Wild Desperation

Chapter 67

                                             Sang

The boys weren't wrong the basement was a mud pit, but that didn't stop me from jumping right into digging. "Uh, Cupcake are you sure you're okay?" Luke asked uncertainly as he and the others joined me in the empty basement. "Yeah no offense Peanut, but not many people wake up and suddenly decide to go digging for treasure in their old muddy basement at 4am." Nathan murmured out. "Listen, you can think I'm crazy all you want but somewhere under all this mud is a locked case containing multiple green viles and one very special blue vile. I remember my father calling it the key to the future or something like that, I guess coming back here made me think of it after all these years." I puzzled out as I kicked at the mud beneath my feet.

 "Fine but nobody is f***ing digging in this muck with their clothes on!" Gabe ordered us back upstairs. We all stripped down the boys to their underwear and me to my swim suit before everyone grabbed a shovel or bowl to dig with, and down we went with our lanterns. The basement was huge so it took all ten of us digging for over two hours to actually find the buried box, which Victor pulled up from the mud. I was glad that Gabe had made us strip down because every single one of us was more covered in more mud than the box we'd just dug up. "It's locked just like you said." Kota announced as he studied the box. 

"Whatever you do don't try breaking it open with any sharp or heavily blunt objects, okay?" I huffed out at North and he looked offended before he dropped his shovel with a grunt, yeah fragile case here buddy. "I can open it if we go back upstairs." Luke stated and we nodded. We all decided to hose the mud off outside before focusing on opening the box up, once we were clean and dressed it was Luke's turn with the box. I watched on in curious amazement as he used a paper clip and a needle to pick the lock, and sure enough he got the box unlocked. 

"Careful Lucian we don't know what's in it." North grunted out as Luke moved to open the box. "Says the guy that was going to beat the lock with a shovel." I retorted, that shut him right up as Luke carefully opened the box. There inside, just as I remembered was the single blue vile amongst all the green ones. "Well we have two of the so called key ingredients, so what do we do now?" Victor voiced, and that was when the barking started. I rushed to look out the window as Arrow growled lowly beside me, what I saw outside surprised me. 

There appeared to be a pack of dogs that lived here now and three of the eight I could see were quite clearly attacking something in the middle of them. A flash of bright golden fur and a yelp had me drawing back my bow as I rushed for the door shouting at the dogs. Arrow rushing forward into the fray, fighting off the large male leader told me there was no virus amongst them. I hurried to help Arrow and with the boys firing off a few warning shots the rest of the pack ran off. The large male Rottweiler was chased off by Arrow and I before I turned my attention back to the now whimpering ball of golden fluff. 

The male golden retriever was watching us carefully and gave a soft worried growl as I approached, the thing that set him apart from the others was the obvious collar around his neck. "Easy buddy I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a friend. Do you want some jerky?" I cooed softly as I took out a bit of jerky and tossed him a small piece, he instantly swallowed it whole. "Hungry huh boy, there's plenty more where that came from, just come here." I said softly and after a few silent moments of nothing the golden boy limped up to me. Arrow was growling defensively but stopped when I told him to, the moment my hand stroked the golden dogs ears his tail was a blur of wagging joy.

 "Sang Baby you don't know where that dog has been." North grunted out behind me. "Who cares he's friendly and his name is Max." I retorted as I read the name on his collar, he barked in confirmation at it. A soft whine to my left had me looking towards the trees to where two other dogs stood, when I called they both slunk forward cautiously with wagging tails. The two newcomers were an Australian shepherd the other was what appeared to be an Irish Setter and poodle cross, both were female. "Oh great Trouble is the f***ing dog whisperer!" I heard Gabe grumble behind me and I giggled as the red setter mix licked my hand. 

"Well aren't you girls sweet. Here you take a piece of this and I'll get your buddy Max checked over." I petted the females before giving them some jerky and working on doctoring up the golden boys leg. He also had a few cuts from the attack but they weren't serious so I cleaned them up and bandaged his leg. Once he was taken care of Arrow introduced himself, Max was quick to submit to my larger wolf dog and once Arrow knew he didn't want to fight he seemed fine with his company. The two boys didn't even bother growling at the two females as they searched my hands and pockets for more food, perfect gentlemen. 

"Well we left with one dog, now we've got four." Kota shook his head in defeat as I grinned up at him, I guessed that number would increase later considering how big the females bellies were. "You have to admit they are adorable, plus they can help watch out for danger." I stated as I scratched the shepherds belly when she rolled onto her back beside me. It didn't take long for Luke to join me in cooing over our new fur babies and soon all the boys were letting the new dogs smell them over. "Well I say we get that box back to the community of scientists waiting for us, let's go pups!" I called Nightmare to me as the dogs milled about. 

The stallion didn't seem fond of the increased predatory company but he tolerated them as I had Kota help me lift Max onto the horses back. I mounted up right behind him as Sean carefully put the vials box into one of my bags laying across Nightmare's back. "Alright let's head out!" I called as I led the way Arrow jogging ahead with the two females trotting alongside us. Luckily we made good time and were back inside the community gates by 3 in the afternoon. The three new dogs were greeted with varying degrees of disapproval or in Jessica's case a whole lot of puppy love. Jess immediately took to Max and he absolutely loved the attention so much so that I deemed her his new guardian, and he hers.

 I made a leash for the two females to keep them out of trouble as I dropped Nightmare off at the barn. The little shepherd girl seemed quite interested in our little herd of goats and until I was certain that none of our new dogs would attack them I made a note to keep them all on leashes. I decided to put both the females up in our cottage, laying out some food and water for them before I joined the boys at the research lab. The scientists were carefully inspecting the viles contents when I arrived, I took that as a good sign. "Well little bird it looks like we've got two of the key ingredients of this possible cure, surprising that just a single drop of this could wipe out billions." Phillips sighed as he shook his head at the blue vile, making sure to lock it up tightly. 

"Yeah and this must be the experimental vaccine, no knowing if it works until we start running some tests." Ramirez stated as he drew one of the green viles out. "Tests might be a good place to start but we're still missing one of the key ingredients for our so called cure." Brooks stated. "The trouble is, where do you find a host with the right DNA when you don't know what the right DNA is?" Cox huffed out as he ran his fingers through his hair uncertainly. "You guys just keep up the good work, we'll figure something out." I smiled out, we had to figure something out. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Jess, Arrow and the new dogs, and after a few hours of getting to know them better I gave the two girls names.

 I decided to call the red setter mix Rosie, not only because of her fur but because how sweet her personality was. The little Australian shepherd I named Pepper since it suited her hilarious spicy attitude with Arrow and it suited the pattern of her merle colored coat. They took to their names quick enough once they learned them and by the time night came around Jess and I were both happy to snuggle all four of the dogs as we went to sleep.