Chapter 43: The Hunted
As he frantically sailed into the air towards the window with a multated scorpion still perched on top of his nose, Ralph could only pray that his decision to jump was the right one and would not end up with him slaming face-first into a wall...
And he couldn't believe it when he realized that, not only was he continuing to sail through the air, but also that he was actally going to make it through the window.
Surrounding the scorpion on his nose, there was suddenly light from the now overhead sun, the smell of fresh air filling Ralph's nose as his front paws and long, extended arms, along with his big, bulky head cleared the cracked open window ..
He couldn't believe it! He was almost half-way through the window!...
When his large midsection decided to get stuck in the side frames of the window sill, jerking him back suddenly and getting him even more wedged into place.
Ralph squrimed as hard and furious as he could possibly muster, but his fat torso didn't even budge in the slightest. He suddenly could hear the hissing of the scorpions just behind him and inside below him, scampering closer to his dangling back end.
Ralph began to desperately flailed even harder to try and finish sliding through the window. The short, broken glass that clung to the side frame of the window began to cut and stab into his sides with his wiggling, causing him stabs of pain as he pushed as hard as he could against the outside wall with his fronts paws.
An abrupt rrrriiippp was heard and felt against Ralph's fur and skin. Ralph turned his head enough to see that the police vest he had on was now ripping at the seams at being stretched and pulled to its' already exceeded limit.
Finally, a small pop rang out, and all at once the sharred glass gave way and broke sideways at the pressure of Ralph's body... causing the bull matiff to finish his less-than-clumsy descent through the window and land on the grass outside with a hard-hitting thump.
Stumbling up to his feet, Ralph shook his head to clear it from the fuzz the crash to the ground had caused...and felt it was now suddenly way harder to lift up his snout. Opening his slightly blurry eyes, he could see the scorpion that had attached itself to his nose was now almost too big for his nose to hold up and was still clinging stubbornly to it.
Renewed with rage and annoyance, Ralph shook his head even harder as he stumbled around, once again trying his best to free his nose the creature on it.
The deep, stinging, sharp scratches the animal was causing on him from being attached for so long was starting to be annoying...especially with the present fear that the creature could give him a sting that would no doubt kill him right then and there if it wanted to...
Suddenly, a profound fact struck Ralph's mind like a ton of brinks.
The scorpion- despite the fact that it had grown more than the length of Ralph's snout and triple the weight.. despite that it had been jostled and jerked and waved around by Ralph's head- hadn't stung him with it's stinger- or even attemped to do so the entire time it was atop his nose.
Why in the world hasn't this thing stung me already? he mused to himself as he tried to comprehend the mystery of it all, although relief that the creature hadn't decided to sting him...yet.
The creature atop his nose offered no such help but a hissing in Ralph's face and a slight sharper pinch of its legs into his snout, causing Ralph to cringe.
I gotta get this stupid thing off my face..before it does decide to sting me.
Mustling up as much strengh as he could, Ralph lifted his snout as high as he could and shook his head -so violently back and forth that caused the good dog collar, still in his mouth, to whip hard against his head, the tags on it striking his temples like a hurling stone.
Shocking himself at just how strong both his neck and brain were to hold up to such a forceful, strong jerk, Ralph found that his jolting had did nothing but accomplish making himself even more dizzy.
The scorpion staying put on his nose, the bull mastiff stood flustered for a moment as he panted exhastedly...and found that it was now suddenly way easier to breath.
Side eyeing the grass ground around him, Ralph saw that the police vest he once wore was no longer squeezing his sides and chest tightly, and was now in a puddle of blue and yellow heap in the grass.
Deciding he didn't really need it anymore, Ralph ignored the broken vest and, with his good dog collar still clutched safely in his mouth, bumbled and tripped away from the hospital building itself. Broken glass from muliple windows laid sprinkled at his feet, cutting his not-so-small paws occasionally as he walked on.
As he tripped over his feet, Ralph realized there was no one around him. He could hear distant voices and sirens sounding like they were coming from the front of the buliding- but there were no signs of any people or animals on the side of the buliding he was on, not even an occasional firemen busting out a widow further down.
His mind tripping around as much as he was, Ralph stumbled blindly over something metal and found himself on an makeshift incline and moving recklessly up what felt like a ramp.
Under his feet was a ground that felt familiar and yet different at the same time to the mastiff...followed by the unsettling smell of people and medicine extremely close by.
A bright, iridescent light now filled his side and top vision, reminding him of the flickering lights just inside the buliding he had just fled from.
Suddenly, the creature on Ralph's nose captured his full attention as it threaningly inched closer and closer towards his eyes, its' own still glowing a neon green. It growled violently, looking as if it was about to attack the space right between his eyes...when suddenly, it didn't.
The creature stopped hissing, stopped digging its legs into Ralph's nose, stopped even growing- the creature stopped everything. Its' hissing mouth now just hung permanently open, somehow giving off a feeling of being hypnotized or made utterly inactive. It was as if someone had paused it in the middle of its attack as it stared blankly into Ralph's eyes.
Ralph stared as the creature's eyes suddenly fading from neon green into a pale, flickering blue color... and as they slowly, repetitiously blinked blankly at him as well.
What is wrong with this scorpion? Ralph thought in fear, growing more and more unsettled by the moment. First, it had no interest in stinging me...now it's not moving, and its' eyes are glowing all weird...
But his mind trailed off as he side eyeing the metal, almost mirror-like walls around him...and as he felt his jaw almost hit the floor on the now apparent automotive he was in.
In the reflection, Ralph could see that this scorpion on his nose had multated -even hatched, perhaps- to have no stinger. All that was there was a large stump of a tail where the stinger naturally would be...making the creature, although still frightful, utterly defensless in attack.
The second he realized that, Ralph felt his racing heart begin to slow down. The desperate attempt to get the creature off his nose because of the fear of being stung now wasn't so desperate. With it having no stinger in the first place, the creature wasn't so scarry or threatening- especially now that it had seemed to have slumped into a state of bearly being alive anymore.
Looking past the still stupefied scorpion, Ralph took a moment to take in his surroundings. He could just barely see around the scorpion that he was sandwiched in between...what looked like a drop-leged stretcher to his left and a foward facing paramedic seat to his right...
At that, Ralph jumped. He now knew in horror exactly was he had stumbled in suddenly.
Hs was in the back of an ambulance, which was sitting with it rear doors opened and ready to load anyone needing care and raced them to the next nearest hospital in the state.
And the bull mastiff also knew just as fast that he neeeded to get out of the emergency vehicle immediately.
Not wanting to disturb the non-conscious scorpion, Ralph catiously and slowly backed up..and had almost back up to the top of the ramp when he felt and heard the shutting of the rear doors of the vehicle loudly behind him, followed by distant, slightly distorted voices.
Ralph started slightly in horror, only to bump right into the now shut ambulence rear doors- confirming for that it was indeed now shut tightly with no was of escaping.
In the sudden panic of now being trapped inside the vehicle, Ralph haphazardly jumped forward in suprise...and ended up bumping right into a human unnoticely standing in front of him in the vehicle.
Looking up as far as he could over the still frozen scorpion, the mastiff watched in absolute fear as the woman he had bumped into flipped around...to see him with a giantic multated scorpion on his snout.
"AaAGH!" The woman's voice cried out as Ralph could tell she was backing away, her loud screech stinging his earsdrums. "There's a mulated scorpion ON A DOG'S FACE BACK HERE, DAISY!"
The woman behind the wheel, whom Ralph presumed was Daisy, jumped in rely.
"What?! How'd that dog even get in here?!!" She screeched to her colleague.
"H-how should I know?" the woman in front of Ralph replied. "I'll I know I-I just turned around and saw him like this! We've better get him out of here and to the Sugar Russia's Animal Hospital as fast as possible and try to get that thing off his face! Step on it, Daisy!"
"On it!" the woman in the front of the emergency car called dutifully from behind the wheel.
Wait? Ralph yipped in panic in his mind. Why in the world would this people ambulance transport me to another-
Ralph's eyes wided as he looked straight up above the woman's head...and saw that a large headboard had the words Sugar Russia's Best Animal Hospital Emergency Vehicle proudly printed on it.
Gulping, the mastiff felt himself backed up in denial further and further towards the rear doors of the car. But there was no denying it.
Of course he wasn't trapped in just any ambulence.
Of course he had to be in an specialized animal-hospital ambulence, one that transported animals in need -say, ones who were supposed attacked by multated scorpions- to animal hospitals.
And he was, not only trapped inside it with no way out with a bezarre, abormal acting multated scorpion on his face, but was now being going to be transported to another hospital.
In an another entirely different town.
Just great, Ralph thought distraughtly as he plastered himself up against the doors, rasing one paw and hugging it to his chest as he did. Of course I had to stumble blindly into some dumb animal emergency vehicle with this stupid scorpion on my face.
He could barely hear the woman behind the wheel as she rolled down the window at her left and called out: "We've got a dog attacked by a multated scropion with us! Out of the way!"
The sound of the vehicle rivving up caused a chill to run down Ralph's back... right before he was suddenly tossed forward, nearly crashing involuntarily into the woman in front of him as the vehicle began to drive to the end of the parkinglot in a mad dash.
The mastiff had just found his footing when he was suddenly skidded to his left as the woman she turned left out of the parkinglot, the tires screeching loudly
with the sirens blarred over head.
Ralph skidded to the far right, nearly ramming his side into the wall of the vehicle as it made a sharp right. He had bearly recovered from that when the car made another quick, sharp turn to the left almost immediately, sending him nearly flying back to the left of the vehicle.
With not much room left in the ambluence, Ralph crashed into the drop-legged strecher, almost dropping his good dog collar from his mouth in the process.
"Is it a police dog, Peach?!" the woman driving called loudly, in some way being heard over the loud emegereny sirens.
The woman, Peach, in front of him somehow was able to kneal down and gently grab onto Ralph's sides to stable him from the other woman's crazy driving.
"He's got no K-9 police vest on or anything...," she finally answered the driver after a quick examination of the animal- and its tag-along scorpion companion. Ralph was shocked to see she had somehow manage to put gloves despite the other woman's crazy driving.
"He must've somehow got stuck in the cross hairs of all the action at the hospital and got attacked by a scorpion outside the buliding. Poor guy...," the driver called from in front, still racing along on the road.
Yes, poor me! Ralph whined as a bump in the road caused the tail end of the ambulance to lift sharply off the ground, making him bump his already aching back against the forward facing para paramedic seat.
The woman in front of Ralph somehow gently patted his head with one hand while holding him stable with the other. "Let's try and see if we can get this thing off you nose, buddy...," she told him kindly.
Peach gently pulled with gloved hands at the scorpion, still clinging absentmindedly onto Ralph's nose, but the creature didn't even budge.
"Oh, dear," the sweet voice woman said to herself. "Looks like we'll need a different idea..."
She was able to somehow grab a large medical bag as the woman behind the wheel raced through a red light, nearly side-swiping a small minivan that had pulled over out of the way.
Peach dug through the bag for a moment before pulling out a large, flat, dual-sided tool that scarifyingly reminded Ralph of a small crowbar.
"Let's try this, pup..." the woman said as she gently tried to steady Ralph once again.
Ralph cringed back in absolute fear at the thought of someone trying to pry the scorpion off his nose, feeling more and more like a trapped animal by a crazed hunter.
But as the vet assist ventured closer and closer to him, suprising only a few thoughts then raced through Ralph's mind...the thought that he was getting futher and further away from the town of Arcadia...futher away from his home at the petshop...and further and further away of the chance of getting out of this nightmare alive and with his new collar.
