The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble

Author:Bren MacDibble
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2018-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

I get up as soon as the sky gets a little light coz I haven’t been sleeping. I been trying to figure out what’s wrong with Wolfy. I open the tent quietly, telling the dogs to sit, but that’s not gonna work, they all want to be out. So I stick my head out and look around, make sure there’s no sign of anyone, and then open the tent fully, and let the dogs out.

Wolf leaps up from beside a tree to say hi to them all, and the first thing I see is that his ear’s been shot right off. Just a ragged bloody stub of ear is left. Then something round and white flashes against Wolf ’s brown fur. It’s clipped to his harness. I throw myself into the dogs and grab his harness, twist and pull the tag off, then let him go before he drags me over.

It’s got a wireless symbol on it. A tracker!

‘Wake up! We have to get moving!’ I yell at Emery.

Emery’s up on his knees, arm held to his chest, looking around to see what the problem is.

I hold up the tracker. ‘They caught Wolf and put a tracker on him. I’m gonna run it somewhere far away to give us some time. Keep the dogs here till I get back.’

‘Ella! No! They’ll track you!’ Emery says.

‘I got to, or they’ll wake up and start tracking it to right here!’ I run. Emery’s behind me, calling the dogs back. I scramble across the creek and into the bush. Sticks and bracken scratch at my arms as I scramble up the other side of the little gorge. I scramble right into a pile of blackberry canes and stop and pick myself back out carefully, unsnagging my T-shirt. Then I run along the top of the gorge. I figure if they have to cross the gorge to get to the tracker, it might slow them down. A farmhouse is up here, and I head towards it. There’s no sound coming from it, no lights are on. I think it’s empty. If I throw the tracker right underneath it, maybe they’ll think Wolf has gone into hiding. They won’t be able to get under there to check for sure.

I stay low and run flat out for the house. There’s still not enough light that anyone up on the road behind the house or anyone looking across the land can see very well, so I think I’m fine.

I push through the wires of the fence around the house and reach between the boards at the bottom of the house and fling the tracker, hard as I can, into the centre.

As I head back to the fence, I check out a shed. Its door’s propped open, and there’s tools and duct tape and stuff hanging on the wall. The roll of silver duct tape is huge, just the kind of thing that would help Emery’s arm, stop it moving. I climb up on an old esky and pull it down off a nail.

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