I spotted him moving toward the wall, but I also saw that I might be too late. The roof was mostly gone; melted away and fallen into the destroyed structure.
Max felt the rage burning and building within him. The flames licked higher and closer. Twice now he’d almost fallen through the molten slag that had been solid moments before. Death fast approached. Instinctively, he’d started to jump over the wall several times, stopping only because he saw the Alpha across the expanse and thought he might be coming back for him.
Max’s vision was highly developed and he could see far better in dark conditions than humans, but his depth perception, like all canines, was poor, allowing only a twenty-or-so-yard window. Beyond that, everything went flat, so that a drop could be twenty yards or twenty thousand. Max felt the danger of the fall, but the very real danger of fire was far closer. When it comes to terrors in the animal kingdom, fire is king. And even Max was not immune to it.
Max saw the Alpha make the rooftop and watched as he hooked up his strange devices. With each passing second, his anger grew. The Alpha had left him here. The Alpha had abandoned his pack-mate, leaving him to die. The genetic drive to take over the pack had never felt so strong. Max considered trying to make the jump to the other building just so he could confront the Alpha. He knew himself to be faster, stronger, with more abilities, but the leap was impossible and so he stayed his ground. But in his heart, rage burned as bright and hot as the fires below.
My plan was to zip line down, hook Max up and repeat what I had done with Jerome. I’d lost the zip attachment, so I looped a small section of rope over the line, gripped it tight and dropped off.
“MAX!” I yelled, as I zipped toward the wall. I had to get his attention; we were working with seconds before the whole place would collapse in on itself. I saw him look at me, but he wasn’t moving.
“HERE!” I screamed, trying to be heard over the roar of the flames, the crackling of crumbling brick and steel and the sirens coming in from everywhere.
Max didn’t budge. He stood about ten feet back from the wall and I could see the massive hole in the roof widening outward with incredible speed, the edges dripping black tar and rocks of gravel that disappeared into the raging fire beneath.
The Alpha shouted his name and Max looked up to see him flying through the air toward him.
Good. Max would not have to attempt the jump. The Alpha was coming to him.
“MAX! HERE!” I screamed again, and this time I saw his eyes look up to mine as I broke hard and let my feet smack into the wall. The heat had already done its damage though, and the brick collapsed inward and then fell apart, the grappling hook coming free and dropping beneath my feet. I grabbed for wall, but clutched only empty air. I started to fall, the small loop of rope slipping through my fingers, but I clutched at the main rope as it dropped my weight straight down, following the hook.
My body jarred as my grip stopped my downward momentum, but then I was starting the swing back towards the other building and Max was still standing there watching me.
“AHHHHH!” I screamed. I held up my forearm toward him, just as any decoy would in bite work, and yelled with all the authority I could command, “MAX…PACKEN!”
Max saw the Alpha land at the wall and watched as it disintegrated and he fell backwards. Max’s first reaction was to leap for the Alpha, to save him, but the genetic Pack Drive within him held him back. With the Alpha gone, he would assume control of the Pack.
The Alpha’s arm came up and he screamed the attack command. A very tiny part of Max, way down deep, tried to tell him no, that it was the Alpha, the one who saved him from the dog fighters, the bear killer, but the panic and the flames and the burning drive of genetics took control of him. The Alpha wanted him to attack? Max would obey.
The roof collapsed, fires jetting upward, but Max was already on his way. I saw fury and rage and death in his eyes and his powerful jaws sprung open like the maw of some prehistoric monster. He soared up and over and straight toward my outstretched arm. “PAKEN!” I yelled again and raised it just a little to try and give him every chance to find the mark. My speed was mounting, increasing the angle between us and it was anyone’s guess which would win. His limbs stretched, perfectly balanced and streamlined with his head, body and tail. He flew like an arrow and never had I seen a more perfect aim, but still I could see he wasn’t going to make it.
Max ran, his powerful muscles compressing and stretching, gaining speed on the short narrow runway that still remained. He gathered all his energy in one perfectly placed compact ball of power and launched off the roof and straight toward his prey… The Alpha.
The night and the smoke and the noise blew past him like a dream from another reality. All that mattered was engaging the Alpha. Now, finally, he would show The Alpha who was superior. He would show him who should be the Pack Leader.
Max’s front and back legs worked in perfect unison as he stretched to his furthest, his body exquisitely aligned, even his ears and tail streamlined, his eyes locked like lasers on his target. Across the heavens and the horrible drop below he flew, in a timed arc that would have
