Sweet Felony

A Deal

Nightfall came on that day, and with the setting sun, Aru's heart dropped lower and lower.

The two sides had gone to hastily constructed encampments for the night. Both Alus and Ghatakas had placed hourly guards out. Each side was tense, ready to go back to all-out war in the blink of an eye.

And with no civilian living areas around, there was little chance of police intervening. Then again, if authorities were to show up, everyone on both sides was likely to be arrested or worse. Aru didn't like either option.

The Alus who weren't on guard stumbled back into camp. Most of them were wounded, and the ones with minor or no injuries quickly set about field nursing. Each table was used as a bed, and each clean piece of cloth was used as a sheet or bandage. Aru didn't know where the Alus had been stocking their medical supplies, but there were a heck of a lot of bandages.

Somehow, she got the sinking feeling that if there was another day of fighting as bloody as this one had been, it wouldn't be enough.

She hurried past the medbay and to the council room. Everyone there was stressed. So many wounded fighters, and a good number taken hostage on just the first day.

Including Aru's friends.

Aru still had the note in her pocket from the Sleeper. She knew that he knew that targeting her friends would undermine Aru's own strength. She wasn't a lone wolf anymore. She had her pack, and she would rip every beast in the wilderness to shreds to get them back. The Sleeper was taking advantage of that.

Subala and Hanuman were arguing in the middle of the floor. Urvashi was sitting on her throne, nervously fidgeting with her bracelets. The other Councillors whispered amongst themselves. Some sat totally silent and motionless, but their eyes told Aru enough. They had to find a new strategy or they would be annihilated.

Once she spotted Aru, Urvashi stood and clapped for the Councillors' attention.

"Our team is doing their best to treat the wounds of their injured comrades," Urvashi said. "We have lost an unfortunate amount of our warriors. Some more have been taken captive."

"We must make a deal with the Ghatakas," one of the Councillors who Aru didn't know said.

"We fight back!" Hanuman shouted. "Harder, tomorrow. We'll break their line."

"This isn't medieval warfare, Hanuman," Subala argued. "This is gang warefare. There are no rules, no honor, no lines to break. Just young angry people with deadly weapons letting loose. There's too much at risk."

"If we do not find some way to resist their advance, we will all be killed!" Hanuman said.

Urvashi held her hand up, and the two arguing Councillors fell silent. "I think the best strategy will be guerrilla tactics. We get the injured to safety, split the remaining fighters up into groups, and surround the Ghataka encampment early in the morning. They cannot fight all of us from every side at once."

"How will we accomplish all that in one night?" A councilor asked. "The Ghatakas will certainly notice that we are up to something. And I am sure they have scouts monitoring our every move."

"There's nowhere safe for several miles," another councilor added. "It would take too long to move the injured to safety."

"We cannot even ensure our own encampment is safe," said yet another. "We need some sort of defensive structure."

"There is a river a few miles away," Subala suggested. "It's not terribly wide or deep. If we retreat to there, we can use the river as a natural barrier."

"Their guns can easily fire across a river," Hanuman said.

"We could construct a false encampment," Subala said. "Set up tents and the like. If the Ghatakas think we've retreated to across the river, we could then surround their fighting force and pin them to the water while another group rescues the hostages and overruns their encampment."