Hellhounds: Bait
#11 of Hellhounds
Hellhounds: Bait
I didn't spend any time trying to dig up more information on any of the other hounds. Denton was already getting a tad bit suspicious of me, and vice versa, and for once, I wanted to have a day to relax. So I spent most of the day watching television with the rest of the gang or playing cards or sleeping. Jakob had offered to give me a blowjob, but for once, I didn't feel like having one, so Jakob just retreated to Smart-ass's room to give him one instead. At some point during the day, I wound up growing bored and headed into one of the bedrooms to take a nap. I couldn't though, worried that Denton would charge into the bedroom when I was sleeping and rape me. He was certainly capable of it. Lucky for me, I had the room all to myself, and I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of sleep before the colonel put us on another assignment. Unfortunately, it was around one in the morning, so a couple of us became grouchy over Riesling's new demands. He had no problem shutting us up though.
"You can't be serious colonel. We're working with this stinkin' sewer rat again?"
"That's right, Smart-ass. He's paying us ten grand to assist him again with a personal matter of his."
"The last time he said that we did all the work! And now we're getting paid even less?!"
"Dale told us he's gonna do all the work this time, so relax. Now let's get in the trucks and head over to the location before he changes his mind and hires someone else!"
Smart-ass had nothing more to say. It was past one in the morning; he didn't have the energy to fight the colonel anymore. We changed into our khaki uniforms with black boots, got into out Humvees and drove over to the coordinates that Stollik had uploaded to Riesling's PDA a half-hour before we left. It took us about another hour to arrive at the location, a building that had been condemned years ago. The place was three stories high, and it looked like it had been hit with a bomb or two, quite possibly from a suicide bomber or a misguided missile. The entrance was exposed to the point where we could see all three floors from the outside. There was nothing of value in the building, except for gravel, ash, and plaster from the demolished walls. Even the windows had been knocked out. We parked a couple of yards away from the building before we headed over to the pile of rubble and stood out in the middle of the ground floor. It was still dark outside, and we had no way to see short of the moonlight shining down on us. At least, not until we were surprised by the sudden searchlight beams that were shined in our faces. We went blind for a brief moment, but opened our eyes to see Dale standing beside two large searchlights that had been stationed on the second floor. He chuckled and started to head down the stairs--the only thing in the building still even remotely intact--to greet us.
"Didn't startle you guys, did I?"
Colonel ignored his question. "Just tell us what we're doing here, Stollik."
"Your job is simple this time around. All you have to do is take position inside this building and wait for me to show up again. It seems that Henri Zupko found out about my recent 'activities' and put a price on my head."
"Zupko spends most of his time dealing steroids to private militia. Why does he care about some lone sewer rat? More importantly, why should we care?" asked Riesling.
Dale shrugged. "My brothers have dealt with him in the past and the deal didn't go down as expected. Guess he wants us all dead now. And the reason why you should care is because I'm paying you, and because Zupko knows some crucial information that your boss wants us to find out. He's been on your watch list, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then maybe it's best for the both of us if we capture this guy. Alive. I can't say the same for his second-in-command, Arlo Voslo though. If you guys see him, I couldn't care less if you kill him or not, although it isn't necessary."
"Wait a second, if we're gonna be standing in this building the entire time, how are we going to capture Zupko, let alone kill Arlo?" asked Denton.
"Just wait for him and his gang to come to you."
Denton scoffed. "We're supposed to believe that he'll randomly just walk up to us?"
"No, Denton--it's a trap. While you guys stay here and wait, I'll lead him and his gang to this location so you can ambush them. I spotted them looking for me in the forest and I can guarantee you that once they find me again, they won't resist a chase."
"Okay, I got it...I think."
"We'll be ready. You just make sure that his entire gang is drawn into our line of sight--I don't want any stragglers shooting us in the back. And don't be afraid to kill any of his guards yourself!"
"Relax, Riesling, I know what to do."
Dale grinned to himself before he turned around and started to walk away from the building.
"All right hounds check your weapons and take your positions. Be ready for anything!"
"Okay--"
"And I don't want any lip from you, Smart-ass!" said Riesling, pointing in his face.
Smart-ass sighed in defeat. He was too tired to do anything but obey our colonel's orders. Jakob and I ran up the stairs and took position inside one of the tall, pane-less windows. Riesling turned off the searchlights and we aimed our rifles at the ground floor, waiting patiently for Dale to return with Zupko's cronies following after him.
"Hey, Donnie, how do you think Dale is gonna lure a bunch of bloodthirsty lynxes over here?"
"Do you really wanna know?"
Henri Zupko despised sewer rats. He despised Dale Stollik and his brothers. It had nothing to do with the botched drug deal--he just hated them because they were sewer rats. They were always so filthy, so foul and disgusting. The blue lynx was sick and tired of venturing all around Lupus and running into furs like Dale. Just the smell of the rat would make him go insane. The lynx had vowed in the past to vanquish all the disgusting filth on the planet until the whole place sparkled. In some ways, he was like Donnie, although his way of returning peace to the planet was much more violent, and he preferred that only felines ruled the planet. Once the sewer rats were all dead and gone, he'd work on the hyenas and coyotes next. But that would be in the future--right now he had to track down the smelly rodent Stollik.
Zupko was walking through the forest wearing a standard tiger stripe camouflage uniform and cradling an AK-47 in his paws. To the right of him was his lieutenant, Arlo Voslo, a white lynx who was openly against species low on the food chain. He didn't care about peace or cleansing the planet of all the filth--he just wanted to get rid off all the animals low on the food chain. Behind the both of them were ten highly trained lynxes with sepia fur, all wearing the same type of uniform and carrying the same type of assault rifle, as well as black handguns--Berettas--in their pockets. They didn't hate Dale as much as Zupko, but they would follow their leader to the death and carry out any command he ordered.
"What are you gonna do when you find him, sir?" asked Voslo.
Henri shrugged. "No need to make this situation more complicated than it needs to be. When we find Stollik, we kill him. Pure and simple."
"That's a shame. I thought you wanted us to torture him like you do to your other victims?"
"Sewer rats are not worthy of being tortured, Voslo. They all belong underneath six feet of soil, nothing more or less."
Voslo chuckled. "Yeah, or back in the sewers where they belong!"
As they were busy chatting about Stollik, they heard a twig snap in the distance. All of the cats raised their rifles and were on guard, prepared to kill whatever was hiding in the trees or bushes. Zupko waved two fingers to his right and two lynxes separated from the pack. Everyone else continued to head straight or split off and began to head northwest. One lynx started to check behind the large trees for Dale's presence whilst the other shined the flashlight attached to his assault rifle into the bushes. They were restless at first, but once the lynx arrived to one of the bushes sitting right next to an oak tree, he heard more leaves rustling and pointed his gun at the shrubs. The feline sniffed the air a couple of times and grimaced. Whatever was hiding nearby, it smelled like sewage waste. Quite obviously, it was the sewer rat, but the lynx had to be 100% sure before he fired. So he pushed the shrub apart and leaned forward to see if Dale was hiding around it. Immediately afterwards, Dale raised his posterior into the air, lifted his tail, and passed gas in the lynx's face. The feline was taken by the surprised attack and immediately veered his head back, shaking it and coughing from the fumes. While he was busy gagging and trying to waft the smell away, the lynx's partner saw him hacking and came to his aid.
"You all right, Jerald?"
The lynx wiggled his nose and suddenly backed away, appalled by the strong stench.
"Jerald, did you just--"
"No!" He violently shook his head and coughed again. "It was that goddamn sewer rat!"
"What--"
The lynx suddenly grunted when he heard a faint thump and began to feel a searing pain in his neck. He opened his mouth to shout, but all that came out were torrents of blood. By the time he realized that someone just threw a knife into his throat, he was already falling to the ground, with only a few seconds of life to spare. Jerald recovered from the stench and heard someone laughing in the distance. He shined his light into the woods and managed to catch a glimpse of Dale's thick tail, and then he disappeared. The lynx swore to himself and began to chase after Dale, tracking him down like a common scent hound. He grinned to himself when he spotted part of the rat's tail lying on the ground next to a dead eucalyptus tree. It was obvious that the rodent was hiding behind it, so Jerald didn't hesitate to sneak his way towards the tree. It wasn't until Jerald was a couple of feet away from the bark that Dale decided to act. He moved away from his hiding spot for just a brief moment, clutching something in his right hand. The lynx didn't even have time to figure out what it was before Dale threw it at his chest. It smacked against his uniform with a faint splattering noise. Jerald was momentarily stunned, and Dale started sprinting towards the east as soon as he discarded the object. Jerald returned fire, but even with his flashlight, he couldn't get a good shot off at Dale, and he quickly camouflaged himself in the forest again. Zupko and Voslo heard the commotion though and headed over to Jerald's location.
"Where is he?!" demanded Voslo.
"I don't know, but the son of a bitch broke wind in my face and killed my partner!"
Zupko looked at Jerald before leaning a little closer and examining the odd stain on his uniform. He only had to take a small whiff before backing away and retching. Jerald looked down at his uniform and noticed it too: A brown, sloppy stain that looked like mud. Except it wasn't mud.
"The fu--what kind of sick animal pelts you with shit-balls and attacks with flatulence?!" shouted Jerald with anger and disgust.
"Fuckin' sewer rats. I'll be glad when all of 'em are wiped off the face of this planet!" shouted Voslo.
"Everyone split up! This cesspool's not as dumb as I thought he was--he knows we're here and he's toying with us!"
All the lynxes nodded and began to break apart into groups of three (short of Jerald's group, since his partner was dead). Voslo, Zupko, and another subordinate headed north while Jerald and a friend of his traveled east. The other groups went northwest. To many soldiers, hiding from a squadron of hostile felines was a serious life-or-death situation. To Dale, it was just a form of entertainment. He loved humiliating soldiers with his repulsive tactics, especially because they worked to his advantage, and he knew the forest well. He was only wearing a black tank-top and camouflage pants, which provided perfect cover for a dark night like this. Right now he was hiding behind a tree, cradling a knife in his right hand. He knew the other three soldiers were just a few feet away; he could hear the dead leaves and twigs crunching underneath their boots. One of them sniffed the air and immediately caught Dale's scent. Two lynxes began to come closer and closer towards the tree--another six inches, and they'd spot the rat with his back against the bark. He had to act now, and fast. Dale spotted the muzzle of the AK-47 and immediately twisted his body around, swinging his knife at the lynx's neck. But the lynx was on guard, and he grabbed Dale's arm the second he saw the blade shine in the flashlight. The rat grunted and tried to stab the lynx--he hadn't anticipated this, but he knew how to turn the situation around towards his favor. Dale kneed the lynx in the groin and spun him around so his back was facing his partner. Unfortunately, his partner heard the small scuffle going on, and fired erratically after shining his light on Dale and the feline. It was only after he pressed the trigger that he realized it was too late. The lynx clinging onto Dale was suddenly lifeless, with a few smoking holes implanted into his back. The sewer rat looked at the other lynx and, before he had the chance to fire, threw his knife into his throat. The lynx gagged and coughed up blood and took a few steps backwards. He fell to the ground before he even had a chance to remove the blade lodged in his trachea. Dale ran over and took it back out so he could get back to hiding--it wouldn't be long before the rest of the lynxes found him.
"GOTCHA!"
Instinctively, Dale swung his knife backwards, and he managed to slice open one of the feline's arms. He cried out in pain and fired a couple of rounds just a few inches away from Dale. The sewer rat thought about taking him out right then and there, but he wanted to irritate Zupko's cats for a little while longer, so he decided to run. The lynx didn't want his prey to escape and, knowing that Dale would disappear into the darkness again before he could get off another shot, grabbed his tail. Dale shouted as he felt a severe tightening in his coccyx. Thinking instinctively again, Dale grunted and passed gas a second time. The soldier was taken by surprise and let go of his tail, coughing continually as the foul gas entered his nostrils. The rat managed to slip away, grinning to himself. However, as he began to run, his stomach growled gutturally and he suddenly stopped, feeling intense abdominal pain. Another cruel idea came into play and the rat smiled to himself as he started to climb up a tree, jumping from branch to branch.
The lynx accompanying Zupko and Voslo heard a horn blaring in the distance, making his ear twitch.
"Sir, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
Another, louder horn went off, and the trio of felines looked all around the forest, trying to detect the source of the disturbance.
"The hell...?"
"I think it came from that direction, sir!"
The nameless lynx began to jog through the woods with Zupko and Voslo following him closely. The sound of the horn blasts grew louder and louder as the felines became closer to the source. Zupko and Voslo wiggled their noses and grimaced a little, as though they had just stepped in horse shit and were tracking it all over the place. The horn suddenly stopped when the trio arrived at a large tree and the felines heard something plop in the grass.
"Stop! ...He's gotta be over here somewhere--this is where I heard the noise."
"You sure about that? I don't hear--"
"He's here, Voslo. I can smell him." said Zupko.
"Wait a minute..."
The three lynxes heard a creature grunting and straining from somewhere, shortly before something plopped on the ground again. The same creature sighed, almost with relief, before he began to grunt again. The lynxes knew that Dale just had to be nearby, but they didn't know where. They checked every direction, turning around in a circle a few times, but the sewer rat was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Zupko felt something warm and lumpy land on his head, like a ball of clay or slime. The blue feline grabbed the object that landed on his head and looked at his paw, grimacing when he examined the brown, disgusting slop smeared all over it. Before he could say anything, another lump fell onto Zupko, this time landing on his shoulder. Zupko watched as it slowly slid down his uniform and retched, while Voslo curiously looked up into the air. Just when he saw what was producing the slimy, brown lumps, one of them landed right on his face with a faint plop. Voslo started shouting and screaming in disgust, angrily wiping the filth from his face with both paws. The lynx who hadn't been hit still wasn't aware of what was going on, and he looked up in the tree too. Dale was perched on one of the thick branches, squatting with his pants pulled down and his nasty posterior sticking out. The "horns" that the lynx heard was merely Dale breaking wind so he could lure them in with his flatulence, and the brown lumps that fell on Zupko and Voslo's heads was actually Dale's feces, straight from his ass. The lynx's eyes grew wide, and Dale started to chuckle to himself.
"You dirty piss-drinkin' shit-eatin' smelly-ass goddamn sewer rat!" screamed Voslo in frustration.
Dale hastily pulled up his pants and jumped down from the tree and started to sprint his way from the pursuing hostiles. He had gotten Voslo and Zupko angry now--which was good, given that they'll make a mistake that would lead them straight to their graves. Although, Dale couldn't stop laughing to himself as he ran from the felines. It wasn't everyday that a sewer rat could get away with defecating on someone's face. But he knew that he was in a dire situation, and that three lynxes were behind him, hell-bent on disemboweling him. He stopped running when the lynxes lost sight of him again and hopped into a bush, panting softly and catching his breath. Zupko and Voslo were still running though, and presumed that he was still far ahead of them. The trio ran right past the sewer rat without even stopping to sniff the air to catch his scent again. Dale peeked from the bushes and looked to his left and right. The coast was clear, and he had a short moment to relax. The rat leaned against a tree and exhaled loudly. Even though he was a fast runner, he could only go for so long before the fat in his distended stomach started to slow him down. The rodent regained his stamina after a minute and started to creep through the forest, only to yelp when another soldier spotted him and chucked a hunting knife past his ear. The only reason why it was still attached to his head was because he dodged the blade at the last second. But he had little time to recover when the lynx who initially spotted him, Jerald, came at him as he violently swung his other knife around. Dale noticed that Jerald had abandoned his assault rifle and assumed that he was as furious as Voslo was, and wanted to make his death as bloody and as excruciating as possible. The rat saw the knife glimmer in the moonlight and veered his upper body backwards, just inches away from having his throat slit open. Then he ducked as Jerald swung the knife at him horizontally, before rolling sideways as he swung it towards the ground. Panting, Dale took out one of his own knives, and started to counter some of the lynx's attacks. It wasn't until halfway through the knife fight that Dale remembered that Jerald had another partner with him, and he grunted when someone grabbed him from behind.
Dale grunted and started to struggle, but it was pointless. The other soldier had a firm grip on his waist--he must've been one of the lynxes who weren't disgusted with making direct contact with a dirty sewer rat. The black rodent shouted again and tried to move, but to no avail. Up ahead, Jerald was clutching the carbon steel KA-BAR knife, grinning widely as he neared the rat, preparing to slice open his viscera. With no other option, Dale had to rely on dirty tactics again in order to free himself. He shut his eyes and grunted for a couple of seconds before letting out a strong accumulation of flatulence from his anus that sounded like a motorbike's engine sputtering for five seconds. The lynx clutching onto Dale's waist was down on one knee and had his face planted directly against his buttocks, and he instantly veered his head back and started to choke on the fumes. He let go of his waist so he could plug his nose and fan the stench away, even though it didn't help his burning eyes. Jerald wasn't affected by the gas directly, but he could still smell it, and had to halt his attack so he could cough. Dale struck the lynx while he was subdued, punching him in the face three times before swinging his knife at Jerald, cutting him diagonally across his face. Jerald yelped in pain, but that didn't stop his adrenaline or his determination to kill the smelly rodent, and he quickly recovered. Jerald shouted and attempted to stab Dale in the head, but the rat grabbed his arm and held him back. However, the lynx was stronger than Dale was, and the blade was slowly coming closer and closer to his face, only inches away from delving into his right eyeball. Dale thought about breaking wind again, but that would only hold them off for a short moment, and Jerald might get impatient and just shoot him in the back with his Beretta. Dale flicked his eyes at Jerald's pocket. The Beretta! If he could get ahold of it, then he might be able to get out of the situation alive. The sewer rat let go of Jerald's arm and immediately jerked his head to the right. The lynx missed, falling right into Dale's trap. He snarled and opened his mouth wide and bit down on Jerald's arm. Jerald howled and dropped his knife. Dale made a grab for his handgun and aimed it at the lynx who was previously clutching his waist. He shot him right in the forehead before firing off another bullet into Jerald's kneecap. He howled again and knocked the pistol out of Dale's hand, but he was defenseless now. Dale picked up Jerald's KA-BAR and stabbed him in the stomach, before removing the blade and plunging it deep into the back of his neck. Jerald dropped faster than a brick, completely immobile. He wasn't going to get up again.
"Hey! I got him! He's over there!"
Dale looked up and gasped. Another trio of lynxes had spotted him and was headed his way, ready to fire. Dale decided that he had had enough fun for one night. It was time to rendezvous with the Hellhounds so they could ambush the rest of the felines. He picked up his knife and started to run.
It wasn't until a half-hour later that Dale had returned to the building, jogging and panting heavily. We were all getting antsy, eager to take out Zupko's felines before we grew tired and fell asleep inside the panes. But there he was, running his way up the stairs so he could take position behind the searchlights. At first we saw nothing, and I began to think that Dale wasn't true to his word. But then we heard loud clamoring from the forest, and saw about half-a-dozen lynxes sprinting towards Dale's position with fury pumping in their hearts. Dale waited until they were standing inside the building before he flipped the lights on. The lynxes were blinded and disoriented by the sudden flash, and we could see all seven of them clearly. Jakob was the first one to shoot, taking down one soldier with a headshot. The rest of us aimed our rifles at the remaining six soldiers and fired relentlessly. We knew what Zupko and Voslo looked like, and made sure that we didn't hit either one of them, but we didn't spare the others. They were riddled with bullets in less than ten seconds; it all happened very quickly. Once Voslo and Zupko's lynxes fell, Riesling shouted out, "Hold your fire!" and we stopped shooting. The seven of us appeared from our hiding spots and slowly headed down the stairs, our rifles pointed at Zupko. He knew he had been beaten and dropped his gun and raised his paws into the air, sighing with defeat.
"Didn't think you dogs would end up working with a sewer rat."
Riesling bashed Zupko in his nose with the butt of his rifle, knocking him down. Voslo noticed that he was surrounded and that his prey had bodyguards, vicious bodyguards who had no problem ripping off all of his limbs and leaving him in the wilderness for the feral animals to pick him off. He tossed his gun aside and began to run away with a limp. Apparently one of us shot him in the abdomen by mistake. Zepher pointed his gun at the white lynx, his finger on the trigger.
"Do you want us to kill him?"
"No, let him run! He's got nowhere to go and he's been humiliated enough," said Dale, as he walked down the stairs. "Don't worry big guy, I don't think he'll have the guts to explain to his superiors what happened to him tonight."
I looked at Dale and noticed that he was smiling widely, the kind of smile you see after you kick someone's ass in a multiplayer game. I glanced at Dale's hands and saw that they were caked in what I was hoping wasn't excrement. Then I looked at Zupko's head and uniform and noticed it was stained with the same colored material, as well as Voslo's face before he ran away. I wanted to ask Dale what he had done to them, but given that he was a sewer rat, I changed my mind. Sometimes it's best not to know the answer, or even ask the question.
"I have a clear shot at him, Dale. I can take him now."
"He said no, Zepher. Lower your weapon!"
This was Riesling talking. If it hadn't been for him, Zepher probably would've killed Voslo anyway just to fuel his sadism. But part of him was loyal to the colonel, and he usually did whatever he said without hesitation. He removed his finger from the trigger and lowered his rifle, growling gutturally. Then he turned and looked down at Zupko, who was bleeding from the nose. We needed the blue lynx alive so we could interrogate him for information. Zepher grinned. He was gonna take out his anger on someone, and since Voslo was no longer there, that only left Zupko.