"I'm glad you did come," a grateful Balto told Jenna, who was shuffling around trying to get comfortable on the bed of boughs that had been made for her.
"Once I figured out you had gone looking for the medicine, I felt I had to come too," she said, looking just as grateful to him, "It means so much to me that you want to go this far to help."
"That was brave of you taking on the bear like that," Balto's head shot around to the lake behind them, half expecting the grizzly to pop back up and come after them again. All was quiet now, however, hinting that the bear had indeed drowned after it had broken through the ice, "You probably bought me and the others enough time to try and get away."
"I just wish it hadn't come at the cost of my leg," Jenna winced as she tried unsuccessfully to get back up once more, "Then we could all go on together..."
"Well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be," Balto conceded, "Maybe it's just fate saying you belong back with Rosy. But don't worry, I'll be back with the medicine, I promise."
"I know," she smiled, lifting her head up to nuzzle him warmly. Her expression then dropped into concern. "Just be careful when you find it, Balto. We both know how Steele is; I don't think he's going to give up the medicine without a fight. He'll want the honor of bringing it in more than anything..."
"Yeah, I know," Balto agreed worriedly, "I'll try and reason with him as best I can. I'd be willing to share the honor with him if that's what it takes to get the serum back..."
"Ready, miss?" Boris asked Jenna, approaching the boughs.
"Ready, Boris," she nodded.
"All right, bears, front and center, let's get going!" Boris commanded Muk and Luk, who grasped hold of the branches. "Take care, Balto," he gave his friend a farewell hug, "Don't forget what I said..."
"I won't, Boris," Balto promised, "I'll be back with the medicine soon enough. Take care of Jenna until you get back to Nome."
"I will. And let's move on back home, bears!" Boris told Muk and Luk, who pulled Jenna's impromptu carriage back down the trail in the direction of Nome. Balto sighed softly as they disappeared from sight around the bend. Alone. He wished he didn't have to be deep down, but Jenna needed aid, and somebody had to take her back to Nome. At least, though, they'd gotten closer to their target by now. And as he turned to the east and sniffed the air, he got the faintest whiff of sled dogs. It was still reasonably far away, but with the heavy snows of the last few days, he knew it had to be the sled team; few other humans or dogs would be out on the trail given how extremely cold and snowy it had been. Nodding in satisfaction, he started towards the scent. With luck, he would reach them within the next twenty-four hours.
"Just about there, miss," Boris huffed a good eight hours later, seeing the lights of Nome over the next rise, "We must have made near record time."
"That went a lot faster than I thought it would have, Uncle Boris," Muk agreed, slowing his and Luk's pace now that the end of the trail was in sight, "Thing is though, I had the feeling we were being watched for a while..."
"Watched? We were surrounded by nature, bear; everything wild was watching us..." Boris started to retort.
"Muk's not the only one, Boris; I had the feeling somebody was watching us half the time too," Jenna told him, shooting a glance back down the trail, "Something tells me that if Balto can get the medicine, Steele might not have to be the only thing he'd have to worry about..."
"Let's hope not. So, where we can drop you off at, miss?" Boris asked her.
"The hopsital. I need to be with Rosy...and listen," Jenna raised up her head. The snow goose and polar bears could hear the sound of Rosy's father on the edge of town, calling loudly, "Jenna!" into the wilderness. "He must have been looking for me since I left," she acknowledged, "I must have him and Rosy's mother deathly worried by now..."
"Can you make it on your own to him?" Boris inquired.
"Probably enough for that, yes," Jenna struggled to rise to her feet, "He'll get me to the hospital, and they'll take care of me from there. Thank you for everything, all of you," she nuzzled Boris and the polar bears in gratitude, then hobbled over the rise, barking to her master. "Jenna, thank god!" they heard Rosy's father calling out in relief. The three of them glanced over the rise to see his shadowy form rushing towards her. "Jenna, where have you been!?" he mumbled in gratitude, hugging her close, "I've been looking all over for you for the last few days! Rosy's mother and I thought we lost you for good...oh no, what happened to your leg!?"
Jenna whimpered, the pain of her injury clearly audible to the snow goose and polar bears. "Don't worry, we'll get some help for you," Rosy's father hefted her up, "The doctor's at another Board of Health meeting at the telegraph office; I'll make sure he takes care of you. Rosy needs you right now, and so do the rest of us..."
He started carrying her away towards the town. "She'll be fine," Boris assured the polar bears.
"Let's make sure, though, Uncle Boris," Muk suggested, "Balto entrusted us to take care of her; we'd better make sure, right Luk?" he told his cohort, who gave a swift nod and started forward. "Well, all right," Boris conceded, "We did promise. Just make sure the human don't see us, bears."
He and the polar bears tailed after Rosy's father from a safe distance. With the quarantine in place for Nome, no one was out and about, so they were able to follow undetected. Rosy's father made a path for the telegraph office, the lantern still glowing outside, although seemingly fainter than before to Boris' eyes, and knocked on the door. "Doctor, it's Joe Redington, my dog needs medical aid," he called out loudly.
The door opened up. "Joe, everything all right?" Summers asked him, concerned.
"Jenna's injured, Doctor, and I don't know how..." Rosy's father disappeared inside as the door closed, cutting off the conversation to the trio. "There," Boris gestured to the snowbank Balto had used previously, "Stay quiet and out of sight though."
He fluttered to the top of the snowbank, followed by Muk and Luk. Through the window, they could see Dr. Welch examining Jenna's leg. "Looks like a bad sprain, Joe, but fortunately nothing's broken," he told Rosy's father, who exhaled in relief, "Once I'm done here, I can take her back and fix her up easy."
"Good, good," Rosy's father said with a nod, "Rosy needs her right now. Jenna ran off a few days ago, and we've been looking for her ever since. I was wondering if she went looking for the sled team-was that it, girl?" he asked Jenna, who gave a soft nod, "I appreciate that you'd want to help Rosy like that, but please don't scare us like that."
"How are you and Violet holding up, Joe?" Judge Lomen asked him from the corner.
"Our daughter's dying, your Honor; we're not well at all," Rosy's father's expression grew grave, "So please tell me there's been some good news in the last day or so!?"
"Afraid not, Joe," Mayor Maynard shook his head, pacing in a tight circle, "They tried to get the pilot Darling's plane off the ground with the rest of the spare antitoxin, but it broke down completely when they started it up. It's completely dead, and it'll take at least a week to fix it. So unfortunately, an air rescue's now off the table for good."
"And Governor Bone cabled last night to confirm the weather was too severe to send any more antitoxin even if it did pop up," the telegraph operator said glumly, holding up the cable in question, "It's all in Kaasen's and the sled team's hands now, if they're still out there," he shot a gaze at the lantern hanging outside the front window, "But there's been no news for days. They're probably even more lost than we thought. I'm not sure how much longer it'll be before all hope fades here..."
"And I noticed that there seemed to be a large gathering of wolves outside the town in the last few days," Summers said with a shudder, "It's like they're waiting for something-maybe waiting for us to all get infected and die off."
"They've come to finish what they started all those years ago," the mayor muttered, "Well, those wolves will find out if they try that Nome doesn't go down fighting. And at least that mangy half-wolf that stalks around town seems to have left for good; I haven't seen him in days...what?" he frowned at Jenna, who started barking in fury at him for putting Balto down like that, "What should you care? You're more of a dog than he ever could be..."
"More of a dog...you miserable...!" Boris scowled himself outside, flexing his wings furiously, "I ought to...!"
Luk now let out a loud whimper and pointed towards the street. "Now what, bear!? Is there...?" Boris turned to see a figure carrying another one, with the latter taking heavy, hysterical coughing fits that hinted they had diphtheria, towards the telegraph office. "Ah. Down, out of sight," The snow goose pushed the polar bears down behind the snowbank just before the figures reached the door. "Doctor, it's Robert McDowell, this is an emergency!" the reporter pounded on it himself, hysterical, "I think Vera caught the diphtheria!"
"Oh no," Dr. Welch whimpered in fear inside, "Not the nurses too...let me see," he could be heard going outside. Boris glanced around the side of the office to see the doctor staring down Vera's throat, right as she let out another terrible coughing fit. "There's a strong membrane already..." he mused darkly, "Why didn't you tell me about these symptoms sooner!?" he demanded to his volunteer nurse.
"Everyone needed my help, I..." Vera started coughing again, now struggling to breathe as well. Dr. Welch immediately put his hand to her husband's forehead. "And you've got a fever too; there's a danger you've already caught it off her," he told the reporter grimly, "Go back to the hospital at once; I'm almost done here. I want to look at your daughter as well; she must have been exposed too."
"Oh god, not Laila too...!" McDowell moaned in fear, letting out a strong cough of his own. "Vera!" he quickly grabbed his wife as she abruptly slumped downward towards the ground, visibly weak, "Oh please, no, Vera, you can't...!"
"Hurry, time is of the essence!" Dr. Welch ordered him. The McDowells stumbled up the street, looking badly handicapped. "Poor family," Dr. Welch mused to the rest of the Board of Health as he went back inside, "McDowell came here to cover the story, now he and his wife have become part of the story, and unless the sled team comes in, there's nothing I can do for either of them."
"How bad today, Doctor?" Judge Lomen asked as Boris and polar bears resumed their position at the side window.
"Ten more cases. And worse, Pete Curran brought in his daughter Margaret from the nearest roadhouse. She's got it bad herself. The pandemic's spreading, gentlemen, and we've got no way to control it. This might be worse than the Spanish flu up here; if it escapes Nome, it could wipe out half the population of Alaska. And there's no way left to stop it unless that team makes it in."
Another uncomfortable silence filled the office. "Well, if prayers are all we've got left, let's use them well," the mayor conceded with a sad shake of the head, "All right, everyone, we'll meet again in two more days, hopefully not for the last time. Ed, don't leave this table," he instructed the telegraph operator, "If you hear any news at all, let us know right away."
"I will, Mr. Mayor, although after all this time, I don't know what else we can expect," the telegraph operator sighed glumly.
"Neither do I," Dr. Welch said wearily. "Come on, Joe, we'll get your dog fixed up," he told Rosy's father, who clutched Jenna close and carried her out of the office after the doctor. Boris noticed her look to the east and silently mouth, "Hurry, Balto, please!" towards the horizon before she was carried out of sight. "Yes, hurry, Balto," the snow goose turned to the east himself, just as worried, "They'll all be lost without you here..."
"What a way to go out, lost in the middle of nowhere," a glum snow-covered Nikki muttered, flat on his stomach with the rest of the team deep in the valley Steele had led them into.
"I know. This is the most terrible, the most agonizing, the most depressing..." Kaltag again stumbled for the right phrase next to him.
"It's real cold comfort," Star added, prompting Kaltag to growl and kick snow towards him. The smaller dog made his way towards the motionless Kaasen nearby. "How is he?" a concerned Nikki asked him.
"Still breathing," Star put his head to the musher's chest, "But he must be really badly hurt to not move for this long. I don't know what we can do for him."
"Leave him, I've been saying," Steele growled coldly from the front of the sleigh, "We don't need him..."
"So you'd just leave a man to die out here? He needs help!" Blackie protested.
"He wouldn't be like this if he'd held on better!" Steele remained unrepentant for his earlier mistake.
"And who was it who took that wrong turn!?" Blackie dared him, "All this time, you insisted you knew the way, and here we are, lost and stranded in the middle of nowhere...!"
"I DO know the way!" Steele roared, "So if you'll all just get up and get going, we'll be back on the trail in no time! Now come on!"
The other dogs, however, remained down flat on their stomachs, defeated. "Steele, it's over," Jet moaned in defeat, "We failed the town..."
"YOU failed the town, you coward!" Steele snarled, then marched forward to the end of his harness and sat down, stewing. Silence filled the valley again. "Do you think anyone'll ever find us?" Star finally broke it with a shiver.
"Who knows?" Nikki muttered grimly, "I'd give anything to see anyone from Nome again. Even that half-breed Balto." He sighed. "I wonder if we would have done any better if he had been on this team...?"
"He's a part-wolf; he would have turned on us all," Bear muttered.
"That would be better than this," Kaltag shot a harsh glance at Steele, who glared unapologetically at him and growled murderously, "Well, at least the end'll be quick and painless for us all. It's just too bad the kids'll be dying too..."
"Wait," Blackie rose up, turning his ear towards the nearest ridge, "I heard someone...and it sounds a lot like a dog..."
"What would a dog be doing out here...?" Jet raised his own head up and looked towards the nearest ridge, right as a canid figure appear on it, "I don't believe it... Balto...?"