by Mark Tufo
“Fuck that was close,” the man said as he fell on his backside.
“Dip wad, the dog wasn’t going for you, look,” the other said, pointing to me as I lapped at the water on the floor.
They fed and watered the next two dogs and then left. I was just finishing up the water, which was not enough, when I turned to the food. It was meat and I almost tore into it before I realized what it was.
“Hey, hey, new dog!” the brown dog next to me was shouting out. “You going to eat that? Because I will.”
I wasn’t EVER going to eat it, but how he thought I was going to get it to him eluded me.
“Hey, new dog, I’m talking to you!” the brown dog said, his earlier disposition changing to aggression.
“What do you want?” I asked, fear growing in my gut.
“Well I want your food and then I want to rip your insides out through the hole I tear into your soft underbelly,” he replied.
“Why?” I asked, most likely whining.
“It’s what we do…we’re fighting dogs. The humans cheer at us while we do it. Winners like me get to eat more of the losers like you.”
Now I knew where my bowl of food had come from.
The brown and black dog was laughing at me. “I’m going to be eating you later. I hope you taste better than you look.”
My bowels seized up, my legs were cramping. I was hungry, thirsty, and scared. I buried my head under my paws trying to drown out the misery around me. I could hear the mean dog possibly yelling at me, or maybe somebody else, but I didn’t care. I don’t know how long I was like that. I had given up thinking I was ever going to get out of there.
The burning disc was almost out of sight when the big wheeler came back. They grabbed the brown and black dog and then grabbed me. We were next to each other, separated only by our kennels.
“Your humans aren’t going to save you,” the dog said to me. “Maybe I’ll just eat you after I kill you, I like my meat warm.”
“Why would you do this?” I asked him.
“Because the humans want me to, and they like it.”
And he seemed happy with that answer. He never stopped looking at me the entire ride. Our kennels were dropped into a big pit made with hard, white ground; there was a small wall around the whole thing, I thought I could jump it, but everywhere I looked there were two-leggers…and most had fire sticks. The brown and black dog was put down on the far side of the pit. My crate was dropped hard, my head bounced first off the bottom of the kennel then the top.
He was being held at bay as one of the two-leggers who had given me water had his hand wrapped around the dog’s collar.
“I’m going to kill you!” the dog was barking, his front legs lifting off the ground, the human struggling to hold onto him.
“Thorn! Calm down!” the man shouted.
The other two-legger quickly unlatched my door and ran towards the wall. When he realized I wasn’t coming out of my kennel he came back and lifted the back of it so I fell out like biscuits from a box. Gruff laughter came from the humans all around me.
“Look at that dog!” someone shouted. “He ain’t gonna fight! I want to put twenty bucks on Thorn!”
My face was dirty from scraping against the ground, my legs hurt as I tried to stand on them. I fell over when I realized I couldn’t even feel them.
“Make that a hundred on Thorn!” the man shouted.
My legs felt like I was at the animal doctor and he was sticking many, many stingers into me. I used my face to push myself back up, wobbled on my legs, and took a couple of tentative steps. I almost fell over again but was able to stay up.
A loud voice came over the entire crowd, warning them that they only had two more minutes to place bets, whatever that meant. I circled around, looking for Jess, Zach, or Ben-Ben—maybe even Patches, I was that scared. When I didn’t see them, I tried to see if there was maybe a way out.
“Don’t even think about it!” Thorn was shouting. “I’ll rip your hind legs off before you can leave this circle.”
“You ready, boy?” the two-legger asked as he rubbed Thorn’s side. “Go make me some money.” He let go of the collar.
Thorn charged at me, almost at full speed before he was halfway across the circle. I had never ‘fought’ another dog before. I had postured plenty, barked even more, but never anything like this. I was scared.
“Throat or belly? Throat or belly?” Thorn was asking himself as he pulled closer.
I was finally able to start feeling my legs. I was scared, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t do what it took to survive. I lowered my whole body, the fur on my back bristling. I pulled back a snarl to let Thorn see exactly what he was charging into. I saw something in his eyes, but he was already committed. I sank lower.
“Look how scared that stupid dog is!” someone was shouting.
Thorn leaped when he was in range, so did I, but as he went high I surged low. I caught him in his mid-section like he had threatened to do to me. His forward momentum pulled him past me. My mouth was full of his fur, skin, and blood, I had ripped a piece of him clean off. He yelped loudly as he rolled into the dirt past me.
“Did you see that?” someone asked.
Another shouted. “Get up, you stupid fucking mutt, or I’m going to lose all my money! This shit is rigged!”
Thorn’s breathing was labored, and he was in pain, but he wasn’t out of the fight. I warily moved in closer, circling his form. He matched me movement for movement.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” I told him.
“You bit me!” he barked.
“Oh, I didn’t just bite you, I tore a piece of you off,” I snarled threateningly.
“The humans told me you would be an easy kill!” he was shouting.
“They lied,” I said as I still circled him.
“They’re not even fighting, I should get my money back!” someone was complaining.
I watched Thorn’s back legs. He was compressing them, getting ready to spring. He launched, I moved to the side as his saliva-coated teeth and mouth slid past. I turned my head slightly and caught him mid-flight, my fangs sinking deeply into his soft throat.
“No!” he whispered as air from his shredded throat rippled around my maw.
His legs were scrabbling. He was a big dog, and I thought he might be able to pull free; so I began to shake my head back and forth, sinking my teeth even deeper almost to the point where they were touching. The tighter I squeezed the less he moved. His tongue rolled out of his mouth and he was still when I opened my jaws and let him fall to the ground.
I noticed for the first time that all of the humans around me were quiet. And then a small applause broke out, but that was overshadowed by the groans of those that had lost money.
“That bitch killed my Thorn!” the two-legger said as he approached, fire stick in hand.
The same extra-loud voice sounded again. It seemed to come from everywhere, “Stop, Isaac, the dog won fair and square.”
“But!” Isaac started.
“Bring the dog back to the holding pen and give her some more water. If anything happens to her on the ride back, you’ll be in this ring next.”
Isaac looked as mad as She-alpha did when I had torn a very small piece out of her couch. I didn’t know why she was so upset, you could barely even see it.
“Get in the fucking kennel!” Isaac shouted at me, threatening me with his metal bee sender.
I started walking away from my kennel, not exactly towards the man…but not away either. I could smell the fear pouring off of him. I wanted to hurt him and that scared me, too, I had never wanted to hurt a two-legger before—not a living one anyway.
“Not going to tell you again, mutt! Get in your kennel!” he shouted.
I kept walking until finally I was past him, not going too close. He might be afraid of me, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt me, and I needed to stay strong so that I could get the others out of here.
“Brent
, she isn’t getting into her kennel. She needs to be put down,” Isaac shouted to the voice.
Then the voice overhead laughed. “Oh, she’s getting into her kennel alright, her new kennel!” The crowd roared as I walked into the much bigger crate. I could stand and turn; there was even a small fake fur I could use as a bed.
“That’s Thorn’s!” Isaac shouted.
“He’s not going to need it anymore,” the overhead voice said.
My heart was pounding, but I laid down trying to make the two-leggers believe that I was calm. I don’t know why that seemed important at the time, but it did. Isaac rushed over and closed the door with the end of the fire stick then placed his foot against it before reaching down with his front paw and locking it.
He jerked the crate into the air with a grunt, rocking me back and forth.
“Treat her right,” the voice said. “That comes from Icely himself.
“Wade, help me with this stupid mutt,” Isaac said to the other man that was at the dog pen place.
I was back in the wheeler and then back in the small building with the rest of the dogs.
“The bitch beat Thorn,” One of the dogs said, sounding surprised.
Isaac came back a few moments later carrying two bowls. “Here you go, fucker! I don’t care what Icely says, you bite me, and I’ll kill you. What do you think of that?” He was shouting and spittle was flying from his mouth.
I laid my head down in indifference.
“No meat for you! I will never give you a piece of Thorn!” he shouted as he pushed in the bowls. Thankfully not much water spilled as he slammed the door shut. He stared at me a few more moments through the opening on the side. I shut my eyes and pretended to go to sleep. When he finally left, I drank the water greedily and then sniffed at my food; thankfully, it was the dried cardboard ball bits that the two-leggers called dog food…and it was delicious.
CHAPTER THREE
It was late and dark, almost all of the other dogs had quieted down; some whimpered in their sleep, others that had been wounded in battle groaned. I listened to it all feeling strangely calm after killing one of my own kind. I did not ever want to have to do it again, but I was glad Thorn had died and not me. I was on the verge of seeing the ‘in my mind pictures’, hopefully it would be happy times with Jess on the swing and me chasing her feet back and forth and not the newer ones that I’d been having more and more of where the zombies were chasing us and none of us could outrun them—even me with my four legs—when I was startled awake.
“You okay?” Patches asked, coming up silently to the side of the kennel.
Had I drank more water I most certainly would have released some…and not on purpose.
“I thought you left?” I asked harshly, still trying to get the fear out of my heart.
“You know me not at all,” Patches said as she looked at the door.
I wanted to yell at her that I knew her more than she thought, but I guess I really didn’t. She could have easily left all of us behind, nobody saw her and nobody realized she was missing. They wouldn’t even go looking for her. “Why did you come back?”
“I never left,” she told me as she walked around the entire kennel.
“You could have,” I told her.
“Yes I could have, but just because I like to be left alone, Riley, doesn’t mean I want to be alone. Does that make sense in that dog brain of yours?”
“It does, cat...I mean, Patches. And I’m sorry. I just fought another dog to the death and I am more stressed than I have ever been.” As if to prove my point, my breathing became rapid just thinking about it. “Can you open the door?” I asked her, hoping.
“If I could I would have never gone to the animal doctor’s.”
“Do you know where everyone else is?” I asked.
“The stupid Ben-Ben is with the first human he met. The dumb dog is acting like the man is the king of the world. Jess and the cub that shouldn’t be talking are at a house a little ways from here.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked incredulously.
“It’s easy to get around when the dog fights are going on, almost all of the humans go to them. I’m sorry I did not try to get you out of here earlier I did not know that you would fight so soon. But I have an idea now.”
I thanked the cat for her concern and then listened as she explained what she wanted me to do. I wasn’t sure if it would work, the humans seemed like a pretty smart species, but I was willing to try anything right now if it even possibly might get me out of this kennel and back with my pack.
Patches hid behind my kennel just as I started the most pitiful whining I had ever uttered. Even Ben-Ben would have been ashamed of me if he could hear me now. It wasn’t long before other dogs around me began to bark at my ‘suffering’. Within a small passage of time, what was once a nearly quiet building had erupted into noise.
A light much smaller than the burning disc came on overhead, the two-legger that was not Isaac—Wade I think was what he was called—came through the door. He was rubbing his eyes, much like what I had seen Alpha do when Ben-Ben would wake him up with his incessant fear barking.
“Shut up in here will you!” he shouted.
That did little more than get the dogs barking louder. I had to whine louder to be heard over them. The two-legger shouted something again about us being stupid animals, and all I could think was that I’d never seen dogs assemble and fight each other like the two-leggers seemed to always want to do.
I thought all my whining was not going to work, and that he was going to go back to bed, when maybe he heard me and started walking down the kennels to see what the matter was. The closer he got the more pathetic I tried to sound.
“Laying it on a little thick aren’t you?” Patches asked from behind me.
I just kept whimpering, whining, and moaning.
“Oh crap,” Wade said as he ran his hand through his small head coat. “What’s the matter, girl?” he asked through the bars. “If something happens to you, Icely is going to think Isaac did it, and then we’ll both be in big trouble. Shit, shit, shit. I’d better get Isaac.”
I moaned louder, even making sure that some drool was coming out of my mouth.
“Did you eat something poisonous? You’re foaming at the mouth,” Wade said as he quickly opened up my kennel. He pulled me out by my collar. I stayed limp. He opened up my mouth looking for something I may have eaten.
“Now, dog!” Patches shouted.
“A cat?” Wade asked looking up as Patches jumped up onto my kennel. The dogs that saw her began to go crazy. “What’s happening?”
“NOW, Riley! You have no choice!” Patches said as she kept eye contact with the man.
“I’ve never...” This time I truly whined.
Wade looked down at me, I lunged, and within the beat of a humming bird’s heart, a spark of recognition dawned in his eyes as I flew into his face. My bottom teeth caught him under the chin and sank in, coppery tasting blood flooded into my mouth as I tore into him. He attempted to pull away from me and scream. My top teeth latched onto the top of his mouth and clamped it shut. I could feel his skin tearing away as he tried to stand. I bit down harder, about as hard as I could. Water was spilling from his eyes. His arms and hands came up and wrapped around my muzzle. He wanted to pull me away, but he couldn’t, not with me attached like I was.
“His throat, Riley, his throat,” Patches said.
I knew that, I just had to be able to let go of the man’s face and get to his throat before he did something to hurt me or get away. The man’s eyes were wide; the smell of fear was as dominant as was the urine he was spilling. I released my jaws, Wade fell backwards striking his head on the hard ground. He was holding his hands to the wounds on his face, rolling back and forth. His legs were scrabbling as he tried to run on the ground.
“Ucking mutt,” he mumbled.
“Riley, he’ll get help.”
“I know, cat, I know!” I said with distress. Killing
the dead two-leggers to protect my pack was one thing, but to kill a live two-legger did not feel right.
“I’ll ucking kill you,” Wade said with one hand holding onto his ripped lip. Blood was pouring through his fingers. He was sitting up now, his hand was reaching for a heavy looking tool; I think the humans called a monkey wrench. But I’d never seen one of those funny looking little animals ever use one.
I lowered myself down and approached slowly, my head almost level with my shoulders as I got close. A deep growl ripping through my mouth, my teeth pulled back coated in the slick blood of my victim, him.
Wade’s eyes went from anger back to fear. “Wait, wait, good dog,” he said, placing one of his hands up.
I had never understood the gesture from the humans. It had never worked when Alpha-female put it up to stop myself and Ben-Ben from running on her wet floors, and it certainly wasn’t going to work now. I ran past his outstretched hand, he turned his head trying to get his hand on the heavy tool. I bit deeply into his throat, more coppery blood shot into my mouth than the previous time. Blood was flying out from his body in great spurts.
His top lip fell to the side as the hand holding it let go. He reached for the wrench. I released his throat as he swung the heavy piece trying to crash it against my skull. He kept swinging his arm back and forth, maybe hoping I would run back into it. He pressed his free hand against the hole in his neck. When he stopped swinging the wrench, he used it to help him get up on his legs.
“Riley, you can’t let him go,” Patches said as she came up beside me, her tail swishing violently back and forth.
My jaw was pulled back in a snarl, but it was more from being sick of the entire encounter. Blood was cascading down the man’s arm leaving a trail even Ben-Ben could have tracked. The man was starting to sway; he was losing too much vital fluid. The other dogs were absolutely howling now, anyone close was going to come and see what was happening.
“He killed a human.”
“Is that possible?”
“I smell blood.”
“What do you think they taste like?” another asked.