For Want of a Drink

Gods but I was hungry
Nothing to eat for miles
I could tell
As I'd looked and hunted for scent for days
Just more of these things
All shambling around
Easy to avoid unless I stood still for them

I'm not immortal
Contrary to popular fiction
And while these things couldn't change me to be like them
They could kill me in other ways
Four of my brethren had been torn apart not long ago
They got complacent and sloppy
One fell asleep with some fresh blood on his shirt
And that's all it took

During the day
The shambling rambling walkers had sniffed them out
Maybe it was something that passed for rage
In what was left of their rotted brains
That made them destroy what they couldn't turn or eat
Childishly primitive any way you look at it if you ask me

My stomach woke me from my reverie
Turning and tying itself in a knot
Reminding me how empty it was
Fuck!
I scanned the town streets from my perch
High on top of the old Fire Hall
Nothing

Nothing alive anyways
Lots of dead
And lots of shuffling not quite dead
What the hell was I going to do
I'd start to get weak soon
Then the only way for me to survive
Would be a forced hibernation

I didn't like doing that
Finding a safe place
Usually a grave
(That's how stories start!)
And holing up, literally, for years on end
With the hope that things will be better then

I wasn't feeling sanguine about those possibilities at the moment
Too much death
Not enough life
Maybe other places were different
But I'm so tired of traveling

So like I said
Fuck
What the hell is this lone vampire supposed to do?