Outside the room then both exchanged relieved glances.

"This way," said the scout, and led them back out the way they'd come. "He's not usually quite that bad," the scout said, apparently having shed some of his earlier wariness. "But... something kind of upsetting happened a few weeks ago, and he's still stewing over it. Anyway, I'll take you over to quarters, get you some rooms. We can go get you some food too."

"Food?" asked Alek. "What kind of food is there down here, other than those humans?" He knew the answer, but he didn't want to let on that he did.

"Synthetics. It's blood made somehow by a machine. That's how so many of us can live here, there's an endless supply of it. And Himself is pretty careful about the humans. We don't have an endless supply of those, but we've only lost a couple since we caught them, and that was months ago. I can't say I don't miss the fun of playing with them, but there is something to be said for making them last."

They walked down the front hall, past the doors they'd entered by. They slid open as the trio walked by, and Alek jumped. He was very wound up still, and he hadn't expected the motion.

"Don't mind them. They only know when something is in front of them, they can't tell if it's going out or just going past."

"How do they work?" asked Alek.

The scout shrugged. "No idea."

The continued on, taking a left down a corridor marked "Quarters, Elevators." A door on the right proved to lead into a hallway with more doors off of it, very like the one the human prisoners were being kept in. The pair could sense several other vampires in the rooms.

"Some of 'em are empty in this hall," said their guide, "So pick what you want. When you're ready for food you can follow the signs to Synthesis, they'll feed you there."

And with that he vanished back down the corridor, leaving them alone.

Alek picked a door more or less at random and went in, Mack following. The room inside was small, with two sets of double bunk beds, so it had been meant for four. But they could tell that most of the vampires in the hall were alone in their rooms. They seemed to be sound-proofed, as their keen ears couldn't hear anything from their immediate neighbors, though they could sense one of them moving around.

"Whew!" said Alek softly.

"No kidding," said Mack. "But we're in. And Jeff and Megan are in too. Though I hope being in separate rooms doesn't throw things off too badly."

"I don't think it will," said Alek, "Though we might want to allow just a few minutes for them to explain things to the humans in the other rooms, when we let them out. But they're a road train crew. There's going to be a leader, and they'll be used to taking orders. It should be fine"

"Yeah. The guards are a pain, too."

Alek nodded. David hadn't seen any guards, and he had been too overwhelmed by the dozens of vampires around him to pay close attention to their exact locations, so he hadn't know if there would be any or not. They'd made plans both ways though.

"Now what?" asked Mack.

Alek shrugged. "Now I guess we go get fed, and then see what else we can learn."