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"Chips
Ahoy" by
Chris McWilliams
Chips
had been a member of the family for many years (since they had rescued him from
the pound when he was a little puppy) and loved his family very much, especially
Timmy his young master who he had grown up with.
On
this day in particular there was a lot of activity in the house because it was
summer and the family was going to take the station wagon into the country for a
few days. They had a
small cabin out there and liked to get away whenever they could to enjoy some
fishing, hiking and other outdoors fun.
Chips liked it because it was the only time he was allowed to run free
and chase the rabbits and butterflies that he found there.
At
the moment Timmy was at the table eating his breakfast and watching cartoons on
a small portable TV that was kept in the kitchen mainly for this purpose.
Chips was hiding under the table where Timmy would slip him the
occasional piece of toast which Chips would eat up eagerly, then sit quietly
waiting for the next piece.
Meanwhile,
mother and father were a flurry of activity as they gather up the camping gear,
food and other supplies packing them as tightly as they could into the station
wagon (making sure to leave room in the back seat for Timmy and Chips of
course).
Suddenly,
mother and father’s activity was stopped as Timmy got their attention and
pointing to the TV asked, “what’s that?”
Mother
and father look at the TV screen nervously.
Chips poked his head out from under the long table cloth to see why the
toast had stopped coming and saw mother and father just standing there staring
at the TV.
He
didn’t understand the words the TV was saying but he could tell by the tone
that whatever it was must have been bad.
Also, he could sense mother and father tense up and smell fear on them, a
thick unpleasant odor that reminded Chips of the time he had tangled with that
skunk and got sprayed.
Once
mother and father were able to break themselves away they seemed to resume their
packing, only this time it had a frantic almost panicked tone, like suddenly
they realized they were WAY behind their schedule.
Before
Chips knew it the station wagon was packed and they were on their way.
As soon as everyone was inside and the car was started mother turned on
the radio (which was unusual for her, usually she liked to talk or play road
trip games).
After
some searching up and down the dial she finally found a station that she
apparently was satisfied with and stopped to listen as dad pulled out of the
driveway and headed out of town.
As
with the TV Chips didn’t understand the words that were being said by the
voice coming out of the radio but he could tell by the tone that the voice was
tense and panicked. Just
like mother and father whose own panic was outstripped only by the panic in the
air that Chips could pick up from the other cars and the outside in general.
Chips
could also tell that Timmy was confused and panicked himself and since Timmy was
his master Chips felt it was his job to try and make him feel better.
So Chips leaned in and put his head under Timmy’s hand and flicked his
head so that his hand ended up on his head.
This was Chips’ standard pet me signal.
Timmy
begin petting Chips and apparently thought he was sacred too because as he pet
him he said, “It’s ok boy, it’s going to be ok, it’s going to be ok.”
Suddenly,
the car stopped moving and father was very upset, he loudly and angrily shouted
apparently at the car, then mother said something in a soothing tone to try and
calm him down prompting father to snap at her as well.
However, he quickly apologized to her and said something to her and Timmy
both.
Chips
saw Timmy, mother and father pick up some of the stuff they had loaded into the
car and get out. Timmy
stopped to put Chips’ leash on him, and then let him out of the car. In truth Chips hated that leash, he would rather
run free but he knew if his master Timmy put it on him he had a good reason so
Chips let it go.
Mother
and father stood with each other a foot or two away from Timmy and Chips and
talked amongst themselves for a few minutes after which they called Timmy over
and started walking the way they had been driving.
They
walked in silence for sometime no one saying a word, just looking forward as
they picked their way through a sea of others cars that had been left because
they were wrecked, were blocked by other cars or like their own station wagon
had broken down.
Chips
was leading the way, out in front of the others as far as his leash would allow
when he caught a whiff of something in their air. He wasn’t sure what it was he smelled but
he could tell one thing: what ever it was it was trouble.
Chips
began to bark and to pull on his leash hard in order to warn his master that
danger was ahead. But,
for some reason they didn’t seem to understand his warning. Father yelled at him which upset Timmy but no one
seemed to be worried about what he was trying to tell them.
As
they kept walking the smell got stronger, then finally he saw what it was he had
smelled. A pair of
shadowy figures stood in the distance, they just stood there and watched Chips
and his family as if trying to figure out what they were.
Chips
knew they were trouble so he starting barking again and pulling at his leash, he
HAD to make his family understand the threat they were walking into but they
still weren’t getting the message.
Finally,
as they got closer the two figures came running at Chips and his family.
Only at this point did father, mother and Timmy see what was coming for
them and only then did they feel afraid.
Before
they could do anything the two attackers sprang on father, mother was in shock
but Chips and his barking shook her out of it. By then the attackers where on top of father and
mother (as much as she didn’t want to admit it) knew he was a goner so she
grabbed up Timmy and they went running into the sparsely wooded area off the
road.
Despite
the weight she was carrying mother made good time and even Chips had to pour on
the speed to keep up (of course the leash gave him little choice).
Finally they had managed to loose the attackers and only Chips saw what
happened next, father got up but Chips could tell he wasn’t really father
anymore and looked at them as they ran.
After
mother was sure they had gotten away she put Timmy down and he ran to tend to
Chips and make sure he was all right.
Mother fell to her knees sobbing and exhausted.
After
several minutes mother was beginning to get her breath back and even Chips could
tell that she was trying to figure out what to do next.
Chips
herd a noise; he poked his head up and sniffed the air.
It wasn’t any of the attackers, it was people, just the same they WERE
strangers so he growled anyway.
This time mother and Timmy and were much more willing to listen to his
warnings and mother tensed up as she heard footsteps through the tall grass.
Mother
let out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was just people, a young man and
woman to be precise. Chips ran to
them and sniffed them, they seemed fine so he stepped back and let them into the
clearing.
Mother
talked to the couple for several minutes, with Timmy interjecting whenever he
had something to say. Apparently
mother and the young man and woman decided to stick together.
After
a few more minutes the young man pointed in another direction and the group set
off that way heading to wherever they had decided to go.
The
group walked in the same direction for sometime until they came upon a white car
that had apparently run head first into a tree. The car’s airbag was deployed and there
were bloody handprints on the broken windshield but whoever was behind the wheel
was apparently long gone.
Chips
could smell people, two of them, leaving from where the car was off to the very
direction they were traveling.
After they had checked the car out and found nothing of interest
the group decided to move on.
They
were just about to resume their walk when Chips smelled something bad again,
more attackers. Chips perked
his head up from he had been lying on the ground and started growling again.
By this time Timmy and mother knew better than to ignore Chip’s barking
but the young man and woman didn’t know what he was barking about.
Before
mother could explain a pair of attackers, one of them was what had used to be
father (when mother saw this she tensed up again), the other was someone else.
The
pair spotted the group and sprang to attack.
Mother grabbed Timmy and Timmy led Chips along as they ran behind the
crashed car for cover. The
young man and woman were a different matter; the man stood between the woman and
the attackers, absently he grabbed a branch broken off the tree (presumably by
the crash).
As
the attackers ran toward the man he swung the branch and hit one of the
attackers over the head with a loud crack it fell, this left father who was not
fazed and managed to bite the young man on the arm before he was able to take a
second swing.
This
swing barely connected but seemed enough to knock father to the ground.
There he lay flopping around like a fish out of water but otherwise he
seemed helpless.
Mother
peeked from around the back bumper of the car and saw what had happened, out of
reflex she ran out wanting to tend to her fallen husband but before she could
reach him the young man stopped her and held her back.
The
young man said something using the hand on his bitten arm (which he was keeping
pressed against his body to cut down on the pain and bleeding) to point to the
prone and flopping body.
Mother seemed to see what he said and turned around tears streaming down
her cheeks.
Meanwhile,
the young woman grabbed a handkerchief she had in her purse and began to tend to
the young man’s wounds.
At
this point Timmy started to come from the far side of the car to see what had
happened but his mother stopped him, she didn’t want him to see his father
like that. Chips
followed behind and stood between mother and Timmy and the body of what used to
be father, as if protecting them, growling the whole time.
After
the young woman had finished tending to the young man’s wound it was starting
to get dark and the group was very hungry.
Luckily mother and Timmy still had the food they had taken from the
broken down station wagon so they were able to have something to eat.
Finally,
the group decided to stay the night there, using the car as a shelter and taking
turns watching out for more attackers (with Chips’ help since he seemed able
to tell when they were coming).
Not
being the most ideal of conditions the group got very sleep but they were able
to get SOME. However,
the young man interrupted what little sleep they managed to get sometime in the
middle of the night.
He
started screaming and making a lot of noise, finally the young woman was able to
quite him down so he wouldn’t attract any more of those things.
Finally, she realized that he had a fever and was apparently very sick.
Chips
could smell something about him; he didn’t smell like he did before.
He was starting to smell like the attackers, not exactly like them yet
but he starting to smell like them.
The
sun was finally starting to come up and the group decided that it would be safe
to travel again (or at least as safe as it could be given what was going on).
But, now they had a new problem: by now the young man wasn’t in any
condition to travel and none of them had the strength to carry him.
At
first they thought about trying to use the car but it so wedged into the tree
that it wouldn’t even start, and even if it had they had no way to get it
untangled from the tree.
The
group sat around there thinking about what to do for awhile before the young man
was clear headed enough to tell them to leave him behind.
Of course the young woman didn’t WANT to do that, she WOULDN’T do
that.
Finally
she decided that she was going to drag him along no matter how difficult it was
or how much time it took. Mother
knew that it wasn’t a good idea but looking at the still flopping remains of
her husband knew that she would never be able to talk her out of it so rather
than try she decided to just help her as much as she could.
With
the two of them half carrying half dragging the young man things didn’t seem
quite as hard as they had first thought.
Although they did have to stop and rest a little more than mother would
have liked but luckily not far ahead they ran into a playground so they could
sit on some park benches and go ahead and have a snack so they wouldn’t have
to stop again later to eat.
While
they had a brief meal Timmy who had gobbled his food down and given some to
Chips was on the swings and playing with his dog in the playground.
Mother
knew they were out in the open and that they shouldn’t stay in one spot too
long (until they reached where they were going) but the others needed the rest
and she knew Timmy needed some time to forget the horrors he had seen and just
be a kid, if only for a little while.
Unfortunately,
things were not going so well for the young man. They had him sprawled on a nearby park bench and
whenever Chips happened to come near him he could smell that he was becoming
more like one of the attackers every minute.
The
young woman tried her best to tend to the young man and his wound but she knew
deep down that he was a goner, even if she wouldn’t admit it even to herself.
After a few more minutes the group (lead by mother) decided it was time
to go, so mother took one of the young man’s arms and the young woman took the
other.
However,
before they could get very far something happened. The young man seemed to slump over and mother was
sure he wasn’t breathing anymore.
She could tell the young woman hadn’t noticed and was about to say
something when his eyes opened again.
At
first mother was relieved but then Chips started barking at the young man and
growling acting like he was ready to attack and mother noticed that the young
man’s eyes had a strange inhuman look to the.
Then
the young woman screamed as the young man jerked his arm from around mother’s
neck (at about the same moment she was trying to shrug the arm off of her so she
could run) and put it around the young woman in an awful parody of a hug.
Once
his arms were around the young woman, he leaned his head in as if to kiss her
but instead he bit down on her cheek causing her to let out a blood-curdling
scream as he pulled his head back taking a chuck of her flesh with him.
Once
mother’s mind realized what was happening she scooped Timmy up and he held
tight to Chips’ leash as they ran for all they were worth.
After
a few minutes they could tell they were not being followed so when they came to
a stone arch over a gravel looking foot path they went inside and stopped to
catch their breath. Chips
could smell that the people he had smelled since the wrecked car came through
here as well and he couldn’t smell any attackers.
At
this point what was happening had finally taken it’s toll on Timmy as he burst
into tears and mother tired to comfort him and keep him quite at the same time.
After
awhile she was able to calm him down enough so they could resume their journey.
Once they were outside the stone arch mother realized there wasn’t any
cover as far as the eye could see and wanted to try and look around and figure
out what to do next.
Chips
couldn’t smell anymore of the attackers but he could smell the two people who
had left the wrecked car. Plus
something else, he could smell three more people as well who apparently had met
up with first two coming from the other direction. He could also tell they went off to one
side so when mother went in that direction (among others to look for where to
go) he went with her and that is when they saw it.
Over
the rise off to one side was a mall.
It occurred to mother that it would be a very good place to hide; there
might even be others already inside.
However, Chips started growling and mother saw why.
The mall was surrounded on all sides (or at least all the sides she could
see) by those things, if there were people in there they were under siege, no
way they could get inside.
Suddenly,
mother and Chips both heard something.
Looking around they saw a big rig jumping over a hill and heading strait
for the mall knocking a portion of the fence that separated them form the mall
and the attackers around it, the rig was being chased by several of those
things. Chips could also see
people on the mall roof and when mother looked over and squinted so could she.
Mother
realized that the truck HAD to have come from the other way, and judging by the
way it was traveling and the gang of those things chasing it there had to be
more of them that way. Mother
felt trapped: if they went the way they WERE traveling they would most likely
run into more of those attackers.
If they went back the way the came she knew they would run into the young
man and woman and others like them.
The only way seemed to be the mall but those things surrounded it. Surround just like mother realized they were.
Suddenly,
Timmy let out a scream. Chips
turned and started barking and running to attack as the things that used to be
the young woman and man came through the stone arch and were about to attack
Timmy.
Mother,
without thinking and without weapons, jumped to protect her son just as Chips
had done. However, the
things totally ignored Chips just pushing him aside (and they way they smelled
Chips couldn’t bring himself to bite them) and got to Timmy one of them took a
bite out of his arm the other got his neck.
Without
any thought to the risk mother jumped on the back of one and put her arms around
it’s neck trying to pull it off only getting a bite for her trouble.
The
two broke off as Timmy lay on the ground motionless and bleeding turning their
attention to mother. Chips
ran over to Timmy nudging him with his cold wet nose, getting no response Chips
tried his pet me signal and still nothing.
As a last resort Chips leaned into Timmy’s face and starting licking.
Timmy
tasted strange when he licked him and started smelling like one of the
attackers. Confused
Chips backed off and started growling as Timmy popped up and started to stand.
Once
he was on his feet Timmy or the thing that used to be Timmy took off heading for
the broken down section of fence and the mall to join the others of his kind.
Meanwhile,
the two things were eating mother. After
a few minutes they lost interest and like the thing that used to be Timmy ran
for the mall to join the others.
After
a few moments Chips smelt another attacker and released that mother had become
one of them as well. Mother
rose to a seated position, looked around and not seeing anything of interest she
did just like the others before her.
Mother
or the thing that used to be mother stood up and ran for the mall to join the
former Timmy, the things that used to be the young man and woman and the others.
For
the first time since he was a puppy Chips was all alone and didn’t know what
to do. He stood around
for some time before he decided he wanted to find people so he picked up the
smells of the people and headed for the mall following their trail.
As
before the attackers didn’t seem interested in him as he followed the smells
to a door but it was closed.
Chips tired to get the people inside to open the door like he used to do
at home when he was done in the back yard.
Chips
barked a few times and there was no response. He tried scratching on the door and there was
nothing. He tried
all of his tricks to be let in and none of them worked.
After awhile Chips decided to look around maybe he could get in some
other way.
Chips
made his way around the structure, in some places he had to carefully pick his
way through the things they were so thick getting around was difficult.
In others they were spread out or, not present at all, allowing him to
move more freely.
While
Chips had realized they wouldn’t attack him, he didn’t like being around
them or the way they smelled, it was all he could do to suppress his instinct to
bark at them.
Eventually,
Chips managed to find an opening inside (although he didn’t know it the
opening was access to the under ground parking) and went in.
The
inside was dark but Chips could see just fine however what he didn’t count on
was the inside structure being so complex and while he could smell other people
and some of the things from outside who had worked their way inside, he
couldn’t smell the original people he was following.
Before
long Chips realized that he was lost and was hungry. Sniffing the air he was able to locate the faint
smell of food. Following
his nose Chips soon found a medium sized plastic trashcan.
Doing something that would have gotten him into trouble at home Chips
jumped up so that his two front paws where on the trashcan itself while his back
paws remained on the ground.
With
all of his might Chips was able to cause the trashcan to tip over and spill
it’s contents. Sure
enough amid the papers and other trash were partially eaten hamburgers and
hotdogs and other goodies that had, unbeknownst to Chips been left by people who
had purchased them at the mall’s food courts then when they had eaten all they
wanted tossed them here rather than take the left over parts home.
Once
Chips had eaten his fill he began to try and find his way around again.
Like before he couldn’t smell the human scents he had been following
before but he could smell SOME human scents (as well as the scents left behind
by those THINGS, in fact it was almost hard to pick up the human scents with the
overpowering death-like smell of those things).
Chips
wandered around for a long time before he began to see some movement ahead.
At first he was excited until the caught a whiff of what was moving ahead
of him, it was more of those things.
Several must have come inside the same way he had done and been wandering
around aimlessly ever since.
Suddenly,
Chips caught the faint whiff of a human someone in front of him past the things
and into the distance. Not
having anything to fear from them Chips ran to see who might be ahead.
What
he found wasn’t exactly good news.
He saw a human, a man like father, sitting high up on some sort of pipe
overhead. Chips
wasn’t sure what it was about the man but there was something about him he had
not seen before (the fact was the man was paralyzed from the waist down and was
sitting on the pipe trying to keep his balance and use his arms to lift his dead
weighted legs up out of reach of several of those things below him).
The
things gathered around him and were reaching up trying to grab his dangling legs
but each time one did the man above would grab a higher pipe and hold on.
This seemed to work at first but finally the things seemed to figure out
what he was doing and several grabbed his legs at the same time and pulled.
This time in addition to pulling they also starting biting and eating
whatever parts of his legs they could.
The
man’s legs were numb so he didn’t react out of pain but he did scream out of
fear and managed to pull his bloody stumps up on the pipe, the only good news
was now he totally out of reach, but he was bitten and loosing blood fast.
It
wasn’t long before the man stopped moving, at least briefly.
But, it was even less time before he apparently woke up from some deep
sleep and starting trying to climb down the pipe to join his fellow things.
At
this point Chips thought he heard a noise and ran off to investigate.
However, in this case it just turned out to be a pair of those things.
They were stumbling around and had apparently knocked something over
making a noise.
Chips
was becoming less sure of what to do all the time, so he found a corner and laid
down to rest and figure out his next move later.
Chips
had only been dozing for a short while (having a nice dream of him and his
master Timmy playing ball in the family’s backyard) when suddenly, another
noise caused him to raise his head and perk up his ears.
This time he was sure he heard footsteps AND VOICES… after a couple of
minutes more he also started to smell a very welcome smell, the smell of humans.
Not
only that but some of the humans smelled like the ones whose scent had attracted
him here in the first place. Chips
decided to approach carefully just in case something was wrong.
Watching
from the shadows Chips could see a group of people walking around as if looking
for something, one of them seemed to hear him but the others didn’t react.
Chips could smell fear, or at least apprehension on them as they walked
around.
The
group seemed like they would be friendly so he decided to join them.
Running toward them Chips ended up startling the group.
Chips watched the group, with his head poking out from behind some
piping; they seemed to realize that he wasn’t one of things either.
The
group talked among themselves for a second or two then one of them called him
over, Chips could tell by the sound of his voice the man calling was going to be
nice so he decided to run over and sure enough the man started petting him, like
Timmy used to.
Suddenly,
Chips smelled one of those things again and tried to warn the group by barking
at them. However, like his old
family the group didn’t listen and didn’t seem understand what was happening
until the legless man that Chips had seen before dropped down from a high pipe
on top of one of them biting him on the neck.
That
one was tossed off fairly quickly but even the group could tell that there were
more on the way.
Later, the group took Chips back with them when they went inside the building. Their engagement with the attackers had been harsh and they had lost one of their number (the one who had been bitten by the legless attacker).
When
they all got back inside the big building there was something going on in there
as well. Chips stood to one
side being a good boy while the humans talked.
Then
one of them a young girl came running up and started to pet him.
She seemed really nice and started talking to the man who had found him.
After awhile she found the remains of Chips’ collar, read his name and address off, then took it off and threw it aside. She stood up and started to walk off, stopping halfway and calling Chips’ name, calling him to go with her. The man didn’t seem to mind and neither did Chips, he had found his new owner.
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