Survivors

It had been really easy to pick up the person’s scent, because they absolutely stunk. It had brought tears to their eyes he smelt so bad. For some reason they all knew the person was a “he”, something in the smell said man! Dirt, grime, BO, testosterone, and lots of other things that smelt really bad. The trail was like a big brown stain in the air.

The three of them bounded along yapping and barking. To anyone who saw them they would have just looked like three large happy dogs out for a run. Unfortunately this, if anyone had been around to see, would have aroused a huge amount of suspicion. Dogs these days tended to only slope and cringe rather than cavort and bounce. The dogs were invariably skinny, underfed and always on the scrounge for food. In fact most dogs had become food a long time ago. The old phrase “why keep a dog and bark yourself” had become “why keep a dog and starve yourself”. So Luke, Holly and Joe bounding along, with shiny coats and big wet lolloping tongues was in fact a little more reckless than they would care to admit.

After a few minutes of following the inky trail in the air they bounded round a corner. Luke who was slightly in the lead suddenly screeched to a halt. He stopped so abruptly that the other two crashed into the back of him.

“Hey bro, why’d ya...” Started Joe, then he saw!

Standing in front of them less than twenty five yards down the street were five men. What was even more alarming was the fact that four of the five were armed with crossbows. The fifth man was kneeling on the floor with his hands on the top of his head. The man on the floor appeared to be the man they’d been following, because the brown air trail ended at him.

The men with the crossbows had been shocked by the sudden appearance of the dogs, they had been almost apoplectic with astonishment when one of the dogs, instead of barking had started making noises like it was speaking. It was probably their amazement that caused them to hesitate for a moment or two.

“Run” shouted/barked Luke.

All three of them turned and shot off down the road back the way they had come.

“Zig zag” barked Luke again and he instantly veered to the left. Suddenly a crossbow bolt whizzed just past Luke’s ear.

“Bloody hell” yelled Joe, flattening his ears and trying to put on even more speed.

“Alley” shouted Holly.

She darted towards an alley with Luke hot on her heels. Joe was last and as he shot into the alley another crossbow bolt shot twanged towards them. The bolt caught him just above where his tail joined onto his bottom. The bolt only just nicked him but the shock was enough to make Joe yelp and loose his footing for a moment. Even before he hit the ground the yelp had turned into a screech as Joe rapidly transformed into an eagle. With a couple of beats of his wings he was soaring out of the end of the alley with Holly and Luke only milliseconds behind.