"Hey Lila…I know I agreed to help you, but did you really want to do this?" the male dog pulled off his mask as he drove, revealing his Doberman head. "Yes Jasper this is exactly what I wanted." Jasper G. nodded and raised an eyebrow as he continued driving the van they were in "So why'd you have me call you sis?" Lila rolled her eyes "Because that way her friends will think the two masked dogs are siblings with different colored fur, like Bentley and Zara, no way am I getting my actual brother in trouble especially not over someone like her" she looked at Jasper's leg whew Mackenzie had managed to bite him earlier "That guy got you good" Jasper groaned "Makes sense that a crazy girl has friends that are just as crazy" he rubbed his leg. Lila looked back, though they could no longer see Bluey, Lila smirked "Nobody else avenged Bingo, so I had to" Jasper raised an eyebrow "Are you sure this is for Bingo, I mean it just seems like you wanted her to suffer from something that she was most likely already hurting from to begin with. Lila seemed angered "The deed is done alright? You agreed and you've already broken some laws with me, so shut up and take us to the desert limits so we can ditch this van and not get caught for underaged driving besides you owe me for helping you with that Banjo creep" Jasper sighed and just chose to do as Lila commanded "Yeah, sure"
Bluey struggled to get up from the sand, she was on her side as the sand was burning her fur but she managed to roll onto her back and sit up. Bluey remembered Lila at Bingo's funeral, begging the red heeler to wake up. The hot desert air was already making her sweat. She looked around for any way to get free from her bindings, if her hands had been in front of her things would be easier, but because they were behind her back things were much harder. "Some birthday this turned out to be, getting your first boyfriend then dying the very next day" Bluey thought to herself. She would attempt to push herself onto her feet a few times, which would all end in failure. Bluey looked around for any other dogs that could help her but all she saw was desert plants, a few reptiles, and piles of sand in every direction "Please…anyone…" After a few minutes Bluey had rolled over onto her stomach and managed to get to her feet, like her hands they had been tied together but she could take baby steps just to find some shade. It took her around an hour, but she had managed to find some shade behind a huge pile of sand "How long has it been?" She remembered it was evening after Winton and Snickers had left, now it looked like it was midday, she was exhausted and hungry. She decided to close her eyes and lean against the pile, the heat was still unbearable, her wrist and ankles felt sore, but at least her suffering was eased.
Chilli was sobbing as Bandit was trying to comfort her "First Bingo, now Bluey?!" Chilli said as she sobbed "Are we terrible parents?" Bandit shook his head, tears rolled down his cheeks "We're not bad parents Chilli, we did everything we could" "Then why Bandit? Why are both of our children dead?!" Chilli was glaring at her husband. "I…I don't know, b-but we-" "We failed them! We couldn't help Bingo! Then Bluey gets kidnapped and dies while we are away from home! We are horrible!" Chilli was yelling at this point. Bandit began to sob "We gave them love and care babe" he was trying his best to calm her down "THAT ISN'T THE POINT WHEN WE OUTLIVED THEM BOTH!" Chilli pounced on Bandit and began to strangle him, he couldn't fight back as the woman he loved was doing her best to kill him "We need to join them!" She said as her grip around his neck tightened. "MUM!" Bluey quickly sat up and tried to stop her mother, she looked around to see that she was still alone in the desert. "What kind of dream was that?"
Bluey's stomach grumbled and she sighed "I bet prison would be better than this" she managed to push herself up and struggled to walk around some more. Unfortunately Bluey would lose her balance and begin rolling down a hill, getting scratched up along the way until her body hit something study, she would be relieved if whatever she hit didn't cause a sharp pain in her arm and back. She winced and turned her head to see that she had hit a perfectly healthy cactus "Dammit" The cactus's spines had pierced her. She struggled to move, especially with all this pain she was now in. She managed to pull a bit but it seemed pointless, she didn't have much energy and the binding for her hands seemed to be stuck on the cactus. She would make a few more tugs before she managed to get her back away from the spines. She sighed out of relief, even if her arms were still stuck at least her back wasn't in as much pain as it had been in. She had tried to stand again before she managed to slip on the loose sand underneath her feet, fortunately her weight, and the spines of the cactus would work to her advantage, causing other spines to work like a saw and rip the binding apart and freeing her hands. Bluey would fall forward and catch herself before she face planted into the ground. She gasped upon seeing her hands were now free, she was so glad that not even the sight of her own blood trailing down her arms had bothered her. She would kiss the cactus if it didn't have spines which would just cause her unnecessary pain. "They just used tape on my arms too?" She saw the remainder of the duct tape that was tied to her arms and the rest that was now on the cactus, it matched the same tape that was on her legs.
Bluey would use her claws to scratch at the tape on her legs, it took a while but she managed to scratch them and get her legs free. It wasn't much but it was a huge improvement to her. Bluey now had to solve her hunger problem, there was no way she was going to try the cactus, along with the spines protecting it, she had nothing to cut it apart. She would wander the desert slowly in hopes of something edible "If I keep going in one direction, I may be able to get out of this alive, for everyone" she thought. Her stomach rumbled louder and more intensely.
Bluey had managed to move through the desert for a few hours before her hunger had become worse. She dropped to her knees "Maybe I won't be so hungry if I sleep here" she was exhausted and tired from walking in the burning sand beneath her feet. She would've fallen asleep where she was if she hadn't heard a squeak. "Huh?" She looked around for the source of the sound until she found it, it was a family of bilbies who had wandered away from their den and were eating underneath the hill that Bluey was on. "How cute" Bluey said, "How…juicy" Bluey's mouth began to water. She wanted to turn away but something about them made it hard for her to, they hadn't noticed her either. The longer she looked at them, the more aggressive she felt, her pupils began to retract and she couldn't think straight. "You're a dog, they are prey, fulfill your needs already" the voice Bluey heard was familiar, she heard it in her dreams once long ago. Bluey's mind had gone blank. By the time Bluey had realized what happened it was too late to stop herself, four of the bilbies were now dead. Their necks were snapped, parts of their bodies were now being digested, and the fifth one was shivering, two of its legs were broken as it watched Bluey murder its family. "W-what happened?" Bluey spat out the remains of one of the small animals and became shocked by what she had done "Did I?" she backed away from them as she looked at her bloody hands "What are you doing? Get the last one too" Bluey shook her head "I…can't" "But you already injured it, put it out of its suffering" Bluey looked at the snapped legs of the remaining Bilby. "I'm sorry" she whimpered as she moved closer to it, her only justification was that she was hungry, which was the same reason as to why the Bilby was out of its home, it was hungry. She lifted the frightened bilby as it squeaked louder and tried getting out of her grasp. She clenched her eyes shut as she brought her hand to its neck and a few seconds later its squeaking was silenced. Bluey tried to vomit the remains that she managed to eat but to no avail. Refusing to eat anymore of the poor animals, she buried them then continued to walk, hoping to find some civilization, and a way home.
Bluey continued to wander aimlessly for hours without saying a word, she remembered the dream she had where Chilli uncharacteristically began to strangle Bandit "Mum…dad…if I don't make it, please don't fight" Bluey would take the occasional break due to the heat then she would continue when she was ready for her feet to be burned by the sand once again. She felt sick, mentally at least, from the fact that she managed to kill a group of bilbies and the thought that there were probably smaller ones somewhere that were depending on those larger ones for food now they would be doomed. Within the next few hours, things had become slightly easier since once the sun lowered, the desert wouldn't be hot. Bluey climbed to the top of a hill and saw only more sand in front of her, still far from any signs of other dogs, she was walking all day and had began to feel that it was all hopeless. She dropped to the ground and sobbed. "You know, you do deserve this" the voice from earlier spoke. Bluey growled and looked for the source of the voice "WHO ARE YOU? LEAVE ME ALONE!" The voice seemed to come from behind Bluey "You know I can't do that, especially not when you're going crazy in this place" Bluey turned around and saw what looked like a discolored version of her child self, Bluey had recognized her "You can't be here, you aren't real" the other Bluey shrugged "I'm real in your conscious" Bluey tried moving away from it, it seemed to stay the same distance from her as it was when she first saw it "You still reject me?" Bluey seemed cautious of the fake "Reject what? The fact that you're talking to me?" the fake simply shook her head "You deserve these bad things, you killed Bingo and received no punishment for your actions, just stop trying to tell yourself you deserve good things" Bluey threw sand at her hallucination "JUST GO AWAY! I REJECT YOU AND I REFUSE TO BURN IN THIS PLACE!" The fake Bluey moved closer "If you know I'm a part of your mind, why don't you listen?" Bluey scoffed "Why should I listen to someone who doesn't have a name to begin with?" She smiled "Well I am midnight purple in color, just call me midnight? Either way, things are easier this way" Bluey scowled "I said I won't burn here" The hallucination that now called itself midnight just shrugged "Then freeze" she faced away and looked at the rising moon "We'll meet again" she began to fade "No we won't!" Bluey yelled at her. As if Midnight commanded, Bluey realized the desert went from extremely hot, to being somewhat cold. "How does this place even work?" Bluey continued to walk for a bit longer until she tripped over a rock. Once she opened her eyes she saw that she had came face to face with a common death adder. Feeling hopeless Bluey just laid in front of it as it stared at her, she didn't move a muscle "Just…end it" she spoke to the confused snake. It slithered on top of her since it smelled the blood of the bilby she killed earlier. Bluey expected to get bit by the venomous snake and to have a painful death, but she became surprised once it got off of her and simply slithered away. "Rejected even by an animal…funny"
Bluey then picked herself up and walked a few more feet before she laid down in between some boulders, she looked to the night sky with uncertainty in her mind "What even is midnight? Why does she look like me? Did I name her that?" Bluey yawned and closed her eyes, despite being in a horrifying situation, Bluey had a relatively easy time falling asleep. All she could hope for was that she'd find a way to civilization.
Mackenzie groaned as he woke up, he quickly sat up and felt a sharp pain in his head "Aaaargh, shit" he placed a hand on the top of his head before he looked around and saw that he had slept on the Heeler couch "Huh?" Chloe walked over to him "You're finally awake, good" Mackenzie looked at her confused "Why am I here?" Chloe looked at him "Don't you remember? Bluey was kidnapped yesterday, some dogs just barged in here and used pepper spray, I called the police" Mackenzie nodded as he remembered the horrific events. "Well, why are you here?" Chloe rolled her eyes "You think I'd be comfortable at home knowing my best friend is missing? We aren't the only ones here either" she pointed to the group from yesterday. Lucky was talking to an officer outside describing the events, Judo, Indy, Winnie, and Coco were all talking to each other, Rusty was telling Winton and Snickers about the incident and Jack sat alone, looking the most defeated out of anyone else. "Jack, what's eating you?" Mackenzie asked him. Jack looked at him "I was right there, but I let her trip me" he clenched his fist "I wasn't helpful to anyone" Mackenzie shook his head "You tried, that's all that matters" Jack stood up "That's not all that matters! What matters is that she's okay!" he slammed his fist onto the nearby table "Don't you get it? She-" "Of course I get it!" Mackenzie interrupted "She's gone through so much after Bingo died, she went to therapy for years, she was bullied by half our class at one point, her own parents had to apologize because they hurt her at one point. You may feel bad, but I feel way worse than you, I was right there and I couldn't save her! I couldn't save my own girlfriend from getting kidnapped! I FEEL LIKE A JOKE RIGHT NOW!" he winced after he yelled due to it causing pain to shoot in his head again. "Hey…I'm sorry" Jack apologized to him. Mackenzie shook his head "Nah, we're all on edge"
"We've contacted other people that may know Bluey and they said that they'd be on the lookout for her" Coco told them. "We should've stayed behind longer" Winton said "Maybe we wouldn't be in this mess if we did" Snickers put his hand over Winton's "We couldn't have known this would happen" Indy nodded in agreement "None of us are to blame, it's not like getting kidnapped on your birthday is a common thing" Mackenzie headed upstairs towards Bluey's room but was stopped by Coco "What are you doing?" Mackenzie turned and looked at her "I'm going to see if I can find anything that might help me find her" Coco shook her head "I'll go in her room, you wait with the other boys'' Mackenzie raised an eyebrow "You know I'm not good at waiting" Coco smiled "She might have something in there that she wouldn't want you to see" Mackenzie was more confused "Why does that matter right now?" Coco shrugged "It doesn't but it will if there's something embarrassing and she finds out you say it once she comes home" Mackenzie groaned then looked at her. Coco put her hand on his shoulder "I'm only saying this because I'm confident that she'll make it back safely" He gave her a light smile "You really believe that" She smiled back at him and nodded "Bluey's a tough girl, we just need to do what we can for her once she gets back" Mackenzie sighed out of relief "You know, for a girl that used to have a crush on me, you're pretty supportive" Coco blushed "You and Bluey deserve each other, in return, I don't have to pay for any wedding gifts" Mackenzie's eyes widened at her words, he only had one kiss with Bluey, and Coco was already talking about weddings. "You know what, yeah I'd be fine with that" Mackenzie went back downstairs with the others.
Lucky walked back to the others with a small smile on his face "I have some good news" Winnie looked at him "Yeah? Let us hear it" Lucky smiled "An old friend of mine works with Interpol, he and some of his team are here in Australia and they've been given permission to help the police look for Bluey." Judo blinked "That's nice and all but, how's that any different than the past officers?" "Because, he seemed familiar with her somehow, either way he said he'd be over asap" Lucky told her "Said he was an old friend" Chloe perked up upon hearing this "That means he'll probably have more motivation to find Bluey than some of the others!" SOme of the others in the room smiled, Jack still seemed bummed about his failure. "Jack, stop beating yourself up, nobody is mad at you" Rusty told him. Jack sighed "I know but-" "But Nothing" Indy added "It's better that you failed and lived, what if you did things differently and ended up dead?" Jack's eyes widened, he didnt think about it but then realized that what Indy was saying was right, what good would he be if he came closer, failed to save Bluey, and died. "Thanks, that actually makes me feel better" He smiled at the two.
It didn't take long but soon afterwards there was a knock on the door to the Heeler house. Lucky opened it and introduced a blueish-black navy labrador to the group "Everyone, this is the detective that I was telling you all about" Winnie was surprised to see yet another labrador that was in Bluey's circle of friends "Him? With Interpol? He looks no older than the rest of us" Mackenzie pointed out how someone so young had a very important job. Winton raised an eyebrow "You said you know Bluey? How did you two meet?" The labrador spoke with a french accent "We met when both of our families were camping once, my name is Jean-Luc" he took his hat off as he inspected the group "I need details on what happened 'ere yesterday'' Most of the group tried speaking over each other to tell Jean-Luc what had happened "One at a time please!" He told them to quiet them down. Coco returned to Mackenzie "I couldn't find anything that would be helpful, I'm sorry" she sighed. He shook his head "Don't worry, I still believe that she'll return home" he reassured her. While the dogs tried telling their stories to Jean-Luc, another officer ran in and spoke to Jean-Luc "H-hey, you might want to come out and see this! It's…someone's been injured!"
Jean-Luc was shocked and quickly followed the other officer outside, the other dogs all ran out to see what was happening. There, they saw a heavily injured rottweiler who was struggling to walk and was trying to cover a horrible injury on his chest and one of his eyes was shut. "Merde!" Jean-Luc exclaimed as he got ready to draw a weapon in case the dog were to attack "W-wait!" he uttered as he fell over. He pointed to the house "H-heeler home?" Jean-Luc looked at him, unsure of what to do "Why do you ask?" The rottweiler coughed "I know…where Bluey could be" Jean-Luc's eyes widened upon hearing this, the other dogs quickly surrounded him "dis-moi, tell me sir please" Another dog interrupted "We need to get him to a hospital then you ask questions" the rottweiler shook his head "N-no, those bastards killed my girlfriend Pom pom…let me die too" This shocked a few of Bluey's friends that knew Pom Pom "What? Pom Pom's dead?" Coco asked. He nodded as tears filled his eyes "They took Bluey…to great victoria, largest desert in all of Australia" Snickers moved closer to him "Who took Bluey? WHO KILLED POM POM?" The rottweiler gasped for air Lila…Jasper G. They did it" His tears went down his cheeks "Jasper thought he killed me, Lila told him not to ""Who are you?" Jean-Luc inquired "Jasper…W" he responded "Other Jasper bought weapons from Lila…killed Banjo and Pom Pom, tried to kill me" Mackenzie was getting more worried for Bluey by the second "How did Lila get weapons?" he shook his head "Don't know…please…stop…Jasper" he gasped one final time as he finally succumbed to his wounds. The other dogs backed away from Jasper W's body, the officers all held their hats to their chests "Repose toi bien, Jasper W." Jean-Luc said, the others stood in silence as another officer called a coroner to retrieve him. "Th-that's terrible" Winnie stated as she began to cry. Mackenzie grabbed Jean-Luc "Please…please find Bluey, bring her back safe!" he was nearly crying himself at this point. Jean-Luc nodded "I will do whatever I can, I'm friends with her as well monsieur"
After the coroners took the corpse away, the other dogs walked back inside the Heeler home, Jean-Luc spoke to the officers "We need to let all officers on the case know that our victim should be somewhere in or around the great victoria desert!" They nodded and got into their patrol cars. Jean-Luc turned towards Mackeznie "So you are the boyfriend, no?" Mackenzie looked at him "How did you know?" Jean-Luc smiled "Please, you think any of the other friends would beg me like you did?" Mackenzie looked a bit embarrassed "It's nothing to be ashamed of I assure you, after all I'd do the same thing if someone kidnapped my girlfriend" Mackenzie looked at him "You have one too huh?" Jean-Luc nodded "She said she's from here, but right now she's in my home land of Canada, maybe one day you can meet her '' he waved and stepped into the passenger seat of one of the patrol cars as they drove away. "The great victoria desert…please Bluey, be safe" Mackenzie had many questions on his mind as he worried for Bluey's safety, but he knew he had to be patient.
"I have to return home for a bit, but I'll be back" Lucky informed the others as he walked out. He would return home to see Chucky smiling at him "What's gotten you in such a good mood?" Chucky shrugged "Just some news I heard earlier, don't stress yourself over it." "Yeah, righto" Lucky responded as he went to go check on his mother. Janelle had recovered from Pat's death in a rather healthy manner, she was sitting on the couch when she saw Lucky approach her "Hey mum" Janelle gave him a suspicious look making him confused "Is something wrong?" Janelle nodded "Yeah, you didn't come home last night and Wendy says Judo did not return home last night either, you didn't do anything with her did you?" Lucky's eyes widened at the thought "Woah mum! No! Do you think I want Wendy to turn me into a pelt?" He chuckled nervously Janelle raised an eyebrow "Then what were you doing?" Lucky gained a serious look "Well we were at Bluey's house and-" "OH GOODNESS YOU AND JUDO DID THINGS WITH BLUEY TOO?!" Lucky blushed "MUM! NO!" he exhaled and recollected himself "Bluey got kidnapped" Janelle was shocked to hear the news "But now we know where she may be, and some officers have begun to search, remember Jean-Luc? He's involved in the search too!" Janelle was shocked "Does Bandit and Chilli know this?" Lucky shook his head "We'll tell them after Bluey is brought back, in the meantime a couple of our friends are at her house" he turned and walked back before he noticed Chucky holding some sand in his hand "Think when they find her, she'll have some snake eggs in her ribcage?" Lucky immediately grew enraged and punched Chucky in the snout, knocking him to the floor "The Fuck bro?" Chucky looked at Lucky "I don't care if you hate Bluey, but that's my friend! If the others heard you they'd do much worse to you, stop being so stupid mate!" Lucky walked back outside and went over to Bluey's house.
"I mean, isn't it a bit weird for all of us to have a sleepover here, even more so when none of the people that live here invited us to do so?" Winton asked. Chloe nodded "I understand what you're saying, but as long as nobody snoops, or does anything they shouldn't, it should be fine, right?" Rusty groaned "And what if someone thinks we're home invaders?" Jack smiled "Don't worry, Jean-Luc can probably vouch for us" Mackenzie agreed "If we're doing this, I think I'll just stay in Bluey's room" Indy scoffed "Not a chance, us girls will stay in Bluey's room!" Mackenzie rolled his eyes "Oh come on! Why not?" Coco smiled "Because you're a teen boy trying to get into a teen girl's room, think we don't know you might get some weird ideas?" "Wha- I would never!" Mackenzie wanted to argue with them but the blush that formed on his face betrayed him, the others laughed "This is only because you brought it up in the first place!" Judo smiled "Oh hush up and just sleep somewhere else already!"
Though it didn't feel right to some, the group had decided to spend more time at the Heeler house while they waited for Bluey to return home. Chloe sat outside staring up at the moon, Winnie had joined her "Worried about Bluey?" Chloe nodded "If she's really at the desert, I hope none of the animals have gotten her, I can't bear the thought" Winnie nodded "The temperature would be crazy too, she has nothing to protect herself with" both girls sighed as they thought of Bluey "She's like a sister to me, I only have a younger brother at home so Bluey filled that little sister role pretty easily" Chloe admitted "Wait, she's younger than you?" Winnie asked. Chloe nodded "I think she's one of the youngest out of our whole group, yet she easily made friends with all of us when we were just kids" Winnie was happy to hear about how Bluey easily made friends with the other kids who attended Glasshouse Primary "Can I ask something?" she looked at Chloe who nodded "Sure, only if you answer my question afterwards" Winnie looked back at the group "I asked some of the others but they didn't want to answer…who is Honey?" Chloe sighed "Honey was a friend of ours, however what happened with Bluey and her sister, she kinda got really weird. It's a long story but basically, I don't think she's okay and after her parents died, I've become too afraid to even ask her" Winnie nodded "Well I guess it's your turn for a question" Chloe smirked as her tail wagged "Well…ever have a girlfriend?" Winnie blushed "No, what about you?" Chloe smiled "None as cute as you, that's if….you're willing?" Chloe winked at her, her blush grew stronger "Sure, I don't see why not" her tail wagged slowly as Chloe leaned against her.
Mackenzie was sitting in the playroom when Lucky, Rusty, Jack, Winton, and Snickers joined him "You know, I remember this is where I was when I started to feel things for her" Lucky sat next to him "Really?" Mackenzie nodded "It was that day everyone else found out what Bluey did, I arrived late so I wasn't aware at first" Jack smiled "Oh I remember that day! It was so long ago it was just us and Indy right?" Rusty nodded "These two weren't here" he pointed his thumb at Snickers and Winton. Winton rubbed the back of his head "To be fair, we weren't invited to Bluey's house that day, but we were invited to Honey's" Snickers nodded "Yeah and Chloe and Coco were there too" "Well, I admit I was wrong then, and I even apologized later!" Coco said, surprising the whole group. She laughed after seeing them jump in surprise. "So is anyone going to sleep?" she asked the group. Mackenzie shook his head "They can, I'll be awake in case anything happens" Lucky smiled "Yeah and I'll be fine staying up too, especially since my bed and pillow are right next door" Jack then stood up and quickly grabbed Snickers's arm "Hey, get your own!" Winton yelled at him. Jack laughed "Don't worry, I just need his advice for cooking" Snickers tilted his head "Cooking?" Jack nodded, dragging him to the kitchen "I can't be the only one hungry after all this craziness can I?" Winton stood up and followed the two "Hey wait, I'm hungry too!"
Only a few moments later, the house phone had begun to ring, after a few seconds, Lucky had answered "Hello?" A confused female voice responded "Hello? May I speak to Bluey?" Lucky gasped as he realized Chilli had called "O-oh Mrs. Heeler, uh are you sitting down?" "Yeah, why?" Chilli asked. Lucky let out a small chuckle "Well…it's a long story…"
