Into Shadow Page 9

  We shared the container of fish, and it was gone far too soon. I slid the empty plasti-pack across the floor in his direction and let him lick out the remaining scraps and juices. I hoped the salty fish had made him as thirsty as it made me.

  I watched him closely as he finished licking the container and then gave himself a good washing. Finally he finished his meticulous grooming and got to his feet. As he walked away, I quietly got to my feet and followed. He looked back to see me following him but didn’t seem particularly threatened. Maybe it was the presence of the backpack, that magical source of tasty treats, which reassured him.

  He trotted through the kitchen to the front of the café and leapt onto the counter and from there onto a high shelf. I saw that there was a small window set high in the wall next to the shelf. The glass had long since broken out, making it a perfect doorway for an agile cat, but much too undersized for even a small human like myself. I turned and ran for the back door, hoping that I would be able to spot the cat again once I was outside.

  I secured the door as quickly as possible, safety-conscious even in a hurry, and rounded the side of the building. My eyes searched the wall for the tiny window and spotted it just in time to see my feline friend leap from the window to a crumbling wall next to the café building. I trailed behind him as he walked along the low wall and through a brushy wall of vegetation. Luckily, these bushes all seemed to be normal, everyday kinds of plants instead of the vicious vines I’d encountered across the street. Behind the bushes a small stream ran across the rocks. It looked well-established, like it was an offshoot of a regular water source, not just runoff from any recent rainstorms.

  The cat leaned down to lap at the water, enjoying a long, leisurely drink. He turned and looked at me, as though to say: There, now we’re even, before he sauntered away and disappeared into the brush beyond the stream. I didn’t try to follow him any further. I’d found what I was looking for. I dropped to my belly and used my hands to scoop up water, drinking thirstily from my cupped palms. The water tasted sweet and refreshing. Only a bit of time would tell whether it was actually clean or not. If I didn’t get sick in the next few hours, I would consider myself lucky enough to have located a good water source.

  I took the chance to give myself a makeshift bath while I was there. I removed the boots and set them aside before sitting down right in the middle of the little stream. I had no soap, but I did my best to soak some of the grungy dirt from my body and the clothes I’d been wearing since running from the White House. I even laid back and let the cold water rinse through my hair. When I had finished, I felt much better.

  With my hair so short, I only needed to run my hands through it a few times to squeeze out the excess water. My clothes dripped as I stepped out of the stream, but since it was such a short distance back to the café, I didn’t mind. I carried the boots to avoid getting them full of water and carefully picked my way over the broken pavement and weeds to make my way back to my home base in my bare feet.

  Inside, I stripped out of the wet clothes and hung them across the kitchen appliances to let them dry. I pulled on new clothes from my stash, added my boots, and used the makeup kit and tiny mirror that Sharra had given me at the train depot to repair my makeup and touch up the inked pattern on my face. Just because I hadn’t seen anyone yet didn’t mean I wouldn’t see anyone, and I didn’t want to be too recognizable if that happened.

  I inspected myself as much as I could in the dim reflection on the stainless steel kitchen surfaces. The leather pants fit well and were actually quite comfortable. I’d pulled on a thin black tee before donning the leather vest and they looked surprisingly good together. I’d thought it might look strange, though I was prepared to wear it anyway in exchange for the coverage from sun and insects provided by the tee and the protection from sharp and pointy objects offered by the leather.

  I smiled a little. With my short, spiky hair, dramatic face, and the black leather clothing, I looked tough and dangerous. Nothing at all like Perfect Poppy, the First Lady. Even better, my appearance helped me feel tough and dangerous as well. I felt ready to take on the wild city where I now found myself. I shouldered my backpack and went out to explore.

  I inspected the vines across the street from a safe distance. They looked still and benign in the morning sun, but I remembered how they had seemed to move toward me as I tried to leave. I found a stick on the ground and tossed it into the mound of plants then watched in fascination as the trailing vines immediately drew in around the stick, grabbing it tight.

  The giant plant must be some type of Venus flytrap kind of thing, I reasoned. The thorns had some kind of poison that muddled your thinking and left you inclined to just lie down and let the vines have their way. I was lucky that I hadn’t been scratched until I was already almost out of the plant’s reach. If it had taken me any longer to move away the creeping vines would have pulled me down and deep inside the plant, never to be seen again.

  I shuddered and skirted widely around the vines. I would not be going back into that storeroom again. I would make do with what I had pulled out the first time.

  I continued my exploration of the neighborhood. Now that I had clothing and water, my next priority was food. My small stock of supplies was shrinking rapidly, and I needed to find something more to eat. I had a firestarter attachment on my folding knife, so I could build a fire and cook my food, if I could just find something edible.

  I saw signs of small animals around the neighborhood. Rabbits maybe, or large rats. Either one should be edible. I retrieved the twine that I had been using on the doors – now replaced with the chains I’d found in the storeroom – and used it to make a few clumsy snares. My father had shown me how to do this, but it wasn’t anything I’d practiced often. I thought I had the basic technique right, though.

  I left the snares, knowing that I had to wait and see if they would catch anything. I kept looking and eventually came across an old city park. Now it was a wide stretch of overgrown lawn and trees. There was even an old playset still sitting there, seemingly just waiting for children to return and play again.

  The grass was studded with dandelions and I plucked them happily, seeing that there were plenty here to provide a large handful of the edible leaves. Dandelions grew quickly, too. The ones I picked today would be ready to harvest again in a matter of days. Even better, when I cautiously investigated a clump of bushes at the edge of the park, I found that they bore clumps of wild strawberries. I sat down right there and ate my dinner, a tasty salad of dandelion greens and strawberries.

  Afterward, I checked the trees growing in the park and found that several of the trees had ripe apples and another was covered in plums. I picked as many of each as I could cram into my backpack and headed “home” feeling happy and hopeful. I checked the snares on the way back and saw that they were still empty, but I wasn’t bothered; I had everything I needed to survive for the moment.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  It was hard to keep track of time, but I thought that I had been living in my little café for about three weeks. I had fallen into a daily routine that included eating my fill of fruit for breakfast before washing up at the stream, foraging for edible plants for lunch and dinner, practicing my martial arts routine in order to stay fit, and checking my snares. The snares were almost always empty, but twice I had caught a small rabbit with my carefully-placed traps.

  Skinning and gutting the animals was a struggle. In theory it seemed simple enough to remove the skin and innards, but I found it much more difficult than expected when I tried it. It felt well worth it though when I got to roast the chunks of meat over a tiny fire.

  I didn’t want to have the fire and scent of cooking meat too close to where I slept, just in case they attracted attention, so I’d built a little fire ring beneath an apple tree at the park. I spitted the meat on long sticks and broiled them over the flames before hungrily devouring the protein. I even shared little bits of the meat with the gray cat, who continued
to show up sporadically hoping for treats. He still wouldn’t let me approach him enough to pet him, but he was willing to take any food I tossed his way.

  Today, I finished my dinner and was scooping dirt over my small fire to smother the flames when I heard voices drifting faintly in my direction. People! I hadn’t seen another person since escaping from Dandelion Man and his band of merry men, and I was torn between excitement and fear. Not knowing what kind of people these might be, I didn’t want to just pop out and introduce myself. Instead, I cautiously followed the voices, keeping to the shadows so that the owners of those voices wouldn’t spot me.

  At Kalamath Street, the remains of a large roundabout left a fairly clear space among the dilapidated buildings. Creeping forward cautiously, I moved close enough to get a look at the men who were speaking. To my surprise, I recognized one of them. It was the guy I’d called Laughing Boy. The last time we’d met he’d been kind and helpful. After a moment’s hesitation, I stepped out where the approaching men could see me.

  As soon as Laughing Boy spotted me, his eyes lit up. “Hey!” he exclaimed. “Hey!” He raised a hand to wave at me in greeting. I smiled and gave a small wave in return as I walked closer.

  “I wondered where you’d disappeared to,” he said. “It looks like you’ve been managing okay; no more run-ins with mutant dogs?”

  I laughed a little. “No mutant dogs, luckily, though I did have an encounter with some kind of mutant plant.” I held up my arm to display the angry red scar running from wrist to elbow, then pointed vaguely down the block.

  “Man-eating vines,” I told them. “Also willing to snack on women and any animals that stray too close. There’s some kind of poison on the thorns that will make you content to just lie down and let the vines keep you.”

  “They are terrible, those plants,” the second man commented. He had a deep voice and a lilting Spanish accent that caught my attention immediately. I turned to look at him as he continued, “I have come across these vines before. It is best to simply burn them out. When the winter cold comes, the vines will dry up. They burn more easily then.”

  I nodded, recognizing a good idea when I heard it. I would toss a few firebrands into the nest of vines as soon as they started to dry up. That is, assuming I was still here at that point.

  “Thanks for the tip,” I said, as I held out my hand to introduce myself. “I’m Poppy,” I told him. It hadn’t occurred to me until the words left my mouth that maybe I should use a different name. But it was too late now. I would only draw more attention to the name if I tried to backtrack now. At least I’d only offered my first name.

  “Mateo, of the Liberty pack,” he replied, taking my hand. He didn’t shake it as I’d expected, just held it firmly in his own large hand as he looked me over. Since he didn’t seem inclined to stop his close inspection any time soon, I returned the favor and scrutinized him in return.

  He was only about four inches taller than my own five foot nothing, making him fairly short for a man. But his stocky build was muscled and looked powerful, so it wouldn’t do to underestimate him. Shiny black hair waved around a swarthily handsome face, and a thin mustache defined his upper lip. He was actually quite attractive, except for the way he kept my hand clutched firmly in his own damp palm despite my efforts to discreetly pull away.

  He stepped closer, still holding on to my hand. “So, Poppy, are you on your own out here? This is not a good area for a little girl to be all by herself.”

  I frowned at him and stepped back, finally managing to pull my hand free. No matter how attractive he was, I didn’t like the way he looked at me and didn’t feel inclined to share any personal information with him, so I simply turned to my left and focused on Laughing Boy instead.

  “What about you?” I asked. “Do you have a name?”

  He smiled, his teeth a bright flash in the deepening twilight and a dimple appearing in one bronzed cheek. “Rivers, from the Wolf pack,” he told me, holding out a hand for me to shake. “Eric Rivers, actually, but no one calls me Eric.”

  Unlike Mateo’s sweaty, prolonged handclasp, Rivers simply gave my hand a quick shake and let go again. My heart stuttered a little as I touched his calloused palm. His cheerful smile and friendly gaze were a stark contrast to Mateo’s slick smile and oily stare. Rivers felt safe and trustworthy, even on short acquaintance, while Mateo’s attention felt ever-so-slightly threatening.

  Deciding that I would rather no one knew exactly where I was based, I smiled at the men and changed the subject a little by asking, “So is this your territory? I’ve come through this neighborhood a time or two and haven’t run across anyone before.”

  “No one really claims this area,” Rivers told me. “There’s just not much here to make it worth setting up a base.”

  I nodded. “I noticed the same thing,” I lied. “That’s why I found a place to hole up down that way instead.” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder to imply that I had a place to stay that was in a completely different direction than my little café. “After my run-in with those vines on my first time through here, I didn’t want to stay anywhere close to them!”

  Mateo’s eyes gleamed. “No, it wouldn’t be safe for a little thing like you to stay in this neighborhood by yourself. It is too empty. Isolated.”

  I just stared at him for a moment. Was he trying to scare me? Or was he really just that socially awkward? It was just barely possible that he didn’t realize how it sounded when he said things like that. Rivers caught it, though he didn’t seem concerned. Instead, he clapped his companion on the shoulder and said,

  “Cut it out, Matty. You’re starting to sound like a creeper.”

  Mateo looked startled, then turned back to me with the intensity turned way down. “I apologize,” he told me. “I was concerned for your safety; I did not mean to make you uncomfortable.”

  I smiled at him, relieved that it appeared he was just bad with social norms after all. “No problem,” I assured him. “I appreciate the concern.”

  Changing the subject, I asked Rivers, “So if this isn’t your territory, what brings you this way?”

  “Hunting,” Rivers replied easily. “I have snares set up around here that catch the occasional rabbit or squirrel. Sometimes a nice fat rat. Mateo’s out hunting for his pack, too.”

  I wrinkled my nose. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to try eating rat yet, even though they were more common than the rabbits I was sometimes able to catch. Rivers saw the look on my face and laughed.

  “City girl,” he teased. “Try living rough for another couple of months and you’ll be happy for a bit of rat for dinner.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “Maybe,” I agreed, “but not yet. For now I’m doing okay without the rat.”

  “So you’re on your own?” Rivers asked. “I thought you were joining a pack?”

  “My friend and I got separated the night we met,” I told him. I glanced sideways at Mateo. I didn’t know what he knew about my first encounter with Rivers; maybe it was best not to mention anything. However, Rivers didn’t hesitate to mention it.

  “Mat, this is the girl I told you about, the one who helped Eddie beat himself up and then fed him to a Shadow hound.” I blushed a little at his openly admiring tone.

  “She is not so large as I expected,” Mateo said thoughtfully. “I have heard Eddie speak of this, and in his telling she is a hulking warrior woman.” He winked at me and I laughed a little, charmed by his joke.

  “He’s okay, then?” I asked. “I wouldn’t wish a dog attack on anyone, really; I just didn’t have many options at the time.”

  “The Shadow took down Dirty Jin, but he’s definitely no loss,” Rivers told me. “Eddie got a little torn up, and he’s still getting over the bites. He’ll probably survive, though, once the poison works its way out of his system.”

  I winced a little. “Sorry about that.”

  “Don’t be,” Rivers said bluntly. “It’s nothing more than they deserved. They were outside ou
r territory, deliberately setting up an ambush, and they didn’t have any good intentions for anyone they caught. I found out what they were up to and tracked them down; I was trying to talk them down and send them home when you and your friend came through.”

  “I just want you know,” he added earnestly, “I wouldn’t have just stood by and let them go at you. I was just figuring out what I should do next when you took care of things on your own.”

  “That’s good to know,” I told him. “I’ve wondered what you were doing with that group.” Not wanting to dwell on the whole unpleasant encounter any longer, I turned the conversation back to where it had started.

  “So yeah, I lost track of the friend I was with and I’m not with her pack after all. I don’t know if you’d know her; her name is Sharra. She had pink and blue hair the last time I saw her.” I motioned vaguely around my face as I added, “Kind of dusky gold skin tone and brown eyes, I think. Very pretty. She said her pack was somewhere downtown, but that’s as much detail as I have.”

  Rivers shook his head. “Not ringing any bells,” he told me. “But I’ve only recently moved up in the pack to the point that I interact with anyone outside our pack. I don’t know many people outside my immediate neighborhood yet. And what we consider the downtown area is pretty big. There are quite a few packs around. But I’ll keep my ears open for someone fitting that description.”

  I looked at Mateo. He was shaking his head also, but something about the look in his eyes made me wonder if he knew more than he was saying. I didn’t press though. If he was keeping secrets, he wasn’t likely to share them with me on such short acquaintance. Maybe if we got to know each other better I could convince him to tell me what he knew. For now I wouldn’t push anything with Mateo. I wasn’t actually ready to find Sharra yet. I needed time on my own to heal before I went back to living with people again. However, remembering Mateo’s disturbing “concern” about my living arrangements, I didn’t think I should let him know that I was living alone.