Apocalypse The Last Dhampir

"There were seven and a half billion people on planet Earth when that great flying rock, the asteroid hit, now, two hundred and seventeen years later, there's only a few million of us," Thalia said, looking at the tribe of the Nem-Hash-She or Foragers. There were twenty men and seventeen women in the grotto, all of them wearing a combination of decorative metal pieces and animal skins. With rapt attention, they listened to the Keeper of the Law.

Gathered in the underground complex, one which had been hastily built two hundred and seventeen years ago, the Tribe underwent the Sharing of Knowledge Ceremony. They came to the Keeper, these young men and women, eager to hear about the world from before. A world of glittering towers and flying machines, of arcane technologies that dwarfed anything they knew...

The Tribe numbered eighteen hundred, and their territory was the Enclave, the underground complex which surrounded the underground basin, the source of the life-giving water without which they'd be extinct. On the surface, nothing grew under the baleful reddish sky, which many claimed was once perpetually blue. Venture upward and you'd return with blisters on your skin, and your teeth falling out, thanks to the poisonous atmosphere...

"Hard to imagine any of that," Falida said, and the tall, curvaceous, brown-skinned young woman ran her hand through her puffed up kinky hair, and quietly snickered. Seated on the dirt floor next to Falida, Abir shook his head. He'd always looked forward to the Sharing, and found Falida's attitude more than a little annoying. She always acted like she knew everything...

Tall and brawny, with skin of a rich chocolate hue, his head shaved, and his face beardless, Abir frowned at Falida. Why do I bother arguing with her? he wondered. He was a Builder, a maker of tools, and this made him naturally curious, and a seeker of knowledge. Falida on the other hand was a Huntress, and her caste was required to be ruthless and clever, able to outsmart prey, not truly interested in knowledge...

"Falida, come on, you've seen the buried metal towers, and the works of the Ancients," Abir protested, and Falida rolled her eyes. Falida snickered and elbowed Abir, who mock-protested. They'd known each other their entire lives. Abir's mother, Khadrissa, was close friends with Falida's mother, Yazira. Falida's father Tak-Amir was a leader of the Tribe. Abir seldom spoke of his father, who was long gone, and anyways, these days, people traced their lineage through their mothers...

"What I saw was so much rubble," Falida countered, and Abir ignored her, choosing to focus on the wise words of Thalia. There was something fascinating about the tales she spun. The Keeper of the Law continued to weave her tale, speaking of the bygone world, and she spoke of something called a sea, which to Abir sounded a lot like the life-giving basin, only much, much larger.

"Keeper of the Law, did the Ancients truly have machines that could carry them under this sea you speak of?" Abir asked abruptly, and Thalia laughed, and nodded. All eyes turned to Abir, including Falida's. The young man felt self-conscious, to say the least. He'd always been curious, a trait which many lamented would lead Abir to an early grave...

"Abir, why, yes, my son, those machines were called sub marines, and they were metal structures designed for traveling under water, the work of the Ancients," Thalia replied calmly, a bemused expression on her face. A tall, slender woman with skin of a rich mahogany hue, with long dark hair slightly streaked with gray, the Keeper of the Law was majestic and serene. Only Abir could make her laugh...

"Thank you, Keeper of the Law," Abir replied, and Falida chided him once more. This time, he ignored her and kept his eyes on Thalia, who continued with her tale. Twenty seasons had passed since Abir first opened his eyes, and he still carried himself with an innocence and a sense of wonder best suited to those half his age. Falida found this both endearing and vexing about him...

For months now, Falida had been throwing hints Abir's way. In a few months, they would be considred old enough for the Joining. At that ceremony, the males and the females of the Tribe would claim their mates. The women would choose the men, not the other way around. Falida was considered beautiful by most, and many young men wanted her. The only one she wanted was Abir, the fool and the dreamer...

"Fool," Falida muttered, and Abir smiled but did not look her way. She recalled how, a few months back, she and Abir had been wandering in the Metal Graveyard, a vast cavern containing many rusted metallic remnants, his foolishness nearly cost them both their lives. They'd been digging for ancient artifacts, unaware that they were in the lair of a type of mutated serpent known as the Slitherer...

Legless, with skin of a brown hue, covered with scales, the Slitherer came for them, moving faster than they thought possible. The Slitherer was an old one, easily twenty meters long, and weighing close to a ton. It stretched its mouth, revealing pearly white fangs and a forked tongue as it came for those who had dared to invade its lair...

"Watch out, Abir," Falida cried out as the Slitherer came forward, intent on swallowing them whole. Falida, as a Huntress, had faced such monsters before, albeit none as large. Abir, as a Builder, clearly hadn't, for he seemed to freeze. Bravely Falida took her bow and let a few arrows fly loose, and they embedded themselves in the Slitherer's thick hide, causing the reptilian beast to hiss in pain and outrage...

"Monster," Abir shouted, and then he did something which surprised even Falida. The Builder stood up, hefting his shovel like a weapon, and then he hurled it at the creature. Falida watched, amazed, as the shovel thudded into the Slitherer's skull, and the titanic beast hissed in pain, its coils rolling this way and that. Soon it fell, and lay perfect still...

"Don't get too close, it might not be dead," Falida warned, astonished by what she'd seen Abir do, but still weary of the supposedly dead serpentine beast. Abir ignored her, and went to retrieve his tool from the creature's skull. Yanking his shovel out of the creature's skull, Abir held the bloodied tool in his hand as though fascinated. Falida's eyes went wide when Abir lifted the shovel, and began licking it. He actually licked the giant-snake's blood...

"Magnificent," Abir shouted, and when he turned to face Falida, she thought she saw something rather strange in his eyes. For the briefest moment, they seemed almost red. Abir smiled at her, and for a brief moment, his teeth seemed a bit too white and a bit too sharp. Next, he dropped the shovel and came to her, and she saw that he looked completely normal...

"Don't scare me like that," Falida said, slapping his shoulder before throwing her arms around him. Abir hugged her back, and she suddenly noticed that his body felt cold. Poor thing must be scared shitless, Falida thought, dismissing the odd sensation she felt when she held Abir in her arms. The hairs on the back of her neck pricked, a sensation that she as a Huntress recognized as a sign of danger. The monster snake was dead, and she and Abir were safe. From whence could the danger be?

Seated in the dirt, in the comfortable, warm cavern, Abir felt at peace. He remembered what his mother told him about himself, and his origin. At first, Abir hadn't believed her, dismissing her strange tales as just stories from an old woman. Lately, though, Abir had begun to change, and he had strange cravings which marked him as different from the others...

"Abir, you are like your father, his name was Farokh-Hur, and he was different, he did not eat or drink normal foods, and he only drank the blood of animals, he came from the old world, and told me about his kind, which existed long before the Ancients, they were called Vampires," Khadrissa said, flashing her son a sad little smile.

"Mother, I don't want to hear such stories," Abir said dismissively. All his life he'd been different. He had a thirst for knowledge, and wanted to know things. In the Tribe, every man and woman were assigned a Caste according to their skills. Abir had been assigned to the Builders Caste, but he excelled at many other things...

Abir recalled the exact moment when he'd realized he was different. He'd chanced going to the Surface, climbing through kilometers of rock and rubble in the darkness, with only a torch for illumination, so determined was he to see the sky. The Surface was where the People belonged, not in the stygian depths, that's how Abir felt. Until he first saw the sun...

When the sun's rays touched Abir's skin, he howled in pain, and it had nothing to do with the ambient radiation in the air. Something in Abir's body, in his blood, in his very being, was deathly allergic to sunlight, and he felt like he was on fire. Howling in pain, Abir plunged back into the darkness. Half-maddened with pain, Abir made his way back to the Nem-Hash-She clan, his mother's people...

"You shouldn't have gone to the Surface, it's dangerous for both halves of your being, you are a Dhampir, my dear Abir, the sun will always pain you because your father Farokh-Hur was a Vampire, he was amazingly strong and fast, but the Tribe turned against him and killed him," Khadrissa said, and this time, Abir heeded her words.

Over the next few days, Abir learned many new things about himself. When he brought his mother a lizard for their household to feed on, she would keep the meat to cook, and feed him the animal's blood. Whenever Abir drank blood, he felt stronger and faster. His senses grew sharper. Lately, though, he'd begun craving something other than blood, hence why he kept away from the lovely Falida...

With the time of the Joining approaching, Abir was growing desperate. Every worthwhile male of the Tribe who was not yet bonded to any female would be put on display, then chosen by a worthwhile female. Their offspring would become the progeny of the mother's lineage. It was an honor to be chosen, and thus become a husband and a father. Abir wondered what kind of husband and father a Dhampir would make...

"Mother, I desire Falida, but I am...what I am, what should I do?" Abir asked his mother one night, and Khadrissa frowned. She looked at her son, who'd grown tall, dark and handsome over the past twenty seasons. He was at that age when a young man should marry and have sons and daughters of his own. Yet his Dhampir condition made such goals lofty at best. Like it or not, Abir was a monster...

"I wish I could tell you, my son, if your father's people were still around, I'd encourage you to seek them, but I fear they're extinct," Khadrissa said, and Abir frowned, and his broad shoulders sagged. Abir gave his mother a sad little smile, then went to his chambers, and slept. Cursing his very existence, the troubled young man, ahem, young Dhampir looked for a way out of the hell his life had become...

Even as Abir pondered his purpose, things were changing in his world. Centuries ago, when the People went underground, following an asteroid which smashed into the earth in the early twenty-first century, they weren't alone. The Vampires, creatures of myth, which had been preying on Mankind for centuries, dutifully followed their prey to avoid extinction.

As billions of human beings died, due to the cataclysm which turned the surface of the planet Earth into a radioactive wasteland, the Vampires realized that they could no longer feast on humans like they once had. Hundreds of Vampires chose to bury themselves in the rubble, trusting mother nature to awaken them once the human species, their natural food supply, had replenished itself...

The Nem-Hash-She clan, which rules the Enclave, is one of the largest clans of the post-apocalyptic world. There are a few other clans whose size and power make them the rivals of the aforementioned clan. Clans such as the Bar-Rok clan, which rules the Ravine, and the Gar-Roth clan, which rules the Marshes. All of those clans are now afflicted by a certain problem. A number of their people have gone missing, snatched in the darkness by an unseen enemy, one possessed of human-like intelligence and cunning...

"We must band together and defend our people," said Tak-Amir, father of Falida, and one of the leaders of the Nem-Hash-She tribe. Tall and gaunt, with ebon skin and unruly hair which he kept in thick locks, he addressed his fellow leaders in a rich baritone voice. There were seven other leaders in the grotto, four women and three men. All of them bore the same somber expression on their faces.

"Tak-Amir, I believe the enemy of the Ancients has returned," said Thalia, and a murmur went up among the assembly of leaders. Ignoring them, the Keeper of the Law looked at Tak-Amir and pursed her lips before continuing. As part of the Knowledge and Wisdom Caste, Thalia had spent her life studying the strange magics that the Ancients used to power their machines. She'd learned much about them, and those they once feared...

"Thalia, with all due respect, my lady, now is not the time to speak of flying monsters and creatures that go bump in the night," Tak-Amir said, trying to avoid sounding dismissive. Thalia rolled her eyes and continued. She and Tak-Amir were once rivals. She should have been the leader of the clan, but he had support from his fellow males and from his wife, Yazira. That's the only reason why Tak-Amir was still in power...

"The creatures that go bump in the night, as you put it, are called Vampires, and I believe our tribe has encountered them before, twenty years ago," Thalia said, and Tak-Amir fell silent. He closed his eyes, hard. He recalled the night when he'd seen the foreign male whom his long-time friend Khadrissa had chosen as her mate, Farokh-Hur, feed on a wounded, dying man. He'd dismissed what he saw as the act of a madman even as he grabbed his spear and went after Farokh-Hur...

During that terrible night, it became apparent to Tak-Amir that Farokh-Hur was no ordinary man. Tall and strongly built, with light brown skin and long dark hair, he was a formidable fighter. Snatching the spear that Tak-Amir threw at him, Farokh-Hur broke it in half. When two other Tribesmen, Omet-Kir and Larosh-Var stepped in, Farokh-Hur grabbed them and broke both their necks.

"You are no match for me," Farokh-Hur roared, and his eyes turned red and his teeth elongated and sharpened as he came for Tak-Amir. Drawing his sword, Tak-Amir defended himself, but whenever he slashed at Farokh-Hur and managed to wound him, the monstrous man healed instantly. Only when about ten men and seven women came, armed to the teeth, were they able to slay Farokh-Hur...

"Yes, Thalia, I remember," Tak-Amir said, recalling how he'd finally killed Farokh-Hur by decapitating him. It was a grisly scene, and he didn't want to think about it anymore. It had haunted his nights for twenty seasons. Tak-Amir thanked whatever power made the Universe that no such monster came after him, his wife Yazira or their daughter Falida in the years since. He didn't know what he would do if they did...

"Tak-Amir, my friend, we have our differences but I've always respected your talents, you must once more be the monster slayer, and defend your tribe from the monsters," Thalia said, and the Keeper of the Law broke protocol by approaching Tak-Amir, and gently laying her hands on his. Tak-Amir looked at Thalia's hands on his, smiled and nodded. Once more into the abyss, he thought wearily.

"I will do what I must," Tak-Amir said, loud enough for all to hear. Thalia smiled, and nodded. The meeting couldn't have gone better if she'd planned, that's for damn sure. The leaders of the clan put their differences aside and began scheming against the threat to their people, banding together in the name of survival like human beings throughout history always have...

Abir went to the Falaise, a large rocky formation dominating a sheer drop, a spot which had been his favorite hideout for over a decade. Unable to sleep, tormented by visions of what his own Tribe would do to him if they found out what he was, the young Dhampir looked for in vain for a way out of his predicament...

"I knew I'd find you here," came a familiar female voice, and Abir grinned upon seeing...her. Falida, his lovely lady friend, and also his tormentor, his mocker and his temptress. She stood there, her breasts and lady parts concealed by strips of leather, and nothing else. In spite of his precarious situation, Abir looked her up and down, and smiled appreciatively. This seemed to please Falida, who drew closer.

"Hello Falida," Abir said as she wrapped her arms around him, a worried look upon her beautiful face. Abir looked at her, this dark-skinned vision of beauty, this gorgeous Amazon, the lovely woman with the sharp tongue who both thrilled and annoyed him day after day. How he wanted her. Pressing her curvy body against Abir, Falida looked into his eyes.

"Abir, we both feel for each other, tell me, is there any other female, or for that matter, any male, who strikes your fancy? I want to choose you at the Joining, but only if you want to be chosen by me," Falida said, matter-of-factly. Abir took a deep breath, and sighed. Falida, his sweet Falida, she never minced words. Got to tell her the truth, Abir mused.

"Falida, my love, I'd be the happiest man in the underworld if you chose me as your mate, when I lie awake at night, it's your face and body that haunt my thoughts, but I want you to know the real me before you make your decision," Abir said, and Falida nodded expectantly. Without warning, Abir snatched Falida's blade from her waist sash, and pressed it against his chest.

"Abir, no," Falida cried, and before she could wrestle the blade from his hands, he drove it into his chest. Abir winced as the blade went in, and then he pulled it out. Falida's eyes went wide as blood oozed out of Abir's wound, blood that was black, not red. Even more strange? The wound seemed to be healing before Falida's very eyes. Within moments, it was gone, and there wasn't even a scar left.

"Falida, I am a Dhampir, my father, whom your father killed ages ago, was a Vampire," Abir said, and then he waited. Falida stared at him, astonished. She yanked the blade out of his hands and pressed it against his throat. Kill the monster and be done with it, Falida thought, disturbed by the shocking revelation of Abir's inhumanity.

Falida is a Huntress through and true, just like her father Tak-Amir was a Hunter in his younger days. She'd grown up hearing about the monster that had been courting Khadrissa, Abir's mother, ages ago, and how her own father had put an end to the creature's rampage. She'd never thought that such a creature could have reproduced with a human being, and evidently, the evidence of such a coupling stood before her...

"Dammit, Abir, I should kill you but I can't," Falida said, tears in her eyes, and then she withdrew her blade, and threw it away. Abir stood there, looking at her, unsure what to say. He'd been in love with Falida the Huntress for ages, and always wanted her to become his wife. Still, a Hunter's daughter could never care for a monster like him. Or could she?

"It's alright, Falida, I love you but I cannot ask you to lie for me, I will leave the tribe, I'm not even human, I'm one of nature's mistakes, my mother should have aborted me," Abir said, and all the self-hatred he'd been feeling poured out of his mouth. Long had he looked for a magical cure that would make him fully human, but such a cure did not exist. He couldn't remain around humans either, he was a beast that drank blood. Sooner or later he'd lose control, and then...

"Shut up, Abir," Falida said angrily, and she surged forward with such force and grim determination that Abir thought she might have changed her mind about killing him. I would never hurt you or my mother, not even to save my own life, Abir thought, and he braced himself for a fatal blow from his beloved. Strike true and correct mother nature's mistake, Abir mused darkly, looking at Falida's blade...