The Runaway Adventures

Chapter 13:Garbage Cans and Ham Sandwiches

Sitting in the back seat of Cruella's car, the puppies looked at each other in horror, all of them were at a loss for words. The car shook violently as it rattled down the street. But the puppies didn't even think about their discomfort as the horror of their situation dawned on them.

Patch broke the tense silence as he told Scamp and Angel, "Cruella is dangerous. She's a real blasted piece of work... I'd like to tear her gizzard out."

"Wow, you're allowed to say things like that?" Scamp asked, impressed. "My family would never allow that. It's so cool that you're able to say things like that and get away with it!"

"We weren't, trust me," Patch explained dourly. "My parents are strict on rules."

Patch thought he saw a flicker of disapproval in Penny's eyes. But the next second he knew he must have been imagining things, for Penny had just rushed up to him, rubbed against him a few times, and sighed, "Patch...I... I'm scared!"

"Me too Penny," Patch told her, and the two of them cuddled together nervously.

Lucky meanwhile was lying down, depressed. He grumbled, "We're not going to have fun. She has these two mean blokes, Horace and Jasper. They're mean and they don't let us watch TV."

"What's that?" Scamp asked curiously, hoping for a subject to take his mind off his situation.

"It's this box where you see things on," Penny answered indifferently.

"Wow, it sounds amazing!" Angel excitedly told them.

"It is, especially Thunderbolt the Wonder Dog!" Patch exclaimed. "It's the best show in the world! Every day Thunderbolt goes out and saves somebody. I memorized all the episodes and can tell you all about them! There's action and suspense and it's awesome!"

"Wow, we don't have anything like this!" Scamp told them.

"It must not have reached your family yet," Lucky told him. "We've had it for our whole life...until now."

"Well, our family is boring," Scamp grumbled. "Why would they have something cool like that in the first place?"

But while he asked that, the car halted. Penny, Patch, and Lucky froze, and stared at the front of the car with horror in their eyes. Scamp and Angel looked curiously at the front. Then the front car door opened. Cruella got out of the car and happily opened the back door. Cruella smiled indulgently at the puppies, but this didn't make her skeletal face look any less threatening. "Now, now, now, it's time to come out," she told the puppies with great relish in her voice, waggling her long gloved hand and beckoning them to come over. "Come puppies, come puppies... Mommy Cruella will treat you all right... come on..."

She continued to waggle her finger and smile at them as her heavy, odorous green smoke came wafting from her cigarette. The dalmatian puppies fled to the corner as far away as possible.

"Phew!" Scamp gasped, coughing. "She reeks...still, she smells better than that stupid flowery smell my sisters like," Scamp told them cheerfully. Penny, Patch, and Lucky looked exasperatedly at Scamp.

Then, Cruella grabbed Scamp and Angel harshly by their necks.

Angel gasped as she felt how hard this grasp was. She realized at once that this was grab was not the warm, loving grasp of a prospective owner, but the cold, threatening grasp of a seriously dangerous person. Meanwhile, the dalmatian puppies were still not within reach. They were scurrying in the car, desperate to avoid Cruella's grasp.

"You can't get away from me this time... just give up and come to me! Scotland Yard is here no longer, a-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Cruella got on her hands and knees and crawled onto the back seats, continuing to clutch onto Scamp and Angel with one hand. With her other hand, she groped for the Dalmatians as they frantically tried to get away from her grasp. But Cruella's hand quickly caught up to them and before they knew it, all five puppies were in her grasp.