Iron Mike (26 page)

Hershey

Hershey trotted along beside his human and Kari, his tail erect and his head held high, in spite of the painful injury to his front paw. He was lucky the monster didn’t actually step on him - that would have been a Bad thing for sure. Hershey could hear the “good dog” in both Mike and Kari’s voices while they admired his kill, and he was very rightfully proud of himself. He knew Mike’s bang stick brought the Bad Thing down, but it was Hershey’s snarly teeth that tore out the muscles in two of its legs.

Somehow, Hershey had known better than to attack its body, or even its arm appendages. The hide there was thicker than a rhinoceros’ butt. Hershey had never met a rhinoceros. Honestly, he really didn’t
want
to meet a rhinoceros, although he wouldn’t admit that to anyone, not even to his black lab friend. Hershey was the top dog, and as such, he had to be brave. When that three-legged thing attacked his human, Hershey had been very brave. He went in with vicious snarly teeth, and he used them to bite the creature mercilessly, feeling its shudders of pain as flesh and muscle tore. It was actually exciting, and, in its own way, kind of fun! Hershey didn’t hunt, but there was something deep in his blood that knew he should; he was meant to be a predator. Those instincts awakened with a vengeance when the Bad thing tried to attack his humans.

Mike and Kari bent over his kill, Mike pointing at its wounds and making words about them. Kari took out the little box she’d used earlier and clicked it, moving all the way around Hershey’s kill to see it from every angle. He walked proudly around with her, his tail high. Finally, they said the words to him, and he wriggled in joy, his whole back end moving with his wildly thumping tail.

“Good dog, Hershey. What a good, brave boy you were!” Kari exclaimed, and Mike held his head, touching their foreheads together as he said it, too.

Hershey’s heart could have burst with happiness! He had definitely fallen in love with Mike, and he could have stood there all day just eating up the praise. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to spare. After a few moments of allowing Hershey to bask in the glory, they headed back to their motorcycles. The puppy was struggling to get up onto the seat so she could make an escape onto the ground, but she hadn’t been successful. In her frustration, she peed on the leather seat of the sidecar where Hershey rode! Hershey wrinkled his nose in disgust, but neither of the humans noticed it, so he leapt up onto the seat and took his position as the top sidecar dog.

Mike drove fast like he did earlier in the morning, and it was wonderful! They caught up with the three large trucks, making sure to keep a long, safe distance behind them. Hershey would have liked to spend some time at the fourth truck that blew up – it had been hauling a lot of food, and most of it was still edible for dogs. At least, it smelled really good! Oh, well. Maybe his friend, the black lab, would find it. Hershey didn’t think the lab would have any trouble feeding its belly - he seemed very self-sufficient, and probably would have even been top dog at work, if Hershey wasn’t there.

The sun was high overhead when they finally stopped for a rest on the side of the roadway, pulling off onto a sandy, grassy dune. There was a long road in front of them that went straight out into the open water, for as far as Hershey could see. He knew instinctively the water would be deep and cold.

The puppy made little poops in the bottom of the sidecar. Kari took her out and let her walk in the sand for several minutes while Mike cleaned up the mess, but the puppy seemed to have already done all her business and just wanted to tug on Hershey’s ears.

Hershey was dying to go explore the shore of the huge waterway just beneath them, but Mike whistled for him every time he started to wander off. The delicious smell of salty dead things perfect for rolling on top of tantalized him, but he was a good dog so he stayed with his human. After all, he needed to set a good example for the annoying puppy. He didn’t think he’d get lucky enough for them to leave her behind somewhere, like they did her sister.

All of the jeeps and personal vehicles, and two of the three trucks they followed, went way out onto the bridge that went over the water. The third truck stopped and waited just a few hundred feet in. The roadway was clear of other cars and crashed vehicles – some were merely pushed out of the way by Big Jim Johnson’s tow truck, and some were pushed all the way over the side and into the water. Hershey didn’t like the idea of his human and Kari going out there on that long bridge, but he also knew he would have no choice but to go with them when they did. Humans decided where dogs went. That was the way it was.

Mike took one of the belts made out of canvas strapping. He looped it around the light pole and yanked on it with all of his strength several times. Hershey would have volunteered to gnaw through it for him, but he knew it would take a very long time to do that; besides, Mike seemed happy when the canvas didn’t tear. Hershey watched curiously, not quite understanding. The belt supported Kari’s butt and her waist, the two straps coming together around the side of the light pole. Kari adjusted her carbine over her shoulder and climbed about halfway up.

Mike bent down and looked Hershey in the eyes. “Hershey, stay,” he said firmly.

Hershey squirmed a bit uncomfortably. He knew what “stay” meant, but the tone of Mike’s voice was so serious, almost reprimanding. Had he been a bad dog?

“Watch the puppy,” Mike added more gently, pushing Hershey’s nose at the squirming nuisance. "Keep an eye on Butterball, okay, buddy?” Hershey looked up at Mike balefully. Mike thought for a moment, then scrounged in one of the backpacks and came out with a small stuffed toy. He let Hershey sniff it, and put it close to the puppy’s nose as well. The puppy immediately latched onto
Hershey
’
s
toy with a baby growl. With a put-upon sigh, Hershey jumped back into the sidecar, resigned to the task of babysitting and letting the bothersome pup gnaw on his new toy while the humans sat on top of a tall pole. Humans were definitely strange!

Mike talked into one of the little box things he had taken to the park, and Hershey could hear the sound of humans talking back. His ears pricked at the tinny distortion of the voices, but Mike seemed very happy with the toy, so Hershey didn’t resent it. He’d learned from his other humans there were some toys people liked that they just didn’t want to share with their dogs. When Hershey was a puppy he got several “Bad Dog!” scoldings for chewing up some people toys. He didn’t mean to chew them - they were just so tempting! Hershey supposed it was okay for humans to have their own toys. His various humans gave him some special toys he didn’t want to share either, so it all evened out.

The high-pitched sound the fast black flying machines made was inaudible to humans, but Hershey picked up on it immediately. He barked once to let Mike know the Badness was coming, and he hunkered down in the seat of the sidecar, tucking his tail closely under him. Hershey had the feeling it was going to be getting very noisy very soon.

Mike

The dog warned them. He barked once, looking directly at Mike like that creepy little kid in
Poltergeist
saying, “They’re heeeere!”

He and Kari were in position for about fifteen minutes before Hershey’s warning came. As Headgear promised, when used correctly, the lineman’s harness gave full support and complete use of both his hands.

“Oh, my god,” Kari called softly from the light pole two lanes away. “Mike, there are so many of them!”

Mike looked at Kari’s pale face, and then to where she pointed. He depressed the button on the handheld. “Tangos incoming,” he said calmly. “Looks to be a dozen or more, snipers in position.”

“Roger, that,” the reply came back. Mike shifted his weapon, sighting down the road approaching the bridge. “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes,” he joked to Kari.

“Yeah, ha-ha,” she responded, studying one of the Trois in her own scope. “Jesus, Mike, this is going to be a rout.”

“Only if they look up,” Mike replied grimly.

Kari nodded and took in a deep breath. “All right, motherfuckers,” she muttered. “It’s on like
Donkey Kong!
Bring it!”

They did.

Kasoniak

Rusty Tillison was sweating, and his daddy always told him to never, ever let them see you sweat. He couldn’t help it, though. One of the goons duct taped his wrist to the table top - like they actually thought they were gonna to do something to his hand! Tillison laughed at the thought, but it was a nervous, girly laugh. He looked up at the officer ... Second Lieutenant S. Darby.

Darby smiled at Tillison and for a moment, Rusty almost forgot Daddy’s advice. There was something in that soldier’s eyes ... something not quite right. Something that made Rusty think he could put a major hurtin’ on him and not even lose a wink of sleep. The only other person Rusty knew with eyes like that was Hank, and Rusty knew what kinds of things Hank was capable of.

Daddy always said the best defense was a good offense, so Rusty went with that.

“What the fuck you think you’re pullin’, you pussy motherfucker?” he spat. “You think you’re scarin’ me? You ain’t doing shit!”

Lieutenant Darby smiled wider. “You know, Mr. Tillison,” he said mildly, with a slight emphasis on the word “mister.” “I have this hammer here in my toolbox, and I have your hand taped right nicely in place. And best of all? There is no one here to tell me I can’t just smash your fingers into ten mangled little meat sausages. No one at all.”

Rusty laughed, the same nervous, girly laugh he hated so much. “You’re bluffin’,” he said with cock-sure bravado. “You can’t do shit to me. I got my constitutional rights.”

Darby nodded at one of the goon soldiers - he had to be a soldier, right? But why wasn’t he in uniform? - and the man roughly grabbed Rusty’s hand. Rusty almost screamed before realizing the soldier had merely taped his thumb and three fingers to the table ... leaving the pinky finger of his right hand untaped. Vulnerable. Exposed. They were fucking with his head. They had to be.

“Last chance, Tillison,” Darby said, his voice amiable.

“Fuck you!” Rusty said, proud of the strength and defiance in his voice. He was just gathering up the saliva in his mouth for a good spit when Darby grinned at him and all the spit suddenly dried up.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Darby said, and then he smashed the hammer down, full force, on Tillison’s exposed pinky finger.

Rusty shrieked with pain, tears bursting from his eyes at the same time he pissed himself. It wasn’t that he was a pussy, he sobbed to himself. Hell, his daddy had done worse - it was just the look in that fuckin’ psycho soldier’s eyes got to him! That was all!

When most of the shrieking died down, Lieutenant Darby smiled at Rusty again. “I’m the new law in town, boy,” he said mildly. “The name’s ‘martial.’ It’s nice to meet ya. Now ... are we gonna talk, son, or am I going to get to do this to every bone in your body?”

They talked.