Harsh Realities

I wake in some crummy motel off the highway where we finally crashed when dawn came. There was no point in running further, or at least we hoped that there wasn’t. If we hadn’t made it out of the circle the Institute guards would be keeping to in search for us then there was no point in running further.
I don’t remember jumping or making it through and out of the city. I only remember waiting away from a streetlight for Gregory to get a room because my eyes had gone crimson. It was one of the side effects of the infection neater of us had herd about before and we had been listening, closely.
It’s mid-day, we don’t need much sleep, and the first thing we do after leaving the motel without actually paying for it is find me sunglasses. People staring at my eyes and calling the militia on us will not help our escape any. The tank station down the road is empty except for the bored looking employee who meets his unfortunate doom since I’m hungry as hell. I pick out the nicest pare sunglasses on offer, one of those I could never afford before and Gregory empties the register.
All set we double back in to the city crossing it and heading in a different direction. I would say that it’s almost too easy but it really isn’t. Idiotically enough the countryside is emptying. All the people are heading for the major cities in the hopes that they will be safe there. In reality they would have stayed safer in their villages and on their farms. Now the idiots only get them-selves infected quicker. Because of the flood of new arrivals the militia already has their hands full and the Institute can’t go after us unless they follow a trail or hunt down all of the Infected in the city, their equipment is good but not good enough to pinpoint two specific Infected amidst hundreds of other people running around. A few times they almost catch us, a passing guard looks at us too closely for comfort. I repress the urge to bare my teeth at him, or to drag him in to an ally and rip his throat out. Gregory holds my hand painfully tight almost dragging me along. We find a dingy little diner and order raw stake. The waitress looks at us with suspicion but gets us our dinners.
It takes us the rest of the day and the whole night to clear the city again. Using public transport, avoiding medical checkpoints and simply going in circles to confuse our trail takes a great deal more work then I would have expected.
The next time we sleep we sleep under the clear countryside sky. The city is still glowing on the horizon looking like it had been doused with plutonium. Just before we went over the city limits and in to the sparsely pullulated surroundings of it we both fed off a bunch of hobos and street kids making sure that they were properly dead before we left. Yes, sure we have to feel, but that doesn’t mean that we have to infect the ones we feed off. There are already too many vampires around.
Two days later hungry and dirty we hit a village. It’s abandoned but we can at least clean up and get some food of the normal variety. The freezers of the shops are still full of products. Defrosted meat tastes flat and isn’t much of a food for us but the drugstore has iron pills.
I sleep in a real bed that night; Gregory goes hunting refusing to eat what he calls artificial food. When he comes back to wake me up in the morning I can smell blood on his breath. Searching the village we find an abandoned car with the keys still in the ignition. We also find fresh clothing and a phone booth that still works and hasn’t been trashed in the exodus. I spend an hour standing in front of it thinking of the people I once could have called. Now I can’t bring my-self to do so. They would not be in danger from the Institute them-selves, if they had not been infected. But I can’t help wondering if they would tell the Institute where I am. I can’t even bring my-self to call my parents even thou or maybe because of the fact that I haven’t spoken to them in years. I don’t want to be disillusioned about my friend’s ether. And so when Gregory pulls up finally having found me I get in not having even tried. Maybe I would have been accepted… And maybe they would have been scared shitless. I’ve seen it happen. The nature of humanity is to fear everything they don’t understand. I don’t want to see it proven in the people I once cared for.
Driving certainly beats walking or running. Unfortunately I can’t drive. I’ve lived in the city all my life, learning to drive didn’t seem a priority. If I had to go somewhere far I’d take the plane. Not that we are moving I can relax if only a little. Looking out of the window I start wondering why Gregory made the decision to run. His life wasn’t in danger… Those thoughts lead to wondering what the hell is happening with me. Red eyes have never been part of the description of a vampire. And I’m not even a vampire really; I’m a bite away from that. If it had been any other disease I would have been at the doctor already. Now I have to wait for things to progress…I’ve never heard of people dying of the virus, usually the Institute gets them before they can progress in to critical or the get the other two bites…I’m an anomaly. Gregory is looking at me from time to time, here he can afford too it’s not like anyone else is using the road. I am wondering what the hell he is thinking…
Maybe I will ask later.