“DAWN”

written by: Dianne L.

(August 29, 1998: first draft)(Sept. 11, 1998: 2nd draft)

Road Rovers characters are a trademark of Warner Bros. Animation 1996-99

It was a cold, winter in New York. At an old apartment building, in room 103, lived a woman, with her three dogs. The woman’s name was Dianne Garcia, a Filipino, with shoulder-length black hair, and dark brown eyes. She was a veterinarian and was a fellow dog lover. Right now, her three dogs watched curiously as she ran around the apartment, frantic.

“Where’s my shoes? I can’t find my shoes!! I’m gonna be late for work!” Dianne cried. She laid flat on the floor, searching under the couch.

All three dogs cocked their heads and eyed her, as she dug frantically under the couch. One dog was a golden retriever named Dawn. She had light, golden hair, and is very playful and silly. Then there’s Hope, a small cocker spaniel. She had long, brown/ gold hair in little curls. She is quiet and mild-mannered, but gets annoyed by Dawn. Austin, was an Australian kelpie. He has black-reddish short fur, pricked ears, and he is active and friendly. A friend of Dianne gave him to her as a gift from Australia.

*Now, since I’m writing this story, I want you to be able to read what the dogs are saying even though they’re not transdogmafied.*

“WAAHH!! She’s gonna forget to feed us!” Dawn whimpered. She has an American accent (I just had to add accents in, just because everyone else does it. *sigh* I’m such a sheep :)

“Puh-leease, Dawn, can’t you see she’s already gonna be late?” Hope said. “Now who knows where her shoes went?” She also has an American accent.

“I think I saw it behind the fridge... I’ll go check,” Austin answered. He has an Australian accent. He trotted to the kitchen, coming back with Dianne’s shoes in his mouth.

“Oh, Austin, my hero!! Good boy, even though the shoes are a bit slobbery, thank you!” Dianne said, relieved.

Austin rolled over accepting the big, belly rub reward. He wagged his tail happily.

“Don’t look so smug,” Hope teased him, as he approached them with his head held up high.

“I’m hungry!” Dawn whimpered.

Dianne heard her whimpering. “What’s wrong Dawn?”

Dawn nudged her food bowl. Dianne slapped her forehead.

“Oops, I almost forgot to feed you guys!” Dianne grabbed their bowls, and ran to the kitchen. Dawn followed her, tail wagging in the air.

Dianne was just opening a can of dog food, when the doorbell rang. She went to answer it.

“WAAH! Where is she going?? I want breakfast!” Dawn cried.

“Dawn, shut up!” Hope said, annoyed.

“Well!” Dawn said, agitated.

Dianne opened the door. Standing outside was a bony woman, cladded up in fur coats, and gaudy looking jewerly.

“Oh, gawd, who’s she?” Dawn said, disgusted.

“Madam Gastonia! What a surprise to see you here. Do you have a sick dog?” Dianne greeted the woman.

“Even a male dog can tell she’s an ugly woman,” Austin commented.

“No, Ms. Garcia, I came here to ask you about this,” Madam Gastonia said, crisply, holding up a tape. She barged in the apartment and found the VCR. She placed the tape in, and played it.

It was a surveillance tape. It showed Dianne. She was in a room that was dimly lighted. Surrounding her was rows of cages, each one on top of another. Inside the cages were dogs.

Dianne watched the tape, her face expressionless.

“How did you know?” Madam demanded.

“About that ? You brought in 15 sick dogs to the hospital in just a week, all, when examined, seems to have bruises all over their bodies. Some seemed like...they were experimented on. I followed your men the last time they came.”

“How dare you!!!” Madam screamed.

“ME?? How dare you treat animals that way??” Dianne yelled back.

“Ms. Garcia, I’m sure you are aware of my wealth and power in this city. I own the biggest factories, labs, etc. where the most modern technologies, chemicals, etc. are built, or invented.” Madam said, calmly.

“Yes, and then you test them on those poor dogs. Illegal experimenting!! The humane society are gonna hear from this, and were gong to bring you down!”

“Not unless they never hear about it.”

Dianne narrowed her eyes, “ Is that a threat?”

“No, it’s an offer,” taking out a checkbook, “How much do you want, Ms Garcia?”

Dianne stared at her. Then, she started laughing.

“Ms. Garcia, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this...,” Madam said coldly. She snapped her fingers, and two felo-mutants came in. Felo-mutants, are felo-sapiens, half-cat, half-human, but mutated to know only evil.

Dianne gasped at their sight. They were both orange cats, with yellow highlights, and yellow eyes. One was female, and one was male.

“Kill her,” Madam ordered, flatly. “Then take the dogs. They can be useful to the lab.”

The cats crept closer and closer to Dianne, hissing. Suddenly, Dawn, Hope, and Austin all jumped in front of their master, growling at the felo-mutants. Austin jumped and sank his teeth into the male cat’s neck. Dawn and Hope was circling the female cat.

Dawn ran in first, but the cat took out a tranquilizer gun and shot at her. Dawn fell, feeling woozy all of the sudden. Hope ran to her, and licked her face urgently. The female cat took this chance to put a metallic muzzle on Hope. She tugged frantically at it, but it just pinched tighter when she does.

The male cat now has Austin against the wall by the neck. Austin choked and gagged. Dianne watched in horror. She picked up a wooden chair, let out a scream, and knocked the male cat unconscious. Austin ran for her, but the female cat shot a tranquilizer at him. It got him on his shoulder, and he fell on the ground.

The male cat had regained consciousness, and went after Dianne. Dianne backed off, and tripped over a trash can and fell on her back. The cat quickly got on top of her, pinning her down.

Meanwhile, Dawn tried to fight the drowsiness from the tranquilizer. She watched the cat on top of her master. She whimpered helplessly. Flashes of memories came rushing in.

She ran around the back yard with her brothers and sisters. As a small puppy she was hyper, always playing. Then, two humans came strolling in from the house. One was the owner of her mother, the other one is Dianne. Dianne noticed her first, picked her up and rubbed her nose against hers. Dawn had licked her face, furiously. Dianne had giggled, and hugged her close to her chest. The puppy had listened contentedly to the beating of her heart...

She was a small puppy, and she knew no other mother other than Dianne. Her master, the human she had depended on, who’s always making things better for her, Hope and Austin.

Dawn succumbed to the tranquilizing gun just as the male felo-mutant brought his sharp claws down, cutting off Dianne’s screams.

***

Dawn’s eyes fluttered open. She whimpered softly.

“Good evening, mate.”

Dawn turned to the direction of Austin’s voice. She came face to face with him immediately, scaring her. One more inch and she would have smacked into his face. All three dogs were cramped into one small cage.

“Where are we? It’s so dark...” Dawn asked, weakly.

“I don’t know where we are... it feels creepy in here though.”

“Hope?” Dawn called out. A whimper answered her.

“She’s right here beside me,” Austin explained. “She’s pretty shaken. She was the only one conscious when...”

“When what?” Dawn asked. She felt Austin’s body stiffen next to hers, and she realized what he was talking about.

“Oh.” she whispered. Then she heard a bark. “Who was that?”

“The other dogs,” Austin said.

“Where?”

Austin looked at her funny, “ All over the bloomin’ place, mate!!”

Dawn looked around, and saw the room in the surveillance tape Madam Gastonia had brought. Cages on top of another filled the dark room. Dawn felt crowded and claustrophobic. Then, she felt something wet trickle down her back. She looked up sharply at the cage on top of them. She sniffed the wet spot on her fur.

Dawn started gagging, “ OH MY GAWD!! Ew!!! The dog up there just marked me!!! EEEWWWW!!”

Hope let out a snort. This cut the thick tension in the air. Austin and Hope both burst into laughter. Dawn let out a hungry huff.

“It wouldn’t funny if it happened to you!!”

This just made them laugh harder. Dawn started sulking, angrily. But then, their laughter was cut short. Two men came in carrying a cage, turning on the light.

Dawn got a better look of the room. It looked like it was going to collapse any minute. The wall had holes that revealed rusty pipe lines. Dawn caught sight of two cockroaches scuttering. The room was packed with sick looking dogs.

“Take a look at that Labrador, mate!” Austin cried.

Dawn looked at the dog the two men were carrying in the cage. She gasped. The dogs eyes were red, and he had a foam of drool all over his mouth. He kept ramming his head into the cage bars. He looked wild.

“Lookie like those scientists didn’t find the cure for rabies!” one of the men commented. He was Caucasian, with long blonde hair.

“Ha-ha, Jon!” the other man said sarcastically. He was African-American, and bald.

“You’ll never laugh at any of my jokes, would you, Red?” Jon laughed.

“In your dreams, man.” Red chuckled. Then his face grew solemn, “What do they want us to do with this one?”

“What else? Shoot it brains out,” Jon said, bluntly. He took out a gun.

“You do it,” Red said.

Jon shrugged. Dawn watched, horrified, as Jon pulled the trigger and released it.

***

Dawn felt so weak. No one had fed them for the last couple of days, and they only get a mouthful of water every few hours. If Jon remembers to fill their bowls. Red and Jon took turns checking up on them. Dawn liked Red better, because he was very nice. He talks to the dogs.

He says things like, “If I didn’t need the money so badly to buy medicine for my mama, I wouldn’t be doing this to you fellows. I’m so sorry.”

Dawn felt sorry for him.

Jon on the other hand was so immature, in Dawn’s opinion. He comes in either with a gameboy, or listening to his Walkman while moving his head to the beat. He didn’t care much for the dogs either.

“Hang in there, baby,” a voice with a Brooklyn accent said. It belonged to a white a poodle, Talina, she has befriended. The poodle is in the cage right next to her, with a little Chihuahua named Rambo. Rambo was always yipping and hopping all over in their cage.

“I went on longer than this without food,” Talina continued. “And usually the stuff they give us for eats, is so horrid looking, I won’t touch it no matter how hungry I am.”

Dawn smiled. “Talina, don’t you ever think of getting out of here?”

“Look around you, honey, and you tell me.”

The door flew open. Jon walked in with another man in white lab coat.

“Great, here comes beach -blonde-doofus,” Talina mumbled.

“Ooo, I would like to bite him, yes I do!” Rambo said, in a Spanish accent

“Who’s that with him?” Dawn asked.

“This guy name, Professor Garth-something-or-another. He comes in to choose a couple of dogs to do his mad scientists act on.”

“Ooo, he won’t come near me, cause I will bite him, yes I will!” Rambo yiked.

“Oh, put a sock in it, Rambo. You know what would happen if you do bite the man,” Talina said.

Professor Garth walked up to the cage Dawn, Hope, and Austin were in. Hope whimpered. Garth stared intently at them. The, he opened the cage door and reached in. Dawn just dove in and bit his wrist.

“Ouch!!!” Garth cried.

“Oh, man, Prof, sorry about that! I never knew she bites!” Jon cried.

“Bad move, sistah,” Talina said.

Dawn ignored her comment and just smirked.

“I want the other two dogs. Not the retriever,” Garth announced. “See to it that she learns who does the biting around here.”

“Yes, sir,” Jon said.

Garth walked out of the room. Jon grabbed Dawn by the collar, roughly. He leashed her, then he picked up a wooden stick. He brought it down hard on her, and she fell. She tried to get up, but everytime Jon just smacks her with the sticks. He didn’t stop until she grew limp in pain, breathing heavily. Her nose was bleeding, her mouth was bleeding, even her ears were bleeding. She could hear Austin and Hope going wild in their cage.

Jon went over to Austin and Hope, grabbed their cage, and walked towards the door. Dawn just watched weakly. She and Hope locked eyes before Jon slammed the door shut.

“Austin... Hope...,” Dawn mumbled.

***

The Jet Rover flew in and out the clouds. Inside were the Road Rovers. They were Cano-sapiens, half-human, half-dog. They were regular dogs from all over the world, pets of various head of states, that has been transdogmafied, by Professor William Shepherd, better known as the Master.

Flying the Jet Rover is a mixed retriever named Hunter, the leader of the pack. Sitting in his right is a beautiful collie named Colleen. Behind them are Exile, a Siberian husky; Blitz, a Doberman; Shag, a sheepdog; and the only dog among them who’s not transdogmafied, Muzzle, a crazy rottweiler strapped in restraints and harnesses.

“According to this Hunty-wunty,” Colleen was saying in her thick English accent, and waving a newspaper. “Dianne Garcia was brutally murdered by some sort of animal. Her chest was ripped open.”

“Gross,” Hunter commented, in an easy-going American accent.

“They have a suspect, Gastonia Grosse, but no witnesses. The tests shows that she was attacked by cats. They found hair on the wound. Then all three of her dogs were gone.”

“If I was those dogs, I’ll bite those girly kittens’ tushies!” Blitz jumped in, in his thick German accent.

“You would,” Exile said, he has a Russian accent.

“Ja, because that’s what I’m best at!! Biting those nice, soft tuchuses!”

“Don’t be a weird boy,” Exile said, bluntly.

“Why, in obedience school, I was best in everything! Tree-sniffing, garbage-rolling, and of course, I was the king of tushie-bitings!!” Blitz ended with a big, proud smile on his face.

“Sad isn’t he?” Hunter said to Colleen.

“Who?” Colleen answered.

Hunter sighed, and picked up the radio. “This is Hunter of Road Rovers, permission to land...”

The radio hissed and crackled. A man’s voice answered, “Roger that Hunter.”

“Who is Roger? No one ever tells me who Roger is!” Exile complained.

Colleen gave him one of her looks. “For pete’s sakes, you-”

“Who is Pete?” Exile interrupted.

“Oh, for the love of mike, this can go on forever,” Colleen grumbled.

“Who is Mike?” Exile asked.

“Permission to land?” Hunter repeated.

“Affirmative *hiss* , welcome to the city that never sleeps, Rovers!”

“New Yorkers must have terrible case of insomnia,” Exile commented. Colleen just shook her head.

“Okay, Rovers, get ready to land!” Hunter announced. The other Rovers doubled their seat belt and took out metallic helmets.

Hunter watched them curiously, “What are those for?”

“You told us to get ready to crash- er- land, I mean,” Colleen answered.

“Party-poopers,” Hunter muttered.

***

“I don’t get it, this is where the dogs are suppose to be,” Hunter said.

They were in an old, abandoned building that looks like it was going to collapse any second. The entire place was empty, with no sign of anyone or anyhting. They’ve searched it, from top to bottom.

“I hope we didn’t make a mistake. We need those dogs to testify in the trial against Grosse,” Hunter added.

“What does these dogs look like anyways?” Blitz asked, while filing his nails.

Hunter dug a picture out of his pocket, and handed it to Blitz.

“The cocker spaniel is cute,” turning to Colleen, “But not as cute as you, pretty girl dog.”

“Excuse me, do I know you?” Colleen asked.

“Ja, it’s me Blitz!”

“Bloaty?”

“Blitz!”

“Blither?”

“Blitz..!”

“Chubby?”

“Blitz- oh I give up.”

Hunter was on the ground, sniffing and following a trail. Not paying attention to where he was going, he ran into the wall. He got up, rubbing his nose and confused.

“The scent ends at this wall, but-”

Colleen tapped his shoulder, “Allow me, Hunter.”

Hunter nodded, and stepped aside. Colleen took a karate stance.

“DANA SCULLY!” she screamed as she kicked the wall. It flew open, revealing a stairway leading down.

“Shag, you and Muzzle stay up here. If anyone comes, warn me on the walkie talkie, all right buddy?” Hunter said.

“Rah!” Shag replied.

“The rest of you, follow me!”

Blitz jumped and covered the opening to the stairway, “How come we always have to follow Hunter? Why can’t anyone follow me for a change?”

“Here we go again,” Exile grumbled.

“Huh? Huh? Why can’t I be leader this time?” Blitz taunted.

“Put a spoon in it, weird boy,” Exile said.

“Rhhwarr warr whharr,” Shag said to Exile.

“A cork? Isn’t it suppose to be a fork?” Exile asked, confused.

Hunter crossed his arms. “You’re right, Blitz. It’s about time someone else leads.”

“HUH?” the other Rovers said unison.

“You really mean it?” Blitz said, his hands clasped together, batting his eyelashes.

Hunter smiled, “Of course! Go on Blitz, lead the way.”

Blitz, smug, started down the stairs with his head held high. The next thing the Rovers knew, he tripped, and went down the stairs head first. They watched as he tumbled down the steps.

“OW! OOF! UGH!! OUCH!!”

There was a scream, and a final thud as Blitz landed at the bottom of the stairs.

“I’m glad were not playing follow the leader,” Colleen said.

Once Hunter, Colleen, and Exile climbed down the stairs (with Colleen ‘accidentally’ stepping on the fallen Blitz) they helped the leader in pain.

“You okay?” Hunter asked.

“Ah, I change my mind. You can be leader, Hunter,” Blitz said.

“Cool,” Hunter looked around, “okay, there’s two doors, Colleen and I will take the room on the right. Exile and Blitz you take the other one.”

***

“Did you guys hear that?” Dawn asked.

“Hear what?” Talina yawned. Dawn was now in the same cage as Talina and Rambo. It has been two days since Jon beat her, but she was still in pain. It also has been the first two days she was haven’t seen Hope and Austin.

“It sounds like... a drum with a horrible beat... oh!! You must have heard that scream!!”

“Must be the ringing in your ear. After that beating you took, you should be hearing things,” Talina said.

This got Rambo going, “Ooo, I’ll bite that Jon!! I will! I will!” He started hopping all over the cage.

Dawn raised an eyebrow at him, Talina just rolled her eyes, and stuck out a paw. Rambo tripped over the paw and went flying, smacking his face into the cage bars. Dawn started giggling, but she stopped when she felt a painful tug in her stomach.

“Great. It’s even too painful for me to laugh,” she grumbled. “I’m thirsty.”

She was looking for Red. Red was fast asleep in a chair, with a magazine over his face. Dawn’s head plopped down in disappointment. Then, she noticed the door opening, and Hunter and Colleen tip toed inside. All the caged dogs watched them make there way to each cages, one by one.

“Hey!! They’re- they’re-oh I forgot, um, oh yeah! The Road Rovers!” Dawn said.

“Oh, yeah, I heard about them. Lucky dogs. That retriever is kinda cute,” Talina added.

“Wonder what they’re doing here?” Dawn said.

“Well, duh, honey, they’re super heroes. They came to rescue us! HEY EVERYBODY!! THE ROAD ROVERS ARE HERE TO RESCUE US!!!”

All the dogs in the room had started howling and barking. Hunter was waving a hand furiously, an index finger by his mouth. The sleeping Red fell off his chair, waking up from the commotion.

“What the heck!!” Red cried when he saw Hunter and Colleen. Colleen went into action, doing flips to get to Red. She grabbed him by the collar.

“Whoa! Whoa! Down girl, I ain’t gonna fight ya!” Red cried. Colleen narrowed her eyes and stared into Red’s. She saw he was telling the truth, and placed him gently down.

Red straightened his shirt, “The Road Rovers, huh? Nice to meet ya, I’m Red.”

“Why aren’t you fighting with us or something?” Hunter asked.

Red sighed, “Look, I’m no bad guy. I only took this job to help my sick Ma. It pays well, and I could afford her medicine. But now, she’s better, and after today I was planning to quit.”

“That’s good to hear, gov,” Colleen said.

Red nodded, “So, what bring you guys here? Came to rescue the pooches? Say you were!”

“Actually yes, and were looking for these three dogs,” Hunter explained, taking out the picture again of Dawn, Hope, and Austin.

“Oh, you want the golden retriever? Right this way.”

Red led them to Dawn. Rambo was jumping up and down excitedly, tongue rolling out. Talina was licking off any dirt on her white coat, trying her best to look good. Dawn was in too much pain to do anything.

“What’s wrong with her??” Colleen asked.

“My co-worker, Jon, beat the stuffings out of her for biting one of the big boss,” Red explained.

“Poor gal!!” Colleen cried. She opened the cage door, and carried Dawn out, gently.

“Where’s the other two?” Hunter asked Red.

“Sorry, but they were taken for lab experimentation a couple of days ago.”

Hunter and Colleen gasped.

“Which lab?” Hunter asked urgently.

“A Grosse Lab for Eye Medicine. It’s somewhere in Oregon, I think. They should still be alive. They all go back here to be disposed off.”

“Are all these dogs here for experimentation?” Colleen asked.

“Sadly, yes. All of Gastonia’s factories and labs go here to order them like pizza.”

Colleen shuddered.

“Come on, let’s go find Exile and Blitz,” Hunter said.

“Exile and who?” Colleen replied.

From a distance, they heard a girlish scream.

“It sounds like Exile and Blitz are in trouble. Red, can you take all these dogs out of the building?” Hunter asked.

“It’s about time I do something good for these mutts,” Red said, nodding eagerly.

“Cool. I have a friend up there, Shag, he’ll help, explain the situation to him.”

Hunter and Colleen, with Dawn in her arms, ran to where Exile and Blitz were. When they got to the other room, they saw that the two were surrounded by four felo-mutants. Blitz was screaming like a girl.

“I would not have predicted this,” Hunter said, clenching his fist ready to fight. Shag suddenly bursts into the room, with Muzzle, whimpering.

“Shag, what gives? I thought I told you to warn us when someone comes!” Hunter scolded.

Still whimpering, Shag took out two walkie-talkies.

“Oh, duh, I was to keep one of them!” Hunter said.

“Um, excuse me, Hunter, we do have a previous engagement here,” Colleen interrupted.

“Were engaged?!”

“Oh-ho, now there’s your comedy! No, look,” Colleen said.

The felo-mutants has been circling them. Then, they all simalteneously ran in for attack.

“MMMMRRREEEEOOOOWWW!!!” the cats screeched.

“AAARRRROOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” the Rovers answered.

Hunter took on a fat, Persian cat. The cat won’t go down from punches, because he was big. So Hunter zipped in and out with his super speed, making the cat dizzy.

Colleen had placed Dawn safely away from the fight. She was up against a white Turkish angora, and was screaming things like: SALMON! BUMBLEBEE TUNA!

Exile was trying to freeze or laser a brown Siamese cat. But the cat was thin, quick, and sleek, and avoided his eye-rays easily enough.

A black, Manx cat was attached to Blitz’s head, scratching and screeching. Blitz was running around, doing his own screeching.

Shag was hiding, whimpering cowardly.

They fought for what seemed like forever, and neither dogs or cats was going to give up. Dawn just laid down in the corner, her head turned away from the fighting. She felt sick and weak.

Suddenly, a deep, commanding voice rang out. “ENOUGH!!”

The dogs and cats froze, and all of them turned to see who had interrupted them. It was two orange felo-mutants, one was male, and one was female. They looked liked twins.

“Who are you? For that matter how were you guys made?” Hunter asked, bluntly.

The male orange cat laughed deeply, “I am Jack, this is my sister Jacky (the female orange cat), that’s George (the fat Persian), that’s Samantha (Turkish angora), Winston (Siamese), and Carla (the black Manx). How did we become? Well, you see, our owner, Madam Gastonia, had purchased cano-mutators from a man name Parvo...” Jack said.

Hunter narrowed his eyes at the mention of Parvo.

Jack continued, “But since Madam hated dogs, that’s partly the reason she has this little place, she had a some of her scientists do adjustments to the cano-mutator. Now, we’re the results of the Felo-mutator...Ta-dah!”

Their attention turned to a blubbering Blitz. Carla was still attached to him.

“Oh, please, oh please, get her off me!!”

“Carla, off,” Jack ordered.

Reluctantly, Carla undug her claws off Blitz.

“And now, you stupid dogs, I’ll have the pleasure of killing you all one by one... like I killed that woman with the three mutts,” Jack hissed.

Dawn’s ears pricked up.

Jack got on top of Hunter pinning him down the ground. The other Rovers tried to help him, but the other cats stopped them. Blitz screeched at the sight of Carla clawing at him.

“Please, Jack, I’m flattered, but I don’t like you at all!” Hunter cried, indicating that Jack was on top of him, knees bended on both sides.

Dawn looked up. What she saw wasn’t Hunter, but her master, Dianne, pinned down by a very familiar looking orange cat with very sharp claws raised up. She burned inside. She didn’t feel any pain any more. Getting up, she charged, just when Jack was about to rip Hunter’s chest open. Hunter cringed, closing his eyes.

“Huh?” Jack said, stupidly. He turned and saw a mouthful of fangs coming toward him. Dawn knocked him over, and started slashing angrily.

The event distracted the felo-mutants, giving the Rovers a chance to break free, and help Hunter. Jack grabbed Dawn by the neck. He was furious, and he threw her against a wall. Once again, the poor retriever was knocked cold. Then Jack took out a bazooka and fired at a gas furnace in the corner of the room.

The room was immediately set on fire. The cats disappeared in the thick smoke.

“Let’s move, Rovers!!” Hunter cried. Colleen picked up the unconscious Dawn.

They ran for the stairs leading up the building, but their way was blocked off, as a fiery foundation fell. Hunter led them to the room where the caged dogs were, and was relieved to see that Red has gotten all the dogs out. The fire had followed them in the room, and they were trapped.

“Bolshoi! What do we do now?” Exile cried. The fire closed in on them slowly. Suddenly, they heard a barking behind them. A spotted dog was standing there, beside an opened trap door. The dog disappeared inside the trap door.

“Let’s go!” Hunter cried.

The Rover all slipped down the trap door. They were in the sewer. The spotted dog barked at them. The Rovers ran after him. The spotted dog led them through the twisting tunnels. They ended up in a subway station. People gasped at the site of the eight, dirty looking dogs.

“Let’s go home, Rovers,” Hunter said, exhausted.