.

There was a pause of sorts in her praying, for she couldn't be sure what it was she had done or said that offended God so much that he would let this happen to her. Why would he let her become a vampire? Why make her undead? An abomination? Something priests go to war with?

Her thoughts were interrupted as someone in the cell next door shouted “You, bitch! You stopped repenting bullshit?”

She dragged herself out of her cot and looked out of the bars. She saw no one. The voice continued on: “Finally realized God isn't listening to you? Figured out he ain't there?”

“God is everywhere,” she repeated as loudly as she could.

“Even here?” the voice went on, “that must make him in league with these monsters.”

That was a hard statement to retort.  If God was everywhere, that included where she was, and therefore he sees the evil that is here. So, that put Amanda back to her original thought track: was God punishing her for something?

Upon further reflection, which took her long enough to see the 12:00 feeding occur, she figured that this was some sort of trial, one that was intended to proof the strength of her faith to God. After all, many a prophet was put on these sort of trials. Abraham had to prove his love and devotion to God by sacrificing his son, the thing in the world he loved the most – which was a hoax by God merely to prove devotion, as God wouldn't want an offering of a person in that time. James, son of Jacob, was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, angry that Jacob showed clear favouritism for him, in order to become the right-hand man of the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time. Moses had to lead his people through the desert for forty years before taking them to the promised land. David had to slay Goliath, and lead a rebellion against King Saul, who God was angry with. God took away Job's fortune and family as well as put him through immense suffering to test his undying faith in God. Jesus himself was put on trial when he had to pay our debt in sins for us when he was crucified by Pilate. History is full of prophets and martyrs, whose undying faith in God made them heroes for whom their lead is to follow.

With that in mind she sat up and bowed her head. “God, please forgive my herasy. I doubt you no more,” she said softly before chanting “I believe in God, the father almighty, the creator of heaven and earth...”

***

On the night of the fifth day, the inmates heard a rucous from a further area. In response the guard ran off. Their screams could be heard from down the hallway.

It was 0:00. The darkness was only pierced by those spotlights that skim the windows from outside. Shouting could be heard from the outside as fighting seemed to break out. There was screaming and there was gunfire. As the audio of the event outside invaded the cellblock some within were shouting “This is our chance! We flee now!”

Amanda leaned against the bars of her cell and watched some of the inmates struggle in an attempt to bend the bars of their cells. She looked over at another inmate who screamed out “Vamps are suppose to be super strong! Lets break out before the guards get back!”

It was a sound strategy: break and scatter into the nearby woods before the guards realize that they got
out. Course, the issue was, put simply, were they strong enough to break through metal bars? Sounded ridiculous, but somehow it seemed worth trying as there were no other options available for breaking out.

With no other alternative in sight, Amanda grabbed one of the bars of her cell, estimating that she could
squeeze herself through the soon to be gap that would result from a missing bar. She grabbed that thing and she started to pull. It was strange, for the usual muscle fatigue and strain she would normally feel attempting something like this was non-existant as she found herself pulling so hard that she could see the concrete on the floor grind itself into a fine powder and the bar loosen in its position.  She stared at this feat of hers with amazement as she she could see the muscles in her arms and legs tense up, but she felt minimum pain. Divine intervention, she thought, God must be helping me.

After a few moments the bar gave way and there was a gap between the bars that was just wide enough for her to step through. She noted that other inmates figured out the same thing and they raced out through the guard doors left open from when they rushed outside in a hurry to deal with what was happening outside. Amanda followed, finding herself running faster than she ever remember herself running. In the moments that followed as they ran down the hallway of cellblock C, and were in another hall, where the examination room and the guard station were connected, as well as other block – each with their own letter to represent them. After a few short moments the group was outside.

The cold air was the first thing Amanda felt as she raced out with the others. She thought she would never breath fresh air again, but here she was, breathing it in for the first time in five days. It lifted her spirits, only for the next thing she perceived was the increased noise of the commotion.

Outside the guard were fighting with a large group of escapees, non of which were from her block. These ones seemed crazy: they had a wild look in their eyes, their cloths where torn and they were disturbingly pale. Some had blood on them. She also saw guards on the ground, dead, whom had been torn open at the neck – some of these corpses seemed to have been gnawed on. Guards who were still up were firing their guns at what was clearly a grouping of vampires, many too blood-crazy to remember to run from the grounds.

Someone grabbed her arm. She almost jumped from her skin, only to see that whomever it was wasn't wearing a guard uniform or a lab coat. Whomever it was was male, dishevelled, and looking a little wild in the eyes.

“Its just me,” he whispered, “Just stay away from that over there and avoid the lights and we should be able to clear the compound.”

She gladly took his advise and they bolted toward the perimeter fence, chain links and barbed wire galore.  It was no real secret that they would either try for the main gate or find/make a hole in the fence. Amanda and her new accomplice ran through the shadows of the night, hoping that the searchlights hadn't spotted them. Each push from their legs, every meter of race, every stomp of foot got them closer to the fence. Each second that tick and the progress of the control of the situation that allowed their escape also got them closer to being spotted by the searchlight. The two ran no knowing with option would occur.

All in luck as the two made their way to the fence. The guard was still too busy to realize that block C had escaped, and the lights were not trained on the fence yet. Amanda stared at the links of the fence and the barbs on the top, trying to figure out what she was going to do. She didn't have time to dig under, the barbed wire on the top would make climbing a painful and possibly fatal option, she didn't have bolt cutter to cut the links nor the time to try ripping them apart, and the main entrance was further away and in closer range of the watch towers.

Her male accomplice started running for the main gate, gesturing Amanda to follow. This she would have done if she hadn't froze while staring at the ominous fence. Odd, for when the man was far enough away from her that she likely couldn't catch up if she started to run a spotlight got a glimpse of him. He screamed in pain as a half-beaten guard came running from him from what appeared to be the main building. Amanda never saw what his fate was, for in her panic and hurry she attempted to climb the fence.

While fence climbing was something that she was not accustomed to, getting her hands wrapped along the links of the chain and her feet firmly planted on the links wasn't that hard. The hard part was, of course, the barbed wiring on the top of the fence, placed there so people couldn't simply climb over the fence. Amanda knew that sooner or later the guards would be done containing the issue that distracted them from guarding her cellblock and would be searching for those attempting to escape.

At the top Amanda felt her hands wrap around razors. She winced, but was surprised at how little pain she felt. It still stung as she strung herself over the edge of the fence, but she expected it to hurt more than it did. Hands on razors as she lifted herself up. Her blood was staining the steel of the fence and her clothes where ripping as she straddled the fence and her pants got caught in the barbs of those wires. Panic came over at the thought of being stuck here. After all, wasn't there a scene in one of the Saw movies where someone died getting stuck in a barbed-wire fence? Fortunately thought, in exchange for some of her modesty, she got herself released from the barbed wires and climbed down from the fence. All that didn't escape of her was a
pant leg, though she was cut up, especially at the hands, and bleeding.

God's intervention was the only explanation she could think of for it not hurting so badly. While on the topic of God's intervention, it was the only reason she could think of for the whole scenario playing out the way it did. Was it God's will that she made it out? To escape? If so, why? What strange task was god planning for her?

Once she was on the other side of the fence she started running again, this time to get herself lost in the woods outside of the compound. She ran for a long time before finding herself tired and in desperate need of cover

for the daylight that was to come. After all, she was now a vampire.  Vampires can't be caught out in broad daylight less they want to be a dead vampire.

She was able to find a shack in the woods that she was able to break into and could therefore fall asleep for the daylight hours, while at night trying to find elsewhere to be. She laid on the dirt ground in thinking, trying in vain to make sense of anything. Much she knew about her new fate. For one, she was now an abomination. A murderous monster that is to be slain.  God punishing the wicked ways of man by letting the devil manifest itself. Therefore, she could not go home. Her husband would reject her, and she could not raise her child. The church would also exile her, and she would be targeted for death.

Still, she had the issue of roaming around at night, as she would be accosted by anyone in a uniform and shot by anyone that stalked up on guns when the outbreak first became uncontrollable. Her sleep was a long one that was full of worry, but as the sun set again she was up again, and needed to get somewhere fast. Course, she felt very tired despite the full day's sleep. She was also hungry. So she kept on walking.

Oh god, that poor farm house.

As she walked through the wood, relying on what moonlight was available, she found a clearing. That clearing turned out to be a family farm. There, the events that place her outside near dawn would meet the proverbial

straw that snapped her proverbial camel in two.

Chapter 1: The Creation

The wind was indeed cold as the night loomed over the that heavily wooded area north of Orillia and away from the heart of the testing facility used by the Banister's Corporation: an independent drug company that is in the race to finding a vaccine and cure to the vampire virus that now haunts the world.  Banister is a leading export that has been making their money for the past five years advising task forces, policy makers, and other researchers on what vampires are, and how to deal with them.  They had been doing research for the last ten years in vampirism as they race with other corporations in finding that miracle cure or vaccine that could soon cause vampirism to be a problem no more.

Much of Banister's research involves taking strains of the virus that the military black ops had made, studying how it interacts with cells and what genetic coding is used to make the person a vampire.  This is done through sequencing, tests in petri dishes involving single cell organisms, and tests on rats and monkeys, watching what happens to them when experimental treatments are given to them.

Or so it says on paper anyways.

This my friend Amanda Sanders would learn the hard way.  It is how she would end up in those woods north of the testing facility that day.

***

She lived in the small town of Orilla located in northern Ontario.  She was a pious young woman, newly married to the love of her life and nursing a infant child.  She was an avid church-goer who believed in the myth that vampires were the devil's children and had to be killed.  Her church advocated the killing of these so-called hell-spawns, while claiming that their existence was proof that God is real and he is punishing us.

She was the poster-girl for Jesus' freaks, if you pardon my contempt for a second.  Oh my how her world gets hauled on its head literally overnight!

You see, she made the simple mistake of being outside past the mandatory curfew.  I think she needed diapers for the young one in her house and it couldn't wait until morning.  Her original plan was that she was going to a neighbour's house to see if they had some spares she could use.  Well, that was the plan, which didn't happen.

Now, here is the sad part: it wasn't because she got her ass hauled away by the OPP* for being out past curfew, or even because some lucky vampire got their fangs into her neck.  No, her original plan never took because enforcers hired by Banister's Corporation took notice of her, nabbed her off the street, and stuffed her in an unmarked van destined for their testing facility north of Orillia.

There she was thrown into what best resembled a prison in a place that she noted was marked “Block C” - just like prison (dam these people in Banister's Corporation are creative).  There Amanda could see others, just as scared as her.  Some where crying and others where having fits of rage.  She sat in the corner of her cell and went through the rosary in her mind until guards with guns and scientists in white came for her.

The guards roughly escorted her, while following the scientist, to another room where they forced her into a modified dentist's chair, complete with straps and restraints.  After tying her down the chair the scientist started by drawing her blood and running it through a computer of sorts.  “What are you doing?” Amanda asked the scientist, another woman whom stood at the computer terminal awaiting results.  The scientist stood as through Amanda said nothing at all.  “What are you doing?”  Amanda spoke even louder, thinking the scientist refused to answer because she wasn't speaking loudly enough and not out of ignorance.

“Subject does not have any trace of the rotolamia virus,” the white jacketed scientist simply spoke in a drool, monotone voice, likely speaking to a recording device more than to Amanda, “Subject will be inoculated with experimental serum C.”

Serum C, whatever that was.  It was likely that the scientist administering the serum didn't know what that sludge was either for the experiment was being done double-blind*.  Whatever serum C was it was being loaded into a syringe and injected into Amanda's arm.  “What is that?” Amanda called in a panicked voice, “What is that?”  The needless repetition being ignored by the scientist as the guard unstrapped Amanda from the chair and dragged her back to her cell.

Amanda didn't feel any different, other than that feeling of violation that one receives when in such a circumstance as she was in now she still felt like Amanda Sanders.  She took notice of the others whom were assigned to the same block.  From what she could gather from the crazy chatter that was about everyone was given this serum C, and the scientist didn't talk to them.

The next two days of captivity went like this:

• 08:00 food was given to the inmates in the cellblock
  
• 10:00 they were being passed books through the bars by the orderlies for inmates to read to reduce bordem
  
• 12:00 more food
  
• 14:00 the inmates were one by one taken to a scientist, who ran a few tests on their blood and checked their vitals
  
• 18:00 more food
  
• 20:00 the guards went in to do a bed check
  
• 22:00 all the lights in the cell block went out with the exception of a search light
  

Those two days, with the exception of chatter among the inmates, were boring and tedious.  The third day seemed deceptively like the second day until the 14:00 med check.  At this point, after the bloodwork was drawn and checked the scientist merely said “Subject will now be given serum E.”

“What!?” Amanda screamed when she heard that.  Whatever serum C was teasing her imagination enough, but now more shit was being pumped into her?  She struggled against the straps on the chair she as in as the syringe pierced her skin.  Whatever fight she could muster was to no effect and the toxin that was serum E was in her veins.

She sat in her cell feeling a combination of anger and fear.  She felt violated again and just when she figured it would be no different than before when she was injected with serum C, where that was all she felt, 18:00 feeding time came around.  When she bite into the nutrient-gruel-stuff she shook her head at first, for the food that tasted the same for the past three days now didn't taste the same.  Did they do something to her food now?  What was going on?

Apparently, she wasn't the only one with these sentiments, for a braver soul in the cellblock screamed out “Are you trying to poison us?  Putting chemicals in our food, as if that serum C and E shit wasn't enough!”  The guards ran to this man and had him sedated with tranquillizers to silence him.

That night she could not get a wink of sleep either.  It wasn't from fear as it was from the nights before.  No, it was something else entirely.  She sat up and prayed the rosary to her memory and asking God to save her from that place.  However, she didn't feel right anymore.  It wasn't so much as sick but not quite healthy.  She somehow felt changed, like she was Amanda Sanders no more.  She could feel something brewing inside of her, and her fear began to mount in ways that made it harder and harder for words that used to comfort her so now fail in their usefulness.

The morning of the fourth day arrived and she was more miserable than she was scared, which is something considering her circumstances.  Again, her breakfast at 8:00 tasted funny, and again others in the block noticed this.  She also started shivering for the building must have suddenly gotten cold.  Maybe the heating went out, I mean, it was October in Northern Ontario, but the guards appeared unbothered by it.

Still, braver and ballsier inmates started to vent their crankiness to the guards with predicted results.  Many a “What's with the food,” and “Why is it cold in here?” cry out was met with an angry guard shooting someone up with tranquillizers.  Many were just pissed that, like Amanda, where being held against their will in what was basically a prison.

During the 12:00 meal a guard passing by made the mistake of standing too close to the bars of one really ballsy fellow's cell.  The desperate bloke quickly made a grab for the guard and bit the guard hard enough to draw blood.  Nevermind tranquillizers this time: the guard merely unloaded his weapon into the unruly and unwilling inmate.  Much fear and dismay came over the cellblock as frightened inmates and guards alike gasped, screamed and gawked in horror.  The guard that was bit appeared to be crying while cursing inaudibly.

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee,” Amanda repeated to herself outloud as a overly-gowned cleanup crew came for the bullet-ridden corpse in the soon to be vacant cell, “Blessed is thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit in thy womb, Jesus.”  The crew dragged the body onto girdie, and out while heavy bleach was being poured onto the floor and walls of the cell.  “Holy Mary, mother of God,” Amanda kept on going as the corpse of the late whomever passed her cell, “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.”

What exactly was happening to the inmates, and most importantly Amanda, became more apparent at the 14:00 med check.  When it was Amanda's turn she was escorted by three guards, all looking tense with fear as they forced her into that examination room that she had became familiar with for the past few days.  By this point she had stopped feeling like herself and was feeling more like someone else, like someone else had taken her body and soul.  She didn't resist being placed into the examination chair this time, opting to merely let the scientist do whatever she had to do, mostly so Amanda could find out what they had done to her.

Course, it was off the routine that was established from until that point.  This time she noticed that there was more guard in the examination room, and instead of there being one scientist there was two.  One drew Amanda's blood and had it analyzed while the other oversaw.  There was a cold silence that came over the room, a hesitation that was never there prior to that day.

The scientist that normally did the test breathed deeply and spoke into the recording device that she was likely using up to this point.  “Subject's bloodwork had confirmed the presence of the rotolamia virus.  Subject is now a vampire,” the scientist's voice was shaky and showed the presence of fear.

“What?” Amanda stirred as she struggled in her restraints, “WHAT?” her fear in the unknown gave way to anger of her new state of being.  She saw fear in the eyes of the one scientist while the second appeared more stoic and unaffected.  “What have you done to me!?” Amanda screamed, still wrestling with the restraints in the chair, but to no effect.

“We're sorry...” the usual scientist quietly trailed before the other scientist grabbed her by the arm and pressed his finger to his lips.  The usual scientist, clearly a younger less experienced lab tech turned to the computer terminal and signed heavily.  “It failed,” she whispered, “The trail had to have failed.”

“Let's get the next subject in here, subject one twenty...” the other, older and clearly senior scientist drolled unemotionally before being cut off with the more emotional “Why?  Its obvious the trail failed!  This is the twelfth person... er, subject, that we have tested from group C, and they all have contracted the rotolamia virus!  Is there a point to...”

“Enough!” the older scientist jumped in, “Get a hold of yourself!  We have to check all the subjects in the cell block before we can conclude that, now, get your emotions in check!”  The younger lab tech took a deep breath.  “Now, I'll finish the rest of them,” he went on, “I would like you to examine the guard that got attack by one of the subjects.  I trust that a guard will fight their new nature a little longer than a subject will.

“Between you and me though,” he went on, “I hate it too when a trail fails, it means that we still don't have a means to vaccinate the unturned.  Though our findings will still bring us closer to finding such a vaccine, or even a cure.”

In her cell she didn't even bother to touch her food when the 18:00 feeding time came around.  Many of the people around her seemed understandably upset.  Amanda merely stewed in her tears as she tried to figure out what this meant to her.  She believed that the vampires came to Earth to punish the humans for their ways that drip in sin.  She wanted to know what she had done or said to get her here and to become a vampire.  Wasn't she not a good wife?  A good mother?  A good Christen?  She did everything the church had her do, and she lived as God wanted her to live.

“Glory be to the father, and to the son, and to the holy spirit,” she struggled to say through the sobs as the lights went out at 22:00, “As it was in the beginning, as now and ever shall be, a world without end, amen.”

***

In the woods north of that testing facility the events of those four day ran through her mind as she awaited twilight to turn into dawn.

Now, we go to the story of how she got there in the first place.

*Ontario Provincial Police

*A double-blind trial is when neither test subjects, experimenters, or administrators of the experiment know what the test was about or what the chemicals being tested are.