Chapter 23- Do Not Enter

    Breathing heavily and filled with triumph, Scamp, Angel, and Patch happily ran away from Cruella’s nightmare manor. The house got smaller and smaller as they ran away from it. They completely lost Cruella and their parents, and they were all very happy about it.
    “Hahaha!” Scamp declared excitedly. “We’re free! Did you see that look on my mom’s face?”
    “Yeah, I know,” Angel laughed. “I’m happy that we’re rid of them.”
    “And Cruella’s probably going crazy right now,” Patch laughed. “We fooled her again… and this time, with no help from the parents!” He then stopped laughing and asked, “Do you know of a place to go?”
    “No, not really,” Angel told him.
    “Well, let’s keep running then,” Patch told the others. “The farther we go from Cruella and our parents, the better off we’ll be. Of course, they won’t be able to keep up with us.”
    “What do you mean?” Scamp asked Patch worriedly, turning a corner. “Pop was a street-dog, and he runs pretty fast. He caught me once when I tried to run away from him.”
“Don’t worry. Lucky and Penny will slow them down,” Patch answered. “They can’t run far… actually, they can’t walk far either.”
“What do you mean?” Angel asked.
“Well, I guess Penny can walk, but Lucky can’t really. Dad carried him through the snow, the ice, and everything else,” Patch explained. “But now he’s a bit big for that. He’ll probably slow them down.”
“That’s good!” Scamp laughed.
The puppies continued to run away quickly. They passed large manors and estates. Like with Cruella’s, they were old, though these were less scary.
“I bet you want to find a home here,” Scamp told Angel.
Angel remained silent. She then sniffed the air and told Scamp and Patch, “You know, I think we’re safe!”
“Yeah, of course we are,” Patch yawned as they stopped by a large fence in order to take a break from running. They looked back, and their parents were still not on their trail. “We don’t have to deal with Cruella anymore.”
“No, it’s better than that,” Angel told Patch. "There are no dogcatchers here. I know their route. This place is too quiet for them. They wouldn’t be able to do their job here. There won’t be enough dogs to catch… or so they think.”
“You’re kidding!” Scamp shouted, smiling in delight.
“You are so smart!” Patch gasped toward Angel.
“Thanks,” Angel replied.
They walked past the fence, and then noticed…
“Wow, what’s this?” Scamp asked.
There, before them, was a large gate that was cracked slightly open. A sign above read, “Do Not Enter.”
“Oh, wow,” Angel told the others happily. “This place... it’s the haunted junkyard! None of the junkyard dogs dared to go in here. I remember Buster told us scary things about this place.”
“Why’s it haunted?” Scamp asked.
“They say that there are ghosts here,” Angel told Scamp. “Only thing is…”
“That there are not!” Patch answered immediately, and Angel nodded. She added, “They’re just false rumors. I know that because Mama stayed here once. She told me all about this place. And she never mentioned ghosts. Buster just told us lies so that we’d stay with him.”
“Why didn’t you go, then?” Scamp asked.
“There are dogcatchers on the journey from the junkyard to here,” Angel explained. “And Buster figured out I knew the truth when I didn’t seem scared. He threatened to kill me if I entered this place, anyway.”
“Why doesn’t he want us here?” Patch asked. “Let’s take a look!”
Scamp laughed aloud. “He won’t find us here! Buster would think we’d be too scared!”
“And he wants to kill us now anyway,” Angel yawned.
“Let’s go in!” Patch declared.
Scamp pushed the gate open, and it budged easily. The three puppies then looked through the hole, and gasped. There were hats and pillows to chew, couches to jump on, bones to bury, and several balls to play with. It looked a little bit like the old junkyard, except there were slightly less items, and they were far more neatly arranged.
“Wahoo!” Scamp stated in delight, scurrying and kicking a ball. “Hey, look at this place! It’s no wonder Buster didn’t want you guys to see this place! This place looks awesome…”
Then he looked up, and smiled. “Hey!” he announced to Scamp and Patch. “We should live here! We can have fun, and have no rules! And live…” then Scamp stopped. “Oh, never mind, you wouldn’t like that, would you, Angel? You want a family, I suppose…”
But Angel didn’t respond right away. She just stared at the ground. Then she muttered, “Hmm… Tenderfoot, I was being stupid. You had it right all along. We don’t need a family after all.”
“Yeah,” Scamp muttered, before gasping, “Wha? Angel… I never thought you’d ever say that.”
“The truth can hurt. But I know it now. I don’t belong to anyone,” Angel explained in a firm way. “I should’ve known. All my families have had problems. Each family gets worse and worse. And now we’ve just dealt with…”
“A mad old hag who is after our skins,” Patch finished bluntly. “I’d love to live on my own, I can be my own puppy for once,” Patch told Scamp and Angel, chasing a butterfly, “And I don’t have to be stuck in a sea of spots.”
“You two… mean it?” Scamp asked. “You mean… you really mean it?”
    Patch and Angel nodded excitedly. “This is our place!” Patch declared.
    “Wahoo!” Scamp hollered. “This is going to be the best! We’re junk…” but then, Angel shook her head.
    “No, we’re not,” Angel told Scamp. “We’re better than that, Scamp.”
    “Yeah,” Patch told them. “Let’s have some fun and always be there for each other!”
    “Good idea!” Scamp told the others, and they smiled at each other. The three puppies then spent the evening in great fun, chasing the balls to each other, hiding behind the furniture and playfighting, and then, when the stars began to emerge, they began to chase fireflies.
    “Oh, I’m tired,” Scamp yawned. “Let’s go to sleep… but this is awesome!”
    “Yeah,” Patch yawned. “Good night.”
    The next morning, the three puppies woke up even hungrier than before. They haven’t eaten anything in three days, apart from Scamp’s stolen ham sandwich. But now, without the immediate threat of murder and as the novelty of settling down in a new home wore off, the puppies began to notice.    
    “Uh…” Scamp groaned. “I’m getting hungry,” he yawned.
    "We’re all starving,” Angel yawned.
    “Let’s fix that up,” Patch told Angel and Scamp. “Look over there!” Patch exclaimed.
    There, sitting in the corner of the Adventure Yard, was an open bag of soot.
    “Watch this!” Patch exclaimed. Patch rolled in the soot. He came out all black, and then smiled. “I’m going to sneak out and get us some food. Mom and Dad might recognize me, but I can get away from them. They’ll be stuck with Lucky. And your parents wouldn’t recognize me.”
    “Right,” Scamp and Angel answered, and Patch snuck through a crack in the fence. Scamp and Angel sat there in the corner, smiling at each other. “This place is so fun!” Scamp excitedly announced.
    “Yeah, I know!” Angel told Scamp. She chased her tail and caught it with her mouth. But then…
    Scamp yelled, “Hey…look!”
    Angel and Scamp looked in the soot. There were some brownish furs… but then…
    “Oh no!” Angel gasped. “I hear someone coming!”
    “Let’s hope its Patch,” Scamp told Angel, but by then, someone was already pawing open the gate.