by Mark Tufo
“You know this feline?” ThornGrip asked, she nearly spit the words out.
“ThornGrip, this is Patches.”
“Patches? Well, that’s a name that will strike fear into the hearts of your enemies.”
Patches skirted the edge of the clearing. Constantly moving, I would imagine she was sizing up ThornGrip. Although how long one would need to do that before realizing ThornGrip was massive, I didn’t know. Didn’t seem to concern the cat much though.
“You do realize that the humans make little stuffed animals in your likeness to calm their children before sleep. That sounds fierce,” Patches mocked.
“I knew cats were arrogant, I did not realize that stupidity was also one of their main traits.”
“Stupid?” Patches hissed. “I will pluck your eyeballs out and leave them for the birds!”
“What? What is going on?” ThornGrip spun. Ben-Ben had circled behind her and was standing on a rock trying to get a better vantage point to smell her.
“You have a strange aroma like nothing I have ever smelled before,” Ben-Ben yipped.
“Riley! These are your traveling companions? How did you possibly make it further than your Alpha’s home yard? Get away from me dog or I am going to hit you so hard you will be embedded in the tree next to you!”
“She’s a feisty one!” Ben-Ben yipped.
“Stop! Everyone stop for a second!” I barked.
“She started it, Riley.” Patches was sitting down and making a grand display of licking her extended claws.
“Please,” ThornGrip said, making sure that her massive curved claws were shown.
“ThornGrip, these are indeed friends of mine. Ben-Ben has proven more than once he has the heart of our ancestors the wolves without all the arrogance. And the cat has proved her trust and value on more times than I can count. Each and every time that I doubt her, she does more than I could ever hope for. She has been a brave ally and...” I paused. “And an even better friend.”
“Touching, really,” Patches said snidely.
“I am trying to prevent this situation from getting out of paw,” I told her. “ThornGrip saved me when I was dying, if not for her I would have passed over.”
“Passed over? Like everyone gets a cookie but you?” Ben-Ben asked.
“Something like that.”
“I would have given you my cookie, Riley.” Ben-Ben’s tail was going fast enough that his back legs were swaying back and forth and he was losing balance. “But would I be able to get another?” He was thinking about missing out.
“I wouldn’t take it, Ben-Ben.”
“Oh thank goodness. I’m very hungry.”
Then it occurred to me. “Why are you here?”
“Is that any way to talk to those who have come to rescue you?”
“Rescue? You seem to have a skewed version of the word, cat. Do we look like we’re in trouble?” ThornGrip asked Patches.
“Any time a bear is involved, there’s trouble,” Patches said. “Always rooting through trash, stuck up in trees, stealing picnic baskets, all manner of malfeasance.”
“Do I look like I climb trees?” ThornGrip grumbled.
“I guess you couldn’t, the tree would never hold you.”
ThornGrip thought it a compliment because it meant her size was immense, but the cat had said it with such derision I’d known she had not meant it as such.
“Jess is dead,” Ben-Ben blurted out.
My legs nearly folded in on themselves. The world tilted at a violent angle as I tried to stay standing. “No!”
“The human girl is gone?” ThornGrip asked. Ben-Ben nodded his head. “I am so sorry, Riley.”
“I AM more sorry!” Patches jumped in between ThornGrip and me, I suppose to offer some solace, although she must have been frightened because the paw she used to soothe me with, her claws were extended and she ended up ripping through my fur and into my side.
“Could you be a little less comforting?” I moved away. “What happened?” I asked, when I finally felt like I could stand without the wobbling effect.
“A zombie snuck in, attacked while we were sleeping. It was horrible, Rileyyyyyyy,” Ben-Ben whined. He turned and threw up what little it seemed he’d had for breakfast.
“How is Zach? Is it safe there?”
“The Talbot home is as safe as any place we’ve ever been, even more so. The zombie displayed a high level of intelligence and was able to get by their defensive barriers. I tried, we tried...” Patches started. “We tried to protect her, to save her. We let our guard down, we thought we were safe, we slept, when we awoke it was too late. The zombie struck.”
Ben-Ben was still being sick, and I felt like joining him. His mouth hung open and he was breathing heavily, long strings of drool and bile hung from his teeth.
“Jess is dead. Everything we tried to save has been lost.” I was mired in despair.
“The baby-that-should-not-talk is still alive. That is why we are here. He said you were still alive and that it was imperative we found you.”
“Yeah, imperfect that we find you,” Ben-Ben chimed in.
Patches shook her head.
“I have to see him,” I said with a rising sense of alarm. He was alone now, his whole pack either dead or away.
“That’s why we’re here, Riley.” It held a note of a condescending tone, but for the cat it was almost negligible.
“What of you ThornGrip?” Her main mission had always been to help gather the information and then go back to Harold and Mabel’s.
“I will see you safely to your new home,” she replied.
“You don’t really need to do that. I’m here now,” Patches said.
“Did something speak? I thought I heard a mouse.” ThornGrip was looking around.
“I’m going to rip that gigantic nose off your face!” Patches spat.
“Yeah? I’m going to wipe you off the bottom of my paw as if I stepped in scat.”
“ENOUGH!” It was Ben-Ben uncharacteristically taking control of the moment. “Jess is dead and Zach is alone. We need to get home,” he huffed. “Plus, they have bacon.”
“I am impressed,” ThornGrip said to him.
“Does this mean we are dating?” he asked her.
“For the last time dog, I am not a dog.”
“You just keeping telling yourself that.” Ben-Ben sidled up to her.
“Lead on Patches,” I said.
“As always,” she mumbled.
I marveled at the circumstances that would bring such a strange group together. Maybe Mabel was on to something. Was there ever a time when a bear would have befriended a dog? Or even stranger, a dog befriending a cat? I don’t care what Patches says, I still think she’s lying about her and George being friends.
The mood was mostly somber as we walked. I was still trying to come to terms with the loss of Jess. Sometimes Ben-Ben was the luckiest of us, as he would completely forget and just start yapping like crazy, about bacon and floor fries, or floor anything. Then he would invariably round that off by professing his undying love for ThornGrip.
“Perhaps if you were ten times your size I would entertain the idea,” ThornGrip finally relented.
“Don’t tell him that,” I told her. “Now he’s just going to eat more.”
“What is the difference from what he already does? Although there is the possibility he will attempt not to eliminate any more so as to conserve weight. This could be fun to watch.” Patches was smiling.
“We will need to find shelter soon.” ThornGrip was looking at the darkening sky. “I believe it is going to rain tonight.”
“We could use you to shield us from the water. It will be a shame that you will get wet but the rest of us will remain dry. The sacrifice of the one for the good of the many.”
“On the surface she makes sense, but I still would like to send her airborne,” ThornGrip muttered to me when Patches turned back around.
“Why are you whispering?” I asked.
“Her tongue is sharper than my claws, I would not suffer her long if she were not your friend. I am afraid if she heard me she would continue speaking, and it wouldn’t matter who knew her, I would just need to make the forest blissfully quiet again.”
I knew explicitly what she meant, and I wondered if Patches realized just how close she had been to being wiped out of existence. Probably not, or maybe she did, it wouldn’t stop her either way.
The rain that threatened, finally found its way to the ground. We were thoroughly soaked by the time we found a hill with a small outcropping of rocks that afforded us some shelter. Patches was incensed that she was wet, it made her prickly disposition even more caustic. I was afraid for her with us being in such a confined area. She was shaking, at first I thought rage, then I realized it was from the cold. The already small cat looked like a shadow of her former self with her fur clinging to her frame. I don’t think I’d ever seen her look so small, diminished almost. Maybe that was why cats hated the water, it showed them for what they really were. A small set of bones with thin meat to hold it together, wrapped in a ball of fur. I knew why the zombies didn’t try to eat her, it wouldn’t be worth the effort for the meager amount of a meal she would supply.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked.
“Nothing... nothing. I’m just happy to see you guys.”
“Yeah, me too. I’m thrilled we came out to get you. I could be in a warm bed right now.”
“I love it here.” Ben-Ben was completely outside the shelter, snuggled up as close to ThornGrip’s belly as she would allow. She’d pushed him away several times and then apparently had just given up. He was a pest, that was for sure, and a persistent one at that.
I had moved close to Patches, not necessarily because I wanted to, I was just hoping to afford her some of my body heat. Much like ThornGrip she had resisted at first but I can be persistent as well, and she was a more willing partner, even if it was self-serving. She was a lot of things, dumb was not one of them.
The night grew darker and the storm more violent, crashes of light in the sky and sheets of rain making visibility near impossible. I more than expected Ben-Ben to come bounding under with me, then I realized he couldn’t possibly be safer than where he already was. I fell into a fitful sleep, my head pictures were troubled with Jess screaming as she ran away from a dark blackened zombie. As I tried to run to her, my paws kept getting stuck in mud, the more I struggled the deeper I sank, never able to move faster than Zach’s crawling. I barked in rage and impotence as I tried to help her. The zombie just kept chasing her and Jess kept running further and further away. I could only hope she had gotten away, and then I heard her distant screams that let me know she’d finally lost. I awakened with a start. Patches was right in front of me, her eyes shining in the black.
“Bad dream?” she asked.
“Ye…yes,” I said, trying to pull away from the disturbing images. “How did you know?”
“You were crying in your sleep.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, I was up anyway.”
“Bad head pictures too?”
“I have to eliminate.”
“Oh.”
“Sasquatch over there is in the way though. I wish the rain would stop, I’ve dried off.” She said nothing else as she proceeded to walk over ThornGrip’s body. I held my breath expecting the worst.
If ThornGrip noticed at all, she did nothing about it. “That cat is crazy,” I said softly, remembering to not cross her... ever.
I nodded off back to sleep, I don’t know for how long. I’d been keeping sort of awake, expecting the cat to come back and disturb me but that didn’t seem to happen. At least not in the way I’d been thinking. I heard a far off distant mewling, it reminded me of Jess’s distant screams as a zombie tore into her.
“Patches!” I shouted.
ThornGrip grunted.
“Something is wrong!” I nudged. “I can hear Patches.”
“She get treed by some chipmunks?” ThornGrip asked.
“Maybe she found some bacon she wants to share!”
“If she found bacon she wouldn’t share.” Patches wasn’t much the type to divvy something up.
“It sounds like she’s screaming.” Ben-Ben was picking up on the alarm.
“Let’s find her. I just made a promise I would not lose anyone else in my pack. I should be able to least make it through the night.”
I know ThornGrip had meant for me not to hear her mumbled words. “How bad would it be?” She didn’t like the cat, but at least she came with me and Ben-Ben.
“Zombies.” They were everywhere, if the smell was any indication, yet I could not see them in the inky blackness of the night. The crashing light lit the forest and the horror was shown for what it was. My sense of smell had not let me down, though I wish it had. Zombies flashed in front of me for a moment. ThornGrip grumbled and swung out, an arc of blood erupted from the zombie’s side as its innards were spilled onto the ground. Ben-Ben yipped, I caught sight of him as another flash struck. He was alright, his paw had been stepped on, and even now he was paying back the transgressor by ripping into the back of its calf.
I cried out in surprise as a zombie’s knee struck my side. Apparently, they were only going on their sense of smell as well, or the knee would have been replaced by a mouth and I would be receiving a bite. I moved to the side and bit, savagely ripping into the calf muscle of the zombie. Lightning crashed again, muscle slithered in my mouth as I pulled it back and away from its host body. Rain slaked down as I released the meat. The zombie fell, and I immediately tore into its skull, careful to stay away from the gnashing teeth.
I looked up when the zombie stilled, waiting for a light flare so that I could attack the next zombie. I could hear Ben-Ben engaged in combat and the deep growlings of ThornGrip as she fought furiously, yet I could see neither, though I had the feeling ThornGrip was closer.
“Behind you Riley!” Patches shouted.
I spun. I heard the clacking of teeth no more than a nose away from my ear. I tilted my head and grabbed the zombie on either side of its cheeks and sunk my teeth deep, my canines scraping against his as I tore through skin and muscle. I pulled him down to the ground so that I could get on his back and bite through the back of his head. With a satisfying crack I got off of the dead zombie.
“Patches where are you?” I was looking around. Another strike of light and I could see the nightmare around me. Five zombies were attacking ThornGrip. Ben-Ben had one zombie down and another was moving in.
“Ben-Ben needs help. I’m in the tree.”
“Figures,” ThornGrip grunted. “Just like a cat to start trouble and leave.”
As I was moving towards Ben-Ben, I heard a sound I hope to never hear again, it was the painful cry of ThornGrip, she’d been bitten, and deeply, by the sound of her wail.
“Ben-Ben?!”
“I’m okay! Could use a bacon treat right now though!” He was panting heavily.
“Coming to help, ThornGrip.” I wanted to make sure she didn’t swat me away like a bug.
She was enraged, her wail changed to a howl as she struck out. Another crash of light showed her rearing up on her legs. Striking out wildly as zombies began to pile on her. Bodies were being broken against trees with the might of her swings, yet still they came. I started pulling on the backs of the ones on the outer edge of the circle. Tearing through leg and back muscles, not taking the time to kill them, just to remove them from the fray. I would step on and over them as I worked my way closer to my friend.
“Too many!” ThornGrip cried. Another crash of light and I could see the fear in her eyes. Her back was up against the tree and right above her head was Patches. Incredibly, the small animal was preparing to leap.
“What are you doing cat?” I asked, not loud enough for anyone else to hear. Patches could fight, I had no doubt about that. But there was just too much going on, too many ways for her to get hurt. The
best place for her was to stay in that tree. What could she possibly do? After tonight I would never doubt her again. I ripped, rendered, tore and chewed, working my way to ThornGrip. When the light blazed I would look up to catch glimpses of Patches as she alit from one zombie head to another, clawing eyeballs out and sinking her sharp teeth into faces as a way to thwart zombies from attacking ThornGrip, and it seemed to be working.
ThornGrip once again had a small clear area in front of her where she could effectively fight back against the press of zombies. I cried out in fright when Ben-Ben came up next to me and barked in my ear.
“Don’t worry I’m here now!” he said almost happily. “Miss me?”
I would have told him I had, if my mouth wasn’t full of zombie. I tore through a thick thigh muscle, the zombie crashing over to the side. Light blazed again, hope finally found a small place in my heart. The zombies were succumbing to our efforts. The fear in ThornGrip’s eyes had been replaced by pure rage, again, and not for the first time, I was thankful we fought on the same side. Patches had wisely once again got back up into the tree. She seemed as calm as if she were waiting for two-leggers to refill her food bowl. She was preening herself.
ThornGrip had got back down on all fours and was now raising her front half and bringing herself down on zombies that had been dropped but were not yet dead. As if the rain had portended the events of the evening, it stopped when the last of the zombies became still. Heavy breath came forth from my mouth, and I could see the smoke-like vapor as the burning disc began to reveal itself. Ben-Ben looked like he had once again knocked over the alpha female while she was preparing what she called tomato sauce. He was covered in a thick layer of red, all that showed cleanly of the dog were his teeth and eyes.
ThornGrip was bleeding from numerous wounds. None appeared fatal they did look painful though. She had her head bowed, blood dripped from her mouth as she also struggled to catch her breath.
“It’s okay,” Ben-Ben said coming up next to her and licking her face. “I’m here now.”
Patches came down from her perch. “They were heading right for you. I tried to lead them as far away as I could before I had to climb for safety.”