Doves

Chapter 6

When it became painfully obvious that Auto wasn't coming back to me, I started moving again. They had loosed dogs, or at least that's what I had started assuming as the baying reached me through the forest. Using a fallen branch as a sort of crutch, I fled through the trees. There was nowhere safe I could go. Where do fugitives hide?

I could find a river and cross it, or make a false trail for the dogs, but I was losing a lot of blood. I wouldn't have much time for that. I needed help, but I couldn't go to anyone. Storm clouds boiled above the trees. How fitting, I thought. Now if only the rain would come and wash away my track.

The hounds were getting unbearably close. I glanced around the trees as I hurried along, looking for one I might climb to hide. Something tore through the brush on my right. I spun to face it as it latched onto my crutch. The first dog. The first dog had found me.

It was a monster of a dog, some gigantic breed with dark, shaggy fur. It shook its massive head, wrenching the branch away from me. A German shepherd, it had to be. A growl sounded from it, deep and threatening. From nowhere, a second dog surged towards me, snarling as it flew through the air.

Jaws clamped down on my shoulder. I could feel the dog's teeth scraping down the bone as it bent me backwards towards the ground. Grunting, I dropped the crutch and I reached for the animal, trying to beat it away. The first dog let go of the branch and circled while I distracted myself trying to fling the other dog off. It coiled as I tried desperately to pry open the jaws of the other dog. I glanced at the crouched dog, doing a double take as I realized it too was about to take a literal bite of the action, but I was unable to do anything about it.

The first dog sprung at me, ripping into my free arm, dragging me to the ground. I struggled beneath the two huge animals as they whipped their heads back and forth, tearing off chunks of my clothes and skin. Try as I might, I couldn't stifle the screams of agony, nor could I force the dogs to relent. I was curled in the fetal position, the dogs still swarming over me, when the officers finally arrived.

"Who the hell is this?" I heard a rough voice ask as the dogs were dragged off of me.

    They didn't know who I was? Maybe I could get out of this. I tried to formulate a lie as quickly as I could, but with the pain clouding my thoughts, I couldn't come up with anything fast enough.

"Must be the accomplice kid that was with Auto. We're supposed to bring them both in for questioning."

"Questioning?" I groaned, uncurling until a sharp pain shot me through.

"Kid's still conscious!" one of them said, obviously surprised.

"Yeah," I groaned, attempting to push myself into an upright position. There were two men in SWAT uniforms standing over me, guns pointed at my face. "I am. You know who I am," I grunted, they nodded, "And there's no reason for the guns. I'm obviously not going anywhere."

    They nodded slowly, one of them nervously changing his grip on the rifle he was holding. They didn't seem to understand what that meant. They kept exchanging uneasy looks. "This is the one with the health complication, right? The hemo...Hemophobiac?

"Wonderful deduction Sherlock," I said, calling their attention back, "You're right, I'm bleeding out!"

    There were hurried mutters of various curses between them, as they fidgeted around more quickly now. They sat their excited dogs and converged on me, only to step away and back up. Then they turned their backs on me, having a tiny little meeting. They kept looking over their shoulders at me. I made a move to get up, making the dogs growl. Light-headedness was beginning to give me a headache as stupid little yellow-blue dots started to dance on the edges of my vision. "Guys, can we maybe speed this up a little bit?" The only time I had actually gotten this far along the emergency line had been a car accident when I was really young, and I knew that the yellow-blue sparkles meant nothing good.

    Ignoring me, the two of them traded a few more affirmative words, then the nervous one with the rifle came towards me, mind made up. "So what's the plan?" I asked. He glanced back at his comrade, who nodded encouragingly.

    The butt of the rifle flew at my head. I ducked it, staring at the guy incredulously, hoping he could see my disapproval in the dark. "What the hell man?" He gave his superior a 'what-the-heck-do-I-do-now?' look. The superior proceeded to gesture for the nervous guy to try again. "No, don't do it again," I started, but the butt of the gun came down on my head. "Stop it, I'm willing to go quietly," I whined, battered back down to the ground, "Quit, we're on the same-" He hit me again, jarring my skull against the ground. A dog snarled in approval. Everything got a shade darker, if that was possible for nighttime. I managed a weak protest before the gun came down again.

    It was strange, my body went limp before I stopped seeing. The superior nodded in approval and then my head rolled to the side. All I could see were the too nice for the field dress shoes that the men were wearing. The closer they got, the darker my vision became. The last thing I was aware of was the high-pitched whine of one of the dogs, as strong arms lifted me. They closed my eyes. I tried to tell them to stop, to put me down, but I couldn't manage a sound. My head hit the door as they threw me in the back of a van. The engine started. Someone shouted something and shots were fired. Glass broke. The doors of the van were ripped open and I was faintly aware that I was being snatched away from the SWAT van. Then I finally descended into oblivion.