The Premise

“Consider for a moment, our racial history,” Roger emphasized, with a sweep of his arms, “the entire human race has spent the majority of our history attempting to kill each other. In war, any war, but certainly ancient conflicts, the loss of human life, without specific source of death, was accepted easily and ascribed to any number of sources, including gods and demons. In modern day warfare the totals missing or unaccounted men and women are extremely large. From World War Two, the total of missing was in excess of four hundred thousand; from the Korean war, more than twenty thousand; and from Viet Nam, another five thousand. No bodies, no recovered remains, nothing.” Roger looked meaningfully at the group. “But that is the least of it.” Roger’s face became much more serious. “Stories of children walking off into the woods and never being seen again, abound. In more modern history, whole colonies have disappeared without a trace. Many theories arise but hundreds and even thousands of humans have been swept away with little description and less information, throughout our history.” “Do any of you have an idea of how many reported missing people, primarily children, there are in this country alone?” Roger asked of the group. “A couple hundred a year?” Terry responded, more as a question than an answer. “No way,” said Jenny “Not that many, surely.” Sarah looked skeptical, but had nothing to add. Mark just shrugged. Roger looked from face to face, before stating quietly “More than three hundred thousand a year.” “No way!” exclaimed Mark, who was immediately shushed by the librarian from the central console. “You must have your facts confused, Professor,” stated Sarah emphatically, reverting to a formal address when disconcerted. “I am afraid that my facts are accurate and most certainly low. I would say the real number of missing persons is closer to double or triple that figure. The facts that I just quoted are simply those cases of missing persons that are reported. As for persons who do not have interested parties to report their disappearance, the number may be closer to a million for our country alone.” “This is very hard to believe” stated Terry, unwilling to contest Roger when he was stating what he considered to be facts. “Well, it is true,” Roger affirmed, “regardless of your belief. So, where did they all go? No bodies, no strange people showing up in different cities equal to the value of such a population displacement. They must have gone somewhere.” “What about kidnappers?” Jenny asked with a distasteful look. “You know…the ones who take people and children to…umm,” her eyes downcast, she could not finish. “Sex offenders?” asked Roger casually, and continued seeing Jenny give a slight nod, “certainly, some few of the missing fall prey to such monsters. Some are murdered and a few bodies will be recovered. Some wander off to start new lives elsewhere, and some fall off cliffs.” Roger continued, “So, let’s say that a total of twenty-five percent of the three hundred thousand are the victims of foul play by other humans, and let’s say that another twenty-five percent are found or returned or just show up somewhere else.” He once again leaned forward, tapped the stacks of their research, and said in a piercing voice, “that leaves at least one hundred fifty thousand and possibly as many as five hundred thousand Americans who disappear each year without a trace. In other, less organized countries, the totals may be much higher.” “Where do they all go?” asked Mark quietly, his face marking the solemnity of his question. “Food,” answered Roger, “we are being used as a food source, and have been throughout our history.” The statement brought no reaction from the group. They were too stunned by the concept. Too many questions and too many objections raced through their minds to be coherently expressed. After several minutes, Sarah spoke quietly to the group “If this is true, surely some agency knows. Someone, besides us” she motioned to their group “would have realized what is going on. If not in our country, then somewhere else in the world.” Roger shook his head slightly and smiled bitterly as he replied, “The USA is one of the most enlightened and forward thinking countries on the face of the planet. We have the most advanced criminal and investigative techniques and scientific technologies in the world. But we do not even know who killed our own president, with any certainty, a mere fourteen years ago.” “Besides,” he added “a problem of this magnitude is so large that, I suspect, no one is willing to even look at it as a whole. As humans, we think on micro-scale, focusing on things that affect our own lives first, then locally to our community. Attempting to evaluate a possible threat on a national level, would require the complete focus of thousands of dedicated people. Even if any of our national agencies could allot that type of manpower, why would they? To find vampires?” Roger’s satiric tone indicated his scorn of such a concept being taken seriously. “But perhaps you have not digested the unspoken inference of my statistical rendition,” he added in a much more scholarly manner, reverting back to his professorial mode of address. “If our country is losing close to half a million people per year, how many would India or China be losing, do you suppose?” “If we extrapolate similar percentages of loss, based upon existing populations…” said Mark, closing his eyes as he did mental math, “then between the three countries there would be about three million people missing and unaccounted for by other assumptions each year.” “Closer to four million,” corrected Roger, obviously having done the math, himself, long since, “and worldwide, based upon current population?” “Don’t know,” said Mark, “can’t do that kind of global math in my head.” “About six million per year, and growing in direct proportion as our population base grows.” “There must be some other answer, some explanation or missing piece of data,” stated Jenny emphatically. “Well, my dear” Roger responded, looking directly into her grey eyes “if you can find it, I, of all people, would be happy to be proven wrong.”