The yips and howls of dogs echoed through the dimly lit alley ways and streets of a dampened New York City, Manhattan if you want to get into specifics. The sound bounced off every wall and followed the dogs as a mist. It sounded of twenty dogs when there were merely six speeding down a particularly dark alley lit only by the light of the full moon which, even then, was periodically covered by grey clouds from the day's rain. The dark was no problem for them, but the rain on the other hand...
The rain was a problem.
They kept losing the scent of the thing they were tracking because of the rain. The rain always muddles everything, but even if it did, it was still the beginning and end of everything. The dogs slowed as the reached the end of the alley and came to the sidewalk of a more or less deserted street. Few cars could be seen driving upon the road while most of the lights in the apartments were out, save for a few.
A black lab, the leader of the group, directed a small 'woof' towards a slightly larger dog before trotting off towards another alley with his nose to the ground and two other dogs at his heels. This left the larger canine, a Spanish bulldog, with his own two dogs, and he made his way across the street with them, nose also to the ground.
The rain began to go fall harder from the sky. It wasn't quite pouring, but still enough so that instead of their paws being muddy and the outer fur of their coats damp, the rain began to soak through to their skin. Any hope that they had of staying warm that night was thrown out the window once it began to rain harder. One of the dogs in the bulldog's group, a German Shepherd Husky mix by the looks, shook out his fur in a futile attempt to remove the moisture from his brown, black, and cream-colored coat. He sent a whimper to the leader of the group, though it only gained him a growl. The bulldog returned sniffing the ground even though he knew the scent was gone.
When they reached the end of the alleyway, the bulldog let out a howl to alert the other group that they hadn't found anything. The rain pelted down harder and was now at the point of pouring. The Shepherd mix shook his fur out again before sending another whimper towards the leader which earned him a snap and a stern glare. The leader's drenched fur stood on end over his back as he proceeded past the Shepherd mix. The bulldog's ears we're flat against his head as he trotted past the him, a growl in his throat and not another glance spared for the Shepherd mix. The third canine in the group gave the other a sad, sidelong glance as he followed the bulldog. A howl came from the leader of the other group through the rain, and the band of three trotted back towards the others, tension still high between the bulldog and the mix, irked by the rain and their impractical searching.
They exited the alley the way they had entered, and the leader sent a bark towards the other group which was waiting for them underneath a lamp-post, the light illuminating the now torrential downpour that was drowning the city.
The lab that had instructed the bulldog to break away into a smaller group shook his large, heavy head to try to at least relieve it of some of the rainwater. As the other dogs had found, they were going to be soaked for a while. The mix let out what could have been a dog sigh. Really, it was a blowing of air from his mouth and another fruitless attempt to rid his fur of the rainwater. The bulldog noticed immediately and sent a growl in his general direction. If dogs could glare, these two were definitely doing it.
The bulldog woofed to the two others in his party, and continued out into the street, glancing both ways as to make sure no cars were coming as he crossed. He made it to the other side and met up with the other group. The leader of the other group, the large salt and pepper dog, sent a bark to the two dogs on the other side of the street, alerting them that it was time for another to cross. They had been having problems with cars narrowly missing dogs when the rain was pouring as it was now, so they had collectively decided to cross one at a time to make sure no one got hit. They had made the decision at a meeting a few weeks ago.
The mix placed a paw into the street, careful not to step into the gutter that was nearly a river with the amount of water that was cascading through it. He glanced up at the group across the street and made eye-contact with the bulldog. The bulldog's ears were again flat against the back of his head and his lip pulled up in a menacing snarl. The mix retracted his paw from the street and looked to the only other canine that was on the same side of the street as him. The other dog looked at the ground before crossing the street safely.
Only the mix was left. He knew that once he had crossed the street, they would call it a night and head back to the compound where they could dry off and get some warm food. He heard the woof that signified that it would be safe for him to cross, and he set foot into the street.
He had made it halfway across when they heard the sound of a car rounding the corner. The leader of the other group let out a louder bark, and the mix was soon sprinting across the street as the others took off down the street, away from the car. The dog that had been crossing the street was a ways behind, but he took the liberty to look behind him to see the van of an animal control worker have one of its doors thrown open so that a human to could jump out into the rain and onto the slick concrete. He knew he was it deep trouble now, but he could still had a chance of escape if he could run faster than the human.
His head snapped back to look forward to find that the group he hadn't been too far behind was gone. His crystal blue eyes widened a bit and his pace slowed slightly, desperately trying to make out which way they had gone, but the rain washed away any scent that they had left in that short amount of time. The sound of a human thundering through some of the small puddles that littered the sidewalk pulled him out of his state of shock, and the dog knew he couldn't afford to slow his pace. He would just have to wing it. Run and hope he didn't get caught.
He skidded dangerously around a corner into an alley, his claws barely gaining traction on the water-slick concrete. One of the street lights of the alley was out while another was flickering on and off, but the most noticeable part was probably the fact that it was a dead-end.