Night Plague: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller by Rowan Rook Page B

examination.”
    Mason smiled. “That would be great.”
    Cliff just nodded, already rummaging through a dusty shelf. “You look like you could use some allergy meds, yourself. A pity they don’t work on us anymore. You should stay out of the sun as much as you can for a while.”
    “Eh?” Mason blinked, bewildered until he remembered the welts on his hands. They hadn’t necessarily gotten worse, but they hadn’t disappeared, either. In fact, they were slowly sprouting on his lower neck. They’d been around for so long that he’d more or less stopped noticing them.
    “Stay out of the sun for a few days and they’ll go away.”
    He instinctively pulled down his sleeves as far as they would go. “The…sun?”
    The doctor heaved a hearty laugh that made his belly bounce. It looked out of place on a figure as thin and lanky as his. “It’s not like we’ll burn up or melt to ashes, but we are weak to the sun – it’s something like an allergic reaction.”
    Mason’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
    “Seriously.” Cliff shoved aside old boxes and bags while he spoke. “It can actually get quite severe, but you should be fine as long as you don’t spend hours under direct sunlight. It will sap your energy, though, so don’t overdo it.”
    …This was just too much. Mason groaned, staring at the cracks in the floor and letting himself think about something else. “Umm, I heard Dale and some girl, I think her name was Alex, arguing –”
    “Oh, was Dale trying to knock some sense into her again?” Cliff didn’t wait for him to finish. “Alex has some idea in her head that we need to drain as many people as possible to give them the 1% chance of rising. She says we need to make the vampire population as big as possible before humans all die out, but really, she just enjoys the power. Sick in the head, that one is.”
    Mason shuddered, his toes curling.
    “She’s managed to sweep quite a few of us under her wing, though. It’s best just to stay away from her and her ‘people’.”
    Were there really people like that in the prison? People who’d kill without needing to? Sorrel hadn’t told him anything about that before. Something churned his stomach – he wasn’t sure if it was fear or disgust, but either way, he’d definitely made the right decision to run.
    “They were also talking about, umm, ‘reproduction’. Dale said that you and Mercy were –”
    “Ah, well…” Cliff stopped. “We’re tackling one barrier at a time. We clearly have the potential to outlive humans, but as we originate from them as well as feed off them, the extinction of our origin species poses quite a problem for us, as well. Without food, we’ll all die, as they will. And without humans to rise, we’ll never grow as a people. Right now, however, we’re putting all our efforts into the synthetic blood program – we have a four year time limit at max on that one.”
    Mason tapped his heel on the floor. “So…you mean we won’t have to hunt anymore?”
    “Someday.” Cliff shot him a smile. “Or at least, that’s the idea. We’re working to uncover what exactly it is that keeps us alive, and why it needs human blood as fuel. The next step will be procuring alternate resources for it.”
    Mason couldn’t help but return the smile slightly, a delicate surge of hope easing his tight chest. Not only would that secure their survival beyond the four year barrier, it would also mean that one day they would no longer have to kill. He could live the normal future he’d never thought he'd have.
    “That’s still a ways off, though, so you’ll have to make do for now. Do what you must to make sure you’re still around when the time comes. Those will be glorious days, indeed.” The doctor grinned, eyes lighting up even while they stared at something far away. “As far as reproduction goes… Well, not only do we not age, we’re also completely infertile. As ridiculous as it sounds, cloning is a possibility in