again.
I drop the extinguisher and with my free hand grab for the flashlight that I’d put in my pocket. I bring it out and begin hitting the second dog on the head when I see red again and am overcome by another wave of pain, now emitting from my calf.
The grip on my forearm loosens. I fall backwards. This is not good. I’m on the ground. My mind is already preparing my body for death. I can feel it in my chest, a cold burning. I raise my arm up to protect my face and neck. I’ve lost the extinguisher and all I have is the flashlight and make another feeble swipe at the jaws locked to my calf but the swing seems feeble. Maybe it’s shock. I feel my body flip itself over, again instinct, to protect the more tender parts, access to the major organs. I begin crawling, the jaws still locked on my calf.
When suddenly the jaw loosens. I hear all of it. But it’s all muffled through the blood pounding in my ears. Barking, two high pitched barks, or at least high pitched against this deep booming one. I flip a glance back and see the shaggy white ghost intervening. Charley! Charley to the rescue. Oh I could kiss the dog if he were not right at this moment locked in a seemingly biblical battle of good and evil, the noble white shagginess and the two dark shapes. I don’t look this gift dog in the mouth. I know by his injuries that he is not invincible or a phantom like I had thought him to begin with. I scrabble at the pavement and will my legs to begin working again. My fingernails peel off against the rough surface but the pain centers me, and my legs again jolt forward underneath me. I’m bolting the last hundred feet to my car and then I’m there throwing the passenger door open and diving across the passenger’s and driver’s seats. Soon enough my hand is on the handle of the gun and my other one is on the large 4D flashlight. I turn it on and it’s like the sun coming over the horizon, god it’s bright but I don’t wait for my eyes to adjust. A split second later I’m back out of the cab of the truck and running towards where I’d left Charley and the two Dobermans and I’m swinging the flashlight beam wildly before me. I see blood, a surprising amount of blood. Where are the dogs? I sweep the light around and I see them further down, past where I’d dropped the fire extinguisher. Crap I think that’s my blood. Then I notice only one dog going at it with Charley and the shape of the other two dogs, one with a collapsed neck and the other limping away with its entrails dragging behind it. I change my grasp of the flashlight so that I’m holding it forward and palm down and use my non bloody forearm as a rest to aim. Shit, they are moving around too much. I have to get closer. I don’t want to hit Charley. They are tearing at each other, biting down and letting go in alternate, bloody feints. I close in, twenty, ten feet and when I think I can I take the shot.
The sound, wow, the sound is deafening as if it’s the first real sound I’ve ever heard in my life, as if a clap of thunder has exploded right beside me. Charley startled back, his eyes levered wide open, demon like, and God does he look like a demon right now, his muzzle and most of his head covered in blood, his eyes shining brightly in the cone of the Maglight. The other dog limps three steps and tips over and a dark pool spreads on the pavement around it. My body gives again, the adrenaline, the shock catching up to me. God it looks bad, I think to myself as I survey the damage by the beam of the dropped Maglight. I’ll probably die like this, bleed out or something. I slump against one of the concrete planters and the last thing I make out in the darkness before I pass out is Charley my would be Champion limping towards me.
? PM? AM? When I come to, it’s still dark. I have no idea what time it is. I’ve stopped bleeding, or I think I have on pressing my hands to my forearms and only feel the stickiness of clotting blood. I’ll probably
I drop the extinguisher and with my free hand grab for the flashlight that I’d put in my pocket. I bring it out and begin hitting the second dog on the head when I see red again and am overcome by another wave of pain, now emitting from my calf.
The grip on my forearm loosens. I fall backwards. This is not good. I’m on the ground. My mind is already preparing my body for death. I can feel it in my chest, a cold burning. I raise my arm up to protect my face and neck. I’ve lost the extinguisher and all I have is the flashlight and make another feeble swipe at the jaws locked to my calf but the swing seems feeble. Maybe it’s shock. I feel my body flip itself over, again instinct, to protect the more tender parts, access to the major organs. I begin crawling, the jaws still locked on my calf.
When suddenly the jaw loosens. I hear all of it. But it’s all muffled through the blood pounding in my ears. Barking, two high pitched barks, or at least high pitched against this deep booming one. I flip a glance back and see the shaggy white ghost intervening. Charley! Charley to the rescue. Oh I could kiss the dog if he were not right at this moment locked in a seemingly biblical battle of good and evil, the noble white shagginess and the two dark shapes. I don’t look this gift dog in the mouth. I know by his injuries that he is not invincible or a phantom like I had thought him to begin with. I scrabble at the pavement and will my legs to begin working again. My fingernails peel off against the rough surface but the pain centers me, and my legs again jolt forward underneath me. I’m bolting the last hundred feet to my car and then I’m there throwing the passenger door open and diving across the passenger’s and driver’s seats. Soon enough my hand is on the handle of the gun and my other one is on the large 4D flashlight. I turn it on and it’s like the sun coming over the horizon, god it’s bright but I don’t wait for my eyes to adjust. A split second later I’m back out of the cab of the truck and running towards where I’d left Charley and the two Dobermans and I’m swinging the flashlight beam wildly before me. I see blood, a surprising amount of blood. Where are the dogs? I sweep the light around and I see them further down, past where I’d dropped the fire extinguisher. Crap I think that’s my blood. Then I notice only one dog going at it with Charley and the shape of the other two dogs, one with a collapsed neck and the other limping away with its entrails dragging behind it. I change my grasp of the flashlight so that I’m holding it forward and palm down and use my non bloody forearm as a rest to aim. Shit, they are moving around too much. I have to get closer. I don’t want to hit Charley. They are tearing at each other, biting down and letting go in alternate, bloody feints. I close in, twenty, ten feet and when I think I can I take the shot.
The sound, wow, the sound is deafening as if it’s the first real sound I’ve ever heard in my life, as if a clap of thunder has exploded right beside me. Charley startled back, his eyes levered wide open, demon like, and God does he look like a demon right now, his muzzle and most of his head covered in blood, his eyes shining brightly in the cone of the Maglight. The other dog limps three steps and tips over and a dark pool spreads on the pavement around it. My body gives again, the adrenaline, the shock catching up to me. God it looks bad, I think to myself as I survey the damage by the beam of the dropped Maglight. I’ll probably die like this, bleed out or something. I slump against one of the concrete planters and the last thing I make out in the darkness before I pass out is Charley my would be Champion limping towards me.
? PM? AM? When I come to, it’s still dark. I have no idea what time it is. I’ve stopped bleeding, or I think I have on pressing my hands to my forearms and only feel the stickiness of clotting blood. I’ll probably
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