Chapter 39: ...Let's find Out

With the others in suit, Calhoun began the desperate task of scratching near the base of the door, all of them whining frantically and slightly without thinking.

She dug her claws into the door as hard as she could in a repetitious motion, silently begging for the door to open.

After a mere few seconds of digging, however, Calhoun knew it was pointless. It was locked and shut tight, no way of entering it. There would be no way that she or her troop, despite as well trained and strong as they were, could dig open the open.

Or break matter a hole through it, for that matter.

Except for...

Getting an sudden idea, Calhoun turned and was about to order Ralph, still a little ways behind them, use his ginormous paws and obvious near wall- crushing weight to crack open the door.

But Ralph had been so busy looking over his shoulders at the scorpions that he hadn't even noticed that the group of dogs were at a halt in front of the door. By the time he noticed, it was too late to stop...or to even think.

He tried to skid to a stop, but ended up crashing into a baffled Calhoun and the others instead like a huge bowling to a bunch of pins ...which forced a large, splintered hole in the door under the pressure.

The dogs all laid in a dog pile for a moment, a little too confused and dizzy to stand up. Above them, the scorpions suddenly -and surprisingly- abandoned their chase of the dogs and instead flew and filed into the wide room in front of them.

Most nonchalantly landed in groups on clusters on the ground, seeming to be exhausted from their flying and chasing. Some scurried around pointlessly in the room; others, thankfully most, pulled their legs and wings under them..and were somehow asleep within seconds, their glowing back now fading.

The large dog pile straddling between the dark hallway and the dark room quickly began to separated as Calhoun stood up, shaking her head roughly. Still a little in lightheaded from the fall, her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkest in the room before... causing her to see in utter horror that the room contained a surprisingly very quiet and horrified... group of people that had been huddled in a corner of the large room.

The humans -the patients, the staff- had all congregated in the single largest room in the hospital to be protected from the scorpions before the firefighters were able to rescue them, at the command of the emergency crew outside.

The people, once safe from multated scorpions but now so open and exposed to them, shook violently as they eyed the now mostly inactive multated scorpions. They fortunately somehow able to remain inaudible and unnoticed by the few still awake creations, scurrying around.

But their faces...they pained Calhoun at how scarred they were.

"Look! The patients are in here!" she quietly told the other police dogs quickly, grabbing her colleagues' attention. "We found them." She carefully took a few step forward, right before being gently biten on the tail by Maddox.

"Wait!" the small german shepherd, still hunched down, whispered to the sergeant. "We've found the scorpions! I thought we were supposed to report back to Officer Croft and lead her to them!"

"Yeah, not lead the multated scorpions straight to the people inside!" Calhoun turned and growl-whispered to her, a scowl on her face. "It's too late to try and get the officers involved- these people could all die by the time we'd get the officers here.We can't just leave these people to die! People's lives are directly involved now! "

Mac gasped as he stood up. "Are you saying that we have to go against the commands of the officers?!"

The other police gasped as well, unable to process that their leader, their sergeant, was going A-WOL.

Calhoun huffed sliently and somberly as she eyed the still shaking people cowarding in the corner . "Look, if you pussycats want to run back to the officers, then fine. Go. But I'm going to stay here with these people, defend them in case the scorpions decide toattack, and make sure these folk get out alive...even if I don't."

Clear she was done discussing the matter, Calhoun carefully step out even further out of the door frame and began the tedious task of getting closer and closer to the scarred group of humans...without waking or disturbing the multated scroptions surrounding her.

The other police pooches eyed each other in uncertainty, but slowly began following her, mimicking her every move.

"Why don't we send one of us back to get the officers?" Maddox suggested in an undertone. "Then at least the officers can find us and help us!"

Calhoun paused midstep, one of her front paws held in the air. A smirk planted on her face, she eyed the pup beside her. "Good idea, puppy. You'll make a good sergeant one day."

As Maddox took a mintues to glow in disbelief at the rare kind compliment from her leader, Calhoun knew immediately who she was going to send to get the human officers.

The only one of them who was untrained in dealing with multated scorpions.

"Ralph!" she called over to the bull mastiff without turning around to see where he was. "You go back and lead the officers here, STAT!" And without waiting for an answer, she and her troop kept walking, carefully making their way through the sea of scorpions.

But Ralph, still laying in the door frame of the broken door, couldn't respond. In fact, he couldn't move. Not one inch.

He was frozen, his ears allowing everything being said -by Calhoun, by Maddox, by everything- to flow from one ear out the other as his eyes were glued up at the broken wood that hung above him.

Because on that one piece of splintered wood... hung Calhoun's good dog collar, unclipped from around her neck and placed uncannily right by Ralph's head.