Setting Out: A Post-Apocalyptic Journey (Dark Highway Home Book 1) by Larsen Lars

Author:Larsen, Lars
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lars H Larsen
Published: 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

“ISN’T SHE CUTE,” Renee said, petting the head of a beautiful dog. “We found the poor thing shivering inside the truck. We put one of the sleeping bags from the tent around her, and she seems much better now. She kind of looks like a German shepherd, but with shorter fur and much longer legs.”

“This beauty,” I said, putting my hands under her chin and rubbing, “is a Belgian Malinois. They’re super smart, agile, and very loyal. And ultra-expensive. We had one with us on almost every patrol and op in both Iraq and Afghanistan. They rode with us in helicopters, rappelled down ropes with us, and tandem-jumped from planes with us. The Secret Service uses this breed to patrol the White House grounds.”

I took a step back and the dog followed, walking behind me and sitting on my left.

“Have you heard her bark?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Kris answered.

“Interesting.” I said, stepping back another ten paces.

“Why is it interesting?” Renee asked, sounding puzzled.

“She won’t bark, because she’s been trained not to,” I said as I watched the fifty-pound brown and rust-colored beauty as it again followed and walked behind me. She sat next to my left leg, looking up at me with those beautiful, sad brown eyes.

“She’s obviously been trained. I wonder if she’s a current or past military or law enforcement working dog? If she’s a US military working dog, I wonder how she came to be with those two?” I asked. “Unless she’s retired and they got her that way. But usually, an MWD—military working dog— will retire into their last handler’s care. Let’s see if she’s got some skills,” I said, walking away from the dog and then turning around, and with hand signals I’d watched dog handlers use for years on deployment, asked her to come. And she did, up on my right, around my back, and sat down on my left.

The girls clapped, and the dog’s ears pulled back in alarm and then relaxed when a bomb didn’t go off.

I suddenly walked forward, and the dog stayed right by my side. I turned left, and she hung back for a second, giving me room to complete the turn. I stopped. She stopped. I walked. She walked. I walked and turned right, and she stuck like glue to my side, constantly looking up at me as if wondering when the fun would end.

“Oh, she’s good. I don’t know how to test if she’ll go after someone if I ask her to, but I bet she would. Normally a handler would have her leashed, but this gal is super trained, and if I recall correctly, is referred to as a ‘push button.’”

“Can we keep her?” Renee asked. She crossed her fingers and held both up for me to see. “Please.”

“Of course,” I answered. “We can’t leave her out here. Did you find any dog food?”

“In the truck’s cab. A small, half-empty bag and a larger, unopened one,” Kathy answered, holding up the half-empty bag.

“Well, that’s good. We’ll have to try and get some more, though.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.