[ WP ] A soldier in the heat of battle suddenly hears a voice that says `` I am your child 's imaginary friend . They have sent me to protect you in your greatest time of need . ''

I looked up over the low bushes that I was lying in, and saw the enemy troops moving through the trees about 100 meters off. Could n't be long now, I figured; they'd clearly seen me eject, and watched me parachute into the woods, as if in slow motion. 
 
 `` Well, no point in making it easy for them.'' I thought. I moved out, creeping on hands and knees as silently as I could through the brush while holding a pistol. 
 
 As I crept onward, I could hear the troops crashing through the woods behind me; they were n't really trying to be quiet- the occasional Chinese phrase made it to my ears, and they sounded like jokes. I had the distinct feeling that they were the beaters, and I was the game, and that I'd come upon the actual hunters soon. 
 
 As I continued to creep through the underbrush on hands and knees, my thoughts began to stray to my wife, and my two boys, who I had n't seen for more than a year. Suddenly I heard a sound in front of me. I froze, and listened. I heard whispering in Chinese to the front left, and a reply from the front right. I figured I was well and truly fucked. Unbidden, a saying from college flew into my thoughts- `` ’ I've seen ‘ em lose and I ’ ve seen ‘ em win, 
 But I ’ ve never seen ‘ em quit.'' I scowled; that saying is all fine and dandy when you're talking about football, but it pretty much sucks when you're facing a platoon of Chinese regulars armed with nothing but a 9mm pistol. 
 
 I heard a low growl to my right, and another low growl to my left, and a third growl just past that. I stayed put; being captured is one thing, being shot is another, but being mauled by wolves in the forest is not how I wanted to go. 
 
 The bushes rustled quietly more or less where the growls had come from, and I heard the rustling disappear to my front. Apparently the wolves had gone away from me; what a relief! 
 
 Things got interesting right after that- I heard a series of loud growls, frantic gunfire, screaming, and then silence. After a few minutes, I figured I'd take advantage of whatever the wolves had done. I started creeping again- as I went near where I thought the noise had come from, I smelled blood and shit and death. As I emerged from the brush, I saw multiple dead Chinese soldiers scattered in a small clearing- some with ripped out throats, others disemboweled. I changed direction, but kept going because I did n't want whatever had done that to catch me. 
 
 Just then, I heard a low growl. I froze- another growl. I turned in a different direction- a low bark. I kept going in the same direction - a low bark. 
 
 I kept going through the night; the barks and growls kept me on a definite course. Sometime before dawn, the barks and growls from the wolves I never saw made me stop near a rather wide clearing, but would n't actually let me enter it. I tried my emergency radio for the first time since ejecting, and made contact with the CSAR guys. A wave of relief washed over me; the PJs were on their way. 
 
 A couple of hours later, I heard the helicopters coming, so I moved into the clearing so that they'd see me. As I stepped into the clearing, I saw a large Alaskan Husky dog, a smaller Husky, and I swear to God, a fucking HUGE beagle. All three trotted up to me and licked my hand, and I petted them like I knew them. Somehow it felt like I DID know them, but that seemed really weird, so I did n't think about it. As the PJ helicopters came over the trees, the dogs trotted into the brush, and I lost track of them. 
 
 Years later, after the war was long over, I finally worked up the courage to tell my family the tale of how I escaped being captured after being shot down. I even told them about the odd dogs that had helped me. My oldest son said `` Wow.'' and sat down heavily on the couch. I asked him what the deal was, and my younger son Ben said `` Dad, remember Wolf, Wolfie and Bingo?'' Of course I did, they'd had those stuffed dogs for their entire childhoods, and loved them until they'd eventually fallen apart. Ben said `` Well, when you were deployed, Matt and I asked them to look out for you and help you if you were in trouble.'' I was floored- it fell into place right then. The three dogs had taken out the hunters and led me to safety that awful night.
