This is worse than Moscow’s rush hour.
The Seven stopped at another great dwelling, one vertical and stretching above with slices of spilling, green ecosystems sandwiched between habitat stacks. Nico spied small, camouflaged beings peering from the greenery, obviously responsible for the thriving vegetation in so crowded an urban environment. Then the train rolled on, stuffed once more with passengers; the city’s evening shift was on the move.
Where do apples come from? Nico typed. What’s our economic system? Are there still Jewish delis? What is—
“Now approaching the west wall,” the voice-over calmly announced. The car’s lighting dimmed, then cut out.
“Ghost viewing,” the voice-over said. “Please refrain from harming or molesting fellow passengers during the viewing.”
Nico looked up in surprise. Many of the passengers stood or sat in the dark, eyes closed, and none indulged in pick-pocketing or furtive groping. She felt that they all held their breath. The train soared over a massive city wall, leaving city illumination behind for a vast darkness. The sight of so much night, stretching over the dim surfaces of wild land far below, made Nico shiver.
A whole planet existed beyond Again NewYork, with continents, seas, and creatures she could not begin to imagine. Why a wall? What was out there?
Nico stared into the dark and saw something faint glow electric blue in the far horizon that held the last traces of setting sun. Thunderclouds loomed over the blue shapes that floated, enormous, translucent, and bioluminescent. Lightning flashed and revealed jelly bodies the size of whales, dangling trailing tentacles that skimmed above tall grass. When lightning sparked again, the glow of the travelling beasts had become a speck. Nico searched the dark, seeing nothing else move.
She resumed typing: What is the wilderness that lies beyond the walls of Again NewYork?
Apples grow from trees, Dorothy answered. Darqueworld contains traditional, mixed, gift, and universal demogrant economies and as a planetary member of the Seven Solar League, participates in intragalactic regulated trade. You may find as many as two-dozen kosher delicatessens in Again NewYork. A veldt lies beyond Again NewYork’s walls, containing First species and bio-life. Eager for adventure in the Sadaiva Veldt? Book with Xeno-Safari Bob, and enjoy—
Nico cut the commercial. When she looked out the train doors again, she saw her maker’s face in the darkness.
Nico leapt back, switchblade in hand, and collided into someone. She turned, only to face an alarmed woman who stared back in the dark. No young man with sideburns, a knit brow, and a boyish face stood among the passengers, though Nico had not expected to see him within the car. His face had appeared outside.
Car illumination warmed, then brightened into full intensity. The old man looked at her with curiosity while the Native American woman next to him calmly finger-weaved. She held the colourful braid taut on a stick beneath her feet.
“There was a man outside,” Nico uttered.
“Ghosts live on the veldt,” the weaving woman answered. “Some of those ghosts come from us. You’ll not see your man again. It will only show you your soul once.”
Nico took a breath and nodded. She closed her knife. When she looked out again, the Seven slowed to stop at a platform high above a sparse, ramshackle settlement. People boarded, and Nico saw nothing more out in the vast dark.
The train then departed from the veldt and surmounted the wall for the city.
Nico did not see Blade Runner when it first released in theatres because her parents wouldn’t let her watch an R-rated movie. After her death, she rented the VHS tape. In 1992, she watched the director’s cut in the movie theatre, then went to the music store and bought the soundtrack on cassette. Nico hadn’t seen the movie since, but as her train rode a high flyway among the tops of Again NewYork’s night-piercing skyscrapers, she thought she might be living a little of that vision.
ONE MIND, VAHALLA, SKYCOURT AETHERSPACE, AVATAR CORP, NEUTH. The logos shone, embedded in the structures’ skins. If the celestials in her pamphlets were really incorporated identities and not individual gods, she would believe it. After passengers disembarked at a superstructure’s platform, the Seven descended with a roller-coaster dive that sent Nico’s stomach to her throat, then made a slow swerve around a huge, baroque building. A great rooftop court lay before the gilded dome for all on the train to view, brightly lit with diamond-white illuminants. Ice sculptures glistened among cascading floral decorations, and before an array of musicians, masked beings in neo-Rococo and gothic styles slowly spiralled to each other in a minuet. A fountain of bright blood splashed, filling crystals served to guests. Some of the richly garbed led submissive humanoids on leashes.
“What is this?” Nico whispered in awe.
“Countess Karnstein’s Vampire Ball,” a woman answered. “First thing I’m going to watch when I get home tonight.”
“Aren’t the frocks delightful?” A fellow commented.
Nico clasped her hands to her chest at the sight of a vampire couple rising into the air and flying.
Her train descended below the building and rushed downwards for the depths of the city.
***
Great, I’m on puke street.
Nico stood before a party hostel, drunk residents yelling from windows. Music thumped and Nico spied a makeshift bar top within the flung open door, the bartender lining up shot glasses. Someone made the sounds of getting sick and Nico walked on, consulting Shayla’s holo map for the YOBA. The sector she was in held many places to stay for the budget or student traveller. She passed a coffee shop terrace with sedate youth sitting, chatting, and reading, then walked by a hostel with a bar where boys and men danced, many shirtless. A full length holo poster of Thunder Gunn activated next to the bouncer and announced in a gravelly voice: “Do you want to be admonished, citizen?”
“Oh yes, please,” a young man in a dress said and tittered with his friends as they approached the bar’s entrance.
Next door to the bar, a lynx with a pleased expression lounged on the arch of another hostel’s front garden entrance—one with window boxes and hanging chimes—and Nico suspected the lynx might be a were-person. She liked the look of the place and when she aimed her Id at it, Dorothy summoned the hostel’s general information. Among the particulars was one important detail.
Vampires not permitted.
“That’s the fourth hostel to say that,” Nico exclaimed. “If I were a boy vampire I could at least stay at the shirtless one. Dorothy, is—is the barrier that keeps vampires uninvited from people’s homes still in effect?”
“If you are of the Old Earth vampires for whom the protective curse affects, you are banned from entering homes on Darqueworld unless invited in,” Dorothy answered.
Nico sighed, relieved. As a former stalker, she preferred being cursed. A boy wearing a backpack approached and handed her a card. Nico accepted and looked; a coupon for a buy one, get one free pizza slice.
But is it New York pizza. Then Nico remembered that she was still a vampire, so it didn’t matter.
A watchful man leaning against a wall walked over.
“Hey,” he began, his tone friendly.
“Back off,” Nico said. She still carried her Welcome bag from immigration, but she didn’t mind looking so naive—at least until she tired of predators approaching. She continued down the street, noticing an earnest preacher in black clothes. A pleasant faced youth manned the preacher’s portable table with its stack of booklets. Illustrated with flames while an oblivious couple danced, the cover read: Our Heritage of Hell: The Cursed Dance.
“Teh,” Nico ejected in humour.
“Why are we here on this planet with these creatures but to understand the nature of evil,” the preacher proclaimed as people on the walk ignored him. “Our evil! Those who walk among us are our mirrors. Do not become lost to our false selves on this false planet, with its false gods! Only with the true God may we be saved! Look for truth!”
Next to
the preacher, clean-cut yet ghoulishly pale vampires stood. Dressed in white tees with No Hate logos, they held tiny Ids that projected a document. One vampire looked at Nico, her freckled face determined.
“Would you like to sign the Vampire Alliance Network petition for vampire rights and to fight sanguivoriphobia?” she said, stepping before Nico.
“Sangwee, what?” Nico said.
“It’s the fear of blood-eaters. Even though the sacred writ of the celestial holarchy says all Other-beings and humans are equal, humans still number in the majority on Darqueworld, and we vampires still experience human prejudice and obstruction of our rights. Won’t you like to sign?”
“No thank you. Don’t touch me,” Nico said, and sidestepped the girl.
A holo ad triggered on the walk, displaying the logo of the Young Other Beings Association: For Health, Soul, and Mind. YOBA is ahead, welcoming everyone. Nico followed the holographic arrow’s direction.
How much is a night at the YOBA’s hostel? Nico typed. Regardless of the price, she wanted to stay where Shayla had recommended. However, Nico would like to avoid gaping when she enquired at the front desk. Dorothy gave her an amount and ran the YOBA commercial.
“Well, I balked,” Nico admitted to Bear. “One night won’t hurt, but to stretch the money, we should consider a sleazy motel after this. One that’ll take vampires.”
Nico stopped at a street corner and saw the YOBA holo sign across the street, shining above a four-storey building with scenic windows. People vigorously exercised within. But the YOBA had something unique present on its rooftop—a fixture Nico was certain no other hostel had. A male Makepeace stood high above, tall, muscular, and stoic. She studied him with her vampire’s vision to make certain he wasn’t a chiselled, painted statue. Despite his helm and opaque visor, she had the distinct feeling that he looked down right at her.
What a beefcake. Nico had Bear wave at him as she crossed the street for the YOBA. She bypassed the main lobby’s doors for a holo sign to the side that read: Hostel Entrance. The glass revealed a pleasant, simply decorated lobby where residents lounged in plush chairs by a holographic fireplace. Some sipped from coffee mugs.
Oh, that looks warm.
Two boys loitered outside, stacks of cards in their hands. Human, Nico determined. One smiled, walked up to her, and held out a card.
“Vampire, right? Want to go to a vampire-only hostel instead?” he said.
“What? Why?” Nico said.
“Because we’ve got free blood packs, all you can eat, and a night spent at Again Friends Youth Hostel is completely free of charge, even the lockers. I know, it sounds too good to be true, but it’s a charity and we’ll lose our funding unless we fill the bed quota. You just have to sleep there, that’s all. You don’t spend any money.”
“Free stuff in exchange for preaching at me all night, right?” Nico said. “No thanks.”
“No preaching,” the boy quickly said. “It’s against the rules. Not even literature and stuff. Honest.”
Nico measured him, sceptical.
“C’mon,” he cajoled. “At least go over and look. Again Friends is just down the street. If you don’t like it, come back here.” He held out an admittance card: Again Friends, Free Night’s Sleep. The illustration showed two hands in a handshake.
Nico looked at the YOBA’s clean glass and well-lit lobby. Since she was starting from nothing again, same as when she rose from her shallow grave, the prudent choice would be to avoid spending. Nico sighed, and accepted the card.
“If you guys are a scam, I’ll kill you all,” she said, and watched the boy pale. “I’m kidding.”
***
The Again Friends Youth Hostel was an ugly building.
It was a squat, three-storey blank edifice with a few tiny window panes, its blocky presence a dead spot in an otherwise busy street. Nico was uncertain she had the right place until she activated a holo sign on the walk: Again Friends Youth Hostel, Vampires Only.
Behind the thick metal and glass door, a starkly lit hallway with an antiseptic quality lay. It reminded Nico of hospitals. Somewhere within, cult members or a charismatic leader might lie in wait, ready to proselytise. What they could preach about, she wasn’t sure, since she was undead and the promise of heaven long irrelevant to something like her.
“Maybe someone’s made up a new kind of salvation,” she told Bear. “It’s a different planet, after all.”
The very thought gave her idle curiosity. She tried the door handle; the door didn’t budge. Nico peered through the glass at the admittance booth, which was not even an office but a structure standing in the hallway.
The booth resembled the old ticket theatre ones, with a wood base as high as Nico’s waist. But where glass and a wood roof would be, a steel cage stood. A curly haired young man sat in a high chair within. He leaned to speak into a mike.
“Uh, vampires only!” he ejected from the intercom box.
Nico nearly considered turning around and leaving, but the thought of a free bed versus a depleted credit chit stayed her. Not seeing any place to insert her invitation card, she raised it for the attendant to see. He waved, smiled, and pressed something within his booth. The heavy door unlocked and Nico grabbed the handle to pull it open.
When Nico stepped in, the door swung shut behind her with the clicking finality of an entrance sealing and locking. She swivelled to look sharply at the booth person.
“Hi, I’m Dann, with two N’s,” Dann said, smiling. He smelled distinctly human. “Welcome to Again Friends Youth Hostel.”
“Why are you in a cage?” Nico asked as she approached. “That’s not very friendly.”
“Oh—because of temptation?” Dann said, cheerful. “We only accept vampires. Here’s where you sign in.” He pushed a clipboard with a sign-up sheet through his window slot. Signatures in various penmanship ended with one scrawled in a broad hand: TEX AND IRIS. Two large X’s marked them as staying for two nights.
“You guys still use pen and paper,” Nico said. “So, there’s no one but vampires here?”
“Yep. Well, except for me. Can you sign for the next night too?” Dann said. He reached through the slot and pushed the pen her way. “It’s for our bed quota for tomorrow.”
“I haven’t even seen the place yet. And how does a piece of paper with anybody’s signature prove you’ve made quota?”
“Oh, we prove that with me. I’m door monitor,” Dann said with satisfaction. “I count who’s inside for the night.”
“No one would care at the YOBA, they’re 24 hours, come and go,” Nico said.
“Yeah, but we have to because we’re free!” Dann said. “We don’t get funding unless we fulfill the terms of our agreement. So, for being here, you get free beds, free lockers, free showers, and there are even free blood snacks, starting at 21 hundred. The rules are super simple. Be in bed once rest time starts, and then we open up again in the morning.”
“You’re talking about a curfew and lockdown,” Nico said.
“It’s rest time.” Dann shrugged. “Our goal is, we give vampires a place to crash and stay off the streets. And out of trouble. Each time we fill the beds, we get the money to stay open. So...sign here? And mark tomorrow’s box too.”
Nico let out breath, thinking again of her credit chit. A homeless shelter would be as strict and might not even accept vampires. She signed, Nico Alexikova & Bear, and when Dann reminded her that she should check the box for coming back tomorrow, she marked that too.
“Wizard,” Dann said, pleased. “Here’s your locker key, number 16 and bed 16, in the female dorm. And you’re a new arrival, right?” He pushed a holo card advert towards her and Nico picked it up, curious. The hologram said: Chaikov’s Collectible Coins & Currencies. “Rest time starts at 22 hundred.”
“That is really early for a vampire,” Nico exclaimed.
“For us to get our funding—”
“Okay, I get it. Does another guy in a cage walk around to show me the p
lace? Never mind. You said my locker is where?”
***
Nico investigated the ground floor and found a short hall offshoot where a vending machine (that required money) stood, holding two lonely blood snack packs. The facing door to a classroom was locked. In the main hall, Nico found doors to another classroom, a meeting room, and a media centre; all locked. At hall’s end, vampires loudly commented on a holo programme inside a recreation room. Nico turned back for the stairs and ascended to the second floor, which held the boys’ dorm, their shower and bathroom facility, and then, the third floor, where the girls’ dorm lay.
Nico looked down a wide, long room bearing no windows or additional exit. One ceiling ventilation shaft aired the space, lined on both sides with single beds made up neatly with blankets and pillows and each having a storage container at the foot. The room was empty save for one occupant, a girl with long platinum-white hair and wearing a black, long-sleeved top and long black skirt. She sat huddled on a bed at room’s end. Nico travelled down the middle of the room, looking for her bed number.
The bed numbers were jumbled, with bed 3 next to bed 8, and so on. Bed 16 sat in the middle of the row. She pressed the mattress, hearing the metal frame squeak, laid her ear against the bed’s surface to listen for bed bugs, then examined the storage container. Again Friends’ lauded free locker had a lock Nico deemed flimsy.
Monster Stalker Page 6
