A Nameless Face, Break.Even [reading cloud ebooks .txt] 📗

My heart pounded and every inch of my being screamed to leave. Taking a shaky breath, I looked over at the boy standing beside me and nodded. I knew the vampires and rouges roamed here, but my family needed food and I intended to get it. Every since the vampires exposed themselves, the world went to hell in a hand basket. Vampires started evading the biggest cities (one of the cities, which happened to be my home, was now unnamed but stretched for miles in every direction of the fence) of the United States and most of the small ones were destroyed. What happened to the captured cities?
Humans were no longer humans, but a food source; the captured cities were forced under rule by our living dead. Many humans cowered in their basements, hoping it would all go away like a bad dream. The vampires were unforgiving though and the more the humans hid out, the more they went searching. Soon enough, cities were isolated by breath taking concrete walls and humans lived in constant fear of when they would become a vampire’s meal. Even though, most of the vampires actually tried to keep a collected hold on society and formed a system. The system basically stated that as long humans followed orders, became a ‘civilian’ in the vamp world, and sacrificed a member of their family three times a year, or every four months, they would not be harmed and received a food supply that would just barely last until the next sacrifice. It was a tough crack down and apparently they didn’t know soon enough their food source inside the wall would kill out.
After about two years, the vampires realized that their precious blood was cutting down quick and that they had to do something. Since they were vampires, they figured it wouldn’t be so hard to have a monthly gathering and bring in as many humans as they would need to feed their population from outside the wall. They carried out the plan. Ten to twenty humans were brought in every month. It was by far enough to feed the vampires; even then they still had the hundreds of humans from families and gangs, and other groups of people throughout the city. Instead of dropping their monthly gatherings to a minimum, they started turning extra humans into vampires. The second generation vampires were near perfectly matched to their masters, but soon they wanted to be called Master themselves. Secretly they started to create their own offspring. It was then that the Rogues were born.
Their secrets however, were infected with rabies. How so though, no vampire or any human knew. Now, whether you followed the System or not, you could become a vamp’s meal. These nasty creatures roamed the streets at night and any one they caught, animal or human, were drained of blood and dumped into the pipes below the streets, some where even turned into a Rogue them. For someone like me who traveled under the ground, it wasn’t such a pleasant surprise to wonder upon.
I knew that rogues were outside the wall as well, but the vampires and the humans they brought back rumored that they were so crazed by the disease they would attack anything that stood in the way of a human, even one of their own kind. But I’m sure they told us this just scare anyone away from tempting to slip out of the gates.
Though once a Rogue from the outside, or Oar’s as I call them slipped past guards and pushed the city into a raging mass of terror. All of the vampires hunted for it every night, but the Oar was relentless, always slipping past even the best vamps. One night though, the Oar had settled on a small child clapping out her slippers. She was unaware and her small high pitched screams echoed throughout the city. That’s when the vamp’s finally caught, and beheaded the Oar. Sadly, the young girl was torn to bits and had to be killed as well. After the capture, humans and vamps alike could sleep with a tad less worry.
I couldn’t though. My family, or what was left of it, were not civilians. Sure, I hated the idea of giving one of the up, but we needed food. After I started thinking about it though, realization struck. How hard would it be to scrounge up food in abandoned homes or lost places? Even though we weren’t civilians, both of my parents were taken in to become food and they left me, my two brothers Dustin and Gabe, and our dog. The idea sickened me at the time, but I knew I would have to kill the dog to use as meat. Gabe and Dustin didn’t protest; they too knew you couldn’t love something as simple as an animal anymore. As I dried out the dog meat that night, I heard the two boys crying in their rooms. From then on I swore that it was them over me.
Over the next two months, we adopted two other kids who were alone. One was my age, nineteen, and the other around fifteen or sixteen. None of us knew exact ages, we just guessed. It was a lot of mouths to feed, especially since Camo and I were the only ones who went for food.
“Devin!” Camo hissed behind me. I knew he felt it too, that strange pull when vamps were around. Swallowing the lump that rose in my throat, I shook my head. “There’s no way I’m turning back now. We haven’t even gotten to the wall yet.” Camo cursed under his breath, but continued on behind me. Our tasks were not easy, but we did what we had to do and we got out. Simple, but not easy.
I rounded the corner and quickly darted back around. Camo eased up beside me, our bodies becoming one with the dank tunnel around us.
“Please! I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt me!” Cried out a shrill voice ahead of us. Camo tensed beside me. I pushed my finger to my lips and shook my head. If we turned around now, the vamp would surely hear us and it’d have three humans to drain.
“You know I can’t leave you alive. Oh no, no, no little human. ” Replied another voice, much more calm and collected, but feminine. I peeked around the corner and saw that the vamp’s back was too me and the pleading human stood in front of her, cringing on his knees. I snickered inwardly at the thought of why he’d found himself face to face with a vamp. Same thing all men want. Camo tensed again, but this was different. His eyes shown of pure terror. The female vamp had noticed us.
She smiled wickedly and before I could even blink, she had a hard grasp on my ankle and was dragging me out of the little hole where Camo sat. Her grip tightened; a shriek escaped my lungs and I had to fight hard not to cry. “What do we have here? Another street rat?” She crouched down to my level and blew out a soft breath. I snarled my nose at the stench.
“It’s all too bad, it really is.” She sneered and I knew she would take pleasure in killing me. I heard Camo scuff his feet, trying to steady them. Clenching my eyes tight, I lashed out with the vamp and hit her squarely in the ribs with my foot. She hissed and turned on me. “What a brave little rat you are.” Her eyes sparkled red and I immediately regretted what I’d done. She pinned me against the ground, my head connecting with the concrete ground hard. I bit back a string of curses. Looking just past her, I saw the trembling man runaway.
“Looks like your shrew is getting away,” I smiled bitterly. It wasn’t much of a comeback, not one at all really, but I knew all vamps hated smug prey. For all she knew I was one of his gang and tried to lure her away, make her feel stupid. Long, slightly curved fangs stuck out from her upper lip like miniature tusk. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this one, or how Camo was going to get out of it alive. All of the long nights spent hungry watching my brothers shrivel, all the dangerous trips outside the wall. All of that in hate of vampires, and now I will die by one.
Closing my eyes I waited for the sharp fangs to tear my throat out and drain me. It never came though, just a loud hiss and a dull thump. Camo slid down beside me and cradled me in his arms whispering that it was okay. My cheeks flushed hot and I pushed him away, standing up. I almost forgot about my ankle, but caught the wall just as I started to fall. “This will put a damper on our runs.” Being optimistic when your ankle was hurting like hell wasn’t easy. It was then I realized something. Looking up, I saw another vampire. She was much smaller than the first, but I could tell she was stronger, or older.
She smiled at us. “I never liked her preying on young scavengers when they were just trying to live. Of course I can’t talk… I’ve had my moment as well.” The vampire started to walk away, but she turned back around to face Camo. “Next time, boy, you won’t be so lucky.” I didn’t know if that meant he would be dying, or if she thought there was something between us and he wouldn’t be leaving with me alive. Either way, I stepped in front of him and glared at the vampire. She chuckled, but turned and walked into the dark.
Camo shuddered behind me and I swallowed a lump. “Come on Camo, we need to get back.” I choked out, not looking back. It was an empty run and nothing could change the fact that sooner or later, my family would die of starvation. Camo walked beside me; every now and then he’d look over at me, but turn away just as quickly. Sighing in my head, I threaded my fingers through his and felt him smile. After all, I was going to die, hopefully later than sooner, but who knew?

By the time Camo and I reached the end of the tunnel and crawled
up the rickety ladder, the sky was dark. "Great." I muttered. Storms in this
world could last up to a solid week. Looking up at the sky I felt a small drop
of rain land on my cheek. Smiling slightly, I looked back at