"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

Trent and Dana, the reporter and the mayor, did not wait for the mob to burst through the basement door. Trent barely squeezed through the small window first. Then he gave his arm for Dana to grab onto so she could lift herself up and out the same window. Trent started heading toward his truck in the parking lot, but Dana tugged on his hand as hard as she could to remind him there were still hundreds of vamps lingering out in that direction. They went in the other direction despite its dangers. The hill the church stood on had a fairly gentle slope towards the entrance. It was the side the road used, but pedestrians living nearby often made their way up for Sunday services when the weather was nice. The other side of the hill was far steeper. It was manageable during the day but downright dangerous at night with no lights to guide them. They climbed down from the rim and then down another 10 feet where they could find a little footing. They were breathing heavily when Trent realized something, "Hey, where's the laptop?" Incensed, Dana yell-whispered "Where do you think?!" "Just great! We were going to need that for evidence." Dana could here the mass of vamps getting closer, as most went out towards the parking lot and down the hill while a few checked this side of the hill. The index finger to her lips was telling him "Please be quiet," while the rage in her eyes was telling him "Shut the fuck up!" They held their breaths as they heard growls and hissing above them. Eventually the noises went away. The two remained still, but exhaled as quietly as they could.

When from their vantage point they could see some of the vampires dispersing to their homes as the beasts passed under street lamps, they felt it same to start climbing down the hill. They would briefly use their smartphones to light the way beneath them, but not so long to attract attention from anyone who happened to be looking their way. In using their cells, they noticed that they had zero bars. They both independently wondered if someone had messed with the cell tower in town, and sure enough someone had. Once most of the way down they saw the sky change color indicating sunrise was not too far away. Finally at the bottom they felt it safe enough to talk again in hushed tones. "Where to now?" Dana asked. Trent laid it on the line "We can't stay here. We have no weapons, no supplies at all. Simply put, we're no match for them." "But where do we go? Who's to say they haven't gone to any of the other nearby towns?" "From what we were seeing they were concentrating on securing our town first. We saw a few road blocks coming to the church. If we get somewhere and warn people," Trent paused knowing there was a good chance no one would believe them, "it's the only option left." At that moment a sedan turned a nearby corner and would be heading their way. Exhausted, they managed to limp to some nearby bushes before being seen. As the car passed Trent saw how all of the windows were crudely spray painted black. "To keep out the sun I guess. Maybe they're out looking for us?" "Maybe not just for us, but anybody they haven't gotten to yet." "Perhaps. No matter, we can't be trying to find other survivors. Our only concern has to be escape." "Agreed," said Dana, "but if all the roads are being watched how do we get out? By the time we walk to Henleyville it'll to be dark again, assuming I don't just collapse before then. "I know what we can use. Just one problem," Trent told her. "What's that?" "We'll have to visit The Bitch."

The last thing they wanted to do was waste precious daylight; but after being awake for 30 hours, being chased multiple times, attacked, nearly killed, witnessing complete horror, and climbing all night they needed rest. They found a toolshed, locked it from the inside, and fell dead asleep. Dana woke up first and checked her phone, "TRENT! TRENT! Get up! We slept too long. " Trent stirred awake and tried looking at a watch on a wrist that wasn't there. He managed to pull himself and saw sunlight was still shining through the cracks in the door. "It's okay, The Bitch is only three blocks away."

They carefully made their way through quiet streets. From certain houses there were clear sounds of undead revelry. Even the wind would occasionally hit them with the unmistakable smell of sex from those places. Then Trent stopped walking and he told Dana, "We're here." She was confused as it was one house that looked the same as all the others surrounding it, apart from maybe being a bit run down. They snuck around back and among a mostly weed-laden garden Trent turned over one of the stones. Underneath it was a key. "Where are we?" she whispered to him. "I told you. The Bitch. This is where my ex-wife lives." As methodically as possible he inserted the key into the back door lock and turned it. When he felt it stop turning he pushed the door open enough to fit through. It creaked but luckily (or not) that noise was covered by the sounds of animalistic screaming in another room. He tiptoed in and she was right behind him. The layout of the house required them to walk passed the source of the screaming from one of the bedrooms. Trent went first and took a peek inside. On a bed was his layabout perennially jobless adult son. He was the one screaming, and his fangs were clearly seen in his wide open mouth. The cause of the screaming was a woman that Trent didn't recognize sucking his cock and make sure not to pierce his member with her own fangs. Behind the unknown woman, was The Bitch, Enid. She was eating out the other woman vigorously. He was positive the trio would not notice them walking beyond them, so they did. In the living room Trent grabbed one of two sets of keys from a bowl near the remote control and the magazines. He ignored the front door and made his way through a different door.

There was the garage. Trent knew the trickiest part was coming. He hit a button on a wall and the garage door slowly opened, and it was noisy as it moved along. Dana started tugging at the passenger door of the Mazda that was in the garage but it was locked. Trent tapped her on the shoulder, and as she turned around he tried to hand her a motorcycle helmet. He was standing next to his son's motorcycle with another helmet for himself in his other hand. Dana adamantly shook her head no, but he explained to her as best he could over the sound of the garage door, "The roads are blocked. We need something that can go off -road and get us to Henleyville." Dana reluctantly took the offered helmet and struggled to figure out the straps. They froze when there was a voice from the door between the living room and the garage, "I always knew you'd come back for me." "Hello, Enid. I see you've been living your best life." "I must admit it hasn't always been easy since you left, but this past day has opened my eyes. Why not have a little kiss for old-time's sake?" "No thanks. I don't kiss monsters." "You don't now, but once you join us..." Trent interrupted, "I don't mean whatever all this," he motioned wildly all around him, "but you, Enid, long before you started sucking blood and having threeways with our son have always been a monster." Enid pouted and said, "Ouch!" pouring on the mock disappointment, "Maybe once I have my way with your mayor friend here then you'll quit fighting what is inevitable." "I swear if you TOUCH her I'll slice your head clean off and shove it down the garbage disposal." "Hold on, cowboy. I'm not here to attack you," pausing to point to the area past the garage door, "I'm just here to stall you." Trent and Dana looked outside and saw the sun had mostly set and a few vamps had already began making their way from other nearby houses to the one making all the noises.

Trent put on his helmet and in a panic took a few tries to start up the motorcycle. Dana got on the back seat and held tightly around his waist. He spun out in the garage so he could jet out as rapidly as he could. Vamps they passed by tried reaching out at them but managed to miss. The motorcycle sped along Connelly Street. A few vamps became dozens which became hundreds, all chasing after two of the last humans in town. Then a cop car with tinted glass and an SUV with spray painted windows joined the chase. It was then that Trent took the bike off the street, the vehicles stayed on their course hoping to intercept them further down while the sea of vamps continued on foot. The creatures were far faster than any human able to mostly keep pace with the motorcycle. As they neared the border to Henleyville, the chopper slowed down due to the steepness of the incline they had to take. The vamps kept their pace and narrowed the gap. Trent had **** but to focus on the path ahead, while Dana looked back seeing a phalanx of clawed hands soon within reach. "This is it," she thought to herself. And then the most amazing thing happened. The brightest light Trent and Dana had ever seen flooded the area. Trent could not help but skid out, throwing both passengers from the bike. They could not see anything but they heard the howls of the vampires that were following them. Much like the howls when they tried to step on hallowed ground it was clear they were in agony. Gunfire could be heard, and then a voice over a walkie-talkie, "That's it, men! Keep the lights on 'em. Fire at will. We don't want any of them crossing the barrier. Get these two into the medical tent. " The mayor and the reporter passed out.

Trent woke up and saw Dana already awake in a hospital bed next to his. She gave a sigh of relief seeing that he was awake and well. "'Bout time you got up," said a uniformed man with colonel stripes, "Doctors said they couldn't believe neither of you had a concussion." Trent, "You have to believe those things aren't people, they're..." "Vampires. Yep we know." "You know?" "Of course we do. We didn't know right away, but when we found a cell tower had been torn down our first thought was terrorists. Lot of people don't care much for folks like the NSA and the CIA, but they surely do come in handy when someone is trying to take over a town in these here United States. We got a spy satellite on that so fast. They must've been plum loco to think one cell tower and a few road blocks was going to keep us from seeing all this." "So what now, bomb them?" "Well see that's a bit of sticky situation. We don't think a bomb would kill them. Really, we don't what it takes to kill them. Not only are these things strong, fast, and contagious, they've got enough guns where we can't just walk in and take 'em down. So our plan is to contain them until we find out what does kill them." Dana chimed in, "How can you contain so many?" "The lieutenant here is responsible for containment. Tell them what you've got cooking." The lieutenant proudly stood up and explained, "We've got a no-fly zone for 30 miles. At all times we have anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers covering the borders. We have a tech ops team flying drones for a close-up view of all activity, not to mention the spy satellite already mentioned. No one is getting in or out without our say so. We were surprised you made it to the border. You were only the second one to do so yesterday." Trent asked, "Second? Who was the first?" "Just a UPS driver. We checked him out, no bites of any kind. He's clean." "What about what was in his truck?" "If you're worried about stowaways, no vamps in the truck. Just a bunch of packages, you know?" Trent asked cautiously, "What kind of packages? We checked them out. Normal things like kids toys and clothes. There was like a 100 bottles of wine individually boxed" Dana pounced on that word, "Wine?! Did you see where they were being shipped to?" "Well, they were going to a bunch of different states, one or two to Mexico and Canada. A few overseas. " The mayor asked one last question, "Do you have those destinations written down?" "Of course not, we're tracking vampires not wine. Ma'am, I don't know what you're so worried about. Those vamps are not going anywhere. The invasion is over." "No, lieutenant, The invasion is just getting started."

EPILOGUE

"If you don't find a movie we'll all enjoy I'm going to throw dinner in the trash," Rhonda said half-jokingly to her boyfriend, Cassius. He and Trevor were watching Halloween III, and Rhonda was not about to have couples night be anything less than perfect. She hopped into the kitchen where Trevor's girlfriend, Penny, was taking the hors d'oeuvres out of the oven. "Oh, thank you. The guys don't realize how much work goes into one of these things. By the way, do you have anything to drink?" "I stopped at the store and brought over some beer, and two bottles of wine." "Would you mind if I open the bottle of red? Work was horrible and I just want to chill out before we eat." "Not at all. You know where the corkscrew is, right?" "Got it. Huh, I never heard of this brand before. What is it?" "The guy at the liquor store said he got it as a sample. He sold it cheap if I promised to tell if I liked it or not. Funny, it even came with a candle for some reason." "Well, you know some people like to display their used liquor bottles. Maybe you put the candle in it when it's empty or something. Anyway, bottoms up."

20 minutes later, and after discussing the NBA in that time Cassius and Trevor noticed that their girlfriends were still in the kitchen. "Babe, I'm tired of looking at the Netflix selection screen. Come out and pick something or I'm going to just put on basketball. The men were startled when Rhonda and Penny walked into the dining room holding hands. Rhonda looked almost crazed, with something red smattered around her lips. Penny had that same crazed look in her eyes. Her top was halfway torn off, with one breast exposed and two strange marks along the top. "How about we skip the movie tonight? I know a fun game we can all play."