Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) (25 page)

At least, he thought it was a field. He had
never seen one before in his life. But it looked like a field
should- it was flat and open, very dusty-looking, and covered with
scrubby yellowed grass that waved gently in the wind.

Mhumhi had never seen grass before, either.
He had to stare at it for a long time before he could really
comprehend it. As he did, he suddenly realized where he was. This
was a park-
the
park. Big Park.

As this realization slowly came to him, he
suddenly heard a great deal of whining and twittering. Bounding
high over the tall grass was a very large group of painted dogs,
all sun-splashed pelts and white-flagged tails held high.

The one in front saw Mhumhi and stopped
short.

"I found it!" he exclaimed. "I found what
stinks! It's this fellow here!"

The others brought up a storm of twittering
behind him, and suddenly Mhumhi found himself surrounded by them;
at least ten, all sniffing and whining and nipping at him.
Automatically he cringed, caught in the painted maelstrom,
flattening his ears and wagging his tail down by his flanks.

"What pack are you from?" said one, sniffing
closely at his ears. "Gosh, you stink! Did you fall down a sewer or
something?"

"Ligwami, look at his leg!" said another, and
suddenly the flurry of them were concentrating on that side of his
body, all clucking and chirping sympathetically.

"What happened to you?" asked the one named
Ligwami, licking at his ears. "That looks bad- what, did you get
caught in an old snare?"

Mhumhi felt far too dizzy and overwhelmed to
talk; he merely kept his head down and kept wagging his tail.

"Give him some room to breathe, back up,
can't you see he's had a bad time?" said Ligwami, turning to scold
the others. Mhumhi realized that more were still arriving, crowding
at the edge of the field, leaping up in place to be able to see. He
was very certain he'd be ripped to pieces any minute.

"It's all right," said another, coming to
nuzzle gently at him. "Poor thing. Don't be frightened; you're out
of danger now. You're just a puppy, aren't you?"

This was not strictly true, but Mhumhi
decided to act the part, whimpering and crouching down in front of
her. All the other dogs seemed very excited by this, and Mhumhi
could hear things being passed back through the crowd: "He's
escaped from a snare!" "He's just a puppy!" "He fell in the
sewer!"

"He doesn't really look like a puppy; don't
baby him, Nzui," said Ligwami, tail going a touch stiff, but the
female named Nzui was leaning down to lick Mhumhi's forehead.

"Poor puppy, you've had a hard time, and now
you're separated from your pack! Did they come for the hunt? We'll
probably find them if we go back to the center track," she told
Mhumhi. "Can you walk all right?"

Mhumhi opened his mouth, and all the dogs
fell into a collective silence, staring at him with rapt attention.
He had to close his mouth a moment, abashed, and then said, "I can
walk all right."

The crowd seemed to ripple with excitement
again: "He can walk all right!" "He can!" "He's fine." "What a
brave boy!"

"Let's go back to the center track and look
for your pack," said Nzui, nudging at him. Mhumhi swallowed.

"All right," he said, seemingly to the
delight of the whole pack of them, for they cheered and twittered
and ran around as he slowly got back to his feet and limped forward
between Ligwami and Nzui.

Mhumhi's heart was beating at a fevered pace,
but the painted dogs all seemed friendly, to a fault even, as each
one of them tried to introduce himself to him all at once. Mhumhi
let the names wash over him, hardly able to keep track as they
bounded all around in the grass.

"And what's your name, pup?" asked Ligwami,
when there was a long enough pause.

"My name is Mhumhi," said Mhumhi, without
really thinking, then froze. How stupid of him! If the police were
looking for him, it was probably through his name, and here he had
said it into this massive pack of them…

"My name's Mhumhi too!" shouted one dog,
bounding on Mhumhi's left, and behind him he heard another shout:
"Mine too!"

"It's a very solid name," Nzui told him
encouragingly, while on his other side he heard Ligwami distinctly
mutter, "
Another
one."

Nzui trotted forward a bit to nip Ligwami's
ear. "Wami and I are joining our packs for the running," she told
Mhumhi, a touch of bashful pride in her tone. "I've been running
about with my sisters, and him with his brothers, and we met- and,
well."

She fell back to murmur in Mhumhi's ear. "Who
knows what'll happen after the run?"

"What are you whispering to the puppy?"
Ligwami said loudly.

"You said he wasn't a puppy," said Nzui,
letting her tongue hang out in a smile. "Look, Mhumhi, we've
reached the track. Do you see your pack anywhere?"

Mhumhi realized what they were indicating:
ahead of them the field was cut apart by a circular track of white
gravel, absolutely covered with at least a hundred different
painted dogs that were making a ruckus of twittering and whining
that filled the air with sound. In the center of it all was an
ancient, rusted bus, the windows broken and the tires in shreds-
Mhumhi saw two painted dogs playing tug-of-war with a thick piece
of rubber nearby. Through one of the filthy, cracked windows he
thought he glimpsed a flicker of movement.

He took his eyes away and pretended to scan
the mass of dogs, all shifting and milling and twittering away with
one another. He'd never seen such a gathering of large dogs before-
he wondered if this was all the painted dogs in the entire city,
massed up together.

"I don't see my family anywhere," he said,
intentionally putting his ears back and tucking his tail.

"Oh," said Nzui, sympathetically, though
Ligwami gave kind of an impatient huff.

"Well, you can look for them now, can't you?
We've got to take positions… we're the first ones running
today…"

"Don't be heartless, Wami, we can't just
leave him."

"Well, we can't just
leave
the hunt,
can we?"

Nzui gave her tail a stiff wag. "We won't
leave you till you find your pack, Mhumhi."

"Nzui," said Ligwami, in an exasperated way,
"come on, he doesn't really need it…" He trailed off under her
gaze. "All right, fine! Then have him come on the hunt with
us!"

"What? Are you trying to kill him?" Nzui's
tail quivered. "And his stink will give us away!"

"Oh, now you're the one being heartless,"
said Ligwami, letting his tongue hang out in a brief smile. "You
know the smell doesn't really matter. He can wait with the ambush.
It'll be exciting for him! How many puppies get to be that close to
a hunt?"

Nzui seemed swayed, and she turned to Mhumhi.
"What do you think? Would you like to stay with us a bit longer?
See the run? You won't have to participate, of course, not with
that leg."

"I don't know," said Mhumhi, feeling a bit
desperate. The hunt... they kept saying the hunt... They couldn't
possibly mean...? He looked nervously over at the decaying bus, but
there was nothing showing through the windows.

Maybe there were other ways he could use the
kindness of these dogs to his advantage; maybe he could get them to
take him to the dispensary instead. "I'm really hungry,
actually-"

"Oh, then that settles it," said Ligwami,
hopping a bit in place. "You can come with us. We'll let you have a
mouthful of hot meat, eh? It'll perk you right up, make a bolder
dog out of you."

Nzui pranced over and licked his ear. "Isn't
this exciting, Mhumhi?"

Mhumhi said nothing, and luckily they didn't
notice his tail tucking under, for they had gotten slightly
distracted with one another, sniffing and half-nuzzling, stealing
guilty glances towards their conjoined pack members.

Mhumhi looked at the vast swarm of painted
dogs all around him and wondered how on earth he was going to get
himself out of this. He spared a thought for poor Maha, waiting
down for him under the grate; she might have to wait a very long
time. If the sun went down and he hadn't returned, would she assume
he'd been killed and leave? Would he, in fact, be killed?

He was working himself up into a decent
amount of panic, so it was a good thing he didn't have much time to
think about it. The yammering crowd was starting to get quieter,
heads turning upwards. Mhumhi followed their gazes and saw that two
dogs had climbed up onto the top of the bus. Silence fell, and
Mhumhi's ears, which had become accustomed to the din, felt oddly
empty.

He couldn't make out the dogs very well, but
he could make out the attitude that the others were affecting
towards them. Ears were flat, tongues curled submissively, and the
only sounds were faint whimpers.

One of the dogs, a male, gave a little prance
atop the metal, his tail wagging high. The other, a female, seemed
calmer, and laid down, crossing her forepaws. Mhumhi noticed that
they both had notches in their left ears.

"Hello, all!" barked the male, commanding
everyone's attention. "We all know why we're here, don't we?"

There was a rousing, cheery chorus of
agreement; painted dogs were leaping and twisting with excitement
all throughout the crowd.

"Then I won't waste your time!" he bawled,
wagging his tail. Mhumhi saw his female companion sneak a discreet
yawn.

"I can't believe she showed up today," he
heard Nzui mutter to Ligwami.

"She has to show up sometimes, doesn't
she?"

"She could at least pretend to be more
interested," muttered Nzui. "All the young dogs that barely ever
get to see her are going to be-"

"Hush," said Ligwami, licking her forehead.
"Talking like that doesn't make anything better."

Nzui made a kind of grumbling noise and
leaned into him. Mhumhi stared fixedly down at one of the little
white stones near his forepaws.

"The first two teams are ready, correct?"

The male dog atop the bus was speaking again,
and all at once dogs surged and jostled up around Mhumhi, hopping
and twittering with excitement, rubbing up against each other, even
mounting one another in their eagerness. Nzui got her head under
Ligwami's stomach and thrust his hind legs up until he twisted away
with a whuff.

"That's us!" she called to Mhumhi, her tongue
hanging out.

"All right!" called the dog on the bus. "You
all know the rules- let them get past the trees, then you can
start. And that's all!"

He threw his head back, wolflike.

"Release the hulkers!"

At once there was a hissing, creaking sound,
and Mhumhi took his eyes off the dog to realize that another had
pulled the bus door open. He caught glimpses of the plastic seats
inside, but nothing... No, there was something else. The bus
shuddered with growls. Painted dogs were leaping inside through the
broken windows near the back, their kicking legs disappearing into
the gloom. Mhumhi heard a little cry that made him stiffen.

Shambling towards the open door came one,
two... four hulkers. They were pressed together in a huddle, all
bare dark skin; for they were wearing none of the coverings that
Maha and Tareq wore, Mhumhi realized. They were naked.

Big Park. The hunt. And hulkers. There was no
doubt, now, about what he had stumbled onto. A kind of shock and
fear stabbed at his heart. Were they going to- and was he going
to-?

There were dogs inside the bus trying to
crowd the hulkers out, snapping and growling at their heels. The
hulkers seemed reluctant to step outside. Mhumhi didn't blame them.
Without their clothes they seemed horribly vulnerable with all that
bare skin, like creatures half formed. Newborns. Like the baby rats
Maha had killed. One of these hulkers looked rather young, and
small, and female, just like her.

Maybe, Mhumhi thought, maybe if the hulkers
didn't come out, the hunt would be called off, and they would be
just left alone- just left by themselves, alive-

One of the dogs on the bus leapt up onto the
back of the littlest one and she fell forward with a cry, hitting
the stones hard. The rest of them howled out and surged forward-
one grabbed the little one and pulled her to her feet- and then
they scattered. The dogs parted to let them pass, ceasing their
harassment. But their eyes- the way they looked at them- there was
such terrible intention.

Mhumhi had never seen anything run like those
hulkers, on their two long legs- muscles straining, limbs flying,
they ran and scattered apart in the grass, though they left broad
flattened trails as they did. They seemed to go in all different
directions. Mhumhi saw Nzui and Ligwami putting their heads
together, conferring; they seemed to be reaching a decision.

"First teams!" called the male dog on the
bus. "Are you ready?"

Nzui and Ligwami wagged their tails, looking
out across the field. Most of the hulkers had already vanished
beyond the long grass, but perhaps they were visible from the top
of the bus, because the female dog had raised her head to look
intently at something in the grass.

"Mhumhi," said Nzui, turning to him, "you
follow Umenzi, here, he's leading the ambush group. Stay right with
him, understand?"

She did not wait for Mhumhi's reply; she
turned back to Ligwami, quivering with excitement. The dog she'd
named as Umenzi gave Mhumhi a friendly nudge.

"You may go!" cried the male dog on the bus,
and Ligwami and Nzui burst together in a frenetic run, dashing
forward across the gravel and into the grass. A good portion of the
pack followed, ears slicked back for speed, and they vanished in an
instant.

"Come on," said Umenzi, wagging his tail
high, and trotted into the grass at a far more sedate pace. Mhumhi
and the six other dogs left behind followed him.