The Dogs of Liberty

When the Cherokees and Gypsies decided to split their tribes and move north, James Colter was the logical choice to lead the expedition. His ancestors had settled Haven at the time of the Go Back, and now with civilization returning, James was anxious to leave all that behind. Leading the wagon train north seemed an ideal solution. Molly knew of James need for wide open spaces and there was nothing holding them to Haven. When their daughter had told them the Colter dogs were dying, she hoped the move north would enable the dogs to recover and remain friends of the family. Shannon, the Colters young daughter, had been imprinted as a small baby by Samson, the lead Colter dog, enabling her to communicate with Samson and the other dogs. The Dogs of Liberty joined the Colter family when they fled south at the time of the Go Back. It was a time of sickness and chaos when everything just stopped working. It was a time of kill or be killed, a time of base survival. Those families who survived that time with a sense of decency and purpose were rare. Those who came through with the Colter dogs as friends were fortunate indeed. The Colter dogs had escaped from the genetic Labs where they were created at the time of the Go Back. Originally engineered as weapons, the dogs soon evolved beyond the constraints of the scientists and broke free. They encountered the Colters on their flight south, and had been a part of the Colter family for a hundred years. Why the dogs chose the Colter family was never clear. They never bonded as dogs do with their owners, because they were no longer dogs, and were never owned. They were truly a breed apart. And now the dogs were dying…