Missing Vampire: Reward Available (Hypernaturals 6)

And the Beat Goes On

I studied my map. I am actually where I want to be, more or less. I have been running along the D20. The bad news here is that I am about to go over fairly open ground for a while. To get to Bulgaria, and to cross at a place where there is not a road or a border guard requires some heavy-duty hiking. I am glad I stocked up. My next route means I will also be away from the vans. As long as they do not come after me with helicopters, I am OK.

I slept as well as I could, knowing this next night is going to be rough.

Away from the town, I smelled water. Freshwater. I made for it and found an oddly isolated university. It is not that long after dark yet, so the University is still alive with people. I skirted it and went to the water. No telling when I will get this chance again.

I went for a swim.

I limited myself to ten minutes. Then I resumed my travels.

It is not as rough as I feared, because what looks on the map to be scrub is in fact mostly farmland. I bought enough food for fuel that I allowed myself a 20 kph trot through the farms, staying to as hard a soil as I can. No footprints allowed.

I zigged and zagged a great deal because every plot seems to be tilled in a different direction. Even with all the hunting for hardest ground and finding best footing on changing terrain I am still making far greater progress toward France than I have so far, and Istanbul is well behind me now.

I have no way to get news, so there is no way to know what the three bodies turned into in terms of a manhunt back there. Could be a mystery or a massive hunt for a guy in aviators.

The bad thing about travel like this is the amount of time I have been 'gifted' to be introspective. I thought very briefly about the fact that I killed yet again. I don't like to think of myself as a killer. I realize now exactly how terrified I am of the HPA, and what they will do to me if they catch me. I have not thought of those dead men with regret at all, and now that I am thinking about how I should be regretting more killing, I could not, in all sincerity, make myself sorry for the people I killed. These are people that are human purists, and who are out to get proof of my species so they can destroy us. They are lunatic fringe now. If they came into possession of a real Vampire to show the world, then that would change.

I remember the torture and the involuntary acts placed upon me by them. I do not regret killing in part because I am terrified, and I am handling that terror by calmly and cooly running for my life.

I see all the resources they are throwing at me. I will not be caught. One of those vans spots me? More dead people. I may be one of the dead in there, but not before I take as many of them with me as I can.

That is not bravery: that is stark raving fear.

I can't let that happen. Killing them tells them where I am. If it goes sideways even a dead Vampire is worth everything to them. It is still proof we exist.

I am not going to get all the way across to Bulgaria in one night. Not even at Vampire speed. I need to get out of the open. I reached another forested belt and I soon tunneled inside it and felt safer. Open means speed. Closed means I am harder to find.

I came across a road and followed my berm protocol. I watched carefully. It took two hours and was well past first light when one of the scanning vans went by. I listened. Learned nothing. Once it passed, I scooted back into the tree-line and I made my bed. This should be my last night in Turkey, as Bulgaria should be up ahead. From here I can go almost any Northern or Western direction, and soon be in Bulgaria.