Chapter 8 Kal #3
“Where are the bazookas?” Kal muttered. The bazookas, in Kal’s opinion, were the best surprise from Loren’s men he could’ve hoped for.
The plan was to take down as many vehicles as possible, forcing the men out into the streets.
Vampyren military, they surmised, would come in via transports not marching. Well, they’d let them come then.
It was another hour of sitting there on the roof and sweating before something happened.
It was an unseasonably warm day considering winter was just transitioning into spring.
Kal had worn a jacket but now he took it off.
He was wearing a black tank top with sleeveless armor and plating strapped to black cargo pants.
Sweat was dripping down his spine, and he shivered slightly even in the heat.
Finally, he had afeeling. A sense of impending danger so strong that he was breathless with it and he had an urge to grab Tess and head for the hills.
It was not cowardice but protectiveness.
He’d never avoided battle before because of fear for his life.
That was not why he deserted his unit. But now everything had changed.
He contained himself. Everyone here had somebody to protect.
They needed to fight for each other. No matter the cost. He breathed hard and Tess looked at him funny.
“What is it?” She whispered.
“They’re coming,” he said softly.
“How do you know?” She looked fearful, and he kissed her softly.
“I just know.” He had a helm on to protect the back of his head and now he flipped the visor down and reached over to flip her visor down too. That was when they heard the distant rumble of the Humvees.
The military was on its way with all its men.
“Wow,” Tess whispered. “Later we can talk about your psychic premonitions.”
“It was just a feeling,” Kal murmured.
There were explosions and Kal turned around and peeked over the ledge. He could see for a few blocks around. Some of the planted explosives had taken out a few transports and men were jumping out and scattering.
“Now?” His man on the HQ roof with one of the bazookas looked to Kal and Kal looked across the roof to Loren at his corner. Loren gave him a hand signal and Kal turned back to the bazooka.
“Wait until they’re closer,” Kal said. “
Some trucks approached, a couple more vehicles were hit and Kal signaled to his bazooka man when two soft vehicles came crawling down the street.
Vampyren military, he realized, really didn’t know what they were doing with this type of warfare.
They’d taken the humans down via sheer force in numbers and with big old bombs from the sky.
But on the ground, person-to-person battle was something else entirely.
The bazooka man shot at the unarmed vehicles first, and Kal heard Tess yelp beside him when the bazooka blew one of the Hummers upside down while knocking another one up against a building.
The Hummer exploded and men poured out of it.
“Loose!” Kal shouted. All the men with crossbows drew their arrows and shot down at the Vampyren men on the ground.
The Vampyren military was using guns which surprised Kal.
He had to think they were low on more traditional man to man Vampyren weaponry.
Vampyren were not used to guns but the humans in the resistance were.
Wooden arrows were effective, and that’s what Kal and the other Vampyren resistance fighters were using, along with their blades.
Some of the humans had been nearly impossible to separate from their bullets. He hoped they had good aim.
Kal fell into the rhythm of the fight and shot down at the invading army below as everyone else shot from their little hiding places along roofs or in windows.
The enemy had quickly sorted out that HQ was the base of operations and he saw men coming around, likely hoping to break into the Council building.
They would find more surprises there. He wondered if they’d gone to Urbana and met with Mara’s booby traps.
He was pretty sure they had. The force didn’t seem quite as big as he imagined.
He motioned to two other men and pointed to the door to the stairs. A good number of those fighters were going to get through and Kal would be there to meet them.
He had never considered the idea that he was going to be up against his own kind. There was even the slight chance he would see men he’d fought alongside. But he couldn’t think about that now.
“You stay here,” he said to Tess, walking backward on the gravelly roof; there was chaos everywhere already. There was a feeling of Armageddon in the air. He hadn’t felt like that before. He supposed the humans had. “Just keep shooting. You have a blade?”
Tess showed him the short sword she’d strapped in a sheath to her hip and said, “What if they get up to the roof?” Tess wasn’t used to this kind of battle, but she had been so determined to fight in it.
He gave her a long look and said, “They won’t, baby. I’ll make sure of it.” He gave her a firm kiss, stroking her cheek softly even as a Humvee exploded below, and then took off for the stairs.