SNAFU: Hunters

Lucy had been accidentally created by some stupid, science-y type morons who might have had PhDs in being bloody clever, but they had never apparently watched any horror film ever. They also didn’t stop to think that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. So they’d happily wandered off down the road paved with good intentions and grant cheques, sciencing as hard as they could. They’d isolated a gene known as K307B they thought acted as a blood coagulant stimulator, and spliced it into a strand of vampire DNA they’d acquired as a result of Flynn and the boys’ expedition to Turkey. Then, ignoring every red flag, every internal ‘WOOP!WOOP!’ warning siren and that glimmer of common sense that kept pounding on the door of their consciousness shouting: “This is a really, really bad idea!”, they injected a willing volunteer with it.

It didn’t end well.

Within minutes the serum containing the mashed-up gene, which was meant to be a breakthrough cure for haemophilia, had sloshed its way up through the circulatory system and into the brain of the volunteer, simultaneously turning on every primeval ‘kill’ command at once. It also gave Lucy an unquenchable thirst for blood that would never, ever be sated.

Nobody knew where Lucy had gone once she’d torn the throat out of the nearest scientist and then jumped out of the window, landing feet first like a cat forty feet below. She’d let out a scream that announced her existence to the world, then vanished into the night.

The hell had begun.

The PowerPoint picture showing a screaming, slathering Lucy up close in the camera lens just before she jumped was one of the most disturbing images Flynn had ever seen. In the blurry, freeze-frame shot he had seen the bloodlust and madness in her eyes. And behind that madness the terror too, as the woman felt her last shred of humanity being obliterated. Colby felt sorry for the lass. Nobody should have to endure that.

“We didn’t think this would happen,” was the only excuse the one surviving scientist could come up with at the emergency COBRA meeting two days later. He’d wrung his hands, nervously cleaned his glasses and muttered some hollow apologies about what was a ‘salutary experience’. Sorry about that. They had people out looking. They never found her.

Lucy’s lineage had spawned a whole new generation. The gene had carried on mutating away merrily, turning those with the tainted blood not just into vampires, but into raving lunatics as well. Lunatics with super-human strength, speed, agility and an insatiable desire to feed constantly. The ‘off switch’ in their brain hadn’t just malfunctioned – it had disintegrated completely. So they’d gorge themselves, unable to stop until they slumped unconscious onto a heap of desecrated corpses and shredded body parts.

The next part of the presentation had made Flynn and the lads want to throw up. Lucy had started breeding. The first time was a vile, disturbingly bloody echo of a normal pregnancy – a process that turned her into a cross between an insectoid egg-laying machine and a very angry woman with appallingly bad parenting skills. Initially, Lucy was so confused that she ate the first batch of Younglings she produced, reabsorbing their toxins back into her own body. Slowly, she developed less cannibalistic tendencies as the tiny part of her brain that still worked reminded her that, in order to reproduce successfully, it might be advantageous to avoid snacking on your offspring. She let batch two live and develop into fully-grown Taints – the first generation of their kind.

The Old World vampires of the ‘Five Families’ had been furious. For centuries a relative peace had existed between the two species, again, largely unknown to the general populous. Now, thanks to mankind buggering about with genetics and generally screwing up in epic style, all bets were off. The Old World vamps had upped sticks and sodded off back to Europe, leaving the military and the Taints to battle it out on the blood-soaked, nighttime streets of London

And then, of course, just to add a little extra spice to the dish, there was Vlad.