War Zone: Homefront

by Thomas A. Watson

  “Amanda!” Nathan shouted, and Amanda jumped three feet in the air. “Go inside and find three big bowls and bring them out here. Wash them out with the sprinkler and fill them up.”

  Amanda took off like a rocket for the house as Nathan moved back and started again. The woman was trying to crawl away when he sent Athena again. This time, without the leash. “Yep, I’m going to catch him more tweaker prisoners, so I don’t have to get in that damn padded suit ever again,” Aiden vowed.

  Tom and John came out, dropping stuff off and then headed back inside. “Natalie, why didn’t they want a break?” Jasmine asked.

  “They didn’t want us to see some people the tweakers killed, and have to walk over all the dead bodies you shot in the house,” Natalie told her.

  “Did they bother you?” Jasmine asked, turning away as Nathan moved up to make Athena let go.

  Shaking her head, “No, it stunk, but that’s it,” Natalie answered, and Jasmine nodded.

  Inside, John pulled his forearm across his brow, wiping sweat off as he opened the closet. Grabbing two ammo cans, he went to lift and was shocked at the weight. “What the hell?” he said, putting them down. He popped one open and sucked in a breath to see it was filled with gold coins. In that instant, John knew what was in those metal boxes Nathan and he had loaded up in Mississippi. But then, he realized there weren’t that many they’d hauled back home.

  Giving a shrug, John closed the lid and locked it as Tom came in. “Don’t try for more than two. These are much heavier,” John warned, giving a grunt and picking up the cans. Seeing how hard they were for John, Tom just grabbed one.

  Walking outside, John found Nathan leading Athena back. “Nathan, the horses can’t carry this,” John told him. “There’re twenty of these fifty caliber cans in that closet.”

  Nathan gave John a grin. “I’m going to have Rusty and Bill load them in the backseat of the truck.”

  Looking down at the cans he was carrying, John lifted his gaze back to Nathan. “Tom and I will load them,” John said, and Tom came out using two hands to carry the ammo can.

  “Apollo, time to work,” Nathan said, and Apollo stood up. “Apollo, kill!” Nathan snapped, pointing at the woman on the ground who was barely moving now. Leaping out in a sprint, Apollo charged the woman who was curled in a ball before locking his jaws on the back of her neck. The woman screamed as he shook her violently. When Apollo shook the woman out of the ball she’d been curled up in, he let go briefly to shift his bite and clamped on the woman’s throat from the side.

  The scream cut off like a switch when Apollo bit down and shook his head. “I’m buying Apollo something nice,” John stated, turning for the truck. “I want him to always see me as a friend.”

  “Apollo, break!” Nathan shouted, and Apollo lifted his bloody head. “Apollo, heel up,” Nathan said, heading for the shade with Athena and called Ares over, too. Amanda had three large bowls of water waiting for them. When they started drinking, Nathan knelt down to rub each one as sweat rained off his body.

  “Tim, load those four-wheelers up, and I want all five on that trailer,” Nathan panted. “Don’t make me have to tell you how, and don’t break them.”

  Jasmine turned to the trailer, then the four-wheelers. “There’s no way in hell,” she declared.

  “Hun, will you go help the boys?” Nathan grinned, and Jasmine gave him a wink before heading to the house. “When they have those cans loaded, Rusty, Bill, load those weapons in the side by sides. Take military grade arms first, then the others.”

  “Um, you’re taking the truck and trailer, right?” Bill asked, and Nathan nodded. “Why don’t we take one of those vans and load it up?”

  “Bill, we’re going to have to take the south ATV trail in, and those vans won’t even make it along the logging roads to reach the trail,” Nathan said, taking his helmet off and drinking from his camelback.

  Seeing Tom and Jasmine struggling to carry the fifty caliber cans, “We really need that much fifty ammo?” Bill asked. “Let’s take more smaller caliber then those.”

  “No, those cans first. Then, with what room there is, we’ll load up what’s left,” Nathan said, finally standing up as Amanda bent down with Casey, loving on the dogs. “Girls, keep an eye out,” Nathan told them, and they both stood back up. “Apollo, Ares, Athena, heel up,” Nathan commanded, and strolled back across the lawn.

  “Apollo, Ares, and Athena,” Amanda grinned. “Triple A.”

  “Shit if I would’ve ever called them,” Aiden mumbled as Nathan pulled another prisoner out to be the attack dummy. Everyone gave a gasp when Nathan cut the man’s hands loose. Rubbing his sore wrists, the new attack dummy stared at the chewed-up corpse of the last attack dummy while Nathan dragged her to the side. “I’ve seen him do juvenile cold shit before, but this’s got to be at the top of the list.”

  “Then you need to pull your panties up and go look at the bones in the fire pit out back, and the kids hanging from the ceiling inside,” Bill snapped.

  This time, Nathan alternated between all three dogs, sending one at a time, but still had to go down every other time to pull Athena off. When Jasmine, Tom, and John finished carrying out the cans, all were dripping with sweat when they moved over to the shade. “I see Athena got Nathan good,” Jasmine said, seeing Nathan had a dressing on his left forearm.

  “Yeah, and she got popped for it,” Bill said, leaving with Aiden. Hearing a four-wheeler, Jasmine turned and gave a double take when Tim drove the four-wheeler up onto the trailer. One was already loaded, but the front wheels were hanging over the front lip of the trailer like it was doing a wheelie. Easing up to the ‘wheelie’ four-wheeler, Tim goosed the throttle and the front tires climbed up the other four-wheeler. Tim stopped when the four-wheeler he was driving was riding the back of the first one. “Okay, I wouldn’t have thought of that,” Jasmine mumbled, pulling her drinking tube off and drank heavily. Under no circumstances was she going to get to second warning. She would pour her camelback out first.

  Stomping her boot hard, “Nathan punched Athena,” Amanda snapped.

  Clipping her tube back to her vest, “Amanda, any one of those dogs bite me, and I’ll shoot ‘em,” Jasmine informed her. “You know Nathan knows what he’s doing, so don’t interfere unless you want to be the one bitten.”

  Thinking about that, Amanda nodded in agreement. “But that’s not how the books say to do it.”

  Glancing over at Amanda, “And how many German Shepherds has Nathan trained?” Jasmine asked.

  “Twelve of his own and nine for other deputies,” Amanda moaned.

  “You’d better move!” Nathan shouted, and they all turned to see the current attack dummy laying on the ground like a log. Lifting his AR, Nathan squeezed the trigger and they saw the prisoner’s left knee explode. “Athena, attack!” Nathan shouted as the man howled out, grabbing his knee.

  “Why does he want the bad guys to move?” Casey asked.

  “That’s how he trains them. When the person stops fighting, the dog stops shaking, but Nathan says the dogs don’t bite hard if the person isn’t moving when they attack,” Amanda answered as Athena latched on the man’s left wrist.

  Letting his knee go, the man screamed when Athena’s teeth ground into his wrist. “Nathan told him to move,” Casey nodded.

  “I wouldn’t move,” John mumbled, and Tom nodded as they both sucked down water watching Nathan call ‘break’, but Athena was having none of that. Running over, Nathan grabbed her and commanded her to break, trying to pull her off. Athena let go and clamped on Nathan’s left forearm, making Jasmine’s heart stop. Seeing Athena start to thrash her head, Jasmine fought the urge to lift her rifle.

  Stepping away from the prisoner, Nathan lifted his left arm, hoisting Athena off the ground. “Ares, sit!” Nathan shouted, and they turned to see Ares was moving toward Nathan with his teeth bared.

  “Ares was going to hurt Athena,” Amanda gasped, and Jasmine nearly yelled for Ares to go. />
  They all turned to see Nathan hit the side of Athena’s head, yelling break. No one knew if it was from the hit or the command, but Athena let go, dropping to the ground. “Athena, sit!” Nathan snapped, and they could see the bandage on his arm was really red now with fresh blood.

  When he pulled the dressing off, they could see blood dripping from his arm while Nathan pulled another dressing out. Putting it on his arm, Nathan talked to Athena, but they couldn’t hear what he was saying. “Okay, she earned that one,” Amanda admitted with a shiver, watching Nathan wrap the new dressing on his arm.

  For several minutes, Nathan gave her simple commands and after each one he loved on her, then had her follow him back to Apollo. “Ares, heel up,” Nathan said as he jogged past.

  “I wonder if Apollo has bitten him like that?” John wondered out loud.

  Nodding her head, “Yeah, and so has Ares, but Nathan said Apollo’s bites hurt a lot more,” Amanda told him.

  Keeping watch, everyone would glance over as Nathan continued sending the dogs down and the man couldn’t be still, since his knee was shot out and the dogs kept coming down at him. Everyone watching was very happy that Athena seemed to finally understand the command of break, after doing it ten times.

  “I’m surprised the prisoner is still moving,” Natalie admitted when Nathan sent Ares down.

  This time, the man held up his hands and Ares latched on the right one. Instead of thrashing about, Ares dropped to the ground and rolled. “I love it when he does that!” Amanda cheered as the others winced, hearing the man’s arm give a snap. It didn’t help, the fact Ares got to his feet and started shaking his head.

  “Ares, break!” Nathan shouted, and Ares let the man’s arm go and turned to Nathan, cocking his head to the side. “Ares, I’m not playing,” Nathan warned. “Ares, heel up.”

  Like he was pissed, Ares stormed over and sat when Nathan told him to. Like a spoiled kid, Ares did hesitate for a second before he sat down. “Athena, time to work,” Nathan said, pointing at the man as he sat up cradling his broken arm. “Athena, attack.”

  The man screamed seeing Athena charge him, and everyone heard the other prisoners start to cry for help. A loud yelp erupted, and they turned back to see Athena had latched onto the broken arm. “Damn, sucks to be a bad guy around here,” Jasmine grunted.

  When Nathan called break, Athena let go and came back when Nathan called her, and he dropped down to love on her. “Ares, time to work,” Nathan said, hugging Athena. “Ares, kill,” Nathan said, pointing at the man. Staring right at the man, Jasmine swore the man seemed to have relief on his face at hearing the command and seeing Ares charging.

  Ares leapt like a missile, opening his jaws and clamping on the man’s throat as his weight knocked the man back. “Yeah, you thought you were getting off easy, but Ares doesn’t kill fast like Apollo,” Amanda teased, confirming Jasmine had seen relief on the man’s face.

  Ares stood up shaking his head, and they heard the man gargling. “See? Ares plays,” Amanda nodded.

  “Yeah, he only kills dogs fast,” John chimed in. Just as the gargling weakened, Ares shook harder and jerked back, and they saw the blood come up.

  “At one time, this would’ve made me sick to see dogs trained to hurt like this,” Jasmine admitted. “But I can’t even count how many times Ares has saved us.”

  “Why?” Amanda asked, turning to Jasmine. “Nathan’s training them like he’s training us. It doesn’t do any good to train to make cakes when people are trying to kill us. The dogs are weapons, just like we are.” Hearing it put like that, Jasmine felt more at ease.

  Nathan headed over with the dogs and they dove into the water bowls. “Need me to look at that?” Jasmine offered, nodding at his forearm.

  “It’s not that bad, she wasn’t biting me full force,” Nathan panted, holding his arm up. Pulling his drinking tube off, “She learned after the first time the harder she bit me, the harder I popped her. Plus, Ares almost reached her once, and I think that terrified Athena.”

  “It would me,” Tom said as Tim came over.

  Drinking from his camelback, Nathan looked down and noticed how close Apollo was to John. Apollo had circled his water bowl to stand closer to John as he’d lapped up water. Emptying his camelback, Nathan clipped his tube to his vest and moved over to Jasmine, taking her drinking tube. When Nathan started drinking from her tube, Jasmine was relieved she wouldn’t have to pour some water out.

  When Apollo quit drinking, he lifted his head up and stepped back before sitting almost directly beside John. Clipping Jasmine’s drinking tube back to her vest, “John, hug Apollo,” Nathan told him.

  Letting out a small gasp, John looked down to see Apollo looking up at him panting. The tan fur on the front half of his body was tinted red from blood. “Um, Nathan? I don’t want to,” John said, and everyone in the group turned to John in shock. Never once had John not done what Nathan had asked, and he’d always done it with a smile.

  “What?!” Nathan cried out.

  “Nathan, he had an arm in his mouth. I really like both of mine,” John said, never taking his eyes off Apollo.

  Giving an angry huff, Nathan stormed off looking around at all the dead bodies in the yard. Seeing one with pants he stormed over, and John finally took his eyes off Apollo. Watching Nathan bend down and yank a belt from the dead man’s pants, John dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Apollo’s neck. “I thought so,” Nathan mumbled, dropping the belt and walking back over as Bill and Rusty joined the others.

  “Can I just ask, why?” John pleaded when Nathan walked up.

  “John, Apollo has always stayed near you. But he’s attacking, and look where he went,” Nathan said. “He was moving to protect you. It took me three months to train him to do that with Tim and Sherry.”

  “You need to rephrase, Nathan,” Tim clarified. “Apollo listens to Sherry much better than me.”

  “John, stay here, and I’m going to call you over when I start on the next one,” Nathan said when Athena quit drinking. “Come on, Amanda,” Nathan said, turning around and Amanda bounced on her toes, clapping.

  When Nathan called the dogs, John let Apollo go and Apollo licked his face before bounding after Nathan. “Oh man, that was gross,” John said, wiping his face off with his gloves.

  Pulling another man over, Nathan cut his hands free and headed over to the dogs. When he turned around, he found the man standing rigidly straight like a statue. “Relax,” Nathan said, putting his knife away and the man continued to stand frozen.

  “Let me send Athena. He’ll move.” Amanda glared at the man for interrupting her dog’s training like this.

  “Amanda,” Nathan said in a low voice. “She has to learn to attack targets that move first. Then, you teach targets by pointing.”

  “Move, bitch!” Amanda shouted, lifting her rifle up, but the man never wavered.

  “Put your rifle down,” Nathan said, glaring at the man. “Last warning,” he offered, and the man didn’t move. “Apollo, time to work!” he shouted, and Apollo jumped up. Slowly raising his hand up and pointing at the man, “Apollo, frank and beans!” Nathan shouted.

  Jasmine heard Tim, Bill, Aiden, and Rusty give startled cries as Apollo lunged forward and the man still stood frozen. Seeing Apollo only getting bigger the closer he got, the man started wavering and when Apollo was three yards away the man crossed his arms, shielding his face.

  Stumbling back, Jasmine watched Apollo latch onto the man’s crotch. An ear-splitting scream echoed across the valley in a high-pitched octave not even young Emma could reach. When Apollo started thrashing his head, the pitch got higher as the man fell to the ground, grabbing at Apollo’s head. The more the man touched him, the more Apollo shook. Finally, the man stopped touching Apollo and he stopped shaking, but didn’t release.

  “Holy shit,” Tom mumbled, and Jasmine turned to see him covering his crotch and then saw all the boys were covering their crotches. Then, she looked down a
nd saw her own hands covering her crotch. “He passed out,” Tom said, and Jasmine looked up just in time to see the man come to.

  When the man moved so did Apollo, and the man threw his head back and lifted his hands up, so Apollo would stop moving. “The old frank and beans,” Tim shivered.

  “He taught that?!” Natalie cried out, and even she was covering her crotch.

  “Oh, yeah. Nathan ever tell you about the only female dog he had, Pandora?” Tim asked.

  “Yeah, the sheriff made Nathan stop bringing her on patrol. Nathan said she tore into a robber like she was looking for a prize,” John said, wincing as the man passed out again, but still Apollo held on.

  Waving one hand out, “Now you know how she ripped into the package,” Tim told them, dropping his hand back to his groin.

  “Oh man, that’s wrong!” Tom cried out, cupping his hands hard to his jewels and walked off. “Just fucking shoot my ass with a dull bullet!”

  With one hand on her rifle and the other on her crotch, “That looks like it really hurts,” Casey confessed.

  “I would rather give birth!” Bill shouted and walked off, shielding his manhood from the horror. “To an elephant!”

  “Apollo, break,” Nathan commanded, and Jasmine gave a sigh, letting her crotch go when Apollo let go. The man let out a howl waking up and curled up rolling around on the ground, cradling his chewed-up frank and beans. “Apollo, heel up.”

  Apollo trotted back with his tongue hanging out like he was laughing. “Send Athena,” Nathan told Amanda.

  “Athena, time to work,” Amanda said, and Athena jumped up cheerfully. Pointing at the man as he rolled around, “Athena, attack,” Amanda commanded, and Athena took off. The man never acknowledged Athena latching onto the back of his left arm, shaking her head violently.

  “Come here, John,” Nathan said, watching Athena. For a brief second, John thought about running off, but took a deep breath, knowing Nathan wouldn’t let Apollo attack his frank and beans. Trying to put a brave expression on his very pale face, John walked over before stopping beside Apollo. Tilting his head up, Apollo looked up at John like he was happy. Not able to help it, John took one hand off his crotch and patted Apollo.