Rise Of The Hunters

Xun closed the door behind him, and made sure the lock was secure. He didn't want the doctor sneaking in at some point, trying to sneak a sample of his blood. He had argued with him for almost the entire night.

All he wanted to do was get some sleep, and lead a group of people for more supplies once the sun was high in the sky.

The city before him was quiet, as everyone was asleep by now. This place was much larger than the compound up above had been, so there wasn't any trouble with people finding places to move into. He stood there, looking over the city for a while. So much had happened over the past six months, it was kind of crazy.

Would these people finally be safe from all of the dangers left over from the war? If the doctor was to be believed, there were still vampires out there, looking to get these people for some breeding program. The whole concept of that was terrifying. He couldn't help but think of all the babies that Gavyn had been taking care of.

Shaking his head, he started down the path to the city.

"Xun?"

He looked up to see his father smile in relief.

"I told the doctor you would hurt him if I didn't make it back by my curfew, and it surprised him so much, I was able to escape his questioning."

His father chuckled. "Well, you should be able to get some rest tomorrow. We already have teams planned out for who's going back and grabbing specific things. You don't have to go at all."

"Are you sure?" he asked. While it sounded nice, he couldn't help but worry what would happen if he wasn't there to help protect them.

"Son, I can protect them from anything that would attack during the day, and we'll be back long before the night hits."

Nodding, Xun started walking again. His father fell in beside him.

"Besides," his father said, turning to him with a twinkle in his eyes, "you're going to have your hands full, dealing with all of the complaints that have already been filed."

Xun g.r.o.a.n.e.d, then turned to his dad and grinned. "I'll take that over vampires and monsters any day!"

They walked for a while, in silence, heading to the building that would be his new home. Xun was envisioning his bed, soft and warm. Maybe he could even get a bath. His clothes felt so grimy, they probably needed to be washed too.

"Every time I think I've found a great place, something always pops up to convince me to move on. I want to stay a while here."

"I noticed a few girls your age, among the ones that lived in this cave before."

Xun glanced at his dad to see a rather wolfish grin and couldn't help but laugh.

XxxxX

The next morning, Xun was actually in a really good mood. He had only slept for a couple hours, but he was too excited to about starting in his new city, despite all of the warnings from everyone about how much work it would be.

Breakfast was sparse, but he knew they hadn't had time to grab everything or to get everything organized, so it didn't bother him too much. Xun was almost to the conference room, when he saw Alex running towards him.

"Xun! Vampires!" he was so out of breath, from running as fast as he could, his words barely made sense.

"Vampires?" asked Xun, instantly on guard. It was daytime, so how could they be under attack from vampires?

Bending over and fighting to catch his breath, "They…were inside…the buildings…when we got…there…"

"I'm sorry, sir! I didn't see you…right, right," he said, turning to open the door before Xun had to say anything.

As soon as the door was open enough, he was out it, and looking for Dr. Achak.

"Xun, I suppose you have a good reason for bothering me during the day? It's bad enough that I have to endure your people going back and forth through my lab all day."

"There are vampires in the compound."

The doctor's eyes went wide for a moment, before he dashed over to a table and held up a glass vial.

"I finished this after we were done talking. If you throw it at them, it will break and gas will billow up around them. It has the virus from Mary in it. They will all become humans again."

"Are you sure?" asked Xun taking it carefully. He didn't want to release a different strain of virus that might make them into even worse monsters.

"Absolutely."

Nodding, he held it carefully against him, then darted out the door, towards the compound. He was moving so fast, he passed a deer and several birds, that didn't react to him.

Not waiting for them to try and retaliate, or react to his presence, he ran up to the open door and threw the glass as hard as he could. It shattered on the floor at the feet of the first row of vampires. They looked up at him, and snarled, not as animals, but as furious people who weren't getting their way. They knew there was nothing they could do against him or his people during the day.

Darting back, out of the way, he watched them through the door, as they started choking on the smoke, grabbing their throats and collapsing on the floor. The smoke seemed to linger for a really long time, so he sent his people to check on the other buildings. He didn't want them to miss any, or to find werewolves locked up somewhere.

It didn't take then long to report back that there didn't seem to be any other vampires anywhere else. They really had just stayed in this one building. Xun shook his head in disbelief. This was too easy. How could they have not noticed that they had only left the night before?

The smoke had dissipated after an hour, but he still chose to wait. He wasn't sure which virus this one was, if it was his or not, and didn't want to risk any more monsters. After two hours, there wasn't a trace of it, other than the broken glass on the floor, and the passed-out vampires.

He decided to carefully investigate, and found to his surprise, over a hundred vampires unconscious in the conference room. Now, how to tell if they were dead or not since vampires don't need to breath, right?