Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead, or anything associated with it. I know nothing about Search and Rescue, and am making everything to do with it up. I know nothing about working dogs of any variety other than those who help disabled people. My dad had a dog who pulled his wheelchair for years. I am extrapolating details of SAR and working dogs from movies, real life experiences, and TV I have seen over the years, and it is in no way meant to be accurate. The only things that I know about the woods, and survival therein is from camping trips, and discussion with friends and family. Do not try any of this at home! Or in the woods! It is all pretend!
Prologue/ Chapter 1: If You Go Into the Woods Today…
Wilhelmina Kensington threw the small stick she was playing with across the fire at her best friend. Said best friend, Jocelyn Kesler, swatted it away before it could hit her between the eyes. It would have too. Hit her between the eyes that is.
Wilhelmina, Mina for short, had spent a lot of time the last couple of years with her colleagues learning how to aim all kinds of things. When Jason hosted a get together, everyone learned how to shoot a bow. When it was Frank, they learned to fish. When Deacon hosted, it was all about the use of knives for various endeavors. Jacey was all about botany, gardening, and cooking. Guns were Mason's thing. And old Justin was proficient with all of the above.
They got together several times a year to share their passions with each other, and to teach each other what they could to help with their chosen profession. Well, it wasn't really a profession, per say. Many of her friends had secondary jobs, to help pay the bills. Their bosses had agreed to let them have time off whenever they were called in.
Called in to do what, you might ask? Together they formed one of the premier Search and Rescue teams in the US. A man lost in the desert? Who you gonna call? Justin's team. Lost in the mountains in sub zero temperatures? Justin's team. Building collapse? Earthquake? Hurricane? Tornado? Lost in the back woods of bumfuck nowhere? You guessed it: Justin's team. They weren't paid very much, but they were all passionate about helping people.
In the years that Mina had been a part of this group, she had learned more than she ever thought was possible. Not just on the job either. As stated above, the group got together to hone certain skills, learn to work together, and to improve their efficiency. Mina never thought she would ever know how to shoot a gun, let alone a bow and arrow, and hunt down a meal. Hunting was good practice for tracking down lost people. Learning to clean and cook a kill by herself meant that she could stay out longer before having to come in for supplies. Or if, heaven forbid, she got stuck somewhere, she could feed herself. She had also learned how to build fires, build a temporary shelter, read a map and navigate so she wouldn't get lost herself, and use whatever she could find in her environment to help her survive.
This was Mina's fifth year of SAR, and she loved her job. The satisfaction she felt when she found a missing person, or dug someone alive out of a pile of rubble, was indescribable. Yes, she found her share of dead people. They were sometimes too late. You can't save everybody. Her first assignment had been Katrina. After all she had seen there, she knew this was what she was meant to do. She couldn't stop bad things from happening, but she could help people in her small way. And that meant everything to her.
Katie whined on the ground beside Mina's feet, her tail thumping tiredly, bringing her back to the present. "I would keep my opinions on my love life to yourself, Jacey," Mina threatened.
Jocelyn laughed at her from her seat on a log across the fire from Mina. "What love life?" Jacey asked, shading a drawing in her sketchbook on her lap with a wooden pencil. "The closest you've gotten to a 'love life,' in forever was when you tripped on that male squirrel earlier today."
Mina glared.
"Come on, Mina!" said Jacey. "I swear he's cute! A little dorky, but so are you!"
"I am not going out on a blind date with your hairstylist's younger brother!" exclaimed Mina. "I've never even met her, and I'm not that desperate for a date!"
"'Sides," Justin said. "Mina's like to break a boy like that in half!"
Mina looked at her team leader in confusion. Was that an insult, or a compliment? "Why is that?" she asked Justin.
"Yer a tough one, that's all!" said Justin. "You need a tough man, one who won't be intimidated by your intelligence, and hunting prowess!"
The entire group burst into laughter at Mina's expense. She pouted. She hadn't meant to squish that squirrel! She was following some interesting tracks, and had tripped over a tree root. The poor thing didn't stand a chance. They were always teasing her about how hard of a time she had the first time she went hunting. She just couldn't kill that poor deer at first. It took her twelve hours, all together, because every time she caught up to it she chickened out. And now she had killed an animal without even trying, and they couldn't let it go. They were so mean! "I'm not that intimidating, am I?" she asked innocently blinking her big grey eyes, trying to re-direct the subject away from the very dead rodent.
More laughter met her question.
"Come on, Mina!" hooted Jason. "You know you're hot! And tall, athletic, with just the right amount of muscle, and smart, and scarily good with knives, and fearless, and a better shot than everyone other than me!" That comment received glares from the rest of the males present. Jason ignored them. "You remember that time you climbed down that cliff in the desert, alone, without a rope, to get to that little girl? It had to be two hundred feet deep, and you just had to climb down there instead of waiting for the rest of us to get there! And you didn't even know for sure if she was down there! You've got bigger balls than King Kong!"
There were nods all around.
"That's true. Something like that would probably make the kid piss his pants. You need someone just as crazy as you are," commented Deacon, as he sharpened one of his many, many, knives.
Mina shook her head, as she tucked her long black hair behind her ears. "Sorry Dee," she told him. "I'm just not interested in you that way."
More titters abounded.
Mason looked up from the rifle he was cleaning. "What time are we setting out in the morning?" he asked Justin.
"Dawn. Same as always." Justin commanded. "We've got about 24 hours left before they change this from a 'Rescue' to a 'Recovery.'" He stated grimly.
"Why'd they wait so long to call us in? They were missing, what, 36 hours before anyone even called the Sheriff?" asked Frank. Frank had been late to the pre-search briefing, and was just getting some of the more essential details, now that they had time to talk.
"That we know of," said Jacey. "They were supposed to be out here for a week, and their families only reported them missing after they were more than a day late getting home. And it's several hours drive from where they live to the head of the hiking trail."
"So," said Frank. "You're saying that they could have gotten into trouble anytime in the last week, or more, and we were called in less than 24 hours ago? Damn, this is not looking too good."
"Hey! None of that!" scolded Justin. "They are to be considered alive until we find evidence to the contrary! You know that!"
"Yes, sir," replied Frank contritely.
They had been called in to help find a young family of four, who hadn't made it home from a camping trip. They had tracked them for several miles that day, before the sun set. Now they had to wait for the sun to rise again before they could resume their search.
Katie yawned widely. Mina petted her ears, as she decided it was time for bed. "We're going to hit the sack." She told the others. A chorus of grunts, and 'goodnights' met this declaration, and Mina led her dog into her tent.
As she settled in for the night, Mina thought about her friend and mentor Chelsea, who had died the year before, and bequeathed her precious working dog Katie to her.
Chelsea was the one who inspired her to work in Search and Rescue in the first place. Mina had attended a lecture Chelsea gave at her college, during her last semester, and was immediately drawn in. Chelsea Gardener was legendary among the women who worked in SAR, and was Mina's mentor and greatest friend until her death last year. Chelsea had fought valiantly, but had lost her battle with Breast Cancer. In one of the last conversations she had had with Mina, she had extracted a firm promise to take care of Katie for her. Chelsea didn't want Katie to go to someone she didn't know or trust to take care of her. Mina wholeheartedly promised to take care of Katie. It had ended up being a great boon to Mina, to have the dog to herself after Chelsea's death. Somehow having Katie, being able to touch her and cuddle her, giving her something solid to hold onto, something that Chelsea had loved so much, and had put so much of herself into had helped Mina in her time of grief.
Katie was a 4 year old King Sheppard. The breed was similar to a German Shepherd, but bigger. Katie was smart, and perfectly suited to be a SAR dog. Chelsea had trained her herself, and Katie was one of the best at her job anyone in Mina's group had ever seen. Katie was a working dog, and didn't like being cooped up at home, with nothing to do. This suited Mina just fine who was always working herself. With Katie being hers now, she was called into even more and varied emergencies all over the world.
Katie was trained to track live people, find dead people, help with rescues in difficult situations, and even take supplies to people buried in rubble. Mina loved Katie, and depended on her on every mission.
Once Mina was changed and settled into her sleeping bag, Katie walked in a circle a few times before settling down next to Mina half on top of her legs, to sleep. Before long Mina heard Katie's soft snores, signaling that she was asleep. Mina smiled to herself as she drifted off. Out in the middle of the woods, with her friends, and her dog. She could stay like this forever, and be perfectly happy.
You know what they say: Be careful what you wish for.
The next morning the whole team was up before dawn. They were packed and ready to go just as the sun came up.
Justin came back from checking in with dispatch with a strange frown on his face.
"What's wrong, sir?" asked Jocelyn.
"Uh, nothing," replied Justin. Justin never stuttered or hesitated, even with his thick southern accent, so this answer made everyone look at each other in confusion. "It don't matter none, y'all! We got work to do! Now move it!"
They moved it. As they walked Justin went from one to the next, seeing what weapons they had, and encouraging them to get them out, and ready for action. Those who had extra, Jason, Deacon, and Mason, were encouraged to spread them out among the whole team. Justin was quiet about it, so everyone took his cue, and quietly did as he said.
Everyone was giving Justin looks whenever possible, and he finally got sick of it. "Fine," he said. "I don't know much, and I didn't want to distract y'all during an ongoing search, but it seems you're distracted anyways." Justin took a deep breath, and spoke in his strong level voice. "There's something goin' on out there," he threw his thumb back towards civilization. "It's bad, but no one really knows nothin' yet. It seems like this weird flu we been hearin about is more than that, and has turned into some kind of pandemic. Since we're up here away from people we should be fine, but on the way back we should do some recon, make some calls to people we know who could have some information, and then make a plan on what we're goin' to do."
"Well damn, Sir," exclaimed Mason. "It looks like your 'End of The World Bunker,' might not be as crazy as we all thought!"
"Yes, well," grunted Justin. "It ain't that bad yet. At least as far as I can tell. But if it get's much worse, I think we should start headin in tha' direction. In fact," Justin pulled his back pack around, and unzipped the front pocket. He pulled out a large plastic bag, that held several maps, and a small wooden box. "Here's the maps of the property. There's a big one of the state of Wyoming, and then smaller ones, with all the best routes marked out. And here's the keys, and key cards, and codes, and all in this here box. I got the key to the box on my dog tags here," he pulled it out to show them. "So if'n you need too, an I ain't there, just break the lock. Y'all got yer maps of this area, and the suroundin' states, if ya need 'um. And I know I taught y'all what to do if the world goes to shit, so do it if'n ya have too!" he said this last very sternly.
Everyone had stopped walking for a moment, and were staring at Justin. Big bad, kick ass, former Army Ranger, Survivalist, calm even in a freakin' bombardment, survive anything, kill any threat to those he considered his to protect; Justin! He was seriously talking about not only retreating, but hiding out in his extensive, paranoid, underground, Nuclear Bomb resistant, shelter. The one that they all made fun of behind his back. The one that everyone who knew about it made fun of. That made the higher ups consider forcing Justin into early retirement, because they thought he was going crazy. The one he built because he said he had dreams of the end of the world, and wanted a place for the people he cared about to be safe. And his team were the only people he had left whom he cared about.
"Here, Mina," Justin said, handing the plastic bag and box to her. "Put these in Katie's saddle bags, anyone who needs to will have access to them then. An' if somethin' happens to me, you take this key, 'n my dog tags with ya,' ya hear?"
Mina gaped at Justin as she took the offered items.
"My will is in the office at the shelter, and I've left everything to you Mina, since you're the only one who didn't openly scorn me for havin' built the shelter in the firs' place."
"Will?" Mina questioned breathlessly. "Why would you even say that, sir? You're the toughest son of a bitch I ever met, nothing is going to happen to you."
Justin let out a sardonic chuckle, "Tha' may be Mina," he said. "But you know what I always say:
"Be prepared for anything, and everything to go wrong, and you'll live longer." The whole group chorused together.
"Yes, indeed," Justin said. "Now my mind is at ease, let's get the hell back to work!" he barked out.
Mina called Katie to her, and put the box and bags into her doggy backpack, or 'saddle bags,' as Justin called them. They did look a bit like the 'saddle bags' on some motorcycles, when Katie had them on. Katie stood still until she was zipped back up, and then trotted on ahead with her head held up proudly. She loved having things put in her backpack, it made her feel important. Katie's booties crunched the dead leaves and sticks on the ground softly.
A working dog's paws are important, and Chelsea made sure she knew to take extra care of Katie's. In rough terrain where sticks or rocks could get stuck between her pads, she had some general purpose tough protective booties. In snow she had special snow booties. In hot sand, or on hot pavement she had to wear her booties too so she wouldn't get burned paws. Katie was used to them now, but to Mina it would never be any less cute to see her wearing them.
They walked in formation, with Katie sniffling the ground as they went, for three more hours before they stopped for a status update. They all took this time to stuff another energy bar down their throats, while they were immobile. They drank, and ate energy bars as needed while walking, but it was easier to chomp energy bars when standing still. Mina got out Katie's food and water dishes and fed her and watered her again, while the team talked.
Before long they were moving again, and an hour later they felt they were getting close.
Which is when things started to get weird…