Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) (34 page)

"They're our puppies now, Mhumhi, and we've
got to protect them no matter what."

Mhumhi was startled by the vehemence in her
tone. "Kutta, I don't think-" He paused. He had not explained to
her fully the nature of the domestic dog's ravings, nor the
connections Lamya had made between kindness and the mass deaths of
the hulkers. It had been too hard to wrap his own mind around.

"What, Mhumhi?"

"I don't think we should die for them, that's
all," Mhumhi said.

Kutta gave him a strange look. "
Die
for them? In what way? In what situation would we die for them? If
we die, so do they. I expect you to live for them."

"Oh," said Mhumhi. "Yes… I guess that's easy
enough."

Kutta came over and licked his ear.

"I don't think we'll be able to move anywhere
soon," she said. "We've got to hope everything holds out for
another day or two. We can regain our strength with more meat, look
around, see how things stand. Then we can figure out… figure out
how and where we'll move them. Far away from here."

Mhumhi felt a little seize in his heart at
the thought of their home, now standing empty. And Bii and
Kebero…

"All right," he said. "A different part of
the city, then. Maybe Zoo Park? We know it must be mostly emptied
out now, and I hear there are lots of good dens and hiding
places."

"Maybe," said Kutta. "It's a good thought.
Though a little close to police for my taste… Mhumhi, I was
thinking more- have you ever thought about what might be outside
the city?"

"Outside the city?" Mhumhi repeated blankly.
"What's out there?"

"Sand, I hear," said Kutta. "But I've heard
other things, too… I want to find out more about it."

"What's sand?" asked Mhumhi, and then, seeing
he wasn't going to get an answer, "Who will you ask about it? How
do you even get outside the city? Does the city even
end
?"

"Of course it ends, Mhumhi, it can't just go
on forever," said Kutta. "And I don't know who I'll ask. But I aim
to find out."

Mhumhi was still trying to imagine what could
be outside the city- what a not-city would even look like- but he
was drawing a blank.

"Let's go back to the puppies now," said
Kutta, licking his cheek again to draw him out of his thoughts.
"Let's keep that door shut tight as much as we can for now."

"You're right," Mhumhi agreed, exiting the
room and glancing furtively around the corner for any more lurking
hyena-hulkers, but the hall was quiet and empty.

He and Kutta went back to the room and
huddled down with the children that night, wrapped together in the
fluffy quilt and the warmth of other bodies.

The next day he and Kutta left for the big
grate. Maha wanted to go with them at least part of the way, but
Mhumhi urged her to stay, to keep the door shut, thinking fearfully
of monsters emerging from the dark pipes.

"You've made her cross again," Kutta said,
once both of them had emerged cautiously from the manhole Maha had
opened up the day before. "Shutting her up in that room'll make
sure she stews on it all day, too."

"I don't care," said Mhumhi. "She's
safe."

They parted ways soon after that, as they
reached the end of the dusty, empty district near Wide Street.
Kutta was going to brave the morning dispensary crowd, while Mhumhi
thought he'd try to circle closer to their old home, at least to
have a quick look at it, before going to find and meet Biscuit
again to ask for more meat.

He managed to slip his way through to empty
Food Strip Street, which smelled as thought it must have been
less-empty of late- there were piss marks from what he surmised to
be residents of Oldtown that had been evicted from their homes near
Wide Street. Since they had been forbidden from going to the
morning dispensary run, most of them seemed to be tucked in their
homes, napping away the harsh morning sunlight. The few Mhumhi did
see were not very familiar to him. He stayed tucked into the
shadows and alleys where he could.

He finally managed to sneak into the alley
with the blue dumpsters, where wild-eyed Lamya had once attacked
him and Bii. He spared another thought for that poor dead coyote as
he skirted the rusty stain on the concrete that still remained. It
had not rained in the city for some time.

He slipped around the corner, past two more
streets, and then-

He crouched, in the shadows of a narrow
alley. A few yards across from him stood his own familiar home, the
little townhouse.

He saw at once that the door was hanging open
and that someone had shat in the doorway. It almost made him rise
up and go over at once, both in justified indignation and to read
what the scat would tell him, but he controlled himself. That would
not have been a wise move.

He quickly realized how unwise it would have
been when he rose to his feet to begin walking away, for he spotted
a high flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. There was
a painted dog sitting on the roof of one of the townhouses in the
same row. He had sat and extended his leg to lick his own genitals,
but as Mhumhi watched he raised his head, licking his lips, and
began scanning the street.

If that was not a sentry, Mhumhi was a fool.
He possibly was a fool for getting so close anyway. He tried to
make his retreat as silent and stealthy as he could, casting
nervous glances at the roofs all around, but he could not spot any
more watchers. It did not stop the fur on his back from rising and
his tail tucking tightly underneath his belly. The police seemed to
be very much still looking for them.

He cut a wide berth around their street, now
twice as jumpy as before, heading for the school.

When he got close, however, he had to stop
short. There were a pair of Sechuran foxes sitting on the
roundabout, one yawning, one sniffing the metal curiously. Mhumhi
stared at them from behind a dumpster across the street, heart
pounding. What were they doing there? And how was he supposed to
get near the school with them lounging about?

He had settled on the decision to try and
bluff his way through as a member of the police again when a voice
from behind him made him jump.

"Back for more meat, wild dog?"

He turned. Biscuit's head and forepaws were
visible over the top of another dumpster, and now he jumped out and
went to crouch next to Mhumhi in the shadows. Mhumhi was a bit
startled by the sudden closeness and sidled a bit closer to the
alley wall.

"You see them?" Biscuit said, pointing his
nose towards the pair of foxes. "They've been there since
yesterday- not just those two, but others, wandering around the
school in shifts." He turned and fixed Mhumhi with a pale stare.
"Do you know anything about them?"

"I have no idea," Mhumhi said, a tad sharply.
"It's not as if I have any reason to want you in trouble. Like you
said, I came here for meat for the puppies."

Biscuit exhaled softly. "I thought I should
check," he said. "I thought the little dogs didn't like the police,
so I've no idea what they're hoping to achieve by hanging around
here."

"Hoping for a mouthful of hot meat,
probably," said Mhumhi. "If they turn you in. I'm sure they've been
feeling hungrier lately."

"They won't get any, if that's true," said
Biscuit. "I'd kill them first, and give them to Lamya to eat."

His voice was grim, his blue eyes showing not
the least bit of remorse for his words. Mhumhi got the urge to lean
away from him again.

"So, the meat," he said instead, scratching
the sidewalk with one forepaw.

"There's no meat," said Biscuit. "Sorry. I
don't have any more cached, and I haven't been able to make it to
the dispensary today. I doubt I'll make the evening run
either."

Mhumhi put his ears back, wanting very much
to snap, "Then what good
are
you?" He controlled
himself.

"Fine. Then I'll come back tomorrow."

"I don't know that I'll be able to go to the
dispensary tomorrow either," said Biscuit.

"Then I
won't
come back tomorrow,"
said Mhumhi, not bothering to hide his irritation this time.
"Should I bother coming back at all?"

"Calm down," said Biscuit, peeping around the
dumpster at the playground. "Don't draw attention to us. I said I
had no meat, but I've got some other food here that you can give to
them. And a proposition."

"A proposition?" Mhumhi turned around as
Biscuit left his side to leap back into the dumpster behind them.
He emerged with a cardboard box clutched in his teeth and dropped
it on the ground with a loud smack.

Mhumhi flinched and peered over at the
Sechuran foxes, but they had engaged one another in a playful
wrestling match and had not appeared to notice.

Biscuit vanished and returned with a second
box in his teeth as he leapt back out.

"Two should be all right for now," he said,
after he had laid the second next to the first. "This stuff is no
good if you regurgitate it, so you'll have to carry the box in your
teeth."

"If that's true, I think I'll only be able to
carry one," Mhumhi pointed out, coming over to sniff the box. It
smelled a bit like the papery stuff Lamya had offered him, but with
a much more interesting flavor.

"I can carry the other one, if you show me
where to go," said Biscuit. Mhumhi's tail rose stiffly.

"I'll just take the one."

"I admire your protectiveness," said Biscuit,
"but you're being foolish. If I know where the children are, I can
provide you with more help. Others in our network could assist you.
As long as you are helping humans, we are most certainly on the
same side."

"I wasn't aware there were sides," said
Mhumhi, tone cool. "And if there are, I'm not on the side of
someone who kills other dogs."

Biscuit raised his head slowly. "I've never
killed a dog."

"No- but you've helped that hulker set
snares, and you've let the dogs here walk into them
unknowingly-"

"Were you caught by one?" said Biscuit. "I
noticed the injury to your foot. I am sorry; it looks painful. I
thought about telling you where the others were set, but you see, I
don't trust you not to warn the other dogs here. Lamya
must
eat meat occasionally, you know. This boxed food is not
sufficient."

Mhumhi had felt a snarl growing in him the
longer Biscuit talked, and now he took a step towards him,
quivering with rage.

"Lives have been lost for your stupid
hulker's health," Mhumhi snapped. "Don't you
care
? Dogs who
can think and feel-"

"Do you attack the dogs who hunt down humans
in Big Park the same way, Mhumhi?" Biscuit was raising his lip
slightly. "You didn't seem to care when you mentioned it earlier-
'a mouthful of hot meat.' Doesn't it bother you where that comes
from?"

"Of course it does!" said Mhumhi, backing
away a step, feeling his heart suddenly thudding. "But I haven't
murdered any hulkers-"

"And I haven't murdered any dogs," said
Biscuit. "But I allow Lamya to exist, the same as you allow your
police to do as they please."

"It isn't the same," Mhumhi insisted, though
he had begun to tuck his tail.

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Biscuit said.
"You are willing to accept my food, but no further help; does that
assuage you of some guilt, somehow? If you take only food, those
dead dogs will feel better, but if you let me know where the
children are, you betray them?"

"That- that is- you've twisted it around,"
said Mhumhi. "I don't want you knowing where the puppies are
because I don't trust you!"

"And why is that? You have some reason to
think I'll hurt them?"

When Mhumhi was silent, he went on. "If you
do not want me knowing where they are, that's fine. Take one box.
But like I said before, I have a proposition for you."

"And what is that?" Mhumhi asked, somewhat
through his teeth.

"Don't take this the wrong way," said
Biscuit, "but I suspect that from the smell on you, you've been
spending a lot of time in the sewers. You may not realize this, but
it is a bad place to keep children. They can quickly get sick-"

"I'm not stupid, Biscuit," Mhumhi said. "We
don't have a choice."

"That is my proposition," said Biscuit. "I
know a safe place, where no other dogs should be able to get in,
far from police. The children will be happy and healthy there."

Mhumhi did not speak for a moment, startled.
It was almost as if Biscuit had somehow been listening in on the
conversation he had had the night before with Kutta.

"It is very secure," Biscuit insisted. "I
would have even moved Lamya there, but she is attached to our
current home. It was going to be used by companions of mine, but
with the recent police raids…" He paused, lowering his head. "They
and their humans were caught trying to move in."

"Oh," said Mhumhi, not sure what the
appropriate reaction to this would be. Biscuit seemed genuinely
saddened by the memory. "That's… very unfortunate. Were the dogs
part of your family?"

"No," said Biscuit. "A domestic dog's family
are his humans. But to lose those four humans… we have very few
left, you see."

"Well," said Mhumhi, "in that case I don't
understand why you'd want me to move the puppies. Isn't it
risky?"

"I've learned," said Biscuit. "It can be done
much more safely, in the dead of night, by taking certain paths…
There will always be some risk, of course, with humans out on the
streets, but some chances you must take."

Mhumhi cast a wary eye on him. For all his
talk of wanting to protect the remaining hulkers, he certainly
seemed very eager to get Maha and Tareq moved- moved, Mhumhi
suspected, somewhere where he could easily access them.

"You do not have to decide right away," said
Biscuit, perhaps sensing his wavering. "I can take you there
tonight to look at the place, and see for yourself."