The night passed with shocking ease, despite the hours the dogs spent pacing at the edge of the dense wood. When dawn finally broke, Lucky was the one pacing slowly around the outskirts of the wood. There was a rustle in the underbrush and the scent of Wickett swept over him in a gentle breeze. The elk’s broad rack of antlers brushed against a tree with a scrape of sound.

“Morning.” The elk’s deep voice was smooth as silk.

“Morning.” Lucky’s mouth stretched wide in a yawn.

“I will watch dennings.”

“Thank you, Wickett.”

The deep dark pools of the elk’s eyes studied Lucky for a long moment and then his regal head dipped low. Wickett didn’t say anything else as he walked past Lucky and into the cleared space around their chosen den. The other dogs were starting to stir, but Girl was still sleeping in the den. Lucky watched the sunrise’s bright swirls of color creeping across the sky and blotting out the dark night, extinguishing the twinkling spread of stars.

Watching the display, the familiar weight of the ominous worry settled deep in his stomach. He had begun to wonder if he would ever lose the hard ball of it. When everyone else tucked into breakfast eagerly, Lucky had to force himself to eat the kibble. Girl seemed just as affected by the oppressive sensation as he was. She picked at her fig bar, brows drawn together in a serious expression that bordered on a scowl. Finally, her leafy eyes looked up from her mangled fig bar and scanned the little clear space. “We have to find out what’s going on in the City.” She said at last. “There has to be someone we can talk to out there.”

Lucky tilted his head to one side, left ear flopping loosely, “What about supplies?”

“We’ll take what we can get, but I think it’s more important to find out what’s going on. There has to be a reason the City seems deserted.”

“We need to be careful.” Intrepid said, his soft eyes jumping from one place to another across the cleared space. “Maybe we shouldn’t be caught sniffing someone else’s bone.”

“Hmmm.” Axel grunted in response. “Everybone belongs to someone else.”

Val was licking at one of her paws, gnawing at the short fur between her toes every few licks. “Nothing will ever be ours again, if we aren’t willing to it.” Her voice was smooth and calm.

Sugar, sitting off to one side, watched the Lost Dogs with a sad look in her deep earthy eyes. She made no comments, but her soft ears hung low.

Girl rose up, brushing the last remains of her fig bar off of her jeans. “We’ve got a long walk back to the City.”

The dogs climbed to their feet with lazy stretches and wide yawns. Girl checked her phone for the quickest way back to the City. “There’s got to be a better app for this.” She muttered, “This one doesn’t have any of the roads we’re on right now. Lucky, do you know a better way? I’m not sure the highways are the best way to move around.”

“We can break trail.” Axel said. “We don’t want to make any too obvious though. Probably shouldn’t follow the same trail more than once or twice.”

“Why not?” Girl asked.

Axel’s eyes widened and he slowly blinked as he watched her. “You’re kidding, right? So they can’t follow us back to base.”

Lucky brushed his shoulder sharply against Axel’s, knocking the big dog out of step. Axel’s lip lifted, displaying one glistening fang. The ruff on the back of Lucky’s neck raised slightly and he lifted his head above Axel’s. The bigger dog blew out a snorting breath and slowed his steps to walk behind Lucky and Girl. Girl’s fingers smoothed down the fur on the back of his neck.

“It’s alright, Luckadiddle, he didn’t mean anything by it.” She said, digging her fingers in behind his ear in a firm scratch.

Lucky’s eyes slitted and he leaned into the touch. “He did.” The multicolored dog protested.

Girl sighed, “Even if he did, it’s alright.”

“It’s not though.” Lucky protested again, “He’s testing us.”

“And that’s fine.”

They were speaking quietly, but Lucky suspected the other dogs could still hear them. “How is that fine?”

“He needs to know that he can.” She whispered. “That he can test us and we won’t lash out.”

Lucky’s ears flicked back along his head. “But he shouldn’t.”

“Trust me with this, Luckadoodle.” She glanced back at the big brindle dog and ruffled the silky fur between Lucky’s ears. “I know what I’m saying.”

The copper brows drew together over Lucky’s pale eyes as he glanced back at Axel. He wasn’t quite sure he understood what Girl was saying, but he did trust her. He looked up to meet her eyes for a moment and she flashed a brilliant grin down at him. “Okay. It’s in your paws for now.”

Her leafy eyes danced with amusement and she laughed just a little. “Axel!’ She called back over his shoulder. “Why don’t you take the point and break the trail?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The big brindle jerked to attention at the sound of his name and his deep eyes were wide. “Sure. There’s some animal trails we can use heading in the right direction.” He trotted to the front of the group and stood for a moment looking first one way and then another. “This way. The city is this way. We’ll follow what trails we can in this direction until we get there. Let’s try not to break too much new trail until we have to.”

“Good idea.” Val said, “If the trails look old and well worn already, they won’t suspect we’re the ones using them. Unless they can sniff us out.”

“We don’t know what we’re up against or what abilities they have, so we should be careful.” Intrepid put in. “We need a lot more information before I’ll feel safe.”

“Will you ever feel safe?” Val teased with a panting smile.

The gray hound only snorted in response.

Girl almost laughed aloud, but she disguised it as a cough at the last moment. “Alright, everyone, we’ve got a long way to go, let’s get moving.”

“Yeah,” Lucky panted, “we’re burning daylight.”

Girl shot him a dirty look before following Axel deeper into the wood from one game trail to another, occasionally breaking a new trail when one went too far in the wrong direction. By the time they reached the outskirts of the City, it was midmorning and closing quickly in on noon. The sun was just peeking out between massive fluffy clouds that spread in layers across the sky. There was a nature preserve butting up against the edge of town, the road that led from it to the City passed through a large district filled with factories and warehouses.

“Wonder what’s in them.” Girl mused.

“Only one way to find out.” Val said as she leaned her head up to test the air. “I smell people.”

Lucky drew in a deep breath, his mouth open so he could almost taste the air as well as smell it.

**DA-DING!! You have gained +1 Scent!!**

“I smell,” He sniffed again, deeply. “Baby powder?” His copper brows were furrowed again.

“Baby powder?” Girl sounded just as surprised as Lucky felt.

Again the big, fluffy dog drew in a deep breath. “Baby powder and something else, something I don’t think I’ve ever smelled before. It’s very faint. It smells a little like cat food.” The more he sniffed, the more puzzling the smell seemed. None of the other dogs seemed to be able to detect the faint undertone beneath the almost overpowering smell of baby powder.

The strange scent teased at his senses, but Lucky couldn’t identify it any more clearly than that. “Cat food?” Girl asked. “That is a really weird combination.”

Lucky made a humming noise deep in the back of his throat as he considered the scent intently. It seemed as though the more he thought about the smell and tried to identify it, the more mysterious and inexplicable it became. Val came up next to him, putting her nose right next to his and inhaling deeply. She sneezed, but her expression was just as puzzled as his.

The big buildings loomed to either side of the road; their dusty and smudged windows were empty and dark. Lucky felt a shiver go traipsing down his spine as he looked from one building to the next. “Should we go in some of the buildings and see what we can find?” He asked.

“I feel like something is watching us.” Intrepid said, his hips dropping low and his tail curled tightly around one hind leg. “Can you feel it?”

Axel lifted his head and his gaze raked over the surrounding buildings; his nostrils were flaring, catching at the scent that so puzzled Lucky. “I don’t see anything moving out there.”

“Nothing?” Sugar asked, her voice sounding wary. “Shouldn’t there be squirrels and rabbits and such moving around out there?”

“Good point.” Val said, dropping her nose to scent the road. Her big paws were almost silent against the concrete as she trotted toward the verge of the road where grass and trees broke up the industrial surroundings. “I can smell squirrel near this tree. It’s old, yesterday maybe.”

Axel jogged over to the other side of the road, his muzzle nearly touching the ground. “There’s animals here, but they’re hiding. Just like everything else.” He spoke softly, his words barely loud enough to hear. “Wait a minute.” He said. “What do we have here?” Lucky could barely hear him.

“What is it?” Girl asked, walking toward the big brindle mastiff.

“I smell people.” Came the grumbling answer.

“What kind of people?” She asked.

The big dog snorted. “How the heck should I know?”

Girl stopped walking toward Axel and gave no answer. Lucky brushed against her legs as he passed, offering what comfort he could. Axel was following a scent trail up the sidewalk toward one of the buildings, his tail wagging calmly behind him. There was no sense of anxiety to the big dog. There was a certain comfort to the unperturbable calm of the mastiff. Val and Lucky were quick to catch up to him as he approached a dull and dented pair of double doors set into the brick facade of a warehouse.

“Lots of people.” Val muttered. “Mostly young.” She sniffed more deeply at the metal jamb of the door’s frame. “Children, maybe?”

“Oi! You, girl!” A thickly accented voice called out from above.

The voice drew everyone’s attention to the roof of the building next to the brick warehouse. That building, instead of the small bricks of the first warehouse, was large cinder blocks with many rolling garage doors, but few windows. “Hey.” Girl said, backing away a few steps as she noticed the rifle that the man held.

“Whatcha lookin’ for?”

Lucky walked slowly back to stand at Girl’s side, his pale eyes focused entirely on the man on the roof. This man was much older than the ones they had seen at the hospital. All of his hair was a dark and steely gray, but it had receded back from his forehead as time passed. He had a short but bushy white-gray beard.

“Survivors. Supplies. Information.” Girl said simply.

“Well, you found a survivor. Whatcha want now?”

“We’ve been sent as an envoy from a group of survivors, looking for others who need shelter. For supplies to bring back and for information about whatever has been going on. Do you need shelter? There’s about fifty of us at the Farm and it’s safe there. Or as safe as we can make it.”

“It’s safe here too, safe as we can make it. Besides, what’s in it for you getting more survivors? Won’t that just make you need more to survive?”

Girl shook her head. “There’s nothing in it for us, but we’ve got crops going in and plenty of forest around for supplies. We need to come together, don’t we?”

The man’s eyes were narrowed and his expression was stony as he looked down over Girl and the dogs. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t rush down to you with me arms open. Things are dangerous out there.”

The gun was still vaguely pointed down at Girl and she looked up with an unreadable expression. “Can we just talk? To someone, if not to you.”

“Why don’ you go out to the road again and I’ll see that someone comes to speak with you.” The man glanced over his shoulder and said something softly, but he didn’t move and his gaze returned to Girl almost immediately.

They heard a door slam somewhere above and behind the man. The waiting felt eternal as they stood in the street with a rifle pointed at them.