Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Ah! That was a good sleep! My muscles are still upset with me, but not enraged, which is good. I wiggle my eyes open, but nothing comes into view. I blink a few times, and again, and again! Nothing is materializing! I’m blind! I’m blind! I bark a few times and run in circles. I eventually crash into something that yelps and topples over. 

“Hey!” I hear Mara’s voice say. More importantly, I smell her. I sniff some more to be sure the others were there. There’s Mama, and Joel, and… wait, wait… There’s Pop!

“What’s the matter, Mara?” Pop asks worriedly. A small, flickering light appears, and I could suddenly see his face. He puts the little light in a glass rectangle and the whole cave was illuminated. Oh! I see now. It’s night time. We will be traveling soon. I stretch as far as I can without having my muscles scream at me again and hop up. Gah! There go the muscles! I need to take it easy today. Although since we’re going to Pennsylvania, that might not exactly happen. I don’t really know where Pennsylvania is, but I gather that it’s far.

“Okay, we have a long walk today, much longer than yesterday. We might even have to run a bit, so stretch those legs and prepare them for work.” Mama says.

Sigh. I guess my legs won’t catch a break.

Before we start walking, I slurp some water from a small puddle in the back of the cave. It wasn’t bad, it was just mineral-y. Minerals are supposed to be good for your body, that is, if you know what minerals they are. I’m feeling hungry, but I wouldn’t want to waste the Walkers’ food when I can hunt.

Everyone stuffs their things in their sacks, and we come out of the cave. My eyes adjust to the dark, and we continue off in the same order as yesterday. Or, rather, yesternight. Yeah, I know that was corny, but I really had to say it. 

I can feel my stomach growling, and I search around for maybe a squirrel or two. Or a rabbit, maybe. Or a deer. Hey, don’t judge; I’m still feeling hungry! I haven’t had anything except that half loaf of bread since I ran away. I stray off of the path for a moment after spotting that plump squirrel. I come back a minute later not so hungry. It would hold me off until I got some proper food. Thank you kind volunteer for being my dinner! Or lunch. Wait, maybe breakfast. It’s hard to tell what time you eat when there’s no sun.

There are many things to smell when you’re deep in the forest. Ooh, there’s some raccoon. And I can smell some bats up there in the tree. Oh! What a nice tree over there! Maybe I should mark my territory. Wait… Dang it. It’s already been marked. I guess all I have is the twisty tree back at the farm.

The farm. I stop walking. I haven’t really thought about it until now.  My former Master is probably so angry. He might be ruined for good, having so many slaves run away, losing two of his sniffer dogs, and having one dog injured. He’s probably going to demand his money back from my trainer, John. And what will John do? I don’t like McNeil at all, but now that I think about it, John was involved in selling something to keep slaves from running away. Was he a bad man, too? I’ve never thought about it because I’ve never known any different. Are all of the people who have pale skin nasty to the people who have dark skin? And just how many slave owners are there? If my breed of dog was in high demand because of slave owners, than there must be a high amount of them. 

But maybe they just don’t know what they are doing, I thought. After all, I participated in this without knowing what I was doing. But in the end, I put it all together, and then changed. That was what was different about me.

I still don’t know if the people with pale skin are all slave owners or not, but I still better be cautious.

Speaking of cautious, what’s that smell? It smells like another human being, but not a familiar human being. They’re maybe about ¼ of a mile from here. I don’t even realize it, but I’m growling.

“Choco!” Mara gasps, astonished. The whole family stops and looks back at me, except for Pop. He glances around with a suspicious eye.

“I think he smells someone. Quick, everyone! Hide behind those rocks!” He whispers urgently. We follow the pointing finger and hurry behind a big cluster of rocks. After hiding for around ten minutes, the person was right where we were before I smelled him.  I decide to hold my breath, but as it turned out, I already was.

The man grunts, turns around, and trudges away. I finally let out a big breath, but as quietly as possible. We wait a good five minutes before coming out.

“That was close, Pop.” Mara whispers. She’s shaking violently, and I don’t think she’s able to stop herself. I walk over and place my head under her vibrating hand.

Suddenly, she throws her arms around my neck. “Oh, Choco! Thank you!” I give her hand a good lick, and she gives me a disgusted look that everyone laughs at. Quietly.

“Okay, we need to continue on if we ever want to get to Pennsylvania, or at least to the McKinley house. Then we can stop and restock our supplies. That will last us until we can restock again at Mr. Stevens’. Speaking of supplies, who’s hungry?” Pop asks. Every hand goes up, and I give a quiet yelp to agree, since I don’t have hands and I am using my paws for balance.

Mama chuckles, “Alright, then. We need to be somewhere hidden, though. I’d be fine going back behind those rocks, if all are in favor.”

“Ugh, not me! That ground was damp! I feel as though the seat of my pants took a bath in mud!” Joel grumbles.

Mama chuckles again, “They did. Now, unless anyone has any better idea, I suggest we go behind the rocks.”

When no one objects, Mama makes her way to the rocks, and I follow, assuming everyone was trailing behind me. My assumptions are correct when I glance back.

We all sit down, some on towels, some on the damp ground. The Walkers start to munch on some bread and something in a canister. They take long drinks of water and I suddenly start to feel parched. The cave water was only a small puddle. I can smell water somewhere, but it’s only a little bit. My nose tells me it’s a little to the right. I start walking. Wait, wait! Now it’s to the left, then straight ahead. I continue on, and in about two minutes, I find a small puddle of water. I lap it all up and feel better. But I’m hungry now. Time to scope out some squirrel! That is, if they’re still around. It’s pretty late right now. I’m not sure when the sun will come up. 

Wait, I smell something interesting. Hmm. I follow it. It’s some sort of animal, but I can’t really tell. Wow, my nose has never failed me before. I continue sniffing until I see it. The animal is small, round, and mostly black. It does have a white stripe, though, which goes all the way from the tip of its pointy nose to the end of its fluffy tail. Aw! It’s kind of cute. But I must not be weak! You never know if this animal it dangerous! Maybe it has rabies and is waiting to sink its vile teeth into the Walkers! I start growling at it, just to scare it off. Huh. It perks up its tail. I growl some more. It seems to waddle away, but just as I’m about to leave, it sprays me with the most vile scent I’ve ever smelled! And my sense of smell is pretty strong! I can’t stop sneezing! That stupid, fat thing waddles off into the forest.

“Yeah, you better run, you vile creature! You better run real far!” I snarl.

The smell won’t leave! No matter what, I just can’t get it off! After trying for a few minutes, I decide there’s nothing I can do and trudge back to the Walkers.

Before I reach the rocks, I hear Joel say, “Mama! There’s a skunk nearby!”

Everyone lifts their heads and sniff. A disgusted look crawls onto each of their faces.

“We should probably leave. I don’t want to attract any unwanted animal attention, if y’all know what I mean.” Mama raises her eyebrow.

“But, Mama, Choco ain’t here yet! He just wandered off! We have to wait for him. He won’t be gone long!” Mara cries.

“He’s sniffed us out once, he can do it again. Don’t worry, that dog’ll come back.” Pop says in his deep tones.

Mara looks disappointed, but says nothing. I trot up quickly to reassure her.

“Oh, never mind!” Mara smiles. “He’s here.”

Joel grimaces, “Ugh, looks like he got sprayed! Apparently, Choco’s the skunky one.”

“Choco! Oh, well, you have to deal with it until we get to the McKinley’s house.” Mama rolls her eyes. “Surely they’ve got some tomato sauce.”

“Who’s the McKinley’s, again?” Joel asks.

“They’re a friendly English family who’ll help us restock on any supplies we need for our journey to Pennsylvania. What we have now won’t last us very much longer. And we certainly don’t have any soap for Choco.” Mama adds with a reproving glance at me.

Pop grunts, “There ain’t nothing we can do about it now. Hopefully, this won’t happen again, if Choco knows how to learn from his mistakes.” Pop directs at me. “C’mon, Walkers, this way, now.”

“But wait,” Mara asks, “I thought we were stopping at Mr. Stevens’ house for supplies. Not the McKinley’s.”

“We are, but we need to stop twice, because we can’t last on just one stop for supplies.” Mama answers. “Now, come along.”

Ugh, we continue trudging. You know something? I’m getting pretty sick of walking, now. How long does it take to get to Mr. Stevens? Or the McKinley’s? While I’m thinking about this, we come to a small clearing with hardly any trees. It was mainly tall, dry grass. I lie down and roll in it for a while, its slight warmth clashing with my chilled fur.

After an hour of walking, I smell another unfamiliar person. I decide growling is the best way to go, since it worked last time. I growl low and menacingly, so it will be obvious what I’m saying.

“Quick!” Mama hisses, “Everyone, hide! Choco smells someone!”

Everyone turns around in every direction, but the only thing we could hide in was the tall grass. The moonlight could illuminate us enough so that, if someone knew what they were looking for, they would spot us. A shiver went down my back, and it had nothing to do with the night chill.

After looking for no more than ten seconds, Pop motions for everyone to get down as low as they could and to gently crawl far enough from this area. Everyone gets down and army-crawls through the dry grass, moving swiftly but quietly.

Finally, Pop motions for us to stop. He lowers himself silently onto his stomach, and the others follow suit. I perk my ears up and hear two men off in the distance. I can tell the Walkers can hear them, too. Streams of tears are gushing from Mara’s eyes, but I didn’t have to look at her. I could smell her sorrow.

“Marcus! Keep searchin’. Curtis said he heard rustlin’ somewhere around here. They’re probably long gone already, but keep searching nonetheless!” A tall man in a grey suit shouts. His shifty eyes keep going back and forth. He was probably about thirty-five yards away. I glance at Mama and see that her eyes are closed and her mouth is moving. Pop taps her shoulder and motions to keep crawling as silently as possible. A lightning bolt of panic hit my heart as I realize that this is our only option, with a very small chance of success. After all, the man is so close! And we can’t go perfectly silent! I just know he’ll either hear us, or see the grass rustling. I see Pop start to shuffle forward, them Mama following pursuit. Joel and Mara start crawling, and I slide forward on my belly.

“Wait!” The man says urgently. “I heard something!”

Everyone stops dead in their tracks as the man starts to walk slowly toward us. Mama shuts her eyes tight, while Mara opens them wide.

A million possibilities are running through my head, right now. How can I help? Am I breathing too loud? Should I attack the man? No, there are multiple men. Wait! An idea takes shape in my brain. I pop up suddenly, and bark.

“What the-?” The man swears unprintably. Pop looks at me with a crazed urgency, and it looks like he’s about to grab my muzzle and drag me down. I quickly dash away before he can ruin my plan. I run up to the man and start jumping up on his knees. I’m trying my best to look friendly and not at all harmless.

“That stupid, worthless Curtis! I swear he can’t get anything right! It was just a mangy, stray dog! Ugh! And the dog smells like skunk, too! I thought I caught a whiff of skunk, earlier!” The man grouches. “Go on, git, you useless mutt!”

Someone interrupts, “Wait a minute, Karl! Wait a minute!”

“What do you want, dang it? My night is already bad, don’t make it worse!”

“Didn’t the boss say something about getting a new tracking dog? And this little fella’ looks like he’s a lab or something. Those are some expensive dogs, ya know?”

“Yeah, so?” Karl growled. I could tell he was a bit on the dim side. “What are you saying, Marcus?”

Marcus rolled his eyes, “Soooooo-“he draws out the ‘o’ for emphasis, “we could take the dog back to the boss and get some sort of reward! Maybe he’ll pay us- in cash!”

Uh-oh. This is not going how I wanted the plan to work out. I’m supposed to stay with the Walkers! I need to protect them! I start to back away, whimpering. Maybe pretending like I’m a weak dog will change their mind. But they don’t seem to notice.

Karl scratched his chin, “Alright, but if the boss doesn’t want ‘im, I’m saying it was all your idea.”

“Fine by me. Grab him.”

Gulp. I try to lunge away, but Karl grabs my collar and hoists me up. He grins nastily at me, and I catch Marcus behind him smirking.

“He’ll be a hefty price, eh?” Karl says while walking in the direction opposite to the Walkers. I roll my eyes. Here we go again.