No Man's Land by Debra Dunbar Page A

trying to remember what wild animals there were in West Virginia. Bear? Wolf? Coyote? What animal would be stupid enough to stalk her? An animal that wants to be dead , she thought as she continued walking.
    About two miles down she saw a roadside bar with a neon sign proclaiming it was “Dale’s”. Kelly walked through the deserted parking lot to find the door locked. Where there were restaurants, though, there were humans. This would be an ideal place for her to return to tonight and satisfy her desperate need for blood.
    Slinging the plastic bag over her shoulder, Kelly walked around to the rear of the building, scoping out the best place to lurk and pounce on a victim once the sun had set. A huge dumpster sat just outside the barred back door of the bar. Clearly the owners cut corners on their collection service. The thing was overflowing and stank to high heaven. She would have strung her staff up by their toes if they’d allowed the refuse to get to this state in her casino. Not that it’s my casino anymore , she thought ruefully, shaking her head.
    A dumpster like this would attract all sorts of vermin. Yep, she smelled rats. Lots of rats. Some buried down deep in the dumpster, and others holed up for the day somewhere inside the building. Yuck. The very thought disgusted her, but her body desperately needed fresh blood. Fresh, not that frozen old–cow stuff from the steaks.
    It was definitely on her agenda to grab a human tonight, but maybe there was something here that could hold her off. With a bitter laugh, Kelly contemplated dumpster diving for rats. The metal container was old and rusted. With her luck, she’d find herself covered in stinky garbage and the rats would escape to safety through some hole. Still, her need for blood was desperate. She wasn’t sure she could wait for nightfall. Just when she was about to climb into the dumpster, she saw the squirrel.
    It was thin and scrawny with a dull, mangy coat. It was probably diseased. Kelly wrinkled her nose in distaste, but she proceeded to kneel down, trying to slowly edge towards it. The animal took one glance at her and bolted into the woods.
    Great. She couldn’t even manage to catch and eat a sickly squirrel. Not that she really wanted to. Kelly shuddered, imagining how nasty and tainted the blood would be, if there was more than a mouthful in the thing. It was probably anemic from fleas. Did squirrels even get fleas? Kelly shook her head to clear it. She was so hungry her mind was wandering all over the place.
    Every thought since she’d awoken in the trailer had been on survival. Now the reality of her situation rushed at her. She was alone in an unknown place contemplating drinking blood from a diseased squirrel she couldn’t bite even if she had managed to catch it.
    She couldn’t feed properly — would never be able to again. How long could she go stabbing humans before one got away and made a police report? Or until the human cops traced a series of grisly attacks back to her doorstep? She’d need to constantly be on the move, and there weren’t many places to go. The enemy vampires were to the south, and she couldn’t go back into her family’s lands unless asked. West Virginia wasn’t a big state. She’d eventually be caught by humans, by some roving vampire spy, or by werewolves.
    And beyond that, she was alone. The old fears from her human life crept back. No one would help her; there was no one to turn to. Kelly had to completely rely on herself for survival, and she doubted she had the skills or strength to make it alone.
    Covering her face with her hands, she leaned backward against the rough brick of the building and slid down it to the ground, tears wetting her fingers. The sound of birdsong and the scrabble of climbing squirrels mixed with the ever–present rustling sound from the wooded area next to the smelly dumpster. It gave a strange accompaniment to Kelly’s sobs. Curling into a ball, she rocked herself, trying to