The Empty City (12 page)

And then he stopped worrying, because a new, deadly rumble filled the air. There wasn't time to huddle together and protect one another. The rumbling instantly became a tremendous crash, a chaos of stone and screeching metal, and the air filled with blinding dust.

Lucky froze, crouching against the ground, and so did the others. He gazed ahead, his jaw hanging slack. Where a longpaw house had stood, right next to Bella's, now there were only billowing clouds of smoke.

The echoing thunder seemed to go on forever. No one moved until the dust began to thin and clear and settle. Sunshine whimpered uncertainly, and Mickey's growl was a frightened one.

Nothing had fallen on them; he'd gathered Bella's friends in exactly the right place, he realized with pride.

His sense of achievement was swept away as the hairs stood up on the back of his neck and shoulders. The sound that came from the ruins was horrible: an unearthly howl of terror and pain and desolation. For a few seconds he stood stock-still with the rest of them, uncomprehending, as chills ran through his belly; was the Earth-Dog herself mourning and whining at this further disaster? Was this the final straw: the destruction of all that was left?

Then, at his side, Bella lifted her muzzle and gave a hysterical howl. Lucky watched in amazement as she stood there, trembling, the others joining in her cry of distress.

“What?” he snapped desperately. “Bella! Tell me!”

“Alfie!”
she whined. “He's trapped in that house!”

“
Alfie! Alfieeeee!” Sunshine was running in
frantic circles. “Lucky, do something!
Pleeeease!
”

Lucky turned from one dog to the other, nearly tripping over Daisy again. The others were all frozen to the spot. “Who's Alfie?”

Bella shook her head miserably. “A little, brave dog. He wasn't with us when we found you. He'd stayed behind to guard his longpaws' house!”

“I knew we should never have left him,” Daisy muttered, her nose drooping into the dirt.

“There's nothing we can do.” Mickey's whine was bleak.

“If we go in there we might be killed.” Bella took a shivering step backward as she stared at the wreckage. A faint breeze lifted a billow of white dust, and another piece of wood creaked, fell, and shattered. The howling rose again from the longpaw house: a small dog, lonely and desperate and afraid.

Martha raked the ground with one huge paw, unwilling to look at anyone. “Poor Alfie. He wasn't really one of us. He always kept to himself.”

“Martha's right.” Bella crouched on her belly, pawing dust from her eyes. “He wasn't one of our Pack, Lucky. Not really. Oh, poor little Alfie. If he'd only come with us … but he hardly ever did....”

Lucky looked from the collapsed longpaw house to the other dogs, and back again. Why were they talking about Alfie as if he were already dead?

He had to bark loudly to make himself heard over the miserable sound from the ruins. “What are you saying? There's a dog trapped in there! He's still alive!”

“But we can't help him.” Bella's ears flattened even closer against her skull, and she growled resentfully. “We can't do anything!”

“We have to
try
!” snapped Lucky. Daisy was staring up at him with wide eyes.

Sunshine whined and spun frantically. “We can't leave him there, can we, Bella?” Her ears drooped. “Can we?”

A deep, gruff bark came from his side. Lucky turned, surprised, to see Bruno, looking belligerent.

“Lucky's right.” Bruno glared at Bella and the others. “Alfie's one of our Pack whether he knows it or not. And I'm going to help!”

“Thank you,” Lucky said. Bruno, at least, understood what it meant to look out for other dogs. “You'll make a good Pack member. Now, come with me.”

As they both turned and loped toward the ruin, Sunshine's whimper rose behind them, high and frightened. “I'd come, too. I'd come, but …”

Lucky shook his head.
They treat me like I'm some expert on being a Pack leader
, he thought,
and they don't even know what being in a Pack means!

But if they wanted leadership, he'd give it to them; he'd show them this one last thing before moving on. Whatever else lay ahead of them, they'd have to find out for themselves, the hard way.
One last favor. No dog deserves to be left to die. Then I'm off—they can look after themselves!

“Look at the front of the longpaw house,” rumbled Bruno. “If he was in there, he'd be a dead dog already. He must be in the back, in the kitchen. The cold room, you know? That's where his basket was.”

“Right. Good thinking, Bruno.” Lucky inspected the ruins, pacing carefully through the debris. The walls were reduced to rubble at the front and sides of the longpaw house, and the roof had caved in completely. “There's still a wall standing around the back. Let's try there.”

Lucky picked his way to the back, moving carefully on his injured paw pad. He could still hear Alfie howling pitifully somewhere under the rubble.

“Alfie! Can you hear me?” Bruno barked. Alfie's yelping didn't stop; his friend's calls to him had gone unheard.

They clambered over fallen bricks and pieces of twisted metal into the backyard of the longpaw house.

Lucky sniffed at the ground. No invisible power here; its source must have been destroyed. A huge and creaking old tree overshadowed the yard, and he glanced up at it nervously. It leaned at a slight angle, its trunk cracked where the lower branches began to spread, and he didn't like the groaning noise that came from within it, as if it was in pain.

Just in time, he spotted the broken shards of clear-stone on the ground in front of his paws. He trod a delicate path around them, followed by Bruno. A window had fallen out of the back wall. In the empty space left, some crisscrossed wire was torn and sagging, but still intact.

“That's our way in.” Lucky nodded at the window.

He put a paw against the wire mesh, but quickly drew it back. It felt so sharp, reminding Lucky of his Trap House cage. He couldn't afford a second wound—but Alfie's howls were a tormenting racket. The sound made Lucky's bones ache and his blood pound.
I can't give up!

Lucky scrambled up on a pile of rubble, Bruno at his side. Together they tugged with their teeth, and Lucky tried scratching the wire aside with his claws, but it was no use. Lucky got a good grip on a sagging piece of mesh, but it sprang back, giving his nose a stinging blow. Lucky jumped away and tilted his head, frustrated.

“This is no good. What should we do now?” Bruno frowned.

Lucky realized that the proud old dog was deferring to his experience. He felt a flush of confidence surge through him.
I can do this
.

“I got it!” Lucky turned and bounded down from the pile of blocks. “I know what to do!”

“Lucky, look out!”

Lucky heard Bruno's shrill bark of alarm. He looked up in terror as the groaning tree gave a crack like the war of the Sky-Dogs.

He couldn't falter. He dashed on, dodging sideways as the massive branch above him plummeted to the earth. It missed the tip of his tail by a hair's breadth; he felt the rush of air on his hindquarters.

As the crash of leaves and branches faded, he paused to glance back at Bruno, catching his breath. He gave a sharp bark of gratitude for the warning. Then he was running hard for Bella's house.

Bella and Sunshine barked something he didn't catch as he sprinted away from Alfie's home. The rest of the Pack was still huddled together on the grass patch in between the longpaw houses. Were they encouraging him, or trying to get him to stop? He didn't have time to think about it now. He reached Bella's door and hesitated, his heart thrashing.

This longpaw house might collapse, too. Lucky's forelegs trembled with nerves as he eyed the cracked walls.

I'd better be quick....

Darting through the doorway, he found Bella's sleeping corner and snatched up her soft-hide in his jaws. It was big and thick, and awkward to carry, but it was perfect for what he had in mind. He dragged it out through the door, his muscles trembling with relief as he reached the open air once more. He paused, letting the pounding of his heart calm a little—and giving quick thanks to the Earth-Dog for her tolerance—then raced back to where Bruno waited, to where Alfie still whined pitifully for help.

“We're coming, Alfie,” growled Bruno reassuringly. “Not long now! Stay calm.”

Please, Earth-Dog
, Lucky took a moment to beg,
will you help me again like you did in Bella's house? Please let us get Alfie out. Please don't let the Big Growl come for us....

With the soft-hide between their teeth protecting their soft gums from the tearing spikes of wire, Lucky and Bruno tugged as hard as they could. Lucky felt his body jerk back as strands of wire weakened and tore apart. One last tug—and a whole section of wire was ripped aside.

Yes! We're in!

There were jagged spikes of broken clear-stone around the wooden frame, but the soft-hide cushioned those, too, and both dogs managed to squirm through and into the longpaw house.

Bruno stood on the rubble-strewn floor, panting from the exertion. “Alfie! Where are you?”

There was a soft whine from beneath one of the longpaws' sitting-boxes. Lucky tugged at it with his jaws, loosening a tangle of broken wood and metal till they could reach the dog trapped beneath. Bruno squirmed between the wooden legs, grabbed Alfie's collar, and dragged him free.

The little dog lay shivering for a few moments before getting shakily to his paws. He glanced nervously at Lucky. Alfie was short and stocky, and his face was blunt and covered in wrinkles. His fur was a mottled pattern of brown and white.

“Thank you,” he whispered, and glanced around mournfully at his ruined house.

“Come on,” grunted Bruno. “Let's get you back to the others.”

Lucky led the way carefully back across the rubble-strewn floor and through the broken window. Bruno had to give Alfie a nudge up with his head just to help the little dog reach it.

“You'll have to stay with us now, Alfie,” Bruno said when they were safely outside.

“Yes … oh, my poor longpaws!” He whined with distress as he stared at the wreckage of his home. “Where are they, where
are they
? Look at this place! What will they do when they come back?”

Lucky blinked. Why were these Leashed Dogs so anxious about their longpaws' feelings? It wasn't as if the longpaws had given them much thought before they ran. “Don't worry about them,” he growled. “You have to take care of yourself for now.”

Alfie's head was hunched into his neck as he looked up at Lucky, and he blinked anxiously. “Who are you?”

“He's Lucky,” broke in Bruno. “And so are you. It's amazing you weren't crushed in there. Now come on.”

The others were waiting, tense, ears pricked as they picked their way back to the grass in the middle of the avenue. Lucky gave each one of them a disdainful stare.

We saved him, no thanks to any of you....

Bella came forward and tentatively licked Lucky's ear. “I'm glad you're all right,” she murmured guiltily.

He made a rumbling sound in his throat, not quite ready to forgive her. The others were avoiding his eyes, blinking around at the skewed walls of their longpaw houses, the dust clouds raised by a tiny breeze. The surroundings looked almost as forlorn as they did.

Sunshine was the first to recover. She trotted up to Alfie, licking him in apologetic welcome. Soon the others joined her, nuzzling the friend they'd nearly abandoned out of fear.

“You see, Bella?” whined Sunshine. “I knew Lucky would get him out! I knew he could do it!”

“I got him out, too,” grumbled Bruno.

“Of course you did! Brave Bruno!” Sunshine was beside herself with admiration. “It was the right thing to do, Bella! You shouldn't have tried to stop them.”

“Hey!” objected Martha. “You didn't want to help, either, Sunshine!”