Midnight Express

January 1, 2000. Just after midnight. A shunted train wagon in Perovo, Moscow. Zoom in on several man-sized crates stacked inside.

So here I was. All alone. In the dark. In a big, dangerous city.

Correction: I was not alone.
I could feel other kindred near. This was the Midnight Express into Moscow for the undead after all. Some of them scared me, they...
Wait, correction again: *we* were not alone.
Something was stomping about in our wagon. In group. Turned out to be midget versions of Pan, goat's legs included, and they were armed with cattle prods. Not the expected welcome committee!
Fighting ensued, embarrassingly clumsy fighting. But at least *I* got out of my crate without help. Some of the others were useful in fighting the small demonic half goats. Others, well, not so much.

In all we are five, a strange mix of vampire sneaking into Moscow. There's Nikanor, a small, very creepy man who's also butt-ugly, so odds are: Nosferatu. Natalya is a beautiful woman, but also quite a snob. First guess is Ventrev but 't is impolite to ask I think. There's a gentleman with century old clothes, Anastas. Says he's a composer, but he seems distracted most of the time. Doesn't always make much sense when he talks, so Malkavian or Toreador, could go either way. The one I feel most affinity with is Lex; he's at least from my world. A Brudjah, blue haired, punk attitude, likes to talk about movies and music.
Of us five I am definitely the baby, and Nikanor and Natalya, they're of older blood. They were the ones that creeped me out when I sensed them upon waking. After seeing them fight, not so much, eh.

Like me, none of them had been expecting to be dumped quite so unceremoniously into Moscow by the smuggling set-up. So seeing that we successfully kicked small demonic half goats' asses, we decided to stick together, at least until we found some food and shelter, or somebody handing out the tourist brochures for the big city.

Over the handful of hours we spent searching for a safe spot, I learned from my fellow travellers some more stuff that Koldan should have told me. Eager vampire baby that I am, I suck everything up these guys will tell me. It appears that since some years, more specifically since the dissolution of the old commie rule in 1991, mystical borders have risen around a large part of the old Russian territory. Outside these borders, kindred died. There's rumours it's the same for other creatures, like elementals. There are some areas outside still known to have live kindred, but there's no travel possible. So that dream I had of travelling to Australia and Africa and get acquainted with all those cool snakes? Ain't gonna happen.

By the time I was up to speed with 'Modern History for the Undead 101' and starting to feel peckish, the winking red and blue neon of a bar came into view. Ah, warm bodies, finally...