"Is everything ready for tonight Maude?"

Dr. Maude Anderson turned to the sound's origin and her colleague Dr. Nick White strode up beside her.

"Everything is in place," she replied as she turned back to the setting that was behind the viewing window that was set up between the test room and the observation room. In just a few hours, they will find out if years of research will pan out or dash the hopes that had built up over the course of attempting to find a solution to the countries' current problem.

"Fantastic! Years of research and countless hours of sleeplessness will be rewarded for our hard work!" His eyes glazed over in excitement as he too turned to the set up.

'Or everything will have been all for nothing,' she thought wryly; all too aware that it would be too easy for this final experiment to fail and years of effort to go down the drain.

"You believe this is going to fail, don't you? Don't deny it, the look on your face says all;" he said facing her now, his features were stone.

"It just seems like something that you can only think of in science fiction and even then with only a small margin of working like now;" she said firmly knowing that this was true.

"It's the best that we could think of, we've been over this before; we have no other options!" His voice boomed at the final part and she barely suppressed a flinch; she should be used to his angry mood regarding any talk of failure by this point and he has yelled louder at others who had actually went so far as to protest the nature of this project.

"I'm fully aware of that fact Dr. White;" she shot back coldly. "I only wish that we had a Plan B for if this goes south!"

"Well, we don't! This is our one and only shot to prevent society from complete collapsing!" The stress was evident in his voice and the tension was palpable; they were glaring at each other, a standoff regarding one of the biggest decisions that would affect the future of their entire country.

"I'll go check on them, see if they will be ready;" she said frigidly and made it clear that she wasn't backing down, just checking for last minute flaws. She reluctantly turned her back to him before she made her way to the elevator; once inside she had to swipe her identity card before she was able to press the button that would take her to the basement.

The sight that greeted her when she emerged calmed her a little bit; the other scientists were calmly working on their notes as they examined their assigned tanks. They all looked up as she walked in, it was so quiet that her footsteps were clearly heard and they waited for her to speak.

"I have received our next orders," she began and they became even more attentive; "they want them tested tonight!" She waited for any objections, anything to calm her nerves; but her face was close to falling when she noticed the people in the room glance at each other and wondered what could be going wrong to warrant such a reaction.

"So the rumors are true then Dr. Anderson? They really want to see if we have been successful?" Dr. Casey Peck was the first to step from the crowd; her voice was quiet and almost fearful.

"Unfortunately yes," Maude saw no reason to keep her feelings hidden; this would be the final moment working together regardless of how it all ended. "Is there a problem Dr. Peck?"

"Everything," she was still quiet; "especially the morality of it all...and the what ifs."

"I assume that you all feel the exact same way?" Maude's tone was gentle now and all the others in the room turn away in confirmation. "It's unfortunate, but the higher ups feel differently and what are we but the lowly drones who must obey; on a more serious note, how are they really?"

"As good as they can be," Dr. Peck said and motioned for Maude to look at the tanks for herself. Maude took up the silent invitation and walked past each tank, of which there were twelve in total; when she reached the last one she touched one gently and allowed her expression to become more emotional.

"You are the key," she whispered; "you will be either our saviour or you could very well be our destroyer." Her hand slid down from the tube to her side and she heaved a sigh before she steeled herself and walked back to the elevator and faced everyone.

"Please have everything ready by sundown in a few hours;" she announced as the doors opened and after pressing the button for the top floor left one final message: "and pray for the best, even if it turns out for the worst."

The top floor was reserved for the scientist's sleeping quarters, which is where she was headed because she had a feeling that she was going to need the energy to deal with the unveiling that was going to happen in such a short amount of time.
Her sleep was still restless; despite the pills that she had popped and kept on hand for times like these. She had a very bad feeling about tonight.

#

Her alarm ringing was both a relief and a dread.

'This is it, years and years of research, experimenting and general brain wracking have led up to this moment; with the potential to blow up in the faces of everyone in existence,' she sighed as she got up and checked herself in the mirror to make sure that she was presentable before she left her room.

She felt nothing but trepidation as she rode the elevator down to the observation floor and it didn't alleviate when she heard voices on the other side of the doors because she was well aware just who the voices belonged to: army soldiers and government stooges. Both were here for the demonstration but for different reasons; the former were there to restore order if necessary and the latter were there to see if their pet project would save humanity.

Everything about her was stone as she gave the expected replies to all the "isn't this exciting" and "this will be our saviour for sure"; she saw Dr. White's expression out of the corner of her eye.

'I'm not going to screw your pooch Nick, you're going to do it yourself since everyone knows that this was all your idea and if this fails...' and so she kept on pretending that everything was okay despite the truth being that many things could go wrong. When she had a break, she discreetly looked at her watch and saw that it was time and she looked to her colleague and he nodded in acknowledgement before he took out his phone and called the basement dwellers to inform them to drain the tanks.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Dr. White announced as soon as he got off the phone; "I am pleased to announce that it's time for the demonstration that all our years of hard work and determination have led up to. I am very proud that you have placed your trust, that the very population have placed their trust in us to get through this extremely difficult time."

'That's putting it lightly,' was Maude's only answer.

"But I am confident that I have found the solution to all of our problems! Just over a decade ago was when our country began to panic as our population soared and the result was the surge in the homeless population; however a more pressing problem was the lack of food to feed all of our people. As the top scientists in our fields, the government placed me and my esteemed colleagues in charge of finding a solution for this food shortage while helping to lower the population."

"I am happy that I have undertaken this journey and I'm sure that my colleagues will agree,"

'Or not.'

"...so without further ado, may I present: Project Blood Feast!" When he finished the lights in the observation room shut on to illuminate a single long table that was big enough for twelve people; the settings only consisted of spoons and bowls that were filled with a dark red liquid.

"What's that in the bowls?" someone asked.

"That's non-coagulated cow's blood," Nick was still taking the lead and Maude was more than happy to let him. "That's how the project got its name; among other reasons."

"What exactly does this project entail?" a government worker asked.

"Well to be honest it was difficult to come up with an idea with regards to food shortage," Nick confessed; "as there aren't enough of any of the food groups for everyone to subsist on, we wondered how exactly we could change that. Being named the head of this project placed a burden on me, if we are being truthful, and I felt that I had to work the hardest to come up with the solution and bring it to life."

'Nice bending the truth there Nick.'

"It actually came to me while I was sleeping..."

'Actually it was from watching a Dracula movie.'

"...I realized that what was needed was to wring a new food source from an already existing one; but how? The answer was surprisingly simple: blood but a new problem emerged; how can we sustain on blood as it is indigestible by us? Perhaps I should demonstrate just what we've done before I continue with my explanation."

He walked to the intercom and clicked it on; "bring them in but don't seat them just yet."

"Yes sir," came the anonymous male voice before it clicked off and the door to the audience's right side facing inside of the room opened. A male scientist came in first but he was followed by the first of the wheeled gurneys that had small figures strapped down and the audience couldn't help but gasp and Maude grimaced.

They were children, all twelve of them and if it weren't for the restraints one would think that they were sleeping peacefully; however, they were just barely identifiable as small humans. Their skin was very pale, with tints of gray; their hair was wet from being in the tank but an oily sheen could also be noticed. They were clearly emaciated, their fingers were bony and their hospital gowns hung loosely on their frames.

"Are those children?"

"They are," Nick said proudly; "genetically engineered to fit the parameters of this project. We have picked apart and put back together their DNA in order for them to be able to subsist on nothing but blood."

"Where did you get the materials to create them?"

"From the egg and sperm banks; it took many, many tries for us to perfect their new sequence. But I am sure that we have been successful as there are no damages or holes in their DNA."

"Isn't this immoral?"

"If they were human than yes it would; however I prefer to see them as more sub-human as their DNA has changed too much to be considered human anymore."

'And there's the justification!'

"They are sleeping because it helps their growth and they are currently at the perfect age to test them out; which is why you are here today, to witness this glorious new age for science and humankind!"

The crowd began murmuring, some unsure, others were excited; what they all had in common was that they were raring to go and see if the time (and the huge amount of money) was worth the results. Dr. White, being the smug bastard that he was, waited until the reactions were reaching fever pitch before he clicked on the intercom again.

"It's time, you know what to do!"

"Yes doctor!" The com clicked off and the doctors in the room began taking little bottles full of adrenaline out of their coat pockets and prepped the syringes before they injected the patients to awaken them. Twelve sets of eyes opened slowly before they blinked from the intrusion of the harsh lighting; the doctors removed the straps as the children began to experiment with movement.

The doctors helped the shaky test subjects off the gurneys as they took their first steps toward the table; their noses sniffed the air, as if scenting something strange.

"I didn't expect them to have a heightened sense of smell;" Maude heard her colleague whisper incredulously and that caused a shiver to creep up her spine. She was not a geneticist, she was recruited for her expertise in general human anatomy; she was supposed to attempt to predict how things might change from the children's new DNA.

Now she was a bit more perturbed as she hadn't thought of this; she also noticed something else that she hadn't predicted.

"Dr. White," she managed to croak out before he turned to her; "I think they may have some sort of blindness."

"What do you mean?!" he hissed too low for anyone to hear.

"Look at the way they move their heads," she whispered as she pointed to what she had noticed.

The children looked confused, they kept looking at the light and turned their gazes away after a second; but made no indication that they could see the scientists, the bowls or even the table, they were just unfocused and the doctors on the floor were just noticing this as well and shot each other concerned looks.

The young ones steps were now a bit steadier and they were sniffing the air with more confidence; their non-seeing gazes now changed from sniffing in the direction of the bowls to their handlers and back and forth as if testing something.

This made Maude's stomach drop, she had imagined so many scenarios in which something went horribly wrong; but if the thoughts that were currently running through her head were coming into fruition, then it will be her worst nightmare come to life. The worst part is that no one else seemed to have noticed and now she was torn between running for her life before things went to hell and staying while praying that she was wrong.

The scientists were setting them at the table now and stood back waiting; the children simply stared at the bowls in front of them despite not being able to see them. The continued to sniff experimentally at the blood soup and one of them (best guess was a girl) even stuck her tongue out and touched it gently before dragging it back in to taste it.

She gagged and spat angrily before she hissed, the others reacted and began to mimic her noises; the way they swiveled their heads towards each other made it appear as if they were communicating with each other. After a minute the noises didn't stop, but became quieter and they were almost chirping; the complete and sudden stop in sound was more deafening than the chatter itself.

That was when all hell broke loose.

They turned their sightless gazes onto their handlers before they leapt at them, toppling their chairs over in the process. To the horror of the observers, the children dove straight into their prey's throat and they could plainly see the blood that sprayed copiously from the severed jugular. The sounds of the flesh, muscle and bone being ripped apart from what could only be sharp teeth were clearly heard despite the distance between the rooms.

The scientists' screams were also heard; they were loud and their bodies thrashed about maniacally until the last of their blood had been drained out and they became motionless. The area on and around the table was painted crimson; not much of their original colours were left and it was indistinguishable from the meal that the scientists were attempting to feed the little creatures.

The two bloods must have mixed together as once their first feeding frenzy had finished, they turned their attention back to the bowls and sniffed them carefully and drank a little but the taste of human blood could not override the foulness of a bovines' as they became furious and threw their bowls around or banged them furiously on the table. Either way, pieces of porcelain littered themselves around in the giant puddle of blood.

No one moved or breathed loudly; everyone was simply too scared at what they had just witnessed.

'I knew it you son of a bitch! I fucking knew it!' Maude swore as she was frozen in place, too shocked to be able to move; too scared at what happen next. Of course, Dr. White took charge; he turned to everyone present.

"Everyone, we have a procedure for an emergency like this!" He turned on the intercom; "bring in the hush up squad!" The doors inside burst open and a large squad of uniformed gunmen ran in.

"Fire!" The leader shouted and everyone immediately obeyed; rapid gunfire reverberated throughout the area and the spread was so wide that every single child was hit directly. Maude could not help but close her eyes, not willing to look at the carnage or its aftermath; no matter how much she had protested against this, these were still children after all. Her eyes were still unopened even after the noise had died down and there was a deathly silence.

"What the hell?!" Someone shouted and she instinctively opened her eyes to see the incredible sight of the creatures still moving. They let out loud, angry roars before they leapt at their attackers; who began firing again in a panicked state until that dreaded clicking of empty magazines became rampant. The mutated children showed no hesitation in moving in for the kill and took out the squad in no time at all.

For the second set of time nobody moved; mainly because they were too shocked but they were also even more scared than before. Even the people from the military could do nothing as they had not brought their weapons in with them and they did not want to end up adding the already painted room.

Everyone breathed harshly in unison when the creatures suddenly whipped their gazes in their direction and began to slowly make their way towards them; some stalked upright while others crawled slowly, their noses did not stop sniffing the whole time.

'How could they smell us through this glass? Are their brains and noses that advanced?' Maude wondered as they crept closer until their noses pressed up against the glass. Without warning, they all began to bang loudly against the glass and everyone in the observation room jumped a couple feet in the air and Maude could swear that she smelt urine from at least one person that was near her.

"Don't panic," Dr. White said calmly; "this glass is bulletproof-" he was cut off by the sound of the glass cracking loudly. Over a dozen different spider webs were forming from the fists of the little vampires and they were connecting in a foreboding manner until small chips began to fall onto the floor and everyone began to back away; Maude was the most squeamish and was attempting to make her way to the exit before anyone else.

It was only a few seconds later that the explosion of glass happened, showering the extremely unlucky few that were the closest with the army of small projectiles; the force also knocking them back along with a few others. The ones who were cut were screaming in pain from the stinging and a couple of them were clawing at their eyes in an attempt to remove the embedded shards.

Maude had not wasted any time in getting the door open, just as the vicious ones hadn't when the attacked the observers closest to them; she knew that she should have started running immediately, but she couldn't help but glance back first as did the others. She could now see clearly just what kind of damage they were capable of; she saw the more of the details of the rips taken from the flesh as they hungrily devoured the screaming meals as if they hadn't just had a banquet.

Unable to take in the sight any longer was when she finally came back to her senses and the kick in of her survival instincts; she just ran out and blindly so, not really taking in what directions she was headed. She could barely hear the others who were going in the same directions as her and who went other ways, but they were distant to her brain, a buzz that she pushed away in her attempt to focus on her own survival.

She also had ignore the sounds of the creations escaping and devouring whoever they were able to get their hands on; she has heard more screaming this night than in her life and that included movies. After more time of blind running and unable to hear any companions nor the screeches of the abominable children did she stop to regain her bearings and think of a plan.

'I don't think I can run anymore and they've proved that they are too fast; there's no way I can outrun them, I have to think of a place to hide! But where, their sense of smell is quite powerful and they're probably tracking me right now if they're not too busy with everyone else! Think, what could possibly hide me or block their sense of smell? Hell if I know! But I have to do something! Hang on, they are quite emaciated with very little flesh, how can I use that to my advantage? Wait a second, the cafeteria freezer! What have I got to lose?!'

Her only apparent option firmly planted in her mind, she tried to take stock of where she had ended up in her haste to flee the disaster zone; but her mind was blank and began looking on the walls for one of the maps that were scattered around the facility. She eventually found one that was by the nearest elevator and just kept herself from groaning in case their hearing was as good as their sense of smell.

'I'm literally on the opposite side of the cafeteria and one floor below!' she thought ruefully; 'I can't take the stairs, that will take way too long, but I'll be a sitting duck in the elevator! I have to make a decision and fast!' Her decision was made as soon as she heard that horrible screech from somewhere down behind where she had come from; she couldn't tell how far away it was but she wasn't about to sit and wait to be chowed down, elevator it is!

She quickly pressed the up button and waited with uneasy anticipation as she heard it move; the doors opened quite fast and she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. She saw one of the mutated girls leap from behind the corner into her hallway just feet from her so she dashed inside, hit the button for the floor above her and hammered the close button. As soon as the doors slammed shut, she heard the sound of the body hitting it; leaving the physical evidence of a huge imprint that bent inwards towards her.

'Damn that was close! They're going to get in sooner or later; they broke through bullet proof glass so this will not be hard for them! Come on damn it!' She swore at the elevator car that suddenly felt very claustrophobic; her heart was racing, her pulse was pounding and she was sweating enough to fill a swimming pool. Without warning (save for another angry screech) the moving box shuddered harshly causing her to collapse to the floor before halting; to make things much better, the lights also went out.

'Fuck!' She started breathing more heavily as her eyes darted around looking for a way out. She could tell that she was stuck between the floors and that there was no chance of getting the heavy doors open so that left her only option as the ceiling. There was an emergency hatch built into the top of all elevator cars and the wall barriers on the inside were perfect enough for her to stand on while she opened it.

'Here goes nothing!' She stood up on the barriers as she pressed her hand against the hatch; it was heavy so she gathered up what adrenaline fueled strength she had and shoved the hatch with a mighty heave and it flipped open with a loud bang. She lifted herself out and took stock of her situation.

While she was indeed stuck between floors she didn't have far to go to reach the top but that would require climbing via one of the cables and rope climbing was something that she had failed at in gym class; however she had no other options left if she wanted to live through this. Yet a part of her hesitated, did she want to spend the rest of her life running like this? Why not just let her life line end here, she had no family and likely had no friends considering how long she had been cut off from the outside world to do this project.

It was her survival instincts that decided for her when the car suddenly jerked, almost causing her to fall, and she heard that now all too familiar screech. Without anymore hesitation, she jumped as high as she could and grabbed onto the cable and shimmied up until she was level with the door she was looking for but was not relieved to see that the doors were open enough for her to get through; because there was a dead body jammed between them.

'They had to have separated in order to hunt all of us, they have a pack mentality and yet they don't if they behave that way; unless they plan ahead...this would indicate that they are more intelligent than they made themselves out to be.' Maude shook her head to clear these thoughts, this was most certainly not the time to be in scientist mode; this was life or death and she couldn't afford any kind of dawdling.

She took a deep breath and tried to drown out the noise below her (no matter how fierce it sounded) and swung as hard as she could towards the door. With a heavy object below it she didn't get it very far even after a few tries; realizing that any progress would be futile, she swung as close as she was able to before jumping.

In a panic, she realized that she had little to grab on to; with little choice she grabbed onto the dead man's head and hoisted herself so that she could grab one of the open doors. With a bit more effort she climbed onto the body with one side of her body turned inside and made her way onto the floor breathing a sigh of relief and nonchalantly wiping her bloody hand on her lab coat knowing that it didn't matter whether she did it or not. Plus, she was fast getting used to the gore fest that had become her night.

She quickly turned to the posted map beside the elevator, desperately searching for the fastest route possible to the cafeteria/kitchen. Once she memorized it, she ran full speed (or as much as she was able to) to her destination; she had just turned her first corner when she heard that horrible sound come from behind her, almost echoing off of the sparse walls and empty halls.

She had reached the closed doors that led to her possible sanctuary when a couple of them popped into the corner of her eye; luckily the doors weren't locked and she pulled one open with ease before she slipped inside. But her luck did fail when she tripped over a steel leg from a chair that hadn't been pushed in properly and couldn't stop herself from falling hard to the ground.

The blood drinkers had fully entered now, all twelve of them and raced towards her. She managed to push herself up and propel forward to her chosen hiding place; dodging all the appliances that littered the large kitchen into what she hoped would save her: the freezer. She prayed for the first time since she was a kid, that their skin and bones wouldn't be able to handle the cold and that they would eventually leave her alone.

This particular freezer certainly lived up to its name, the cold penetrated her bones as soon as she was inside; despite knowing that it was futile, she shut the heavy door behind her nonetheless and waited. Only a second or two ticked by before the sound of them hitting the door was clearly heard and the dent appeared.

This door held up better than the elevator's as they took a couple more tries and it was still firmly shut. For some reason, one had the idea to stick some of their bony fingers under the door and immediately howled from the cold; it sounded like it was in extreme pain. However, something peculiar did happen next: it began sobbing pitifully.

"Mama!" a female voice cried tearfully; her voice was harsh from being unused for so long. Maude was so startled that she stumbled and slid on the floor and tumbled down for the second time, just barely grabbing onto a shelf to regain her balance.

'They can speak?!' She was more creeped out by the fact that she called her that; did that mean that they wouldn't hurt her? Or was it just a clever ploy to get her to come out?

'I can't stay in this freezer forever and I'm already starting to get extremely cold; I don't think I have much choice other than to come out.' Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to the sight of the injured mutant curled up in a fetal position. Instinctively, she touched her head and was barely aware of how all other ones had arrived and were crowded in a circle around them.

The female looked up at Maude and reached up to her before she gently buried herself in the human's neck and bit down; but not savagely like with their previous prey, it was almost loving. Before everything went black, Maude felt that something inside her was changing and she embraced it.

#

Her stomach was rumbling when she woke up, but the food around smelt sickening. Her vision wasn't the same, she could see her babies but they were more like heat signatures then actual individuals. They came up to her and rubbed her lovingly; she didn't resist.

"Okay my children; let's go show the world what we are made of."