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Sunkist was a smart dog. Tommy had made her such, and made her so much more than a normal dog. Tommy had done that for her, for himself. She was needed, by Tommy, and when Tommy asked her to do something important like this, Sunkist had no qualms about completing his request.
Especially with something like this.
Gordon Freeman was one of Tommy’s friends. Sunkist knew him very well, and knew he was not a happy human. Sunkist worried about him a lot, but she couldn’t do much to communicate that. Tommy understood her, and she could do sweet voice, but only the most basic of it. There was no way to properly tell Tommy everything that was going on here, but Tommy was a smart human. He finally understood.
She only wished it hadn’t come when he was in danger.
Benrey’s home was quiet, but Sunkist knew he was not asleep. Sunkist slipped through the walls into the living room, padding around to be seen in the light of the TV, setting the note down on the table so that she may pick it up later. Benrey looked to her, and hummed.
“Hey Sunkist.” She barked, letting Gordon’s name in sweet voice tumble out from her snout, and Benrey frowned at it. “What’s up with him?”
Sunkist shifted slightly, then opened her snout again quickly to let more sweet voice tumble out. Danger, fear, worry, all bundled into neat little balls.
Benrey stood quickly. “Where is he? His apartment?”
Sunkist barked once and picked up the note again. In moments, she was alone in Benrey’s apartment, and she continued her journey.
Dr. Coomer and Bubby lived in a rather nice little house, that they were all currently trying to get the houses on the sides of, so that they could all live closer. Sunkist slipped through the door to the bedroom.
Coomer was alone in the bed, but that was normal. The room had been expanded by Tommy’s father, enough for a strange tub full of green goo. Sometimes, Bubby couldn’t sleep dry. Sunkist knew that.
She moved over, setting the note carefully on the bedside table, and barked, once, twice, three times before Coomer jerked away, sitting up to look at Sunkist. She moved over and nosed the goo container. How was she supposed to wake up Bubby.
“Do you need both of us up dear?” Coomer asked, and Sunkist barked once, and nosed at the container again.
It took a bit longer than Sunkist would have liked, and she barked urgently at Coomer, who took that at face value and managed to get Bubby up and awake faster.
As Bubby was drying off, grumbling, Sunkist grabbed the note, holding it up to Coomer.
She sat as he read it, watching the reactions float across his face, before grabbing Bubby’s arm to have him read it. Bubby could read faster than Coomer, which was good. They were wasting far too much time already.
Bubby needed to get dressed, but managed that quick enough, and she stood. Once sure that they both had a hand on her, she phased out of their home, into Gordon’s apartment.
She did her job, and then focused on the next that she gave herself. Calm down her human.
Tommy pet down her head gently, frowning to himself. The conversation flowed, but Sunkist didn’t pay too much attention to it, needing to keep her human calm. But Tommy looked to her, a question in his eyes.
“Hey girl... is Mr. Freeman still close?” Sunkist paused, tail freezing in mid air as she looked for him.
In moments she found him, standing on the wrong side of the railing, staring out into the dark. The roof.
Simple concepts, that’s all she could do.
She barked once.
Tommy was a smart human. He would understand.
And he did, eyes darting back to Joshua, asking if they could get to the roof.
Sunkist settled on the floor of the apartment as they booked it out, completely ready to leap through the walls to catch Gordon if they were too late.