“No problem,” Aaron replied dismissively, letting go of her arm and making sure she was steady on her feet before he turned away from her.
Ashley kept her eyes on the ground as she headed over to her position near Mickey, the Guardian she was paired up with, and Cadence tried not to stare after her.
“What?” Aaron asked, intercepting her line of sight.
“Nothing,” was about all she could manage, although she knew for certain it was something. Now wasn’t the time, though.
Aaron continued to look at her questioningly for a second before he shifted his gaze back to the short field of high grass before him that ended at the tree line. “Okay—everyone know where you’re headed?”
Answers came back from various team members. Aurora and Shane would head around to the very far side of the RV park, taking a wide entry angle so as not to be seen. Cadence was elated that Aaron had split Shane and Meagan up. They did not work well together. The making of the googly eyes at each other seemed to interfere with the Vampire hunting significantly. Instead, Meagan would be with Hannah, and they would be going to the northern side of the camp, which was to Cadence’s right.
Mickey and Ashley would come in from the south, and Cadence and Brandon, who was standing about ten feet behind her now clearly paying too much attention to her sister, would come in from right here. She had no more good Hunters to offer, so Christian was on his own and would fill in the gap between her and Ashley. Jamie was to stay back unless needed, but he moved to the far side of the RV park with Aurora and Shane so the numbers would be similar.
“I am off to my location,” Aaron said, turning to look at her. “You got this.”
“I know,” she said, giving him a smile she pulled out of nowhere.
“Wait!” Cassidy said, lurching forward and grabbing Aaron by the arm. “Elliott says we’re going up into that tree.” She gestured at the tallest pine at the edge of the park.
“Yeah, I told you you would be with him, and he’s on lookout,” Aaron reasoned.
“But… I don’t want to go up in that tree,” Cassidy replied. “I don’t want to go up in any tree.”
“Cass—you’ll be fine,” he assured her. “Elliott’s not going to let you fall out of the tree.” He looked past her, past Cadence, and Cadence turned to see her friend behind her, looking slightly annoyed but also potentially amused at Cass’s irrational fear of heights, something that seemed to start with Cassidy’s experience on the glass bridge in Philadelphia.
“Can I go with you instead?” Cassidy asked, still tugging on Aaron’s arm.
“I don’t think you’ll want to do that,” he replied, still walking toward his own position with her scurrying to keep up.
“Why not?” Cassidy’s hands were shaking slightly.
“Because I’m going up there.” He gestured at a cell phone tower off a little way in the distance. The immense structure reached up into the sky far higher than the measly tree, and even though she knew Aaron wouldn’t be going all the way to the top, it would be higher than Elliott’s perch. Cadence realized Aaron would be just fine up there, though the threat of electrocution or exposure to cancer causing rays entered her head. Cassidy’s face fell, and she let Aaron go. Elliott caught up to her, and whatever was said between them was a private conversation. Soon enough, he had his arm around her, and they were heading toward their position. What Cassidy might not realize was that, if Elliott was needed in the fight, she’d probably be spending some time alone up in that tree.
Those concerns would have to be dealt with later, however, as the rest of the team was in position. As soon as Elliott managed to wrangle her sister up the evergreen, Cadence joined Brandon in the middle of the tree line. He was staring at his dad and his girlfriend who were about thirty feet in the air above them.
“She’ll be fine,” Cadence offered, gaining his attention.
“Oh, yeah. I know,” Brandon replied, readying his own weapon and turning to face the RV park. He still looked a little worried, but Cadence had worked with him enough to know that once the attack began, he’d be all right.
“Okay—it looks to me like we got eight RVs, not seven, and about ten or twelve happy campers sittin’ around the campfire, reminiscin’, talkin’ ‘bout the good old days, back when they were alive, that sorta thing,” Elliott said from his lookout position. “I do see movement inside the RV right in front of your location, Hannah.”
“Copy that,” Hannah replied, which Cadence took to mean she understood that she and Meagan should head into that RV first.
“Not sure where the rest of the buggers are hiding, but I’ll call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
“Cass—anything?” Aaron asked, likely trying to see if she could sense anything that might be helpful.”
“Not yet,” came her sister’s soft reply.
“Okay. I’m having a hard time with the X-ray vision from this height, but I do think there might be a couple more in beds inside the RV directly in front of me, which would mean they’re also closest to Meagan and Hannah. Shane, can you and Aurora swing around this way and enter that RV first?”
“Will do,” Shane responded, and Cadence watched as he and Aurora shifted their position. It was slightly annoying to her that the Guardians were coordinating everything while the Hunters just complied, but she chalked that up to everything being annoying just now.
As soon as the pair were in position, Aaron continued. “I count twelve outside, plus three inside, I’m guessing we’ve got at least five more in various other RVs. Watch for that. This is a clearing expedition—which means you open fire as soon as you engage. We’re not negotiating or taking prisoners. The fact that these bloodsuckers are here is enough to get rid of them.”
“What about the ones that were just turned?” Cassidy asked, and Cadence could see that she’d only asked the Leaders.
“We have no way of knowing who that is,” Cadence answered.
“If any of them surrender, we’ll take them in unharmed, but the bullets start flying the second I send these guys in,” Aaron further responded.