Smoke billowed in the distance, it wasn't too far away at all but Akani was not phased or moved enough to investigate. The cool breeze that had drawn him out of his room had now grown stale but still he remained glued to his spot on the escarpment. The silence prevailed but the rising smoke cloud had now almost enveloped the rocky mountain in the distance.

The situation of the lodge was a true wonder, or perhaps the work of someone who did not care enough about nature to not want to interfere with all this beauty, either way, Akani was here now and rather here than anywhere else. Better here than home, or work or wherever else he was supposed to be now that things were drastically changing.

The sun had almost completed its daily journey towards the edge now, almost falling off and sparking up a beautiful ruby and orange ensemble that almost made the smoke unnoticeable. He'd never been a fan of the sunset, he'd never really cared enough to find out what the fuss was about, maybe because he lived in the city-but he'd been a farm boy before, almost half his life, before things changed.

Back then he never had the time to watch the sunshine dwindling away into darkness because he always had something to do, something better to do. He enjoyed the chores, helping out with the horses, he lived for it. But things changed and now he couldn't even remember when last he was really that happy, when last he could just go to sleep with a big smile on his face no matter how hard the work was.

It wasn't that bad at first, chaotic, yes, but his life, transitioning to the city was not really the problem, in fact he enjoyed it at first, the chaos that is, the uncertainty of it all, but even that fades. The enthusiasm was sucked out of him too quickly and life just kept on happening.

Akani had been here for only about a day, he'd arrived around 3 the previous day, just in time for a barbeque that had been planned for the visitors. Everyone was great, not annoying or in his face like what he was trying to escape from. It was almost like they were all in sync somehow, like they all knew what they were here for, to escape, to pretend, so they did not get in each other's way.

The lodge was peaceful, out in the middle of nowhere, away from the city noise and everything that reminded him of all the changes, of everything that was happening, of how everyone he knew now sucked.

The fresh air wasn't the only thing that brought him out of his room, there was the news too, playing on loop on the TV, it brought him back the reality of what was happening around him, of how bad things were, of how out of his control they were.

It was clear that he was having a hard time with his family, his parents split up, his brother was annoying the entire family, not just him, with his reluctance to turn a new leaf, his love life was in shambles after his girlfriend had cheated on him with his best friend.

The sun had almost completely set now and he could feel the remnants of heat also dissipating from the atmosphere. The smoke had also subsided now, trapped somewhere else. It was time to head back to his room. Today there was no bustle, no activity like yesterday, because things had already started to change, he was one of only a few people left here.

He made eye contact with one of the caretakers by mistake and he started moving straight towards him with a large grin on his face.

'Sir, we've been told to ask everyone who's left if they will be leaving soon. I know its sort of inappropriate but you understand that we have to make arrangements.'

'I understand, I'm staying for the remainder of my package,' Akani replied.

'The situation has not exactly, um, been good for business, as you can imagine,' he said awkwardly.

Akani just smiled and was about to continue on to his room where the news would still be waiting for him, still creating a growing knot in his stomach, then he stopped.

'Will you still have food for the remainder of my stay?' he asked.

'Of course, sir. There's nothing to be worried about.'

***

Akani woke up to intense screams outside. It was only 2 AM and he had not gotten enough time to forget about his problems and now he was wide awake with no hopes of being calm enough to sleep again. It wasn't easy nowadays, it hadn't been easy for a while.

He slowly got out of bed and cautiously went for the door and into the hallway. It was silent outside, save for the murmurs that were coming from outside in the direction of the pool. The caretaker from earlier, Gavin, was hunched over someone while another staff member, a young lady, stood a few meters away sobbing, and two other people, a man and a woman were standing beside him looking completely indifferent to whatever was making the young lady emotional.

'You have human staff here?' Akani asked.

The caretaker turned swiftly, like he was just now seeing a ghost that hadn't been there before.

'Sir, please back up, we have a situation here, you too, ma'am, sir?' he gestured them away, all while he was looking at Akani with a hostility that he didn't understand at first.

The woman who he was hunched over was almost gone, the breaths were shallow and the pulse was almost non-existent. It was easy to tell now, it only became clear when they were dying that they were human.

Akani did not want to aggravate the man, as much as he wanted to help, he kept his distance, stood near the entrance for a while then returned to his room when the cavalry arrived, but the woman was already gone.

The next morning he saw the man and woman who had been at the crime scene before him leaving the facilities. He was now officially the last guest here and who knew what was going to happen next?

Later that day, he was leaving his room again to find something else that would pass his time, to explore more of the escarpment and the perhaps even go for a hike. He saw Gavin, who acted like he hadn't seen him.

'You can stop flinching whenever you see me,' Akani said.

'What?' he asked.

'I know you're human. I can tell.'

The caretaker just gave him a blank stare then gazed into the distant trees.

'How did you know?' he asked.

'The look you gave me last night, fear and disgust, I know it well. A look my own brother has given me,' he said.

'Why won't you turn?' Akani added.

The caretaker took a deep sigh.

'Why won't your brother turn?' he asked.

'He says he'd rather be frail, he'd rather die than become one of us, become a work of evil,' Akani replied.

'It's a disease, a virus that is destroying the world, look at what is happening now.'

'The woman, did you perhaps think it was me who killed her?' Akani asked.

'It's a member of the Faction, he's already been caught. It was terrible, you know, watching her die.'

'I know,' Akani said.

'No, you don't. That look I gave you. Its not fear or disgust. It was contemplation, I was looking through you and thinking, about how this is going to end. About how inevitable it is that the woman beside the pool would be me sooner than later. I was thinking about how pointless all of your kind have made the world. Look at me, I serve you blood rations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Your hunger is a literal danger to me.'

Akani did not reply immediately, but instead, thought about his brother, about finding him lifeless one day, with holes in his neck, all gray and frail, wheezing, just before he said his final words.

Akani thought back to a happier time, a time before vampirism had spread viciously and become the norm, before the government had to even control it, to put regulations in place so that people would be fed without the killing. It usually worked when darkness was taking over him, when things were starting to suck, but today, the farthest he could think back to was the day it all began.

He thought about how much blood was spilled before the government had taken the reigns and stopped all the carnage. They said it was an apocalypse then, but steadily everything went back to normal, to a new normal in which vampire and human lived together in peace.

Akani thought about his rebirth, how alive he had felt, yet he was as dead as ever. There was now a volunteer program, a clinical painless method of turning people, nobody was forced and nobody went hungry. Scientists had created a substitute for pure human blood that was animal based, but it still required a third of human blood. They had promised than in less than two years they would have made a breakthrough with a substitute that required no human blood cells at all.

They promised a utopia where nobody had to die, where health care struggles were a myth, but a utopia was always a lie. Soon the cracks started to show. Capitalism did what it does best as they were showing now on the news, economic analysts were saying inflation would sky rocket and only the rich would afford to eat, the Anti-Human Faction-linked to human killings and kidnappings was becoming harder for the government to suppress and soon enough, the reality of a no-human blood substitute was starting to feel like a dream after it was pushed back twice. If that deal did not materialize, it meant that the population would be hungry in less than three years and humans would be fair game.

Not to talk of the Revitalization Program which had now been completely taken over by a big corporation. The blood substitute did not agree with some of the stronger vampires, so they had to go through the revitalization process to subdue the hunger. It was a crucial part of this utopia and now it had fallen into the hands of a private company, Nacyl.

The government had created a drug that made it impossible for vampires to smell human blood, to become manic and sense human presence. It was administered in the blood substitute and the water, but this did not stop the Faction. They did illegal background checks on people, they were relentless.

'Vampirism destroyed my life too, you know. It ripped my family apart, my parents are now divorced, mom works for the New Dawn, blood substitute government wing, my dad almost got her arrested after he stole government files to help the Nacyl deal, my brother is now the black sheep of the family because he won't turn, my best friend ruined my relationship, turned my girlfriend in a very unsafe way that almost killed her...permanently,' Akani explained.

'Are you sure you don't want to go? I mean, people come to this retreat to forget it all, but it's pretty real,' the caretaker said.

'I will stay as long as you'll have me,' Akani said.

'Weren't you spooked by the inflation news? And the food shortage news like everyone else who was here?' Gavin asked.

'Things have always been bad, Gavin. I've noticed things start to go downhill, I saw all the holes in the story, the gaps in the promises so I don't need to go anywhere. I already know that everything's fucked now that everyone sucks.'