Free Infinity One by Robert Hoskins (Ed.) Page B

way.
    Then the rear stretcher-bearer tripped on the uneven sidewalk. He went down on one knee, losing his grip on the handles. Maria, her tiny body strapped to the stretcher, was jolted. The forward bearer, unaware for a moment of the accident, continued on and pulled the handles out of his companion’s grip so that Maria, head downward, was dragged jouncingly along the sidewalk. With a yelp, Al leaped forward, unceremoniously depositing the canary cage on the lawn where it rested at a dangerous tilt. He collided with one of his cohorts who had also jumped to the rescue. The two of them succeeded in startling the forward bearer and the front end of Maria’s stretcher dropped with a second jarring jolt.
    Like the incredible noise that issues from a cyphering organ played full through faulty stops, a chorus of strident howls arose. Starting with the piercing yelps of nearby dogs, it grew in intensity and volume as Maria, battered, pain racked, summoned her friends. They came bounding in answer to her call. With uncharacteristic ferocity, three poodles and a terrier launched themselves at the stretcher-men. Before Finch could touch Maria, a collie and two boxers cut him off, snapping and snarling. The indignant doorman was tripped by a frantic cocker who plunged at him from the lobby.
    “Christ Almighty, she’s called all the dogs,” Joe cried.
    A yelping, yapping, yipping vortex of sound with a rumbling, roaring ground-bass enveloped the area. The street soon became one seething mass of dogs, from ragged Scotties to leaping Dalmatians. More kept arriving on the scene, many dragging snapped ropes and chains, towing stakes, one even hauling a doghouse; many were snaking leashes along behind them.
    “She’s called too many!” Pete cried. “She’ll get hurt!”
    As one, Pete and Joe started across the street, stepping on and over dog bodies. Pete caught a glimpse of a protective ring of dogs forming around Maria’s man-abandoned stretcher.
    “Maria, Maria!” he shouted over the tumult. “Call off the dogs. Call them off! ”
    The sheer press of numbers would overrun her. Kicking, flailing, Pete waded on. A cat, leaping from a stopped car roof, raked him with her claws. Joe reached the other curb and fell, momentarily lost under the bounding bodies.
    Suddenly, as though cut off from an invisible conductor, all sound ceased. The silence was as terrifying as the noise but now the momentum of the charging animals faltered. Pete made it to the sidewalk in that pause. Neither Maria, stretcher nor sidewalk was visible under the smooth and brindled, spotted, mottled, rough and shaggy blanket of dogs and occasional cats.
    Cursing wildly, both he and Joe labored, throwing the stunned animals out of the way until a space was cleared around the overturned stretcher. The upset bird cage rolled down to the sidewalk, coming to rest with the bent door uppermost. In a flurry of orange and yellow feathers, frightened canaries flew hysterically aloft, their frantic chirps ominous and shrill.
    Unable to move, Pete watched as Joe carefully turned the stretcher over. The two men stood looking down at Maria’s crushed and bloodied body, trampled by the zeal of her would-be protectors. Then Pete joined her hands, moved by some obscure impulse.
    At this point the dogs, released from the weird control that had summoned them and immobilized them at the moment of its passing, remembered ancient enmities. The abortive rescue mission turned into a thousand private battles.
    Out of the corner of his eye, Pete saw Wizard coming hell-for-leather down the street. Finch staggered to his feet, clawing his way up, using the birdcage as a support. With a howl, Wizard knocked him down again. Pete grabbed the man and arrested him for disturbing the peace. Wizard stood guard, in much better shape than any others of Maria’s protectors, thanks to his late arrival.
    The news story never mentioned that a human had been killed in the great dog riot. But it was