by Chris Coppel
Pru’s mistress was deathly pale, wide eyed with fright and shaking like a leaf. Pru also looked somewhat anxious but was clearly proud of her brave and seemingly successful ploy.
Lucy gave the Afghan a big smile and a nod of thanks but didn’t have time to say more. Her immediate concern was for her friends within the now battered vehicle. Pru tried to force her woman to move over to the wrecked van, but the female had clearly had quite enough, and dragged the straining hound off in the direction of the police station, presumably to report the incident.
Lucy approached the smashed vehicle which, though mechanically silent, was now leaking a variety of unpleasantly odoriferous fluids out onto the pavement and street. Steam was also escaping from the thing. It rose in a blue-white plume from the front end of the overturned beast and made a sound not dissimilar to when Lucy had once bitten down a little too forcibly on her Man’s favourite kicking ball.
Lucy saw that the rear doors of the van had sprung open during the accident leaving a sizeable gap between them. She climbed over a pool of black liquid and raised her paws to the opening. With only the slightest weight needing to be applied, the left door, or rather the bottom one, as the van was on its left side, flew open slamming itself onto the pavement.
She immediately saw that the occupants of the vehicle had all been dumped unceremoniously to one side of the van’s interior, and in the case of the canines, into a large pile of hair, heads, and paws. At least that’s what it looked like.
As she stepped into the van, she saw with relief that the furry mass was moving. Hans was the first to extricate himself from the pile, then one by one the others untangled themselves and stepped shakily out of the wreck. Lucy urged them to hurry as the humans were busy disentangling themselves at the same time. Champ was also trying to sort himself out but was stuck on his back with the vehicle’s spare tyre pinning him to the floor. He was struggling madly and was clearly about to hurt himself.
Lucy stepped further into the van and raised one side of the tyre with her head, allowing the other animal to crawl out from under it. The Boxer got to his feet and shook himself vigorously, then faced Lucy with a cold and angry stare.
“What did you do that for?” he asked, in a low growl.
“You were stuck and about to hurt yourself.”
The Boxer looked over at his humans and saw that they were near to freeing themselves. “You know this doesn’t change anything?”
“I didn’t help you for that reason,” Lucy responded matter-of-factly. “Go help your bipeds, while I help my friends.”
“Lucy!” Rex called out urgently. “Over here, quick!”
Lucy turned away from Champ and looked over at Rex who was kneeling next to the very still form of Rodney. She moved over to them and anxiously nosed her little friend. His eyes were closed and at first her heart went cold at the thought that he’d left them, but then realised that he was, in fact, breathing.
Rex turned to Lucy with worried eyes, “He’s hurt, Goldie. What are we going to do?”
As if in answer to the question, the humans began moving towards them. Squat Lady had a nasty cut over one eye, which gave her already unpleasant features an even greater boost towards true ugliness. She slid her squat shape along the side of the vehicle, as an evil smile began to form on the thin, blue surface of her lips.
Skull Face also began edging towards them, following Squat Lady so closely that her posterior was only inches from his face.
He didn’t seem to mind.
Fat Man was also on the move as he tried to heave his sizeable bulk up and through the driver’s side window. His heavy footsteps echoed with metallic, cracking, sounds as he walked along the top side of the overturned van.
The dogs all looked anxiously at each other, desperately seeking a solution to their predicament.
“Go!” shouted the Boxer.
“We can’t leave our friend,” Lucy responded gesturing to the small, still terrier at her feet.
“You don’t have a choice - now get moving before they get all of you!”
“He’s right, Goldie,” Angel said, as she gently nudged Lucy towards the exit.
Lucy looked over at the Boxer, then at the humans, then at the others. She took a deep swallow then glanced down at Rodney. “I’m sorry, little friend.”
She gave the injured terrier a final lick then dived out of the van just as Squat Lady was about to grab her. She joined the others as they broke into a fast run but felt no elation at all, only the stinging of her tears and the weight of the heavy band that encircled her heart.
She managed one quick look back at the wrecked vehicle and saw that Fat Man was attaching a lead to the Boxer, presumably so he could follow their trail. Her final view, however, was one that almost froze her soul. Squat Lady had picked up Rodney in her hands and was holding the stricken animal out for Lucy to see. The message was clear.
Very, very clear.
CHAPTER 23
The five dogs charged across the street and started down a narrow road off to their left until they saw a pair of policemen walking towards them. They turned and saw that Fat Man and Champ, who was straining angrily against the leash, were effectively blocking their other escape route.
The five dogs came to a nail-screeching halt, turning every which way, searching for a way past the biped obstacles.
“Harrods!” yelled Lester.
“What?” Lucy shouted back.
“Harrods! They’ll never find us in there,” Lester insisted.
“We’re nowhere near Harrods,” Rex said, urgently.
“I beg to differ,” Lester said. He gestured to a pair of brass-framed doors right next to them. The gilded lettering on the door was becoming familiar to Lucy, and she began to smile.
“This place must be huge. It’s everywhere,” she exclaimed.
Fat Man and Champ were rapidly closing in on them, all the while, the policemen was approached from the other direction. Five pairs of nervous canine eyes exchanged looks of desperation as the bipeds approached.
“Well?” Lester asked urgently, as he again gestured to the double doors.
As if in answer to his urging, the doors suddenly opened as an exceptionally large, and heavily perfumed female tried to exit the building. She seemed determined to get, not only her own bulk, but also an armful of dark green parcels out of the portal at the same time.
Thinking almost as one, the five dogs dashed for the door at the same time.
They all dived between her fleshy legs and managed, with great protestation from the hefty human to all squeeze through and enter the store. In their wake, they could clearly hear the angry voices of the policemen as well as the high-pitched squealing of the large biped who was by then, firmly wedged in the doorway.
Lucy risked a quick look back and saw with great amusement that the police and the Fat Man were trying desperately to coax the female into releasing her parcels just long enough to free her from her entrapment. She did not seem to understand them as she continued screaming and wiggling, which only resulted in her wedging herself still tighter within the door frame.
The dogs dashed through a huge room which was filled with items of male biped clothing. Lucy had never seen so many varieties of apparel. She wondered why bipeds made it so difficult for themselves by insisting that such a wide choice be available. It must surely, she thought, be a constant struggle to decide what piece of clothing to wear each day. As the purpose could only have been for warmth, why such a range of colours and fabrics. Very odd.
Bipeds were literally leaping aside as the dogs ran through the store. As they reached the centre of the male’s clothing area, they were all suddenly struck by an all-consuming scent. All five animals came to a halt as their noses began twitching uncontrollably. Their minds were not capable of coming even close to analysing the information that their noses were picking up. It
was an odour that went far beyond any normal scent. It had power. It had body and soul. It had weight as it hung on every molecule of air around the dogs. This was not a scent like the ones that arrive on wafts of air, pass over you, then dissipate into nothingness. This scent was powerful and held both history and depth. It had something to do with food, that they knew, but it wasn’t simply one food or even the smell found say, in a butcher’s where many odours were compounded into one odoriferous melody. This scent had layer upon layer of subtleties and varieties that simply baffled the senses of the canines. It was almost too much to bear as their salivary glands began to involuntarily lubricate their mouths. Lucy felt herself begin to drool and, though incredibly embarrassed by the act, she seemed completely incapable of stopping it.
The animals all looked to each other and began to laugh as the vision of their friends standing there drooling, struck home.
“Well, I don’t know what it is,” Angel stated. “but I sure am going to find out.”
With that, the Spaniel turned toward a marbled corridor that led towards the source of the smell. The others glanced at each other then, without a word needing to be said, followed Angel towards the heart of the huge store.
They didn’t have far to go. They passed a row of very odd, heavy brass doors that kept opening and disgorging a new and different selection of bipeds every few seconds. They had to stop and observe this ritual for a moment, because it really was terribly baffling.
The doors would slide open, and a few humans would step out, leaving the small room beyond, totally empty, then, other bipeds would walk in and the doors would shut. A short while later, a light would illuminate above the doors as a gentle chime sounded and they would again slide open. The strange thing was that the little room was again full of people, but they weren’t the same ones that the dogs had seen walk in only a short time earlier. There were six of the strange little rooms and they just kept magically changing one set of bipeds for another.
The dogs would have liked to stay longer, watching this odd ritual, but they were beginning to attract way too much attention. Humans, looking both alarmed and even scared, were pointing at them as they scurried as far from them as possible. Lucy thought this very odd until she looked at her friends with a different eye, seeing them and herself as the bipeds would. They had been through quite a lot, and were, for the most part, rather ragged looking. Lucy decided that they had best keep moving, besides, the source of the mystery scent was getting very close.
They left the hallway with the funny doors and stepped into a cavernous chamber, filled with food. It wasn’t the type of food that would normally be of interest to the dogs, it was more the type that the humans seemed to prefer. Cooked, seasoned, decorated and packaged, but still, what a selection. They moved through the hall, astounded at just how many varieties of food there really were.
“Hey!” Angel cried excitedly. “Over here, quickly!” The Spaniel looked stunned and clearly unstable on her four legs as she gestured through a large archway into another massive chamber. The others caught up with her and then felt the same sense of awe that had overcome their friend.
“Oh my,” Rex stammered.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Lester whispered in shock.
“It’s . . . it’s . . .” Hans tried to find words but couldn’t.
“Have we died?” Angel asked in a quiet and serious tone. “Is this Heaven?”
Lucy didn’t know how to answer, or indeed even what to say as she stared open-mouthed into the giant hall spread out before her. The chamber was truly massive and seemed to contain every imaginable form of meat, poultry, and fish, that the dogs had ever imagined, and many that they had not.
Against one wall was meat. It was in display cases, on counters and hung in massive slabs from the tiled ceilings. Against another wall was poultry. Everything from the tinniest quail to massive turkeys were hanging neatly in a row with heads down and eyes closed.
Then there were fish. Not that the meats and poultry weren’t the dog’s favourites, but seeing the fish laid out on a massive bed of ice that sloped up into one corner of the room was enough to impress anybody. Lucy decided that there must have been more fish here than existed in well, wherever it was that fish lived.
They all felt decidedly weak, both from their recent escapades, and from the awe and wonderment that filled their minds as they looked on at the splendours within the hall.
Just as they began focusing on which section to choose from first, their attentions were rudely distracted as a team of uniformed bipeds came charging into the chamber. It was immediately apparent that the humans were there specifically to deal with them, and that judging from their expressions, they had no plans to be gentle about it.
With one last, soul-wrenching glance into the chamber, the dogs bolted the other way as they tried to ignore the still awe-inspiring odours that followed them out. They dashed back through the room with the human food, then into another hall, this one filled with strong scents of perfumes, oils and creams that female humans seemed to adore splashing all over themselves to hide their own, individual, odours.
They made it through that hall, even though more of the uniformed bipeds had joined in the chase. Ahead of them they saw doors. A row of them that seemed to lead back outside. The bipeds were getting awfully close, and the canines’ options were few. They made for the doors!
As they approached the them, they saw that still more bipeds were moving in on them from the sides, and from stairways that emptied right next to them. It was going to be close.
An exceedingly kind-looking human in a green uniform and top hat stepped forward and ceremoniously opened one of the doors for them, even as the other bipeds screamed at him to bar their way.
They ran past him and out into the street, missing a speeding taxi by only a paw. They made it across and as they looked back, they saw that the bipeds were not following them. They relaxed slightly until they saw that Fat Man and Champ were running straight for them. The dogs sprinted as fast as they could, knowing that if they were this close, then Skull Face and Squat Lady were certain to be near as well.
They saw up ahead, a busy street that they’d almost certainly have trouble crossing and decided to simply turn and brave the pedestrian traffic instead. They hoped that maybe, if they were extremely lucky, they might even find their way back to the park.
Those thoughts vanished as Squat Lady appeared directly in front of them, in effect blocking their progress.
“Down here!” Lester shouted, as he dived down a flight of steps off to his right.
The others had, like Lester, no clue where the steps led, but they had no choice. They ran after the Doberman, down a couple of flights of stairs until they reached a large concourse that seemed to lead to yet another set of steps that descended still further into the earth. They had no time to even consider their options as Fat Man and the Boxer were right on their heels.
They ran for the stairway, diving under and through strange, metallic devices, whose only purpose seemed to be to stop any human from reaching the stairs. This struck Lucy as exceedingly odd as presumably the steps had to have been built for bipeds to use, so why stop them? She couldn’t dwell on this for long as every conscious thought in her mind suddenly evaporated as an icy wave of pure fear swept over her.
They had reached another set of steps and looked down the ludicrously steep flight that seemed to go on forever. That wasn’t the worst part. The steps were moving! All by themselves, they moved in a constant motion, seemingly materialising out of the very ground they were standing on. They then formed into stairs and simply carried whatever was upon them down to the bottom where they again flattened and vanished into the ground.
None of them had ever seen anything like it before, and though they tried to conceal it, each animal’s defence system had taken over. Each dog’s ears were laid flat against their heads as t
heir hackles rose to a thin raised line that ended at their tails. Lucy thought of how comical it would have looked if she were not herself, scared beyond belief.
Rex didn’t even glance at the others. He knew that one of them had to make a move and he had, after all, been appointed to be their leader.
He stepped onto the next stair as it formed in front of him and looked back at the others with a brave smile as he began being transported down the moving stairway.
“No way am I getting on that,” Angel announced to no one in particular.
With that she moved away from the others in search of other means of descent.
Lucy looked at the tense faces of Hans and Lester, then with her eyes firmly shut, stepped onto the metal stairway. It was a very peculiar sensation; especially with her eyes closed. There was a definite feeling of motion, both horizontal and vertical. What made the effect still stranger was a strong draft that seemed to rise from somewhere below. It was a warm wind that smelled of, well basically it smelled of age. She opened her eyes and saw Rex sitting rigidly on the conveyance below her as he neared the end of the ride. She looked up and saw that Lester and Hans were on board as well, though clearly not enjoying the experience.
She couldn’t see Angel anywhere. She barked her name and was rewarded with her own voice being both amplified and echoed as it reverberated off the tiled walls of the stairwell. Her bark was immediately returned by Angel who, though invisible to her, sounded very close.
“Where are you?” Lucy asked.
“Right next to you,” came the breathless reply.
“Where? I don’t see you.”
“You will,” Angel said, with clear cockiness in her tone.
Rex had made it to the bottom and was standing at the end of the moving stairs grinning encouragingly at the others, as they descended towards him.
“Careful of the last bit,” he called up to them. “the steps just disappear. I jumped off a little early. It might be a good idea to do the same.”