out.

The other man smiled. “Yeah, it sure is. Haven’t seen it this cold in almost two years.”

Luke nodded and rubbed his gloved hands together.

Luke’s hands went into the pockets of his jacket, and came out with a slim metal case and a book of matches.

Luke opened the case, withdrew a small cigarette, and struck one of the matches.

He pulled in a small amount of the smoke, and exhaled it into the cool night air.

“You got dogs, right Charles?”

The man nodded. “Yeah, why?”

Jason gently pushed the grate open and stuck his head through the opening in the wall, as the two men sat down on the bench above him.

Luke exhaled some more smoke and took the cigarette from his lips.

“The strangest thing happened the other night, never seen anything like it.”

Luke replaced his cigarette. “I was sleeping, it was real late, and I heard something crash in the kitchen. I was getting up, when I heard all this growling and barking, and then more crashes, sounded like the damn walls was getting tore down.”

“My goodness.” Charles said. “What the devil was it?”

“It was a dog.” Luke said, exhaling some more of the smoke. “A dog had broken through my kitchen window and attacked Balto.”

“Good heavens.” Charles said. “Well, what did you do?”

“I shot the darned thing.” Luke said. “Hit it pretty decent, though with a forty-five, just about any hit on a dog is a kill.”

Luke exhaled some more of the smoke. “He was dead before he hit the floor anyway.”

‘Balto alright?” Charles asked.

Luke nodded. “He was a little bummed up, but he’ll be alright.”

Luke exhaled more of the smoke and noticed that the bright orange end of the cigarette was dangerously close to burning his gloved finger.

He flicked the cigarette away and it hissed as the snow extinguished the flame.

“Strange thing is I could’ve sworn I’d seen that dog somewhere before.” Luke said.

“What did he look like?” Charles asked.

“He was brown and… and kind of looked like Balto, but he didn’t have the rough wolf look about ‘im.”

“Sounds like the dog that used to hang around here.” Charles said. “Used to see him come and go with this golden dog and some pups. Haven’t seen ‘im the past few days, but… but I don’t think that was him, my kids have played with him before, he never seemed violent.”

Jason gasped and pulled his head quickly inside.

He didn’t stay to hear the rest of the two men’s conversation.

Jason walked quickly back through the tunnels, and emerged back into the room in which his mother still slept soundly.

As he looked at her, Jason became increasingly more and more angry.

“Why did you lie to me?” Jason thought.

Jason turned and ran from the room, toward the forest.

He didn’t think, didn’t stop, didn’t even slow up, just ran. He ran harder than he had even run before, trying desperately to outrun the possibilities that were racing through his mind.

Chapter 10:

As Saba walked into Nome, she saw a brown dog hightailing it out of town.

“Wonder what’s wrong with him.” Saba thought.

She continued walking until she had entered the outskirts.

She used to feel scared when she even came close to these abandoned buildings, but now she carried herself with the confidence that she could take care of herself if trouble reared it’s ugly head.

“Hey there.”

The voice stopped Saba cold.

She turned and saw a gray dog standing in the middle of the street.

Saba shook her head and laughed.

“Believe me, you don’t want to even try.”

The dog smiled and started toward her.

Something about the confidence he had, even though he was alone, made Saba uneasy.

“What’s your name.” he said.

“None of your business.” Saba said.

The dog grinned. “Oh I’m making you my business.”

Saba fought down the urge to tear out the dog’s throat and gritted her teeth.

“Just try it buddy.” She said. “I can take you.

“Oh yeah?” The dog said.

Saba stared straight into the dog’s gray eyes. “Yeah.”

The dog smiled.

Saba heard growling behind her and turned.

“Stupid me.” She thought. “I focused too much on the central threat. I let him get behind me. That’s basic hunting strategy.”

There was a black dog pacing the street behind her, growling loudly.

“How about us?” The gray dog said.

Saba narrowed her eyes, but remained confident in her ability to defend herself.

“Why don’t you come play with us?” The gray dog said. “I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”

Two more dogs, a brown one on her left and a golden one on her right, came out from under the run down buildings to either side of Saba.

Saba counted her aggressors mentally.

“…four.” She thought. “Can I take four?”

The dogs started to circle her, and the gray dog got nearer to her with each step until he was almost touching her.

“What do you say?” He asked putting his paw on Saba’s face.

Saba knew that this was the best time to act, that there wouldn’t be any other time.

She hit the gray dog in the side of the head and sent him sprawling.

She heard a bark from behind her and spun around just as the black dog collided with her.

The two rolled around on the ground and Saba managed to come up on top.

She hit the dog in the face, but he snapped out and closed his jaws over her left foreleg, pulling it out from under her.

Saba fell on top of him, and he tried to bite her neck, but Saba reared up and his teeth snapped shut inches from her white fur.

The gray dog had recovered by this time and walked up behind her.

Saba had a pretty good idea of what his intentions were.

“Oh hell no…” Saba thought.

She hit the black dog in the face and spun around, snapping at the blur that was the gray dog.

She heard a yelp and tasted a salty liquid in her mouth. “YES!” She thought.

Then her spin brought her nose to nose with the black dog, who hit her in the face.

Saba fell backwards and just lay there.

The black dog had hit her hard, and her vision was spinning.

The black dog walked slowly over to her.

“I’ve got to get up.” Saba thought. “GET UP!”

She spun around and came up on her paws, surprising the black dog, who caught a paw to the face, then another, and another.

Saba walked him across the street and finally her last hit through him threw the basement window of one of the houses.

From the crashes that resonated out of the broken window, the black dog wouldn’t be hurting her anytime soon.

The brown dog ran at her and jumped on her back.

Saba kicked him off and reared up on her back legs, dropping her paw, with all her weight, on the dog’s exposed throat.

Saba heard a dull snap and the dog tried to yelp, but it came out as more of a gurgle.

Knowing he was finished, Saba turned to see the golden dog running away.

“That’s right.” She thought jubilantly. “The new Saba’s in town!”

She heard a whimpering behind her and turned to see the gray dog rubbing his face in the snow.

Anger consumed Saba and she walked over to him.

“Hey buddy.” Saba said.

The gray dog looked up and Saba hit him. She hit him, and hit him, and hit him.

Finally the gray dog raised his paw and blocked Saba’s strike.

He looked into Saba’s eyes.

“Please…” He said.

Saba’s anger slowly evaporated and she dropped her paw.

The gray dog stood with some effort. His face was a mess, and he had a fairly bad limp on his right foreleg.

Saba stepped in front of him, and he cowered. “Don’t ever harm another female again, or so help me…” She paused. “What’s your name?”

“Dilan.” The dog replied.

“…or so help me Dilan I will break every bone in your freakin’ body. Understand?”

Dilan nodded and, as quickly as he could, made his way away from Saba.

Saba felt a stinging in her foreleg and looked down at it.

There was a pretty good amount of blood on her leg, coming from five small punctures about mid-way down it.

She could feel a trickle of blood running down her face and could taste it in her mouth.

“What a way to be welcomed back.” Saba thought.

She walked carefully out of the outskirts and headed for Kelly’s house.

It didn’t take long for Saba to reach the small wooded area behind Kelly’s house.

The route was still familiar to her, even after all this time. It was where she’d grown up.

Saba could’ve found her way to the familiar red bricked house in the dark if she’d had to.

Saba made her way carefully through the bushes and trees, headed for the safety of the darkened alleyways in front of her old home.

Saba was careful to conceal her presence as much as possible; being very careful about her white fur which shone like a lantern beam in the darkness of the artic night.

Saba felt a tear come to her eyes as she gazed at her old home… her old life.

She missed Kelly.

The girl meant far more to Saba than she probably knew. Saba and Kelly