"Don't forget luv, my name's Caleb and you're a vampire now. Give Zed my regards."

Those Cockney-flavored words followed Jane as she rolled unceremoniously out the back of the moving van. The tires squealed as it made a sharp turn on the snow-wet blacktop outside the fence.

"Seriously," Jane questioned glaring at the fleeing vehicle. "Not even in the country five minutes and I get kidnapped. Guess I'm lucky I'm too poor to waste a bullet on," she muttered uselessly swiping at the snow melting into her jeans and t-shirt. The army surplus coat was a bit worse for wear but better it than her.

Turning away from the road to see where she'd been dumped she found a small group of super pale people all dressed in black starring wide-eyed at her.

"Anybody speak English by chance?"

They didn't even blink.

"Anybody at all?"

Nothing.

"Great."

With a sigh and a small wave she headed towards the door of the... bunker... or whatever it was... nondescript concrete building thing.

Best. International. Trip. EVAR.

Not.

Inside was more concrete, a long empty gray hallway of it that smelled of damp and cold. Two more clusters of black clad people but no one looked even remotely approachable. Maybe the local college goths were having an Apathy competition. Did the Czech Republic even have goths?

Slipping through an open doorway Jane found herself in a cavernous ballroom filled to the brim with more black clad pale people; all dressed to the nine's in Vampire chic. It was clearly an industrial space, all square and concrete, but someone had gone to great lengths to disguise that fact with velvet and lace drapes hanging against the walls. Heavily patterned rugs in gray, black and white made a quilt pattern across the crowded floor except for on the far end, she was just able to make out a clear spot where people danced to live instrumental music. Surprisingly there were no candles; the lighting was standard factory softened by layers of lacy fabric.

Jane closed her eyes for a minute, fingers covering her lips to stop a hysterical laugh. Her red Star-Trek t-shirt, olive drab coat and acidwash jeans made her the only dot of color in a sea of shadows.

Wonderful.

Opening her eyes again she gasped. A tight circle had formed around her and she suddenly felt like a rabbit among wolves. A pair of eyes outside the circle caught her attention and she couldn't help but stare as they moved closer. The silent figures around her parted without a sound to admit the bearer of those eyes; a very tall bald man with killer cheekbones. His black suit and white shirt were simple but the obviously quality made his top hat look right at home instead of hokey as it should have.

Jane found herself back at his eyes - dark orbs with large chocolate brown irises, the rings were so big they nearly touched the edges of his eyelids. They almost seemed to sparkle in the subdued lighting... and then she realized there was no white. That right of chocolate was floating in a black sea.

These were either some very well to do fetishists or she had stumbled onto something...

She shut that thought down; she was not setting her toe on the crazy side of the line. Tonight had been messed up enough, thank you very much.

A woman darted forward and raked her fingernails down Jane's face, drawing blood.

"What the fuck," Jane yelled, jerking back and clutching her face.

"She's still warm, Milord!"

Now someone spoke English.

The man moved closer and Jane tried to move away but several pairs of hands held her in place. He took her chin in his hand, moving her own hand out of the way and studied her.

"Vat is your name girl?"

She wanted to laugh, she really did. Luckily part of her brain wanted to live and managed to beat that suicidal part back enough to replay, "Jane."

He scoffed, "Ordinary."

The others laughed unpleasantly and the pitch of it made the hairs on her arms stand up.

"Who is your Maker?"

"Pardon?"

He sneered and tightened his fingers on her chin before bending over and licking her scratched check.

"Who bit you," he asked into her ear.

She had a vague recollection of her time in the van, of pain, and now that she thought about it there was a soreness around her throat.

"Caleb," she whispered, trying to pull more from that hazy memory. "He said his name was Caleb."

He jerked back with a snarl making her jump.

"Vhen did he bite you, vittle girl."

"What time is it?"

He blinked at her.

Cautiously she raised her arm and glanced at her ten dollar special watch, "Maybe two hours ago?"

He hissed.

"He said to give Zed his regards?"

The man was angry, even the paleness of his skin couldn't disquise it. He opened his mouth to say something but a blond-haired man ran up to him and whispered something in his ear. As the other moved away Mister Eyes took her by the arm.

"Come vith me, girl."

He dragged her out of the ballroom and back out to the concrete hallway. From there she could hear a low, ominous rumble and it slowly got louder.

"What is going on?"

"That is vhat you vill tell me."

He pushed her to the steel door and used a fist in her hair to force her to look out the tiny glass window.

"Tell me," he demanded.

It took her a moment to focus around the anger-fear of being manhandled and even longer to realize wht her eyes were seeing.

"Oh my god... it's true... they're really doing it!" She turned to look at him. "That means you really are... or at least they think you are..."

She turned back to the windows and stared at the line of oncoming tanks. There were at least four in the driveway she'd been dumped in just twenty minutes ago and she could see figures fanning out behind them.

"We have to get of here, right now!" Jane pushed away from the door and he released her hair. "Come on!"

"Vat is happening?"

"The soldiers - they're going to kill everyone in here!"

"How do you know?"

He kept questioning her but at least he was moving with her away from the door. "I'd heard rumors, crazy stuff on the internet, about the government blaming the pandemic on monsters. They said the military was killing people, anybody they thought was different - that might fir the description of a vampire or a werewolf."

They passed the door to the ballroom and Mister Eyes whispered something to the closest goth who then ran deeper inside.

"Come on," she said, not waiting for him to follow. She didn't have time to wonder why she was urging him to follow instead of just getting the hell out of dodge but she idly thought maybe nobody wanted to be chased by a foreign military and possibly gunned down alone. Either way he caught up to her quickly enough.

They jogged through the facility, deeper and deeper into the interior. She had passed up the first exit they came across, deciding it was too close to the pending conflict. The rumbling of the tanks was harder to hear especially over the echo of Mister Eyes' fancy leather boots hitting the concrete, but she wasn't sure if that was because the machines were parked now or if they had run far enought away for the sound to actually be muffled. Finally they came to another door, identical to the last but Jane wanted out of the building and didn't want to risk still being inside if - when the tanks fired.

It opened silently, which surprised her for some reason. Looking around she didn't see any movement. The moon was hidden behind a cloud and, luckily for them, most of the snow back here had melted so they wouldn't be back lit in the clearing.

"We just have to make it to those trees and we should be fine" she whispered - or thought she whispered, it was hard to tell with the blood rushing in her ears.

He just nodded.

They were three quarters of the way across the clearing when she saw that the eight foot tall chain-link fence from the front of the bunker apparently ran around the whole complex, and closer than that when she saw there was a gate blocked by a soldier with a very large gun.

She stopped in her tracks and dropped to the ground, pulling Eyes down with her.

"Shit, shit, shit," she hissed under her breath. Eyes started to say something but she waved him off. She looked at the guard and then back to Eyes... back and forth again... "I have an idea. Just play along and pray I don't get us killed."

He glowered at her.

Jane knocked off his top hat and tugged him out of his suit jacket, leaving only the plain shirt and slacks. "Look scared, like a kid," she commanded as took him by the hand and hurried toward the guard.

The guard stiffened when he caught sight of them and Jane started to blubber frantically.

"Oh thank God! A soldier! Mister you've got to help us! Those people inside - there is something wrong with those people! The nurse at the hospital said this was supposed to be a support group for people with Solar Urticaria! We tried to leave but they wouldn't let us! We finally managed to sneak out the back - I think they're some kind of cult! Please sir, please - you've got to get us out of here!"

The soldier had gone wide eyed as Jane spun her load of crap - which was the reaction she was looknig for. When he just gaped at her and didn't make an attempt to reply she kept going.

"This is my cousin, you see," she tugged the taller man's head down to her chest - she knew it looked ridiculous but was hoping it added to the damsel in distress vibe, "he's Autistic and with the Urticaria... his mother just passes away you see, from the flu, and now I have to take care of him but I don't know how!" She squeezed out a tear, "Please, please help us!"

Finally the soldier seemed to pull himself together and after taking a quick look around he motioned the pair closer. In heavily accented English he said, "Go down hill, you see road, stay off, stay in trees, head to city. You see lights, stay in woods till sun comes up or you be shot. Understand?"

Jane nodded several times, not having to force the extra tears, "Thank you Sir, thank you!"

He waved them off, "You not know me - you not see me, understand?"

"Yes! Thank you! Bless you!"

Tugging her taller 'cousin' with her she jogged into the woods and down the hill. They reached the bottom and an explosion rocked the landscape. Mister Eyes fell to the ground with a scream of pain - and kept screaming. Jane scrambled through the snow and rolled him onto his back expecting to find shrapnel or something but there was nothing - no injury of any kind but he was still screaming, clutching at this head.

She heard a heavy vehicle approaching down the road and realized his screaming was going to get them killed - these people were not playing around and they were sitting ducks. She did this first thing that came to mind - she put her hands over his mouth and prayed that he'd shut up before they were caught or he smothered. It muffled the sound and she prayed the noise from the explosion and now the gunfight playing out above them would hide them.

The truck passed them without pause and finally, finally, the man beneath her hands quieted. Things up the hill were starting to quiet down as well so she leaned closer to his ear, "Are you okay now?"

He nodded.

"I'm goint to move my hands now and we're going to head toward the city - we have to be quiet and we have to stay out of the snow alright? Hopefully they won't be able to make out what happened here if we don't leave them any more clues, okay?"

She moved her hands and he released a shuddering breath before nodding again.

"Let's go."