Enter the Rebirth (Enter the... Book 3)

by Thomas Gondolfi

  She bared her teeth at Brownie and the Old One. “I am strong.”

  Brownie bared his teeth back in welcome. “You are. We did not think one as strong as you would be food.”

  She wrinkled her upper lip at One Eye. “You are still here.”

  He bared his teeth in the bad way. “I will be older than the Old One before I am food.”

  The testers closed her enclosure and gave the command for Scratcher to extend her paw past the barrier. They injected her. Whatever she received made her burst with energy; she paced back and forth in her home, snarling at One Eye. One Eye snarled back a few times but even he didn’t like the look in her crazed eyes.

  The attention noise blared along the passageway and the exit door to the yard on Brownie’s right opened.

  “Yard.” A tester’s disembodied voice echoed throughout the homes. “Go. Now.”

  The barriers facing the passageway were removed.

  As usual, One Eye glared a challenge at Brownie. Brownie huffed and motioned to Fierce Biter to come to him. One Eye placed himself between them. Brownie crouched and made to spring at him as he had when defending Red Beauty yesterday. One Eye raised his claws in warning.

  The dance of pain engulfed them both. Their jaws clenched and their bodies went rigid as they skipped on their rear paws along the floor.

  “Down,” announced a tester. “Yard. Go. Now.”

  Both One Eye and Brownie fell to the floor and the pain left them.

  Leaving her home, Scratcher kneed One Eye in the head as she passed. She lifted Brownie to his feet.

  Brownie shook his body as Scratcher’s wild eyes stared into his. “To the yard. No more pain. One Eye is weak. Come now,” she said, her body still involuntarily twitching in small spasms from whatever was in her injection.

  One Eye looked up from the floor.

  Brownie extended his paw to One Eye. “Come. Or you will have more pain.”

  One Eye curled his lips back from his teeth and stood on his own. With a shake of inevitability, he followed his rival into the yard.

  From behind, Scratcher pretended to claw One Eye’s back.

  The exit to the yard shined with the midday sun. The arena formed a large circle with obstacles on one side, pits on another, and places for waste, eating meals, and healing on yet another. The yard itself consistently smelled of blood, fear, staleness, and bodily wastes. A high wall rose to block the view outside the yard. Occasionally, odd noises came from the permanently unseen other side of the wall. Strange but pleasant smells often stopped the breed in their daily tests to smell the wind.

  Brownie waited by the door, counting his pack as they exited and acknowledging them as each waited for the rest.

  There was One Eye, Fierce Biter, Scratcher, Old One, Goldie, Gnawer, Not Right, Cougher, Blue Eyes, Broke Tooth, Scrawny, and Yipper. Heavy with her second birthing, Broke Tooth would have to sit out and do soft things. The rest would test. Brownie would miss Red Beauty but welcomed Fierce Biter.

  As they exited their passageway, two more passageways let two other breed packs out onto the field.

  Grumpy, a breed leader with a permanent scowl, sized up Brownie and his charges against his pack before looking back over at Fat Belly and sizing up his. Brownie dipped his nose at both, they did the same in mutual acknowledgment.

  Testers waited on the field.

  Broke Tooth moved toward the meal area with testers who would repair the breed if needed.

  Brownie’s pack gathered around him.

  Old One nudged Fierce Biter who gazed around in confusion not knowing what to do. “Listen to Brownie. He is smart. His mind is strong, they have made him so.”

  Fierce Biter trembled so Brownie placed a paw on her shoulder. “Be strong. You are new, they will not fight you hard. Run to us if it is too much.”

  Fierce dipped her nose once. One Eye snorted. She turned to him and stretched to her full height, such as it was, and presented her front claws. “I will not run.”

  Brownie shook her shoulder. “No. You will run. This is new. You are new. You will run to us. Yes?”

  Fierce turned to him and lowered her head. “Yes.”

  “Good.” Brownie addressed the others surrounding him, “Fat Belly has many hurt in his pack; most now are new. Grumpy has strength in his pack; be strong, be ready.”

  Brownie noticed where One Eye was staring and cuffed him on the side of the head to distract him from Fierce’s backside. “Are you here?”

  One Eye gave him a deadly look. “I am here. Do not hit again.”

  “Then be here,” he warned, not breaking eye contact. “Calm your body or give it as food to Grumpy or Fat Belly’s pack.” He pointed at One Eye’s excited groin.

  Scratcher, Fierce, Goldie, and Blue Eyes, all the females, snickered at One Eye’s displeasure.

  One Eye glared at Brownie again.

  The testers began calling names for test groupings that varied from running obstacle courses to seek and find, and even combat.

  When Scratcher’s name was called, she ran obediently toward the tester, joining a thin breed and a shaggy, dirty breed from Grumpy and Fat Belly’s pack. Each of them twitched and spasmed from the injections the testers had given them before leaving their homes.

  The Old One paired off with another Old One from Grumpy’s pack.

  Fierce, Blue Eyes, Cougher, and Scrawny went to join with breed from Grumpy and Fat Belly’s packs as Brownie gave quick instructions to them about their opponents’ weaknesses.

  One Eye flexed his muscles as he advanced toward two large, opposing breed who bared their teeth in challenge.

  Before long, breed from every pack had been combined together for their testings.

  Fat Belly and Grumpy moved among the packs like Brownie, giving advice and warnings. Testers followed each of them as they did so, often making motions over small, flat pads they carried.

  Fierce Biter came running up to Brownie and he turned his attention to her.

  “Brownie? I . . .” She hesitated.

  He waited.

  “Do we make them food? The others say we do,” Fierce said, her face pale. Brownie could tell she had never made any breed into food. Everyone, including Red Beauty, had at least once. Brownie had three times in his life. The Old One never spoke of how many he’d made food but he hadn’t since Brownie became leader.

  Brownie realized those who prompted her to make food were those of other packs. He knew his pack, apart from One Eye, did not make the other breeds food. Brownie had ordered them to let their opponents live. The Old One had confided that he’d never known of another in his long life who had ordered the same.

  “They do not need to be food. If you stop before they are—good. If you must make them food? Then do. Be strong.”

  “Go. Do your best.” Brownie motioned for her to go back to her tester’s pack and the testers took note of his command.

  * * *

  The tests wore on the breed packs.

  Scratcher was bloodied but strong. As her energy waned, the testers injected her more often. One Eye had broken the leg of one of his opponents. Another breed beat Cougher senseless during one of his coughing fits so Broke Tooth took care of him. Blood trickled down between Fierce Biter’s small teats and over her belly. She cleaned flesh from her claws in the dirt. The Old One and his opponent were bruised and battered. Old One’s opponent nursed four broken claws on his right front paw and a crushed nose. The Old One had dislocated his shoulder and Brownie popped it back into place. The Old One grew strong within minutes, his skin abrasions and bruises discoloring and returning to their normal tone.

  The Old One remained beside Brownie while allowing his body to heal at its accelerated pace, discussing tactics for each of their pack members.

  A loud, undulating screech rose over the yard echoing against the walls.

  The Old One cocked his head to one side. “I have not heard that sound since I was young.”

  The testers looked at each
other, then motioned frantically over their flat pads.

  The noise pained the breed’s ears.

  The Old One turned toward the closed door to home, then slowly rotated in a circle.

  Brownie covered his ears. “Old One? What is that? What is that sound?”

  The packs’ individual members began moving from their testing areas and joined with their pack leaders.

  The Old One raised his forelimbs and bared his teeth and laughed. “It is an old sound! A beautiful old sound!”

  Brownie grabbed the Old One’s forelimbs and demanded, “Hear me! What is this sound!”

  The doors to the breeds’ homes opened and testers boiled out. The testers in the yard ran toward the testers exiting, speaking quickly in their own words.

  One Eye grabbed the Old One and spun him to face him. “What is the sound! Tell us! What happens!”

  The Old One began crying as he laughed.

  There was a loud squelch cutting through the awful sound. “Home!” shouted the disembodied tester’s voice in breed speech, “Home! Now! Go!”

  Brownie grabbed the Old One from One Eye. “Speak! What is the sound!”

  The Old One grabbed either side of Brownie’s head and answered, “Freedom! It is the sound of freedom!”

  Brownie wrinkled his nose in confusion. “The sound of what?”

  Brownie looked at the others gathering around him. “What is freedom?” None of them knew the word.

  “Home! Go! Now!” testers ordered, motioning toward their home passageway.

  “Old One! What is that? What is freedom?”

  Explosions rocked the far wall from the entrance to the yard. The testers in their bulky suits turned and ran toward the breed packs, commanding them to go home.

  The Old One screamed in joy, “When I was young, the testers-not-testers came! That sound is theirs! They took many of the breed and gave them freedom! The testers captured me. I was too young and could not get freedom!”

  “He is weak. He is not right,” One Eye huffed. “He says no words we know.”

  Brownie tried to understand. “Old One? Testers-not-testers? Your tongue makes noise but we can’t hear.”

  More explosions rocked the wall and the testers began physically shoving and hitting the breed, forcing them toward the doors to their home passage.

  Confused by their assault, Brownie wondered why were they not using the dance of pain. The testers rarely physically beat the breed. He continued wondering what this sound meant, what freedom meant.

  A tester yelled at One Eye and Scrawny because they were confused and weren’t moving fast enough for the tester. The tester shoved One Eye and, with One Eye’s instinctively surly manner, One Eye shoved the tester’s limb away.

  Brownie froze, waiting for One Eye to dance the dance of pain.

  Instead the tester stepped back and recoiled defensively.

  One Eye was also frozen in disbelief, waiting for the dance.

  The tester shoved One Eye back toward the door. “Home! Go! Now!”

  One Eye stumbled but did not dance and turned toward the door, confused even more.

  More explosions rocked the wall’s exterior, the Old One laughed in madness, and Fierce Biter sat on the ground with one forelimb wrapped around Brownie’s leg.

  This is not right. This is wrong, Brownie thought.

  In a moment of his own madness, Brownie knelt, picked up a hard-packed pawful of dirt and threw it at the back of the tester shoving One Eye.

  It burst across the tester’s back and the tester turned. Brownie’s pack flinched away from him, expecting Brownie’s imminent punishment.

  “Home! Now! Go!” the tester screamed behind its all-covering mask, pointing toward home.

  But there was no dance.

  Testers ran to help the tester Brownie’d assaulted. Brownie looked across the field at Grumpy. Grumpy’s expression was as shocked as Brownie’s.

  There was no dance. Brownie looked at the yard’s dirt beneath their feet. It was not like their homes.

  The breed could not dance the dance of pain on the dirt.

  Another explosion rocked the far wall and several immense cracks split down the wall from the top to the bottom, the explosions were so strong. The breed and testers collectively squatted in fear.

  In. Fear. The testers squatted in fear. In weakness.

  Brownie, Grumpy, and Fat Belly exchanged glances. Their expressions appeared to mirror what Brownie thought.

  The wall exploded into the yard from the outside.

  The testers continued beating and dragging the breed toward the doors. The Old One staggered to his feet and began moving toward the wall. “FREEDOM! FREEDOM!” he cried.

  Testers, but not testers, stormed through the broken wall; their all-covering suits were slightly different from the testers within the yard arena. White, but brighter, with markings on the shoulders. They motioned toward the breed and back to the hole in the wall. But Brownie couldn’t tell if they spoke or not with the constant screeching noise echoing off the walls of the testing yard.

  Grumpy’s Old One began following Brownie’s Old One, then Fat Belly’s Old One began to run toward the hole.

  The testers beat the breed harder, dragging the smaller ones and the females inside. Broke Tooth screamed as a tester kicked her in her swollen belly to get her to rise and go home.

  Many of the breed cowered in weakness to the testers. Many were in shock from the explosions. Some were just obstinate, contrary, and hard-headed. Grumpy and Fat Belly looked uncertain about what to do with their breed members.

  Brownie looked toward One Eye.

  He glanced at the weak tester and at One Eye, then the hole in the wall and the Old One motioning toward them, repeating the word they didn’t know. His attention returned to the door to home.

  Brownie’s brown eyes met the singular dark eye of his rival.

  “Fight!” Brownie screamed. “Make them food!”

  That was all One Eye needed.

  One Eye’s massive figure rose to his full height. He screamed in madness and charged the tester as it stepped backward after shoving him.

  The tester went down. One Eye’s remaining sharpened claws tore into the tester’s suit.

  Screams of fear and pain rose from the tester beneath him.

  “FIGHT!” Brownie screamed to his pack, “FIGHT!” he screamed at Grumpy. “FIGHT!” MAKE THEM BE FOOD!” he screamed at Fat Belly.

  Fierce Biter leaped at a tester running to strike Brownie’s exposed side.

  Scratcher went after the ones kicking Broke Tooth; Scrawny joined her.

  Brownie looked across the field arena and grew still with awe.

  The breed fought. They fought the testers. It was unlike anything he had ever seen or heard of before.

  The Old Ones ran cautiously toward the wall holes but Brownie’s Old One turned and beckoned Brownie to follow. The other Old One ran past the gesturing tester-not-tester by the wall collapse. It didn’t try to stop him. It even helped him through. Three more testers-not-testers entered the yard from the hole and Brownie could hear them finally over the loud sound around them.

  “Freedom! Come! Freedom!” Their voices traveled despite the screeching noise echoing off the walls.

  Broke Tooth cringed by Brownie’s feet.

  “Brownie! What do we do?” she begged.

  He pulled her up. “Go! Freedom! Go to freedom!” He ordered her, Yipper, and Not Right to go toward freedom. He told them to carry Broke Tooth through the hole.

  Familiar agonized screams echoed over the yard suddenly. Screams Brownie knew by their sound were of his pack.

  More testers ran from the home passageways carrying sticks. They touched the breed with a blue end and the breed screamed.

  They went after the strongest and the fiercest breed. One Eye turned and raked a claw across the throat of one of the testers and it fell back, but two stick carrying testers shoved their sticks at One Eye and he fell, blood erupting from his
mouth.

  Fierce was struck and went down. The sound she made was horrible. The tester circled over her and shouted commands.

  Brownie charged toward that tester’s exposed back and pounced. He grabbed the stick with both paws. Pulling the stick up and across the tester’s throat, he placed his rear paws to the back of the tester’s shoulders for leverage since the tester was so tall, and pulled back with a strong up and backward motion. With a sickening, loud crack, the tester became food.

  Brownie shook the blue end of the stick at the other stick-welding testers and they backed off. He touched the end-that-harmed to a tester who came too close. It jerked back and fell. Food or not, Brownie couldn’t tell.

  Scratcher appeared beside him.

  “Give!” she cried.

  Brownie gave her the stick. She screamed in challenge and advanced on the testers. Brownie looked toward the other leaders and their breed were taking sticks and using them too.

  Scratcher, fast, eager, wily. Quick Scratcher fought the testers.

  Brownie ran to One Eye. One Eye spat his own blood. It leaked from his ears and one nostril.

  “Come!” Brownie cried. “Freedom!”

  “No.” One Eye coughed. “No freedom. Weak.” Blood trickled from his mouth. “I am food.”

  Brownie grabbed One Eye’s forelimb and a hind leg, pulling his massive rival over his shoulders and stood, grunting as he did.

  “No, not now, not soon. Freedom for all,” he vowed.

  “Fierce! Give your paw!” Brownie reached down for the small female’s extended paw and gripped tightly.

  Brownie charged across the yard carrying One Eye on his back, while dragging Fierce Biter’s pain-wracked body toward the hole in the wall.

  “Freedom! All come!” Brownie screamed. “Freedom! Come now!”

  Grumpy and Fat Belly’s voices joined his.

  Scratcher and Gnawer ran to them and lifted Fierce to her rear legs. Gnawer carried Fierce toward the wall. Scratcher slowed to protect Brownie and One Eye.

  The Old One hopped in place, motioning toward the hole.

  “Freedom! Freedom!” he yelled, and led the way through the hole. “Come, Brownie! Come!”