"Smells like blood", a lone vampire standing on a dock looking out over black water said to himself.  It was midnight on the south shore of the main Island of the Trade Zone islands in early march, it had once been called Papua New Guinea.  He looked into the distance deciding what his best course of action would be.  He realized with the time of year and the weather being what they were, not to mention other types of climate, now wasn’t the time to cross.  He wanted to make the crossing by way of a largish island south of the coast, to the relatively nearby Australia, but sensed it wasn’t time yet.  Breathing in deeply, savoring the smell of the air coming from the south on the odd southerly breeze, he imagined life going on there.  The time was almost right, but not yet.

His thoughts returned to what he must do rather than make the crossing he so longed to.  He took a long look out over the rolling blackness and its seamless connection to the moonless sky, and paused.  Then without another thought turned purposefully to the north and walked quietly back up the pier towards the short rickety wooden staircase that delivered him to the sand below.  He had almost a light step, vampires are known to be light on their feet, but they appear heavy to the eye as they do it, this was the light touch of one longing to fly.

He looked about, up and down the beach in the blue light of the night, a warm breeze blew up from the south making him feel almost uncomfortably warm despite the time of night.  In the starlight he walked towards the tree line considering his options.  He had for many years now been running a smuggling operation between the vampire controlled territories to the north and the human colony that still remained on the islands of Australia and New Zealand.  There were many other small islands as well that were still controlled by the last remnants of the human resistance under the last remnants of a fading English Crown.

His operation was simple; supply blood to the north, from the south and do what he could to keep the two separate.  How else would he be able to make a living, how else would his plan work.  He stood nothing to gain by aiding in the collapse of that last human colony.  Despite the propaganda of the vampire overlords he knew better than to rely solely on the farming that had been the centerpiece in the plan of the Emperor Lord Delitus.

Humans had lost control of most of the planet following the collapse of their larger society and the subsequent seizing of control by the vampire Delitus and his few but strong loyal followers.  In one moment of indecision and under-preparedness humans had simply lost control, totally.  With the exception of the Southern Colony there was nothing left of Humanity.  If it were indeed appropriate to call it humanity, what went on there.

The vampire walked past the burned out and now almost completely reclaimed by the jungle remnants of the human shops and fishing huts that had over one hundred years ago been a bustling human settlement.  Pausing, he now turned back, looking over his shoulder as if still not quite sure he couldn’t go, but he couldn’t and he knew it.  Not yet.

            He walked into a jungle strangely devoid of animal sounds.  In a world where blood was the most valuable commodity, animals didn’t stand a chance against both the forces of human predation and vampire.  There were of course still many animals surviving, but only the ones that knew how to stay clear of two legged, things.  As he walked he went over what he would say to his camp.  They were mostly vampire but there were also many humans working for him as well.  As far as vampires went this was the one to work for regardless of if you were human or vampire.  Most vampires gave no care whatsoever for what it meant to be human, though each and every one of them had once been themselves human.  Even vampires could benefit from kindness and the type of mutual care that could only be called love.  This is what bothered the vampire as he walked and thought.  How could he explain to them all that the time was coming when it would all necessarily come to an end. 

The operation had been going on for most of the time since the collapse and the humans that were working with him were of course not the same humans that had helped him establish the free zone in the islands south of the southeast asian peninsula, though they were very similar in character.  The only people that could handle working around vampires were those with serious problems themselves, people around whom other people felt uncomfortable.  Most of his humans were of the “synth” variety.  This was the slang term for the genetically modified and chemically altered, stimulated, and completely adulterated humans that had basically given up on any notion of staying “natural” humans.  It was a gamble that vampires could respect, or at least understand.

The vampires working for him were likewise not the average vampires either.  Most of them were the ones who had, until they met this vampire, outcasts living on the fringes of the vampire Zones of Domination, as they were called, each the responsibility of a hierarchy of vampire overseers under the Emperors icy control.  They were mostly those that had been ridiculed and often killed and persecuted by other vampires for refusing to drink human.  Working for this vampire, they got to have the best of both worlds, human blood and clear consciences.  Not that conscience was the right word, even the softest of vampires could run ice cold at the drop of a needle.  It came with the territory, you can’t take the vampire “ride” and not see more than you want.  They still, the 1000 or so vampires that helped him control the island mostly in defense against other vampires, were the type that he could buy with spiritually clean blood.  Many vampires preferred the taste of fear and rage chemistry in the “donating” human. Some, these, preferred blood given peacefully and willfully.  To he and his followers, “Choice given” blood was tastiest blood of all.  Sweet with freedom, they reveled as they drank.

He continued through the jungle watching his step in the hear pitch black under the jungle canopy at night.  Every now and again he would leap high into the air to get his bearings, even though this was his jungle and had been for more than a hundred years, plants gave no blood and so they overgrew everything and changed with the seasons.  He could easily get lost in his own backyard, as it were.  He loved that though, the forest. Muted shades of grey and black that he knew to be beautiful green like those plants he kept in his home where he could tend them in the safe light of his basement levels.  As he walked he thought about how to handle those humans that would never be accepted back into their own colony, either for what they had done before they left, or after.  He was possibly the most conscientious of vampires with regards to human life, however often humans would disappear on trading missions to his trading hubs along the south coast of the main islands of what was once the southeast asian nations of Indonesia, New Guinea, and Malaysia.  They were mostly taken for their blood by marauding vampires or possibly even the more unscrupulous human pirates that often sold “taken” blood as “given” blood and dealt in human “cows” as they were called sometimes in the trade.  The vampire could tell the difference but so often there was too much blood to check it all.

Jumping high, brushing aside the large leaves of the canopy, grabbing a tree trunk and jumping again he was able see far into the distance and landing lightly on his feet he would carry on in the direction of the fires he saw that stood atop the defensive bamboo walls of his main compound.  He was about as merry as he could be though, it was his way   He was thirsty, there was blood ahead, and dawn was still hours away.