Chapter 10 Ultimate Gladiators:
two days later Nome:
Balto, Jenna, the former Delta's, Alexandria, Emerald, Dusty and their children were laying in the scrapyard. The scrapyard was owned by a man named Simon and his brother Harry. The two had taken over an old scrapyard that from what the dogs knew had been from their parents that had died recently.
The two had moved to Nome and had first stayed out of town, but quite fast they had befriended with the population of Nome. They didn't knew much what the two had done before the scrapyard only that they were quite rich. The two were searching for guard dogs to guard the scrapyard.
The two were good news for Aleu, Alexandria, Emerald and the three Delta's as they had been adopted by the duo and were having a good life. Simon had left a few weeks ago to an unknown location saying he was searching for more guard dogs and that he knew an excellent place to find the best fighters.
Suddenly they heard a truck coming their way and quickly looked up and saw it was Simon's truck.
"Simon's back," Aleu exclaimed happily. She had become quite good friends with both Harry and Simon.
"I am curious what he has brought with him," Alexandria said.
They ran to the front of the house where Harry was waiting for his brother as well.
Simon stopped the truck and got out.
"Hello, brother how is it going," Harry asked.
"Good, I have found more dogs for the job," Simon said.
"Good, let them meet the others in that case," Harry said before opening the back of the truck and signalling the dogs to come out
Balto and the others saw a couple of females jumping out of the car and then a few other dogs that were wearing some kind of cape and mask with an red eye on.
The dogs that jumped out of the truck looked nervous towards Balto and the others.
"Hello, there how is it going," Balto asked polite.
"Good, thank you for asking," The female German Shepherd answered.
"I am Balto and this are my family and friends," Balto said before saying everyone name.
"Pleasure to meet you guys my name is Samantha and these are Ashley, Star; Crystal, Emely; Hunter, Big Max; Prof and Runner," Samantha said while pointing at the dog the name belonged to.
"If I may ask what are you guys wearing and why," Kody asked curiously while looking at the masked males.
"A cape and mask and we are wearing it because it's warm and we got it as a gift," Runner said.
"From who," Dingo asked curiously.
From the men who captured us and used us as gladiators until we won our freedom," Hunter answered.
"You guys are gladiators," Dakota asked.
"We were gladiators to be more precise now from what I know we are guard dogs," Prof said.
"Did you guys kill a lot of dogs," Emerald asked nervous.
"More then we would have liked to, listen before you judge us. We are not evil dogs we just wanted to survive," Big Max said.
"There is no one judging you," Jenna said with a sweet voice. The others nodded in agreement.
"We thank you for giving us a chance," Hunter said.
"Why are you guys so sad," Saba asked curious.
"Yeah, you guys escaped right," Kione said.
"We did, but two of our friends are still fighting. They will be free Sunday or death Sunday and there is nothing we can do to help them," Big Max sadly. Crystal came over to him and nuzzled him which made him at least a little bit less sad.
"We are so sorry. We didn't knew that," Saba said ashamed from asking.
"No reason to be. You two didn't knew that." Runner said.
"What are their names? If I may ask," Dusty asked.
"Storm and Jack," Hunter said.
By the name Jack both Aleu and Alexandria started crying softly remembering how he had met his demise by falling into the burning ocean from the cliff.
"Did I say something wrong," Hunter said noticing their tears.
"No, it's just my brother's name was Jack and he died nearly a month ago." Alexandria explained.
"And I kind of had a crush on him, but I wasn't able to tell him," Aleu said.
Jenna went over and nuzzled both girls in an attempt to comfort them.
"Sorry, I didn't knew that," Hunter said ashamed of himself to have reminded the girls without meaning to do it to such a sad moment in their life.
"don't be you didn't knew about that," Aleu said.
"What do you think of a tour around town," Kody proposed.
"Sounds good, I think we will take you up on that offer," Star said.
Arena two days later:
Four dogs were sitting before the big double door that gave access to the arena, two of them were Jack and Storm. The two were still naked seeing that their hairs still hadn't grown back, but at least the other dogs didn't make any kind of remarks about it.
The two were looking bad to say the least Jack's white skin and Storm's pink skin were filled with wounds and bruises of the many torture methods that they had been exposed to. The two were nervous. They didn't knew todays rules so it could very well be the two would need to fight against each other.
"However it will go down today it was an honor knowing you," Storm suddenly said.
"I am happy that if I find death today it was with a good friend and partner in the area," Jack said.
Storm nodded and looked back to the door which started to open. The four dogs started walking thought the door where they saw the tribunes where completely full there was almost no walking place anymore. 'They really want to see the bight fight don't they,' Jack thought.
The man from the VIP-room took the word and said. "Gooday ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the final day of our game. Today we choose the ultimate gladiator and for the first time. We are going to allow multiple dogs to survive seeing as we needed to cancel the last milestone because we had not enough gladiators anymore because of a disease so now every dog that survives El diablo is free to go, now let the fight begin," The man said before a door opened and revealed El Diablo.
"Oh, shit," All the dogs said in unison at the sight of the massive black bull that entered the arena.
The few things Jack knew about bull was that the didn't like the color red and that was exactly the color he and the other were covered with. The wounds and some kind of paint was probably enough to piss that bull off.
"Red! I hate red," The Bull yelled.
'Oh, crap,' Jack thought before running away. He saw the other dogs also didn't want to clash with the bull as first ones so they followed his example ad ran away from the bull.
'I knew there was a reason they painted us red,' Jack thought in himself while running. He looked back and saw the bull was chasing a black-brown Rottweiler which could only barely avoid the bull's horns by jumping to his right.
'This is not going good. We are going to need to bring that Bull down quick if we want to win,' Jack thought in himself. He turned to Storm who was standing side by side with a Brown Tosa looking at the Bull and asked. "Jack how are we going to bring that thing down?"
"We need to trap him somewhere against the wall to prevent him from charging and kicking as good," Jack replied.
The other dogs nodded that they understood and Jack ran to the bull and yelled. "Hey, hot head over here!"
The Bull looked at him full of rage and said. "Your talking to me?"
"Yeah, you're the only hothead around here beside that guy in the VIP-lounge," Jack replied.
"Your going down," The Bull said angry.
"I don't think so," Jack said before running away
(Tip: For they who like fitting music search up Bringing down the giant of Saving Abel)
The bull was chasing Jack with high speed and Jack only barely managed to dodge the bull's charge causing the bull to hit the wall. Jack got back on his paws and started running away to the position the others were waiting followed by the Bull. He went from left to right and did all kind of movements disabling the bull to start another charge.
Jack ran up to another the wall and on the last moment went to his right, but this time the bull had expected this and managed to hit Jack's right hind leg with his horn. Jack felt the pain, but kept on running. He looked behind him were Storm, the Rottweiler and the Tosa were busy attacking the bull by his neck in the hope of bringing him down.
Jack turned around and started charging right at the bull and jumped on the bull's neck. The bull managed to move his neck a bit throwing Jack merciless against the wall.
Jack fell from the bull and was on his back groaning in pain. Barely by conscious. He heard someone yell his name, but he started to lose conscious it was like something was pulling him down in his own mind everything went black, but suddenly he was shot back up and he was back by conscious seeing Storm and the others having the biggest trouble holding the bull.
Jack crawled back on his paws and dust himself back off before charging another time on the bull, but this time he jumped way higher and Jack knew that the N-virus in his body was helping him. He jumped on the bull's neck and started biting and clawing it, but Jack knew that it would not be sufficient to kill the bull and decided that if they couldn't kill it they could wound it.
Jack jumped off the bull and did one thing he would probably never forget. He charged right at the bull from the side and on the moment the bull managed to come from the ground Jack jumped aimed with his sharp claws and cut open the bull's neck.
Jack now got an entire stream of blood over him and the bull collapsed right on top of him.
"Crack!" All the dogs could hear and Storm ad the other tried to get Jack from underneath the death bull.
"Jack you okay? say something man," Storm said desperate while he got the bull of him with help of the others.
Jack started coughing and said "Damn, those thing are heavy!"
Storm smiled and hit him friendly on the back.
"How are you feeling," Storm asked concerned.
"Like crap my chest hurts like hell," Jack answered.
"Okay, buddy we are getting out of here and to Nome so just hold on okay," Storm asked.
Jack nodded while coughing a bit more.
They received a loud cheering and applause from the public before they were signalled to leave the arena.
They got cleaned up a bit and got their cape and mask which they would need as a protection against the cold now they no longer had their fur anymore.
"Good, you have won and now you get a fair chance to get your freedom so we will give you a five minute head start starting now," The man from the VIP-lounge said before opening the door.
Jack, Storm and the two others ran away, but not into the woods no the hunting dogs would surely find them there. They stayed close to the building in the hope of finding a place to hide.
They saw a small hole in the wall that lead into a small room with dog food and an open door where the dogs ran through. Jack started having trouble with his breathing, but didn't slow down. He couldn't not with those dogs on his tail.
They ran through the corridors until they found a stair that led to a dark basement. They went inside and didn't saw anything.
"Man, I don't see anything," The Tosa whispered.
"Me neither," The Rottweiler whispered.
"Where are we," The Tosa asked.
"Somewhere underneath the cell's I think," Jack answered silent.
Jack saw a switch and pulled it suddenly the light went on and they saw a lot of death dog some of them missed some pieces and they saw that there stood a bag with dog food next to it.
"I am going to puke," The Rottweiler said.
"They made us eat our fallen comrades," The Tosa said with horror written on his face.
Jack and Storm also had a look of pure horror on their faces. The thought they enjoyed the meat of their death fellow dogs made them sick.
They heard footsteps coming their way and started running again this time through a door with a stair to the higher levels was behind. They came back into a series of corridors and eventually found something that looked like a garage with a truck parked that was about to take off. The four dogs jumped on the truck, but before the completely took off one of the guard dogs which seemed like the leader jumped aboard and the Tosa said. "Darek!"
"Corius," the guard dog replied spitting out the name like it was a curse.
"I am not going to let you get a way," Darek said angry.
"I don't need to get away dragging your ass to hell with me is the only thing I need to do before the Devil can have me," Corius said before pouncing on Darek and rolling out of the truck.
The truck started to move and Corius said. "Good luck to you guys my journey ends here!"
Then Corius started fighting Darek and right before the other guard dogs managed to reach the fighting duo Corius merciless killed Darek by biting and snapping his neck.
In response the remaining guard dogs jumped on him and merciless ripped him apart.
Jack, Storm and the Rottweiler looked how the Tosa named Corius was ripped into pieces.
"Rest in peace my friend," The Rottweiler said.
Jack and Storm said a last greet as well before making themselves easy in the truck.
"That looked like it was personal. You know why," Storm asked.
"From what I know that Darek guy killed Corius pups and mate in the attempt to capture him.
Storm and Jack nodded that they understood. Corius had fought for a chance on vengeance and he had gotten his vengeance and now he could reunite with his mate and pups in the afterlife.
"I hope he finds them in the afterlife his mate and pups I mean. He was a good guy. He and his family didn't deserve this fate," The Rottweiler said.
We hope that as well," Storm said and Jack agreed to it.
This truck is not going to Nome, but it will bring us quite a bit more into the area of Nome if we follow it a while." Jack said.
"And what are you going to do," Jack asked.
"I will come with you guys to Nome if that's alright then I can think of what to do next there," The Rottweiler answered.
Storm and Jack nodded that they approved his plan.
"By the way my name is Howard." The Rottweiler said.
"Nice to meet you Howard my name is Jack and this is Storm," Jack said.
"Nice to meet you guys," Howard said before he laid his head down signalling he wanted to rest a bit. Jack and Storm also laid themselves down and fell asleep.
The next day forest:
The three dogs were awake again and the truck suddenly stopped by a small cabin were the drivers were going to rest a bit Jack guessed. The dogs jumped out of the truck and made their way into the forest.
They walked for a while and Howard said. "You know, I never thought that I would survive the arena the others were stronger than me, but they became insane and died. I couldn't believe I was surviving as long as I did."
"We thought exact the same thing. When we started," Storm said.
After a while they arrived at a big canyon with a river flowing underneath. The only crossing for as far as they could see was a big tree over the canyon.
"That's so nice of the universe to give us a tree trunk to walk over," Storm said sarcastic.
Jack hated to admit it, but if they wanted to get a cross this was the place the would need to do it.
"Why didn't we just follow the road," Howard asked.
"Because that road wasn't going to Nome," Jack replied, but suddenly a bad feeling hit Jack and he saw the others got it too.
"Something is wrong with this place," Jack said and the others agreed.
The peaceful atmosphere was gone and now a threatening one had replaced it.
Then they heard a sound and looked to where it came from and they didn't like what they saw a huge black bear with yellow eyes came out of the bushes.
"Like I said nothing can ever go easy or can it," Jack said.
The bear started to advance on them. Shouldn't he be scared of us because we are with three and he is alone," Howard said.
"I think this bear has dealt with plenty of wolfs before us so I think he isn't scared anymore from bad odds," jack replied.
"Fight or run," Storm asked.
"Run," Jack replied before running towards the tree trunk and ran over it followed by Storm and Howard however when they were halfway they saw the bear was trying to push the trunk off. Jack ran as fast as he could and managed to jump on the other side. Storm jumped as well but didn't quite make it and Howard he managed to hold on to a rock, but was out of the reach for both Storm and Jack to help him.
He fell how he was slipping and said. "Good luck with your journey mine ends here," Howard said before he slipped and fell into the swirling river.
Jack and Storm just looked how Howard was eaten up by the river. They saw the bear walked away again. They said a silent prayer for Howard before continuing their journey.
meanwhile in Nome:
Duke the pilot and Harry of the scrapyard were finishing their new airplane. The two had started working on it around the time Simon left to get some more guard dogs and the two were going to test it out now.
"Well, brother I see you two haven't been sitting silent during the time I was gone," Simon said while looking at the airplane.
"Indeed, now let's hope everything goes well and then we can put it into active service for rescue operations," Harry said.
Duke and Harry prepared their stuff for the flight and Duke came past Balto and said. "I will try to not crash this time," before patting him.
Balto nuzzled him in response. Then Duke and Harry got in the plane and took off.
An hour later forest:
Duke and Harry were coming back from White Mountain.
"The flight is going as planned," Harry said.
"Thank god, I don't want to crash every time I try something out," Duke replied.
They flied for a while until suddenly the plane was starting to lose height.
"Problems," Harry asked.
"I am afraid so, engines aren't getting fuel anymore for some reason, but tank is still good the meters say," Duke replied.
"Damn, then there is something wrong with the oil pipe, okay it's useless to risk our lives by hoping it will go over try and land somewhere," Harry said.
Suddenly the engines stopped completely causing the airplane to lose height almost immediately.
"Engines are out," Duke said.
"Damn, well land somewhere on good luck because we aren't getting over those pines anymore," Harry said while pointing at a few high pine trees.
Duke tried to land somewhere and everything went good, but the landing gear got stuck on some rock hidden through the snow and Duke and Harry blacked out when the plane hit a tree quite hard.
On a nearby hill:
"Humans," Storm noticed while both he and Jack looked how the plain crashed.
"Yep, it does looks like it," Jack said.
"Should we help them," Storm asked.
"Yes, perhaps they can help us find Nome because I am not entirely sure anymore which direction Nome is from now on," Jack replied before both he and Storm made their way over to the crash.
When they were almost there Jack groaned in pain.
"You okay," Storm asked.
"For now I am, but my chest is hurting like hell. That bull got me better then I thought," Jack replied.
Storm then walked next to Jack to support him a bit.
They arrived at the crash site and looked at the plain.
It was a black plain with a familiar name on it Balto. Jack smiled it looks like you are quite famous in Nome Balto. Jack never knew how popular Balto was these days he only knew the town didn't like him before the serum run, but it seems like he had underestimated Balto's popularity.
He saw two men sitting in the plain. one man had blue eyes and blond hair the other had brown hair and green eyes.
"How we wake them up," Jack asked Storm.
"Licking their face perhaps does something," Storm said.
Jack started licking Duke's face and Storm started doing the same with Harry.
After a few minutes the two humans slowly started to move and Jack and Storm started backing up a bit to not give them the impression they were hostiles.
"Awh my head, You okay Harry," Duke said.
"Yeah, I am good. You," Harry asked.
"I will live," Duke said before he noticed two masked dogs looking at them.
He carefully climbed out of the plain and started helping Harry out as well, but they quickly realised that they both had broken their ankle and collapsed in the snow.
Storm and Jack came a bit closer to them and sat down again.
"Are they rescue dogs," Harry asked.
"No, then they wouldn't be alone, but I don't think their hostile either," Duke said.
"Can you guys help us back to Nome," Duke asked.
Both Storm and Jack barked as a sign they accepted.
Duke and Harry both build a construction that looked like a sled for two persons with the two dogs in front.
"You think you are going to make," Storm asked concerned.
"It's not like I have much of a choice," Jack said while groaning a bit before starting to move.
'Nome here we come and you better be ready for it,' Jack thought while pulling the sled.
Then the two disappeared into the forest together with the two humans on the sled heading towards their objective Nome!
Authors Note:
Nothing feels better then finishing a chapter you are happy with after you put a lot of effort in it. I would like to ask you guys to please review the story and if you like it add it to your follows so you can see when a new chapter comes out or if you really like it add it to your favorites or the best thing to do just do it all.