Prologue:

Tonight, with Steve Marshall and Danny Albright

DANNY WAS A petite woman with long black hair and a smile bright enough to distract from her dim minded comments. Her red dress and trendy scarf were as at home on her perfect boyish body as they were on the store manikin. Steve was handsom, loud and always enthusiastic about something, even on slow news days he could find something to argue about; pie, sports forecasts, funny cat videos. Of which he was “DAMN SICK OF!” His broad shoulders and angry face looked out of place in his powder grey suit. The two of them were mutely talking to each other while their program’s theme song was coming to an end. The cameras moved in closer and they greeted their audience with perfect toothy smiles.

Steve sat up a tad straighter. “Good Evening America. Tonight we’ll find out what’s the best starter gun for your child, we’ll be asking experts if electric toothbrushes are really safe or a deadly infection waiting to happen. The answer may surprise you.”

Danny leaned forward, the cameras changed view. “But first we’ll be talking with two brilliant men on the ongoing situation in the Pacific Northwest.”

A camera pulled back to show two men sitting on either side of Danny and Steve. The one sitting beside Steve was introduced as Doctor Ricco, an expert on vampire lore. Ricco was dressed in a brown suit just a few shades lighter than his skin color. The man sitting beside Danny wasn’t a doctor, but a retired secretary of state, the old and fragile Benjamin Seeley, known for his shoot first, avoid questions after foreign policy.

“Last night a Washington man made theses controversial tweets.” The screen was divided between Danny and the tweets themselves with a small picture of a handsome blond man attached to each tweet, his profile name @LukeKing. Danny read the tweets aloud.

“A man died of hunger just outside the Washington-Idaho boarder this morning. I felt his pain as he passed. #disgraceful #endworldhunger #WashingtonRising”

“Long live the queen. #MuseumMeeting #Tacoma #WashingtonRising”

“Are you on the right side of history? #WashingtonRising.”

“These tweets are a call to arms. It’s a warning of their attack?” Steve said. “We need to send more troops to monitor Washington’s boarders, and we need a taller fence around the former state. We can’t let even one of those freaks of nature escape. I know the liberals won’t like me using the word ‘freak’ but that’s what they are, freaks. I won’t apologize.”

Doctor Ricco tried to speak, but Seeley spoke over him, repeating “Napalm, napalm, napalm.”

“What’s that you’re saying?” Steve asked.

“I’m saying we should drop napalm over the entire region, eradicate these freaks. Be done with them. We have two wars in the Middle East, and our relationship with Russia is on shaky ground. The last thing we need is this drain on our military’s resources. They’re on American soil. I say we take back our land!”

Steve clapped in approval but Danny spoke up. “I hate to play the devil’s advocate, I really do, because I frankly agree with you, but let’s say the napalm doesn’t kill them, what then? We have a bunch of angry freaks, as you call them. Who knows what they’re capable of?”

Again Ricco tried to speak but was over shouted by Steve. “I’ve seen videos on YouTube of a Washington woman calling lightning to her hand. Her hand! Not a scratch on her. How is that possible? We have to kill them. End of story.”

“If I may?” Ricco began.

“End of story!” Steve yelled in the man’s face. “They’re too dangerous. I wouldn’t want one of their kids playing with my kid. Kids fight all the time. Let’s say Bobby pushes Suzy, but Suzy’s a kid of a Washington freak. She’s a freak offspring. She pushes Bobby back with the force of a mac truck and kills him, BOOM!”

Ricco nodded. “Yes normal kids fight, mine, yours, normal human and nonhuman children fight all the time, but not the kids in Washington,” Ricco said loud and fast before anyone could shout him into silence. “They are nonviolent by their very nature.”

“Of course they don’t fight each other,” Seeley said. “They’re all freaks. Why would they fight their own kind?”

“The residents of Washington State—.”

“Former state,” Danny corrected him. “Washington is not a part of America anymore.”

“But, it’s still OUR LAND!” Seeley shouted.

Ricco smiled. “Yes, yes, nonetheless, the residents of Washington call themselves the gifted, not freaks. They are still biologically human after all.”

“Human? Interesting. What would you propose we do with them?” Danny asked him.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing!” shouted Steve in disbelief.

“A little more than three years ago, Washington was hit by a plague that some have referred to as a zombie apocalypse. I’m not saying that is true, but I remember the panic, the militarization of the state and the last resort we all accepted. A nuclear assault.”

“You think these people deserve our mercy because we tried to kill them?” Seeley said with spittle flying from his lips, a shower of his outrage. “That plague would have spread!”

“We launched a nuclear missile at them. It should have killed them, but instead a miracle happened. The bomb cured the plague and gifted these people with awesome abilities. We should be studying them, taking advantage of their gifts—instead, we’ve caged them in like animals.”

“They deserve worse!”

“They are a peaceful people.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but why are you even here? Washington doesn’t have vampires anymore,” Seeley asked with every intention of being rude.

Ricco gave him a sour face. “I am here because there are no more vampires in Washington. Because somehow that bomb healed every man woman and child of every hurt; the plague, genetic disorders, and even vampirism. But more than that, it gave them greater access to their minds, which in turn has given them the powers you fear, powers like healing the sick by touch and making polluted water drinkable—.”

“And controlling storms!” shouted Steve.

Ricco nodded vigorously. “Can’t you see the positive applications? Tornados moved clear of towns, rain where it is desperately needed!”

“Can’t you see the abuse? Their leader, Kirkland, she can control fire, combine that with a man who can control a tornado and you have a devastating weapon of mass destruction, no special equipment needed!”

“And you want us to leave them alone?” Danny asked Ricco.

“Open the boarders and accept them as human, yes.”

“That’s outrageous!” Steve bellowed.

“That is our only hope to avert a world war.”

“See! Even you think there is a war coming. We need to attack them.” Seeley was standing now, angry. “More than that, we need to round up every last nonhuman and be done with all of this. Vampires, witches, elves. It’s all nonsense. Kill them, kill them all! Humanity won’t survive otherwise!”

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