Prologue

Let us assume that parts of the old stories are true, and terrible creatures like zombies and vampires do indeed roam this Earth, each constantly in search of victims, each constantly on the hunt, and each in constant hatred towards the other.
Then we can also safely assume the possibility that they might be right here, right now, in your country, in your town, maybe in your neighbor's house, leaving death and destruction in their path...
But what happens if these powerful beings are going after the same target, neither willing to let the other have their way?
These are the chronicles of some of the more notable encounters between the two species in their nightly hunt and their endless feud of Zombie vs Vampire.

The Black Earth Encounter

Introducing the virus to the small farm was too easy, as usual. Less than an hour had passed, and everyone who had gathered around the laid dinner table was no longer among the living. This, however, did not in fact stop them from moving. The somewhat overweight farmer and his wife, their teenager son (who already before the incident could not be called bright), their 7 year old daughter and the 4 neighbors who had come to help out with today's chores had risen from their chairs and were now slowly, but steadily on the move for the nearby Wisconsin village which was aptly named Black Earth. It had amused It to choose this particular town to launch this most current attack, but it also was a good place to start an invasion: Far enough away from "civilization" (and from prying eyes), but close enough to the bigger town of Madison. It reckoned, there would be plenty of time to build up the forces before marching towards town, and after that... Well, after that they would show the blood sucking scum who was boss!
The lurching figures were leaving the farm area and moving towards the village into the blood red sunset.

It had been a good night, and a good feast, too, except for the alcohol, but that had to be expected. After all, this little town called Superior had over 135 bars - on one main road! Finding an unsuspecting blood donor was never a challenge here, and the slight feeling of intoxication (considerably weaker than what the victim must have been going through) would pass soon enough.
Their small clan had migrated to this Wisconsin harbor town a few days earlier after an unfortunate encounter with a powerful werewolf pack, and a busy harbor town was perfect to get away from them. Besides, if everything failed, and the rabid curs decided to follow them, they could always cross the long bridge to Duluth, and THAT was a path that the uncivilized Howlies would definitely not be willing to take.
So all in all, it was a good place to be, if you didn't mind a brief minor headache every once in a while. And to add to that, this town had such a busy and diverse night life that a few new faces never caused more than a passing glance. He might get used to living here, maybe even settle here, you know, with an actual house for the whole "family". But enough for tonight - the beautiful night sky (if somewhat grayish from the industrial smoke) was starting to turn into the beginning of another morning, so it was time to go to sleep back at the abandoned barn they had found on their way to town.

By the time it got dark, 3 of them had already located and smashed the local phone system node, and the other 5 were working on pushing down the only electricity pole leading into the village. Suddenly, the darkness became a lot darker, and as if moved by one thought, 8 figures regrouped into 2 groups of 4 and moved up to the nearest house, covering both front and back door. Both doors turned into a splintering mess of wooden shards as fists that would never feel pain again pounded through them in one powerful movement. The first to enter were the empty shells of a young girl and a teenage boy. Something did not feel right about them, but in the complete darkness it was hard to pinpoint. The boy went through the rooms downstairs and found them empty, while the girl slowly made her way up the stairs, one foot at a time, as if she had forgotten how to use her leg muscles. As she reached the top of the stairs, a door near her flew open, and a man with a shotgun appeared in the door way, his shadow outlined clearly against the erratic flicker of a flashlight that someone inside had just turned on. The man paused briefly when he managed to see the small size of the intruder, and he lowered his gun.
"What the hell are you doing in my house, girl?", he demanded, as his wife finally arrived by the door with the flashlight. The girl had continued moving towards the man, and something about her made the strong man uneasy. When the beam of the flashlight was shakily directed at the girl, the wife screamed, and the flashlight dropped to the floor, but did not break. The shadow of the girl grew larger on the back wall of the staircase as she kept moving closer to the source of the light, and the man raised his gun again.
"I'm warning you, stay back, whatever you are!", he said in a shaky voice.
When there was no response, he lifted his arms to aim at the girl, and just as he was about to pull the trigger, his wife screamed "No! It's just a little girl!" and pushed the barrel away from the girl. There was a loud bang and a flash of light, and the bigger part of the rail one foot next to the girl was no longer there. The man swore and fished in his pockets for the spare ammo he had grabbed before leaving his bed room. He never had a chance to use it, though, as the frightening shape of the girl reached out for the barrel of his gun, pulled it out of his hands with a seemingly casual, yet powerful movement, and carelessly broke it in half. Meanwhile, other shapes could be seen moving up the stair case, each shadow growing larger and more threatening as they approached the flashlight that was still slowly rolling back and forth on the wooden floor board.
Without even looking or stopping, the girl made one circular movement with her arm that hit the shivering wife in the chest and threw her 10 feet through the air. Her fall was broken by the wooden foot of their bed, and a terrible crack could be heard from the woman's spine, and she stopped moving except for her heavy breaths. Other shapes advanced towards her near lifeless body, as the girl now reached for the man. He tried to punch her arms away, but they felt hard as steel pipes and were just as unmovable. In a last attempt to get away he tried to dash towards the spare bedroom on the other side of the hallway, but the seemingly slow girl was yet faster than he and caught his foot so that he lost his balance and fell head-on towards the door frame. The dark shapes closed in.

Finally dusk. It had taken him a while to get to sleep after too much alcohol in his blood and the exhilaration of finding this perfect spot. It looked to be another good night tonight, and he felt confident that they would be very happy here. In fact, he decided tonight was a good opportunity to go house hunting, and he told the others so.
One of the other 5 said: "There was a nice house a block off the main road, high hedges and trees all around, big yard - looking good."
"We shall begin our inquiries there, then", said their leader - well, leader only because he was the oldest of the small clan by just about 70 years. He did consider himself somewhat of a father figure for the others, and right now he even thought he could feel something that the human cattle felt, something called pride. Yes, he was certain he felt proud of his motley crew of 4 men and 1 woman. They had behaved well, not been too greedy and most of all concealed their true nature in public. They had not even drained anyone dry but instead choosen to let them live to serve as food for another night. Yes, he had taught them well.
He remembered coming through here once while he was still alive. There had been bars already back then in the 20's, but nothing like this. He especially remembered the beautiful area around the two cities - the steep hills in the North and the cool woods in the South, then still without the sniveling dog scum. He angrily bared his fangs for a split second at the thought of how these puppies nowadays dared make themselves at home wherever they pleased! A damn disgrace is what it is, and a terrible injustice, too!
But enough of that. Today was too good a night to waste. It was time to find a nice place to settle down, and maybe this time they would even keep some ... pets in the house.

...continued on page 2.