Okay, the other night my fevered brain came up with an idea that was unusual for me:

There are other intelligent species on earth, and close genetic cousins to humans.
Vampires. Lycanthropes.
The world is divided among the breeds of non-humans; Africa is the realm of the undead, zombies and mummies, if you will. Northern Asia, from the Urals to Kamchatka Penninsula, are the realm of a breed of lycan, who has undisputed control of the wastes. South are other undead, often outnumbering the living humans in some places. North America is shared by the wendigo in the north and the garou, other cousins to the lycans, to the south. Meso- and South America are also the prime land for zombie undead, with a small enclave of vampires in central Mexico. Europe is an uneasy truce between vampires and lycans.
Then there are the prey: humans and other mammals.
Only Australia is free of zombies, vampires and lycanthropes (though there is a marsupial lycan enclave in Tasmania). The People, known to Europeans as Aboriginals, quietly made life intolerable for the others long before the arrival of Europeans, and continue their vigil. The rest of humanity tries to continue as if they were masters of the earth, but depending on where they are, they are either a source of food for the others, or a source of breeding material. For, although genetically different from humans, vampires and lycanthropes need human bodies to propigate their species. They are intelligent virus, copying us, using us, and then discarding our empty shells to become the undead.
This is the legacy of now....
Well, what do you think?