linear. A vampire could run for as long as a week starting and returning to half-volume. So the symbiosis from the vampire’s perspective was only for the first five patients: they provided the half-volume needed to survive. After that additional patients were nice but not essential — some of our skills like ‘blood kinesis’ require more blood volume; others like ‘blood vision’ work even better when thirsty. With the reduced symbiosis ratio, the satellite vampires could strike in-perpetuity with just five patients. The small single-shift satellites were all they needed to live: off the grid and no longer under the control of Amasa or other medical establishment. The only way they would come back on the grid was for me to physically show up at their location and convince them to return. I was the key to unlocking the strikers, so had to know approximately where they were… and they had to know who I was. The rest of July 4th passes without incident except for the increasingly frustrated and desperate calls of the dialysis clinics. Tuesday vampires start getting called… starting with the same shifttime and then going both earlier and later to whoever they have not called yet. Through all of this, our group refuses politely but sternly. The calls get more and more rushed and testy.
JULY 5TH July 5th was a different story At 9 a.m. on the dot, a Redwood City police cruiser comes to take a look. It appears he wants to circle our camp, but realizes that is not possible from the direction he came in. So he left. And then reappeared on the bridge over the canal, being rewarded with an almost identical view of overlapping Freightliners. Apparently he thought the first view or tactical situation was preferable because the cruiser showed up at our parking lot entrance a second time. - 84 -
