Blood on the Highway 2008

Fate, TX feels like a sleepy, forgettable town until Consumart, a glossy new one-stop shopping box store, throws a spark of reckless excitement into the evening. The grand opening unfolds as shoppers flood in at sunset, drawn by bright displays and promises of convenience. But the mood shifts in an instant: the store’s shelves hide coffins, the doors slam shut, and the celebration erupts into a violent bloodbath, turning a routine shopping trip into a nightmarish trap. The town’s normal rhythm is shattered, and the terrifying possibility of something monstrous lurking in Fate becomes impossible to ignore.

A few weeks later, three twenty-somethings—Carrie, Robin Gierhart, a flashy and aggressive scenester who treats romance as a status symbol; Sam, Nate Rubin, a shrill, immature, well-to-do hypochondriac with an outsized ego; and Bone, Deva George, an unapologetic badass with a biting, cutting way of speaking—set out on a road trip toward Mr. Fire, a festival that hums with a feral energy reminiscent of Burning Man. Their journey unexpectedly brings them back to Fate, a town that now hums with a dangerous, vampiric hush as the population has been transformed without their knowledge.

A tense encounter with two blood-thirsty convenience-store clerks changes everything in an instant: Sam is repeatedly bitten and attacked, and Bone is driven to kill the attackers to protect the trio. The danger becomes personal, and the three young adults begin to understand that something profoundly strange is happening in Fate—something that doesn’t just involve their own nerves, but the very life force of the town.

In the midst of growing fear, the group stumbles upon the last surviving humans in Fate: Byron Von Jones, Tony Medlin, a trigger-happy conspiracy-theorist and militia member; Lynette Von Jones, Laura Stone, a worn, rough-edged local; and Roy Jackson, Chris Gardner, a spineless, deceitful frat boy trying to navigate the mayhem. With danger closing in, the six outsiders must band together. They hole up inside Roy’s ranch house, surrounded by hundreds of vampires who are intent on torching the property before sunrise. The clock ticks as the night deepens, and the group fights to outlast the predatory army that stalks them—each moment forcing them to confront not only the threat outside, but the fragile bonds that can either save them or seal Fate’s dark fate.