"This is the End," Cain Sampson said to himself. If Cain's heart still beat, it would have been stammering. He watched the television set along with everyone in Hepburn's Bar and shook his head. The Massachusetts National Guard and various police forces were trying to contain the zombie outbreak in South Boston and they were losing. The military and the police were throwing everything they had at the flesh-eating monsters and the zombies weren't even fazed.
On TV, the dead swarmed over barricades and dragged police officers out of their squad cars, feeding at will. A tall, pretty blonde Massachusetts State Policewoman shot several zombies before she ran out of ammo and was grabbed by five of the undead. The things ate her. The creatures seemed impervious to gunfire unless shot in the head. The Undead's numbers were swelling, as everyone they bit turned into one of them in a matter of hours. Cops and soldiers got mauled by the zombies. The cameraman and the news people continued filming nonchalantly. Makes one wonder who the real monsters are
"We need to get the fuck out of Boston," said Alicia Hepburn, the bartender. The petite, curvy redhead looked worried as she watched events unfold on television. Cain nodded and then walked out of Hepburn's Bar. The quaint old bar, which once belonged to Alicia's grandfather Lincoln Hepburn, had been one of Cain's favorite watering holes for ages. Cain's instincts urged him to get the fuck out of Boston and that's precisely what he was going to do. There was a new kind of Undead in town and it had Cain spooked.
Cain left the bar and headed to his apartment, located in a townhouse on Commonwealth Avenue. At one point, the block housed the dormitories of the now defunct Bay State College. After the college closed, the real estate companies turned the dorms into apartment buildings. Cain was paying two grand a month for his swanky, two-bedroom spot and he loved it. The place was close to the Copley branch of the Boston Public Library, the Prudential Mall, and various stores. For a vampire who likes his privacy, Commonwealth Avenue was a good spot. Too bad Cain was going to have to leave.
Ever since Cain Sampson became a vampire in the summer of 1879, he'd known two things. There were interesting parallels between the life of an African American man and the existence of a vampire. Cain, a former Buffalo Soldier, had been forty when he got bitten by a vampire named Rosita while visiting a brothel in the environs of Guadalajara, Mexico. Rosita the vampire abandoned Cain shortly after teaching him how to hunt. Vampires aren't the most social of creatures and usually don't care for each other's company.
Cain has wandered the world ever since, and as far as he could tell, existence on the Planet Earth is pure hell. As a vampire, Cain possesses certain attributes such as superhuman strength, enhanced stamina, sharp senses and an accelerated healing factor. As a black man, Cain couldn't escape certain things such as the system being against himself and those who look like him. Cain survived by flying under the radar. Cain moved from place to place, getting blood from butcher shops instead of preying on humans.