When I awoke next, my head did not hurt as much. Other than that, I did not know how long I’d been in here. It was cooler, so I thought the burning-disc might be down and the light of my ancestral wolves must be shining. I felt stronger for that. The small amount of water I’d received had helped, but was not nearly enough to slake my thirst. I had to get out of here somehow.
I rolled slightly so I was on my paws. I could stand most of the way, more so than in the first kennel I had been housed in. The material above me was the hard stuff the two-leggers called metal. Even with my strong jaws, I knew it was impossible to bite through it. I’d once chipped a tooth as a puppy when I’d bit down on the chain that Alpha-male had me on in the backyard. He’d said it was so I wouldn’t run away. Why he thought that, I didn’t know. This was my pack. Where would I have gone?
“Sorry, Mia,” I whined as I stepped over her and towards the front of my compartment.
I could hear the two-leggers talking. Something about how they should shoot Icely and be done with it. Sounded like just about the best idea I’d ever heard. The wall of the compartment was covered with fake fur. I nipped at a piece and clenched it tight in my front teeth. The material pulled away easily enough; behind it was a flat piece of tree. THAT I knew I could chew through—I’d once destroyed a door made out of the same stuff. Alpha-female had been so angry. Alpha-male had merely laughed and told her that “maybe Riley doesn’t like the laundry room any more than you do.” He’d stopped smiling when she’d told him that now they had to get another one. I was glad she’d meant a door and not a dog.
“You owe me one, Riley,” Alpha had said as he’d rubbed my head and went to the store. I could only hope he felt that I’d paid him back.
“Did you feel that?” the man named Grumper asked.
“What?” the female asked; her name was Diana.
“Something in the trunk,” Grumper replied.
“Yeah, Mia’s come back to life.” Ned laughed.
“Hey, man, that shit’s not funny,” Grumper said.
“I guess it really isn’t,” Ned agreed.
“Do you think so?” Diana asked.
“Mia? No. She had her brains scrambled. She’s dead,” Ned told her. “Probably just the mutt rolling around.”
“Do you think she can get through the trunk?” Grumper asked.
I was also wondering that same question.
“Naw,” Ned said. “An older car maybe, but there’s framework behind your seat and there’s only three or four inch holes, not to mention the woven metal in your seat.”
“Three or four inches? That’s big enough for her to get her muzzle through,” Grumper said.
“Did you hear the part about the metal slats behind you? You’re fine, you big baby,” Diana said.
“Then you sit back here,” Grumper challenged.
“Not a chance,” Diana told him.
“You fucking mutt, you come through here, I blow that ugly head of yours clean off!” Grumper yelled.
I slowly retracted from position and back over Mia to my original location. Sadness struck deep as I sat there. The further we moved, the further I got from my pack that desperately needed me. Ben-Ben was loyal and could be fierce, but he was not a leader. Jess was mired in indecision, her caution sometimes creating an inability in her to make choices. The one who could best lead them was an infant; he had greatness in him but did not yet possess the means to use it. Patches was the leader by default and that made me scared. She was smart, resourceful and predatory…it was that last thing that cut both ways. She would stand and fight as long as it was safe for her to do so. If she felt the tide was turning, she would abandon the battle at any cost to those around her. It wasn’t truly her fault; it’s just the way cats are. They are solitary animals that survived by stealth and maybe deception. I couldn’t prove that last part, but it made sense.
The wheeler was still moving and Grumper had stopped smacking his seat to make sure I wasn’t trying to get through. I heard Ned speak, “We need gas.”
“Shoot your high beams at Icely,” Diana said.
“I’d rather shoot the asshole with something else,” Grumper muttered.
The wheeler slowed down and finally stopped. A door opened.
My fur bristled at the next voice I heard. “What do you want? Your pussy hurt?” Icely asked.
“We need gas,” Ned replied evenly. I could tell he was trying his best not to let anger creep into his voice. It was easy enough for me to detect and I wondered why the two-leggers couldn’t pick up on the stresses in their communication. They always thought they were so smart, and yet they missed the simplest things.
“Do I look like a fucking gas station?” Icely asked, his voice trailing away.
The door slammed shut and we were once again moving.
“His asshole gets bigger and bigger,” Ned said. “I wish it would just hurry up and swallow him whole.”
Diana laughed.
“I’d pay to see that,” Grumper said.
The speed of the wheeler began to decline and we stopped again.
“Hold on,” another voice said, “let me just do a quick check around before you guys get out.”
“Alright. Thanks, Schools,” Ned said.
A few moments later, Schools came back up to the car. “It’s all clear, but let’s hurry this up. I don’t like being in the open like this, especially at night.
“I’m with you on this one.” Ned agreed. What he didn’t say but his tone said clearly was that he’d be with him on whatever he wanted to do, even if that meant shooting Icely. At least that’s what I hoped.
“Is he planning on stopping for the night at any point?” Diana asked Schools softly.
“He’s blazing through an eight ball of cocaine right now. I don’t think he’s going to come down for another day or two,” Schools replied.
“That’s just fucking great,” Grumper said grumpily.
“I’ll keep an eye out, let’s just get rolling quickly,” Schools said as he moved away.
“Where the fuck is the gas lever?” I heard Ned ask.
“Down by your left-hand side,” Grumper said. “But be careful, it’s right next to the trunk…”
I heard something above me click.
“…release.” Grumper finished.
“Fuck,” I heard Ned whisper.
“What’s the matter?” Diana asked.
I stood up and the ceiling moved as I did so. The hard packed ground was lit up by the Wolf-Disc. It took me a moment to realize I was staring at freedom. I turned back to Mia. “I wish I could take you with me,” I said to her as I slipped out from the back of the wheeler and onto the black ground.
“I popped the trunk,” Ned said.
“You did what?” Diana asked in alarm.
“The fucking two levers are right next to each other!” Ned said in the same tone as his wife. “Grumper, go shut it.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Grumper told him.
“The dog was nearly dead,” Diana said. “She’s not going to do anything.”
“Then you go out there,” Grumper told her.
“Fine, you fucking baby,” she said.
I could hear the metallic sound as she readied her bee shooter. Her door opened and I realized I didn’t have anywhere to run. It was completely open ground to the back of the wheeler. On the driver’s side and a little further up sat Icely in the other wheeler. On the other side, Diana was coming. I could see her fake feet come out.
“Great, now I’m going to look like a damn sissy,” Grumper said as his door opened.
I was crouched down closest to him. He moved quickly and I ducked underneath the compartment I had been in. There was a loud slamming as he pressed the lid of the trunk down.
“Easy as pie,” he said, his voice relaxing.
“I told you the damn dog was dying,” Diana said as she got back into the wheeler.
“Hurry the fuck up!” Icely shouted.
“Dipshit, the zombies won’t hear that, will they?” Grumper whispered sarcastically.
“Hand pump is in our trunk,” Schools called from across the lot.
Grumper walked away and was back a few beats of my heart later. His fake feet stopped not more than two cat spans away; he was standing by seven metal discs stuck in the ground. He bent down and stuck his finger in a catch I had not seen. The disc was moving when his head whipped my way. He was looking straight at me. I had no choice but to do what I did as I charged out from under the wheeler. My mouth opened wide as I launched; the front of my mouth caught him on the meat of his cheeks even as he was falling backwards.
A strangled cry came from him as his hands wrapped around my waist, trying desperately to push me away. The harder he fought, the further I sank my fangs in. He stopped trying to push me away when he realized that to continue to do so would mean he’d lose half his face.
I furiously shook my head from side to side. I could feel the membranes of his muscles tearing. Bones in his face started to snap as I bit down harder. An explosion sounded as the ground next to us flew up. I had pulled Grumper down to the ground with me. He had stopped fighting and was now merely whimpering. I turned to the side, subsequently taking his face with me. The woman was out of the car, pointing her bee shooter at me. I pulled Grumper so that he was in between her deadly tool and me.
“Grumper!” she shouted.
“What is it?” Ned asked.
He was getting out of the car. I saw movement off to my right. The other man, Schools, was looking as well. I don’t think he could see anything from that distance, but it would only be a matter of time before he came to check out what was causing the woman so much distress.
“Well lookie here!” Icely leaned out his window. “Fucking dog is killing Grumper. That’s fucking hilarious!” he shouted. The wicked looking bee slinger however was not.
Bees riddled the ground all around us, a couple even biting into Grumper as I turned slightly to make the man the only target available to Icely.
“You’re hitting him! You fucking idiot!” Diana shouted.
“What did you say?” Icely asked, stepping out from his car, his hatred burning brightly.
I saw a chance to escape, as he was fixated on the woman. I let Grumper’s face go. He smacked wetly to the ground as I bounded off into the night. A bee came dangerously close just as I ran down a small slope. It had to be Schools—he was the only one that was not in the escalating argument I heard raging behind me.
“I should just shoot your stupid asses!” Icely was shouting.
“He’s still alive.” Schools bent down over Grumper. I had slunk back up the small embankment to check for pursuit, none of which was coming.
“He’s too stupid to die.” Icely walked over, his heavy gun hanging down by his side. “Well I can fix that,” he said as he fired a bee at pointblank range into Grumper’s chest.
Diana sobbed.
“Let’s go.” Icely rubbed his nose and walked back towards his car.
“When is enough, enough?!” Ned shouted.
“When I say so!” Icely yelled back.
“How many of us have to die because of your wounded pride?” Ned asked.
“At least one more,” Icely answered, menace lacing his voice.
“Ned, get back in your car,” Schools said, trying to keep the scene from unfolding into anything worse than it already was.
“Fuck you, Schools. Grumper was my friend,” Ned yelled at Schools, but he was looking at Icely.
“Bitch, you’d better control your man or you’re going to have a pair of orphans,” Icely warned Diana, not taking his eyes off of Ned.
“Come on, Ned,” Diana said.
The two-leggers wanted to kill each other; I wished they’d just get it done. At least then Jess and the rest would be safe. That was another funny thing about the human animal, what they said and what they actually wanted to do where sometimes very different. Dogs had it right; there was no deception among us. We eat if we are hungry, we drink if we are thirsty, we fight if we are angry and we cuddle if we want comfort. Straightforward and honest…two-leggers could learn a lot from us.
“Ned, you think you can get your gun up before I can blow a hole in your chest?” Icely asked.
Ned stared at him a few seconds longer and got back into his car.
“That’s a good bitch.” Icely turned to get into his own ride.
“That was close,” Icely’s driver Dent said. He’d gotten the nickname because of his inability to keep a car free of damage.
“Shut the fuck up and drive.” Icely grabbed his mirror, and did a couple of quick rails. He leaned back after sucking them up, making sure none of the white lightning shot down his throat.
Schools got in and looked over to the driver who simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Where to?” Dent asked.
“You too? You stupid motherfucker. Same as it ever was!” Icely was yelling.
Schools noticed Icely’s pallor did not have a healthy hue. He thought that could be attributed to the coke, but maybe not.
“Colorado it is.” Dent put the car in drive, pulled out of the gas station and into the night.
Ned was sitting in the driver’s seat staring straight ahead, his body taut as a guitar string. He started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Diana asked nervously.
“We didn’t even get gas,” Ned said through his tears. He hitched a couple of more times—sometimes it was more of a cry, other times more of a laugh—and then he spoke, “You need to cover me.”
“You think that mutt is still out there?” she asked with trepidation.
“I’m positive that fucking mutt is watching us…waiting for an opportunity to rip our throats out. It’s a demon, Diana...no, no I take that back she’s a vengeful angel making us pay for our sins.”
“Don’t go getting all philosophical on me, let’s get the gas and get out of here.” She checked her gun.
“I’m filling this car, Diana, then I’m driving back to Vegas.”
“We can’t, Ned. He’ll kill us. He’ll probably kill the girls…or worse,” Diana pleaded.
“We’re getting the girls and we’re leaving. I’m thinking Montana…maybe we can get on with a militia group. Gotta be dozens of them survival groups up there.”
“How can we be sure they’ll be any better?”
“Really, Diana? Worse than a drugged out psychopath? We’ve already made him mad. Do you think once this is over he’s going to let bygones be bygones? If he doesn’t kill us outright he’ll find a way to do it. We mean nothing to him—we’ve never meant anything.”
“Schools won’t let that happen,” Diana pleaded.
“Huh!” Ned snorted. “He’s just as concerned at saving his own skin as we are. He’s not going to go too far out of his way for us. You’d better believe that.”
“I’m scared, Ned.”
“Yeah, welcome to the club. I’m getting gas and heading back home as fast as I can. We grab the girls and we’re gone.”
“Okay,” Diana replied meekly.
Ned stepped out into the night to my deep bass growl. I was less than three feet away. My teeth were bared, saliva hanging in thick strings. My muzzle was pulled back and my body was tensed like a spring.
“Wha-what’s the matter?” Diana asked the rigid form of her mate.
“I’m a dead man,” was all he said back.
Diana quickly tried to get out of the car. I looked over her way.
“No, no, no!” Ned said to her and then turned to me. “I know what you are. I swear to you on my life and those of my family, I’m through. I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, and it’s something I will have to live with for the rest of my life…which may or may not be that long by the looks of you. If you let me live, I promise I will try to do good, to raise my daughters, to do right by them.” Ned had his front paws raised above his head.
“Ned?” Diana asked tremulously.
“Hush, hon, I’m making a deal with God,” Ned said.
I barked savagely. “Two-leggers are stupid,” I told him. “I don’t know that two-legger…you, though…you I know, and if I ever see you again, I’ll tear your throat out.” I took a step closer so I could get a good clean scent off of him. He went rigid, closing his eyes and raising his face towards the sky. “I’ll remember you,” I barked and turned, melting back into the shadows and heading off in the direction Icely had gone.