As if summoned, a small, ratlike head poked out from a nearby bunch of leaves. The young possum sniffed at the dogs with her pink nose, her whiskers twitching.
“Oh, you all heard me,” she squeaked. “We sure are glad.”
“Hi!” Gizmo said, offering a weary wag of her tail. “Where did you guys come from? Thanks for the help!”
The small possum scratched her chin. “Well, my papa felt real, real bad about his trick, so we been following you. We saw you get away from those monsters last night, and then when they was still after you today, my papa went and got all our aunts and uncles and grandpappies and grandmamas and cousins and even the babies. He said we gonna scare them good.”
“And you all did a terrific job,” Max said. He peered back to see the confused alligators still staring up at the shaking branches, even while the leader continued to try—and fail—to climb up the fallen tree.
“They’re not going away, though,” Georgie said. “We’re going to be stuck up here forever!”
“Naw,” the little possum squeaked. “The Mudlurker will come ’round some night, and then you can run away again.”
Georgie’s whole body seemed to sag. “But I am the Mudlurker,” he said. “They’ve seen me now, and they’ll know I’m just a dog.”
“You’re joking,” said the baby possum. “The Mudlurker is a big ol’ thing made of mud, and its howls can make the ground swallow you up!”
“Trust us,” Gizmo said. “This is the Mudlurker all cleaned up. Didn’t you notice we left the Mudlurker’s lair with one more dog than when we went in?”
Whiskers twitching, the small possum looked between the dogs. “I guess we done noticed,” she squeaked, sounding confused. “But we didn’t think much of it.”
“Hey!” Rocky barked. “If the possums didn’t notice, I bet the gators didn’t, either. I have an idea.” He looked up at the possum. “Can you get your family to shake the trees as hard as they can? And tell them to start screeching about the Mudlurker coming, too.”
“I sure can!” she said, darting off into the leaves.
Rocky turned his attention to Georgie. “We need you to howl louder than ever before.”
Georgie sniffed, sucking up a glob of drool. “I’m not sure I can.”
“Of course you can, big guy!” Rocky said. “Here we are, four dogs in a tree with monsters waiting to eat us. You’re far from your family and friends, and as long as we’re stuck up here, you’ll never get out of this swamp to find them. Doesn’t that make you just want to howl?”
Georgie’s eyes started to water. “Everything isn’t fair,” he blubbered.
The trunk beneath them started to quake, and all around, the canopy of trees began to sway as if caught in some unseen storm. Max could just make out the shadows of dozens of possums leaping up and down on the branches, sending the tree limbs bouncing.
“The Mudlurker be coming!” a deep possum voice screeched.
“The Mudlurker gonna eat up everybody!” cried a female voice.
More and more possums began to scream about the arrival of the Mudlurker, their voices rising in a terrifying shriek. Some tossed down twigs and branches onto the tough hides of the monstrous alligators.
At the base of the fallen tree, the gators started to back away. With dark eyes, they cast nervous glances at the trees and let out warning hisses.
“Boss,” one of the gators said. “We need to go.”
“Never!” the leader shouted, flinging itself at the tree trunk.
The force of the giant lizard’s weight made the trunk quake beneath Max’s paws, and the dead tree creaked in protest.
“It’s now or never, big guy!” Rocky said to Georgie. “Let out all your feelings. Make sure those gators hear it!”
Still blubbering, Georgie tilted his head back. His chest rose as he inhaled a long, deep breath.
And then Georgie howled.
It started as a rumbling, then burst forth as a deafening, wailing “Aroo!”
It was a baying lament that swelled from deep within the dog’s belly to echo for miles in every direction. The sound became all that Max or any of the other animals could hear; wave upon wave of despair crashed into their ears and flooded their minds.
All of Georgie’s loneliness and fear and sadness was in that one long howl. The emotions reverberated through Max’s body and deep into his bones.
The possums went silent and still, in awe of the Mudlurker’s cry. As they did, a single cloud drifted in front of the blazing midday sun, casting the road in shadow.
And the alligators panicked.
“The Mudlurker is here!” one bellowed. It whipped in a frantic circle, its long tail lashing against its companions’ sides, but they didn’t seem to notice. Their eyes were wide, and the sides of their low-slung bodies heaved.
“Run!” another gator shouted, skittering toward the trees. “The beast will swallow us whole!”
The monsters, once so confident, now turned tail and fled. They slithered and dashed into the woods, their large, dark forms disappearing toward the depths of the swamp.
The biggest alligator, the leader, hesitated at the base of the dead tree. But even it couldn’t stand the noise. It crawled beneath the dead tree and raced back down the highway.
Georgie lowered his wide snout, his howl dwindling into a soft whimper. For a moment, the four dogs sat in the crook of the dead tree’s branches, completely silent. The trees no longer shook, and none of the possums spoke. But they were still there, watching.
The cloud that had blotted out the sun drifted away, illuminating the road once more in cheery daylight. As it did, one tiny, squeaking voice yelled, “Wahoo!”
The possums erupted into cheers and laughter, and as the dogs watched, the creatures dropped to hang upside down by their tails, clapping their small paws and hollering congratulations.
“Oh, Georgie,” Gizmo said. “You did it. You scared away the monsters!”
“I guess I did,” Georgie said.
Rocky jumped up onto all fours. “See, big guy? Stick with us and we’ll always find a way out. We’re smarter than the average dog, you know.”
Max wagged his tail. “That was good thinking, Rocky.”
The dead tree’s branches rustled, and Max looked up to see the small girl possum and her papa climbing toward them.
“Hank!” Gizmo cried. “It’s good to see you!”
The large possum landed with a heavy thud among the four dogs, his whiskers twitching.
“Thanks for all you did just now,” Max said. “You and your family saved our lives.”
Hank scratched his jaw. “It wasn’t nothing. It was really my baby girl’s idea. She done said we owed you one.”
“Oh, Papa, it was your idea, too, and you know it.”
Hank ducked his head. “I guess so.”
Rocky raised a paw. “Consider all our past differences erased. We forgive you for sending us to the gators, and we’re friends now. Shake on it, buddy?”
The big possum blinked his beady eyes, then took Rocky’s paw in both of his.
“I never been friends with no dogs before,” Hank said. “You all ain’t as bad as you smell.”
“Oh, we smell?” Georgie said. “But we took a bath and everything.”
Gizmo and the little possum giggled.
“You’d best git while you can,” Hank said. “Them monsters always come back. Plus my cousin Gary said they seen more of those wolves coming up through the swamp.”
“Thanks, Hank,” Max said. “You keep your family safe, okay?”
Hank nodded. “That’s what we be planning.”
As Hank and his daughter waved good-bye, Max turned and carefully made his way back down the trunk of the fallen tree. Soon he, Georgie, Rocky, and Gizmo reached the base and leaped down to the road. Hank’s family raised their tiny fists and cheered as the dogs trotted beneath them.
“Where to now?” Rocky asked.
Max turned toward the side roa
d that led north. “We follow the beacon and get out of this swamp.”
“Yay!” Gizmo said as she ran alongside Max. “Finally.”
“You can say that again!” Rocky yipped.
Leaving the possums to their celebration, Max led the other three dogs down the side road. The beacon on the orange-and-white barrier blinked steadily, beckoning them forward out of the musty, overgrown, gator-filled swampland and one step closer to the old woman who—they hoped—had all the answers.
CHAPTER 12
THE CANINE POLICE
“So tell us, Georgie,” Rocky said as the dogs walked down the center of the road. “How’d you learn to howl like that?”
The big Saint Bernard ducked his head. “Aw, it’s nothing any dog can’t do.”
“Oh, I’ve known lots of dogs,” Gizmo said, trotting to keep pace. “And none who could roar like that.”
Georgie tilted his head. “Well, believe it or not, I was the smallest of all the puppies in my litter.”
“No way!” Max said.
“It’s true! The others got all the attention, so I had to fight constantly to feed and get played with. Eventually I just got so fed up that I plopped my tiny self in the dirt, raised my nose high, and let all the frustration out in one big howl.” He chuckled. “You’d better believe I got a lot of attention after that. In fact, it was the reason the innkeepers at the beach adopted me and became my pack leaders. They knew if I ever saw anyone getting out of line, I’d howl, and they would come running.”
“Sounds like you’re one heck of an alarm system!” Rocky said.
Max wagged his tail and shook his head as his three friends continued to talk. After all the unpleasantness of the swamp, it was nice to finally be free and take a breather—even if there were still rumors of wolves afoot.
Then, Max saw them—a pack of large figures just down the road.
“Stop,” he whispered, halting midstep.
His friends huddled next to him. Georgie trembled, whimpering.
“Who are they?” Rocky asked. “Are they wolves?”
Max sniffed the air. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction, so he couldn’t get a good read on their scent.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Just be prepared to run.”
The animals—seven in all—trotted side by side in a row. They marched in unison—everyone stepping forward at the same time in the same rhythm. Max had never seen anything like it.
As they grew closer, Max saw that the animals were all German Shepherds. Their coats shone in the midday sun as though the animals were freshly groomed, and their pointed ears were alert. Around each dog’s neck was a dark blue collar from which dangled a gleaming, star-shaped medal.
They weren’t wolves, but Max didn’t relax. He knew better by now than to trust an organized group of dogs without getting to know them first.
The largest of the seven dogs marched a few steps forward. His back and snout were deep black, and the rest of him was a red-tinged gold.
“Whoa there,” the lead dog barked. “We saw you coming up the road. Where are you headed?”
“What’s it to you?” Rocky asked.
“Rocky,” Max whispered in warning. He took a step forward. “We’re trying to get as far away as we can from the swamp. We don’t want to cause any trouble.”
Rocky darted in front of Max, growling. “The four of us just scared off a bunch of monsters back there. I’m not in the mood for any more animals getting in our way.”
Georgie whimpered. Max looked behind him to see the big dog lying in the street, sniffling. And just beyond Georgie, Max saw why.
Five more German Shepherds had appeared from the nearby trees, coming to stand behind them.
“It’s fate,” Georgie moaned. “No matter what we do, we’re stuck!”
Gizmo licked the center of Georgie’s forehead. “It’ll be all right,” she said.
The lead dog cleared his throat, and Max turned to meet his eyes.
“I think you might be misunderstanding our intentions,” the leader said. “We heard the Mudlurker, and we came to aid a fellow dog in distress.”
“You knew the Mudlurker was a dog?” Max asked.
The German Shepherd nodded. “Of course. We’ve all heard the rumors about some giant underground beast, but we know a dog howl when we hear one. Right, team?”
A chorus of voices barked in unison. “Yes, sir!”
“The name is Julep,” the leader said.
Gizmo came to stand beside Max and Rocky. “Well, we managed to escape the alligators with the help of some possums, but it’s nice you came anyway! I’m Gizmo. This is Max and Rocky, and back there is our friend Georgie.”
With his snout held high, Julep marched purposefully around Max, Rocky, and Gizmo to study Georgie, who lay in a depressed heap on the asphalt, a puddle of drool and tears forming beneath his wide jaw.
“I know,” Georgie mumbled. “I’m the biggest mess you’ve ever seen.”
“Actually,” Julep said, “I was just thinking that you must be the famed Mudlurker. Only a dog as big as you could possibly produce so glorious a howl. It’s a pleasure to meet the dog behind the legend.”
“But he isn’t the Mudlurker anymore,” said Gizmo. “Now that he’s not sad and alone, he’s going to be himself again. Right, Georgie?”
Groaning, Georgie hefted himself up onto his paws. “No more Mudlurking for me,” he said. “At least, I hope not.”
“Well, I’m right sorry to hear of your retirement, sir,” Julep said. “We spun many a tall tale about you to keep the worst of the swamp animals from trying to get into our town.”
“Is your town close?” Max asked.
“Sure is!” Julep said. “And our lady is there, too. We would be delighted to escort you.”
“A lady!” Rocky leaped in the air.
His tail wagging, Max darted forward. “Is your lady an old woman with a big hat?”
Julep nodded. “She came through some weeks back, and life has never been better. Do you know her?”
“Not yet,” Max said. “But I can’t wait to!”
Julep’s jaws opened in a happy pant. “Well, let’s get going. It sounds like you four are ready to get back to civilization!”
After a single bark of command, the eleven other German Shepherds formed a loose, protective circle around Max, Rocky, Gizmo, and Georgie. Then the four companions and their new guards started north down the small road.
It wasn’t long before the trees began to thin out. Max spotted a few small houses abandoned among the fields. The farther north they walked, though, the bigger and nicer the houses became. One was painted a buttery yellow, and its curtains were patterned with red-and-purple flowers. Another was made of brick and dark wood, with a pair of rocking chairs on its porch.
Though the landscapes were different from the countryside where Max grew up, he couldn’t help but be reminded of home. Something about the comfortable, lived-in state of the houses felt familiar.
Of course, now the grass was overgrown, and there was a silent darkness around each house. These homes were empty, just like Max’s farm, which had once been alive with the sound of farmers wrangling the cows and the delighted screeches of Charlie and Emma. Now it sat silent, like the houses on this street.
It was a sad, distressing thought, and Max looked away from the empty homes. Ahead was Madame Curie’s owner, and after they’d met her, they’d find Georgie’s town, where Belle lived. Then maybe they’d even find Charlie and Emma, his pack leaders.
“You dogs seem so organized,” Gizmo said to Julep as they walked. “And very well trained! Did you do this yourself?”
“No, ma’am,” Julep said. “We were all once police officers in our great town.”
Rocky narrowed his eyes. “That doesn’t sound right. Only humans can be police officers.”
“But it’s true!” a female Shepherd called out.
The Shepherd behind her snapped, “Don’t speak out of turn.
”
“Hey!” Julep barked. “I’m in charge; I give the reprimands. Got it?”
“Yes, sir!” barked the dog who’d snapped.
“May I speak freely, sir?” the female Shepherd asked.
Julep nodded. “Go ahead, Dixie.”
Dixie left the circle of dogs and ran to join the group at the center. She was a little smaller than Julep, but she exuded just as much confidence as her leader. While her face was almost fully black, the rest of her body was the color of honey.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Dixie said. To Rocky, she added, “I didn’t mean to start a row with you. I just didn’t want to be taken for a fibber.”
“Well, you have to admit, the story seems a little far-fetched,” Rocky said.
Dixie shook her head. “It’s true; I guarantee it. We were raised as puppies to be part of the K9 unit in this town. We worked side by side with the human officers of the law to sniff out criminals and keep every citizen safe. Once all the people left, we figured it was up to us to keep order.”
“That’s amazing!” Gizmo said. “We met some Dalmatians who were trained to be firefighters, so it makes perfect sense that there would be dogs brave enough to be police officers, too!”
“Why, thank you,” Dixie said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Rocky muttered. “I was wrong, I can admit it.”
Ahead of them, Julep jerked to a halt and barked, “Stop! Perimeter, face out. Keep your noses high.”
The circle of Shepherds did as they were told, and Dixie darted back to her place. The dogs in front kept staring forward, but the rest of them turned to face the side or back the way they’d come.
Max and his friends huddled together. “Oh, something bad is happening,” Georgie moaned.
“What’s going on?” Max asked Julep, but the leader of the police dogs didn’t respond.
Max looked on either side of the road. They were well out of the woods, in a residential neighborhood. Unlike the houses on the outskirts of town, these were built close together, though they still had big yards. Remnants of people’s lives could be seen—a tricycle nearly hidden by the grass, a tire swing, gardening tools near tangled rosebushes. The neighborhood had been abandoned so quickly that some people hadn’t even closed their windows, and white curtains drifted on the breeze.
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