Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) (36 page)

"What is this?" he asked.

Biscuit pawed at one of the frames and it
slid back slightly. "Doesn't it remind you of anything?"

Mhumhi tilted his head and looked at the
wobbling frame more carefully. There was a clip at the top, and
behind it, a narrow rubber chute.

"It- it looks like the things that give you
the meat at the dispensary!"

That had been Kutta, who was now trotting and
splashing along the length of the thing, eyes wide.

"Exactly," said Biscuit. "That's what the
humans who wanted to live here said; that's why they went at such
great lengths to try and get the key. It is my understanding that
they knew how to activate it to give them meat, right here in this
room."

"Really?" exclaimed Kutta. "But that would
mean-"

"It would mean a lot of things," said
Biscuit. "Safety, security from the outside. And this small
dispensary would not be limited to the times the big ones are, and
it would not limit the amount of meat one dog could get from it
each day… I'm sure you understand how important this was."

Mhumhi gazed up at the silent racks. If they
had had access to this sort of thing before, his entire family
might still be together.

"Why didn't you tell us about this in the
first place?" Kutta demanded.

"Because I did not think you would believe
me. I thought it would be better to show you." Biscuit's curled
tail wagged slightly.

Or because you thought it would be very
dramatic, thought Mhumhi, eyeing him. And impressive.

"If I understand you," he said, "you mean to
say that Maha and Tareq could activate this instead? But they're
only puppies."

"It doesn't matter," said Biscuit. "Give a
human enough time and space, and he can create anything with his
hands. If you let those children toy with this, you will have as
much meat as you could ever want."

"Really," said Kutta, who was beginning to
sound very interested. Mhumhi glanced at her, then back at
Biscuit.

"If that's true, why haven't you moved Lamya
here to let her play with it?"

"I told you," said Biscuit. "Lamya will not
move, and even if she would, she refuses to eat any meat she knows
comes from a dispensary."

"Even so, doesn't she care about what might
make your life easier? Surely she realizes that you'd be much safer
eating from this place!"

Biscuit went slightly stiff.

"My needs are not important, not compared to
hers."

"Isn't she your sister, though?" Kutta
challenged. "Your pack? She should take care of you!"

Now Biscuit actually growled. "That is an
insult to both of us," he said. "We are not brother and sister. We
are human and dog. I am her loyal servant. My life belongs to her-
I am her tool, her living shield, the one who carries her burdens.
I am faithful. That is a dog's purpose. Faith!"

His jaw had gone slightly slack, his pale
eyes wide. Mhumhi glanced nervously at Kutta and saw she had put
her ears back.

"Don't say anything," he murmured.

"I've no idea what I would say..."

Biscuit wavered there for another moment,
then suddenly seemed to snap back into focus. "So! You've seen the
place I can offer you. What do you say? Will you let me help you
move the children here?"

Mhumhi felt Kutta shifting uneasily beside
him. He said, "Maybe- maybe we need some time to think on it."

"That's fine," said Biscuit. "But think
quickly. They longer you leave them in one spot, the more danger
can come find them." His blue eyes bored into them.

"We'll think," said Kutta. "Moving them is
dangerous. And the little boy is sick."

"Then you should get them out of the sewers,
quickly," Biscuit urged. "This place has things that can be used to
heal; the humans know how to find them. It will be a safe place for
him to recover. He cannot be allowed to die- especially if he is a
male."

"Especially if he is a male?" Mhumhi
questioned.

"There are only a handful of male humans left
in the city," said Biscuit. "The police hunt them with more vigor,
because they think they give more entertaining hunts. If the humans
are to survive, we must protect the remaining males with our
lives."

"You want to use Tareq in some sort of- some
sort of breeding program?" Kutta wrinkled her lips.

"Not against his will!" Biscuit said. "But he
will want to mate when he grows up, anyhow. It takes a long time
for them to mature- then they only have one infant at a time. It is
imperative that he grows up, starts boosting the population…"

"We aren't turning this place into some type
of- some type of hulker breeding center!" Kutta snapped.

"Well," said Biscuit, "that doesn't really
matter. As I said, they take a long time to mature. We may all be
dead by them, and new generations of domestics will have taken over
their care. You needn't worry."

Kutta seemed shocked into silence by the
audacity of this. Mhumhi nudged her again.

"We'll think on it," he repeated.

"I hope you make the intelligent choice,"
said Biscuit.

Eyes in
the Dark

Hulkers, Mhumhi had discovered, were
surprisingly difficult to groom. He had spent a great deal of time
licking the puff of coarse hair on Maha's head, trying to tease the
natural oils out with his tongue, but there was no end to the
stuff. And it didn't help that she kept wiggling and making little
impatient noises during all his ministrations.

She had been lying on her stomach to let him
reach, arms crossed underneath her chin, but now she rolled her
head to one side and glared at him.

"Stop squirming," he said, putting one paw
over her back, and stretched his neck to get at her hair again. She
pushed herself up and out of her reach.

"Quit tugging on it! I'll just cut it with
something. I don't care." Her lips were pulled down very far.
Mhumhi sat back on his haunches and licked his lips.

"Don't talk that way to your older brother,
Maha," said Kutta. She was lying on the quilt near the wall, with
Tareq curled up against her belly. "He's trying to do something
nice for you."

"Well it isn't nice and it hurts," said Maha,
and she got up and slouched into the bathroom. Mhumhi watched her
go, then sighed through his nose. She'd been cross and sulky for
the past couple of days- he suspected it was from the prolonged
confinement. He'd been loath to let her outside for fear of more
hyena-hulkers appearing.

"Don't bother," said Kutta, seeing him about
to get up. "Let her have her space-"

"I wasn't going to go near her," said Mhumhi,
giving the bathroom door a dark look, and went over to sit beside
Kutta. "Maybe a night in there would do her good."

Kutta laughed, in a kind of pale way. Against
her belly Tareq stirred, small face furrowed, and put his thumb in
his mouth.

"You've been having him sleep with you a lot
like that," Mhumhi observed.

Kutta laughed again, this time almost
guiltily. "It's stupid- I know it is- but I've almost been hoping
that having him there at my belly would make me produce milk. I've
even tried to get him to suckle once or twice."

"Kutta!" said Mhumhi, a bit appalled.

"Well, it would certainly help," said Kutta,
raising her lip slightly at his tone. "We do need food…"

"We don't even have enough meat for you to
produce milk from," Mhumhi pointed out, and she lapsed into
silence.

He looked at his sister's ribs, wanting to
laugh himself at the cruelty of their situation. They were getting
less food than ever. Kutta had been able to get meat a few more
times across the span of several days, and they had split what they
could between themselves. Biscuit had been able to help some by
providing them with boxes of things for the children, but Mhumhi
thought he was right- it wasn't as good for them as the meat was,
for it left them sickly-smelling and less robust.

"We'll have to take him up on his offer," he
told Kutta. She looked up at him, and still said nothing. He
understood her reluctance, but the food situation was not the only
problem they were facing. The night before, when they had returned
to the room, there had been a strange, ugly stench in the hallway,
and a sort of thick paste smeared against the walls. It bore the
reek of hyena.

"I hate that domestic," Kutta said. "And I
don't trust him. He wants us to prostrate ourselves in front of
these puppies…"

"He can't make us do anything," Mhumhi
pointed out. "And he wants them to live. I don't like him either,
but he is our ally right now."

"Yes, right now," Kutta muttered. "What
happens when he finds more of his little domestic friends to help
him out? We'll wake up in that place with teeth at our throats.
Like Mother's puppies."

Mhumhi recoiled slightly at the memory, and
she gave him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry. But I still don't think we should
be hanging around with someone who wants us and our kind dead so
badly."

"No, but I don't think we have a choice,"
said Mhumhi. Kutta pulled her lips back in a tight smile.

"I thought you just said he couldn't
make
us do anything."

Before Mhumhi could respond, Maha reemerged
from the bathroom. She'd put a great quantity of water from the
sink on her hair, slicking it down somewhat, and now she stood and
scowled at them, dripping.

"What're you two talking about…?"

Mhumhi flicked his eyes at Kutta, then said,
"We're talking about moving somewhere else."

This seemed to surprise Maha a little, and
they saw her struggle a moment to keep her face set and surly.

"Where?"

"A place a friend showed us in a different
part of the city," said Mhumhi. "It might be safer there, with more
food."

"Oh," said Maha. "Then- then why don't we
go?"

Mhumhi had to laugh a little. "I guess we
will, won't we, Kutta?"

Kutta looked up at him. She wasn't
laughing.

The next morning he found Biscuit and told
him their decision. The domestic dog seemed delighted, but not very
surprised, to hear the news.

"We can move them tonight," he said, a bit
breathlessly, "at the same time- the darkest time- and if we are
quick and quiet enough, we shouldn't have any trouble. The three of
us are enough to defend them from little foxes, and there shouldn't
be many police out. Quick and quiet… then it'll all be over."

Mhumhi was not completely inclined to share
his optimism, but it almost did seem possible that everything would
be all right, the way he described it.

It was a harder sell to Maha, who had to be
reminded about the part where they would have to walk
aboveground.

"But why can't I just go out of a manhole?"
she whined, for the umpteenth time.

"If you want to be eaten by a hyena, feel
free," Mhumhi said, for he was beginning to slightly lose his
patience. "And Biscuit tells me that there are a million little
dogs down there too now. Feel like being part of a crowd?"

"Mhumhi," said Kutta, nudging him, and he
closed his jaws. He knew Maha would be persuaded eventually- it was
really little Tareq that might be the problem, with his tendency to
whimper and cry.

"And why can't I bring the blankets?" Maha
asked.

"We can come back and get them later," Kutta
said. "We don't want to be weighed down tonight, so we can get
there as quick as we can. Understand?"

"But how will Tareq be able to sleep at
night? Does the new place have blankets?"

"Millions of blankets, loads of blankets,"
spouted Mhumhi, until Kutta caught his eye again.

It was a trial to get the puppies assembled
that night. Maha dithered and deliberated over what to put in her
bag, which Mhumhi insisted she pack light, sticking his head in to
pull things back out until she got frustrated and tried to wrestle
with him. Kutta kept running around trying to think of ways it
might go wrong, and kept inadvertently waking up Tareq. Tareq did
not seem sure what was going on- they had tried to get Maha to
explain it to him, but even she admitted that he was being obtuse-
but what he did seemed to get was that everyone was stressed, and
cried so he could experience it with them.

Presently Mhumhi got fed up with the whole
ordeal, his nerves on a knife's edge, and in a surly way announced
that he was going ahead to scout out the tunnel to be sure the way
was clear. Kutta gave him a dirty look around Tareq's arm- he was
clinging to her and whimpering. Apparently he'd entirely forgotten
the time she'd bitten him.

"I'll be back soon," said Mhumhi, and slipped
out of the door.

He hadn't taken four steps when he stopped.
The soft slap of bare feet came from behind him, and stopped as
well.

"Maha," he said, turning. He could just make
out her silhouette in the dim light.

"I'll scout with you," she said. He couldn't
make out her expression, but he could imagine it, and he could
smell her still-damp hair.

"Fine," he said. "Come up next to me, and be
very quiet."

She did, and put a hand on his back. Together
they padded wordlessly through the cold, dripping dimness.

"Are we really going to go to a house?" came
Maha's tiny whisper.

"Not really a house," Mhumhi admitted. "But a
building."

"Above the ground?"

"Oh, yes."

Maha said nothing for a bit, and Mhumhi's
nose twitched in the fetid air.

"How long have you lived down here?"

"Forever," was her immediate reply, and then,
"No... just since Tareq's mama died. I dunno how long ago that was.
Maybe not that long, actually... I had to teach Tareq how to speak
Dog so he could talk to our new mother when she came."

Mother
, thought Mhumhi to himself.
Aloud he said, "How did she find you?"