Dogs of the Apocalypse

Begin

A/N: WARNING - graphic depicts of animal based violence- the author in no way supports or condones any violence toward animals, she just liked this concept, but if your sensitive to things of the nature including blood and gore, please turn back now. For the rest, please enjoy my first story!

**

I woke up that morning the same as I would any other; I yawned, stretched my white paws in front of me and rattled the door of my cage with my pink nose. The sun shone through the blinds of the wash room so the humans should be up by now. Sadie woofed quietly in the cage next to me, thumping her silver tail on the ground.

"They haven't come out yet. I heard someone leave early, but nothing else." She pointed her speckled muzzle toward the window, "it's nearly noshadows." She whined and rattled her cage with her paws, barking. My stomach growled and I pawed my cage too.

There was a shuffling and crashing noise from down the hallway. We both sat up, ears straight. Sadie's nose twitched as she scented the air. I too inhaled deeply the smells of the household. There was a musty, dank smell in the air, like rot.

"Something's not right, Kaya." She started to shake her cage with urgency. I pushed my nose against the openings and scratched, willing the door to open. Sadie shook her rusty old cage so hard the front panel fell off, clattering loudly against the tile. She scrambled up on stubby legs, tail flagging. She started down the hall when I yelped at her.

"Get me out!" I demanded with a whine. She snuffed and returned, pulling the latch with her teeth while I pushed. The door groaned and sprang open, sending up both sprawling.  Regaining my paws and barking as I followed behind Sadie, my claws clicked  on the tile while my big white paws slapped down. The older dog walked lightly and quietly down the hall to our human's bedroom. Nosing the knob, she pushed the door open.

The man was inside the room, clad only in underclothes while he stared blankly out the window. He didn't seem to notice us enter. The woman was in the bed still, her hand dangling delicately off the side. I stayed in the door way, my nostrils flaring as my hackles rose instinctively. A foul stench hung in the the air.

Sadie trotted over to the woman, sniffing her hand. She hopped up on the side of the bed, nosing the woman and woofing.

The woman sat up suddenly, grabbing Sadie harshly. Her skin was pale and waxy; her eyes clouded and unseeing. Sadie yelped and struggled in her powerful grip. I watched, frozen in terror as the woman leaned forward and sank her teeth into the old dog's neck. Blood cascaded out of the wound as an unearthly scream rose out of the dog.

The man, woken by the nose, lurched across the room and crawled in an unorthodox manner to the gorey scene. He grabbed Sadie face and in a spurt of savage rage she gored his hand, tearing out his forefingers and exposing the bone. He never stopped on his descent onto the dog, mouth open, as he bit into her skull. The moments after were filled with Sadie's ungodly wails and the grinding of his teeth agains her skull as he steadily applied pressure until it finally burst in a spray of blood and brain matter.

The room was suddenly silent except for the macabre chewing sounds from the humans. My legs shook as I stood transfixed, yellow eyes wide. I relieved myself suddenly in another surge of fear, and a small whimper escaped me. The human's cloudy eyes turned suddenly to my lanky form, and a strange gurgling growl came from them.

That seemed to awaken my senses. I spun around, pelting down the hallway and rounding the corner into the living room. Taking the expanse of the room in two strides I threw all my weight against the sliding glass door, the tantalizing safety of outdoors just inches beyond. The door shuttered but stayed in place. Snarling, I paced back and glanced around. My nose drew me to the fresh scents coming from a barely open window behind the couch. Leaping onto the slippery leather I bashed my muzzle against the window frame as I tried to push the window farther open. Blood gushed from my bruised nose. It creaked as it slid up, just barely wide enough for me to squeeze out. My claws tore the screen easily as I tried to worm my way over the couch and out the window. I could hear the humans shuffling down the hall and flailed, kicking the air with my body half way out of the window, my paws scraped on the siding as I tried to push myself through. For a moment I was stuck, terrified I wouldn't be able to get out and would get eaten like Sadie but then I caught myself on the side and shoved hard, slipping through the gap and twisting down the immense  drop. I landed awkwardly with a yelp and turned to see the reaching hands of the humans appear out of the gap I'd been in just seconds before. Gagging, I upended the liquidy contents of my empty stomach onto the grass.

Turning my tail to the house I quickly trotted down the road, panting, my eyes wide with the residual fear. I stuck to the yards as there were cars flying down the streets at all speeds, people racing up and down the sidewalks, some being pursued by those... Things, my humans had become. Luckily they ignored me in favor of other humans, but I kept my tail down anyway as I made my way through the neighborhood. I didn't have any idea of where to go, I just wanted to be away from that house.

Recognizing the area from my walks, I ran up to the light blue house of my friends- a black Akita named Kage and a moppy bicolored Shih Tzu called Maltz. I barked and scratched the door, wondering if their humans were okay and I could hide here. No one answered, but a loud woof alerted me to the back yard. Trotting around the hedgerow, I spotted them on their lead line.

"Kaya! What are you doing out here?" Kage approached me, his tail held high. I crouched down in the grass, panting heavily.

"My humans- they ate Sadie! They've- gone Mad!" I gasped between big gulps of air. My heart was still racing, my head spinning from all is seen.

"What? Humans with Madness?" Maltz trotted up to us on his stubby legs. I nodded, the fur on the back of my neck bristling.

"I didn't think it was possible." Kage snarled, grabbing his lead line and ripping at it with his teeth. Maltz watched him, mildly forlorn.

"Our humans left us outside early this morning, and went away in their car." the Shih Tzu turned away and I followed him back to the porch while Kage continued to savage his lead angrily. A bowl of water and some kibble sat on the cement next to the patio where they were tied.

I lapped the water thankfully, and it helped cool my nerves. Though my stomach was painfully empty but I didn't touch the kibble because I didn't want it to come back up again. Licking my muzzle to get the last water droplets off, I returned to watching Kage.

"We've been hearing the screams." Maltz murmured, watching his much larger friend. Kage was snarling fiercely, his whole body shaking with the force he was exerting, muscles rippling under his thick black pelt. Suddenly the line snapped and he went flying back, his legs pinwheeling on the grass. He got up, shaking himself off and worked his jaw with one last growl, then padded over to us.

"If the humans have gone Mad we need to get out of here." Deftly as he spoke he leaned down and took Maltz's collar in his mouth and pulled. The thin nylon slipped over the small dog's head easily. "Come on, let's get out of here." Kage legged it out of the backyard, behind the houses down the small trail that connected the yards. I was glad to follow the older dog, with Maltz taking up the rear, sounding off short, sharp barks.

The houses we passed were mostly dark, barricaded or abandoned. Some relinquished frightening bang and rattles of the occupants inside. one yard we passed made me pause.

I looked across the expanse of perfectly mowed grass, to where the patio connected to the darkly colored house. The sliding  door had been left open carelessly. My eyes traveled farther, to the delicate white body sprawled across the lawn. A pretty female Dalmatian, her legs akimbo, lay with her cloudy eyes facing the sun. One hole shown cleanly threw her forehead, red rivulets of blood marring the white of her slender muzzle. Ahead of her, a pink and purple rope toy lay on the shade of a rose bush, alone and forgotten.

Kage nudged me after a moment and I continued on after him, my head droopping and my tail dragging across the ground. I felt as if all the life had run out of me.

That's probably how she felt, I thought morbidly, and kept on following my companions in silence, the sun moving slowly across the sky.