The Outbreak

"Thousands of ghouls have been reported to have left the city, but we can't track them via body heat because they seem to have lower body temperatures like the Sanguine Carriers."

"Someone did an autopsy on a dead ghoul's corpse. It's organs are withered but it somehow sustains them. Even after cutting open two more, we're still at loss on why they seem to seemingly defy death."

"Kira?" Irene looked at Kira who sat on a stool, an air of defeat surrounding her. Kira looked up at Irene and then back at the microscope and shook her head.

"Even if we can 'kill' ghouls, we have no idea why they're like this. The Sanguine Carriers, or as they prefer to be called, Vampires are basically invincible to humans with light weaponry. No matter how I look at this, we cannot win."

"And in the call, she said the weakest of them, meaning that what we've faced until now might still be grossly underestimating these people. We might not be able to beat them even if we gave it our all, and if she lures people to her side with the promise of immortality, who would stand against them?"

Irene let out a breath because Kira was right. Which wealthy or powerful man didn't spend money on health? Vampires were physically superior and immune to all diseases because the Sanguine Virus was so tyrannical, it didn't allow for anything but itself in a host.

"We have two days to plan, and we did trace the call to the source. The line belongs to a Ryan Miller. A wealthy business genius with a net worth nearing four billion USD."

"Check the buildings in the area owned by him. I don't think Orissa would call from that phone without a reason, nor would she kill someone who could be so useful to her." Kira mumbled to Irene who sent officers to look.

"Military forces will be here in under ten minutes. We don't have an exact casualty report, but over twenty one thousand people are either unaccounted for or missing, and when they are turned into ghouls, it's impossible to find who is who, their genetic codes become scrambled." Kira sighed looking at the autopsy report again.

"So the city now has a population of Sapphire City has fallen by over twenty thousand in a night. After this, not many will stay here and the clean up will be extremely taxing." 

"We don't have a plan going forward on dealing with the vampires, and in a few days, we won't be able to touch them easily either. This will reveal them to the world, alongside Lycanthropes and Zombies."

Irene poured a glass of water for each of them, offering the pitcher to Wolf Squad who was assigned to Kira as guards since the battle was over but they declined with a polite smile.

"She had a clear goal, and once she achieved it, she retreated. For now, it was for their freedom, and next time, it could be ours." Even if she knew this thinking was why Orissa chose this route, she couldn't change it in one day.

"That's why she did this. You said she wanted freedom for her race, but you also fear she has an ulterior motive and will turn on us. Without trust, the only thing she had to work with was fear, so she used it against us." Wolf Four muttered with a pale face.

Even now, standing here, he couldn't forget that he was almost sent to meet his maker by a ghoul when it nearly pulled him out of the car, but when he thought logically, it wasn't solely the Vampire Queen who was wrong here.

"Humans would never allow a variable like Vampires to exist unchecked, so she did this to constrain anyone and everyone who would dare to conspire against them, promising untold destruction in retaliation." Wolf One looked at Wolf Four who shook his head.

"Because of our hubris and need to control everything, we killed twenty-one thousand civilians." When Wolf Four said this, everyone's expression changed because what he said was incredibly dangerous for morale.

"Four, be quiet!" Wolf One barked, but Wolf Four looked at him and made a face of disgust because he was right, even if everyone else didn't like to hear the cold hard truth.

"Do you know what I saw Wolf One? When I was pulled from my seat, I could see it's milky white eyes with one thing inside, endless hunger. It used to be human for God's sake!" 

"Wolf Four, we didn't cause this. Orissa isn't peace loving and she's shown it when she killed Eagle Squad and an innocent civilian. She was directly responsible for their deaths because of her own twisted views, don't be fooled into he-" Irene was directly cut off when Wolf Four put his rifle on the table, followed by his pistol.

"You really can't see it, can you? Because even now, you justify what we do to others, but they can't defend themselves? What are we, tourist in a zoo where if we're bitten, the animal is put down? This is life! They can destroy us, and you all still can't get off your high horses?"

"Sure, they might need humans, but do they need seven billion of us? It's pointless to fight because if you do, you'd just bring about the end of the human race. Yes, she killed twenty-one thousand people, you may deny your involvement, but in that restaurant, Irene, didn't you pull the trigger first?"

"Kira, instead of trying to de-escalate the situation, you decided to capture her. She didn't start this war, you did. You can cry and complain about the deaths, but you were the direct cause of this. This is your fault."

"We can try to contain and capture them, but when they fight back, they're the enemies? You all can continue to play in your imaginary fantasies, but I won't." Wolf Four tore the VPA logo from his shoulder and left the room, leaving complete silence behind.

"I'll go talk to to him." Wolf Five turned and jogged after him, but the atmosphere of wanting to strike back, to get revenge and to bring down the Vampires took a massive hit, because Four was right.

What made humans superior? Numbers? Ants had those. Strength? Could a human match a bear? Intelligence? Monkeys were very smart. In short, human's sense of superiority would fall to the side because they were outmatched in everything aside from numbers, but ghouls could quickly change that.