Chapter 8 Kal #2
They spent the rest of the time until Loren arrived plotting out their battle strategy in detail and loading up trucks with every weapon on hand.
Crystal had been preparing for this, Kal discovered.
She’d gotten some help from Cassie who had good trading contacts for weapons from her work with the resistance.
Kal was amused when he had to take Crystal aside and advise her to delegate much of her work loading up trucks with weapons, explosives, and other ammunition.
She looked confused until he told her she was too important to be doing grunt work and then she seemed surprised.
“Oh!” She’d chirped. “I guess I am!” She grabbed the first person she saw passing by and put them to work and Kal snorted and went back to gathering armor from all the little nooks where it had been stashed.
After that, he figured he’d track down Mara and see if she needed any help with her explosives.
The plan was to be ready to head out as soon as Loren arrived, making him turn right back around.
So they were workingveryfast to be ready to go.
A lot of people were taking some time to hide their stuff, but most realized that Urbana might be destroyed by the time they were able to return.
You had to assume it. He knew Tess would want to at least stash the computer she’d been given and the Council files in one of the SUVs so her work wouldn’t be too disrupted.
Loren ended up running late, and it put everyone on edge.
Phones had not been working lately. They had walkie talkies but they didn’t work over long distances.
Communication was done by messenger unless you could get to a landline but for messages about an impending battle, only a live person would do.
There was a terrible tension in the air as they all waited around outside, though a lot of people had already packed into the vans and trucks and buses the new Free the Children people had brought with them.
Everyone was ready to go. They were all just waiting for Loren.
Tess looked so riled up, Kal thought she might explode.
She stepped up next to him where he waited in the parking lot with the others and took his hand, squeezing it tight.
But finally, Loren’s big black armored vehicle came driving up and Kal took a deep breath.
Now it began.
* * *
“I didn’t realizewar involved so much waiting,” Tess later whispered in his ear.
He had to chuckle. She wasn’t wrong. He’d thought the same during battles too.
There was always a lot of hurry up and wait.
You were either lined up and ready to go on the offensive as soon as the other side showed up or waiting for somebody to take the first shot.
Waiting for news or waiting to hear about casualties.
War was all about waiting in Kal’s experience.
Now he was on the Council HQ’s rooftop, sitting on the ground up against the ledge that looked out on downtown Chicago, though a good portion of it was demolished and abandoned.
They had worked as fast as they could with the help of Loren’s men to clear out a twelve block radius.
That had taken some doing but on the upside, a lot of the civilians had grabbed their own weapons and opted to join the fight.
One trader volunteered the shuttle she’d long ago stolen from an airport to transport invalids, children, and others who couldn’t fight away from what was going to become their battlefield.
Kal had been impressed by the willingness of humans to put themselves to work or throw themselves into danger for a cause.
Vampyrens didn’t think that way. It was maybe reckless but it showed heart, he supposed.
“How do we actually know they’ll come here from Urbana?” Tess said softly.
Everything was so quiet. Even in this blown-out area of downtown, there were still usually cars and people who walked around and there were vendors on the street.
Now all the streets were empty. There were men stationed on rooftops across the city with crossbows because crossbows were more effective at long range than guns for Vampyren.
There were bombs planted at certain points on the street that would hopefully damage whatever vehicles the military would arrive in.
But for now… they were waiting.
Kal had drunk plenty of blood, wanting to gather as much strength as possible. He made sure Tess ate enough too and now he turned to her where they were crouching below the ledge, their ears perked up for the sound of anything. “How do you feel?” He said.
“Fine?” Tess said. She seemed to realize suddenly what he meant and rolled her eyes.
She was carrying a crossbow and the idea of her fighting with the rest of them made Kal nervous as hell.
He tried to send her off with the airport shuttle, but she would have none of it.
If nothing else, he supposed it might make him fight more fiercely, knowing she was right there, vulnerable and carrying his child on top of it.
“Ijustgot pregnant, Kal. I’m barely feeling it yet. ”