Missing Vampire: Reward Available (Hypernaturals 6)

Unexpected

I arrived at another forested area, and my nose told me that there is water ahead. Two kinds. Fresh and Salt. Mostly Salt. I assume that is the Black Sea.

The freshwater came from a small farmhouse with a well and a pump. I looked it over carefully. Sleeping people are inside, according to infrared. I tested the pump, and it is quiet and well maintained.

The water tasted excellent after the run. Nothing refreshes like water. Maybe Milk...? Does not matter, no cows and I don't know how to milk them even if there were any.

I drank my fill, then headed out again. If I am this close to the Black Sea, I am too far North. The good news is that the HPA took me from the airport at the Paris terminal. They know I was headed to Paris, and my track so far is more north than that. I am not exactly where I should be if I headed directly to my original intended destination. Fine with me. The farther away I move, the more the search grid widens. The harder it will be for them to find me.

Maybe I can find a phone that does collect calls and try the emergency number again. If they have that kind of thing here. I have not seen a payphone yet, but... Who knows?

I need to be headed more west. Towards Bulgaria. I have no sun for a reference, but there are trees, and they have moss. Oriented, I struck out in a more West North West direction, to try and get back some of my westward lost ground. No matter what the advantages of messing with the search grid, I need to actually arrive at Claremont. Not in Paris, but South of there.

As the sun came up, I found a road in going in my line of desired travel. I would have been excited about easier going except on the road is a van behaving oddly. It is driving very slowly.

I pressed myself to the ground and peeked up enough to watch the vans slow forward progress. The side door is open, and a person with big goggles is scanning the woods to the side of the road.

Fuck. Really?

I slid back down so that the ground is between me the road. IR goggles cannot see through the ground. If I were up in a tree, I would have been spotted more than likely.

Maybe. IR Goggles are for finding heat sources. They are not telephoto too. Not that set anyway. The person wearing them is seeing all the heat sources in the woods at once and from a distance. All creatures great and small.

I shut my eyes and focused on my hearing. I could hear the motor, and wisps of conversation floating out of the van. It did not slow down or speed up. Merely rolled along.

Looking for me.

"New data point." I told myself. "The damn EuroHPA have enough resources for a second group of people, equipped with IR gear."

Since I am laying there doing nothing, I thought about that some more and that train of consideration led me to wonder at the chances of coming upon the one and only van looking for me. Especially since I am off course at the moment. I decided that seems unlikely. More likely: They have numerous vans like that one out looking for me. I scaled up their resources in accordance with that. These bigots are rich as all hell. Also prepared bastards. They had a plan 'B' ready in case I got away.

Makes me wonder why they did not put more people on the Airport end of things. I suppose getting masses of people through airport security comes with its own set of problems.

I probably woke up in the nick of time.

I went back into the tree-line, well away from the road, then sat down and pondered my situation. I need to sleep now. The Sun is coming up. It is not my friend, and the longer I am outdoors the more my appearance will cause comment. After a night of running, I am already not a fan of how I smell.

I climbed the biggest tree I could find and made a makeshift bed of woven branches. I used the rucksack straps as a parachute style safety. If it gave way, I would be dangling there.

I wondered again at the issue of how they found me. Knew my name. The night Helen, Jessica, and our Crew friends rescued from the HPA there was one person that had not been present for the HPA conflagration. The strange and awful woman named Sandy that tried to entice and later force me to have sex with her while strapped to the BDSM cross. The woman who shoved the electric rod up my ass to force ejaculation for specimen collection. She took her own special bag home with her, saying she earned it, and that it was my fault because she tried to make it fun for me.

Sure, Sandy. Make rape 'fun'.

Sandy was not present that day when the USA HPA members were executed and burned to ashes in the church. We thought we had all the specimens they took from my body, except that one. If she has a picture of me as well, she could have reported in. Told them what happened maybe.

Sandy's scent was not even remotely on the men I killed in the ambulance. Nor was Sandy in the van rolling around out there. They are all much bigger. She climbed up on me while on the cross. She is little. Barely five feet.

If they have a picture of me, the suspected Vampire, all their proof is gone. I know the USA HPA told the Euro HPA something about me. I overheard them talking about the phone calls about their progress, and the Euro-branch had been told there IS proof Vampires exist, but other than that one specimen bag, it is all gone.

Would that little rapist woman share that? She said it is hers and that she earned it. It came off even to my damaged self as very Lord of the Rings: Golum and the ring and 'her little precious'.

I guess 'no', that she did not share, but it is only a guess. She molested and raped me so she is that kind of person, so it is hard to know what the hell she will do.

I thought about Diana and remembered Morgan holding her and reading her a story. A new story Diana never heard before so she had not memorized it yet.

I fell asleep in a tree, in a strange country, with HPA people in Vans looking for me.