Poppy Duex... Dog Day Afternoon

The Student Loan Department did not actually have its own office. It had a desk and a file cabinet that it shared with the Car Loan division. The same loan officers handled both so it was no great inconvenience. Each division had a different admin because the rules and paperwork were different enough. For the last two weeks, the Student Loan Admin was on maternity leave and there was a mutt temping in her place.

Six months would be the longest job she ever had. The irony of a home-schooled girl helping middle income students get into college wasn't lost on her. It did make the job sweeter, too. It was a good way to see how life would have different for her if she'd had a more traditional upbringing.

Correct that. If she had a more traditionally modern upbringing. Another irony of her life, she thought, sorting paperwork that needed vetting and approval, was that the traditional communal farm life that had lasted over a thousand years in the rest of the world was considered "Non-Traditional."

Yet, it was obvious that she was the outsider here. Her clothes were homemade. Her belts were all made from her own shed fur so that nothing went to waste. Several of the women here had gone out of their way to make sure that she felt unwanted. She just dug in and kept her head down.

She knew the opportunity that she had here.

That, too, would not got to waste.

If the young dog calling herself Morning Duex had know that Giles' wife had run off to be with a Eugenics Minded Numerical Cult, she would have come out of her shell and given him all the attention he craved. And more. But as she did not, she ignored the fox and never thought to share things he surely would have liked to known about life inside such a commune.

Pack 2199 was their legally married family name. She'd been born into it, the child of a sixth generation mother and a fourth generation father from families both known for creating big litters. Her name was Dam 47-6 2199 and his was Father 99-4 2199. That they were mutts, did not matter, for the Pack Founders prided themselves on diversity rather than Purity. For them, it was truly a numbers game.

It all seemed normal to the child called Morning 47-99, as it did to all her litter mates.

The world needed more Canines; just not Purebreds. She still bought that, although her pride was offended because she would only ever bear one or maybe two children at a shot. Exclusion still hurt; but her genes were fine. Resources for Pack 2199 were simply limited and the Breeders got priority; for the sake of the children.

Half her litter mates might be asked to leave within the year. It was the way of the Puppy Farm. She could have stayed, marked non-viable and Poppy 47-69 would have been offered up for adoption. There were always room for nursemaids and farmhands, and in the case of the males, one could stay but work off site.

That, too, was the way of the Puppy Farm.

But there were other ways, Morning knew.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day seemed like a perfect way to expose Poppy to some of those ways. Morning had been watching her daughter out of the corner of her eye. She was only 6; perhaps the youngest of all the children here, but Morning was proud of the way her daughter conducted herself. On a farm, one learned that things could cut, crush, snag, and hurt you if you weren't careful very early in life. And everyone worked, even the pups... of course, their work was a bit different.

Take I Spy, for example. On the farm, it was a learning game. You learned the names of things and animals. Here, out in the real world, it was just a game, but Morning watched her daughter and she could see that Poppy was diligently absorbing all the names of things and all the clues the other children called out. Compared to the rest of them, Poppy seemed serious and diligent, but most of all even-tempered. That was a nice 99 trait that had seemed to skip a generation.

She was thinking of her father, wondering if he was thinking of her, when the gunfire startled her so very completely that she forgot where she was and that maybe it was the goats screaming in protest. The walls, windows, and moving guards did not make sense to her... and even seeing all the children screaming as co-workers got between them and two of the guards made no sense to her.

It vaguely occurred to her that gunfire wasn't a good sound in a city setting. On a farm, her brothers and cousins shot at things all the time. But, in a city, that just didn't happen. She was about to ask was was going on, when someone suddenly pulled her to the ground with a half whispered, "Get Down!"

She found herself facing a Fox, recalling that his name was Giles the instant before realizing that the bank was under some sort of siege straight out of some paperback novel. Morning looked at the way Giles held his daughter close to him, close to the floor, protecting her... just as he was trying to protect her by pulling her down.

Then something clicked, because she couldn't see her daughter, and her heart leaped into her throat, yelling, "Poppy!"

A large menacing figure stepped into her way, as the Fox tried to keep her bolting into the lobby. The Crocodile guard. Six and half foot tall and a snout full of sharp teeth, some of which rested outside of his lips. He reminded Morning of the nightmare snake monsters that plagued her childhood sleep and she froze in her place. She didn't even see the gun in his dark green hand. Just his teeth, in a mouth that could snap off her head from her neck... but not cleanly. No, not cleanly. They'd be twisting and pulling and it occurred to her that she'd probably live through most of that, until she died choking on her own blood.

"You three..." the dark Rept said, waving his gun, "go across the lobby to the reception area." The fox nodded and pulled Morning past the specter of nightmares past.

The guard had to manhandle two of the old biddies that Morning worked with, to get them moving. Morning heard something organic snap as they left the backroom. One of the biddies wailed in despair. Morning began to walk faster on her own power. She did not want that monster touching her.

She saw Poppy with the other children, already in the reception area. Morning ran past the Turtle Guard and swept up her daughter. She held her tightly. It was just a bank robbery. Already, she could see the Gecko Guard inside the teller area, pulling money from the drawers. Let them have all the stupid money they wanted. USB rules even required that. It was the only thing to do, if you wanted everyone to live.

The fake guards, and Morning was almost certain they were indeed fake, made them stand opposite the large picture windows, the drapes drawn. Most of the children had stopped crying; too frightened for a display beyond whimpering. The other parents tried to keep their children calm. They lied to them, saying everything would be alright. But what else could they say?

Poppy remained calm and quiet and Morning lowered her to the ground. She might need to save her strength for later.

Her eyes darted to the hallway by the breakroom as one of the feline loan officers and a dog she did not recognize came out with their hands held high. What followed behind them was an impossibly huge demon from hell. Yellowish-Orange with brown markings... with horns and a crest above some dark military gear. She smelled a sudden burst of sulfur and she wet herself a little.

This was, she knew, the end of the world.

This would never have happened on the farm. The power of their beliefs kept all serpents from harming any of them. But here... she very much believed not a single co-worker believed enough to keep any one of them from harm. For herself, she had no such fear and she could only pray that her daughter would be spared also.

The dog and cat joined the others and Morning looked around, as far as she could tell all the employees were accounted for. Oddly, that made he feel better.

The four guards stood behind the horned and crested demon. It stood at least 7 feet tall and it began to pace. She reached into her pocket and pulled out some prayer beads. She pulled her daughter to her and squatted with her arms protectively around Poppy. She began rubbing the beads between her fingers, counting off the numbers of life and of hope, as the sides and shapes of the beads dictated.

"I am Stegosaurus Rex," the demon growled, as it paced before them. "My men and I are from the Reptilian Liberation Army and we are NOT here to rob your bank, although we will gladly accept donations." His minions snickered at this joke, but Morning ignored them, the litany of numbers filling her mind. She whispered these to Poppy who whispered these in turn, having learned them before leaving the farm. The bed time prayers.

"No," the thing calling itself Rex continued in his cruelly rasping voice, "We are here to ask you a very important question... 'Do you love your children?'"

"Are we going to go to sleep now, Momma?" Poppy whispered when Morning paused, choking back a sob of sudden fear.