The Adventure Kids meet Balto and Togo

Chapter 7

"Hold on a moment folks. This has just been handed to me. Musher Wild Bill Shannon has just arrived in Tolovana and passed the lifesaving serum off to Dan Green. Brave souls indeed..." 

Meanwhile, Thompson was on the phone with Governor Bone. He was furious that the officials had decided to go with the dogs instead of his airplane. 

"You asked me to prepare a plane for you and instead you're choosing to transport the serum with dogs. I hope you know what you're doing. You're willing to trust the lives of these poor souls to a Stone Age solution. Sled dogs!" Thompson lashed out. "Governor, this is why Alaska is a laughingstock!" 

"Well, I'm doing what I think is best for the people in Nome. It's the safest way, William" Bone replied over the phone softly. 

"Now you may not agree with me at the moment, but getting that serum safely there is the key. Now you couldn't even get your damn plane off the runway!" 

"My engineer has found the problem and we are working right now on a solution" Thompson explained. "I just need another day" 

"We don't have time!" Bone told Thompson. "They need that serum now" 

"And they will have it" Thompson assured. "My plane will get it there" 

"Well, the mushers have assured me they can cover the mail route in six days" Bone informed. 

"The mail route!? That's nearly 700 miles! And you have an Arctic storm bearing down from the north" The arrogant business man exclaimed over the phone. 

"The dogs will never make it" He said. 

"Yeah, well, I've made my decision" The Governor replied. 

Thompson then sighed. "Then the fate of Nome lies in the hands of the dogs... I hope you're right" 

"I hope so too..." Bone said before he hung up the phone. "Goodbye, William" 

Back in Nome over the next 3 days, the Akids and Balto were glued to a radio listening in for updates on the dogs and their mushers' progress. By now the news on this story had reached the lower 48. Every 30 miles or so a fresh driver and team of dogs were waiting for exhausted teams to pass the serum off as they raced down the great Yukon river valley. 

Most of the mushers had to run alongside their sleds in order to keep warm, one of them even had to have hot water poured on his hands after they froze to the sled's handle. Another musher, Charlie Evans, his two lead dogs gave out halfway through the journey. With no other option, Evans hitched himself to the team and helped pulled the sled along. He had become his own lead dog. 

The kids and Balto decided to take a walk through town, seeing that it had become pretty deserted. 

"Whoa..." The kids breathed out quietly, being left in shock.  

"It's like a ghost town" Brock commented while looking around. 

"Even I have never seen the town this quiet" Balto admitted. 

The lone kids and black dog continued walking through the quiet isolated town when a man walked out of a shop past them and they could hear the news reports on the radio through the open door. 

"With temperatures almost 60 degrees below zero and winds topping 50 miles an hour. Man and dog risk all on a 674 mile journey. With the lives of Nome in the balance, a heroic race runs through conditions so terrible we can scarcely imagine..." 

The kids sighed, thinking about the mushers and their dogs. They were impressed how the teams were willing and able to do this despite the freezing temperatures. Come to think of it, you'd realize by now that Alaska was a dangerous place of mostly untamed wilderness. You could literally lose your life out there if you didn't know what you were doing. But the Akids were still worried how much longer it would take for the children to get the serum.