The sun sets in the distance. The remaining sunlight, reaching over the horizon, touches everything in the desert. The exception is a mysterious cave in the mountain. A small shadow rests just outside the cave, where a man walks out. He does not touch the sunlight. He just stands on the edge looking off into the distance. Yellow eyes peer out from the cave. First a few, then many pairs of eyes. They’re waiting.. for something.

Just a few miles away, we see a fifty foot wall of concrete, surrounding an area the size of a small town. A boy stands on top of the wall, looking off into the distance. He climbs down as the sun starts to set. Within the boundaries of the wall, a looking tower peeks over at the surrounding desert. A couple of people on guard duty sit inside twiddling their thumbs.

This is the Chihuahuan Desert, west Texas. The town that we still cannot see through the barrier is the town of Merrifield, where the mountains meet the desert. The sun is almost all the way down the horizon. Some smoke rises from within the fortress, along with some light. We can hear people walking around and talking happily.

Blackness reaches across the desert sand. Where the light no longer touches, the strange people from the mountain wonder forward. Hundreds of them, appearing to be pouring out of the caves, walk aimlessly through the desert. They make no noise, they do not talk nor acknowledge each others existence. When they bump into each other, they do not say excuse me, they just turn the other way. When the sun has fully set, and darkness fully covers the land, they run. They scatter around like roaches in the night. Looking to spread their colony, like roaches. Looking for food, like roaches.

The town is the only source of light for miles. The people in the town go about their business. Perhaps they can hear the creatures running over the walls, but they don’t care. The people are used to it. Children play games in the roads. The adults are walking to and from houses and stores. Policemen patrol the streets looking for criminals. The local movie theater is showing reruns of old movies. As the night goes on, the people retreat to their homes to rest for the night. The light that stretches from within the town to the surrounding desert dims, as the clock tower rings. It’s midnight.

The creatures, desperate for food, surround the town. The guard in the looking tower watches over them. He’s seen them do this every night. Perhaps, in their own limited brains, they know that they will never make it into the town, but the hunger in their stomach overcomes any real thought. The human like creatures, crawling over each other, attempt again to ram the walls. The guard twiddles his thumbs. They ain’t gettin’ nowhere. Some of the smarter creatures try to climb up the wall. They grab on to tiny little bolts that are sticking out, and hopefully work their way up and over. There’s one of these creatures that really catch our attention. He’s the same one we saw outside the cave earlier. He grabs on to few others that are already partly up the wall. He steps on their faces trying to work his way up. One of the screws is loose on the wall. Just enough for him to grab onto with a few of his fingers. He pulls himself up, over, but then falls fifty feet. Getting up from the fall, he see’s plants. Plants not found in the desert like corn and wheat. He sees houses and stores. His heart races. He’s in.

The boy, who was on the wall earlier, is now taking a midnight stroll through the neighborhood. Unknowing to him, the creature follows. It creeps behind him like a cheetah hunting antelope. When he feel like he is close enough, the creature jumps onto the boys back. The boy screams for someone, but is quickly silenced when the creature takes a big bite out of his neck. The boy jerks his body around, just managing to knock the creature off. A nearby rock makes for a good weapon. The boy either knocked him out or killed him. Doesn’t matter which, the creature does not move.
The boy grabs his neck and notices the wound. He cries, knowing his fate. The hairs on the back of his neck tingle. His eyes change from a light blue to a dark yellow. His fingers grow longer; the nails begin to turn into claws. He can feel it. The unbearable hunger. The thirst. He would give anything for a glass of water, but it still does not satisfying him. He body only craves one thing now, human blood. Yes! Of course! he goes searching. He knows that it is wrong. Thoughts in his head tell him not to go, but the hunger in his stomach overcomes any real thought. He is now a creature of the night. He sneaks into a nearby window, awakening the little girl who is asleep. She screams for her mother, she screams that it is in her room. One of the creatures that their people have been at war with for many years. The vampires.