Cold Open.

She was fast. She was running for her life and she was fast. But he was also fast and was quick on her tail. Her blonde hair bounced all over the place and her high heels clicked on the pavement of the empty high street. But he was keeping up, turning every time she turned in an attempt to lose him.

It was a clear night, the heat from the day lingered in the air still.

The sweat.

The heat.

The terror.

The pumping blood... The blood. All within reach.

She crossed the road suddenly, and dashed through the entrance of one of the town’s largest parks.

Excellent. As he entered the park, he noticed her crossing the grass heading for the tennis courts. This was it. He’d get her here. Her heels would slow her down on the grass. This wasn’t the first woman he had chased.

This wasn’t the first woman he had hunted.

As she neared the chain link fence of the courts, he caught up to her, grabbing her shoulder, spinning her round and pushing her against the fence.

“Keep still!” the attacker growled as she thrashed around, her hair all over the place.

“No! Fuck off!” the wom- hang on…

“Oh. You’re not a woman?” the attacker asked, confused by her voice. His voice.

“No, you wanker. I’m a drag queen.”

“Oh right, and you’re a person of colour too? With blonde hair…?”

“Yes. It’s a wig,” the queen replied aggressively, pulling the wig off.

“CUT!” yelled another voice, belonging to another man coming out from a nearby bush holding a large handheld camera.

“Ok, question. How does that change things?” the original attacker asked, with annoyance in his voice. He was still holding onto the drag queen by her shoulders, pinning her against the fence, but his tone and demeanour had completely changed. The panting queen was semi frozen with fear still but also confused as to what was happening. “It’s usually a blonde woman who dies first in horror movies, but he’s quite clearly a queer male person of colour, and I don’t think we want this to look racist. You know, things have moved on and we need to reflect that,” the first attacker said to his friend.

He took his hood down and revealed his face to the drag queen, and his friend lowered the camera from his face to show his.

“Ah shit,” she whispered under her breath. “It would be fucking vampuras, wouldn’t it?”

Ignoring the drag queen some more, the director looked at his friend gravely. “You’re right. This could be problematic for our narrative. I don’t want to detract from what this film is all about with criticisms of racism and homophobia.”

“Yes, I think it would be incredibly bigoted if you made this film, so shall I just go now?” the queen said, beginning to leave.

She was stopped by the vampura who chased her. “No wait a minute,” he said to her. Turning back to his friend, he said, “We could just kill him and not include it in the film? We’ve gone to all this effort already.”

“Yeah that’s true. You go first, just leave me some this-”

The chaser lunged in quicker than the queen could react, puncturing through the skin and muscle of their neck with his sharp teeth and sucking on the blood that instantly pumped out. As the blood filled his mouth he lapped it up with his tongue, taking his teeth out to allow for maximum flow. The drag queen’s body sagged as the life drained out of him and when the attacker had had his lot, he let go of the body, it dropping to the ground.

“Oh man!” his friend complained. “Have some respect. What makes you think I want to eat off the floor? I’m not a dog!”

“Fuck, I feel alive!” the biter cried out, euphorically wiping the blood from the corners of his mouth like an ecstatic food critic having just eaten at the most exquisite five star Michelin restaurant.

“Good, because it’s been two years since you were actually alive,” the director friend said, kneeling down for his sucking. “My turn. God damn it, this is so degrading for me…”

Chapter One.

“There’s not much to report tonight, but the first thing I have to do is to introduce the two new faces we have with us tonight. Mark and Henry Jackson. Don’t ask me which one’s which, they look exactly the same to me, but they join us straight from training,” the man in charge explained. His name was Alistair Price and he was stood at the front of the group in the local pavilion rented from the Borough Council that they met in. “Hopefully they can be as courteous to us as Ant and Dec are and stand in a particular order to help us remember.”

Mark and his brother Henry are identical twins, who, having recently turned twenty one had gone through the training for Neighbourhood Ancillary Stakers Corp that operated in their town of Tarmsworth St Jude.

Up and down the country, the Neighbourhood Ancillary Stakers Corp, or Nasscies or Dusters as they were affectionately known as in the press, are a force of brave volunteers who operate in towns and cities in defence against vampuras- blood thirsty living dead people who, if infected with a virus passed on once bitten by a female vampura, would become one themselves. And this was a problem that was especially bad in Tarmsworth St Jude.

On paper, the average sized North East English market town was no different to other small English market towns. It wasn’t a particularly metropolitan area, and it didn’t have particularly good transport links to other metropolitan areas. But what Tarmsworth St Jude did have was a major trauma hospital and blood bank hub, supplying the whole of the North East and North West parts of the country. And this blood bank hub was a hotspot for vampuras.

The Nasscies in Tarmsworth St Jude were split between eight divisions. Mark and Henry were now members of the Pin Corner Division after completing their two months of weekend self-defence training, following in their grandfather’s footsteps.

Before each shift, the Division members met up for a briefing like this, going over the previous night’s activity and the sharing of any intelligence that might benefit them for that particular shift before going out in pairs on patrol, preventing vampura attacks and staking any that they come across.

“I have an inny belly button and Henry has an outie one,” Mark piped up with a rascally glint in his eye, much to the amusement of the couple of younger members of the group.

“If it’s all the same, I won’t be inviting you to lift your shirts every time we need to address you,” Alistair said.

“Ok, that’s fair enough,” Mark muttered as his brother shook his head at him.

“Pity,” the youngish looking female, who Mark would find out was named Lana, muttered from the back.

“Anyway, before I go through pairings… the Yissom West Division reported another biting last night. A drag queen was bitten in St Joseph’s Park on their patch after his gig in the town centre. Remind me which ones of yous I loaned out to the Town Centre lot last night?”

A David Warren and Nadheera Malik put their hands up. “Well I expect better from you two. A man died last night. You know how stretched the Town Centre Div are, we should have prevented it. That’s why we help them out.”

“Well when you decide to put our budget towards decent bicycles, then we might have a better chance of being in more places at once,” David argued back.

Mark looked over at Alistair to watch for his reaction as the atmosphere in the village hall went a little sour. Alistair stared back at David and held it, almost as if having a staring contest.

Then he broke the stare. “Sure, I’ll look into it.”

Mark was impressed. In front of two newcomers and in the face of blatant insubordination, the Alistair actually seemed to concede. Mark respected him more for that.

“It’s Midlock Hill’s turn to back up the Town Centre tonight anyway, so we’re going to concentrate on our patch. Mark, you’re going with my second in command, Stanley Innes who is sat over there,” Alistair said pointing in Stanley’s direction, who nodded in acknowledgement. “And Henry, give me a wave so I know which one you are… Great, you’re coming with me. David and Bridget you’re together tonight and then Lana and Nadheera you’ll be the other pair. There’ll be a police presence of course so if they need anything from us then make yourselves available. Any questions or things anyone wants to say?” No one said anything so Alistair jumped down from the stage. “Right, let’s go. Be safe out there and radio up if you need any help.”

Alistair was a bit of a man’s man, Mark reckoned by looking at him. In his late forties and almost bald on top and with a slight gut, he had tattoos all up his strong arms that were as a result of years and years of owning a removals company. Alistair was the Captain and was in charge of the Pin Corner Division. Despite his earlier respect building display, Mark was a little relieved that he wasn't going with the Captain. Bosses tended to be too busy to give too much time to the newbies so Mark was pleased to get Stanley, who he hoped would be a bit more focussed.

Stanley was the Lieutenant to Alistair. “Nice to meet you son,” he said to Mark, offering his large hand for a shake. Mark eagerly took it and gave it a shake that went on for perhaps a bit longer than it should have.

“You too, sir,” Mark said.

“Please, I can’t be having you call me sir all night. ‘Stan’s’ fine.”

“Ok, Stan it is.” Mark waved goodbye to his brother, who waved back, as Stan led Mark outside into the pavilion car park. Already he had the feeling that it would be a while before Henry and Alistair would make it out.

“I read your file from the training department. You’re both impressive fighters I see?”

“Yeah, we were the best in our cohort! Our grandfather was a Captain down in London. He gave years of service to the role and made sure we knew how to fight as kids,” Mark explained enthusiastically.

“Impressive. Does he still volunteer now?”

“No, he retired just before we were able to sign up.”

“I’m sure he’s proud to see his grandkids following in his footsteps.”

“I hope so! It’ll be great to go home and tell him I got my first sucker tonight.”

“Well all in good time son. Do you know this area well?” Mark nodded. “Good ok, so we’ll start off with foot patrol first so I can test your situational awareness. We’re not going to go around gung-ho looking for trouble on your first shift but if we come across anything, you can take the lead in staking them. How’s that sound?”

Mark smiled excitedly. “Sounds good sir- I mean Stan.”

“Good. First thing after a briefing we do what?”

“Check that we have everything.”

“And importantly, that it’s in good nick. Luckily, the stuff you should have is brand new but it doesn’t hurt to check it over,” Stan advised.

Mark unzipped his black leather jacket. The leather jacket was standard issue and was a double rider style. In Mark’s grandad’s early days of vampura fighting, they wore leather duster jackets but the extra long coat got in the way of all the fighting.

Opening the jacket exposed the holsters on his belt. On his dominant right side, was his sharply pointed twenty centimetre wooden stake. It had a silver stud at the flat end that was embossed with his initials, M.J. In his left holster was the silver double headed mallet.

“And your radio’s on?” Stan asked. The radio was clipped on his belt behind his mallet holster and Mark flicked the dial to show that it was. “Anything else we need to check?”

“Our neck corsets.”

“Correct. Check to see mine covers my neck properly and I’ll do that for you and then you can just grab the shoulders of the thing and there shouldn’t be much give as you give it a shake.” Mark and Stanley both did that and they were satisfied that the corsets were secure.

They were made of leather as well and were put on before the jacket. There was a bit of a gap in the front of the neck to allow for ease of swallowing but if worn correctly, the leather would cover the juicier areas of the neck that vampuras went for. It was a relatively basic uniform but it did the job.

“I know I’m probably teaching you to suck eggs but in all the excitement of your first shift I don’t want you to miss anything. This is the stuff that matters and can save your life.”

“Mine feels secure,” Mark said after his checks.

“Let’s get going then.”

***

Stanley and Mark stood at the outskirts of the relatively-empty-for-two-a.m car park of their local Cooper & Brook’s 24 hour supermarket.

“Are you peckish?” Mark asked. “I sure could probably do with a sandwich myself.”

“No, I’m not. And we’re not going in. We’re here because I can guarantee you there are some suckers lurking around here who are looking for some convenience of their own.”

“At a Cooper & Brook?”

“Yeah absolutely. See, there’s hardly anyone around is there, but there’ll always be someone on their own who comes shopping at this time of the morning. They’re prime targets for a vampura. Go out for milk, get killed or get sired.”

“That does make sense.”

“Before people needed 24 hour food shopping, the majority of people would be asleep at night and safer from vampuras. Now, there are people who have reason to be out and about at this ungodly hour, and this is where they’re likely to be if they are.”

“We didn’t really go over that much in our training. It was how to fight, and to find them in busy areas.”

“Which is dandy if you’re somewhere like London or Manchester. But a town like Tarmsworth St Jude doesn’t have very many busy places at this time of the morning. So you need to think about these places for when you’re on patrol. Supermarkets. Drive thru fast food places. There’s one opening up soon isn’t there? That’ll be a hive of activity for certain.”

“And the blood bank.”

“Well yeah, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish. Once the Town Centre lot replace those they lost a couple of months ago in the attack, they’ll be better prepared to protect it more.”

“Did you know anyone who died?” Mark asked.

“Yeah… I did,” Stanley said, his voice softening. “Good people they were too.” The pair fell silent. Mark had heard about the attack at the blood bank. Some out of towner vampuras came chancing their luck and outnumbered the private security firm who defended it. The Dusters went to help but they just ran straight to their deaths. It didn’t put him or Henry off from joining, despite their mother’s concerns.

“There, let’s watch him for a minute,” Stan said finally, watching a shopper coming out of the supermarket with a bag of food. He was on his phone, the light of the screen making his face glow. “Idiot ought to be watching his surroundings more.”

“Shall we go and tell him?” Mark asked.

“You want your first staking don’t you? No, let’s wait and see what happens. If he drives off then happy days for him. If we see he’s in danger, then we can go.”

Mark nodded in confirmation and inhaled the cool night air slowly, as he felt the adrenaline bubble up within him. He needed to keep cool about this, and not let the buzz get to him.

The shopper walked to his car- one of about a dozen grouped up near the front of the store, where out from the westerly side of the carpark came out two hooded figures.

“Oh, there's two of them. One each then,” Stan muttered when he saw them. The figures walked purposefully towards the unaware night shopper, quickly covering the large distance of the carpark. They started to split from each other, moving in a pincer like movement for their attack.

“Shall we go?” Mark asked nervously.

“Yes.” The pair of Dusters hurdled the low wooden fence and sprinted for the impending hunt. The vampuras were unaware of them, and the shopper was unaware of the vampuras still. Stan and Mark separated and ran for a vampura of their own just as the suckers were about to move in.

Mark leapt into an abandoned shallow shopping trolley and used it to propel himself at his target vampura and jump him from a height. When Mark landed, he slammed the vamp into the side of a car, causing the alarm to go off. The shopper let out a girlish scream, dropping his phone and shopping and pegging it back into the supermarket, leaving Stan and Mark to do their thing.

Once the vampuras had their attention turned to the volunteer stakers, a desperate and gritty fight took place. The one that Mark slammed into a car was a bit dazed and didn’t anticipate the knee to the crotch area. Doubling over, Mark grabbed the vamp by the head and used him like a battering ram into the plastic wall of the trolley shelter. With a swift movement of his right hand, he reached for his stake and plunged it through the back of his vampura into it’s heart.

The vampura stiffened and went still. He’d done it! He’d staked his first vampura! He then reached across his body and took out the mini silver mallet and whacked the now stiff statue of the vampura with it. The body shattered into shards of what looked like glass but by the time they hit the floor, any trace of the vampura had gone. His stake clattered to the ground.

“Fuck yes!” Mark cheered, punching the air with both fists in elation and celebration. “I got my first one! I’m not a vamp virgin anymore!”

Stan, who had been able to finish off his vampura in the same way as Mark had, smiled at him. “Well done son! Good job there!”

“Thanks Stan! That was amazing.”

“Nice little thing jumping into the trolley but that could’ve rolled and screwed you up. Remember, we’re not going three rounds with them. We just need to get the stake in. But you did really good Mark.”

Mark put his stake and mallet back and straightened out his jacket. He reached for his phone which was in his back pocket and flicked the lid up.

JUST STAKED MY FIRST SUCKER. HOW ARE YOU DOING H? he typed out to his brother, pressing ‘send’.

The bloke who had ran in fear when he realised what was happening, walked up to Stan and Mark. “Shit the bed, my phone!” he exclaimed, seeing it cracked on the floor next to the broken eggs and milk bottle from his shopping bag.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Stan said to him.

“Oh fuck off, my phone has everything on it,” the man raged. “If you hadn’t have made me jump, I wouldn’t have dropped it!”

“Are you for real?” Mark spat back, having got angry really quick listening to the ungratefulness of the man they had just saved. “You were almost killed! If you hadn’t have been fixed to your phone, you’d have known two suckers were coming for you!”

“I’d have been fine!”

“Oh you’re just a complete dick aren’t-”

“Enough Mark, it’s not worth it.”

“Yeah Mark, fuck off with your boyfriend!” The man picked up his phone, assessed the value of salvaging his shopping and deciding to leave it, got in his car and reversed out of the space.

“What a bellend! Why did you tell me to leave it?”

“Because people like him just aren’t worth it. He might not have been grateful but we can at least go to bed later knowing we saved some one, and you got your first vampura!”

“I kinda wished we’d stood back and watched now…” Mark muttered as the pair walked back the way they came out of the supermarket carpark.

***

“Hey Henry,” Mark said as they met up outside of the pavilion after their shift had ended. The sun was up now and so there would be no vampuras out and about anymore. It was the first time the brothers had seen each other since they were assigned their buddies at the beginning of the night. “How did you get on?” The pair hugged.

“Yeah, it was alright I guess,” Henry said rather unenthusiastically.

“Why, what’s wrong?” The brothers started their walk home.

“Nothing. It started off really boring. The Captain had paperwork to do, looking at the budget for the bikes, then looking at the bikes they had before finishing off the paperwork some more. It was two hours before we actually got to go out.” Mark winced. He knew that would have been the case but it sucked that it actually happened to his brother. “Well done on getting your first though.”

“Did you get any action?”

“We think we chased after some vampuras. Or they could have been druggies. Who knows. They had a head start on us anyway so we lost them, and the Captain doesn’t exactly look like a runner does he?” The brothers started laughing.

“Come on, let’s go get some sleep before we do it all again tomorrow,” Mark said, putting his arm around his twin playfully.