Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A Chapter by Sydney Stevens

Chapter Seven

I arrive at the pen just seconds after Mel. Russell is here already, but he’s tied to a leash and the Master’s grip is tight. They really must have been training all day.
 As we head into the pen, I can’t get Jack’s and Eliza’s conversation out of my head. They’re slaves! And I’ve been too blind to see it this whole time. And what’s worse, I’m trained to track them down if they ever run away, which is the exact thing they are going to do tonight! I don’t want to do this, they’ve become my friends. Mara has too, even if the feeling isn’t mutual. I can’t do this. 
But if I don’t, what’s the Master going to do to me? He was very angry at Russell, and that was only because he was slower than us to get to the pen! If he sells me, that won’t be so bad. But what if he hurts me? What if he uses that thing that he used on Pop today? Whatever it was, it didn’t look pretty. My head is spinning as I slowly drift off.
    I wake up with the boss making a lot of noise at the gate. I scramble over to it. Hey! It’s still dark! What’s going on? It takes my brain a few moments to realize what’s happening. Pop’s family ran away. Master fumbles, drops the keys, and swears many times. He finally yanks the gate open.
“Come!” he pants.
While I’m still deciding what to do, Russell and Mel hustle out, knocking me along with them. He thrusts some things under our noses, and I involuntarily sniff them.
Master shouts, “Find!”
Russell and Mel run off, and I follow them. Whatever I decide to do, I don’t want to be in the presence of Master when I do it. But what is it worth if Russell and Mel find them anyway? I have to stop them.
“Wait guys! Wait!” I shout. They didn’t slow, and I eventually caught up to them.
“What are you doing, Choco?” Mel pants.
“You can’t do this! They’re innocent! Master is the one who needs to be stopped.” I yell.
“I can’t, Choco, this is my duty. I can’t imagine what would happen to us if we came back empty-pawed! Master would put us down!”
Realizing I couldn’t stop them, I speed ahead and run as fast as my legs can carry me. I can’t remember a time when I ran this fast. It would feel amazing if not lives are in danger. Master will probably kill them all after killing me. With that thought, I push another burst of energy.
I stop, which is wasting valuable time, but Mel and Russell are far behind me. I lost the scent. I sniff furiously for roughly ten seconds. Then I find it. I bolt in that direction, hearing the dogs barking somewhere behind me.
When I start to think I can’t run anymore, I finally see them, hiding in a small closing. They are wide eyed, and Eliza is sobbing. Mara just stares at me, and I can see, far, far into her eyes, she keeps thinking, ‘I told you so. I told you so.’
I freeze for a moment, unsure of what to do. How could I communicate I was on their side? I whirl around, and come face-to-face with Russell, who has slobbery ribbons of spittle running down his fangs. He takes in a huge gulp of breath, and I can see his about to give the warning signal that he found them. Without thinking, I lunge toward him and bite around his neck. Not enough to kill him, but enough to stop him from giving the signal. He gives a small yelp, and we wrestle for a few minutes. He flips me over and snarls in my face. I glance toward the spot that the humans were in, and am relieved to find that they are gone. Now they know whose side I’m on, I think happily. I continue to fight with Russell, and I get this burst of strength that allows me to throw him into the side of the tree. He is motionless. I walk over to where he’s at, and am relieved to see he is still breathing. I can fight other dogs for the right cause, but I won’t kill them. If I did, I would be just as bad a monster as my formal Master. I glance over and see Mel, who is unsure of what to do. Then, he perks his ear up and bolts in the opposite direction. 
He must have heard Master coming. I look at the empty space where Mara and Joel’s family was. I look back at Russell’s still body. If I do this, my life will never be the same again.
I start running to where I think the family left. You never know when they need a bit of protection.
I dash away, my speed gaining and gaining at the sound of my former Master’s voice. Even though he’s far away, I hear his anger. He’s probably over by Russell, wondering where the heck we are.
I continue running until I catch a whiff of Mara and Joel. I follow my nose until I come across a river. I lose the scent and sniff furiously for it. I can still almost smell them, just somewhere past the river. They didn’t swim through it, did they? It’s the middle of the night and bitterly cold. I sigh and jump into the water. The chill cuts straight through my fur and into my bones. I swim across and reach the end, shivering cold. No time for that now. It looks like it’s almost morning anyway. I sniff again and catch them, much closer. I start to run, despite the freezing water that still is clinging to my body.
After about a half hour of running, I turn a corner and see them all, laying down and resting. Eliza and Joel are sleeping, and Mara and Jack are eating. There are some wet clothes hanging from a branch, and everyone’s hair looks damp.
“Pop!” Mara whispers, as if I couldn’t hear her.
He looks up from his bread roll and gapes for a moment. Finally, he says, “Well, look who it is! It’s the hero!”
But Mara just frowns and says, “Pop, we don’t know that! Maybe McNeil gave him a beating and sent him to find us again.” Although she said it, she doesn’t look like she believes it.
“Hush, Mara. He’s a good dog and you know it. You just haven’t had any good experiences with any dogs, that’s all.”
Now Joel and Eliza start to stir. Joel opens his eyes and fixes them on me. A big smile creeps onto his face and he throws his arms around me. He quickly retracts when he realizes I’m soaking wet.
“Aw, man! He’s wet!” Joel smiles.
The whole family laughs at this. 
“Mama, bring him a towel, will you?” Joel asks.
Mama wraps me in a red fluffy towel and rubs me all over. I feel warmer already, but something tells me it doesn’t have to do with the towel, but this family.
“Okay, Walkers, it’s almost sun-up, so we have to get a little further before daylight comes. Then we can find a place to hide out until night. It’s too risky too travel in broad daylight, at least for now. But once we get to the McKinley household, we will be a bit safer until we get to Mr. Stevens’ house.  Then, it’s on to Pennsylvania. Once we’re in Pennsylvania, we can stay with Uncle Henry until we’re back on our feet.”
“Speaking of back on our feet, we really are going to be ‘Walkers’ today, huh? Get it? Because our last name is Walker and we’re going to do a lot of- well, never mind. You get the idea.” Joel slumps. Everyone laughs, but I think they are laughing at his face, not his joke. Because the joke was pretty bad.
Everyone starts busying themselves with packing and changing, but when no one looks, Mara comes over and pets my head. 
“Good dog.” She whispers. She gives me a big grin, than hurries back to finish putting the clothes in a small sack. Everyone has one big sack on their backs and one small bag in their hands that has some lovely smells wafting from it. I go over to a bag resting on a white towel, and Mama laughs at me.
“Here you go, precious. I’m sure you deserve something special after that brave rescue.” She hands me a half of a loaf. I gulp it down like I haven’t eaten anything since last night… Wait a minute…
“Okay, let’s go. Choco, you keep an eye out for any danger, alright?”
I was about to yip as an answer, but a mosquito flew by my nose and made me sneeze.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ C’mon everyone.” Pop says. We all start walking with Pop in the lead, Joel next, Mara after him, Mama behind her, and me trotting happily beside Mama.
After walking for about an hour, I start to see a small bit of orange in the distance. Nope, not torches. Just sunlight. And that’s good, because I’m getting kind of tired. You know, the long trek, the wrestling match with Russell, trekking again, taking a nighttime dip in a freezing cold river, trekking some more, and really just more trekking takes it out of a dog.
I start to look around the slightly illuminated forest. As far as I can see, which isn’t really far in the dark, there are trees. There are some boulders and stumps sprinkled in there, but it’s mostly trees. I hear a hoot owl somewhere, and I hear small scurrying. I’m glad it’s almost morning, because if I had pants right now, I would totally wet them.
Soon, Pop raises his fist. Everyone stops except for me. I bump into Mama, not even realizing that I’ve been moving behind her more and more. I suppose the raised fist means stop.
“What’s wrong, Pop?” Joel asks.
He doesn’t say anything for a moment.
“Jack?” Mama asks worriedly. I could smell the tension seeping out of her.
After a long moment, he ushers the family behind some tall thrush. They all hurry behind it, and I follow. We sit there for a minute or two, and when Pop peeks over again, he stands up.
“It scared the life out of me! I was sure it was a confederate soldier or another slave owner.” Pop says. He was shaking and he breathed out a huge sigh of relief.
“What was it Pop?” Mara asks.
“Just a deer, darling.” He says, almost as if he was trying to convince himself. “See?” He points. 
We all look in the direction of his finger. We see a small fawn scurry away back to its mama. Oh! He thought the deer was a person. Yeah, of course I smelled it, but I didn’t think we were in any danger of death by deer. I’ll be more aware of others next time. And hopefully there won’t be a next time.
“Well,” Pop starts, “I wasn’t really paying attention to the light, so I’m almost glad of that interruption. Almost glad. But I am starting to be able to see you guys much more clearly, now, so that means it’s hiding time. Everyone catch up on your sleep and have something to eat. We’ll be hiding for a while.”
We travel to a small cave just big enough for us to not get on each other’s nerves all night, or rather, day.
Ah, rest! Finally some rest! My muscles are screaming to me. I can hear them saying, ‘WHY? WHY, YOU STUPID DOG? WE TOLD YOU THAT YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE GONE TO DOG SCHOOL! WHYYYYYYYY?’ I tell them it’s because I found out my purpose in life. And that’s to protect the Walkers.


© 2020 Sydney Stevens


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Added on January 16, 2020
Last Updated on January 16, 2020


Author

Sydney Stevens
Sydney Stevens

About
Young author in training! Published one book in the past, working on more. I'd like to think everyone would enjoy the stories I'm writing, but the target audience is teens. more..

Writing
Chapter 1 Chapter 1

A Chapter by Sydney Stevens


Chapter 2 Chapter 2

A Chapter by Sydney Stevens


Chapter 3 Chapter 3

A Chapter by Sydney Stevens