Title: Gone to the Dogs

 

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The bartender was wiping down the counter top as he walked into the empty bar. The jukebox was playing softly in the corner the sweet melody of Take it Easy by the Eagles was a stark contrast to the dimly lit dive bar.

Taking a seat he ordered a whiskey straight up and slammed it down as soon as the drink arrived. A second and then a third disappeared just as quickly as the first.

The fourth he took his time with and slowly sipped as he stared into space with a haunted empty look.

Hesitantly the bartender cleared his throat and spoke “Hey buddy, do you want to talk about it?”

The man turned his dead eyes to the bartender and stared at him for a moment or two and let out a sigh “It’s a long story” he said.

The bartender gestured with his arms towards the empty expanse of the bar “Do I look like I got anything better to do Mack?”

“I guess not” came the reply “Ok, get me a beer and I’ll lay it on ya.”

The bartender delivered the beer and leant against the counter top as the man took a deep slug from the glass and began to speak, “It all started like this” he said….

It had been bitterly cold that day and I couldn’t believe my bad luck that I was on night shift when the power outage hit the city. There had been rumours for weeks that the city’s electricity workers were going to go on strike which would cause rolling power outages, but no-one had really thought they’d go ahead and do it.

But sure enough it was just my luck that the first of them would hit my building on one of the coldest days of the year and shut down the automatic doors. So instead of doing the shift in a nice cosy heated lobby, here I was freezing my gonads off in the cold waiting for any of the tenants to come back and open the damn door for them.

I’d been out here for an hour and so far no-one had left or returned to the building. I’d been hopping from foot to foot to keep the circulation going and to pass the time.

The barking broke me out of my boredom; it sounded so out of place on this night. Loud, boisterous and joyful. Looking down the street I could see the young dog walker approaching, almost being dragged along by the two huskies that were prancing through the snow in front of her.

“Far to go?” I asked as she drew close

“About three more blocks if I don’t freeze to death first” she replied

“Why don’t you come inside for a moment or two to warm up? With the power being out I don’t think anyone will notice & I can scare up a cup of coffee for you.”

The dog walker smiled and said “That would be lovely, thank you.”

I opened the door and the dogs leapt in half dragging the girl behind them, chuckling to myself I followed closing the door behind me.

“Take a seat” I said as I pointed to the couch in the lobby, the candles that had been lit when the power went out lit the area softly. I went and got my thermos from under the counter and poured a cup of coffee for the girl.

“What made you walk the dogs on a night like this?”

“Dogs this size need exercise every day, and they love the cold.”

At that moment the door burst open and two men stormed into the lobby with guns drawn. They didn’t see me as they focused on the girl; she reacted quickly and released the dogs with a cry “Attack”.

The dogs surged towards the men and as they were about to leap I threw the hot coffee into the nearest gunman’s face causing him to flinch and cry out just as he fired.

In seconds the dogs had both men on the ground and with brutal efficiency their throats were torn out with minimal fuss. The hounds turned to face me, blood dripping down from their jaws as they snarled.

“Settle” said the dog walker in an anguished wheeze, both dogs reacted immediately and relaxed.

I rushed over to her as I could see that the one shot that was fired had hit its target. She had been shot and was slumped down on the couch blood spreading in a pool around her.

I knelt next to her and started to look at the wound “Are you ok?”

“No you moron, I’ve been shot of course I’m not ok”.

“I’ll call an ambulance” I said as I pulled out my mobile phone.

“No” said the girl as her hand shot out and she grabbed my arm “Listen to me, these are no ordinary dogs. Have you heard of Professor Baxter?”

Baxter? The name sounded familiar. I racked my brain as I tried to place it. Then it came to me he was some sort of genetic scientist who had claimed a major breakthrough, it had been in all the papers a few weeks ago.

“Yes, he’s the scientist fellow who’s been in the news lately.”

“Yes, these are his dogs and it’s very important that they get back to his care. They have some very unusual abilities which is why some very unsavoury men want to get their hands on them and have sent men like those two after them.”

She reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew a slip of paper which she passed to me.

“Don’t worry about me; just get these dogs to this address as soon as possible. There will be others like these after them.

I thought that with the power out it was my best chance to get them there without being seen.

There is fifty thousand dollars in it for you if you get them there within the next hour, will you do it?”

I didn’t know what was going on, but fifty thousand was a lot of cash and god knew I could do with it.

I looked down at the address and saw that it was roughly 15 minutes brisk walk away.

Looking at the girl I asked “What about you? You need medical treatment”.

“Don’t worry about me; I have people I can contact.

Just promise me you’ll get these dogs to safety.”

“Ok, I’ll do it.”

Satisfied the girl whistled and the dogs bounded over to her, she drew both of their heads to her and appeared to whisper into their ears.

“Right, they know that you are a friend and will go with you. If anyone tries to stop you, let go of the leads and tell them to attack, they will defend you.

Now get going there isn’t much time.”

I grabbed the leads of the dogs and headed out into the cold, it didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense but I’d have done a lot more than just walk a couple of dogs for fifty thousand.

I kept close to the building side of the street as I walked the dogs. They were now much more subdued than earlier. The night was dark without much of a moon and the heavy cloud cover kept the starlight to a minimum. With all of the street lights dark due to the power outage I was finding it hard to see more than a few yards in front of me.

Suddenly the sound of an engine roared and headlights arched out of the gloom as a car tore around the corner and headed straight towards me.

Out of instinct I released the leads and leapt to my right into a snowbank just as the car mounted the curb and skidded past. The flying ice and snow thudded into me as the car’s tires shrieked and the car came to a halt not more than three feet away.

The passenger side door exploded open and the driver said “If you want to live get in.”

“What?”

“Get in now” came the reply.

I started to rise when one of the dogs crashed into me knocking me back into the snow just as a gunshot boomed from out of the darkness. The dog rolled off me and I could see that the driver of the car was dead; the bullet had hit him right between the eyes.

Without thinking I grabbed the lead of the dog and the animal dragged me to my feet. As I started to run to keep up with it, both dogs dashed off down the street. I felt a rush of wind past his ear and then the sound came to me as the bullet just missed and smashed the window of the shop front that I was passing. It was only then that I realized that the shooter was aiming for me.

Panic set in and I ran faster than I ever had as the dogs raced in front of me, they were half dragging me along. That and the lack of light saved me as it was only the cars headlights that offered any visibility and we outpaced them quickly.

The dogs slowed and I was able to settle back to a walking pace as I scooped up the second lead.

“Good boy” I said feeling foolish as I didn’t know either of the dogs names but I was certain that one had saved his life by driving him back into the snow. Somehow they had known of the attacker, smell perhaps?

This was getting way beyond him, he was a simple doorman and something very strange was happening. Still he had given the dog walker his word and fifty thousand was not to be sneezed at.

I stopped for a moment to take his bearings, I was on the right route, there wasn’t far to go now. My progress was slow as I was hesitant to cover any ground without cover.

Luckily there were a lot of parked cars that I felt safe crouching behind as I walked. Five minutes passed uneventfully and I was starting to feel safer as I got closer to his destination.

I turned the corner into the street and there was the building that we were looking for. It was on the other side of the street and four doors along. Both dogs surged forwards at the sight of it and I was unable to hang onto the leads as they raced for the door.

I hurried after them as fast as I could and just as I crossed the curb the back door of a parked car swung open and caught me a vicious blow to the mid-section. It knocked the breath out of me and I fell back and struck my head on the pavement.

I tried to raise my head but a wave of dizziness sent me back down again. Taking a deep breath or two, I managed to get my hands under me and thrust myself into a sitting position. I was feeling woozy and disorientated from the blow to the back of my head but I could’ve sworn that I saw the dogs pressing the intercom and their mouths moving as if they were speaking.

I shook my head to clear it and closed my eyes.

When I opened them all I could see was the bruiser standing in front of him with the gun pointed at my face.

“I don’t know who you are Mack” said the gunman “But you cost me a pretty penny by getting those dogs past me.

So now you’re gonna pay.”

The gunman pulled back the hammer of the pistol. All of a sudden he grunted and fell forward almost landing on me as he crashed into the snow.

I thought that I he must have a bad concussion. As the gunman slumped to the ground, I could’ve sworn that I saw a dog standing on its hind legs gripping a club with its front paws, but that was impossible, wasn’t it?

As I started to black out I thought I heard a canine voice say “Don’t worry we’ll look after you now”……

“Well that’s the whole story” said the man as he finished the beer “How much do I owe you?”

The bartender just stood there with an incredulous look on his face “Are you trying to tell me that this happened to you?”

“Yep, strange how life can change on the smallest things. If there hadn’t have been a power outage I would’ve been behind my desk warm and safe and none of this would’ve happened.”

The man reached into his pocket and threw a $20 bill on the counter “Instead I get drawn into this crazy adventure and to top it get off get a new job into the bargain.”

“New job?” asked the bartender.

Before he could reply to the barman, the door to bar swung open; in the doorway stood a young girl holding the leads of two large husky dogs.

“Let’s go, there’s no time to be boozing the night away we’ve got work to do” said the first of the huskies

The man headed to the door as he heard the sound of the beer glass breaking as the startled bartender dropped it when the dog spoke.

“Yep” he said over his shoulder “I’m a dog walker now.”

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