The Empty City (20 page)

“That could have been dangerous, Alfie,” Lucky chided him gently, though he could relate more than ever to Alfie's need to be alone. “But what did you find?”

“Dogs!” he announced triumphantly. “Lots of
dogs
!”

The others yapped and barked at the news, and Daisy performed her spinning-in-a-circle trick, bouncing with excitement. “What were they like, Alfie?” she yelped. “Are they friendly? Can they help us?”

“I don't know. I didn't go that far. But I heard them! And I smelled them, too—and there was something else!”

Lucky's skin prickled with unease, but the others were too excited to worry.

“What?” yipped Sunshine. “What was it?”

Alfie's eyes gleamed. “Food. Lots and
lots
of food!”

“Let's go,” yapped Sunshine. “Let's go
there now and introduce ourselves!”

“That's a wonderful idea,” said Mickey warmly.

Lucky took a breath as the others barked and yelped with the eagerness to investigate. He was uncomfortably aware that the questions he was about to ask could cause another squabble. “Alfie, what kind of dogs were they?”

“I don't know. They were dogs! Like us! But with food!”

“Not all dogs
are
like us. What if they're hostile? What if it's a Wild Pack? They'll defend their territory if they are. You shouldn't mess with a Wild Pack—and they won't choose to share food with you.”

Sunshine was crestfallen, but Bruno interrupted. “There's no harm in looking.”

“There could be plenty of harm in it,” growled Lucky. “I don't like this. I'm sorry. It sounds dangerous.”

“Oh, Lucky,” yipped Bella fondly. “You think everything is dangerous! You're a wonderful leader, but perhaps you should stop being quite so cautious.”

“If there's food for the taking, we can't
not
look,” added Bruno. “This could mean we wouldn't have to tire ourselves out by hunting!”

Lucky realized Bruno was still aggrieved about the fight demonstration. He sighed. “We don't know anything about these dogs,” he protested.

“But we can find out. The least we can do is look,” suggested Martha.

“I agree,” Bruno said.

“And if they're smaller than us,” said Bella, throwing Lucky a challenging glare, “there won't be a problem.”

“Bella's right,” put in Mickey. “Why don't we at least go and investigate?”

“It would be easier than hunting beetles,” said Sunshine mournfully, sitting down and tapping the ground with her tailtip.

What's wrong with beetles all of a sudden?
Lucky pawed at one that was clambering over a grass stem, but he'd lost his appetite. He didn't like the way Bella was looking at him: She was drawn up to her full height and her ears were turned back, almost as if she was spoiling for a fight. When a squirrel in one of the treetops chirruped angrily at them, she didn't even flick an ear, just went on staring at Lucky with her head slightly tilted.

“Tell you what,” Bella suggested. “Some of us can go and investigate. The rest will stay here, as a sort of backup team, and guard the camp while we're gone. A small group will be less noticeable anyway. I'd suggest me, Daisy, Alfie, and Lucky.”

Lucky studied the hopeful eyes and the pricked ears of the little group.
I have a bad feeling about this
, Lucky thought. But he knew that if he was going to leave these dogs to cope on their own one day, they had to start making their own decisions—and he had to trust them. “All right. But at the first sign of trouble—turn tails! The rest of you, stay close to the camp.”

Whatever happened next, Lucky would just have to be ready.

Alfie seemed happy to be lead dog for a change. He'd found a path through the brush, beaten down by small animals, and there was plenty of shade dappling the way, at least till they reached the beginning of the slope. As they stepped out from beneath the tree cover, the late Sun-Dog's rays beat down on them, and by the time they'd climbed to the ridge they were all moving sluggishly. When Alfie paused in the shadow of a tree even Lucky flopped down.

“We should rest,” he told them.

“It's not far now,” panted Alfie, still eager.

“We'll get moving again soon,” promised Bella, wagging her tail. “When I say so, be ready to go.”

She'd raised her voice to be sure it would reach Lucky. He laid his head on his paws and turned away, glaring down into the valley. She was making sure her so-called Pack knew who was boss; that was all.

Let her! It's not as if they're
my
Pack!

Lucky followed Alfie as he led them down a winding rabbit path. His mind was a tumble of conflict and uncertainty. How would a Wild Pack react to the approach of a bunch of Leashed Dogs? Would they be driven off with their tails between their legs? How would Bella's leadership skills stand up if she had to talk her way out of a fight?

Suddenly Alfie squeaked, “There. Look!”

Lucky halted with the others and sniffed the air doubtfully. Yes, he could scent them—dogs, a good many of them—and he was fairly sure he didn't like it. The scent was dark, bitter, and musky, and it reeked of anger—not that it seemed to bother the others. From the shade of a small scrubby tree, they gazed out at the scene below.

The valley was broad and dotted with longpaw buildings, but these longpaw buildings didn't look like the longpaw homes that Lucky had seen in the city. They were too short, for one thing. In fact, their doors looked dog-sized. The walls were plain, and the windows had metal bars across the holes where most longpaw buildings had clear-stone. They seemed less damaged than the buildings in the city, but there were a few vicious cracks running up some of the walls.

There was something unnatural about the sight, something frightening that would have made Lucky want to run away as fast as he could in any direction—if it hadn't been for the scent of food.

It was a strong, tantalizing odor. Not longpaw food like the Food House owner had given him, Lucky decided—but very definitely food made of meat. Lucky felt his mouth water and he licked his chops. His stomach grumbled. There was no sign of movement below—not that that made Lucky feel any better.

So where were the dogs he could smell? Lucky's heartbeat quickened. He'd worked so hard to look after the Pack, and he couldn't put them in danger now. But his stomach was telling him something different. If these were friendly dogs—friends with food … perhaps Bella was right, after all, and they would share what they had. It had to be worth exploring.

“All right,” he said slowly. “Let's go closer. Stick together and try not to draw attention to yourself. Not until we know what type of dogs are down there.”

Creeping forward, then running low, they scampered toward the fence and peered through. Bella put her forepaws up against the wire, snuffling.

“Look,” she breathed in awe. “Look at all that food!”

In front of the low houses there were metal bowls, some with a thin puddle of water in them, some brim-full of dry-looking nuggets of meat. Once again Lucky licked saliva from his jaws. It wasn't like live rabbit, but it did smell good. And there was so much of it....

“I think it's …” whispered Alfie haltingly. “It
smells
like …”

“Like our home-food,” agreed Bella in a murmur. “It's like the food the longpaws used to give us.”

“Oh …” Daisy breathed a nostalgic, hungry sigh. “I'd love to taste that again....”

Even as they watched, they heard a loud click. All the dogs froze, limbs stiffening and muscles tensing to run, but no one appeared, longpaw or dog. Instead, more of those nuggets poured from holes in the wall into the metal bowls, making some of them overflow, and fresh clear water streamed into every second bowl.

It was too much for Bella. She hopped on her hindpaws, sticking her nose desperately through the wire, whining and scratching at the fence with her claws.

“It's amazing! Food that comes from nowhere! We
have
to get in!”

Lucky cocked his head, staring at the bowls as the others nuzzled and poked their noses under the fence, searching for gaps and scraping at the earth. Certainly it seemed quiet enough, he thought.

So why was the dog-spirit inside him telling him to run?

“Here!” yelped Alfie. “I found a hole!”

The others bounded toward it, but Lucky approached more cautiously, watching the dark entrance to the closest building for any sign of movement.

He could smell dogs, and he could see their food. So where were they?

His hackles bristled, and he took a pace back. The Leashed Dogs were surviving on the food they hunted; did they really need these overflowing bowls of extra food?

“Lucky, come and see!” cried Daisy. “I can dig deeper. Just you watch—I'll make us a way in!”

“No.” Lucky shook his head. “This doesn't feel right. There's danger here. Can't you sense it? We should get away while we can. You can hunt now—we don't need others to give us our food.”

“Don't be silly,” snapped Bella. “Why should we hunt, when all this is here for the taking?”

Lucky's skin prickled all over as he looked at the late Sun-Dog glinting off the shiny metal bowls. “That's the point. Don't you see how much food there is? How big those bowls are? How big do you think the dogs are that live here? Do you think you'd win a fight? We haven't seen them, but why? Are they hiding?”

Daisy glanced nervously at Bella, but the bigger dog growled, “We can look after ourselves.”

Lucky whined. Every moment he spent in this place made him more uneasy. He was wrong to have let the Pack come here. The sensation in his hide had become a tingling, an almost unbearable sense of threat, similar to the way he felt before a Sky-Dog battle—or before the Big Growl shattered the world. And worse, it was waking the memory of his terrible dreams: the dreams that didn't make sense. The Storm of Dogs …

They had to get out of here.

“Please, Bella!” he started to say.

Springing up onto a higher hillock of earth by the fence, Bella snarled. “That's it!
I'm
the Alpha of this Pack, Lucky.
I
brought you in. You might be very clever on your own, but this is
our
kind of place. And I say we're going in!”

Lucky bared his teeth at her. “Stop acting like a spoiled puppy! You've no idea what being an Alpha is all about!”

“Oh, and you do?” Legs stiff, hackles high, Bella stalked around him, growling. “We were doing just fine before we met you. You're the one who's showing off. Pretending you know it all!”

“I know a lot more than you do, Leashed Dog!” snarled Lucky. “You don't know anything about staying alive! You're all soft, and you've got no sense. No—no
dog-spirit
!” That was about as bad an insult as he could find to throw at her. Guilt plunged through him, but it wasn't enough to overwhelm his anger.
How dare she! After everything I've done for her!

There was something else in Lucky's heart, too: a fear that pounded through him with every breath. These dogs looked up to Lucky as a leader because he knew the lay of the land and could teach them crafty survival tricks. But it did not matter how crafty Lucky was; he knew what happened to dogs who lost challenges. He had seen it happen before. It was like their dog-spirit had been slashed, wounds ripped open, and their essence, their bravery, their courage all seeped out. A defeated dog would duck his head in the presence of others, and keep his tail low, limp between his legs.

Lucky's instincts urged him to fight against this.

Bella barked in anger. “You talk a lot of nonsense!”

“Dog-spirit is what's inside us all,” he snarled. “Or it should be! That's what protects us—along with the Sky-Dogs and the Forest-Dog and—oh, why am I bothering with you? You don't understand any of it!”

“Well, your so-called dog-spirit is making you a coward, Lucky!” growled Bella. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth as they circled each other. Alfie and Daisy watched fearfully, crouching close to the ground. “There aren't any other dogs here! Worse, there aren't any longpaws, either.”