Chapter Nineteen

Keller opens his eyes, to see Big Sully looking down at him. Roger Sullivan, late of South Boston, is the one guy Keller knows will tell him the truth about Pax. “Is he dead?”

“See for yourself.”

Keller is suddenly beneath a mound of wriggling dog. Sully helps hoist Keller upright so that he’s neither crushed beneath the weight of the dog nor his shoulder wound reopened by the vigorous reunion. “Pax. Pax. What did they do to you, boy?” A slightly grungy white bandage is wrapped around the dog’s middle and a thin line of missing fur mars the perfection of his skull.

“Bastards shot him, but he was moving so fast, they only grazed him. You should see what he did to them. When we got there, they were gabbling like they’d found themselves faced with a werewolf. Practically asked us to take them prisoner.”

Keller recognizes bullshit when he hears it, but he’s grateful to Sully for lying to him. “Thanks for taking care of him.”

“Medics did a good job. He’s a grunt like the rest of us, but nothing but the best for him.” Sully is quiet for a moment, his usual glibness put away. He looks tired, as they all do. Maybe even a little discouraged. “Look, we lost Carson. Almost lost you.”

“I’m sorry about Carson. He was a good kid.”

Sully runs a hand down the length of the dog’s back. Keller doesn’t say anything; for sure, Sully deserves to break the rules. “Nicholson, your dog saved you. That Kraut would have finished you off if Pax hadn’t attacked him. He’s a lucky dog, but so are you.”

Sully gives Pax one more forbidden pat and leaves Keller and his dog to rest.

“If anything had happened to you…” Keller cannot complete the whispered thought. His relief in having Pax here, alive and hogging the cot, brings hot tears to his eyes. Keller hasn’t wept since he was a little boy, not since his first night at Meadowbrook, a thrown-away child, alone and confused.

This dog is his family. And the only other thing as frightening to Keller as having Pax killed, is the fact that, at the end of this endless war, Pax will go home to his real family. And Keller will be, once again, all alone.