[ WP ] Humans are being attacked by ( aliens , demons , basically a new kind of enemies ) , and almost all human weapons are being countered . Except , for some reason , dogs and wolves .

Somewhere from the forest a dog bayed, and a hundred others took up the call, howling, wailing, moon-maddened, casting their voices loose into the night. Lynn listened as her own dogs shook themselves from complacency and raised their heads and bayed, and a shiver ran down her spine. Lights shone from the woods. The pack was returning. 
 
 Carter shuffled into the house, old black Duke by his side, and the other dogs rushed up to greet them. `` Down! Down, boys!'' he yelled, stomping snow from his boots, fending off a flurry of panting mouths. 
 
 `` Shoo! Shoo!'' Lynn said, keeping a hot chocolate above the fray in one hand, and the dogs settled back in their places by the fire. `` How'd it go?'' she said, passing the mug to Carter. 
 
 `` Thanks,'' he said, his fingers closing around the mug, but made no move to lift it to his mouth. `` We found a pack of wolves. Slaughtered. By those same damn beasts that've been killing everything else.'' 
 
 `` What?'' The floor seemed to go unsteady under her. She looked at the dogs by the fire, now settling back into a complacent half-slumber. `` How the hell is that possible? Are n't they supposed to be scared of wolves too?'' 
 
 Carter grimaced. `` That's what we figured. Guess it was n't true? Or maybe they ai n't scared of the dogs anymore either, and it's just a matter of time?'' The mug clunked heavily against the table. `` There's no difference between'em, right? Wolves and dogs? They're the same goddamn species!'' 
 
 `` Yeah, same species.'' She ran her fingers through her curly hair. `` Dogs think differently, though. We basically domesticated each other. They protected us, we gave them warmth and shelter. So we evolved alongside each other, learned to think alike. A dog's psychology is probably closer to ours than any other animal in the world.'' 
 
 Carter raised an eyebrow. `` That so? Makes sense, I guess.'' 
 
 `` Yeah. They can instinctively read our facial expressions. Or something as simple as pointing. Other animals do n't understand what it means when we point at an object. Dogs do. They look at what we're pointing at. It works both ways, too. When's the last time you saw a group of primates hunting big game in packs?'' 
 
 Carter had shucked off his coat and boots and settled down beside Duke. `` So if we're so damn similar,'' he said, scratching behind Duke's ear, `` how come those beasts ai n't afraid of us? How come they ai n't afraid of wolves?'' 
 
 `` I do n't know!'' She looked down at Carter and the dogs, forming a cozy pile by the fire, and fought down the urge to kick them and send them scattering. `` All my research so far has been under the assumption that there was something about the Canis lupus species that was driving these invaders off. But if you're telling me that they slash up wolves just fine, I'm back at square one!'' She made an abortive motion with her foot that at least made one of the dogs put its ears up. 
 
 `` Calm down, doc,'' Carter said. `` No one's expecting you to solve this whole thing. We got the dogs. We're safe. We'll figure something out eventually.'' He got up and stretched out his legs. `` But doc, excuse me for asking this, but I've gotten the feeling that you do n't like dogs very much, do you?'' 
 
 Lynn flushed slightly. `` I do n't have anything against dogs. I'm just... not comfortable having them around all the time.'' 
 
 Carter was grinning now, a twinkle in his eye. `` But I thought you said that dogs were more psychologically like us than any other animal. So how you feel about us humans, doc?'' 
 
 `` About the same,'' she snapped, and shut herself up in her study. 
 
... 
 
 Lynn woke that night to the sound of screaming, harsh broken shrieks punctuated by teeth snapping down. It's the dogs, she thought, half-awake, it's those goddamn dogs again, before the teeth closed down on her arm. 
 
 She jolted awake, gasping, and saw Duke at the end of her arm, dragging her off balance and onto the floor. She screamed, kicking out at him, bare feet helpless against the growling mass of fur, before she realized he was n't breaking skin. He was dragging her, urgently but bloodlessly, teeth pressed firmly into her wrist. 
 
 Carter burst through her door. `` We got ta get out of here, doc! The dogs are going nuts! They want everyone out of town!'' 
 
 Duke released her wrist the moment she got to her feet and was a black bullet out the door. Carter had his rifle in hand and stood over her as she pulled on a coat and boots. The light through the window flickered like flames, dancing to another crescendo of screams. The cold air stung her face as Carter flung open the door. It was a full-fledged evacuation. It was a stampede. Half-dressed townspeople stumbled through the snow, dogs at their heels, barking, guiding, herding them. Lynn looked back at what they had been running from, and saw half the town on fire. The beasts' massive shapes rose against the flames. Gunshots rang out, and then screams followed. 
 
 Lynn looked down to find one of the dogs tugging at her nightgown, trying to pull her into the tide. She heard the fabric tear and an irrational impulse seized her. `` Shoo!'' she cried out, `` bad dog!'' and kicked it in the snout. It looked at her with glossy eyes and vanished into the crowd. 
 
 Lynn stumbled backwards, away from the dogs, away from the people. Carter was missing, probably a part of the herd now. Hundreds of footfalls had trodden a path in the snow: towards the beasts. Towards the fire. Lynn glanced backwards at the townspeople and dogs disappearing into the woods, and felt her stomach turn at the thought of joining them. Where was there left to run to? Step by half-dazed step, she made her way closer to the fires. 
 
 The howls, the screams, the heated maddened barking grew more feverish with each step. Lynn tried to choke the pulsing blood vessel in her head. Was n't she moving further from the dogs? The sky was bare and red. Her feet picked past scraps of clothing, twisted gun barrels, the remains of the dead. 
 
 And there before her one of the beasts rose, its body a mountain parting the sky. Its neck swayed gracefully on an axis, and then lowered to touch the ground. And there, black against black, Duke was sitting. 
 
 Lynn tensed as the beast lowered its head within inches of Duke, bracing herself for a single motion of jaws and a flurry of bloody black fur. Instead it waited, breathed with the sound of distant thunder, and then Duke raised one of his paws as if to shake hands, pawing against the beast's black head in an oh-so-familiar ritual. 
 
 He was petting it. Duke was petting the beast. 
 
 We domesticated each other, a voice in her head said. Who's to say the dogs were n't capable of domesticating something else? 
 
 Lynn had a vision of man and dog fleeing through the forests, both animals moving together in a single pack, hunting together, killing together, living together, indistinguishable. 
 
 And then the beast's great head swayed and its single eye fixed upon her and Duke let out a little yip, and Lynn's vision went black.
