Journey's End

by Christopher Holt

Footsteps sounded as one more person climbed into the truck. Max smelled her before he saw her: Dr. Lynn.

  She shoved past her assistants and took Max’s head in her hands. Stroking his cheeks, she stared deep into his eyes.

  “It’s okay, Max,” she said. “This is just to help with the pain while we fix you up. You’re fine.”

  “I’m fine,” Max barked softly, even though he knew she couldn’t understand him.

  Muscles relaxed in Max’s body, one by one, until he found himself lying back on the table. It felt as though he’d melted into a fizzy liquid, becoming a weightless puddle. His tail wagged once, twice, and his eyes fell into slits. The human faces hovering over him turned hazy and indistinct.

  Distantly, he heard the truck’s engine roar to life, felt the vibrations beneath his belly as it started to move over rough terrain.

  He drifted in and out of dreams.

  One moment, he was in the truck, feeling someone moving his paw. The next, he was hundreds of miles away, back in his kennel. The cages were full of dogs, barking madly, but one by one they faded away until it was just Max and Madame.

  Choose the right path, Maxie, Madame said.

  Max felt the truck bumping and jostling as it climbed back onto the main road. He heard sounds like metallic wheels straining to turn—the enormous wall opening to let them through.

  But in his dream, Max was in an abandoned city. Dogs marched side by side through streets and alleys, following the Chairman, who somehow led them from high above the skyscrapers.

  Rocky was next to Max, and Gizmo, too. We’re always with you, they told Max.

  Then Max was on a boat. A giant elephant sat on the deck, his trunk raised to trumpet at the sky. A large, rotund pig trotted in a circle around him, oinking at the other animals.

  The boat spilled into an ocean, and Max was alone in the waves. He paddled to shore, where he heard playful laughter.

  Fully healed, he walked down a long road, alone. A dark, inky cloud flowed up toward the sky behind him, growing larger with each step.

  He crossed a bridge over a murky swamp to a perfect small town. A mansion, once grand but now decaying, was on his left. And on his right was an old-fashioned train pulled by a steam engine.

  Then he reached a fork in the road.

  At the end of the left path, he saw Rocky and Gizmo, sitting happily inside their golden circles. The third linked ring was empty, waiting for him.

  Standing on the right path were Charlie and Emma. They knelt down, smiling, their arms held out to embrace him.

  The darkness swelled, as though unsure which path to take.

  There was a center road. But it stretched out forever on the horizon, and Max couldn’t tell where it led.

  Madame’s voice echoed once more. Make your choice, Maxie.

  Max awoke.

  Before Max could open his eyes, smells overwhelmed him.

  Smoky fires melded with the scent of seared meat and charred vegetables. Intense body odors swirled through the air: the musk of humans, some of it blended with flowery perfumes. There was the rancid smell of overflowing trash cans, and the heady pungency of gasoline and rubber.

  Then there were the voices. He heard thousands upon thousands of people talking, some laughing, a few shouting, all mingling in a constant hum. Somewhere, someone was playing music on a guitar, while others sang along. There were electronic pings and beeps, the noises of human games.

  It was the sound of city streets and rural markets. Of families crowded around a dinner table, of farmhands calling to one another in the fields.

  It was human.

  Max jerked awake, accidentally hitting his paw against the tabletop. He winced, expecting a flood of pain.

  Nothing came.

  His paw was wrapped tightly in white gauze that smelled of medicine. A throbbing numbness ran up his leg, but it was a dull ache compared to the pain he’d felt before.

  Barks rang out, and he angled his head to look down at Rocky and Gizmo, who were still in their plastic crate. They were hopping and wiggling with excitement.

  “He’s awake, Dr. Lynn!” Rocky yowled. “The big guy is back from dreamland!”

  Gizmo said, “They fixed you up just in time, Max. Dr. Lynn is outside right now. She says your people are here!”

  “My people,” Max said. Then, realizing what that meant, he sat up, his floppy ears jerking to attention. “My people!”

  Strong hands massaged his side, ruffling his fur, and he looked back to find Les petting him once more.

  “Look who’s feeling better,” Les said.

  The canvas flap opened, letting bright afternoon sunlight into the truck. A familiar face peeked through: Dr. Lynn.

  “I hear Max is awake,” she said with a wide grin. “I think it’s time he is reunited with the family he traveled so far to find.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Les said with a salute.

  Max couldn’t speak. He heard Rocky and Gizmo barking with excitement, but he couldn’t focus on their words. Trembling all over, he let Les clip a leash to his collar, then obediently jumped down to the floor of the truck. He tried to press his front paw down—but his bandages wouldn’t let him.

  So Max half walked, half hopped toward the back of the truck. Carefully, he climbed down the metal stairs to the dusty road.

  The asphalt was hot beneath Max’s paws, and he closed his eyes against the sudden glare of the sun. The smells and sounds of people surrounded him, an overwhelming cloud of humanity.

  Max slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the brightness. Les handed his leash to Dr. Lynn, who gently tugged him forward.

  Max looked around him. More men in tan uniforms like Les’s lined either side of the street. They stood in front of orange-and-white barricades, just like the ones Dr. Lynn had left as a trail. Behind them were the people, all trying to get a glimpse of Max. Through their legs, he could see the endless city of tents, canvas homes of many shapes and sizes set up in rows and circles, makeshift places to live until it was safe for the humans to return to their real homes.

  Though the soldiers stood completely still, their hands held behind their backs, the people behind the barricades clung to one another, talking endlessly, pointing at Max. Some shouted, their tones angry, but others cried out reassuring words.

  “That’s the dog that saved us, Mommy!” a little girl shouted.

  “How is he safe?” a man yelled. “Are we sure he’s safe?”

  “You saw it on the news,” another man said. “These are the dogs that aren’t infectious. They helped that scientist find a cure.”

  Lights flashed, and Max closed his eyes once more. Cameras. People were taking pictures and videos of him. Behind him, he heard people shouting to Rocky and Gizmo, who were outside the truck now, barking at the crowd.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Rocky yipped. “We’re your heroes!”

  Max tried to look back at his friends, but with all the flashes and waving arms and the sea of moving faces, he felt overwhelmed. He trembled, anxious.

  Dr. Lynn rubbed between Max’s ears. “It’s okay, Max. I’m right here with you.”

  And then the noise of the crowd no longer mattered, because he smelled his pack leaders.

  Charlie and Emma were here. And not just in his dreams.

  Opening his eyes wide, he saw them only a few yards away. Just as he’d dreamed, they knelt on the ground, side by side, waiting for him. They were as skinny as he remembered, but so much time had passed that they seemed larger now, more grown-up. Their parents stood behind them, their hands on the children’s shoulders.

  Max whimpered at the sight of his human family. So many emotions flooded through him at once that he felt wobbly, unstable, as though his legs were going to give out at any moment.

  Charlie wiped away tears with the back of his fist, and Emma reached up to clutch her mother’s hand, and they looked at Max with such longing that he finally knew for certain that he’d been right.

  They
hadn’t left him because they’d wanted to.

  They loved him. They loved him.

  Despite his injured foot, Max bounded forward, tugging the leash from Dr. Lynn’s hands and letting it drag behind him on the hot desert road.

  “Max!” the two children cried in unison.

  Then he was in their arms as they practically tackled him. He wriggled every which way, his tail slapping, his tongue lashing out to lick them and make sure they knew how much he loved them.

  Charlie stuck his head into Max’s fur, sobbing. “We missed you, boy. You’re the best dog ever.”

  Emma ruffled the fur on his neck, laughing as Max licked all over her face. “You’re the smartest, greatest dog in the world.”

  “I came for you,” Max barked. “I never gave up. So many animals told me I’d never see you again, but I knew I’d find you.”

  Though they couldn’t know what he was saying, somehow his pack leaders—his human family—knew exactly what he meant.

  “We know,” Charlie said, hugging Max tight.

  “We love you,” Emma said, cradling his head.

  Past the soldiers, some of the people watching started to cry. Happy tears, Max hoped. They smiled and said “awww,” and some of them had to turn away, watching these two children reunited with their pet.

  Watching as Max finally achieved what he’d set out to do all those months ago, when he’d escaped his kennel and begun this dangerous journey.

  “Mom, look!” Emma cried, letting go of Max with one arm so that she could point. “Those are his friends!”

  Max craned his neck to see Ben and Cassie walking side by side, each holding a leash. At the end of those leashes were Rocky and Gizmo.

  “Hey!” Max barked at them, his tail flying. “Here they are! These are my pack leaders! Come meet them!”

  Rocky and Gizmo barked and lunged forward. Cassie pretended Gizmo was carrying her along, holding on to her hat as though it might fly away, and the people laughed. Even some of the soldiers seemed unable to contain their smiles.

  Dr. Lynn’s assistants let go of their leashes, and Rocky and Gizmo leaped at Charlie and Emma, wiggling with glee. Charlie grinned as he sat down, letting Rocky climb into his lap and lick his arms. Emma rolled Gizmo onto her belly and rubbed her all over.

  “Oh, buddy, you weren’t kidding,” Rocky yipped.

  “Your pack leaders are the best!” Gizmo barked.

  Max sat down, his tongue hanging free as he watched his new family meet his original one. He felt warm deep inside, and not just from the desert heat. It was a comforting warmth, like lying at the edge of his pack leaders’ beds, watching over them as they slept.

  Charlie and Emma’s parents stood behind their children, arms around each other.

  “I still can’t believe he managed to get all this way,” their mother said.

  “It’s quite the story,” Cassie said. “The media will be lining up for interviews.”

  Charlie and Emma’s dad ran his hand through his hair. “You’re right. I didn’t think of that. That’s… going to be something new to deal with.”

  Cassie reached out and shook the parents’ hands, saying, “Nice to meet you at last. I’m Cassie Stone, one of Dr. Sadler’s assistants from the Praxis project.” She cleared her throat. “Or former assistant, I guess. She no longer wants anything to do with the company except to make sure this virus goes away forever.”

  Max looked behind him to see Dr. Lynn—or Dr. Sadler, as the humans kept calling her—talking earnestly with Ben. They both had their arms crossed.

  “Have you found out where the other owners are?” the children’s mother asked.

  Cassie nodded. “Well, we’ve found one, anyway. Dr. Walters was Rocky’s owner. You know him, right? He was your vet?”

  “That’s right,” the dad said.

  “He relocated to Florida during the evacuation, and he plans to stay there,” Cassie said. “We’re going to fly Rocky there, and then the terrier we’ve nicknamed Jane will stay with us, in case we need to do more tests.”

  Max stiffened. Even though Rocky, Gizmo, Charlie, and Emma still played together while the crush of people from the tent city looked on, Max no longer felt happy.

  These humans didn’t know Max could understand them.

  They weren’t just reuniting Max with his human family. They wanted to separate him from Rocky and Gizmo—his dog family.

  Max’s head spun, making him woozy. The warmth inside him gave way to an icy chill.

  He had a choice to make, one he’d never expected.

  He could go home with Charlie and Emma, back to the farm, what he’d wanted and chased after all these many months.

  Or he could keep the promise he’d made to Rocky and Gizmo, the two small dogs who’d been by his side as they’d crawled through muck and raced beneath blazing skies. Who’d been brave in the face of every deadly obstacle.

  The cloud of darkness in his dreams hadn’t been a storm or whatever else he’d imagined it to be. It was always at his heels, Max realized, because it was a dark, terrible choice he was meant to make.

  He couldn’t outrun it any longer. It was time to pick a path and take a leap of faith.

  Still trembling, Max hung his head low and tucked his tail.

  He had made his choice.

  CHAPTER 24

  THE CHOICE

  Max looked at the humans around him, one by one, and then he did something he never thought he’d have to do.

  He growled at them.

  Charlie noticed it first, being the closest to him. Still petting Rocky, he scrunched up his brows and looked at Max.

  “What’s wrong, boy?” he asked.

  Cassie turned from the children’s parents and held her hand out to Max. “It’s all right. Do you want your kids to pet you again?”

  Max snapped his jaws at her, and she pulled away, her eyes wide with surprise.

  Baring his teeth, Max raised his hackles and backed away from her. “I’m sorry,” he barked loudly toward Charlie, knowing his pack leader couldn’t understand what he was saying. “I don’t want to do this. I’m so sorry.”

  “What’s wrong with that dog?” a man shouted from the huddle of people behind the orange-and-white barriers.

  “That creature is sick!” a woman cried. “It isn’t cured at all! It’s gone rabid!”

  A commotion rose as panic roiled through the crowd of people. The soldiers yelled at everyone to calm down.

  Rocky noticed Max’s change in manner before Gizmo. He leaped out of Charlie’s lap, leaving the little boy sitting on the road, confused.

  “Max, buddy,” Rocky said as he trotted close. “What are you doing? These people are being nice!”

  Max backed even farther away from his human family. “We have to make them let us go,” he said. “They’re going to ship you away, and the doctors are going to take Gizmo. They want to split us up.”

  From Emma’s lap, Gizmo’s ears perked up. She leaped away from the children, darted between Cassie’s legs, and ran to Rocky and Max.

  “They want to separate us?” Gizmo asked. “But why? You said your pack leaders would love us. They were petting us so wonderfully.…”

  Max had to force himself to appear threatening, even though the looks of betrayal on Charlie’s and Emma’s faces made him want to curl up on the ground and whimper.

  “They don’t know,” Max said. “They don’t realize we’re a family, too. I promised you both that we would be together forever.”

  “But what about your pack leaders?” Rocky asked.

  “The people were saying the three of us can’t stay together. So I had to make a choice,” Max said. “And I chose you.”

  The murmur of the crowd grew louder and louder. Someone screamed, and wood crunched as one of the barricades was smashed. The soldiers did their best, but the people in the city of tents had spent too long in the heat. Max could smell the fear and anger coming off them. They were becoming a pack, as wild as any g
roup of animals out in the forests and swamps and deserts.

  “Mom, what’s happening?” Charlie asked, panicked.

  “I don’t know,” his mother answered.

  Ben had been talking to Dr. Lynn, who stood in the road, watching the animals, seeming just as surprised as the others. Now he grabbed the end of Max’s leash, trying to drag him forward.

  “No!” Rocky yelped. He leaped at the man, biting his pant leg and tugging on it as hard as he could.

  Ben shook his leg, shouting, “Let go!”

  A bottle flew from the crowd, soaring over the people and landing on the road next to Max, Rocky, and Gizmo. It shattered into thousands of gleaming crystal shards.

  Emma screamed in surprise, and her father pulled her close. Cassie flinched as bits of glass flew in her direction. Seeing that the dogs had gone still, she reached down and grabbed both Gizmo’s and Rocky’s leashes.

  “This way,” she said as she started back toward the trucks. “Don’t get stubborn on us now.”

  Gizmo flattened her ears and dove at Rocky, who still clung as hard as he could to Ben’s pant leg. She nibbled at Rocky’s collar and it flew off, freeing him from the leash.

  “How did she learn to do that?” Ben asked.

  Before anyone could stop her, the tiny terrier leaped over the broken glass and landed on Max’s shoulders. Just as with Rocky, she chewed at the collar around his neck until she managed to unfasten it.

  Cassie dropped the end of Gizmo’s leash and held up her hands. “I get it,” she said. “You don’t want to be dragged around.”

  Rocky let go of Ben, leaving drool on his khaki pants. He and Gizmo huddled on either side of Max, joining their growls to his.

  Both of Dr. Lynn’s assistants raised their hands as they closed in on the three dogs. Charlie and Emma’s dad came over to help corral the three pets. The commotion in the crowd began to calm down, as some of the soldiers marched toward the dogs, too.

  “What do we do?” Rocky said with a whine.

  “What we always do,” Max said. “Run.”

  “To where?” Gizmo asked.

  “To anywhere,” he said. “All that matters is that we’re together.”