stop.

Chapter V

Steele looked down at the dead dog at his feet.

“Should’ve told me the first time I asked,” Steele said.

He’d been walking down the streets of Nome, when another dog saw him and recognized him. The dog ran off. Steele chased him into the barn he stood in now. Steele asked him where Balto lived now. He’d gone, first, to Balto’s boat, but the wolf dog wasn’t there, so Steele had come to Nome to find him. Then he ran into this dog. At first the dog wouldn’t tell him anything, but several minutes, and wounds later, he came around and told Steele about Roger’s new cabin. It was unfortunate that he’d died. It would make Steele’s stay here more…. difficult. He looked at the dog. Steele didn’t really feel sorry for him, he’d made the decision. It was amazing to him, how much life was worth. He’d just realized it meant nothing. It was so fragile, could be taken away so easily.

He smiled.

“Thanks for the help,” he told the corpse as he left the barn.

Jenna woke up again, she’d had that same dream. She was almost scared now. Twice in one night, it had to mean something, but what? She yawned as she got up. She couldn’t go back to sleep, the unpleasant images just kept popping back into her head. The wind howled as it whipped around the cabin walls. It was snowing so hard outside hat she couldn’t see the fence. She couldn’t remember it ever snowing this hard. She was extremely worried about Balto and the whole team. They couldn’t have gotten too far in this. Maybe they’d turn back. Then she remembered her dream and didn’t want them to turn back.

She kept wondering who the dog was that leapt at her in the final stages of the dream. The silhouette looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. She walked back over to her bed and laid down. It’d been a long time since she’d slept alone, the bed felt huge. She felt unprotected and vulnerable with out Balto’s mollifying presence there beside her. She was used to it being a bit of a tight fit, because the bed wasn’t quite big enough for two, but they made it work. She closed her eyes and slipped into a troubled sleep….

Steele struggled through the storm, trying to make it to Roger’s cabin. It was cold, but he was warmed from inside, by thoughts of revenge. He didn’t even feel the cold. He was going to kill Balto, but not outright. The wolf dog would beg for death, by the time Steele was done with him. If Balto and Jenna were still together, maybe he’d kill her first…

No, Steele would give Jenna a second chance, though after he killed Balto, Jenna would probably hate him.

“Oh well, he thought, if she does, she does…. there are other females”

. He stopped walking and thought about it. She was actually the cause of all of his problems. Balto was just an annoying idiot who happened to be in the right place at the right time.

He shut his eyes and thought about what it would look like., that now familiar look they gave him just before they died when they realized they were going to die, then the life draining out of her lithe, little body. He shivered at the thought, it was pure ecstasy, but Balto would come first. He’d waited too long for this. Something had kept him from doing it before, but whatever it was, was gone.

“Balto will die,” he thought. Then he continued through the storm.

Chapter VI

Balto stopped running as the team pulled up to the mail office in Applewood.

“We’re going to stay here for the night,” Roger said, as he unhooked the guidelines from their harnesses.

“I’m staying here, but you guys can stay in this barn,” He led them across the street to a barn.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he said. “If this storm let’s up,” he added.

He walked back across the street where he was let into the mail house. Balto looked around and saw an old dog in the corner all alone. Balto walked up to him.

“Some storm we’re having, huh?” Balto said. “That it is,” the old dog said, nodding his head, “that it is. You just here for the night?”

“Yeah,” Balto said, “We’re on a mail run.”

“I’d get out of here as soon as I could, if I were you.” The old dog said.

“And why is that?” Balto asked.

“There’s a murderer loose in Applegate,” the dog replied, “yep two murders in the same day.”

“Murders?” Balto asked.

“Yeah,” the old dog continued, “Jingle and Steele, you probably don’t know either of them…”

Balto stopped him. “Woah, wait a minute, Steele? Yeah I know him. He lives here?”

“He did,” the old dog said. “He and Jingle were together, if you know what I mean. Everyone knew it, anyway today she turned up dead at her home. She was obviously killed by a fellow canine. We didn’t know who did it, but it was savage. Then this evening Shep found Kyle’s body on the bottom floor of Jingle’s home, then Steele just up and disappears. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a love triangle collapsing to me.”

“Yeah,” Balto said quietly, “it does. You say he’s gone?”

“Yeah can’t find hide nor hair of him anywhere in Applegate,” the dog said.

“Where is this Shep?” Balto asked.

“He’s our local police dog,” the dog said, “he lives with his owner about two blocks down.

” Do you think he might’ve seen anything?” Balto asked.

“Maybe,” said the old dog, “but he didn’t say anything about it.”

“Well I’m going to go talk to him, what’s the house look like?”

“It’s red, a wooden home with a white car out front, you can’t miss it.”

“Alright, thanks.”

The old dog nodded at him. Balto walked back over to Max, Flash, and the rest of the team.

“I’m going to go talk to a police dog named Shep,” Balto said.

“In this weather?” Max asked, “why?”

“Steele has disappeared. He may have killed two dogs here today and now he’s gone. I…. I think I might know where he’s headed.”

“Wait,” Flash said, “who’s Steele?”

Kaltag jumped in then. “He’s bad news,” he said.

“Yeah,” Nikki chimed in, “he tried to kill Balto once.

“Yeah,” Balto said, “we don’t get along very well.”

“You don’t think he’s....”

Balto finished Max’s sentence for her, “headed for Nome? Yeah I do. We banished him after I got back, he hasn’t been back since. He’s got to still be mad about that. I’m kinda worried because one of the things we clashed on was Jenna. He really liked her, and if he’s already killed… he might do it again. Jenna could be in grave danger, but I don’t want to over react, so I’m going to talk to Shep before I do anything.”

“That might be a good idea,” Max said, “good luck.”

Balto then left the barn and fought his way toward Shep’s home.

It didn’t take Balto long to reach Shep’s home. He scratched on the door and heard a deep voice from the other side say “come in.” Balto entered through the doggie door in the front door. He walked over to an older looking German Shepard.

“I guess you’re Shep,” Balto said.

“That’s me,” the german shepard said, “why are you out in this storm?”

“I was wondering if you saw anything when you discovered Kyle’s body.”

“Who are you?” Shep asked.

“I’m Balto,” Balto began.

“Oh Balto, you know you’re famous?”

“No,” Balto said, “I didn’t.”

“You are,” Shep said, “every dog in Alaska probably knows your name.”

“Really,” Balto said “it wasn’t that big a deal, I just did what was necessary.”

“And saved an entire town,” Shep said, “You know I wouldn’t be surprised if they made a statue of you someday.”

“Come on now,” Balto said, “that’s a little ridiculous, who would want a statue of themselves hanging around forever.”

“Still..” Shep began.

“Look Shep,” Balto said, “I don’t mean to hurt you or anything, but I really need to know.”

“Know what?” Shep asked. Balto sighed. “When you found Kyle’s body.” “

Oh that,” Shep said, “Yeah I saw it all. Steele murdered Kyle, in cold blood, don’t even know why.”

What were you doing there?” Balto asked. ‘

Kyle had told me to meet him there, as he had a pretty good idea of who’d killed Jingle, I can only assume he meant Steele, since he wound up dead, I’d guess that he was right, anyway Steele attacked him just as I got there, he didn’t see me.”

“You just stood there and let Steele kill him? What kind of a police dog are you?”

“A retired one,” Shep said, sounding a little offended. “He’d have killed me, there’s no way I could fight him, now”

“Okay,” Balto said, “I appolagise I should’ve said that different.”

“That’s okay,” Shep said. “So you’re sure it was Steele?” Balto asked.

“Most definitely,” Shep said.

“Thank you for your