2017-11-12 - spike - The New Shop 40

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 40
Date: 12 November 2017

Chapter 40
I woke up to a sound. Something I’d grown unfamiliar with. That must’ve been what snapped me awake so quickly.

It was a subtle sound. Paws. Padding around the shelter and whatever it was, it sounded big. I got up out of the pile of leaves and looked out.

Then I saw it. Oh my god it looked big. Beautiful too of course. I’d always preferred the dogs that had a wolfish look about them like German Shepherds or Huskies, but this… This was the real thing.

It wasn’t reacting in a hostile manner right now so I held off on the freeze. It approached, looked me up and down, clearly never having seen or smelt anything like me before. I wondered if I even had a smell.

Then, an idea. I looked a little doggish, that was the point. How would it react if I submitted? I’d seen enough nature documentaries. I let the fear take me a little to get the tail between my legs, collapsed onto my side and held my legs in the air.

The wolf crossed the threshold into the shelter, sniffed me and let out a yelp of pain. It backed away in shock, it sank onto its belly, its paws attempting to rub whatever was causing the pain from its nose, then it turned and bolted, whimpering into the darkness.

Oh god, that was the closest I’d ever seen anyone get to a wild wolf. I was shaking a little when I curled up in my bed again. What the hell happened? Might’ve ended up curled up with a nice warm pillow if it’d accepted me.

It took a while but I fell asleep again.

Daylight woke me the next time.

I padded out and looked at the sky, this time, overcast. It looked like it might rain and judging by the light it might be a bad one.

I circled to locate the others, only one of them had moved from the night before and that was quite a distance away. I bolted towards the next shelter in the hope of beating the weather.

Half way there, as far as I could tell, the rain came. It was a torrent, the heaviest rain I’d seen in a long time. A rain that even made seeing things in the distance difficult. As had happened in Queens, at first, it was welcome. I increased my pace in the hope of keeping myself warm from the exercise before it stopped being a welcome cool and started being an unwelcome chill.

My sensations of the other dogs didn’t change. All of them appeared to have taken shelter from the oncoming downpour. One thing that hadn’t occurred to me before however… I wasn’t getting wet. Oh, a few droplets gathered but they ran off quickly enough. Nothing was soaking through. The suits were utterly water repellent. One minute after the rain ended or I took shelter, I’d be dry as a bone again.

It was another hour or so before I came across the next shelter. I hunkered down for the day until the rain ended but it didn’t let up for the rest of the day.
* * * * *
Daylight again. A very stormy night gave way to a sunrise that rivalled those of the great masters. The clouds were still present but the rain had stopped and it was warm.

I resumed the hunt.

Three more dogs chased down and frozen that morning, another good few miles closer to the finish line. By the end of the day, I knew, one of those dogs would be utterly out of reach for me. It was travelling at the very edge of my perception towards the finish well away from the most direct path.

I just hoped slasher was concentrating on that one because otherwise, it’d win unopposed. I determined to concentrate on the others.

I was ahead of some again, on about the same course. Whether it was two or five I couldn’t tell, their signals all identical apart from direction and distance and when the direction was the same…

I was just passing a lake when I had an idea… A little non-dog thinking…

Electromagnetic waves didn’t react quite as you’d expect when crossing boundaries. They bent, refracted, got attenuated and after my experience in the storm…

I backed into the reed bed until the water was up to my muzzle making sure the tracker was well below the waterline. Again, no water penetrated and I adjusted to the temperature quickly enough. Almost better than a dry suit.

I’m not sure how long I waited with only my goggles and nose poking out of the water before I saw them. Two of them walking together and they were walking with confidence. They hadn’t detected me yet even though they were only twenty feet from me.

One of them froze. He circled to find my location and looked out over the lake in completely the wrong direction. I could imagine what was going through its head.

“How the hell can he be a hundred feet out there? In the middle of a lake?”

As they passed, I pounced. The first one froze in surprise allowing an easy tail pull. The other bolted.

I chased him down, launched myself at him, he zagged, I hit the ground running and continued the chase. Oh god what a chase that was.

I don’t know how far I ran but I’d never felt so exhilarated. It might’ve been another mile or two before I noticed him slowing leading to another kill.

I sprinted forward towards the finish line again to seek out my next victim.
* * * * *
I circled to sense their locations, I waited again.

A few were getting near but they were all moving very slowly this time. Very soon I’d need to seek out shelter for the night again if none made their appearance.

Unfortunately, this time, none did.

I broke cover and bolted another few miles closer to the finish line and found another shelter. Another feed. This time, a small mountain creek was nearby so I drank again and settled down for the night.

Another rain storm awoke me early that morning. I lay there looking at the miserable weather but it broke before noon so I continued on my hunt soon after.

I scrambled up to the top of a hill to get a good lay of the land and there, about five miles ahead, a flat well trodden path, a white ribbon tied between two trees, the 4x4 we’d been dropped off in and a van.

The finish line was so close? I’d travelled over forty-five miles?

I padded down to the final five mile straight and found a good hiding place about a mile from the finish. At the sight of that line a few might throw caution to the wind and make a run for it. I could get them then.

A poison ivy bush this time, well concealed, a good view all around, I waited.

A few were nearing me. At this concentration it was difficult to tell how many but the most were making a direct line for it. A few moved toward that line from other directions.

Then I saw them… Three of them, sprinting towards that line right down the straight. Right past me. They clearly didn’t see a need to care about their senses anymore. I could understand their tactics. Strength in numbers. I may get one but which one? The others would undoubtedly make it.

The moment the three had passed, I bolted. Realising their danger they increased their pace. I locked onto the rear one and put every ounce I had remaining into catching him.

Then, up ahead, another broke cover. One that looked a little different from the rest. It was a good two hundred yards ahead of the pack. Sleazy was going to get first place!

God, I never would’ve expected that.

I put such things to one side. Only one thing mattered now. Catching as many of these as I could. I ignored Sleazy and continued in my pursuit, gaining foot by foot until finally, I launched myself at him.

Just as I was about to grasp his tail in my jaws, something barrelled into me, knocking me to one side. We rolled together for a minute. The dog obviously attempting to keep me down but finally, a snap. A pull.

I extricated myself from the mess and stared. Sleazy? But… what the fuck! They couldn’t’ve allowed him back onto the field to interfere after he crossed the line… Could they?

I pulled myself together as another couple of dogs bolted past. The three who I’d been chasing had just crossed the finish line.

I took chase, catching the first, but missing the second.

As he crossed the finish line, my sense of him vanished soon after. The other three were gone too. Clearly their trackers had been removed and turned off.

As I circled, another broke cover and crossed the line before I could even react. The rest weren’t in my sensing range either. They were all within one hundred feet of me, hiding?

I bolted towards the line myself. If they were going to play that game I was going to be guarding that line with my life. None of them were getting past me.

Fifty feet from the line, I stopped, turned, and faced the straight. Still none of them were in range. They must’ve been matching my movements as I had the other day. They were learning.

I heard a whistle and looked back. Another had crossed the line behind me. Shit!

My distraction caused another to break cover but this one, I bolted at.

Ten feet from the line, tail pull, it collapsed, skidding to a halt with its nose one foot from crossing the line.

I started stalking, my normal senses on high alert.

There. That bush just swayed. No bird could make it move that much. I ran at it.

Seeing his danger, the dog that’d disturbed it bolted away from the finish line. One hundred feet, another yank. Two more whistles. I turned to see two more had crossed.

I’m not sure if I’d got my count right but that meant three frozen. One more out there… Somewhere.

Then, I saw him, but he wasn’t alone. He was running, the other dog running towards him at an angle. The two collided, Slasher grabbed his tail and padded to the finish line. I joined him.

“Tyson. Slasher. Heal.”

I padded over and sat beside the sarge, Slasher did the same.

“As each of these unfreezes, let them cross. You’ve done your jobs.”

We watched as Sleazy unfroze, padded to the finish line and crossed. Each of the others crossed in the order they’d been frozen and the event was deemed a resounding success.

“That was fucking amazing. I’ve only seen some of the action from the ground, I can’t wait to see the whole event!” The sarge was positively glowing with pride. He reached down to pet me.

Oh shit. The wolf… I backed away before he could touch me.

“What is it boy?”

I shook my head, looked around… The earth was loose enough here. I picked up a stick and started writing.

“Wolf. Sniff. Yelp. Pain. Poison Oak.”

“Wolf? You got that close to one?”

I nodded.

“Thanks for the warning, boy. Looks like all the dogs might need a decontamination before removal from the suits.”

I nodded again.

“It’s nearly sunset, boys. How would you like to spend one final night in the wilderness, in those shelters? We’ll return in the morning.”

Oh god! Yes! I nodded.

All the other dogs nodded too.

“Go on then. You can share now the competition’s over too. Imagine that’ll make it warmer.”

I nudged Slasher, nodded towards one of the shelters and we left together.