by M. A. Owens
“Hold your breath!” she shouted, slicing the rope above where she gripped with her other paw, sending us falling toward the jaws of the Arc River. The impact of the water wasn’t the soft cushion I was hoping for. It felt like slamming into concrete. Lady had pulled the noose loose as we were falling. She almost lost her grip on me when we landed, but she held on, slipping it around my wrist and pulling it tight. “Grip this!” she yelled again, before swallowing a mouth full of water. Even shouting directly into my face, I could barely hear her over the roaring river and my fading consciousness.
We slammed hard into a rock. My body stiffened with pain again as we slammed into another, then another. Lady was steering us with the rope, or at least she attempted to. To my knowledge, no one had ever survived being thrown into the Arc River, aside from Max, the information broker. Kerdy had saved him, but she hadn’t been thrown in with him, and not from this height, and not already half-dead.
Why had Lady done this? She could have easily escaped with the others. Cut the rope so Marty was stuck down there and let me fall in to become food for the bacteria and… the fish? Just then, as we sunk deeper under the water, I saw two fish swim by. Guess there really were fish in this river after all. Too bad I’d never get the chance to tell anyone.
Another rock came at us, and this time Lady took most of the blow, a good chunk of it to her head. Her eyes closed, and her head went limp. She lost her grip on the rope. I wrapped both arms around her to keep us from being separated. We hit another, larger rock, and this time we stopped, our heads above water. I yelled at her over and over. Could tell she was still alive, but she was having a hard time coming to. I’d have to ask for forgiveness later.
I sank my teeth into her shoulder, hard, just as I’d done in our fight over the Grand Gobbler. Funny. Then, I was trying to kill her. This time I was trying to save her by doing the same thing. I didn’t understand what was right and wrong anymore. Up was down, and down was up. Heroes became villains and villains became heroes, and now I was going to die in order to entrust the city to the most dangerous villain of my lifetime, all to stop an even worse villain. And here I was, holding on to a dog I thought might have hated me the most, risking her life to save mine, and I didn’t even understand why… I’d probably never get the chance to ask.
She shook her head, and her grip tightened on me again. She gripped onto the edge of the rock and hauled me up. Once on top, I tried to do the same, and I could help just enough for her to make it, falling to her paws, choking out water. This wasn’t exactly a safe spot. The rapids still splashed over the rock, nearly knocking us off every few seconds. She grabbed onto about half of the rope and, with some effort, separated the knot that held it together at that point. She pulled open my shirt and laughed.
“The bleeding’s already slowed. Hold this against the wound. Put as much pressure as you can,” she said.
“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” I asked, barely able to hold up my head, putting as much pressure as I could on the two wounds, thankfully close together.
She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. “Is that—” She choked up more water. “Is that what you want to do? If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have jumped in here after you. I had assumed you wanted to live. My mistake.”
“I do,” I said.
“You do what?” she asked, “What is it you want to do?”
“I want to live,” I repeated.
“Say it again. You don’t sound like you mean it,” Lady shouted.
“I want to live!” I barked, to the top of my lungs.
“Then stop asking stupid questions. We’re going back in,” she said, pointing further down the river.
“We’re what?” I yelled.
“Look further down. There’s a gate, but that’s not what’s important. The gate itself doesn’t open. I know the way out, near it. It’s one of our secret passages leading outside the wall.”
“Why did you save me, Lady? At least tell me that.”
“I haven’t saved you yet, Trigger. I’ll answer that question once we’ve made it through the passage to the outside. It’s not because I’m in love with you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
What was that? A joke, from Lady of all dogs? Despite the awful timing, I laughed anyway, and was rewarded with throbbing pain from head to toe.
“What a shame,” I squeaked. “Fine. Following your lead. I think… I’ve broken a lot of bones. Body’s giving out.”
“I know. Mine too. We can’t wait to rest. It’s riskier than going too soon,” she said, tying the remaining rope dangling from my wrist onto hers. “Last push. You ready?”
“Let’s do it,” I said, wrapping my arms around her waist.
With that, she dove back into the water, getting pulled under briefly, and hitting several smaller rocks and other debris before we slammed into the enormous circular metal gate. Lady braced herself against it and used the openings like a ladder to move underwater. To the right of the gate was an underwater tunnel that curved around it, just big enough for us to move through.
When we emerged through the other side, Lady grabbed onto an underwater rope they had placed there previously to make it easier traversing the tunnel. It reminded me of the makeshift one Kerdy made for Petey and I when we jumped districts to avoid the gate guards.
At last, we pulled above the water, and Lady dragged us onto the bank of the river. We both spent the next few minutes coughing again, and I took the first true inventory of my injuries. My back could be broken. Neck felt as though it was about to snap from nearly being hung, and I could feel the rope had cut into the flesh. My arm was badly broken, and at least one leg. I had a hard time breathing, even after I cleared the water. The knife probably collapsed one of my lungs. I wouldn’t make it.
“Go on, Lady… Just leave me here,” I said, half-gasping out the words. I didn’t have the strength to pick myself up again, and she didn’t have the strength to carry me.
“Change your mind already?” she asked. “I made you a promise, remember? That I would tell you once we made it out of the river. I saved you because Kerdy isn’t kind or charitable. She gave you that injection because she believed you could help us. She believed it so much, in fact, that she broke her precious rules to do it. I also have my own selfish reason. I’ve done a lot against my people. First, I decided they weren’t my people, that the dogs of Arc City were my people. I was wrong. Worse yet, I lost the Grand Gobbler. I have a lot to make up for, and if I can save you… I hope it will prove I’m sincere, and that I want to be forgiven and accepted back.”
“No way I’ll make it, even if we can get back in quickly. Our hospitals just aren’t that good. Sorry, Lady…” I said, as the world around me faded.
“I’m not taking you to your hospital,” she said, rising to her feet and staggering over to me. Despite everything, she still had the strength to pick me up and hoist me onto her shoulder. “The place I’m taking you will save you, if I can find the strength to get you there. I will never fail my people again. I will get you there, Trigger, so shut up.”
“You’re crazy…” I said. That was all I had the strength to say. What pathetic last words.
“I will never fail my people again,” she repeated, as she began trudging forward, away from the city. I’d always wanted to go outside of these walls. In my entire life, I’d never seen the outside. It truly was beautiful.
I could think of worse ways to go. The case was closed, and now the city had a fighting chance against Saint. If I was going to go out, this seemed like as good a way as any. Sure, I could have chosen another job. Kept my nose clean. Got married. Raised some pups. Lived a quiet life. But a quiet life and a different job wouldn’t let me go out with my head held high, a hero. The way I was always afraid I wouldn’t.
Maybe this job wasn’t so bad after all.
Epilogue
“You must be out of your mind, Arn,” Joy said, slamming her paw on top of his, pressing her cabinet drawer shut
again.
“Out of my mind? You didn’t miss the part where I said I was here on orders from the commander, right?” Arn shot back, but didn’t fight with her over the drawer.
“Besides, do I look like I need help from you? You’re too enthusiastic for your own good. What are you going to do with my cybernetics? Install them yourself? You’re lucky to put a bandage on straight without my help. Get lost. Tell the commander if she wants to give me orders she can come here herself.”
Arn gritted his teeth. “Joy, you are the gutsiest cat I’ve ever met. You’re even worse than the commander. You know I wouldn’t lie to you, and you and the commander are just going to get into another shouting match and make everyone uncomfortable again, like you always do.”
“Oh, boo hoo, Arn. What are you, a kitten? Going to cry? And what’s this ‘Joy’ business? Too old to call me ‘Mother’ anymore?”
Arn’s fur bristled down his back, and his cheeks were flush. “Fine… Mother. I’ll get Kerdy and she can come in here herself. Someday she’s really going to lose it and put you in your place.”
“Me? Hah! I’ve pulled that cat’s broken body out of death’s jaws more times than you can count. I’d like to see her try to put me in my place. Besides, what’s your big hurry? I stabilized both patients. They won’t die, so go home and stop worrying. We can discuss this tomorrow,” Joy said, running her left paw through the gray fur atop her head. “I’m beat. Think I’ll close up early and head home to take a nap.”
“You’ll what? Okay, fine, but what’s your big issue with all of this? If Kerdy wants him treated like one of us, don’t you trust her enough to do it?”
“Arn…” she closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “It’s not that I don’t trust her. I just want to talk this through with her myself, is all. This breaks all kinds of rules, and she’s Ms. Rules, remember? My supplies are in well… short supply, and wasting them on a dog, or two dogs we could easily just patch up and send on their way seems…”
“Seems what?” Arn asked, his eye twitching as he finally let go of the drawer.
“I just want to understand, is all. We won’t last much longer if we don’t tighten our belts and preserve our resources. Resources include cats, like you, Arn, who insist on throwing themselves into danger at every opportunity to impress the commander. One day, your luck is going to run out.”
“So that’s also what this is about? You want to talk to Kerdy about sending me on missions too early, because I’m too young. You’re afraid I’ll get killed because I’m not ready. I’ve been training, Mother, and I’m not a kitten anymore. Kerdy says I’m—”
“Oh, Kerdy says. Kerdy says. Tell her to come here and say it to my face!” Joy shouted, giving Arn a shove.
“Okay, okay. Sheesh. It’s like I have two mothers,” Arn said, storming out of the tent, leaving Joy alone. She walked over and sat down in her chair, staring down at the documents in front of her on her desk. “Short again, on nearly everything. And if my calculations are correct, we’re due for another Steel Colossus attack any year now. We’re not ready…”
“We have to be,” Kerdy said, placing her paw on Joy’s shoulder, sending her jumping halfway out of her chair.
“Holy… what happened to announcing the commander’s arrival?” Joy said, placing her paw on her chest. “You scared me half to death.”
“Yeah, like I believe that,” Kerdy said, stepping in front of Joy’s desk, placing her paws behind her back and staring up at the old, patched roof of the tent.
“We have to face the colossus, Joy. We’re not ready, but we don’t have a choice. It will either wipe us out this time or destroy Arc City. There will be no dogs or cats left. We will be extinct, just like humanity. And because of that…”
“And because of that, you need every able-bodied soldier you can, especially skilled fighters like Arn with a warrior’s fire in his chest. You’re also willing to place our lives in the paws of an outsider, wasting precious time and resources on a bet. I’m not a betting cat, Kerdy.”
Kerdy sighed, looking down at Joy. “I won’t command you. You know I won’t, but I will ask you to make a choice. You must choose between placing a bet or accepting your death. And Arn’s death. Will you gamble, or will you just turn your back on everything because the odds seem impossible? Our lives are in your paws.”
Joy’s eyes welled up with tears. “I don’t deserve all the respect you give me, Kerdy. I’m only a doctor, and—”
“The best doctor I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many,” Kerdy corrected.
Joy smiled. “I will gamble, then. Not just on myself, but you, and everyone else.”
“I knew you’d say that. Thanks, Joy.”
“Now, let’s wake this patient up and see if he’s really worth all the trouble he’s caused.”
1
“Trigger.”
A voice called out to me, somewhere far away. Was this the afterlife? Disappointing if the whole thing was going to be nothing but pitch black. I would settle for a coffee and a tray of scrambled eggs at Elly’s. Instead, I get this infinite darkness and some dame hollering at me from who knows how far away.
“Trigger!”
There it was again. Just what I needed. My own personal invisible nagging friend to keep me company. At least I didn’t feel any kind of pain.
Wait, a minute. I’m definitely dead. If I were alive, I’d be hurting all over right now.
“Joy, are you sure you didn’t kill him with what you put through his IV just now? I thought you said he’d wake up almost immediately,” the voice said again, becoming slightly clearer this time. Kerdy? Great. Perfect. I must have been a bad dog for sure, if this was the voice I was going to be hearing for eternity in the afterlife. And who in the world is Joy, anyway?
“I said almost immediately. It’s not magic. It’s medicine. Maybe he’s hearing your voice and decided he’d rather not wake up. It’s a possibility, in my expert opinion,” an unfamiliar voice said.
That one must be Joy. She sounds grouchier than Kerdy. Sheesh.
A hard slap hit me across the face, and my eyes shot open.
Kerdy and Joy stood above me, but Joy I’d never met before. She was a gray cat who’d seen quite a few years pass her by. Maybe more than Kerdy. She furrowed her brow and pointed to Kerdy, her gray fur bristling.
“Excuse me! I didn’t invest precious resources into saving this fleabag just so you could slap him around and injure him again. I’m getting ready to perform a delicate procedure, so I need him to be calm.”
“Oh, shove it, Joy. I barely tapped him. And look, he opened his eyes. I guess you were right about him ignoring me.”
“You’re the one ignoring me, now,” I said, mostly slurring the words. Now I understood. I must’ve been heavily sedated and just now waking up. “How many days have I been out… and why am I tied to this doggone table?”
“So you wouldn’t roll off into the floor and break something while you were out. You’ve been in a medically induced coma for the past couple of months and—”
“Months?” I shouted.
She looked to Kerdy. “Is he going to be this excited every time I say half a sentence?”
Kerdy shrugged.
“Yeah, pardon me for waking up in some strange place I’ve never seen before, after almost dying in Arc River, out for two months, and strapped to a table. Is that normal here? Your cats usually smile and nod at that?”
“Closer to normal than I’d like to admit, at least for some of us,” Joy said, forcing a smile. “We couldn’t have you rolling into the floor and breaking something again before it had time to heal.”
“No way all those broken bones healed in two months,” I said, letting my doubts spill into the conversation, rude as that might be.
“With your technology? You’d be in physical therapy for the next two years, and some of your breaks would have never healed properly. Our technology here far outstrips yours. You will need some time to walk it off,
but you’re healed. I needed to wait until you were awake before installing your cybernetics,” Joy said, so matter-of-fact and calm that I almost couldn’t process what she was saying.
“She means replacing your eye,” Kerdy attempted to clarify.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now wait just a minute. Cybernetics? New eye?”
She looked to Kerdy again and sighed. “Yep, he’s going to do it every single time. Cybernetics. Machine parts. Like Kerdy’s leg. Did you see her leg? I’m going to replace your useless eye with a rare, precious salvaged cybernetic and wire it to your neural—” She sighed again. “Your brain. Look, this isn’t a classroom. It’s a hospital. Do you want the eye or not? If so, a ‘thank you’ would be more appropriate. Eternal gratitude would be even better. I don’t think you deserve it. I think it should be given to one of our warriors. Kerdy disagrees, for reasons I can’t comprehend. Lucky for you, what Kerdy says goes.”
I looked between the two of them. What else could I really say? More importantly, what could I really say that wouldn’t push Joy over the edge. It’s clear I wasn’t welcome here, and I could make a guess that this was highly irregular and probably broke a dozen rules.
“When I go back to the city, won’t it look strange with some kind of little machine thing clicking and buzzing around in my head, cogs spinning and all that?” I asked.
Joy stifled a laugh, holding a paw over her mouth. “You sweet, sheltered little barbarian. It’s honestly a bit endearing.”
Kerdy just stared at Joy for a moment, as emotionless as ever, before finally turning her attention to me. “It will look just like your bad eye does now. No one will know the difference, unless you tell them. Joy, for all her arrogance and—”
“Oh, well now, what have we here? I believe we call this a ‘pot and kettle’ situation. Lectured on arrogance by the queen of arrogance herself, Commander Kerdy. I’ll take your word for it, because you’re certainly the authority on the topic.”
