They had found a squat, stand alone apartment complex with roof access the previous night. Girl pitched the tent and settled onto a comfortable foam pad. The dogs insisted on four watches so that they couldn’t be caught off guard by anything in the night. They were prepared, but nothing happened. Lucky had the last watch before dawn; he spent his time pacing along the edge of the roof watching the empty streets.

There was something discomforting about the quiet desolation of the City streets. Even back home in the graveyard hours between midnight and dawn there was always some sort of activity. Whether human or other. Yet here, there was nothing. Nothing but a sense of waiting. Of anticipation. A chill crept up Lucky’s spine, raising all the hair on his back and he couldn’t stop a shudder.

He almost yelped when Girl’s hand smoothed down the lifted fur. “You okay?” She asked.

“Mostly.” He admitted as he struggled to control his breathing. “I guess it just got to me a little.”

“What did?”

“The emptiness, you know?”

Girl’s hand stroked at his cheek as she stood next to him looking over the empty streets. “It is kind of creepy.” She said after a moment. “Do you think there are any people here?”

“Right here? No. In the City? Maybe. Probably.”

“Where do you think we should look for them?” Girl asked.

“I don’t know if we should actively look for them.” He said.

Her brow furrowed. “Why?”

“They’ve probably been having just as much trouble with the enemies as we have, if not more. We should be wary of finding survivors. They may be paranoid enough to open fire without realizing we’re friendly.”

Girl’s frown deepened and she shook her head slowly from one side to the other. “That’s a good point. Sad, but a very good point.”

“I think we should go on a supply run first thing today, once everyone else is awake and we’ve eaten breakfast. We’ll see how much we can stuff in the bags.”

“We should also look into finding a vehicle to use to take excess supplies to the Farm.”

“Won’t a vehicle draw more attention to us?” He asked.

“Yes, but don’t we want the survivors to see us?”

“Yes, but aren’t we worried about short fuses?”

“We can debate and argue all day about this, but the fact of the matter is we’re here to find survivors, supplies, and information on the enemies.”

He leaned his head into her petting hand and chuffed out a deep breath. “You’re right. Let’s get some breakfast ready for everybody and then wake them up if they’re still asleep when it’s ready.”

“Yep.” She smirked, “Daylight’s burning.”

Lucky snorted.

The sun was fully up by the time they got down from the apartment roof and started moving through the City streets again. It was no less eerie navigating the empty and quiet streets than it had been the day before. Again they traveled with Val and Axel scouting the way ahead and coming back occasionally to report their findings. They met at a park when the sun was nearing its zenith for a lunch break. Thus far they had seen no sign of humans.

Most of the buildings seemed unaffected by the disastrous End of the World. Or at least the End of the World as they knew it. In several places there were damaged buildings or rubble where buildings used to be. Strangely, there was no smell of death or even the aftermath of whatever had happened here. No bodies had been left behind, no weapons, even the evidence of whatever blood may have stained the concrete was gone. To Lucky the City felt strangely sterile, sort of like the clean empty rooms at the Vet’s office. He shuddered at that thought.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“According to the map,” Girl said, “There should be a hospital about a mile and a half from here. If there is anybody anywhere, they would probably be there. And if there’s nobody there, we should gather whatever medical supplies we can.”

“That’s as good a plan as any.” Val said. “I haven’t even smelled any fresh human scents where we’ve been.”

“How old are the scents?” Lucky asked.

Val snorted. “What? Is your nose broken?”

Lucky’s copper brows drew together. “No. I guess I just wasn’t sniffing.”

Axel barked out a laugh. “What kind of dog are you that you ain’t smellin’ anything and everything?”

If Lucky were human, his face would be stained by a hot blush. What kind of dog was he? He drew in a few testing breaths through his nose and focused on the scents he drew in. There was definitely the scent of humanity, but here in the park it was several days old and had been mostly washed away by a light rain. Above that and tangling with it was the dry scent of the skitterings and the strange smell of the beasts of burden the enemy had brought. There was also a strange, wet exhaust smell like a lawnmower underwater might make.

He sat back on his haunches and scratched determinedly at his flopping left ear. “It’s old. At least here. We’ll go to the hospital first, but then we should try to find fresher human scents.”

“Should we split up? There’s six of us so we could do three pairs.” Val suggested.

Intrepid’s hind end immediately tucked up on itself, making his outline somewhat resemble a balled hedgehog. “We shouldn’t split up.” His voice was quiet, but certain.

“Yeah,” Girl echoed. “Never split the party.”

Sugar’s head tilted sharply to one side. “Didn’t we just split the group when we took off?”

“She has a point.” Val said.

“That’s different.” Girl protested. “It’s okay to leave town.”

“If you say so.” Lucky said. “Let’s get moving.”

The road was just as creepily empty as they started off toward the hospital. They were moving slowly, scouting ahead of every move, but even then it took less than half an hour. “We make a left at that light and the hospital should be two blocks down, the road goes right into the parking lot near the ER.” Girl said, her eyes glued to her phone.

When Axel and Val reached the stoplight and looked to the left, they stopped moving entirely. Val, without taking her eyes away from whatever waited down the road, turned her muzzle slightly back toward the rest of them. “You should come up here and see this.”

When Lucky reached Axel’s side, his mouth fell slack. Two blocks ahead stood the tall brutish lines of the hospital with its iconic red plus sign dominating the face of the building. Between them and the sharp lines of the buildings was the strangest sight that Lucky had ever seen. Cars. Dozens of cars. Smashed flat and stacked up like bricks to make a wall three layers deep.

“A wall of cars?” Girl sounded as confused as Lucky felt, perhaps even moreso. “It’s brilliant.”

“Brilliant?” Axel asked.

“Yeah. There’s plenty of cars around, there’s not much use for that many, when you think about it. Especially long term. Gas stations will run out of gas eventually, the electrical grid will eventually fail. Might as well use them to put a physical barrier between you and your enemies.” Girl explained. “I bet there’s a lot of survivors in that hospital.”

“So do we go in there or what?” Val asked.

With her lip caught between her teeth, Girl looked uncertain as she thought the question over. It was early in the afternoon and hours of daylight stretched out before them. Lucky couldn’t stop a small whine as he considered the question. They could search for other survivors or supplies for a couple of hours and then head toward the hospital closer to evening and hope they were friendly. If they weren’t friendly they’d be stuck near dark without a safe place to go directly to ground.

Girl ran her fingers through her hair and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s an impossible question. We don’t have any idea what we’re facing in there, but we don’t have any better idea what’s out here.”

“I don’t see anyone keeping watch.” Axel said.

“They’re probably on the roof or behind a high window. Either of those would be a great vantage point to overlook the roads.” Val said.

“Going to them first will probably save us some time and effort in the long run.” Lucky said.

“What do you mean?” Sugar asked.

“They probably have at least some idea of where other survivors, where supplies may be available or already taken. When it comes to information gathering, they could be a very useful resource.” Lucky said.

“Okay.” Girl said, squaring her shoulders. “Let’s see what happens.”