******
The raid should be about over. I don’t hear anymore gunfire so I move over to the driver just as he comes round. “Are you okay? Do you know what happened?”
Holding his head, “A group of them white bastards jumped in front of me! It was all I could do not to flip the damn thing.” A look of panic invades his eyes, “Is anyone hurt!”
Turning sharply, a tight inhale and he’s grabbing his neck. I tell him not to move and reassuringly state, “Most of us are okay.” I don’t know if it’s a lie.
“Those damned things are a menace. I would’ve just hit ’em if it wouldn’t damage the bus so bad,” he growls.
I repress another tart response and just pat him on the shoulder. Gran still hasn’t woken up so a lecture about equality isn’t what this guy needs. It won’t help any of us. Even as a pacifist I can relate to his frustration. It’s hard to talk about equal rights when one party can survive anything and the other… well, can’t. Sometimes I wonder if it’s jealousy. Living forever has distinct appeal, at times. Looking at Gran slowly turning pale I’m especially aware of my own mortality.
It must have been a big sweep to cause this much havoc. The street is littered with damaged vehicles and red tail lights. The timing is a surprise for this very reason. Most organized sweeps happen early in the morning. Less traffic in general makes for less chaos. Of course, it also gives the vamps all night to relocate. A surprise sweep at dusk yields more captures but at the cost of public damages. The city’s PR team is probably already working on the spin. Smouldering smokestacks where houses were burning a few minutes indicates they’ve finished up. Should be letting people back in the neighborhood by the time I get there. “Can you get the door open?”
The driver pulls a lever and the hydraulic doors swish open and I hop down the steps. “Where’re ya going?” he calls out, “Aren’t you going to help?”
I turn and smile as I walk away, “I already do.”
My contributions come in the form of commentary. I write a tolerance column once a week that highlights examples of vampires co-existing peacefully with society. The official platform for my angle is equality but my personal views are more cynical. Vampires are a fact of life and fighting it hasn’t solved anything. Ultimately, the immortal get the final say. All we have to do is “stay brown and die” – as the saying goes.