Cory Doctorow/Little Brother/123
And here came the vamps. A couple dozen coming down Van together were dropping like flies. They laughed and cussed and
Ness, a couple dozen coming up Market. More coming from the moved away, clueing the stillin vamps that the game was on. And
other side of Market. More coming up from Van Ness. They more vamps were arriving by the second.
slipped around the side of the buildings, wearing the white face
paint and the black eyeliner, black clothes, leather jackets, huge 8:16. It was time to bag another vamp. I crouched low and
stompy boots. Fishnet fingerless gloves. moved through the legs of the straights as they headed for the
BART stairs. They jerked back with surprise and swerved to avoid
They began to fill up the plaza. A few of the business people me. I had my eyes laserlocked on a set of black platform boots
gave them passing glances and then looked away, not wanting to with steel dragons over the toes, and so I wasn't expecting it when
let these weirdos into their personal realities as they thought about I came face to face with another vamp, a guy of about 15 or 16,
whatever crap they were about to wade through for another eight hair gelled straight back and wearing a PVC Marilyn Manson
hours. The vamps milled around, not sure when the game was on. jacket draped with necklaces of fake tusks carved with intricate
They pooled together in large groups, like an oil spill in reverse, symbols.
all this black gathering in one place. A lot of them sported old
timey hats, bowlers and toppers. Many of the girls were in fullon "Bite bite bite " he began, when one of the mundanes tripped
elegant gothic lolita maid costumes with huge platforms. over him and they both went sprawling. I leapt over to him and
shouted "bite bite bite bite bite!" before he could untangle himself
I tried to estimate the numbers. 200. Then, five minutes later, it again.
was 300. 400. They were still streaming in. The vamps had
brought friends. More vamps were arriving. The suits were really freaking out.
The game overflowed the sidewalk and moved into Van Ness,
Someone grabbed my ass. I spun around and saw Ange, spreading up toward Market Street. Drivers honked, the trolleys
laughing so hard she had to hold her thighs, bent double. made angry dings. I heard more sirens, but now traffic was
snarled in every direction.
"Look at them all, man, look at them all!" she gasped. The
square was twice as crowded as it had been a few minutes ago. I It was freaking glorious.
had no idea how many Xnetters there were, but easily 1000 of
them had just showed up to my little party. Christ. BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE!
The DHS and SFPD cops were starting to mill around, talking The sound came from all around me. There were so many
into their radios and clustering together. I heard a faraway siren. vamps there, playing so furiously, it was like a roar. I risked
standing up and looking around and found that I was right in the
"All right," I said, shaking Ange by the arm. "All right, let's middle of a giant crowd of vamps that went as far as I could see in
go." every direction.
We both slipped off into the crowd and as soon as we BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE!
encountered our first vamp, we both said, loudly, "Bite bite bite
bite bite!" My victim was a stunned but cute girl with spider This was even better than the concert in Dolores Park. That had
webs drawn on her hands and smudged mascara running down her been angry and rockin', but this was well, it was just fun. It was
cheeks. She said, "Crap," and moved away, acknowledging that I'd like going back to the playground, to the epic games of tag we'd
gotten her. play on lunch breaks when the sun was out, hundreds of people
chasing each other around. The adults and the cars just made it
The call of "bite bite bite bite bite" had scrambled the other more fun, more funny.
nearby vamps. Some of them were attacking each other, others
were moving for cover, hiding out. I had my victim for the minute, That's what it was: it was funny. We were all laughing now.
so I skulked away, using mundanes for cover. All around me, the
cry of "bite bite bite bite bite!" and shouts and laughs and curses. But the cops were really mobilizing now. I heard helicopters.
Any second now, it would be over. Time for the endgame.
The sound spread like a virus through the crowd. All the vamps
knew the game was on now, and the ones who were clustered I grabbed a vamp.
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