Chapter 56 - Countermeasures In Veteris

"W-where are you taking me?!" shouted a student with a frightened look on his face, who was right now being dragged by two other students away from the sight of the other students to be locked in the dungeon. 

The student, who was a human, appeared frightened as he noticed blood on the vampire's mouth, who had tried to suck him. He tried to run away, but the two vampires were stronger than him. 

The dungeon was located deep inside the backside of the restricted area of the forest which was hidden. It was built underground, secured from anyone to hear or see what went down in there. Sometimes used to keep the humans as captive, or to hand out disciplinary punishments to the vampires.  There were already ten human students thrown inside the cell room with rusted bars built around that hadn't been painted for several years. 

"Where is this place?" demanded one of the students, while the two vampire students who had entered the dungeon threw the human in the cell room and locked the gate. "I didn't do anything, please let me out! I won't say anything to anyone! Please!"

The students who were night creatures laughed at the human who panicked and appeared frightened. 

The sound of footsteps could be heard where one more student was being dragged inside the dungeon, where the human girl had blood smeared on the side of her neck. "Somebody help me!" she pleaded, trying to resist, but the vampires were quick enough to put her in the cell.

"Stop crying, honey. Everything will be alright," chuckled the vampire who had thrown her in there, leaning against the cell room. 

When they heard another pair of footsteps, the humans and the vampire students turned to look through the passage entrance. Mr. Evans stepped inside the dungeon, and the humans who were locked turned relieved, believing that the counsellor was here to get them out. 

"Mr. Evans! Mr. Evans!" called a student in panic, "These vampires have locked us up here!"

The counsellor had a calm and collected expression on his face that barely changed. He offered the human a polite smile, "Don't be scared, you won't be harmed. No one will harm you in here. Why don't I come there and help you." The vampire students only smirked at Mr. Evans' words. 

The human student smiled in relief, and Mr. Evans made his way and stood in front of the cell's gate. But he made no effort to unlock the gate. The human who stood right behind bars looked hopeful. 

"I need to check something," said Mr. Evans, and the pupil of his eyes widened and narrowed as he asked, "What did you see?"

The human spluttered with, "T-there are vampires in here!"

"Forget it," Mr. Evans tried to compel, but the boy continued to look scared. 

The human shook his head, "Why are the vampires in here! We are all going to die!" 

Mr. Evans sighed and then turned to look at the students who were of his kind. He said, "Keep them locked in here. And if they scream, tape their mouth. But don't forget to give them water." 

"Yes, Mr. Evans," the vampires bowed their heads to show their obedience to him. "If I may ask, how did Silverwater enter the tanks?"

"Some rats entered the underground tanks and contaminated it," said Mr. Evans. He then ordered one of the students, "Have Doctor Isolde and the others come here. We need to make sure the humans don't die and are taken proper care of. Until the Silverwater isn't out of their body, they cannot be compelled." He turned back to look at the humans and said, "Apologies children, you will need to bear with it for the next twenty four hours and then you can get back to your dorms like nothing ever happened. Back to your normal life," he offered them a polite smile and stepped out of the dungeon. 

Back in the centre place of Veteris, the grounds looked emptier. There was a certain whisper in the air that alerted the night creatures to make sure the humans weren't aware of what had happened, while they were ordered to not sink their fangs into anything. 

"What?" asked Julie, confusion in her eyes. 

Conner nodded his head, a sigh escaping his lips, "They said they have to repair and clean, because the main pipe has blown up or damaged. The lunchroom will stay closed until tomorrow morning."

"How are we going to eat then?" asked Melanie, noticing some of the students like them, stood near the building, where the lunchroom was. 

After leaving the infirmary, Julie had wanted to buy potato chips as Roman had finished all of hers when he had visited her last night. And now the lunchroom counter was closed?! 

Spotting the man who often stayed behind the counter in the lunchroom, Julie walked to him and asked, "Has the administration informed how the dinner would be arranged?" The students weren't allowed to leave the grounds of Veteris today, and she doubted the management would leave the students hungry. 

"Madame Dante has already made arrangements to get the food from outside. Once the trucks arrive here, we'll be providing the students. It will be distributed by the wardens of each Dormitorium," replied the man and Julie nodded her head. 

"Thank you," Julie offered him a polite smile and then returned to where her friends were. "We'll get our dinner directly in our Dormitoriums," and Melanie nodded her head. 

"I wonder what kind of pipe caused a mishap to close the entire lunchroom," asked Melanie and then said, "We'll see you later, Conner." 

"Yeah, I will go back to the workshop," Conner waved at them and walked away from there. 

When Julie returned to her dorm, she pulled out the book that Roman had given to her. Sitting at the desk, she turned the pages. After a few seconds of staring at her homework, Julie said, "Why do these problems appear worse than the test questions set by the teacher?"

She tried to solve the first question, but no matter how many times she tried it, the answer never matched with the answer Roman had already written in the book for her reference. 

"Sometimes I wonder if you are the founder of Rubix to set something so hard," muttered Julie to herself. 

Packaged food was distributed to all the students in the Dormitorium, but that wasn't all. The helpers refilled the water cans in every dorm. 

"Veteris sure likes to make sure to see that the students are drinking purified water," Julie heard one of the girl's comments when she and Melanie stepped into the corridor. 

"They always want to be the best, this is why most of the students are from wealthy families here, except for a few of them," said another girl, her head turned, and eyes fell on Julie and Melanie. 

"How scornful can one be," muttered Melanie, and Julie placed her hand on her friend's arm. 

"Don't pay heed to it," replied Julie. "I wonder what was the sudden need to replace all the cans. Did they think that the water was dirty?"

"Maybe," answered Melanie. Bringing her hand up, she took a bite from the sandwich. 

Later on, by herself in the dorm, Julie noted how Roman hadn't come by to pick it up. Because of last night's high patrol, he was possibly being cautious. 

But when everyone had fallen asleep, Roman had come by Julie's window to find her sleeping soundly. Picking up the letter, he started to walk away from there when he noticed another vampire student walking in the opposite direction. Folding the paper, he placed it in his pocket. 

"Out of the dorm again, Moltenore?" questioned the boy, blocking Roman's way. "You must be looking for blood. After all, with the kind you are, I have some humans if you want," smiled the boy, who was a senior student too. 

One corner of Roman's lips pulled up, "You can keep them to yourself. I am not interested in the low quality of blood that you collect, Griffin."

Griffin looked to the side before he shifted his gaze back to look at Roman. He said, "You should get used to it. After all, you deserve it more than anyone… and you are smiling." He looked at him with a questioning look.

Roman exhaled the air through his lips, "I wonder if you ever get bored by your own words. Repeating things while hoping it will offend me." Coldness entered his eyes, and he said with a straight face, "How pathetic and pitiful you must be." 

"One day you will fall from that high horse that you sit on. Even the Elders wouldn't acknowledge you and I will then see who is pathetic. If it is me or you," smiled Griffin, looking down at Roman. "Have you forgotten what happened to your brother? The way he died, you will end up just like that," he sneered.

Roman pulled out the cigarette from his pack and placed it between his teeth. Bringing his lighter, he lit it with a click sound, letting the tip of the cigarette burn. He flicked the lighter close. Without turning his head, he blew the smoke in such a way that the smoke fell right on Griffin's face. 

A dull smile appeared on Roman's face, and he tilted his head, "I don't care. Now if you don't mind, stop wanting to gain my attention. Borell is right in the corner," he said, stepping to his left side and he started to walk away from there. 

Roman left Griffin far behind him, and he entered the restricted side of the forest, walking to where the water in the water tanks were being replaced. 

"How is it going?" he asked one of the helper men, who stood nearby. 

The man turned and offered Roman a slight bow, and Roman returned it. The helper man said, "We should be done by midnight. As you can see, the water supply has already started with fresh water." 

Hearing the crunching of the leaves behind him, Roman turned his head to the side and noticed it was his friends, Simon and Maximus. The helper man then continued to explain, "There are fifteen tanks and we are able to fill only two at a time. We have already given the diversion so the buildings will have the replaced water running in their taps." 

"Do you have any idea who broke in here?" inquired Roman, and the man shook his head. "Where are you pouring the contaminated water?" 

"Madame Dante proposed that we pour it at the edge of the road," explained the helper before being called by another helper man, and he went to help. 

"Is it good to have the water thrown there with Silverwater, that will be absorbed by the plants?" questioned Maximus with a perplexed look on his face. "The last time I checked, there were some wild fruits in there that are edible." 

"Let's hope no human would consume it, and then get bitten," commented Roman, turning to look at them. 

"How are we going to catch the person?" asked Simon. "We were lucky enough to not take a sip or eat anything. Imagine what would have happened if all the vampires started throwing up black blood because their core was getting affected with Silverwater." 

"Maybe there is more than one or two in here?" asked Maximus as they made their way back. 

"It could be," replied Roman, walking in the forest. "It has something to do with the awakening. Someone who wants to stop the process. That's what Dante said." 

"If it is a vampire, it will be hard to catch the rat. Not to mention a brave rat," chuckled Simon to himself. 

"Then we draw it out in the open," remarked Roman. "It cannot hide forever. Evans mentioned to Dante that it would be a good idea to have us consume Silverwater in small quantities to build resistance against it." 

Maximus laughed, "Evans is the only one who could come up with such an idea. To torture your own kind. He's the perfect example of a psychopath, who wants to have us all dead. I doubt that is going to be of any help. Even a drop of Silverwater can mess up our body. So far, not even the elders have built a resistance towards it since they found out about its existence." 

As they continued to walk, Roman fell behind the two boys, and he pulled out the envelope that he had earlier stuffed in his pocket. He read Julie's letter—

'Did you write down the problems that are from senior year's syllabus? >.> I wasn't able to solve even one of them. I even got Melanie to help me with it, but she got a different answer from mine and your answer. Though I am your apprentice, you should take it a little easy on me.

Also, the day after tomorrow, I am going to Mel and Conner's place over the weekend. They planned to watch a movie in the theatre. What do you do, staying back during these holidays?'

"Seems like you made some decent friends, Winters," Roman murmured under his breath. He folded the letter and put it back in his pocket. He called his friends, who were walking a few steps ahead of him, "What are we doing this weekend?"

With a thoughtful look, Simon turned around and said, "Going out with some girl, whose name funnily I don't remember. Then straight to the motel," he grinned. 

"Let's hope you remember it. I am going to hunt for a good beverage and see who tastes better?" asked Maximus, as if he was still deciding about it. "We are going to pick good humans to drink, aren't we?"

"Yes," replied Roman, his hands slipping into his pockets. 

Roman doubted the same could be written as a reply to Julie. Even if he wrote it, there was a possibility that she would dismiss it as his attempt to joke. During the day of the Hallow, she had blindly believed that Dalton wasn't a vampire but a person who was in his vampire costume. 

But then, the humans were unaware of the vampire's existence, and it had turned to nothing less than folklore. 

Initially, when Roman had found out that Dante had allotted his room to a mere human girl, and when the opportunity had presented itself in front of him, he had tried to bully her. The thought of wanting her out of the university had passed by his mind. And it had appeared again when he had found out that she couldn't be compelled. It was because moving to another university was much better than being dead at the hands of vampires. 

It wasn't that Julianne reminded him of his past, but somewhere he sympathized with her from where she came. Though what she had experienced was a scratch while in his case, it had left a scar. 

This world that she had unconsciously stepped into, it was nowhere safe for her. Lately, he had thoughts. Wondering, if he was prolonging her death instead of not chasing her out of Veteris and letting her stay for his interest because he knew the consequences of what could happen. 

Remembering the incident of what happened near the tracks, with the other girl who was the first to pull her, Julie had followed suit in retaliation, Roman's lips twitched.

She was an amusing girl, he thought in his mind. Somewhere between innocent and foolishly brave.