Chapter 3: Meet the Heelers


~ 8:13AM ~

"I told you it was real!"

"Yeesh, what happened to it? Is it even breathing?"

"Hang on, I think it's moving."

The voices I heard were muffled and unintelligible at first, but as my mind slowly slipped to an awake and conscious state, I could make out what the voices were saying. They seemed to have an accent similar to the two separate voices I had heard last night whilst hiding in the burrow. These ones however sounded very different and I soon noticed there were more than two. I let out a small groan as my eyes fluttered awake, my vision at first blurry much like the time I woke up from unconsciousness and as soon as it was clear enough, I pushed myself upwards with my arms, feeling the pain on my back return, thankfully not as unbearable as before I blacked out. I rubbed my eyes for a moment before tensing up as soon as he registered the sight in front of me.

Two of those dog like creatures stood ahead of me, both possibly about the same height as the basset hound in that RV. Unlike him however, their appearances seemed to match the smaller bipedal canine I encountered at the creek. Hell, one of the two even looked almost like an adult version of the aforementioned smaller dog, but with many notable differences.

For one, their tan stomach had a light blue border like the tan fur on it's muzzle, which had white hairs around the mouth area, resembling a stubble beard. The dark blue patches were instead more darkish in colour, the head having fine white hairs as well.

The other looked almost the exact same, but the main blue fur colour was replaced instead with light orange and unlike the blue dog's face having both dark patches around the eyes, this one only had one patch of brown around it's left eye, both it's ears did have the matching brown colour. Instead of having a border colour, it's muzzle was completely coloured in cream with a stripe going upwards between it's eyes. It's hands and feet and the spots on it's tail and back having the same cream colour.

As soon as I registered what I was looking at, I screamed in panic, scrambling backwards to get away from as they both yelped in response, flinching at my sudden reaction as I grabbed the nearest twig and held it out towards them defensively.

"P-PLEASE! DON'T HURT ME!" I begged, hoping that they wouldn't react like the basset hound had done and try to shoot me dead. The blue adult dog held up it's hands in front of itself and quickly spoke out, having a masculine sounding voice.

"Woah woah, chill the beans!" I still held the stick out in place, trembling as I didn't avert my gaze from the two large two-legged dogs in front of me. The blue one looking anxious whilst the one that was orange coloured gave me an uncertain look. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something else. My eyes darted over to see something I never would've expected to see again, especially so soon. It was the very same small dog I had seen at the creek, peeking at me from behind the larger blue dog, looking just as unsure as the orange canine.

"Okay… You good now, mate?" The voice of the larger blue dog regained my attention as I looked back at him. "...We'll just ask you a few questions and then we'll let you go, fair?" He requested. Still trembling slightly, I nodded, dreading to think what they would do if I said no. "Okay. First off, who are you? And… what are you?" He asked as clearly as possible. I managed to find my voice as my answer came out in stutters.

"N-N-Nathan… I-I'm a human." The two larger dogs glanced at each other upon hearing the latter part, their eyebrows arched in slight confusion before they faced me again.

"Alright… Nathan, you aren't a Bunyip, are you?"

"Bandit!" The orange dog hissed at the blue dog with an annoyed look on her face. "I'm just making sure!" The blue one whom I seemed to know was called "Bandit" defended with a slight shrug before watching me shake my head in response. "Now… Did you see a young blue heeler at the creek yesterday?" That question caught me off-guard a little, though the fact that I was seeing that small dog with him told me two things, the species of the dogs I was being questioned by being heelers or cattle dogs and that the smaller dog was related to them, supposedly they were the larger ones' child.

"...Yes." I managed to say without a stutter. Bandit nodded in response to this before turning to the orange dog next to him. "Wow, so Bluey wasn't joking about seeing some "weird bald monkey thing" at the creek."

"I told you!" The smaller blue dog, suddenly spoke out, looking up at Bandit with an annoyed "I told you so!" expression, not only did she have the height of a young child, but she also sounded like one. I was about to try and say something to the young dog girl whom I assumed was called "Bluey", most likely due to her fur colour until I glanced to my left to see a much smaller bipedal dog peeking at me from behind the orange dog, their facial expression which looked more fearful and Bandit and Bluey's had tensed up as they realised I had seen them and hid back behind the orange dog. From what I could see before they quickly hid, it was like I was looking at a much younger version of the tall orange dog, the major difference being that their ears had a more solid orange colour to them and they had both patches of the same colour around their eyes compared to just one.

"Soooo… Nathan, do you know where your mum and dad are?" I looked back up at Bandit as he asked this. Oh god, I had completely forgotten about that part of my current situation. My parents were still missing and I hadn't managed to locate any evidence that could lead me to their whereabouts. "...No. I don't know what happened to them and I can't find them anywhere." My face fell as I said this, no longer afraid of the bipedal group of heelers after realising that they meant no harm. Bandit and the larger orange heeler shared a concerned look with each other before Bandit spoke to the latter.

"Maybe we should call the police."

"How would we explain this to them? If neither of us have heard of a… "human", then what gives you the idea that they have?" Bandit looked down in thought after that response, the orange heeler's voice sounding female now that I had heard her better, confirming her to be female and thus likely meaning that she was possibly Bandit's wife or in animal terms, "mate". Whilst the two conversed, Bluey slowly walked over to me, holding her hands together in apprehension all the while keeping her distance. "Sooo… What are you really?" She asked, despite no doubt having heard me answer Bandit's similar question, she definitely has not seen a human before. Feeling myself fully calm down, I answered as best I could. "Well… Like I said to Bandit, I'm a human being. It's… It's kind of hard to explain." Bluey replied with an unsure but understanding "Oh." as I then decided to ask a question of my own. "...So your name's Bluey?" The blue heeler in question nodded in response as I continued with another question. "And… Well… I think I saw a small orange dog behind… your mom?" I questioned, whilst pointing at the large orange heeler Bandit was still talking to. Bluey glanced down for a moment before her eyebrows raised in a realisation. "Oh, that's my little sister, Bingo." She answered as she looked over to her mother as me and her saw the smaller orange dog again peeking from behind, still looking at me worriedly. I decided to get on one knee to look less threatening. Since Bandit and his family had revealed themselves to be harmless, I figured I should do the same for the little orange girl.

"H-Hey. It's okay. I won't hurt you." I said as softly as possible but Bingo didn't budge from her hiding spot. I was trying to think of a way to prove to her that I wasn't dangerous when Bandit's voice caught my attention.

"Alright. I still don't know if this is a good idea, but looking at your state now, you definitely need some help. So… Would you be okay to come with us so we can get you cleaned up and figure out how to help you find your mum and dad or whoever you're related to?" Bandit offered. Frankly, he wasn't wrong about my appearance. Looking at myself revealed to me that I had received a few other injuries from my fall the previous night such as a few cuts and bruises on my arms and my clothes were evidently dirty. And with no one else to help me, I figured it would be better to trust Bandit since he didn't react so aggressively unlike the last two legged dog I encountered so I stood back up and nodded.

"That'd be great. Thank you, Mr. Bandit." I said as politely as possible. "Oh, it's Bandit Heeler, mate. But you can just call me, Bandit." He corrected with a small smile. Huh, so their last name was their breed name. Did this mean that any other dogs here had surnames based on their breeds? "And this here is my good-looking wife, Chilli." Bandit smugly smiled, placing a hand on the taller orange heeler's back who just rolled her eyes before waving at me.

The Heeler family led me further into the open field as I took a good look around me, the area was huge and full of other vehicles, some of them being camper vans. And of course, they were home to many other two legged dogs. As soon as I saw the first couple, I immediately looked down to keep my gaze off of them, but I did often glance to see some of them stare at me silently, many of them having uncertain looks on their faces, a few of them even whispered to each other.

"They're looking at us." Bandit whispered to Chilli who only retorted with a "Just ignore them. We don't need to start something." as we all stopped to see a 4x4 FWD cruiser with a red full colour, the license plate on the front saying "419HLR". Bandit opened the back doors and stepped aside, gesturing with a hand for me to come inside. I did so, getting in the back seat and finding two booster seats on both sides, meaning I'd have to sit in the middle. Bandit and Chilli then both helped Bluey and Bingo on said booster seats respectively with Bluey on my right and Bingo on my left, the latter often averting her gaze whenever I glanced at her. We all buckled up and within seconds, we were driving out of the field and soon along a road that barely had any traffic. Seems like we were going to be on the road for a long while. Seeing as Bingo still wasn't comfortable with me yet, I chose to look out the window on Bluey's side as she did the same as Chilli decided to get to know me.

"So, Nathan… How old are you?" Was her first question. I thought back to the wallet I found in my pocket and saw my date of birth. "Fourteen. I'm fourteen years old." I replied honestly. "Wow, that's quite young! Now, do you know where you live?" This one I didn't know the answer to, given the fact that I still had no idea how I even got here. "No… Sorry, Mrs. Heeler." I apologised as I looked at the rear view mirror to see a slightly sympathetic look in her eyes. "Aw, that's alright. We'll make sure you come back to your mum and dad." She reassured me. "Do we even know if he has parents?" Bandit whispered to Chilli, making her glare at him which shut him up.

Minutes passed since we left the open field, but to me it felt like hours and one glance at Bluey told me she felt the same. Due to lack of sleep from being chased and nearly killed last night, tiredness started to overtake me as I leaned back on the car seat and soon enough, my eyelids fell.


Not even a few seconds passed after I had fallen asleep when I suddenly found myself inside the interior of a very light jet plane. The window next to me revealing that I was already several meters above ocean. I decided to look around some more and immediately flinched upon seeing something next to me on the other passenger seats. Dark and unrecognisable cloudy figures taller than me were sitting silently on the chairs without a word nor did they seem to react to my presence, but as I focused my gaze on them, I thought I could make out humanoid body shapes. It was almost like I was staring at two human silhouettes. Hesitantly, I reached a hand to the nearest shadow figure with the intent to get their attention.

Suddenly, the plane shook violently as I heard a loud bang from outside. I immediately looked out the window to see thick black smoke trailing outside as the plane continued to quake, making me hang on to my seat. Warning sirens from the cockpit blaring in my ears as I felt the direction of the plane slowly turn downwards and shake even more as I realised that it was starting to plummet downwards. I screamed in terror as I looked over to see the shadow figures curled up in horror as they knew our fate. My screams were finally cut off when the plane made impact with something outside and shook the inside so hard I was launched off of my seat and into a cloud of black smoke that engulfed me within seconds.


I snapped awake in a cold sweat, hyperventilating as I looked around to find myself back inside the Heeler's car, amongst my glances, I saw Bluey and Bingo look at me with wide eyes, the latter flinching as if reacting to my startled wake up.

"...Nathan, are you okay?" Bluey asked as I tried to calm myself down before answering. "Y-Yeah. I think I just had a nightmare..." I said with a frown as I stared at the car's floor, remaining silent for the rest of the trip.

I wasn't frowning just because of how disturbing the dream was. There was something else rushing around my head that I just couldn't figure out.

Why did the scenario in my dream feel so familiar?