"I think we're ready," he said softly to Mack as they sat in their room one night. "Today, just after sunrise."

Mack nodded. "Man. This is nervous work. I'm used to just charging in swinging, this pussy-footing around is hard on a guy."

"Well, you may get some charging and swinging soon, but I hope not. I've taken the day shift three times now, I've buddied up to both of the guys on the early shift. We've looked over every inch of this place, they don't have any surprises to pull on us. It's time to get our friends, and everybody else, out."

They waited for sunrise in tense silence. Around them the activity of the city stilled. The scouts were all coming in. The guards changed, and the sun at last slipped above the horizon. The two stood, moving around to keep from falling asleep. They waited just long enough to be sure that nobody else would be awake, and then they left their room.

The corridors were eerily silent, lit up just the same during the day as at night. No sunlight ever reached here. The pair didn't sneak down them, they had every right to be where they were, so they just strolled, but there was nobody out, all the vampires were asleep.

At the prison doors they paused. They could sense the leader, nerve-wrackingly close, but he was almost certainly asleep. They exchanged glances.

This was it.

Alek pushed the button on the first door. It slid silently open. The guard on the other side was surprised. "Alek? What are you doing up?"

Alek strolled into the hall with Mack behind him, and the door slid shut after them. "I found something I thought you'd be interested in," said Alek, moving closer. "Here, have a look." He held out his empty hand, and when the vampire looked down, Alek moved. In a blur of lightning speed he tackled the guard. He couldn't use his knife, though he had it on him as always. There had to be no blood. The guard struggled, nearly got free, but then Mack stepped up and snapped his neck.

"Whew. That's one," said Alek. Then he went and opened a door at random. Inside four startled women looked up at him. None of them were Megan. "Damn," he muttered. "You gals know Megan?" he asked. They just stared. "Never mind." He left the door open and tried another. That room was empty. He tried a third. "Bingo! Hi Megan. Want to leave?"

Megan practically flew across the room and hugged him. "Alek! I was starting to worry a bit."

Alek grinned toothily. "We wanted to make sure we hadn't overlooked anything. You want to let everybody else out, and tell them the score? We've still got to get the guard on the other side, so keep it quiet."

The other humans with Megan looked more than a little stunned, particularly when she had hugged a vampire. They hadn't quite been able to believe her story. But the gray-haired woman recovered quickly. She started opening doors, calling names, getting everybody out into the corridor.

Alek and Mack stepped outside. Alek took a deep breath, and then he opened the next door. Thankfully his trick worked a second time, and Mack killed the second guard as easily as the first. "Thank you God," breathed Mack. "That's the really sticky bit right there." Then he and Alek started opening doors. It took them three tries, with two rooms full of startled and bewildered humans, before they found Jeff.

Jeff stood as the door opened, and then nearly collapsed back to the floor as a huge wave of relief went through him to see Mack's familiar face. "Hi buddy," said Mack.

"Good to see you," said Jeff simply. Then he waved the other men forward. "This is it," he said intensely. "Get everybody else out and tell them the story."

Soon both men and women had been told about the three Hunters and the planned escape. They were a road train crew, used to working together. The iron-haired woman was their captain. She issued orders in a soft, but firm voice and her two dozen or so crew members obeyed them without question. With Mack and Alek leading the way, the group moved quietly down the corridor. Mack carried the two vampires' bodies slung over his shoulder. When they were just short of the automatic door, he halted.

"This is a far as we go. It's full daylight out there. You take these with you. Our end of things will be much easier if they just vanish. Sunlight will burn them up, so you won't have to carry them far. Megan and Jeff both know the way to where you're going. Just go through those doors, they'll open up for you when you get close. The doors past that lead outside. You push the green button and they open right up."

The captain nodded. Megan gave Alek and Mack one more hug, and then the humans moved forward. They moved in a quiet file through the automatic doors, and there was a burst of light as the first of them opened the outer door before the last of them had quite gone through the inner. Mack and Alek both squinted against the glare of indirect sunlight, but the door shut only seconds later.