Chapter 21: "Nice" Welcome

(A/N: Random Fun Fact!: The names of the police dogs in this chapter aren't random; I looked it up and turns out the other soliders in Hero's Duty -besides Calhoun, Kohut, Markowski- have unknown names, such as Marco, Maddox and Mac (I added Madge), and they all start with M, with the exception of Calhoun and Kohut. Who knew?!)

After soaking up all the love and attention of the human police officers, Ralph was lead away by the security guard and into a long, narrow hallway- the same one Officer Croft had gone down. The mastiff's ears were already filled with barking before they reached the end of it, Ralph peered up at his handler a little nervously.

He was still on that emotional high of all the love and attention he had gotten from the people here at the station...but how would the fellow canines feel about Ralph being here?

When the two reached the end of the hallway, the mastiff saw that there was a single door, also controlled by a button. Straining to see out the window pane on the door, Ralph saw that daylight was slowly approaching- and that there were many kennels out in the large, fenced-in yard. Many, many dogs were running around freely inside the enclosed area, which was mostly just a large patch of dirt by now.

All at once the door opened- and every pooch paused their scampering around to turned and look at the door...seeing a newcomer to their force.

"Alright, here you go...uh, well, whatever you're name is, dog," the security guard told softly a gulping Ralph as he gave him a little push outside.

As the other cop dogs began to curiously approach, Ralph couldn't help but flatten his ears in growing fear. These of dogs should be fairly nice to him...but the darkening looks on their faces wasn't promising that.

"Now, you guys give this fill-in Markowski a nice welcome, okay?" Koopa yawned out, pushing the button again. Sceonds later the door was shut tight- leaving Ralph out on his own.

A little more hesitant than before, Ralph forced his legs not to shake as he calmly and slowly approached the pack. He could do this.

"Uh, hey-oh!" he called out shakily, trying to break the deathly glares he was receiving as he approached the group casually. "M-my name's-"

"Where's Markowski?!" A golden retriever near the front hissed as he quickened in his steps towards the mastiff, followed in suit by the others behind. "And why are you wearing his vest?!"

Freezing in his place, Ralph quickly and nervously looked up at the lightening sky. "Uh, well, he's out for a while-"

"You didn't kill him, didya?!" A black lab near the middle of the approaching group growled in at the mastiff's face, causing Ralph to look down at him in rapted attention.

"What? N-n! Of course not!" the mastiff quickly stated, more on edge than ever. "I'm, uh, just his and Kohut's fill-in for a while!"

The black lab huffed back, clearly unimpressed with the mastiff's answer as he pushed his way towards the front.

"'Fill in? For a while?'" he mocked in Ralph's face. "I don't know where you came from, mutt, but on this force, it's either you stay here or you don't. You crack under pressure or keep going. You live...or you die." He smirked wickedly before motioning towards the others around him. "We've all been on here for months now- all lasted this long because of our guts and determination, right, Marco?"

Marco, the golden retriever near the front of the vicious pack, smirked back at the lab. "Yeah. Kohut is only out because he had a literally bone-crush blow to the leg, requiring immediate surgery. He's tough- so he'll be back before long, though... You're not a replacement for him," he hissed sharply.

The golden then paused long enough to snort and shake his head harshly. "But that Markowski...You take his place juuuust fine, heh."

"I knew that scaredy cat of a german shepherd wouldn't last long," the back lab butted in, an evil smirk n his face. "What a wimp he was. Only here a week- I can't believe he'd even make it that far before having to check out, needing a, heh, 'mental evaluation'".

The others cackled in sicking laugher as Ralph felt his eyes widen slightly and his body become tense all over. He had a bad feeling about this.

It sounds like all of these crazies need that mental evaluation, too, he had the passing thought- but didn't dare say it out loud.

"So, you gotta name, Bulging Boy?" smirked out Marco when he noticed the mastiff's less than flattering tight vest. "Or do you prefer to be dubbed 'Wimpy's Replacement'?"

"Uh... it's Ralph," the mastiff mumbled, not sure how he felt being on a first name basis with such insane dogs.

Shuffling his paws slightly, Ralph was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second. He now felt really bad for taking that other dog's vest- for multiple reasons.

Shaking his head to clear it of the worrying thoughts filling it, the mastiff forced himself to remember why he was on this whacked-out K-9 force in the first place.

"So, uh, where are those good dog collars I heard Mark- er, the human guys talking about inside?" he asked, reconsidering his words quickly. "They said you can earn-"

"You can't earn nothin', Chubby!" Marco hissed, his ears laying back as an angry look filled his eyes. "You're just a fill-in- and probably won't last a week, if that!"

"Yeah, why do you even want to know, anyway?!" a smaller dog to Marco's left growled out, his own eyes narrowed in rage.

At their angry reaction to his mere question, Ralph backed up quickly. "Uh, well-"

"You really thought you can just waltz on this force -as a weak fill-in, no less- and get yourself a collar?!" a chocolate labrador in the back exclaimed. "That's not how this force works, buddy!"

Rolling her eyes dramatically, the chocolate lab pushed her way to the front. "You must be from some little stupid station a couple of towns over. Here, you actually have to earn that kind of collar. And only a few long-time warriors have actually gotten it."

At the dishearting news, Ralph felt his desperate eyes subconsciously look around at the fellow canines' necks for the first time -only to be surprised to see that none of their collars was anything fancy. In fact, their worn-for-the-wear collars were barely a step above his old, frayed one.

His face unable to hide his disappointment, Ralph could literally feel his face fall at the sudden revelation. He'd work so hard to get here- just to find out that getting the collar was next to impossible?

Noticing the mastiff's face filled with despair, the black lab growled in anger. He gave Ralph a disgusted up-down, eyeing him suspiciously. "You tryin' to weasel your way in here to get yourself a collar, pushing everyone else back down the line, jerk-boy?" he hissed, beyond indicating that had better not be Ralph's intentions.

Immediately filling with fear, Ralph silently shook his head. That wasn't his intention at all...at least, now it wasn't since he knew it was next to impossible, anyway.

"'Cause it better not be..." the black lab continued cockily, his dark face not able to hide his anger. "If it is, you'll be fortunate just to get out of here with your neck attached to your fat body."

The golden retriever, normally a soft-spoken breed Ralph thought, cackled wickedly from his place by the black lab. He turned to grin at the pitch black lab.

"Oh, I don't think we have to worry about him one-uping us, Mac," the golden smirked to the lab. "By the looks of him, Tubby here won't last even half the time needed to get one of the collars, anyways."

Mac's hard face softened into a laughing expression as he turned to his colleagues, all wearing a matching evil smirk. "Yeah, he'll probably resign, run off, or be killed by a mutated scorpion by the end of the week!"

"Then the replacement will need a replacement!" another dog cackled loudly, causing the others to cruelly joined in the vile laugher.

At their words, Ralph gulped down a new knot forming in his throat. Well, that's not entirely untrue, he tried to comfort himself by thinking. I was planning out getting out of here the second I got my good dog collar...

Which looked like was going to be way harder (and take way longer) than he had originally anticipated. If it was even possible now...

"I dunno, guys," a small german shepherd with large, floppy ears voiced, eyeing Ralph with more uncertain eyes than ones filled with anger or disgust- a sight somehow refreshing to Ralph now. "This mastiff looks pretty strong...I bet he can-"

"Bet nothin', Maddox!" Mac hissed to the smaller dog, causing her to wince in her place. "You can't just be physically strong. A dog must be mentally tough for what they are gonna have to see and deal with here in Arcadia. Especially with those mutated scorpions running around town."

The black lab paused to turn away from Maddox- and began to lean dangerously close to Ralph's face. "You destroy a couple of those scorpions -without one of them destroying you- and maybe, just maybe, you can go up the ladder to get a good dog collar. But even then, you'll have to to wait a long time to get one, right, Madge?"

"Yeah," the chocolate lab spoken agreed, "a long time, filled with earning your keep by fighting scorpions each day. And repeat. Fighting scorpions and repeat."

At her eerie words, Ralph's mind instantly filled with Markowski's words back at Tapper's- making his stomach flopped around.

'Come to work and fight scorpions! Come to work, fight more scorpions!'...

Maybe I should've heeded his words a little better...

An unsettled shutter rippled through Ralph's body- which didn't go unnoticed. At his clear nervousness, the group before him smirked savagely in the thickness in the air.

"I don't think this Ralph mutt will even stand a chance," one decided out loud in a low voice... before giving Ralph a very evil, callous smile. "Or even make it through the night, I bet."

His eyes wide, Ralph gulped and attempted to back up. He didn't care to live up to that bet, that was sure. But as he stared at them all, it appeared that it was what these bizarre dogs actually... wanted...were planning on, even...

At his intimidated actions, they laughed once again- and it was then Ralph unfortunately understood just why Markowski was kind of crazy.

Because these dogs straight-up were, too.

A chill ran up Ralph's spine in horror as he stared right at the group of insane canines. They chortled with narrowed eyes in returned- and drew closer and closer to Ralph, forcing him to back up further.

Frantically and timidly pushed into a corner of the fence as they started to close in on him, Ralph slightly stumbled over his large paws in the process. He scrambled to get as far away as he could from these crazy dogs.

Oh, what in sweet milk bone have I gotten himself into? he thought in fear as he openly shook in fear, wishing more than anything in the world that he was back at home...and regretting he had made the bet in the first place.