Chapter 9:
Balto was eagerly waiting for the plane he was going to board to have enough fuel to get them to Nome; he just couldn't wait to see Boris, Muk, Luk, Tony, Bruto and Buddy again; but most of all, he couldn't wait to see Jenna again. Finally, Balto's Lockheed C-69 Constellation was filled with fuel and he, along with several other humans and tracker dogs that we're travelling on this plane to get to their homes on the way to Nome, and before long, they were up in the air. They soon arrived at Juno, Alaska's capital, where he would have to catch a train back to Nome. But unknown to him, and every other Allie, the Nazis were getting closer to Nome, and were nearly at striking distance.
"Lieutenant, ve have Nome vithin our sights," said a German sailor, walking into the main desk of the boat leading the armada. The Lieutenant turned to the sailor, saying, "Good; begin the assault, but remember; only kill those who fight back. Do NOT kill civilians."
The sailor nodded and said, "Understood, sir." And with that, the German sailor exited the desk, calling, "ALL HANDS, PREPARE FOR THE INVASION!"
Nome Watch Tower
"Uh, Sir? Is the Navy conducting any practises tonight?" asked an Army Private, looking out to see through a pair of binoculars after spotting an armada of ships heading towards Nome. The Colonel turned to look at the Private and said, "No, there is no practise scheduled around here anytime soon; why do you ask?" The Private took the binoculars away from his eyes and he said, "That's weird; 'cause I'm seeing some of our ships not ten miles out."
The Colonel raised an eyebrow and took the binoculars from the Private; looking through them, he spotted the ships, but he saw something on the ships that sent shivers down his spine; the crooked cross, the Swastika. "Those aren't our ships," said the Colonel grimly, slowly lowering the binoculars before letting them slip through his fingers and land on the wooden floor of the watchtower with a dull thud. "Who are they then? The Russians? The Danish? ...The British?" asked the Private, picking up the binoculars and looking at the Colonel, confusion written all over his face.
The Colonel looked at the Private and grabbed him by the front of his uniform, saying, "Those are Nazis, idiot! Sound the alarm!" He then dropped the Private who, now terrified, ran to the radio and picked up the speaker, saying "Nazi warships 10 miles out! All units, gear up; this is not a drill!" As he shouted through the radio, bullets tore through the watch tower until the beams holding it up snapped, causing it to slowly tip to the left and crash to the snowy ground. A small puddle of crimson snow started to form from the top of the collapsed watch tower, as this was where the Private was, his mouth still open to give the warning, letting blood slowly drip from his forever open mouth.
There were only about 80 soldiers stationed at Nome, Johnson being one of them, but they were clearly outnumbered by the 2,000 strong Nazi force. Shells began crashing into the beach and close to the town, causing explosions to ring out throughout the landscape. Borris, awoken by the noise, perked his head through the window frame of the old boat and muttered, "Vhat is it?" But he ducked his head quickly when he saw some Nazis walking past his boat, guns at the ready and Swastikas wrapped around their upper arm. "Oh no! I have to varn the town!" said Borris once the Nazis had passed, and he quickly exited the boat and flew as low as he could towards the town, out of sight of the Nazis.
"Waz goin' on out there?" said Tony as he walked outside to see what all the explosions were about. "Navy doing practises or somethin'?" asked Bruto, as he walked out to look outside next to Tony. "This close to the town? Hardly; something's up," said Tony as a car sped past them, carrying three soldiers, heading towards the centre of Nome. "German's are attacking! This is not a drip; repeat, this is NOT a drill!" shouted one of the men on the car just as a shell landed directly in front of the car, causing an explosion to cover the men and car; when it cleared, the car was nothing but twisted metal and there was no sign of the soldiers.
"NO!" shouted the dogs as they scrambled back into the boiler room as one of the soldier's helmets, after being launched into the air from the explosion, landed directly in front of them. Just seconds later, hundreds of Nazi troopers walked through the main street of Nome in order, small sections of Nazis splitting off from the rest of the group and heading down other streets, making sure they would get all of the soldiers.
"Daddy, what's happening?!" cried Rosy as Johnson quickly got on his combat gear and reached for his Thompson. "Honey, the bad guys are here; I need you to stay inside and not to open the door to anyone. I need to go," said Johnson, hugging his daughter, possibly for the last time, before getting up and going to open the door. But no sooner had he put his hand over the door knot was the door kicked open and a bullet came from the door way, embedding itself in Johnson's shoulder. Johnson shouted out and fell to the ground in pain as Nazis swarmed into the house. The last one to enter was a little different to the others; he wore a black trench coat, wore a Nazi Army hat and wore a small swastika pin on the black uniform that was hidden underneath the trench coat.
"Guten Tag, American; my name is Gasthof Haning, but you can call me 'sir'," said the trench coat Nazi, grabbing Johnson by the back of the neck and pushing him outside. He was then forced into the back of a truck where all of the other American soldiers had already been captured and taken by the Nazis. Gasthof hit the metal side of the truck twice, signalling the driver to go. As the truck drove off, Gasthof said, "Check the boiler room."
Two Nazis nodded and walked over to the boiler room; when they found that it was locked, one of the soldiers shot both of the hinges and the other kicked the door down, revealing most, if not all, of the town dogs that hadn't already ran away. "Just a bunch of dogs; get Hades and Olaf!" called one of the Nazis, and not a few seconds later, Hades and another German Shepard walked into the boiler room like they owned the place, their eyes sweeping across the different breeds of dogs. "Vell, vell, vell; vhat do ve have here then?" chuckled Hades as he walked past some of the dogs, making them shrink back as far as they could, fearing for their lives. Hades eventually came to Star, who was practically shaking his fur off. "Hmm…you look like a good appetizer…." said Hades, tapping his claws dangerously on the wooden floor of the boiler room.
"Hey, German! Why don't ya pick on someone your own size?" questioned Buddy, stepping up to Hades. Hades turned his head to Buddy and demanded, "Who the hell are you?" Buddy stood taller and said, "Buddy; US attack dog," as he moved in front of Cali. "Oh, tough guy, eh?" asked Hades as he towered over Buddy, before continuing, "In that case…why don't you fight me then?"
"Youze gonna have to fight me too," growled Tony, stepping up to Hades and standing with Buddy. "And me!" snarled Bruto, standing with his two friends against Hades. Hades chuckled darkly, before saying, "You know something? I wasn't going to kill any of you because my orders are to kill only military personnel, but it seems that you ARE military personnel. What poor planning on your part!"
"Oh yea? Come get sum!" said Bruto, snarling and baring his teeth. Hades laughed and said, "How do you possible think you can fight me with your injures?" The three Army dogs hated to admit it, but the German Shepard did have a point; they wouldn't stand a chance fighting against a healthy German Shepard with their injures. "I've had it with you!" snarled Buddy suddenly, lunging at Hades, only to get clawed at the stomach and grabbed by the neck, thrown against the wall and knocking him out cold. "BUDDY! NOO!" cried Cali as she ran over to Buddy's body and cried into his fur, trying to wake him up again. "Buddy! Youze gonna pay for that, you Nazi son-of-a-bitch!" shouted Tony, before whispering to Bruto, "we have to attack together; otherwise he's gonna pick us off one by one."
"Forget it! He hurt Buddy!" said Bruto before jumping Hades, snarling. But Hades simply moved out of the way and as Bruto passed, he sank his teeth into Bruto's shoulder, causing Bruto to shout out in pain. "Bruto!" shouted Tony, lunging at Hades but only getting a swipe of a paw from Hades, knocking Tony back, knocking him out cold. Hades then turned back to Bruto and began relentlessly clawing and biting at his burns. "BRUTO! STOP, YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" cried Katie, tears pouring down her cheeks. "As you vish, lady," said Hades, grabbing Bruto by his burnt muzzle and throwing him over to Katie. "Oh Bruto…" whispered Katie, gently stroking his head, tears dropping onto the floor.
"Now, as for you…" said Hades, turning around to Tony, who was slowly coming back to the land of the living. "NO!" shouted Evelyn, jumping between the injured Tony and Hades. "Eve! What're ya doin'?!" asked Tony. Evelyn said, "Protectin' ya hon-" but was cut short when Hades swiped his paw at her, knocking her out cold. "NO! You son of a..!" shouted Tony, lunging at Hades with newly found strength and began to claw and bite Hades relentlessly. Hades had no chance against this sudden change and anger in Tony. But soon, Tony began to tire, at which point Hades landed a sickening blow to his ribs. "You've got fight in you," said Hades, spitting a bit of blood onto the floor besides Tony's head, "I'll give you that; but it vasn't enough…" as he stomped on Tony's bullet wound, and eventually, Tony passed out from the pain.
"Now…anyone else like to play hero?" asked Hades, turning around to look at the other dogs, who had just watched all of this happen; unsurprisingly, all of the dogs shrunk back even more than they did before. Sweeping his eyes across the room, Hades' eyes landed on Jenna, who was sitting in the corner. "My, my; vhat a be-autiful Husky…" said Hades, walking over to Jenna. "Get away from me, you pig!" shouted Jenna, not at all in the mood for this. Hades smirked and said, "Ohh, wild girl are ya? I like 'em wild…" Hades suddenly smelt a familiar scent coming from Jenna that wasn't hers.
'That smell…it's that mutt from Africa…he must've been her boyfriend…perfect…' thought Hades, smirking outwardly. "Yes, wild…just like that boyfriend of yours…" said Hades, catching Jenna's attention. "Balto?" whispered Jenna, looking up at Hades, but not in the eye, but instead, over his shoulder. "So…that was his name…" said Hades, chuckling darkly. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!" screamed Jenna, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Ha! He tried –tried- to attack me after that heroic stunt of his and I sank my teeth into his neck, felt the blood ooze out of his body as the life was drained from him. As he squirm…I enjoyed every single minute of it," said Hades darkly, an evil smirk on his face.
Jenna's eyes widened before she suddenly broke down in tears, her head falling to her paws and crying into them; her love was alive, only to be told by his murderer that he was dead. "Right; gather up those pathetic excuses of military dogs; they'll be executed tomorrow, along with the other POWs," ordered Hades, and Olaf nodded, walking over to drag Bruto away when Katie stood over his body. "NO! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM!" shouted Katie, but she was quickly knocked out, along with Cali, and the two were thrown with the unconscious body of Evelyn. All of the dogs in the boiler room didn't dare to attack either Hades or Olaf, not even the proud Steele; even he wasn't proud enough to stand up to the German dogs.
"Sir! We got part of the message off Balto's recorder; the Germans are gonna attack somewhere in America!" a solider shouted for the Commander at the American base in Juno. "Where?!" demanded the Commander, turning to look at the soldier. "I don't know; nobody knows! The recording cuts out before it can say!" exclaimed the soldier. Balto knew where the Nazis were going to be striking, and barked to get the Commander's attention. "He must have Nazi scent," said the Commander, turning to look at Balto. He turned to the soldier, and said, "Get as many soldiers as you can, as many vehicles as you can and get them to follow that dog; tell the Navy to stay on standby as well."
"Yes sir!" said the soldier, saluting the Commander and gathering nearly 3,000 soldiers and as many vehicles as he could. "Alright boy; lead us to the Nazis," said a solider, patting Balto on the head. 'Yeah, no pressure (!)' thought Balto sarcastically, but he responded to the solider with a bark and began walking to Nome, the Americans following behind him.