What does "The people know that and are waiting for it" mean?

Question

I’m reading “No such thing as a vampire” by Richard Matheson (Link- Caution: There's a large scary skull picture in this website). I have a problem and need some help. In the paragraph below, I don’t understand what it means (the bold part):

‘Has it – been elsewhere in the village?’ Vares asked him. Gheria sighed exhaustedly.

‘Why need it go elsewhere?’ he said. ‘It is finding all it – craves within these walls.’ He stared despondently at Alexis. ‘When we are gone,’ he said, ‘it will go elsewhere. The people know that and are waiting for it.’

The bold part is Dr. Gheria's words (he's the main character). As far as I can figure out by myself, Dr. Gheria wanted to say: The vampire found his “food” in this room – Gheria, his wife – Alexis Gheria, and Vares (maybe). Once the vampire sucked all of their blood, killing them, it would move to another place outside this village (in the story, this village named Solta). The villagers here knew that fact and were waiting for the vampire to leave Solta.

I've tried some information about vampires. It seems that there's no rule of sucking blood one victim per village.

I simply can't understand its meaning.

Answer 1

Vares asked

Has it – been elsewhere in the village?

The responses are in relation to the village. There is nothing in Dr. Gheria's words which suggests that any putative vampire will leave the village once food within ‘these walls’ is exhausted. ‘It will go elsewhere’ only means it would look outside those walls, it seems likely therefore that the people in the village would be waiting with dread for the food within the walls to be exhausted.

This is why an earlier paragraph speaks of the people being frozen with dread.