smashed out the only two windows that remained and his bathroom mirror. Basically, he made an even bigger mess than the one that was already there. Once finished, he sat down on the toilet, with his pants still up, put his hands over his face, and wept quietly.
"Why?" he thought to himself. "Why the hell did this have to happen to me?"
Still clutching the bottle, he went back to the liquor cabinet, put the booze away, and walked outside. At which point, he caught a glimpse of the animal hospital and the huge crowd that was gathering in front of it.
"Boy," he said to himself. "You know somebody important is in there when the whole town comes to a stop to watch."
Jenna couldn't stand waiting in the animal hospital any longer waiting for Balto to come out. While no one was looking, she snuck out through a window to first use the lavatory, and then headed for the town church. There, she hoped for some alone time. The door was open, so she walked inside. Not seeing anybody else, she found a seat, climbed up on it, sat, and prayed to herself. She was hoping that someone would hear her and help Balto make it through his operation.
As Jenna got up to leave, she noticed a familiar figure several rows in front of her. It was Mika. There was no mistakingly who that leather jacket and blonde mullet belonged to.
Mika had come straight here after his drunken rage. He, too, was hoping to find some relief following David's death and the ensuing rampage he just went on. The look on his face told Jenna that something was wrong. Wondering what it could be, she walked over to see him.
"Hi, Mika," said Jenna.
"Oh, hi, Jenna," said Mika. His voice was noticeably depressed from both the alcohol and his recent loss.
"Are you okay?" Jenna asked.
"I've been better," replied Mika. His almost started crying.
"Mika, what's wrong?" asked Jenna, sounding very concerned.
Mika cleared his throat and wiped his eyes before answering. His voice sounded very choked up as he spoke. He finally said, "David died."
Jenna was speechless.
"What happened?" she eventually asked.
"He was stabbed in the chest by a bayonet," Mika replied, still choked up. "It punctured the left ventricle of his heart, and he lost a ton of blood." Mika then pointed to that part of his own heart to show Jenna exactly where David had been stabbed.
"My god!" said Jenna, who was in total shock over what she just heard. "How are his family holding up?"
"Oh, they're really hurting," Mika responded.
Jenna then smelled something odd. It was clearly coming from Mika's breath. The smell of booze was prevalent in the immediate area.
"Uh, Mika?" Jenna asked. "Are you drunk?"
"Just buzzed," Mika replied. "After David's death, I went home to inspect the place. I then had quite a few swigs of vodka and went crazy. I smashed out two windows and my bathroom mirror in a drunken rage."
Mika had never been drunk before, let alone buzzed. Nor had he ever gone crazy and destroyed anything because of it. But as the saying goes, there's a first time for everything.
"I'm so sorry for David, Mika," said Jenna comfortingly as she put her front paws around the Finn and hugged him.
"Me too, Jenna," Mika added as he hugged her back. "How's Balto doing?"
"I don't know," Jenna replied. "He hasn't come out of surgery yet."
"How are the kids holding up?" Mika asked.
"They're hanging in there," Jenna responded. "Well, the boys are, anyway. The girls are very upset."
"I don't blame them," added Mika. "How's Rosy handling this?"
"She's pretty upset, too," Jenna replied.
"What about the other dogs?" Mika asked. "Any of them faring any better?"
"Most of them have already been treated and released," Jenna responded. "Of course, most of them suffered only minor injuries."
This caught Mika by surprise. With all the bullets and shrapnel flying around, it was amazing to him that the number of those with serious injuries wasn't higher than what if actually was. Even Jenna noticed that Mika wasn't seriously injured.
"How come you weren't hurt in that battle?" Jenna asked puzzled.
"Actually, I did trip and bruise my left elbow," Mika responded. He then took off his jacket, rolled up the sleeve on his black shirt and showed the black and blue on his left elbow. "That happened while I was being hauled away to be executed by the extremists. One of them pushed me down with his rifle and I landed on that elbow. Actually, it hit a rock upon impact with the ground. I just haven't been able to get a doctor to take a look at it. It really hurts when I try to bend it." He grimaced in pain as he tried to demonstrate. "But right now, the hospital is overrun with patients, so I can't get in to get my elbow checked by a doctor.
It was a minor bruise, but the mark was clearly visible.
"At least one of you two survived the battle," said Jenna.
By "you two", she meant Mika and David.
"Yep," added Mika. "I'm not sure what would have happened if both of us had been killed."
Mika then looked down at his Tag Heuer watch on his left wrist. It was exactly 6:00 PM.
"Do you think Balto's operation is done by now?" Mika asked.
"I sure hope so," replied Jenna.
"Come on," said Mika as he got up. "Let's go see how he's doing."
With that, the Finn and the husky walked out of the church and back toward the vet. On the back, Mika was stopped by somebody he didn't recognize.
"Mika Kykalisko?" the stranger asked.
"Yeah, that's me. What do you want?" Mika asked.
"I just got the results back from your case related to the scuffle in the alley two months ago," replied the stranger. "With all the evidence gathered, it was deemed that you were indeed acting out of self-defense and out of defense for your brother. Congratulations, you've been cleared of all charges."
"Oh, thank God!" Mika said sounding very relieved. "You just made my day, sir."
"The names Thomas, Mika," said Thomas. "And you're welcome."
Mika took off toward the animal hospital, pumping his fists in delight.
Jenna went in through the front door of the animal hospital, somehow making it past the crowd that had assembled in front of it that was waiting for word on Balto's condition. Somehow, Mika also got in, even though the only ones technically allowed in there were the owners of the dogs that were in there. Once inside, Mika found a chair to sit in and crashed out. He was drop dead tired. And who could blame him. Jenna had resumed her position right outside the door to the operating room where Balto was being worked on. But she was quickly thumped out of the way by one of the doctors who had to make a pit stop. Eventually, she sat down with Rosy and her parents.
Meanwhile, in the operating room, the doctors found that the only way to remove the bullet was to chip away at the ribcage to work it free. It was in too deep to be just pulled out. Balto was under an anesthetic, so he didn't feel any pain. Besides, the bones would heel anyway.
Eventually, enough clearance had been made in order to safely remove the bullet from Balto's ribcage. The next step in the procedure was for the surgeon to take a pair of tweezers and carefully remove the bullet. This was done successfully. The problem was that the blood vessel that had been punctured had started to leak rapidly. A bandage was quickly put over the wound. However, something else was going wrong.
"Pulse is dropping!" said one of the doctors, noticing that Balto's pulse was on the plunge.
Immediately, the bandage was taking off to diagnose the problem. It was revealed that the punctured blood vessel was starting to clot on the inside. This could spell trouble. The tool of choice to remove it was an even smaller pair of tweezers that could slip into the tiny gap. Next, the clot had to be found. Which it was. Right on the inside wall of the vessel.
Outside the doorway, Jenna overheard the sudden turn for the worse and got very worried and upset.
"Come on, hang in there, Balto!" she thought to herself.
Her cries woke Mika up. He couldn't miss who was making them. And he couldn't help but get worried himself. Mika then went back to sleep, trying not to worry so much.
A fresh bandage was readied to prevent further blood loss upon removing the clot. But removing the clot itself came first. The surgeon who went in with the tweezers had trouble removing it because it had somehow managed to adhere itself to the wall of the vein rather strongly.
"Steady, steady," the head surgeon advised his assistant who was removing the clot. Or at least attempting to remove it.
"Got it!" exclaimed the assistant lightly as he pulled it out.
"Blood pressure stabilizing," said the lead doctor.
The bandage was quickly put in place and the bleeding slowed down. Balto was eventually taken out from under the anesthesia. His emergence, however,
was slower than usual. This was also worry-some for the doctors. If Balto didn't wake up within a certain amount of time within being taken off the knockout stuff, he might never wake up at all.
When his blood pressure did stabilize, it had dropped to a dangerously low level. A minute passed and Balto showed no signs of waking up.
Jenna heard about this and really started to panic.
"Oh, no," she said to herself.
"What's wrong, Mom?" asked Dingo. "Is Dad okay?"
"He's not waking up," Jenna replied. She started crying again. And again, Mika was woken up by the noise. He knew that something was really wrong this time.
One of the doctors came out and asked Balto's former race musher if he knew of Balto having any allergies or some kind of condition that might be the cause as to why he was taking so long to wake up. He knew of nothing that might be the cause. None of the others present who knew him well enough knew what the reason behind his slow awakening might
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