Exodus » Bruce

was “Go home to 472-21-7”. Somehow that combined with my cohort number would be a marker and tell me how to get to the next marker.

I believe the first part of this code means ‘Home Depot’ because that company is mentioned prominently in a lot of the founder’s materials. Home Depot also has a location numbered ‘472’ that is located the right distance away. We were told the first marker could be twelve or more hours away. Ideally these pieces of information are not well known, so those outside our community would have a harder time deciphering the code than vampires would.

The critical obfuscation though comes from a vampire-specific talent: the ability to see blood in even small quantities. I go to Aisle 21, Bay 007, and look around. There are a bunch of Milwaukee tool sets containing power drills and impact drivers. On each of them are all the normal pricing, barcode, and descriptive information. And on each of them, in the brilliantly bright color of blood — although only a few droplets per inch — is my cohort number and the next marker: “Go chuck wine at five-one-nine”

EXODUS » BRUCE

It is super-hot in Palm Springs today. After I get out of treatment at 10 a.m. it is already almost 100 degrees. I hate this kind of heat, in spite of it being dry. Maybe I hate it because it is dry, but I have never experienced a hot and humid climate. And today I am hoping to ditch the heat along with the humidity. That is if I can reach my marker today in the next twelve hours or so.

My clue from the V-WAN is to “Get some pipe for the commune boys: be home by 6:06 p.m.”. I am hoping there are chase vehicles or we are Lojacked in case we head in the completely wrong direction. But at worse, I turn around late tomorrow and come back to this dry heat. Maybe it will rain while I am away and cool things off.