A Brave Fighter Is Overwhelmed

The alley was just behind the boy's tenement, not in a war zone.  None-the-less, it looked like multiple fire fights could have occurred there, or might break out at any time.  The lighting was dim at best, as unreliable as Baghdad sounded in the news reports.

It didn't challenge his 10 year old imagination to envision scenes from a first person shooter on his Nintendo being played out in the alley.  Taking out the trash turned into an adventure when he had to defend himself against the dark shadows threatening an attack.

"Take that you cowards," he muttered, spraying imaginary bullets into the bad guys.

After tossing the garbage bag into the bin, he buttoned up his shirt which played the role of his bullet proof vest.  His counter attack was vicious, taking the villains by surprise, and making the alley safe for democracy, whatever that meant.

As he headed back toward the rear door into the tenement, a low growl from behind a pile of packing crates caught his attention.

"It could be a wild wolf or bear ready to rip me apart," he thought.  "But, I'm ready to face another battle."

Pressing his back against the crates, he edged around toward the back, his trigger finger ready to blast away.

The young dog felt he was cornered, felt required to defend himself.  He leaped forward and upward, catching the boy in the chest and knocking him backwards.  The animal's natural way of defending or attacking was to bite hard and hang on.

It wasn't wild, but hadn't been given any training or care either.  The weak attempts to defend himself by the boy simply infuriated the animal, who took his revenge swiftly.

No happy ending to this story.  Just a small tragedy, that didn't make the national news.