Arrow Rock Literary Journal

“Alright, listen,” Cayson started. “You guys failed to evacuate the neighborhood when the alerts went out, there’s nothing we can do about that now.” Vince was leaning against a wall of the wallpapered-living room, arms crossed and jaw set, his eyes scanning the people piled into the living room. Their eyes were wide and trained on Cayson, but Vince still tried to read them anyway.

There were the three brothers from the house on the left—a split-level perfect for brothers in their early twenties all spaced a year or so apart and wanting to get out of mom’s house, or so Vince assumed. They looked like brothers; ruffled up brown hair, olive skin, soft brown eyes—all somewhat fit. The smallest brother—presumably the youngest—still had baby fat in his face, his cheeks rounder than the other two brothers.

Then there was a mom, anxiously standing instead of sitting on the couch with the other family and the brothers–her house was the one-story to the right. She was holding her seven-year-old daughter, trying to hold her ears between her own shoulder and covering the other ear with her hand. Her arms looked like they were getting tired, but she didn’t put the little girl down. There were twin girls, easily around thirteen, standing next to her, wide-eyed and fear mixing in their green eyes. Vince had to assume they got the green eyes from dad or another relative since mom had gray eyes and matted, blonde hair in contrast to all three of their brown hair. Then, there was a husband and wife sitting on the couch next to the brothers. The couch could really only fit four people–but the brothers smooshed themselves together to allow the man and woman on the couch, the woman clutching her young infant to her chest. There was an old woman sitting in the armchair near the couch, holding a little shih-tzu in her lap, who was snoring softly as he passed out. Her husband stood beside the chair, a firm hand on her shoulder–to show strength or control, Vince couldn’t tell. This was their house.

“What you’re not aware of is the government launched a new weapon in preparation for the war,” Cayson continued. “And it backfired.”

“Shouldn’t that be your problem, not ours?” The young husband snapped. His wife moved one hand from the infant to his knee, practically begging him to stay quiet.

“Save all questions, comments, concerns for the end,” Vince stated gruffly as he rolled his eyes at the man, pushing off the wall. “Regardless of whose ‘problem’ it was, it’s all our problems now if you want to live.”

“Oh, come on, that’s such a cliché,” The man groaned. His wife squeezed his knee, he brushed her hand off. “You assholes gather my neighbors in my living room to tell me what? We’re all going to die?”

“Jack,” His wife snapped at him as the thirteen-year-old twins gasped and looked to their mother standing behind the couch in terror. She whispered some comforting words to them, struggling to keep holding the seven-year-old and cover her ears. The husband, Jack, eased back onto the couch realizing he would be causing distress for the neighbor kids.

“Do we have to talk about it in front of Lainey’s kids?” Jack protested.

“Yes, we do,” Cayson continued. “This is for their survival, too.” The girls didn’t look at their mother this time, just pursing their lips in a similar fashion and watching Cayson for him to continue his speech. “The government made these…dogs. They’re not really dogs like that one or a German shepherd,” he gestured to the sleeping shih-tzu. “they’re purely metal and machinery. They don’t get tired, they can’t be disarmed, and they are great trackers. They were meant to track the enemies–follow blood and sounds. But they lost control of the dogs—”

“Who’s ‘they’?” The old man asked, still holding his wife’s shoulder. “You mean the government?”

“The military,” Cayson admitted. “us, we lost control. There wasn’t enough safety measures—”

“So you bastards are to blame?” Jack piped up again. This time, his wife was fed up. 

“Oh shut up, Jack,” She almost snarled at him. “these men are doing us a huge favor by gathering us together to tell us what happened. It was your idea to ignore the evacuation, anyhow.” The baby began to whimper and she turned away from Jack, shushing it and gently rocking it until it fell back asleep. 

“Okay, Wendy, sorry,” He almost whispered. Vince watched intently as Jack clamped his mouth shut and clenched his jaw, yet again. Although, it didn’t seem he was going to stay quiet to Vince. 

“It doesn’t matter how the dogs got loose but they did. We can’t take them down, we can’t shut them down, we just were ordered to look for survivors and keep them alive until a clean-up process could commence.” Cayson was pacing slightly now. Vince could tell he was losing his cool. “From now on, you guys cannot go outside, we have to limit noises, and we have to sit tight until help comes to let us know the dogs have been immobilized.” 

“What?” Lainey spoke up now, her seven-year-old daughter shifting a bit at feeling her mom talk and wanting to listen. “I want my kids to be able to play outside, they’ve played outside every day since they told us we should evacuate and we’ve never seen any of these dogs you’re talking about. My girls deserve to feel normal.”

“Letting them play outside is like sending your dog to the vet to be put down,” Vince spoke up again, looking between the shih-tzu and the girls. The old lady, whose husband leaned over and whispered something while calling her Carol-Anne, slowly put another hand on her dog indignantly and all he did was shift in her lap. “Even if you haven’t seen one yet, that’s why we’re here. They’re closing in on this area.”

“I think this is some made up bullshit,” Jack grimaced. One look from Vince shut him up this time and Vince felt satisfied that he probably wouldn’t speak up again.

“How about you?” Vince moved his attention to the three brothers. “You haven’t piped up once, you have any protests to the truth we’re telling you?”

The one in the middle shook his head, he had to be the oldest. “We believe you, man,” he replied. “We’ll do what you tell us. We’ll stay put, we’ll even help put one of those mutts down if it comes close to this house.”

“Well, good luck with that,” Vince chuckled slightly. “We can’t even put them down.”

“Could we maybe stop talking about putting dogs down?” The old lady piped up. “You’re making Rascal nervous.” The shih-tzu was still passed out in her lap but she pretended to cover his ears anyway.

Vince ignored her. “As Major Rosfield said,” he paused slightly. “We were ordered to find survivors and protect them. You’re the only families left in this neighborhood, we’re here to protect you.”

…

“Have any of you seen Rascal?” The middle brother, Adrian, asked Cayson and Vince as they were sitting at the kitchen table, toying lazily with playing cards. It had been days since the two men had gathered the surviving families of the neighborhood and gathered them in Jack and Wendy’s house. So far, they’d allowed it without many more protests since the first day. Carol-Anne was upstairs helping Lainey and Wendy with the baby, both women missing when their kids were that little. Carol-Anne had told Wendy, who told Cayson and Vince, that she’d lost her son when he was seven to drowning in a creek behind their house while out playing, so Wendy and Lainey felt a bit more obligated to share their kids with the sweet older woman. Adrian and his eldest brother, Cody, and his youngest brother, Ollie, were the only ones downstairs with the two men. Vince had mentioned something about Jodi, Carol-Anne’s husband, and Jack were in the basement trying to work on boarding up the windows in case they had to move underground–only because Vince asked them to.

Nobody had seen a dog yet. Luckily, there wasn’t any protesting—yet.

“Who’s Rascal?” Vince replied without looking up.

“Vince,” Cayson groaned. “the dog.”

“Oh, you mean the rat,” Vince smirked. “that’s not a dog.”

Cayson rolled his eyes, looking up from the cards and to Adrian. “No, we haven’t seen Rascal. What’s wrong?”

“Carol-Anne said something about letting him out—or that she already let him out, I can’t remember,” Adrian shifted on his feet. “I think I was supposed to let him in twenty minutes ago.”

“Well, shit,” both men stood up from the table. There was anxiety that Rascal had already gotten hunted down by a war dog, when a flash of red and white was seen by all three of them running around the backyard, chasing a squirrel. It was yipping every so often, but it was fairly quiet. 

“Is that it?” Vince pointed out the creature.

“Him,” Cayson corrected. “yes, that’s him… did he get injured? That looks like blood.”

Adrian rushed to the door and opened it, “Rascal!” He called out almost like he was whisper-shouting. At first, the little dog did not hear him, so Adrian whisper-shouted his name again which then Rascal perked his ears, turned his head, and came sprinting towards the door. Once inside, Vince grabbed the dog a little rough but Rascal was hardly phased as he squirmed in the air, tongue hanging out happily after chasing wildlife.

Cayson sighed. Vince had been right—Rascal was covered in blood. Why wasn’t he crying? Didn’t Vince hurt  him when he plucked him up like that?

Vince started rotating the dog in the air, Racal just happily panting and unphased by the awkward angles as Vince lowered Racal a bit, still holding him. “He must’ve found something, he doesn’t even have a scratch.”

“Carol-Anne is going to freak out when she sees him,” Adrian looked like he was panicking. “She’s going to blame me! I was supposed to let him in twenty minutes ago—”

“We need to give him a bath before she comes down,” Cayson stated calmly.

“They’re already using the bath, they’re bathing the baby,” Adrian nearly whimpered.

“Okay, then the sink,” Cayson took the dog from Vince and placed him in the kitchen sink and immediately started the water. At this point, Rascal started barking and biting at the water coming out of the faucet. Cayson started shushing it.

“That’s not how you get a dog to shut up, Cays,” Vince teased.

“Okay, well someone make sure the girls don’t come down and see this,” Cayson snapped. 

“Ollie, that’s a job for you.” Adrian called after his little brother who was leaning on the couch watching Cody play paper football on the floor by himself. 

“I’m watching the game,” Ollie argued.

“TV’s been out for days, man, cut the shit,” Adrian groaned. “Go make sure no one comes down those stairs until we’re done.”

Ollie groaned but did it. Cody got up off the ground, abandoning his boring game to help with Rascal. “Can you guys find any towels down here? We’ll have to hide them somewhere so no one can see the blood.”

Adrian and Cody disappeared into the laundry room.

Cayson was rushing to wash the blood out of Rascal’s pure white hair when he heard footsteps on the stairs.

“Is that my Rascal? He sounds upset,” Vince moved closer to Cayson as they both turned around to face Carol-Anne who had stopped on the staircase, Ollie behind her looking panicked. Rascal barked again from the sink. 

“Oh, yeah, he just rolled around in something out back so we’re giving him a bath,” Cayson gave his best boyscout-grin. He tried to ignore the look on Vince’s face when he noticed it.

Carol-Anne placed a hand over her heart. “Oh, you boys are so kind. Well, we’re almost done with the baby and you can use the real bath.” She turned and started going up the stairs. Vince and Cayson sighed and continued washing the dog, the last bit of red streaming from his fur whenever Adrian and Cody came back with a handful of towels in each hand.

“Thank you,” Cayson said before he and Vince traded looks. They knew that they’d missed a moment of hysterics by mere minutes after the women, the girls, and the men came back to the living room, trying to figure out what they could make for everyone to eat without running out of the canned goods.

That was when Cayson saw a glimpse of something shiny gliding through the trees. He nudged Vince, who was still next to him, and turned to the group that was happily chatting. “Everybody, get down,” Cayson stated firmly. “and be quiet.”

“You’ve got to be kidding—” Jack started when Vince walked up to him and pressed a pressure point on his shoulder, making Jack immediately fold up to the ground. Wendy gasped but Vince moved a finger to his lips and she closed her mouth as she went to silently check on her husband, crouching down with the baby strapped to her back.

Cayson helped Carol-Anne and Jodi get to the couches, letting them sit as long as they were quiet.

The twins began to cry, Lainey tried to soothe them by playing with their hair and Violet took it upon herself to hold Rascal, petting him as he stretched out on her lap.

Cayson and Vince stood on the other side of the couch, watching the back door. If everyone stayed down and didn’t see the dog, they had a better chance of staying quiet. In case anything happened, they wanted the family to be as low to the ground as possible.

The dog was rapidly approaching the house. Not quite running, but almost trotting—like it could see it. A noise had attracted it, possibly Rascal outside yipping maybe ten-twenty minutes prior, or the water running since it was still on in the neighborhood somehow. Regardless, it was here now.

The mechanical growling could be heard on the other side of the wall as it appeared to “sniff” around the house, its metal distorted snout pressed closest to the ground, sounds of recorded sniffing as it looked for blood. 

Cayson and Vince looked at each other, unsure if what was washed down the sink was strong enough for it to smell. Each step it took had a small whirr to it and a faint beat to the dirt each time the robot paws moved.

As it rounded the other side of the house, just on the exterior wall of the living room, Lainey had to move her hands around the twins’ mouths as one of them was starting to cry harder. The growling was frequent, a voice recording of some sort of animal—not quite a dog—on repeat as the machine moved. It was low, barely noticeable from a distance; but as it was closer, the growling was more noticeable. 

Everyone let out a small breath of relief when the sound of running could be heard and it was running away from the house.

…

She was dancing in the backyard with her earbuds in. Seven years old, she knew how to listen as well as any seven-year-old could. Major Sullivan and Major Rosfield said she shouldn’t make lots of noises, so she figured using her Hello Kitty earbuds for her hand-me-down phone would be fine. She was outside dancing, pretending she was a break-dancer from one of the kid’s shows she remembered watching from before the TVs stopped working although the power stayed on. 

Cayson tried to get her attention from the backdoor. He was waving his arms like crazy but she had her eyes closed while she focused on the memory of the TV show and tried to replicate the moves. Cayson waved his arms more trying to get her attention, hoping she’d open her eyes.

Vince was already outside, he was in the side yard after he’d seen the dog and realized that Lainey’s daughter was outside. He trusted Lainey to tell her girls they couldn’t go out–and  he realized that was a stupid assumption to make. The thirteen-year-olds had heard his warning–he forgot Lainey had purposefully been holding her ears.

“Violet,” he tried to whisper. Her music was loud enough that he could almost hear the beat of the music twenty feet away from her. The dog was only a little further than that but it was going to pick up on the sound soon. “Violet,” he tried again, only slightly louder to see if his voice could penetrate the lapse between the songs. It didn’t. The dog had seemed to perk up. Shit, Vince thought as he immediately sprung forward towards the little girl. He had to make a choice–and he wasn’t sure what would work–so he grabbed Violet and forced her to the ground, clasping a hand over her mouth to prevent her scream from piercing the air. Her eyes flung open in panic and she saw Cayson in the backdoor. He made a motion as if to say “hush” and she realized that it must be Major Sullivan that had her. Vince moved to hit the button on the chord of the earbuds. The music stopped.

Vince almost relaxed but he saw Cayson run off from the backdoor in a hurry. He was going to grab a gun if he needed it. That’s when Vince heard the pounding steps of the machine mere feet away, it was moving so slow it almost didn’t look like it was moving at all but it was getting closer inch by inch. It’s stalking us, Vince came to the conclusion. He knew he couldn’t outrun it, not even without carrying Violet. The dogs were fast. 

Vince wondered if he could make it to the door before Cayson got back and throw Violet to him. The dog would be too distracted with him to investigate the house before Cayson was able to get the others upstairs and quiet. Vince’s eyes stayed trained on the backdoor, waiting for Cayson to reappear so he could begin running. He slowly went from his side with Violet in his arms to a sitting position, Violet in one arm with his other hand around her mouth to keep her from shrieking. He could feel her trembling and he knew that she could hear the dog too, her earbuds and phone laying in the grass from where they had landed when Vince practically tackled her.

The footsteps were closer now. Maybe five feet away. Cayson was still somewhere else in the house. Dammit Cays, hurry! Vince moved very slowly to a standing position, Violet’s feet dangling in the air now on his right side. He had to be ready to move the moment Cayson reappeared. 

It was too late, Vince heard the stomping of the legs go into a full sprint from behind him. He tensed and curled his body around Violet to protect her until she could run to Cayson, preparing for the feeling of teeth tearing into his back—before he heard the footsteps run past him and the dog sprinted through the side yard. It had heard something else or was responding to a call. Vince hoped it was a trap for the dogs to be turned off as he let out the breath he had been holding and started walking towards the backdoor, still carrying Violet, when Cayson reappeared in the doorway, a large automatic in his hands and Lainey and Jack right behind him to see what the commotion was about. 

Cayson opened the door as Vince crossed the threshold, placing Violet on her feet, shaking and white as a ghost as she ran into her mother’s side. Cayson closed and locked the glass door.

“What the hell happened out there?” Jack demanded, beginning to raise his voice.

“Shut the hell up, do you want it to come back?” Vince hissed, keeping his voice low.

“Mommy, it was so scary, I was just dancing, I didn’t know what was happening—but I heard it running after Major Sullivan grabbed me,” Violet sobbed into her mother’s side. Lainey immediately knelt down and held her daughter tighter

“You grabbed Violet?” Jack was outraged, no longer pretending to contain himself. Suddenly, the families began pouring into the living room and kitchen to see why Jack was yelling.

“To save her life,” Cayson jutted a finger in Jack’s chest. “Now I’d suggest you keep your voice down, or we can leave you out there. You’re endangering your family.”

Lainey picked Violet up and moved towards the twin girls, trying to stay away from whatever tension was building between Jack and the army officers.

“Like bullshit I’m endangering my family, we haven’t seen shit since you guys showed up, just that growling! I think you guys are just here to scare us since we didn’t listen to the evacuation order before you try to haul us off to some jail.” Jack began yelling, getting in Cayson’s face when Vince grabbed his shoulder and turned him around with such force, Jack sounded like he almost yelped.

“Want to spend the night outside?” Vince grinned. “You can tell me in the morning whether you think we’re lying about the dogs or not.”

“Is that really necessary?” Wendy said, distressed. 

“Stay out of this, Wendy,” Jack snapped at her.

“I suggest we take this conversation to the basement where it makes less noise,” Vince said. “you need to calm down.”

“This is all bullshit! I guarantee this is a hoax. We haven’t seen one goddamn dog before you showed up and we haven’t seen one since. I think it’s time you guys leave and let us all go back to our respective houses.”

“But there really was a dog!” Violet wailed, hysterical. “I heard it! I thought we were going to die.”

“Hush, Violet,” Lainey tried to soothe the little girl.

“Show me the goddamn dog, then! She didn’t even see it, she heard it. You’re playing tricks, I don’t know why, but I’m going to find out.” Jack seethed.

“Uh, guys, stop!” Cody moved forward, standing between Jack and Cayson. “What’s that?”

He pointed outside to the darkness towards the tree-line by the creek. The men moved closer to the glass door, unable to see what Cody was talking about. When Jack couldn’t see anything, he sighed loudly.

“It’s your mind playing tricks on you,” Jack snapped. “All this talk of nonsense has you seeing things! There’s nothing there-”

Just as Jack finished his sentence, the glass shattered. Now atop of Cody stood the mechanical beast, nearly as tall as Violet just on four legs. The entirety of the household began screaming, Adrian surging forward to try and defend Cody that was cut and bleeding from the glass door with the dog standing on him, squirming from the weight. The dog grabbed Adrian by his leg with its metal teeth, breaking skin and shattering his shinbone immediately and dragging him outside. “Adrian!” Cody stood up, bloody, following after where the dog was dragging a screaming Adrian off. Ollie went to chase after them as the rest of the families startedstarting sprinting for the stairs as Wendy’s baby was sleeping upstairs and the crowd followed Jack and Wendy. Vince stopped Ollie as he grasped his arm before he ran by.

“They’re dead, Ollie,” Vince grinded his teeth in Ollie’s ear so he could hear him but not speak louder than the screaming that now both Adrian and Cody were letting out in the darkness. “We need to go upstairs.”

Ollie nodded, watching wide-eyed in shock as he looked out to where his brothers were screaming but could no longer see them. Before the dogs came back, Cayson and Vince rushed Ollie up the stairs where everyone was huddling in the baby’s room and Cayson shut the door with them all inside. Both he and Vince held a finger to their mouths as they heard multiple dogs searching through the house. 

Vince watched the sleeping baby—not awoken by the commotion in the room. They all realized that they’d forgotten Rascal in the basement where they heard his barking—and then the dogs tried to break down the basement door. There were sounds of scratching at first, and Rascal’s barks sounded fierce. Then there was loud banging and cracking and Rascal’s barks began to sound more panicked. Jodi wrapped his arm around Carol-Anne as she grasped her hands together and started mouthing a prayer. As sudden as the banging started, it ended with a large crash. The door had been broken down. Rascal’s panicked yips quickened before there was yelping and whimpering. There were scratchy sounds of recorded growls and snarls that began to drown out the yelps. Then, there was silence. Carol-Anne covered her mouth to stifle a sob and leaned into Jodi. Vince and Cayson realized the dogs would probably be in the house for hours—searching for the smell of blood or listening for anything to happen.

It was going to be a long night.

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Parker Coyne is a senior at Lindenwood University graduating in 2026 with her Bachelor’s in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. They will be pursuing their master’s degree in Writing with Lindenwood University in 2026.