(no subject)
They all learn how to use the guns, eventually. Even Julie, who’s hands-down the most nonviolent of them, fires hers a few times. Not to hit anything, that’s beyond her even now, but a couple of blanks fired into the air will scare zombies away nicely, if their numbers aren’t too great.
As for Karla, she throws up after the first time she has to use hers, but she toughens up quickly. The zombies can be pretty bad-some of them still look human enough to look confused and frightened after she shoots them. Worse are the two unmutated men who try to corner her in what used to be the French Market. But she pulls the trigger without hesitation, and makes it back to the warehouse before falling apart. Kevin sits with his arms wrapped around her for a while and tells her she did what she had to do, and hearing it from him helps more than just telling it to herself.
They’ve found Elaine again--or seen her, at least. Tattered clothes and something wild in her eyes, and she runs with a pack now, but she’s alive. Kevin’s made it clear to her that the warehouse is still her home if she wants it to be, and that members of the pack are welcome to shelter there as well, provided they behave themselves.
There’s been no sign of Ash, living or dead, anywhere in the city.
They get less news than ever from outside, but what trickles in from refugees is enough to let them know that New Orleans isn’t being hit as hard as some places. There haven’t been that many attacks from outside the city. No, what’s threatening to do for the Big Easy is the smaller things-looting and gang wars and police who are losing sight of the line between protection and containment as their badges mean progressively less and less.
When the Coven first appears on the scene, there aren’t many complaints, because the first things they do are help lower the crime rate, clean up the streets, and control and contain the zombie population.
They don’t give themselves any name other than the Coven. Don’t need to, because they’re the only one in the city. After the zombies, the next thing they get under control is their own kind. If you’re a vampire within the city limits, you fall in with them, you move, or you take your chances challenging them.
Then, it’s the werewolf packs, which might have been a match for them if they’d been organized. But there are at least three alphas in the city who won’t do anything but circle each other and growl, and all of them want to deal with the Coven their way, and while they’re arguing the Coven moves in, swift and ruthless.
And that just leaves the humans.
This is the way the Coven does it: they like the hunt. They have no interest in blood stored in bags and poured into glasses. But they also have no interest in a human population leaving the city in droves, or trying to rebel. So this is their compromise: cooperate, and the vampire takes only the blood he or she needs. Resist, struggle, and you run the risk of being drained dry.
Do as you’re told, and you won’t be hurt.
It’s a better way to live than you’ll get in a lot of places, these days. And a lot of people prove willing to abide by it.
Some don’t.
They don’t need to hunt at night. They tend to anyway-no one was really surprised when the majority of the vampires who started up a coven in New Orleans turned out to be traditionalists.
They mostly hunt at night. So, for a few weeks, the small group still living in the warehouse make sure they’re all in well before sunset, and they get by well enough.
That’s before Karla ends up out later than she should be, and before the shortcut she tries to make up the difference with leads into one of the pockets of territory still roamed by zombies.
Before the zombies use up the last of the bullets she’s carrying, leaving only the knife in her sleeve for the vampire attracted by the noise.
It’s quick, and messy, and the only thing she’ll remember clearly aterwards is the way his eyes widen when the knife slides into his stomach.
She runs the rest of the way home, and doesn’t encounter anyone else.
As for Karla, she throws up after the first time she has to use hers, but she toughens up quickly. The zombies can be pretty bad-some of them still look human enough to look confused and frightened after she shoots them. Worse are the two unmutated men who try to corner her in what used to be the French Market. But she pulls the trigger without hesitation, and makes it back to the warehouse before falling apart. Kevin sits with his arms wrapped around her for a while and tells her she did what she had to do, and hearing it from him helps more than just telling it to herself.
They’ve found Elaine again--or seen her, at least. Tattered clothes and something wild in her eyes, and she runs with a pack now, but she’s alive. Kevin’s made it clear to her that the warehouse is still her home if she wants it to be, and that members of the pack are welcome to shelter there as well, provided they behave themselves.
There’s been no sign of Ash, living or dead, anywhere in the city.
They get less news than ever from outside, but what trickles in from refugees is enough to let them know that New Orleans isn’t being hit as hard as some places. There haven’t been that many attacks from outside the city. No, what’s threatening to do for the Big Easy is the smaller things-looting and gang wars and police who are losing sight of the line between protection and containment as their badges mean progressively less and less.
When the Coven first appears on the scene, there aren’t many complaints, because the first things they do are help lower the crime rate, clean up the streets, and control and contain the zombie population.
They don’t give themselves any name other than the Coven. Don’t need to, because they’re the only one in the city. After the zombies, the next thing they get under control is their own kind. If you’re a vampire within the city limits, you fall in with them, you move, or you take your chances challenging them.
Then, it’s the werewolf packs, which might have been a match for them if they’d been organized. But there are at least three alphas in the city who won’t do anything but circle each other and growl, and all of them want to deal with the Coven their way, and while they’re arguing the Coven moves in, swift and ruthless.
And that just leaves the humans.
This is the way the Coven does it: they like the hunt. They have no interest in blood stored in bags and poured into glasses. But they also have no interest in a human population leaving the city in droves, or trying to rebel. So this is their compromise: cooperate, and the vampire takes only the blood he or she needs. Resist, struggle, and you run the risk of being drained dry.
Do as you’re told, and you won’t be hurt.
It’s a better way to live than you’ll get in a lot of places, these days. And a lot of people prove willing to abide by it.
Some don’t.
They don’t need to hunt at night. They tend to anyway-no one was really surprised when the majority of the vampires who started up a coven in New Orleans turned out to be traditionalists.
They mostly hunt at night. So, for a few weeks, the small group still living in the warehouse make sure they’re all in well before sunset, and they get by well enough.
That’s before Karla ends up out later than she should be, and before the shortcut she tries to make up the difference with leads into one of the pockets of territory still roamed by zombies.
Before the zombies use up the last of the bullets she’s carrying, leaving only the knife in her sleeve for the vampire attracted by the noise.
It’s quick, and messy, and the only thing she’ll remember clearly aterwards is the way his eyes widen when the knife slides into his stomach.
She runs the rest of the way home, and doesn’t encounter anyone else.