I hurried into the tunnel, pricked by shining rays of light. Happiness was starting to brew inside me. It was difficult to refrain from barking, but I hadn’t forgotten about the park and the screamers. My ears were already up, and as could be guessed, so was my tail.

My feet sped up when I sighted the large skeleton of the loud honking-roaring creature called, The Trailer.

The wilderness had taken over it, covered it white skin in layers or vines and weed like a cot of fur, protecting its remains from the elements. However, the hunk of metal was starting to develop that unique smell of rot that only its kind had, that soil like odor of rust that normal living things didn’t emit.

The important thing was that weren’t any signs of a hu-man presence nearby, making it the perfect place to hide from them. No wonder Rusty had chosen this place as his hideout.

I was so close to them. I couldn’t control my excitement and let out a bark when I saw the giant husk of the creature. The half that was visible to me was closed, like a gate. Sounds echoed from inside and I knew I was at the right place. There was a response, bark, but it didn’t belong to Rusty.

The voice didn’t have that fierceness and the depth of age; it was shallow and weak in comparison to Rusty’s voice.

Confused and disgruntled, I slowed down in front of the closed gate instead of barging in like I wanted to. I was breathing hard and my heart was restless, both of which stopped for a second as I moved over to the missing side of the back door and peered into the creature’s empty stomach.

There were three of them inside, standing at the back of the scantly lit and decaying compartment, behind an intruding ray of light coming from a large rend in the roof. They watched me closely, already on their haunches, ready to rush at me if I moved.

They had short hair and muddy appearance. One was white with matted patches of black on his back. Another was brown from head to toe, with no other markings. And the last one was sitting on the right, refusing to place his left floor on the floor; it was most likely broken.

It was Bread and his lackeys and they were not happy to see me.

I took a step back, but then Bread growled and I stopped where I stood.

There used to be more of them, but between the cold winter and Cob’s vicious revenge, only these three, four including the one I had seen outside, remained.

Bread had a large piece of meat under his left paw —could only be from a large animal— and he was not sharing.

Pack shares, but they were not a pack. Cob had been thorough with me when sharing that knowledge. They were a group of similar-minded dogs, but they were not a pack.

Rusty? I called, even though I could see that he was not inside. But all the signs had pointed in this direction! Dimple’s mark on the gate and Rusty’s mark at the entrance to the tunnel proved that they had been here; but if so, where were they?

Where are my friends? I meekly asked.

They barred their fangs at me threateningly. I was so confused.

Only Rusty would have known about the hideout. No way had they found it without him!

Where are they? I growled back when they gave no response. Bread was taken aback, but there were three of them and they were adults, while I was not even a year old. The other two came to his defense, tails straight, ears up, and heads low.

I jumped at the first steps and barked at them, loud and beckoning. What did you do to Rusty and Dimple and Ginger?

Still, no answer, though they did grow aggressive. The stalemate continued until Bread had a change in his eyes. His tail dropped and he barked an order: Get him.

The one on his left charged at me and the one with a broken foot didn’t refrain from acting either. I turned on my heels and ran, back through the muddy tunnel pinned by the bright rays of light, and right toward the exit on the other side.

My heart thundered in my chest as a grave thought grew in my mind. They didn’t kill them, did they?

I hadn’t gone far when a dark shadow eclipsed the bright exit. The fourth member of their group was back, and he was not planning to wait and watch the chase. He rushed down the tunnel toward me, planning something horrific in his mind.

The dried, dead vines crunched under our feet, but there was no echo.

Fear had my heart in its grip, and no matter how much I wanted I couldn’t transform. The heat from my heart refused to flow down into my veins. My throat was drying up quickly. I wanted to stop, but I knew that would be a foolish thing to do. The white dog after me was right behind me. He would have dug his claws into my back had I stopped, and pulled me to the ground for the one coming down the tunnel to have a go at my throat.

There were threatening barks from Bread asking his lackeys to kill me, and I realized I had to do something different, something drastic.

Seeing no option, I closed my eyes and dashed left, straight into the wild growth of everything thorny and prickly that made the tunnel. The weed and shrubs weren’t enough to stop me, but the white-haired dog did stop.

They were confused as I pushed deeper into the dark thorny bushes. The thorns dug into my skin, hooked into my flesh, and gored bloody wounds all over my body, but I didn’t stop. There was pain, burning searing pain, but I refused to stop. I howled, obviously, but I had to get to the other side —hoping to find an exit.

I heard one of them whine and cry out in pain as he tried to follow me through the path that I was carving into the thicket. He obviously overestimated himself. I couldn’t find the others, but he was bound to be around. The bushes masked their scent and the pain made me uncomfortable, but I saw sunlight up ahead and forgot about them for a second.

I burst out of the thicket, dripping blood all over the place, and almost choked on the saliva sliding down my tongue from the relief.

I didn’t worry about the blood or the wounds. I knew I could heal them. Finally, I was out in the open. However, I was struck hard on the right side of my chest before I could enjoy the relief, and pinned to the ground.

It was them and they didn’t allow me to get back up. They pounced at me all at the same time.

One tried to get my neck, but I pulled my arms up and he took a hold of them. Another had my leg in his jaws and was trying to break the bone. It was painful, very painful and at one point I was howling. I was scared. I believed I was going to die. My heart pounded, but the warmth refused to budge. It stayed huddled inside my heart no matter how I urged.

It was anger and it wanted me to be angry, but I was scared and the two were very different emotions. I knew what I needed to do, but I couldn’t —I just couldn’t.

The one hounding my front legs finally got his jaw around my neck. A muffled groan escaped my throat as the pain erased my emotions for a second. I stared into his eyes. They were wide open and emotionless. There was no remorse in them or reason.

He clenched harder, and I couldn’t breathe. The others kept me pinned to the ground. Tears blurred my sight as he chocked me to the brink of death.

Then suddenly there was a roar and the ground shook. Bread barked once before the one who was chocking me released my neck and howled in pain. I saw blood turn his eyes red before he was lifted into the air and pulled away from me.

I was oblivious to reason, but I could breathe again. That mattered more to me than the supposed new threat that had appeared out of nowhere.

Then I heard the roar and the barks and finally saw the monster that stood over me. It was the screamer from the park, the one that had been eating its kind. I recognized the dead shin he wore. But it was no longer the weak scentless being that could barely walk. I had grown taller and bulkier.

Veins squirmed like worms all over its bare chest and face. Its skin had a grown darker. The worst of all was its eyes. They were blood red and watched the five of us with intense hatred and hunger.

And it smelled sweet —sweeter than how cob had smelled.

The scent, something happened to me when it entered my body. My heart started pounding, my eyes dilated. The warmth that had refused to move when I was dying, when I called it, rushed down my veins like a flood that couldn’t be stopped.

Blood rained on me as the monster tore the one named lefty into two and dug into his entrails. The warmth moved into my wounds, healing them before moving onward, getting into my muscles, strengthening me, and filling me with power. My sight started turning red, but I knew I couldn’t let it be. I couldn’t lose myself to the anger, not this time. Thankfully, I was not truly angry and far still clogged my veins. The redness stopped tinting my sight after a few seconds, after which it slowly started receding. The strength filling me started waning along with it, but it was a gradual process, and not an instantaneously one.

My eyes met with Bread's just before he turned around and fled. I rolled up to my feet. A whimper made me look back at the brown-haired dog with a broken foot. He laid flat on the ground, shivering with fear, refusing to move. He was staring at me. The heat boiled inside y heart when I saw the hope in his eyes.

DIE! I barked at him and rushed after Bread.

Fighting that thing made absolutely no sense to me. The screamer smelled strong, and I didn’t want to lose bread. He was the only chance I had of finding my pack, and whether they were still alive.

I chased him through the open path between the park fence and the thicket of wild bushes. He was already moving through the park and charging for the gate on the other side when I reached the end of the path.

The park itself was lifeless. No screamers roamed inside, because all of them had already been ripped to shreds by the one roarer that had coincidently saved my life.

I jumped over the fence as an angry, obsessive roar rang behind me, and cut through the park-like a bolt of lightning. I could not see any corpses in the grass, but I could smell the blood that had been spilled. Some of it marred my paws as I rushed through. I carried goosebumps over my back, fearing being chased by the bulky beast that had killed everyone in the park. For a second it seemed like I wouldn’t make it to the other side, but I successfully managed to cross through without any problem.

My heart was in turmoil when I found Bread slumped on the street right outside the park’s front gate. He looked far worse than me. His ears stood up straight in shock; He wasn’t expecting to see me alive. Well, tough luck. I jumped at him no different from a screamer attacking its prey for feeding.

He tried to pull back, but my nails dug into his back, and my weight pulled him to the ground. He howled familiarly from the pain, but I chomped down on his neck and cut off his voice before the roarer could hear him.

Where are they? I growled.

Panic grew in his eyes; his ears dropped. He knew he had no escape. The anger inside my heart started pushing into my veins again, and this time I could not stop it. I didn’t want to kill him, but my eyes were turning red again and I was growing ferocious. Bread whimpered at the sight of my transformation.

He struggled under me, but the spark of retaliation in him was all but stubbed at this point. I gripped his throat a bit harder and he lay still under me.

Where? I growled again, threatening to kill him.

I don’t know where they went. He barely wheezed out.

I tightened my grip around his neck, but his answer didn’t change. He really didn’t know? I wanted to tear his flesh so he would answer me, but there was a roar from the park and I had to let him go.

I didn’t kill him. I wanted to. My heart yearned to kill him and so did the voice. But I didn’t kill him. I let him go, stood up, and left.

My transformation slowly reversed as I hurried down the street, and I was back to normal by the time I made it to the building I was occupying. I was exhausted and hungry, but also mentally occupied. I knew of no other places where Rusty could have taken the others. I didn’t even know where to start.

I didn’t want to go to the roof and be there all alone. I missed Kanti and Rusty and Cob. I wished they were there with me, but the truth was sad, and my new home was cold and empty.

I glanced at the house that Kalki occupied. Its gate was still closed and inside was as silent as the streets. A whimper escaped my throat as I turned away from the house. I felt so lonely. However, I had only walked a few steps when there was a creak behind me and the gate opened a smudge.

I turned.

Kalki stood at the threshold. With one hand she tightly held the gate, and the other she had in front of her chest and clenched in a fist. She struggled to look at me but didn’t take her red eyes off me either. Tears had drawn two dark streams down her cheeks, and she looked so very exhausted.

She didn’t’ say anything and I didn’t move. In the end, she got on her knees and opened her other hand. A treat! My tail slowly wagged and a smile grew on her face.

Come here, boy. She called with a trembling voice, and my feet betrayed me like my tail. I knew the day would come, but and unlike what I thought I was not angry at them for making the decision.

I barked thrice as I rushed at her, and her eyes glowed with recognition.

Come to mommy. She called and I happily went into her arms with my long pink tongue lolling out of my mouth. I forcefully rubbed my head into her chest, raised my head, and licked her face, and she laughed nervously but laughed she did.

Then she hugged me tightly. I barked near her ear, but she didn’t let go. And then she started crying. I don’t understand hu-mans and their waterworks, but Kanti did it too sometimes when he was sad. Maybe it was a hu-man thing.

Cob had once told me that humans can’t bear isolation. They were pack animals. No wonder Kalki looked so haggard, even more than me.

Her sadness was contagious and caused my heart to beat in nervousness. The longer she cried the sadder I felt, and then I howled too because I also missed my friends. I missed Ginger and Rusty and Dimple, but most of all, I missed Kanti.

She pulled back from me when I howled and clamped my mouth shut.

Shush! She placed a finger at my lips and whistled. I smelled her finger and licked it; it tasted of roti, which caused my stomach to growl. She softly giggled in response. Then she flicked my nose and hurriedly pulled me behind her. Still, on her knees, she nervously peeked around the gate, before nodding her head and closing it.