Haitian Vampire Tale: Zombies

"Fuck," Stanley Rameau said to himself as he looked at the sprawling cityscape formerly known as Montreal, Quebec. Six feet two inches tall, burly and dark-skinned, with stylish dreadlocks and a neatly trimmed beard, Stanley still looked like the Haitian hipster he'd been many decades ago. The vampire state freezes one's physical age, it's one of its few blessings. Earlier that night, Stanley fed on a bunch of rats, draining them of blood. After decades of inactivity, Stanley still felt sluggish but he was getting better by the hour. Vampires are nothing if not resilient.

Stanley raked his tongue over his fangs before retracting them. He was thirsty as hell. Everywhere the vampire looked, he saw bodies, but there wasn't a drop to drink. Still decked out in the silvery jumpsuit which he'd worn in the hibernation chamber known as the Pit, Stanley looked ill-at-ease in his new environment. Even for a vampire, the apocalypse is no joke. Adapt or die, for good this time, these were the choices.

"Yeah, it's like that everywhere," said Noor Hamideh, shaking her head. Short, curvy, bronze-skinned and dark-haired, Noor still spoke with the faintest traces of her Moroccan accent. Decades after being turned while in her early thirties, Noor was still very much the same being she'd once been. When a person becomes a vampire, their greatness and their liabilities both become amplified. The vampire state makes a person more of what they were. Strength and intelligence become magnified, and so do insecurities. Those are the rules of the vampire state.

For a couple of days now, Noor had been wandering the remnants of Montreal with her new pal Stanley. The Moroccan vampire looked at her Haitian compadre, and the despair rolled off of him in waves. Noor chanced a glance below and repressed a shudder. There were zombies everywhere. Millions of them. Montreal and its surrounding areas had been turned into a necropolis. The world didn't belong to humans or vampires anymore. The zombies owned it.

"Humanity lost, they had guns and tanks and warplanes and fucking Wi-Fi and satellites and nuclear warheads and they still lost to the damn zombies," Stanley said angrily. Noor nodded and gently wrapped her arms around Stanley's torso. Like her, he did not breathe. Tension radiated from Stanley's body, though. Three nights ago, Noor dug Stanley out of the Pit, the lair where many vampires had hidden themselves away, decades ago. Three decades ago, the zombie apocalypse began. Noor watched it all unfold. Stanley and his ilk hid from the onslaught. They were not the same.

"Humanity fought bravely," Noor countered, and she repressed the urge to tell Stanley where to stuff it. At least the humans fought. Decades ago, some elite vampires chose to skip the end of the world stuff and hid away in high-tech bunkers in the Pit. When the power went out, the vampires were trapped inside. Noor discovered Stanley purely by accident. She'd been hunting for rats in the underground complex when she came across the sarcophagi in which the elite vampires slept. Pure luck, as it turns out.

"Must have been chaotic when it all went down," Stanley said thoughtfully, and Noor rolled her eyes. The streets below were crowded with the zombies. For decades now, every major city looked like Montreal. There were more zombies than people nowadays. Hell, it had been three years since Noor saw any humans. The vampire gal had roamed from Quebec to Maine, from Maine to Massachusetts and even ventured as far as Mexico. The human strongholds had fallen, one after the other. The zombies were winning. Where does that leave the vampires?

"Some of our kind fought against the zombies, we knew they were a threat to our survival, for if the humans go, we go," Noor countered. Stanley nodded as though he understood. To him, this was a nightmare come to life. The vampires had always lived secretly among humans, moving from place to place, under assumed names and identities. To them, the human species seemed eternal. The vampires needed the humans as a source of food as well as to replenish their ranks. To a vampire, human extinction was unfathomable... until now.

"I wish I were there," Stanley said, and Noor bristled at that. The Moroccan-born vampire recalled the horrors of the zombie apocalypse, and how it ravaged both the human world and vampire communities. The zombies slaughtered and devoured any biological entities they encountered. To them, a rabbit, a horse, a human or a zombie were all fair game. The slow-moving, dull-minded, perpetually hungry zombies showed no mercy to those they encountered. Nothing alive was safe from them. Vampires, half-dead and half-alive, were prey for the zombies too. Isn't that something?

Noor let go of Stanley and stood on the ledge, glaring at the mindless hordes of zombies down below. For decades now, the major cities of Canada looked like this. Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Halifax, Vancouver, none were spared by the zombies relentless onslaught. North America fell to the zombie hordes a mere year and a half after the first outbreak, which began in 2029. All the combined military might of America, Canada and Mexico couldn't save them from the zombies. Human soldiers were trained to fight other people, not the living dead.

"Some would call you and the others cowards for hiding in the Pit, but I know hundreds of vampires who went out fighting the zombies and didn't return," Noor said with a shrug. Stanley looked at her, marveling at that façade of toughness. Noor was haunted by what she'd seen and done. No need to be an expert in psychology to figure that one out. The zombies were everywhere, and the humans were dwindling. Where does that leave the vampires?

"We fight to survive," Stanley said firmly, and he gently took Noor's hand in his. Noor looked at him, and bit back a stiff reply. Stanley was certainly full of himself, and he had that naïve mindset that one who hadn't experienced horrors could afford to have. Noor had seen a lot. Still, she was quite lonely. The other vampires in the Pit had perished when their hibernation berths malfunctioned but Stanley somehow survived. That had to mean something.

"Survival alone isn't worth it, I need more," Noor said urgently. Stanley looked at her and smiled, then he kissed her. Noor was surprised by that kiss but did not resist. Breaking the kiss, Noor flashed her fangs at Stanley and he did the same. Under the pale moonlight, the two vampires stared each other down. Potential mates, rivals and enemies, they were all of these things and more. They might also be the last of their kind...

"I want to do more than survive, I want to find others like us, and take back the world," Stanley said grimly. Noor looked at him and saw that he meant his words. Shrugging, Noor nodded. Stanley stepped on the ledge and then leapt into the night. The Haitian vampire easily cleared a gap of four hundred feet and landed on the next building rooftop. Noor blinked in surprise, impressed by Stanley's astonishing agility. Even by vampire standards, Stanley was impressive.

"Show-off," Noor said, laughing, as she tried to replicate the same feet. Leaping into the night, Noor flew and landed on the next building's ledge. The normally surefooted vampire gasped as her feet slid, and she stumbled backwards. Towards the chasm. Towards the street. Below, hundreds of thousands of zombies moaned into the night. The ravenous monsters were always hungry. Humans, vampires, animals, the zombies devour all...

"Gotcha," Stanley said as he grabbed Noor and pulled her towards himself. Noor sighed in relief and exhaled even though she did not breathe. The two vampires held each other for a long moment. This time, Noor kissed Stanley. It seemed like the thing to do. Stanley kissed her back, and then they laughed awkwardly. Side by side, they began to hunt. In the absence of humans, there were many critters around. Stray dogs, stray cats, and lots and lots of birds. The vampires found prey, and fed. When morning came, they hid from the sunlight.

Noor and Stanley slept in the cellar of a barricaded loft where a family of humans held out for years until despair set in. The father, mother, son and daughter were still there, their skeletons grinning at the undead visitors. The humans chose to commit suicide when their situation became impossible. As Stanley slept next to her, Noor thought of the dead family and what their last moments must have been like. The female vampire hoped that she and her new companion would fare better. With a shrug, Noor went to sleep. Tonight, she and Stanley would roam, and hunt, and possibly fight the zombies. Such is the existence of the last vampires during the zombie apocalypse...