The Outbreak

"See, you have to consider my words now, which means, my plans for deterence worked. Something I would not have gotten even if I'd begged and pleaded for the rest of my eternal life." Orissa smiled again, the coldness gone in an instant.

"You call yourself the Vampire Queen, so can you say you speak for all of your 'vampires'?" The Secretary of Defense asked, his thinning hair and wrinkled face showing exactly how stressful his position was.

"Yes. Each and every single one of them I can account for." Orissa nodded in confirmation making the people watching gasp. If it was as she said, then this fight would be very difficult.

"Then what do you all want? Wiping out humankind shouldn't be the goal since you want to propose a truce." The Secretary of Defense spoke and calmed down everyone in the room with him.

"Ding ding~ You're correct but sadly, there's no prize. I want a piece of land for us and the ghouls plaguing Sapphire City will no longer be a problem." Hearing Orissa, Kira frowned because she couldn't guess how one person could negate nearly twenty thousand ghouls at this time.

"Oh, you seem to be skeptical? Okay, for the sake of negotiations, I will stop my cute pets from causing problems, okay?" Orissa didn't move or speak, so half of them looked at her with ridicule until the radio sputtered to life.

"All the infected have stopped and have begun to retreat. Even those who were about to die were spared!" A soldier on the other side of the radio yelled in disbelief thinking it was a miracle from God.

"Okay, I upheld my end. You can see my sincerity now right~?" No one could even begin to imagine to guess how Orissa had done it, but the fact she seemed to control the ghouls spoke far louder than words ever could.

"If we agree to give you that piece of land, what's to stop you from wiping out other cities afterwards?" The VPA Director asked Orissa who gave him a grin.

"Nothing actually. You see, you cannot bind me nor will I allow myself to be bound, but as we vampires depend on humans for various things, namely food and entertainment, that wouldn't be very smart."

"So we have to take your word for it?" The hothead who spouted that terrorist crap earlier scowled and spoke, but Orissa was right, she couldn't be controlled right now.

"Yes. I have no reason to lie to you because I couldn't be bothered to. Give me the land I want and the ghouls will return to my side, no more death by my pets and you humans can pretend we don't even exist." Orissa clapped her hands like an excited child.

"I take back my pets, humanity can continue to live without fear of us if you give me what I want. Don't, and I take the land and push your country to the edge of extinction and wait a few centuries and hope the next country will be a bit more wise."

As this wasn't the first time Orissa had spoken about time like this, the former being when she said her eternal life, one of the men in the office of the Secretary of Defense asked a question.

"You say you're vampires, does that mean you feed on blood and live forever as well like in the myths?" The hothead in the room looked at the elderly man with ridicule until Orissa spoke up.

"Yes, we don't have the concept of lifespan and are nigh immortal existences. Of course, you've found out that we can be killed which does leave it open for debate, but if the weakest of us are careful, then living for ten thousand years isn't an issue."

"Dealing with humans who live for what may as well be the blink on an eye for us, we could just wait for humans to change leadership, no matter how long it takes and then negotiate then."

"If we agree to this truce, we will need to hold a conference since the nation knows what has happened in Sapphire City. Will you attend?" The Secretary asked Orissa who blinked in surprise and then shrugged carelessly.

"Sure. I'll be sure to be there. It needs to be two days from now though. I'm sure you can accommodate. I'm closer to Spinel City now, we can do the conference via video like now." They all knew Orissa would never allow herself to be at risk of being captured or killed, so they expected this.

"The land I want in Spinel City belongs to a friend of mine, also a vampire. If you play tricks or tamper with the building's modifications in any way, you will wish you died to my pets because I'll send out vampires to deal with you."

"Do we have a truce?" Orissa smiled beautifully at the camera, but no one watching dared to have thoughts because this woman was clearly insane and ruthless.

"I'll bring it up with the President, but he will agree since we can't afford not to. On behalf of our nation, I, Thomas Darren, the Secretary of Defense accept the conditions on behalf of the country."

"Great. I'm so relieved I don't have to continue doing this. It was quite pitiful watching my pets die after all. Oh, I'll get off now, remember, no spies or agents in the building or I'll make you understand what regret is. Have a good night." Orissa's screen went dark, leaving the council members and those in the lab room quiet.

"We're getting reports that the infected our retreating and leaving the city en masse." The radio chimed again and only then did the occupants snap out of their thoughts.

"If we do as she says, we'd be bowing our heads to these monsters! She's already directly responsible for over twenty thousand deaths! If we let this slide, we'll be laughingstocks!" The hothead flared up again with a shout.

"Then we decline her offer... or more like threat. Then she sends out vampires that can kill over a hundred men without much trouble to kill us and unleash the army of ghouls upon our nation. We won't be laughingstocks then, we'd be dead. We do not have a choice." The Secretary looked at the man who withered under his stare.

He had forgotten that these ghouls were just the foot soldiers of the vampires who could take on entire Companies by themselves. If such an inhuman assassin came after you in the dark, who would be able to survive?