Alek blinked himself awake at sundown. Then he grinned. He'd wondered if he'd even be able to sleep, he was so nervous, but the pull of daylight had dragged him under the instant he lay down on the bed. And the fact that he was waking now, at sundown, meant all had gone as planned.

Mack was grinning at him from the opposite bunk. "Ha! Nobody sounded the alarm. But now you'd better, or it'll look all wrong."

Alek nodded, and stepped out of the room. He jogged down the hall and out into the corridor. He considered for a moment going straight to the leader himself, but he seemed the type to kill the messenger, perhaps literally, so instead Alek went down the other hall and knocked on the door of Tantra, the vampire who kept track of the various duty rosters.

Tantra answered the door with obvious irritation on her face. "What?"

"Nobody woke me for my shift," said Alek. "I think they fell asleep."

"Lovely," she muttered. "I'll go take care of it."

Alek went back to his room, trying to keep his tension from showing. The empty rooms would be found, the alarms would be sounded, the vampires gathered, and then they would chase after the fleeing humans. If all went as planed they wouldn't catch them until after they'd reached the road train and gotten it started up again. With time and surprise the vampires had been able to take out the train, but coming unprepared on it with the night already half gone, they would almost certainly be turned back. They hoped. If the vampires tried to fight, well...

"It's all up to you now D," he murmured softly.