Chapter 6
Balto suddenly awoke to the sound of several men shouting in several different languages and the sound, and vibrations, of a number of tanks rumbling across the ground. Getting up and stretching his legs, Balto walked towards the entrance of the kennels and saw at least about two hundred soldiers, all armed with machine guns, hand guns and grenades, lining up at the edge of the fort they were staying at, all preparing to go out into combat. "You know, if these krauts know what's good for them, they'll have surrendered and gone by the time I got there," said one soldiers confidently, his fingers flexing around the handle of his Johnson Model 1941 LMG Light Machine Gun. Another man shouted, "Hey! One with the most kills wins, and loser has to buy the first round of shots!" as he loaded an ammo clip into his Thompson. "Let's just get this over with so I can get back to my wife and child," said a third man, and Balto saw that it was Johnson, standing at the edge of the group of soldiers.
"Alright everyone, listen up!" shouted a man standing onto a tank, causing Balto to assume that he was the commander of the troops. "We're going out to help the British take out the German's in this area. We'll be passing a fair few ambush points, so we'll have the dogs out in the front to sniff out any Germans before they fire on us. And, boys; don't forget what happened at Pearl Harbour, because we're not just doing this for our countries anymore; we're doing this for all our fallen brothers." All the soldiers started to become enraged and started to load any of their remaining weapons; even though it wasn't the Germans who attacked Pearl Harbour, they were still allies with Japan, and they were still the enemy; so this wasn't just a War now...it just became personal. "Hey, Balto what's going on?" asked Bruto, who had just gotten up and had just finished stretching his muscles.
Sighing, Balto turned around and said grimly, "Looks like we're going into combat after all." Startled, Bruto asked, "We are? Well, I'd better go wake up the sleepers," as he turned around and walked up to Buddy and Tony, who were just waking up; they must've been pretty heavy sleepers, being able to sleep through all the noise that was coming from outside. "That won't be necessary," said Tony as he and Buddy stretched their limbs and waited for the reason behind Balto and Bruto's grim faces. But before Balto or Bruto could tell them they were going into combat, and possibly Hell, the dog handler entered the kennels; he too was wearing an Army uniform, and he had four black leads in his hand. Seeing that Tony, Balto, Buddy and Bruto were already awake, the handler walked up to each of them and attached a lead to their collars, saying, "C'mon, guys; we're going into combat, and you're needed to sniff out any Nazi scum." Buddy looked absolutely horrified; he obviously hadn't expected to go into combat on his second day! "COMBAT! That's worse than getting stuck in cattle man -" started Buddy, but once he remembered what Tony said he do if he said one more analogy, he stopped mid-sentence.
Before the dogs were led outside, they were fitted with padded vest that had dessert camo covering it, to blend in with the sandy roads they were going to be travelling down. They also noticed that these ones were thicker and heavier than the ones they had worn during their training, but they assumed that these ones must have bullet-proof padding in them to protect them. They then made their way towards the convoy outside, which was now consisting of four Light Tanks M3 and seven troop carriers, as well as about two hundred troops spread out on both the troop carriers and walking between the tanks and the carriers, with the dogs being put at the head of the convoy. Soon, the convoy started to move out with the dogs leading. As soon as they left the safety of the fort, Balto could feel a cold blanket of fear cover the convoy; they knew that all of them had just become targets. After a painfully slow ten minutes, they came across an abandoned town; this was, if you could still call it a town: there was only about two buildings still standing, with the rest of them in piles of rubble and twisted bits of steel and concrete. There weren't any bodies; they must have been buried earlier that day. In the distance in front of them, they could hear gunfire as well as hear, and see, massive explosions filling the sky temporarily. "Man; it sounds bad out here," said Tony, trying to avoid looking at the puddles of crimson dirt that littered the area. "Hopefully we won't get attacked," muttered Balto, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up; he was terrified that he might get shot and never see Jenna again. But he wasn't the only one who was visibly shaking in their boots; dozens of the men in the troop carriers were flexing their fingers around the handles of their weapons nervously, while a few of the men were performing the sign of the cross on the torsos and muttering silent prayers under their breaths. But one of the soldiers, the one who made the bet with the others, was actually smiling.
"Man, I cannot wait to see those Krauts faces when we see them; they'll have more holes in them than Swiss cheese by the time I'm through with them!" the soldier shouted, aiming his gun at the forests surrounding what remained of the town and pretending to fire some bullets. "Corporal! Shut up and stay focused!" shouted the Commander, who was still on the tank, with his fingers flexing around his Colt M1917 Revolver pistol. Suddenly, Balto caught a smell that he had been training to smell and respond to; Nazi. Balto started barking and pulling on his lead in the direction where the smell was coming from. "What is it? What do you smell boy?" asked the Dog Handler, as Bruto, Tony and Buddy smelt the same smell Balto was smelling, and started following Balto's lead, by starting to bark at the smell as well. Suddenly, several of the soldiers saw movement in the trees surrounding the village, and one soldier, who had the sense to use his binoculars, saw a Nazi setting up a rocket launcher.
"SHIT! AMBUSH!" shouted the solider, just moments before the Nazi fired the rocket at the tank, causing it to explode in a fiery ball of fire, metal and blood. The troops on the carriers immediately jumped onto the ground, fearing their vehicle was the next to be blow up. For one of them, they were right; the Carrier at the front of the convoy was blown to smithereens by another Nazi rocket launcher just seconds after the tank was blown up, sending troops, as well as the tracker dogs, to the ground, covered in a cloud of dirt and dust. Before the dust cleared, the remaining troops scrambled to the cover of what remained of the village, while Balto, Bruto, Tony and Buddy took cover behind the caterpillar tracks of the destroyed tank. Moments later, the forests surrounding the village opened up to over three hundred Nazi soldiers, firing their weapons and throwing grenades at the Americans. Bullets flew over the village, shredding anything that wasn't either brick or metal, mainly the soldiers themselves, to bloody messes that soon littered the floor.
Balto then saw the solider that had made the bet with the other soldiers and had made the comment about the Nazi's being Swish cheese smiled behind his cover and, once he had taken the safety off his Tommy, stepped out of cover and shouted, "WHAT D'YOU GOT?! WHAT D'YOU GOT, BITCHES!" killing several of the Germans, before a well-aimed bullet flew straight through his right eye and out of the back of his skull, causing his to slowly falling to the floor, a pool of blood forming around his wounded skull. "Dear God..." muttered Buddy, covering his eyes with his paws, not wanting to see the horrors of War happening in front of him. "Come on, we have to help!" said Tony, wanting to get some Nazi blood on the ground. "HOW? WE DON'T HAVE GUNS! And, along with the fact that we don't have THUMBS!" yelled Buddy, gesturing his paws to Tony. Sighing, Tony said it like it was obvious, "WHAT D'YOU THINK WE HAVE TEETH FOR?!" as he jumped up from his cover and ripping the throat out of a Nazi soldier, who slowly choked to death.
Buddy, Balto and Bruto soon caught on to what Tony meant, and they too started attacking the Nazi soldiers, ripping their throats out and biting limbs. Suddenly, Balto saw an American soldier hiding behind what remained of the corner of a building, reloading his gun, but then Balto saw a Nazi about to open fire on him. "NOO!" shouted Balto, charging into the Nazi, knocking him to the ground. But before Balto could inflict any harm to him, the Nazi hit the side of his head with the barrel of his pistol, forcing Balto off him and close to passing out. "Sag hallo zu dem Teufel für mich," said the Nazi, pointing his pistol at Balto, ready to kill him. But before he could pull the trigger, three bullets ripped through the Nazi's chest, two of them going through both lungs and the third going straight through his heart. As the Nazi fell to the ground, Balto looked up, and saw that the American soldier that he had saved was Johnson!
"Thanks...Balto?!" said Johnson, not expecting to see Balto in Africa; he hadn't been to the tracker dog training centre, so he didn't know about Balto being a tracker dog. Thinking about it, Johnson realised that, even though he had hated to wolf/dog ever since he first heard of him, Balto had just saved his life. "Guess I was wrong about you boy," said Johnson, patting Balto's head, which Balto barked in response. Suddenly, Balto heard Bruto shout, "BALTO! GET OVER HERE, QUICKLY!" Leaving Johnson, Balto ran over to Bruto and the body of a dog on the ground; it was Tony, and he had been shot through his left hind leg. "It's nothin'. Finish off them Germans!" shouted Tony as blood slowly dripped out of his bullet wound.
By now, only a couple of dozen soldiers who had left the fort were still alive, and all of the Tanks and Carriers had been blown to smouldering wrecks. But thankfully, the Nazi's who were still alive had retreated, leaving behind the bodies of their fallen comrades. "AH, DAMN THOSE NAZI SONS OF BITCHES!" shouted one of the soldiers, kicking and stepping on several dead Nazis. As the Commander tried to see who survived and who didn't, Buddy trotted over to Tony and asked, "Tones, are you alright?" Sighing, Tony said, "I've been better. Hey, what happened to you?" Tony asked when he saw blood coming from Buddy's left side of his face. Turning his head, Buddy showed that the ear flap of his left ear was missing, and that blood was steadily dripping out of the wound. "One of them Germans cut it off; it hurt like the fiery pits of Hell!" Apart from Tony's bullet wound and Buddy's missing ear flap, Bruto and Balto had no other injuries. That was, until Balto saw something that made his heart stop; one of the Nazis, who had only just survived, had a grenade in his hand. "Wir sehen uns in der Hölle!" he said, causing Balto and Bruto to start barking to warn the Americans.
"SHIT! SOMEONE KILL THAT NAZI!" shouted the Commander as Balto jumped on the Nazi, biting and clawing at him. But the Nazi had already pulled the pin out of the grenade, and he ended up dying laughing. The second he saw the pin being pulled out of the grenade, Balto got off the Nazi and picked up the grenade in his mouth, and ran as fast as he could away from the Americans. "BATLO, COME BACK!" shouted Bruto, running after Balto, unaware of the danger they were both in. Balto then dropped the grenade and ran back, only to realise his mistake when it was too late; he had dropped the grenade next to one of the American Tanks, which was still leaking fuel! But Balto didn't reach fast enough; the grenade detonated, setting the fuel on fire and creating a massive fireball. The explosion caught Bruto's face, burning the right side of his face, causing him to pass out from the heat and the force of the explosion.
By the time the smoke and dirt had settled, Balto was nowhere to be seen. "BALTO!" shouted Johnson, franticly searching for the missing wolf/dog, but he couldn't find him anywhere. 'All the times I kicked him and insulted him, and he just saved my life! Maybe he's a real hero after all...' thought Johnson, but he was soon taken from his train of thought when another soldier shouted, "Sir! You'd better come and see this!" Jogging over to the solider, who was near a small cliff, not that any of the soldiers took any notice of, Johnson saw that the soldier was holding a pair of blackened and slightly melted dog tags, but the writing on them was still as clear as day:
BALTO
NOME, ALASKA
5503948188
"No...No..." said Johnson, falling to his knees and cried at the loss of the wolf/dog that had saved his life. "Balto, he's...he's..." said Buddy, unable to say it, but instead, he cried softly, not wanting to draw attention to himself. "NO! HE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS!" shouted Tony, tears starting to form in his eyes, not wanting to believe it was true: his friend had just died saving them. Sighing heavily, the Commander said, "Come on; let's get the dead and the injured back to the base." He then looked over at the three other tracker dogs, and said, "That these dogs back to their country; it's the least they deserve." A soldier said, "Yes, sir," before he radioed for a truck to help carry the dead and injured back to the fort, and once they were fixed, another truck would take them back to the boat, which would take them back to France, and then back to home.
Meanwhile, back in Nome, Jenna suddenly awoke with a stabbing pain in her heart; and it was at that point, there and then, that she knew that something terrible had happened to Balto.
Sorry it's taken so long, I've been doing other things.
Nf991
