"Are you sure this is a good idea?" A nervous voice sounded from below the dumpster, anxious to get out of this place and head back to the docks where he belonged.
A few moments of silence passed until what sounded like paper began to rustle inside the dirty green object, a few wads of crumpled paper tossed over the side. A pair of white paws appeared over the edge, followed by a set of welcoming bright blue eyes. The eyes belonged to a skinny Australian Shepherd, who soon revealed his face. And at the end of his muzzle hung two silver shiny fish, it was obvious they had both been recently caught. Letting them drop to the cold cemented ground below, he used his front pillars to heave himself up and over the edge of the stained dumpster. A few small clanks sounded from the ground as the Shepherd's claws tapped to the cement to keep traction.
"Of course this is a good idea! If we don't get food now, who knows when the next time will be until we get fed on the docks?" He snorted, nudging one of the scaly fish towards the ginger hound.
"But Chep, even you should know how dangerous eating a raw fish could be." He responded, raising his brows in confusion as he examined the dead creature, poking and prodding at it.
Chep simply gave a suit-yourself shrug and began to peel away at strips of scaly skin, tossing them aside and nipping at the insides.
The ginger hound rolled his eyes, grabbing the other fish and dragging it behind the dumpster to hide it. It was just like Chep to leave a mess everywhere, barely doing a thing to clean up evidence that they were there. Last time, Chep had tried stealing bread from the one of the campers by the lake, the people were using it to lure fish in so that they had a better chance of catching them, even though Lake Utali didn't allow fishing. Chep had taken the bread and hid under the bridge that lead out to the boats. There wasn't much room, but there was a spot below the docks where the beach had allowed him just enough room to hide, the side views where blocked off by the boards that held the bridge up. There, Chep had devoured the whole bag of bread and got sick within the next few days, it turned out that the people had soaked the food in a chemical that attracted the fish, drawing them closer. The sudden sickness of the Ausie led the humans to suspect that he had eaten something raw like a fish. Once they found out he had gotten to the bread, they forced him to stay in one of the campers belonging to the workers at the docks for about a week. Once he finally got out, Chep never stopped complaining that the food inside there was gross.
Even now it was a similar problem, only this time it actually was a raw fish.
"Hey, Tapak, are you just going to stand there or are you coming back to the docks with me?" Chep asked, licking his maw free from the blood of the scaly fish, looking back at Tapak as he began to trot away from the dumpster.
"Over here!" A man huffed through the window of his red semi-looking truck. It had stretched at least 65 feet, a black plastic tube pumped into the side of a huge U-Shaped white figure strapped onto the back of the truck. Behind it, from the forest, followed many trucks that had similar features, but each were carrying a different contraption behind them. The roaring of the engines grew stronger as they neared the lake. The last few people helped to strap the remaining boats in the water back onto the carrier of their cars. It was a simple process, all you had to do was just latch it on and drive away up on the ramp. But mind you, this lake was different. It was more of a gorge, some called it. There was no ramp, but instead it contained of a muddy pathway back up onto the parking lot. The mud was trailed across the streets, meaning that they would have to be cleaned often. But this hadn't always been a public lake, it used to be very private and unknown. Over the many years it had existed, people starting showing up and boating, or taking their children out to swim. People demanded that workers make it easier to get their boats out of the water, not being any owners of the lake, they had just dug a simple pathway from the lake and built a parking lot right next to it. They didn't figure that the lake would become very popular at all, so they didn't think much of how it would destroy the streets with mud.
Now, cars had just gotten used to using the hand-made ramp to bring their boats up. And as the last few disappeared into the forest, the bigger trucks had began to back into the water, using the ramp to guide them down. People rushed over to help untangle the large black tubes, each man taking a section of it and slowly lowering it into the water.
"Jackson!" One of the men in the trucks shouted. As a response, a skinny pale man looked up at him. Despite his tall height, he still had to look up to spot the bulky figure yelling at him. "Go scout the area around the lake, make sure everyone is out of the water before we start."
Jackson gave a nod and sprinted off to search the lake for any boats, hovering his hand above his eyes to avoid the sun catching him off guard.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" An unsure voice whispered from below the window of the semi.
The man looked down, raising an eyebrow at the skinny worker, blinded by the gleam of his glasses. "We might as well give it a shot. The less water in Florida, the more we can drain down the power of this storm." Proving a point, the man below sighed and stared at the glistening water, his gaze seemed to have been lost in thought.
"Yeah, I guess your right…" He was obviously thinking of his family. He had a beautiful daughter and wife. He was looking forward to seeing them when he got home. But telling them about the deadly storm heading their way wasn't exactly the cheerful moment he was hoping for. Most families didn't know about it yet, the tornado-looking storm that rises from the water. Nobody really knew what it was, it had only happened a few times recently. This one, however, was very deadly. People would be dying when this storm hit, if not the whole of Florida, or the world. No, he was worrying too much. It was only Florida. Only Florida would be torn apart… All the other happy families would be eating dinner, going to sleep, playing with their pets, anything, while the people around him would be torn apart, everyone, if anyone, mourning over lost friends or family.
"Is he alright?" A voice called, eyes staring at the man beside the truck. The worker looked up, taking a glance at the eyes that had just been watching his every movement. He had been so lost in thought that he didn't realize he was nearly shaking in anger.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He responded barely above a whisper, rubbing his sunburned arm to hide the embarrassment.
As Jackson rounded the corner again, he gave a thumbs up to the driver, who's hairy arm was still hanging from the window. Gritting his teeth, the man simply pushed a button by the wheel and started backing up again. Everyone moved away from the truck, going back to their normal jobs to make this easier.
A loud vacuum-like sound emitted from the truck, ripples in the water formed around the end of the tube in the water as it started up. Soon enough, water began flushing from the tube and into the back of the truck, caught by the huge U-shaped container strapped onto the holders.
As other semi-trucks began to lower the tubes, soon the water level had begun to slowly go down inch by inch, the weeds that had been growing from the bottom of the lake had started poking through the tops.
"We wont accomplish this." A bulky man sighed, sitting on a bench that overlooked the docks. He wasn't talking about the draining of the lake. But instead, surviving this terrible storm.
"How far did we walk already?" Tapak moaned, trotting behind the Shepherd. Chep simply raised a brow and smiled.
"Don't blame me, you're the one that wanted to get out more!" He pointed out, picking up the pace. He did this intentionally, knowing that Tapak's legs were too short and worn out to keep this up much longer. Rounding a corner, he heard a slight whine from the smaller dog.
"Chep, slow down. My legs hurt enough already!"
The shepherd did exactly the opposite, picking up the pace again. He just wanted to get home and swim, maybe someone around the docks would throw a stick in the water and make him fetch it? He always loved doing that. Only, Tapak always said he didn't fetch it right. Unlike a normal dog who would swim out and bring the stick back, he swam out, grabbed the stick, then ran off somewhere to hide it. Don't get him wrong, he loved playing fetch, but he also liked making the people work harder. Usually one of the workers would keep having to go find another object to throw, and then they would get in trouble for playing with a dog rather then doing his job. And the whole time that the worker was being lectured, Chep would just sit there, cock his head to the right, and smile like he didn't have the slightest clue of what was going on.
But instead, rounding the corner that led to the docks, he realized that a day like that may never come again.
Authors note
This story isn't going to be all about just the dogs, ofcourse! We're going to update on how the lake is doing every once and a while, too.
Not much to say about this but hope you enjoyed! 83