Aerilyn was running from something. This country seemed different, worlds apart from what it use to be, she barely remembered it as she was so young when it happened. Those who hid in the shadows had enough of hiding, now they were the ones who were hiding, somewhere along the way they were lost. Lost their minds, passion, their ability to do anything, governments collapsed and new ones were formed.

A lot of the cities had perished, claimed back by nature or to the cold ones.

Their women were taken as slaves and the men were used for labor. If there blood was good enough they would become blood bags.

Even if they thought they were safe, there were rogues everywhere and then there were werewolves. It isn't always easy to tell them apart, the vampires have red eyes, but that is something that can be disguised.

Aerilyn and her family had been on the run for two days, one town to the next, chased out of towns, now they didn't know where they were, they had stolen a car and were driving through the landscape. It was spring, the flowers were beginning to blossom, Aerilyn's favorite time of year, if it hadn't been for the uprising.

Humans don't really have a name for them, vampire will have to do, or cold one. Although Aerilyn travelled with people who she now called her family, most of her real family were gone, taken and killed, for no good reason, the same as every one else's families as well. For over eight years they had been in control of everything, Aerilyn was just coming up to her twentieth birthday, but with nothing to celebrate for.

The only real family she had was her older brother, Eli, they looked out for each other and knew it was best to live in a group, there were safety in numbers. They also had aunts and uncles out there somewhere who could maybe be alive, but her parents were gone and nothing could bring them back. She didn't even get to say goodbye, and so the group they were with became her only family for the past few years, they could never let our guard down which meant they tried not to become too attached to each other, losing people to illness, captures and people going it alone.

But if that wasn't complicated enough, the vampires had a hierarchy system, just like the human system they had the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, they had a Queen in control over everything, making their lives a misery, below the Queen was her blood sucking brother and then other family members.

For humans it was hard to tell who was what, to even get close enough to tell, you had to be in big trouble.

Travelling the windy roads in what use to be America, oh how it had fallen, out of the window Aerilyn could see the long grass, large oak trees swaying in the wind and the bird songs singing.

If she lay her head out the window and let the open air hit her face, it might feel as though this was never real, but unfortunately it was. The group had two cars, with just a few of them left, the numbers had dwindled from 31 to 12.

Gas was hard to come by these days.

Eli, Aerilyn's brother alerted them as he looked behind and shouted for them to move fast. 'They are behind us quickly'

Saryn who was the oldest and wisest among them stepped his foot on the gas, trying to escape them, to the eye, humans couldn't see them, but they were there. Aerilyn pulled her head back inside the window and put the window up in a panic.

"Get the guns out" Saryn panicked, his brown hair ruffled, his eyes not blinking in case anything happened. The strain of their sleepless nights catching up. Guns were not a great move because they did not work against the vampires, they merely slowed them down and made them angry.

Aerilyn was sweating. "There is no point, it won't damage them, we have to try and out run them, it's our only chance" She panted, playing with a necklace around her neck, nervously. It was the only reminder of her parents who had given it to her as her last gift before she lost them. It had a purple stone encased in silver, Aerilyn kept it hidden mostly, incase anyone tried to steal it or trade it. Her parents told her to never show anyone it, but these were her family now and she could trust them.

Aerilyn frowned, she was tired with a pounding head which hurt from thinking so hard, the cars speed was going faster than we could take.

'We need to lose the car, aim for those buildings over there, we need to get inside, its our only chance'. Alex who sat next to Aerilyn, claimed.

Saryn headed towards these high rise buildings, that resembled partially a city. It was very run down, they had no idea where they were, but they knew they had to get away. As soon as they got to the building they all jumped out as fast as they could one by one, some firing bullets to hold them off, they couldn't be sure how many there were, rogues it seemed. Running through the building the group made their way up the stairwell, Aerilyn was in the middle of the group.

'Quick move' Saryn called. 'We are nearly there'. He encouraged them, giving them hope.

As they reached the top, he opened a door, the loudest alarm blared through the hall, the group ran back out that door hoping that by closing it, the alarm would shut off. But it didn't. They ran to another door, opposite of the one they just went through, round corner from the stairs.

'We have to stay here, whoever set that will be here any minute, we need to hide' Alex calculated, the smartest out of all of us. The alarm was still going crazy, Aerilyn's head pounded. She looked at Eli, who was next to her and holding on to her.

'Are we going to be okay?' She whispered.

'We will stick together no matter what' he turned back to her in reassurance.

'Shhh' the others said to them. They heard people coming up the stairs, there was a window next to Saryn that he could peer through. "stay down" He said, they were right outside the door and they had no way or means to take the vampires down. They tried to be quiet, but Evelyn shuffled backwards and knocked a large jar over with a bang.

'Shit' she muttered.

Now they were screwed.