The Return (9 page)

“Move out of the way, yapper,” Zeus snarled.

Callie hopped back, more out of shock at Zeus's proximity than because he'd said to.

Zeus batted at the cabinet with his good paw and the door swung open. “You're welcome,” he grumbled, dropping back onto all fours.

“Thanks,” Callie growled, scowling at the boxer.

Inside, Callie sniffed out a box of dry, crunchy twists of dough. There were also some jars, which she knocked to the floor, smashing them in half.

“Let's eat!” she yipped, wagging her tail as she surveyed the meal.

“Dry pasta? Pickles?” whined Pumpkin. “I'm supposed to eat this?” She pawed at a fat green pickle. It rocked back and forth in a puddle of juice.

Ginny flounced off the couch and trotted next to Pumpkin. “It's food, sweet snout,” she yipped. “Eat it or step away so I can.”

A door creaked somewhere in the den.

Shep glanced around, checking to see who'd strayed from the pack. “Fuzz?” Shep woofed.

“Fuzz here,” the cat hissed from on top of the cabinets.

A form took shape in the shadows at the far end of the room. Tall body, thin arms, round head: A human.

“Out!” the person shouted. The woman was old — she had white hair and wore a flowing pink body covering. She held a broom in her bony hands. “Get out!” she cried, her voice cracking.

The dogs panicked. Boji and Dover bolted away from the old lady, scrambling farther into the den. Ginny and Rufus froze where they stood near the food, as if contemplating whether they should stuff their snouts before running. Zeus growled like he was going to fight the woman. Daisy nipped Oscar, chasing him out from under Zeus and onto the crushed wall behind Shep. Callie ran along the counter, sprang over Shep's back, and followed Daisy and Oscar out.

“Fuzz, get Boji and Dover!” Shep barked.

The cat bolted along the tops of the cabinets, then dove into the darkness of the main room.

Pumpkin, the fur-brained fluff ball, pranced toward the old woman, tail waving. “We're just looking for a place to snuggle!” she yipped happily.

The girldog apparently couldn't scent a crazy human from a normal one. This old woman wasn't going to just drop her broom and start sharing treats.

Shep barked his most threatening bark. Even Zeus glanced back at him with surprise. The old woman's eyes widened, exposing their red-veined whites, and she stumbled back. The broom trembled in her hands.

Shep dove forward, grabbed Pumpkin by the scruff, and ran for the broken wall. “Move it!” he growled to Ginny and Rufus as he passed.

 

Pumpkin wailed as she dangled from Shep's jaws. “How could you?” she cried. “Barking like that at a human. You scared that old woman to death!”

“She was about to beat you into a pile of hair,” growled Shep. He ran down the street, hoping the rest of the pack followed.

“She was not!” Pumpkin yapped. “I could have calmed her down. You didn't even give being friendly a chance!”

“Shut your snout before I shut it for you,” Shep snarled. He was sick of hearing about how unfriendly he was. He'd just saved the girldog. She could at least pretend to be grateful.

Shep turned up a narrow street in front of a den that led into a covered but empty shed. It smelled strongly of Car, but there was no Car sleeping in the little, open den.

“We rest here,” he woofed, dropping Pumpkin on her self-righteous rump.

Callie was the first to arrive behind them. A scowl twisted across her muzzle. “Didn't we woof about you not attacking any more humans?”

“See?” snapped Pumpkin, sitting as straight as possible and cocking her tiny head.

“How would you rather I handled the old woman?” Shep grumbled to Callie. “I just wanted to scare her so she'd back off. I had to grab the fur-brained friendliness patrol.”

Zeus lumbered into the den. “Not that any dog cares,” he woofed, “but I agree with Shep. Better mean than sorry.”

That's
just
what I needed
, Shep growled to himself.

“She was old!” yipped Callie. “Would you ever growl at some old timer dog?” She tilted her head in her knowing way, like Shep was an idiot puppy in desperate need of training.

“You want to be the alpha,” he barked, “then be one. But until then, I make the calls on how to handle threats to the pack.”

Daisy and Oscar appeared next. The pup was whining that Daisy had nipped him too hard, but Shep wasn't about to start messing with Daisy. She was the only dog who seemed to listen to his woofs without barking back about his every decision.

Rufus and Ginny loped in, followed by Fuzz with Boji and Dover.

“Fuzz find second exit through window,” the cat hiss-barked. “Save big dogs.”

Dover wagged his tail. “That you did, cat.”

Fuzz licked his nose. “No need to thank Fuzz,” he meowed. “Fuzz just doing helpful duty.”

“Not that any dog seems to care,” yipped Ginny, flashing Shep a contemptuous look, “but the old woman is fine. Rufus and I made sure Shep hadn't scared the hair from her head.”

“Every dog needs to get off my tail about that old woman,” Shep growled.

“No,” snapped Pumpkin. “You need to rethink your strategy! This is exactly what we were working on back in the Park. You need to think back to before the storm, back when you weren't a menace to society — and here I'm woofing about
human
society.

“I don't care what you've been through during this storm,” Pumpkin went on, barking so fast Shep couldn't get a woof in if he tried. “From what you've barked, it sounds pretty terrible. But the city is returning to the way it was
before
the storm. You all need to remember what you were like before all this wildness got into you.” She glared into every dog's snout. “We need to start acting like the pets we are and not the wild things you had to become to survive.”

Shep was about to finally bark her into submission, but Callie nipped him in the shoulder.

“She's right,” she woofed. “You may not like what she's barking, but Pumpkin's right.”

Shep looked around at the pack. They all wagged their tails at what Callie said — all except Zeus. That Zeus was his only ally was not a good sign.

Dropping into a sit, Shep licked his jowls. “Fine,” he barked. “I'll try a friendlier approach.”

Pumpkin snorted. “Don't try,” she yapped. “Just
be
friendly. And maybe we won't end up back in the dog catcher's cage.”

The dogs snuggled together in small groups around the edges of the Car-den, all except Zeus and Shep, who sat on opposite sides of its open front. Between Shep's paws, several ants were trying to carry a crumb of moldy bread. They moved efficiently; if one ant dropped a corner, the next ant picked up the edge and the food moved toward wherever they were taking it. The ants worked together but seemed indifferent to each other. Shep glanced around at his pack.

Callie was curled next to Fuzz, who barked her next lesson in cat. Fuzz licked Callie's ears as she repeatedly garbled a meow. Boji and Dover played in the corner with a striped stick they'd found in the Car-den. Even an emotional stuffed-nose like Shep could see how much these four cared for one another. After they went home to their families, how would they suffer being apart? And Rufus and Ginny — those two were like jaws: They fit each other perfectly. Didn't they see how great it would be to stay together as a pack? What kept the ants shuffling on, working with bugs they cared less about than a kibble?

Maybe if he'd been a better alpha, his friends would have agreed to stay. Daisy had already woofed so much. Shep smelled her behind him, yapping with Pumpkin about the defense team. Pumpkin couldn't believe that a pug could fight alongside big dogs.

“No offense,” the fluffy girldog yipped, “but how could you compare as a fighter with a rottweiler?”

Daisy gave a haughty snort. “It's not about how big you are when you're fighting,” she barked. “It's all about your stance, how you present yourself.”

Zeus panted from his corner. “Think you could take me, yapper?” he snarled.

Daisy didn't even raise her hackles. “I guess that depends on how long you could survive, missing that front paw.” She glared at the boxer for a heartbeat, then continued woofing with Pumpkin.

Shep wagged his tail. He'd turned Daisy from a wimpy pet into a tough-as-claws defense dog. Who cared that he was a terrible show dog and couldn't fake friendliness to an attacking human — he
was
a good alpha. So why didn't his friends want to stay?

“No one licking your tail tonight?” Zeus grumbled from the opposite corner.

“I don't need any dog to lick my tail,” Shep snapped back, curling tighter around his paws.

Zeus panted lightly, then licked his hurt paw. “Every dog likes to have their tail licked,” he woofed. “Isn't that why we stick with our humans? So we always have someone to scratch us behind the ears?”

“That's not why I stuck by my boy,” Shep grunted.

“You woof ‘stuck' like you've moved on from your human,” Zeus barked. “So you still think you're going to stay wild?”

“Not wild the way you were wild.”

“You think there's another way?” Zeus woofed. “You think you can do anything but be the toughest dog on the street to survive with the wild dogs? Let me clear that scent up for you, friend: You can't.”

“I would never become a killer,” Shep growled. “I would never hunt down my friends.” Then he added, “Former friends.”

Zeus grimaced. “True,” he barked. “I didn't have to do that.”

Shep lifted his head, turning his ears toward Zeus. “Why did you, Zeus?” he woofed. “Why did you attack us?”

Now it was Zeus's turn to shift away from Shep. He rested his head on the other side of his paws; Shep could see nothing but the tips of his ears. “I'm a bad dog,” he grumbled. “Bad from claws to jowl.”

Something in the way he woofed it made it seem like Zeus wasn't barking all his thoughts on the issue. Shep sniffed and scented that Zeus was anxious and angry and sad, all in the same heartbeat. Part of him wanted to curl next to his old friend, to offer him some comfort, but then he thought of Higgins and Virgil and Honey and all the other dogs who had died at Zeus's command. Zeus didn't deserve comforting.

Shep licked up the ants, dug his nose between his paws, and closed his eyes to the light.

 

Shep slept in fitful bouts. By the time the sun set, he felt more exhausted than when he had lain down.

“Time to move out,” he woofed.

Zeus rose from the shadows. He looked like he'd slept as poorly as Shep. Blaze had once woofed,
The unhappy dog gets no rest from his troubles
. Of all that girldog's crazy beliefs, this was the only one that had proven itself true.

Fuzz appeared at Shep's side. “Fuzz check street,” he meow-barked, then skittered down the pavement.

The others woke and stretched, and Daisy began barking them into formation.

“No,” yapped Pumpkin. “No formations. We should move in small groups or as single dogs. And I'm not even sure we should all go together. What if we split up and met at the beach?”

Shep smoothed his hackles. The fluffy girldog's every bark set him on edge. “We don't even know how far we are from the beach,” he grumbled. “We could wander for suns before we met up again. And what if you ran into a wild dog? Would you be able to charm your way out of a real battle?”

Callie flattened her ears and raised her eyebrows: She was not amused. “I think we can keep within scent of one another without raising any suspicion,” she barked. “I haven't smelled, heard, or seen any humans pass the Car-den this sun. It might just be the group of dens we're in, but I think that most of the city is still empty.”

Pumpkin gave Shep a hurt look and flicked her tail, as if waiting for an apology. Ginny shuffled to her side and licked her head, offering her some comfort from Shep's bullying.
Great Wolf
, he sighed.

“I'm sorry I snapped at you,” Shep grumbled, tail low. He was tired of every dog contradicting his orders. He regained his stance, raising ears and tail, and repeated Callie's idea. “We move in small groups — three dogs at most. Stay within scent-range of me. I will track directly toward sunrise.”

Rufus raised his bushy gray ears. “And if we do happen to bump snouts with a wild dog?” he yipped.

“I'll smell it,” Shep barked, “and come running.”

Oscar, sitting near Zeus's hurt paw, looked at Shep with a smile on his jowls, the old sparkle in his eye. At least some dog still viewed Shep as an alpha.

Fuzz scampered back into the garage. “Street clear,” he hissed. “One Car pass. Saw old human in broken den. Broom still in hand.”

Shep licked the cat on the head as a sign of thanks. Fuzz cringed, then looked up at Shep like he'd piddled on his fur. The cat licked a paw and began grooming the besmirched hairs.

Pumpkin divided the dogs into groups that would attract the least attention. “We have to balance the cute with the … less cute,” she woofed, ears pricked and head tilted in thought. “Boji, you go with Zeus and Oscar, and Dover —”

“I will not go with that killer,” Boji growled. She began to tremble, as if raising her hackles physically pained her.

Dover licked Boji's nose. “I think I'll stay with Boji,” he woofed. “If it's all right with the rest of the pack.” He glanced at Pumpkin, ears up and tail flat.

Pumpkin sighed, as if this were a huge problem. “Fine,” she snuffled. “Boji, you go with Dover. I'll go with Rufus and Ginny. Daisy —”

“Daisy sticks with Zeus and Oscar,” Shep interrupted.

Pumpkin glared at him. “I was just going to bark the same thing. So that leaves you with Callie and the cat.” Pumpkin gave him the once-over with her beady black eyes. “I hope they're enough to counter your general growliness.”

I'll show you growly
, Shep grumbled to himself, but let the girldog's comments go. If Callie thought Pumpkin was on the right scent, then there had to be something to what the fluffy girldog woofed. And the Great Wolf knew, Shep had proven himself worse than Zeus at dealing with the humans they'd encountered so far.

As the last rays of sunlight dulled to deep purple blue, the dogs headed out of the den toward the beach. The moon shimmered in the sky, a fat crescent of white, and already a few fires of the Great Wolf's coat glimmered.

The street wound through a collection of dens, all of a similar size. The dogs traveled undisturbed and Shep couldn't scent any hidden danger, so they stayed together in a loose clump as they loped down the Sidewalk. The storm had barely touched some of the dens; others were missing windows or whole walls. The light of a dim lamp warmed a curtain in one — all the dogs drifted toward its familiar glow until Shep's growl woke them from their trance.

The road swung away from the dens and ended at a larger street.

“We split up here,” woofed Shep.

He had Boji and Dover take the lead, followed by Daisy, Oscar, and Zeus. Shep's team left third, with Pumpkin, Ginny, and Rufus at the rear.

“I don't know why we have to go last,” grumbled Ginny. “Lassie knows, we can move faster than that boxer.”

“Exactly,” barked Shep. “I can't have every dog running ahead with Zeus limping at the rear. We need to stay within scent-range of one another.”

They moved down the large street in a line and then split off onto side roads. If Shep lost the scent of a dog, he howled their name. After several rounds of howling, the pack had a sense of how far they could wander before they had gone too far.

Callie and Fuzz mumbled woofs in cat back and forth to one another. Shep felt like the odd dog out. He'd hoped that maybe he and Callie could have barked more as they walked, that maybe he could have tried to convince her again to stay with him. But she was oblivious to his entreaties. Every time he barked something to her, she answered in as few woofs as possible. She wasn't unfriendly, just uninterested.

The night passed uneventfully. They crossed under a huge road and heard the
whoosh
of Cars flying down the pavement above them, but the road they followed remained mostly empty. One Car drove by — one of the big, boxy metal machines driven by the men in green — but either it didn't see or didn't care about the three dogs trotting along the pavement. Pumpkin's plan was working: The smaller groups apparently weren't considered a threat by the men in green.

As the sun rose, the road swung toward the cold winds, then ended in a canal. The others had run into the same problem, and they all met up with Shep and Callie at the main road, which had the only bridge as far as any dog could smell.

“I think we should keep going,” woofed Pumpkin, who seemed to buzz with energy. “I think I can smell salt. We're getting close to the beach!”

“The canal smells like salt,” grunted Zeus.

Pumpkin ignored his downer-dog woofs.

Shep looked around at the others, who waved their tails and looked at him with pricked ears, eager to keep moving. “It's not worth the risk of traveling during sun time,” he barked.

Callie placed a paw on his. “We should keep going no matter what the risk,” she woofed. “Seeing people back in their dens, I'm worried our humans might leave the shelter. We have to get there as soon as possible.”

Shep's tail began to wag. Callie's family might have left the shelter!
My pack might be forced to stay wild!
But the thought that
his
family might not be at the shelter — that he might not even have the option of going home — stopped his tail's swing. It was one scent to woof that he was staying wild, but another track entirely to think he could never go home.

“So we keep going,” Shep woofed. He padded out onto the bridge and led his pack onward toward the brightening sky.

 

Across the canal was an area of larger, flat buildings — stores and storage buildings like the kibble den and the place with the dry-biscuit human food. The streets stretched farther apart to accommodate the sprawling fields of pavement around each building, which made it difficult for Shep to scent the small groups.

Shep glanced at Fuzz. The cat nodded his small head, then burst off to check on the others.

Callie watched him go. “That cat has really come to love you,” she woofed.

Shep panted. “
Love
me?” he yipped. “No, Fuzz tolerates me. After what I did to him, to Honey, I feel lucky to get even that.”

Callie grinned. “You're not very good at sensing anything other than anger, are you? Always aware of an oncoming attack, but blind to a dog's love.” She licked his nose, then padded down the street. “You have to work on that, partner. There's a lot of love that you're missing.”

Shep followed her, silent. Was that true? Were there dogs out there loving him and he had no idea? He felt like all any dog did was argue with him. But Callie's woofs reminded him of something Blaze had said to him once, back in the boat. She told him that he needed to believe in himself as much as the pack believed in him.

But the pack had always wanted more from him. He'd always felt like such a failure in their eyes, like he could never be a good enough alpha. Maybe he wasn't able to see love, at least not in other dogs. Growing up in the fight kennel, all there'd been was hate between him and his fellow dog — except with the old timer.

And his boy. His boy had loved him.

Sadness washed over him like a wave. And for some reason, he couldn't push it away. His claws dragged on the stone.

Callie glanced over at him. “What's dragging your tail down?”

“I miss my boy,” he woofed. “But I'm not ready to go home — at least, a big part of me isn't. I feel like I'm being torn apart.”

“Just keep doing what you're doing,” Callie yipped. “Follow where the Great Wolf leads you. Maybe when we reach the shelter, you'll know what to do.”

 

By the time Fuzz caught up with them, the sun was fully in the sky. “Shep-dog!” he screeched. “Trouble! Evil-dog-of-horrible-deeds has bad paw. Small-snout and smush-muzzle stopped in alley.”

Shep and Callie raced after Fuzz through roadways lined with mounds of wreckage from the storm. Daisy barked to them from the mouth of an alley next to a board-covered store.