Eugene growled, ‘There’re two dogs!’ But just as he said that, Hans whipped through a pool of light on his way to the van and Francis coughed out a laugh.
‘That thing? That’s what got you? Good thing it wasn’t a gerbil, it might have had your leg off!’ despite their situation, he found the sausage dog attack truly funny. That was until they both felt the van’s suspension dip and all thoughts of mirth and counterargument evaporated when they turned to see Rex behind them.
They’d left the side door open!
With a scream, both men went out their respective doors so fast it defied the laws of physics. Rex’s teeth closed with a snap in the space Francis’s neck had occupied mere moments before, and the door slammed in his face when he tried to follow.
Eugene and Francis found themselves back in the carpark. The van’s keys were tantalisingly close, but they stood no chance of getting to them before both dogs were upon them. The surprisingly loud dachshund was coming up fast and the big dog would be out of the van in seconds. There was nothing for it: they were going to have to go on foot.
The vehicle exit from the courtyard was to their left, directly opposite where the old man stood. Francis took off running, yelling for Eugene to follow. If they could get to the road, maybe they could stop someone and steal their car. Maybe they could find a wall to climb and escape that way. All he knew was that he needed to go right now.
Seeing Francis sprint for the way out and the road beyond, Eugene followed him, but his right ankle was sore enough that it stopped him running flat out as Francis was.
Rex came out of the van with his body already changing direction in mid-air. His front paws met the tarmac and drove off as he leaned into the bend and got himself around the front of the van. Hans was already running at full speed, whipping by Rex as he too pursued the two men.
His human was shouting something; Rex could hear his name being called but he only needed a few seconds to bring his quarry down now. They were in the open and on foot. There was nowhere for them to go and no hope of escape now. This was the best part, so far as Rex was concerned. Afterwards, the humans could work out who had done what and why. All he needed to know was that the humans he was chasing had done something wrong and he got to be the one to stop them.
His longer stride meant he would catch up to and overtake Hans in a few paces. He was coming up to full speed, just a few more bounds and he would be able to leap. The nearest human was hobbling a little. Rex planned to bring him down and then go after the other one. But with a gut-wrenching twist, he saw the danger and altered his plan.
Francis was running flat out, his arms and legs pumping as he hit the pavement. He was on the B road that ran through the town and Eugene was hot on his heels. The dogs were too close for him to hope to jack a car, but the moving traffic presented a different opportunity. There was no hope of timing it, he just had to go and hope for the best. Francis reached the edge of the pavement and kept going, zipping out in front of a truck laden with asphalt for the new ring-road being built around the town.
The driver swore and slammed on his brakes.
Rex caught up to Hans, sideswiping the smaller dog with a paw to alter his trajectory and send him crashing to the ground.
Francis ripped through the gap, narrowly missing the truck’s front bumper just as he intended. Anything following too closely behind didn’t stand a chance. Unfortunately for Eugene, that meant him.
Just as Hans skittered across the pavement and Rex did everything he could to stop himself, the man they were chasing was hit by the truck. Rex had seen it from the corner of his eye and knew the chase was doomed. He couldn’t get to the men, but he could save the dachshund from certain death.
Eugene landed more than ten yards down the road, hitting a lamppost with a sickening crunch that left a dent in the galvanised steel. His body spun through a horizontal plane and landed face down in the gutter. He didn’t move.
What a Mess
When the men ran from the dark courtyard with the dogs tearing after them, Albert had screamed for them to stop. He could see the men were heading toward the busy main road and fear gripped him for what might happen if the dogs tried to follow them across it. Neither dog showed any sign of even hearing him and he could do nothing but watch them vanish around the edge of the wall that bordered the carpark.
The police were coming, he’d seen to that, reporting the situation as active and deadly, two words he knew would get them to his location in a hurry. His priority, once he could get to him, was to check on Victor’s condition. Terrified for what might happen to Rex when he reached the main road, Albert’s heart almost stopped when he heard a squeal of brakes from what sounded like a large vehicle. When he also heard a dog cry out in shock, he almost abandoned the human victim to check on his canine companion.
However, he understood his duty was to the man lying on the wet tarmac so, taking his time because it’s a long way to the ground when you are nearly eighty, he got on
