Ethan Eternal

Chapter 7

“The Dog Colt”

            Thunder rolled its heavy drum and marched through the frozen night. Rain fell. A flash of silver light pierced an old broken window. Perry stood there looking out into the darkness and silently watched for a monster. Debra and Kevin had collapsed from exhaustion on an oriental rug from the 50’s topped with dust almost as old. The German shepherd preferred an empty corner. With his back against a solid wall… Colt kept one eye alert.

            Boom!

            A deafening thunderclap fired through cobwebbed corners and broken sheet rock… startling Debra and Kevin. Colt opened the other eye... barely stirring from his rest. Perry turned his grey glare onto the man and woman on the floor. They met his gaze as he did this. For a moment, the echo of the thunder left behind a residue of tension but as it faded Perry began to speak.

            “This is not the kind of place I had hoped to spend the night.”

            Kevin lifted himself up and folded his legs up against his chest… still dripping from the run into this abandoned motel. He nodded at Perry’s words and then paused for a second before replying.

            “It’s the only place I could think of. We… we used to come here… Amanda played here when she was a little girl. She told me about it one night and we just drove out here… It’s… it’s peaceful… most of the time.”

            Perry raised an eyebrow as he muttered almost to himself.

            “Not tonight…”

            Debra opened her eyes. Fresh tears poured down her cheeks.

            “There’s… there’s a room on the other side… I think it was number 19. When we were little girls… our mom would bring us out here when things were bad at home. We all stayed together in that room. Mom would always ask for it at the front desk and the old lady there… she… she must have known momma because she always just smiled and gave us the key.”

            Debra shut her eyes and sobbed silently into her palms. Untold stories lived behind those eyes. All the perfect joy of childhood could not be killed by the loss of her beloved sister… or the pain that came with recollection. Kevin joined her in this grief.

            Perry gave them privacy and turned his focus back to the night. Like a grey statue, he watched over his party of vagabonds. Age had not diminished the power of his vision or the focus of his mind. With these two weapons, he scanned the flows of water cutting through grass and mud… surveyed the dim horizon… toward a city in the distance… a place they would venture to in the morning light… a place where his true enemy was waiting.

            Colt ambled over to the weeping woman and nuzzled her back with his nose. She lifted up her head to see the wide eyes of friendship staring in concern. Colt whimpered as their eyes met and nudged at her again. Reluctance gave way to gratitude as Debra wrapped her pale arms around the soggy creature. Pressing her face into his welcoming coat, tears came again but this time… joined with her heavy howl of sorrow. Colt made no further noise or movement. He let the woman have the night. She had lost someone in her pack and now was joined to his. He knew that loss but he also knew his job. He would be strong for her. He would always be. She was not alone now… and never would she be again… Colt would see to that.

            Kevin nodded to the dog. Though this was just an animal… he had come to like Colt very much. He owed so much to the devotion of the German shepherd… so very… very… much…

            “Yes?” a tiny voice rattled though an even smaller speaker. The rain was almost too much for it… but George had good ears…

            “I need some help.”

            The boy’s voice hesitated and then he asked, “Help? With the bodies?”

            “Yes…” George answered cautiously.

            A long pause followed. George could hear something on the other end of the line… something that sounded a lot like silverware scraping against a ceramic plate. When Danny’s voice returned, it was not so cordial.

            “They’re still alive. I find that to be… perplexing… to say the least.”

            George quickly replied, “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need it. It’s raining like hell out here.”

            Ethan was annoyed… but not enough for outright anger.

            “How many do you need George?”

            “Five or six… whoever we can get at this hour. I just need some eyes… nobody stupid.”

            The boy smiled. He liked George.

            “Well I guess I can understand. The rain is a problem… weatherman says it may last all night. I’ll have them meet you across town at well… let’s see…The First Baptist Church. Does that sound reasonable?”

            The great man answered with a grunt, “Yeah.”

            Ethan laughed a little as he spoke again saying, “Oh cheer up. You should think of this as an opportunity. I’m jealous actually. I can remember fantasizing many a night about just such a hunt… but I’m sure… as with anything… the fantasy is something less than perfect. You sound tired. Take a moment to get your wind back my friend. Once we get this all behind us, we can find some place with lots of sun… and lots of… sons… sons and daughters… lots and lots… of little tots…”

            George could not help but smile.

            Some time in the night Colt finally drifted into sleep. His eyes danced beneath their lids as… not dreams… but memories flooded his canine mind. Some were mixed with elder thoughts and some were fresh and new. He saw the woman at his side… holding tight… his friend standing by the window in this very room… but like a winding stairwell… the images flowed down and deep… further into a troubled past.

            He saw his mother looking down on him both proud and fearful. He was so small then that she seemed to be a giant. Her comfort kept him safe in that hellish place until the day she died. He had no time to mourn her loss though. That was something he saved only for dreams like these. The day she died lasts forever in his mind… etched permanently… scarred deep into the very folds of his brain… and for good reason… for it is that memory that has kept him alive and saved his life… time and time again. She had left her son an understanding of the nature of the world… a shield and a gift that has sustained him… even if it cost her own life.

            White fangs and crimson blood scream across the young Colt’s vision. He was not Colt back then. This day his name was “Mangler” or “Shit Bag” or maybe “Flea Sucker”. He had so many back then. It was hard to remember which one was right. He always listened for the bad man’s voice though because if he didn’t, it would mean a night in the pit or (at best) a kick to the neck. The bad man taught him to listen very early in his life. His mother taught the rest.

            A horde of shouting men smiled and danced with some chaotic tribal bounce that he would never understand. They stood shoulder to shoulder… surrounding the pit… as they always did. Their eyes caught an unseen flame and pierced the shadow that obscured each face… but it was enough to know them. These were all very very bad men. Colt learned that not from the bad man or his mother… but on his own… and long before this day.

            Because Colt was not fully grown… or because it made for better sport… his mother was here with him in this stink filled hole. Side by side they stood… motionlessly staring toward the opposite side of the pit… frozen in horror… frozen in fear. Staring back at them was an old black thing that was perhaps once a dog. What face remained on this monster resembled nothing Colt had ever imagined could exist in this world. The teeth it showed were jagged and broken… yet the fangs remained.

            A shout from the man that made it was all that was required. The monster heaved its body into the air with brutal precision directly toward mother and son. Each reacted instantly and dove in opposite directions. Never breaking stride, Colt and his mother circled the pit. They met on the other side as their enemy turned to face them once again. Teeth flashed as it snarled and slowly began to advance. It would not be fooled again. Now… they would have to fight.

            It stepped closer toward them. Colt felt the hair on his back rise as his paws planted themselves into the muddy soil beneath him. His ears folded back and his eyes widened. He had never been more afraid. His eyes and the great empty stare of the beast locked together as though bound by an unknown magic… tethered by the certainty that death was fast approaching. A grey flash broke their bond.

            Colt’s mother dove onto the thing. With all of her strength and ferocity she attacked. He had seen her do this before… watched her kill other dogs… something he had come to expect… but this… this was not a dog. His mother was a fierce fighter but never let Colt think that killing was a good thing. She had always licked the wounds of the other dog after a kill and kept her head bowed when the master would collect it. She made sure her son knew that killing was never a thing to enjoy… never a thing to be proud of.

            He watched this and knew that he and his mother were killers only because they had to be. Her affection kept him sane for a day when they would no longer have to fight to survive. She had known another life once and she made her only son believe that one day he could as well. This was something they shared in a way I can not explain. This is simply an understanding that existed between them… something perhaps only a mother and her child can ever fully grasp.

            The monster was twice her size… yet she fought it toe to toe. They circled each other… bloody and enraged. She had no fear of this thing. Colt remembers that. He can remember that in her scent… and beyond. They locked jaws again and again. They scratched and bit and threw each other against the dirt walls of the pit. Men shouted louder and louder as the battle grew more perilous. Colt gathered his courage and tried to help… but his mother would snap at him every time he attempted to approach. When she did… he looked deep into her eyes. Somehow she had hidden her scent… for in those eyes he saw her fear… not fear of the foe at hand… or fear of the wounds now draining her strength… but fear for the young German shepherd at her side. She would not lose her only son.

            The fights almost always ended quickly. This one did not. As the savagery continued, the crowd of bad men grew and grew. The noise was painful to Colt’s tiny ears… but he could still hear the breaths of his mother… the snarl of the thing… and beat of his own heart. Nothing terrified him more than the prospect of losing his mother. He knew what death was. He knew all too well.

            The gladiators locked bloody fangs once again and struggled to and fro. Dust and blood mixed and spattered the faces of all those surrounding the arena… but they did not care. They relished the taste of the battle… They drank from this fountain of brutality… and yet their thirst only grew. The fight could not end without death… none ever had… and this one… would be no different.

            A burning flash of white light thundered from somewhere overhead. Colt turned his eyes up to see the crowd no longer smiling. White smoke poured over them as a strange silence took the room… a silence that lasted for only seconds. Rising from the quiet came a roar echoed from somewhere outside of this place. It grew from every corner… repeated by voices of men and women… voices Colt had never known. They shouted something strange. They screamed some unfamiliar word that stung the ears of all. Perhaps Colt was alone in his ignorance of their cry for the bad men seemed to know it. Some succumbed to fear. Some turned to wrath. All panicked.

            The young dog was ignorant of many things… but not guns. He had seen them used with cruel and efficient precision on dogs unwilling to kill. He recognized the sound instantly when the bullets began to fly. Colt tucked his tail under him and looked for his mother. She was at his side. Remembering the danger they were in, he let his eyes drift from her in search of the stalking predator. His heart calmed when he saw the carcass of the beast… still and lifeless at the center of the circle. His mother had claimed her victory. She had done the only thing she had ever tried to do with her life… she had saved her son.

            Mother and son huddled at the edge of the pit. Screams echoed through the wall of dirt beside them… but they did not look up again. Colt began to shake so his mother licked the top of his head slowly. He always loved when she did that. In a moment, he was calm once more and returned her kiss. He shut his eyes with her and imagined that life that they would have one day… that life that she had known before the pit. He nuzzled close to her warmth as they spent one last moment together… mother and son.

            He was grateful for that moment. It was something he cherished throughout the rest of his life. He would never forget what she had done for him… never forget what she had meant to him. As her heart slowed… they nuzzled closer. She licked him one final time. He opened his eyes and met hers. He saw a peace in her that had never before been present. She lifted her eyes up and howled gently… not a howl of pain… but one of joy and gratitude. A tall man with grey eyes was standing there. He had a silver pistol in one hand but she was not afraid.

            The tall man lowered his free hand toward Colt’s mother. She did not pause… didn’t even sniff… instead she licked him several times and whimpered as she nudged the tiny puppy at her side. Perry ran his palm down her back… took them both into his arms and lifted both from the bonds of a hell no dog should ever know. He took them out into the night… towards an old blue pickup. She licked Perry’s neck once more… before her weary body submitted to the hand of God. She was at peace at last.

            Colt opened his eyes as another thunder clap echoed overhead. His friends were all asleep. Even Perry had given in. Now was Colt’s turn to watch the window. He would keep his nose to the wind… keep watch for another monster in the dark. He was proud to have these friends… and he owed them a loyalty honed in the fires of hell itself. He was a good dog and would live and die for the friendship that freed him… and his mother. He honors her by the life he has chosen… for the life she gave him. She would be proud.

            A sentinel stands defending his friends at the edge of night… vigilant… focused… true.

He is their night watchman.

He is their protector.

He is their friend.

(To be continued…)